Saddest Death In The Series

[Let's Go Fearless!]

First of all forget about the dragon balls bringing back the death ones back to life. Let's just talk about how the death saddened you the most.

To me, both Vegeta's death saddened me the most.

His first death was something that developed his character that he begged Goku to defeat Freeza and avenge their race especially the way Freeza treated them.

His 2nd death was against Making Buu where he knew he stands absolutely no chance against him and thought that the only way to defeat Boo is to complete eliminate every flesh on Boo's body by sacrificing himself and release a powerful explosion. The way he accepted his faith and the fact that he wouldn't receive a body like Goku did because of his past deed was really admirable to me.

Honorable mention: Krillin and Piccolo

 

[Classic Adamas]

Well I can't just completely ignore the Dragon Balls since they remove a lot of the tension and emotion, but I think Majin Vegeta's death has the most emotion to it.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Future Gohan

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

I dunno man. I don't find any death sad as essentially all of them are reversed.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Saiyan Arc Piccolo's death was probably the most impactful due to the removal of the series' biggest plot armour and the time spent developing him through his training of Gohan. That's only if viewing it in the moment, however, since it becomes pointless in retrospect when he's revived in the next arc.

Other than that, there's none I'd really view as that gripping aside from perhaps Kuririn's death from Tambourine to shift the tone of the story. Vegeta's first death comes close if viewing it purely in the moment, but not as much as Piccolo's when Vegeta committed far more on-screen atrocities and despite his engaging nature in the arc, it was basically what he deserved. As for characters who permanently died, they were either next complex or important enough to care about (eg. #16) or someone who's death was inescapable due to the source material already confirming it beforehand (eg. Bardock and Future Gohan).