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The epic saga of the famed Goku and his powerful friends marches on in Dragonball GT: Season 1.

Years have passed, and the characters that populate the worlds of Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball and Dragonball Z are older. Some have lost their hair while others have grown some. Children are young adults with children of their own. And Goku, the man who began his adventures as a young, impish monkey-tailed kid, has been transformed back into the same kid (minus the tail), much to the surprise of his wife, kids, and granddaughter.

Emperor Pilaf (a bad guy from the old Dragonball days) accidentally wishes Goku into his younger form while Pilaf’s Red Ribbon Army is stealing a set of Dragonballs. Goku, his granddaughter Pan, and family friend Trunks set out across the universe to track down the balls so they can wish Goku to his proper age and stop the Earth from exploding.

Of course the threesome run into obstacles on the way. First their Dragonball detector is absorbed by a mutant robot named Giru – and they enlist him into the team. Giru helps at first and then betrays the team as they run up against ever-increasingly difficult to beat villains. The trail of evil leads to a villain named Baby who, like Dragonball Z’s Cell, can regenerate his body from one cell. Additionally, though, Baby likes to act as a parasite and takes over strong heroes’ bodies in order to conquer even more heroes.

Now a lot of people like Dragonball, love Dragonball Z, but hate Dragonball GT. I don’t get it. GT has the same art style, characters, increased power levels, long fights, and weird humor as its predecessors. If the series had a “Z” at the end of its title instead of the “GT”, would you really notice? Seriously?

But the show isn’t only geared towards the hardcore audience. Fans of more modern shows like Bleach who have yet to experience the Dragonball universe will get a kick out of it. The same sort of relationships, humor, and epic battles that make up one are mirrored in the other. Do you need to watch Dragonball and Dragonball Z to enjoy GT? I don’t think so; even though some of the inside jokes and history references will be totally lost on an outsider.

Each of the discs allows you to watch the episodes in a variety of ways. There is the Episode Selection function, the Play All function, and the Marathon Feature (which plays all the episodes but only plays the opening and closing credits once). As for the special features, a slew of trailers and textless versions of the opening and end credits is all that is there. A little disappointing for a piece of anime history as big as the Dragonball series.

Not just for hardcore Dragonball and Z fans, Dragonball GT is fun. And that really helps a lot. When a battle-heavy series doesn’t take a break and interject some cute/dumb jokes in-between the cool as cucumber one-liners, it risks being so outlandish that it’s a bore to watch. Thankfully, Dragonball GT: Season 1 continues the Toriyama tradition of good storytelling, and makes you laugh along the way.

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