Saiyan Arc Overall Score - 8.9/10
Now, the Freeza Arc.
Well, time for me to rant a little on why I find this to be the most overrated (though not worst) arc in the series.
If you compare this arc to it's predecessor, they have a similar structure, but most of the plot points in the Saiyan Arc were done far better. We can say the two arcs have a 3-phase structure in their villains (Raditz/Dodoria and Zarbon, Nappa/Ginyu Tokusentai and Vegeta/Freeza), but in each case, I'd argue the Saiyan Arc felt far more engaging. With Raditz, we had all previous powers getting surpassed by him, who even states Nappa and Vegeta are far stronger than him and also have Goku dying. For the early Namek Arc, we have that in the form of Freeza, but not in his underlings, who only surpass Vegeta if excluding Oozaru. Hell, it doesn't even work for them to be stronger than Vegeta in general, considering how many times he'd boasted of being the strongest in the universe in the previous arc. Despite this, I'm willing to say the early events on Namek are as good, if not better than the set up of the Saiyan Arc. We had a hopeless situation for Kuririn, Gohan and Bulma, making the stakes as high as the climax of the previous arc and also had Vegeta's storyline show some good tactics in bringing the situation in his favour. Despite Saichoro's potential unlock being a simple power, I wouldn't say it's really an asspull, not compared to the Rosat or Elder Kaioshin ritual, as Kuririn and Gohan had to survive a lot and prove their character to Saichoro in order to be rewarded with it. Not as much of a great idea as the previous training regimens, but still better than what was to come. Also, let's not forget Popo's carpet being a glaring whole. He must really enjoy making his toast. Planet Namek was also pretty disappointing with it's landscape, essentially being the same kind of area and climate no matter where the characters went.
The segment with the Ginyu Tokusentai, however, is where things start to go downhill. Whilst fun for their campy nature and having a great theme song in Kai, the Ginyu Tokusentai feel completely out of place and even somewhat redundant. The joke of a group performing flashy poses when firing off their attack is lost when the heroes already do such with their battle stances and attack names. As for their actual role in the plot, the fight with Reacoom was just an uninspired Nappa rehash, except with far less stakes due to the lack of character deaths and Goku's advantage over everyone but Ginyu being far more overblown. The Ginyu Body Change segment did have some intriguing tension, though that was short lived and inconsistent, such as Ginyu noting Goku's body was even faster than his previous one or Ginyu being stupid enough to not kill Goku after the change.
Speaking of Goku's storyline, this is another gripe I have with the arc. His training regime was just a boosted version of what he got from Kaio, with him not gaining any sort of new philosophy from it like his training with Roshi, Karin, Popo or Kaio. Furthermore, Goku's role in this arc makes him feel far less like a character and more like a plot device, staying away from the plot until it calls for him. Unlike previous arcs, he didn't even have any sort of personal adventure or interactions of worth to keep his solitary storyline engaging as it was in the Piccolo Daimao and Saiyan Arcs. Furthermore, I don't really find his characterisation in the Freeza fight to be that good. It was good to see him take on Vegeta's Saiyan pride and accept his heritage, though it seems pretty contrived to do so when the Saiyan race as a whole were only a slightly lesser evil than Freeza and Vegeta had his share of contribution to the Namekians Goku was attempting to also avenge.
Back to Ginyu, his existence detracts a few points as well due to perhaps being the most inconsistent character in the entire arc. He wanted a fair fight against Goku, yet had no problem forgetting this and using the Body Change once he got surpassed. The fact that he can also control his battle power, yet didn't realise how weak his new body was also brings up a lot of questions.
Moving onto the fight with Freeza, the part of it prior to Freeza using his true form is perhaps the most pointless segment of the manga in retrospect. It makes sense for Vegeta to let Freeza transform, since they'd just be wasting stamina fighting his 1st form, but when he unveils another transformation every time his power is surpassed, it's no longer a fight, but more akin to a game of tennis in which battle powers are the ball and the rackets are contrivances. You could've honestly just had Freeza's true form be his only transformation and not much in the plot would change. It also doesn't help how easily Freeza can just assume another form compared to how Cell or Boo would, since rather than going through any effort to attain those power ups, Freeza could just do so with a thought. This doesn't change even when Goku arrives, despite his anger and wanting to avenge the Saiyans and Namekians, as it still ends up being a case of "I'm not even using my full power", making the fight up until the Genki-Dama pretty pointless when knowing all that was preventing Freeza from instantly killing everyone was his own arrogance. Really, the fight only regains it's worth once Goku went Super Saiyan.
Speaking of Super Saiyan, most tend to forget that this iconic aspect was the result of a retcon. In the Saiyan Arc, Nappa and Vegeta only mention it in jest as a way of referring to Half-Blooded Saiyans and never put much credence into the existence of it. Halfway through this arc, however, it becomes Vegeta's obsession out of nowhere and the thing Freeza secretly fears, even though up until the main fight, it was clear Freeza only feared the Saiyans due to strength in numbers. Speaking of inconsistencies with Freeza's character, he also conveniently forgot about the existence of Goku and Gohan despite talking about them with Zarbon, to the point he was even guessing Gohan was Raditz's son.
In terms of Goku gaining Super Saiyan, whilst it does help as being a good potential endpoint to his character and the scale of the series, should Toriyama have chosen to end things here, it also presents a major flaw of the arc; Goku shouldn't have been the main focus. Up until he arrived on Namek, Gohan, Kuririn and especially, Vegeta were the main focus of the arc, with Goku only being there to save them at the last moment. I would've felt the arc would've been a lot better had Gohan been the one to achieve Super Saiyan, given his potential and character were the main appeal of the Z section of the manga. Moreover, the Super Saiyan form seems far too convenient, having a far greater boost than Kaioken but very little stamina drainage in comparison. Gone is the importance of energy control in favour of...just getting angry.
I also can't talk about the arc's problems without bringing up battle powers. The existence of them cause the scale of the arc to become even more ludicrous than any arc prior, especially due to the conveniences of Zenkais. We're meant to assume Vegeta could lose so easily to Monster Zarbon when he took damage from a far superior fighter like Kaioken x4 Galu, or that getting beat up less than Kuririn or Gohan would allow him to get an incomparably greater boost in power after a nap than the damage he sustained on Earth....and Goku gains far more power from the same level of injury. Battle powers may have never been fully consistent, yet their should've at least been some relative limit to how strong characters could become from such simplistic methods.
Despite all my criticisms with the arc, I don't hate it. It may have contradicted so much, but it still did well in exploring concepts previously established such as the Namekians and the Saiyans' benefactors and despite my many problems with Super Saiyan, it's still a striking enough concept that once properly integrated into the plot, was built up well enough for Goku VS Freeza to feel satisfying. Freeza himself was also a very unique and iconic villain to the franchise, beyond the typical megalomaniac personality seen in most other of the franchise's villains, though I'd say that Piccolo Daimao was a better antagonist. Vegeta's focus was also a clear positive of the arc, with most of it being his story and the race against time at the end gave it some tension, though nowhere near as much as the previous arc since Goku can still be revived with the Namekian Dragon Balls, regardless of the outcome. I'd say this is probably the weakest arc of those reviewed thus far and far from being the best as most of the fanbase claim it to be, though still better than the Cell and Boo Arcs to come.
Score - 4/10
Anime-wise, I don't have a different score for this. Some filler was terrible, such as Fake Namek and Bulma Ginyu, though it did have it's positives such as actually giving Bulma her own storyline, giving more focus to the intensity of Goku's training and actually show the training on Kaio's planet, rather than having Yamcha and co. be there for Kaio's exposition.
being a better writer at the time. It still has a good ending and some good developments for Gohan and Piccolo, so it isn't all bad. A plot hole ridden mess of retcons, though.
