Why do people like Dragon Ball?

I cannot find a way to understand why people like Dragon Ball. The original show (Dragon Ball) was alright, but everything after that just seems like something that would be called slop by plenty of people I've talked to over the years. Why is it still so popular, though?

I don't recall there being any writing in that show that is anything more than like a 4/10. And I definitely don't understand the enjoyment of someone screaming to power up in the middle of a fight every fight. Plus, they ran out of ideas for power level, so now they just added new colors and fancy words? All of Dragon Ball just seems like how Rasengan works.

Not trying to start a fight, which is what normally happens when I ask about DB. Just trying to understand.

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LawfulnessAnxious4952026-01-24 17:40

You have 11" arms guaranteed.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 17:46

If you mean bicep? 13".

No_Cockroach24672026-01-24 17:41

It was their first anime.

Same-Consideration422026-01-24 17:55

This. Afterschool cartoons were great but with enough sugar and caffeine in the blood stream and the ADHD fired up, Kamehameha would send my teen mind into another dimension.. then straight to the garage to practice kicking and punching a bag.

Not to mention Tae Kwon Do/Karate/Judo and the like were super popular. My dad got his black belt around this time so I felt like I was goku and Roshi was my dad. So ya all these things. Oh and of course mortal kombat and street fighter were peak.

Same-Consideration422026-01-24 17:59

A guy in my highschool bleached his hair Super saiyen style and wore a Gi like DB and would practice backflips in the hall. So funny.

Worth_Dependent65322026-01-24 17:41

People like it because of nostalgia, not because it's actually good.

Wolfe2442026-01-24 17:43

I watched it when I was 8 and it was cool. It's not super complicated

Nayko2142026-01-24 17:46

Its like why people still like Mario. Is it simple? Yes, but is it a good time when done well? Absolutely. Its also the main trope codifiers for most shonen still used today. It'd be like whining that Mario 1 isn't as technically robust as a game from today. Its like....duh, of course its not. It was made in the mid 80's, your priorities are skewed if you can't recognize how the first to do it that way was still important and still good overall.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 17:48

The first Dragon Ball felt like an actual story. There was a real adventure happening. The rest didn't. Mario on NES was simple because of coding limitations and time. Mario now still doesn't have a robust story line, but it's better than it used to be. Along with better graphics and more mechanics. Mario at least expanded on things. I feel like Dragon Ball did the opposite. It focused on one thing and set everything to orbit that one thing. Power.

Nayko2142026-01-24 18:11

You’re not really paying attention then…

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:18

Great, I'm not paying attention. Explain it then. What is there of note past DBZ? What in the show is good enough for people to still love what comes out? Like I said before, I'm not trying to start some bs argument that prompts people to not explain anything and say I'm not paying attention. My eyes are wide open looking at you right now. Tell me so I can understand.

Nayko2142026-01-24 18:20

You're not paying attention because you say later stuff has no story when it clearly does. Dragonball is almost always arc to arc, if anything the original DB was the simplest of them all. You also need to look at what was popular at the time, as most stuff wasn't doing long running story arcs at the time.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:24

You've still given me absolutely nothing to go off of. Do not reply again unless you're going to actually explain something. This is not an argument. This is you throwing a fit over what words I've used.

"Look at what was popular at the time" Yeah. I know what was popular at the time. Tons of DBZ was. Which I'm saying was not bad. Everything after that has not seemed to be worth anything. If you cannot explain something post DBZ that is worth talking about, do. not. reply.

Nayko2142026-01-24 20:34

I'll reply all I damn please, and you're not listening. I gave you a perfectly apt metaphor. Super has its problems (and people do have problems with it) but the movies have been good overall starting with Battle of Gods, and Daima was a nice return to form in many regards. You are simply not paying attention. You act like there is absolutely no story in anything post Z and there obviously is.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 20:38

Finally, an actual comment explaining something specific, thanks.

\> Super has its problems (and people do have problems with it) but the movies have been good overall starting with Battle of Gods, and Daima was a nice return to form in many regards.

Thanks for the actual feedback.

Dizzy-By-Degrees2026-01-24 19:08

> What is there of note past DBZ?

The thing people like is Dragon Ball Z and the Original. People are normally very critical of everything that happened in the franchise afterwards. Except for Broly and Superhero.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 19:13

I don't run into people who criticize it ever. Which is why I question things like this. People only talk positively about DB, but after DBZ, I haven't seen anything I've even remotely enjoyed out of the series. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Plus, anytime I do bring it up like this, as you could easily see with the other comments/replies here, people get so damn defensive that I spawn a minefield with the slightest misunderstanding.

Dizzy-By-Degrees2026-01-24 19:30

I just typed in 'Is Jiren a good character?' and found Dragon Ball fans still have a range of opinions on if they thought the parts of Super focused on him were terrible or fine or good. There are people who like the franchise who are critical of it. And some who are defensive but that's every fandom.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 19:31

I'll have to look that up as well. I don't know who Jiren is. I came here to find out how others though, but honestly, I've just run into more asses than I expected... Thanks for the positive reply.

tarkun312026-01-24 17:47

It has good fights and is funny, a story dont have to be complicated or have a 10/10 writing, whatever that means, to be popular and enjoyable, simple stories have their charm, especially when the target audience are young boys who like cool fights and powers

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 17:57

I think the only thing that statement is missing is that the majority audience is no longer young boys. It's like 24-40 now... So while the target audience might be younger, the reason it's popular is not because of them. And I genuinely don't believe the fights are good anymore. I remember the tournament being good, but since then nothing has been even remotely standout.

I didn't mean something had to be complicated or have the best writing ever, but it's like DB (Everything after DBZ) has fairly bad everything, but is still seen as one of the best.

tarkun312026-01-24 18:10

The fact that adults still enjoy Dragon Ball even after growing up proves that the story captivated its target audience to the point of making them loyal consumers, to many peoples a story that was special to them in childhood will forever remain special, even years later.

Anyway,If you think Dragon Ball is bad overall that's your opinion, there's nothing wrong with it, obviously it's not the same opinion as those who like Dragon Ball, whether children or adults; in the end it's basically a matter of opinion and taste.

I also suggest asking this on the Dragon Ball subreddit, if you haven't already did that, That's where you'd find most of the fans if you want their opinion, This subreddit is more of a general anime one, and most people here probably like more recent anime.

Dramatic_Complex_6722026-01-24 17:48

You're comparing db to modern stuff that's the one of the big things. People who grew up in era with the successers to dragonball with more refined storytelling are never going to like Dragonball and think it's the best. Back in the day we didn't have a lot of options and Dragonball was so different than anything in the market or was available to us. It was one of the first battle shounen a lot of us had access to in the west.

I agree Dragonball isn't even that good. But it was the grandfather to a lot of modern shounen.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:00

I grew up around dragonball, naruto, and one piece. Never got into Bleach, but I watched a bit of it. Some Fairy Tale, and plenty of the late 90s/early 2000s anime. I'm not really comparing it to modern stuff. I'm comparing 90% of it to itself. The original DB was alright. probably a 6/10-7/10. Alright writing, especially for when it came out, and good/not bad everything else. Everything after that feels like it's just not a good anime/show at all.

Dramatic_Complex_6722026-01-25 00:16

Truthfully - yea it's not that great. I re-watched it as an adult before I watched Dragonball super (yes - I kept going even though it wasn't that great, because I'd been watching on and off for over 20 years and it feels like a waste to stop).

I'm going to assume there are others like me, that just keep watching for the nostalgia. There's a weird sense of relaxing being with these characters after long breaks.

Ginsan-AK2026-01-24 18:06

I enjoy watching Dragon Ball more than a lot of the modern shonen to be honest.

Shogun_Max_Ultrazord2026-01-24 17:48

Dragonball is just the WWE of Anime.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 17:50

Doesn't the WWE have an actual storyline, though?

The more I think about it, the more this sounds about right, but it still sounds worse than the actual WWE..

Shogun_Max_Ultrazord2026-01-24 17:58

>Doesn't the WWE have an actual storyline, though?

If you're insinuating that Dragonball doesn't have a storyline you should probably inform yourself more before having such a strong opinion.

Dragonball has dozens of story arcs at this point.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:05

The original Dragon Ball had a reasonable story line, but the rest didn't feel like any cohesive story. DBZ had a storyline to an extent. Got very lost after the death, in my opinion, but anything after that doesn't feel like an actual story anymore.

North5142026-01-24 18:36

DBZ is pretty cohesive though, at least until Buu, which sure, that one kinda comes out of nowhere. That said while Toriyama never planned anything, the Saiyan arc, Freiza arc, and the Cell/Android arc connected pretty well to the original storyline. I can't comment on anything post Super though.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 19:24

I'm also specifically not talking about DBZ. I think DBZ was alright, though I agree the Buu stuff made no sense. Anything after Dragon Ball Z feels either redundant or bad.

I never watched GT, but people have said it had the best ending, regardless of how bad the rest of it was.

North5142026-01-24 19:41

An I missed that.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 19:45

Issue is, I genuinely want to know why people still talk positively about things past dbz. But people take that as me just having a bad opinion or a target for hate. It's nice to get some real feedback though.

abandoned_idol2026-01-24 18:34

I love this description.

Especially after South Park parodied WWE as being soap operas aimed at a demographic of male adults.

"I love abortions! What is it that you don't understand?!"

**Poorly voiced shriek**

**slams with a steel chair**

abandoned_idol2026-01-24 17:49

The Dragonball anime adaptation wasn't old and dated back when it was airing.

It's as if you asked me why people like recent anime. Well, they're new!

I'd personally watch a Dragonball re-adaptation (I enjoyed Daima). No, I am NOT going to watch BLUE hair, PINK hair, RED hair milking arcs. I want a reboot of the pre-Z arc, and I'll even watch a reboot of the Z arcs.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:01

That's the thing, I liked (sort of) the original Dragon Ball. I'm talking about the rest of the series. The original DB wasn't that bad, but everything after has felt like slop that gets talked up so hard that I question my own sanity.

abandoned_idol2026-01-24 18:10

As a person that DESPISES Dragonball (I got bored of the piss poor production values, all I recall is that stupid trumpet soundtrack and a panning scene of an empty desert), I am personally still curious to try it out.

I genuinely thought that the Dragonball anime felt cheap and badly paced BEFORE I even knew what anime was, 20 years ago.

I'm even interested in trying out Dragonball Z cuz I like Frieza's character design and japanese VA.

But all hair color changes past the "everybody is blonde now" are without a doubt a symptom of the fans' unwillingness to explore new action anime franchises. Don't heed them too much attention.

The reboots are only a matter of time. I mean, World Trigger got a reboot, so any other Toei adapted anime could get a makeover.

ProfessionalRandom212026-01-24 17:49

Like many old classic media, its was great and innovative for its time but is mediocre at best in modern time. nostalgic and brand recognition carries the popularity in modern time.

Zall-Klos2026-01-24 17:49

The 1980s are different from the 2020s. What was Japanese society in the 1980s?

No-Efficiency63982026-01-24 17:55

“I don’t like something so it makes no sense that others do”

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:07

That's not at all what I mean. I understand that opinions differ, just like anyone with any reasonable arguments should. I just don't get why anything after the original DB and DBZ still talk about the show like it's some masterpiece. And I'm trying to get insight into why people do.

onzichtbaard2026-01-24 17:56

its the original battle shonen slop that people grew up with

if people can like that stuff today they definitely can like the original

Ginsan-AK2026-01-24 18:04

As someone who enjoy Dragon Ball more than FMAB and Hunter x Hunter, it's just more of my type of show, I like chill and fun series more than the serious ones. The writing isn't that bad, it's simple, but fun. Gohan is my favorite character from the show and the high school arc post Cell saga is my favorite arc.

I also like a lot of tropes from Dragon Ball, like the weigh/gravity-training and hyperbolic time chamber. It's just an enjoyable show to sit back and watch. I've rewatched Dragon Ball 3 times, and I would do it again any time.

That said, I haven't watch Super, that just sounds like milking the series to me.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:13

You seem to be the only person with real feedback about the show here, so if you don't mind, I'd like some more insight.

Dragon Ball, the original, I believe was actually a good show. Dragon Ball Z felt alright, but started to lose itself at a certain point. And I agree that some of the ideas like gravity training and the time chamber are pretty cool, but that's kind of it.

Is anything else after this even worth watching? Does anything else in the DB series have any depth beyond "get strong, punch kick kamehameha" ?

Ginsan-AK2026-01-24 20:21

What do you mean by lose itself? At which point?

Anything else after which? After Z? After Super? I've only watched up to Z (and GT) and that's it. The ending of Z is pretty decent.

Not really, DB is as simple as they come, at least to me. If you want depth, Dragon Ball isn't the series for you, but if you want to just enjoy some fun adventure anime with some action, with some character focused arcs, then Dragon Ball would surely provide some enjoyment.

Also just because the story doesn't have "depth" doesn't necessarily mean it's inferior. Dragon Ball does have pretty solid character writing and character growth, it's a "get strong, punch kick kamehameha" show, doesn't mean that it's completely devoid of any substance.

That said, I don't watch a show to write a college thesis on it, I watch them to unwind. Maybe there are some Dragon Ball superfans who are more well versed about the series than me could breakdown the series in a better way. I don't watch this guy, but I think there's a guy called Geekdom 101 on youtube, pretty sure he makes Dragon Ball contents. He could probably provide better insights that you're looking for.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 20:25

After DBZ. I think the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were alright. But everything after just fell off a cliff. Someone mentioned to me that GT has a good ending, but that's kind of it?

Thanks for the more normal reply than what I've been dealing with.

Ginsan-AK2026-01-24 20:34

Well, the only part after Z that I've watched was GT, other than that I haven't watch anything yet, not Super nor Daima. Many fans seem to hate GT but I kind of enjoyed it, but I don't really remember the ending of GT, the Z ending is better for the franchise, or at least more memorable.

I also like that in Dragon Ball, you get to see the progression of time, Goku started out as a kid, and ended up as a grand dad. In many shonen, you don't get stuffs like that.

jomabu232026-01-24 18:12

If you don't like it, you don't like it, but some of us do, and it's not just the nostalgia factor. For me it's Toriyama's goofy humor and an ever-expanding raft of interesting characters.

The fights are not the best part, they tend to drag on (ha! drag on -- didn't even see that:) -- but even there it was fun to see what new tricks and higher power levels (and new settings) T-sensei would come up with.

The fact that Goku got his greatest joy from fighting, and that those killed could not only be brought back via the dragon balls, but could have interesting adventures in the spirit world in the meantime, tended to balance out the brutality and keep the whole thing more in a comical vein.

I had a friend in high school who could not see why people thought the Marx Brothers were funny -- which totally floored me, how could you not? The point being, not everything clicks for everybody.

UMP45isnotflat2026-01-24 18:13

Its actually really good. Vegeta as an antagonist/rival also has the best possible character arc.

And say what you want but all the first SSJ transformation scenes go incredibly hard.

Cybrslsh2026-01-24 18:16

DBZ was an entire generations first introduction to Shonen Anime and is a source of nostalgia for all the kids who watched it on toonami from 98-03. It’s great until it starts getting repetitive on Namek saga was great until they started to fight Frieza and it took 30 episodes to hit all 4 forms, but the build up made super saiyan so much more hype. Android saga was great because they had to face it without Goku, which was stressful, then Gohan was the GOAT against Cell. Buu saga is when it starts going down hill for me. GT and Super are just nostalgic.

But Dragon Ball was great because it was this stupid little kid making adults in a paramilitary criminal organization look like morons. It was funny all the way up to king Piccolo, then it was like “oh shit they killed Kenny… i mean Krillin” and it got real.

Kiokure_Kitsune2026-01-24 18:17

I think a lot of people like it because it was one of their first anime like Pokemon and the shiny over the top action that was entertaining at that age.
I started watching anime in the early 90s but never liked the Dragon Ball art style. I was more of a Fatal Fury, Ghost in the Shell, Slayers, Burn Up kind of fan myself.

dfiekslafjks2026-01-24 18:38

The Broly movie that released a few years ago got incredible reviews. I don't remember anyone saying it was "slop" or part of a "brand".

zsmg2026-01-24 18:46

Nostalgia they grew up with the characters and story and just want to see more of it.

I will say modern Dragon Ball works best as a gag manga or slice of life. [Super anime spoiler] >!The crossover episode with Arale was by far the best episode of Super!< and [Super manga spoiler] >!Trunks and Goten being superheroes was the best stuff in the manga!< but sadly enough I'm in an absolutely minority with this opinion.

NumberOneMom2026-01-24 18:55

>The original show (Dragon Ball) was alright, but everything after that just seems like something that would be called slop by plenty of people I've talked to over the years.

This is the ["Seinfeld isn't funny"](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny) effect. If you go back and watch Seinfeld for the first time today, you might be confused why it's so popular. It might not feel like anything special compared to the shows you've seen before. But it wasn't old or overdone when they did it. In fact, it wasn't done at all: this work was the first one to do that. But the result was so brilliant and popular, it became woven into the fabric of the genre. Its innovations were endlessly repeated, until the audience began to expect that every work of that type would include them. And so a work which was once genuinely novel has become the new status quo. Some works can get away with a dated element because of age and tradition, but these works are dismissed as dated because they've drowned in the sea of their own imitators. The work has retroactively become a cliché storm.

Dragon Ball Z is the Seinfeld of shounen.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 18:58

So nostalgia is carrying the title, basically?

NumberOneMom2026-01-24 19:00

That's a reductive and bad-faith way to interpret the situation. It really sounds like you wanted to post a thread titled "Unpopular Opinion: DBZ is bad" but you were too afraid.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-24 19:02

You, like plenty of others who have replied, misunderstand what I'm getting at then.

The original Dragon Ball and DBZ are the only two things in the entirety of dragon ball that I think are somewhat good. I'm trying to understand why people think anything after that is. I've gotten some good feedback, but always lands back to this crap. Saying that I just either don't know what I'm talking about or completely unhelpful comments like 'It really sounds like you wanted to post a thread titled "Unpopular Opinion: DBZ is bad" but you were too afraid.' that just feel like an alternate way to insult me on reddit.

Powerful-Walk40632026-01-24 22:23

>somewhat good.

That just sounds like a condescending way of saying something is bad, if that wasn't really your intention.
Anyway, I don't know where you got the idea that everything in Dragon Ball is super loved when Super and DAIMA are quite controversial, and before Super premiered, GT was like the punching bag for at least 60% of the fandom.

As others have already answered you, Dragon Ball and especially DBZ were one of, if not THE, main influences for battle shōnen, and if this type of story is successful with people even today, it shouldn't be so strange that its coder is too, especially since people continue to be exposed to it: after the end of the original series and GT, we still had some movies and OVAs over the years, then Kai and then the Super movies, the Super anime, more movies while the Super manga was still running, then DAIMA and, of course, games, like, lots of games.

Dizzy-By-Degrees2026-01-24 19:07

It has reached a nostalgia brand status where new stuff, for good or ill, is often remixing and repeating old ideas that made the original so successful. Same thing with Gundam. Or Yugioh. Or anything past a certain age.

It's why nobody knows what to do with Uub. The end of Dragon Ball establishes he's going to replace Goku as the world's champion. But if you get rid of Goku then there's no more Dragon Ball spin-offs. So all Dragon Ball media kicks the can down the road by ignoring Uub's existence as much as possible.

> everything after that just seems like something that would be called slop by plenty of people I've talked to over the years.

Probably but all those bad anime are just ripping off Dragon Ball. It established rules and genre conventions nobody had seen before and then everyone since has been drawing on it. It's the same reason why Jojo gets a pass for completely changing how fights work in Part 3 when if Jujutsu Kaisen did that in Season 3 it be seen as weird. You can be grandfathered into being cool. Being Dragon Ball and 'a bad Dragon Ball rip-off written 30 years after Dragon Ball ended' are two different things.

> Plus, they ran out of ideas for power level,

Power levels are a joke in Dragon Ball. The idea you can measure power through numerical scores is disproved in the show itself because Earthlings can hide their energy. The guy who uses the Scouters for his army has to physically change his body 3 times to make sure they don't explode around him.

InfiniteEstimate9772026-01-24 20:42

[deleted]

Powerful-Walk40632026-01-24 22:58

Z seems generic only if you look at the elements that the authors of the battle series that came later took from it, and now the new authors who are fans of those series are taking from them as well.

InfiniteEstimate9772026-01-24 23:11

I know the storyline of dbz backwards and forwards so this probably plays into my boredom with it while Dragon ball I didn't like as a kid, so I didn't watch it hence, why I don't feel burned out on it as it was the first time i actually sat down and watched it unlike dbz. I do get dbz was one of the original battle shonens( I'd argue saint seiya was probably the first though) so it's not in the technical sense just a generic shonen as one of the originators but I have pretty much grown out of this particular genre, so this is what I mean by it's generic to me.

InsertRealisticQuote2026-01-26 04:42

People forget that its supposed to be a comedy satire of fighting anime and the hair and power levels are intentional. The problem is that early adaptions drew out the fights to fill air time and made it feel more like just a battle anime.

CyKsFuzzles2026-01-28 12:26

I don't think it was supposed to be satire... It is a comedy with action, but not satire.

InsertRealisticQuote2026-01-28 16:18

The comedy elements such as the screaming to gain power and the hair getting bigger with lower level as well as other comedy elements were meant to make fun of action anime. Its not as direct in its satire as JoJo or other comedy anime. The dbz anime took a much more serious tone and tried to be more action oriented with longer fights as compared to the manga.