Close to the anime, but a true fighter it is not.
What I've found many people doing is staying still while powering up so they can unleash their finishing move, and hopefully end the battle, never really taking advantage of the space you have to fly around and confuse your opponent. To get the most out of this game, the magic word is imagination. Try hiding somewhere while you power up if you start to feel overwhelmed, teleport, fly around, mix in ki blasts with rushing your opponent then throwing them into a mountain, or building or whatever, quickly followed by a finishing move. Mix things up and be quick, you'll start to feel like you are in the show. The problem is that if you have never been into Dragonball Z, then I don' t think the game will make too much sense to you, because you won't know how the characters fight. You have to imagine, when fighting, how the character would fight in the anime. For example, SSJ 2 Vegita is a relentless bastard, and if you learn how to fight with him, you'll make mince meat out of your opponents. He has fast and powerful moves that if mixed together well, really feel like you are Vegita.