Key takeaways
- The Dragon Ball franchise evolved from light-hearted adventures with intense battles to darker stories as Goku aged.
- The Future Trunks saga showcased a powerful psychopath and destructive realities, leaving the heroes at a lost end.
- The universe survival saga raises the stakes in an epic tournament where losing means erasing your universe from existence.
Dragon Ball Goku joins Bulma in finding the Dragon Balls to find the Dragon Balls and starts off as a fun adventure as he tries to wish himself a lover. While its basic premise is light, D Ragan Ball Things got a bit more complicated with fights, deaths, and revelations that made the franchise even more intense as Goku aged and expanded.

related to
Dragon Ball Dema: Dragon Ball returns to its roots
Dragon Ball Daima brings back the ground battles and personal growth that made the series famous, focusing on Goku's journey.
Throughout the series, plots remained dark despite the existence of dragon balls and other elements that lightened the stakes as a constant backup should something go wrong. Even so, the franchise still managed to move forward in some arcs with new villains, epic battles and the occasional Dragon Ball being rendered obsolete.
8 Future Trunks Saga
A powerful psychopath dooming realities
Dragon Ball Super
- Release date
- July 5, 2015
- Studio
- Toei Animation
- Number of episodes
- 131
- Dragon Ball Super
- Episodes: 47-76
As one of the darker plots within Dragon Ball SuperThe Future Trunks arc has one of the best shonen villains as it introduces Zamasu's psychotic tendencies. Although initially the perfect Supreme Kai candidate, Zamasu's hatred of mortals quickly escalates into a desire for destruction that is made real by the devastating reality of Future Trunks.
Not only does the destruction of other realities show, the power of a fused Zamasu feels enormous as the Z Fighters repeatedly lose in battle. While the enemy is finally defeated, this arc was never really about the heroes at the top, leaving the audience with the reality of the doomed timelines.
7 Android Saga
A grim future grows teeth
Dragon Ball Z
- Release date
- 26 April 1989
- Studio
- Toei Animation
- Number of episodes
- 291
- Dragon Ball Z
- Episodes: 119-139
While the Cell Saga posed a great threat to the world, the Android arc set up all the high stakes in both stories, starting with Future Trunks and talking about the dark future he'd come to. By showing a future without Goku and where most of the Z fighters are dead, the audience quickly realizes everything that is at stake if the heroes are lost.

related to
10 Tragic Dragon Ball Character Deaths, Ranked
The Dragon Ball franchise has seen many tragic deaths over the years. These are just a few more choice examples.
With Trunk's help in the future, the heroes are able to fight several Android threats, but not before a few setbacks, especially as more is revealed about Trunk's reality and the horrific events with its high death toll.
6 Cell Arch
Hope and darkness make for a sharp ending
- Dragon Ball Z
- Episodes: 140-194
Cell Saga is full of excitement, mixing good moments with villainous menace. The saga has one of the best arc endings in all anime series, with a long, epic battle that determines the future of Earth. While its tournament-esque nature lightens the load of Cell's threat, the villain constantly reminds the audience of what he's capable of.
The stakes in this saga are constantly shifting, keeping fans hopeful by uncovering new villain abilities. However, with most of the Z fighters incapacitated, Goku is dead and Cell regenerates once more, relying on an injured Teen Gohan to finish the fight, things look bleak indeed.
5 The Majin Buu arc
An inconsistent saga with heroes constantly disabled
- Dragon Ball Z
- Episodes: 220-227
As one of the most polarizing arcs in anime, the quality of the Buu arc may not always be the highest, but it certainly keeps the stakes high. Featuring frustrating moments, Majin Buu felt like an unbeatable enemy and most of the characters were dead or incapacitated at one point or another.
In the Majin Buu saga, angels and Gods of Destruction had yet to be introduced, meaning that the villain felt like the greatest threat imaginable to the universe, with Goku needing everyone's help to defeat the enemy in the end.
4 Universe Existence Saga
Most of all in an epic tournament full of threats
- Dragon Ball Super
- Episodes: 77-131
In terms of actual threat, the Tournament of Power has the highest reach, as losing it means erasing their universe from existence. However, with so many powerful fighters on the same team, with a tournament setting, it makes it easy to ignore the high-penalty threat.
With the existence of an entire universe in play, the battles reflect how devastating the loss would be, resulting in some incredible moments that make this saga worth re-watching. In particular, each enemy in this tournament poses a different threat, but none is as big as Jiren, who is so powerful that Goku and Frieza team up at the end of it.
3 Frieza Arc
A saga full of tense moments, intense battles and a terrifying villain
- Dragon Ball Z
- Episodes: 39 – 107
Featuring some of the franchise's most iconic moments, Frieza Saga is full of great fights, high stakes and unforgettable scenes. It's one of the few arcs that feels like there's an ever-present threat that makes this plot an incredibly scary saga.

related to
5 ways Frieza is the best villain in Dragon Ball
The tyrannical Emperor of Universe 7 changed the template of anime villains for a new generation and forever changed the Dragon Ball franchise.
Going sideways in search of dragon balls, an all-powerful tyrant, and an abundance of sticks, this entire saga is full of tense moments. The stakes are so high that Goku must unlock a whole new transformation to defeat the evil adversary who seeks to dominate the entire universe.
2 King Piccolo Saga
Unprecedented evil brings great death
Dragon Ball
- Release date
- February 26, 1986
- Studio
- Toei Animation
- Number of episodes
- 153
- Dragon Ball
- Episodes: 102-122
While the Dragon Ball As the universe was much smaller during the first anime, King Piccolo Arc managed to raise the stakes without threatening everyone in existence. At that point, King Piccolo was the biggest threat, responsible for killing, for the first time, many of the main characters.
Furthermore, with Shrenron's death, the Dragon Balls became obsolete, making each death count and each encounter more intense. As one of the best sagas of the entire franchise, the King Piccolo saga was a turning point in the series, with a dark, evil and unbeatable threat for the first time, making many events unprecedented.
1 Saiyan Arc
The stakes set high for the entirety of Dragon Ball Z
- Dragon Ball Z
- Episodes: 1-35
After the end of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z The stakes were made all over the place with the first arc revealing that Goku is part of a warrior race that is, allegedly, much stronger than him. It really turned out that the Saiyans weren't the biggest threat Goku and the Z fighters had to face, but they still managed to do a lot of damage and raise the stakes to unprecedented levels.
The saga was responsible for Goku first killing his brother Raditz, one of the weakest Saiyan warriors in the franchise, highlighting that the hero was far from invincible. Furthermore, the eventual deaths of Piccolo and Kami meant that the Dragon Balls could not be used to help, leaving the Z fighters in a desperate situation with fewer safety nets than in later sagas.

more
Dragon Ball: 10 characters who have destroyed planets
These Dragon Ball characters have destroyed planets, either by accident or for the sheer joy of wreaking havoc.