Which Part Of Dragon Ball Is BETTER: The Majin Buu Saga OR The Entirety Of Dragon Ball GT?

[Majin Buu]

The Super 17 arc was only like 7 episodes and probably gets talked about less than any arc in GT. I think GT’s bad rep goes further than that.

For sure. What I mean is that all of the issues with GT are on full display at their worst in that arc, IMO.

It's only 7 episodes, but those 7 episodes are the show's low point and brought the whole thing down for me after finding the Baby arc to be pretty ok (once it got going).

I personally think GT would be at least somewhat better received if the series went straight from Baby to the Shadow Dragons. The core issues would still be there, but we wouldn't have that low point to emphasize them.

[PurestEvil]

I honestly think I'd have to go with Buu on this one, purely because of A) that god awful super 17 arc, and B) Super Saiyaman is cool.

I'm convinced that a lot of GT's bad reputation stems from how awful the Super 17 arc is. Easily the worst part of GT.

The Super 17 arc was only like 7 episodes and probably gets talked about less than any arc in GT. I think GT’s bad rep goes further than that.

If anything, the Black Star Ball arc is a much bigger factor of GT's bad rep, and kind of for good reason.
Boring, annoying, and nonsensical, no wonder so many fans were turned away.

[Majin Buu]

Agree to disagree then. The Black Star Ball arc is admittedly pretty boring, but the Super 17 arc just left a worse impression on me.

[PurestEvil]

Agree to disagree then. The Black Star Ball arc is admittedly pretty boring, but Super 17 arc just left a worse impression on me.

Oh, don't get me wrong, Super 17 is MUCH worse than Black Star, I just think that the terrible first impression had a bigger impact on the fandom.

[WittyUsername]

The Majin Boo arc is messy, but it generally has a lot more personality to it than GT, so I’d have to say that it’s better. I still love Super Saiyan 4 and the ending, though

[PremiumSalt]

Entirety of GT? Boo arc, no question.

That said, the Baby arc, besides the ending, is better than most of the Boo arc imo.

[UltraInstinctRorikon]

Buu had the fighting candy episode so ill go with that.

[PurestEvil]

Buu had the fighting candy episode so ill go with that.

I love that Vegetto is so powerful that he becomes autonomous when turned into an inanimate object

[Metalwario64]

May there one be a day where a discussion of quality doesn’t have to bring up the irrelevancy of canon.

Anyways, Majin Boo is just a lot of fun. GT isn’t fun. There were fantastic ideas in GT but the execution tended to be lackluster.

That's about where I stand. GT does have this nostalgic aura to it that brings some enjoyment when I watch it, but I have a good time with the Buu arc, even when it has story issues, likely due to a burnt out Toriyama.

[Koitsukai]

The Super 17 arc was only like 7 episodes and probably gets talked about less than any arc in GT. I think GT’s bad rep goes further than that.

For sure. What I mean is that all of the issues with GT are on full display at their worst in that arc, IMO.

It's only 7 episodes, but those 7 episodes are the show's low point and brought the whole thing down for me after finding the Baby arc to be pretty ok (once it got going).

I personally think GT would be at least somewhat better received if the series went straight from Baby to the Shadow Dragons. The core issues would still be there, but we wouldn't have that low point to emphasize them.

I actually agree with this take of the Super 17 arc, it condenses every or most problems of GT in a few episodes.

It has silly, uninteresting fights.
It has dumb decisions made by the characters just to move the plot forward, shoehorned stuff, even during fights.
It has Goku-only stamped on it, everybody is just there just because Goku isn't, when he is there, the rest are out of comission.
It re-writes how things work (androids going to hell, androids having labs in hell, every evil guy keeping their bodies, androids having ki).

[jjgp1112]

I honestly think I'd have to go with Buu on this one, purely because of A) that god awful super 17 arc, and B) Super Saiyaman is cool.

I'm convinced that a lot of GT's bad reputation stems from how awful the Super 17 arc is. Easily the worst part of GT.

The Super 17 arc was only like 7 episodes and probably gets talked about less than any arc in GT. I think GT’s bad rep goes further than that.

Eh, I dunno. Every Dragon Ball space I've been on for the last 15 years universally shits on the Super 17 arc

[Cursed Lemon]

At no point watching GT did I ever have the feeling, "oh man, I can't wait for this fight to take place". In a show about punching dudes in the face, that's not a good quality.

If nothing else, the Buu arc gave us the Goku v. Vegeta rematch on steroids.

[UltraInstinctRorikon]

GT's problem start when baby arc starts. It's when it tries to be DBZ is when it falls. When it was it's own thing the prior arcs, it's slice of life adventure and is great.

I get why they started to try to appeal to the Z crowd but yeesh they executed it terribly.

[PurestEvil]

GT's problem start when baby arc starts. It's when it tries to be DBZ is when it falls. When it was it's own thing the prior arcs, it's slice of life adventure and is great.

Too bad it was sprinkled with plot contrivances, rehashes, and unfunny gags.
Besides, GT certainly did not try to be its own thing with the Black Star balls, it was literally meant to harken back to the fucking Hunt for the Dragon Balls in early DB. That's why they made him a kid again.

[MasenkoHA]

It's when it tries to be DBZ is when it falls.

Okay but what does that even mean? The franchise developed its identity as a martial arts series with high stakes “stop this evil powerful villain” back in the Daimao arc. It’s not trying to be Dragon Ball Z it’s being a Dragon Ball show.

When it was it's own thing the prior arcs, it's slice of life adventure and is great.

Like PurestEvil basically said the first arc of GT is literally the first arc of Dragon Ball but in spaaaaaaace. Right down to recycling the Oolong episode’s plot.

It is by far the most derivative arc of GT excluding Super 17 recycling Z movie 12’s past villains escape from hell thing.

I get why they started to try to appeal to the Z crowd but yeesh they executed it terribly.

More like they realized doing the original arc of Dragon Ball again for a series meant to last at least a year wasn’t sustainable. There’s a reason Toriyama pretty much dropped it after the first.

[WittyUsername]

I don’t understand why exactly Toei initially chose to make GT a callback to the very first arc of Dragon Ball. That part of the series was never all that popular. Dragon Ball took off in popularity once it became a show about martial arts.

[jjgp1112]

The series literally aged Goku down to a kid to recapture the magic of the beginning!

[LoganForkHands73]

Wasn't the whole premise of GT Toriyama's idea? I kinda see his logic, he had grown so sick of the violent high-stakes fights of the Buu arc and probably wanted to see a change of pace in the next series, even if he was less involved in it. If I remember from that other series of interviews, Toei were quick to move on from the initial premise of DB in spaaace once they realised it just wasn't working. Yeah, it was a pretty dumb idea in hindsight but I get why they tried it.

[WittyUsername]

Wasn't the whole premise of GT Toriyama's idea? I kinda see his logic, he had grown so sick of the violent high-stakes fights of the Buu arc and probably wanted to see a change of pace in the next series, even if he was less involved in it. If I remember from that other series of interviews, Toei were quick to move on from the initial premise of DB in spaaace once they realised it just wasn't working. Yeah, it was a pretty dumb idea in hindsight but I get why they tried it.

I never heard about it being Toriyama’s idea. I know he designed many of the initial characters, but I always assumed that it was Toei’s idea to try and bring the series back to its roots. People always talk about GT as though Toriyama’s involvement was kept to the bare minimum. If it was his idea, that would make a bit more sense, but even then, surely he himself would’ve realized that something like that probably wouldn’t sell?

[jjgp1112]

Wasn't the whole premise of GT Toriyama's idea? I kinda see his logic, he had grown so sick of the violent high-stakes fights of the Buu arc and probably wanted to see a change of pace in the next series, even if he was less involved in it. If I remember from that other series of interviews, Toei were quick to move on from the initial premise of DB in spaaace once they realised it just wasn't working. Yeah, it was a pretty dumb idea in hindsight but I get why they tried it.

I never heard about it being Toriyama’s idea. I know he designed many of the initial characters, but I always assumed that it was Toei’s idea to try and bring the series back to its roots. People always talk about GT as though Toriyama’s involvement was kept to the bare minimum. If it was his idea, that would make a bit more sense, but even then, surely he himself would’ve realized that something like that probably wouldn’t sell?

Yeah, the series director whose name escapes me even said they aged Goku down and went back to its roots because they literally couldn't think of where else to go with Goku as a character. They made him a kid to knock him down a peg. But after a few episodes they realized that sucked, so they went right back to the Z formula and even gave Goku a transformation that conveniently aged him back up.