First off, I'm surprised there aren't many reviews or messages for DragonBall. This is the first review in 2 years. Now, to talk about the DragonBall franchise, clearly it has been a successful franchise worldwide. However, when we think about the franchise, most of us think about DragonBall Z. I even prefer DragonBall Z over DragonBall, and both of them are a lot better than DragonBall GT. Let's face it, Toriyama is the only one who can write the DragonBall series, they can have filler like they do throughout the series with even good sagas like the Garlic Jr. Saga, but if somebody else tries to come up with their own stories, it will fail.
As we know, DragonBall Z came out in America before DragonBall even though DragonBall is the earlier series, and again it seems like Z is more popular. From what I heard, the reason the companies started with Z in America before DragonBall is because they thought DragonBall Z would attract more viewers, which it probably did. Even in DragonBall Z, sometimes they show earlier scenes from DragonBall, and talked about what happened earlier, enough where you don't need to watch the earlier series to get the latter series. DragonBall didn't come on TV in America, on Toonami until 2001. The company also didn't do as good of a job editing the episodes, I mean in Z they have totally different music from Bruce Faulconer. In this series, the main difference is just the dub.
Now, when we think of the DragonBall series, one of the first things that comes to our mind is a Super Saiyan. Super Saiyans are big from the Frieza Saga on. In DragonBall, there are no Super Saiyans. We see Goku with his tail and transform into a Great Ape a couple of times. The Saiyan tails and Great Apes almost seemed forgotten in DragonBall Z after the Saiyan Saga. Also, considering we don't know what a Saiyan is yet we also don't get to know one of the main characters through the rest of the series, Vegeta. He isn't in DragonBall. Despite not getting to know one of our favorite characters Vegeta, or even any other Saiyan or Half-Saiyan, as Half-Saiyans weren't born in DragonBall, we get to know Goku as a kid. We also get to know most of the human characters we know in DragonBall Z, and they play a bigger role in the series. As we know, that how in a lot of DragonBall Z, only the Saiyans stood a chance against the villains.
What else differs in this series, well the series is called DragonBall, and the latter series is DragonBall Z. When we think of the series, we mostly think about the action even when it is called DragonBall. In this earlier series, they seem to show more of their hunting for DragonBalls, which can make it more adventurous. So, that makes it more fun. They also seem to have more World Martial Arts Tournaments, as those weren't big in DragonBall Z until the Majin Buu Saga. We have interesting World Martial Arts Matches where Master Roshi, who is almost of no use in DragonBall Z is Jackie Chun and one of the top competitors. We also don't get to know Mr. Satan who was the main World Martial Arts Competitor in Z.
The fighting in this series is also more simple, because in DragonBall Z even when their power levels kept getting higher, the fighting mostly seemed the same where it would be really fast that normal people couldn't see. Where the fighting and power would shake the entire planet. Characters powering up screaming to their fullest power by going Super Saiyan and killing them with an energy attack known as Ki. Power Level is hardly mentioned in DragonBall. Also, in DragonBall it seems like the villains want World Domination, in Z they want universal domination, so in terms of fighting a more simple series.
If you're at all a fan of DragonBall Z, then this series is for you. It will be almost as enjoyable, if not more enjoyable than DragonBall Z. I don't know see how you could not like it, and it's nice to see the continuous storyline and the earlier parts when Goku and Krillin were cute kids. I give this series a 10/10.
