Dragon Ball Arcs with the highest stakes

Key conclusions

  • The Dragon Ball franchise has moved from light adventures to darker storylines with intense battles as Goku ages.
  • The Future Trunks saga showed a powerful psychopath and a doomed reality, leaving the heroes at a loss.
  • The Universe Survival saga raised the stakes in epic tournaments where losing meant erasing their universe from existence.



Dragon ball begins as a fun adventure with Goku joining Bulma on her quest for the Dragon Balls to wish for a boyfriend. While its initial premise is easy, Dragon heat became a bit more complex with fights, deaths, and reveals, making the franchise more intense as Goku matured and expanded.

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Throughout the series, the storylines became increasingly dark, despite ​​the presence of Dragon Balls and other elements that softened the stakes as permanent backups in case something went wrong. However, the franchise has still managed to raise the stakes in some arcs, introducing new villains, epic battles and, at times, rendering the Dragon Balls obsolete.


8 The saga of the trunks of the future

A powerful psychopath who condemns reality

Dragon Ball Super

Release date
July 5, 2015

Studio
Toei animation

Number of series
131

  • Dragon Ball Super
  • Episodes: 47-76


As one of the darkest plots in Dragon Ball Superthe Future Trunks Arc has one of the best shonen villains as he represents Zamasu's psychopathic tendencies. Although initially an ideal candidate for Supreme Kai, Zamasu's hatred of mortals quickly turns into a desire for destruction, made real by Future Trunks' doomed reality.

Not only showing the ravages of other realities, Zamasu's fused power seems too overwhelming as the Z fighters lose the battle time and time again. Although the enemy is defeated at the end, this arc never had the heroes at the top, leaving the audience with the reality of doomed times.

7 Saga for Android

A dire future raises the stakes

Dragon Ball Z

Release date
April 26, 1989

Studio
Toei animation

Number of series
291

  • Dragon Ball Z
  • Episodes: 119-139

While the Cell saga was a big threat to the world, the Android arc set all the stakes high in both storylines, starting with Future Trunks talking about the dark future he hails from. Showing a future without Goku and where most of the Z fighters have died, viewers quickly realize what is at stake if the heroes lose.


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With Trank's future help, the heroes will be able to deal with the many Android threats, but not before a few setbacks, especially as more is revealed about the horrific events in Trank's reality and the high death toll.

6 Cellular arc

Hope and gloom create an intense finale

  • Dragon Ball Z
  • Episodes: 140-194

Cell Saga is filled with excitement, mixing the good times with the menace of the villain. The saga has one of the best anime endings with a long epic battle that determines the future of Earth. While the nature of the tournament lessens the severity of Cell's threat, the villain constantly reminds viewers of what he's capable of.


The stakes in this saga are constantly changing, leaving fans feeling hopeful with the reveal, followed by new powers for the villain. However, in the finale itself, things look very bleak as most of the Z fighters are incapacitated, Goku is dead, and Cell is once again recovering, relying on an injured teenage Gohan to finish the fight.

5 Majin Buu Arc

A controversial saga with heroes who are constantly losing their ability to act

  • Dragon Ball Z
  • Episodes: 220-227

As one of the most polarizing arcs in anime, the quality of Buu's arc isn't always high, but it definitely keeps the stakes high. Includes hopeless moments where Majin Buu felt like an invincible enemy and where most of the characters died or were incapacitated at one point or another.

In the Majin Buu saga, the Angels and Gods of Destruction hadn't been introduced yet, which meant that the villain felt like the biggest threat imaginable to the universe, and Goku needed everyone's help to eventually defeat the enemy.


4 A global survival saga

The Most At Sake in epic tournaments filled with threats

  • Dragon Ball Super
  • Episodes: 77-131

In terms of a real threat, the Tournament of Power has the ultimate reach, as its loss means the destruction of their universe. However, with so many powerful fighters on the same team, as well as a tournament setting, it's easier to ignore the threat of high stakes.

With an entire universe in play, the battles reflect how devastating defeat would be, leading to some incredible moments that make this saga so rewatchable. In particular, each enemy in this tournament presents a different threat, but none as big as Jiren, who is so powerful that Goku and Frieza team up at the end.


3 Frieze Arch

A saga filled with tense moments, intense battles and a terrifying villain

  • Dragon Ball Z
  • Episodes: 39 – 107

Featuring some of the franchise's most iconic moments, Frieza's saga is filled with great fights, high stakes, and memorable scenes. This is one of the few arcs that has a constant sense of threat that makes this an incredibly terrifying saga.

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With the hunt for the Dragon Balls on the sidelines, an all-powerful tyrant, and plenty of lackeys, this entire saga is filled with tense moments. The stakes are so high that Goku must unlock an all-new transformation to defeat an evil antagonist bent on dominating the entire universe.

2 The Saga of King Piccolo

Unprecedented evil leads to the death of people

Dragon ball

Release date
February 26, 1986

Studio
Toei animation

Number of series
153

  • Dragon ball
  • Episodes: 102-122


While Dragon ball The universe used to be a lot smaller during the first anime, King Piccolo's arc managed to raise the stakes without having to threaten everyone in existence. At the time, King Piccolo was the biggest threat, responsible for killing several of the main characters for the first time.

Moreover, with the death of Shrenron, the Dragon Balls have become obsolete, making every death and every encounter more intense. As one of the best sagas in the entire franchise, the Saga of King Piccolo was a turning point in the series, introducing a dark, evil and invincible threat for the first time, making most events unprecedented.

1 Sayan arc

High stakes for all of Dragon Ball Z

  • Dragon Ball Z
  • Episodes: 1-35


After the end of Dragon ball, Dragon Ball Z made sure the stakes were raised, with the first arc revealing that Goku is part of a warrior race that is supposedly much stronger than him. It really turned out that the Saiyans weren't the biggest threat that Goku and the Z fighters would have to face, but they still managed to do a lot of damage and raise the stakes to an unprecedented level.

Saga was responsible for killing Goku the first time to defeat his brother Raditz, one of the weakest Saiyan warriors in the franchise, emphasizing that the protagonist was far from invincible. Moreover, the eventual deaths of Piccolo and Kami meant that the Dragon Balls could not be used to help, leaving the Z Fighters in a desperate situation with far fewer safety nets than in later sagas.

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