Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.
4) Season 1 Episode 28 “Goku’s Arrival”—Saiyan Saga, Over 9,000!
After all the memes, jokes, and spoofs that have resulted from this episode, there was no way it wasn’t going to be on this list. This episode has it all, a sentimental moment between Gohan and Piccolo that is the beginning of a beautiful father- son like relationship between the two, it had Goku making a grand entrance, and a line that would be repeated by nerds all over the internet.
Goku makes a habit of taking his time in showing up for a battle and this time was no different. Showing up just in time to save his son, Goku makes mince meat of Nappa the supposed second strongest Saiyan at the time. This is when Vegeta is watching the fight and using his trusty scouter he reads Goku’s power level- uttering the most transcending words of the show,”It is over 9,000!”. This also marks the beginning of a rivalry between Kakarot and the Prince of all Saiyans, Vegeta.
No, fuck this list.
The members of this site can do better, I'm sure. And we shouldn't have to limit ourselves to just the Z portion, either. So if you made a list of the top 7 episodes, including any combination of DB, Z, and GT, which ones would make the cut? (with reasons, of course!)
I would take out the over 9000 and Gotenks episodes. Besides those two, it's a good list.
"Dragon Ball once became a thing of the past to me, but after that, I got angry about the live action movie, re-wrote an entire movie script, and now I'm complaining about the quality of the new TV anime. It seems Dragon Ball has grown on me so much that I can't leave it alone." - Akira Toriyama on Dragon Ball Super
It's honestly not that bad a list. However, given that Dragon Ball Z doesn't really follow an episodic format like the Simpsons or South Park, I feel it would have made a lot more sense if they did a top 7 moments list like Teamfourstar did for their month of DBcember instead. Still its alright for what it is I guess.
I've always found the idea of having best or favorite episodes for DB/Z/GT slightly weird. It's such a serialized story, with each episode following directly on from the last and leading directly into the next (and hardly a damn thing happening half the time, anyway), that evaluating a single episode on its own merits seems a bit pointless. To me, anyway. Picking best/favorite movies makes sense, but not episodes. Manga chapters generally don't have the same pacing problems as the anime, so stuff happens in each chapter, but they're also so short that picking favorites feels about as pointless as it does with episodes. I do totally have strong opinions on favorite volumes, although with that you've got all the different manga releases to contend with. It's all so complicated.
(Note to self: looking at how different manga releases divide up the series, and how that affects the way reading the series feels, might make a good topic.)
My number one would definitely be edited episode 23 "Goku vs. Vegeta... A Saiyan Duel!". Basically that episode covers the whole Goku vs Vegeta fight, ending with the climactic Kamehameha-Galick Gun beam battle. I've rewatched it god knows how many times. I also really like the Pendulum Room, Hell and 'Z Warriors Prepare' fillers.
"I will literally dress as Goku and walk around jumping up and down, pretending to fly, in public if this ever gets an official release"
The list is actually pretty good. Just toss out the Gotenks episode and throw in the episode where Goku becomes a SSJ3 and the list is golden to me.
Spoiler:
Akira Toriyama wrote:My policy is to try and forget things once they’re over. Since if I don’t discard the old and focus on what’s new, I’ll overload my brain capacity. I still haven’t lived down going, “Who the heck is Tao Pai-pai?” that one time I was talking with Ei’ichiro Oda-kun. But the fact that there are still people reading the series after all this time… All I can say is; “thank you.” Really, that’s all.
Akira Toriyama wrote:Drawing Dragon Ball again reminded me of two things--how much I love it, and how much I never want to do it again.
Kunzait_83 wrote:And if you're upset because all this new material completely invalidates the tabletop RPG rulebook-sized statistical system and flowchart for the characters' "canonical Power Levels" that you'd been working on painstakingly for the last bunch of years now... well I don't think there's a kind, non-blunt way of saying this, but that's 100% entirely your own misguided fault for buying so deeply into all this nonsensical garbage in the first place. And that you also have IMMENSELY skewed and comically backwards priorities in what you think is most important and needed to make a good Dragon Ball story.
Zephyr wrote:Goodness, they wrote idiotic drivel in a children's cartoon meant to advertise toys!? Again!? For the ninetieth episode in a row!? Somebody stop the presses! We have to voice our concern over these Super important issues!
Kamiccolo9 wrote:Fair enough, I concede. Sean Schemmel probably has some kind of hidden talent. Maybe he is an expert at Minesweeper. You're right; calling him "talentless" wasn't fair.
Michsi wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:29 amIn Super Piccolo got yelled off the stage by Vegeta in the U6 Tournament arc and lost to Jiminy Cricket in the ToP , he deserved 15 new transformations with his theme song played by Metallica in the background.
I couldn't chose only 7 episodes, since there are so many great episodes that I like, and like Herms said, the idea of favorite/best episode is a little weird for Dragon Ball. But still, putting "Save the world" on number 1 is ridiculous, well in my opinion
It's literally the lowest ranking episode on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1170790/
Tunjevina wrote:I couldn't chose only 7 episodes, since there are so many great episodes that I like, and like Herms said, the idea of favorite/best episode is a little weird for Dragon Ball. But still, putting "Save the world" on number 1 is ridiculous, well in my opinion
It's literally the lowest ranking episode on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1170790/
You guys aren't helping the rep of Kanzenshuu being a little unfriendly and fun hating by freaking out over the mere mention of "Over 9000." They listed other reasons why that episode is great, too, and it's actually among one of my most viewed episodes as well (the A+ animation helps, too).
I agree with their #1 pick, too. Episode 191 is perfect in every way, especially the dub.
Yamcha: Do you remember the spell to release him - do you know all the words? Bulma: Of course! I'm not gonna pull a Frieza and screw it up! Master Roshi: Bulma, I think Frieza failed because he wore too many clothes! Cold World (Fanfic) "It ain't never too late to stop bein' a bitch." - Chad Lamont Butler
I agree that episode 28 is a really good episode on its own, but I also think that if it wasn't for Over 9000, it wouldn't have made it into the 4th position. In fact, I doubt that it had made it to the top 7 at all.
jjgp1112 wrote:You guys aren't helping the rep of Kanzenshuu being a little unfriendly and fun hating by freaking out over the mere mention of "Over 9000." They listed other reasons why that episode is great, too, and it's actually among one of my most viewed episodes as well (the A+ animation helps, too).
I agree with their #1 pick, too. Episode 191 is perfect in every way, especially the dub.
it's mostly because they picked it pretty much only for 9000, which has become a very unfunny old and overused meme.
Herms wrote:I've always found the idea of having best or favorite episodes for DB/Z/GT slightly weird. It's such a serialized story, with each episode following directly on from the last and leading directly into the next (and hardly a damn thing happening half the time, anyway), that evaluating a single episode on its own merits seems a bit pointless. To me, anyway. Picking best/favorite movies makes sense, but not episodes. Manga chapters generally don't have the same pacing problems as the anime, so stuff happens in each chapter, but they're also so short that picking favorites feels about as pointless as it does with episodes. I do totally have strong opinions on favorite volumes, although with that you've got all the different manga releases to contend with. It's all so complicated.
I agree with this. I actually think a list of favorite "moments" would make more sense. Like what TFS did back in December.
