How do you break up the DB story?

Big Momma · Post by **Big Momma** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:11 am

DragonBall

Dragonball Z

Dragonball GT

Post by **Herms** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:18 am

Hujio wrote:Here's what you'll find in DB Landmark and Forever, which you can compare to Daizenshuu 2 above. You'll notice it's a tad different.

There's also Daizenshuu 7's pull-out poster, which has pictures of all the different characters from the manga, as well as pictures of the different forms and looks the major characters sport over the course of the series. It'd divided up by story arc following Daizenshuu 2's scheme, except that it splits the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai off from the Boo arc. Presumably this is because while the 28th TB isn't long enough to count as a story arc for normal purposes, due to all the new characters that appear during it and the main casts' "10 years later" character designs, there were enough pictures for it to qualify as its own subsection.

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:54 am

Kroni_Hunter · Post by **Kroni_Hunter** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:42 pm

In my own head, personally, I only have 6 different subcategories for DB.

1. DB (The entire DB story, seeings how I only watched it after DBZ, I never felt that rising a few hundred PL points was significant enough to separate into sagas)

2. Saiyans/Frieza (I put them together because they both represent space pirates and emphasize the z fighters as underdogs)

3. Androids/Cell (No real reason in particular, just grew up with DBZ and it felt different enough from the Frieza saga to separate)

4. Buu (The next generation saga, different enough from everything else but not necessarily in a good way)

5. GT (aka the mistake child)

6. Movies/Specials (Just for fun)

Piccolo Daimao · Post by **Piccolo Daimao** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:54 pm

Dragon Ball

Pilaf Arc
21st Tenka'ichi Budokai Arc
Red Ribbon Army Arc
Uranai Baba Arc
22nd Tenka'ichi Budokai Arc
Piccolo Daimao Arc
23rd Tenka'ichi Budokai Arc

Dragon Ball Z

Saiyan Arc
Freeza Arc
Cell Arc
Majin Boo Arc

Dragon Ball GT

Black Star Dragon Ball Arc
Baby Arc
Super 17 Arc
Shadow Dragon Arc

Gaffer Tape · Post by **Gaffer Tape** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:41 pm

Son Goku/Beginning/Pilaf (Beginning through characters disbanding)
21st Tenkaichi Budokai (Training through Budokai)
Red Ribbon Army (Goku's quest through three year skip)
22nd Tenkaichi Budokai (Post three years through Tenshinhan's victory)
Piccolo Daimao (Kuririn's death through three year skip)
23rd Tenkaichi Budokai (Post three years through five year skip)
Saiya-jin (Raditz through Vegeta leaving)
Freeza (Pickup of survivors through resurrection)
Cell (Reappearance of Freeza through Trunks killing Cell)
Majin Buu (After the seven year skip to end)

Phew, I'd hate to say it, but the Shueisha/Daizenshuu one that Hujio posted is almost as bad as FUNimation's breakup of the series. As far as I'm concerned, an arc begins or end with a time skip or when a tangible goal is accomplished, hence why I don't consider the stuff with Uranai Baba to be outside of the Red Ribbon (Goku's goal is to resurrect Bora, which he hasn't accomplished by then), and why Freeza's appearance on Earth isn't part of the Freeza arc (it exists after a significant time skip, and only serves to set up a new threat... similar to how Scarecrow made a cameo in The Dark Knight).

As for FUNimation's divisions, I always considered those their way of selling tapes/DVDs in a manageable way, particularly when they started releasing them with boxes. Just imagine if they had done an entire VHS release of 70 Cell episodes in a single box! Therefore, they divided up "sagas" every time a character blew his nose, basically. =P

And I guess I have a question in regards to this. During Season 2, did FUNimation refer to that as the "Namek Saga"? For some reason, I always thought they only did this during Season 3, which they divided into "Captain Ginyu" and "Freeza", again in order to distinguise the new stuff from the old stuff. Am I just making that up?

johnboy1 · Post by **johnboy1** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:36 pm

Gaffer Tape wrote:And I guess I have a question in regards to this. During Season 2, did FUNimation refer to that as the "Namek Saga"? For some reason, I always thought they only did this during Season 3, which they divided into "Captain Ginyu" and "Freeza", again in order to distinguise the new stuff from the old stuff. Am I just making that up?

Before Season 3 came around, English Episodes 1-25 (Japanese 1-34) were called "The Saiyan Conflict" and English Episodes 26-53 (Japanese 35-67) were called "The Namek Saga". I cannot believe I remembered that off the top of my head.

Gaffer Tape · Post by **Gaffer Tape** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:17 pm

Thanks. Chances are I'm just basing my info from all the time I spent at DBZ Uncensored as an adolescent. Sigh. I remember those days like they were yesterday...

Well, anyway, Psaros always referred to them as the Saiya-jin Saga and the Freeza Saga, but, obviously he wasn't going by whatever internal system FUNimation was using.

Reckoner · Post by **Reckoner** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 6:10 pm

Gaffer Tape wrote:Thanks. Chances are I'm just basing my info from all the time I spent at DBZ Uncensored as an adolescent. Sigh. I remember those days like they were yesterday...

Well, anyway, Psaros always referred to them as the Saiya-jin Saga and the Freeza Saga, but, obviously he wasn't going by whatever internal system FUNimation was using.

I think he was just going by what the majority of internet fandom agreed upon at the time: that DBZ just has four arcs, even though some take the Garlic Jr. arc out of the Freeza one just so you know which episodes to skip.

Gaffer Tape · Post by **Gaffer Tape** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 6:17 pm

Hmm... is that not agreed upon now? Well, outside of the FUNimation circles? Not counting filler like Garlic Jr., it seems that at least a lot of people in this thread still use that "classic" (if you will

) four-arc system.

IncompetentOverlord · Post by **IncompetentOverlord** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 6:28 pm

While I generally subscribe to the aforementioned arc divisions, I often consider the Ano'Ichi, Annin, Fake Namek, and Garlic Jr. fillers as their own seperate arcs, which allows me to either skip over or fast forward to them depending on my mood.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:12 pm

MajinVejitaXV wrote:Gotta love how 'saga' was used though, even though it basically flies in the face of the actual definition of the word.

C'mon, the "Trunks Saga" was fricken epic! It even has its own article on that wikia thingy :p

Anywho, I more or less go by what Hujio listed as the Toei list, as Kunzait and others have also more or less listed with differing names. I tend to refer to them by the chief antagonist of the arc.

DB-
Pilaf
Muten Roshi (or Jackie Chun)
Red Ribon
Tenshinhan (or Tsurusennin sometimes, to reference the overall rival guild thing)
Piccolo Daimao
Piccolo Ma Jr

DBZ-
Saiyan
Freeza
Garlic Jr. (I break this apart from the others)
Cell
Buu

GT- not much room for debate there anyway.

Gaffer Tape · Post by **Gaffer Tape** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:21 pm

Oooh, just to clarify, I do consider Garlic Jr. to be its own separate "arc", not a part of Freeza or Cell, but I never mention filler arcs in my own lists. I simply go by "true" manga story divisions.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:40 pm

Gaffer Tape wrote:Oooh, just to clarify, I do consider Garlic Jr. to be its own separate "arc", not a part of Freeza or Cell, but I never mention filler arcs in my own lists. I simply go by "true" manga story divisions.

Garlic Jr. is the only one succinct enough for me to make the distinction. The other filler portions all plug in to other larger arcs fairly well, but Garlic Jr. stands apart fairly well.

johnboy1 · Post by **johnboy1** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:04 am

Onikage725 wrote:Garlic Jr. is the only one succinct enough for me to make the distinction. The other filler portions all plug in to other larger arcs fairly well, but Garlic Jr. stands apart fairly well.

You don't think the Otherworld Tournament distinguishes itself enough?

Travis Touchdown · Post by **Travis Touchdown** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:12 am

Dragon Ball saga
1st Tournament Saga
Red Ribbon Army Saga
2nd Tournament Saga
Piccolo Daimao Saga
Piccolo Ma Junior/3rd Tournament Saga
Saiyan Saga
Namek/Frieza Saga
Android/Cell Saga
Buu Saga
Black Star Dragon Ball Saga
Baby Saga

And it ends there. I casually ignore Super 17 and Shadow Dragon, but I guess for completionists, those two would be broken up as previously named.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:58 am

Imma Gonna...

Pilaf
21st Tournament
Red Ribbon - Baba... sorta.
22nd tournament - 23rd tournament. It all flows together with the only real seam being the training gap.
Saiyan-Freeza = More seamless than the "Tournament bookends" arc.
Androuningen - Cell.
25th Tournament - whatever the one at the end is. Mirrors the 22-23 section.

I ... don't really like breaking the story up. It kinda makes it feel less coherent that way, and lately I've been on a "make it as coherent / cohesive / unified as possible" streak.
I actually was wanting too come in and put no separation from the RRA through Cell, but... Eh. Think of it like an insect, where the Pilaf and 21st tournament are the head, the thorax is kinda segmenty for the legs, but not quite distinct enough to be in sub-sections... and the Buu Saga is the big ol' abdomen, out of which the dung / eggs (take your pick) that is GT is released.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:03 pm

johnboy1 wrote:
Onikage725 wrote:Garlic Jr. is the only one succinct enough for me to make the distinction. The other filler portions all plug in to other larger arcs fairly well, but Garlic Jr. stands apart fairly well.
You don't think the Otherworld Tournament distinguishes itself enough?

Hmm, fair enough. I think I did used to make a distinction there. I don't really think about that arc in general these days, and just sort of lump it in as a Cell arc epilogue.