By the way, in case you haven't noticed, today's episode is the 100th installment of Dragon Ball Dissection! That's... amazing! That's unbelievable! Thanks for helping it get to this point.
Hey Fusion, is Gohan 16 or 17 years old at the beginning of this arc? My question is whether we're counting his year in the Room of Spirit and Time as an extra year? Also, I assume that year wouldn't count for educational purposes, but I'd like your take on that.
Saiyaman Gohan is my favourite version of Gohan. It's great seeing him step out of his shell and be who HE wants to be, instead of what his parents and father's friends want him to be. The fact that he actively goes out of his way to help regular people in need is also a testament to what a good person he is at heart, and shows just how different he is to the other Saiyans in the story. Hell, even the human members of the Dragon Team could put their powers to use like this, but it isn't until Krillin becomes a cop that any of them actually does. It's a damn shame the Saiyaman arc was so short in the manga. Just the concept of Gohan being a superhero while trying to keep his identity a secret and blend in with regular society has so much potential.
It's funny because people complain so much about this Gohan, saying he was so badass in the Cell fight... when actually, this Gohan would make an AMAZING main character for Dragon Ball, better than even his father (well, at least the Z-era version of his father... early Goku is still the best lol). He's funny, human, heroic, wants to learn about the world and fit-in... But yeah, he couldn't deliver as many "badass" fights as Goku, so... I guess he had to go. Sadly.
@@devilskind92 Kid Goku is my favourite version of Goku. The longer the series went on, the more I grew to dislike Goku. He's a good guy at heart, I suppose, but he's also an extremely selfish battle junkie who would gladly put the fate of the world at risk for the sake of a good fight. He's also a crappy father and husband. Even if we were to go by Saiyan standards, post-Buu Vegeta has him beat in this department.
@@bignewsmorgans93 The problem is that Toriyama didn't seem to know what to do with adult Goku. A lot of kid Goku (the best Goku!) charm came from his innocence and his reactions as he learned about the world and its people. Once he grew, once he had traveled the entire world and met GOD HIMSELF... it was like there was nothing for him to bounce off of anymore. He became just the guy who trains super hard and becomes stronger to beat the villain in the end. No more sense of adventuring from Goku. He just trains and fights throughout the entirety of the Z portion. So much so that the GT guys felt the need to TURN HIM BACK INTO A KID for him to go adventuring again lol
@Morph Ball Well, I don't like Gohan in Super, and I find him rather uninteresting in the Cell arc up until the Cell Games... even then, he's completely different from that in the early Boo arc. Version, stage, moment... call it whatever, but since the characters are constantly changing, I don't find it so weird that we might enjoy them in some instances and not in others.
Me too I love this gohan. The stories and dynamics gohan could of bounced off of had so much potential. But idk if it was Toriyama or the whiny dbz fans who just want pure action 24/7 and didnt like this story. Pisses me off.
I'd say Gohan is closer to Iron Fist or Zatanna than Batman or Iron Man, his powers are just ancient knowledge that regular people forgot (Apparently more than 15 years is ancient in this world)
Huh that’s actually a perfect comparison, even beyond lost knowledge. They are both examples of extraordinary talents. Anyone can use ki or learn the basics of magic Batman can technically do both himself..... kinda but few people have such an abundance of ability with it. And these techniques can be honed to levels that seem wel beyond what a human can do
This is my crazy theory of why this happened. The Piccollo Saga (the original Piccollo) starts with Piccollo starting a campaign of extermination against every martial artist on existence, because after all last time he was defeated by a martial artist. After all this happens Martial Artists decide to go underground, and the world government helps them in order to make sure if something like Piccollo happens again they wont be massacred
DBO plays on the idea by having Gohan publish a science textbook explaining the secrets of ki to the ordinary person, resulting in an explosion of superpowered martial artists.
Imagine how the Buu Saga could have played out if Great Saiyaman had encountered guys like Yamu and Spopovich as criminals, perhaps committing violent acts of terrorism, rather than martial artists at the World Tournament. Spreading fear and suffering to awaken Majin Buu seems like a more legitimately villainous endeavor for Babidi, instead of just needing the energy from strong fighters.
It was a mistake for Gohan to invite the other Z Fighters into the tournament. Videl has no place around them and Gohan got shafted for Goku and his ability to going SSJ3.
@@feelgoodfandom5353 Oh I can't wait for the "Gohan got blue balled just like Piccolo." It's insane it happens three arcs in a row. It annoys more each time because it just keeps happening.
True but it was too much comedy and silliness which ruined the showed I like the goten battles but they made them too silly and stupid they couldn't get the job done i loved the fun in the show but let it be balanced
A fantastic start. Glad someone also enjoys the Saiyaman portion of the story as much as I do! If only we could have seen that play out more, y'know, outside of Toei filler.
@@ALocalClown And/or are hung up on how much more "badass" Gohan seemed at the Cell Games, even though the fact that he was acting so OOC and, well, Saiyan-like was meant to be concerning to both the audience and in-universe characters themselves.
I'd say it's one of the best, if not THE best portion of the Arc. I love the early Babidi-Boo stuff, then the story with Boo and Mr. Satan, and the final fight with Kid Boo. Those might all be in my Top 10 favorite moments in Dragon Ball. It's a shame the rest of the Arc is so convoluted and wastes so much time and potential. Still, it's clear Toriyama was free to experiment and have fun with this, so I don't take the Boo Arc so seriously, narrative-wise. I'm just along for the ride and I love it.
Japan loves the Saiyaman. He makes it in almost every Dragon Ball game and it even made to FighterZ in Videl's moveset because he was in the top 10 most requested characters. I honestly dislike the Saiyaman. I don't like the design nor find it funny or interesting.
Quite possibly the most in depth and genuinely passionate Dragonball Anaylsis series on this platform. You have such a expert hand at picking apart the series that more surface level analysists severely lack. Keep it up.
What I really like about MistareFusion is that he doesn't overanalyze DBZ with elements that are outside of the work itself, he sticks to the manga/anime without much speculation, giving his own take. There are a lot of DBZ youtubers who just overanalyze the work, and end up sounding almost snobbish.
@Oberstein Knows Best What do you have against powerscalling videos, I mean powerscalling is pretty important to the series since it's a shounen anime.
@Oberstein Knows Best It's really not pathetic, I mean fans of every series put more thought into the powerscalling than the creator. It's only to be expected. Although I do agree as it is way better to talk about the story and the characters than just the power levels.
Oberstein Knows Best | Well, to weigh in here for a second, I’d say there are two types of power scaling discussions. The first one are those that pertain to how power scaling interacts with the storytelling, if it’s consistent or not, whether or not it’s used in a way that keeps it’s story engaging (power creep etc), these are important and not to be dismissed as some often do with the ironically equally pathetic and snobbish argument of "oh who cares about who’s stronger than who ? What’s important are the theeeemes" and other such nonsensical derivatives that miss the point of execution in storytelling. The second type is one that simply has nothing to do with storytelling itself. It’s an entirely separate hobby of it’s own that seeks to evaluate characters’ feats to determine how strong they are in their own verse and against others. It’s just a thing people do for fun and by no means is meant to speak about the quality of a work, or comment on it’s story, it’s just not an analysis of the plot in any way. Unfortunately these two often get mixed up by defenders and detractors alike and while I’ve touched on the latter, the former is equally guilty sometimes of looking at power scaling like a hard science to try and justify crying "plot hole !" at something that, while sometimes they are right in pointing out as lacking, isn’t so because of a plot hole or because characters’ powers should be treated as an absolute scale like RPG stats. On the other hand, fans will always care about power scaling more than an author. A character’s power, especially in dragon ball and other nekketsu stories is a result of their progress and efforts through events, struggles and stories that fans have invested their time and care into. As such they are very protective of such things as contradicting one is often perceived as invalidating or neglecting the other. A writer has a different attachement to their characters and stories, often focused on figuring out where to go with them next or what story to tell with them and as such value these things much less because, well, they wrote the story, they didn’t experience it. So they don’t feel the same way as an audience would about it.
With DBZA dead and buried, I only have you & Plague of Gripes for deconstructionist Dragon Ball hot takes. Glad to have you back, Fusion. I hope your personal life is getting better.
Not much to say for this part, you pretty much said everything I thought actually, but one thing I never got is how ppl (I think even Toriyama) claim “Gohan wouldn’t work as the main character bc unlike Goku, he doesn’t have fighting spirit” when the whole Great Saiyaman thing directly shows how far Gohan is willing to go to help people. Who cares if he doesn’t have a fight fetish like the full-on Saiyans? He still wants to do good and will fight whenever people need defending, it’s not like he’s against fighting at all. “But Gohan doesn’t train on his own, so he’d always be unprepared” Videl as well as others could easily provide motivation for Gohan to train. If he had been explored more in this arc, it could’ve shown him deal with the sacrifices and such he’d have to make to rlly be Earth’s protector. What ends up happening to Gohan and all is probably my least fav thing abt this arc, and I have a lot of problems with this arc...but that stuff comes later. As always, keep up the good work! :)
Not training would probably work even better since you don't need to overpower the next villain as much. Villains' strength is proportional to how powerful the heroes are (gag villains aside). And by not having your main character train 24 hours a day their power can stay a tad lower, slowing down the insane power creep a tad. And as far as "Gohan should have trained more" arguments go, let's be real here. The Ginyu Force was essentially among the most powerful forces in the entire universe and Freeza was essentially at the top, as far as the heroes knew. And after the Cell arc, they have a Gohan who is ridiculously far above that level, a #18 who is very far above Freeza, a Piccolo who is probably even stronger than #18, and Vegeta. Aside from Vegeta trying to kill them all again, does it actually seem realistic in-universe that a threat way stronger than what they could handle would show up? Like, if you already have a dozen different heavy locks on your door and no the burglar has ever been witnessed bypassing even one, do you need to spend a lot of your time adding even more locks? At what point can you say "we're safe enough, I'm going to enjoy my life instead of this paranoid bs"
Yeah, good points. I also just now thought of the fact that Gohan is far more rational and responsible than Goku; if anything his lack of a violence craving makes him a better person to leave watching over Earth, even Goku slightly acknowledges this in his choice to stay dead. Like I said the most bothersome parts of this come later, but rlly to me it just felt like Toriyama didn’t want to tweak his storytelling to fit Gohan even though (I think) it could’ve been great, so he had Goku reclaim the MC role...
I think that Toriyama said this not really because he actually believes that Gohan wouldn't potentially work as a protagonist, but because it would have been far more difficult for him to write him as such and develop him rather than just bringing back Goku, a character with an already established fighting obsession and that is seen by everyone as "the protagonist of DragonBall".
+DMB: yeah like I said, basically he didn’t wanna go thru the effort of changing things up despite (imo) Gohan having great, meaningful development since his intro. And my biggest issue I think is how much he teased it. Toriyama had this big passing of the torch in the Cell Arc, announced “yep, Gohan’s the main protag now, Goku’s time is over, ppl”, only to get lazy and take everything back. That’s kinda sad to me, especially since he tried to excuse it by saying “I decided Gohan didn’t fit the role”. Bull.
That intro is godlike. To think we'll get it for 10+ parts at least alone makes me excited. Also I enjoy the Sayianman portion of the series too and wish it stuck around more. Oh how the arc will shift gears time and time again. Each time it gets less and less interesting.
@@chrisblanc663 I liked that and the climax to the battle. However so much in between is Boo tennis. We just keep cycling through characters who fail so Goku and Vegeta have to save the day. In a way it is fitting since they're the ones responsible for releasing Majin Boo in the first place. The problem is the others are red herrings to fake us out repeatedly with no payoff. If the Boo arc took out the set up and the game of Boo tennis this arc would be so much better. Gotenks Gohan and Vegetto are pointless in this story. As is Boo's absorptions. It's why the neverending debates of which Boo is stronger is really pointless.
I feel like the Saiyaman portion of the story should have been an actual, fleshed out arc, before the Buu part of the story. Also, does anyone else like teenaged Gohan's hair here better than his Cell Saga Yamcha/Vegeta but with a good hairline haircut?
It's kinda like a matured version of his Cell Games hair cut, it looks good. I still think he looked the best in Cell Games but this takes a close second.
He's got this boyish look to his hair and I hate how spiky and slicked back it becomes after this point. The spike up look simply doesn't suit his character as much. It's why among all things I loved Gohan's look in RoF.
*Saiyaman's Theme* Livin' on the edge, Fighting crime, Shooting ki, Flying from the highest ledge, He can leap above our heads Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh. Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh ah. Villians on the rise, And the planet's victimized. Looking up with no surprise, Arrivin' in the speed of time Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh ah Spectacular Spetacular SAIYA-MAN! Spectacular Spetacular SAIYA-MAN! Spetaculaaaar Spectacular Spetacular SAIYA-MAN! Spectacular Spetacular, SAIYA-MAN!
The sad thing is, Pan from dragonball GT was written better to take over from goku than Uub or gohan. Gohan had more potential but when toriyama slowly phased it back to goku he lost that spark he needed and never really recovered from. Granted Pan didn't do much during the series; but when she did, she did a good job at fighting and keeping up with two saiyans that could also go super saiyan. If toriyama ever continues after the end of Z; pan would be a good 2nd chance to tell gohans story again. She is gohans daughter after all!
The early Boo Saga is one of my favorite periods in the series, it feels like a bold new direction that could pretty much go anywhere and have fun with its premise. Shame it's so short. I heard the new Kakkarot game expands on some bits of Dragon Ball lore with bonus missions, does anyone know if there any Sayiaman sidequests or overall expansions to this part of the story?
olserknam Sadly it’s during this arc Kakarot takes a dip in quality. There’s about two missions with Saiyaman that stick imo. One with him helping Maron which shows they have some sort of establish relationship and one where Videl goes out to see him to train (Before the flight training) and Hercule so worried about her hires the pilaf gang to create a robot to follow her and if she’s with a guy to attack them to keep her safe. There’s also one with erasa seeing if Saiyaman is boyfriend potential and has him doing silly things like winning a car race but that’s about it. The buu saga in the game really pushes you to finish the saga as fast as you can sadly
Right?! I tend to enjoy the parts where no fighting happens way more mainly because the show is so intense and repetitive so i love everything that stands out
Best parts of the Boo Arc: -This Saiyaman stuff -Mr.Satan and Boo odd couple act -Boo giving a blind kid man milk (NOT HOW IT SOUNDS!) -The idea of Fusion is fun Less good parts: -The other stuff
I like all of the ideas like Potara Fusion and SSJ3 but like GT ironically the execution wasn't the best. To be honest GT did have great ideas with bad execution IMO but never 4 different ideas in one saga (SSJ3, 2 Fusions and Ultimate Gohan)
@@ForwardSynthesis Yeah that would have been better but IMO the Buu arc could have had all of those concepts matter if they just made the power ups have meaning I think it could have been done if the ending with the Spirit Bomb had been tweaked.
_"Mr.Satan and Boo odd couple act"_ I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks of them in this way lol and the fact that no one acknowledges it (I think?) makes it so funny to me. Plus Mr. Satan being more successful in stopping Buu than the cast is just great as it further shows there are other options but the Dragon Team is still like _"No, we're gonna Ki blast it to death like always"_ . Mr. Satan should ironically always be the Earth's first line of defense and I was upset he didn't try to throw a yarn ball at Beerus in BoG.
I can't be the only who sees "lenient editor" as a red flag. An editor is supposed to be the first line of criticism. Yes, you probably want a friendly open relationship with them but "lenient editor" sounds too much like "cool parent"
agree, torishima was known as a gigantic asshole (to the point many of his clients will create villains based on him) but everyone who worked with him agree he did wonders, torishima wasn't just an editor he was THE editor and made dragon ball better.
@The Great Carrotman maybe he was an absolute control freak, but he care mostly for storytelling rather than marketing (he also loved romance) while toriyama couldn't care less about any of that, hell it was torishima's idea for arale to be female but toriyama wanted a male character, (thats why he model the villain of doctor slump after torishima) they could't agree on anything but maybe thats why toriyama early work was great, his other editors weren't as good because they were more lenient with him, while torishima keep him in a leash.
@@slifer875 Is it bad that I really like tough editors? Not just in a "They make other people make quality content for me to enjoy, fuck the creators feelings on that" but in a "God! I wish *I* had a tough editor trying to help me bring out the best story I can make!" way. I love drawing comics and I fullheartedly admit I hate showing the scripts or storyboards to friends and having them just... praise it. Like... can you point out the weaker parts? do you have suggestions? was anything confusing? did I draw a hand backwards anywhere? Did I fall back into that bad habit of drawing the characters with "Chimp hands" and I need to go back and fix it here and there? Are the panels confusing to read? TELL ME WHERE IT'S WRONG!!! If they don't have anything shit to say about it then I feel like I failed or I'm doing something wrong. (Except that occasion I showed it to someone who doesn't really read the genre I was working in and their suggestions were sort of to push it towards a different genre that they enjoyed more.)
@@KichiMiangra i also preffer it that way, they keep you in line, make you improve and its the best way of showing they care for your work. torishima always had some critique to any mangaka, it didn't matter how talented or famous they were: for example he was brutally honest with kentaro miura (author/artist of berserk) during an interview and miura was really happy with his advice.
Agreed. It's the job of an editor to find the flaws and the faults. Something isn't done when there's nothing left to add, it's done when everything that doesn't work is stripped away, and that's the job of an editor/reviewer.
I like to imagine that the Ginyu Force left a major impression on Gohan and inspired his Saiyaman persona, which FighterZ seemed to latch onto as well. I suppose you'd never forget the guys who broke your neck. Either way, while I wouldn't have appreciated it as a kid, the current me definitely would've appreciated more Saiyaman and the establishment of a new status quo. I always thought it was a shame Gohan never got to hang out with Future Trunks, so seeing him make acquaintances his age was refreshing.
Yay we are finally here! I can’t wait till you talk more about Videl’s character! I really like her design and personality but she was handled so poorly in the series. I always hated how the other characters reacted to her getting beat down in the tournament. If she was any other fighter in the cast they would not be telling her to just stay down and not try to fight anymore! >.< Plus after that she loses all relevance! She contributes Nothing of note after that point! Makes me wonder why she was put in at all! (Not to mention super completely removed all of her personality and made her a total husk of a character)
The final saga, here we go! I've been following your series since the middle of the Namek arc and you're one of my favourite content creators. Can't wait for what's to come!
So the only thing I wanna say here is that I believe that Buu was intended to be written by Toriyama as a send off for Gohan as he was intended to be the protagonist for this Saga. Toriyama did decide to bring Goku back in the end as we all know, but I actually do feel that Gohan, at least Gohan as we know him in this Saga was intended, but mishandled a bit by Toriyama. He couldn’t decide whether or not to give Gohan traits of his father or for him to progress in the school boy way of things. Although Gohan does receive development as regression as progression in this Saga, he doesn’t have the ability to become the protagonist Toriyama intended him to be because he mishandled what traits he thought should shine through as an adult and how to make him as engaging as his father as a martial artist/fighter. Goku and Gohan each having 2 sagas where they function as the main protagonist who solves the problem isn’t bad in my opinion, but here it is a bit disappointing to see Gohan put into the role he is in by the end of the saga.
Ok, now that I've watched, a few of random thoughts: > I love the Great Saiyaman idea, and I wish it went on for longer in the manga. Hell, imagine if Toriyama had come up with the Galactic Patrol back then, all the crazy and funny stories he could tell with that premise! An entire arc of Great Saiyaman joining the Galactic Patrol in some outer space adventure a la Green Lantern corps or something. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be... > Gohan's shenanigans in high school are so funny! The levity in this story arc really sells it for me. I really missed that, it feels like Dragon Ball hasn't been silly like this since... wow, since the 22nd Tournament! > This is my absolute favorite version of Blooma, at least in the Z-era (it's hard to beat her first arc self...). She looks and acts so mature and classy, but is still recognizeable as Blooma. I just love it. > I'll miss Videl's pigtails, they're too short-lived :( Also, I had completely forgotten that THAT's how you're supposed to pronounce her name! > It's sad that this is one of the strongest parts of this arc (for me at least), and it's already over :( Looking forward to the rest of the dissection!
I definitely would've liked to see the new arc here grow organically around Gohan's character and the new setting rather than... well, "Hey, it's a new tournament!", "Hey, the old gang's back!", "Here comes Goku! He can be the main character again!". Squandered potential and a failed opportunity to really explore what makes Gohan different from his father from which I don't think he ever really recovered.
i can fully understand why this arc got ranked as the worst one. it started out ok but it quickly becomes a marathon of power level tennis on a level far worse than even the Freeza fight. way too many plot holes and new powers that seemingly are brought out of nowhere. and a villain that unlike Freeza and Cell, does not connect to anything that had been previously established. at least the Cell and Cyborg arc was connected in some way to the RRA arc. Boo started out as fairly unique, a villainous child of sorts, but then he just becomes another Cell clone which is ironic because Cell is a Freeza clone who is a King Piccolo clone. moreover everything feels rushed and unearned. Goku vs Vegeta while hyped up alot, is rushed through and not given the page time it deserves. it should have been at the very least, longer than the first fight, and the climactic battle of the arc. Vegeta's sacrifice is rendered meaningless. Gohan's powerup is given to him without earning it and then it never amounts to anything. Vegeta is the only character with anything going on development wise, and its something that had been more or less resolved in the prior arc where he made a terrible mistake, learns he loves his son and tries to make up for it with a last minute save. that happens again but far less impactful, same for his second death in comparison to the first. goku's sacrifice is undone in favor of once again making him the star of the show instead of one of the younger characters. and despite the theme of the younger generation surpassing the older one, the younger fighters fail and need Goku Vegeta and Satan to save their asses. it sends a terrible message and although the anime made it enjoyable with some cool animation and fight scenes, the manga version is a rushed mes. so that being said, i am looking forward to your rants when those moments arrive, and if there's any new criticism i hadnt picked up on yet.
Very true it's so sad this anime is garbage z was doing so good in the cell saga and gohan was a great character. Then majin buu arc comes everything he learn was tossed out the window the show his character changed they gave him a lame girlfriend which their chemistry is boring and they push him out the way so goku can take the spot. And the last episode was very awfully disgusting what was the point of ubb? Oh so goku can have a good fight? Very lame and goha was just in the back ground or fade in the back ground nothing special toward him plus he looks stupid in the buu saga but they really made him look stupid on the last episode! They really need make up for this arc erase everything and pretend this didnt happen and give us a real arc and and let all characters have some development not just goku and vegeta and let gohan blossom what he was supposed too something unique
I never understood why people hate this arcs Gohan so much because in my opinion this is the best defined Gohan and his and relationship with Videl works really well.
This is, by a wide margin, my favorite part of the buu arc. Right up until they all leave the martial arts tourney. It's crazy how the older i got, the more i started to prefer the slice of life stuff over the fighting
Lmao I just love how you pronounce names like "Viidel" 'cause it's the closest to our latin american dub (which was faithful to the Japanese original), unlike most other DBZ reviewers. Great video! I was really waiting for your take on the Buu arc.
Gohan in Satan City might be my favourite part of the entire DB storyline. Some of the early arcs are competing, but it's definitely my number 1 as far as post-Saiyan Dragon Ball goes. I'm probably going to disagree with the Buu Saga's bottom rank solely because of Gohan's attempts to fit in. Him awkwardly trying (and failing) to hide his abilities is just immensely funny (and, other than the whole superhuman strength part, relatable) to me, both in the extended Anime version and in the Manga where Videl just immediately figures him out. Speaking of, Videl is one of the few "tsundere" acting characters that appeal to me, to no small part because she is absolutely justified to act suspicious towards Gohan. Really love the intro sequence, by the way! And also the entire video, of course. Great work as always, Lance.
For anybody wondering, the piece of music used in the intro is "M1703." It's around halfway through the song. Kikuchi's music is kinda hard to search through since few, if any, have recognisable titles.
Over the last 10 days I have constantly been clicking on your channel again and again just to see if this video was uploaded. I haven't watched it yet but this really turned a pretty shitty day good for me. I'm so glad you've made it this far. I remember seeing your "Hunt for the Dragonballs" analysis back when I was still in high school and thinking "Yeah, these videos are too good to last...he'll disappear within a year or something." Now we are at the Buu Arc, and you've proven to me time and time again that you have a great mind for analysis, are incredibly entertaining and provide some very good insights. You've popularised so many of the unpopular opinions I've had over the years (Yamcha & Chiaotzu's treatment, Goku not being a "hero") and given great retorts to some of my other opinions (Androids being stronger than Freeza and the Piccolo Daimao arc being a gold standard for dragonball) I'm just... so thankful you managed to get this far with the series, and hope once this is all said and done you get the recognition you deserve.
I love this arc. It’s honestly my third fav arc in the series (after Red Ribbon and 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai). I know it has messy writing and some obvious on the spot story decisions. But I love what it does with the characters and I think it’s a good return to form (I really dislike the android stuff)
The Boo Saga is definitely a mess in terms of trying to be a singular storyline, but there's still a lot in it that I really like. Hell, even with certain ideas that get shoved aside too quickly (and Vegeta being a less-than-useless dick again), I think the progression from the very start of the arc and up through Vegeta's sacrifice is actually my favorite stretch of story in the series. But after that point... while there are certainly bright spots here and there, the story just goes on for way too long and never really clicks for me until, like, almost the very end.
I think I would’ve liked gohan and Krillen staying at the tournament as Krillen was more focused on the prize money and Gohan made a promise to compete in the tournament as Krillen was just meant to get rock solidified to flex Dabura and supreme Kai only asked for Goku to show up. I like Vegeta and piccolo coming with the supreme Kai because piccolo had questions for him and Vegeta was focused on fighting Goku and tailed with him, that part can end the same with piccolo turning to rock instead. The tournament bracket is rescrambled due to 7 fighters leaving which has Android 18 Vs Krillen with 18 winning, Mr. Satan getting a bye for being the champ and fighting against mighty mask who gets disqualified while Mr. Satan triés to dodge him so it’s Mr. Satan and Gohan in the finals Mr. Satan freaks out and asks if Gohans here for revenge for taking away his victory against cell and Gohan explains how his daughter bribed him to join the tournament. This goes into what Videl said about how it’d be interesting to have the last 2 world martial artist champions fight each other and what Mr. Satan via flashback that Videl wasn’t allowed ‘’to date’’ anybody who wasn’t as strong as him. With Videl cheering Gohan on Gohan explains how everyone was looking forward to this match (Gohan’s friends and Mr. Satan’s followers) and how Mr. Satan should be more confident in himself and try to give Gohan his best (The ending of Buu Saga shows this too with Mr. Satan asking everyone to lend their energy for the final spirit bomb that saved the world) instead of acting like a wimp. Gohan of course tries to play down to strength, he probably asked that just because he felt bad that he had ‘’to shame’’ Mr. Satan but does this to make the fight look interesting and to have it be a good ending to the tournament arc (even with Goku and Vegeta gone). When Gohan eventually wins (the prize money too) everyone thinks it was a fluke and got lucky given how close the match looked. But it’s from this that his friends from school congratulate him and roar Gohan decides to open up to his classmates instead of trying to hide his power in front of them. It allows Gohan to learn how to fit in as he has a real job in DBS that isn’t just beating people up. This conclusion will allow the tournament arc to feel complete and for side characters to have their moments and while this happens the usual events with Majin Vegeta and the resurrection of buu continue making the world going into panic more meaningful as the Buu Saga begins (I think after all they charcters left for the threat during the tournament did the tournament lose interest with everyone important being gone which causes people to lose focus)
Unfortunately, this arc contains the Original Sin. It is because Toriyama himself couldn't push Gohan forward as the MC that all the subsequent media turnt into the Goku show
Agreed. It's sad, really. He had multiple opportunities to end the arc with Gohan still at the helm. Had he done that, the landscape of post-z story ideas could have been far more varied
I don't know if it was because Toriyama found it difficult or because the audience didn't like it. Because honestly? I feel like Gohan works MUCH better as a main character than Goku ever did in the Z-era. The guy just kept doing nothing until it was time for the final fight. As much as I absolutely love Goku, he wasn't what he used to be prior to the Saiyan Arc. Gohan, on the other hand, just SHINES so much in the beginning of this Arc. He's funny, he's heroic, he even has a romantic interest, sorta! It's really sad that Toriyama ended up going back to the status quo. I love the final fight with Kid Boo and its resolution, but I don't know if it was worth tossing Gohan aside :( Imagine if the main characters of this Arc were Gohan, Videl, Trunks and Goten doing crazy shenanigans. Not world-ending stuff, but just fun adventures, like the Hunt for the Dragon Balls Arc! So much potential...
Bruno Bessa neither, Toriyama just can’t view anyone in the front of the series unless it’s Goku, this is very apparent in Super, as all his ideas seemed to revolve around Goku and Frieza, the two characters you could tell he loved writing for and about, he’s just not as creative as people think he is.
"It is because Toriyama himself couldn't push Gohan forward as the MC that all the subsequent media turnt into the Goku show" wrong, dragon ball has always been the story of goku since the beggining, the only people i seen angry about it are those who grew up with the butchered english dub that skip the original dragon ball, thinking gohan was the protagonist.
slifer875 clearly you never watched the movies, Goku was dead for three of them, showing up very briefly for less than a minute in two of them, and in bio Broly he doesn’t even impact the plot in any way.
Honestly, I really love this little portion of the Boo arc. Gohan and Videl have fun chemistry, and Gohan as a dorky superhero is just fantastic fun. I really wish it would have lasted a bit longer.
I remember reading these first few chapters back in the day and really loving it! I really liked to see Gohan trying to fit in. Him playing baseball was one of the funniest things that happen in Dragon Ball But it went downhill from there so I am really looking forward to what else you have to say about this arc Great video
Gohan definitely fits the Superman bill more than Goku, in my opinion -- especially with Videl being his Lois, as you pointed out. I hadn't realized that connection before, but the new superhero setting and Gohan's mannerisms definitely make that clear. Also, do you have any thoughts on the Masks of Gohan video that Plague of Gripes released? It's a pretty interesting analysis of the character.
Well, Vegeta went from leaving her and his son to nearly get killed by Gero in the last arc to hanging out with his kid (even if he won't hug him), so she clearly did something right.
Now that I heard about Gohan being a Highschooler AND a superhero (for like five or so chapters), I'm getting the impression Toriyama-san was going to treat Dragon Ball into this mix of a Delinquent Manga (a la Rokudenashi Blues, or Hareluya II BOY, both running at the very same time in Jump with great numbers) with the twist of an extra genre to not get super cliche (a la YuYu Hakusho (with a twist of the Supernatural and mystery genre (at least at first)), and Slam Dunk (a delinquent manga with a focus on Basketball and somewhat of a love story). Even Rokudenashi Blues had a theme of Boxing). The genre was superheroes, but it feels a bit off that an episodic Delinquent/Superhero story would STILL be labeled Dragon Ball when it's anything but, so it pretty much shifted back to the regular Dragon Ball series after a few weeks to avoid the Cancelation hammer from the Jump Enma. Yup, and in a word where any series can be canceled within the span of 10 weeks (See the story about Koji Koseki's "Kenritsu Umisora Koukou Yakyuu-Buin Yamashita Taro-Kun" and it's death and revival), yup, back to the fighting!! Like if Toriyama had the intention to return to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach or getting pressure to do it isn't clear to my knowledge, but yeahhhhhh..... not the greatest in pacing. There were stories of high schoolers in Jump that were doing rather successful at the same exact time (Kyuukyoku!! Hentai Kamen, Pennant Race: Yamada Taiichi no Kiseki, Bonbonzaka Koukou Engekibu, Even JoJo's Bizare Adventure had High Schoolers as a good chunk of the key cast around that time), and Dragon Ball could definitely work with that mindset (somewhat set (at least in the anime) that Chichi wanted Gohan to be a typical Kid with a typical life) though it would pretty much leave for the rest of the story for some set of weeks. Heck there were many interesting opportunities in the Boo arc that are never taken, and suffer because of it (maybe to keep the story cleaner and more like what people want, but the Boo arc has so much going on looking back, that it's more insane than the Cell Arc).
Oh, I forgot how Gohan and Videl (how did not notice root of her hame) are cute together. And cute alone but that is besides the point. And I missed you.
I've always liked the Great Saiyaman. He's a breath of fresh air in this story. When it comes to the Dragon Team, they deal with planet destroying threats or megalomaniacs bent on world domination, but they never deal with street level crimes. So, Gohan becoming a literal superhero, being a friendly neighborhood Saiyaman while being his own goofy self is a great direction to take the series and reinvent itself with Gohan as the lead. Unfortunately, we already know this doesn't last.
Good review. I’m curious though, do you prefer Videl discovering Gohan’s identity immediately, or the anime filler that, in my opinion, made her come off a bit more naive?
Hadn't considered that, it's actually a decent point. My POV, I still prefer the anime if only to see the story potential play out more and develop Gohan and videl's dynamic. Their relationship is one of the best parts of the anime version
MistareFusion that’s fair. The anime did expand on a lot of stuff, like the baby pteranodon subplot, Gohan going on a date prior to falling for Videl, and Videl chasing him to discover his identity. It was good material.
I first discovered your dissection series midway through your review of the saiyan arc during christmas time. To this day I think it's the most enjoyable and insightful analysis of a shonen manga that I've ever had the pleasure of watching through multiple times. It gave me a deeper appreciation for many specific characters I had not put much thought into prior and Dragonball as a whole. Although I may not have been with this series since its inception, it still feels like I've been through a long journey following this series. Thanks so much for keeping up with this and I'm looking forward to this final stretch of episodes! In the mean time I'll also be constantly recommending friends who are fans of Dragonball to check this series out.
Thanks for the feedback! Every time I start a new arc, I know it's my one chance to try to up my game and improve the presentation. So I really hunkered down with this one. And I can't tell you how relieved I was when I realized I had four episodes' worth of material for The Freeza Arc TV since that meant I wouldn't have to rush out the beginning of The Boo Arc and miss the chance to really build something nice-looking. I still have no idea how I managed to do it for The Cell Arc two years ago. As for your story about watching the show, remember that, while Dragon Ball is not a seasonal production in Japan, it did have seasons in the U.S., although not at all what FUNimation now claims their seasons are. Vegeta's death marked the end of the fifth season of U.S. DBZ. Nothing further had been dubbed at that point.
@@MistareFusion Ah, my viewing of the sixth season must have been very spotty because I had gone off to college by then and didn't always have a TV of my own, so I'm just now taking the opportunity to see Buu through to the end via on-demand videos! I once checked and saw that, yes, the last "season" of pre-Z Dragon Ball I got to watch ended on a cliffhanger in the pirate cave for the same reason.
My feelings with DB arcs is that the low point is often the end of the arc, especially the Z arcs. Namek is great but Freezer fight drags for too long, Buu arc is nice until Buu appears, same with the Cell arc, the Cell game is the low point even if there is classic moments in it. But for the Buu arc the drag starts quite sooner than the others.
I'm so excited. The Buu Arc really did always feel like a new era, so it feels sort of special seeing it be talked about. I don't even really care much for the Buu Arc, but it still makes me smile to hear We Gotta Power in tandem with a nostalgic time of Dragon Ball.
I like this video because it fully explains why I like Gohan: He's a martial artist who chooses to be a hero.My main criticism of Dragonball is that Toei forces Goku into the role of hero just to speak down to younger generations. Gohan embodies the spirit of the current generation but doesn't come across as a Hypocrite. Also, you managed to point out a plot hole: How is Gohan weak from training if he's been fighting off criminals for the past 2 years? Doesn't that imply that Gohan has gotten so strong that Vegeta hasn't noticed it and has been left behind?
My friend, I've been following you and DBD since 2013. In fact, I credit getting into DBD and Dragonball Z Abridged at the same time along with and Battle of Gods coming out in the same year with rejuvinating my childhood love for Dragonball. All these years later, I own all 42 volumes and have read and re-read them several times. What a ride. Now DBD is on the final arc. I'm excited to see your work and a little sad that the finish line is in sight. Lets do this thing!
Thank you for your take on the Great Saiyanman. Everyone blasts this part of Gohan but I believe it was great for his character as well. Honestly I think Zs biggest problem was that it traded whimsicalness with edginess. which doesent work in the broader scope of things. Also its clear Z was to end on Goku passing on the torch to his son. but every time they had to bring back Goku and because of that, Gohans character was sacrificed.
Congrats on reaching the final arc, 8 years, and 100 episodes! Dragon Ball Dissection is one of my favorite video essay series and the best analysis and discussion of Dragon Ball I've seen period. I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on the Boo arc, and many more years and episodes of DBD to come!
I would have loved Videl getting a real spotlight, give her a chance to become as strong, put her in some fights. Just that would give the Buu arc a new crew, instead of just keeping the same group. This is also a great chance for Toriyama bringing the stakes back down, as it's been stated that he's weaker than he was at the end of the cell arc. How much fun would Trunks, Goten and Videl be as Yamcha, Oolong and Bulma?
I wonder what would've happened had Gohan stayed being the main of this Saga and later passed the torch to Goten at the end of Z or Super, then Goten would pass on to Pan. Toriyama could've had a Belmont or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure-like tradition going on with the Son Family.
Totally agree that Bulma is to fashionable to design the Great Saiyaman costume. For herself. I'm going to assume as she designed it for Gohan, she knows him well enough to design it to his taste.
I kind of wish Videl and Goten stayed on as part of a new main cast to round out Gohan’s role. Had the story focused just on the new tournament, it could’ve done a lot better. Maybe even given a Red Ribbon type adventure story that culminated in the same type of matchup as Goku vs. the elder Gohan at Baba’s tournament. That could be an interesting thing to give to Gohan.
This video does a great job articulating some of the strengths the Saiyanman portion of the arc and it makes me sorely wish the more grounded setting had continued for longer as Gohan and Videl interacted as they entered fish-out-of-water scenarios of their own with Gohan wishing to blend in with the society and Videl wishing to learn a world of martial arts she would find foreign and completely unlike what she recognizes with both sides having their struggles like Gohan understanding the concept of fast food and restaurants as Videl tried to come to terms with the ideas of ki and techniques with the other party finding themselves in awe at the struggles and odd situations they would find themselves into.
Nice to finally see DBD again and its great that you finally got to the Buu Arc, its just Incredible how much time already passed by since i found your Channel, back in 2014 where you still were at the 23 Budokai Tenkaichi. The Highschool Stuff with Gohan is also a Pretty Unique Section of DB and also a breath of Fresh Air that we have a Story where Gohan tries to fit in with normal People. It´s really a shame that the Manga just did so Little with this Fresh Setting and Gohan sSuper Hero Persona but at the ver least the Anime did flesh that Portion out a bit.
The Saiyaman story could have made for an interesting mystery building upto the Buu arc. Like have Babidi spread out the power of evil to try and resurrect Buu. It will be like the Garlic Jr Anime arc, except good.
Man what a GREAT VIDEO!!! The editing was totally on point and as an avid fan of Dr. Slump and early Dragon Ball's artstyle I gotta say, damn the visuals of these early chapters of the Boo arc look stunningly good and appealing, can't wait for big-muscle, wide-face Goku to show up and spread his traits to Vegeta.
I really wish Toriyama would have continued showing us the mundane silly lives of these characters for longer. Fights are great, but these downtimes and what they do with them are more entertaining bits of character development than finding another level of Super Saiyan or learning fusion to take out the new big bad. Say what you will about Super, but the best thing it did was begin with slice of life episodes before pointlessly retreading movies that didn't need retreading.
You know what this arc's biggest problem is? It's constantly introducing huge things that get shoved aside for the next huge thing. There are so many things introduced that don't go anywhere, and so much of this arc could just be cut out since it isn't part of the ultimate ending. Let's see, we have: 1. SS3 is not used to beat Buu. Do you think new moves introduced should be used to beat the villain, like how kaio-ken and the spirit bomb at least contributed to beating Vegeta, Super Saiyan beat Frieza, and SS2 beat Cell? I do. It was such a huge thing in this arc, and it was all for nothing. Why couldn't Toriyama have Goku be SS3 when he launched the spirit bomb? That would've been awesome and cemented SS3 since it would've actually been used for a significant, permanent plot point. That doesn't even make any sense. If he had his full power back, why would he only use a weaker form and not his max form? Why wouldn't he go all-out given the severity of the situation? Also, Gotenks using it is even less relevant to the ultimate outcome. 2. Gotenks was this huge thing that was not used to beat Buu and forgotten about for the rest of the story after it was done away with? 3. Same thing with Vegito. While he is way cooler than Gotenks, he got even less buildup and screen time and bearing on the story. 4. Fusion is not used to beat Buu. It was this huge thing that was introduced, and it had no role in the final battle, so what was the point of it? 5. Vegeta's sacrifice. I know I'd piss people off by saying this, but I actually dislike that and feel nothing from it. It's ruined by the fact that it accomplishes nothing. When I brought this up, a defense I've gotten is "Well, Goku sacrificed himself, and Cell came back!" Yes, but Goku changed the trajectory of what was going to happen. Cell was about to blow up the planet, and then he merely showed back up and fought Gohan, and Gohan won. Goku changed what Cell was going to do. Can't say the same with Vegeta and Buu. All that changed is that Buu would've done literally all the exact same things, except it was all pushed back by 5 minutes. I actually think it's pathetic because the only reason he's doing it is because he wants to be like Goku because Goku sacrificed himself. Post-Saiyan arc, he's always been inferior to Goku, and he even gets a shittier sacrifice. I know this moment is supposed to represent a massive character milestone, but the only way it would've stuck with me is if it had actually accomplished something. He sacrificed himself to save his son, and but Trunks dies anyway! So it was literally pointless! 6. I'll give Trunks dying, the person he sacrificed himself for most, its own entry since the sacrifice has 2 components, him not stopping Buu/altering his agenda in any way and him not saving any of the people he intended that to save. Trunks, Goten, Gohan, and Piccolo all die! Pointlessly! Everyone in the world gets killed and then the world gets blown up. Also, I feel like the sons dying should've been a major turning point in the narrative, but that did nothing. Other than keep them removed from the fight so Buu couldn't've been beaten far more easily. 7. Didn't Goten want revenge on Buu for killing Chi Chi? Did Trunks want the same for Vegeta? Anyway, Goten dying means that didn't go anywhere. Same for Trunks if he also was shown wanting to avenge his dad. 8. Gohan dies, so that whole thing about him training with the Supreme Kai was pointless. The story switching to Goku also makes that beginning portion focusing on him weird and pointless. 9. Goku wanted to leave protecting the Earth to a new generation. But they all fail and die, and Goku has to come back and save everything, so this arc actually did tremendous damage to the series because it's like "Oh, I guess everyone else CAN'T save the world. I guess it HAS to be me." It cemented that Goku has to be the savior, and no one else can. 10. Vegeta wanting to have a turn with Kid Buu. This has no lasting consequnces on anything, so it was pointless. He tried to buy time so Goku could regain SS3, but then his SS3 gave out, so it was pointless. I have to wonder why Goku would even allow this since with Vegeta's inability to go SS3, Goku had to've known Vegeta stood no chance. Goku says he held back so Vegeta could have a turn, but this caused Goku to lose too much energy, so it actually turned out to be a really stupid decision. While he did buy some time for the spirit bomb, that was mostly Fat Buu, so I guess that ending part slightly had a point, but the beginning portion where he's just taking his turn is pointless. That's all I can think of, but I probably forgot some. Feel free to add to the list. Narratively, this arc is a mess. It's constantly introducing huge things and then shoving them aside to be like "Okay! We're doing this now!" Nothing builds on anything. There's little progression. Instead of the story building, it's constantly going in different directions; each plot point gets abandoned in favor if the next, so it doesn't add to it, and we're basically restarting from square one. Imagine if instead of a line rising diagonally, it constantly zigzags and never "rises". This is exacerbated by the forms of Buu. There are 3 main phases, Fat Buu, Super Buu, and Kid Buu. Unlike Cell and Frieza whose different forms all have the same character, each of these Buu forms is vastly different mentally and a different character, so instead of each one building the character, it feels like we're starting over and getting a new character, and his character arc is broken up into different, smaller characters that are lesser than if we'd had 1 character that we stuck with. And honestly, since Fat Buu is the important beginning, and Kid Buu is the ending, it feels like we could've just cut Super Buu since he has no bearing on the ending, and he is by far the post boring, and his absorptions are pointless since they also have no bearing on the ending. But I get what this arc is going for with the constant direction changes. It's trying to be like a roller coaster with lots of exciting twists and turns, keeping you in suspense and guessing, not knowing where the story is going to go and constantly showing you cool, new things (the last of which I do like because the arc is filled with things that individually are cool, but they don't mean anything and therefore have no substance behind them). It purely focuses on what's cool in the moment. But this "in the moment" storytelling really only appeals to children/people with short attention spans, and it's bad because when you look back at the story as a whole, it's fill with things that don't matter and go nowhere and are therefore a waste of time. I don't always subscribe to the belief that "It's the journey, not the destination." This doesn't even feel like 1 continuous story but a bunch of disjointed mini-arcs. I mean, what is the difference between Goku going SS3 to fight Kid Buu, Vegeta fighting Kid Buu, Vegeta buying time so Goku can go SS3 again, Fat Buu fighting Kid Buu, Goku killing Kid Buu with the spirit bomb, and Goku just starting with the spirit bomb? All the stuff before that could've been cut because it had nothing to do with it.
I will never not love the Buu Saga. I love the High School chapters, I love Gotenks and I even love the later part of the saga where Goku becomes the main character again. I would absolutely rate it above the Cell Saga and the Pilaf Saga at the very least.
I don’t know why but for it’s sense of finality the sketchbook, step by step look of the introduction it might be my favorite so far, and I really loved the cell arc computer styled format, can’t wait to see what highs and many, many lows the boo arc contains for you lance
More trivia about the Saiyaman thing is the design and name is actually pretty exactly based on the character of Riderman from Kamen Rider V3, as he is the only Kamen Rider to have a helmet with an exposed mouth and nose (and of course the poses are right out of Kamen Rider as well). The helmet also more than resembles the Space Sheriff designs from the Metal Heroes franchise, to the point that one of those crappy ass Dragon Ball Heroes things even had a souped up Saiyaman be in robot armor with glowing LED eyes and a lightsaber like the Space Sheriffs do. This makes sense in my head as Dragon Ball's anime has been done by Toei and so are all the aforementioned Tokusatsu shows, so there's some crossover
Best part of the week time! Thank you Lance for such great videos in times like this and just in general. My make my favorite when it comes to Dragon Ball. Congratulations on the 100th installment of Dragon Ball Dissection! Here is to 100 more! Can't wait for the next part!
Here I am doing "all those engagement things.". I usually never comment but if I had to say something then... This could have been the point where some new life got breathed into Dragon Ball after such a long time of just fighting and almost nothing else. This was so cool to see and I really would have enjoyed at least a mini-arc of Gohan just doing stuff. It was so cool seeing the payoff from the Cell Saga, now with Gohan finally just being himself and doing what he enjoys doing. But alas, Saiyans, power levels, and Frieza irreparably changed Dragon Ball forever. I can see a hypothetical future where the android's Ki drain was permanent (at least it seems like that), nerfing Goku and everyone's power, forcing them to work together and be more strategic. It would have been the perfect arc for that too, since Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaoutzu were alive again, along with new faces like Vegeta, Gohan, and sort of Piccolo since he's on their side now, not to mention the Red Ribbon Army being the focal point of the conflict again. That could have been the arc that merged the old and new in such a cool way, and at the very least be a send off to the series' roots before they'd all inevitably get their power back somehow. I still haven't seen OG Dragon Ball but that would have been so cool regardless. What Dragon Ball became is more so a bygone era of how entertainment (mostly anime and manga) used to be developed, and I have no doubts Dragon Ball would be hella different if Toriyama had more time to flesh out and think up his story. Considering his situation I'm simply stupefied he didn't cave in or drop the project along the way, especially with all the crap he got during the Cell Arc. In hindsight his stories suffered, yes, but my god was it a wild ride along the way. I just realized I talked about the Cell Arc more than the Boo Arc. Uuuh, whoops?
I’m really glad the garlic Junior video you did it showed up in my recommended feed one day. I found out your channel because of that. And decided to just binge the entire dissection series. Thankfully I got finished with all of it before this episode dropped. Keep up the great work
Cool stylized intro! Props to you or whoever you commissioned to make it. I also liked how you analyzed Dragon Ball combining martial arts fantasy with the superhero genre.
Well, since I am very proud of the way it turned out, I'm going to unapologetically take credit for making it. So thank you! I'm so glad you like it. And the video itself!
The Saiya-Jin Arc = Superman/2 Freeza Arc = Alien Cell Arc = Terminator Majin Buu Arc = a very loose version of Super Sentai. I know I’m grasping at straws when I’m talking about the entire arc, but it does make sense. It started out as a parody of Super Sentai, one of the good guys turns evil (again), the villains are trying to revive a stronger monster/Kaiju/ youkai/ ma.
Love the insight and heaps of information. Ive been following fpr a while and I just want to say I really appreciate your work and dedication. Kinda made me said that this is the last one. Much love thanks!
The Buu arc has more than its share of problems, and I wouldn't dream of disagreeing with your rankings (both because they're your personal feelings on the matter and because heck, I don't know if I'd rank them any different myself??), but for all the bad, it sure did throw in a lot of good as well! I guess the problem is all those good ideas never really coming together to make a cohesive story... But still~ Super Saiyan 3: Even if a lot of people don't love this arc, a lot of people sure love this form. And why wouldn't they? It's over the top, but it sure is striking. And powerful. But also flawed. A lot of people seem to not like that part--that in the end, it's introduced, but doesn't solve the problem and beat the villain of the arc. But I'm fine with that? I think the form's flaws make it more interesting. If it had just been another, more powerful Super Saiyan form with no drawbacks, I think it would be boring. Its flaws also tie into... Ultimate Gohan: Another thing people love. I'm always disappointed to see new Dragon Ball stuff set after this arc have him becoming a Super Saiyan again. I suppose it's okay if that's a result of him not training and somehow losing this ability, but I think it's weird that this works that way? Oh well. The way he gets it is a bit cheap and silly, but it's an interesting turn for the series that never really got picked up or bore fruit in later movies/shows. When Goku comments with amazement that Gohan's appearance has barely changed despite his power increase, the elder Kaioshin says: " Transforming isn’t good. That Super whatever-its-called is the wrong way of doing thing." Seeing the drawbacks and limitations of more and more dramatic transformations like Super Saiyan 3, this could have been a whole new direction for not just Gohan, but Goku and the others to go in as well. What if the next arc had been about overcoming the need for transformations somehow? Fusion: One of the most interesting techniques in all of Dragon Ball. How much fun have fans had imagining the different character fusions that could be possible? It's so interesting they built a whole game around it! I'm surprised more shows don't use something like it; Steven Universe gets some pretty good mileage out of it, though! I've heard many people complain that all of these were introduced, and yet not one of them beat Buu and saved the day. Am I the only one who thinks Gohan or Gotenks or anyone just straight up beating Buu in a fight would have been kind of...samey, though? It's not perfectly executed, but the idea of a final attack, against what turns out to be the manga's final villain, fueled by every character our hero has ever met? I think it's really suitable!
I agree that the limitations of Super Saiyan 3 are exactly what make the form interesting. And Dragon Ball Super, however briefly, did touch on the notion of gaining strength in base form to be of greater importance than trying to get stronger in a transformed state. This ends up going basically nowhere, as Super is nothing if not fanservice catering to people's love of stacked transformations. But the fact that Whis and Vegeta point out the importance of base form training/strength increase to be where it really counts, that it came up at all is still something that I really liked about that and about Gohan's non-transformation power-up.
People who don't know Tokusatsu culture won't get why Gohan does all of those poses. Kyle Hebert in the TV series dub makes Gohan talk like Gary Owens doing the voices of Space Ghost and Birdman and the alternate US soundtrack has John Williams Superman-esque music, so Funi just wrote what they knew and didn't seem to get it either.
I always believed that the Majin Boo arc would have been much better if it was the "Saiyaman Arc". More Videl moments, more Gohan getting to be the main character like the cell Saga implied he would be. More Videl moments. Just. I could have been so good.
Oh, my kami, I've been waiting for this. I discovered your channel last december and I have watched all your DB Dissection videos. Such good analyses. Keep it up, this series is fantastic.
By the way, in case you haven't noticed, today's episode is the 100th installment of Dragon Ball Dissection! That's... amazing! That's unbelievable! Thanks for helping it get to this point.
Good rounded number to start a new arc too
Thank YOU for creating such a fantastic series!!!
8 Years! I'm sure it won't be too close to 8 more to finish the Buu arc...
"That's amazing! YOU'RE amazing!" -Jaco
Hey Fusion, is Gohan 16 or 17 years old at the beginning of this arc? My question is whether we're counting his year in the Room of Spirit and Time as an extra year? Also, I assume that year wouldn't count for educational purposes, but I'd like your take on that.
Saiyaman Gohan is my favourite version of Gohan. It's great seeing him step out of his shell and be who HE wants to be, instead of what his parents and father's friends want him to be. The fact that he actively goes out of his way to help regular people in need is also a testament to what a good person he is at heart, and shows just how different he is to the other Saiyans in the story. Hell, even the human members of the Dragon Team could put their powers to use like this, but it isn't until Krillin becomes a cop that any of them actually does.
It's a damn shame the Saiyaman arc was so short in the manga. Just the concept of Gohan being a superhero while trying to keep his identity a secret and blend in with regular society has so much potential.
It's funny because people complain so much about this Gohan, saying he was so badass in the Cell fight... when actually, this Gohan would make an AMAZING main character for Dragon Ball, better than even his father (well, at least the Z-era version of his father... early Goku is still the best lol). He's funny, human, heroic, wants to learn about the world and fit-in... But yeah, he couldn't deliver as many "badass" fights as Goku, so... I guess he had to go. Sadly.
@@devilskind92 Kid Goku is my favourite version of Goku. The longer the series went on, the more I grew to dislike Goku. He's a good guy at heart, I suppose, but he's also an extremely selfish battle junkie who would gladly put the fate of the world at risk for the sake of a good fight. He's also a crappy father and husband. Even if we were to go by Saiyan standards, post-Buu Vegeta has him beat in this department.
@@bignewsmorgans93 The problem is that Toriyama didn't seem to know what to do with adult Goku. A lot of kid Goku (the best Goku!) charm came from his innocence and his reactions as he learned about the world and its people. Once he grew, once he had traveled the entire world and met GOD HIMSELF... it was like there was nothing for him to bounce off of anymore.
He became just the guy who trains super hard and becomes stronger to beat the villain in the end. No more sense of adventuring from Goku. He just trains and fights throughout the entirety of the Z portion. So much so that the GT guys felt the need to TURN HIM BACK INTO A KID for him to go adventuring again lol
@Morph Ball Well, I don't like Gohan in Super, and I find him rather uninteresting in the Cell arc up until the Cell Games... even then, he's completely different from that in the early Boo arc.
Version, stage, moment... call it whatever, but since the characters are constantly changing, I don't find it so weird that we might enjoy them in some instances and not in others.
Me too I love this gohan. The stories and dynamics gohan could of bounced off of had so much potential. But idk if it was Toriyama or the whiny dbz fans who just want pure action 24/7 and didnt like this story. Pisses me off.
I'd say Gohan is closer to Iron Fist or Zatanna than Batman or Iron Man, his powers are just ancient knowledge that regular people forgot (Apparently more than 15 years is ancient in this world)
Huh that’s actually a perfect comparison, even beyond lost knowledge. They are both examples of extraordinary talents. Anyone can use ki or learn the basics of magic Batman can technically do both himself..... kinda but few people have such an abundance of ability with it. And these techniques can be honed to levels that seem wel beyond what a human can do
This is my crazy theory of why this happened. The Piccollo Saga (the original Piccollo) starts with Piccollo starting a campaign of extermination against every martial artist on existence, because after all last time he was defeated by a martial artist. After all this happens Martial Artists decide to go underground, and the world government helps them in order to make sure if something like Piccollo happens again they wont be massacred
DBO plays on the idea by having Gohan publish a science textbook explaining the secrets of ki to the ordinary person, resulting in an explosion of superpowered martial artists.
Think people kinda lost interest after a while
Or toriyama just doesn't care.
Imagine how the Buu Saga could have played out if Great Saiyaman had encountered guys like Yamu and Spopovich as criminals, perhaps committing violent acts of terrorism, rather than martial artists at the World Tournament. Spreading fear and suffering to awaken Majin Buu seems like a more legitimately villainous endeavor for Babidi, instead of just needing the energy from strong fighters.
It was a mistake for Gohan to invite the other Z Fighters into the tournament. Videl has no place around them and Gohan got shafted for Goku and his ability to going SSJ3.
someone should write your idea as a legitimate story arc. I love it
M3rtyville Even though Gohan surpassed SSJ3 Gokū with ease later on.
Jin Jusuke only to do nothing with that amazing power and fall to the sidelines..... huh guess he really is just like piccolo lol
@@feelgoodfandom5353 Oh I can't wait for the "Gohan got blue balled just like Piccolo." It's insane it happens three arcs in a row. It annoys more each time because it just keeps happening.
I have such a soft spot for this arc, I just love how silly it is, it looked like Toriyama was just having a final laugh with the series
Yeah agreed, the characters are pretty charming too, the relationship between Satan and Boo is the highlight of the arc for me.
This is honestly my favorite arc for the fun it has with its story
True but it was too much comedy and silliness which ruined the showed I like the goten battles but they made them too silly and stupid they couldn't get the job done i loved the fun in the show but let it be balanced
@@tyrelcollins1649 *gotenks
@@samueloak1600 yes lol it's my stupid phone lol
A fantastic start. Glad someone also enjoys the Saiyaman portion of the story as much as I do! If only we could have seen that play out more, y'know, outside of Toei filler.
I'd wager money that the majority of people who don't like the Saiyaman stuff likely didn't read the first 16 volumes/watch Dragon Ball.
@@ALocalClown And/or are hung up on how much more "badass" Gohan seemed at the Cell Games, even though the fact that he was acting so OOC and, well, Saiyan-like was meant to be concerning to both the audience and in-universe characters themselves.
I'd say it's one of the best, if not THE best portion of the Arc.
I love the early Babidi-Boo stuff, then the story with Boo and Mr. Satan, and the final fight with Kid Boo. Those might all be in my Top 10 favorite moments in Dragon Ball.
It's a shame the rest of the Arc is so convoluted and wastes so much time and potential. Still, it's clear Toriyama was free to experiment and have fun with this, so I don't take the Boo Arc so seriously, narrative-wise. I'm just along for the ride and I love it.
Japan loves the Saiyaman. He makes it in almost every Dragon Ball game and it even made to FighterZ in Videl's moveset because he was in the top 10 most requested characters. I honestly dislike the Saiyaman. I don't like the design nor find it funny or interesting.
its the best part of this saga imo.
Quite possibly the most in depth and genuinely passionate Dragonball Anaylsis series on this platform. You have such a expert hand at picking apart the series that more surface level analysists severely lack. Keep it up.
What I really like about MistareFusion is that he doesn't overanalyze DBZ with elements that are outside of the work itself, he sticks to the manga/anime without much speculation, giving his own take.
There are a lot of DBZ youtubers who just overanalyze the work, and end up sounding almost snobbish.
I would’ve liked if they fleshed out the tournmanet arc instead of abandon it
@Oberstein Knows Best What do you have against powerscalling videos, I mean powerscalling is pretty important to the series since it's a shounen anime.
@Oberstein Knows Best It's really not pathetic, I mean fans of every series put more thought into the powerscalling than the creator. It's only to be expected. Although I do agree as it is way better to talk about the story and the characters than just the power levels.
Oberstein Knows Best | Well, to weigh in here for a second, I’d say there are two types of power scaling discussions.
The first one are those that pertain to how power scaling interacts with the storytelling, if it’s consistent or not, whether or not it’s used in a way that keeps it’s story engaging (power creep etc), these are important and not to be dismissed as some often do with the ironically equally pathetic and snobbish argument of "oh who cares about who’s stronger than who ? What’s important are the theeeemes" and other such nonsensical derivatives that miss the point of execution in storytelling.
The second type is one that simply has nothing to do with storytelling itself. It’s an entirely separate hobby of it’s own that seeks to evaluate characters’ feats to determine how strong they are in their own verse and against others. It’s just a thing people do for fun and by no means is meant to speak about the quality of a work, or comment on it’s story, it’s just not an analysis of the plot in any way.
Unfortunately these two often get mixed up by defenders and detractors alike and while I’ve touched on the latter, the former is equally guilty sometimes of looking at power scaling like a hard science to try and justify crying "plot hole !" at something that, while sometimes they are right in pointing out as lacking, isn’t so because of a plot hole or because characters’ powers should be treated as an absolute scale like RPG stats.
On the other hand, fans will always care about power scaling more than an author. A character’s power, especially in dragon ball and other nekketsu stories is a result of their progress and efforts through events, struggles and stories that fans have invested their time and care into. As such they are very protective of such things as contradicting one is often perceived as invalidating or neglecting the other.
A writer has a different attachement to their characters and stories, often focused on figuring out where to go with them next or what story to tell with them and as such value these things much less because, well, they wrote the story, they didn’t experience it. So they don’t feel the same way as an audience would about it.
With DBZA dead and buried, I only have you & Plague of Gripes for deconstructionist Dragon Ball hot takes. Glad to have you back, Fusion. I hope your personal life is getting better.
Don't forget Totallynotmark
Please check out Ballin Out Super. Best Dragon Ball podcast.
What about Totally Not Mark?
not sure how anyone ever saw DBZA as 'hot takes', more like 20 years of fan in-jokes awkwardly woven in as characters shit talking each other.
@@TheAzulmagia Totally Not Mark it's too generic to be put at the same level of DBD and DBZA...
Not much to say for this part, you pretty much said everything I thought actually, but one thing I never got is how ppl (I think even Toriyama) claim “Gohan wouldn’t work as the main character bc unlike Goku, he doesn’t have fighting spirit” when the whole Great Saiyaman thing directly shows how far Gohan is willing to go to help people. Who cares if he doesn’t have a fight fetish like the full-on Saiyans? He still wants to do good and will fight whenever people need defending, it’s not like he’s against fighting at all. “But Gohan doesn’t train on his own, so he’d always be unprepared” Videl as well as others could easily provide motivation for Gohan to train. If he had been explored more in this arc, it could’ve shown him deal with the sacrifices and such he’d have to make to rlly be Earth’s protector. What ends up happening to Gohan and all is probably my least fav thing abt this arc, and I have a lot of problems with this arc...but that stuff comes later.
As always, keep up the good work! :)
Not training would probably work even better since you don't need to overpower the next villain as much. Villains' strength is proportional to how powerful the heroes are (gag villains aside). And by not having your main character train 24 hours a day their power can stay a tad lower, slowing down the insane power creep a tad.
And as far as "Gohan should have trained more" arguments go, let's be real here. The Ginyu Force was essentially among the most powerful forces in the entire universe and Freeza was essentially at the top, as far as the heroes knew. And after the Cell arc, they have a Gohan who is ridiculously far above that level, a #18 who is very far above Freeza, a Piccolo who is probably even stronger than #18, and Vegeta. Aside from Vegeta trying to kill them all again, does it actually seem realistic in-universe that a threat way stronger than what they could handle would show up? Like, if you already have a dozen different heavy locks on your door and no the burglar has ever been witnessed bypassing even one, do you need to spend a lot of your time adding even more locks? At what point can you say "we're safe enough, I'm going to enjoy my life instead of this paranoid bs"
Yeah, good points. I also just now thought of the fact that Gohan is far more rational and responsible than Goku; if anything his lack of a violence craving makes him a better person to leave watching over Earth, even Goku slightly acknowledges this in his choice to stay dead.
Like I said the most bothersome parts of this come later, but rlly to me it just felt like Toriyama didn’t want to tweak his storytelling to fit Gohan even though (I think) it could’ve been great, so he had Goku reclaim the MC role...
I think that Toriyama said this not really because he actually believes that Gohan wouldn't potentially work as a protagonist, but because it would have been far more difficult for him to write him as such and develop him rather than just bringing back Goku, a character with an already established fighting obsession and that is seen by everyone as "the protagonist of DragonBall".
+DMB: yeah like I said, basically he didn’t wanna go thru the effort of changing things up despite (imo) Gohan having great, meaningful development since his intro.
And my biggest issue I think is how much he teased it. Toriyama had this big passing of the torch in the Cell Arc, announced “yep, Gohan’s the main protag now, Goku’s time is over, ppl”, only to get lazy and take everything back. That’s kinda sad to me, especially since he tried to excuse it by saying “I decided Gohan didn’t fit the role”. Bull.
That intro is godlike. To think we'll get it for 10+ parts at least alone makes me excited. Also I enjoy the Sayianman portion of the series too and wish it stuck around more. Oh how the arc will shift gears time and time again. Each time it gets less and less interesting.
Besides the satan/boo dynamic. That part was really interesting.
@@chrisblanc663 I liked that and the climax to the battle. However so much in between is Boo tennis. We just keep cycling through characters who fail so Goku and Vegeta have to save the day. In a way it is fitting since they're the ones responsible for releasing Majin Boo in the first place. The problem is the others are red herrings to fake us out repeatedly with no payoff. If the Boo arc took out the set up and the game of Boo tennis this arc would be so much better. Gotenks Gohan and Vegetto are pointless in this story. As is Boo's absorptions. It's why the neverending debates of which Boo is stronger is really pointless.
I feel like the Saiyaman portion of the story should have been an actual, fleshed out arc, before the Buu part of the story. Also, does anyone else like teenaged Gohan's hair here better than his Cell Saga Yamcha/Vegeta but with a good hairline haircut?
It's kinda like a matured version of his Cell Games hair cut, it looks good. I still think he looked the best in Cell Games but this takes a close second.
He's got this boyish look to his hair and I hate how spiky and slicked back it becomes after this point. The spike up look simply doesn't suit his character as much. It's why among all things I loved Gohan's look in RoF.
*Saiyaman's Theme*
Livin' on the edge,
Fighting crime,
Shooting ki,
Flying from the highest ledge,
He can leap above our heads
Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh.
Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh ah.
Villians on the rise,
And the planet's victimized.
Looking up with no surprise,
Arrivin' in the speed of time
Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh
Ahhh ahh ahhh ah ahhh ah
Spectacular Spetacular SAIYA-MAN!
Spectacular Spetacular SAIYA-MAN!
Spetaculaaaar
Spectacular Spetacular SAIYA-MAN!
Spectacular Spetacular,
SAIYA-MAN!
This part of the Majin boo arc is one of my favourites in the entire series. It feels so fresh, pretty sad that it shifts focus so fast.
The sad thing is, Pan from dragonball GT was written better to take over from goku than Uub or gohan. Gohan had more potential but when toriyama slowly phased it back to goku he lost that spark he needed and never really recovered from.
Granted Pan didn't do much during the series; but when she did, she did a good job at fighting and keeping up with two saiyans that could also go super saiyan. If toriyama ever continues after the end of Z; pan would be a good 2nd chance to tell gohans story again. She is gohans daughter after all!
The early Boo Saga is one of my favorite periods in the series, it feels like a bold new direction that could pretty much go anywhere and have fun with its premise. Shame it's so short. I heard the new Kakkarot game expands on some bits of Dragon Ball lore with bonus missions, does anyone know if there any Sayiaman sidequests or overall expansions to this part of the story?
olserknam Sadly it’s during this arc Kakarot takes a dip in quality. There’s about two missions with Saiyaman that stick imo. One with him helping Maron which shows they have some sort of establish relationship and one where Videl goes out to see him to train (Before the flight training) and Hercule so worried about her hires the pilaf gang to create a robot to follow her and if she’s with a guy to attack them to keep her safe. There’s also one with erasa seeing if Saiyaman is boyfriend potential and has him doing silly things like winning a car race but that’s about it. The buu saga in the game really pushes you to finish the saga as fast as you can sadly
Right?! I tend to enjoy the parts where no fighting happens way more mainly because the show is so intense and repetitive so i love everything that stands out
I liked it because it was fun and explored the story from how the world views the series. OG dragon ball is fun for those reasons
Best parts of the Boo Arc:
-This Saiyaman stuff
-Mr.Satan and Boo odd couple act
-Boo giving a blind kid man milk (NOT HOW IT SOUNDS!)
-The idea of Fusion is fun
Less good parts:
-The other stuff
I like all of the ideas like Potara Fusion and SSJ3 but like GT ironically the execution wasn't the best. To be honest GT did have great ideas with bad execution IMO but never 4 different ideas in one saga (SSJ3, 2 Fusions and Ultimate Gohan)
@@ericbrown6203 The Boo arc needed to pick a lane.
@@ForwardSynthesis Yeah that would have been better but IMO the Buu arc could have had all of those concepts matter if they just made the power ups have meaning I think it could have been done if the ending with the Spirit Bomb had been tweaked.
@@ericbrown6203 The problem isn't so much having a lot of concepts as it is not delivering on their premises before introducing a new one.
_"Mr.Satan and Boo odd couple act"_ I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks of them in this way lol and the fact that no one acknowledges it (I think?) makes it so funny to me. Plus Mr. Satan being more successful in stopping Buu than the cast is just great as it further shows there are other options but the Dragon Team is still like _"No, we're gonna Ki blast it to death like always"_ . Mr. Satan should ironically always be the Earth's first line of defense and I was upset he didn't try to throw a yarn ball at Beerus in BoG.
I can't be the only who sees "lenient editor" as a red flag. An editor is supposed to be the first line of criticism. Yes, you probably want a friendly open relationship with them but "lenient editor" sounds too much like "cool parent"
agree, torishima was known as a gigantic asshole (to the point many of his clients will create villains based on him) but everyone who worked with him agree he did wonders, torishima wasn't just an editor he was THE editor and made dragon ball better.
@The Great Carrotman maybe he was an absolute control freak, but he care mostly for storytelling rather than marketing (he also loved romance) while toriyama couldn't care less about any of that, hell it was torishima's idea for arale to be female but toriyama wanted a male character, (thats why he model the villain of doctor slump after torishima) they could't agree on anything but maybe thats why toriyama early work was great, his other editors weren't as good because they were more lenient with him, while torishima keep him in a leash.
@@slifer875 Is it bad that I really like tough editors? Not just in a "They make other people make quality content for me to enjoy, fuck the creators feelings on that" but in a "God! I wish *I* had a tough editor trying to help me bring out the best story I can make!" way.
I love drawing comics and I fullheartedly admit I hate showing the scripts or storyboards to friends and having them just... praise it. Like... can you point out the weaker parts? do you have suggestions? was anything confusing? did I draw a hand backwards anywhere? Did I fall back into that bad habit of drawing the characters with "Chimp hands" and I need to go back and fix it here and there? Are the panels confusing to read? TELL ME WHERE IT'S WRONG!!!
If they don't have anything shit to say about it then I feel like I failed or I'm doing something wrong.
(Except that occasion I showed it to someone who doesn't really read the genre I was working in and their suggestions were sort of to push it towards a different genre that they enjoyed more.)
@@KichiMiangra i also preffer it that way, they keep you in line, make you improve and its the best way of showing they care for your work.
torishima always had some critique to any mangaka, it didn't matter how talented or famous they were: for example he was brutally honest with kentaro miura (author/artist of berserk) during an interview and miura was really happy with his advice.
Agreed. It's the job of an editor to find the flaws and the faults. Something isn't done when there's nothing left to add, it's done when everything that doesn't work is stripped away, and that's the job of an editor/reviewer.
R.I.P. Saiyaman - you were too perfect for this world.
I like to imagine that the Ginyu Force left a major impression on Gohan and inspired his Saiyaman persona, which FighterZ seemed to latch onto as well. I suppose you'd never forget the guys who broke your neck.
Either way, while I wouldn't have appreciated it as a kid, the current me definitely would've appreciated more Saiyaman and the establishment of a new status quo. I always thought it was a shame Gohan never got to hang out with Future Trunks, so seeing him make acquaintances his age was refreshing.
FINALLY!! Someone who appreciates the importance of this portion of the Buu Saga.
Yay we are finally here! I can’t wait till you talk more about Videl’s character!
I really like her design and personality but she was handled so poorly in the series.
I always hated how the other characters reacted to her getting beat down in the tournament. If she was any other fighter in the cast they would not be telling her to just stay down and not try to fight anymore! >.<
Plus after that she loses all relevance! She contributes Nothing of note after that point! Makes me wonder why she was put in at all!
(Not to mention super completely removed all of her personality and made her a total husk of a character)
The final saga, here we go! I've been following your series since the middle of the Namek arc and you're one of my favourite content creators. Can't wait for what's to come!
So the only thing I wanna say here is that I believe that Buu was intended to be written by Toriyama as a send off for Gohan as he was intended to be the protagonist for this Saga. Toriyama did decide to bring Goku back in the end as we all know, but I actually do feel that Gohan, at least Gohan as we know him in this Saga was intended, but mishandled a bit by Toriyama. He couldn’t decide whether or not to give Gohan traits of his father or for him to progress in the school boy way of things. Although Gohan does receive development as regression as progression in this Saga, he doesn’t have the ability to become the protagonist Toriyama intended him to be because he mishandled what traits he thought should shine through as an adult and how to make him as engaging as his father as a martial artist/fighter. Goku and Gohan each having 2 sagas where they function as the main protagonist who solves the problem isn’t bad in my opinion, but here it is a bit disappointing to see Gohan put into the role he is in by the end of the saga.
Ok, now that I've watched, a few of random thoughts:
> I love the Great Saiyaman idea, and I wish it went on for longer in the manga. Hell, imagine if Toriyama had come up with the Galactic Patrol back then, all the crazy and funny stories he could tell with that premise! An entire arc of Great Saiyaman joining the Galactic Patrol in some outer space adventure a la Green Lantern corps or something. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be...
> Gohan's shenanigans in high school are so funny! The levity in this story arc really sells it for me. I really missed that, it feels like Dragon Ball hasn't been silly like this since... wow, since the 22nd Tournament!
> This is my absolute favorite version of Blooma, at least in the Z-era (it's hard to beat her first arc self...). She looks and acts so mature and classy, but is still recognizeable as Blooma. I just love it.
> I'll miss Videl's pigtails, they're too short-lived :(
Also, I had completely forgotten that THAT's how you're supposed to pronounce her name!
> It's sad that this is one of the strongest parts of this arc (for me at least), and it's already over :(
Looking forward to the rest of the dissection!
I definitely would've liked to see the new arc here grow organically around Gohan's character and the new setting rather than... well, "Hey, it's a new tournament!", "Hey, the old gang's back!", "Here comes Goku! He can be the main character again!". Squandered potential and a failed opportunity to really explore what makes Gohan different from his father from which I don't think he ever really recovered.
i can fully understand why this arc got ranked as the worst one. it started out ok but it quickly becomes a marathon of power level tennis on a level far worse than even the Freeza fight. way too many plot holes and new powers that seemingly are brought out of nowhere. and a villain that unlike Freeza and Cell, does not connect to anything that had been previously established. at least the Cell and Cyborg arc was connected in some way to the RRA arc. Boo started out as fairly unique, a villainous child of sorts, but then he just becomes another Cell clone which is ironic because Cell is a Freeza clone who is a King Piccolo clone.
moreover everything feels rushed and unearned. Goku vs Vegeta while hyped up alot, is rushed through and not given the page time it deserves. it should have been at the very least, longer than the first fight, and the climactic battle of the arc.
Vegeta's sacrifice is rendered meaningless. Gohan's powerup is given to him without earning it and then it never amounts to anything. Vegeta is the only character with anything going on development wise, and its something that had been more or less resolved in the prior arc where he made a terrible mistake, learns he loves his son and tries to make up for it with a last minute save. that happens again but far less impactful, same for his second death in comparison to the first. goku's sacrifice is undone in favor of once again making him the star of the show instead of one of the younger characters. and despite the theme of the younger generation surpassing the older one, the younger fighters fail and need Goku Vegeta and Satan to save their asses. it sends a terrible message and although the anime made it enjoyable with some cool animation and fight scenes, the manga version is a rushed mes.
so that being said, i am looking forward to your rants when those moments arrive, and if there's any new criticism i hadnt picked up on yet.
At the very least Majin Buu is a very layered villain
Very true it's so sad this anime is garbage z was doing so good in the cell saga and gohan was a great character. Then majin buu arc comes everything he learn was tossed out the window the show his character changed they gave him a lame girlfriend which their chemistry is boring and they push him out the way so goku can take the spot. And the last episode was very awfully disgusting what was the point of ubb? Oh so goku can have a good fight? Very lame and goha was just in the back ground or fade in the back ground nothing special toward him plus he looks stupid in the buu saga but they really made him look stupid on the last episode! They really need make up for this arc erase everything and pretend this didnt happen and give us a real arc and and let all characters have some development not just goku and vegeta and let gohan blossom what he was supposed too something unique
@@tyrelcollins1649 Do you think Erasa would've made for a better girlfriend than Videl?
@@chriscannon8144 depends but definitely better then Vidal or the little girl he met before the cell games
@@leonardofarias8843 disagree
I never understood why people hate this arcs Gohan so much because in my opinion this is the best defined Gohan and his and relationship with Videl works really well.
This is, by a wide margin, my favorite part of the buu arc. Right up until they all leave the martial arts tourney. It's crazy how the older i got, the more i started to prefer the slice of life stuff over the fighting
Lmao I just love how you pronounce names like "Viidel" 'cause it's the closest to our latin american dub (which was faithful to the Japanese original), unlike most other DBZ reviewers.
Great video! I was really waiting for your take on the Buu arc.
Me too, I can’t stand the American localized names
Gohan in Satan City might be my favourite part of the entire DB storyline. Some of the early arcs are competing, but it's definitely my number 1 as far as post-Saiyan Dragon Ball goes. I'm probably going to disagree with the Buu Saga's bottom rank solely because of Gohan's attempts to fit in. Him awkwardly trying (and failing) to hide his abilities is just immensely funny (and, other than the whole superhuman strength part, relatable) to me, both in the extended Anime version and in the Manga where Videl just immediately figures him out. Speaking of, Videl is one of the few "tsundere" acting characters that appeal to me, to no small part because she is absolutely justified to act suspicious towards Gohan.
Really love the intro sequence, by the way! And also the entire video, of course. Great work as always, Lance.
I'd of really liked to see this Arc play-out as a Super Hero Genre inspired story, just for the sake of consistency and to give Gohan the limelight.
I have always liked this part because it shows how much the series has advanced and changed.
Congratulations on reaching the last story of the manga.
For anybody wondering, the piece of music used in the intro is "M1703." It's around halfway through the song. Kikuchi's music is kinda hard to search through since few, if any, have recognisable titles.
Over the last 10 days I have constantly been clicking on your channel again and again just to see if this video was uploaded. I haven't watched it yet but this really turned a pretty shitty day good for me. I'm so glad you've made it this far.
I remember seeing your "Hunt for the Dragonballs" analysis back when I was still in high school and thinking "Yeah, these videos are too good to last...he'll disappear within a year or something."
Now we are at the Buu Arc, and you've proven to me time and time again that you have a great mind for analysis, are incredibly entertaining and provide some very good insights.
You've popularised so many of the unpopular opinions I've had over the years (Yamcha & Chiaotzu's treatment, Goku not being a "hero") and given great retorts to some of my other opinions (Androids being stronger than Freeza and the Piccolo Daimao arc being a gold standard for dragonball)
I'm just... so thankful you managed to get this far with the series, and hope once this is all said and done you get the recognition you deserve.
I love this arc. It’s honestly my third fav arc in the series (after Red Ribbon and 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai). I know it has messy writing and some obvious on the spot story decisions. But I love what it does with the characters and I think it’s a good return to form (I really dislike the android stuff)
The Boo Saga is definitely a mess in terms of trying to be a singular storyline, but there's still a lot in it that I really like. Hell, even with certain ideas that get shoved aside too quickly (and Vegeta being a less-than-useless dick again), I think the progression from the very start of the arc and up through Vegeta's sacrifice is actually my favorite stretch of story in the series. But after that point... while there are certainly bright spots here and there, the story just goes on for way too long and never really clicks for me until, like, almost the very end.
I think I would’ve liked gohan and Krillen staying at the tournament as Krillen was more focused on the prize money and Gohan made a promise to compete in the tournament as Krillen was just meant to get rock solidified to flex Dabura and supreme Kai only asked for Goku to show up. I like Vegeta and piccolo coming with the supreme Kai because piccolo had questions for him and Vegeta was focused on fighting Goku and tailed with him, that part can end the same with piccolo turning to rock instead. The tournament bracket is rescrambled due to 7 fighters leaving which has Android 18 Vs Krillen with 18 winning, Mr. Satan getting a bye for being the champ and fighting against mighty mask who gets disqualified while Mr. Satan triés to dodge him so it’s Mr. Satan and Gohan in the finals
Mr. Satan freaks out and asks if Gohans here for revenge for taking away his victory against cell and Gohan explains how his daughter bribed him to join the tournament. This goes into what Videl said about how it’d be interesting to have the last 2 world martial artist champions fight each other and what Mr. Satan via flashback that Videl wasn’t allowed ‘’to date’’ anybody who wasn’t as strong as him. With Videl cheering Gohan on Gohan explains how everyone was looking forward to this match (Gohan’s friends and Mr. Satan’s followers) and how Mr. Satan should be more confident in himself and try to give Gohan his best (The ending of Buu Saga shows this too with Mr. Satan asking everyone to lend their energy for the final spirit bomb that saved the world) instead of acting like a wimp.
Gohan of course tries to play down to strength, he probably asked that just because he felt bad that he had ‘’to shame’’ Mr. Satan but does this to make the fight look interesting and to have it be a good ending to the tournament arc (even with Goku and Vegeta gone). When Gohan eventually wins (the prize money too) everyone thinks it was a fluke and got lucky given how close the match looked. But it’s from this that his friends from school congratulate him and roar Gohan decides to open up to his classmates instead of trying to hide his power in front of them. It allows Gohan to learn how to fit in as he has a real job in DBS that isn’t just beating people up.
This conclusion will allow the tournament arc to feel complete and for side characters to have their moments and while this happens the usual events with Majin Vegeta and the resurrection of buu continue making the world going into panic more meaningful as the Buu Saga begins
(I think after all they charcters left for the threat during the tournament did the tournament lose interest with everyone important being gone which causes people to lose focus)
Unfortunately, this arc contains the Original Sin. It is because Toriyama himself couldn't push Gohan forward as the MC that all the subsequent media turnt into the Goku show
Agreed. It's sad, really. He had multiple opportunities to end the arc with Gohan still at the helm. Had he done that, the landscape of post-z story ideas could have been far more varied
I don't know if it was because Toriyama found it difficult or because the audience didn't like it. Because honestly? I feel like Gohan works MUCH better as a main character than Goku ever did in the Z-era. The guy just kept doing nothing until it was time for the final fight. As much as I absolutely love Goku, he wasn't what he used to be prior to the Saiyan Arc.
Gohan, on the other hand, just SHINES so much in the beginning of this Arc. He's funny, he's heroic, he even has a romantic interest, sorta! It's really sad that Toriyama ended up going back to the status quo. I love the final fight with Kid Boo and its resolution, but I don't know if it was worth tossing Gohan aside :(
Imagine if the main characters of this Arc were Gohan, Videl, Trunks and Goten doing crazy shenanigans. Not world-ending stuff, but just fun adventures, like the Hunt for the Dragon Balls Arc! So much potential...
Bruno Bessa neither, Toriyama just can’t view anyone in the front of the series unless it’s Goku, this is very apparent in Super, as all his ideas seemed to revolve around Goku and Frieza, the two characters you could tell he loved writing for and about, he’s just not as creative as people think he is.
"It is because Toriyama himself couldn't push Gohan forward as the MC that all the subsequent media turnt into the Goku show" wrong, dragon ball has always been the story of goku since the beggining, the only people i seen angry about it are those who grew up with the butchered english dub that skip the original dragon ball, thinking gohan was the protagonist.
slifer875 clearly you never watched the movies, Goku was dead for three of them, showing up very briefly for less than a minute in two of them, and in bio Broly he doesn’t even impact the plot in any way.
Honestly, I really love this little portion of the Boo arc. Gohan and Videl have fun chemistry, and Gohan as a dorky superhero is just fantastic fun. I really wish it would have lasted a bit longer.
I remember reading these first few chapters back in the day and really loving it!
I really liked to see Gohan trying to fit in. Him playing baseball was one of the funniest things
that happen in Dragon Ball
But it went downhill from there so I am really looking forward to what else you have to say about this arc
Great video
Honestly, the way the final Z arc is, I almost could consider this the beginning of Super, narratively
I love this part of the story and wish it played out longer. The anime really improved things by continuing longer
This is definitely my favourite gohan from the original series
Hell yea
Glad to see you again too, sir
Thanks for the continuous top tier content
Gohan definitely fits the Superman bill more than Goku, in my opinion -- especially with Videl being his Lois, as you pointed out. I hadn't realized that connection before, but the new superhero setting and Gohan's mannerisms definitely make that clear.
Also, do you have any thoughts on the Masks of Gohan video that Plague of Gripes released? It's a pretty interesting analysis of the character.
i so often wonder how dragon ball would have changed if it stayed a superhero manga from here on out. i really wish it did.
People would've stopped reading it. The popularity was already down in the early Buu Saga.
Looks like bulma picked up her dads habits...I guess being married to vegeta can be quite stressful.
Well, Vegeta went from leaving her and his son to nearly get killed by Gero in the last arc to hanging out with his kid (even if he won't hug him), so she clearly did something right.
Bulma been smoking as a teen
As far as we're ever shown, that's untrue.
@@benjaminpeters6729 Apparently that's supposed to be candy
Currently rewatching the Boo arc and how much I loved the Gohan superhero stuff and was wondering yesterday when this would arrive lol. Welcome back.
God yes, I've waited for this for YEARS.
This is still my favourite series on youtube!
Now that I heard about Gohan being a Highschooler AND a superhero (for like five or so chapters), I'm getting the impression Toriyama-san was going to treat Dragon Ball into this mix of a Delinquent Manga (a la Rokudenashi Blues, or Hareluya II BOY, both running at the very same time in Jump with great numbers) with the twist of an extra genre to not get super cliche (a la YuYu Hakusho (with a twist of the Supernatural and mystery genre (at least at first)), and Slam Dunk (a delinquent manga with a focus on Basketball and somewhat of a love story). Even Rokudenashi Blues had a theme of Boxing). The genre was superheroes, but it feels a bit off that an episodic Delinquent/Superhero story would STILL be labeled Dragon Ball when it's anything but, so it pretty much shifted back to the regular Dragon Ball series after a few weeks to avoid the Cancelation hammer from the Jump Enma. Yup, and in a word where any series can be canceled within the span of 10 weeks (See the story about Koji Koseki's "Kenritsu Umisora Koukou Yakyuu-Buin Yamashita Taro-Kun" and it's death and revival), yup, back to the fighting!! Like if Toriyama had the intention to return to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach or getting pressure to do it isn't clear to my knowledge, but yeahhhhhh..... not the greatest in pacing. There were stories of high schoolers in Jump that were doing rather successful at the same exact time (Kyuukyoku!! Hentai Kamen, Pennant Race: Yamada Taiichi no Kiseki, Bonbonzaka Koukou Engekibu, Even JoJo's Bizare Adventure had High Schoolers as a good chunk of the key cast around that time), and Dragon Ball could definitely work with that mindset (somewhat set (at least in the anime) that Chichi wanted Gohan to be a typical Kid with a typical life) though it would pretty much leave for the rest of the story for some set of weeks. Heck there were many interesting opportunities in the Boo arc that are never taken, and suffer because of it (maybe to keep the story cleaner and more like what people want, but the Boo arc has so much going on looking back, that it's more insane than the Cell Arc).
I loved that opening title. Almost like it came straight from Toriyama's pen.
It's godlike.
How do you make it?!
Oh, I forgot how Gohan and Videl (how did not notice root of her hame) are cute together. And cute alone but that is besides the point. And I missed you.
I've always liked the Great Saiyaman. He's a breath of fresh air in this story. When it comes to the Dragon Team, they deal with planet destroying threats or megalomaniacs bent on world domination, but they never deal with street level crimes. So, Gohan becoming a literal superhero, being a friendly neighborhood Saiyaman while being his own goofy self is a great direction to take the series and reinvent itself with Gohan as the lead. Unfortunately, we already know this doesn't last.
I liked that as well. He's like Kamen Rider. and it's based on a Toku series. with my favorite Toku being the Ultraman series.
I remember when these episodes first came out. Incredible its been 2 whole years
Good review. I’m curious though, do you prefer Videl discovering Gohan’s identity immediately, or the anime filler that, in my opinion, made her come off a bit more naive?
Hadn't considered that, it's actually a decent point. My POV, I still prefer the anime if only to see the story potential play out more and develop Gohan and videl's dynamic. Their relationship is one of the best parts of the anime version
Anime, definitely.
MistareFusion that’s fair. The anime did expand on a lot of stuff, like the baby pteranodon subplot, Gohan going on a date prior to falling for Videl, and Videl chasing him to discover his identity. It was good material.
I first discovered your dissection series midway through your review of the saiyan arc during christmas time. To this day I think it's the most enjoyable and insightful analysis of a shonen manga that I've ever had the pleasure of watching through multiple times. It gave me a deeper appreciation for many specific characters I had not put much thought into prior and Dragonball as a whole. Although I may not have been with this series since its inception, it still feels like I've been through a long journey following this series. Thanks so much for keeping up with this and I'm looking forward to this final stretch of episodes! In the mean time I'll also be constantly recommending friends who are fans of Dragonball to check this series out.
DAT OPENING THO
Thanks for the feedback! Every time I start a new arc, I know it's my one chance to try to up my game and improve the presentation. So I really hunkered down with this one. And I can't tell you how relieved I was when I realized I had four episodes' worth of material for The Freeza Arc TV since that meant I wouldn't have to rush out the beginning of The Boo Arc and miss the chance to really build something nice-looking. I still have no idea how I managed to do it for The Cell Arc two years ago.
As for your story about watching the show, remember that, while Dragon Ball is not a seasonal production in Japan, it did have seasons in the U.S., although not at all what FUNimation now claims their seasons are. Vegeta's death marked the end of the fifth season of U.S. DBZ. Nothing further had been dubbed at that point.
@@MistareFusion Ah, my viewing of the sixth season must have been very spotty because I had gone off to college by then and didn't always have a TV of my own, so I'm just now taking the opportunity to see Buu through to the end via on-demand videos! I once checked and saw that, yes, the last "season" of pre-Z Dragon Ball I got to watch ended on a cliffhanger in the pirate cave for the same reason.
My feelings with DB arcs is that the low point is often the end of the arc, especially the Z arcs. Namek is great but Freezer fight drags for too long, Buu arc is nice until Buu appears, same with the Cell arc, the Cell game is the low point even if there is classic moments in it. But for the Buu arc the drag starts quite sooner than the others.
"Buu arc is nice until Buu appears" lmao that made me laugh
I'm so excited. The Buu Arc really did always feel like a new era, so it feels sort of special seeing it be talked about. I don't even really care much for the Buu Arc, but it still makes me smile to hear We Gotta Power in tandem with a nostalgic time of Dragon Ball.
I like this video because it fully explains why I like Gohan: He's a martial artist who chooses to be a hero.My main criticism of Dragonball is that Toei forces Goku into the role of hero just to speak down to younger generations. Gohan embodies the spirit of the current generation but doesn't come across as a Hypocrite.
Also, you managed to point out a plot hole: How is Gohan weak from training if he's been fighting off criminals for the past 2 years? Doesn't that imply that Gohan has gotten so strong that Vegeta hasn't noticed it and has been left behind?
My friend, I've been following you and DBD since 2013. In fact, I credit getting into DBD and Dragonball Z Abridged at the same time along with and Battle of Gods coming out in the same year with rejuvinating my childhood love for Dragonball. All these years later, I own all 42 volumes and have read and re-read them several times. What a ride. Now DBD is on the final arc. I'm excited to see your work and a little sad that the finish line is in sight. Lets do this thing!
Thank you for your take on the Great Saiyanman. Everyone blasts this part of Gohan but I believe it was great for his character as well. Honestly I think Zs biggest problem was that it traded whimsicalness with edginess. which doesent work in the broader scope of things. Also its clear Z was to end on Goku passing on the torch to his son. but every time they had to bring back Goku and because of that, Gohans character was sacrificed.
Congrats on reaching the final arc, 8 years, and 100 episodes! Dragon Ball Dissection is one of my favorite video essay series and the best analysis and discussion of Dragon Ball I've seen period. I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on the Boo arc, and many more years and episodes of DBD to come!
I would have loved Videl getting a real spotlight, give her a chance to become as strong, put her in some fights. Just that would give the Buu arc a new crew, instead of just keeping the same group. This is also a great chance for Toriyama bringing the stakes back down, as it's been stated that he's weaker than he was at the end of the cell arc.
How much fun would Trunks, Goten and Videl be as Yamcha, Oolong and Bulma?
I wonder what would've happened had Gohan stayed being the main of this Saga and later passed the torch to Goten at the end of Z or Super, then Goten would pass on to Pan. Toriyama could've had a Belmont or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure-like tradition going on with the Son Family.
Totally agree that Bulma is to fashionable to design the Great Saiyaman costume.
For herself.
I'm going to assume as she designed it for Gohan, she knows him well enough to design it to his taste.
I kind of wish Videl and Goten stayed on as part of a new main cast to round out Gohan’s role. Had the story focused just on the new tournament, it could’ve done a lot better. Maybe even given a Red Ribbon type adventure story that culminated in the same type of matchup as Goku vs. the elder Gohan at Baba’s tournament. That could be an interesting thing to give to Gohan.
The original pitch for my hero academia by akira toriyama
This video does a great job articulating some of the strengths the Saiyanman portion of the arc and it makes me sorely wish the more grounded setting had continued for longer as Gohan and Videl interacted as they entered fish-out-of-water scenarios of their own with Gohan wishing to blend in with the society and Videl wishing to learn a world of martial arts she would find foreign and completely unlike what she recognizes with both sides having their struggles like Gohan understanding the concept of fast food and restaurants as Videl tried to come to terms with the ideas of ki and techniques with the other party finding themselves in awe at the struggles and odd situations they would find themselves into.
Nice to finally see DBD again and its great that you finally got to the Buu Arc, its just Incredible how much time already passed by since i found your Channel, back in 2014 where you still were at the 23 Budokai Tenkaichi.
The Highschool Stuff with Gohan is also a Pretty Unique Section of DB and also a breath of Fresh Air that we have a Story where Gohan tries to fit in with normal People. It´s really a shame that the Manga just did so Little with this Fresh Setting and Gohan sSuper Hero Persona but at the ver least the Anime did flesh that Portion out a bit.
Ah yes.
Pig tails videl. My first crush
Love the new intro!
Great video! I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the rest of the arc.
Waited so long for this arc, thank you
The Saiyaman story could have made for an interesting mystery building upto the Buu arc.
Like have Babidi spread out the power of evil to try and resurrect Buu.
It will be like the Garlic Jr Anime arc, except good.
Man what a GREAT VIDEO!!! The editing was totally on point and as an avid fan of Dr. Slump and early Dragon Ball's artstyle I gotta say, damn the visuals of these early chapters of the Boo arc look stunningly good and appealing, can't wait for big-muscle, wide-face Goku to show up and spread his traits to Vegeta.
I think this was the arc that I most watched in my life. I love this part.
When I was young I didn't like that part, growing I ended up loving it. Gohan was like a more awkward Peter Parker and I love it !
YEAH!!!!! A great way to start off my week!
I really wish Toriyama would have continued showing us the mundane silly lives of these characters for longer. Fights are great, but these downtimes and what they do with them are more entertaining bits of character development than finding another level of Super Saiyan or learning fusion to take out the new big bad. Say what you will about Super, but the best thing it did was begin with slice of life episodes before pointlessly retreading movies that didn't need retreading.
You know what this arc's biggest problem is? It's constantly introducing huge things that get shoved aside for the next huge thing. There are so many things introduced that don't go anywhere, and so much of this arc could just be cut out since it isn't part of the ultimate ending. Let's see, we have:
1. SS3 is not used to beat Buu. Do you think new moves introduced should be used to beat the villain, like how kaio-ken and the spirit bomb at least contributed to beating Vegeta, Super Saiyan beat Frieza, and SS2 beat Cell? I do. It was such a huge thing in this arc, and it was all for nothing. Why couldn't Toriyama have Goku be SS3 when he launched the spirit bomb? That would've been awesome and cemented SS3 since it would've actually been used for a significant, permanent plot point. That doesn't even make any sense. If he had his full power back, why would he only use a weaker form and not his max form? Why wouldn't he go all-out given the severity of the situation? Also, Gotenks using it is even less relevant to the ultimate outcome.
2. Gotenks was this huge thing that was not used to beat Buu and forgotten about for the rest of the story after it was done away with?
3. Same thing with Vegito. While he is way cooler than Gotenks, he got even less buildup and screen time and bearing on the story.
4. Fusion is not used to beat Buu. It was this huge thing that was introduced, and it had no role in the final battle, so what was the point of it?
5. Vegeta's sacrifice. I know I'd piss people off by saying this, but I actually dislike that and feel nothing from it. It's ruined by the fact that it accomplishes nothing. When I brought this up, a defense I've gotten is "Well, Goku sacrificed himself, and Cell came back!" Yes, but Goku changed the trajectory of what was going to happen. Cell was about to blow up the planet, and then he merely showed back up and fought Gohan, and Gohan won. Goku changed what Cell was going to do. Can't say the same with Vegeta and Buu. All that changed is that Buu would've done literally all the exact same things, except it was all pushed back by 5 minutes. I actually think it's pathetic because the only reason he's doing it is because he wants to be like Goku because Goku sacrificed himself. Post-Saiyan arc, he's always been inferior to Goku, and he even gets a shittier sacrifice. I know this moment is supposed to represent a massive character milestone, but the only way it would've stuck with me is if it had actually accomplished something. He sacrificed himself to save his son, and but Trunks dies anyway! So it was literally pointless!
6. I'll give Trunks dying, the person he sacrificed himself for most, its own entry since the sacrifice has 2 components, him not stopping Buu/altering his agenda in any way and him not saving any of the people he intended that to save. Trunks, Goten, Gohan, and Piccolo all die! Pointlessly! Everyone in the world gets killed and then the world gets blown up.
Also, I feel like the sons dying should've been a major turning point in the narrative, but that did nothing. Other than keep them removed from the fight so Buu couldn't've been beaten far more easily.
7. Didn't Goten want revenge on Buu for killing Chi Chi? Did Trunks want the same for Vegeta? Anyway, Goten dying means that didn't go anywhere. Same for Trunks if he also was shown wanting to avenge his dad.
8. Gohan dies, so that whole thing about him training with the Supreme Kai was pointless. The story switching to Goku also makes that beginning portion focusing on him weird and pointless.
9. Goku wanted to leave protecting the Earth to a new generation. But they all fail and die, and Goku has to come back and save everything, so this arc actually did tremendous damage to the series because it's like "Oh, I guess everyone else CAN'T save the world. I guess it HAS to be me." It cemented that Goku has to be the savior, and no one else can.
10. Vegeta wanting to have a turn with Kid Buu. This has no lasting consequnces on anything, so it was pointless. He tried to buy time so Goku could regain SS3, but then his SS3 gave out, so it was pointless. I have to wonder why Goku would even allow this since with Vegeta's inability to go SS3, Goku had to've known Vegeta stood no chance. Goku says he held back so Vegeta could have a turn, but this caused Goku to lose too much energy, so it actually turned out to be a really stupid decision. While he did buy some time for the spirit bomb, that was mostly Fat Buu, so I guess that ending part slightly had a point, but the beginning portion where he's just taking his turn is pointless.
That's all I can think of, but I probably forgot some. Feel free to add to the list.
Narratively, this arc is a mess. It's constantly introducing huge things and then shoving them aside to be like "Okay! We're doing this now!" Nothing builds on anything. There's little progression. Instead of the story building, it's constantly going in different directions; each plot point gets abandoned in favor if the next, so it doesn't add to it, and we're basically restarting from square one. Imagine if instead of a line rising diagonally, it constantly zigzags and never "rises". This is exacerbated by the forms of Buu. There are 3 main phases, Fat Buu, Super Buu, and Kid Buu. Unlike Cell and Frieza whose different forms all have the same character, each of these Buu forms is vastly different mentally and a different character, so instead of each one building the character, it feels like we're starting over and getting a new character, and his character arc is broken up into different, smaller characters that are lesser than if we'd had 1 character that we stuck with. And honestly, since Fat Buu is the important beginning, and Kid Buu is the ending, it feels like we could've just cut Super Buu since he has no bearing on the ending, and he is by far the post boring, and his absorptions are pointless since they also have no bearing on the ending.
But I get what this arc is going for with the constant direction changes. It's trying to be like a roller coaster with lots of exciting twists and turns, keeping you in suspense and guessing, not knowing where the story is going to go and constantly showing you cool, new things (the last of which I do like because the arc is filled with things that individually are cool, but they don't mean anything and therefore have no substance behind them). It purely focuses on what's cool in the moment. But this "in the moment" storytelling really only appeals to children/people with short attention spans, and it's bad because when you look back at the story as a whole, it's fill with things that don't matter and go nowhere and are therefore a waste of time. I don't always subscribe to the belief that "It's the journey, not the destination." This doesn't even feel like 1 continuous story but a bunch of disjointed mini-arcs. I mean, what is the difference between Goku going SS3 to fight Kid Buu, Vegeta fighting Kid Buu, Vegeta buying time so Goku can go SS3 again, Fat Buu fighting Kid Buu, Goku killing Kid Buu with the spirit bomb, and Goku just starting with the spirit bomb? All the stuff before that could've been cut because it had nothing to do with it.
I will never not love the Buu Saga. I love the High School chapters, I love Gotenks and I even love the later part of the saga where Goku becomes the main character again. I would absolutely rate it above the Cell Saga and the Pilaf Saga at the very least.
I don’t know why but for it’s sense of finality the sketchbook, step by step look of the introduction it might be my favorite so far, and I really loved the cell arc computer styled format, can’t wait to see what highs and many, many lows the boo arc contains for you lance
More trivia about the Saiyaman thing is the design and name is actually pretty exactly based on the character of Riderman from Kamen Rider V3, as he is the only Kamen Rider to have a helmet with an exposed mouth and nose (and of course the poses are right out of Kamen Rider as well). The helmet also more than resembles the Space Sheriff designs from the Metal Heroes franchise, to the point that one of those crappy ass Dragon Ball Heroes things even had a souped up Saiyaman be in robot armor with glowing LED eyes and a lightsaber like the Space Sheriffs do. This makes sense in my head as Dragon Ball's anime has been done by Toei and so are all the aforementioned Tokusatsu shows, so there's some crossover
Best part of the week time! Thank you Lance for such great videos in times like this and just in general. My make my favorite when it comes to Dragon Ball. Congratulations on the 100th installment of Dragon Ball Dissection! Here is to 100 more! Can't wait for the next part!
Here I am doing "all those engagement things.".
I usually never comment but if I had to say something then...
This could have been the point where some new life got breathed into Dragon Ball after such a long time of just fighting and almost nothing else. This was so cool to see and I really would have enjoyed at least a mini-arc of Gohan just doing stuff.
It was so cool seeing the payoff from the Cell Saga, now with Gohan finally just being himself and doing what he enjoys doing. But alas, Saiyans, power levels, and Frieza irreparably changed Dragon Ball forever.
I can see a hypothetical future where the android's Ki drain was permanent (at least it seems like that), nerfing Goku and everyone's power, forcing them to work together and be more strategic. It would have been the perfect arc for that too, since Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaoutzu were alive again, along with new faces like Vegeta, Gohan, and sort of Piccolo since he's on their side now, not to mention the Red Ribbon Army being the focal point of the conflict again. That could have been the arc that merged the old and new in such a cool way, and at the very least be a send off to the series' roots before they'd all inevitably get their power back somehow. I still haven't seen OG Dragon Ball but that would have been so cool regardless.
What Dragon Ball became is more so a bygone era of how entertainment (mostly anime and manga) used to be developed, and I have no doubts Dragon Ball would be hella different if Toriyama had more time to flesh out and think up his story. Considering his situation I'm simply stupefied he didn't cave in or drop the project along the way, especially with all the crap he got during the Cell Arc. In hindsight his stories suffered, yes, but my god was it a wild ride along the way.
I just realized I talked about the Cell Arc more than the Boo Arc. Uuuh, whoops?
I’m really glad the garlic Junior video you did it showed up in my recommended feed one day. I found out your channel because of that. And decided to just binge the entire dissection series. Thankfully I got finished with all of it before this episode dropped. Keep up the great work
I'm so glad to have you along!
I'd rather have seen more of Gohan in highschool, etc then the actual Buu "arc".
Cool stylized intro! Props to you or whoever you commissioned to make it. I also liked how you analyzed Dragon Ball combining martial arts fantasy with the superhero genre.
Well, since I am very proud of the way it turned out, I'm going to unapologetically take credit for making it. So thank you! I'm so glad you like it. And the video itself!
It’s been an awesome ride coming with you on Dragonball Dissection with you.
glad you're back with this series and happy 100th episode.
Oh, I missed this soooooo much! ♥️
Why are your videos always god tier
The Saiya-Jin Arc = Superman/2
Freeza Arc = Alien
Cell Arc = Terminator
Majin Buu Arc = a very loose version of Super Sentai. I know I’m grasping at straws when I’m talking about the entire arc, but it does make sense. It started out as a parody of Super Sentai, one of the good guys turns evil (again), the villains are trying to revive a stronger monster/Kaiju/ youkai/ ma.
Love the insight and heaps of information. Ive been following fpr a while and I just want to say I really appreciate your work and dedication. Kinda made me said that this is the last one. Much love thanks!
I'm so glad you enjoy the series! But this isn't the last one! Part 2 has been out for almost two weeks!
@@MistareFusion I meant last arc. I'm soo up to date haha
Yes! Really looking forward to you talking about this arc!
Oh my god. I did NOT expect this right now.
Time to not-sleep!
The Buu arc has more than its share of problems, and I wouldn't dream of disagreeing with your rankings (both because they're your personal feelings on the matter and because heck, I don't know if I'd rank them any different myself??), but for all the bad, it sure did throw in a lot of good as well! I guess the problem is all those good ideas never really coming together to make a cohesive story...
But still~
Super Saiyan 3: Even if a lot of people don't love this arc, a lot of people sure love this form. And why wouldn't they? It's over the top, but it sure is striking. And powerful. But also flawed. A lot of people seem to not like that part--that in the end, it's introduced, but doesn't solve the problem and beat the villain of the arc. But I'm fine with that? I think the form's flaws make it more interesting. If it had just been another, more powerful Super Saiyan form with no drawbacks, I think it would be boring. Its flaws also tie into...
Ultimate Gohan: Another thing people love. I'm always disappointed to see new Dragon Ball stuff set after this arc have him becoming a Super Saiyan again. I suppose it's okay if that's a result of him not training and somehow losing this ability, but I think it's weird that this works that way? Oh well. The way he gets it is a bit cheap and silly, but it's an interesting turn for the series that never really got picked up or bore fruit in later movies/shows. When Goku comments with amazement that Gohan's appearance has barely changed despite his power increase, the elder Kaioshin says: " Transforming isn’t good. That Super whatever-its-called is the wrong way of doing thing." Seeing the drawbacks and limitations of more and more dramatic transformations like Super Saiyan 3, this could have been a whole new direction for not just Gohan, but Goku and the others to go in as well. What if the next arc had been about overcoming the need for transformations somehow?
Fusion: One of the most interesting techniques in all of Dragon Ball. How much fun have fans had imagining the different character fusions that could be possible? It's so interesting they built a whole game around it! I'm surprised more shows don't use something like it; Steven Universe gets some pretty good mileage out of it, though!
I've heard many people complain that all of these were introduced, and yet not one of them beat Buu and saved the day. Am I the only one who thinks Gohan or Gotenks or anyone just straight up beating Buu in a fight would have been kind of...samey, though? It's not perfectly executed, but the idea of a final attack, against what turns out to be the manga's final villain, fueled by every character our hero has ever met? I think it's really suitable!
I agree that the limitations of Super Saiyan 3 are exactly what make the form interesting.
And Dragon Ball Super, however briefly, did touch on the notion of gaining strength in base form to be of greater importance than trying to get stronger in a transformed state. This ends up going basically nowhere, as Super is nothing if not fanservice catering to people's love of stacked transformations. But the fact that Whis and Vegeta point out the importance of base form training/strength increase to be where it really counts, that it came up at all is still something that I really liked about that and about Gohan's non-transformation power-up.
By the way, that's a pretty good intro man!!!
People who don't know Tokusatsu culture won't get why Gohan does all of those poses. Kyle Hebert in the TV series dub makes Gohan talk like Gary Owens doing the voices of Space Ghost and Birdman and the alternate US soundtrack has John Williams Superman-esque music, so Funi just wrote what they knew and didn't seem to get it either.
I always believed that the Majin Boo arc would have been much better if it was the "Saiyaman Arc". More Videl moments, more Gohan getting to be the main character like the cell Saga implied he would be. More Videl moments. Just. I could have been so good.
Oh, my kami, I've been waiting for this. I discovered your channel last december and I have watched all your DB Dissection videos. Such good analyses. Keep it up, this series is fantastic.