How high would you rank the Garlic Jr. Saga?

[Geraldo]

I find this saga to be quite good, unlike most of the fandom; In fact I like it more than the Androids and Buu Saga respectively. The only problems I have with it is the fact that it doesn't work canonically ("The Dead Zone" doesn't fit into the main timeline) and the fact Tien, Chioatzu and Launch were absent (Launch was written out after the Namek Crisis, as Toriyama never drew her officially again ever since the christmas of 1991 [edit: or 1990], but allegedly told the Anime Staff to include her in the Genki Dama donation process of the Buu Saga finale). It's a solid 8/10 for me.

This arc is a break from all this "I'm a Saiyan who can change his hair color and style TO BE THE STRONGEST, how about that? **PULLS A BS TRANSFORMATION**" mumble jumble that Dragon Ball Z had became. Just the lesser cast doing their thing and defeating a decent power level villain and his minions.

No Goku nor Vegeta hogging the spotlight with "Saiyan Pride" which basically means nothing, as who is not proud of their heritage? I don't need Piccolo shouting or spouting "Namekian Pride" every damn minute to know he's from Namek.

[Jord]

I really liked it a lot. It had a clear sense of danger to it and the team effort aspect of it makes it stand out. As you said, it was not necessarily about strength and I like the team dynamic between Piccolo, Kuririn and Gohan, as well as the fact that Kami and Popo got something important to do. Very underutilized characters in the series.

[ABED]

I enjoyed it, but it could stand to lose at least an episode. The story of Kami and Mr. Popo taking the god water to the part of the Heavenly Realm with the former Kami's is interesting but goes on for too long. While not having Goku worked in its favor, it's not something I would like for an extended period. And while it's more of stand-alone episode, the finale of the arc with Kuririn breaking up with Maron is genuinely sad. The laugh/cry at the end is a hell of a way to end an episode of Dragon Ball.

And I'd imagine there are plenty of people who aren't proud of their heritage, especially if they came from savages like the Saiyans. And final point, Vegeta doesn't spout all about Saiyan pride because he genuinely feels pride for where he comes from, it's him blustering.

[desu]

I would say it's decent, at least when I got onto DBZ, this was the arc that was airing yet I kept watching it. Not a fan of the Maron fan service and most of her scenes are filler, but with her out I think it's an entertaining arc.

I think Garlic Jr. is a pretty unique villain, maybe a bit bland personality-wise, but he got immortality and a good backstory. I like Gohan, Krillin & Piccolo's role in this arc, but it's true they could've included Tien & Chiaotzu, especially since there were 4 minions and all were killed by Gohan and since Tien & Chiaotzu didn't do anything at all in the Namek Saga. With them on board too, it would've been a better way of padding out the arc instead of putting Maron scenes or Kami and Popo running for half an episode.

Also like Vegeta's scenes searching out Goku. The anime really gave Vegeta SSJ a lot more build up from this point on and I'm gonna guess those planets Vegeta was standing on had an atmosphere since Pui Pui's planet had one too.

The final fight against Garlic Jr. was pretty boring tho, it just wasn't as epic as other arcs' climax. Garlic Jr. is pretty weak so what they could've done is either make him stronger for the final battle (since the Makyo Star was at his closest point anyway) or make Yamcha and Roshi show up for the final battle before the Aqua Mist effects take place since they're just gone after the battle in Kame House.
I also think Gohan vs Garlic Jr. could've been a longer fight as that was the one fight I wanted to see the most.

Didn't like the Death Zone being used just to fail again. But at least Garlic Jr. took more than an energy blast to defeat and the way he lost is because his planet was destroyed and he couldn't mantain his power anymore instead of getting pushed to the Death Zone.

[BWri]

I liked it a lot. Perhaps they should have chosen another villain so that the anime timeline would make more sense but honestly I liked Garlic Jr's connections and parallels to Piccolo. The arc provided a refreshing dive into the series mysticism that had been missing for so long in lieu of the sci-fi elements.

It does clash with the Android arc due to Gohan having no issue with killing Garlic's henchmen then becoming a complete pacifist by the time he fights Cell.

I like how Vegeta went to space to search for Goku. It would have been interesting if we had got something of a Majin Vegeta that early in the anime.

[jjgp1112]

I liked it a lot. Perhaps they should have chosen another villain so that the anime timeline would make more sense but honestly I liked Garlic Jr's connections and parallels to Piccolo. The arc provided a refreshing dive into the series mysticism that had been missing for so long in lieu of the sci-fi elements.

It does clash with the Android arc due to Gohan having no issue with killing Garlic's henchmen then becoming a complete pacifist by the time he fights Cell.

I like how Vegeta went to space to search for Goku. It would have been interesting if we had got something of a Majin Vegeta that early in the anime.

I've always felt that Movie 4 should've been the Garlic Jr sequel and Lord Slug should've been the filler villain. An ancient evil traveling Namekian is the type of villain that can easily fit in the continuity without problems, and it's a cool follow up to the last 70 episodes of Namekians being the docile innocent victims.

[MasenkoHA]

Its probably the worst Z arc but it's perfectly fine. I still rank it high above anything in GT and most of Super sans the Champa arc and maybe the ToP arc.

[Kunzait_83]

I've always felt that Movie 4 should've been the Garlic Jr sequel and Lord Slug should've been the filler villain. An ancient evil traveling Namekian is the type of villain that can easily fit in the continuity without problems, and it's a cool follow up to the last 70 episodes of Namekians being the docile innocent victims.

Oh wow! I've never thought of that before, but that actually makes a good deal of sense! This is kind of a neat idea!

[JulieYBM]

I should try to find the time to re-watch the Garlic Junior arc. I haven't watched it in maybe seven or so years and can therefore not remember the finer details of it. I do enjoy it as a concept for an arc, though, and I am especially fond of the Shiten-Ou characters. Gouri Daisuke's performance as Vinegar was a classic Gouri performance. Chiba Shigeru also did a fine job taking on the role of Garlic Junior, having to pick up for Kamiya Akira. It's not a favorable position to be in but considering how little Chiba got to work on Dragon Ball Z it is nevertheless fun to see him again.

I do wish that the story had expanded more upon the original characters, though. The cool thing about anime-original storylines is that you can really aim for a full beginning-middle-and-end for those characters whereas you typically have to watch how you write the characters from the original work. That being said, I do wish that Gohan and the others had received more character development and we got to see future comic-adapting episodes feed off of that new character development. Far too often Dragon Ball Z was afraid of its own shadow and didn't use the anime-original material to help bolster and improve the comic material. It's a terrible shame.

[BWri]

I liked it a lot. Perhaps they should have chosen another villain so that the anime timeline would make more sense but honestly I liked Garlic Jr's connections and parallels to Piccolo. The arc provided a refreshing dive into the series mysticism that had been missing for so long in lieu of the sci-fi elements.

It does clash with the Android arc due to Gohan having no issue with killing Garlic's henchmen then becoming a complete pacifist by the time he fights Cell.

I like how Vegeta went to space to search for Goku. It would have been interesting if we had got something of a Majin Vegeta that early in the anime.

I've always felt that Movie 4 should've been the Garlic Jr sequel and Lord Slug should've been the filler villain. An ancient evil traveling Namekian is the type of villain that can easily fit in the continuity without problems, and it's a cool follow up to the last 70 episodes of Namekians being the docile innocent victims.

Bingo! They're pretty interchangeable actually so that would have been the perfect solution.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I liked it for what it was, it was great to see characters other than Goku taking the spotlight, especially because it was not just Gohan, but Mr Popo and Kami also played significant roles.

I too never thought of Lord Slug being a filler villain around this time, but it's a neat idea to follow up the Freeza arc by showing not all Namekians are born good.

In terms of how high I'd rank it? Maybe a 6 or a 7/10, nothing spectacular but leaning towards good.

[Lord Beerus]

I found myself pretty bored with the arc quite quickly, the last time watched it. Definitely a below-average arc for me.

[Geraldo]

I liked it a lot. Perhaps they should have chosen another villain so that the anime timeline would make more sense but honestly I liked Garlic Jr's connections and parallels to Piccolo. The arc provided a refreshing dive into the series mysticism that had been missing for so long in lieu of the sci-fi elements.

It does clash with the Android arc due to Gohan having no issue with killing Garlic's henchmen then becoming a complete pacifist by the time he fights Cell.

I like how Vegeta went to space to search for Goku. It would have been interesting if we had got something of a Majin Vegeta that early in the anime.

I've always felt that Movie 4 should've been the Garlic Jr sequel and Lord Slug should've been the filler villain. An ancient evil traveling Namekian is the type of villain that can easily fit in the continuity without problems, and it's a cool follow up to the last 70 episodes of Namekians being the docile innocent victims.

Gotta admit that I too have never thought of such a switch. I always wanted Lord Slug to take place in the 3 years preparations for the Androids with all the Z-Fighters taking part in the battle. But having Slug there fits with the lust for the Dragon Balls and also provides a rival for each Z-Fighter sans Goku, after the footsoldiers are dealt with and before he takes on everyone: Gohan vs. Commander Zeeun; Piccolo vs. Wings (after he bullied Chi-Chi who came trying to aid Gohan); Krillin and Yamcha vs. Angila; Tien and Chiaotzu vs. Medamatcha; Bulma, Oolong and Puar vs. the look alike scientists to undo the freezing of the Earth.

[chitsunameru]

for an arc full of filler i did enjoy it well enough. 6/10. not amazing but not a big crap ether

[Saiya6Cit]

when i was a child and I did not know it was a filler and also i was like... 10, it seemed decent or even entertaining but it the last rewatch I have done I always skip it seemed like a mix of pilaf with ist demon piccolo

in a scale from 1-10 i would rate it with a 3

[Geraldo]

I liked it a lot. Perhaps they should have chosen another villain so that the anime timeline would make more sense but honestly I liked Garlic Jr's connections and parallels to Piccolo. The arc provided a refreshing dive into the series mysticism that had been missing for so long in lieu of the sci-fi elements.

It does clash with the Android arc due to Gohan having no issue with killing Garlic's henchmen then becoming a complete pacifist by the time he fights Cell.

I like how Vegeta went to space to search for Goku. It would have been interesting if we had got something of a Majin Vegeta that early in the anime.

I've always felt that Movie 4 should've been the Garlic Jr sequel and Lord Slug should've been the filler villain. An ancient evil traveling Namekian is the type of villain that can easily fit in the continuity without problems, and it's a cool follow up to the last 70 episodes of Namekians being the docile innocent victims.

Gotta admit that I too have never thought of such a switch. I always wanted Lord Slug to take place in the 3 years preparations for the Androids with all the Z-Fighters taking part in the battle. But having Slug there fits with the lust for the Dragon Balls and also provides a rival for each Z-Fighter sans Goku, after the footsoldiers are dealt with and before he takes on everyone: Gohan vs. Commander Zeeun; Piccolo vs. Wings (after he bullied Chi-Chi who came trying to aid Gohan); Krillin and Yamcha vs. Angila; Tien and Chiaotzu vs. Medamatcha; Bulma, Oolong and Puar vs. the look alike scientists to undo the freezing of the Earth.

I wanted to add that despite the fact that I always wanted Nicky to be Spice's father, and that the Spice Boys' arrival into Earth, their possibility to release Garlic Jr. from his Dead Zone prison (why didn't Garlic Sr. was freed years ago if that was possible somehow?) and their own "kings" status were never explained which are a shame; I believe a story such as what I wrote could squeeze Kami helping outside the battlefield, fearing he would needlessly risk Piccolo's life if he'll jump into the fire, Slug could give us an in-depth into Katas, telling us some things he managed to gain from his father ("I will tell you from the little I know, *grabs Piccolo by his throat* Katas was experimenting with dark magic, that's why Piccolo was always attracted to evil"), as he was also sent as a baby in parallel to Kami-Piccolo Sr.

[MasenkoHA]

[L and their own "kings" status were never explained which are a shame; I

They're not Kings. The Shittenou in their title is pretty much just to indicate that there is 4 of them

https://legendsoflocalization.com/trick ... nly-kings/

[WittyUsername]

It’s sort of fun in the sense that it provides a break from the the extremely lengthy battle with Freeza, but it’s not one of those examples of filler that serves to enhance the story and characters. I suppose some might like to argue that it serves as foreshadowing for Gohan’s role in the Cell Games, but that obviously wasn’t intentional, and it actually contradicts Gohan’s whole conflict during his fight with Cell, since Gohan in the Garlic Jr. episodes has no qualms about killing bad guys.

The animation is also not very good, and Garlic Jr’s henchmen don’t have any personalities, but it’s filler, so I can’t get upset about that. I do think having the villains turn everyone into demonic zombies is a neat concept, though.

[Hellspawn28]

The entire saga is a chore to watch and I always skip it when I watch it. Even the kids at my school back in the day didn't like it. You know when a saga sucks when your main target audience doesn't like it.

[MrSatan2099]

Of course it has the same problem that any filler arc does where you know that it can't possibly have any lasting ramifications on the main story, but overall I always liked it. Always good to see Piccolo get the spotlight he deserves.

As an adult it has a fairly specific appeal to me. I love to binge some Z occasionally, but don't really have the time to sit through 30 or 40 episodes like when I was a teenager, so having a concise story I can watch across 9 episodes is pretty nice. Of course it also conjures up some very specific Toomami nostalgia for me so that's nice.

It's definitely junk food compared to the rest of the series, but then again I've been known to skip dinner and eat an entire bag of Doritos.