As the scene opens a space pod is flying through the sky and lands on Earth. A fat farmer with a power level of 5 goes to check out the alien landing. The alien flies out of his pod. The farmer shoots the alien with his gun, but the alien catches the bullet and flicks it through the farmer's head and through the truck behind him.
Meanwhile at Goku's place Chi-Chi tells Goku to go to Kamesennin's house for their reunion. Goku calls Kintoun and he takes Gohan down from a tree. When they arrive, Bulma, Krillin, and Kamesennin think that Goku is babysitting. They are wrong; Gohan is Goku's son (Here's a plot hole: Movie 1 takes place before this meeting and everyone knows who Gohan is. But Movie 1 must be real because Garlic Jr. appears again in the Freeza Saga.).
Elsewhere, Piccolo is training when the alien arrives. Piccolo tries a surprise attack, but the alien is too strong. The alien is about to defeat Piccolo when he picks up Goku's power level and flies off.
Back at Kamesennin's place everyone is talking when the alien arrives. Krillin tries to escort the alien off the island but the alien whacks him with his tail.
"Come with me, Kakarrot," the alien says.
"Who's Kakarrot? I'm Goku," Goku responds.
Then the alien tells Goku of his Saiyan blood and that he is his brother Radditz. Radditz tells Goku that he must come with him and conquer a planet. When Goku refuses, Radditz kidnaps Gohan and flies off. Piccolo arrives and tells Goku that they must team up to defeat him. They use the dragon radar to locate Gohan (Gohan has a dragon ball on his hat.) and fly off.
The two Earth warriors arrive at Radditz's pod. They both take off their weighted clothes.
They fight with punches and kicks, but Radditz is too strong. Then Radditz flies into the air and shoots two huge beams, one nearly missing Goku and the other taking Piccolo's arm off. Radditz cracks a joke ("Excuse me has anyone seen my arm? Ha ha ha! You can't miss it, its green! Ha ha ha ha!"). Piccolo thinks of a plan. He tells Goku that he has been working on a new attack so he could defeat Goku. Piccolo says that he can use it on Radditz, but it will take five minutes to charge up and Goku must fight with Radditz until it is charged. Goku agrees and runs toward Radditz.
Goku tries a Kame Hame Ha but Radditz cancels it out with his hand. Piccolo then shoots his Makkankosappo, but it barely misses and only breaks Radditz's shoulder armor. Radditz laughs at Piccolo and Goku grabs Radditz's tail. Goku knows how much it hurt when people squeezed his tail. Radditz falls to the ground. He tells Goku that he won't be evil anymore if Goku lets go. Piccolo yells at Goku telling him not to listen to Radditz. But Goku lets go of Radditz's tail. Radditz gets up and whacks Goku, knocking him back a several feet. Radditz steps on Goku and is crushing his ribs when Gohan flies out of Radditz's pod and has a power level of 710 and going up.
Radditz checks Gohan's power level. "1,307? Even I can't block that!"
Gohan screams, "STOP HURTING MY DADDY!!!" and lunges at Radditz, cracking his armor and nearly knocking him to the ground.
After recovering, Radditz checks Gohan's power level. One. "Where'd all that power go, kid?" he asks.
"What power?" Gohan responds. Radditz kicks Gohan and knocks him out. Goku gets up and puts Radditz in a full-nelson and tells Piccolo to do his Makkankosappo again. Piccolo agrees (he always wanted to kill Goku) and charges up again. "SPECIAL BEAM CANNON FIRE!" He shoots his attack and it goes through Goku and Radditz.
Freeza Saga
Namek, Ginyu and Freeza Saga
After Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma arrive on Namek, they discover that evil forces are already at work on Namek looking for the Dragon Balls also. They search high and low for dragon balls, but usually come up empty handed. Soon Vegeta arrives on Namek as well and pursues the dragon balls too. Vegeta clashes with Frieza's forces time and time again, as Gohan and Krillin avoid anyone they come across. Eventually they meet some of the Nameks and head to see Guru, the elder Namek, who opens up their hidden power. During the mad hunt for the dragon balls, Vegeta battles and kills Zarbon, Dodoria, and Cooey, three of Frieza's strongest minions. Vegeta steals the dragon balls from Frieza and is only missing one, the one Gohan found. To beat Frieza, Krillin, Gohan, and Vegeta team up against the great evil. Frieza is infuriated by Vegeta's insolence, and calls for the Ginyu force, his super squadron of dancing morons. Once the Ginyu Force arrives they catch up with Vegeta and the others and prepare to take the dragon balls. Captain Ginyu takes the balls back to Frieza while the others decide who gets to kill Krillin, Vegeta, and Gohan. Guldo, the frog-looking weakling of the bunch, goes first against Gohan and Krillin. The fight seems to be going in Gohan's favor when Guldo catches them off guard and it looks like they could be done for. Vegeta, however, still needs them, so he kills Guldo and saves Gohan and Krillin. Recoome steps up next to fight. He pretty much beats the hell out of all 3 of them. He beats up Vegeta, then Krillin, and finally Gohan. Just when it looks like Gohan is done in, here comes Goku. Goku finally shows up, stronger than ever after training in 100 times earth gravity. He stops Recoome with one blow, then Burter and Jeice burst into action to defeat this new threat. He stops them pretty easily and Jeice retreats to summon Captain Ginyu to help. The captain shows up to settle things. After he sees how strong Goku really is, Ginyu pulls a special attack that switches their bodies. Goku is stuck in Ginyu's body, as the Captain flies off with Jeice to fool Gohan and Krillin. Gohan and Krillin fight Ginyu, and when Vegeta joins in it turns into a massacre. Vegeta kills the unconscious Burter, and Recoome. Then while Gohan and Krillin fight Ginyu, Vegeta chases down and kills Jeice. With that finished, Vegeta beats on Ginyu for a while. Ginyu gets ready to take Vegeta's body, but Goku jumps in the way at the last minute to get his body back. Then when Ginyu tries again, Goku throws a frog in the path of the beam. With Ginyu in a frog's body, the battle with the Ginyus is finally done. The new team of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Krillin go to Frieza's ship to heal and prepare for Frieza's eminent arrival. Gohan and Krillin wait for Vegeta to fall asleep and go to make their wish with the dragon balls. They bring Piccolo back to life, and transport him to Namek to help fight Frieza. But before they can get their 3rd wish Vegeta wakes up and shows up on the scene. Before Vegeta can get his wish granted, Guru dies and the dragon balls become useless. It's about this time that Frieza arrives and he's not in a good mood.
After Vegeta and the guys fight Frieza for a little bit, Piccolo merges with the fallen Namek warrior Nail, and arrives on the scene to help. Frieza goes into his second form and spears Krillin. Dende however heals Krillin before he dies. Gohan steps up to fight Frieza and gets beat pretty bad, but Dende heals him too. Piccolo puts up the best fight against Frieza. Frieza goes into his third form and Piccolo can barely handle the new battle mate. By the time Frieza reaches his fourth form Piccolo is pretty outmatched. Before Frieza goes to 4th form, Vegeta talks Krillin into blasting him and then getting Dende to heal him to massively buildup his power. Soon after Frieza's fourth form, he kills little Dende, after seeing the tiny Namek's ability to heal the others. The fighters put up a pretty useless fight against the super-powerful Frieza. Not even Vegeta can touch him. Goku shows up right as Frieza kills Vegeta, and it looks like Goku has the upper hand for a while. But Frieza proves too much for even Goku to handle. Even after hitting him with a high powered Spirit Bomb attack Frieza still keeps coming. But then Frieza kills Krillin. Goku goes into a terrible rage at this latest atrocity by the evil warlord. Goku starts teeming with new power and he achieves the form of Super Saiyan. A high powered, blonde haired, blue eyes fighting machine. The fight starts turning against Frieza so to ensure his victory he blasts Namek's core, setting the planet to explode in mere moments. Goku and Frieza fight for a good long time until Frieza makes a mistake and ends up sliced up. Goku gives Frieza a small amount of energy so he can survive the blast of the planet's explosion, but Frieza uses this energy to attack Goku. The super saiyan goes ahead and finishes the job, killing Frieza. After the Nameks and everyone else on the planet, except Goku and Frieza, are wished to the Planet Earth, the heroes use the dragon balls to wish everyone back to life. Goku refuses to come back to Earth because he is not dead and he is training with his new power. Everything returns to something resembling normal and the Nameks go to their home on New Namek.
Garlic Jr. Mini Saga
Once things get calmed down after the the battle with Frieza, Garlic Jr. returns from the Dead Zone to cause problems once again. He takes Kame and Mr. Popo hostage, and releases his Black Water Mist on the Earth. The evil mist causes people to becomes super violent and turn on one another. Piccolo tricks him into thinking he has been turned by the mist, in order to get close enough to Kame's prison in the bottle. Once the farce is unmasked Kame and Mr. Popo are freed and they take the Sacred Water, the only cure for the mist, to the 7 winds to spread them across the world.
Garlic Jr. escaped the Dead Zone by drawing power from the Makioh Star. The star powers his battle against Piccolo, Krillin, and Gohan. Eventually it comes down just like in the movie Dead Zone. Garlic Jr. once again tries to draw the heroes into the Dead Zone and once again Gohan thwarts his attack and bounces him into the Dead Zone instead. With Garlic Jr. gone, there is one thing left. Krillin and Gohan go after a giant pearl to give Krillin's girlfriend, Marron. But during the quest for the pearl, Krillin realizes he has to let Marron go. The give up the chase on the pearl and return to the surface. Krillin let's Marron go and the Garlic Jr. Mini Series draws to a close.
Cell Saga
The Z Warriors move Goku to Master Roshi's house for fear that the Androids might try to kill Goku. Bulma contacts the Z Warriors and tells them that she saw a time machine like Trunks's. Trunks and Gohan fly out to look at the machine and find an egg shell nearby. In a town near them, a monster is absorbing people left and right. Piccolo, fearing that he will never be strong enough to stop the Androids, decides to fuse back with Kame. When Piccolo arrives, Kame tells him about the horrible creature attacking Gingertown. The two fuse with Piccolo as the base, and the two become one again. Piccolo flies to Ginger town to face this new threat. He encounters a horrible creature and the two fight. Cell holds Piccolo captive and absorbs an arm. Piccolo breaks free and demands to know more about his opponent before he loses his life to it. Cell agrees to Piccolo's last wish. The monster says it is called Cell, another one of Dr. Gero's creations. When Trunks returned to the future and killed Androids 17 and 18 of that time, Cell killed Trunks and stole his time machine to return to the past where the Androids were still alive. Cell reveals about how Dr. Gero abandoned the project on him but left the computer on to develop him on its own. In order to reach perfect form, he needed the beings of two figures crucial to the powerup - Androids 17 and 18. As newly hatched, he needed energy. That is why he has been absorbing people. Piccolo swears that he will not allow Cell to reach his perfect form. Then, he tears off his useless limb and regenerates his arm. The two fight again, but Cell runs off and evades Piccolo as it gathers more energy. Piccolo and the other give chase after the new menace.
The Androids head for Goku's house, terrorizing everyone in their path, and find he is not there. They then head for Master Roshi's house, still viewing the whole thing as a game. Gokou recovers from his illness and, hearing everything while asleep, prepares to join in fighting. Goku goes to Gohan and then to Vegeta and Trunks to tell them all of a place where you can train for the equivalent of a year but in only one day. All of them go to Kame's Lookout to enter the Room of Spirit and Time. Only two people can enter the room at a time however, so Vegeta and Trunks go in first. Meanwhile, Cell has gained enough strength to finally go looking for the Androids to achieve his perfect form. The Androids reach Roshi's house and Piccolo leads them to a nearby island to fight. As the two fight, Cell shows up on their island battleground. Cell easily beats Piccolo and heads for Android 17. Android 17 knows nothing about Cell and thinks of him as just another unworthy opponent, but Cell also easily beats the Number 17. Before Cell is able to absorb Android 17, Android 16 joins the fight. Android 16 overwhelms Cell. Cell becomes buried in a pile of rubble, but emerges atop Android 17 and absorbs him. Cell changes into form 2 and easily beats Number 16 with his newfound strength. Then, he heads for Android 18 and devours her, reaching Perfect Form. The Saiyans finish their training in the room of Spirit and Time, and Bulma rebuilds Android 16, who joins the Z Warriors.
Cell, in his infinite arrogance, announces the Cell Game, a tournament to give people the chance to fight him, one on one. If Cell survives, he will destroy the Earth. Goku and Cell battle to a standstill. Goku suddenly stops fighting and says that he will let Gohan take his place. Goku even gives Cell a Senzu Bean to keep things even! Gohan says that Goku is making him fight because when he gets angry his power rises unbelievably. Cell wants to see Gohan's hidden power, so he begins to beat Gohan mercilessly to force him to get angry. But no matter what Gohan never gets angry enough to fight back. Goku watches patiently and keeps anyone else out of the fight. Android sneaks up on Cell since the androids cant power up. Number 16 puts Cell in an arm lock and tells everyone to clear out so he can activate the Self Destruct mechanism that Dr. Gero put inside all his Androids. But Krillin yells to him that Bulma removed it when she put him back together. Cell laughs at 16's ignorance and destroys him again.
Cell gets tired of waiting for Gohan to get angry and threatens to kill the spectators. Cell flies to Krillin to steal his bag of Senzu Beans and heads back to Gohan. Cell creates 7 little clones, the Cell Jr's, to battle the spectators. Gohan watches helplessly as the Cell Jr's attack his friends. In the background, Mr. Satan and a camera crew had been documenting the tournament. Number 16's head lands near Mr. Satan and demands to be taken near Gohan so that he can tell Gohan how to save the world. After much reluctance, Mr. Satan slowly walks out intot he ring and throws the head toward Gohan, then slinks back behind a rock like the coward he truely is. Android 16's head encourages Gohan to fight, until Cell finally noticing the exchange between the two, crushes the head of Android 16. This sends Gohan into a rage and he powers up to SSJ2. Gohan steals the Senzu Beans back from Cell and easily beats the Cell Jr's. Gohan beats on Cell for awhile, forcing the enemy to power up to 100%. Cell can still not beat Gohan. Gohan lands a tough kick to the body of Cell forcing Android 18 back out, and forcing Cell to degrade to his 2nd form. Seeing no way to win in an even weaker form, Cell activates his self-destruct sequence. To save the Earth, Goku teleports Cell to King Kai's planet. Cell explodes and King Kai's tiny planet is destroyed. Goku, King Kai, Bubbles, and Gregory die in the blast.
The Z Warriors are all standing around in disbelief, when a fireball out of nowhere flies through Trunks's body. The heros look up to find Cell, in his perfect form, smiling down on them. Here we go again!
Cell explains that when he exploded, a single brain cell remained, from which he rebuilt himself. And due to his Saiyan DNA, the beast was able to come back stronger than before, in his perfect form. Vegeta gets mad and fires multiple blasts at Cell, but Cell stands by unharmed. Cell knocks Vegeta out and fires a shot at his helpless body. Gohan however zips over to Vegeta and takes the blast for him, rising battered and bloody. Cell and Gohan begin a Kamehameha duel, but it comes to a stalemate. Through King Kai, Goku yells encouragement his son. The remaining Z Warriors (Yamcha, Tien, Krillin, and Piccolo) fire all they have at Cell, but to no avail. Vegeta wakes back up and gets angry at the show of force from these low class Saiyans, Gohan and Goku. He fires a blast borne of hatred at Cell and it is powerful enough to distract the mighty creature. Goku yells to Gohan that this is his chance to finish Cell for good. Gohan puts all he has into his Kamehameha, and disintegrates Cell.
The Z Warriors head victoriously to Kame's Lookout, and Vegeta flies away, disbelieving that Gohan could be stronger than he. Mr. Satan and the news reporters wake up, and Mr. Satan, seeing the empty battlefield, takes all the credit for Cell's destruction. As the world celebrates Mr. Satan, the Z Warriors rest in Kame's Lookout, with Dende (the new Kame) who heals Gohan and Trunks. Android 18 awakens after the battle and the Z Warriors prepare for another battle. Krillin stops them from killing her and she flies away to the background of the Warriors joking on how Krillin has a crush on her. The Z Warriors gather the Dragon Balls and prepare to make their wishes. First they wish to remove all the bombs from inside the Androids. Then they wish to bring back all those killed by Cell. Goku however cannot be brought back, but he tells everyone through King Kai that it's ok. The Z Warriors all reflect on Goku's life. Mr. Satan emerges the savior of Earth, and Gohan goes off to tell his mother the terrible news about his Dad.
Buu Saga
A few years after the battle against Cell...Gohan is now a high school student...baby Trunks is now a kid...Gohan now has a kid brother, Goten...Krillin married Android #18 and they now have a daughter...Gokou is fighting in a tournament of the dead... The peace is soon about to end... The final series of Dragonball Z starts off with Gokou competing in a fighting tournament in one of the four Kaiou's planet. The result is that Gokou ties with his worthy opponent. Meanwhile, Gohan is training Goten in martial arts while Vegeta trains Trunks. Both Gohan and Vegeta are surprised at how strong Goten and Trunks are as they turn into their Super Saiyan form at such a young age. Gohan also has a girlfriend (Satan's daughter). Later, Gohan, a hero who has achieved the identity as the Great Saiyan-Man, attends a tournament. When it is the Great Saiyan-Man's turn to compete, he turns into his Super Saiyan form and his disguise is blown off. Everyone is amazed that a nerd, Gohan, is the Great Saiyan-Man. All of a sudden, Yamu comes out of nowhere and absorb Gohan's energy into a "lamp" to revive Buu. Kaiou-shin and his partner, trying to prevent Babi-di's and Darbura's plot to reactivate Buu, allow this to happen so that he could follow the energy stealers to their hideout. (Babi-di's goal is to destroy all life just for the fun of it.) But, he revives Gohan first. The Saiyan warriors decide to go as well. A fight follows. Darbura turns Krillin and Piccolo into stone and Kaiou-shin's partner is killed. The Z warriors learn that Krillin and Piccolo will return to normal once Darbura dies. In battle, Vegeta is turned into Babi-di's slave (this is when the "M" appears on Vegeta's forehead). His energy is used to reactivate Buu. Buu betrays Darbura and eats him. Thus, Piccolo and Krillin are returned to normal. Majin-Vegeta beats Gokou, and then goes to fight Buu. Upon failing, Vegeta self-destructs and dies. Afterwards, Bulma gathers the dragonballs to revive all those killed since the fighting tournament. In the fights later on, Gokou gets angry enough and reaches Super Saiyan form 3 for the first time! (In stage three, Gokou has long hair and is more powerful than ever.) Gohan also heads to Kaiou-shin's planet, pulls out the Z sword, and trains under Dai Kaiou-shin. Goten and Trunks train as well to get stronger. From Gokou, they learn the art of fusion to fuse to become one, becoming Gotenks! However, our heroes are still no match for Buu. Although Darbura's, the Prince of Darkness (Babi-di's associate who looks like a devil), and Babi-di's (a little ugly sorcerer with tiny hairs growing out of his body) other minions are killed, Buu gets stronger. Buu later revolts against his master (Babi-di) and kills him. Before their deaths, the villianous Babi-di and Darbura have casted a spell that turned Vegeta evil. However, in addition with fighting against Gokou, the evil Vegeta also fought Buu. Althought defeated by Buu, Vegeta later turns good again. It is here that Vegeta finally officially becomes one of the good guys. (In previous times, Vegeta only aids our heroes to assure that Gokou lives long enough for him to kill him. But, he never attempted to kill Gokou since the early battle against him in the Vegeta Series. Next, Buu separates into two forms-one good and the other evil. Evil Buu defeats good Boo, turns the him into a cookie, and eats him. From this method, the evil Buu gains the good Buu's powers and changes into a stronger form. Buu, previously fat, is now skinnier and taller, not to mention a lot stronger. Gotenks is also stronger; he is now able to turn into Super Saiyan stage 3, like Gokou. But, he is still defeated on one of his encounters with Buu and Buu engulfs SSJ3 Gotenks. Thus, Buu absorbed Gotenks' powers and becomes stronger again. He changes form again! (His "antennae" grows longer and he now wears a black vest like Gotenks'.) Piccolo is also defeated and eaten by Buu. Meanwhile, Gohan had mastered the Z sword and learned how to use his hidden powers without getting angry under training with Dai Kaiou-shin. (He does not turn into his Super Saiyan form for the rest of the series at this point.) Unfortunately, he too is defeated and engulfed. Buu, now with Gohan's powers, changes form again. (He now looks like he's wearing Gohan's clothes.) With the other warriors defeated, only Gokou and Vegeta are left to battle against Boo! Gokou is still dead and watches the fight through Kaiou-shin's crystal ball. Seeing the unfortunate odds for our heroes, Dai Kaiou-shin sacrifices his life to Gokou and dies. Gokou's halo disappears, and Dai Kaiou-shin wakes back up with a halo over his head. Now, Gokou teleports into the battle. Vegeta, still dead, is also sent into battle by the judge of death. (Thus, Vegeta also comes back toe.) Gokou acquired a pair of special earrings from the Kaiou-shins that when each one is worn by different people, the two will permanently fuse. With Gokou wearing one of the earrings and Vegeta wearing the other, the two are pulled together and fused into Vegetto! At Vegetto's turn to fight Buu, Buu seems to be of no match to Vegetto, but Vegetto purposely gets eaten by Buu to save the other Z warriors. This cancelled the effects of the permanent fusion in Vegetto and Vegetto fisses back into Gokou and Vegeta. Next, Buu undergoes another form change and temporarily becomes very muscular as he stands still in pain through the form change. Gokou and Vegeta are now inside of Buu's organs. They find Trunks, Goten, Gohan, and Piccolo, and rescue them by carrying them out of one of Buu's pores. As they leave Buu, the warriors grow bigger and are restored to their normal size. Fat Buu, the good Buu, also escapes from Buu's body. The evil Buu, still "puffy" and bulky, is undergoing his form change to restore to his original form. (The Kaiou-shins cursed him into his previous fat looking form for destroying their people.) Afterwards, he is little and short. Next, evil Buu does a giant fireball and blows up Earth!!! Luckily, Gokou had enough time and teleported himself and his comrades to another planet. Later, the Namek dragonballs are gathered and a wish is made to restore the earth. The little Buu also met with the fat Buu. They fight, but the good Buu is once again defeated. I don't know how and why, but Gokou and Vegeta are later alone somewhere fighting Buu. Vegeta stalls Buu as Gokou gathers the energy to do a super Genki-Dama fireball. While Vegeta is getting kicked around by Buu, Piccolo, Gohan, Goten, and Trunks are on earth trying to convince the earthlings to raise their hands so that their energy will be given to aid Gokou strenthen his fireball. Because no one on earth listens to the heroes, a new approach is taken. Sataan is contacted for help. Because of his fame, he goes into public and raises his hands. All of his fans, everyone on Earth, raise their hands too to show their appreciation to Sataan. With everyone's hand raised, energy is transfered to Gokou and now has enough power to destroy Buu. With a single super fireball, Buu is destroyed. At the end, the fat Buu, who was beaten unconscious, awakens and enters our heroes' side. Ten years past. Goten and Trunks are now teenagers. Gohan married Videl and now has a 5 year old daughter, Pan. Gokou wished to fight the evil Buu all over again, so he wished for the reincarnation of the evil Buu. The evil Buu, now Ubuu, is reincarnated (and not evil anymore) and under the training of Gokou. There is peace on earth...