Every Dragon Ball Z Saga Ranked From Worst To Best

This is how a series gets started.

Everything seems peaceful at Master Roshi's place until a member of Goku's species, his brother for that matter, comes down to pluck the son of the saiyan from him. So much about the lore is established in this brief stint, with planet Vegeta, the saiyan race, and Goku's original purpose all being explained before Goku and Piccolo finally confront the long haired, scouter-touting, naughty uncle.

Raditz comes out of this looking as strong as any series antagonist can. Goku never even manages so much as a punch on his brother, and despite being a man-down in their encounter, Raditz dominates the fight. Regardless of if anyone watched the original Dragon Ball before starting DBZ, they would understand that Goku, powerful as he is, had met his match.

The fight ends with Piccolo, ironically accomplishing his original mission of killing Goku, but to save earth, rather than conquer it. Raditz takes the blast, dying along with his brother.

This leaves Gohan in Piccolo's care as the narrative hook sets in for everyone watching. The protagonist of the last series has taken the bullet for humanity, and his son needs to do learn quite a bit to get to his father's level, despite showing flashes of limitless potential.

Many fans may laugh at Raditz now, but it was dominating first battle that peaked fans interest and set the series on a path to become the most iconic shonen anime of all time.