DragonBallZ Website

The Television Show

Dragon Ball Z was one of the most popular anime shows ever in Japanese television history. The original series was called Dragonball, and it was based on the manga Dragonball. The series was created by Toriyama Akira in the late 1980's. It was an adventure/martial arts cartoon. After 153 episodes the show's name was changed to DragonBall Z, and it became increasingly martial-arts oriented.

The show got its name from the "Dragon Balls," 7 orange spheres with stars in the middle (1 star in one ball, 2 stars in another, etc. When one gathers all 7 of the balls, the dragon Shenlong appears and grants whoever summoned him a wish. After granting the wish, Shenlong disappears and the 7 balls shoot off to the four corners of the Earth, waiting to be collected again. A young boy, Goku, had one of the balls, and when a girl named Bulma came to find it, he joined her to find the rest and the series of adventures began.

The Movies
There have been 3 Dragon Ball movies, 13 Dragon Ball Z movies and 2 Dragon Ball Z TV specials. Almost all of the movies featured the heroes of the series against new enemies. There were 2 TV specials: The Bardock and the Trunks special. The Bardock Special takes place before the series starts; it deals with Goku's father and how Goku was sent to Earth. The Trunks Special is a 45-minute adaptation of "Trunks The Story," a 19-page description of Future Trunks' origin.

The Characters
Son Goku is the primary hero of the Dragon Ball series. The series started out with Goku as a child of age 12... when his son was born, the series name changed from Dragonball to Dragonball Z. At the end of the series, Goku was 45 years old. Goku is a Saiyajin whose native world is the planet Vegita. He came to Earth right after he was born in order to conquer the planet. Goku's inner rage was awakened when he saw the death of his friend Kulilin, and his Super Saiyajin power came to life.

Son Gohan is Goku's first son. He is the most powerful non-fused character in the DBZ world, but doens't like to fight, rarely using his full strength. Gohan is good-natured boy, polite, bright, and is the first character in the series to have gone Super Saiyajin-2.

Piccolo is Goku's rival. He was born after Goku killed his father. Piccolo fought Goku in the final round of the Tenkaichi-Budokai. He's a native of the planet Nameck, and can regenerate almost any part of his body. Eventually he becomes Goku's friend.

Vegita is called the "bad guy among the good guys." Although he fights alongside the other Z fighters, he is evil. He is the prince of the Saiyajins and has a continual rivalry with Goku.

Trunks is Vegita's son. In his future, all of the Z fighters were killed by the Artificial Humans, except for Goku. Trunks travels 20 years back in time to help Goku survive his disease and defeat the Artificial Humans. After giving the medicine to Goku, Trunks goes back to his own time, but returns again three years later to help the Z fighters battle the Artificial humans.