I’ve been watching DBZ every night with my husband. I’ve been following the entire damn saga. The cartoon is so frustrating, and now they’ve run out of new ones! He refuses to tell me how they defeat Buu, and I really don’t have the patience to wade through fan sites trying to find out.
Can someone just tell me, please? I really need ot know…
Nevermind, horrible brainfart, I had Gragonball and GT and Z confused, he was in Z.
Just a very brief description of the final battle will do. Like “Goku eats Buu’s head.” I don’t even need to know the details behind it. Please! Someone take pity on me!
Now that was a huge brainfart, I saw your post and mentioned it to my friend on the phone while I was reading it, then got into a conversation, and for some reason got my output devices confused, and typed something I was trying to say to him, which is why that comment seems strange.
What? I figured with as few episodes left (roughly only ten more) they were going to run out the series. Not that I cared that much (I’m having much more fun watching original Dragon Ball), but geez that’s an annoying thing to do to fans. Would have been better to let you guys hang for a couple more months and let the show run out…
And just because I’m a nice guy, here’s the DBZ FAQ’s answer to your question:
Goku gathers ki for a super Genki Dama from the people of Namek and the people of earth. However, most of the people on earth were unwilling to give part of their ki to Goku, so it took persuasion from Mr. Satan for Goku to finally gather enough ki from the people of earth. Even though there was enough power in the Genki Dama, Goku lacked physical strength to make it destroy Buu, so a wish was made to Porunga to restore Goku’s strength, and finally, Buu was destroyed.
I have not seen it all myself… but from what I understand:
(You didn’t tell me from when you went so…)
Tenkaichi Budokai Tournament occurs. Some on the team meet the Supreme Kai.
Before the Tournament is over, Boppity and Daberu show up to try and revive Buu by using the energy of the Arena fighters. They are amazed by the raw power of the Saiyans, and hatch a plan to revive Buu very quickly.
Blah Blah,series of cool fights as Vegeta, Gohan, and Goku are led by Supreme Kai to beat up on Boppity before Buu awakes.
The plan works, and Buu awakens. At some point (confused by the order here, Vegeta becomes the evil Maajin Vegeta (it means possessed). There is huge battle between Goku and him. I believe Vegeta goes SSJ2 and defeats Goku. Eventually, Vegeta snaps out of it and blows himself up (also the first time he rally shows affection for Trunks, Aww 
) and comes within an inch of eradicating the horrific Fat Buu. But Buu regenerates.
Fat Buu starts fighting, blahy blah, Boppity has everyone in the planet watching via his magic. Goku comes back from the afterlife (again) with the knowledge of the basic Fusion technique. He achieves Super Saiyan Level 3. He and Buu fight. The fightgoes back and forth, and its unclear who would have won, but SSJ3 Goku is still dead and has only a short time to stay on Earth. Goku gets a rather sly idea, and Buu winds up killing Boppity. Eventually, the leaves and tells Trunks and Goten how to Fuse.
There is big, big fight. Eventually, Fat Buu is defeated, but not killed. He becomes friends with Mr. Satan and a little doggy. When a nasty accident occurs and the dog gets injured or killed (again, confused, so sorry). He splits into Fat Buu (normal) and a new, leaner, meaner Buu. The latter one wins out, and eats the old Buu.
Mean Buu begins a reign of terror. He can and does absorb the DBZ fighters to gain their strength, or he turns them into Toffee candy and eats them. Whenever he absorbs a new fighter, he gains some of their characteristics and changes slightly. He eats everyone on the planet under a certain power level as well. Gohan is being trained by the Kais with the mighty Z sword. The Kais do something to make him a sort of permanent Super Saiyan. Gohan eventually breaks the sword (to much amazement) and decides it wasn’t that important. 
There are some series of battles. Gotenks (Trunks and Goten) kicks Buu’s buttocks left and right. Gohan shows up and kicks Buu’s butt even more. However, Buu sneakily absorbs Gotenks and Piccollo, giving him new power and a MUCH grater intelligence. He then fights and is barely defeating Gohan. Goku returns to Earth, just in time to see Bu (who absorbs the Fused Gotenks, whose Fusion would run out in only 30 minutes) sneak absorb Gohan, making him stronger than any enemy they’ve ever faced.
But Goku has the awesome “Potara Earrings”, and he plans to Fuse, permanently, with someone else, probably Tien. He But Tien is knocked out. Only Mr. Satan, Dende, and the dog are left around. Dende and the dog simply woldn’t work very well, and Goku is just about to try Fusion with Mr. Satan.
But then! Vegeta has been returned from the afterlife as a spiritform to fight Buu. Goku and Vegeta try to tag-team the mgiht y Buu, but he’s stronger than both of them! In desperation to rescue their families, the try the Fusion technique over Vegeta’s really being pissed off about it.
The pair of them become… Vegetto! (Vegeta and Kakarotto)
Even as strong as he is, Buu cannot even scratch the new warrior. Even as toffee candy, Vegetto can defeat Buu handily. Eventualy Buu transforms Vegetto back out of shame. Just as Buu is about to be slain, he sneaks-absorbs Vegetto! Everyone else is stunned! In their moment of triumph Buu has grown stronger than ever.
Or has he? Buu doesn’t mutate. Soon they realize the truth. vegetto was trying to get Buu to do that, and new newly seperated Goku and Vegeta search inside of Buu for their lost family members. They find them cocooned inside Bu’s brain, along with Fat Buu!
There is a giant fight inside of Buu’s skull, and eventually Vegeta cuts loose Fat Buu and they escape outside of Buu. Evil Buu is weakened now, and in a final battle he is defeated. The team wanted to kill Fat Buu, too, but Mr. Satan begs them to spare his (its?) life, as they are friends and Fat Buu was absorbed just like Gohan and co.
They stopped playing new eps right after they all break free from inside Buu.
Thanks for letting me know what happened. It was was really driving me crazy…I can’t believe the target audience (boys) have the attention span for that show…
I believe it’s the “Soap Opera Effect.” The story moves so slowly that regardless of whether you like it or not, a morbid fascination keeps you tuning in just to see if anything will actually get done within a single episode. I’ve been regularly watching it for a while too, and this is the main reason I do it.
And I agree with Just Some Guy, Dragonball is more fun to watch than DBZ. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and moves rather quickly (comparatively).
I have it on good authority (friend in the manga translation business) that it took twice as many comic pages to make one episode of DragonBall as it took to make one episode of DBZ. When they made the DragonBall TV show, there was already a huge backlog of manga, so the story moved right along. With DBZ, the manga could barely keep pace with the show’s production, Toriyama was told to maximize the fighting to impress the teenage boys, and the plotlines got less and less creative as Toriyama got more and more sick of the whole thing.
That’s what my friend says, anyway. Seems to explain the difference in the pace and style of the two shows, too. I have NEVER understood the popularity of DBZ, although I adore DragonBall. My 8-year-old son refers to DBZ as “The sneer & yell show.”
That said, it kind of stinks to pull out a plotline as long as they have been doing, and then deny the loyal audience a resolution. Lucky we have Mr. Internet and the SDMB to help!
Theobroma, that’s about the size of it. It’s also why the filler episodes of DBZ tend to have that snappier pace than the canon episodes (Garlic Jr. Saga, the tournament in otherworld, a lot of the episodes where essentially one thing happens and is resolved in it).
The really disturbing thing is they’ll likely rerun this block of Buu episodes two or three times before they air the conclusion. On the other hand, for you DBZ fans that might mean that they’ll lead right into DBGT and show the first story arc of that as part of the DBZ conclusion block.
Me, I’m looking forward to the second World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball. Those are always fun…
DBZ is the most annoying, frustrating show I actually tried to watch (OK, so it was out of boredom).
I thought the fight against Freeza was long and drawn-out. Holy smokes, this Buu thing just got so long and stupid I gave up watching it all together.
There are still a LOT of episodes left in the DBZ saga. Ms. D_Odds and I watched them all in Japanese on the International Channel (they are now showing DBGT, 10:30p EST Sunday nights). We have been watching at the rate of one episode/week since just prior to the Gotenks fusion. It’s nice to (1) finally find out what everyone was saying and (2) try to remember the edits from many, many months ago (Master Roshi gets editted a lot).
I wish Blockbuster would carry the DVDs as I don’t want to download ripped episodes [damned ethics and all that] nor do I want to buy all the DVDs.
D_Odds, no there aren’t. It stopped at episode 280 and there’s 291 episodes. And about half of that is wrapping up the series, not fighting with Buu. It makes the decision for that stopping point look really weird.
Maybe it seemed like a lot more episodes. 11 episodes is nearly 3 months at 1 per week. Are all the episodes translated yet? That may be the holdup. My understanding is that they translate for DVD/VHS first, then Cartoon Network gets in and edits (things like Roshi’s excessive randiness and Mr. Satan -> Hercules).
Sure, it’s half a season when you’re watching one episode a week. Four or five times a week and it’s nothing.
I’d expect that’s what occurred, hense my earlier comment about taking the extra month or two in order to finish off the series before airing the new episodes.
FWIW, Cartoon Network does not do the editting of DBZ (or DB for that matter) themselves which is part of the reason why they actually get away with more than any other show on Cartoon Network outside of Adult Swim. And Hercule isn’t really an edit (they don’t do the show with people saying “Mr. Satan” and then cut those parts out), that’s a translation thing and probably the right choice since “Mr. Satan” has connotations for American viewers that clearly are not intended in the original (always a touchy thing when translating anime programs).
Just Some Guy, the DVD’s include his name as Mr. Satan. I’ve seen a couple of ripped copies (same voice actors as CN, not fan dubs/subs), and they don’t change his name at all. It’s only the Cartoon Network edit that changes it.
I don’t knock the changed name. I also understand that they will be changing one of the DB GT kids name: Trunks and Pan name their child Bra
I don’t know what the new name will be.
They stopped with eleven episodes?!
Grrr, Argh!
Will Cartoon Network play DBGT?
That’s what I get for not caring enough about DBZ. I knew the official subs left the name alone but didn’t see the uncut dub.
FWIW, pepperlandgirl, it’s all but certain that CN will air DBGT, DBZ is their cash cow and there’s no way they’d willingly pass on the follow up.
The whole shebang is a lot more watchable when you have the set.
Episodes with no commercials and sequential viewing work better.