Unpopular DB opinions

[Eternal Super Saiyan]

Super's OST is probably the most brilliant music this franchise has ever seen. DBZ's Japanese score is praised very frequently, but Super's score is rarely mentioned outside Kanzenshuu.

It's the first time I physically purchased a CD in the entirety of the franchise. Money well spent.

[One_Instance]

I'm not the biggest fan of Cha-La Head Cha-La. I respect it and everything, but it's just not a song that calls out to me I guess. My favorite in the entire series from Dragon Ball all the way to Super is We Gotta Power by a longshot.

I've been the exact same for years, but recently Cha La Head Cha La has been grabbing me.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I'm not the biggest fan of Cha-La Head Cha-La. I respect it and everything, but it's just not a song that calls out to me I guess. My favorite in the entire series from Dragon Ball all the way to Super is We Gotta Power by a longshot.

I've been the exact same for years, but recently Cha La Head Cha La has been grabbing me.

For me it's not so much that I don't like Head Cha La, because I do - it's more so the fact that I don't think it's the best song DB (or even just Z) has to offer. It doesn't help that it became pretty overexposed as time went on too, getting used in some of the games, the Jump special even though that was thoroughly Boo arc and should have used We Gotta Power, and even being re-made and used for Battle of Gods. Then that version likewise got re-used a few times - it just gets to a point where it's treated as THE de-facto Dragon Ball song.

Part of that too stems from me finding the love of Kageyama to be a little bit overblown as well. Again, don't get me wrong, I love the guy's work - but in a way I was happy to start seeing other artists get used. After having him do both openings of Z, the second ending, all the Z film endings, the two TV specials, and then get brought back to continually crank out new music for the games - I got a little worn out on his work as well. And the treatment of him as THE Dragon Ball singer in a way, when again, there were others. Heck, I'll take another Hiroki Takahashi contribution any day honestly. He was there first and I freakin' love Makafushigi Adventure, Dragon Ball Densetsu, and even Power of Dreamer (which I was THRILLED about when announced).

[Kunzait_83]

I'm not the biggest fan of Cha-La Head Cha-La. I respect it and everything, but it's just not a song that calls out to me I guess. My favorite in the entire series from Dragon Ball all the way to Super is We Gotta Power by a longshot.

I've been the exact same for years, but recently Cha La Head Cha La has been grabbing me.

For me it's not so much that I don't like Head Cha La, because I do - it's more so the fact that I don't think it's the best song DB (or even just Z) has to offer. It doesn't help that it became pretty overexposed as time went on too, getting used in some of the games, the Jump special even though that was thoroughly Boo arc and should have used We Gotta Power, and even being re-made and used for Battle of Gods. Then that version likewise got re-used a few times - it just gets to a point where it's treated as THE de-facto Dragon Ball song.

Part of that too stems from me finding the love of Kageyama to be a little bit overblown as well. Again, don't get me wrong, I love the guy's work - but in a way I was happy to start seeing other artists get used. After having him do both openings of Z, the second ending, all the Z film endings, the two TV specials, and then get brought back to continually crank out new music for the games - I got a little worn out on his work as well. And the treatment of him as THE Dragon Ball singer in a way, when again, there were others. Heck, I'll take another Hiroki Takahashi contribution any day honestly. He was there first and I freakin' love Makafushigi Adventure, Dragon Ball Densetsu, and even Power of Dreamer (which I was THRILLED about when announced).

I've also always been in the same exact boat that I've always held that Cha La is a perfectly ok song, but is also far from DB's best. I'd personally probably also go with either We Gotta Power or Makafushigi Adventure as easily being the two best opening themes the series has ever had by a long shot. And I got nothing against Kageyama at all either, but I also don't see him as being DB's defacto singular iconic singer either: he wasn't present from day 1, and plenty of other singers contributed tons of songs to the series before, during, and after his tenure with the series. As far as Head Cha La goes, I generally vastly prefer it as either an instrumental or as a recurring cue/motif in Kikuchi's score (where it works like absolute gangbusters) than I do as an actual vocal/lyrical song.

Even most of GT's songs I'd put well above Cha La, including Dan Dan, Blue Velvet, and Don't You See in particular. Don't You See ranks alongside Chikyuu Marugoto (DBZ Movie 3's ending theme song) for me as easily among the overall all time best songs in any DB series I'd say, and GT probably has pound for pound the best collection of vocal songs out of any of the various anime overall.

Actually come to think of it, I've generally always thought that Chikyuu Marugoto probably would've made a much, much better and more fitting opening theme for the earlier half of DBZ than Head Cha La.

Give Head Cha La this much though, it definitely ends off on an absolutely killer note: that final guitar squeal followed by Kageyama's "Aaaaaaahh!!" as the final group shot of the cast assembles itself totally never fails to get a smile out of me every single time I hear it.

[MasenkoHA]

I'm not the biggest fan of Cha-La Head Cha-La. I respect it and everything, but it's just not a song that calls out to me I guess. My favorite in the entire series from Dragon Ball all the way to Super is We Gotta Power by a longshot.

I think Cha-La Head Cha-La is overrated but I dunno still like it over We Gotta Power. Dragon Ball's opening is probably my favorite though and then GT's. Then both of DBZ's.

Also on the subject of unpopular opinions I prefer the English dub of Mystical Adventure and I'll give you romance

[ulisa]

Also on the subject of unpopular opinions I prefer the English dub of Mystical Adventure and I'll give you romance

You’re not alone. Especially on I’ll Give You Romance, I love the English version more. Not that I dislike the Japanese version but I do wish there was a longer version of the English one.

[Logania]

Also on the subject of unpopular opinions I prefer the English dub of Mystical Adventure and I'll give you romance

I agree completely. One of the few english covers Dragon Ball has that actually rivals (or for me) surpasses the original.

[PFM18]

I gave up on trying to pin down power levels a while ago, but egregious examples of terrible power scaling do interfere with my ability to suspend disbelief.

Would it be less egregious if power levels weren’t a thing?

No because in the case I'm thinking of, it's not about numbers, just basic logic. In Revival of F, one of Freeza's minions say that Shisami was as strong as Zarbon and Dodoria in their prime. Somehow he is able to fight on par with Piccolo!

I mean they said that about Shisami prior to the 4 months. Obviously he was training for those 4 months. Now, for him to gain that much power in that time is up to you if it is reasonable, but they did not imply Zarbon/Dodoria/Piccolo

[Dbzfan94]

Also on the subject of unpopular opinions I prefer the English dub of Mystical Adventure and I'll give you romance

You’re not alone. Especially on I’ll Give You Romance, I love the English version more. Not that I dislike the Japanese version but I do wish there was a longer version of the English one.

Same here. Nothing wrong with the Japanese (especially Mystical Adventure) but the English grabs me more

[ABED]

Would it be less egregious if power levels weren’t a thing?

No because in the case I'm thinking of, it's not about numbers, just basic logic. In Revival of F, one of Freeza's minions say that Shisami was as strong as Zarbon and Dodoria in their prime. Somehow he is able to fight on par with Piccolo!

I mean they said that about Shisami prior to the 4 months. Obviously he was training for those 4 months. Now, for him to gain that much power in that time is up to you if it is reasonable, but they did not imply Zarbon/Dodoria/Piccolo

I disagree completely. It's not an illogical inference to think that's exactly what they meant. ANd that sort of gain is unreasonable for anyone. As someone else pointed out, if he could make that sort of gain in such a short time, why does the empire need Freeza?

[Gyt Kaliba]

As far as Head Cha La goes, I generally vastly prefer it as either an instrumental or as a recurring cue/motif in Kikuchi's score (where it works like absolute gangbusters) than I do as an actual vocal/lyrical song.

There is that for sure - I really appreciated them keeping a take on Head Cha La in the score for Super, in the form of a 'last time on Dragon Ball Super' musical cue. In that respect, I really liked it's placement as well as it's sound, since it harkens back to what came before it, but in a way that doesn't overstay it's welcome in the same way that re-use of a full vocal song does. Again, would probably have preferred the same thing but for We Gotta Power, but I'm willing to bend a bit on this one.

Give Head Cha La this much though, it definitely ends off on an absolutely killer note: that final guitar squeal followed by Kageyama's "Aaaaaaahh!!" as the final group shot of the cast assembles itself totally never fails to get a smile out of me every single time I hear it.

I'd definitely be lying if I said that bit didn't get to me every time as well. Again, for all my complaints towards the song, I do enjoy it - just not as much as most others (though thankfully it seems I'm not the only one on the boat with this opinion).

Not entirely sure if it's an unpopular opinion or not, but as long as the subject is themes, I'd say my least favorite ending theme for the franchise is probably the first Z one, Zenkai Power. I don't know what it is, but both the song and the visuals for this one just never really grabbed me very well. It's definitely a major step down coming off of Romantic Ageru Yo, and way outlives itself by the time it gets replaced with We Were Angels, at least in my book.

[PFM18]

No because in the case I'm thinking of, it's not about numbers, just basic logic. In Revival of F, one of Freeza's minions say that Shisami was as strong as Zarbon and Dodoria in their prime. Somehow he is able to fight on par with Piccolo!

I mean they said that about Shisami prior to the 4 months. Obviously he was training for those 4 months. Now, for him to gain that much power in that time is up to you if it is reasonable, but they did not imply Zarbon/Dodoria/Piccolo

I disagree completely. It's not an illogical inference to think that's exactly what they meant. ANd that sort of gain is unreasonable for anyone. As someone else pointed out, if he could make that sort of gain in such a short time, why does the empire need Freeza?

I don't think they did imply that he was Zarbon/Dodoria level when he showed up on Earth, I mean everybody got stronger in those 4 months that is made clear.(Tagoma, Freeza, too) Like I said, you can decide for yourself if you think that power increase is a rational one, but at the end of the day that is what is shown and they were not implying Piccolo<Dodoria/Zarbon. The empire "needs" Freeza because even though Shisami got strong,he is still irrelevant in strength and Freeza is several magnitudes stronger than him especially in his Golden form.

[ABED]

The line is unambiguous. They explicitly stated that Shisami was at Zarbon's level. At the time of Freeza's resurrection, no one knew there was a golden form for him to reach.

[Super_Divine_Genki]

It's been a while since I've seen RoF, but I remember that little guy (Sorbet?) mentioning to Freeza that the current two big henchmen (Shisami and Tagoma) were around Zarbon and Dodoria's level. If we apply base logic to this, Piccolo honestly should've been able to blow all of Freeza's thousand henchmen away by himself at once -- including Shisami/Tagoma -- at his post Boo arc level. They were not prodigies. Continuity with power levels during the Super era seemed to work, or not work, if the plot demanded it. Piccolo is definitely one that got nerfed when he was up against a far lesser opponent (see RoF, Frost, ToP).

[Dbzk1999]

It's been a while since I've seen RoF, but I remember that little guy (Sorbet?) mentioning to Freeza that the current two big henchmen (Shisami and Tagoma) were around Zarbon and Dodoria's level. If we apply base logic to this, Piccolo honestly should've been able to blow all of Freeza's thousand henchmen away by himself at once -- including Shisami/Tagoma -- at his post Boo arc level. They were not prodigies. Continuity with power levels during the Super era seemed to work, or not work, if the plot demanded it. Piccolo is definitely one that got nerfed when he was up against a far lesser opponent (see RoF, Frost, ToP).

Movie RoF makes it where the Z fighters were purposely holding back to buy as much time as they could for goku and vegeta to arrive IIRC. I’m pretty sure that the same is with the Super version. That, and Tagoma in super was far stronger than the movie version (on account of the fact that he was forced to “train” with freeza)

[Super_Divine_Genki]

^ Alright, I vaguely remember that now. Still, Piccolo should've had no problems at all when it came time for dealing with Shisami if it's been explicitly stated that he was around Zarbon/Dodoria level, even if he (Piccolo) had been "holding back" considerably.

I don't seek out much in the way of power levels during the story, but there have been times that consistencies were clearly thrown out the window to serve the plot (more a problem with Super than anything). It can drastically affect the believability of a given scenario when it's so obvious how nonsensical it is. There certainly wasn't a good enough explanation to cover up how they got so strong, even with the 4 months that were given to them, imo.

[WittyUsername]

I don’t know how unpopular this opinion is, but I think that the whole GodTube thing is kind of dumb. It just comes across as a lame attempt to try and keep Dragon Ball relevant for a 21st century audience. That alone wouldn’t have been much of a problem, except that GodTube was a fairly important plot point in the Future Trunks arc, which was an arc that took itself pretty seriously.

[Forte224]

^ Alright, I vaguely remember that now. Still, Piccolo should've had no problems at all when it came time for dealing with Shisami if it's been explicitly stated that he was around Zarbon/Dodoria level, even if he (Piccolo) had been "holding back" considerably.

I don't seek out much in the way of power levels during the story, but there have been times that consistencies were clearly thrown out the window to serve the plot (more a problem with Super than anything). It can drastically affect the believability of a given scenario when it's so obvious how nonsensical it is. There certainly wasn't a good enough explanation to cover up how they got so strong, even with the 4 months that were given to them, imo.

See, that's my whole thing with that line, he didn't say their power levels were equal. He said they were warriors on the same level as Zarbon and Dodoria. And in Super, when Tagoma shows timidness about attacking the earth, that's when Freeza questions whether they really rival Zarbon or Dodoria. So the context insinuates it was their stature, not their power levels. As Dragon Ball fans, we're wired to think of only power levels when characters say things.

Just like in the ToP, each universe apparently had a mortal level. People assumed this referred to power levels, but it actually just referred to how each universe's mortals were progressing or regressing and using that to determine whether or not to erase those universes. The manga makes this even more clear. It would be pretty dumb for someone to decide which universes would be destroyed based on their fighting power, wouldn't it?

[ABED]

But from the looks of it, Freeza's empire is based around power. If Zarbon and Dodoria are of a certain stature, it's because of how strong they are. What do you think stature means in that context?

[Forte224]

But from the looks of it, Freeza's empire is based around power. If Zarbon and Dodoria are of a certain stature, it's because of how strong they are. What do you think stature means in that context?

Where is it stated that Freeza's empire is based around power? He keeps a lot of weaklings around that even Gohan and Krillin could beat. And you ignored the context of Freeza questioning Tagoma's equality to Zarbon and Dodoria specifically when he showed timidness about going to earth. Nothing about power levels was ever stated.