30 Years of Dragon Ball Z (1989-2019)

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Yes, i know it's a day early but i figured since it's close enough i'd go ahead and preemptively put up a thread in advance for DBZ's 30th anniversary as with the 10 year thread over in the Kai forum. Of course as we know the series debuted on Fuji TV at 7:00 pm on April 26, 1989, with the very first episode "Mini Goku is an Overprotected Boy! I am Gohan" Continuing onward just a week after the last episode of Dragon Ball, Z picks up five years after Goku defeated Piccolo at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai and married Chi Chi with subsequently giving birth to their boy Son Gohan. The series ran for a grand total of seven years and became by far the most beloved of the original three series run on Japanese TV and eventually elsewhere in the world in addition to the U.S. over the course of those 11 total years from 1986 to 1997. The series ran for 291 episodes in that span of seven years ultimately concluding on January 31, 1996 with "Even Stronger!! Goku's Dream is Super Huge" thus leading into the anime only sequel Dragon Ball GT that effectively wrapped up the original run of the OG era of the series.

So a happy 30th to Dragon Ball Z!!!! Here's some obligatory shots to go along with this encapsulated write up.

Spoiler:

[Char Aznable]

Oh man the Z in the title now must mean the show is coming to an end soon!

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Oh man the Z in the title now must mean the show is coming to an end soon!

Now that's a good one, some people thought that's what adding the Z was intended to mean.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Convenient you've posted CLHCL OP2 where Son goes Super Saiyan as I used it below for a comparison.


Standard Definition

Spoiler:

High Definition

Spoiler:

Guess I'd say it's a tie and even if we eventually see the entire Z series with this DNR'd HD remastered quality, it's alright but still not what we'd want.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Convenient you've posted CLHCL OP2 where Son goes Super Saiyan as I used it below for a comparison.


Standard Definition

Spoiler:

High Definition

Spoiler:

Guess I'd say it's a tie and even if we eventually see the entire Z series with this DNR'd HD remastered quality, it's alright but still not what we'd want.

Where is that OP 2 animation shot from? I think it's from the recent remastered version of the Trunks special from Toei right because there so far hasn't been an HD remaster of the series confirmed from them as of yet.

[DHM211]

Convenient you've posted CLHCL OP2 where Son goes Super Saiyan as I used it below for a comparison.


Standard Definition

Spoiler:

High Definition

Spoiler:

Guess I'd say it's a tie and even if we eventually see the entire Z series with this DNR'd HD remastered quality, it's alright but still not what we'd want.

Not sure if it's the color tint or the overt DNR/compression but that looks pretty bad.
Would much prefer this:

[JohnnyCashKami]

Convenient you've posted CLHCL OP2 where Son goes Super Saiyan as I used it below for a comparison.


Standard Definition

Spoiler:

High Definition

Spoiler:

Guess I'd say it's a tie and even if we eventually see the entire Z series with this DNR'd HD remastered quality, it's alright but still not what we'd want.

Where is that OP 2 animation shot from? I think it's from the recent remastered version of the Trunks special from Toei right because there so far hasn't been an HD remaster of the series confirmed from them as of yet.

From the Japanese streaming service GYAO. I just checked and seems it (TV SP1 + TV SP2) was removed but folks who wanted it downloaded a copy, anyway. xD

It now has the GT TV SP so I'll have to verify if the quality is better than the Dragon Box GT but I'd not hold my breath.

[sintzu]

Happy birthday Z. Z is what got me into anime as a whole. Watching Z for the first time was such a blast. There were so many iconic scenes that blew my mind such as Goku and Vegeta's beam clash, Goku's first Ssj transformation and many, many more.

Oh man the Z in the title now must mean the show is coming to an end soon!

Now that's a good one, some people thought that's what adding the Z was intended to mean.

Toriyama himself added the Z because he thought it would end soon.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Happy birthday Z. Z is what got me into anime as a whole. Watching Z for the first time was such a blast. There were so many iconic scenes that blew my mind such as Goku and Vegeta's beam clash, Goku's first Ssj transformation and many, many more.

Oh man the Z in the title now must mean the show is coming to an end soon!

Now that's a good one, some people thought that's what adding the Z was intended to mean.

Toriyama himself added the Z because he thought it would end soon.

During early development for the series the writers and story people at Toei at least i believe were at one point considering calling it Dragon Ball: Gohan's Great Adventure, which is a pretty strange title if you ask me as that certainly made it sound as though Gohan was initially going to be the focus of the series' story when he ultimately wasn't for the most part.

That's an interesting and even a little humorous little nugget of series related trivia there.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

It just blows my mind that the series premiered five years three months and five days give or take before i was born, as of course i came into the world in July of 1994 which was right smack during the early part of the Buu arc's airing on TV. So i can certainly say that i was alive while Z was still running and before the manga concluded it's serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in early 1995.

Of course, i already mentioned it at length in the "What Dragon Ball manga/anime.etc thing happened in your birth week" thread.

[KBABZ]

Oh man the Z in the title now must mean the show is coming to an end soon!

Now that's a good one, some people thought that's what adding the Z was intended to mean.

I mean, that was the idea Toriyama had in mind.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Oh man the Z in the title now must mean the show is coming to an end soon!

Now that's a good one, some people thought that's what adding the Z was intended to mean.

I mean, that was the idea Toriyama had in mind.

Of course as we know he didn't completely stick to the idea of it being the end where he first came up with the whole "Z in the title" thing for as the show was being developed, as he didn't even know yet know as of that time in 1989 when he was going to be concluding the manga and it was still another six years after before he actually did.

[KBABZ]

Of course as we know he didn't completely stick to the idea of it being the end where he first came up with the whole "Z in the title" thing for as the show was being developed, as he didn't even know yet know as of that time in 1989 when he was going to be concluding the manga and it was still another six years after before he actually did.

I think the idea at the time was "I'm gonna end the story sometime soon I think, so Z would be fitting".

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Of course as we know he didn't completely stick to the idea of it being the end where he first came up with the whole "Z in the title" thing for as the show was being developed, as he didn't even know yet know as of that time in 1989 when he was going to be concluding the manga and it was still another six years after before he actually did.

I think the idea at the time was "I'm gonna end the story sometime soon I think, so Z would be fitting".

Yeah, it was more a matter of Toriyama not knowing exactly when he was going to wrap the manga's serialization at that point. He only had rough idea as far as that goes though still he did have potential places in the series where he could have ended it sooner had he wanted to. Of course, it seemed he wasn't satisfied with those plans so he just kept on going.

[KBABZ]

Yeah, it was more a matter of Toriyama not knowing exactly when he was going to wrap the manga's serialization at that point. He only had rough idea as far as that goes though still he did have potential places in the series where he could have ended it sooner had he wanted to. Of course, it seemed he wasn't satisfied with those plans so he just kept on going.

The quote from him that pops up time and again I noticed is things along the lines of "the fans would be disappointed if I stopped", which I feel is a major factor in influencing him to keep going. I imagine the Buu arc was when he decided he had grown especially weary of the story, and so ripped the band-aid off, so to speak.

[JohnnyCashKami]

The Majin Boo arc to me felt like it was meant to be a sequel to Z than just another arc. New story, new op/es, new music and a fresh peaceful start with Gohan was a lot different than another story surrounding Goku.

Kai TFC wasn't very satisfying but I'm happy they separated the Majin Boo portion from Dragon Ball Kai as a sequel.

[sintzu]

The Majin Boo arc to me felt like it was meant to be a sequel to Z than just another arc. New story, new op/es, new music and a fresh peaceful start with Gohan was a lot different than another story surrounding Goku.

They probably would've changed the name again had Z not been so popular.