Rating all Dragon Ball/Z/GT/Super openings and endings

I've been on my 48th post on this blog and been thinking of what type of filler content I'd want to put in between the 48th and 50th post as I already know what type of mystery novel I want to talk about on that milestone, so I came up with this ranking post of all Dragon Ball opening and ending songs from the television anime series, and I'll write about them as I re-watch my childhood. Now is also a good time to talk about the series as Dragon Ball Super: Broly film  that aired recently was an amazing experience, Dragon Ball FighterZ has been paving its way with hardcore fighting gamers and is heading onto Nintendo Switch, and the newest game, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot created by CC2 gaming studio (after they dropped out from Naruto franchise since it flopped with Boruto) will be a full-on action RPG, hopefully similar to Legacy of Goku II which is possibly the only good Dragon Ball related RPG type of game. Actually I recently wanted to do this post after watching people compare Bleach and Gintama endings on YouTube. I honestly believe that Dragon Ball has some of the best ones even if you do leave nostalgia out of it (which I won't when ranking these, the nostalgia factor elevates all the songs and scenes for me).

These openings and endings will be from the Japanese television version of the OG - Z - GT - Kai - Super series of Dragon Ball, meaning no video games, dubs, movies or such, only the long-running series on television will be counted along with some specials.

Dragon Ball Openings

Dragon Ball

Opening 1 - Makafushigi Adventure.

Two versions, one song. The song kicks off in a funky manner. Very nice visuals and adventurous feel on both versions of the opening. Shenron and character models look really damn good and the colors are beautifully thick. The opening song is always amazing and the opening feels long, like a journey you go through. Probably one of the best openings out there. Dang.

10/10

Dragon Ball Z 

Opening 1 - CHA-LA-HEAD-CHA-LA.

This has 3 versions and Kai with this song, everyone knows it. Very iconic when the logo and the "fly away" kick in as Goku and Gohan fly on the flying nimbus. The original Z animations are nuts for this; gohan running on Shenron, the ice breaking, Goku powering up and Gohan running with Shenron coming from the clouds upwards.

10/10

Opening 2 - The Gohan opening. We gotta Power.

This is one of my absolute favourites and it's gas in dubs too. The animations right from the start look amazing. The song is Dragon Ball HARD if you roll with the games. Showing Gohan as SSJ teen then transitions beautifully to adult Gohan, Gohan with Goten and other characters are shown beautifully, Gohan and Videl on that car is funny, 18, Trunks, etc are shown. But when that fucking beat drops when you thought it was over at the same time as the television screen of Mr. Satan explodes and the Great Saiyaman makes his appearance. GOTTA POWER -- NO-TEN P-KAN - - RA-MEN ROPPAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GODLIKE!

10+/10

Dragon Ball GT

Opening 1 - Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku

Don't do this to me dog. Two versions of this. Almost crying watching this one.

:lissenpepe

Goku with Ultimate Shenron in his blue suit, the song... builds up so beautifully. Feels like three beautiful songs in one opening. Chills. Why does this look so good. Trunks with the blades.. Pan greatness.

10/10

Dragon Ball Kai

Opening 1 - Dragon Soul

This opening has 4 versions to it and sounds exactly like you'd expect a good DB opening to sound, DOKKAN DOKKAN PARADISE! It has that real good vibe to the song. I don't dig this era of the digital DB art (broly is fire tho) but the visuals in this opening are really damn good, no doubt. That face-off with Vegeta and Goku is my favourite part of it.

6.5/10

Opening 2 - Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go

This one starts different out of all the DB openings. It's not exactly what you expect a DB opening to sound like anymore but the song is not bad. The beginning has some vibe to it, feels like it would explode at first but it doesn't but the first 30 seconds sound amazing honestly. The visuals look nice but uninspired; they go through many different events that happen in Buu saga in this opening.

I'm not going to raise the score but those first 30 seconds sound different from usual and I dig it a lot.

5/10

Dragon Ball Super

Opening 1 - Cho-Zets☆Dynamic!

The opening has 4 versions to it. The song instantly kicks to gear with the nostalgic sun from the OG along with the logo with Super slapped onto it. The way the characters are shown in this is very Dragon Ball and the song is as well. The song is very feel-good and it's definitely a solid combo.

6.5/10

Opening 2 - Limit-Break x Survivor

Opening has two versions. Action starts right off the bat as the first frame is Goku and Jiren clashing with a punch. The way the characters are shown with the other characters from other universes hidden in dark as our main characters are shown completely is pretty cool. The song is very instrument heavy but still fits DB well. This opening brought in the hype when you started watching Dragon Ball Super every week, waiting for the Crunchyroll serves to stop crashing. The opening is pretty good.

7.5/10

Dragon Ball Endings

Dragon Ball

Ending 1 - Romantic Ageru Yo

Bulma themed ending with 4 versions. Some cover pages from the manga are animated as well, elevating the whole thing a lot. The opening has some really nice looking scenes. The song is very old school and has a really nice vibe, I dig it a lot.

8/10

Dragon Ball Z

Ending 1 - Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!

This is one of the weirdest endings of an anime you can find and it popularized the main character running in the ending cliche every anime loves to use now. The song is weird as hell, but very catchy after you listen to it couple of times.

7/10

Ending 2 - Boku Tachi Wa Tenshi Datta

The song kicks off with the hype right from the start. The opening shows Gohan walking casually while waving to his friends and then starting to run to see Goku with the angel wings at the end. The song is amazing.

8/10

Dragon Ball GT

Ending 1 - Hitori Ja Nai

The ending shows Goku, Trunks and Pan traveling through the lands, rivers and flying on dragons. The song is great and the ending has this feel-good atmosphere to it.

7/10

Ending 2 - Don't you see!

The song begins with master Roshi on a turtle. The song oh my gosh the chills. RIP Zard GREATNESS. The visuals of showing the cast are great and varied and the song elevates this to new heights. This is one of the most fantastic endings out there DON'T YOU SEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This ending is absolute gas.

10/10

Ending 3 - Blue Velvet

Dragon Balls break out of being stoned. The characters are shown in a really good way in this ending. The song is very different from what you'd hear people normally listen but damn I forgot how hard this ending goes. The song feels raw as fuck, they don't really use these types of tunes for shounens.

9/10

Ending 4 - Sabitsuita Machine Gun

Mini Goku appears and starts walking and it shows Goku's GT forms while at the end he looks back to walk to his friends as a grown up. The song itself is amazing, it's by Wands but sounds like B'z, good shit. The visuals on the other hand leave much to be desired.

7/10

Dragon Ball Z Special (2008)

Ending 1 - Orange Hero

The pencil color art style is pretty cool. The song has some vibe to it I can see many dig this ending a lot, it goes pretty hard and the visuals look great.

7/10

Dragon Ball Kai

Ending 1 - Yeah! Break! Care! Break!

The digital art is really prominent in this one but it doesn't look bad by itself, just not my type of style. The ending shows many different scenes in the series up to showing SSJ Goku from behind. The song is nice.

5/10

Ending 2 - Wings of the Heart

The animation flow as Goku flies with Shenron in this ending looks really good. The girly song might be some people's cup of tea but the ending feels really short and doesn't really manage to do much. Disappointing.

4/10

Ending 3 - Never Give Up [international opening]

7/10, it's good to hear some English Dragon Ball songs these days

Ending 4 - Dear Zarathustra

This is my most memorable ending from DB Kai. You can immediately feel the song right from the start. Everyone being in a photograph is neat. There's not much animation in this ending but it's a good one.

7/10

Ending 5 - Junjo

The ending begins with showing most of the cast and then it transitions to Goku flying to some spot in the middle of a sea with SSJ Majin Vegeta waiting for him, Goku powers up and starts throwing fists with Majin Vegeta. So simple, so good. The song sounds pretty amazing as well. I'd rank this +1 if the art wasn't digital. The

7+/10

Ending 6 - Oh Yeah!!!!!!!

Goten and Trunks sleep in weird positions and wake up as Piccolo looks after them. This entire ending is about Goten and Trunks turning to Gotenks. The song is pretty amazing again with some different vibe to it. I'd say this is less likely to get +1 if it wasn't digital than the previous, but it's almost as good as ending 5.

7+/10

Ending 6 - GALAXY

Immediately you can notice how this uses the remastered versions of the beautiful old art and makes it clean. This has the best use of color out of all the endings. The song is alright to good but there is no animation. It's kind of conflicting what to give this.

5+/10

Ending 7 - Don't Let Me Down

Kid Goku adventures remade in this but without animations. It's a very nostalgic ending and has a lot of great frams from OG Dragon Ball and couple scenes from end of Z. No animation but it's the only ending that does this. 

6+/10

Dragon Ball Super 

Ending 1 - Hello Hello Hello

The ending has a pretty average start with showing off that digital Toei art style but the rest of the ending is not bad. There's actually some animation and everyone gathering to watch the falling sun is pretty nice. The song is alright, has some good parts to it.

5/10

Ending 2 - Starring Star

This ending uses some old tropes from the OG endings and openings with everyone on cars. The song has some good parts to it but its mediocre.

5/10

Ending 3 - Light Pink

Sakura leaf ending for DB right down to the song style. The ending is split into two screens which is pretty cool. The song is good but the idea behind the ending is very lackluster. Looks good enough.

6/10

Ending 4 - Forever Dreaming

The ending is just Goku moving forwards on Flying Nimbus while the song keeps that Wowowowow tune going. It's not a bad song but I don't care for the ending.

4/10

Ending 5 - Yoka Yoka Dance

This ending isn't about animation but the way all the characters are shown makes this ending very packed. I actually really like how this is done, the art style looks great and the ending is pretty fun. The song isn't something I'd listen to but it fits this ending perfectly. I like how those Zeno Guards are there as well.

7/10

Ending 6 - Chaofan MUSIC

I don't know what to say about this ending. Chipmunk begins, then the song begins, the lyrics are really weird but the way the dude sings is really good. The ending also looks nice enough but it ends all of a sudden.

6+/10

Ending 7 - Aku no Tenshi to Seigi no Akuma

This is one of the best endings of DBS, the comic book format ending. It looks really fucking good, the colors are great and it actually feels like pages from the manga with a lot of random stuff happening. The song is great as well and kicks off perfectly at the mid point. The only problem is the lack of animation. Would have been cool to see with that style.

8/10

Ending 8 - Boogie Back

First Bulma ending since the OG. Naturally one of my favourites as well. The song is very smooth and the singer sounds great. There's not much to talk about the animations though.

8/10

Ending 9 - Haruka

The song for this one is so good brah. It's Tournament of Power ending showcasing all these characters one after another in groups. The ending is very simple but does what it sets out to do pretty well.

8/10

Ending 10 - By a 70cm Square Window

The best ending of DBS. I used to pump all the dubs and remixes I could find of this a lot when the anime was airing. The song goes super hard right from the beginning and then all of a sudden - very melancholic feel and then it feels like you're at a rock concert. It ends leaving you wanting more. Very good ending. I'd be surprised if this doesn't give some chills to DB fans with it starting with kid Goku and then Goku running while showing all those past friends and opponents he's faced.

9/10

Ending 11 - Lagrima

This song is really good and this ending has some of the best color palette for a Dragon Ball ending out of all of them, only surpassed by GT's endings. The character models look pretty damn good and this ending has some vibe to it. There is some heavy potential in this song if it was a little lower pitched most of the time. The lack of animations make it a bit worse than an 8.

7+/10

All in all I believe I can say that Dragon Ball Z has my favourite opening with Gohan and GT has my favourite ending with Zard coming in strong. If you didn't know, Zard has some of my favourite songs in Detective Conan. The singer, Izumi Sakai, sadly passed away in 2007 at the age of 40. Her voice is miraculous. 

Zard created nothing but fantastic and beautiful songs during their career, including:

- Unmei no Roulette Mawashite
(Detective Conan opening 4)
- Hoshi no Kagayaki yo 
(Detective Conan opening 15)
- Glorious Mind
(Detective Conan opening 21)
- Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de
(Detective Conan opening 22, made along with Naifu)
- Ashita o Yume Mite 
(Detective Conan ending 17)
- Kanashii Hodo Anata Ga Suki
(Detective Conan ending 24)
- Shojo no Koro ni Modotta Mitai ni 
(Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target ending)
- Natsu o Matsu Sail no Yo ni
(Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths ending)
- Tsubasa o Hirogete
(Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear ending)
- as well as songs for Slam Dunk and other series. Go listen to them, they're all fantastic.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018) review

Release date for the English dub

"Do the impossible, see the invisible
Row! Row! Fight the power!
Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable
Row! Row! Fight the power!"
- Libera me from Hell (Gurren Lagann)


While this is not the type of series I'd usually write a review about, as this blog is mainly for down-to-earth mystery series, I've been a huge fan of the shounen action/adventure Dragon Ball series most of my life along with couple other shounen series such as Bleach and Rave Master that I used to follow over a decade ago along with these detective fiction series such as the Poirot TV series. I just happened to decide for christmas and the new year to watch the Broly film subbed and then English dubbed again in January of 2019. Note also that the original Dragon Ball manga was created by Akira Toriyama, known for his beautiful artwork for the fantastic Dragon Quest game series.

Even though I don't have much to say about Super as a series (I heavily prefer the original DB and Z parts of the series and Super is sort of like GT to me), I did watch Super weekly for some of the entertaining fights such as Goku vs Kefla and Vegeta vs GoD Toppo, even the Goku Black arc, as well as the great discussions I've had with other Dragon Ball fans around the world on sites such as Narutoforums and YouTube, and when Dragon Ball Super: Broly was announced and claimed to include the infamous Legendary Super Saiyan in the canon storyline of the series, I've been really pumped up to learn more about it. Actually I had a feeling it was about Broly before it was revealed, and I'm a huge fan of the original Broly movies due to their manly, brutal action. The movie was spoiled by five different trailers that I've heard of many hated, however, DB is not a story-heavy series so I don't mind them; the trailers spoiling almost every plot point in the film did not make me not want to watch it in the slightest. So, in this post I will also be pointing out reasons for why you should watch the movie.

Broly introduced to the canon of Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018) starts with a half an hour flashback, which is something really special to the Dragon Ball series because as I already mentioned; it's not a story-heavy series. It's always been about the action and the character development that comes with it. The flashback deals with the events of Frieza taking over his father's, King Cold's, army and taking over as the dictator of the Saiyan race that are known for their ability to conquer planets from a very young age by turning into Oozaru's, great apes of great power. In the flashback we get introduced mainly to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Minus version of the original flashback that causes Goku to be sent to Earth from planet Vegeta.
The flashback introduces the watcher to Bardock and Gine who are Goku's parents. As Bardock smells death in the air from Frieza's spaceship suspiciously hanging around planet Vegeta despite Frieza's army not telling the Saiyan race anything about why, Gine and Bardock decide to send Goku to a planet with low power level where even their young son could stay alive. That is Earth. It's a neat moment also due to Bardock claiming that he wants to save his weak son because he's been a brutal monster up until that point. So he shows that in his last moments even the original saiyan's can have morals and show heart.
Around the same time, another Saiyan, Paragus, is notified by King Vegeta, father of Vegeta, that Paragus's son, Broly, is to be sent to a faraway planet with powerful monsters on it. King Vegeta with jealousy in his eyes tells Paragus that he should be happy that Broly wasn't getting executed by him despite the young boy being a 'monster' that in the future can become a threat to the Saiyan race. Paragus understands that King Vegeta is actually jealous that the young Broly has more potential than young Vegeta, as King Vegeta's son has to be the strongest of the Saiyan race. Paragus goes after the capsule that was to be sent to the deadly planet, but as he reaches the planet, his spaceship breaks down and him and Broly are left to stay there for many years, decades, to come until Frieza's army finds and recruits them during the present timeline of this Broly film.
The flashback plotlines happen at the same time as Frieza is planning to eradicate planet Vegeta and the ball of death that he uses to destroy the planet is shown once more in this movie along with a quick showcase of Bardock's last stand against Frieza. These three major plotlines are interesting as Dragon Ball doesn't normally do multiple storylines at the same time, and in the first 30 minutes of the film they are pulled off neatly. The flashback is what connects the four most important characters of this movie, Goku, Vegeta, Freeza and Broly, and make the fights feel more personal than they've felt since the Dragon Ball Z era.

The first time God form Vegeta is shown animated

As Frieza was resurrected by Whis, the Angel of Universe seven, at the end of the Tournament of Power arc of the Super TV series, Vegeta has become aware of the threat he poses to the Seventh Universe of the Dragon Ball multiverse (remember also that Frieza during ToP claimed that he will aim to rule above the childish but all-powerful Omni-kings of the multiverse, the Zen-Oh's). That is Vegeta's motivation to get stronger by training with Goku who wants to get stronger in order to be able to fairly challenge the other fighters in the other eleven universes. Up until the end of Super it was hinted that there is a person stronger than the Gods of Destruction in one of the Universes, then that person gets revealed the fans of the series might believe that we've seen the peak power that a mortal can have, and that it would peak somewhere between the strength of a God of Destruction and the almighty power of an Angel (like Whis or his sister). So that would mean that no one could challenge the ones above Angel level of power, such as the Grand Priest and the two Zen-Oh's. 
 Dragon Ball Super: Broly opens up new doors for what can realistically reach the levels of these higher and transcended power wielding characters by further pushing the concept of 'potential' that was brought up in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F.' As Frieza is able to quickly become a God Ki user in the matter of training for a few months and then being able to fight Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms (short ver: SSJ Blue), Broly is also able to bring out power that rivals even the Gods of Destruction by quickly learning as he fights against strong opponents. Broly in the movie starts as a fairly powerful child, and later as his father and him get saved Broly is a very powerful young man, but not one that would be able to challenge the Z fighters at this point in the story. However, as the story quickly develops, Broly becomes a monster to be feared and as Broly keeps humiliating Frieza, Goku and Vegeta have to resort to their ultimate trump card in order to take him out.

Broly is frankly a breath of fresh air for the Dragon Ball series. The amount of effort to the artwork and animation that were put into the movie by Toei Animation's top dogs in the animation game really make the movie shine and feel lively - it is beautiful to look at. The movie is also more character focused than Battle of Gods and Revival of F, making great use of some of the lesser character such as Frieza's army's new characters and the flashback cast; there is a sense of synergy between characters and events. I feel that Frieza was written in a more menacing way than what he ever was in Super, it is a great step back to what he was like in Z.
The soundtrack is pretty decent, for example the moment in the flashback where Frieza destroys planet Vegeta has a great OST that I need a full version for, and especially the ending theme song of the movie, Blizzard by Daichi Miura, is fantastic, I've been listening to it nonstop for a while now. 

A man with anger issues

However, that does not mean that the movie doesn't have negatives to it. Mostly the biggest and most obvious one comes to mind: the fact that the fights go at a ridicilous pace, something many can easily see as a negative aspect of the film. We go through probably about a dozen different fights.

As an example of the far, far too quick pacing for the form versus form showcase battles in this movie, take a look at this:

Base Broly vs Base Vegeta
Base Broly vs SSJ Vegeta
Base Broly and rage Broly vs SSJG Vegeta
Rage Broly vs Base Goku
Rage Broly vs SSJ Goku
Rage Broly vs SSJG Goku
Rage Broly vs SSJB Goku
SSJ Broly vs Goku/Vegeta SSJB
SSJ Broly vs Frieza
SSJ Broly vs Whis
SSJ Broly vs SSJ Gogeta
SSJ FP Broly vs SSJB Gogeta

All of that happened within 30 minutes of the film, so nowhere near the amount of time Broly was shown battling individual opponents by brutally beating them up in the original films. This movie definitely was packed and required to be longer, but still would not be as good if it was split into two films due to the content itself not requiring that, just the fights in weaker forms should have been longer.

The Legends Were True

If this movie had been a full three-hour length film, it would not have any notable negatives to it. However, that's not something that the creators can decide as the movies have to have certain lengths to them. I'd say that if the movie ever gets animated the same way Battle of Gods and Revival of F did, definitely those are probably going to be watched for the writing of the characters while the movie can be watched for the animation and quick summary of the Broly arc.

All in all, Dragon Ball Super: Broly ended up being the most entertaining Dragon Ball movie in decades that is written in a different way from the original Broly trilogy, effectively giving the old fans of the franchise something new, and what we got, was great.