ABED wrote:A reveal that has no impact because we have only just met the character. It's like having Luke Skywalker's parentage revealed 20 minutes after meeting him. Lots of reveals about who the characters are doesn't mean it has any relevance or weight. It's taken as a given that Chaozu, Muten Roshi, and Kuririn have all died before. What? When did that happen? If you haven't seen it, you're shit out of luck. What about Goku's rivalry with Piccolo and their team up? We are told a little about it, but it lacks any weight as we haven't EXPERIENCED any of it.
Yep, absolutely.
The beginning of Z is an interesting place to start an anime, since you have the rather novel "In medias res" style of introducing the characters as people who already know each-other, and throwing them right into the story with Goku dying, and having an antihero ready to go from the beginning.
Problem is, while it's an intersting start, it doesn't have that much impact other than "What a strange way to start a story." All you know about Piccolo is that he's kind of an antihero, and without prior context, his heel-face-turn when he and Gohan spend some time together doesn't have much more impact than "Ah, okay, so he is a goodguy after all. Fair enough." Maybe if this was 1996, and you were watching the episodes weekly, it'd be a little better, since this would take place over the course of about 20 weeks, which is just over a third of a year, so your slower exposure to the story will mean you'll be more invested in it potentially, but we're not in 1996, we're in 2018, the era of binging everything in one go. Dragon Ball Z & GT together is 355 episodes; Dragon Ball Kai and Super is ~297. Adding another 153 before that, which actually gets you the beginning of the story, gives you a grounding and context for who the characters are, why they're doing what they're doing, and gives you a proper sense of the impact of Goku being an alien -- something he's informed of right before being killed -- and Piccolo not only training Gohan, but sacrificing himself to save Gohan.
And, of course, there's the rules of the world that you'll already understand; you'll know in advance that Piccolo's death will also kill Kami, and disable the Dragon Balls; you'll know that Saiyans transform when they see the full moon...
Skipping Dragon Ball is just a bad idea. You lose so much, and gain absolutely nothing. Especially when we're in the age of binging, where more content -- especially long-form content like Dragon Ball & Z -- is ideal.
ABED wrote:I agree with Robo4900. In the manga, Pilaf is only in the last few chapters of the first arc. I think the anime made a good choice by having him in the story from the beginning. Not all filler is bad. The fight filler with Kuririn at the 22nd Budokai as well as the fight filler in the Goku vs. Vegeta in the Saiyan arc are good examples of adding good material. When you write "for no reason", what constitutes a good reason?
Indeed.
Goku vs. Vegeta is a classic fight for a reason. Same goes for the rather underrated Goku vs Kuririn fight.
And remember, anime and manga are different mediums, so of course some things should be changed when adapting one to the other; doing a direct page to screen adaptation would be wonky at best.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.