Here's some more of my thoughts:
I did watch GT myself, all in Japanese (seriously the dub for that one is unwatchable. I dare anyone to finish this). Anyways, I think it was the worst fanfiction ever come to life. I was pretty open and optimistic about checking it out... but it was just freaking awful. Even the Japanese OST was pretty lacking (did not have the same composer as DB/Z), and yeah. If you guys think the characters in Z got useless and it was all about Goku, well that's 110% apparent in GT. The other Saiyans were literally just there to power up Goku, I'm not even making this up, there were two scenes I think where they formed a circle to give Goku their energy so he could fight. Everyone was worthless. The creators also probably freaking hated Piccolo. Videl also completely sucked when she was actually pretty cool in Z.
GT doesn't exist in my book.
I was skeptical about the Buu saga, but I think it's really awesome now that I've finally seen it all the way through and in Japanese (I stopped watching it at this point on Toonami back in the day). I think Buu was a fitting final boss for the series. No, he's nowhere near as cool as Freeza or Cell to me, but he was just this blob of complete evilness, he never really seemed to suffer from any real damage, and there was just no way to reason with him. It was him, or the universe.
Goku was my least favorite character in the dub. He was a whiny, annoying pacifist that never wanted to fight. In Japanese, Goku lives to fight, he wants to always be the best, and he's hilariously naive. He is now my favorite character. That should be a nice testament as to how different the experiences can be.
So that said... I didn't mind the focus shifting back to Goku during the Buu stuff. I think one argument you could maybe make, is that Gohan never really liked fighting. On one hand, you can almost look at Z up to the end of Cell as his story. The torch was finally passed and Goku was ready to move on and let him take over, the buildup was perfect. So this is something that probably could have been better in the Buu stuff, even with Gohan's Z Sword training with the Grand Kaioshin and all that, it only boiled down to a very short and lame fight with Super Buu. But Gohan just never liked fighting, he stopped training during the ~7 year gap after defeating Cell, and yeah. I didn't mind Goku taking up the spotlight again.
Vegeta's subtle development in the Buu saga was also a real highlight. "You're number one Kakarot". We finally see him accept the fact that Goku is the best and cannot be defeated. We finally see him soften up just a tiny bit with his family. He went Majin to fight Goku one more time... after that he sought redemption and became more badass than ever before.
Overall, the silliness of the Buu saga makes the entire experience come full circle to me. It falls back on some of the gags and humor that made the original DB so amazing. The Majin Tournament itself is just more proof of this, finally an awesome tournament again after all that time. I also loved how in Japanese, the Buu stuff had a new OP/ED and like 90% new music, along with the leveled up art. Everything was taken to the next level.
So, the entire series is good to me. Hell even Garlic Jr is a pretty sweet filler arc, awesome setting, cool fights with teen Gohan and Piccolo, although I think it should have been placed before the Freeza saga. They definitely feel pathetic compared to everything from Namek.
The original plan was for DB to end after they got the Dragon Balls and got some panties. Yep, first 10 episodes (volume or two?) was his original plan. There's like 10 different points when Toriyama wanted to end it. And when he finally did, it was an abrupt shock that fans and everyone didn't see coming. Toriyama is a random wizard in my book, one of the best random storytellers ever. The whole series was certainly not a big planned thing like, One Piece, or whatnot.Menegrothx wrote:The original plan was to have Goku die in Namek as a super saiyan after defeating Frieza.
I still love DBZ but there is so much stuff I would have done differently. I know Akira Toriyama was being rushed by publishers, had to listen to fanbase etc so he is not to blame.
Here's a huge "Intended Endings" article:
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/intended-end/
Compared to other shounens, I don't really think anything else compares when we talk villains. Toriyama had a very iconic approach to his huge villains. I mean, anyone who's seen the shows knows who they are. They got tons of screentime and had a huge amount of focus. And unlike other shounens nowadays that try to do a lot of dualism or make them out to be somewhat good... Toriyama's villains were usually just straight up damn evil and badass. Freeza is pretty much one of my absolute favorite villains ever. Blowing up planets with a finger, a ruthless but calm "thing" (what is he/she?), then he gets pushed to the limits and explodes... and eventually, his own rage pretty much kills himself. "Defeat" was worth than death to Freeza, he was not going to have it and NEVER bowed down to Goku or accept being defeated. So fucking badass.
But I agree with the whole random story telling thing, its amazing what kind of plot twists he cooked up with such a short notice at times.
