Anyone who wants to watch Dragon Ball has a lot of options. The original, Dragon Ball Z, Super, GT, and a ton of movies provide hours of entertainment. However, there is also a fan project on YouTube that you should keep an eye on: “Dragon Ball Z Abridged” rightly has a lot of fans, as noted by MeinMMO author Max Handwerk.
What is Dragon Ball Z Abridged? Dragon Ball Z Abridged is an unofficial fan parody on YouTube, whose first episode was released in November 2008. It comes from the English-speaking YouTuber group TeamFourStar.
Basically, it is a re-synchronization of Dragon Ball Z, which begins with the attack of Son Goku’s brother Radditz on Earth. Over the years, new episodes kept coming out until the series reached its peak in September 2018, ten years after its start, with the final battle between Cell and Son Gohan. In December 2018, there was still an epilogue set in the future of Trunks.
In 2020, the decision was made to end the series and not to adapt the missing Buu Saga. It wasn’t until four years later, in 2024, that a few short clips were added, which at least covered part of the Buu Saga.
You can watch them here. But be careful! If you want the full experience, you might not want to start with the Buu video, as many running gags contained within had to develop beforehand.
There are a total of 60 episodes in the main series, with some of them being multi-part. Additionally, there are various specials and abridged versions of classic Dragonball movies, as well as a few clips related to Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Kai.
In short: There are hours and hours of this fan version of Dragon Ball available to watch on YouTube. But: How can a parody actually become this long?
Simple: It was successful and damn popular. And rightly so.
From silly parody to a true masterpiece
This is how the series was received: Looking at the numbers and comments on the episodes today, one finds above all one thing: A lot of love from fans who found their way back to the world of Dragon Ball through DBZA. I felt the same way when I discovered the series around 2016 – well after its launch.
Today, in the series finale, comments such as:
- “This was supposed to be a parody, not a damn masterpiece”
- “I don’t even call it Abridged anymore, it’s basically the TFS Dub”
- Or, in the first episode: “Here I am again starting all over”
Many comment in a similar manner. And it is truly remarkable how the series has evolved: Having watched the entire series and then clicking back to the first episode, one quickly sees how significant the jump is. It begins with the rather mediocre sound quality at the start and ends with some rather silly jokes. You can also tell from the voices: They haven’t quite found their roles yet.
Nevertheless: Even in the early days, some gags land, and you can already tell from the early episodes that there are people at work here who love the original.
Describing DBZA’s humor in writing probably doesn’t do it justice. Therefore, here’s the link to the first episode of DBZA:
And the rest catches up massively in no time. The parody aligns closer and closer to the original, the fight against Nappa and Vegeta has some great moments, and by the time we reach Namek, everything clicks into place.
The voice cast then fully arrives. Especially characters like Frieza, Cell, Trunks, Vegeta, and Piccolo are executed extremely well and actually hold up to the original voice actors.
As a comparison, one of my favorite examples – the Dragon Ball Z Abridged version of the original Broly movie:
The initially silly parody actually becomes one thing over time: A significantly funnier and perhaps even cleverer re-dubbing of the original that gains the necessary seriousness in dramatic moments. The masterpiece comments do not come from nowhere.
In terms of numbers, DBZA is also immensely successful.
- The Broly movie has over 37 million views on YouTube
- The first episode has 33 million views
- Episode 30, the final fight against Frieza, has 28 million views
- And all other episodes are also generally in various million ranges
Author’s recommendation: DBZA has now aged quite a bit but is not outdated. When the “Buu Bits” were released last year, it felt like an unexpected Christmas gift, and I was incredibly happy to receive more from TFS.
If DBZA has passed you by so far: If you love Dragon Ball and have no problem with English series (since DBZA is completely in English), definitely check it out. For me, this beloved project by a group of fans that turned into something much bigger – a wonderful re-entry into the Dragon Ball world that I would recommend to any fan. If you are waiting for new official content about Dragon Ball: A new series called Dragon Ball Daima is also in production.
