Top Ten Reasons Dragon Ball Z is the Most Important Anime of All Time

Almost every other popular shonen nowadays exist because of DBZ. DBZ and Goku are really inspiring, and that's the reason why people are starting to find orphans as protagonists with cheerful, innocent and righteous personalities and their being big eaters repetitive and boring. It's because Goku started those lovable traits many years ago, and other authors are so inspired by it that almost every other popular protagonists pick up that personality as well. Dragon Ball Z has changed a whole genre, not to mention shonen used to stick with the rule : 'Protagonists have to be a boy and he shouldn't grow up. ' DBZ has broken that rule and taken the risk, and has become one of the most successful series of all time.

I gotta admit, I do love Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan, but they wouldn't be able to have the influence they have on the anime industry that they do now if it wasn't for Dragon Ball Z's influence on the mainstream for anime. Dragon Ball Z can be considered as the anime that revolutionized anime.

Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Fairy Tail, and even Hunter x Hunter have been influenced by Toriyama's DBZ series. Goku also inspired the characters of Luffy, Naruto, Natsu, and even Gon. Chakra and Nen are also similar to Ki. Many Manga artists even stated DBZ was one of their inspirations in creating their series. Without DBZ, most of Shounen wouldn't exist.

Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z was a major success in the West, particularly in the USA. It paved way for more anime to cross the seas such as Naruto and Bleach. If you want to prove your anime is the "best", it must cross the ocean and make its debut in the west.

If it hadn't been for DBZ, many of the popular anime series nowadays wouldn't have been so famous worldwide.

If you ask any anime fan what their first Anime series was, they would most likely say either Pokemon or Dragon Ball Z. In the late 90's and early 2000's, DBZ was very popular in the US and Europe (I think) and sold lots of merchandise and sponsers in the west.

Noticing how hot DBZ was getting, Cartoon Network decided to air that and many other anime late at night on Adult Swim, creating the "Toonami" block. Even Toonami stated themselves that DBZ was their longest running series and highest rated series ever.

The Super Saiyan transformation is easily the greatest moment in anime history. Imagine you sitting there, a little kid or early teen, watching DBZ when Frieza killed Vegeta, surviving the spirit bomb, and killing Krillin, you couldn't wait for Goku to get mad. Just watching him transform to the legendary super saiyan gave you chills as you listened to him scream and watched his black hair turn to blonde. This transformation led to the sensation of the Super Saiyan form we all know and love.

Frieza is the definition of a villain: cold hearted and has a lust for power. This Shounen villain is perhaps the greatest DBZ villain of all time. He's now also one of the strongest anime villains of all time when he came back with a new form.

Meruem from Hunter x Hunter (one of my favorite series) is the king of Chimera Ants and an amazing character. If ever finished HxH, you'll understand why. Togashi even stated this too.

"It's OVER 9000! ", "Fool! This isn't even my Final Form! ", "Kamehameha", and many more things from DBZ helped create a vast majority of memes.

DBZ has reached its 30th anniversary earlier this year, setting a milestone in anime/manga history and it's still growing strong today with new movies out and even a new series.

The Dragon Ball manga was firt published in 1984 actually, thus it reached its 32th anniversary this year and is still one of the most loved series out there. DBZ is truly a legend.

Light Yagami, Sasuke Uchiha, and Leloch Lamperouge were inspired by none other than Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans and Goku's rival.

No matter if it is Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Drsgon Ball Super or even Dragon Ball GT the fights are always something to look forward into. The fight between Goku and Frieza on planet Namek has been officially considered as the longest in anime history and it remains as a fan-favorite.

When Dragon Ball Evolution was announced, people went crazy. However, when it was released, it was met with terrible reviews from critics and fans of DBZ. However, Dragon Ball Evolution was the first of many Shounen to have its own live action movie. You know your series is very popular if they made a live action movie (Just ask Avatar: The Last Airbender and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers)

Which, sadly, was a big failure. But it shows how popular DBZ is, being the first anime with a live action adaptation.