Dragon Ball Z (Anime)

Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールＺ) is the long-running sequel to the Dragon Ball (Anime). The series is a close adaptation of the second and far longer portion of the Dragon Ball manga written and drawn by Akira Toriyama. In the United States, the manga's second portion is also titled Dragon Ball Z to prevent confusion for younger readers. Dragon Ball Z follows the adventures of the now adult Son Goku who, along with his companions, defends the earth against an assortment of villains ranging from intergalactic space fighters and conquerors, unnaturally powerful androids and near indestructible magical creatures. While the original Dragon Ball anime followed Goku through childhood into adulthood, Dragon Ball Z is a continuation of his adulthood life, but at the same time parallels the maturation of his son, Gohan, as well as characters from Dragon Ball and more. Goku basically learns his heritage while battling Raditz, then Vegeta. Later he travels to Planet Namek to stop Frieza. After that he battles Dr. Gero and an android name Cell. His final battle is battling against Kid Buu.

Plot
Five years have passed since the events of Dragon Ball, and the world is enjoying a reign of peace. Little do the people of Earth know, a new threat is coming to Earth.

As Chi-Chi calling for her son, Gohan. Goku, is shown hopping though the forest behind his house looking for some firewood. After finding and knocking down one of the largest trees in the forest with one punch, he picks it up and heads for home. When he gets there, Chi-Chi asks him to go out into the woods and look for Gohan, so they can go to Kame House. Goku agrees, and Chi-Chi tells him to take the Flying Nimbus so they are not late.

Meanwhile, a Farmer is working in a field, putting a stack of hay into his truck, when he hears a strange noise. He looks up to see a meteorite fall and crash in the fields. The farmer asks himself, "why me?" and gets in his truck to check it out. The farmer takes his pea-shooter with him for protection. He gets to the crater and sees it was not a meteorite at all, but a steel ball of some sort. The ship opens up and a man steps out of it. The man floats out of the crater, the farmer loads his gun and tells the alien (nervously) that he is on his property. The alien presses the button on his scouter and reads his Power Level, which is 5. The farmer shoots his gun, but the mysterious invader catches the bullet in his hand and flicks it back at him, seemingly killing the farmer. His scouter then picks up a high Power Level and he takes off after it, calling "Prepare yourself, Kakarot!".

The scene then goes to little Gohan in the woods, lost and scared. He calls out for his daddy, then starts to cry and runs through the woods. He stops at the giant stump, where Goku knocked down the tree, and sits down, looking up. He sees a beautiful blue and black butterfly land on the tree stump, and as he gets up, the butterfly flies away. Gohan chases after it and it lands on high up on a tree. Gohan tries to climb up to reach it, but miserably fails. He looks around and when he comes back, the butterfly flies away.

Gohan walks out of the woods and hears a noise in the bushes, and thinking it is the butterfly, walks up to it. Instead of a butterfly, it is a Sabertooth Cat. Gohan tries to run, but trips on the ground. Gohan decides the best way is to play dead, so he lays on the ground. The tiger becomes confused, and licks Gohan's face. It tastes him, then takes his red hat (that has a Dragon Ball on it) and runs away with it. Gohan gets up, and realizing that his hat is gone, starts crying, exclaiming his dad gave him that hat.

He gets up and runs into the woods to chase the tiger. The tiger turns around, and seeing the crying boy chasing him, runs as fast as he can. The tiger tries to lose Gohan every way he can, going through bushes, around trees and over large rocks and he still does not lose him. The tiger finally takes a sharp turn and Gohan goes straight through bushes, and over a cliff. Gohan falls quickly, and as he falls, he faints. When Gohan wakes up, he is hanging from his tail upside down from a tree inches away from the ground and not hurt at all.

In a quick scene, Goku is by the stump Gohan was sitting on earlier, calling for him. It then, goes back to Gohan trying to get across a river using stepping stones. He barely gets on one, and calls for his mommy and daddy again. He gets across the river and is walking along the rocks when he sees a blue bird roosting on a log hanging over the river. He says "Hello" to the bird and gets on the log to talk to it. He introduces himself to it and it flies away, so he tries to reach for it, but the log unhinges itself from the rock and Gohan goes into the river with the log. When he tries to grab onto it, the log spins, sending him further down the river, and Gohan calls for his parents.

Meanwhile, Goku is looking around and he sees the Sabertooth Cat with a hat on. He recognizes it as Gohan's hat, so Goku asks the tiger if he has seen him. The tiger growls at Goku and Goku asks again, but more angrily, scaring the tiger. The hat drops off its head and it runs into the woods.

Back to Gohan, he is going down the river on the log when it hits a rock. Gohan lets go of the log and flails around trying to grab the log. He grabs it and calls for his mom and dad repeatedly. Above, Goku is looking for Gohan using the Flying Nimbus and sees his son flailing on the log in the river. Goku calls his name and Gohan calms down once he sees his father above him. He accidentally lets go of the log and grabs the end of it when it turns around. He flies down, and once he is about to reach Gohan, he must fly up because of a small cave the river goes into. Goku flies up as fast as the Nimbus can go to get over the very large plateau. The cave ends at a waterfall, and before Goku can get to Gohan, Gohan goes over. Goku, thinking his son went over the edge, is about to jump over when he hears him crying above. He looks up to see Gohan crying on top of a tree branch hanging over the cliff, above the waterfall. Goku flies up with the Nimbus and Gohan jumps and hugs his dad, thanking his dad for saving him. Goku asks how he got up there. Gohan says that he lost his hat, and Goku puts it on, telling him to go get cleaned up so they can go to Master Roshi's.

Over a city, the mysterious alien is flying in disgust. The scene goes to the evil Piccolo in a wasteland, when he feels a huge power coming toward him. The alien lands and says he thought that Piccolo was this 'Kakarot'. He reads Piccolo's Power Level (which is 322) and says he would be a fool to attack him. Piccolo says he has no intention of starting a fight, but the alien says he does. Piccolo gets mad and fires an Explosive Demon Wave at him, thinking he has destroyed him. However, when the dust clears, the mysterious alien is not even hurt at all. He is about to attack Piccolo with an energy attack, when his scouter goes off. He flies off, saying it is Kakarot for sure. Piccolo gets down and breathes, saying how he hit him full force and he did not even flinch.

The mysterious Saiyan is flying towards the Power Level on his scouter and talks about how he still remembers the day they sent Kakarot to Earth.

After being away for five years, Bulma is invited to Kame House, where Master Roshi and Krillin have been living. Goku arrives shortly, and introduces his son, Gohan, to everyone. Master Roshi points out that Goku named him after his Grandpa Gohan. Bulma is impressed with how proper Gohan's speech is, in light of who his parents are. Goku tells her how Chi-Chi is quite strict about the education Gohan receives, and how she does not let him train Gohan.

Everyone then realizes that Gohan has a tail, and are worry. But after a delicately-worded question to Goku, they are relieved to hear that his family goes to bed early, not giving Gohan a chance to ever see a full moon. However Master Roshi is surprised that Goku still has a lot of strength, especially considering since he has settled down with a wife and a child.

Before they go inside, however, Goku senses a strong presence headed their way. The alien soon appears. Raditz identifies Goku as Kakarot and berates him for not completing his "mission". Kuririn, while unaware of the strength the alien possesses, attempts to show him off the island. Raditz knocks him through the side of Kame House with his tail. This shocks Goku but he gets more shock as Raditz shows everyone his tail. Further as he keeps asking Goku why he hasn't done his mission. Goku gets confuse while Gohan keeps running back to him. As Bulma protects Gohan from Raditz, the former asks Goku if he had a head injury.

Goku thinks that Raditz is insane. But after Raditz asks the question again, he tells that he did had a head injury, including that he still has the scar to prove it. Raditz realizes that Goku had amnesia, but Goku asks what is he talking about. However Master Roshi reveals that there may be some truth to the evil Saiyan's words.

Master Roshi reveals that Goku's adopted grandfather, Gohan found a strange space capsule in the woods, containing a baby Goku. He explains that as a baby, Goku was violent and ill-tempered. However, an accident caused him to fall and hit his head. Therefore causing a case of amnesia in which made Goku forgot about his original Saiyan programming, and in turn changed Goku into the happy, amicable child that everyone came to know and love.

This new revelation shocks Goku, but Bulma wonders what's the relation between him and Raditz. After Kuririn regains consciousness, he tells Goku to watch out for Raditz. Therefore Goku asks Raditz who is. Raditz reveals his name to everyone, and also reveals Goku is a Saiyan warrior. Including that he and Goku are, in fact, brothers. This shocks everyone but Goku refuses to believe everything.

Raditz then goes on to state that Goku's original purpose was to destroy all life on Earth, which he should have done in a matter of years after his arrival. Raditz also reveals that the Saiyans' original home planet, Planet Vegeta was destroyed by an asteroid sometime after Goku's departure to Earth and that there are only four Saiyans left, including himself and Goku.

Finally, Raditz mentions that he needs his brother's help in destroying all life on a distant planet. However Goku refuses as he considers himself an earthling and declared that Raditz isn't his brother. Therefore this prompts Raditz to notice Gohan, who still retains his Saiyan tail, which leads Raditz to threaten the fate of the child. Goku tries to stop him, but is dealt a powerful knee strike to the stomach, which sends him plummeting to the ground. Raditz then kidnaps Gohan, and tells Goku to kill one hundred Earthlings, if he ever wishes to see his son again. This shocks everyone while Gohan begs for his life.

While unwilling to complete the task, Goku sat there and pondered on how get his son back when his archrival, Piccolo, shows up. The others are shocked to see him and immediately take up fighting stances. Piccolo assures them that he means no harm, and offers Goku a hand in defeating Raditz. However, he states clearly that he is not doing it to save Gohan, but rather just wants to make sure Raditz does not conquer the Earth, as he wants to do it himself.

As the others do not trust Piccolo, Goku accepts the offer. He then takes Bulma's Dragon Radar to locate the Four-Star Dragon Ball, that was on top of Gohan's hat. Earth's two strongest fighters then, depart from Kame House to eliminate the threat and rescue Gohan.

Meanwhile, Gohan keeps annoying Raditz by crying out. As he gets annoyed each second, Raditz locks Gohan in his Space Pod. This distresses Gohan further, and for the first time, he starts demonstrating his unlimited dormant potential, as his power level skyrockets. Raditz picks it up with his scouter, but unable to believe that a child could possess such power, he dismisses it thinking that the Scouter malfunctioned.

That was until Goku and Piccolo arrive on the spot. Since the Scouter predicted their arrival, Raditz becomes shocked at realizing that his Scouter is not malfunctioning and that Gohan really does have a power level of 710.

As Goku declines the offer of life as a Saiyan and demands that Raditz give back his son. Raditz decides to give Goku one last look at Gohan before he dies. Seconds later, the powerful warriors begin to do battle. The battle is intense, but even with their combined strength, Goku and Piccolo are caught off guard by the evil Saiyan. Raditz then laughs maniacally at Goku and Piccolo.

While Goku and Piccolo charge towards Raditz to attack, he kicks out backwards and sends them rolling away. He then fires a Double Sunday that destroys Piccolo's left arm. Piccolo, now with only one arm, reveals that he has a secret ace up his sleeve, but will need some time before he can charge up this new attack. Thus, Goku is given the job to stall Raditz for five minutes. As Goku and Raditz begin their fight, once again Goku is unable to keep up with Raditz. He is sent crashing to the ground, and even after unleashing a Kamehameha, Goku is unable to do any kind of damage to Raditz. Raditz then blasts Goku out of the sky with Saturday Crush.

But the time is enough and Piccolo fires his most powerful attack, which he had originally designed to use against Goku: the Special Beam Cannon. The Cannon almost hits Raditz dead-on. However, Raditz is able to dodge it, which completely horrifies Piccolo. The attack did nothing but injure Raditz's shoulder and damage his armor. As Raditz is about to attack Piccolo, Goku grabs his tail. While on the ground, Raditz begs for his life. As Piccolo tells Goku not to let go of the tail, Goku does and Raditz elbows him to the ground.

As Goku is on the ground, Raditz then continues to torture Goku by crushing his ribs while using his foot. As Goku screams in pain, Raditz asks Piccolo to use his attack on him. However Piccolo knows that Raditz will dodge it. As Raditz continues torturing Goku, Gohan watches from inside the Space Pod, and something begins to crack.

After Gohan bursts through Raditz's Space Pod, shocking Piccolo and Raditz. Goku tells Gohan to run away, but Gohan is too deeply enraged to make sense of anything. Raditz, reading Gohan's Power Level to be well above his own, begins to panic.

Suddenly, Gohan charges at Raditz and hits him in the middle of his chest, leaving him mortally wounded. Gohan runs to his father's side as Raditz staggers to his feet. Goku pleads with Gohan to run, but now he is too scared to run. Raditz reads Gohan's power again: it has substantially dropped to one. Raditz knocks Gohan unconscious, which sends him a few feet away.

Raditz approaches Gohan and begins to gather energy to kill him. Raditz reveals that Gohan was the first person to wound him this severely. As Raditz raises his arm for the final blow, Goku puts him in a Full-Nelson, preventing the attack. He tells Piccolo to try the Special Beam Cannon again, even if it means his own death. Piccolo, without hesitation, begins to gather energy for another Special Beam Cannon.

Raditz pleads with his brother to reconsider what he is doing, but Goku only holds on tighter. Piccolo finally gathers enough energy for the technique, and fires it at Raditz. The beam goes directly through both Saiyan brothers. The two fall to the ground fatally wounded. Piccolo approaches Raditz, who is lamenting that Goku foolishly sacrificed his life.

Piccolo tells Raditz about the Dragon Balls and that they can grant any wish, which includes bringing the dead back to life, but Raditz secretly relays the message to his two partners in deep space. Raditz triumphantly tells them that these two are far stronger than him, and that they will very likely come to Earth to use the Dragon Balls to wish him back in one year. Raditz laughs maniacally, and an irate Piccolo finishes Raditz off.

In deep space, Raditz's partners, Vegeta and Nappa, pick up Raditz's signal and learn of the Dragon Balls. Vegeta decides to wish for eternal life, so they get into their Space Pods, and head for Earth. Meanwhile, Bulma, Master Roshi, and Kuririn arrive just in time to bid Goku farewell. Goku's body begins to vanish, which Piccolo states was Kami's doing, while everyone is left to mourn his death and prepare for the approaching threat.

In the afterlife, Kami, having preserved Goku's body for resurrection, escorts the late hero into the presence of the gigantic King Yemma, the judge of Heaven and Hell. He chooses to train with the great King Kai, a being whose position is above even that of King Yemma, before being resurrected by the Dragon Balls.

King Yemma reveals that thousands of years ago, he too trained under this Kai, who is truly a powerful man. After receiving the King's permission, Goku is escorted to the head of the one-million-kilometer Snake Way, the route between King Yemma's palace and King Kai's realm.

Meanwhile, after regenerating his arm, Piccolo takes the unconscious Gohan from the others and carries him away to an uninhabited area. Determining the extent of Gohan's dormant power by hurling him at a mountain, Piccolo tells him that he will draw this power out and train him, whether Gohan likes it or not.

Piccolo leaves Gohan in the middle of Break Wasteland, saying that he will be back in six months to teach him how to fight; if he cannot learn to survive on his own, he does not deserve to live, much less fight. While Gohan bawls to himself on Earth, Goku tries to save some time by leaping entire sections of the very twisty road, but catches his foot on an incredibly sharp scale of the Snake Way and nearly falls into the depths of Hell below. Elsewhere, Kuririn is picked to visit the homestead, where he has to break the bad news to Chi-Chi about what happened to Gohan and Goku, but when directly confronted with the Ox-King and his hot-tempered daughter, he can not bring himself to do so.

Gohan is chased by a T-Rex, and flees up a large rock formation, from which he can not climb down again. Piccolo secretly watches Gohan's activities throughout his time there.

Kuririn, who was unable to break the news to Chi-Chi and the Ox-King about Gohan and Goku, returns to Kame House, where Master Roshi and Bulma are waiting for him. When he tells them what happened Bulma scolds him, and Master Roshi says they can write a letter which makes Kuririn happy. Yajirobe then shows up with a message from Korin: assemble the remaining Z Fighters at the top of Korin Tower, as Kami has decided to train them. The Ox-King and Chi-Chi are hot on Kuririn's trail, in search of her husband and son. Chi-Chi could not care less about Goku, but faints when told about how the "monster" Piccolo abducted her baby.

That evening, a starving Gohan, who is still atop the rock formation, goes to sleep hungry but Piccolo, in a rare display of tenderness, brings him some apples (sour, of course). When Gohan wakes and has to pee, he unexpectedly transforms into a Great Ape. Piccolo realizes that the full moon is the cause of Gohan's metamorphosis, and destroys it with a single blast. He then removes Gohan's tail after he reverts to normal, and uses his Magic Materialization to create an outfit with the "demon" glyph and a sword for the unconscious boy. The power Gohan displayed as a Great Ape causes Piccolo to be frightened by the idea how powerful the arriving Saiyans (Nappa and Vegeta) would be in that state.

After waking up without remembering what happen last night, Gohan panicks when he sees that he is not on the cliff. While washing his face, he also sees that he has new clothes but freaks out that his tail is gone. He then has a hard time walking afterwards. Goku is shown running on Snake Way as he gets hungry he wonders how clouds taste. However when Gohan goes to get breakfast, a group of wild animals chases Gohan when he falls into a hole in the desert, where he discovers an ancient probe robot in the cavernous ruins below. After Gohan reactivates the robot, it tells him not to disturb it, but reconsiders when the boy starts to cry and, reluctantly, watches over him, as he is still dependent on others. Gohan tries to dig the robot out of the sand as it tells him how, eighty years previous, it had been buried by an earthquake as it was excavating the ruins.

However, the unstable cavern begins to crumble around the two, and the robot sacrifices itself to send Gohan back to the surface, being smashed in the collapse. Tears streaming down his face, Gohan overcomes his sorrows, walking away back into the desert.

For the past five years, Yamcha has been working on the side as a professional baseball player for the Taitans. In the middle of a game, he is pulled out of a brawl by Kuririn with the news of Goku's death and the upcoming attack of Raditz's companions. The two of them, and Puar, meet up with Bulma, who still has not forgiven Yamcha for their last breakup, and leave for their rendezvous with Kami in one of her capsule hovercars. Meanwhile, Gohan accidentally shares a cave with an injured Apatosaurus, and after a fright, he tends to its wound with a treatment his father taught him. Suddenly, while he is away gathering medicine, the carnivorous Paozusaurus that pursued Gohan earlier attacks the wounded Apatosaurus. Gohan leaps to the wounded dinosaur's defense with his new sword, but is no match, and as the boy is knocked unconscious while the unlucky dinosaur is eaten. After Gohan wakes up he sees his friends skeleton and moves on.

As Gohan endures his survival training, he becomes stronger; so much so that the meat-eating dinosaur has had the tables turned on it and is instead being eaten from the tail up by Gohan as he continues to slice off parts of its tail with his sword and cook the pieces.

Elsewhere, Vegeta and Nappa, heading for Earth, decide to take a short detour to a planet called Arlia to stretch their legs a bit. Nappa is disappointed with the barren, reddish, desolate planet, but then two insect creatures (Arlians) appear riding on giant millipede-like steeds. When the two Saiyans refuse to capitulate to the aliens, the Arlians both blast them with beams of energy from their mouths, and are confident that they have killed them. They are shocked when the smoke clears, revealing an unharmed Nappa and Vegeta. Nappa moves to retaliate against their attackers, but Vegeta tells him to hold off for now and "surrender," so they can be taken as prisoners and have a little fun with their captors.

They surrender and are chained. The Saiyans are taken to a large, ruined fortress and put in the dungeon. Their cellmate is an Arlian named Atla, who explains the planet's current desolate state to them. Apparently Arlia was conquered by the evil King Moai, who among other things took Atla's bride, Lemlia, away from him on the day they were to be married and had Atla imprisoned. However the two have both managed to hold on to the gold wedding bracelets they exchanged as gifts.

Elsewhere in the fortress, King Moai is watching two of his guards, Lesoy and Greger, fight a duel in an arena. This is apparently a regular occurrence. He invites Lemlia, a pink female Arlian in a white shroud, to come and watch the fight with him. She politely refuses. Annoyed, and noticing she is still wearing the gold bracelet Atla gave to her, Moai reminds that she is his queen now, and to forget her past. She replies that her love for her imprisoned groom will never change. Just then, Lesoy wins the duel by stabbing Greger in the abdomen.

The King declares him the new champion, and orders the loser, Greger, to be put into "the pit." Two guards seize Greger and drag him to a raised portion of the floor. One pushes a button, and the floor opens, dropping the defeated fighter down into a cavernous anteroom located underneath the arena. As he pleads to be let out, something gigantic rises up out of the shadows behind him. Seeing it, a terrified Greger calls it "Yetti" and pleads with it to stay away from him.

The king, still with Lemlia in the arena, complains of "royal boredom," prompting a guard to inform him of the recent capture of the "aliens." King Moai sounds interested, and orders some guards sent to the dungeon for them. However Vegeta and Nappa have already let themselves out and approach the steps leading to the king and queen's thrones. When told they killed some of his men while escaping, Moai is angry. Nappa irreverently insults the King, who is suddenly impressed with "the shiny-headed one," and decides to see how he'll fair against the new arena combat champion, Lesoy. He sadly complains that "the little one" (Vegeta) does not look like much of a warrior, though. Lesoy steps forward and moves to attack the Saiyans. Before he reaches them, Vegeta raises one finger and fires a beam from it, which beheads the Arlian.

King Moai is shocked. The Saiyans are further unimpressed and desire to fight all of the King's warriors, and so Moai summons all of his men who surround the Saiyans with swords drawn. He gloats that they can not defeat his elite fighters, but then Nappa begins laughing as electricity arcs over his body and the ground shakes. The Arlians look on in growing alarm, and then, with a scream, Nappa raises two fingers, and all of the King's guards disintegrate in a bright flash of light which rocks the entire fortress.

Moai, clinging to his throne to steady himself (Lemlia does the same alongside him), yells for "Yetti" to be released. The section of the floor covering "the pit" is opened, and the thing which ate Greger before rises up into view on a hydraulic platform. Yetti is finally revealed as an Arlian exactly like the others, only over fifty feet tall and incapable of speech. Vegeta and Nappa look excited, as an indignant Moai commands Yetti to kill them. The gigantic and cannibalistic Arlian begins a lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to kill the two Saiyans, swatting at them with his massive hands and firing Eye Lasers.

To Moai's growing dismay, Yetti is doing more damage to his arena than either of the Saiyans. Yetti throws a punch at Nappa who is standing on the ground. Nappa catches his hand, stopping the punch, and the two struggle against one another. The bald Saiyan finally wins by ripping off one of Yetti's fingers, and then dodges as Yetti attempts to grab him with both cupped hands. Tired of fooling around, Nappa hurls a Bomber DX at the flummoxed Arlian, completely destroying him. Terrified now that his biggest and best fighter has easily been killed, Moai attempts to flee, hiding behind his throne. Disgusted by the King's cowardice, Vegeta sends a hail of debris flying at him. A sharp rock pierces Moai's torso, and then the top half of his throne breaks off and crushes his neck, pinning his dead body against the arm of the throne.

In the meantime, it's discover that upon escaping the dungeon, Vegeta and Nappa did not kill Atla, who hurries to the arena, having heard the sounds of battle during his search for Lemlia. He is shocked to find King Moai dead and all of his guards nowhere to be found. Realizing that the Saiyans have freed their people, Atla hails them as heroes. Vegeta ignores him and uses his scouter to summon his and Nappa's spacepod. They climb in and fly away even as Atla is still exulting over the King's death. He is distracted however when he turns and sees Lemlia, who survived the battle. We now see she has a pair of beautiful butterfly wings.

In space, Vegeta and Nappa exit their pods and look down at Arlia. Nappa comments on how Atla said they were their heroes, and Vegeta, finding the planet to be annoying, fires his Galick Beam which destroys Arlia entirely just as Atla and Lemlia run happily into one another's arms. After watching the planet get blown up, the two Saiyans decide to resume their journey to Earth.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the blonde Launch is seen on her S-Cargo being chased by the police in the Mushroom Forest after robbing a bank. She manages to blow up one of the police cars with her Rocket Launcher and outruns the other one.

Piccolo pours on his training; even becoming capable of levitating pyramids using telekinesis. Not knowing his own strength, however, he loses control and accidentally causes great cracks to form in the surrounding continent, not to mention smashing the pyramids. Elsewhere, Gohan is in the middle of his own training when he is swallowed by the resulting fissure. Panicked for his life, he barely escapes with his own skin.

Meanwhile, Launch has found Tien and Chaozu training near a waterfall, and with her famous tact. She tries to win Tien's heart with food. Needless to say, she fails. Kuririn and Bulma show up, and when Tien hears the news, he also decides to accept Kami's training. On Snake Way, Goku has hitched a ride on a passing street sweeper. Exhausted, Goku falls asleep and an accidental bump causes him to fall off the road.

Still asleep on the cleaning truck, Goku falls into the very heart of Hell, where he awakens on impact. He finds a well-tended tree growing there and tries to snack on its fruit, unaware that it is the exclusive property of King Yemma. He is knocked out before he can touch any by Goz and Mez, two heavily-muscled guardian demons, and strikes a bargain with them: if he can outperform them at one game of their choice each, they will put him back on Snake Way.

Meanwhile, Gohan is shown playfully dodging the Sabertooth Tiger as he gathers berries and nuts. He speedily dodges and jumps away from the beast, eventually tiring it out to the point of exhaustion. After which Gohan takes off again as he prompts the big cat to keep on chasing after him.

Goku manages to beat Goz at a sumo match, and defeats Mez in a game of tag that ranges all over Hell. Good to their word, they try to put him back on the Road using a seesaw, but Goku keeps smacking his head on the invisible one-way barrier between Heaven and Hell. Lacking any other way to keep their side of the deal, they show him the secret route back to Snake Way, but it lets out inside King Yemma's desk drawer. Now Goku has to travel the entire length of Snake Way from the beginning again.

Gohan while still being chased by the quickly tiring Sabertooth Tiger, witnesses Piccolo honing his powers by levitating rocks and boulders, and creating a gigantic controlled whirlwind that manages to rotate a whole circle of land in a complete 360 degree circle. Meanwhile Kuririn, Yamcha, Tien, Chaozu and Yajirobe gather at Kami's Lookout and begin their training. Meanwhile, Goku continues to tread the Snake Way from the beginning, where he encounters a castle on one side that wasn't there before. Inside, he meets the beautiful Princess Snake and her attendants, who are immediately smitten with him. She tries to ply him with food, dance (Goku thinks the Tango is a form of martial arts) and a hot bath, but, when none of these stop him from trying to continue along the path, she plays her ace card: a sleeping potion.

A magical mirror shows that his dreams are only of Chi-Chi and Gohan. Spurned, she reveals her true form, an evil princess that tempts travelers along the Snake Way. Goku narrowly escapes the castle, which, after the illusion is dropped, turns out to be the goddess' true body: a monstrous fire-breathing snake. As she pursues him a while on the Snake Way, Goku manages to tangle her up into a knot and continues along the million-mile path.

Eight months remain until the Saiyans reach Earth, and Gohan is shown continuing his previous studies before being taken from home by solving a complex math equation, though this isn't enough to keep him from missing his family. Meanwhile, Piccolo, remembering his earlier battle with Raditz, speeds up his training by splitting his body into two, creating an identical twin that he can fight against. Elsewhere, Gohan is just finishing the construction of a home-made sand yacht which he will be using to try and cross the desert. In transit, he is attacked by a Sand Eagle which tries to lash out and grab him with its gigantic talons. He manages to maneuver the craft to avoid the air-strikes, but in dong so, drives himself into a patch of rocky land which slowly wears away at the fragile craft.

It finally goes to pieces on a downhill incline ending in a sheer cliff face where Gohan comes upon (and nearly lands on) the Sabertooth Tiger that has appeared previously in the desert. Once the eagle gives up on Gohan, it leaves him, not knowing that Gohan has not disappeared, but is merely hidden in a pile of sand that he had fallen into when he landed. Once he digs himself out and sees the Sabertooth (though he hardly pays attention to its growling) he realizes that he is on a beach, which in turn means that he has found the ocean. Trying to find his house, he sets off running to try and find his home by following the beach. He is followed shortly afterwards by the Sabertooth Tiger, who seems to have grown somewhat of an attachment to him. While Gohan manages the beach's rocky terrain with relative ease, the big cat seems to have quite a bit of trouble as it desperately tries to follow the young boy. The Sabertooth finally manages to catch up with Gohan when it finds him asleep after he seems to have eaten a large fish, leaving only the head, tail, and bones behind because he didn't even realize that the beast had been following him. The Sabertooth attempts to eat the meager scraps left behind by Gohan as he sleeps.

When day breaks yet again, Gohan starts off again with the Sabertooth following behind yet again. The two travel the beach for quite a while as Gohan continues to attempt to find his home, they bond quite closely as Gohan is shown trying to pull the Sabertooth back up the face of a ledge it had apparently fallen off of. As all of this is going on, Piccolo continues his intense training with his clone, as he battles with himself in order to get stronger. They battle fiercely, Piccolo's strength and speed having grown considerably with his training. But they are too evenly matched and neither one can beat the other. The Sabertooth is shown waking up just as Gohan is departing, and barely manages to get on its' feet quick enough to start following him as he fades out of sight. Back home, Chi-Chi is shown being terribly depressed as Ox-King tries his best to cheer up his daughter, as he says that she hasn't eaten anything in the past week. She won't let him in, however, and he states how she really misses Gohan and Goku.

Finally, after running the along the beach for several days, he comes across a the same gigantic stone wall that he had encountered when he first found the beach. Once he gets around it, he finds both the remains of his sand-craft, and his footprints from before. After realizing that he had somehow walked in a complete circle, he runs past the weary tiger and into the woods, his destination, a gigantic mountain. Once he scrambles up the mountain's side and reaches the peak, he looks around him and realizes that Piccolo has actually stranded him on a gigantic deserted island. Once he realizes this, he resolves to somehow get off the island and get home to his home. After much careful planning, he designs a raft that will be enable him to sail off the island. Elsewhere, Piccolo continues to push himself past his limits, namely by continuously firing his Special Beam Cannon. Though he continues to cause massive damage to his training grounds, he is still unsatisfied and continues his harsh self-training.

Gohan, in order to gather the needed materials to build his raft, chops down a gigantic tree with his bare hands, then prepares it for building by using his sword to chop of the branches and leaves. He then drags it onto the beach where he chops it straight down the middle of the trunk and works at hollowing it out as the Sabertooth tries its best to help. The sun sets just as he is finishing his work on the raft. He pushes it out into the water and bids the downcast Sabertooth farewell, promising to come back after he has seen his mother. It continues to watch him as he paddles out into the sunset and howls in its sadness. Once he finds himself out far enough, Gohan releases the sail and allows the wind to carry him out to sea. Overjoyed at being on his way at last, he enjoys the beautiful ocean and marine life as his ship leaps across the waves. Sensing something amiss, the two Piccolos cease their fighting. Once he realizes that something is off with Gohan, he re-joins himself into one being and flies off to see what is amiss.

Gohan, asleep at sea, awakens when it begins raining and a violent storm begins tossing his small craft around in the waves. Though he struggles to pull the sail down, it tears and he is left at the mercy of the gigantic storm swells. He begins eating the food he had brought with him to keep up his strength when his ship starts taking on water. He begins bailing out the water and reveals that he cannot swim as he works to keep his craft afloat.

Sensing that Gohan is out in the storm somewhere Piccolo flies into it to try and find Gohan, but the harsh conditions keep him from doing so. Gohan's ship finally falls apart under the strain and he is left clinging to a piece of lumber that he managed to hold onto. He is then swept into a water spout and flung around as Piccolo continues to search for him.

Difference Between Anime and Manga
Filler is used to pad out the series for many reasons; in the case of Dragon Ball Z, more often than not, it was because the anime was running alongside the manga, and there was no way for the anime to run ahead of the manga (since Toriyama was still writing it, at the same time).

The company behind the anime, Toei Animation, would occasionally make up their own side stories to either further explain things, or simply to extend the series. Filler does not come only in the form of side stories, though; sometimes it is as simple as adding some extra attacks into a fight. One of the more infamous examples of filler is the Frieza Saga. After Frieza had set the planet Namek to blow up in five minutes, the final fight with Frieza still lasted well over five episodes, much less five minutes, although this can be attributed to the fact that Namek simply took longer to explode than Frieza expected. Also, there were many numerous filler scenes that took place while the battle with Frieza was in motion, which accounts for much of the footage during the planet's explosion.

As the anime series was forced to expand 12 pages of manga text into 25 minutes of animation footage, these changes were introduced to kill time or to allow the (anime) writers to explore some other aspect of the series' universe. The Garlic Jr. Saga (Garlic Jr.'s return from the Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone movie) between the Frieza Saga and Trunks Saga, and the Other World Tournament between the Cell Games Saga and the Majin Buu Saga are both good examples of this.

Besides having filler scenes and episodes, there are many other changes from the original manga. Among them are the following:
 * In the anime, when Tien loses his arm while fighting Nappa. His arm becomes a stump with only a small amount of blood seen. But in the manga, the scene is much more dark and gory.
 * In the manga, Frieza kills Cargo. But in the anime, Dodoria kills him.
 * In the manga, Appule finds all the Namekians in the village attacked by Vegeta dead and tells Frieza, who just tells him to call the Ginyu Force. But in the anime, Appule is killed by Frieza when he tells the former that he killed the last survivor of the village without asking him where Vegeta was.
 * In the manga, after Frieza survives Goku's Spirit Bomb, he immediately strikes down Piccolo with his Death Beam technique. But in the anime, he fires his beam at Goku. However Piccolo jumps in the way to protect Goku, and get struck down by the beam anyway.
 * In the manga, Frieza's full power was still never a match for Goku's Super Saiyan form. But in the anime, Frieza appears to have the upper hand for a short time before he begins to tire.
 * In the anime, when Vegeta is brought back to life on Planet Namek, he manages to witness some of the battle between Goku and Frieza, as well as Goku's Super Saiyan form, before being teleported to Earth by the Namekian Dragon Balls. But in the manga, he is teleported to Earth almost immediately after being revived and does not get a chance to see Goku as a Super Saiyan for the first time until Goku returns to Earth himself later on.
 * In the anime, when Dr. Gero first appears in the series (as Android 20). He grabs a man by the neck and tears him through the roof of a car. But in the manga, he the same thing. However after tearing the man through the roof, Gero crushes the man's neck, and tears his head off.
 * In the manga, when Goku fully recovers from the Heart Virus. Chi-Chi finds him simply looking out the window of the bedroom he was resting in at the Kame House. But in the anime, Chi-Chi finds him outside the house, firing several Kamehameha blasts across the ocean.
 * In the anime, during Gohan and Cell's Beam Struggle. Piccolo, Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha unsuccessfully try to distract Cell before Vegeta succeeds in doing so. But in the manga, they all simply observe the struggle. Whereas Vegeta is the only one to attack Cell from behind.
 * Though the flashback of Future Trunks and Future Gohan fighting Androids 17 and 18 in both the anime and the manga, there are notable discrepancies between the flashback and the scene depicted in the TV special Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks. In the manga, Gohan had not lost his arm yet and Trunks had not yet achieved his Super Saiyan form too. But in the anime, Gohan has one arm and Trunks has a sword.
 * In the manga, Goten wears a black long sleeve shirt inside of his orange gi. But in the anime, Goten wears a blue long sleeve shirt inside of his orange gi.
 * In the manga, when Goten meets his father for the first time. He becomes shy and hides behind Chi-Chi. But in the anime, he covers his face by hiding behind Chi-Chi. Afterwards Goten tells his name to Goku, and runs to hug him.
 * In the manga, when Vegito fights Super Buu (with Gohan absorbed). Vegito immediately transforms into his Super Saiyan form. But in the anime, Vegito fought in his base form for a while before becoming a Super Saiyan.
 * In the manga, when Goku begins his battle against Kid Buu, he transforms immediately into his Super Saiyan 3 form. But in the anime, Goku starts the battle as a Super Saiyan 2, and manages to hold his own against Kid Buu for a while before ascending to Super Saiyan 3.
 * In the manga, many characters have a different number of fingers on their hands; such as Piccolo (3 fingers and a thumb), Dodoria (3 thumb-like fingers), and Imperfect form Cell (two long fingers and a long thumb). But in the anime, everybody has human-like hands with 4 fingers and a thumb.

Movies and OVAs

 * Movies


 * Dragon Ball Z movie 1
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 2
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 3
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 4
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 5
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 6
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 7
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 8
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 9
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 10
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 11
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 12
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 13
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 14
 * Dragon Ball Z movie 15
 * TV Specials


 * Dragon Ball Z TV Special 1
 * Dragon Ball Z TV Special 2
 * OVAs


 * Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans
 * Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!
 * Episode of Bardock

Sagas

 * Japanese version titles


 * Saiyan (Ep. 1 - 35); 1989 – 1990
 * Frieza (Ep. 36 - 107); 1990 – 1991
 * Cell (Ep. 108 - 194); 1991 – 1993
 * Buu (Ep. 195 - 291); 1993 – 1996


 * English version titles


 * The Vegeta Saga (Ep. 1 - 35; originally known as The Saiyan Saga)
 * The Namek Saga (Ep. 36 - 67)
 * The Captain Ginyu Saga (Ep. 68 - 74)
 * The Frieza Saga (Ep. 75 - 107)
 * The Garlic Jr. Saga (Ep. 108 - 117)
 * The Trunks Saga (Ep. 118 - 125)
 * The Androids Saga (Ep. 126 - 139)
 * The Imperfect Cell Saga (Ep. 140 - 152)
 * The Perfect Cell Saga (Ep. 153 - 165)
 * The Cell Games Saga (Ep. 166 - 194)
 * The Great Saiyaman Saga (Ep. 195 - 209)
 * The World Tournament Saga (Ep. 210 - 219)
 * The Babidi Saga (Ep. 220 - 231)
 * The Majin Buu Saga (Ep. 232 - 253)
 * The Fusion Saga (Ep. 254 - 275)
 * The Kid Buu Saga (Ep. 276 - 291)

Theme Songs

 * Japanese


 * "Cha-La Head-Cha-La":
 * Version 1: Ep. 1 - 21 (not on FUNimation's DVDs, except for the remastered version of Dead Zone and the Season 1 Blu-ray)
 * Version 2: Ep. 22 - 117
 * Version 3: Ep. 118 - 199
 * "Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!'": Ep. 1 - 199
 * "We Were Angels": Ep. 200 - 291
 * English


 * "Main Title" (AKA "Rock the Dragon")
 * "Dragon Ball Z" (AKA "DBZ Theme")
 * "Dragon Ball Z Uncut Theme"
 * Endings: most English endings are simply shortened or otherwise altered versions of the openings, however The Ultimate Uncut Special Edition release used "Summon Up the Dragon".

Voice Cast

 * Japanese


 * Masako Nozawa as Son Goku, Son Gohan, Son Goten, Bardock, Future Son Gohan, Gotenks, & Vegito
 * Mayumi Sho as Chi-Chi (Ep. 1 - 66)
 * Naoko Watanabe as Chi-Chi (Ep. 88 - 291), and Puar
 * Hiromi Tsuru as Bulma, Future Bulma, Baby Trunks & Bra
 * Ryo Horikawa as Vegeta & Vegito
 * Takeshi Kusao as Future Trunks, Trunks, & Gotenks
 * Toshio Furukawa as Piccolo
 * Mayumi Tanaka as Kuririn, Yajirobe & Fortuneteller Baba (Ep. 190 - 287)
 * Toru Furuya as Yamcha
 * Hirotaka Suzuoki as Tien
 * Hiroko Emori as Chaozu
 * the late Kohei Miyauchi as Master Roshi (Ep. 2 - 260)
 * Hiroshi Masuoka as Master Roshi (Ep. 288 - 291)
 * Junpei Takiguchi as Fortuneteller Baba (Ep. 9 - 34)
 * Naoki Tatsuta as Oolong
 * Yuko Minaguchi as Videl & Pan
 * Shigeru Nakahara as Android 17
 * Miki Ito as Android 18
 * Tomiko Suzuki as young Dende
 * Hiro Yuuki as Teenage Dende
 * the late Daisuke Gori as the Ox King, Turtle, King Yenma, King Cold, Porunga and Mr. Satan
 * Osamu Saka as Grandpa Son Gohan
 * Toku Nishio as Mr. Popo
 * Ichiro Nagai as Korin
 * Takeshi Aono as Kami
 * Takahiro Fujimoto as Bubbles
 * Yusuke Numata as Gregory
 * Katsuji Mori as Nail
 * Joji Yanami as King Kai, Dr. Brief & the Narrator
 * Yoko Kawanami as Mrs. Brief
 * Hikaru Midorikawa as Pikkon & Android 16
 * Tomiko Suzuki as Marron
 * Megumi Urawa as Uub
 * Yuji Mitsuya as Supreme Kai
 * Reizo Nomoto as Old Kai
 * Ryusei Nakao as Frieza
 * Sho Hayami as Zarbon
 * Masaya Onosaka as Burter
 * Daisuke Kishio as Jeice
 * Seiji Sasakias Recoome
 * Norio Wakamoto as Cell
 * Kozo Shioya as Majin Buu
 * Kenji Utsumi as Shenlong
 * English


 * Sean Schemmel as Goku (adult), King Kai & Nail
 * Stephanie Nadolny as Young Goku, Young Gohan & Baby Trunks
 * Kyle Hebert as the Ox King, Pikkon, Teenage Gohan, & the Narrator
 * Christopher R. Sabat as Piccolo, Yamcha, Vegeta, Grandpa Gohan, Kami, Mr. Popo, Korin, Shenlong, Bubbles, Gregory, Zarbon, Burter, Jeice, Recoome and Porunga
 * Linda Young as Frieza and Fortuneteller Baba
 * Cynthia Cranz as Chi-Chi & Mrs. Brief
 * Tiffany Vollmer as Bulma
 * Sonny Strait as Kuririn & Bardock
 * John Burgmeier as Tien
 * Brad Jackson as Oolong
 * Monika Antonelli as Puar & Chaozu
 * Kara Edwards as Young Goten, Videl & Gotenks
 * Laura Bailey as Young Dende, Kid Trunks & Gotenks
 * Mike McFarland as Master Roshi & Yajirobe
 * Eric Vale as Future Trunks & Teenage Trunks
 * Robert McCollum as Teenage Goten
 * Megan Woodall as Bra aka Bulla
 * Chris Rager as Mr. Satan
 * Chuck Huber as Android 17
 * Meredith McCoy as Android 18 & Marron
 * Kent Williams as Supreme Kai & Old Kai
 * Dameon Clarke as Cell & Future Gohan
 * Josh Martin as Fat Majin Buu, Kid Buu
 * Justin Cook as Teenage Dende, Evil Buu, & Super Buu

Trivia
all information on the Dragon Ball Z (Anime) came from http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball_Z
 * The Japanese version of Goku and Gohan being played by the same voice actress, is how the Naruto franchise does with Naruto and Boruto in the English version. But this was only done for one Naruto video game. However the Japanese version of Adult Naruto and Pre-teen Boruto follows the English version of Adult Goku and Pre-teen Gohan being played by two different people.
 * The Japanese version of Chi-Chi and Goten being played by two different voice actresses, is how the Naruto series does with Hinata and Himawari in the Japanese version.
 * The Dragon Ball franchise has their What-If scenarios shown in the video games. Whereas the Naruto franchise shows their What-If scenarios in the anime. With an example being Tsunade's Infinite Tsukuyomi dream during the Fourth Shinobi War arc.
 * Tenshinhan is a style of Chinese food.
 * Chaozu in Japanese is spelled the same as "gyouza", a popular chinese dish of meat dumplings.
 * The Japanese letters for "Saiya" can be rearranged "Yasai", or vegetables. All true Saiyan names have vegetable references. Examples of this: Kakarot => Carrot, and Vegita => Vegetable.
 * Frieza, Cooler, and King Cold's names are all based of cold stuff. Of course, you probably should have realized that. What you might not have known is that almost all of the Ginyu Force, Frieza's henchmen, are all named after food! Interesting, huh? For instance, Burter is based on butter, and Ginyu is japanese for milk.
 * Cell's name is based on the fact Cell himself was created using the cells of various Z Warriors.
 * The original and uncut format of Dragon Ball Z contains 291 episodes and 4 sagas: the Saiyajin Saga, the Freeza Saga, the Android Saga, and the Majin Boo Saga.
 * All namekian names are based on instruments and gastropods (snails/slugs). Piccolo = piccolo, Nail = snail, Cargo = escargo, Slug = Slug, Drum = drum, Tsuno = Horn, Tambourine = Tambourine, Dende is derived from "den-den-mushi" which is used to describe any mollusk of the Gastropod class.
 * Bibidi, Babidi and Buu come from the chant "Bibi-dee babi-dee boo" from Cinderella.
 * Gohan is the Japanese word for boiled rice.
 * Chi-Chi is a Japanese word for breasts.
 * Tsufuru comes from the word Furutsu (fruits) and namek comes from Namekuji (Slug).
 * Another name pun: The name of Mr. Satan's daughter is Videl. If you rearranged the letters in her name, you get the word devil.
 * Bra, Vegeta and Bulma's daughter is named after underwear as well.
 * Masako Nozawa said that she loves voicing Ghan in the Strange Robot episode. She also said that during the production of DBZ, that even though she was playing Goku. Masako was unaware that she was owing to play Gohan in the first episode.
 * Stephanie Nadolny's inspiration for her East Kai voice was based off of her Aunt. She had also auditioned as the English voices of Chi-Chi, Bulma, Chiaotzu, Android 18, Videl, and Goten. Sadly she ended up with Kid Goku, Kid Gohan and baby Trunks. Whereas Kara Ewards won Kid Goten and Videl. While Meredith McCoy got Android 18, while Cynthia Cranz won the role of Chi-Chi. Monika Antonelli won the role of Puar and Chiaotzu, whereas Tiffany Vollmer won the role of Bulma.
 * Meredith McCoy had auditioned as the English voices of Videl & Kid Trunks. Sadly she didn't get the roles, she got No. 18 while Laura Bailey won the role of Kid Trunks.