Tuesday, August 23, 2005

   Marathon Viewing Finally Complete!!!
Today I finished an anime series that I have been watching pretty much every other day since just before last Christmas!!!! There is only one series that could take that amount of watching, it is, of course, the Dragonball series!!!!



Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT are without a doubt, one of the most famous collections of anime out there and I thought it was about time I checked what all the fuss was about. So, with the the help of an old buddy, cheers Morbo (Soooo many DVDs!!), that's what I did!!

I have to say I was surprised, the Dragonball series has had alot of harsh criticism as well as praise from people, and in some ways I can see where they're coming from, but overall I really enjoyed it.

To get the best from these shows you really have to see them uncut, I was lucky enough to see the whole thing uncut, including the earlier episodes of DBZ.

The original series Dragonball, REALLY surpised me, it's the best of the three by far. It's where it all started and has a great mix of action and very silly gag style humor, Master Roshi is by far the best character of those earlier episodes!!! It's a good set of stories, and showing the characters grow into what they become in the next series Dragonball Z. It's just about the right length, as well, at 153 episodes, it feels complete.

Dragonball Z, obviously the most famous and popular of the 3 series, follows straight on from DB. The earlier episodes of DBZ ,to me, were the best bit of the series. The stories were much darker and the action started to look a little better, a punch really does draw blood and break bones, it was like BD had grown up!! But as the series went on I found the stories less compelling. However, saying that, I can't deny that the transformations and battles look cool (I dont care how immature that makes me sound!! Lol)in the later episodes and the animation really does jump up in quality.
I think my biggest criticism is the length of the show, 291 episodes is alot, and that time isn't always spent so well, it drags a little at times!! It's still a good series overall though and is where the original stories in the Manga ended. However, a new series of episodes were written.

Dragonball GT is the last of the series, and the shortest at 64 episodes. I'm not sure about this series, it looks great, the animation is top-notch compared to the earlier shows and it does try to capture some of the feel of the original Dragonball, but I felt that 64 episodes was enough. Also, this has to have one of the most conclusive endings I've seen to any anime!!! Again not bad, but to me it just wasn't the same, most of the characters I knew from DB were gone or were only in one episode, and the newer characters just weren't as good!! A series that's still above average but not great!!!

I spose I better wrap this up!! Overall I was pleasantly surprised, this is a good series with some excellent story lines, and unique style. Akira Toriyamas' character designs look like nothing else in anime. It's definately worth a watch, if not just for the original Dragonball, as long as you have the time to invest in all 508 episodes of these three series!!

PHEW!!! Long review, then agian, it's a LONG series!!!

LATER!!!! ^_^




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