Viewing Order

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'm doing my rewatch of the whole series excluding Super (which I will marathon when it's all done) now in my order of preference (DBZ + DB + DBGT).

For the Z portion I generally watch Kai now because it's my favourite version, and I'd say in future I'll just watch random episodes of any series since I have so many other shows to watch, unless my girlfriend decides to watch it all with me

As for the movies and specials, I just watch them randomly because most of them don't fit with the series anyway.

[Tyro]

Shameless plug.

"When should I watch the movies and specials?" is a question we get a lot on /r/DBZ, so this list was made to answer that question. It's really nothing special; it tells you between what episodes and chapters each movie/special came out, so if you're interested in watching the series in order, this would be the way.

[TenshinFan]

M4 - I usually watch it after the Red Ribbon Arc, but I've been thinking of watching it at the end of GT as like a coda to the series that brings it back to where it started. It also fits because the art style is so drastically different, not to mention the different music.

This is a great idea, actually. the DB movies are the most skippable of the lot, as good as they are, just for the fact that they are >50% re-tellings. Path of Power has an animation style much more in sync with the muted, pastel colour palette of GT anyway, and it's release date aligns too.

Here's my updated order:

1. DB Vol 1-16
2. Dead Zone
3. Raditz + Vegeta
4. Dr Wheelo
5. Tullece
6. Namek Saga
7. Bardock
8. Freeza battle
9. Lord Slug
10. Coola 1
11. Trunks Saga
12. Metal Coola
13. Android Saga
14. Super 13
15. Imperfect + Perfect Cell
16. Trunks Special
17. Broly I
18. Cell Games
19. Bojack
20. Great Saiyaman
21. Broly II
22. 25th Tenkaichi Budokai + Babidi
23. Bio Broly
24. Fat Buu Saga
25. Gogeta/Janemba
26. Gotenks
27. Vegito
28. Tapion/Hirudegan
29. Kid Buu + End of Z
30. Path to Power
31. GT + Baby
32. Hero's Legacy
33. Super 17 + Omega Shenron

Unsure about the Trunks special, I think it fits better right between Mecha Freeza and the Androids, but it was published right before the Cell Games IIRC. Tullece and Lord Slug are tricky to place because the characters ought to be on Namek, so I just split them before and after. I don't like splitting up the three Broly movies, especially since the Saiyaman and Buu Sagas blend pretty well. I put Janemba in the middle so we could see Gogeta before Gotenks and Vegito. Tapion I might move to after Kid Buu and before the Uub Saga. I know I just said above about Path to Power but I think it's a better bridge between End of Z and GT.

[Cipher]

It's been forever since I've done a straight run of all three original anime together. The last time was watching it with a significant other who was going through it for the first time. We went through from the beginning of the original Dragon Ball anime and used the manga for the end of the Namek arc because in Z it becomes fucking intolerable around the time Goku shows up. We watched both the Z TV specials at some point and I believe Z movies 1 and 13 where they would logically fit timeline-wise (ignoring the inconsistency of Gohan's reveal in Z movie 1).

I think if I were ever going to do a massive run-through like that again (since then I guess I have watched Kai from start-to-finish, as I hadn't seen the whole thing before), I'd view the original three anime and movies in release order. A lot of the fun of the movies comes from imagining viewing them at the time they would have been released--knowing only as much about upcoming plots as a Japanese child would've at the time (so, you know, the "false" Super Saiyan in movie 4 would actually be kind of a fun treat), and seeing Toei's relatively self-serious take alongside Toriyama's plots as the series becomes more action-focused.

I don't know when if ever I'll be able to commit to that, though. Mostly I'll just pick an arc and watch that through, though it's been a while since I've even done that. I think it's all just too familiar to me at this point.

Doing a massive run-through incorporating with the post-2013 material holds less conceptual appeal for some reason. Though I similarly feel like I'd want to tack it on at the end of GT to fit release order. (Though there are a lot of ways Super makes sense as a follow-up to Kai, which ... man that's such a slog. I don't know.)

EDIT --

I do think a timeline-order viewing incorporating some of the movies and specials would really be complemented well by watching "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return" where it fits near the end of Z. If you can ignore the clear we're-revisiting-this-series! vibe.

[B]

I put this together for my own personal use awhile back.

Kanzenban 1-7
Movie 1
Kanzenban 8-9
Movie 2
Kanzenban 10-12
Movie 3
Kanzenban 13-15
DBZ Movie 1
Kanzenban 16-18
DBZ Movie 2
Kanzenban 19
DBZ Movie 3
Kanzenban 20
Bardock Special
Kanzenban 21
DBZ Movie 4
Kanzenban 22
DBZ Movie 5
Kanzenban 23-24
DBZ Movie 6
Kanzenban 25
DBZ Movie 7
Kanzenban 26, Trunks the Story, 27-28
DBZ Movies 8-9
Kanzenban 29-31
DBZ Movies 10-11
Kanzenban 32-33
DBZ Movie 12
Kanzenban 34
DBZ Movie 13
DB Movie 4
JSAT
Episode of Bardock
Battle of Gods
Resurrection F
Super/GT

The placement of the movies line up with the release dates corresponding to the closest manga chapter. Of course, this ignores the anime, so perhaps following this, you'll be much farther ahead in the manga by the time you reach X movie. I moved GT around because I personally wanted to compare it with Super side-by-side.