DRAGONBALL Z

There are anime and then there are exceptions to the rule. Most anime focus heavily on telling a good, intricate story and intersparsing action, with story, with romance - in this perfect fantasy that blends all themes together. In that giant pile of the same, Dragonball Z stands out as a scion and an expert of very specific themes that are explored in depth.

The most obvious of these themes is heroism, where protagonist Goku undergoes the traditional coming of age tale through the original Dragonball series and emerges as an adult hero at the finish of the first series. Goku has established himself as a master of the martial arts and a hero, and has disappeared and settled into the woods with his wife Chichi and newborn son Gohan. From there, aliens invade and Goku learns that he is not of Earth, but was sent to Earth as an infant to destroy it. Goku is a "Saiyan," one of few survivors of an ancient warrior race that comes from the planet Vegeta. Goku and friends embark on on a journey to save the world from various threats over the next ten years. Before the end of its 300 episodes, Goku will die, be reborn, raise his son up as Earth's new hero, die again, and return to Earth as a God (basically) to face one last massive threat before the canonical series comes to an end.

Dragonball Z is a masterpiece. It is one of the few anime to excel in specific areas instead of trying to play all of the themes at once. It covers areas that people tend to dismiss as childish, and they tend to compare it unfavorably to other anime and call it unsophisticated. But the fact is, DBZ EXCELS in so many areas that other anime can't quite nail down. Dragonball Z is the perfect suspense story, drawing excitedness for the series with its grand, universal scale and the sense that things are on the line. It is also a true utopia, because in Dragonball Z there are no goodbyes.

There is no death is Dragonball Z. When a character dies, he is shown to be alive and well in a seperate dimension and is simply not allowed to return to the living world. But in Dragonball Z resurrection is possible and astounding easy, granted the death was not natural and the circumstances in the story didn't prevent certain characters from being revived. And the cool thing is that this explores a certain level of unknown that has the anime feel extremely genuine. What if you could die and go to another world that is almost exactly the same as this one (interpersonally, anyway) and just wait and have fun up there while your friends live out their lives and its certain there will be a reunion. What would it be like if you could die knowing that its possible for you to come back? Dragonball Z is a master at exploring this side of reality, and it creates a balanced system of chaos where characters die constantly throughout the series and the tension was high. There is one character who literally dies three times throughout the series. And the series ends with him still alive. The result is an anime that holds no bars, because essentially there was nothing to lose until there were beings introduced who had powers to distroy all existance, including the after life.