I guess I am on of the really few people who watched Dragon Ball Z for the first time while being over 20 and never watched Dragon Ball Z in childhood. I just finished DBZ a few weeks ago.
So that should be an unusual premise.
Dragon Ball Z is along with Dragon Ball the only long lasting battle shounen I have ever watched. Usually I am not watching these shows, but Dragon Ball is an exception.
Story (7/10): I liked the story of DBZ, but it is pretty simple. A villain appears, beats the Z Fighters, then they train, get stronger beat him and repeat.
But DBZ also has something to offer about Gokus past, which you would never guess from DB. But also the backstory from other characters get revealed.
Negative points about the story are most of the fillers and the fact that so many times all have to wait for Goku to return from somewhere and stall time, this concept is used too much.
Art (9/10): I love the animation visuals and the style, that is one reason why I started watching Dragon Ball and considering its age it really does look good.
Sometimes scenes are reused, but in a way which is acceptable.
Sound (10/10): The music of DBZ is one of its greatest strenghts. Even after watching the first opening 200 times, I never skipped it and enjoyed watching it every time. Same goes for the entire ost, they are a lot of great and memorable tracks. I also love the voice acting in the original japanese version, voices are fitting perfectly and also memorable.
Characters (10/10): There are a lot of characters, a whole lot. While Goku from the original DB was by far my favorite character, he was not that awesome in DBZ. I still liked him a lot, but his personality does not work as magnificent when he became an adult. My favorite main character was Piccolo, I loved his character development (one if not the best in the series) and his personality. He never made stupid mistakes like Goku or Vegeta like giving enemies the chance to get stronger and endanger the whole world. So he was really refreshing and interesting.
Enjoyment (10/10): Which leads also to my overall rating, because I rate based on enjoyment. I loved DBZ, it has its parts in which it got a bit tedious, like a bunch of episodes on Namek (especially the Frieza fight) and most of the fillers were unnecessary. The lowest point on the show was the appearance of Gotenks who did not fight the situation the entire universe was in, like making stupid jokes and not to fight seriously. Gokus final fight could compensate that gladly.
The best arc was the android arc for me, especially because of C18, my favorite side character. The Cell arc itself was awesome. While of course the Frieza arc had a lot of awesome moments too.
So my rating is 10/10, to be more specific 96%.
