The Cell Saga Is The Lowest Rated Saga?

[coola]

For me at least, it is worst saga, because all characters, except Bulma, act like idiots, (Even Trunks was, when he was letting his father get beaten, because of pride) and. there are quite a few plotholes here.

[Zestanor]

Something is wrong with this graph. It doesn't look like reliable data.

[Ajay]

How can you say such a horrible thing? I thought we was cool.

Haha, I'm just exaggerating to make a point.

I just mean that, with something like Dragon Ball where nothing is finite, it's often difficult to really emotionally engage. If someone dies, oh well, they're coming back with the Dragon Balls. It's one of the reasons I quite like parts of GT; the finality of it all is something that was sorely lacking in Z.

It's a shonen fighting anime too, it's not particularly dialogue heavy. They don't spend chapter on chapter with introspective monologues or develop characters through extensive dialogue. There's nothing wrong with that, it works for the series, but I'm far more inclined to get emotional over something in a (albeit surface level) deep novel featuring extensive insight into each character, their emotions and motivations.

Dragon Ball is awesome, it's a classic and legendary anime and I have nothing against it. I just think it's silly to compare the two when they're vastly different and one's format tends to allow for greater development over the other.

I haven't read Twilight, I've seen the films, I have no great attachment to it, I just feel like it's a strange and unnecessary comparison. Something like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood would be better, perhaps. It's not exactly mindblowingly complex but it does feature a similar blend of goofy and serious.

Also, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anime can't be complex; we've got shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion that prove otherwise. I just think it's better to compare similar formats and goals.

[Vice]

No.

The Saiyan Saga is easily the most boring and the Buu Saga is the worst written of all the arcs.

[garnetjester]

Buu saga is all over the place, it made my head hurt at times in the manga and I could barely keep up. Cell's saga has the most character development imo, and its dramatic tone is something I missed in Buu saga.

[Vijay]

Cell Saga in general was the peak of DBZ. It was both character-driven & action-packed until Cell Games started.

I think Buu Arc was the lowest-rated (I saw it somewhere in Ratings section in Kanzenshuu). I still think its cool. Filler was its major problem. Guess Kai will fix it.

[FrogTrigger]

Yea I'd compare the cell saga to terminator or days of future past, maybe age of apocalypse even instead of twilight. Those all had time travel/dystopian future elements and characters with similar lives. That and they get equal love/hate among fans too

From what I've seen, the first two Terminator movies get a lot more praise than hate.

I think T2 beats out T1 and is like the best flick

Should've clarified my statement to mean the whole series, all the movies and stuff

[Kid Buu]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The Cell saga's story is about on par with Twilight in terms of quality.

To be fair, I heard the Twilight books are quite good.

From who?

It has a good reputation among "Hardcore" Literature Fans.

[Freeza Soldier #156]

As others have said, I definitely would not use IMDB as a source for something like this. For me personally, the Cell arc is not my least favorite. My least favorite would definitely be the Wedding Dress arc. It was god awful boring. If we're only talking about major arcs then Garlic Jr. is my least favorite, but Kai takes care of that.

[JackyBoi99]

I liked the seru arc because of how dark it was and had a terminator ish story. The buu arc was still great but to me it had some really boring and padded fights with several characters being really hyped up to beat buu, but never did. Just my opinion.

[Jackal puFF]

Those demographics to me are

I find it hard to believe actually.

[FortuneSSJ]

I dont care about others ratings since i have my own opinion but I must say Cell saga is my least favourite DBZ saga anyway.

Talking about only DBZ, overall, all sagas are awesome. But since they are big sagas its normal to have some boring moments.
I especially dont like all those scenes around A17 driving the pink truck and the Z fighters trying to catch up Cell before he gets stronger.

[Gaffer Tape]

As others have said, I definitely would not use IMDB as a source for something like this. For me personally, the Cell arc is not my least favorite. My least favorite would definitely be the Wedding Dress arc. It was god awful boring. If we're only talking about major arcs then Garlic Jr. is my least favorite, but Kai takes care of that.

Wait, Wedding Dress doesn't count as major, but GARLIC JR. does?! I mean, they're both about the same length. They both have little impact on the overall plot. And that's because they're both filler. But honestly I'd take Wedding Dress over Garlic Jr. any day. Well, I don't know. The first two and last episode of Garlic Jr. are pretty good.

[Attitudefan]

The problem with the Cell arc is that it is very slow, a very long haul with the final showdown having the protagonist do nothing but stare for most of it. The highlights were when the Cyborgs first appeared, the Final Flash, and Goku fighting Cell with the big blow off at the end with Goku sacrificing himself. Otherwise, there is very little tension, and when there is tension it is quickly defused such as the Cyborgs just taking things easy, or with Cell, since he does not much of anything after he is introduced. Cell had tension surround him at first because he was mysterious but quickly became a hot head who really did nothing but wait around. The protagonists didn't seem to treat him as much of a threat when we compare him to the Saiyans or Freeza where it felt like at any moment the protagonists could perish if they slip up.

While the plot tried to take itself seriously, the protagonists acted very selfish and out of character when they could have prevented things from happening such as the creation of the Cyborgs and Cell upgrading himself. Many episodes were pointless filler, such as the driving episode, where even though there is supposedly a threat to civilization as we know it, life seems to not have changed at all. Cities are destroyed, but to the viewer, it seems like nothing has really changed in the daily lives of our protagonists or background characters. The only time that there does seem to be consequences to our heroes actions is the short arc of Ginger Town where people are disappearing and nobody knows why. It affects the heroes emotions and thoughts and they see the consequences to their actions of letting things get out of control even though they could have stopped it all 3 years prior. However, that tension is slowly defused and deaths become inconsequential. The football team being murdered by Cell seems almost comedic in retrospect since it doesn't affect the plot, the characters, or the setting; same goes for when the islands are blown up by second form Cell. The only tension there is if Android 18 is caught, nothing else matters.

It is not like that in the Buu, Freeza, Red Ribbon, Piccolo, and Saiyan arcs since there is consequence, there is change in mood, tone, and the psychology of the characters. We see how lives are affected by the Red Ribbon or by Freeza where the former is using civilians as slaves for their plot to collect the Dragonballs, and the latter of Freeza causing genocide of the Nameks, the Saiyans and others, and he collects the Dragonballs and is super close to getting his wish. The Saiyans change the lives of our heroes where they are all killed, Goku's life is changed forever since he knows now of his origins etc.
Buu, he causes mass extinction and ACTUALLY SUCCEEDS IN DESTROYING EARTH. Cell, the Cyborgs, accomplish nothing. Cell becomes perfect, one of his goals, kills Son, but those have no concequence since he waits to have a tournament with only one sanctioned fight. Killing Son accomplishes little since the plot could be written the same either if he was dead or not in the way he still interacts with everyone after his death.

Cell seems like a watered down rehash of Piccolo but is unable to accomplish what Piccolo did. The Cell games feels as a clone to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, except that nobody is really affected or changed going in and coming out of the tournament. Vegeta is shown in the Buu arc to not have changed as a person despite promising never to fight again after his humiliation, and the rest of the Z-fighters were more like static background characters where at least normally they would provide narrative to what was going on to advance the plot and further character development. Don't get me started on Mr. Satan.

[JackyBoi99]

Those are some very decent points and arguments. I do agree with pretty much everything you said to be honest. The thing is when I watch the artificial humans and seru arc, the atmosphere to me seems very dark and kinda eerie especially when seru first shows up which I really like. Sure the consequences were a lot less then in the furiza and buu arc, but the build up to seru and the artificial humans in my opinion were much better than the build up to furiza and buu.

Overall I just enjoyed the arc a lot more than the buu arc even if the consequences were less.

[Polyphase Avatron]

What was wrong with the Red Ribbon Army saga?

[B]

What was wrong with the Red Ribbon Army saga?

There wasn't enough epicness and beam shooting, of course. Adventure? Jokes? The protagonist growing up before your eyes? Boooring!

[DBZAOTA482]

The problem with the Cell arc is that it is very slow, a very long haul with the final showdown having the protagonist do nothing but stare for most of it. The highlights were when the Cyborgs first appeared, the Final Flash, and Goku fighting Cell with the big blow off at the end with Goku sacrificing himself. Otherwise, there is very little tension, and when there is tension it is quickly defused such as the Cyborgs just taking things easy, or with Cell, since he does not much of anything after he is introduced. Cell had tension surround him at first because he was mysterious but quickly became a hot head who really did nothing but wait around. The protagonists didn't seem to treat him as much of a threat when we compare him to the Saiyans or Freeza where it felt like at any moment the protagonists could perish if they slip up.

While the plot tried to take itself seriously, the protagonists acted very selfish and out of character when they could have prevented things from happening such as the creation of the Cyborgs and Cell upgrading himself. Many episodes were pointless filler, such as the driving episode, where even though there is supposedly a threat to civilization as we know it, life seems to not have changed at all. Cities are destroyed, but to the viewer, it seems like nothing has really changed in the daily lives of our protagonists or background characters. The only time that there does seem to be consequences to our heroes actions is the short arc of Ginger Town where people are disappearing and nobody knows why. It affects the heroes emotions and thoughts and they see the consequences to their actions of letting things get out of control even though they could have stopped it all 3 years prior. However, that tension is slowly defused and deaths become inconsequential. The football team being murdered by Cell seems almost comedic in retrospect since it doesn't affect the plot, the characters, or the setting; same goes for when the islands are blown up by second form Cell. The only tension there is if Android 18 is caught, nothing else matters.

It is not like that in the Buu, Freeza, Red Ribbon, Piccolo, and Saiyan arcs since there is consequence, there is change in mood, tone, and the psychology of the characters. We see how lives are affected by the Red Ribbon or by Freeza where the former is using civilians as slaves for their plot to collect the Dragonballs, and the latter of Freeza causing genocide of the Nameks, the Saiyans and others, and he collects the Dragonballs and is super close to getting his wish. The Saiyans change the lives of our heroes where they are all killed, Goku's life is changed forever since he knows now of his origins etc.
Buu, he causes mass extinction and ACTUALLY SUCCEEDS IN DESTROYING EARTH. Cell, the Cyborgs, accomplish nothing. Cell becomes perfect, one of his goals, kills Son, but those have no concequence since he waits to have a tournament with only one sanctioned fight. Killing Son accomplishes little since the plot could be written the same either if he was dead or not in the way he still interacts with everyone after his death.

Cell seems like a watered down rehash of Piccolo but is unable to accomplish what Piccolo did. The Cell games feels as a clone to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, except that nobody is really affected or changed going in and coming out of the tournament. Vegeta is shown in the Buu arc to not have changed as a person despite promising never to fight again after his humiliation, and the rest of the Z-fighters were more like static background characters where at least normally they would provide narrative to what was going on to advance the plot and further character development. Don't get me started on Mr. Satan.

What exactly did Piccolo accomplish? The honors of being the first person's ass that Goku kicked in the finals?

Also, the Boo Saga doesn't have much real consenquences. It was mostly the heroes making the situation harder than it needs to be than Boo being a genuine threat plus he hardly "changed" the hereos.

[Attitudefan]

What exactly did Piccolo accomplish? The honors of being the first person's ass that Goku kicked in the finals?

Well I was putting Daimao and Jr together. Daimao really changed the world and forced civilization into submission until Ten and Goku fought back (Plus, a few of Goku and Ten's friends were killed). Jr was a villain still and needed to be finished off. He took out God and forced the Z-fighters to allow him to live to fight for another day. It's really a great way to end the arc and build up the next villains in Z. The Jr portion was less dark than Daimao's and it needed that for the story's sake to build up Goku's retribution and win at the tournament. It also showed that Jr was different than his father, more cunning and tactful but those traits caused him to fail and change as a person.

Also, the Boo Saga doesn't have much real consenquences. It was mostly the heroes making the situation harder than it needs to be than Boo being a genuine threat plus he hardly "changed" the hereos.

I am not the biggest fan of the Buu arc and would still place the Cell arc ahead of it, but Buu felt more of a threat when he was released. He utterly destroyed his own allies and the other heroes. He caused mass genocide, caused a character trait shift in Mr Satan which developed his character more in which the viewer could sympathize with. Vegeta grew as a character even though he took a step back (however, his death in the Freeza arc was probably his best moment in coming full circle as a character yet REVERTED back in the next arc. That was damaging to his character development and ruins his death scene in retrospect; the buu arc rectified that a bit even though his motives were different).I just felt that the cast was used better in the Buu arc despite the plot, which is why, despite the bad plot, the arc is still relatively good.

[RocktheDragon]

My wife and I finally finished the whole run of Kai tonight.

After we had finished watching it I asked her what her favorite arc of DBZ was and she enthusiastically replied that she prefers the Cell arc the most! Her reasons were that she enjoys the banding together of former villains to take down a big baddie. She also really enjoyed the character development of Vegeta too, and his emotional reaction to Trunks' death.