INTRODUCTION
THERES a great difference between Akira Toriyama's original Dragonball manga and the TV series
This article is firstly about how Akira Toriyama's manga became the Dragonball Z TV series we know today and secondly about how additional material was added to the TV series that wasn't up to the high standard of the manga and sometimes caused large plot holes.
In November 1984 Akira Toriyama, a manga artist, had the first fourteen page chapter of his new manga in the Japanese weekly publication called Shonen Jump. Toriyama had just finished his previous manga, Dr Slump, after fourteen years but now he had a new manga...
This manga was called Dragonball...
And so the adventures of a child named Goku and teenage girl named Bulma began and slowly the series gained a great popularity so much in fact that a Japanese television company named Toei Animation decided to turn it into a anime (Japanese Animation) TV show. Dragonball premiered in February 1986 on the Fuji Television Network and gained great popularity.
Every week Shonen Jump would come out with another fourteen pages of Dragonball manga and then on a Sunday night the Dragonball TV series (which was behind the manga) would screen.
In April 1989 the Dragonball TV series ended after 150 episodes and a new series called Dragonball Z began (It is important to note that the manga was always called Dragonball even though the TV show was now called Dragonball Z).
What many fans don't know about Dragonball Z is that although the show was basically a animated version of the manga a lot of the animated show is filler material (also called "anime only) that was placed there to stop the TV series from getting ahead of the manga which were both being released at one a week (one chapter of the manga, one episode of the TV series).
While a lot of this filler material is long shots and staring contests (scenes where the two characters just stare at each other) there is some that is not.
WHAT IN DRAGONBALL Z IS ANIME ONLY?
Entire sagas have been made that are just filler material and its likely that if you hate a particular episode of Dragonball Z its because its filler material.
Heres some examples of anime only scenes in Dragonball Z... (I've seen very little of the original Dragonball TV series so can't say much about that)
1. Saiyan Saga Training (Most of episodes 6-15)- After the Raditz battle the next ten or so episodes are mostly anime only material. This includes the following scenes plus many, many others...
- The scene where Gohan meets a dinosaur that is later kiled
- Nappa and Vegeta verses the people of the planet Arlia
- Goku falls off Snakeway into hell
- Goku meets Princess Snake and is nearly eaten by her
- The episode where Gohan escapes from his training wasteland and meets some orphans.
- King Kai's cricket Gregory is only ever seen in the anime. In the manga there is only Bubbles.
2. Journey to Namek adventures (Most of episodes 28-31)- After the defeat of Vegeta by Goku Bulma, Krillin and Gohan journey to Namek and on the way have several adventures...Don't they? Well actually in the manga they don't. Until they reach Namek they never get off the ship. The episodes where they go on a mirror ship full of orphans and go on a fake planet Namek with mind altering aliens only happens in the anime.
3. Bulma's Troubles (90% of episodes 46-47)- On what were some of the most terrible episodes of Dragonball Z Bulma has to journey into a lake to retrieve a dragonball and meets a gigantic crab. When she gets the dragonball she gets captured by two of Frieza's henchman who she then tricks into going back into the lake and they get eaten by the gigantic crab.
4. Ginyu in Bulma's Body - Bulma invents a frog translator and Captain Ginyu switches bodies with Bulma and then tries to steal Piccolo's body....
5. The Ginyu Force on King Kai's Planet - King Kai has the Ginyu Force (minus the captain) members come to his planet to train Yamcha, Tien and Chaozu. Of course Tien, Yamcha and Chaozu beat the Ginyu easily
6. Vegeta's Flashback - Vegeta remembers how he, Raditz and Nappa destroyed a planet in three days and told Frieza but Frieza didn't care. In this flashback Vegeta know that Frieza destroyed the planet vegeta even though he seemed suprised when Dodoria told him.
7. The Entire Garlic Junior Saga - Every single bit of it. In the manga there is no Garlic Junior nor is there the "Spice Boys" or Krillins girlfriend Maron. The episode "Krillin's Proposal" is all anime only as is most of Frieza's Counterattack (the bits with Gohans tutor, Mr Shu).
8. Goku's Ordeal - The entire episode where Piccolo and Goku learn to drive is anime only
9. A Girl Named Lime and The Puzzle of General Tao - The episode during the training for the Cell games where Gohan goes to a village where he meets and girl named Lime and the episode where Goku gets a dragonball from General Tao and does puzzles are both anime only.
10. Losers Fight First - In the anime two of Hercules students (Karoni and Piroshiki) fight Cell before he does and lose badly. In the manga they don't appear at all....
11. Other World Tournament/Cell, Frieza, King Cold and the Ginyu Force in Hell - Goku meets the Grand Kai, Pikkon goes to hell and defeats Cell, Frieza and King Cold, The Other world tournament begins, Goku fights Pikkon and wins...All of this is anime only. In the manga we never see a character named Pikkon (or any of the other tournament entrants) and we also never ever see Grand Kai, East Kai or West Kai (South Kai is seen briefly later on in the series)
12. Gohan Goes on a Date with Angela - In the Great Saiyaman saga Gohan goes on a date with a girl named Angela to prevent her from revealing his secret. This whole episode was anime only.
13. Gotenks vs Fat Buu - In the manga the fight between Gotenks (when hes not a super saiyan) and Fat Buu is never seen but in the anime it is.
As shocking as some of you may find to learn that Dragonball Z creator Akira Toriyama didn't write these scenes for some people it reveals where a large portion of all the plot holes and bad episodes come from.
PROBLEMS WITH ANIME ONLY - #1 BAD, BAD EPISODES
Two main problems occur with anime only episodes and one of those is that most of the anime only episodes are badly written and are just boring to watch
Heres some of my personal episode hates..
Its my personal opinion that two anime only episodes in particular were the worst ever("Big Trouble for Bulma" and "Scramble for the Dragonballs") basically because nothing much happened and you could of missed both those episodes and not really have missed anything.
In second place would have to be the anime only episodes where while on the way to Namek Krillin, Gohan and Bulma land on a planet which they think is Namek but turns out to be just an illusion (Most of the episodes 29-32). The most annoying things about these episodes is after having watched them collect all the dragonballs over two or three episodes is to learn that it was all an illusion and didn't count.
The entire Garlic Junior saga (episodes 93-102) was terrible to watch and didn't make a lot of sense a lot of the time. Firstly theres the Krillin problem which is that in this saga Krillin keeps getting wasted and the next minute hes fine without the need for a senzu bean. I also have a problem that Garlic Junior's not much of a villain when compared to any of Toriyama's creations such as Frieza, Bull, Cell or any of the androids.
Those are my three main hates and after asking other DBZ fans what episodes they hated may said the same as the ones above but some said others such as...
- The episode "Losers Fight First" as Hercules students fight before any of the Z fighters and everyone watching just wanted them to hurry up and die so Goku and the gang can fight!
- Another fan said she really hated the episodes where Gohan went on a date with a girl named Angela and it was a bit annoying.
Despite what I've said previously I don't think all anime episodes are bad and some are quite good in fact...
One of my personal favourite anime only scenes is the one with Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chaozu training in the Pendulum Room in "Showdown in the Past" and its good to see the Illusion Saiyans easily defeat them. You think they are all dead until its revealed that it was all fake. Its far better than the fake Namek which was just annoying.
Seeing villains that have died again (as long as its footage we've never seen before) is always good and so I like Vegetas flashback when he remembers how with Raditz and Nappa he went to see Frieza, Zarbon and Dodoria.
As effective as It might seem to not show the fight between non super saiyan Gotenks and Fat Buu I'm glad we saw it but my favourite anime only episodes are...
I really like the Other World Tournament (episodes 180-184) and especially like the bit where we get to see Frieza, King Cold, The Ginyu Force and Cell again and how Pikkon defeats them all with ease.
Pikkon is probably the best anime only character ever even though we don't find out much about him but that only adds to his mystery. Pikkon is equal to a super saiyan in strength and can easily beat super strong villains like Cell he also has cool attacks like Thunder Flash and Hyper Tornado. The battle with Pikkon against Goku is awesome and I like Goku's "Super Kaioken" even though technically you're not supposed to be able to do a kaioken while your a super saiyan..
This of course brings us to...
PROBLEMS WITH ANIME ONLY - #2 PLOT HOLE CITY!
The Anime is about as bad (probably a little better actually) as FUNimation is creating massive plot holes due to their added scenes.
Probably the worst example of this is Dr Frappe vs Dr Gero. In the Dragonball (not Dragonball Z, Dragonball) anime Goku meets the first android in the Red Ribbon Armys Muscle Tower, Android 8. Android 8 was a peaceful android who didn't want to fight. Goku journeys to the tower to save the mayor of the town and when he reaches the mayor he also finds another hostage who says he created Android 8 named Dr Frappe but as we later find out all the Androids (1-20 and Cell) were created by Dr Gero. See how just by adding something not in the maga it can screw up the story?
The main problem with putting a black and white comic into a colour manga is that you have to come up with colours to use and obviously Vegeta and Nappa's design was changed. When Vegeta is first seen he is wearing green and red armor and brown hair and for alll the episodes with him on the way to Earth he is like this but when he climbs out of his space pod on Earth he is suddenly wearing blue and white armor and has black hair! Theres no explanation given for this either...
Flashbacks are also some of the worst examples of explained things...
When the Ginyu Force lands on Namek and Frieza tells them to go and get Vegeta one of them, Guldo, has a anime only flashback in which he rembers how Vegeta humiliated him. The flashback obviously occurs before Vegeta went to Earth and he therefore should have his tail but the tail is missing!
In another flashback involvling Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz Vegeta explains how he already knew that Frieza had destoyed their home planet after Nappa tells him but if this is true then why was Vegeta so shocked when Dodoria told him the exact same thing?
CONCLUSION - POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Having said all this then what do I wish was different?
I do know that they couldn't have not put all the anime only stuff in nor do I want them to dump it all in fact as I've said above some is quite good. Assuming I were to somehow influence what was put in and what was not would use a couple of rules.
1. Better Written Filler - While some of the filler is well written some is not and some is just plain ridiculous such as the whole frog translator thing. Bulma is in the Namekian wilderness and manages to build a translator for a frog? There a lot of cool stuff they could of had instead of "Bulmas underwater adventures" but no... Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored once said that it wouild be cool to see Mr Popo gathering the dragonballs instead of the endless flashbacks of what only happened two episodes ago!
2. Check the Facts! - Simple research could of prevented many of the plot holes in the anime such as the "Vegeta knowing about the destruction of planet vegeta but when he is told later he is shocked" thing and other things such as the Dr Frappe thing was really not the animes fault I suppose but Toriyamas for conflicting the manga with the anime
By following these two rules the anime filler could of been a lot better
And so ends my ridiculously long first editorial. If you want to see how vastly different the manga is to the anime then I suggest you get one of Viz's Dragonball Z graphic novels and see how much more fast paced it is. Compare the manga to the anime as you watch it and you'll see what I mean.
Laterz!