Dragon Ball/Tropes A to D

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A
""Yes! We're going to make it through this without losing anyone!""
 * The Abridged Series:
 * Dragon Ball Abridged. Easily one of the most popular.
 * Alternate Reality Dragon Ball Z
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Subverted by the Z-Sword. Everyone thinks that it's unbreakable and stupidly sharp, but it's not, though the material it was pitted against was ridiculously sturdy.
 * Played with when King Cold believed that Trunks only managed to kill Frieza because of his sword (which probably does qualify for this trope). Amused, Trunks decided to let Cold test this theory and gives him the sword, knowing that Cold would attempt to kill him with it. When Cold attempts to kill Trunks with it, Trunks stops the blade with his hand and kills Cold with a ki blast to the heart.
 * Acrofatic: Fat Majin Buu and Dodoria, but just about every main character can fly and do acrobatic stuff, so it's kinda cheapened here.
 * There's still Yajirobe.
 * Acting Unnatural: Frog Ginyu was trying to steal one of the Dragon Balls. When Gohan spots him, he starts leaning against the ball and whistling nonchalantly, which only makes him more suspicious because he's a frog.
 * Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: When Trunks recounts why he came back in time, and you get a feeling of the despair he must feel being the only defense for all the people against the Androids who have ravaged the entire world, leaving only a handful of people behind.
 * Adaptation Distillation: Dragon Ball Kai, in recutting the Dragon Ball Z anime to match more closely to the manga original.
 * There is an inherent problem with translating directly from the manga page, which the original anime did. Primarily showing an explosion on the comic page takes up one panel with a half-second glance while it takes 90 seconds of the anime to animate (To say nothing of Talking Is a Free Action). To fit one manga into a half-hour show meant that there was plenty of Padding and reaction shots. Dragon Ball Kai is cutting that down to a third of its original length and thereby allowing for a swift watch almost equal to reading the manga.
 * Of course, this itself is being mocked by many commentators such as the writer of Alternate Reality Dragon Ball Z-- a great many fans are practically cheering about being given LESS of the show to watch, which would be any marketing expert's wet dream.
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Bulma, and her daughter, Bra.
 * This happens a lot since Toriyama tends to color characters' outfits or aesthetics differently, every now and then. You have two choices: A) Assume this was on purpose, thus making the characters less static, or B) It wasn't on purpose, and Toei just had to settle on a color for Bulma's hair, Piccolo's arms, training gis, etc...
 * A particularly notable example is Vegeta; in his first appearances in the anime, he looked like this; as soon as he got to Earth, however, his armor was the blue-and-white color scheme we're used to and his hair had become black... which extends retroactively to events that take place well before his first appearance, up to and including childhood. No explanation has ever been given, but it seems to have been a mistake on the animators' part.
 * A mistake that was corrected in the remake, Dragon Ball Kai.
 * Adaptation Expansion: While the anime contains a lot of Filler, it also contains a great deal of expansion of the story arcs, often for the purpose of developing the characters. The most positive version of this was the Saiyan Saga, which showed us the year that passed before the Saiyans arrived, as far as fleshing out Gohan's training and Piccolo's Heel Face Turn as a result of his time with Gohan. Toriyama himself was also indirectly involved with some of the filler, with the anime's producers developing it based off of his suggestions.
 * As well as giving some actual screentime to, Tien Shinhan, Yamcha, and Chaotzu before the Nappa fight. The latter three heroes also got a well-deserved Moment of Awesome when they thrashed the Ginyu Force as part of the training they received from Kaio-sama.
 * Actually, Toriyama was not as involved with the anime as some would think. He states in an interview that he "had faith" in the anime staff. He gave the occasional filler idea, such as Yamcha being a baseball player, but not much else.
 * Adaptation-Induced Plothole: Several, due to how the anime was ridiculously close to the manga at almost all times. One particularly jarring example though, happens in a filler scene at the end of the Freeza-saga:
 * There's also a very significant difference between the manga and anime versions of Namek's explosion. In the manga, Goku is shown flying towards Frieza's ship with several Ginyu pods in sight. He finds the ship useless, flies up and says Namek's about to blow (and the view shifts to King Kai). In the anime, Goku is helplessly raging above the ship while we actually SEE the planet go up in smoke and supposedly take him with it without much doubt. Since we actually SEE his on screen death in the anime, his later explanation that he "found a pod, jumped in, hit the button and made it out of there" is certainly in line with the MANGA. As for the ANIME version, it's utter Canon Discontinuity/Retcon/Ass Pull considering how far they went to SHOW him dying.
 * One of the more infamous examples occurs in a Filler episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. In this episode, a "Dr. Flappe" is credited as the creator of Android 8. Years later during Dragon Ball Z, Dr. Gero is revealed as the true creator of the androids. A popular fan theory to work around this is that Dr. Flappe and Gero were partners on the android project.
 * Adaptive Ability: Saiyans, Cell, and other villains to extreme degrees.
 * Adipose Rex: The Big Bad of the first movie is King Gurumez, who's fat because the cursed rubies he's torn up his kingdom to excavate have given him an insatiable appetite...as well as turning him into a giant monster.
 * Adorkable: 16-year-old Gohan. Studious, socially awkward, and has a love of superheroes while failing to realize that the only person who thinks Great Saiyaman is cool is his 7-year-old brother.
 * Goku, Yamcha, Krillin (growing up with someone as goofy as Son Goku really rubs off on you), Goten and every lovable and goofy member of the Ginyu force is a rare evil example.
 * Adult Child: Son Goku is a rare positive example of this trope, despite being an Idiot Hero and does cause a lot of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moments. There are also moments when he tries to give the responsibility of saving the earth to other people--namely children like Gohan, Goten, and Trunks.
 * Chi-Chi, Gohan and Goten really pulled the short straw with this one.
 * Majin Buu is the bad kind of adult child, though he does redeem himself.
 * On the other hand, Goku survived on his own for years in the wild, as well as fought multiple battles as a child/teenager without anybody batting an eye. It's not entirely surprising that he would project those standards onto his kids, unaware of how his Saiya-jin heritage might have affected his situation differently.
 * The Ginyu Force was an elite team of Frieza's most powerful fighters... Who also play Jan-ken-pon to decide who gets to fight, bet on candy bars and hot fudge sundaes, and made ridiculous poses for fun.
 * Afraid of Needles: Goku [anime-only].
 * Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Young Gohan is patted on the head quite frequently, even by Vegeta.
 * The Ageless: Master Roshi and Fortuneteller Baba, both having drank from the Fountain of Youth.
 * A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Inversion: it took Dr. Gero 16 androids to finally get any that were evil. Then they killed him because they were too evil. It's also implied that there was resentment from before they were converted.
 * Air Jousting
 * A Lesson in Defeat: Master Roshi's reason for becoming "Jackie Chun"
 * Alien Among Us: Goku, Vegeta, Kami, Piccolo, and Dende, among others
 * Aliens Speaking Japanese
 * Or if you're American, in which it's Aliens Speaking English.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Bulma was infatuated with Yamcha early on when he was an arrogant rogue, then when he somewhat settled down, she decided that Vegeta(whom she fell in love with) who is as bad as it gets, tickled her fancy.
 * And in the meantime, she also had the hots for General Blue and Zarbon.
 * Subverted when she first saw Goku as an adult, who she also had the hots for, and Goku is as good a guy as it gets... only for him to get engaged on the same day with Chi-Chi.
 * All There in the Manual: Lots of supplemental info on Saiyan biology, answers to plot holes and much more can only be found in the Daizenshuu books.
 * Almighty Mom: Chi-Chi's willingness and ability to tell off absolutely everyone is a Running Gag, up until she tries it on Majin Buu.
 * Chi-Chi in general. Let's not forget that, until #18 gets her upgrade (or, if we're going by natural ability, Videl) Chi-Chi is the strongest woman on the planet. No wonder Goku likes her..
 * Alternative Foreign Theme Song: DRAGON! DRAGON! ROCK THE DRAGON! DRAGONBALL Z!
 * What is my destiny Dragonball
 * And I Must Scream: Piccolo tries to inflict this to Super Buu by destroying the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Apparently Buu has a grasp of this trope, and quite fittingly screams his way out.
 * Gohan sealing Garlic Jr in the Dead Zone also qualifies.
 * Also the likely fate of anyone who falls victim to the Evil Containment Wave, being trapped in an otherwise empty container until someone opens it back up.
 * Animation Bump: The anime was animated almost directly from Toriyama's manga drawings, and, as a result, frames and images that come directly from the manga are noticeably more detailed than other frames.
 * In the remake of Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Kai, the designs of the characters during the opening, ending and mid-episode interludes all contain MUCH higher quality.
 * That's because those scenes are being freshly animated where as the episodes themselves are just remastered from the 1989 series.
 * It should be noted that in general, scenes chosen for use in Dragon Ball Kai are often the best animated sequences available from Z and is often at its best quality during the fights. This becomes a little jarring during the Goku vs Freeza fight, as the editing team was forced some of the more poorly animated sequences, thus the animation jumps from high quality to low quality and back occasionally during this fight.
 * Anyone Can Die: Everyone on Earth in the entire span of the Majin Buu arc alone has died or has been dead around the time with the exception of Dende (who has died before) and Mr. Satan (or Hercule) and his puppy (Bee). Even the Kings Of All Cosmos have died (The Supreme Kai hasn't died before, but sort of had experienced death through Kibito, who he merged with). Before the Majin Buu saga, you can expect at least one casualty amongst the protagonists in every major battle. It's even lampshaded at one point...

- Son Gohan, watching Piccolo's Curb Stomp Battle with Android 20. Sadly, It Got Worse.


 * Everyone in the Dragon Ball universe save for Mr. Satan has died/been absorbed/eaten atleast once. Even Majin Buu himself.
 * Alternate Continuity: The Non Serial Movies of the original Dragon Ball series are direct retellings of earlier sagas distilled into movie format, entirely incompatible with the manga and anime series. The 10th anniversary special, The Path to Power is another continuity retelling Goku's origins with the Red Ribbon Army and Muscle Tower.
 * Apocalypse How: Future Trunks went back in time to prevent the world being wasted by Androids, after the Z-Fighters were killed and Goku died of an alien heart disease.
 * The series slowly updates its Scale of Destruction as it progresses. Villains show some restraint most of the time by keeping to destruction below their class ratings.
 * It starts with Class Sub 0, then goes to Class 1 by Piccolo Saga, Class 3 by the time Raditz appears
 * Class 4 at the start of Namek, before going on to Class 6 and ending in Class X when Namek goes boom.
 * At the end Cell Saga it's at X-2, when he threatens to take down the solar system.
 * Majin Buu quickly upgrades to X-3, and is clearly X-4 and even X-5 rated (when he learns instant transmission).
 * The ultimate one is when while fighting Vegetto, he goes even further to threaten a Class Z multi-dimensional collapse when he suffers an epic Villainous Breakdown.
 * Arc Villain: Most of the standalone villains, notably Garlick, Commander Red and Pilaf.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Freeza states that three things he does not tolerate are cowardice, military insurrection, and bad haircuts.
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Pretty much every villain in the series, but Tien is probably the Trope Codifier for Anime.
 * Artistic Age: Gohan during the Cell Games fits Type 1, while little Goku in the original Dragon Ball goes in Type 2.
 * Asskicking Pose: Frequently. Parodied by the Ginyu Force members, whose poses are anything but asskicking.
 * The same applies for Gohan as the "Great Saiyaman".
 * Asshole Victims of Genocide: Frieza's genocide of the Saiyans was pretty bad, and Bardock's attempt to save them all and rebel against Frieza's empire was, without a doubt, heroic. But, we should always remember that the Saiyans themselves were violent, arrogant, blood-thirsty creatures who probably would have gone out and destroyed worlds anyway, even if Frieza wasn't in power.
 * No, they wouldn't. The expressed reason for why they wiped out planets is because Frieza was there in the first place. They didn't have the technology to spread across the stars, so Frieza allowed them that opportunity in exchange for being useful tools in galactic domination. They would have essentially remained barbarians if it wasn't for Frieza. Frieza's influence made them even worse. In fact, the modern Saiyans are Frieza's Gone Horribly Right of an entire race. So he wiped them out.
 * A modern comparison could be made to the Krogan-like the Saiyans, they were 'uplifted' far too early to grow out of their barbarism so they could be used by the more advanced races. The side effect was the Krogan began populating Citadel worlds causing a war, and the Saiyans became too strong for Freeza-a Complete Monster but a Genre Savvy one, to ignore. Thus, the Krogan got the Genophage inflicted on them, and the Saiyan's were wiped out.
 * Autobots Rock Out: Done all the time in the FUNimation dub.
 * And in the North American version of Budoukai 3's theme
 * Auto Doc: The healing tanks used by Freeza's forces.
 * Avenging the Villain: Piccolo's son - up until he let Gohan get to him, at least.
 * Awesome but Impractical: The second stage of the Ascended Super Saiyan, the level in between Super Saiyan 1 and 2, gives a huge boost in power, supposedly as much as a Super Saiyan 2. Unfortunately all the muscles that come with it drastically decrease speed, making it practicaly impossible to actually hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta both realized that the second form was useless due to the loss of speed, and Cell calls out Trunks for using such a foolish technique.
 * This becomes an Ironic Echo when Cell bulks up massively in his fight with SSJ2 Gohan. To top it all off, Trunks lampshades this as Gohan is dodging everything Cell throws at him, remarking that Cell could probably put the hurt on Gohan if he ever managed to hit him.
 * Another could also be the Spirit Bomb. Considering it takes a long time to gather enough energy to use and that Goku is left defenseless while doing so, it is difficult to use in actual combat. Usually, live bait is used to help him. It was used three different times.
 * Vegeta: . The rest is history.
 * Freeza: . Although if that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have.
 * Buu:.
 * Needless to say, the Spirit Bomb is very awesome, but it has never SOLELY gotten the job done.
 * Ax Crazy: All forms of Majin Buu, especially Kid Buu.
 * Ahem, Broly.
 * Frieza, especially in his Final Form.
 * And even more-so when he gets pissed.

B

 * Back from the Dead: Probably the most granted wish from the eternal dragon in the series.
 * Backstab Backfire
 * Badass: Loads.
 * Badass Family: The Son Family. Period.
 * Badass Mustache: Mr. Satan.
 * Nappa as well.
 * Dr. Gero's invincible android mustache.
 * Don't forget Vegeta's Porn Stache in GT.
 * Badass Normal: Mr. Satan and Yajirobe are the only fighters with no grasp of ki.
 * Yajirobe fights an enraged kid Goku to a standstill, single-handedly kills one of Piccolo Daimaou's minions in a single strike, and manages to cut Oozaru Vegeta's tail off when Gohan and Krillin failed to.
 * Mr. Satan. Despite the fact that Buu could kill him several million times over, he chose to face him. After multiple, comedic failed attempts at killing him, he eventually befriends him, teaches him that killing is wrong and, because Buu didn't know any better beforehand, Buu swears off killing at the request of his new friend. Of course something goes wrong...
 * Which, in turn, gives him a chance to show off just how badass Mr. Satan really is.
 * Goku's acknowledgment of Mr. Satan at the end, despite the latter's comic relief status, is legit.
 * It should also be pointed out that Mr. Satan legitimately won the World Tournament. The Z Warriors were either dead or dealing with the fate of the universe at the time.
 * In the manga, by the time the Buu arc kicks in, Krillin is acknowledged as the most powerful human being in the world. While he is fairly superpowered at this point it's all just because of rigorous training. Of course, all characters that are still relevant by then are hundreds of times stronger than he is.
 * It really should be mentioned that, during the last portions of the Frieza saga, he was second weakest person on Namek (with the useful in a different way-Dende being the weakest). Despite this, he was able to slice of a portion of Frieza's tail, and, had he taken the initiative of attacking Frieza after blinding him, could have cut the tyrant in half.
 * Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon army is probably the most triumphant villain example. By real world standards he was strong, fast, skilled and cunning - his only mistake was going up against a Saiyan.
 * Of course at that point, Col. Silver didn't know Goku was alien. Nobody knew Goku was alien. Goku didn't know he was alien!
 * Bad Future: There are at least two alternate timelines of them in the Dragon Ball universe. One of which Future Trunks is Killed Off for Real.
 * According to Daizenshuu 7, there are 4 timelines in the Dragon Ball universe.
 * The Bad Guy Wins: The Cell Saga. No really. Even though Doctor Gero can only watch his triumph from Hell, he is the only villain in the entire Dragon Ball franchise to have got exactly what he wanted; The death of Son Goku at the hands of his creations.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: Subverted in Dragon Ball Kai. Due to the show airing on a morning timeslot, they had to censor baby Goku's penis and balls, but his genitals were censored to a degree (i.e. covered up by the furniture he was sitting on).
 * Bash Brothers: Trunks and Goten.
 * Bastard Understudy: Adjutant Black to Supreme Commander Red of the Red Ribbon Army.
 * Bardock Can Breathe In Space: Certain aliens are able to survive without air. Saiyans aren't one of them. Doesn't stop Bardock from flying into space to confront Frieza and speak to him, too.
 * In some filler episodes, Vegeta is seen flying between planets without a spaceship or any apparent breathing apparatus.
 * Also when Vegeta blows up the planet Arlia in a filler episode, he and Nappa hang out in space just standing in their open pods.
 * There's a much earlier, and often ignored example of when Goku used used Nyoibou to extend and put Boss Rabbit and his Mooks on the Moon. You can likely excuse Goku for him holding his breath, but the rabbits?
 * The manga was in a much more comedic setting at the time, and Toriyama once stated he just didn't care. That only made thing worse when you think about the rabbits when Master Roshi (as Jackie Chun) later blew up the moon.
 * Frieza survives in space with half his body and head missing.
 * Evidently, both surviving in the vacuum of space, and surviving a high degree of grievous bodily injuries are both traits of his race. Cell, being a Biological Mashup with Frieza's cells can also survive in space.
 * Broly is strongly implied to have this ability as well.
 * Vegeta and Bardock didn't "breathe in space" for long. It's probable that the Saiyans cannot actually survive in space, but their superior physical abilities and chi powers grant them the ability to withstand vacuum exposure for a limited amount of time.
 * Battle Aura: Features distinctive colors for different characters and situations.
 * Battle Royale With Cheese
 * Beam of Enlightenment
 * Beam-O-War : This series is likely the Trope Codifier.
 * Beam Spam: Vegeta in particular is notorious for using this... ...to little effect.
 * Become Real People: Subverted. Krillin uses the Dragon Balls to wish Androids 17 & 18 fully human. When the dragon says he can't, he wishes to remove the bombs inside their bodies instead. 17 and 18 are actually augmented humans who are still able to have children.
 * Better Than New: Goku and Vegeta frequently sustain life-threatening injuries, only to quickly come back stronger than before they were injured (and remain stronger going forward). In one case, during the Namek Saga, Goku is injured and placed in one of the Saiyan healing tanks for several episodes. He emerges not only healed but far better than before his injury, due to being immersed bodily in Saiyan DNA.
 * This is actually just a natural ability of Saiyans, what doesn't kill them quite literally makes them stronger. This is shown at one point by Vegeta ordering Krillin to blow a hole in his chest so he can be healed and become stronger. While he doesn't become as strong as he'd have wished, he still gets a huge power boost. Referred to by fans as Zenkai, this ability is the first part of why the Saiyans are able to become so unconscionably powerful. It also explains the power of training being so exponential for them.
 * Between My Legs: This shot is used very often in the anime, often in fight scenes.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Son Goku and especially his eldest boy Son Gohan: People in this universe are nice because they can afford to be nice.
 * Beyond the Impossible: The Supreme Kai thinks this when he finds out how powerful the earth Saiyans are. To explain: this guy is the series' equivalent of God and yet his power level is nothing compared to them.
 * Special honors to Vegetto who is the only character to retain all his power and gain an even greater speed advantage due to his size after being turned into a Coffee flavoured jawbreaker by Buu. If anything this is where Buu gets his worst and most embarrassing beating.
 * Big Bad: Emperor Pilaf, Commander Red, Master Shen, Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu, and a few others thrown in-between.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Piccolo pulls this off for Gohan in nearly every DBZ movie before the post-Cell timeskip.
 * Big Eater: All the Saiyans. Even the humans after long bouts of training.
 * Majin Buu's appetite for sweets can't be matched by any Saiyan in their dreams.
 * Big Good: King Kai.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Shen Long is Chinese for "Dragon God." The names of almost all his alien characters - along with Bulma's family and Piccolo and his minions - are straight English or derived from it. And apparently according to Toriyama, Vegeta and Trunks use English for their attack names because he thought it sounded "more alien."
 * Bishonen Line: Freeza, Cell.
 * Blasting Time: All over the place, specifically the Spirit Bomb.
 * Blind and the Beast: Buu meets a blind kid.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: Many, depending on your version.
 * Blood Knight: The Saiyans are an entire race of them!
 * Even Goku is such a gigantic blood knight that, while about to slam a spirit bomb into Majin Buu to finally kill him, he explicitly says he wants him to reincarnate just so he can fight him again!
 * Cell, having Saiyan cells, loved the thrill of fighting enemies stronger than him, and even held a tournament, the Cell Games, just so he could fight Earth's strongest.
 * Bodyguarding a Badass: Kibito to Supreme Kai in the Buu Saga.
 * Boobs of Steel: Pretty much inverted completely. The female fighters (Eighteen, Videl, etc.) tend to be modestly endowed, while the non-fighters (such as Bulma) are fairly stacked.
 * Played straight with Ranfan, a finalist of the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. Her entire fighting style revolves solely around flashing her boobs as a distraction (which being a Shonen manga it always works) given how she had battled her way through the Elimination round without anyone discovering her secret weapons she must logically be a very skilled martial artist when fighting fair.
 * Boring but Practical: Solar Flare. This attack blinds the opponent temporarily by have the user emit a light as bright as the sun. It has only failed ONCE, and that was against Omega Shenron, it works on everyone else, guaranteed. It only gets used every once once and a while for some unknown reason when the strategy of "Blind enemy the kill them while they're trying to recover" is a legitimate strategy.
 * Boring Invincible Hero: Properly averted with Vegetto, period. He could probably bring Buu down with a single finger, but the way he combines Vegeta's snarky tendency with Goku's sense of humor, how he plays along throughout the fight, the way he utterly humiliates Buu as a small jawbreaker, and his choicest stomach splitting You Fight Like a Cow dialogue to beat Manipulative Bastard Buu at his own game of adding insult to injury all ensure that there's never a dull moment at any point.
 * Even the Curb Stomp Battles are awesome for they don't happen very often.
 * Bowdlerise: In the first dub, having to meet standards for syndicated kids' shows, the villains were always threatening to blast people into another dimension, scenes of wanton destruction accompanied by throwaway lines implying nobody got hurt, and Tien says that his arm can grow back after Nappa breaks it off. The second dub, while the voice acting wasn't exactly stellar early on, thankfully reduced the amount, allowing death and even keeping small amounts of blood, if inconsistent.
 * Being fair, Tien can grow extra arms for a time, so growing one back isn't entirely unlikely.
 * Not to mention that the Other World/afterlife is treated like another dimension, as Master Roshi's sister Baba can go there and back without a problem due to her ability to travel through different dimensions, so that dub was technically right in referring to Other World as another dimension.
 * Also, in the first dub, extra objects are written to cover all nudity, both front and back. The only thing that was different is Recoome's buttocks. While the first dub had a black strip of clothing covering his butt in a few episodes, the cloth strip is missing in the second dub.
 * Brainless Beauty: Krillin's once-girlfriend Maron during the Garlic Jr. arc.
 * Brawler Lock: Goku does this with Freeza, Cell, and Vegeta. The former two during their respective arcs, and the latter during the Buu arc.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the 8th chapter of manga Son Goku sends Yamucha in the air with his punch but Yamucha bounces of the frame's border back to the ground.
 * In later chapters there are a few instances, where different characters refers to the fact that it's a manga, such as discussions of acceptableness of dirty jokes in a manga for children.
 * One that stuck in the anime: Gohan addresses the audience near the start of the Buu arc that Krillin grew his hair out after quitting fighting.
 * During the Majin Buu arc, Krillin notices that the author is cheating by recycling panels (to be exact, Goten and Trunks's fusion training sequence is reused over and over) and Toriyama himself pops out behind him to apologize.
 * As he's the closest thing this show has to a Deadpan Snarker Krillin in general tends to be the king of this. At one point when a random fighter in a Tournament was being obnoxious and underestimating the Z Fighters power, Krillin remarked that the guy "had one-shot character written all over him."
 * Break the Cutie: Mostly Gohan, but Goten and Pan aren't exactly left out. Another example occurs late in Z with
 * Future Trunks also has this moment when
 * Brick Joke: Early on (in volume two of Dragon Ball), Oolong comments that Goku's amazing qualities have to be due to him being an alien. Fast forward a decade or so...
 * This was a complete coincidence and not a true brick joke, though. At this point the series was still at gag martial artist manga status, and given the fact that he's known for his forgetful nature, there's no way this was something Toriyama had planned all along.
 * However, Major Metallitron scans Goku, and it says in a corner he's not human, though doesn't know what he is. Which happened in the Red ribbon arc.
 * Very early on in the series, Goku, Bulma, and Oolong run into the Boss Rabbit Gang. After Goku beats up two of the grunts, they call in their boss who threatens to turn them all into Carrots. Later in DBZ, we learn Goku's Saiyan name is based off the word "Carrot." Maybe Toriyama is an Unreliable source of information?
 * Brother Chuck: Almost all of the original characters from Dragon Ball vanish completely by the end of the Buu saga. Akira Toriyama has admitted that for some of the characters it was simply because he forgot they existed, like Lunch.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Bulma. Taken more literally in Playboy Bunny outfit when she and Goku encountered Monster Rabbit. Her father, Dr. Briefs, also qualifies.
 * Muten/Master Roshi definitely counts. Imagine an elderly pervert being titled "The Invincible Master" of martial arts.
 * And then there is the Ginyu Force. Frieza hires them as enforcers to take out Vegeta and retrieve the Dragon Balls. After seeing their entrance, full of ridiculous camp, dumb poses, and flowers, you may think he's made a huge mistake. Until you watch one member of the team beat Vegeta like he was nothing, without ever dropping the camp.
 * Bus Full of Innocents: More like Planet Full Of Innocents during the Buu arc.
 * Goku and Piccolo save a bus full of children in episode 125.
 * Imperfect Cell stops and and absorbs an entire bus full of rugby players in one episode, and when Vegeta fights Android 18 he inadvertantly blows up a truck full of paperclips.
 * Butt Monkey: Krillin and Yamcha. This is lampshaded in Dragon Ball Abridged where there is an actual tally of how many times Krillin is treated like a butt monkey (the "Krillin Owned Count").
 * Also lampshaded in the World's Strongest movie/special. After Piccolo and Gohan are repelled by the Big Bad, Krillin flies in to take a shot, only to be knocked away before landing so much as a single punch, at which point we hear him thinking "Nope, didn't think so..."
 * Some of the villains such as Ninja Murasaki and Guldo would qualify.
 * Actually it's Mr. Satan who takes the cake here, for being injured in just about any conceivable manner. It's usually the only reason for his existence. He could very well upgrade his status, as being the only character never to die against Cell and Buu is an achievement no one else can boast of. Even his injuries are gone the next time he appears in a shot.
 * Actually it's Mr. Satan who takes the cake here, for being injured in just about any conceivable manner. It's usually the only reason for his existence. He could very well upgrade his status, as being the only character never to die against Cell and Buu is an achievement no one else can boast of. Even his injuries are gone the next time he appears in a shot.

C
"Master Roshi: Goku is something very different from you and I, and Kami has obviously recoginized it. To be honest, I'm chopped liver in comparison to that monkey-tailed boy."
 * Cash Lure: Appears in the censored version, to replace Bulma using a lure of panties.
 * Call Back: They pop up from time to time, but the king of this is the Strongest Coffee Candy in the Universe - a similar visual shows up near the end of Dr. Slump.
 * Thematically, the Buu Arc is a throwback to the gag-heavy atmosphere of his earlier works.
 * SCREAMING Your Attacks: Played straight most of the time. Future Trunks averts this - he's silent during his initial fight aside from normal speech. (And on top of that, his attacks don't actually have names until the video games.)
 * In at least some cases, it seems to be necessary. Captain Ginyu's body switching attack apparently doesn't work unless he can actually vocalize the "CHANGE NOW!"
 * Good aversion from Goku: he used Kamehameha quickly, without calling it, to block a mouth blast from Nappa. It's the only time he's ever used it without calling it.
 * Came Back Strong: Just about everyone repeatedly.
 * Came From the Sky: How Saiyans usually arrive on earth.
 * Canon Immigrant: Because of how impressed Toriyama was with the Bardock special, Goku's father gets a cameo later on in the manga.
 * Can't Catch Up: Takes this concept and runs with it. If you didn't have Saiyan blood in you, you might as well not have shown up to the fight for all the good you'll do.
 * By the end of the series, even the final big bad Super Buu is desperately trying to play catchup with the Saiyans. Gohan was able to effortlessly defeat Super Buu without the need (or ability) to transform. Later, when Buu had absorbed Gohan and obtained his power, he was easily beaten by the original Super Saiyan form of Vegetto, who was probably capable of at least one and probably two more levels of Super Saiyan transformations on top of that. The only reason there was any tension at all for the final battle against Kid Buu was that Goku and Vegeta didn't want to fuse again on PRINCIPLE.
 * It should be pointed out that Vegetto was able to handle Buu even before transforming.
 * That's actually only in the anime. In the manga, Vegetto transforms immediately after forming, implying he might not have been able to get the job done without doing so.
 * He could also handle Super Buu as a friggin' jaw breaker.
 * Really, this trope applies to anyone who isn't Goku and Gohan (and anyone who isn't fused with them). The series reaches a point (arguably around the time Perfect Cell shows up) where not even Saiyan blood is enough to make you relevant.
 * The fighters of Dragon Ball lampshade it after Krillin, Roshi, and Chiaotzu's resurrection.

"Vegeta: Fuse with you?! I'd rather die! Goku: (sighing) Vegeta, you're already dead."
 * Cash Cow Franchise: For the twenty-five years and counting.... here's to another 25.
 * CCG Importance Dissonance
 * Celestial Bureaucracy: All souls in the afterlife have their deeds listed in a file like a resume, and stamped by Lord Enma/King Yama for approval to go Heaven or sent to Hell.
 * Censor Suds: In episode 49, Bulma stands up in her bubble bath and bends over, conveniently covered by soap suds.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: The series went though this after.
 * Inverted with the Buu Saga, which had a far more humorous tone than much of the preceding material.
 * Character-Magnetic Team: To a ridiculous extent, all throughout the series.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower
 * Charlie Brown From Outta Town: Jackie Chun, Mighty Mask
 * GT brings us Papayaman.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The Spirit Bomb. Goku learns it in the Saiyan Saga, and it does alright. Nothing to write home about, really, but it did send Vegeta running. Frieza just shrugged it off, so it didn't seem like a big deal. Then, 10-12 in-universe years later in the Buu Saga, Goku uses one to completely eradicate his opponent, an unstoppable being of literal pure evil that once came back from being turned into so much smoke.
 * To a degree, Goku showing Goten and Trunks how to become a Super Saiyan 3 in the Buu Saga.
 * This was a filler scene in the anime, but either way.
 * The artificial moon that Vegeta created to turn Oozaru during his fight with Goku in the Saiyan saga winds up playing a significant part in his eventual downfall.
 * Chekhov's Skill: That weird language Shen and Piccolo were speaking in the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budokai? It's actually Namekian, the language of their native planet and Bulma learned to activate the starship that Kami came from to travel to Namek, with Krillin and Gohan, and is needed to use the Namekian Dragon Balls and make wishes to the Namekian Dragon God, Porunga. In a spectacular Pound of Flesh Twist, Freeza found the latter out the hard way.
 * Uranai Baba reveals that she can reincarnate Grandpa Gohan for 24 hours at a time in the Red Ribbon arc. About ten real world years later in the Buu arc (approx. 25 years in-universe), this becomes a plot point as she reincarnates Goku to spend 24 hours with his family,.
 * The Shunkan Idou ("Instant Transmission") technique that Goku learned in Yardrat. He demonstrated it to his friends in the beginning of the Android/Cell arc, and would use it.
 * Chewing the Scenery: Vegeta, at least in the various English dubs.
 * He also completely masticates everything that surrounds him in the Latin-American dub. His performances as a Large Ham Deadpan Snarker are some of the most hilarious highlights of the series in this version.
 * Chickification: ChiChi, # 18, Videl... even Pan, to a degree.
 * It affects each character in different ways. ChiChi didn't so much become a weaker character as just retire from fighting, becoming an Education Mama as tough as she ever was (Z is littered with "Oh, you forgot ChiChi could kick ass, didn't you" moments). # 18 didn't go through Chickification at all, retaining her entire character, but just joined pretty much the entire cast besides the Saiyans as mostly unimportant. Videl's pretty much the only one who went through true, complete Chickification. It's pretty jarring in her case, since the episode first showing it is a Time Skip, so the change happens practically within a single episode.
 * To a significant extent, many of the supporting cast are shown to abandon or retire from fighting as time wears on. In some cases, it's because their skills have become increasingly obsolete (Tien, Yamucha, Krillin, etc.), but in others it's a personal decision. Gohan is probably the most notable of the main cast to retire to a more domesticated lifestyle, so it's quite possible that his more pacifistic nature would rub off on her. This doesn't mean a valid argument couldn't be made for Chickification, but there are circumstances existing that could justify it.
 * Videls Chickification is unsurprising as she's pretty much a female Krillen. Shes a Badass Normal who is certainly strong but is hopelessly outclassed by the impossibly powerful beings surrounding her. The fact she goes from being on top of the world to being insignificant over the course of a few weeks can't possibly be good for her confidence.
 * To be fair, Tien never retired from fighting or training, as we see him training at a couple points during the Boo Saga. Krillin and Yamcha, however, are both stated to have retired from both fighting and training.
 * The Chick: Bulma or Pan, depending on the era.
 * Circles of HFIL
 * Clothing Damage: Absolutely mandatory. A fight is not a fight otherwise!
 * With Goku you could accurately predict where they are in the battle by measuring how much its been damaged. Or even the saga itself.
 * Actually true for everyone to various degrees.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Bulma's parents. Bulma herself sometimes skirts on this from time to time.
 * Collectible Card Game: Three of them, with honorable mention of DBZ being the theme of a set of Ani-Mayhem. The first game was surprisingly popular and well-liked, lasting for several years and covering all of Z and GT.
 * And spawning a video game as well.
 * The first Score of the games (they made two) still has fans who buy, sell, trade, and play the game AND it inspired the community to create an online CCG based around fixing the rules and broken play styles.
 * There is also a card-based battle game on the Gameboy Color called DBZ: Legendary Super Warriors. There are 125 cards in this turn-based game, some cards can be only used by specific characters. There is also a super-rare card with 'AKIRA' written on it in Japanese. To get this card you must win all of the story mode battles without losing a single match (resetting the gameboy does not count, as long as progress is not saved as a loss).
 * Combat Commentator: There is a recurring character who fills this role whenever a World Martial Arts Tournament is taking place. It seems like he has been announcing every single World Martial Arts Tournament since his introduction in the story during the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. It's interesting to note the gradual change in his physical appearance as the plot progresses, with him being first introduced as a blonde, clean-shaven young man wearing a suit and sunglasses, and on the next tournament he grows a mustache, and on his most recent appearance, on the Buu Saga, he has a lankier physique and a more proiminent widow's peak on top of his mustache. This characters is also perhaps the only human other than Goku's friends who knows that it was the Z warriors, and not Mr. Satan, who have saved the Earth from all the dangers that threatened it.
 * Combined Energy Attack: The Spirit Bomb.
 * Comically Missing the Point:


 * Coming of Age Story: In Dragon Ball, the only thing that actually changes about Goku is his age and strength; he's still basically the same person throughout the entire story. Dragonball Z, on the other hand, has his son Gohan gradually getting stronger with each battle, eventually surpassing his father.
 * Conservation of Ninjutsu: Before they go extinct, they Saiyans are a fairly powerful race. After Freeza kills them, the surviving members start growing exponentially in power until they're the most powerful beings in the universe.
 * Convenient Decoy Cat: Krillin, Gohan and Dende are trying to hide from Vegeta, who just learned to detect ki. When he sensed Dende's small ki, a dolphin jumps off the water, leading him to think that was the ki he sensed and leave.
 * Cool Starship: Frieza's got one. So does Cooler.
 * Dr. Briefs tries to give one to Goku (so he can go to Namek), even though he only needs a bare-bones transport.
 * Crapsack World: Namek after Frieza showed up (and in the past, as the backstroy also tells of weird weather patterns on Namek that killed many or drove them off, which was the main reason Kami was sent to Earth)
 * Granted, there are 7 magic balls that are usually used to bring everyone back to life.
 * Played straight with the world of the timeline Future Trunks came from. There are no magic balls in that one.
 * Crazy Consumption
 * Crossover: With Doctor Slump and One Piece.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Goku, Gohan, Goten...and even Krillin.
 * The entire Ginyu Force basically personifies this trope. The only reason they come off goofier after the fact is because Goku shows up and easily takes them out.
 * Cryptic Background Reference: How did Yamcha get those scars? And how come Senzu beans/revival doesn't heal them?
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Probably the most famous example is Trunks coming to earth from the future and utterly destroying former Big Bad Frieza in one episode. It previously took Goku & Co. an entire saga of fighting him, whittling his body down to nothing, and then ensuring his death by allowing a whole planet to explode, only to watch in horror as he was resurrected by his even more powerful father via robotic technology! After all of that, there's no argument that Frieza had this trope coming to him.
 * And the only way Trunks can top that is by defeating Frieza's father with even less effort!
 * Actually, King Cold was weaker than Freeza, by Freeza's admission and according to Cold's bio in Daizenshuu 7, stating him to be "somewhat inferior" to Freeza.
 * In the Frieza saga, Vegeta usually suffers one of these every time he fights a new stronger opponent, only to come back and deliver one in return after healing and growing stronger due to his Saiyan genetics.
 * Also in the Frieza saga, Frieza curb-stomps every one of the good guys including Goku until watching Frieza pushes him over the edge.
 * In the Cell saga, Androids 17 and 18 do this to everyone until one of the good guys becomes strong enough to fight them. By that time it becomes too late as Cell arrives and raises the bar even higher.
 * Cute Bruiser: Pan, Videl, ChiChi.
 * Trunks, Gohan, Goten, Goku (Dragon Ball and GT).
 * Cute Is Evil: Majin Buu. Naturally the fat pink guy is a genie who destroys the world.

D
"Piccolo: He's a monster! Broly: Monster? Wrong, I'm the devil!"
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Both the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb can kill the wielder (the Spirit Bomb can destroy the world if Goku's not careful).
 * The Mafuba/Evil Containment Wave. The original and classic Dangerous Forbidden Technique, seen specifically in the original series. Using it would allow you to seal someone (usually an baddie or Big Bad) inside of a small household object like a little jar or a electronic rice-cooker. However it always kills the user (with the sole exception of when Kami does it and Piccolo reverses it on him, and it's likely only because both weren't human that they didn't die from it), even if it fails, like Muten Roshi does when trying to stop Piccolo Daimaou.
 * Another possible candidate for this in a different fashion is also the dub-named "Devilmite Beam", which allows the character Akkuman to use a single move to kill anything with a speck of evil in their hearts as long as they can't regenerate themselves (luckily Goku is pure-hearted, so it fails to work on him). It doesn't have any ill effects, but it's probably considered forbidden in a different way.
 * Tenshinhan's Kikou-hou or Spirit Cannon is also very definitely this: a Cast From HP technique that reduces the user's lifespan every time it's used. It's powerful enough that Tenshinhan was able to temporarily stop second-tier-Cell from attacking when no one else could even touch him, to allow for the Saiyans to finish their training in the Room of Spirit and Time. This, of course, caused Tenshinhan to very nearly die (he was saved by a Senzu bean, as usual).
 * Darker and Edgier: Dragon Ball Z wants you to know it'd darkier and edgier than its predecessor, doing so by killing someone off on-screen in the first six minutes. While it was only a farmer who's been shown for about two minutes, it's far earlier than the first on-screen death in Dragon Ball (a random store owner during the Red Ribbon Army arc).
 * The Tree of Might movie.
 * Future Trunks's timeline is Darker and Edgier than the main timeline.
 * David Versus Goliath: Discussed in the Ocean dub version of one Dragon Ball Z episode ("Time's Up!"), when Piccolo tells Gohan, "Remember the story of David and Goliath..." before they sense a premonition that Goku is approaching.
 * Dead Hand Shot: As Vegeta draws his final breath on Namek, his tear-blurred vision fades from his point of view, and we next see a close-up of his gloved hand falling onto the ground, followed by a shot of his body shivering with his eyes closed before becoming still and lifeless, followed by a gust of wind blowing on his body.
 * Death Is Cheap: Every single character, with the exception of and, dies at least once, and only two good characters have stayed dead permanently.
 * Defeat Equals Explosion: This happens a lot.
 * Defeating the Undefeatable: Many of the major villains... Frieza probably tops the list.
 * The series is rife with this after Frieza. Later Big Bads have the ability to regenerate from the smallest of pieces.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Almost all enemies and Big Bads wind up becoming allies.
 * Well I wouldn't go that far. Yamcha, Oolong, Tienshenhan, Chaotzu, and Piccolo all start out as enemies, and then there's Vegeta, who was a big bad, and Androids 16 and 18, and Fat Buu.
 * Almost all of Goku's friends were either enemies or rivals prior to joining him. Even Bulma tried to kill Goku during their first meeting. Good thing Goku is Immune to Bullets.
 * Demoted to Extra: One of the reasons why some fans prefer the original series over DBZ is that while DBZ is an infamous offender of this trope, the original series for the most part averted this.
 * Basically, if you appeared in the original series at all and your name wasn't Goku, Piccolo or Krillin this happened to you. Hell, even Piccolo and Krillin were sort of getting there towards the end.
 * The abridged series has a scene that beautifully points this out.
 * But in all fairness not even the original series was entirely immune to this as this fate definitely happened to poor Ox King shortly after his initial appearance. Kind of sad considering on how just about everyone didn't really get hit hard by this trope until DBZ came in.
 * Department of Redundancy Department: The term "senzu bean" when senzu means "holy bean."
 * Detonation Moon: Many many times. It comes back several times though, for various reasons.
 * A Devil am I/Card-Carrying Villain: Broly in this exchange:

"Goku: Man, when's the last time you had a bath? Yeah, no foolin'. Woo, it's downright unpleasant back here!"
 * Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: ChiChi slaps Majin Buu, the scourge of the universe, in the face and gets turned into an egg and crushed in response.
 * Chibi Trunks also moons and flips off Brolly in DBZ Movie # 11
 * Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie
 * There's a title page in the manga that shows some of the heroes literally flipping off Cell.
 * Then again, in the anime, Mr. Satan stuck out his tongue, slapped his butt, and called Cell weak, while the reporter he was with proceded to flip Cell off. Luckily for the both of them Cell was able to ignore them.
 * During the Frieza saga (befor Goku turned Super Saiyin) Goku caught Frieza's tail, and decided to say this to him:


 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Demon King Piccolo does the unthinkable after getting his big wish and blows the Dragon into pieces with one shot. At that time in the series, that was pretty much equivalent to killing God.
 * Arguably this happens constantly from that point onward, as every villain after that is way stronger than Piccolo.
 * Dirty Old Man: Muten Roshi.
 * Disney Death: Probably an even more overused use of this trope than the trope namer itself.
 * Old Kai.
 * Dispense with the Pleasantries: When a squadron from the Red Ribbon Army comes to recruit Master Roshi, thinking he is a scientist, the leader of the group utters this phrase word for word after an extended conversation where Roshi is mocking the organization.
 * Distribution of Ninjutsu
 * Ditzy Genius: Bulma. Especially in Dragon Ball and in the anime's Frieza saga.
 * Do Androids Dream?: Or specifically, Do Androids experience fear?
 * Does Not Know His Own Strength: Goku and Gohan in some filler episodes.
 * And in one of the manga chapters, Goku playfully flicks ChiChi and accidentally sends her through a wall and into a tree.
 * The anime at least has a scene where Goten, while being trained by Chichi, turned Super Saiyan without realizing it and kicked her to the ground.
 * Which sort of indirectly shows that ChiChi was Made of Iron. Seriously, Goten should've broken her in half.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Crowds of people joyously cheering for Mr. Satan.
 * -> Grandpa Gohan(after accidentally ripping off Goku's tail): Goku, does your backside still hurt?
 * Doing In the Wizard: DBZ kinda does this. It doesn't do away with fantasy elements completely, mind you, but it does explain Goku and Piccolo's powers as being alien rather than supernatural. It doesn't explain all the other weird stuff in the series though...
 * Do Not Adjust Your Set: Piccolo Daimao introducing himself as the new ruler of the world, and Cell announcing the Cell Games.
 * Draconic Demon: King Piccolo's youngest son Cymbal from the original Dragon Ball is a goofy-looking, tubby dragon, but is still a dangerous demon and one of his father's most powerful servants.
 * Draconic Divinity: Dragon Ball gives us one of anime's most famous examples in Shenron, the Eternal Dragon summoned by gathering all seven Dragon Balls. While Dragon Ball Z would reveal that he and his creator Kami are merely powerful aliens, he's still a powerful wish-granting entity who commands the full respect of those who summon him, and he makes it clear that he's not to be trifled with.
 * Other sets of Dragon Balls have their own analogue to Shenron: the Namekian Dragon Balls, for example, summon an even more powerful dragon called Porunga, who could originally grant more wishes in one go than Shenron while boasting a far friendlier temperament than his testy cousin. The Super Dragon Balls however can summon Super Shenron, a mind-bogglingly powerful golden god of a dragon who can grant reality-warping wishes, and is so big he can swallow entire planets in one bite and dwarfs entire galaxies in size.
 * The Dragon: Pretty much one per story arc, from Mr. Black to Commander Red all the way to Dabra to Babidi. The best example being Captain Ginyu, leader of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, The Ginyu Force, to Frieza.
 * Dragon-in-Chief: Quite common:
 * Majin Buu is more or less this to Babidi; though in a subversion, since he starts out as an overgrown baby, Buu takes a while to realize how little power Babidi has. Majin Vegeta might also counts, and he does realize that Babidi is inferior.
 * Dr. Gero is inferior to (and killed by) his android creations, though his Dragon Cell never meets him, as Gero dies before he wakes up. Cell expresses admiration for Gero for being so smart as to create him, but it's reasonable to assume that, if Gero were alive, that would probably not have saved him.
 * In the Red Ribbon Army, there's Officer Black, who is much more competent and threatening than Supreme Commander Red.
 * For most of his first appearance, Broly is under mind control from his much weaker father Paragus, who led the Z Fighters to the planet to fight his son. When Broly is freed, he quickly disposes of him.
 * Tienshinhan.
 * Dragons Up the Yin-Yang: The titular Dragon Balls summon a wish-granting dragon when brought together.
 * Drum Bathing: Goku commonly uses this as the default bathtub at his house. One notable moment is in the Tree of Might film when he bathes in it with Gohan.
 * Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Inverted in the original Japanese version. Cell says that as long as his head survives, he can regenerate his body whenever he wants... but at one point, his head came off in the fight with Goku, meaning he shouldn't have been able to regenerate. The dub version said that every cell in his body has a life of its own, meaning that even if there was only one cell there, he could regenerate.
 * Played straight by The Ocean Group dub, during his first battle against Goku, Vegeta remarks that Bardock was an average fighter, but a brilliant scientist, and yet after this there's no mention of Bardock's influence or just what he did for the Sayans in the their scientific field; of course this remark about Bardock doesn't exist in the original manga nor the japanese dub of the anime.