Oh boy, Dragon Ball GT is one of the most touchy subjects in the online Dragon Ball community. I still remember when it was super cool to universally hate on GT for basically everything it did to "ruin" Dragon Ball Z.

Nowadays, with Dragon Ball Super, there's a very vocal crowd—let’s call them a vocal minority—that heavily defends GT and at the very least claims it’s better than Super.

On a personal level, I’ve never really hated GT. Admittedly, before I knew it wasn’t canon, there were things I liked about it, but something always felt off—even from the beginning.

The elephant in the room is that making Goku a kid again for the whole series was a terrible idea. It might have worked for one arc, maybe up until the end of the Baby Saga, but for the entire 60+ episodes? I get that the writers were trying to blend the best aspects of OG Dragon Ball and DBZ, but lazily making Goku a kid for most of the series was just not the way to do it.

That said, I don’t hate each major arc conceptually. The way the Black Star Dragon Balls were introduced was lazy and barely explained, but I do like the idea of a small group traveling through space to find them. The execution, though? Not great.

The Baby Arc was a cool way to bring Saiyan lore back into the story, with the Tuffles seeking revenge for their stolen technology. Baby being able to possess people was a creepy ability, clearly an attempt to escalate Majin Buu’s regeneration gimmick.

Before Toriyama gave his own canon vision of Hell in Resurrection ‘F,’ the idea of villains escaping Hell to take over Earth had potential in the Super 17 Arc. It could have been fun fan service.

The Shadow Dragon Arc is probably the best idea conceptually—going back to the overuse of the Dragon Balls and how it should have consequences beyond just waiting a year to use them again.

But at the end of the day, Dragon Ball GT is the ultimate case of great concepts with incredibly sloppy execution.

While I liked the idea of searching for the Dragon Balls in space, the Black Star Dragon Balls came out of nowhere, so I had no reason to care about them. Outside of Goku, I didn’t care for the other two characters on the journey—Pan was annoying, and Trunks had no real personality. GT tried to copy Toriyama’s OG Dragon Ball adventure vibe, but most of the planets they visited were just boring. There’s a reason the original FUNimation dub skipped over this whole section.

The Baby Arc was probably the least flawed in terms of pacing. The idea of Baby taking over the Z Fighters and Goku having to fight corrupted versions of them was solid. But the way it was done made Baby way too overpowered—more so than even Majin Buu. This was also where GT fully became "The Goku Show." Uub being Goku’s pupil amounted to nothing, and his fusion with Fat Buu was dumb. Also, while I liked the idea of bringing back Saiyan tails, the way Goku and Vegeta conveniently got theirs back through magic or random pulling was just ridiculous. These guys are well into their 40s at this point.

Speaking of transformations, this is where Super Saiyan 4 (and to a lesser extent, Baby’s Golden Oozaru form) was introduced. SSJ4 just doesn’t feel like a natural evolution from Super Saiyan 3. SSJ3 had the long hair but still fit the theme, while SSJ4’s weird red monkey design just feels... off. And let’s be real—SSJ4 was just an excuse to bring back adult Goku temporarily because they knew fans wanted it. Golden Oozaru could’ve been cool, but the explanation for merging it with Super Saiyan was weak. And randomly killing off Piccolo? That was just unnecessary.

Then there’s the Super 17 Arc. There’s a reason this is considered the worst arc by far. As I said earlier, the idea of villains escaping Hell had potential, but the execution was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Dr. Gero and Dr. Myuu somehow making two Android 17s and fusing them to become stronger than Goku? When the original 17 wasn’t even that powerful to begin with? Makes no sense. Goku getting trapped in Hell was dumb, and Piccolo, who shouldn’t have died earlier, got screwed over again just to give him a reason to help Goku escape. It doesn’t help that this was the shortest arc, so there’s almost nothing good to say about it.

The Shadow Dragon Saga is the least bad overall. I love the idea of overusing the Dragon Balls having real consequences, and giving each Shadow Dragon a connection to past wishes was a great touch. There were some fun fights, especially with Nova Shenron and SSJ4 Gogeta vs. Omega Shenron. But half of the Shadow Dragons were lame, with gimmicky fights that relied more on luck than strategy. Nova Shenron was the only one with real charisma, while even Syn/Omega Shenron felt bland for a final boss. And Kid Goku pulling out a Super Spirit Bomb as the final attack—just like in the Buu Saga—felt like a cheap, unearned knockoff. They even had a fusion again, only for it not to be the final move. It just felt like the writers had run out of ideas.

And these are just my critiques of each arc. I haven’t even touched on the bigger issue—out of all Dragon Ball media, GT is the worst when it comes to making it "The Goku Show." At least Dragon Ball Super gives Vegeta stuff to do, and even some side characters get moments.

Sadly, the best thing I can say about GT is that it has a great opening, "Dan Dan Kokoro" (and to a lesser extent, the FUNimation "Grand Tour" rap, which is hilarious to laugh at). It’s just unfortunate that for every good idea GT had, it fumbled the execution every single time.

It’s not completely unwatchable, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re really attached to Super Saiyan 4—which seems to be the main reason people like it. That, and maybe the idea that Goku is more mature here compared to Super.