movies/tv Why is DBZ so hated?

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

I think the reason why it's hated, is because of the "continuous screaming and powering up". It's more than that. There are so many lessons to learn from Dragonball Z. Like Vegeta for instance, if you're always prideful, you'll never win. But, if you're humble, you have a great shot at winning, even if the enemy is stronger than you. Perhaps one of the most touching scenes in DBZ was when Vegeta finally admitted that Goku was the best. 

[Bardock 139]

I think the reason why it's hated, is because of the "continuous screaming and powering up". It's more than that. There are so many lessons to learn from Dragonball Z. Like Vegeta for instance, if you're always prideful, you'll never win. But, if you're humble, you have a great shot at winning, even if the enemy is stronger than you. Perhaps one of the most touching scenes in DBZ was when Vegeta finally admitted that Goku was the best. 

Totally agree with you. A lot of stuff aout Dragon Ball Z tends to fly over a lot of people's heads, probably because of the show's pacing. But it's more than just guys screaming and powering up, just like you said.

[thor9356 540]

I'm just going to throw my 2 cents out here. I enjoy DBZ and i'm not going to praise it as the best anime but it was the first anime I had ever seen when I was a kid. I'm sure most of you here or some of you remember coming home from school and watching DBZ on Toonami. I remember being ecstatic coming home everyday to watch a new episode and I could care less that if it was a rerun. Back then I remember being able to relate to one of the characters.

 

I remember being able to relate to Vegeta in that anime. Cause back when I was young I had always wanted to beat my brothers or anybody in a competition and no matter how hard I tried or practice, it didn't seem like I would beat them at all. Though what I loved about Vegeta was that he was always tenacious, and still kept on going even if he was given a bad hand or if he was 2nd. Because of that he always bettered himself to become better than Goku. Now I realize that that's silly but when your a kid and you constantly lose a lot, then you can begin to see how I could relate to such a character.  Every time I lost a competition and get a crappy participation ribbon i'd be freaking pissed that all the practice and work I put behind it was for nothing. However as time passed I did eventually win a competition which was in a forensics competition. I had gotten a blue ribbon in Play write and I was so happy and proud. I'm not going to lie here, when I won I felt like Vegeta when he turned Super Saiyan. It was truly a great day for me to finally earn something like that. As time went by I eventually didn't care that much about being the best cause I understood that I couldn't be the best at everything and I accepted that. Just like Vegeta in the end of the Buu saga he accepted that he wasn't the best and acknowledged goku as the best. I know this sounds silly to all right now but I truly enjoyed the series and though I haven't head a lot of people hate on it. I do enjoy it for what it was back then.

 

I apologize for making this post incredibly long but I just wanted to give my say on the series. 

[Bardock 139]

This picture just about sums it up. No matter how hated Dragon Ball Z becomes, it will still live on as an unforgotten classic by many.

[Lionheart27 33]

I did hear something what Akira Toriyama wanted to end the series at several points, but people kept pressuring him to keep making it, and they also didn't care for the reins being handed to Gohan. One thing that kind of irritated me was that once the Super Saiyan transformation was unlocked, everyone got to do it, except for Pan. If it's supposed to be legendary, it should be rare, right?

[Mutemutt 772]

I don't really see that much hate for it since it's not in the spotlight as much as Naruto/Bleach. It's a pretty well known series though, so I'm not surprised that there is some hate for it. 

 

I used to watch the episodes (in japanese w/ subtitles) with my brother. He had a whole box filled with the seasons on VHS. I was a fan of the show back then, but now there is no way I'm sitting through that show again, nope not even Kai. It's just not the kind of anime I'm interested in anymore.

[Bardock 139]

I did hear something what Akira Toriyama wanted to end the series at several points, but people kept pressuring him to keep making it, and they also didn't care for the reins being handed to Gohan. One thing that kind of irritated me was that once the Super Saiyan transformation was unlocked, everyone got to do it, except for Pan. If it's supposed to be legendary, it should be rare, right?

Most of those rumors about where DBZ was originally meant to end are false, though. Dragon Ball was originally meant to end after Goku first collected all of the Dragon Balls. However, fans wanted more, so he continued. From that point on, there wasn't a single point in the story where Toriyama thought "Okay, I'm done", except of course for the end of the Buu saga.

 

He never said that he wanted to end DBZ at the Frieza or Cell sagas. The whole point of DBZ at first was to slowly transfer the role of the hero of Earth to Gohan, and continue the story from there. He changed his mind in the Buu saga, though, because he felt that Gohan wasn't suited to be the hero.

 

As for the whole Super Saiyan thing, I didn't mind it in the Cell saga when other people achieved it, because they still either had to work for it or experience some extreme emotional anger or sadness to achieve it. It got slightly out of hand in the Buu saga when Goten and Trunks achieved it so easily, but a popular theory is that they got it quickly because they inherited the Super Saiyan gene, since their fathers could achieve it by the time they had........impregnated their wives.

[Windy Scamper 403]

I've never really seen a full on hater of the show that's actually sat down and watched an episode. I think the main problem is people watching the wrong episodes. If you start with a World Martial Arts Tournament, you're going to hatw it. But, as mentioned, many touching scenes occur, especially with the antagonists. Gohan going SSJ2 for the first time and A16's speech was amazing.

 

As for the continous SSJs...it made competition. If Vegwta never became a super sayain, he would never had stayed on Earth. But he needed another drive, so another supe rsayain level was created.

 

And admit ir; TFS is the best thing ever.

[thatoneguy 4]

I just don't understand it. DBZ gets so much hate from anime fans, and it honestly makes me feel pretty bad for liking Dragon Ball Z.

[Jack Baker 698]

I'm guessing it's the whole Funimation/Ocean dub thing or whatever the heck it is. I don't really watch dbz that much, but I've seen this argument sometimes on the Internets.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

DBZ, hated? I know a whole ton of people here who love it. On the Skype group (when we had one), we would sometimes spend an entire day talking about DBZ, so I don't think it's hated.

 

It wasn't personally my favorite show, but it wasn't bad either.

Edited March 26, 2013 by ┼☼Harmonic Revelations☼┼

[Lionheart27 33]

I've never really seen a full on hater of the show that's actually sat down and watched an episode. I think the main problem is people watching the wrong episodes. If you start with a World Martial Arts Tournament, you're going to hatw it. But, as mentioned, many touching scenes occur, especially with the antagonists. Gohan going SSJ2 for the first time and A16's speech was amazing.

 

As for the continous SSJs...it made competition. If Vegwta never became a super sayain, he would never had stayed on Earth. But he needed another drive, so another supe rsayain level was created.

 

And admit ir; TFS is the best thing ever.

TFS is quite possibly the funniest thing I've seen on the internet, which is saying quite a lot. They take the series and affectionately parody it, and lampoon some of the more ridiculous aspects of it, such as the Ginyu Force.

[Loriem 639]

I am pretty sure because the show got rather, ridiculous, after awhile.

 

I mean, as a kid, I watched Dragon Ball, then Dragon Ball Z. But over time, I started getting less interested as the series went on. I did watch some more in recent years to see all of what happened, and I can say that the show pretty much burned out over time, getting more and more ridiculous.

 

This is not to say i hated it, I actually liked the show for a little while, and can still enjoy some of it. But I enjoy many more things more.

[Megas 27,065]

I dunno what sites you go to, the only place I've seen a lot of DBZ hate was at Nsider2, and that place is full of so many hipster douchebags that it's no wonder why everyone hates them so much

 

The only legit reason I could see people saying they dislike DBZ is because a lot of it just isn' their cup of tea, though personally I think the whole "they spend 20+ episodes just fighting and staring!" argument is really bogus considering that the series started as a manga and the existance of Kai

[jonathonpr 5]

DBZ is one of my favorite anime series. I like that they spend a lot of time training because power is not and should not be an instant thing. That being said I don't mind joking about the series. DBZ abridged is a little on the mature side for some of its jokes but  sums up the characters and the conflict in an entertaining way. 

[~Lawful Jordo~ 2,064]

I love Dragonball and Dragonball Z personally. I don't think it deserves most of the hate it gets, but it does have some inherent flaws. one major one is it is a very slow paced show. Hell, the Goku vs Frieza fight takes up 3.5 hours of screen time (making it the longest fight in anime history). Personally, that's why I like the show; it takes it's damn time. I hate it when a show feels rushed. I don't know what it is, but it seems like nobody has an attention span anymore; they need a story arc to finish within ten episodes or they freak out. I think that's more a fault for them than the show.

 

Second is that it is nothing but fights. While Dragonball Z is primarily n action series, there are plenty of episodes where they aren't fighting. The problem is that people instantly dismiss these episodes as filler. They complain when there is too much action, and then they complain whenever they take a break. There are plenty of fightless story arcs, such as the slice of life episodes with goku and Gotham before the cell games. And how about Goku's adventures on snake way? It's true, the main focus of the series is action, but if you manage to accumulate an attention span, you'll notice there is more to the show than fighting.

 

The third major reason for hate is what I like to call the bandwagon effect. These are guys who hate something for little reason other than its popular. These people are dumbasses.

 

 

Overall, It's not the best show ever, but it is still one of my favorites. Also, to all you haters: you may not like the show, but you'd be deluding yourself if you tried to deny the impact it's had on the anime community. It can take a lot of credit for introducing anime to western culture.

[Bardock 139]

I dunno what sites you go to, the only place I've seen a lot of DBZ hate was at Nsider2, and that place is full of so many hipster douchebags that it's no wonder why everyone hates them so much

 

The only legit reason I could see people saying they dislike DBZ is because a lot of it just isn' their cup of tea, though personally I think the whole "they spend 20+ episodes just fighting and staring!" argument is really bogus considering that the series started as a manga and the existance of Kai

Yeah, I can't stand it when people still complain about the show's pacing. Now that we have Kai and the manga, there's no good excuse for people to automatically dismiss the series just because of its pacing.

[thatoneguy 4]

I dunno what sites you go to, the only place I've seen a lot of DBZ hate was at Nsider2, and that place is full of so many hipster douchebags that it's no wonder why everyone hates them so much

 

The only legit reason I could see people saying they dislike DBZ is because a lot of it just isn' their cup of tea, though personally I think the whole "they spend 20+ episodes just fighting and staring!" argument is really bogus considering that the series started as a manga and the existance of Kai

It's pretty much every site I go to. Youtube, Funnyjunk, Gamespot, even this website (to a lesser extent, though). It seems that the hatred for the show just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

[PoniesPlease 365]

This is not what I've seen... as far as I can tell you either love DBZ or get flamed for not liking it. As someone who has never bothered watching it, I tend to avoid circles involving it. (Minus this thread of course).

[Bardock 139]

PoniesPlease, on 27 Mar 2013 - 06:38, said:

This is not what I've seen... as far as I can tell you either love DBZ or get flamed for not liking it.

That was something that was a bit more common back in the 2000-2003 era of Toonami. Nowadays, you bring up DBZ in an anime discussion, you're basically gonna get flamed for even mentioning it.

[Shanks 10,811]

That was something that was a bit more common back in the 2000-2003 era of Toonami. Nowadays, you bring up DBZ in an anime discussion, you're basically gonna get flamed for even mentioning it.

Flamed for mentioning DBZ? What is this the Twilight Zone? As had been pointed out DBZ has its flaws some of which were addressed in Kai but there are plenty of other animes with those same flaws the most notable of which is Naruto so it dosen't make a lot of sense to single out DBZ. Though DBZ does hold a special place in my heart for being one of the first animes I ever got into and I of course am still a fan I do prefer the original Dragon Ball.

[Pinguino~ 85]

I my self do not like it because i prefer romance and comedy over action but most people nowdays really don't like it because one person said they didn't like it so out of no where everyone else is like wait they don't like it well monkey see monkey do!

[Mephala 2,633]

Well, as many have stated, the entire series is really about the fighting and no so much the storyline. It's there, it's just not as strong as it could be. I mean, they'll say a bomb will go off in five minutes, and it'll take half a season before it does. :x

I never was a huge fan of either DB or DBZ. It wasn't my type of anime. I mean, I watch stuff like Evangelion, but DB never struck a chord,

Edited March 27, 2013 by PinkieDaShy

[Akemi Homura 7,680]

The appeal that DBZ always managed to impose on its viewers was that, for the most part, it would keep you hooked due to its tremendously slow yet attracting pace in which it would treat itself. As the Frieza saga started a big trend among the series, drama between fighters would be the norm in order to elevate tension among two parties and only until a couple of episodes later (for example) would the actual fighting commence. Today's standards in entertainment highlight that this sort of plot progression is not exactly well-liked for much less favoured; you want a sense of fluidity when it comes to TV shows. We do use the internet more than we use TV nowadays, right?

 

Think of a time where the internet was not as expansive as it is today; really, your only option was to sit down in front of the TV and watch what happened to Goku and Frieza as they debated time and time again about Namek being blown to bits... in which case it only happened until several episodes later. It was easy to get hooked onto because it used anticipation as a tool to keep you in balance, piquing your interest further and not letting you deviate from waiting. Nowadays you can find all of the episodes on the 'net with a click of a button but it's not very practical to sit through dozens of episodes dealing with just plot build-up only to find out that you could have watched the legitimate fight scene several episodes later (via episode search). There's no real appeal and diligence in staying patient behind that unless you're planning on becoming a big fan of that sort of series, or already are one.

 

To provide perspective, as a kid I was a big fan of DBZ. There wasn't a day in school where my friends and I didn't have pretend fights in recess. Of course, however, over the years that interest dwindled although video games of it kept me in line from completely falling off. Nowadays I rarely think of it, because simply, I do not like the prospect of having to sit through a very slow-paced series and watching dozens among dozens of episodes to finish it off. Hell, back in elementary school in 2003/2004, there wasn't one person who didn't know who Goku was. I even recall two kids in one of my old buildings (where I used to live) perform the fusion dance with a few spectators watching them. Pretty amusing, but it was never really an issue with its charm, and it's not the way it is and it's not the way it should be. It's a truly finished series; you can hit it up anytime on certain websites but its main ploy for sucking in viewers is non-existent these days, which is why its appeal has been cut down and as many people have stated above, you may get scornful looks from the crowd should you refer to its existence.

[Bardock 139]

Looking through this thread, I still see people complaining about Dragon Ball Z's pacing.

 

Just curious, you guys do know about Dragon Ball Z Kai, right? How it vastly improved the show's pacing by removing most of the filler and drawn-out scenes, right?

Edited April 3, 2013 by Bardock