The Majin Buu Saga, which is the final story arc in the originalDragon Ballmanga and theDragon Ball Zanime has often come under fire for a number of reasons, which are accentuated by the factthat it succeeds the acclaimed Cell Saga. Singled out for its excessive length, uneven pacing, out of control power scaling, as well as the absurdity of the main antagonist’s powers, the Majin Buu Saga is a flawed conclusion to the series.
Yet, even in spite of its many faults, it also yielded some incredibly iconic moments, impressive character development, world building, and lore, which no other story arc managed to provide at such a level. Hence, while it has been called out for its shortcomings, many still look back on its highs, without focusing too much on its lows, of which there are many. Nevertheless, it is still an essential read or watch for anyDragon BallorDragon Ball Zfan, and an integral part of thecollective journey of Goku and his allies. There are a number of ways in which the Majin Buu Saga could have been reworked to improve its failures, yielding a saga that could have made for a much better viewing experience.
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Evening Out The Pacing
One of the most glaring issues throughout the Majin Buu Saga is its uneven pacing and abundance of moments that drag the storyline. There were major lulls in the World Tournament Saga during the initial rounds of the competition, and in the Babidi Saga when the Z Fighters were attempting to locate and defeat Babidi and Dabura before they awakened Majin Buu. While the pace and intensity of the narrative did pick upafter the emergence of Majin Buu, this momentum was lost once again in the Fusion Saga.
Many of the problems here can be attributed to the padded scenes and flawed character writing which saw the heroes throw away advantageous scenarios purely for the sake of narrative escalation. This wasespecially apparent in the case of Gotenks, who repeatedly stalled on finishing off his fight just for the sake of showboating, only to be defeated as Buu grew more powerful. Quite a few of these decisions abandoned logic in favor of making the characters frustratingly succumb to poor and borderline frustrating decision-making patterns — even if they did make sense in terms of the personalities of the characters themselves.
This collectively served to diminish the structural integrity of the main plot threads, making the escalation seem almost frivolous at times. Rectifying this with more balanced resolutions to plot threads without all the unnecessary fluff would have improved the pace of the narrative and its build up, making theslower sections of the Majin Buu Sagafar less exhausting to view.
Allowing Gohan To Take Center Stage
Duringthe conclusion of the Cell Games Saga,there was one character who was given the payoff that his development had been building up to since the very start ofDragon Ball Z. From his introduction, Gohan’s latent potential and immense power had been teased on multiple occasions, where he managed to perform incredible feats such as dealing damage to Raditz, Vegeta, and Frieza, while gaining a massive boost in power due to his heightened emotional state.
Since his introduction, there has always been a direct correlation between Gohan’s emotional state and his power level, with times of distress bringing out the monstrous strength that lay dormant within him. The Cell Games Saga was the moment this came to the fore, when Gohan was filled with rage on seeing the death of the peaceful Android 16, and ascended to the level of Super Saiyan 2 — the first among the main cast to do so. He was also the focal point of the Z Fighters' efforts to defeat Cell, giving him more of the limelight to become themain protagonist following Goku’s death.
This path seemed ideal for Gohan’s development, where he would take over for his father as the defender of the Earth. However, all this was undone in the Majin Buu Saga, asGoku and Vegeta took up the spotlightonce again, forcing Gohan to take a back seat. Even the arrival of Ultimate Gohan to the battle against Super Buu made it seem as if the son was ready to fully take the reins from his father to move the story forward, but his defeat was a sucker punch that made all his earlier development go to waste. Hence, having Gohan play a more central role in the final conflict would have served to add to the momentum of the Cell Saga, where he could take on his father’s mantle and mature into the hero and martial artist he was always built up to be.
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Improving Majin Buu As A Villain
Among the roster of iconicDragon Ball Zantagonists,Majin Buu is far from the most interesting. His greatest strength is his regeneration and ability to take damage, as well as the various abilities he manifests purely for the convenience of the plot. Besides his desire to fight the heroes and cause wanton destruction for the sake of it, Buu lacks any clear motive for his actions throughout the various story arcs of the saga. In fact, for the first half of the narrative, Babidi plays a much larger role in directing Buu’s power to take over the world. This fades as soon as Babidi is killed, leaving Buu with no real goals.
For the remainder of the saga,Buu in his various formsexhibits increasingly erratic behavior, ranging from destroying cities, the Lookout, and even the Earth itself, to settling down in a house of his own, or turning people into candy, just so he can consume them. This lack of clear direction or intent in an antagonist is one of the biggest failures of Buu as a character. Later incarnations such as Evil Buu and Super Buu mindlessly seek power and the chance to fight stronger opponents, although the actual cause behind this desire is not alluded to at all, considering Buu’s limited intelligence. Finally, Kid Buu is depicted as chaotic and pure evil, which is a fairly banal characterization when compared to previous antagonists such as Vegeta, Frieza, the Androids, or even Cell.
Oddly enough, Mr. Satan gives Buu far more direction than he could ever have come up with himself, playing a larger part in the plot than most other characters, even convincing the monster to turn a new leaf and respect the value of life. Even something as small as making Majin Buu more self aware, or giving him some motive might have done wonders to make him a more compelling villain. With Majin Buu, Super Buu, Evil Buu, and Kid Buu,Akira Toriyama created a seriesof absurdly powerful antagonists, and provided no clear course to defeat them, which is just one of the many issues in terms of power scaling that this saga is plagued with.
Power Scaling And Escalation
Previous sagas inDragon Ball Zhad much clearer power scaling and involved side characters to a far greater extent than the Majin Buu Saga, where core members of the Z Fighters such as Tien, Krillin, Piccolo had important parts to play in the fights against the Saiyan invasion, Frieza, and even Cell. In the Majin Buu Saga, they were all rendered virtually useless and irrelevant by the ridiculouspower levels of higher Super Saiyan transformations.
In fact, the gap in power between the Saiyans and other characters is so vast in the Buu Saga, that even a divine being such as the Supreme Kai is nowhere near strong enough to take on even the weakest version of Buu. Goku’s Super Saiyan 3 transformation, despite being one of the saga’s best moments, is a prime example of this, where he spends ages powering up, screaming, and sending shock waves that produce earthquakes and tsunamis all over the planet. Those without thepower of Super Saiyan 2 transformationsor Fusion, played almost no role in the actual fight apart from being distractions or punching bags to warm up Buu before the Saiyans took to the battlefield.
Earlier sagas had capped power levels at planetary level, whereas the Majin Buu Saga has the entire human race, as well as the Earth itself obliterated in its climax. Ifnot for Goku’s Spirit Bomb, the entire universe would have been destroyed, signifying that power creep had reached absurd levels, even if the stakes definitely added to the tension in the final confrontation. Curbing this escalation, and giving the non-Saiyan members of the cast more time to train and partake in the battles in a more meaningful way would have definitely made their role saga in the saga far more meaningful, infusing a much more interesting touch to the saga’s fights.
