What Dragon Ball Z Abridged Does Better than the Original Anime

The Dragon Ball franchise has inspired all sorts of official spin-offs, video games, merchandise, and more over the course of its 30 plus years, but one of the biggest impacts the series has had on the fandom was with the creation of Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Beginning a small project 12 years ago, Team Four Star began to re-dub over some of the anime’s official footage and created their own original story. Although it was very faithful to the events of the original series, something about it just felt right. It felt like it added the necessary layers the original Dragon Ball Z anime was missing.

This small fan-based parody series evolved over the course of its run toward its massive finale that had sent waves through the fandom when it was officially confirmed to be over. But why is Dragon Ball Z Abridged so well beloved? It’s because it does one major thing the original series just doesn’t do properly.

Adding the necessary bit of levity to the admittedly goofy aspects of the franchise, Abridged found the right balance of action, character drama, and comedy that only those who understand Dragon Ball on a deeper level could really pull off. Thanks to the knowledge of where the entire series goes, and where it takes its characters, Team Four Star was able to put their own spin on each character without breaking the universe as a whole.

Dragon Ball Z anime fans often talk about how it dragged through many of its fights (with a re-cut needing to be necessary years later), and a large part of it is because it took its situations pretty seriously. While fans were able to find the fun in all of the fights and frenetic animation, Abridged drops the pretense of the series’ coolness and pokes fun at the series’ more wild elements.

Team Four Star exaggerated each character’s personalities just a bit, and thus makes each scene feel that much more compelling and human. Goku is just a bit dumber, Gohan gets aggressively violent when he’s angry, Piccolo tells Gohan to dodge in every fight (and has conversations with Kami and Nail throughout), Vegeta’s cocky attitude gives him some of the funniest lines (and biggest punk outs), and so on.

While the first season is saltier in terms of its language, as the years and episodes rolled on Team Four Star’s writing, performances, and production as a whole improved. The word play is incredible, and the best examples of this come with the third season of the series. The Android arc in Abridged is arguably a much more fun watch than in the original anime as 17 and 18 have more fleshed out personalities. Cell is even better as some of the best wordplay comes from his time on screen in his Perfect form, too.

This isn’t even including the original content introduced such as more from Android 16, which is a story the original series never quite fleshed out enough. Team Four Star made Tien a badass, gave Yamcha a music career, and Krillin got the retribution he so sorely earned. They also took on some of the movies from the anime, and made them that much better as a result too (looking at you, Broly). The point is, Abridged adds the comedy that Dragon Ball Z so sorely needed.

The original takes itself seriously, and it’s to the point where all of its goofier elements stick out like a sore thumb. But by poking fun at them with love, Dragon Ball Z Abridged ends up being an experience that transcends the original with huge emotional moments all its own. And now that it’s over, it’s the best time to watch.

What are your favorite moments from Dragon Ball Z Abridged? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!