As I was thinking of a good nostalgic post - I felt Dragon Ball Z would be a good one. I confess I haven't been updating on Dragon Ball Super while realizing Dragon Ball GT is no longer considered canon. Now, I'd like to write about the Dragon Ball Z saga which I felt was more of a massive toy commercial. It would be the Buu Saga. One may argue that the Cell Saga had some unmet potential (like how King Cold was too easily destroyed when he's Frieza's father), the Dragon Ball Z movies tend to have missed potential due to how non-canon they are. Now, it's time to talk about the final arc of Dragon Ball Z which felt more than a toy commercial and unfulfilled potential.
I'm not saying there aren't great moments. I still felt that the Buu Saga had a great start. For instance, Gohan himself has had years of lack of training and must regain his powers. There's also the survival of the Universe at stake since the legendary Buu monster is about to be unleashed. There are also interesting parts in Gohan's teenage life when he became the Great Saiyaman, his love interest in Videl (Hercule's daughter), and how the characters cope up with growing old. For Goku though, he's been dead for some time so I wonder if he grew much older after he was wished bach? New characters and new challenges were there.
I remembered getting fascinated with the MASSIVE Dragon Ball Z toyline especially the Buu Saga. New characters and forms were introduced such as Gotenks (fusion dance of Goten and Trunks), Vegitto (the Potara fusion of Goku and Vegeta), Dabura, Super Saiyan 3 Goku, Ultimate Gohan, and the Buu characters. However, I felt that many of the new characters and forms were simply introduced for this reason - Toei Ltd. wanted to SELL MORE TOYS. It felt like what happened with Choriki Sentai Ohranger when the mecha overload is apparent. Most of the stuff in Ohranger hardly even met its full potential since we had a primary robot, a secondary robot, a carrier mecha, then we quickly had a secondary combining robot, a new A.I. robot, and the addition of Gunmajin. Ohranger felt like a wrap-up of almost everything that was introduced in the late Noboru Sugimura's era as a Super Sentai headwriter. I felt the same happened to the Buu Saga toyline.
I felt the Fusion Concept was just there to SELL MORE TOYS than write a plot
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Majin Buu was finally awakened but only as Fat Buu. One unmet potential was the Fusion concept. The concept was later revisited in the non-canon Fusion Reborn movie. I personally find it weird the Dragon Ball Z franchise has to create non-canon movies but not for the Super Sentai franchise. The Super Sentai VS. Movies are all what-if scenarios and most of the events from Himitsu Sentai Goranger up to the latest tend to be self-contained except for a very few series. The Fusion concept was introduced so the heroes can have a chance to defeat the evil that's Majin Buu. But how did Toei Ltd. deal with it? I'd like to talk about the wasted potential.
There are some parts devoted to Goten and Trunks devoted to learning the fusion dance. At one point, my younger sister even thought Piccolo and Goku would fuse into one during the training saga. They finally perfected it. There's also that scene where Fat Gotenks tried to fight Fat Buu. Eventually, Gotenks as a fused being tried to fight Super Buu. Super Buu is basically Evil Buu with some human sanity before turning into its original form as Kid Buu. What happens next is rather unflattering - Super Buu absorbs Gotenks and later Ultimate Gohan - something I'd write about too.
Goku and Vegeta both used the Potara earrings. In Fusion Reborn, they non-canonically did the Fusion Dance to become Vegito. The character was cool and managed to hold on against Super Buu. The fused character of Vegito was later absorbed right into Super Buu to rescue Piccolo, Gotenks, and Gohan. The two characters were defused which just made Vegitto just as "Hey kids, buy this toy!" as much as Gotenks was. I guess Bandai was too concerned about toy sales at that time. Granted, it was 1994 to 1995 and we know 1995 is also the year when Ohranger aired. I guess Bandai and Toei Ltd. didn't just want to sell Super Sentai mecha - they wanted to milk out Dragon Ball Z as much as possible.
Gohan's training to become Ultimate Gohan was also done for ANOTHER TOY
Another thing worth noting is the treatment of Gohan later in the saga. I could get over how Great Saiyaman was a gimmick for Gohan to hide his identity as a crime fighter. Gohan was probably more than okay that his future father-in-law, Hercule, lied about defeating Cell. Gohan probably enjoyed a lot of peace and quiet in between the end of the Cell Saga and the beginning of the Buu Saga. The writers had decided to build another hype on Gohan. However, like Vegito and Gotenks, he was simply going to get wasted.
Gohan goes to the Supreme Kai's world for some training. I heard that Gohan was supposed to be the one to defeat Buu eventually. Gohan underwent a training regimen to unlock his potential as Ultimate Gohan. However, like the Fusion Dance of Goten and Trunks, it all WENT FOR NAUGHT. How did it all go for naught...
Like Gotenks, the whole training regimen was wasted BECAUSE Super Buu was going to beat Ultimate Gohan too. Wasn't the purpose of Ultimate Gohan to defeat Super Buu? I could understand if Majin Vegeta's kamikaze attack was meant to fail. Chiaotzu's kamikaze attack on Nappa was meant to fail too. I guess they wanted to discourage the suicidal tendencies in a land where suicide is a real problem. Sadly, the late Tatsuya Nori (who played Daigo in Gosei Sentai Dairanger) died of suicider rather than natural causes. First, Gotenks is wasted, and now Ultimate Gohan. What was the point of the training exercises anyway IF and IF these character potentials will be just wasted? I could get over Majin Vegeta's failed kamikaze. True, Vegeta's my favorite character in the series but I think Majin Vegeta's failed attempt to stop Buu was good writing.
Ultimate Gohan felt like he was just, "Hey kids buy this toy!" as much as the fusion-only characters. Gohan underwent all that training ONLY TO BE DEFEATED BY SUPER BUU. I don't see any logic in introducing the new toys only for them to be tossed aside in defeat. As said, I could get over Majin Vegeta's failed kamikaze to add some depth to Vegeta's character. Vegeta felt remorseful and wanted to fix the mess he's made but it was too late. Majin Vegeta's destruction was pretty much a warning not to make dangerous deals with people. However, Ultimate Gohan was supposed to be unleashed to defeat Buu for good. I guess Gohan will forever be in his father's shadow for a good reason.
Was it even necessary for Goku to die a second time? The Cell Saga had Goku die a second time. Though, Goku's death was meant to save the Earth from Cell's kamikaze attack. I guess fans treated the second death of Goku like Optimus Prime's death in Transformers the Movie and his second death in the Japanese-only Transformers: Headmasters which was done by Toei Ltd. I felt Transformers Headmasters even wasted Optimus Prime's sacrifice since Planet Cybertron was going to BLOW UP EVENTUALLY. I guess fans weren't willing to have Gohan rise up at the cost of Goku. Gohan became the main character for some time but I guess Goku was more popular than any of his children. I think Gohan could've had his time to shine WITHOUT having to kill Goku. I felt killing Goku was probably trying to follow The Transformers with Optimus Prime. No surprise, Toei Animation provided the animation for Hasbro for some time way before Hasbro bought the rights to Power Rangers. Weird huh?
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Eventually, all of the new concepts are just laid aside for the final battle at Supreme Kai's World. I was wondering was it meant to at least give a canonical redemption for the Spirit Bomb? The Spirit Bomb in-series was first used against Vegeta (but it was a tiny version) and a full one against Frieza. However, the Super Saiyan concept came in and the Spirit Bomb was almost forgotten except in non-canon movies. I still feel that the Dragon Ball Z movies should've been canon instead of non-canon. We're not talking about Super Sentai VS. Movies here. Goku later gathers the energy of the whole Earth, goes Super Saiyan (with his energy restored by a wish), and later Buu is reborn as Uub for the final episodes AFTER the Buu Saga.
Though, I think Gohan still beats Goku in being a father. Goku tends to be more negligent due to his naivety. Maybe, one can argue that Vegeta ends up as a better father to Trunks and Bulla. Gohan later marries Videl sometime after the Buu Saga. Both Goku and Hercule became grandfathers to Pan. Uub later shows up and it's revealed he's Buu's reincarnation after a time jump that would conclude the Z series. Unfortunately, this deterioration in quality and more focus on toys made its way to Dragon Ball GT. Dragon Ball GT was so disliked it's no longer canon at all. The final arc of Dragon Ball GT had that problem of rising through seven dragons and even wasting Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta just for TOYS. Though, I can't say Dragon Ball Super is a great series either.
I hope this rants lets out some steam!
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