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ドラゴンボールZ
Also known as Doragon Bōru Zetto, DBZ, Dragon Ball Zed
Earth's strongest fighters face a universe of enemies - and keep raising the bar.
Picking up years after the close of Dragon Ball, the series finds Goku settled on Earth with a family of his own - until a stranger arrives with news that upends his sense of self. He is not human but a Saiyan, a member of a near-extinct warrior race, and others of his kind are on their way. What follows is an escalating chain of conflicts that carries Goku and his allies - Piccolo, Vegeta, Krillin, Gohan, Bulma and more - far beyond Earth: to alien worlds, to the afterlife, and through training regimes designed to break them. Every new adversary outclasses the last, whether a galactic tyrant, an artificial creation or a shape-shifting horror, and survival repeatedly demands that the fighters surpass limits once thought absolute.
Earth has grown quiet since the last martial arts tournament, and Goku has traded adventuring for family life. That peace ends when an invader identifies him as a Saiyan, a conqueror sent to clear the planet long ago. The revelation drags Goku's old friends and rivals back into battle, reframes the wish-granting Dragon Balls as a cosmic prize, and sets the stage for threats measured on an interplanetary scale.
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Episodes 1-35
Goku's brother Raditz arrives and exposes his alien heritage, forcing a desperate alliance with Piccolo that costs Goku his life. While Goku trains in the afterlife, Gohan toughens up for the coming invasion of Vegeta and Nappa, a battle that devastates Earth's defenders.
Episodes 36-107
Hoping to revive fallen friends, Gohan, Krillin and Bulma travel to Planet Namek, where the galactic tyrant Frieza is also hunting Dragon Balls. Vegeta's uneasy cooperation, the Ginyu Force, Piccolo's fusion with Nail and Goku's furious transformation build to a planet-shattering duel.
Episodes 108-139
After an interlude on a peaceful Earth, a mysterious swordsman from a ruined future warns that artificial humans built by the Red Ribbon Army's Dr. Gero will soon appear. Goku falls ill mid-battle, and the heroes scramble to stop foes who draw strength from their own exhaustion.
Episodes 140-165
A time-travelling bio-android called Cell begins absorbing human populations to reach its complete form. Piccolo, the androids and Vegeta's new ascended power all fail to stop it, so Goku and Gohan retreat into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to train for years in a single day.
Episodes 166-194
Cell announces a televised tournament for the fate of the planet. Goku's bout gives way to a brutal trial for Gohan, whose buried rage finally erupts. Sacrifices, a father's farewell and an unlikely assist from Vegeta decide the contest, leaving Gohan as Earth's new protector.
Episodes 195-291
Years later, a martial arts tournament reunites the cast, now including Goten and Trunks, before the wizard Babidi awakens the ancient djinn Majin Buu. Possession, fusion experiments, Potara earrings and the Supreme Kai's lore lead to a final stand against Buu's purest, most savage form.
Episode 1
Saiyan Saga
The series' mission statement: a domestic reunion curdles into cosmic horror as Raditz lands, dismisses Earth's strongest fighters and reveals that Goku was never human.
Episode 95
Frieza Saga
Grief over a friend's death triggers the franchise's defining moment, Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation, reframing every power scale that follows.
Episode 184
Cell Games
Gohan's long arc from terrified child to reluctant warrior pays off when his anger breaks loose and the balance of the Cell Games flips entirely.
Episode 231
Majin Buu Saga
Vegeta's self-destructive last gamble against Buu is the emotional summit of his redemption, finally placing family and pride in the right order.
Episode 288
Majin Buu Saga
The whole planet's goodwill powers Goku's climactic attack, closing the series' longest conflict with its most thematically fitting weapon rather than raw strength.
Every episode of Dragon Ball Z with its broadcast title and air date, grouped by arc. Watch links search Crunchyroll for the series.
Every character has a full profile covering their history, abilities and relationships.
Son GokuProtagonist
VegetaRival / Antihero
PiccoloMentor / Former villain
KrillinSupporting hero / Goku's best friend
BulmaSupport / Scientist
FriezaAntagonist (Namek arc)
Future TrunksTime-travelling ally
Android 18Antagonist turned allyAI companions from Dragon Ball Z, each portrayed as an adult and written to stay in character.
Goku's cheerful absenteeism and Gohan's forced maturity form the series' spine, echoed by Vegeta and Trunks, Piccolo's guardianship of Gohan, and the quieter bond between Goten and his brother.
Training is almost sacred: gravity chambers, otherworldly mentors and time-warping rooms turn discipline into spectacle, arguing that strength is earned through repeated failure rather than innate talent.
Yesterday's invaders become tomorrow's allies. Piccolo, Vegeta, Android 18 and even Majin Buu's gentler half are folded into Earth's extended family, suggesting villainy is rarely permanent.
Characters die repeatedly, yet their choices still carry weight. Wishes and the afterlife soften loss while raising the question of what a sacrifice means when it can be undone.
For many viewers outside Japan, Dragon Ball Z was the gateway to anime itself, dominating afternoon television across Europe, Latin America and North America through the 1990s and 2000s. Its grammar - power levels, transformations, long-building showdowns, allies who return stronger - became the default template for action shonen, openly echoed by Naruto, One Piece and Bleach. Its imagery remains a global shorthand in games, music videos and memes, and the franchise it anchored is among the highest-grossing media properties ever created.
Content notes: Frequent and sometimes bloody violence, On-screen character deaths, Planetary destruction and mass casualties, Body horror and grotesque transformations, Crude humour and occasional nudity played for comedy, Depictions of torture and child endangerment.
It helps but is not essential. Dragon Ball Z continues directly from the original series after a time skip, and it reintroduces Goku, his friends and the Dragon Balls through dialogue early on.
The series ran for 291 television episodes, broadcast in Japan from 1989 to 1996. It adapts the later half of Akira Toriyama's manga, covering several long story arcs built around escalating threats to Earth.
Kai is a later remastered recut of the same story, trimming padding and reworking the audio to follow the manga more tightly. The original 291-episode version includes far more filler, extended fights and anime-only scenes.
The series moves through the Saiyan invasion of Earth, the journey to planet Namek and the confrontation with Frieza, the arrival of the androids and Cell, and finally the long Majin Buu storyline.
The anime aired weekly alongside the ongoing manga, so the studio stretched material to avoid overtaking it. The result is lengthy power-up sequences, extra travel episodes and original side stories not found in the comic.
Both are widely available. The Japanese track features the original cast and score, while the English dub is nostalgic for many Western viewers and, in some releases, swaps in replacement background music.
