Dragonball Z Vol 12-19 (Android Arc)
This was an interesting arc to revisit, as I've revisited it less than others and my memories of this arc is primarily in how fucking long the battles with the Androids took with all the charging-ki filler in the episodes. It was pretty shit.
First off, the very first part of the arc was very good I felt. Even though Toriyama outright retconned Trunks' knowledge of 19 and 20 which I thought was dumb, and the timeline stuff wasn't very clear, I thought it had something the previous arcs didn't have: Total, utter despair. There wasn't a clear endgoal by any means, as we already know that Goku and crew WILL get defeated by these things. And unlike the Freeza arc, there's multiple villains here that are ungodly powerful rather than just one big bad and a bunch of chumps. This gave the mood a much more interesting aspect for the series.
The long drawn out battle between Vegeta and Cell was full of dumb shit that felt completely pointless. Vegeta is a complete idiot in this arc, which I'm not a fan of. Especially since how calculating he was in both the Saiyan and Freeza arc. Vegeta is supposed to be a lot more intelligent but in this arc he's a stupid brute, which I felt was a bad thing. He does, however, get a spurt of development at the end when Cell kills Trunks.
I also thought bringing the dragonballs back was BS. So unnecessary.
Cell Games is a stupid concept as well. All of a sudden, Cell decides instead of destroying Goku and crew he's going to throw a tournament...just why? What is Cell's motives even? To get stronger and be bad?
Cell sucks. The Androids are cool however since they have more layered goals. Gero wants revenge for the destruction of the Red Ribbon Army, 16 is an android with a heart of gold, and 17 and 18 are young punk kids who just want to amuse themselves. I do however, Cell makes sense as someone who's more powerful than anyone else, so I'm no too offended by him by any means.
I thought the setup for Gohan's ascension to taking Goku's place was some of the best stuff in the entire series. There are subtle hints here and there that Goku knows very well that his time is up, and then there's parallels to the King Piccolo arc which was the last time the world was in danger on a "mainstream televised" level and the king pondering if another kid like Goku could arise to defeat Cell. And low-and-behold, Gohan appears. It's awesome. Gohan develops into a pretty awesome hero in the end and becomes even stronger than his father.
I think if the series ended with this arc, Dragonball would probably be better received than it is today. This arc really brings closure to EVERYTHING. Not only that but it spreads the series into a full 6 arcs, that being... Search for Dragonballs arc, Red Ribbon Army arc, Piccolo arc, Saiyan arc, Freeza arc, and Android arc. If the series ended there it would not only be an even number but it has parallels to the final arc in the pre-timeskip series the Piccolo arc.
But then Boo arc happened and ruined this. And I'm reading it next. Anyway, Android arc gets a...
B
