Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball franchise.

Dragon Ball Z – Saiyan Arc (Episodes 11 – 20) Review

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It’s time for ten straight episodes of almost entirely filler as the Saiyan Arc grounds to a stop for “not catching up to the source material” reasons, something that actually stops for the most part after this, adopting the “making each episode agonisingly slow” method instead. Having said that I have strong and very happy memories of watching some of these episodes on TV when they first aired (two episodes a day, it has to be said, and some of these filler stories were cut entirely) so I don’t mind some of these stories purely with nostalgia goggles on. Let’s take a look!

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Dragon Ball DAIMA – Episodes 13 – 20 Review

David Hogan2 Comments

My review of the first 12 episodes can be found by clicking HERE.

Quick dive back into currently-airing anime but sticking with Dragon Ball, the latter half (ish) of Dragon Ball DAIMA has now aired and its time to look at how the series ended. It’s a very odd one honestly and it sets up something of a new continuity going forward rather than sliding in between Z and Super. It also has some extremely lazy writing and some very odd plot thread drops that makes me think that maybe Toriyama didn’t finish his draft for the finale before he passed… Well, either way, let’s take a deeper look.

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Dragon Ball Z – Saiyan Arc (Episodes 1 – 10) Review

David Hogan3 Comments

It’s been a long time coming but after covering the whole of the original series it’s time to finally start covering Z. This is definitely one of those things I put up thinking “doesn’t the internet really need someone reviewing such an iconic series in 2025? What’s left to say?” Well… nothing really, but after covering the criminally under-looked original series I wasn’t going to leave it there! So let’s take a look at the first 10 episodes, because the Saiyan Arc is so comparatively short but I still wanted a consistent four-ish parts. Thanks to pacing issues future arcs will have higher episode chunks, I have no doubt…

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Dragon Ball DAIMA – Episodes 1 – 12 Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Dragon Ball DAIMA (is it all caps? Not sure, I’ll go with it…) was originally just a 40th Anniversary celebration mini-series, but sadly it’s now turned into Akira Toriyama’s swansong with the franchise after his passing last year. So does it work as both? Yes! DAIMA has Toriyama’s old sense of fun adventures with the odd childish gag here and there that he loved to write so much, but it also has added a lot of lore and continuity to the franchise to give it a little bit of a kick as it enters its 41st year. What will happen to the franchise after DAIMA is up in the air, so let’s just enjoy the start of this full stop at the end of the original creator’s run, shall we?

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Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (PS5) Review

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Sparking! Zero has finally arrived after months of hype thanks to a great marketing effort and my own nostalgia for the Budokai Tenkaichi series this is a sequel to, and I’m relieved to tell you the game lived up to that hype, and then some! It goes without saying that if you want a more serious, competitive fighter then this isn’t the game for you, but if you want a fun Dragon Ball game then you can’t get much better. Let’s take a look!

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Dragon Ball Super (Manga) – Super Hero Arc (Chapters 88 – 103) Review

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Sometimes films can be great ways to tell stories but other times you’re left wanting a bit more behind the characters and story, and in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’s case… I wasn’t really left with that feeling. Hey-ho, I also wasn’t going to say no to this Manga version adding a larger focus on Trunks and Goten as teenagers as a prologue, and the extra couple of chapters worth of epilogue was good fun too, but the actual adaptation in the middle was nearly entirely just that: a straight adaptation. Obviously now that Akira Toriyama has passed the manga has gone on hiatus with no idea whether Toyotarou will continue the series without his idol’s story guidance it might be the end of the series entirely, and in that sense it does end on a very pleasant note. Let’s take a look!

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Dragon Ball – Wedding Dress Filler Arc (Episodes 149 – 153) Review

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The original Dragon Ball series comes to a close with these five filler episodes, and while most of the time its perfectly normal to shudder at the phrase “Filler Arc” this one is actually quite entertaining. I mean I still don’t think it really adds anything beyond seeing Goku and Chi Chi’s wedding at the end (Spoilers? Though it’s sort of in the title of the arc… and my thumbnail…) but if you’re going to artificially add more episodes then this was at least fun and told a mini-story rather than random singular episodes or a really obnoxiously long arc. So let’s take a look and finally close the book on the original DB series!

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Dragon Ball – 23rd Tenkaichi Tournament Arc (Episodes 140 – 148) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

It’s time to wrap up the final story arc of the original Dragon Ball series… well, it would be if this was the manga (though that was technically just called “Dragon Ball” the whole way through) but ignoring the post story filler arc, this is the big finale as Goku and Piccolo do battle in one final epic Dragon Ball battle before the beam-fests and teleporty fights that follow in Z. How does it hold up? Why, let’s take a look, shall we?

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Dragon Ball – 23rd Tenkaichi Tournament Arc (Episodes 133 – 139) Review

David Hogan2 Comments

After what seems like forever it’s time to wrap up the original Dragon Ball series with the final arc (and that mini filler arc the anime team added afterwards…) What always strikes me about this arc is how it’s the exact opposite of the 22nd TB arc in that there is very nearly no filler whatsoever making it back-to-back fights with little breaks. The one-day tournament is back to actually being a one-day tournament! So let’s take a look at the preliminaries and the opening round, shall we?

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