It’s hard to believe that a series that was written on a weekly basis by a writer who refused to plan anything in advance would have mistakes, isn’t it? As amazing as Dragon Ball Z is, you have to admit that it isn’t perfectly told. Now, credit where credit is due, Akira Toriyama did an incredible job writing as his own pace. All the character arcs feel fully realized, there are a surprising amount of literary themes and devices at play, and each saga transitions into one another rather seamlessly for a series with no planning. That out of the way, however, there are moments where it’s obvious that a little bit of foresight would have saved everyone the headache of trying to figure out what went wrong and what got retconned.
As to be expected from an adaptation, the anime version of Dragon Ball Z doesn’t fare much better. Animation errors, superfluous changes, and filler material just pile mistakes onto a series that was lucky to be as concise as it ended up being. The great thing about Dragon Ball, though, is that it’s so good you probably never noticed those mistakes to begin with. That’s about to change, however. Strap in, grab your Dragon Balls, and get ready to wish these inconsistencies away.
25 Cell’s Regeneration Defies Its Own Logic
Thanks to being made out of some of Piccolo’s cells, Cell can regenerate body parts so long as his brain cells are intact. We see Cell regenerate precisely three times during the Cell saga, but only one of those regenerations makes sense. Vegeta’s final flash is the only attack to hit Cell that doesn’t destroy his head. Naturally, Cell grows his limbs back. The next time we see Cell regenerate is when Goku vaporizes Cell’s upper body during their battle. Theoretically, this should have killed Cell but he was able to survive anyways.
The biggest problem is when Cell literally blows up his entire body and still manages to come back because on cell managed to survive. Even going by some pretend logic where Cell’s cells can move around, it’s difficult enough to believe his brain cells could move down to his lower body, let alone survive a suicidal explosion.
24 Gohan Kills Too Many Cell Juniors
Gohan’s Cell Junior beatdown is one of the unforgettable Dragon Ball Z moments. Cell births seven Cell Juniors, kills Android 16, Gohan turns Super Saiyan 2, and he unleashes kill after kill on Cell’s eight babies. That’s right, eight. Even though Cell clearly and specifically makes seven Cell Juniors, Gohan is shown murdering eight of them in his rage. The kid was so angry about Cell killing his favorite android that he willed another Cell Junior into existence just to satiate his bloodlust. The next time you watch the Cell Games, keep an eye out and see if you can spot the Cell Junior who shouldn’t be there.
23 Goku’s Father, The Brilliant Scientist
The early days of Funimation were…interesting. Their scripts weren’t as exact as they could have been, their voice acting wasn’t as good as it should have been, and enough content was cut out from the Saiyan saga where you could sincerely argue they were overstepping their hand as dubbers. One of Funimation’s earliest mistakes stems back to Goku and Vegeta’s first fight. Right before Vegeta tosses up his fake moon and becomes an Oozaru, he informs Goku that his father was a brilliant scientist who developed the technique.
Now, if you’ve seen the Bardock special then you know that Bardock is anything but a brilliant scientist. In fact, his main contribution to the Saiyan race is leading a failed coup against Frieza. So failed, in fact, that he was the only Saiyan to challenge Frieza. Thankfully, Funimation no longer makes lore up when they need to pad out a script.
22 Bardock Shouldn’t Be Able To Breathe In Space
Speaking of Bardock, his coup against Frieza should have ended much earlier than it did. Probably around the time he flew out into outer space to confront Frieza. Saiyans can’t breathe in space, we know this for a fact since Frieza informs Goku that he wouldn’t be able to survive in the vacuum of space. That said, the Bardock special’s climax doesn’t work without Bardock confronting Frieza face-to-face in space. The ending simply wouldn’t have been as climatic or impactful if Bardock waited on Planet Vegeta to die. Toriyama even features a panel of Bardock in space in the manga, so maybe the real mistake is Frieza’s comment about Goku not being able to breathe in space. Or maybe Toriyama didn’t care and just wanted to draw Bardock.
21 Enough Time Doesn’t Pass Between The Pilaf and Red Ribbon Army Sagas For The Dragon Balls To Be Restored
It takes exactly one Earth year for the Dragon Balls to restore once a wish is made. It’s one of the first rules established about them, if not the first, which makes it all the more baffling when Toriyama breaks it at the end of the second arc. After spending only eight months training with Master Roshi after the end of the Pilaf saga, Goku heads out to hunt the Dragon Balls once he loses the 21st Budokai. As a story setup, it’s great. Chronologically, it shouldn’t work at all.
No matter how you look at it, there’s just no way the Dragon Balls can be ready eight months after use. Honestly, the real mistake was Toriyama establishing that the 21st Budokai would be taking place eight months after the end of the Pilaf saga. Instead, he should have just had Goku and Krillin train for an undisclosed period of time and let the readers assume a year had passed by the end of the saga.
20 Nobody Realizes Gohan Shouldn’t Be Dead
One of the biggest pieces of tension during the Buu saga is that Bulma uses the Dragon Balls way too early, to the point where our heroes no longer have a safety net once Majin Buu starts wreaking havoc on the Earth. Goku even comments how Gohan and Vegeta weren’t brought back with the wish, cementing the gravity of their situation. Goku can’t stay on Earth any longer and there’s no one left to challenge Buu except for Gotenks.
Except Gohan can’t be dead because he’s never died before. If he was dead, the Dragon Balls would have brought him back and nobody notices this. The only way this could make sense is if they thought Gohan was on the verge of death before the wise and then died after the wish. These characters can feel ki, however, so they’d be able to tell that Gohan is alive. If you really want an in-universe explanation, it’s possible they just didn’t remember during the chaos, but how do you forget someone’s never died?
19 Frieza Forgets Piccolo Isn’t A Namekian In The Anime
At the tail end of the Frieza saga when Piccolo is holding off Frieza so Goku can charge the Spirit Bomb, Frieza makes an offhand comment about how he didn’t realize any Namekians were left on Namek. In the manga, he just makes a comment about Piccolo being stronger than he imagined which makes sense considering he wouldn’t be surprised about a Namekian he fought less than an hour ago.
This mistakes likely stems from a misunderstanding of Frieza’s line in the manga. He doesn’t specifically say he’s surprised about Piccolo being strong, just that he’s surprised someone like him is around. He’s referring to his strength, but it can be misconstrued as him not knowing a Namekian was still alive if you look at it without context. The people in charge of an adaptation probably shouldn’t be looking at a series out of context, however.
18 Kid Goku and Mr. Popo Are Always On Kami’s Lookout
Contrary to the usual mistakes in Dragon Ball, this is one that’s manga exclusive. In an attempt to save himself time while drawing, Toriyama copy and pasted a panel of Kami’s Lookout every time someone needed to be there. The problem is, the first panel featuring Kami’s Lookout was one that had Kid Goku and Mr. Popo deadset in the center. If you look carefully enough you can actually see the two character mingling in the center when the former should be a grown man and the latter should have faded into irrelevancy like most of the main cast. It’s one of those mistakes that you’ll never unsee once you actually see it.
17 Vegeta Knows Frieza Blew Up Planet Vegeta In The Dub When He Shouldn’t
In the manga and the Japanese version of the anime, Vegeta finding out that Frieza blew up Planet Vegeta is a rather big reveal. He isn’t shook up by it since he’s Vegeta and the biggest jerk in the series, but it’s enough to catch him off guard. In the English dub, they remove his surprise by changing it so he knew about it all along. It really doesn’t make much of a difference since Vegeta is a heartless monster, but it does take away from the revelation that Vegeta really is a heartless monster and he doesn’t care about the Saiyan race one bit.
16 Zarbon Never Tells Vegeta About Frieza’s Transformations In The Anime
One of the worst omissions in the Dragon Ball Z anime is the conversation between Zarbon and Vegeta where the former explains that Frieza has the ability to transform. This is one of the more important moments in the Frieza saga in the manga since it let’s Vegeta, and by extension the audience, know that Frieza is far more dangerous that initially perceived. Vegeta even uses this knowledge to his advantage by goading Frieza into transforming immediately and saving him the trouble of having to fight through more forms than necessary.
Because this conversation doesn’t happen in the anime and Vegeta has to force Frieza to transform, he just knows the information like it isn’t some tightly kept secret. In the manga, it’s a moment that’s foreshadowed and built up to throughout the saga. In the anime, it just kind of happens because an important conversation was cut out for no discernable reason.
15 Frieza And Cell Should Have Been Erased In GT
In the Majin Buu saga, Goku lets it slip that if you die while dead you’re gone for good. No Dragon Balls can bring you back and your soul is forfeit. GT, the beautiful mess that it is, take a rule as simple as that and makes a total mockery of it. During Goku’s brief stint in Hell, he faces off against Cell and Frieza and kills them. Instead of fading out of existence, however, they just regenerate and are back as if nothing happened. This not only removes all the tension from a series where death gradually become tensionless with each arc, it removes a lot of the weight of Vegeta’s battle with Kid Buu at the end of Dragon Ball Z.
14 Toei Tries To Trick The Audience Into Believing Goku Died When He Couldn’t Have
To play up the drama in Goku’s final confrontation with Frieza, Toei decided to animate the mass revival wish in a way that would imply Goku is coming back to life with everyone else. After tossing him into the ocean, Frieza presumes that Goku has been killed. Once the wish is done, however, Goku rises triumphantly, tricking Frieza. In the manga, this scene isn’t paced this way and it’s made very clear that Goku isn’t dead because, honestly, why would he be? The worst part about this change is that Earth’s Dragon Balls wouldn’t have been able to revive Goku anyways so it’s just cheap drama for the sake of cheap drama.
13 Tien Doesn’t Remember When He Became A Martial Artist
One of the main changes between the manga and anime in the Cell Games is that everyone chips in to help Gohan during the Father-Son Kamehameha in the latter. With each blast, they all deliver some inner monologue expressing their feelings towards Goku and Gohan. Tien’s is particularly interesting, because he states that seeing Goku is what made him want to become a martial artist and that this moment reminds him of that. What Tien is forgetting, though, is that he studied martial arts for years under the Crane School of teaching.
In fact, it’s likely that Tien was a martial artist much longer than Goku was. He’s older and Goku didn’t get formal training until he met Master Roshi when he was 12. It’s likely that Tien had been training for years before Goku even joined the Turtle School. Some could argue that Tien is simply disowning his Crane School roots, but he also turned down training with Roshi because of said roots.
12 Frieza’s Tail Keeps Regenerating
Krillin’s main contribution to the Frieza fight is slicing the galactic emperor’s tail in half. For most of the fight, you can actually see that the damage sticks. It’s a nice reminder that Krillin, despite being human, is still capable of rolling with the big boys. Unfortunately, Frieza’s tail is never quite consistent. You’ll notice in some scenes that his tail is full again, only be cut off in the next scene, and to regrow in another. It apparently permanently regrows when he finally transforms into his final form, but now it just swaps between being grown and being cut. There’s absolutely no consistency with Frieza’s tail, but at least it’s in the background for the most part. Except for when he’s strangling Vegeta.
11 If Pan Can’t Go Super Saiyan, Neither Should Goku Jr.
The Dragon Ball website Kanzenshuu recently translated an interesting interview with Dragon Ball GT producer Kozo Morishita that was included in the Dragon Ball GT Dragon Box, a DVD release of the series that released exclusively in Japan. Within this interview, Morishita curiously mentions how Pan’s role was “to be a ‘heroine who makes Goku a hero.’” If Pan were to turn Super Saiyan, this would apparently rob Goku of his hero status. It’s also worth mentioning that the reason Pan doesn’t go Super Saiyan is often cited as a lack of Saiyan blood in her biology.
The thing is, her grandson goes Super Saiyan in the last episode of GT. If Pan couldn’t go Super Saiyan, why should Goku Jr.? He’s even less of a Saiyan than Pan, so why did it come naturally to him and not to her? Pan even fights in multiple life and death scenarios throughout GT. Here’s hoping Super decides to transform Pan whenever it catches up to the End of Z era.
10 The Dragon Balls Shouldn’t Have Been Able To Revive Krillin In GT
Killing off Krillin in the Super 17 saga was a decent way to give Goku some newfound motivation and 18 some actual motivation for the first time since the Cell saga. When the time comes to revive Krillin, our heroes discover that the Dragon Balls have become distorted and the Shadow Dragons are born, manifestations of all their wishes throughout the course of the series. One question here, though: why were they using the Earth Dragon Balls to revive Krillin?
The Earth Dragon Balls can’t revive anyone more than once. Dende didn’t change that when he became Guardian of the Earth. Only the Namekian balls have that ability. By the end of the series, Krillin is revived and not with the Namekian Dragon Balls. GT was already in a weird spot since it took place in the anime continuity and referenced filler material, but this is one mistake that’s totally inconsistent with Toei’s MO. Genuine mistake or just a lack of caring at the end of an expiring franchise?
9 Trunks Warns Goku About The Wrong Androids
Editor interference is a tricky thing. On one hand, a good editor can take a great story and turn it into a masterpiece. On the other hand, an editor who’s too involved might start to chip away at the author’s intent and create something that lacks a consistent identity. While the latter never happened with Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama did find himself having to compromise his ideas during the Cell saga thanks to some nosy editing. If you remember, Future Trunks warns Goku about Androids 19 and 20 at the beginning of the saga, not 17 and 18.
This only became a mistake when Toriyama’s editor called him and told him that Dr. Gero and android 19 weren’t intimidating enough to be the arc’s antagonists. Scrambling to get them out of the way asap, Toriyama wrote back in Trunks and made it so Trunks didn’t recognize the two cyborgs. Since DBZ was a weekly serialization, however, there was no way to go back and edit Trunks’ now mess up.
8 Beerus Was Wrong About Wiping Out The Dinosaurs
Beerus’ claim about wiping out the dinosaurs is harmless enough until you remember that Goku fights a bunch of dinosaurs in Dragon Ball, and the first Dragon Ball Z opening prominently features a T-Rex chasing after some of the cast. Gohan’s training in the Saiyan saga also prominently features a dinosaur whose tail he continually cuts off for food. Sure, dinosaurs don’t appear after that saga but Beerus had been sleeping for decades by the time he wakes up. There was no way he could have wiped them out at any point during the series. Beerus wiping out the dinosaurs was probably added in to give the real world audience some sense of scale in regards to what he’s capable of as a God of Destruction, but it doesn’t make sense given how the series has handled dinosaurs in the past.
7 Uub Breaks Tournament Rules In GT
If GT wasn’t bad enough for you, it actually forgets one of the main rules involved with the world tournaments: no armor. Theoretically, you could chalk this up to the writers forgetting about this since the last full tournament was at the end of the original Dragon Ball, but Gohan needing to get rid of his helmet to enter the 25th Budokai as Great Saiyaman is actually a plot point in the Buu saga. During Uub’s stint as Papayaman, he enters a world tournament with a proper helmet. This shouldn’t be allowed and wouldn’t have been allowed at any other point in the series. It’s a careless mistake on the GT staff’s part and hurts the history of the Budokais, even if it’s a minor error in the grand scheme of things.
6 The Garlic Jr. Saga Hinges On The Existence Of A Non-Canon Movie
The Dead Zone is often erroneously remembered as one of the few DBZ films that fit into the main timeline. After all, it takes place before the start of Z, so what could it possibly contradict? This misconception was so prevalent that, when the time came to make a filler arc after the Frieza saga, Toei created a sequel saga to widen the gap between the manga and anime. Unfortunately, The Dead Zone and, by extension, the Garlic Jr. Saga can’t exist within the series’ continuity due to one small reason: everyone already knows Gohan in the first movie.
The first episode/chapter of Z revolves around Goku getting ready to introduce Gohan to his friends therefore anything with Garlic Jr. couldn’t have happened. Now, it’s possible that the Garlic Jr. saga takes place in a scenario where The Dead Zone didn’t happen, but the characters refer to Garlic Jr. with familiarity. This is a saga that could have worked with some tweaking, but a misconception lead to a ten episode mistake.
