 Episodes 1 - 36 The story begins with the introduction of Raditz, the Sayajin sent after our main man Goku, who is also a Sayajin and Raditz's little brother. (Goku's Sayajin name is Kakarrot). Raditz arrives on earth and begins to seek out Goku to figure out why he never completed his mission to destroy the inhabitants of Earth. But, it's been 10 or so years since the original DragonBall series, and Goku is now married (to Chi Chi) and has a nerdy little son, Gohan who wants to be an Orthopedist. And as the series opens, Goku and Gohan of them are traveling off to visit the Turtle Hermit Island to visit Master Roshi, Goku's sensei and master.  But at the same time elsewhere on Earth, Raditz is looking for his brother Kakarrot (Goku) and stumbles upon a green- skinned earthling named Piccolo (yup, just like the flute!). Raditz is about to toast Piccolo when he senses Goku's power signature, and flies off to follow that... and a relieved Piccolo is left in one piece. 
Raditz tracks Goku's energy signature to Master Roshi's Island. Here we
meet Kame-sennin (Master Roshi),
Bulma and Krilin, original characters from the original Dragon Ball who
have obviously grown up over the years. Krilin's an acomplished fighter,
Bulma's working at her father's lab at Capsule Corp, and Roshi... well,
he's still an old pervert. Raditz arrives at the Kame house on the island shortly after Goku, and of course, introduces himself as Kakarrot's brother, and explains the whole story about how Kakarrot was sent to earth to wipe out the populous, much to the cast's amaze and surprize. Seeing as how the planet is still in one piece, Raditz offers his brother the chance to join with him in destroying the planet's inhabitants. But when Goku refuses to carry out the mission and join in brother in destroying the earthlings, Raditz takes Goku's son Gohan hostage, beats the crap out of Goku and takes off. Goku and Krilin are about to take off after him when Piccolo shows up and suggests that they form a VERY temporary alliance against Raditz (mainly, cuz Piccolo doesn't wanna get his green head blown off 3 episodes into the series!) 
The Piccolo, Goku and Krillin head off and find Raditz, who has locked Gohan
inside his space pod. Raditz is
a bit muffed because his scouter has been telling him that Gohan is stronger than he is,
but ignores the fact.
He ignored the kid and gets into a fight with Goku and Piccolo, the later two being no
match for Raditz. He's busy kicking the stuffin' out of both of them.Gohan, seeing his father getting beat up, finds his hidden energy and makes an attack on Raditz, splintering the armor brest plate that he wears, leaving Raditz vulnerable. This of course, pisses off Raditz. He's about to kill Gohan when the wounded Goku grabs his brother in a Full Nelson and holds him back. Goku tells Piccolo to blast Raditz with his CorkScrew attack. But there's no way Goku could ever get out of the way of that attack and still hold Raditz's cracked armor in range. Piccolo rather likes the idea of killing two birds with one stone, and unleases the attack which will utterly spell both their dooms. The blast hits both Raditz and Goku, and manages to kill them both. In Raditz's dying words, he exclaims that the last 2 surviving Sayajin warriors are comming to earth to finish it off, and both he and Goku die. So, what the heck! You kill off the main character in Episode 5? 
Goku's gone to heaven, so to speak. He pleads with the king of heaven, Enma
Daiou (King Yama) to train under Kaiou-sama
(King Kai), a powerful warrior who lives in heaven and trains great fighters.
So Goku sets off to King Kai's along a long and winding
road called Snake Way.Meanwhile, Piccolo's in a bit of a fix. His need to eliminate Goku has left Gohan orphaned. He nabs the kid, determined to train him and reveil Gohan's hidden power that he unleased at Raditz. Piccolo leaves Gohan in the middle of nowhere to survive on his own, supposedly, for 6 months in the wilderness, but secretly, Piccolo is always watching to make sure the kid does alright. 
Elsewhere, poor Krilin is given the task of telling Chichi that her husband has been
killed and Gohan has been kidnapped by Piccolo. So, you can imagine the horror! He's
saved when Yajirobe comes to assemble the Z fighters for training, seeing as how the last
two Sayajin warriors will be on earth to destroy it in less than a year. They
all assemble, including Yamucha and Puar from the original series.That night, the purpose of Gohan's tale is revieled to Piccolo, as the youngster looks at the full moon and is transforemed into a huge ape! Piccolo destroys the moon, thinking that will stop the transformations. It's nearly 4 months later, and Gohan's getting strong. 
But across the galaxy, the remaining two Sayajin's are comming: Nappa and Vegita. I say
"two remaining" because Vegita, Prince of the Sayajin home-planet of the same name,
and Nappa are the only two remaining Sayajin's left after the destruction
of the planet by a yet un-named warrior. So, the Sayajin race is
destroyed, save for those who happen to have been off-world when this warrior
had their temper tantrum.Back on Earth, Chaotzu and Tenshinhan (Tien) join the Z warriors in training to save the universe. 
And Goku - who had fallen off Snake Way once, and had been lured by the Snake
Princess, is
STILL on his way to King Kai's. So skipping ahead to six months later, Gohan is FINALLY training under Piccolo, the Z fighters are still training and Goku has gotten his butt to King Kai's planet, a small, "Little Prince"-like planet with a house, a few trees and a car.  In order to finish his training and go back to be resurected, Goku faces two obsticals: 1. Catch Bubbles the Monkey (who's a fast and hilarious little guy) 2. Whack Geoffrey the Firefly over the head with an Akane-sized Baka Basher (AKA a HUGE mallet). One small problem: Kai's planet has ten times the gravity of Earth, even though it's no bigger than a city block. It takes poor Goku nearly 3 weeks and 3 episodes to do this. Back on Earth, the Sayajins, Nappa and Vegita enter the Solar System a month early. In desperation, Goku contacts Master Roshi telepathically and learns this. Goku tells them to assemble the Dragon Balls and wish him back to life. They do, and now begins the waiting game as Goku has to meander BACK down Snake Way to King Yama's to be sent back to earth. 
Vegita and Nappa make planetfall, and Nappa starts making a mess. Piccolo, Gohan and Krilin
confront the two to try to hold them off untill Goku can get back. Vegita, too bored to
fight the three, creates the Saibamen to do the job for him, a group of
6 green, almost plant-looking alien killing creatures.The Saibamen go one-on-one with the Z warriors, one managing a Kamikaze attack, killing Yamucha. Krilin and Piccolo take out the remaining Saibamen, and with Vegita's permisison, Nappa takes the whole team on himself. Chaotzu dies in his own Kamikaze attack that he hopes would atleast SCATHE Nappa... which it doesn't, so the team is down to 3 (Yajirobe ran off to get some food). Tenshinhan dies next, and Vegita is just getting more and more bored. He proposes a 3-hour truce to see if Goku will get his butt here and pose a bit more of a challange. 
Nappa, bored as usual, takes out the Japanese Naval squad and Air Force for fun to
pass the time. But STILL Goku
doesn't arrive in that 3-hour window. With Vegita's truce over, Nappa attacks again. Goku arrives shortly after. Vegita's worried over Goku's power level and orders Nappa to destroy the others except Piccolo, whom they need alive to gain infomation about both the Earth DragonBalls and the Namek Dragon Balls (since Piccolo's a Namekkian). But while Nappa was attacking Gohan, Piccolo jumped in the way to shield Gohan from one of the attacks and is killed. So, since Kami, the other Namekian is also dead, the Earth Dragon Balls, which were created by Kami, are now useless since they need their maker or decendant to remain active. 
Nappa takes on Goku. Attack after attack fails and Nappa soon learns that he's no match
for the kind-hearted Sayajin. In the midst of defeat, Nappa
asks Vegita for help. Discusted, Vegita hurls his commrad into space and kills him.In a desperate attempt to save Krilin and Gohan, Goku leads Vegita out to the wastelands, but finds out that he is still no match for the Sayajin prince. He charges up to triple Kaio-ken and pummels Vegita flat. All's good, but the attack has left Goku's body severly drained. 
Vegita manages to pull himself together and creates an artificial moon. He
transforms into a wear monkey (since
Vegita still has a tail and Goku doesn't), and begins after Goku as the giant Sayajin
wearape. Vegita nabs Goku and begins
squeezing him to death after Goku's energy blast hit him in one of his eyes. Yajirobe
comes out of hiding long enough to sever Vegita's tail, sending him back to his normal,
short size.
Vegita goes after Gohan while Goku gives the remaining energy from his Spirit Bomb to
Krilin. Krilin's first shot misses Vegita, but Gohan rebounds it with his pure
heart and it hits Vegita square. BUT
he's not down yet! Gohan's tail has grown back, much to Vegita's dismay, and the youngster
transforms under Vegita's artificial moon. He completely kicks Vegita's ass and leaves him
for dead. Krilin picks up Yajirobe's sword and tries to finish the job,
but Goku pleads that they must not elimated the pure evil that Vegita represents. So, he's
left alive. Swearing revenge, Vegita climbs into his pod and takes off.So ends the Sayajin Saga, and everything seems to be going good. But, since Kami-sama and Piccolo are dead, the only two Namekians on earth, the Dragon Balls on earth will no longer work. So, in order to bring Piccolo and the others back to life, the Z team must travel to Namek to use the Dragon Balls there. But how are they gonna get there? And so begins the Freeza Saga Go BACK to the DBZ Episode Page Go BACK to the DBZ Main Page |
