MangaVSAnime for arcs

[Future Warrior]

Basically say which arc you prefer in the anime or manga version. Explanations are optional.

Pilaf arc- Anime
21st Tenkaichi Budokai arc- Anime
Red Ribbon Army arc- Anime
22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arc- Anime
Piccolo Daimao arc- Anime
23rd Tenkaichi Budokai arc- Manga
Saiyan arc- Anime
Freeza arc- Manga
Cell arc- Manga
Boo arc- Anime

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Hunt for the Dragon Balls/Pilaf Arc - Anime. The additional scenes help make the Pilaf gang seem more involved in the arc and makes Yamcha's development of overcoming his fear of women partially feel more gradual.

21st Tenkaichi Budokai Arc - Anime. Both versions are equally good, so the anime wins by virtue of the ost.

Red Ribbon Army Arc - Anime. Most of the additions helped improve the adventure aspect of the arc as well as things such as the additional cameos in the Penguin Village crossover.

22nd Tenkaichi Budokai Arc - Anime. I'd personally include the training for it as part of this arc rather than the RRA due to the focus being build up for the tournament, so that boosts the anime version in terms of making Goku's growth feel earned. The additional character interactions within the Budokai help make this the arc with the best chemistry amongst the main cast and help make Tsuru Sennin more fleshed out as well.

Piccolo Daimao Arc - Anime. It fixes some of the problems and wasted potential of the arc such as the Choshinsui not being something Karin had lying around and the journey to it making it more earned as a power up, Piccolo Daimao's hatred for martial artists not being brushed aside after regaining his youth and the repercussions on society of his actions being explored well, something the manga wouldn't do with a main villain's impact on the world until the Boo Arc.

23rd Tenkaichi Budokai Arc - As this is a thread for which I prefer, I'm inclined to say the anime due to the Wedding Dress filler. I acknowledge the manga as being better for lacking this and having better pacing for the canon material, but I do like this filler for being a tribute to the eastern mythological roots of the series and essentially being a last hurrah to it before it fully transitions into sci-fi territory. If including the Wedding Dress filler as its own thing though, then the manga for better pacing.

Saiyan Arc - Anime. Gohan's development as he survives in the wilderness isn't rushed unlike the manga, Goku has an actual adventure on Snake Road and the Earthlings go through experiences to make their training more earned. Despite the problems surrounding the Saiyan backstory (mainly Kaio mentioning Sayans transform on a full moon despite Goku finding out about Oozaru being a Saiyan trait against Vegeta), it also adds a good deal of history to the Saiyans that GT capitalised on exploring more and is something Super should definitely touch upon.

Freeza Arc - Manga. The pacing for many parts of the anime can be overly slow at times, which damages some scenes such as Goku charging the Genki Dama due to Freeza being evidently annoyed enough to be serious about killing the group or the cuts to those outside of the battle during SSJ Goku VS Freeza making it very hard to believe the battle is meant to be 5 minutes long. Also, whilst it may seem like a small thing, the anime changing Goku's expression at the end of the battle really takes away some of the complexity that scene has in the manga.

Cell Arc - Anime. It managed to rectify what's easily the biggest retcon in the series' original run, which is a major plus. It did add its own share of problems such as some additions being missed opportunities and adding some inconsistencies of its own, but I'd say that ends up balancing things out and the handling of such scenes of Gohan's SS2 transformation or him killing Cell are enough to shift the scales in the anime's favour.

Boo Arc - A similar situation to with the 23rd TB. The manga is better due to not having such damaging things as SSJ Goku > Ultimate Gohan or Pure Boo being the strongest Boo that make Goku's return to the spotlight become far more forced, but if we're talking about personal preference, then I like the anime more due to it ironically being where the anime's art seemed to peak whereas the Boo Arc was where the manga's art was at its worst (particularly the lack of tones in chapters such as Evil Boo being at Kami's temple), the Great Saiyaman adventures being entertaining, the ending of the series being improved due to not being rushed and some great ost and voice acting; in particular Ryo Horikawa's performance when Vegeta talks about how he wants to go back to being how he was before.

 

[Papasmurf]

If purely taking pacing into account, the manga for all arcs except the 21st and Pilaf. If you're going by enjoyment, though...

Pilaf - I'd say the manga due to better art (1986 animation can't really keep up with a professional mangaka's artwork that ain't Togashi's or Lynn Okamoto's). While I do appreciate giving the Pilaf crew more of a role early on, it doesn't really add much more to the series and the fights being animated doesn't really contribute much to the show at this stage in the game as the focus hasn't fully shifted to martial arts.

21st - Probably the anime. While I disagree with some of the filler that was added like making the tournament multiple days long (although from a real life perspective, that's probably for the best so fighters can have more of a break between fights), which later compounds in the problem of the tournament being stated to be less than a day long in the Boo arc, I think overall the anime added to the manga here.

RRA - The manga for me. I've never been a fan of either arcs, but shit like Goku being completely complacent that Taopaipai, a guy that stomped him before he climbed the tower, also climbing the tower is aids and Black is as much of a dribbling retard in the anime either way when he magically thinks he has a chance against Galu after the latter solo'd the whole army after making short work of Taopaipai.

22nd - Anime. Although the final fight between Tenshinhan and Goku could've been shorter, it did improve upon the manga by showing Ten's change in character better in that he was willing to give Galu free hits to make up for Chaozu's intervention.

Piccolo Daimao - Anime overall, but some of the Tambourine filler was painfully stupid (him meeting Yamcha and the others comes to mind.)

Piccolo Jr. - The two versions are basically the same, so the manga by virtue of lacking the wedding dress filler that makes Galu look incompetent for not being able to put out that flame and it retroactively breaking the logic of the Boo arc because Galu is able to interact with Gohan after his one day in the living realm was up.

Saiyan - Tie for me. The manga is better for a quick grasp of the story, although the anime does add some stuff to the 1 year training. But it also adds garbage filler like Arlia and the orphans filler which I never liked.

Freeza - The manga easily. Between creating more plot holes by removing Zarbon telling Vegeta Freeza can transform, the bad animation in general and the addition of many retarded scenes like Ginyu throwing a fucking boulder at Galu and the Freeza fight taking over 25 episodes, the manga incises out the anime by a long shot here. That's not to say I didn't enjoy some additions. Nail having more fighter-type allies and them being one-shotted by Freeza's breath was a good addition. Freeza's final transformation seeming to break the fabric of reality around Namek was a good addition showing he was truly top dog. It's just most of the filler serves to ruin the story rather than add to it.

Cell - Anime at least removed the 20/19 naming plot hole and made that retcon at least somewhat serviceable, although it also damages the pacing by adding in many unwanted filler scenes that break internal logic including Kuririn headbutting the shit out of 1st form Cell, Gohan going SSJ2 in the Rosat despite not even having mastered SSJ yet, and so on. Even still, it made the ending of the Cell arc which was somewhat nonclimactic in the manga very climactic, so if you're watching Kai with some of the fillers cut out, the anime is the better choice.

Boo - the manga is the objectively better one due to better pacing and more coherent power chains outside of 's incompetence reaching critical mass as soon as they got in the spaceship and Kibito forgetting he saw SSJ2 Gohan. I did enjoy the anime more though because the manga's art sucked ass around this time other than Ultimate Gohan vs. Boo/Gotenks Boo and SSJ3 Galu vs. Fat Boo/Pure Boo.

I'll post about which arcs I liked better in Super in a later post.

 

[Future Warrior]

If purely taking pacing into account, the manga for all arcs except the 21st and Pilaf. If you're going by enjoyment, though...

When it comes to the Boo arc pacing in the manga, it's actually way too fast if anything. The Anime improves on it drastically in that regard at least.

 

[SSJ2]

Pilaf arc - Manga
21st Budokai arc - Manga
Red Ribbon Army arc - Manga by default.
22nd Budokai arc - Manga by default.
Piccolo Daimao arc - Manga by default.
23rd Budokai arc - Manga by default.
Saiyan arc - Anime
Freeza arc - Manga
Cell arc - Anime
Boo arc - Manga

For the majority I would choose the manga, but I haven't seen the majority of the DB anime.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

If purely taking pacing into account, the manga for all arcs except the 21st and Pilaf. If you're going by enjoyment, though...

When it comes to the Boo arc pacing in the manga, it's actually way too fast if anything. The Anime improves on it drastically in that regard at least.

I'd also say that applies double for the Saiyan Arc, with the manga going too fast to the point of skipping over essential parts of character development for Gohan.

21st - Probably the anime. While I disagree with some of the filler that was added like making the tournament multiple days long (although from a real life perspective, that's probably for the best so fighters can have more of a break between fights), which later compounds in the problem of the tournament being stated to be less than a day long in the Boo arc, I think overall the anime added to the manga here.

Aside from the arrival the night before, it did seem as though the Budokai would've just been one day long in the anime had the weather not postponed the Goku VS Giran match (and it's arguable whether or not the dark sky was purely the result of the weather, meaning the anime 21st TB could still fit into one day). You can also assume that the differences between the 21st and 25th are due to the changes to the rules in general that have been put about.

Goku being completely complacent that Taopaipai, a guy that stomped him before he climbed the tower, also climbing the tower is aids

Goku most likely knew Karin wouldn't offer Tao Pai Pai the training though, plus you can retroactively attribute it as one of the first cases for his desire to fight a strong opponent coming to the forefront.

some of the Tambourine filler was painfully stupid (him meeting Yamcha and the others comes to mind.)

To be fair, Tambourine is a mutated Namekian far inferior to a regular Namekian's abilities designed to fervently obey Daimao's orders, so I wouldn't be surprised if his mutations make him missing a few chromosomes. 2

 

[Papasmurf]

21st - Probably the anime. While I disagree with some of the filler that was added like making the tournament multiple days long (although from a real life perspective, that's probably for the best so fighters can have more of a break between fights), which later compounds in the problem of the tournament being stated to be less than a day long in the Boo arc, I think overall the anime added to the manga here.

Aside from the arrival the night before, it did seem as though the Budokai would've just been one day long in the anime had the weather not postponed the Goku VS Giran match (and it's arguable whether or not the dark sky was purely the result of the weather, meaning the anime 21st TB could still fit into one day). You can also assume that the differences between the 21st and 25th are due to the changes to the rules in general that have been put about.

The problem there lies in the fact that the Z senshi clearly weren't aware of certain changes in rules like the prelims now consisting of a punching contest, so the fact that they're all magically aware the tournament takes place in less than a day is pretty dumb. Not to mention it's made clear that the fighter himself needs to register for the tourney, so both the registration and the tournament itself need to be under a day long in total.

Goku being completely complacent that Taopaipai, a guy that stomped him before he climbed the tower, also climbing the tower is aids

Goku most likely knew Karin wouldn't offer Tao Pai Pai the training though, plus you can retroactively attribute it as one of the first cases for his desire to fight a strong opponent coming to the forefront.

I'd believe that if Goku didn't

a) punch Daimao while he was charging the second Bakurikimaha rather than trying to tank it head on from the getgo, not to mention he wasn't upset Tenshinhan saved him from the first blast

b) admit he was about to piss his pants when he found out the other two Saiyans are far stronger than Raditz

c) try to prevent Black and Zamasu from merging

some of the Tambourine filler was painfully stupid (him meeting Yamcha and the others comes to mind.)

To be fair, Tambourine is a mutated Namekian far inferior to a regular Namekian's abilities designed to fervently obey Daimao's orders, so I wouldn't be surprised if his mutations make him missing a few chromosomes. 2

He's able to fluently speak and read immediately after birth, so I doubt his autism level is quite on the level of

 

[Captain Cadaver]

The problem there lies in the fact that the Z senshi clearly weren't aware of certain changes in rules like the prelims now consisting of a punching contest, so the fact that they're all magically aware the tournament takes place in less than a day is pretty dumb.

It's worth noting the 23rd TB lasting only one day was retained the anime though, so it could be Goku and co. were going off what was the most recent Budokai to them, or that this was a rule made apparent to them during said Budokai.

I'd believe that if Goku didn't

a) punch Daimao while he was charging the second Bakurikimaha rather than trying to tank it head on from the getgo, not to mention he wasn't upset Tenshinhan saved him from the first blast
b) admit he was about to piss his pants when he found out the other two Saiyans are far stronger than Raditz
c) try to prevent Black and Zamasu from merging

Those examples simply show Goku's characterisation isn't one-note enough to treat every situation with a strong opponent the same. Piccolo's Bakurikimaha had already proven itself to be something he couldn't endure the first time and not something worth taking a huge risk over in a life of death situation, whereas Tao Pai Pai's feats made it apparent he wouldn't surpass Galu just from a round trip to Karin and back. Piccolo also initially thought Goku would be excited at the prospect of fighting two people stronger than Raditz, showing how strong his desire to fight strong opponents is more often than not.

He's able to fluently speak and read immediately after birth, so I doubt his autism level is quite on the level of

Being able to speak and read would be essential skills for Daimao to bestow on him in tracking town the Tenkaichi contestants, something made even more apparent by how simplistic Drum was by comparison due to his pure purpose being to kill Tenshithands. That said, it can be assumed Tambourine's purpose of obeying Daimao's commands overrides his order of killing his targets, with the ability to speak and read not necessarily making more complex logical deduction something he'd excel in. In fact, him being capable of following these orders and having the skills to do so yet lacking the common sense to kill Yamcha before leaving would be consistent with how Toriyama tends to present a lot of the races/species and cultures in his world as having contradictory or conflicting elements, such as the rural Namekians being capable of more high-level space travel than Earthlings or how a so-called immortal phoenix could die of food poisoning.

 

[Papasmurf]

The problem there lies in the fact that the Z senshi clearly weren't aware of certain changes in rules like the prelims now consisting of a punching contest, so the fact that they're all magically aware the tournament takes place in less than a day is pretty dumb.

It's worth noting the 23rd TB lasting only one day was retained the anime though, so it could be Goku and co. were going off what was the most recent Budokai to them, or that this was a rule made apparent to them during said Budokai.

Even in the 23rd the registration took place the night before the tournament though, whereas in the 25th it was clear it was all entirely within one day. Still a plot hole unless there was some TV broadcast announcing both registration and the two divisions of the tourney take place in one day that Galu somehow got reception to from the afterlife

I'd believe that if Goku didn't

a) punch Daimao while he was charging the second Bakurikimaha rather than trying to tank it head on from the getgo, not to mention he wasn't upset Tenshinhan saved him from the first blast
b) admit he was about to piss his pants when he found out the other two Saiyans are far stronger than Raditz
c) try to prevent Black and Zamasu from merging

Those examples simply show Goku's characterisation isn't one-note enough to treat every situation with a strong opponent the same. Piccolo's Bakurikimaha had already proven itself to be something he couldn't endure the first time and not something worth taking a huge risk over in a life of death situation, whereas Tao Pai Pai's feats made it apparent he wouldn't surpass Galu just from a round trip to Karin and back. Piccolo also initially thought Goku would be excited at the prospect of fighting two people stronger than Raditz, showing how strong his desire to fight strong opponents is more often than not.

It's worth noting that most of Galu's battle junkie tendencies manifested in adulthood - e.g. from his final match with Piccolo Jr. and onward. Before that, there were still examples like Galu being excited to fight Jackie Chun, but as a child he was generally more driven by his anger toward people who harmed his friends - e.g. Taopaipai, Tambourine/Mazokus than his excitement at fighting stronger opponents. Galu not thinking anything of Taopaipai potentially getting just as big a power up from chasing Karin is stupid when he knows Roshi also benefited from the training.

He's able to fluently speak and read immediately after birth, so I doubt his autism level is quite on the level of

Being able to speak and read would be essential skills for Daimao to bestow on him in tracking town the Tenkaichi contestants, something made even more apparent by how simplistic Drum was by comparison due to his pure purpose being to kill Tenshithands. That said, it can be assumed Tambourine's purpose of obeying Daimao's commands overrides his order of killing his targets, with the ability to speak and read not necessarily making more complex logical deduction something he'd excel in. In fact, him being capable of following these orders and having the skills to do so yet lacking the common sense to kill Yamcha before leaving would be consistent with how Toriyama tends to present a lot of the races/species and cultures in his world as having contradictory or conflicting elements, such as the rural Namekians being capable of more high-level space travel than Earthlings or how a so-called immortal phoenix could die of food poisoning.

Namekians are probably rural due to the cataclysm that wiped out their civilization. Doesn't mean they weren't a more technologically advanced species at one point. Tambourine being retarded is pretty stupid when he's never portrayed as being extremely slow in the manga. The mutated Namekians for the most part could be compared to the Homunculi in FMA (the non-Sloth/Gluttony ones) - born with human intellect and capacity of reason and fluent speech from the getgo.