Dragon Ball Z

 

Story Line

In the version that is shown on YTV in Canada, the story begins mid-way through the Dragon Ball Z series. Raditz, Goku's brother has traveled to Earth to find out why Goku has not yet destroyed the planet as he was supposed to do. But while as a baby, Goku was dropped (down a huge cliff) and forgot his real mission. Kakarot, Goku's real name battles his brother Raditzs along with former enemy Piccolo and friend Krillin. Meanwhile, Gohan; Goku's son reveals his hidden powers against Raditz and nearly kills Raditz. However Goku is killed in the end, but Raditz is eventually defeated by Piccolo. Before he dies, he tells them that two evil Saiyans even more powerful than he is, are en route to Earth. The remaining fighters, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu begin their training to battle the evil Saiyans, while Piccolo takes off with Gohan to train him in using his newfound power. Meanwhile, Goku has to make his way back on Snake Way to King Kai's where he trains himself in the secret.

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru) is an internationally popular media franchise. It consists primarily of a manga series created by Akira Toriyama, five anime series (Dragon Ball, Z, GT, Super, and Heroes), twenty anime films, seven anime specials, three live-action films, five anime OVAs, four anime crossovers, two anime PSAs and a high-def remastered recut of Dragon Ball Z (truly faithful to Toriyama's manga). Dragon Ball has an extensive online fanbase and is consistently one of the most frequently searched-for terms on Google, Yahoo!, and Lycos. As of January 2012, generating $5 billion in merchandise, Dragon Ball is one of the most merchandisable anime-based media franchises of all time.

The story and characters of Dragon Ball were partly inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, though they diverge from the novel very quickly. The plot follows the adventures of lead character Son Goku (just simply known as Goku, originally under his Saiyan name Kakarot and is based on the Monkey King of the folk legend, Sun Wukong) from his childhood through his adulthood. The story includes elements both of action and comedy, though the series became more action-oriented over time.