With its impressive social and cultural impacts, it is undeniable that “Dragon Ball” is one of the greatest franchises in anime history. One of the most remarkable aspects of this seris is its villains.
Although the villains initially instill fear in fans, the Z Warriors (aka the good guys) always manage to counterattack and defeat these evil beings.
In fact, Akira Toriyama gave a significant advantage to the Z Warriors when dealing with the villains. That advantage was their numbers, which always ensured victory, regardless of how powerful the villain was.
The “Dragon Ball” series is never short of new characters. The author continuously introduces them one by one. Initially, only a few good guys were part of the Z Fighters, but gradually, some villains switched sides and joined them.
At first, the Z Warriors Gang only included Goku, Krillin, and Master Roshi. Later, Yamcha, Tien, and Piccolo joined the group. In Dragon Ball Z, Gohan, Vegeta, Trunks, and Goten also joined. By the end of Dragon Ball Super, the Z Fighters had over 10 members.
This automatically gave them an advantage over any villain that might appear. Even if a villain was incredibly powerful, fighting each of them would exhaust him. Even Akira Toriyama recognized this imbalance.
“I’m always thinking of how there are a lot of guys on our side but only one enemy. If you think about it, isn’t it unfair? They can just gang up on him”, the author himself admitted while laughing.
Goku was the first to transform into a Super Saiyan, followed by Vegeta and Gohan. All of them trained hard, and their emotional states drove their transformations.
Trunks and Goten, however, never faced such situations, but they could easily become Super Saiyans. It was as if the legendary transformation had become child’s play.
With all this in mind, there was never a real chance for any villain to stand against the Z Warriors. If, by some chance, one villain could overpower everyone, the Vegito could step in and save the day.
Akira Toriyama knew he was giving an unfair advantage to the main characters, but it was all for the sake of the plot. Considering the overpowering strength of the villains, perhaps forming a group to gang up on them was necessary. Moreover, the Saiyans would never team up to fight an opponent because they prefer to battle alone. On the other hand, Piccolo, Tien, Krillin, and others weren’t strong enough to face enemies like Frieza, Perfect Cell, and Majin Buu.
Source: FW, GameK