Summary

• Dragon Ball storylines are too straightforward and often rely on repetitive plot points.
• The series struggles with racist tropes, sidelining female characters, and slow pacing.
• Characters like Master Roshi and his treatment of Bulma have not aged well, creating offensive humor.

Dragon Ball is one of the most preeminent anime franchises in existence, still going strong 40 years later as yet another new Dragon BAll anime series, Dragon Ball Daima, will soon reach screens around the world. However, despite Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z's place as classics, the two series haven't aged quite as gracefully as fans may have hoped.

As with any work, Dragon Ball is a product of its time, and that means that certain aspects of the series are regarded very differently by modern audiences than they were at the time of its creation. That doesn't mean that Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z is bad and should be canceled; rather, it's important to make note of these areas where the series has aged poorly, both as a signifier of how far we've come as a society and how far anime has come as a medium.

10 Many Dragon Ball Stories are Too Straightforward

Dragon Ball's Plots are Overly Simple at Times

From the very beginning, Dragon Ball has had an issue where its storylines are simple and, to some extent, a bit obvious. Goku faces a problem, usually caused by one very specific villain, and the solution to that problem is always to fight and defeat that villain. Defeating that villain will be sufficient to put a stop to all their evil activities, no matter how many followers they may have. In many cases, Goku will then befriend that villain after defeating them--it happened with Yamcha and Puar, Tien and Chiaotzu, and Piccolo just in Dragon Ball alone.

On the other hand, by the time of Z, plots can have the opposite problem; the Android and Cell sagas attempted to add complexity with time travel, but the result ended up being quite confusing as multiple timelines emerged. The Saiyan Saga leading into Namek is arguably considered Dragon Ball's best because it hits just the right balance.

9 Dragon Ball Can Feel Like a One-Trick Pony

Dragon Ball Repeats the Same Plot Points Over and Over

One of the greatest moments in Dragon Ball history is without a doubt when Goku goes Super Saiyan for the first time. It's an incredible scene, and it really feels like Goku has reached a new tier of power. Can the same be said about the countless times the series attempted to repeat that moment? Was Gohan achieving Super Saiyan 2 anywhere near as great? Even Toriyama himself forgot about that moment and needed to be reminded. How about the reveal of Super Saiyan 3? Dragon Ball Z fell into a bit of a rut with its power-ups, playing the same card repeatedly.

To be fair, this did get corrected to some extent, as different power-up mechanics like fusion came into play. Dragon Ball Super also managed to take what could've been another boring power-up and made it almost as epic as Super Saiyan's initial reveal with Ultra Instinct.

8 Dragon Ball Has Too Much Irrelevant Filler

Dragon Ball Filler is Infamously Bad for a Reason

When it comes to the Dragon Ball Z anime, one thing that has to be discussed is the sheer amount of filler present within the series. The fact that the series was able to be cut down from 291 episodes to 167 episodes for the Kai recut shows that almost half the original series' runtime was just filler. Filler can be a contentious issue on its own, but much of Dragon Ball filler is completely irrelevant. While there are entire filler arcs which may have some redeeming features, there are almost as many episodes which are just goofy or weird, like Bulma and Chichi meeting Dabura in the afterlife, completely altering Dabura's characterization up to that point.

While for many, the filler arcs can be as familiar and at home as the canon material, the fact is that these either don't add anything to the overall story, or actively detract from it.

7 Goku's Fair Treatment of Villains Draws Out Fights

Dragon Ball Fights Become Tedious When Goku Helps His Enemies

One of Goku's most interesting traits is his desire for a fair fight, even when the fate of the world is on the line. This has led him to do some pretty objectively stupid things over the years, such as feeding a senzu bean to Cell, directly harming their overall goal of defeating the monster. There have been several cases where the fight should've ended, but Goku took pity on his adversary and helped them out, hoping fruitlessly that they might change their ways. While this sometimes nets him friends, it's just as likely to introduce a whole second phase to their fight, making the battle up to that point feel unnecessary.

Because it's such an integral part of who Goku is, this can't (and shouldn't) simply be done away with, but should be applied more carefully, so that it doesn't render all the fighting that's already happened pointless.

6 Dragon Ball Occasionally Uses Racist Tropes Without Realizing It

Dragon Ball's More Diverse Characters Fall Flat

Particularly in the original Dragon Ball, the series will make use of stereotypical or even racist ideas as part of its creation of characters. Many fans' minds might immediately go to Mr. Popo, but there are actual black characters who use many of the same tropes in their designs, such as Killa, one of the competitors in the 24th World Martial Arts Tournament. Perhaps the worst is Officer Black of the Red Ribbon Army, who has the stereotypical "big lips" and pitch-black complexion, to the point where he was redesigned for the movie The Path to Power.

These characters don't mean that Toriyama himself was racist or anything like that; it just wasn't well understood at the time, especially in Japan, how harmful some of these stereotypes can be. Modern anime has come a long way in its treatment of black characters, but its past failings can't be ignored.

5 Dragon Ball Sidelines Female Characters

Powerful Women in Dragon Ball Don't Get to Fight

One thing that has always been interesting about Dragon Ball is that many of its women characters are perfectly capable fighters in their own right, but you wouldn't know it by watching your average episode. Chi Chi, Videl, Android 18... all were introduced as powerful warriors, but were then taken away from the battlefield when they married and forced into traditional wifely roles, raising children and mostly staying home. It reflects a very dated view on women's roles, and is often particularly baffling from a character perspective.

Dragon Ball Super went a long way towards fixing this by allowing Android 18 to participate as a vital ally in the Tournament of Power, as well as with the introduction of Kale and Caulifla, Universe 6's ass-kicking female Saiyans.

4 Some Dragon Ball Storylines Go Nowhere

Abrupt Plot Changes Make Certain Scenes Meaningless

Dragon Ball wasn't firmly plotted out in advance, and that can be a rather obvious fact when watching the show. Toriyama would frequently make sudden shifts in the plot to accommodate input from his editors. For example, when Toriyama first introduced Androids 19 and 20, his editor laughed at them, necessitating the creation of Androids 17 and 18, who were intended to be more threatening. However, the editor regarded them as children, and didn't like them as the villains either. Then came Cell, but Cell's original design wasn't well liked either, leading to the creation of Cell's transformations.

All this constant changing direction of the plot mid-story tends to make certain events feel completely pointless. Think about it--what role do Androids 19 and 20 actually serve in the story at all? They're utterly forgettable.

3 Dragon Ball's Glacially Slow Pacing Doesn't Meet Modern Expectations

Dragon Ball Stands Out Even Among Older Anime as Slow

Many older anime are known to be rather slow-paced compared to their more modern counterparts, but Dragon Ball is really in a league of its own when it comes to slow pacing. "Are they still on Namek?" was a question that persisted for years across playgrounds in the late 90s and early 2000s. The Namek Saga lasted 71 episodes, meaning it took over a year of airing new episodes week-to-week for Goku to finally defeat Frieza and get off Namek.

Of course, this is related to the filler problem, as the filler artificially extends the pacing even further. However, even without filler, these arcs can be painfully long; even in the recut Kai, the Buu Saga lasts for over 60 episodes.

2 The Constant Harassment of Bulma Isn't Funny

Bulma Deserves More Respect

Despite being one of the first characters introduced, Bulma really doesn't get any respect, particularly throughout the original Dragon Ball. Bulma is often the victim of unfunny harassment, either intentionally (by figures like Master Roshi) or unintentionally (usually by an innocent young Goku who doesn't understand). The worst part is, while this does diminish with time, it never really goes away; as late as the Buu Saga, Goku is still offering Old Kai the chance to grope Bulma, much to Gohan's annoyance.

It's almost a relief when she marries Vegeta, as Vegeta clearly won't allow Bulma to be harassed like that by anyone. Vegeta has certainly yelled at Goku about this kind of thing before, and thankfully it's more or less died off by the time of Super.

1 Perverted Jokes Just Don't Land These Days

Characters like Master Roshi Are Straight-Up Offensive

While the "pervert character" is an unfortunately common character archetype in anime, many of these characters can be traced back to one original source: Master Roshi. While Master Roshi isn't the only one (Old Kai, for example) to take perverse action, he's by far the most frequent offender, and unlike many of these other problems, that's something that persisted well into Dragon Ball Super, with Roshi harassing female competitors in the Tournament of Power. The majority of the time someone is harassing Bulma, it turns out to be Roshi.

The lecherous old man is a rather tired trope to begin with, and using it as a source of comedy is particularly questionable, especially since it often involves victimizing female characters. For these reasons, it's obvious that perverse humor like that of Master Roshi is the one aspect of Dragon Ball that has truly aged poorly.