(AfroGamers.com) Dragon Ball is the gold standard for martial arts anime and shonen in general. While better animated series with stronger storylines and character development have come along (Naruto, Hunter x Hunter), Dragon Ball set the pace. In the almost decades that the series has been around, there have been numerous fights and some pivotal battles. Here are my favorite fights from 35 years of Dragon Ball.
Top 5 Dragon Ball Fights
5. Goku vs. Piccolo (Dragon Ball, 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai): The battle of Gohan’s dads! After a three-year gap following the defeat of Piccolo Daimaou, Goku returns in time for the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. Also there is Piccolo Jr., the final child of Piccolo Daimaou who aims to take revenge on Goku and take over the world. The two of them duke it out in the finals and it’s a brutal fight! This was the final major fight in Dragon Ball and the proto battle for the ones that would occur in Dragon Ball Z as far as massive ki blasts and the stakes involved.
4. Earth’s Special Forces vs. Nappa (Dragon Ball Z, Saiyan Saga): The Z Fighters—or Earth’s Special Forces—gathered to fight the threat that is Vegeta and Nappa. Before they can fight the big bosses, they had to go through the Saibamen who cut into their numbers.
By the time they finally fight Nappa, they’re down to three and a half fighters. Tien is still kind of there but they’re all waiting on Goku to get there. As we know about Goku’s arrivals to fights, he’s like 
number 30 in the Royal Rumble if number 30 had to come from a block away from the arena.
Things look critical once we’re down to Gohan and Krillian. The OG Tien is blackout dead, Chiaotzu blew himself up in vain, and Yamcha is still the dictionary definition of “sucking and dying,” and the OG Piccolo risked himself to save his son Gohan. Goku shows up, shuts things down on Nappa, and we get the quote “OVER 9,000?!!!!”
3. Goku and Piccolo vs. Raditz (Dragon Ball Z, Saiyan Saga): This was the other link between the fights of developing Goku in Dragon Ball and Goku continuously learning techniques in Dragon Ball Z. It’s right there with Goku vs. Piccolo from Dragon Ball. After the original U.S. run of the series ended following the Pilaf Saga, a year later things kicked off with the first episode of DBZ. So much was missing but this fight drew me in.
There wasn’t a ton of mountain and terrain destroying blasts here, Goku and Piccolo had their one murder, death, kill moves against Raditz’s Saturday Crash. That’s all that was necessary. This fight serves as a good spot to see how rapidly Goku, Piccolo, and Gohan develop—especially Gohan who developed as a martial artist faster than his father!
The Top 2
2. Goku, Gohan, Krillian, and Vegeta vs. The Ginyu Force (Dragon Ball Z, Namek Saga): With Gohan, Killian and Vegeta ruined Frieza’s plans for the Namekian dragon balls by stealing and hiding them, Frieza gets on the horn and calls up the Ginyu Force. The Ginyu were busy doing whatever at the time but dropped that to come to Frieza’s aid.
See, these three became such a problem that Frieza basically lost most of the force he brought to Namek with him. There’s no telling how long he was there before this trio showed up but once they got there, any progress made was thrown into disarray. The Ginyu shows up with orders to wipe them out and retrieve the dragon balls.
The thing is, they pretty much hold their own until Recoome gets tagged in and starts steamrolling people. Then Goku shows up and bodies Recoome. The best part of this series of fights was when Ginyu had to step in and used his back up of body change. It was great in that it was certain that someone would eat dirt with Ginyu dominating but Goku shows he isn’t entirely simple and makes it so that Ginyu body swaps with a frog.
1. Super Saiyan Goku vs. Frieza (Dragon Ball Z, Namek Saga): After the Ginyu fight, Goku is put in a rejuvenation chamber. Frieza is trying to get his wish but doesn’t know that he needs to recite his wish in Namekian. Piccolo ends up getting wished back. The 2 Short Crew (Krillian, Gohan and Vegeta) take it to Frieza with some success, Piccolo merges with Nail, Guru dies, Goku returns to the fight, Vegeta tells him of the Saiyan genocide and Krillian dies.
It’s the death Krillian, his lifelong best friend, that results in Goku losing it. He goes Super Saiyan and Frieza’s worst fear is realized. Goku beats him from pillar to post so badly the planet begins to break down. While Frieza knew of the prophecy about the Super Saiyan defeating him, I wonder if he actually believed he could defeat Goku.
He couldn’t have, right? His scouter was gone by this point and he couldn’t tell what Goku’s power level was but he definitely knew his arms were too short to box with God when Goku turned SSJ. At any rate, this fight was dope as hell when it finally aired after several restarts of the saga. It’s what everyone who followed DBZ was waiting for.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.