Do you prefer the wacky adventures of Dragon Ball and early GT, or the high speed action of Z and everything else?

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

I personally prefer Z's high speed action because I've had more exposure to it. How about you guys, girls and the Technicolor region in between?

[dva_raza]

I'm personally not attracted to the adventure narrative in Dragon Ball.

Never found it interesting in DB and didn't find it interesting in GT.
I really tried with GT but I couldn't continue after the hotel episode, so I skipped.
Basically this side of DB is just not for me, never was.

[Vijay]

I like how you categorize DB & Z while in fact both share similar aspects.

DB had hyper-kinetic action scenes in 22nd & 23rd TB & DBZ also had adventurous journey with Namek/Frieza & early/later parts of Android/Majin Arc to some extent. Well, EoZ was paving way to next big adventure, so yeah.

I'm a fan of both. Whenever I feel I need to watch some hilarious, yet creative scene with likable characters, I go for DB esp 1st Arc/Goku Arc

When I wanna watch some dramatic/tense/epic fight I go for latter parts of Piccolo/DBZ

[dva_raza]

I like how you categorize DB & Z while in fact both share similar aspects.

DB had hyper-kinetic action scenes in 22nd & 23rd TB & DBZ also had adventurous journey with Namek/Frieza & early/later parts of Android/Majin Arc to some extent. Well, EoZ was paving way to next big adventure, so yeah.

I'm a fan of both. Whenever I feel I need to watch some hilarious, yet creative scene with likable characters, I go for DB esp 1st Arc/Goku Arc

When I wanna watch some dramatic/tense/epic fight I go for latter parts of Piccolo/DBZ

Since he only mentioned "DB and early GT", I'm pretty sure he's referring to the adventure narrative in DB and early GT. Not the advenures in Z. Which are of course different in many aspects. Characters, theme and rythm mainly.

[DLJL731980]

I prefer a good balance of both…why I love/loved the Majin Buu Saga so much.

[Zephyr]

I prefer a good balance of both…why I love/loved the Majin Buu Saga so much.

This for me as well. Toriyama is a funnyman by trade, so he's most at home trying to be funny. Even the more at-face-value serious moments and high-octane action are funny to me, in a way. That Toriyama manages to take this funny little gag shit and make it so cool is just hilarious in its own way, from a storyteller's point of view. The two elements feed into and inform one another. Man's definitely been an inspiration for my D&D worldbuilding and DMing: construct cool things out of silly things, and use those cool things to do further silly things.

But the Boo arc and the 23rd TB are especially great for me. The latter is among DB's transitional period from a more directly comedic story to a more directly serious one, while the former sees the serious section of the story effectively used as setup for the punchline that is the closing arc of the story.

[DBZAOTA482]

DB is at its best when it balances comedy / adventure and action i.e. the Namek arc.

[JulieYBM]

I like many things, therefore I enjoy a series with many different attributes to it.

[Grimlock]

I prefer when they (try to) do everything. It's good to have different stuff going on, it makes the series itself "healthy" if that makes any sense, and not being stuck or overwhelmed by the same thing over and over.

[Xeogran]

I like both. The silly adventures are enjoyable for me too, as I liked OG and GT from beginning all the way through.

I enjoy arcs where the cast has to solve problems without resorting to their powers all the time and have to think a bit to solve the conflicts.

[DiloVortexx]

agreeing with some other ppl here and saying i like a mix of both!! i like the wacky shenanigans the main cast can get into and seeing more lore and story driven stuff also makes me like : D
but i also like watching the action parts too!! the choreography of most of the fights in the series are animated and planned out so well and it really gets me anxious to see more jdfkgjkj

[Robo4900]

Realistically, this was never what OG DB was in its entirety. The first tournament moved away from this, and Red Ribbon was transition away from it.

Personally, I like both. The wacky adventures were fun, but I'm glad it changed so that aspect didn't overstay its welcome. The Piccolo Daimao arc, possibly the darkest Dragon Ball has ever been, is one of my favourites, and the first tournament arc is my absolute favourite. So I like both. Everything in moderation.

I think where GT fell down in its early period was just not balancing things right. It's all well and good to want to try doing some adventuring again, but you can't just discard all of the high-speed action stuff. The Imegga stuff did decently well IMO in that the fight with Redjic (or whatever his name is) was the finale, and that was a fun fight, but GT didn't really get the balance right until the gang went to planet M2, after which the Baby arc kicked off and they basically gave up on the adventuring thing, which was ultimately for the better anyway, because the show turned out better, but one does wonder what the show would have been like if they'd stuck to the adventuring but balanced it better with martial arts stuff; sorta like the Evil Dragons arc if each dragon's episode was at least two or three episodes.

[ClutchBangstrip]

High speed action trumps all, imo. That's if I HAD to pick.


That said, wacky adventures are cool sometimes, too. Dragon Ball is currently perfect for a good mix. Mainly due to it's crazy and diverse cast.

[dva_raza]

I think where GT fell down in its early period was just not balancing things right. It's all well and good to want to try doing some adventuring again, but you can't just discard all of the high-speed action stuff.

That is exactly the reason why I couldn't stick with the first arc of GT.
I had full intention of watching it even knowing the “kids on a venture” thing it’s not really my thing, (I just can’t connect with that narrative, I find it very dull), but for some reason I erroneously thought it was going to be alternating with something contrasting happening on earth.

But after the part where they find people living in a shed I started losing patience about the full focus being on them. I started skipping to the next and next episode to see if there was anything happening on earth and as I was realizing that every single episode was just them in space I was like dude.. no. I can’t do this. It was all boring, there was no action or story that felt interesting, and so I just skipped directly the episode where Baby arrives on earth. The scene where he possesses Vegeta and then Gohan is probably the only part that felt anything close to 'exciting' or interesting to me in GT.
But, once the latest arc of GT starts, they started the same shit! Goku goes on an yet ANOTHER venture now only with Pan, to get all of the goddam dragon balls again. I had to skip through that as well all the way to the fight of Goku against the twin dragons which was alright and I watched from there until the end.
I know I sound like a massive hater but I find this “venturing to find the dragon balls while encountering each ball’s challenge and beating the challenge” thing very repetitive, infantile and uninteresting. I don’t care to watch how they beat each opponent because the structure is all the same.

Basically the opposite from Namek. That's the only “venture” to “collect” the balls that works for me.
It doesn't feel structured, it feels TENSE as shit. The dynamic is intelligently done, (the specific characters that were planted in the situation and the way they were used), I love the Gohan and Krillin pair up, the villains, the antagonist, the interactions, the expectancy of Goku arriving, the twists and the all fights, I think ths was all a perfect balance of adventure (even if it's not wacky) and "high-speed action"

[Ashur]

I prefer a good balance of both, but either in their purest form are enjoyable on their own, i love Dragon Ball in it's 3 facets, when it's a fun adventure, when it's a comedy, and when it's a battle oriented drama, it does well in all 3 while still feeling like the same show in spirit,.

[MasenkoHA]

Nothing against Z but it essentially said The Piccolo Daimao arc? Yeah do that every arc. Not that there's anything wrong with having a formula. Arguably the reason Toriyama kept redoing the Daimao arc and why the Z portion is more popular worldwide is because Toriyama found a formula thar worked and had mass appeal.

Dragon Ball had more variation and I enjoyed that.

[Peach]

I like both equally.

Ideally, I like an adventure that starts off a little wacky and fun, but becomes a serious epic.

[Cipher]

I'm glad this thread has people acknowledging that the Namek arc is an adventure arc. Just one in which everything goes south and the back half is one extended climax.

I'm happy with whatever keeps things unpredictable. I think in general that requires a willingness to mix things up between extended action and adventuring. Or not, since my favorite arc is Boo, and that's basically all fighting from the tournament onward--just fighting with multiple branching character plots and a lot of strange humor mixed in.

At the same time, it maintains some elements of the adventure plots in introducing new locations, overall scope, and elements of the world. I feel like those are all key parts of DB's balance as well. And if I think about the plotlines I enjoy least across the original, GT, and Super, they're ones where those elements are less present.

[SavageDragon]

I'm in the midst of my first Dragon Ball watch (did watch Z back in the day), but I'm loving Dragon Ball's vibe a whole lot. The comedy is so delightful and disarming, everything feels clever and inventive.

The heartfelt moments are some of my fav too, the innocent genuine earnestness. How we're learning about the world and people via Goku. And action is of course rad! At the moment I'm leaning more towards Dragon Ball's mixture, but I look forward to seeing the whole saga.

[MasenkoHA]

I'm glad this thread has people acknowledging that the Namek arc is an adventure arc..

It really isn't tbh.