INTRO

I didn't make this review to slander the sequels but honestly I find this better than the sequels because of the original fighting aspect of the series. Compared to the sequels that introduce transformations and forms and beams (even though OG Dragon Ball had beams too) this series still manages to capture the original aspect of tournaments and martial arts as a whole.

CHARACTERS AND SCREEN TIME

Compared to the sequel, Dragon Ball gives the spotlight to almost all the characters in the show and doesn't just leave them behind them. In Dragon Ball Z, characters like Yamcha are just the villain's sandbags and Launch just disappears. Even though Yamcha loses a lot in DB, he's still kept relevant as a character and not the dude that got beat by that Saibaman. The characters in general though are just people that are easy to like and not people worth sending death threats to. I’m just adding to this that after Saiyan Saga in DBZ, all Non-Saiyan characters are immediately irrelevant.

PLOT AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super's plot is good but sometimes it just feels out of place. It reached the end point where it turned from simple martial arts tournaments to saving the world every single arc.

Spoiler, click to view

Taking DBZ's Majin Buu saga as example, at first it was a simple plot of but before you know it they're on another planet.

If were also including dragon balls in general, then the difference is obvious. Majority of OG DB's arcs were centered around them but from the sequels on they were only used at the end of each arc to restore everything back to normal. Once again I didn't make this to slander the sequels but they just feel like the entire point of the plot has been shifted and the original premise of the series disappeared. I doubt I'm making sense with this review only taking about keeping the series original but the sequels have their own good parts as well including animation and development. Dragon Ball Z really does a good job with the character development allowing characters to change and DBS's hype and animation are better than both.
People usually complain that death in the series is just cast aside but from before DBZ people could only be revived once and even then, deaths in the series had actual impact on the characters and the show.

Soundtrack and Music

Comparing the soundtrack won’t be easy but this probably goes to DBZ and DBS based on my personal enjoyment. DB isn’t really the best with soundtracks in general but once the producers got more material for DBZ and DBS, they were able to go all out and create really good soundtracks. So don’t remember much but Og Dragon Ball didn’t have that much soundtracks compared to it’s sequel.

Final Verdict

As much as I love Dragon Ball and it's sequels, OG DB is the only one able to capture the original essence of what's called a fighting and tournament manga. I still love DBZ and DBS for specific things and reasons that OG DB doesn't have but I still recommend you give them all a try and don't skip anything because it's a ride you won't regret.