The (not BL but) Anime Thread

[Kreekakon]

I just finished all 291 episodes of Dragon Ball Z for the first time ever in the Funimation English dub. Took me several weeks of continuous watching to complete this marvelous task.

It really was a outstanding enjoying ride overall from start to end. All arcs have their own strengths, and weakness in terms of enjoyment so it's kind of a shame that not one of them was able to fully employ all of the strengths to create the "super perfect" arc. Btw though my personal favorite story arc is Cell's.

The show does indeed drag on for very long, but it didn't bother me as much as I initially thought it was going to. The show just sucks you in, and spends its sweet time in playing out every single bit of juicy enjoyment that it can muster out of its story/action, and by golly it WORKS. I didn't mind at all that some fights lasted 20 episodes, because I was so suckered in by the show.

Another thing that I don't know whether to call a strength, or weakness of the show is that character flaws are very VERY apparent. This usually manifests in the characters doing extremely stupid, or annoying things. I'm not sure whether, or not I should be bothered by this since on one hand this is part of their character, but on the other some of the things they do are really stupid.

The overall ending of the series wasn't something I would call disappointing, but it left a sort of bad taste in my mouth. It mainly comes from two aspects:

One is the circumstances on how the final main villain Buu was defeated. This is an interesting topic, because it gets me thinking on how much one should relinquish real world realism common sense to create a more optimistic, and wish full-filling scenario. In more spoilerly terms:

Spoiler below!

Kid Buu was defeated by Goku's Spirit Bomb Attack which he created by gathering energy from all of Earth's people. They initially refused to do so out of skepticism when asked by Gou, and Vegeta, but later instantly gave their energy when Mr. Satan (A false hero who took credit for defeating the previous villain Cell) did it.

On one hand it's a very realistic interpretation on how we would react, but on the other hand it's just downright depressing, and cynical to see the entire Earth turn away from what can save their world, and only do it when a false hero does the asking. The whole thing just turns out very depressing.

Which is why I think that sometimes to create a more satisfying viewing experience to the viewer, sometimes it's okay to take advantage of a viewer's suspension of disbelief, and create more wish fulfillment. I would not have noticed it at all if Earth decided to give their energy when Goku, and Vegeta did it.

Second is the actual ENDING ending final scene of the series: Goku is a horrible father, and husband. That is all.

Still though this show was definitely worth every second of my time, and it was a blast to watch all 291 episodes of it, and seeing it through from start to end!

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The next show I am going to watch is going to be Clannad. Main reason for this is because I seem to have a soft spot for D'AAWW mushy cute love stories*, and I heard that this show delivers hard.


*I noticed this trait of mine even more during Dragon Ball Z after Videl came into the show. After she did a whole ton of my attention in the ENTIRE show was devoted to being excited about how Gohan, and her's love life was turning out.

EDIT: Oh and favorite single moment in the show ever:

Spoiler below!