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Dragon Ball : Why Buu saga is the least popular ?

Too many powerful characters fucking around made it frustrating to watch. (Vegeta, Gotenks, Vegito, and even Gohan)

Future Trunks's version of that arc is pretty much reiterates that fact.
 
No lies.
giphy.gif
oh god
 
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.

Pretty much this I remember getting really annoyed with how the whole Ultimate Gohan thing was handled. Tho I really liked the Great Saiyaman storyline.
 

Arrrammis

Member
- Lots of filler
- Goku goes SSj3, can't kill Buu
- Gotenks fusion, can't kill Buu
- Gotenks goes SSj3, can't kill Buu
- Ultimate Gohan, can't kill Buu
- Super Vegito, can't kill Buu
- Goku goes super saiyan, kills Buu with a spirit bomb (that even Vegeta was able to dodge back in the saiyan saga)
 
It's the arc where they took Gohan, made him badass and the warrior we wanted him to be, and then proceeded to have him lose terribly to Super Buu. Toriyama bitched out hard.
 

David___

Banned
Buu saga just seems so meshed together with power ups that it's tiring.

SSJ3, fusion, and Mystic. All hyped to all hell and none of them got the job done
 

Reversed

Member
I think it went on for too long even when compared to other arcs.

Even as a kid who loved both Freeza and Cell arcs, I didn't have desire to keep on watching it till the end.
 

Fj0823

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.

And people wonder why Goku, Vegeta and Gohan never take them to fights in Super
 

ElFly

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


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.

maybe should have suspected something when his training was sitting on his ass for a full day

at least it is fair to think Gohan was the protagonist in Buu saga. imagine watching the android saga and some rando who hasn't done anything all season beats Cell. wtf
 

Syntsui

Member
They were the best drawn episodes and we had so funny moments with Gotenks, I think it is several times better than Android saga at least.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
I rip on the Android/Cell Sagas a lot for their over reliance on Goku and the proliferation of SSJ completely destroying any sense of power levels in the series for all time, but they at least had a good plot and character development at their core. Which Buu saga completely shat on.

Buu Saga regressed most characters a ton and made the power level arms race of the Cell Saga look like childs play. SSJ3 was stupid in every regard, Fusions, Ultimate Gohan were all bait and switch of the worst kind and it was just terrible. While I think it would have been better to let Goku die after his fight with Frieza and not have him in the Cell Saga, that series did at least build up on that theme the he can't always be the savior and let someone else resolve the conflict. But then Buu saga came about and made all of that development pointless and it was just the Goku and Vegeta show and shit on every other character hard.

Plus Buu as a main bad guy was just terrible. Cell was already boring and lacked any motivation or intrigue, but Buu was just nothing.
 
It's the weakest arc but it has grown on me over the years. In a way it was Toriyama going back to the roots of Dragon Ball. You've got the goofy slice of life stuff with Gohan in high school, a Tenkaichi Budokai tournament where the huge cast wants to participate, an evil villain who crashes said tournament, a goofy villain with a mean streak, introduced a cool concept with fusion. There's a lot to like.

Of course some of the character writing is bad especially with Goku taking back the spotlight but eh, it was the final arc so whatever. I've moved on.
 

Savitar

Member
1. It dragged on too long.

2. Gohan went from badass warrior that defeated Cell to total utter dork and was weaker.

3. He took up a cheesy persona and started to act worse.

4. It dragged on even more.

5. Gohan goes from the hero to nope it's suddenly Goku again.

6. Big pink puffball didn't exactly excite people even if he was powerful as hell.

7. If you weren't a saiyan you might as well been nothing.
 
For alot of people Gohan (and the Androids) saved the Cell saga
One of the bad things about that saga was it failing to build up Gohan until the last stretch. Should have been given moments with Trunks(who also should have done more instead of crying about Vegeta and jobbing) for instance. Gohan being the hero just came almost out of nowhere.
 
How is Cell possibly worse than Buu, like what

Buu at least is funny, has some kind of nice techniques.

Cell is basically everything we have seen in the series fused into a green muscular thing with no particular ability and his personnality is.... bland, yes he is arrogant but everone is arrogant in Dragon Ball and that's the only thing I found to define him. And to be honest he was not that threatening since he got in his perfect state, because everyone was so stupid to let him do so.

It was cathartic to see someone solving that situation simply by not fucking around


That's why I like Future Trunks, he gets the shit done whenever he had the chance
 

Skeeter49

Member
If we're counting all of DB, I'd say 83% of people consider Super 17 and ROF, movie and arc, worse than the Buu arc. Same for Battle of Gods arc/
Universe 6 tournament arc
.
 

ElFly

Member
Buu at least is funny, has some kind of nice techniques.

Cell is basically everything we have seen in the series fused into a green muscular thing with no particular ability and his personnality is.... bland, yes he is arrogant but everone is arrogant in Dragon Ball and that's the only thing I found to define him. And to be honest he was not that threatening since he got in his perfect state, because everyone was so stupid to let him do so.

Cell gets Perfect, and all he does is sit on his platform for ten days

he is terrible. was kind of interesting before Perfect tho
 

Neece

Member
For me, I guess the gimmicks used to reach new power levels just got played out. Some of the fusion stuff was funny, and I do remember having discussions with my friends anticipating how cool a fusion of Goku and Vegeta would be, but when I got it, it was just...stupid and boring.

I also hated SSJ3, and thought SSJ2 should have been the final form.

I did like Mystic Gohan, I thought that power level gimmick was more unique and...earned, I guess. But they didn't do anything with it, which soured me a good deal.

Add that to the fact that I started dating and playing sports around the time the Buu Saga was showing, so my list of after school hobbies expanded, and I just sort of lost interest, missed some episodes due to being busy, got confused at there being like 34 different versions of Buu, and stopped caring altogether. So in hindsight the stain of "this is when I stopped watching DBZ" is attached to my memories of it. I have much fonder memories of watching the other sagas in elementary and middle school after I got home from school.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Because the Buu Saga is full of meaningless moments.

-- Goten and Trunks go SS, but it doesn't matter
-- Vegeta gives himself to Babidi for another fight with Goku, but Babidi doesn't actually control him
-- Goku goes SSJ3 but it doesn't result in a win or even really make a difference in the arc.
-- Vegeta sacrifices himself but it accomplishes nothing
-- Mystic Gohan happens, and loses in his first fight
-- Fusion dance is established and Gotenks happens. Remember everything Gotenks accomplished?
-- Gotenks goes SSJ3 and accomplishes the same amount of things as regular Gotenks
-- Piccolo traps himself in the Time Chamber with Buu. Buu escapes anyway.
-- Buu himself is the least interesting of the DBZ villains. He's sub-Broly tier in terms if characterization
 
My problem with Buu was it was dragged out for waaaay too long. He wasn't smart of charming...He started out as an bratty fat blob and then turned into a kid version who was just uninteresting. Powers fluctuated so much that it was hard to keep up with it and it almost felt like they struggled with trying to make him and everyone else OP and then not making him and everyone else OP......

Idk ,he was just whack to me.

The cell saga is my favorite because cell had such a personality that while being a villain was just so damn amazing. On top of that, we got 17 and 18 as well as future Trunks who's bae. We only got Deborah, bibidy, Deborah, majin Vegeta and whack ass gohan, gotenks and vegetito but I mean they are the highlights more than he was.
 

Veitsev

Member
One of the bad things about that saga was it failing to build up Gohan until the last stretch. Should have been given moments with Trunks(who also should have done more instead of crying about Vegeta and jobbing) for instance. Gohan being the hero just came almost out of nowhere.

The entire series was building to the moment that Gohan would become the hero. I don't see how you can feel it came out of nowhere.
 

Sephzilla

Member
The entire series was building to the moment that Gohan would become the hero. I don't see how you can feel it came out of nowhere.
Gohan was a background character for 90% of the Android/Cell saga and had 0% plot relevance. And him going SSJ2 is by watching the death of someone he knew for like 10 minutes. So in that context yeah Gohan getting the hero push at the end is pretty out of nowhere.

Gohan reverting a little, and developing a personality, in the Buu Saga is one of the more interesting things that arc did.
 
The entire series was building to the moment that Gohan would become the hero. I don't see how you can feel it came out of nowhere.

He was non-existent during 90% of the android saga. Even in the frieza saga he was considered as much important as Krillin so uh....
 

ElFly

Member
The entire series was building to the moment that Gohan would become the hero. I don't see how you can feel it came out of nowhere.

it ... doesn't?

did you even watch Dragon Ball, without the Z?

even if you didn't, the whole "Gohan becoming the hero" tendency breaks in the actual android saga, where he is pushed to the background and does nothing until Toriyama pulls off a paper from his hat for the "who gets to kill Cell" lottery
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
I'll say its because the US kids grew up watching DBZ before DB, and hence they have a strong attachment to Gohan and legitimately though he's going to be a main character, and then gets unhappy when he isn't.

The story didn't go according to what they have in mind. They sees Frieza and Cell, and think Buu will be the same as them, but because Buu is suppose to be a bigger threat, the writer makes him an eccentric wild killing machine who actually does the job of human extinction unlike Frieza and Cell tournament game.

That and in combination of failed memories which lead to misunderstandings. For example, Goku didnt choose not to save Gohan and the fighters. He simply doesn't have enough time to even fly close to them. Satan and Dog were saved only because they were along the way. Anyone who recall the panels from the manga will know.
 
The first time I watched an episode of the Buu saga I had no knowledge of what was going on because I was still on the Cell saga and my buddy got those Japanese sub video tapes. I was like "where is Future Trunks?". I thought he got killed by Cell and didn't get wished back.
 

Piers

Member
It carries the problems with the Cell Saga over and makes it worse. Whereas Cell Saga kept switching what the main antagonists should be, Buu Saga instead lumps hero duties from one to the other.

But I do still prefer it over Cell Saga for having higher stakes, a more interesting villain and some of the better character developments. SSJ3 is more interesting than SSJ2, fusions is a funny and cool idea, and we see Goku and Vegeta finally have to team up.

I probably just hated how Cell Saga's finale was Goku throwing his son into the ring and his big, amazing moment is simply transforming into a proper SSJ because his previous form is just base Gohan with blonde hair. Great. Cool.
 
I'll say its because the US kids grew up watching DBZ before DB, and hence they have a strong attachment to Gohan and legitimately though he's going to be a main character, and then gets unhappy when he isn't.

The story didn't go according to what they have in mind. They sees Frieza and Cell, and think Buu will be the same as them, but because Buu is suppose to be a bigger threat, the writer makes him an eccentric wild killing machine who actually does the job of human extinction unlike Frieza and Cell tournament game.

That and in combination of failed memories which lead to misunderstandings. For example, Goku didnt choose not to save Gohan and the fighters. He simply doesn't have enough time to even fly close to them. Satan and Dog were saved only because they were along the way. Anyone who recall the panels from the manga will know.

That's an interesting point of view, it's true that Gohan is highly regarded by anime Watchers of Z. Though I still find it hard to believe that Goku didn't have the time to get the fighters, at this point of the story, hé is fast enough to get them, heck, he could even instant transmission to them
 

ElFly

Member
Buu saga makes a ton more sense to me than the Cell saga

Cell saga is just all the characters being idiots all the time. that's the only reason things happen! they don't stop the androids from ever happening, then Trunks decides to go back to the future to not do anything, arriving late to the actual android arrival DESPITE him having a time machine. then the androids decide to take it slow to Goku's location, then Vegeta decides not to kill Cell, then 18 decides not to run away, then Goku decides to give a Senzu seed to Cell, then Gohan becomes SSJ2 by seeing android 16 die...which is super random?

not to mention the extreme seriousness of the saga. there's almost no humor in it -altho the driving episode filler is great-, the whole mess with time travel which is mostly wasted -FTrunks never does anything with time travel. there's no marty mcfly in this saga despite having two time machines in it-. it is largely a mess

people complain about unnecessary transformations in the Buu saga, but honestly that's the best part. transformations had saved the day two times already, so it is great when Goku reveals a new form and somehow it doesn't kill the villain.

in the end what does kill the villain is...teamwork. Vegeta and Goku putting aside their differences, Mr Satan using his celebrity for good, people using the dragon balls intelligently, which is new for the series, but it is well done

I am not fond of the Majin Vegeta sub-arc, but some people love it
 

flak57

Member
Gohan was a background character for 90% of the Android/Cell saga and had 0% plot relevance. And him going SSJ2 is by watching the death of someone he knew for like 10 minutes. So in that context yeah Gohan getting the hero push at the end is pretty out of nowhere.

Gohan reverting a little, and developing a personality, in the Buu Saga is one of the more interesting things that arc did.

Yeah, imo you can tell exactly when Toriyama decides Gohan will be the hero because he suddenly beats the reader over the head hinting at it over and over again with no subtlety at all. That happened late in the Cell saga, if I recall.

Edit: starting the chapter Goku/Gohan are out of the time chamber all the way until gohan fights is a marathon of cringeworthy wink wink nudge nudge.
 

Durden77

Member
Buu saga is fine, but I consider it the weakest saga of DBZ. But that still doesn't mean it's not very important.

It has some hugley impactful moments and some of the best story telling of all the sagas, particularly Hercule and Buu's relationship and Majin Vegeta.

But it is just surrounded with too much shit going on. Too many buus. Too many "strong guys". Too many huge moments that didn't feel as huge anymore because things just kept getting bigger and bigger. If anything Buu exterminating the entire planet was more of a show that Dragon Ball has went too far with the "we can fix everything all the time" rather than it being as impactful as it should have been. Certain developments that seemed like they would have huge pay offs (Gohan, SSJ3 Goku, Gotenks), didn't, and it just came down to a (admittedly awesome) Spirit Bomb. The saga, especially as it went on, just seemed like it was being written by the seat of it's pants.

Like I said though, it's still awesome, and full of exceptionally memorable moments. It's just the least tight saga in the series. It's pretty much a mixture of some of the best storytelling in DBZ, and some of the worst.
 

NeonBlack

Member
I thought Buu's original form was horrible. Not threatening at all compared to past villains.

On another note, Did you spoiler tag story content from a show that aired 17 years ago and was re-aired like 5 years ago?
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
I really liked everything up through Majin Vegeta.

Past that it felt like there weren't enough villains compared to previous sagas. Buu wasn't as interesting as Cell nor as pivotal as Frieza.

SSJ3 isn't very cool. Sometimes I like it but the no eyebrows thing looks so damn odd.

Buu Saga started the whole jump to galactic deity power levels. As much as I enjoy Super, another saga of fighters at a "mortal" level would have been great before introducing the Supreme Kai as basically everyone's bitch.

The saga seemed to drag like the Frieza saga at times.
 

Ash735

Member
Because the Buu Saga felt like an eternity, the Buu Saga makes up ONE THIRD of Dragon Ball Z originally. It goes all over the place and felt meaningless, every one up they had was shot down, there's even points where I can't even remember what happens somewhere between Buu building a house, fighting with copies of himself, becoming Mad Sad Buu, etc, and ending up with Super Buu. As someone else said, at that point it just felt like they were throwing anything into the story and seeing what works, which unlike the Androids/Cell, didn't pay off.
 
Probably because they kept re-airing the series from the start after Frieza saga was over. They did this a ton and progressed like 1 episode before re-starting again. By the time it got to the Majin Buu Saga people were burnt out from all the re-airings.
 

Opto

Banned
Its only purpose was to continue to give us the great Mr. Satan and then set up the happy fun times afterwards. GT doesn't exist
 
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