Dragon Ball Z

To start off, this was one of the first animes I watched, and it was back when I was watching the raw Japanese versions and understood little Japanese. While I will praise this anime for helping me get interested in Japanese and anime, it is definitely not THE anime.

Dragon Ball Z is actually one part of three series in the TV version: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. Akira Toriyama, the original author, only drew up the first two series in his manga, which probably explains why GT did so poorly. Another interesting point is that while the anime stretches out the Majinbuu saga's end for many episodes, the end of the saga is lightning fast in the manga, going from Bejitto being formed to the very end in one issue. I think Akira Toriyama was getting tired of Dragon Ball at that point.

Anyway, Dragon Ball is not a bad series, but there are better things out there. The plot of the anime is basically non-existant, unless you think "I wanna be the strongest" by itself constitutes a brilliant plot. Character development is really present either, unless you consider how Goku changes from the very beginning to the very end.
You have to give credit to Dragon Ball Z where it is due though - this anime/manga has revolutionized a lot of things in the industry, especially in bringing anime to the US.

FINAL SCORE: 77