• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dragon Ball : Why Buu saga is the least popular ?

I see a lot of opinions like that, it's like when you ask what's the worst arc in Dragon Ball (so I don't count Super yet), you are pretty sure to hear "yeah buu was the worst".

I don't understand to be honest. It had some great fights, the less serious tone was a nice callback for the earlier days of DB, fusion was great, Buu was a more interesting vilain than Cell (who is for me the blandest vilain in the whole Dragon Ball story, I even like some vilains from the Red Ribon more) and having some character developpement for Vegeta is great. Ok, it has some BS like Buu having too many convenient abilities and Gohan fans can be frustrated for how little screen time he got but it was still really an interesting arc, not the best but certainly not the worst.

In my opinion the award goes for Cell saga, fights were not great except Android 17 vs Piccolo, the tone was way too serious but there were inconstencies everywhere and Cell backstory was BS from the beginning (
so a robot bug spied on goku since saiyan saga but no one noticed it and gave it a disease and then gero built cell thanks to these data but he was no perfect so he needed to absorb android to work better but instead of making them absorb directly he let Cell deal with this himself by going to the past because androids were too powerful in the future, this is so fucking convoluted
). Ok Gohan shined but it came out of nowhere, no character developpement or whatsoever, instead we got Vegeta screaming he's the best for half the time and whining the other half, he was basically the main character for a great part of this part and it doesn't suit him, at all. And like I said, I hate Cell so there's that. But that's still solid Dragon Ball entertainement, not really the best part of the show tho.

But back to the Buu saga, do you think it's the worst ?
 

bigkrev

Member
I had after school activities by the time it started airing on TV and never got to consistently watch it

Also, the first 2 big DBZ games in America, Budokai and Legend of Goku, both only went up to Cell.
 

Boke1879

Member
I like Buu, but I feel he's just not that great of a villain. I mean compared to the others he's just evil. Frieza, Cell etc all had some personality. And they could talk.

It had some of my favorite moments though.
 
Best part were the Great Saiyaman/high-school episodes

giphy.gif
 
It literally threw in 8 billion weird things to see what stuck. It seemed like they just kept stretching things along to pad things out.

SSJ3 will beat Buu! No wait, Gotenks will! No, Mystic Gohan! No wait, Vegitto!
 
I always thought it was dumb how they didn't bring Gohan or Gotenks to the final battle.

Either one could have easily beat Kid Buu.
 

Kyzer

Banned
Everyone was jobbed just for a genki dama to win it. Not to mention half the jobbings were the fighters being incredibly stupid. And Goku saved hercule and not his son lmao
 

PSqueak

Banned
Dunno if it actually is the least popular but i'd believe if someone told me that. It broke the escalation coming from cell, Buu's arc was extremely different from the usual "some guy who is stronger shows up" they had going from saiyans -> Frieza -> Cell, Buu was silly, Buu was magic, Buu wasn't a "warrior", he was so radically different, i can see how i'd not sit well with people who didn't grow with Dragonball before Z.
 

Skeeter49

Member
They dump the whole development of Goku relying on the next generation, when he chooses to save Satan and Dende instead of the 2 people who are stronger than Goku and could have beat Kid Buu.

Gohan is pushed as the main character for 2/3's of the Buu arc, and it amounts to 10 minutes of being stronger than his opponent.

It has good moments. Satan redeemed, Vegito, Gotenks, Ultimate Gohan, Vegeta putting down his pride, but it goes on way too long, and it builds up characters to ultimately do very little for them.
 

Buckle

Member
I actually remember a lot more about the Buu saga than I do Cell's arc. The tournament, the rare moments Videl actually got to kick abit of ass, family man Vegeta/Vegeta teasing a heel turn, etc.

Buu is probably my favorite thing about Dragon Ball Super where I'm at right now.

He makes for a fun supporting cast member.
 

Slaythe

Member
Because it's terrible.

Ass pulls every two seconds, made everybody not a saiyan completely irrelevant (moreso than ever before), trolled Gotenks and Gohan after spending 70% of the arc hyping them up, then gave them one chapter where they're bad ass, and proceed to be humiliated.

All that for Goku to come back and save the day .

It had some good stuff, notably Satan and fat Buu, Vegetto, and Great Saiyaman.

The rest was trash.
 
Very stretched out compared to the other sagas. Has a lot of comedy which was unusual in Z.

There's only really two villains who actually put up fights with Buu and Dabura. The latter only really has a fight and a half.

I liked it for showing there was a limit to power (SS3 only slightly better than SS2 and can't be sustained) and for Vegeta finally dealing with his past as a villain and acknowledging Goku as the best. Both of which have sadly been undone by Super.
 

Anth0ny

Member
Cell saga was the logical end point to the story that was set up since the first arc of DBZ with Gohan's hidden power.

Buu saga felt tacked on at the end in comparison. Like Toriyama just wanted to bring Goku back to get one final W.
 

Laiza

Member
1. It's too long

2. It throws away most of the side cast

3. It quite thoroughly retreads itself at the end (Kid Buu is just more of the same... but even less, because he can't talk)

4. It represents the absolute worst of DBZ's excesses when it comes to power levels

5. The idiotic contrivances Toriyama had to come up with to keep things moving (Super Buu absorbing Gohan, anyone?) rub a lot of people the wrong way

I could go on. It's often-maligned for good reason, IMO.
 

Skeeter49

Member
Super Buu falls asleep, and Goten and Trunks try to wake him up.

When their fusion just wore off and need an hour to go by.

I know they call out that stupidity with Piccolo, but it just makes them out to be really stupid. Goku relied on these 2 people to stop Buu, and they make stupid decisions when they're not fused.
 
The transformation arms race was dragged out for way too long and ultimately felt pointless when the whole thing was resolved
with base-level Goku throwing a spirit bomb

That being said there were some cool moments and memorable fights. Goku vs. Majin Vegeta. Gotenks with their weird powers. Ultimate Gohan's introduction. But it has so many problems that even abridging it probably won't entirely redeem it.
 
You could probably barely classify me as a casual DBZ fan, but it was obvious even as a kid, unlike the previous Cell and Freiza sagas, Buu just never seemed like much of a threat, and his character was pretty boring.
 

Nairume

Banned
Buu as a villain is less compelling than every major villain before him, even though Fat/Mr. Buu is otherwise a fun and great character once he has his face turn. SSJ3 looks dumb, and fusion and Gohan's mystic powerup are both effectively wasted powerups that don't even factor into the final fight. It's also a frustrating arc if you were a fan of Gohan, because the series up to that point had slowly been moving him to the forefront in a way that was really great, and then it just went back to being the Goku show despite the aforementioned Mystic powerup.

It's really not bad and has a lot of fun parts, and Vegeta's sacrifice might very well be my favorite moment in anything dragonball. That said, I don't blame people for not liking it as much.
 

Sou Da

Member
Because it's terrible.

Ass pulls every two seconds, made everybody not a saiyan completely irrelevant (moreso than ever before), trolled Gotenks and Gohan after spending 70% of the arc hyping them up, then gave them one chapter where they're bad ass, and proceed to be humiliated.

All that for Goku to come back and save the day .

It had some good stuff, notably Satan and fat Buu, Vegetto, and Great Saiyaman.

The rest was trash.

Sounds like Super.
 
One strong point for the Buu saga is Mr Satan. It made me like him a lot despite being annoyed by him in the Cell saga.
I always thought it was dumb how they didn't bring Gohan or Gotenks to the final battle.

Either one could have easily beat Kid Buu.
They dump the whole development of Goku relying on the next generation, when he chooses to save Satan and Dende instead of the 2 people who are stronger than Goku and could have beat Kid Buu.

Gohan is pushed as the main character for 2/3's of the Buu arc, and it amounts to 10 minutes of being stronger than his opponent.

It has good moments. Satan redeemed, Vegito, Gotenks, Ultimate Gohan, Vegeta putting down his pride, but it goes on way too long, and it builds up characters to ultimately do very little for them.
Everyone was jobbed just for a genki dama to win it. Not to mention half the jobbings were the fighters being incredibly stupid. And Goku saved hercule and not his son lmao
Yeah these are some of the major complaints about the saga. Goku was supposed to pass the torch to the next generation... but Gotenks and Ultimate Gohan got trashed in favor of him once again.

If you were fan of non-Saiyans characters then you're out of luck too. Only Piccolo mattered to a certain extent. Unlike the Cell saga where him, Krillin, Tenshinhan, Bulma and others were important to the plot and contributed in some way.
 

LeleSocho

Banned
Because Bu is pink and for kiddies and not cool and edgy like Frieza and Cell.

That's really what the people think sadly.
 
There was an absurd amount and number of power level spikes. People thought Saiyan to Freeza arc was big, but Buu arc had so many spikes.

Not saying I didn't enjoy it. There were some great and scary moments, like the human extinction attack, Kid Buu killing and absorbing Kai's and pretty much being unstoppable towards the end. Vegito was a delight.
 

Veitsev

Member
It was the beginning of the end.

The previous seasons had some clear themes/story objectives it was building toward, namely Gohan getting stronger to surpass and replace his father as hero/protector of Earth. Goku realizing that for once he isn't strong enough and putting his effort into making sure his son can do what he can't and save the world was a powerful moment in the series and a perfect place to say goodbye to his character.

The series should have ended there but the series was too big of a money maker to let it die on a high note. Throw away all character development. Make Gohan a comedy superhero/scholar/jobber and give Goku back the main role.

Lets run this shit into the ground.

Cue Dragon Ball as a franchise ever since.

For me the series ended @ the Cell Saga.
 

Ponn

Banned
I liked the Buu saga up to the total assassination of Gohan's character. He had an obvious building up of his character to become the next hero of the DB universe and they just flushed it all down the toilet. It was done in such a hack job, pathetic way with a completely limp ending.
 
Guess that was not an impression most of you didn't love it I guess. But I agree on some points like Goku who saved Satan instead of his sons, Trunks and Piccolo was so out of character. I didn't feel the padding to be honest but it's been a long time I watched this
 

Shanlei91

Sonic handles my blue balls
I was an enormous Dragonball nerd and stopped watching due to the Buu saga. Great Saiyaman, Piccolo driving and the cast at the tournament was the best thing to come out of it. The moment there's even talk of Buu it becomes a bland snooze-fest. After Resurrection F I got back into the show (got a Funimation sub, rewatched the series, finally watched Buu / GT, watched Abridged and now watch Super) - Buu is awful.

Cell saga has a lot going for it. There's the aftermath of Frieza, Trunks' hyped appearance, time travel hijinks, the mystery of Cell / the second time machine, the twist with the second set of Androids, Super Saiyan still having some oomph to it. Admittedly, it goes downhill towards the end with the tournament but funny enough, Cell and his tournament is the best thing to come out of Abridged. So it's a wash.

I do respect Buu swagger though.

OghnAYJ.jpg
 

Skeeter49

Member
Gotenks.

Gotenks.

Gotenks.


I hate that little shit. Ruined the arc.

To be fair, half of him is the worst character in all of Dragon Ball.

is it really? some of the concepts, transformations and forms are some of the most popular for the franchise

I think a ton of people who thought Gohan was the protagonist of DBZ felt betrayed by Gohan getting kicked aside, but it is p great as a whole. makes a ton more of dramatic sense than something like the android saga
We thought Gohan was the main protagonist because up until he was absorbed by Buucolo, he was pushed as the main protagonist for that arc. Everyone hyped him up, and the only one tearing him down was Vegeta. His time as GS, him fighting Dabura, him stopping Buu and failing, Shin saving his life when Buu fires that blast at him, him pulling the Z sword, him using the Z sword, him breaking the Z sword and a Kai comes out who awakens his hidden potential. There is barely an episode in the Buu arc that wasn't hyping up Gohan in some way.
 

ElFly

Member
is it really? some of the concepts, transformations and forms are some of the most popular for the franchise

I think a ton of people who thought Gohan was the protagonist of DBZ felt betrayed by Gohan getting kicked aside, but it is p great as a whole. makes a ton more of dramatic sense than something like the android saga
 

cordy

Banned
The Cell Saga had Gohan finally rising up to the level he was hinted at being in the entire series. Trunks, who's one of the most badass DB characters ever. SSj Vegeta which is an accomplishment in and of itself given Vegeta's whole fixation towards being an SSj in the Freeza Saga along with his design as well. 18 is amazing and finally, Cell? Cell was a great villain. Buu was good but it just can't compete overall.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Weak villain was my #1 issue with it, I don't like mindless villains that barely talked. It also bugged me that it introduced all these ways for someone other than Goku to get to save the day, only for Goku to end up having to do it in the end. And while Gotenks has some neat moves, I don't like the guy. As a previous post put it, they really did just throw everything out there in an attempt to see what would stick.

I don't hate the arc, but yea, it's easily the weakest.

Sounds like Super.

I knew someone would somehow find a way to post their dislike for Super even when it doesn't make any sense in this context.
 
It was great up until and including the Majin Vegeta arc. And then it went like 4 arcs too looooooong, and Toriyama made it super gimmicky in order to justify that length.
 
There's two reasons that kind of make it the perfect storm of being the worst-regarded of the DBZ sagas.

The first is that it's legitimately kind of poorly written even in comparison to some of the dumb shit in other arcs; it's overly long and it has too much going on without a particularly coherent trajectory once you step back and look at it, even if it has great individual moments.

The second part is that it's goofy re: Buu, Saiyaman, some other stuff, which is fine but fucks with everyone who considers DBZ to be serious business all the time (which is a lot of people). This is really the thing that sinks it, because even if like the Cell Saga doesn't actually hold up to a rewatch by any stretch of the imagination because it also has a lot of poor writing (to, admittedly, not nearly the same degree), it's serious business enough to tide over everyone else.
 
Top Bottom