I know, it's hard to believe, but these aren't all the same character with a different haircut.

If you think about it, the whole premise of the show is pretty darn ridiculous. And not 'good' ridiculous (like Freakazoid), but cheesy ridiculous. Allow me to explain. For those who don't know, Dragon Ball Z is the sequel series to Dragon Ball, a quaint little cartoon which paralleled the equally quaint Eastern myth of the Monkey King. If you keep this in mind when you watch the first episode of DBZ, you see how truly cheesy the whole premise is. We meet Goku, main guy from the first series, whom we remember as the quaint monkey boy who adventured around in the first series. Then, a spaceship falls from the sky, and this guy comes out, saying Goku is really his ALIEN BROTHER, and that he was supposed to DESTROY the HUMAN RACE?! Let me put this in perspective. Say, the children's cartoon 'Maurice Sendak's Little Bear' was cancelled. Now, two years later, Nickelodeon debuts 'LITTLE BEAR Z,' where it is discovered Little Bear is actually a descendant of a vast subterranean race of bipedal mole bears, who need his help to battle the various fantastic creatures and villains that reside within the earth's core. YES! MAURICE SENDAK'S LITTLE BEAR Z!

Super Aryan Goku. No, I didn't digitally alter anything, his neck really is THAT much wider than his head.

Also, this may be a bit of a stretch, but could it be that DBZ is actually pro-axis propaganda from a band of Japanese extremeists who feel the second world war is still in action? Think now, the characters start out relatively weak compared to their enemy (namely Frieza), until they become Super Saiyan, the next step in Saiyan evolution. Is it any wonder that the mystical Super Saiyans, the BEST FIGHTERS IN THE UNIVERSE are blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryan supermen? Compared to them, everyone else is just a bunch of wimps and monkeys. The Saiyans are considered the pinnacles of the Saiyan species, much as the Aryans were considered (by a certain Chaplin-moustached bonehead) to be the pinnacle of the human race.

Frieza is angry about his distinct lack of genitals. 'Okay, I just changed thru three really cool looking forms, and my ULTIMATE form is this gay, androgenous, lipsticked, pale thing?! I look like Ziggy Stardust, for crying out loud!'

Look, mommie! I want THAT one! THAT one! A giant, talking TROLL DOLL!

And, finally, a short word about the show structure itself. First, it TAKES forever to do anything. Is it written somewhere in the annals of DBZ animation rules that any and all major battles have to take at least a week's worth of episodes?! The progression is so slow, you could literally miss a month and not be off track once you came back. And speaking of missing episodes, as long as you see the "next time, on DBZ" blurb at the end, you don't need to watch the next episode. Why? Because that blurb totally ruins the next episode for you, as does the episode title. For example, one such blurb went along the lines of: "Next time on DBZ, the battle between Goku and Frieza continues, and VEGETA IS WOUNDED BY FRIEZA! Will Vegeta survive?! Find out in the next episode: 'THE DEATH OF VEGETA'." (°_°)