What's the best Dragon Ball arc?

>gohan being the savior comes out last minute with what started off with what seemed like trunk's journey so there is a big disconnect there.
What? The idea that Gohan has a great power hidden in him what set up from almost the very beginning of Z. His power being revealed is actually one of the best things in the series

Saiyan was hardcore going in blind. Here you are years later, all your characters you've known all your life are at the strongest they've ever been, then you watch as each one gets literally killed for the first time ever save for Krillin in brutal ways and you have no idea if this is meant to be the finale to Dragon Ball, or a bad dream or something.

Right, it has build up moments sprinkled here and there but it's nonexistent in the cell arc up until the cell games so it seamed like a random time for us to have that be the resolution point, especially given how his character develops after word in subsequent arcs

So who was supposed to kill Cell?

If I had to say based on how the arc was framed, future trunks.

Ginyu Force arc

The MC showing up last minute and then shitting on the bad guys is peak Shounen

Attached: whenthetemplateisjustright.png (600x652, 78K)

How though? How would Trunks be able to kill Cell without it being a complete ass pull?

Anything that isn't super

i actually really really like the buu saga.
i don't know, the artstyle and animation from the buu saga was my favorite for some reason

Attached: 1559262146324.png (371x353, 148K)

GT

21st was kind of dull. The 22nd and 23rd are vastly better.

Attached: 1565062781119.gif (1280x720, 2.28M)

21st had the best fight

Red Ribbon Army.

Anything after the first timeskip is shit.

Saiyan Saga. Re-read this arc some time ago and it still holds up. The part where Goku's pals were killed one by one while he desperately raced through Snake Way was peak tension building.
While this may be an unpopular opinion I've always loved Kaio-ken way more than SSJ forms. Risky power-ups >> consequence free ones

Attached: 1.jpg (700x1064, 350K)

22nd Budokai for me. I just love the Goku vs. Tien fight. It really showcases that DB’s prior focus was the martial arts over the ki blasts.

Attached: C5A43831-22C7-4E73-A8BA-2CD01F08181B.gif (500x375, 1.03M)

It wouldn't be the exact same events unfolding with trunks just replaced at the end, there are more problems with the arc as I have mentioned before. The main problem is gohan being non essential to the plot the entire arc until he steps into the ring. I only mention trunks becuase the arc was presented to us as it being his problem and his story.

Goku vs Tien was good but the fight one was really too one sided. Goku should have been able to so easily counter Tien's special techniques like his multi arm shit

also,seeing how Goku broke Nappa's back after all the terrible shit he pulled was very cathartic.

youtube.com/watch?v=uw6N1qv2_Io

Goku vs Jackie Chun is better

This
Piccolo is great, but Saiyan just ups the stakes so hard

That's a hard one. Everything before Cell is top notch. I'd pick the 23rd tenkaichi budokai. Goku vs Piccolo Jr was peak Dragon Ball for me

Attached: 1031350-finalfight_super.jpg (600x450, 41K)

Cell > Frieza > Buu
They were all pretty great

>People think the saiyan saga was good

pls it was peak Toriyama in terms of art but you know what it cemented? It cemented the majority of the cast falling in to obscurity and no one could do anything relevant ever again unless they were a saiyan.

Attached: DxkYcPdWkAIL2xb.jpg (683x1024, 111K)

Peak Toriyama art is Dr. Slump - early Dragon Ball

Everyone but Goku jobbing and being decoration was cemented way back in King Piccolo days. Goku's rival from the arc prior couldn't even beat one of the main villains lieutenants.

This

Tournaments in DB are the peak Dragon Ball, and everything Z, GT or Super offers is inferior to those.

Pilaf

The only time when Yamcha seemed like a threat

It had some the best writing in a shonen series. Everything that involved Vegeta was gloriously written

Buu saga had really well animated fight scenes.

Attached: original.gif (500x240, 974K)

I really dislike the buu saga but even I will admit that Mr. Satan in particular was written incredibly well

Attached: 1561639627652.jpg (720x880, 75K)

>The middle sort of slows down with the androids being non threatening as the plot finds a better villain
This is the best part of the arc though. We have all these inconsistencies between Trunk's story and what happens in the current timeline, and then the weird shit starts popping up, the second time machine, the egg, and the Cell reveal is peak kino. The arc gets mediocre as soon as Cell gains the second form and it starts settling into being about a bunch of fights with nothing more to it.

This

Attached: db165a5af7252933f913302e6b05285995b08af1_hq.gif (500x375, 957K)

Hard to see actually discussion about DB.
Imo DB is peak shounen. I still read the manga once in a while, and it's hard to beat the feeling. No wonder so many mangakas are inspered by toryama, the fight direction, art and how plot moved a week at a time was great.
And the anime was at a time toei was bad but not too bad.

Namek > Buu > Saiyan > Cell

I'm talking about the manga of course, toei subhumans seem to really hate Buu saga but I don't know why and neither will I watch it to know

Abridged

It's Namek hands-down.

>constant threat of several overpowered baddies provides real tension
>Vegeta doing keikaku
>Gohan developing character
>side characters get to be relevant for a while

King Piccolo arc for me.

Namek
Piccolo Jr.
King Piccolo
Saiyan
Tenshinhan

These are the best ones.

>It had some the best writing in a shonen series
>Buu
There is better writing in Dragon Ball itself let alone all of shounen

Buu Saga is a mess and I can see why people think it's the weakest arc, but I honestly thought it was the best way possible to end a series. The way I see it Toriyama is just having a nice [laugh] at everything he built up. I don't want to go "deconstruction" territory, but when you really think about it he really pushes logic of his own world to its absolute limit and definitely breaks some conventions. For example, in Dragon Ball most villains and heroes ended up being preys of their own whims like Frieza not immediately squashing Goku and toying with him without hands and humoring him or Cell setting up the whole Cell Games thing and pressing Gohan to the breaking point, or hell, just fucking Vegeta letting Perfect Cell happen. And the you have fucking Buu who is literally a creature of his own whims so much he doesn't fucking care what the fuck Babidi wants him to do, he literally fucks off to screw around until he rises up against him, literally only to do whatever the fuck he wants. And then you have Super Buu who literally killed everyone on Earth, it's done, it's fucking post-apocalypse, heroes lost. And then you Gohanks who was set up as the weapon against Buu which Toriyama set up only to backfire spectacularly. The absolute worst things that can happen happen in most ridiculous way imaginable and plans don't go the way they were supposed to, it was a lot of fun for me to watch first time. I also absolutely love Kid Buu, the way I see him, the way he fights, no wonder Goku didn't want to waste him, Goku throws absolutely everything he knows at him and Kid Buu just supernaturally adapts and makes himself a canonball or decides fuck it, I am going to fight upside down. The reaction Goku had to Kid Buu is probably the same reaction people had to Goku in early Dragon Ball, it's really beautifully made. Written, choreographed and animated.

>It cemented the majority of the cast falling in to obscurity
That was happening waaaaay before Saiyan arc or did you forget Goku taking out an entire army single-handedly

I always loved the first arc and wish the entire series could have been more about adventures instead of tournaments and a big bad.

GT was supposed to be that until they backpedaled.

A lot of people severely overlook Namek saga as the pinnacle of Toriyama's creative talent. There is a very good reason why Freeza remains Dragon Ball's most popular villain.

Namek arc is like an upgrade of the Saiyan saga but with even more stakes. Unlike Saiyan, the heroes can't train, only Goku does and that's on the way to Namek. Half the arc is the cast having to strategize how to get the DBs away from these monsters even stronger than the guys who killed their friends, while Vegeta stages a single-man assault on Freeza's army. Some of Vegeta's best moments were in this arc.

Even when Goku arrives and whoops the Ginyu Force's butts, he still ends up in critical condition and then the Freeza fight, while long, is just one big "god we're so fucked" after another which really makes the Super Saiyan thing so cathartic.

Attached: poster,840x830,f8f8f8-pad,1000x1000,f8f8f8.jpg (1000x1000, 150K)

I agree

What about the Cell arc and Majin Boo arc?

Not as good as Namek.

This guy gets it.

Probably one of the first tournaments.
Goku's character doesn't translate well as an adult.

what is your opinion on the Gods of Destruction and establishing that they were infinitely more powerful than any previous villain?

Attached: bogspecialcomic_315w.jpg (315x500, 126K)

King Piccolo closely followed by Saiyan

Literally every villain in Dragonball is infinitely more powerful than the previous one so it makes no difference

Beerus was the strongest for several arcs until Jiren showed up

The only remotely good thing that came out of Super is Zamasu. The rest was a fucking disaster.

>for several acts
He wasn't even the strongest in his OWN act.

We got TrunksxMai as well

>The rest was a fucking disaster.

What's wrong with Battle of Gods?

What fucked the Buu arc up was the fusions but the fights and the development for some of the characters was amazing. Vegeta’s sacrifice is the type of moments writers dream about writing

It was some the shittiest shit I’ve ever seen. Not only was everything ugly as fuck but the main cast wasn’t even worth the time