Dragonball Z: The Vegeta Arc

Dragon Dragon, Rock the Dragon, Dragon Ball Z!

- every English dub fan knows this song

"On our planet, we have something called the Dragonballs." 

-Piccolo 

Sailor Moon was my gateway drug, but Dragon Ball Z (DBZ) is the show that cemented my love for anime forever. 

The first time I watched Dragon Ball Z, I had no idea what was going on. FUNimation's dub was aimed at children, not the older audience DBZ is intended for, so it erased any mention of death or dying in the script. This might not seem like a big deal, but in DBZ, every character dies at least once. Instead of saying they died though, the dub changed it to "they passed on to the next dimension." Because of this change, I mistakenly had the idea that the main characters were dimension hoppers trying to save their friends from some sort of dimension police. That is nothing like the plot of DBZ, but because of my misunderstanding, and the fact that I started watching it in the second arc, I decided that the show was dumb, and went back to Sailor Moon. 

Then a friend found out my love for the sailor suited pretty soldiers. She declared that I would also love Dragonball Z if I started out at the beginning and explained FUNimation's dubbing ways. I followed her advice and found myself obsessed with DBZ to an even greater level than Sailor Moon.

Akira Toriyama's manga and anime, Dragon Ball Z, is actually the second story in the saga of Son Goku, a super powered alien with an IQ slightly higher than cheese. The first series, called Dragon Ball, details his youthful hijinks and constant questing for wish-granting orbs called Dragonballs. Dragon Ball Z picks up several years after its end with mostly the same cast of the characters. But where Dragon Ball was a mostly lighthearted action quest-type comedy with lots of bathroom humor and quirky characters, Dragon Ball Z has less humor, more action, with less emphasis on the quest. 

The Vegeta Saga was the first arc of  Dragon Ball Z. Years after the end of Dragon Ball, the main characters are getting together for the first time. While they are at their party, an alien arrives on Earth and crashes it. This alien is Raditz, Goku's brother, and one of the last of Goku's species. He quickly affirms a suspicion left over from the first series, that Goku is indeed an alien, and explains Goku's presence on Earth. This explanation does not go over well with Goku or his friends and Raditz's subsequent kidnapping of Goku's only son makes the situation even worse. By the fourth episode, Goku has teamed up with his previous arch enemy Piccolo, learned about enemies more powerful than he's ever faced before, and died. Goku and his allies, the Z-fighters, must then train to prepare themselves to defend their world from warriors bent on its destruction and dragonballs: the last remaining members of Goku's species the Saiyans: Nappa and Vegeta.

This series helped me understand that I had a thing for the bad boys. For example, my favorite character is in the picture above. Vegeta is the short one wearing blue. He's the prince of the Saiyans and in the image above he's eating one of the natives of a planet that he and his fellow Saiyan Nappa have just purged of all life. This is typical behavior for him; if he doesn't eat the natives, it's probably because he just destroyed their planet from the atmosphere instead of wasting his time landing and doing it the long way. Arguably the most arrogant character in the entire series, he is obsessed with strength. Vegeta is a murderous sadistic sociopath and the main drive of this arc is defeating him.

 "I am the prince of all Saiyans!"

-Vegeta

Piccolo is another bad boy and an alien as well. His real 'bad guy' deeds happen in the previous series, but in the past he tried to kill Goku and destroy Earth a couple times. In the beginning of the series, none of the other characters trust him though he's on their side, and it doesn't help that he kidnaps Goku's son Gohan as soon as Raditz is out of the picture. Although his focus is on becoming stronger and training Gohan to become stronger so he can defeat Vegeta, with the idea that he will go after Goku as soon as the Saiyan threat is neutralized, he gains protective feelings for Gohan and becomes more of an ally to Goku. 

"It's so rare to find beauty and genius all wrapped up into one tiny package."

-Bulma 

 

I did like some of the main good guys,  Gohan and Bulma to be exact. Gohan gets props because he is four when this series starts and he begins by taking names. His young age is the only reason I forgive all the whining he did in this arc.  Bulma actually ties with Vegeta for my favorite character. She is the smartest character in the entire series as well as the reason that the first series happened. Bulma Briefs is the genius daughter of the president of the most technologically advanced company on Earth, Capsule Corps. She has no fighting power to speak of, but her intelligence and inventions let her stay relevant with the overpowered warriors. She is cocky, sure of herself, and a bit vain, but awesome. 

 

On the other hand, Goku was like the male Sailor Moon, dumb and food obsessed. The only time he was interesting was when he fought and only if he stayed away from his corny as hell Spirit Bomb technique. My love for my favorite characters and the interesting concepts kept me watching this show, not his slow behind.

Dragon Ball Z fueled my imagination just as much as Sailor Moon and I wrote numerous additions to the Z-universe, usually featuring a long lost Saiyan relative or another Saiyan child. These stories were my first delving into researching for a story and I spent many an afternoon looking up obscure character names and people's ages to make my tale more realistic. A few of my stories evolved so much that I made them original works although I've lost them with the downfall of the floppy disc. 

"Those Saiyans aren't here on vacation you know? They wanna take over our planet and sell it. It'll be the end of the world as we know it."

-Bulma