Dragon Ball Z abridged (As in actual abridging)

Hooray!!! New post in only a week's time; that's a new record for this blog!

Anyway, like I said last time, I've been having a little nostalgia trip these past few weeks while watching Dragon Ball Kai, and now that I've finished it I have to say I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the decisions to keep this new version faithful to the material in the original manga (meaning there is absolutely no filler whatsoever) and condensing the fights so that they're aren't obnoxiously long to the point of boredom is great. On the other hand, the decision to omit the Buu Saga completely and the extreme editing of episodes to make the series shorter (compare 98 episodes against the originals whopping 291) makes the series feel rushed and the ending lacking.

Why no love for the pink fatty?

Nitpicking aside, I can actually understand why they would rather end the story after the cell games and ignore the official end of the story all together. For better or worse, the Buu Saga marks the point where a lot of things start to go wrong for Dragon Ball Z.

"SAY WHAT!!!"

The first problem is that by this point our main characters are WAAAAAY too powerful. Except for Krillin, Yamucha and Tien, everyone has the capacity to blow up the entire world if they wanted to by the end of the Cell Saga. Because of this, any enemy that comes after this point that is supposed to represent some kind of serious threat to our heroes becomes kind of joke. Majin Buu definitely is very powerful, especially when he becomes Kid Buu; but it's hard to find him as memorably threatening as Freiza because his power is so great that it becomes ridiculous. To this day Frieza remains Dragon Ball Z's most memorable villain simply because he could blow up planets if he felt like it and the main characters were nowhere near that level (Although it might also have to do with the original fight lasting almost 20 episodes).

"I eat baby seals for breakfast"

 The other problem is Gohan.

"Who me?"

You see, originally, Akira Toriyama had intended for Gohan to become Dragon Ball's main character. However, the fans didn't take too fondly to this idea and Toriyama found himself having to once again concoct some far fetched method for Goku to return despite having set-up the story to continue without Goku in it. This just helps to make the Buu saga all the more ridiculous. Because Gohan doesn't take up the mantle as main character and because he's already the strongest person in the universe the Buu Saga ultimately ends the Dragon Ball story with an awkward chuckle. An awkward chuckle after a great joke filled with many amazing and memorable moments, but a chuckle none the less.

With all that said, Dragon Ball Kai was a nice romp through nostalgia. Dragon Ball Z was never the best series but it was a very important part of my childhood and many other kids around the world. If anyone wants to bring back those good memories without having to watch 291 episodes, Dragon Ball Kai is a great option. All it's missing is the original's kickass theme song. En ESPANIOL!

As a final note before ending today's post, I highly recommend the Hetalia series to all you history buffs out there, especially if your inner geek has a special place for all things WW2.