I've looked at many sites and seen a bunch of questions I saw over and over again. I decided to make up a FAQ section. Here those questions are.
What is the anime series "Dragon Ball"?
"Dragon Ball" was a series that started in 1984 by artist Akira Toriyama about the young and powerful fighter Goku. He has alots of adventures with his friends Bulma, Master Roshi, Chi-chi and others. Goku is on many quests which enclude finding 7 Dragon Balls in order to unlock the Eternal Dragon, the one Dragon who could give you any one wish you wanted.
What's the difference between "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z"? In the series Dragon Ball, Goku is only around 4-5 years old, and obviously has no children. However, in the Dragon Ball Z series, Goku is around 30-40 years old and he has a son named ohan, he also has the same friends from Dragon Ball and even more. He is much stronger in the Dragon Ball Z series.
Why are there so many different spellings for the characters?
Because Japanese sounds don't have any real translations in English, and the translation of names are done by how they sound to each person, so each person translate the names differently.
What DBZ songs are there?
1)
CHA LA HEAD CHA LA
2)
Dragon World Eh Yokoso! [Welcome to the Dragon World]
3)
Moma wa Shiawase Inotteru [Mama is Wishing for Happiness]
4)
Aitsu wa Son Goku [He's Son Goku]
5)
Eien no Chikyuu [The Eternal World]
6)
Moero! Dragon Soilders [Blaze Dragon Soldiers]
7)
Trouble Surfing
8)
Tenka Ichi Gohan
[Note: these are not all of the songs, there are lots more in the Movies.]
How many episodes are in DB/DBZ?
Manga:
Dragon Ball: 519 (plus one special)
Anime:
Dragon Ball (Japan): 153
Dragon Ball Z (Japan): 291
Dragon Ball (US): 13 (Aired; there may be more on VHS eventually)
Dragon Ball Z (US): Still running.
When did Toriyama-sensei really INTEND to end Dragon Ball?
According to some interviews (I think), the original intended ending for the series was at the end of the Freeza storyline.
Why does Goku have a tail?
As far as the DB anime series goes, it is a mystery why Goku has a tail. Later on, in DBZ, we find out that Goku is an alien, of the warrior race known as "Saiyan." All Saiyan-jin have tails, which is one of the requirements for turning into a HUGE were-monkey [Ozaru].
How does Goku turn into a Monkey?
Goku is a Saiyan-jin, and all Saiyan-jins have the ability to turn into a were-monkey, providing that the said Saiyan-jin has a tail, and that there is the light of a full moon.
What happened to the tail that Goku had?
Goku's tail was cut off by Pooaru early on in the series. It later grew back during a Tenkaichi Budokai. This newly grown tail also came off when Son Gohan (Goku's grandfather) tugged it too hard on the one day he was able to come back to earth. It grew back once again, during his own training between then and the next Tenkaichi Budokai.
What are the requirements of the 7 Dragon Balls in the Dragon Ball series to Grant you a wish?
Must gather all seven Dragon Balls.
Chant required (Come out, Shen(God) Long(Dragon) [Eternal Dragon], and grant my wish!).
Only one wish per summoning of Shen Long.
After wish is made, Shen Long disappears, the Dragon Balls turn to stone and scatters and remain stone for one year.
The Shen Long cannot grant any wishes that are beyond the powers of the creator of the Dragon Balls.
You can revive anyone or any group of people who fit a certain criteria, if they did not die of natural causes.
If a person has been revived by Shen Long before, the person cannot be revived again.
What does Saiya mean?
In the manga and anime, however, the characters are somehow oblivious to that fact, and "Saiya" is just a name, without any real meanings, aside from the fact that the "Saiya-jin" ("jin" means "person" or "people"; "Saiya-jin" can also be referred to as "Saiyan," which is the "Englishlized" version) is a warrior race, and because they are a warrior race, they stay much longer in their prime years, and that when they receive the reflected light from a full moon, it interacts with their tail (if they have their tails), allowing them to transform into giant were-monkeys [Ozaru]. Another interesting fact is that a pure Saiyajin's hair stays at a fixed length (and style) from birth. There is also the legend of a "Super Saiyajin".
What's a Super Saiyan?
"Super Saiyan-jin" is a legend passed down among the Saiyan-jin, of a genius fighter among the Saiyan-jin, who comes along only once in every thousand years. It is said that the Super Saiyan-jin is cruel and powerful; so powerful, in fact, that there can be no one stronger in the universe.
What are the qualifications for a Super Saiyan?
Must be at least partly Saiyan-jin.
Must possess enough power to potentially surpass the limits of a common Saiyan-jin.
Must be pure/have a pure heart, pure can also be pure Evil with the case of Vegeta.
Extreme rage triggers the transformation to a Super Saiyan-jin.
How is Freeza defeated?
In becoming a Super Saiyan-jin, Goku becomes much more powerful than Freeza. After a fist-fight, Goku decides the fight is getting boring. Freeza throws two homing Kienzans, one eventually slices himself in half. However, Freeza survives the ordeal, and comes back as a cyborg/partly Bobotic [Freeza Bot]. He rushes to earth with his father to kill off everyone there before Goku reaches earth. In the original timeline, Goku teleports off his space capsule and kills Freeza. In the timeline that we follow, however, Trunks shows up and dices Freeza, and then kills King Cold, Freeza's father.
How does Vegeta become a Super Saiyan?
After seeing Trunks and Goku in Super Saiyan-jin mode, Vegeta not only realizes the level of power of a Super Saiyan-jin, but also the fact that there can be more than one Super Saiyan-jin at one time. Vegeta's been trying to reach (and surpass) the power level of a Super Saiyan-jin ever since. However, while he was training in the artificial gravity room, he realized that he has reached his limit, yet is still signifigantly weaker than a Super Saiyajin. Vegeta became enraged with himself, which in turns triggers his change into a Super Saiyan-jin.
What are the different forms of Piccolo?
The original Piccolo Daimaoh comes from the Nameksei-jin who wanted to become earth's Kami-sama. To be eligible as earth's Kami-sama, he had to be pure goodness, so he cast the small evil part of himself out, which became Piccolo Daimaoh. "Piccolo" in Namekgo means "separate worlds." For this form, we can refer to him as "Piccolo Daimaoh." After Goku defeated the original Piccolo Daimaoh, Piccolo summoned up his final strength and spat out an egg.. an egg which soon hatched a minuature version of himself, with all his memories, thoughts, knowledge, personality, and physical likeness. This, the son of Piccolo, was essentially Piccolo himself, but in his mind he knew he was not the same person as the original Piccolo, and after fighting with Goku, his personality has been affected by Goku as well. This form can be called Piccolo Jr. or Ma Jr., or simply, Piccolo. After sacrificing his own life for Gohan's life, Piccolo was resurrected and placed on his home planet, where he meets a dying Namek warrior, Nail. Nail is surprised at the level of power Piccolo has reached, but knows that even at that level, he is no match for the powerful Freeza, so he offers to be merged with Piccolo. Piccolo reluctantly agrees; although Nail promised to let Piccolo have total control over the body's personality, inevitably Nail's personality still has a strong influence on Piccolo's decisions. For references' sake, if you need to state the specific stage Piccolo is in, you can call this form "Picconailo," but he is still, for the most part, Piccolo, and will go by that name.During his fight against the cyborgs, Piccolo realized that he will not be able to defeat the cyborgs by training alone, and the only real way to be close in terms of power is to re-merge with Kami-sama, and in doing so, he has gained the wisdom and knowledge of Kami-sama, as well as some of the personality aspects of Kami-sama. Again, for reference, you may call this form "Kamiconailo" or even "Kamicolo," but he is still essentially Piccolo, as still goes by that name.
What are the new rules/restrictions of earth's Dragon Balls?
Must gather all seven Dragon Balls.
Chant required (Come out, Shen Long, and grant my wish!).
Only two wishes per summoning of Shen Long.
After the wishes are made, Shen Long disappears, the Dragon Balls will turn to stone and scatter and remain stone for one year.
If only one wish is made, the Dragon Balls turn to stone, and remain stone for four months, Shen Long can be summoned again.
The Shen Lon cannot grant any wishes that are beyond the powers of the creator of the Dragon Balls.
You can revive anyone or any group of people who fit a certain criteria, if they did not die of natural causes.
If a person has been revived by Shen Lon before, the person cannot be revived again.
How is Cell able to teleport back and be in Perfect form?
So how was Cell able to learn the Shukken Iddou? He had seen it performed many times before, but never experienced what it felt like until he teleported with Goku. Therefore, all we can conclude is that he learned by experiencing (not by seeing, as it has been suggested). Next, how can he be in Perfect form without #18? Does this mean that if he had been blown to bits with only his core intact before he had the chance to absorbe #17 and #18, he would be able to regenerate into Perfect form? Not likely. My personal belief is that after he absorbed #17 and #18, the genetic coding was somehow registered to his core. The core was not working when he spat out #18, but was working during the total regeneration, and that is why he could regenerate back to Perfect form.
How is Cell defeated?
A galactic-powered Kamehameha fight between Gohan and Cell, with help from Goku and Vegeta.
How can Goten become Super Saiyan-jin so easily?
Possibly because he was born with huge power from his father, Goku. The true reason is not clear.
How did Mr. Satan win the Tenkaichi Budokai?
In the first one that he won, none of the competition had strength even close to that of Chichi's. In the one that Gohan, Goku, Vegeta, Kuririn, Piccolo, and #18 entered, Gohan's ki was sucked by Babidi's pawns, while the rest mentioned above, with the exception of #18, left the tournament to help Kaioushin (Piccolo forfeited the fight to Kaioushin). Trunks and Goten were disqualified, and all the other opponents were knocked out by #18 and Trunks/Goten (or lost in an earlier match). #18 offered to throw the match if Mr. Satan would pay her 200,000,000 zeni (the typical monetary units used in the Dragon World). After the Buu storyline, the Champion of the Budokai is the last guy the winning contestant get to fight, and since no one could defeat Mr. Buu (Goku and the others didn't join the tournament), it would always be Mr. Buu against Mr. Satan, and Mr. Buu would always throw the match (being the naive good friend of Mr. Satan).
What is the "Fusion-waza"?
Dance Fusion. Goku learned this during the five years of inactivity between the end of the Cell Game and before Gohan started school at Orange Star High School. As the name suggests, the major requirement for this type of fusion is to have the two people involved in the fusion perform a dance, which are mirror images of each other, resulting in a new warrior, who has the attributes of the two warriors who formed the new one. When performed successfully, the newly formed warrior will be significantly stronger. There are other requirements and conditions, of course.
Requirements/Conditions:
The two fighters must be similar in size, build, and power (especially power; they have to be almost exactly the same, but this isn't a major problem, since most of the Gokuu-tachi can control their power levels, so the stronger fighter just needs to lower his/her power to match that of the weaker).
The dance must be performed correctly for a successful fusion. Any minor mistake in the dance can result in a defective fusion.
The fusion will last for 30 minutes, by which time both fighters will return to their normal selves, but there doesn't appear to be a way to end a fusion before this 30 minute time limit, note that Gotenks defused in movie 13, when he was knocked out and crashed into a building).
After a fusion ends, the two fighters must have a waiting/resting time of one hour before the fusion dance can be performed again.
What is the Earring Fusion? The fusion technique of choice for Kaioushins which time forgot, this technique is allegedly hundreds of times better than the Dance Fusion. For fusion to happen, two people only need to wear the earrings of a Kaioushin. As always, there are some conditions...
Requirements/Conditions:
A set of Kaioushin earrings.
The two fighters involved in the fusion must wear the earrings on opposing ears.
Each person can only have one such fusion in a lifetime.
The effects of the fusion is (supposed to be) permanent.
[Note that while this fusion was supposed to have been permanent, its properties seem to wear off under unexpected conditions, like being inside the body of a magical being...]
How is Buu defeated? Goku gathers ki for a super Genki Dama from the people of Namek and the people of earth. However, most of the people on earth were unwilling to give part of their ki to Goku, so it took persuasion from Mr. Satan for Goku to finally gather enough ki from the people of earth. Even though there was enough power in the Genki Dama, Goku lacked physical strength to make it destroy Buu, so a wish was made to Porunga to restore Goku's strength, and finally, Buu was destroyed.
Why is Goku so happy to leave his family to train Ubuu?
Ubuu is the good reincarnation of Evil Buu (this was set up by Enmaou-sama), but didn't really know how to use his power to the fullest. Goku's obvious goal is to help Ubuu to learn to use such power, so that eventually Goku can get a good, friendly fight with Ubuu (Goku just loves a good fight).
How come so many characters don't have mothers?
Because they are not essential to the story. Bulma's mother was introduced as comic relief, and to help explain minor details of Bulma and Yamcha's relationship in the early part of DB to Goku. Meanwhile, all the second generation DB/DBZ characters have mothers, because they come from the first generation characters.
How does "ki-detection" work?
Ki-detection started off not being very specific, but as the series went on, it became more fine-tuned, partly for the development of the story, and of course it is logical to expect its practioners to get better at the art. It is somehow a given in oriental cultures that if someone is good at martial arts, he/she must possess a good ability of sensing where his/her enemies are. (When someone has the intent to kill, they give off certain kinds of 'energy') Near the end of the series, ki-detection is pretty well defined, one not only senses the level of power someone else possesses, they can only get a hint of that person's personality (i.e. good, evil, etc.), and by that personality, they can also get somewhat of a "signature" from that ki. We see evidence of this after Piccolo re-merges with Kami-sama. Cell powers up, so his ki can be sensed by the Z Warriors, and because Cell has the cells of the other fighters, their ki-signatures can be sensed from his ki. Later, Trunks notices the new Piccolo's ki, but doesn't recognize it (Trunks didn't know Piccolo very well, so he was going more by ki-level), while Kuririn quickly recognizes it as Piccolo's ki. Another example is when Goku tried to teleport to Namek. He needed to look for ki-signatures that were similar to that of Piccolo's in order to teleport to the new Namek.
Who is the strongest in the entire series?
This is a highly debatable topic, and at different times in the story, there are different people who are strongest. However, ultimately, I have to say that Gogeta is the strongest though the true measure of one's power is not only in physical strength, but a factor of many things combined, including luck, and ability to get help from others (and to properly use that help). At the end of the entire series, if you weigh all the different factors of each character, I think we can all agree that Gogeta is the strongest... Next to Akira Toriyama, of course.
Who has never died in the entire series?
Uranai Obaba. Fortune Teller, also Kamesennin's older sister. She can travel safely between earth (the living universe) and the gates to heaven & hell (the spirits realm). Apparently, she was at the spirits realm during dangerous times, as we see that when she brings Vegeta back for one day, she doesn't have a halo (a sign that one is dead).
Enma-daiou. Gateskeeper and judge of the dead, he was never involved in any of the fights, nor was he close enough to any of the battles to get hurt. The only question is--can we truly consider this guy "alive"? Well, if Kaiou-sama can *die*...
Mr. Satan. Surprisingly, this arrogant (but lucky) fool survived through many amazingly powerful opponents. He nearly died when he was shot once, but was healed by Buu just in time.
South Kaiou. The only other Kaiou who was introduced in the series, he only showed up once, and has never seen battle in the power of magnitude of the Goku-tachi.
Kaiou-shin. The only Kaiou-shin who survived an encounter with Majin Buu, he just got lucky. He also nearly died once, but was found and by the resurrected Kibit.
Mr. Buu. The fat Buu that we were introduced to, he was absorbed by Super Buu, and later was almost killed by True Buu.
Pan, Bra, and Ubuu (and all the others who were born AFTER the Buu saga). Because they were not born yet during these fights, they never got killed
