AKA: ドラゴンボールGT, Dragonball GT, Dragon Ball Grand Tour

Genre: Martial arts action

Length: Television series, 64 episodes, 25 minutes each

Distributor: Currently licensed by FUNimation, available streaming on Hulu.

Content Rating: 13+ (violence, child nudity)

Related Series: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z/Kai, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Daima (TV)

Also Recommended: Pretty much any other Shonen Jump anime adaption

Notes: Anime-only sequel to Dragon Ball Z, and is the only series not written by creator Akira Toriyama. However, he did do some character designs. When this series made it to America in 2003, the first quarter of the series was skipped to get to the fighting. It was eventually released months later on DVD.

Rating:

Dragon Ball GT

Synopsis

After many, many years, Emperor Pilaf and his henchmen have collected the Dragon Balls. To get revenge on their long-time nemesis Goku, they turn him into a child. But this wish wasn't made with the ordinary Dragon Balls..these Dragon Balls are black-star Dragon Balls. And unless Goku, with the aid of Trunks and his grand-daughter Pan, collect them within a year, the universe will be destroyed!

Review

Dragon Ball GT sounds like a good idea on paper: take the humor of Dragon Ball and add to it the fighting of Dragon Ball Z. Alas, it doesn't work. The humor is juvenile and stupid, the new characters are trite or instantly forgettable, and the villains are ugly, power-hungry monsters with no personality whatsoever. Forget about memorable villains like Freeza, Cell, and Buu - make way for a bunch of ugly, muscular monsters and recycled villains from earlier series instead.

You know how some people joke about some anime's opening and ending themes are better than the actual show itself? This is one of them.

What about the characters? Goku is...well, Goku. There's not much you can do about his character really, though I prefer his old orange ki. Trunks? He's little more than a babysitter. Pan? She's our tag-along female quota character, rarely going out of the boundaries that that entails. They are all also accompanied by an annoying, stupid robot named Giro, who serves as an irritating, walking dragon ball radar. He is the worst character in the franchise bar none. What about the rest of the Dragon Ball cast? Aside from Vejeta, don't expect much. The rest of the cast are reduced to glorified cameos.

At least Toei went to the trouble of bringing up the animation, and especially the music, up a notch. Some of the backgrounds can actually be quite detailed, and the animation is definitely leagues above Dragon Ball Z. It's a shame the art itself is so damn ugly.

In short, avoid Dragon Ball GT. It has little of the fun, excitement, or likable characters the franchise is known for. Aside from the rare cute/funny moment, there's not much to look at unless you absolutely need to watch everything Dragon Ball.

The fun stops the second the opening ends. For some, it might stop long before that. — Tim Jones

Recommended Audience: Typical Dragon Ball violence and non-sexual child nudity in the form of young Goku. Content wise, it fares a little better than Dragon Ball Z.