Ranking the original 10 arcs.

[KorgDTR2000]

1. 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai arc
2. Saiyan arc
3. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arc
4. Majin Boo arc
5. 21st Tenkaichi Budokai arc
6. King Piccolo arc
7. Freeza arc
8. Pilaf arc
9. Red Ribbon Army arc
10. Cell arc

[TheZFighter]

DB got better with each arc and here's a few things I like from each one :

1- Buu : Vegeta was his best here, getting his rematch with Goku, being the only Z fighter present during the final battle and finally admiting Goku is the best. Goku is also great here, especially when he first uses Ssj3. The fusuins were a great addition to the show. Gohan's mystic form was his best showing yet & Buu one upping everyone when it seems like they got him was also intense and kept me guessing the whole way through as to how they'll defeat him.

2- Cell : Seeing the secondary characters take over the story in Goku's absent was a nice change and showed how well developed they were to be able to do so. Trunks was introduced who's one of the best characters in the franchise. Gohan stepping into his father's place to save the world was a great pay off for all the build up he got.

3- Freeza : The hunt for the dragon balls between 3 parties was intense, Freeza is to this day the hardest enemy they've faced & The legendary Ssj was introduced here.

4- The Saiyans : This arc set the stage for what DB has become today and was what got many into it, including myself. Seeing Goku and Piccolo who before were the strongest of what earth had to offer struggle against Raditz was jaw dropping, The Z fighters dying left and right really showed how far Toriyama would go to make an intense villain & the Battle with Vegeta is arguable the best fight in the franchise.

5- The 23rd Tenkaichi arc : Goku finally grew up here and we can see why, the fight with Piccolo wouldn't have happened the way it did had he been a kid and it really kicked the door open for all kind of future stories (which we got).

6- King Piccolo arc : A major turning point for the story with the first main character's death and the introduction of the first "real" villain. We also got a lot of back story for Roshi and saw how far he's willing to go to save his loved ones by giving his life for them.

7- The 22nd Tenkaichi : Ties breaking Yamcha's leg is still one of the most intense moments, we got to finally see Goku and Krillin fight and like before, Roshi was great here and his speach to Tien showed how wise he was.

8- the RRA arc : not a fan favorite but I like it. It had a lot of locations, we got a detailed hunt for the dragon balls with each one having a challenge to get, Tao was the first person who "beat" Goku and we finally got to see Goku's grandfather. The mini tournament at the end was a nice surprise with each character being very unique.

9- The 21st Tenkaichi : The very first tournament and an epic one at that. Roshi was a monster here and showed that he's not just fun and games, Krillin's fight with Bacterian is still one of the funniest fights around & the final fight really showed what Toriyama was capable of as a martial arts writer.

10- The Pilaf arc : Where it all started. The world was interesting, the characters were funny & Shenron's summoning is still an epic moment that holds up even today.

I was having difficulty ranking them as I genuinely like them all, but I couldn't sum the original franchise up better than this.

[sintzu]

I was having difficulty ranking them as I genuinely like them all, but I couldn't sum the original franchise up better than this.

Thanks a lot. I didn't want to write too much cause there's a lot I like about the original story but I also wanted my reasoning for each arc's ranking to be clear. I'm glad you liked it.

[Tombstone1988]

I'm ranking these averaging the manga and anime together, as different arcs are better or worse in my opinion based on which version we're talking about:

#1.) Saiyan Arc - I am admittedly extremely biased as this saga is a huge part of my teen years. However, I re-watched it recently and I still love almost every bit of it. Goku vs. Vegeta is just one of the best fights I've ever seen in a manga or anime. I will remember their beam clash all the way to my death bed, I'm sure.

#2.) Piccolo Daimao Arc - This arc was really what started the direction the series would eventually take. Main character deaths, intimidating antagonists, crazy power boosts... this arc was essentially the flagship. King Piccolo was one of the best villains the show had, in my opinion. Just all-around good stuff.

#3.) Freeza/Namek Arc - If I were just rating the manga version, this would be higher. The anime has a lot of, for lack of a better phrase, "filler." This is also when power scaling started to go off the deep end. Despite that, Freeza was a great villain and his fight with Goku prior to Super Saiyan was out of this world. In the manga, it was still great even after the transformation.

#4.) Android/Cell Arc - This arc is strange in that it has a lot of awesome episodes and a lot of less-than-stellar episodes. Future Trunks destroying Freeza was cool. Vegeta wrecking Android 19 and then getting wrecked by 18 was great. Piccolo vs. 17 is one of the best fights in the series. Perfect Cell's fights with both Goku and Gohan are a blast. On the flip side, you have fights like Trunks vs. Perfect Cell, which is basically just 50% powering up. The arc has really high highs, but it also has some rather low lows.

#5.) 21st WMA Tournament - This is here basically for the Goku vs. Roshi/Jackie Chun fight. That fight is just so memorable. The rest of the fights are hit-or-miss. Overall it was good though.

#6.) 23rd WMA Tournament - This is a different beast than the 21st tournament. This one had a lot more fights that were good, but none of them were in the same league as Goku vs. Roshi. If Goku vs. Roshi is a 9.5/10 fight, most of the fights here were between a 6 and a 7 out of 10, with Goku vs. Piccolo being about a 7.5. In other words, they were all good, just not as memorable or as great in my opinion.

#7.) Buu Arc - Pretty similar to the Android/Cell arc, in that it has a lot of really good moments but also a lot of really bad moments. This arc, however, is much longer, dragging things out for just a little too long for my taste. I'm not the biggest fan of Majin Buu, but he molds well enough with the plot. I'm less tolerable of Goten and Trunks, even if the Gotenks vs. Super Buu fight was a great fight.

#8.) Red Ribbon Army Arc - This arc is good, but the Muscle Tower portion just drags too much for my taste. I also didn't really care for Baba's tournament. General Blue was a pretty good antagonist, though. There's a lot to love in this arc, but it's not one of my personal favorites.

#9.) Hunt for the Dragon Balls Arc - It started everything off, and I love a lot of the episodes. This arc is a lot different from most of the others, so it's hard to really rank it alongside them. This is probably the best arc in terms of comedy, which is technically Toriyama's thing. I am biased though, and I view the show as primarily an action series, wherein this arc is the weakest. It may be unfair to this arc, but it is just my opinion. Speaking of Toriyama, can you count all the puns I've deliberately included in this post?

#10.) 22nd WMA Tournament - 15 years ago, I probably wouldn't have listed this here. When I first saw this arc as a teenager, I really liked Tien and I enjoyed Dragon Ball's tournament arcs. Having re-watched it recently, this tournament didn't captivate me nearly as much as it once did. Tien just doesn't work very well as an antagonist, and the fights aren't as memorable as those in other arcs. This is still a good arc; Dragon Ball didn't really have any arcs I considered bad prior to GT. It just wasn't as good as all of the others, in my opinion.

[Ripper 30]

The Rankings are all based on the Anime Version :

1. Saiyan Arc - Best Dragon Ball Arc in my opinion and it has everything we needed, Good Character moments, Character Utilisation, Epic and Strategic Fights,Emotional Moments, good humour, Great Filler,etc., not mention the Time skip after Dragon Ball really helped because unlike OG Dragon Ball, the Z part started out more darker and Despite Beating Piccolo in 23rd Budokai Tenkaichi, Gokū was no match for Raditz ,also the Final Fight of this Arc that was Vegeta vs Gokū, Yajirobe, Gohan and Kuririn was just too epic and Legendary and my Favourite fight Too and nice conclusion with Gokū letting vegeta go and all that thus it's My favourite.

2. 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai - Great Final Arc for the show, the stakes were high and There was a good buildup to Gokū vs Piccolo fight,infact most of the Fights in this Arc were good and the Character Designs were awesome too and Gokū vs Tenshinhan was another great fight and it was good to see Gokū exposing Tenshinhan's Weakness and beating him without using BukuJutsu and Kami possessing a Human's Body to stop Piccolo was great and then we got to the best fights in the franchise that was Gokū vs Piccolo with great use of strategies, brute force and speed and again the conclusion was satisfying that son Gokū finally won the Tenkaichi Budokai and marrying Chi Chi.

3. Freeza Arc - another great arc, the buildup to it was good and the themes of the Arc was interesting that they have to travel to Planet Namek and Ressurect their friends but they never knew that other people were also in need for The Namekian Dragon Balls but for different reasons from the good guys like Vegeta and Freeza both wanting immortality so it was more like a cat and mouse game and whoever got their hands on the balls first will have the last laugh so nice first half and middle arc was fine too with Ginyu Tokusentai adding some humour then we got to see Vegeta dying and Freeza's Terror followed by final fight which got dragged then ending in Namek Exploding.

4.Piccolo Daimao Arc- great start to the Arc with Kuririn's death and shit getting real all of a sudden and Gokū was first time seen in intense anger and going all alone to beat the villains without knowing them and defeating all the Demons.piccolo Daimao was a good villain and had a good plan to get his youth and killing Shenron.

5. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai - good Arc, it had some great fights like Muten Roshi vs Tenshinhan and Kid Gokū vs Tenshinhan and Roshi telling Tenshinhan to stop going on the path of Darkness and Evil was great and the conclusion was good too but more than that the death of Kuririn at the end of Arc was shocking.

6. 21st Budokai Tenkaichi - Nice arc, we got to see Kid Kuririn's and Kid Goku's training together, some funny stuff here and there and a great final fight.

7. Hunt for Dragon Ball - great humour and we got to see new characters and character interactions. Some nice gags.

8. Boo Arc - easily the most entertaining arc in Z part. Majin Boo was the really entertaining villain, the great Saiyaman stuff was great, fights were good and I liked the whole Majin Vegeta stuff and sacrificing but in the middle part it started going downhill but still the end was fine and Mr. Satan was good in this arc and the end was nice seeing Gokū passing the torch To oob.

9. Cell Arc - good start to the arc with trunks coming in
and slicing freeza in half and all that mystery surrounding the threat of Artificial Humans was intresting but in the middle they all started acting like retards but atleast the Cell Games were intresting with their fights and Gokū passing the torch to gohan.

10. Red Ribbon Arc - good arc and we got to see a lot of sci fi elements and explore the Red Ribbon Headquarters and General Blue and Tao Pai Pai were the special Highlight of it but too dragged in anime version.

[sangofe]

I just watched the recent Mistare Fusion's Dissection videos and made me think about ranking my favorite to least favorite arcs. These are mine.


How would you guys rank the arcs?

If I must go by your naming and splitting of sagas, (I'd personally split the android and cell sagas), this would be it for the anime:
1. King Piccolo
2. Buu
3. 23rd Tournament
4. Pilaf (Not sure the name of the first arc.)
5. Saiyan
6. 21st Tournament
7. Cell
8. Red Ribbon Army
9. Freeza
10. 22nd Tournament

The Freeza saga is A LOT better in the manga than the anime...

[Draconic]

1. Saiyan Arc - taking the best of what came before and adding new twists of it's own.

2. 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai - the best "ending" of the series for me; everything after is basically a bonus. If it weren't for the Saiyan arc being that great, I'd gloss over most of the Z portion of the story.

3. Piccolo Daimao arc - best balance between comedy and drama in the series.

4. Freeza Arc - introduces Freeza, the best villain in the series.

5. 21st Tenkaichi Budokai - amazing start to finish; fun, funny and tense when called for.

6. Hunt for the Dragon Balls - the start of it all and the most Toriyama arc of all; I love the crazy stuff an author can put out when he's not really pressured into anything.

7. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai - worst tournament arc, though it has it's moments.

8. Majin Buu Arc - some of the most fun stuff in the whole series, but sadly, way too spread out for it's own good.

9. Red Ribbon Army arc - filled with great moments, funny scenes and intense action, but the best bits make up way too little of the story for me to rank it any higher; makes me sad, cause those great bits are better than most of the other arcs with in the upper places.

10. Cell Arc - a total mess with no heart. Ending is great, but unearned trough the contrived and boring story.

[ABED]

3. Piccolo Daimao arc - best balance between comedy and drama in the series.

The best? It's among the darkest arcs in the series.

[The gr]

I'm going to use the 42 volume because I barely watched the DB section in the Anime And the buu saga in the anime, from my favorite to least favorite

1-Saiyan

2-23 budokai

3-red ribbon army

4-21 budokai

5-Pilaf

6-Freeza

7-Majin buu

8-22 budokai

9-Daimao

10-Cell

[GreatSaiyaman123]

1) Piccolo Daimao
2) Cell
3) Saiyan ~ 23rd Budokai
4) 22nd Budokai
5) Red Ribbon Army
6) Freeza Arc
7) 21st Budokai ~ Buu
Pilaf

[Cipher]

The only things I'm ever consistent on are that the Boo arc is my favorite, and the Cell arc is my least favorite.

[MajinMan]

The only things I'm ever consistent on are that the Boo arc is my favorite, and the Cell arc is my least favorite.

You and me both.

[FortuneSSJ]

01 - Saiyan arc
02 - Buu arc
03 - Freeza arc
04 - Cell arc
05 - Piccolo Daimao arc
06 - 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arc
07 - 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai arc
08 - 21st Tenkaichi Budokai arc
09 - Uranai Baba arc (you forgot this one)
10 - Red Ribbon Army arc
11 - Pilaf arc

[ABED]

I'll be honest, I'm surprised that so many have ranked the Buu arc so high.

[DragonBallKing]

Here's mine based on my personal enjoyment

01. Piccolo Daimao: The turning point for the series becoming more action based and drama heavy. Great villain with backstory that ties into Roshi's past and revolves heavily around the Dragon Balls and their origin. Piccolo killing Shinlong and his death are my two most memorable moments from Part 1.

02. Saiyan: Exposition on Son Goku's past and the inspirational triumph of hard working low class warrior over a naturally talented super elite. Also that iconic beam struggle.

03. Red Ribbon: the dragon ball hunt done better, great variety between locations and characters with a great blend of action, adventure and comedy.
04. 23rd Budokai: Piccolo Jr vs Son Goku is the best fight in the series that alone makes it worthy of this spot.

05. Freeza: Best villain and has the most iconic moment in the series being Goku's SSJ transformation. This arc also show's Vegeta at his best cold and calculating. Would have worked as a solid emotional ending for the series.

06. 21st Budokai: Introduces the Tournament with some good gag fights and features a Great matchup between Master and Student. The Growth and development of Kuririn as well as his relationship with Goku is my Favorite Part of this arc.

07. Cell: Cyborgs are a interesting concept but it really boggles my mind they are as strong as they are with earth technology, Cell is interesting as a monster movie villain but becomes a bit boring after that. The arc had a great finish and Perfect Cell is Toriyama's best character design IMO.

08. Buu: A jumbled mess that makes it seem like toriyama keeps changing his mind. A SSJ bargain sale with a villain that becomes stale after he transforms the first time. However it did bring back some much needed comedy and I like the ending.

09. Hunt for the DB's: Goku's super naive moments make me laugh my ass off, and it get Iconic points for having the first Shinlong summoning and first oozaru transformation.

10. 22nd Budokai Goku vs Kurririn was cool and Tenshinhan gets to be a arrogant badass, can't think of anything else.

[sintzu]

I'll be honest, I'm surprised that so many have ranked the Buu arc so high.

It's a great arc and was a great way to end the story. one of the best thing it did was all the call backs it made to previous material. We got Goten Vs Trunks which reminded me of Goku vs Krillin from back in the 22nd Tenkaichi, We got Piccolo training them and we saw how he changed form when he trained Gohan, We got Goku and Vegeta's rematch which was brought up way back when they first fought & it brought back DB's comedy elements which were a bit lost in the Cell arc.

The arc wasn't a rushed mess like what happens with most long running stories when they reach the end (Naruto, Bleach & YuYu Hakusho) and instead gave each character and plot point enough time to breath before moving on to the next one. Another major issue it dodged was too much going on. With Naruto for example, Kishimoto threw so many things in its last arc that they were too much for him to develop and give time to which resulted in a somewhat anti-climactic final for the story. Bleach was even worse, the sales were down and the author had so much going on that Jump decided to just pull the plug on it cause they knew there was no way he'd be able to handle it.

The Buu arc on the other hand was very focused like before and Toriyama knew exactly what he was doing. the heroes and villains were clear, the story he was trying to tell was clear & the end result ended the story on a very high note. Ending that long of a story on a positive note isn't easy and although it may not be perfect, I've yet to see something better from other long series.

[ABED]

Yu Yu Hakusho's ending wasn't a rushed mess. The Buu arc on the other hand was the opposite. It moved at a snail's pace. It's entirely too long given how uninteresting Buu is. What's funny is by the end, Toriyama's writing felt both slow and rushed. It feels like he's rushing to the end, but it still feels like the story goes on for too long.

The Buu arc on the other hand was very focused like before and Toriyama knew exactly what he was doing.

Again, the exact opposite is true. Never is it more clear that Toriyama didn't have a plan and was making it all up as he went along. The main character constantly changes, Buu's forms make no sense, and Toriyama keeps throwing out huge concepts that make no difference to the outcome of the story. I don't understand how you came to the conclusion that the story was focused.

I generally preferred the shorter story arcs in DB to the overly drawn out arcs in Z/Kai.

[Bajosexto]

I'm basing my list on the anime. And it will probably change once I rewatch the series again. For now these would be my least favorite to favorite arcs.

10. Red Ribbon army arc
9. Pilaf arc
8. 21st Tankaichi Budokai arc
7. Piccolo Daimao arc
6. Majin Boo arc
5. Freeza arc
4. 23rd Tankaichi Budokai arc
3. Cell arc
2. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arc
1. Saiyan arc

[sintzu]

I don't understand how you came to the conclusion that the story was focused.

I generally preferred the shorter story arcs in DB to the overly drawn out arcs in Z/Kai.

I mean it had a handful of characters with a clear goal. In Naruto for example, the author decided to introduce countless new characters for its final arc, develop them and established ones, close up established plot points while also trying to deal with the new ones, etc. It wasn't bad by any means as there were epic fights and story moments but there's no denying that the end result would've been a lot better had the scale been a bit smaller than it was.

The Saiyan arc wasn't that long. The long ones were RRA, Freeza, Cell & Buu. I know it's easier to get through shorter arcs but if an author has a long story that can only be told that way then so be it.

[Cipher]

The Boo arc can't be judged by traditional standards of good genre storytelling. (Though it is surprisingly thorough about capping off every remaining character arc, because Toriyama is a natural storyteller in his way.) The character interactions are all amazingly enjoyable, the scale makes for a natural and suitably absurd climax, and Toriyama's irreverence is infectious. While it might not be for everyone, I also like its ability to switch between humor and horror on a dime, with both modes feeling like they feed into each other. The situation is going off the rails faster than the characters can keep up with. The spot in the story in which the characters realize they have to pin their hopes on a cosmically powerful eight-year-old, who acts ... for the first time ever in Dragon Ball, about how you'd expect a spoiled, cosmically powerful eight-year-old might ... is sublime.

I mean, yeah, parts of it feel like Toriyama was writing by the seat of his pants, but that's because he was. No reason the final product can't be enjoyed despite, or even because of, that. To be on board with Dragon Ball is partly to be on board with Toriyama having fun.