"Explain why DBZ is bad."

[Vegard Aune]

The RoSaT isn't a deus ex machina since Goku had used it before as a child, in an entirely new place at Kami's. Fusion isn't one either since it didn't come out of nowhere and was taught to him by the Metamorese. Neither was SSJ3 since he trained to get it, which made a nice plot twist when it did appear. I fail to see how believability is killed in the Buu saga of all things

Uh, hate to tell ya man, but introducing a new concept out of nowhere and then saying "Oh yeah, that's been around since forever" doesn't automatically make something not a deus ex machina. It doesn't matter if the characters then make reference to some off-screen previous incident where this concept was applied, we the audience had never gotten any hints that the Room of Spirit and Time existed, nor that the Fusion-technique was a viable option... I seem to recall there being a hint or two at Super Saiyan 3 but I'm not sure. Anyway, point being, had we actually seen Goku try to use the Room of Spirit and Time and left it because it was too straining... perhaps gotten a few mentions of it during the Saiyan-arc where say, Popo suggests using the room and God responds that they wouldn't be able to handle it... then Goku saying "Let's go train in the Room of Spirit and Time! It'll work perfectly for this situation!" would have been a lot easier to swallow than him bringing up that he is now going to train there being the first time we've ever heard of the place.

[Attitudefan]

I just find it interesting that given the same circumstances as Goku, the human characters—Yamcha, Krillin, and Tenshinhan—accumulate more strength than Goku. Seriously, if going by their fight with the Saiyans, the humans had more progress training with God than Goku did.

[SaiyanZ]

The RoSaT isn't a deus ex machina since Goku had used it before as a child, in an entirely new place at Kami's. Fusion isn't one either since it didn't come out of nowhere and was taught to him by the Metamorese. Neither was SSJ3 since he trained to get it, which made a nice plot twist when it did appear. I fail to see how believability is killed in the Buu saga of all things

Uh, hate to tell ya man, but introducing a new concept out of nowhere and then saying "Oh yeah, that's been around since forever" doesn't automatically make something not a deus ex machina. It doesn't matter if the characters then make reference to some off-screen previous incident where this concept was applied, we the audience had never gotten any hints that the Room of Spirit and Time existed, nor that the Fusion-technique was a viable option... I seem to recall there being a hint or two at Super Saiyan 3 but I'm not sure. Anyway, point being, had we actually seen Goku try to use the Room of Spirit and Time and left it because it was too straining... perhaps gotten a few mentions of it during the Saiyan-arc where say, Popo suggests using the room and God responds that they wouldn't be able to handle it... then Goku saying "Let's go train in the Room of Spirit and Time! It'll work perfectly for this situation!" would have been a lot easier to swallow than him bringing up that he is now going to train there being the first time we've ever heard of the place.

Fair enough with respect to making Goku's decision to use the RoSaT easier to swallow, but by that logic, every new concept ever introduced in a series is a deus ex machina. Nen would be a deus ex machina in HxH, the money needed to get GI would be a deus ex machina (again in HxH), Kuma coming in at the end of Sabaody Archipelago arc in One Piece would be a deus ex machina, Barry Allen accelerating himself to the ends of time to beat Superboy-Prime would be a deus ex machina.......2 of these are regarded as some of the best moments in their respective series, so I would hardly call anything I listed bad writing.

[DBZ Mick]

I don't think Dragonball Z is bad, it's all subjective. I mean it depends on what you are talking about manga or anime.

The storytelling is gripping (at least till end of Freeza arc, but even parts of the Cell arc and Boo arc), the characters are reasonably well developed- I think there's plenty of character development- less character arcs though, the animation is beautiful at moments, it has charm, exciting battles. It's a good example of it's genre.

[Polyphase Avatron]

The RoSaT isn't a deus ex machina since Goku had used it before as a child, in an entirely new place at Kami's. Fusion isn't one either since it didn't come out of nowhere and was taught to him by the Metamorese. Neither was SSJ3 since he trained to get it, which made a nice plot twist when it did appear. I fail to see how believability is killed in the Buu saga of all things

Uh, hate to tell ya man, but introducing a new concept out of nowhere and then saying "Oh yeah, that's been around since forever" doesn't automatically make something not a deus ex machina. It doesn't matter if the characters then make reference to some off-screen previous incident where this concept was applied, we the audience had never gotten any hints that the Room of Spirit and Time existed, nor that the Fusion-technique was a viable option... I seem to recall there being a hint or two at Super Saiyan 3 but I'm not sure. Anyway, point being, had we actually seen Goku try to use the Room of Spirit and Time and left it because it was too straining... perhaps gotten a few mentions of it during the Saiyan-arc where say, Popo suggests using the room and God responds that they wouldn't be able to handle it... then Goku saying "Let's go train in the Room of Spirit and Time! It'll work perfectly for this situation!" would have been a lot easier to swallow than him bringing up that he is now going to train there being the first time we've ever heard of the place.

The thing is, in America at least DBZ was shown before the original Dragonball, so whenever something like the ROSAT or Dr. Gero were brought up, I would always think "oh, that stuff must have been in Dragonball." Then I was surprised to find out it wasn't.