Dragon Ball Arcs with the highest stakes

Key Takeaways

• The Dragon Ball franchise has evolved from a light adventure to a dark story with intense battles as Goku ages.
• The story of Future Trunks featured a powerful psychopath and a shattered reality, leaving the heroes lost.
• The story of Universe Survival has raised the stakes in an exciting competition where defeat means that the universe has been wiped out of existence.

Dragon Ball begins as a fun adventure with Goku joining Bulma in her quest for the Dragon Balls to wish herself a girlfriend. Although the original premise was light, Dragon Ball battles, deaths, and revelations became more difficult but made the franchise more powerful as Goku grew and developed.

Throughout the series, the story became darker despite the presence of the Dragon Balls and other elements that lowered the stakes as a constant backup in case something went wrong. However, the franchise has still managed to up the ante in some arcs by introducing new villains, amazing battles and, at times, making the Dragon Balls look outdated.

8 Future Trunks Saga

Powerful Psychopath Destroys Reality

• Dragon Ball Super
• Section: 47-76

Like one of the darker schemes Dragon Ball SuperThe Future Trunks Arc has one of the best shonen characters as it introduces Zamasu's psychopathic tendencies. Although initially a perfect Supreme Kai candidate, Zamasu's hatred of mortals quickly escalates into a desire for destruction that is fulfilled by the doomed reality of Future Trunks.

Not only does it show the ravages of other realities, Zamasu's combined power feels overwhelming as the Z fighters lose battle after battle. Even if the enemy is defeated in the end, this This arc did not have a hero at the top, leaving the audience with the reality of the doomed schedule.

7 Android Saga

A grim future raises the stakes

• Dragon Ball Z
• Section: 119-139

While the Cell saga created a bigger threat to the world, the Android arc set all the high stakes in both stories by starting with Future Trunks talking about the bleak future he came from. By showing a future without Goku and where most of the Z fighters have died, the audience quickly understands what is at stake if the heroes are defeated.

With Trunk's help from the future, the heroes are able to fight off the many Android threats, but not before a few setbacks, especially as more is revealed about the horrific events of the event. Trunk's life and death toll.

6 Cell Arc

Hope and Gloom makes for a bittersweet ending

• Dragon Ball Z
• Section: 140-194

Cell Saga is full of excitement, mixing good times with sinister threats. The saga has one of the best arc endings of any anime series, with a long and epic battle that determines the future of Earth. While his competitive nature eases the burden of Cell's threat, the villain keeps reminding the audience of what he can do.

The stakes of this story are constantly shifting, keeping fans anticipating revelations followed by revelations of the villain's abilities. However, in the end, everything is very bleak, as most of the Z fighters are incapacitated, Goku dies and Cell is resurrected, relying on an injured teenager Gohan to finish the battle. war.

5 Majin Buu Arc

An absurd story with incompetent heroes

• Dragon Ball Z
• Section: 220-227

As one of the most polarizing arcs in anime, the quality of the Buu arc may not be the highest, but it definitely keeps the stakes high. It features a hopeless moment, because Majin Buu felt like an invincible enemy and because most of the players died or did nothing.

In Majin Buu's story, angels and Gods of Destruction had yet to be introduced, meaning that the villain felt like the greatest threat imaginable to the universe, along with Goku needs everyone's help to defeat the enemy in the end.

4 Universe Survival Saga

Especially in Epic Tournaments Full of Threats

• Dragon Ball Super
• Section: 77-131

In terms of real danger, the Tournament of Power reaches its climax, because losing means the entire universe is wiped out. However, with so many powerful fighters on a team, along with competitive positioning, it's easy to ignore threats.

With the presence of an entire world on stage, the war represents the loss of loss, creating incredible moments that make this story worth watching again and again. In particular, every enemy in this tournament poses a different threat, but none as big as Jiren, who is so powerful that he has Goku and Frieza at the end.

3 Frieza Arc

A story full of tense moments, intense battles and terrifying villains

• Dragon Ball Z
• Episodes: 39 – 107

Featuring some of the franchise's most iconic moments, the Frieza Saga is packed with epic battles, high stakes and unforgettable scenes. This is one of the few arcs that feels like there is a constant threat that makes this plot a horror story.

With the quest for the Dragon Balls going sideways, the all-powerful tyrant, and a lot of mishaps, this whole saga is full of bad moments. The stakes feel so high that Goku must unlock a whole new transformation to defeat the evil opponent who seeks to rule the universe.

2 King Piccolo Saga

Unprecedented evil brings great death

• Dragon Ball
• Section: 102-122

If the Dragon Ball universe was smaller during the first anime, the King Piccolo Arc managed to raise the stakes without necessarily threatening everyone. At the time, King Piccolo was the biggest threat introduced, responsible for killing off, for the first time, many of the main characters.

Furthermore, with Shrenron's death, the Dragon Balls became obsolete, making every death count and every encounter. As one of the best sagas of the entire franchise, the King Piccolo Saga is a turning point in the series, with a dark, evil and invincible threat for the first time, making most of the events not there was someone like him.

1 Saiyan Arc

It set the stakes high for Dragon Ball Z as a whole

• Dragon Ball Z
• Section: 1-35

After the end of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z made sure to raise all the stakes, with the first arc revealing that Goku belongs to a warrior race that is, arguably, far more powerful than him. It turns out that the Saiyans aren't the biggest threat that Goku and the Z fighters have to face, but they still manage to do a lot of damage and raise the stakes to an unprecedented level.

The story is responsible for killing Goku for the first time to defeat his brother Raditz, one of the weakest Saiyan fighters in the franchise, which highlights that the protagonist is 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 hopeless situation with less of a safety net than the story. later on.