Dragon Ball Z: Season 1, Part 1

Based on: Dragon Ball manga series by Akira Toriyama

Directed by: Daisuke Nishio, Shigeyasu Yamauchi

Produced by: Kenji Shimizu, Kōji Kaneda

Written by: Takao Koyama

Starring (Japanese): Masako Nozawa (Goku & Gohan), Hiromi Tsuru (Bulma), Mayumi Tanaka (Krillin), Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo), Ryō Horikawa (Vegeta)

Starring (English, Funimation dub): Ian James Corlett & Peter Kelamis (Goku), Tiffany Vollmer (Bulma), Terry Klassen (Krillin), Scott McNeil (Piccolo), Stephanie Nadolny (Gohan), Christopher Sabat (Vegeta)

I just couldn't handle how long the first season is! 

I must have some form of TV show ADD 'cause I can't stick with one show for too long. That's why I don't stick out an entire show all at once; I always watch a season at a time and then come back later. When I saw DBZ's first was about 40 eps, I definitely felt very daunted, but I just dove in. Finally, episode 20 came, and I thought to myself "I'm only halfway......?" and kind of internally cried. Then I realized I'm supposed to be actually enjoying myself and decided this is a good breaking point and that I can come back later. 

But it was a good 20 episodes. I actually very much enjoyed it, and part of myself is actually sad that I'm not experiencing the rest of the story. I really do want to know how it ends, but not enough to stick out another 20 episodes quite yet. 

It was definitely better (in my opinion) than Dragon Ball, which I tried first, many years ago. I got a similar number of episodes into that one, maybe fewer, before I quit it. I'm not really into fighting for fighting's sake. I'm also not a fan of perverted characters or sexual jokes and there was quite a lot of both in DB. I couldn't stand Master Roshi and I was very happy he was extremely sidelined in DBZ. 

The story for DBZ got my attention immediately. I liked the idea of Goku having a son and having a member of Goku's species land on Earth as a kick-starter for the series was also very, very interesting. I'm always interested in learning character backgrounds/backstory, especially for characters who I know well that are iconic, but whom I know nothing about. That definitely applies to Goku! And much of the DBZ supporting cast, like Vegeta and Piccolo. I'd heard of all of them before any formal exposure to the series so I'm excited to learn more about all of them. So, the fact that the first episode offered an immediate chance to learn more about Goku excited me very much. 

Goku's Saiyan brother Raditz (Shigeru Chiba/Justin Cook) arrives on Earth, disrupting Goku's life and kick-starting the events of the series

It kept me going, too, despite being pretty slow. Though honestly this slowness is really only the fault of the ridiculous number of episodes. The story itself was actually very dense. If I were able to cut out both the intro and the outro credits, the narrator, and the "previously on," I think that would eliminate legitimately half the episode time. Then if I could stitch two episodes into one that way for double the story per episode, that would very easily cut the full season length in half and provide a lot more story per episode. That would feel less daunting to me and simply make sense. 

Goku & Gohan as the series begins

And the story is good. The writing is really good. As I was watching, I read a review of the first season by Greg Wheeler on "The Review Geek" (not sure how great this site is overall, but the review was well written) that I largely agree with. Wheeler talked about how the first season did a great job of introducing the world of Dragon Ball to new viewers and introducing a fairly expansive cast while keep the story moving and interesting--it's all true. That's all what I picked up on from this first season as well, and it impressed me as well. The season begins with a focus on Goku and Gohan; right where it should be. The fight with the initial Saiyans shows us just how powerful they are, who they are, and who Gohan has the potential to be. It also introduces some important supporting characters without diving overwhelmingly into who they are. 

Then, after this first fight has shown us a wide swath of who everyone's going to be, the show splits everyone up into their necessary individual arcs. Each arc dives much deeper into each individual character, with by far the most emphasis on Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo--again, right where it needs to be. We get varying screentime with each character as their arcs fade in and out of importance. The beginning emphasizes Gohan the most as he's thrown into ruthless but necessary wilderness training by Piccolo, and it barely touches on Goku as he's running along a monotonous path for literal months. Then it switches up, showing Goku encountering obstacles like a demonic princess and falling into what appears to be hell, while Gohan is surviving the wilderness. 

In conclusion, I'm very impressed by the season's ability to keep the story fresh and moving while also introducing so many characters and so many different aspects of the world! I took my break just as the Saiyans arrived at Earth, so I'll be pretty excited to begin the big battle when I get back to it.