Which was more flawed: The Cell Saga or The Buu Saga?

[thatdbzguy]

While the Saiyan and Freeza sagas are, for the most part, pretty tightly written, the Cell and Buu sagas don't exactly share that trait, at least not as much as previous sagas.

So in your opinion, which saga do you think is more flawed?

[TheMightyOzaru]

The Buu arc is story telling nightmare. The Artificial Human arc doesn't have nearly as many hiccups. The Artificial Human arc is definitely superior.

[VegettoEX]

While the Saiyan and Freeza sagas are, for the most part, pretty tightly written, the Cell and Buu sagas don't exactly share that trait, at least not as much as previous sagas.

So in your opinion, which saga do you think is more flawed?

It depends on what you consider a "flaw".

For a lot of people, the haphazard writing style Toriyama used throughout the Buu arc (swapping in and out heroes, new transformations of heroes and villains alike, etc.) is one of its charms. For others, it's the opposite.

For a lot of people, the Cell arc doesn't feel AT ALL like Toriyama was listening to his prior editor / friend making remarks about the villains and introducing new ones and then transformations on top of that; it's as if it was planned all along. For others, it feels just as haphazard as the Buu arc.

Other folks go into the strength comparison debates and lose their marbles trying to make sense of the Buu arc, which they see as a fault of the writer.

Other folks look at Toriyama's art style / craftsmanship transition over the course of the series and see sloppy mistakes in the Buu arc that never showed up in the Cell arc. Others see the angular transition in the Cell arc incredibly lazy compared to the earlier, rounder style of the series.

Personally? I like everything.

[goku the krump dancer]

Personally? I like everything.

As do I. The way everything plays out from Goku meeting Bulma to him flying off with Oob or even Shenlong is %100 enjoyable to me.

[B]

I can't think of any major flaws with either arc. I love the Buu arc and like the Cell arc a lot. At a certain point in comes down to preference, and the Cell arc comes the closest to positioning DB as this super serious epic with "badasses" running around, so I like the Buu arc more.

If it can be considered a flaw, Toriyama's angular art style of the Buu arc shows some lack of care for the drawings. It's coming right off the Cell arc, which I felt was extremely detailed, but perhaps that's the point. The Buu arc didn't need all that detail because of how silly it was.

[Cursed Lemon]

I think most people are willing to admit that the Buu arc is a morass of a story, because that fact doesn't have to dictate whether or not you actually like the arc. =)

For me, the only major flaw of the Cell/Android saga is that Gohan's coming of age theme only really gets into motion very late in the story.

[KentalSSJ6]

Ill hold my opinion until after we get the Kai Buu arc. I'm aware many of the flaws come from dub errors so hopefully the remade script will iron out most of if not all the errors.

[RandomGuy96]

Buu >> Saiyan > Freeza >>>>>>>>> Cell, in terms of arc quality.

[jjgp1112]

I think the Buu saga. They just kept dicking around too much with the ultimate hero in the latter half, and the "Idiot Ball" was way too blatant and egregious. At least in the Cell saga, the stupid decisions that drove the plot were very much in character and things we've seen consistently done by certain characters (Krillin being a sap, Vegeta and Goku being battle-obsessed Saiyans, etc), but it seems like in the Buu saga, everybody's intelligence depended on what was required of the plot at the time.

Ideally, the first part up until Fat Buu transforms and the Kid Buu battle would remain, but I'd redo the entire middle portion, which dragged down. I know people have a problem with the villain revolving door of the Android saga, but it was far more annoying when they did it on the hero side of things - constantly hyping up a new guy, be it Gohan, Gotenks, or Vegetto, and telling us how he was the ultimate power to save the day, only to fuck it up by being an idiot or some arbitrary "magic" to defuse him.

At the end of the day, I still enjoyed both sagas, just one less than the other.

[doomydoomydoom]

Honestly I would have to say Cell. Although Cell has fantastic villains and whatnot, I just thought it was too much. Too dark, too boring at points (endless cat and mouse where Cell just "Taiyo-kens" everyone and flies off, the looooong battle with Cell which stayed in one static location, felt like there were squandered opportunities with the whole "Cell makes up the rules as he goes along" thing), the ending with Goku made me want to scream. In fact, I probably did. But at that point I still really cared about Goku.

Buu, on the other hand, was more my thing. Awesome fights, far better plot twists (Fusion), even better villain (all the [young] Buus [carry the news...sorry couldn't resist.]), things like Vegeta's turncoat nature fully revealing itself, then his atonement. Of course it's not perfect, I felt there were huge letdowns all the way to the end of the saga and series (yes I'm including that psycho of an ending), but to me there were so many "ups" that I felt like "YES! This is how good Dragon Ball can be!"

[TheGmGoken]

Cell Arc. Th quality to me was less and the main villain changed to many times. Only good part was the energy eater(Should have been used more) and the Imperfect Cell.

[DBZ Mick]

I agree with Mike.

I think they both have the same flaws as each other but I'd probably say the Cell/Artificial Human material.

[InfernalVegito]

Personally? I like everything.

As do I. The way everything plays out from Goku meeting Bulma to him flying off with Oob or even Shenlong is %100 enjoyable to me.

Yeah same. To me it's just one big overarching story following Son Goku's adventures.

[Dr. Machismo]

The Majin Buu saga was definitely worse. You could actually tell that Toriyama was putting in a lot of effort with the Android saga as it was much deeper and complex than the rest of the series. Here's what was wrong with the Majin saga:

*The saga itself was unneeded. When the Android saga ended, there wasn't anything left we had to see. The series was brought to closure: Goku died for good, Gohan avenged and surpassed him and all timelines were saved. No one can deny the finality of the Android saga. Continuing the series was not necessary storywise.
*The Majin saga initially started off focusing on Gohan, which was the right thing to do storywise, but eventually Goku became the protagonist again and came back to life, thus killing the purpose of his death in the Android saga.
*Characters like Goten and Trunks seriously lacked depth. They show up and right off the bat they're super strong and can even turn Super Saiyan.
*Anyone should see that there was less effort put into the Majin saga. The saga felt much goofier and had a TON of simple asspulls: fusion, Super Saiyan 3, the Zeta Sword, Old Kai, absorptions, Goku becoming the star again and potara.
*And here's a HUGE story flaw: Supreme Kai not telling anyone about Buu's absorption.
*The ending to the Majin saga was not a great ending to the series. It lacked a proper sense of closure and finality.

[dbzfan7]

Freeza arc>Boo arc>Cell arc>Saiyan arc

[jjgp1112]

The Majin Buu saga was definitely worse. You could actually tell that Toriyama was putting in a lot of effort with the Android saga as it was much deeper and complex than the rest of the series. Here's what was wrong with the Majin saga:

*The saga itself was unneeded. When the Android saga ended, there wasn't anything left for us to see. The series was brought to closure: Goku died for good, Gohan avenged and surpassed him and all timelines were saved. No one can deny the finality of the Android saga. Continuing the series was not necessary storywise.

I definitely agree with this. The saga was just so redundant after the Cell arc tied up every loose end in the story.

[DBZ Mick]

The Majin Buu saga was definitely worse. You could actually tell that Toriyama was putting in a lot of effort with the Android saga as it was much deeper and complex than the rest of the series. Here's what was wrong with the Majin saga:

I don't think it's much deeper and complex. I'd say those would be the Saiyan/Freeza arcs. The only real way it's 'complex' is possibly the time-travel. I could say the opposite and say (at least until Vegeta's death) that Toriyama was enjoying himself and it flowed a lot better than the Cell/Artificial Human arcs.

The saga itself was unneeded. When the Android saga ended, there wasn't anything left we had to see. The series was brought to closure: Goku died for good, Gohan avenged and surpassed him and all timelines were saved. No one can deny the finality of the Android saga. Continuing the series was not necessary storywise.

See that would have been fine...if there were just Dragonball Z, I think Goku being dead at the end of the series is a bad idea. Also Vegeta's arc doesn't fully feel complete. He just gives up on fighting?

[Kid Buu]

I enjoy both, but prefer the Majin Buu arc. Toriyama's really creative in the Buu arc, and I love the craziness of it. Admit-tingly the story is pretty crazy at times, but I've always been behind the idea that one shouldn't apply to much internal logic to a kids cartoon.

[Dr. Machismo]

See that would have been fine...if there were just Dragonball Z, I think Goku being dead at the end of the series is a bad idea. Also Vegeta's arc doesn't fully feel complete. He just gives up on fighting?

Goku dying symbolizes him passing the torch to his son.

[Zephyr]

Cell arc tried to play everything straight, and everything was confusing as fuck.

Buu arc was confusing as fuck, but they weren't trying to play things as straight as the Cell arc was.