Dragon Ball Z: Raditz Arc, A Shenron’s Dad Review
The first arc of Dragon Ball Z is a brief five episodes, and it serves to illustrate the changed state of the world, the new stakes of the series, and a new rhythm for the narrative.
But before we get too deep in, it might be helpful to establish what I mean by an “arc.” It’s an imprecise unit of storytelling, in this case, and doesn’t map neatly to the established means of dividing up Dragon Ball Z’s plot into “Sagas.” For example, we are currently five episodes into the “Saiyan Saga”: a story which begins with Goku discovering that he is actually an alien known as a Saiyan and which ends with him defeating Vegeta, the Saiyan prince.
I think that, as with the original Dragon Ball, it makes the most sense to consider that an “arc” is complete once a major fight has occurred AND the immediate threat is vanquished. In this case, peace is interrupted by the arrival of Raditz, who shows up to fight Goku. Goku and Piccolo must team up to fight the new challenger and save Goku’s son, Gohan. Goku finds the strength to do something he could not before (in this case, sacrifice himself) and then the immediate threat is passed and Raditz is beaten. We know more Saiyans are on the way, and that Goku will have to be brought back, but that’s a new arc.