Every Dragon Ball OVA & TV Special, Ranked Worst to Best

You can never have too much Dragon Ball. The franchise has gotten where it is thanks to its incredibly popular manga and anime adaptation, but there are also tons of games, movies, and OVAs/specials.

The latter often get overlooked, but we’ve seen some of the best Dragon Ball storytelling come out of its OVAs and specials. While the movies get a lot of attention, here’s a look at how all the Dragon Ball OVAs and TV Specials rank.

Summer Vacation Special / The Dragon Ball Z Year-End Show!

You’ve likely never heard of or come across either of these specials unless you’re a pretty dedicated fan. The Summer Vacation Special was released shortly after Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!, and has Goku and Gohan talk about all the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z movies released up to that point. The Dragon Ball Z Year-End Show! special is just a look back at what happened in the series in 1993, and was released on New Year’s Day of that year.

Aside from being pretty fun, obscure finds, neither is really all that interesting. These can be hard to get a hold of, but they do float around online.

Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special

You’ll never see a team-up like this one again. As the name would imply, the Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special features Dragon Ball’s leading man Goku, One Piece’s future Pirate King, Luffy, and Toriko’s eponymous Gourmet Hunter, all interacting alongside other characters from their respective series.

The special is pure fan service, and that’s great. Not much to do here but sit back and watch interesting match-ups like Vegeta vs Zoro and Zebra, and all 3 main characters team up to take down a giant sea monster called Akami​​​​​​.

The Return of Son Goku and Friends!

Before Battle of Gods brought the series back for good, The Return of Son Goku and Friends! served as the first new Dragon Ball anime content in years. With Toriyama writing the story, the OVA is considered canon, though figuring out how and where with all that’s been introduced in Super is a little iffy.

The OVA is most notable for introducing Vegeta’s brother, Tarble. Though he has been mentioned a couple of times in passing since the OVA came out, it seems like the franchise has no intentions of really doing anything with the character. That might be for the best. Dragon Ball’s roster is already crowded enough as it is, and Tarble doesn’t really bring anything to the table aside from the shock reveal that he’s Vegeta’s brother.

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans

The Saiyans’ history is something that’s been touched on in Dragon Ball, but not something the series has revisited too often. Considering how few of them are left, it makes sense. But whenever Toei or Toriyama did decide to use Saiyan history in a story, it usually turned out to be a fun ride.

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans revolves around a Tuffle scientist named Dr. Lychee, who, wanting to take revenge on the Saiyan Race for taking over the Tuffle homeworld years ago, sets out to destroy the remaining Saiyans left in the universe. That, of course, puts him at odds with Goku and Vegeta. This leads to Lychee putting canisters of deadly gas all over Earth, and the Z-Fighters having to fight the vengeful constructs of fallen foes to stop his plan.

Bardock – The Father of Goku

The first DBZ special and the one that made Bardock a fan-favorite, Bardock – The Father of Goku is still beloved by many fans all these years later. While the focus in Dragon Ball has always been Goku, Bardock – The Father of Goku showed that fans were just as interested in learning about his Saiyan heritage, specifically his father Bardock.

The special does a great job of showing us the moments leading up to the destruction of Planet Vegeta and the near-eradication of the Saiyan Race. It paints Bardock as a flawed but ultimately tragic character, not making him an outright hero, but allowing you to sympathize with him by the end. Bardock’s brave but ultimately pointless final stand against Frieza is still one of the best moments in the series.

Episode of Bardock

20 years after Bardock – The Father of Goku, fans got another story featuring the low-class Saiyan warrior. This time, it was a what-if scenario set right after the ending of the Bardock special.

The Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock OVA is actually based on a short manga that ran in V-Jump during the summer of 2011. It sees Bardock transported to the past following his confrontation with Frieza, where he ends up on an unfamiliar version of Planet Vegeta (Planet Plant) and is forced to face off against a Frieza Clan member called Chilled. Though initially reluctant to help the inhabitants of Planet Plant and powerless against Chilled, Bardock manages to unlock the Super Saiyan transformation and defeat Frieza’s ancestor.

The History of Trunks

The History of Trunks is hands down the best Dragon Ball special. It gives us a look into Future Trunks’ grim future, providing a complete tonal shift from what we’re used to seeing out of the series. It also provides some great characterization for Future Trunks that really makes you appreciate his journey throughout the Android and Cell Sagas all the more.

The bond between Future Trunks and Future Gohan, and the grim situation they find themselves in, make this one of the darker stories in the franchise. With death almost always being reversible thanks to the Dragon Balls, seeing the consequences of a world where that’s not on the table anymore is a welcome breath of fresh air, but also leads to some gut-wrenching moments.

Dragon Ball Z

Release Date

1989 – 1996

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Daisuke Nishio, Shigeyasu Yamauchi, Osamu Kasai

Writers

Akira Toriyama, Neil Bligh, Hiroshi Toda, Katsuyuki Sumisawa, Aya Matsui, Keiji Terui, Reiko Yoshida, Toshiki Inoue

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  Masako Nozawa

  Son Goku / Son Gohan / Son Goten (voice)

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  Ryo Horikawa

  Vegeta (voice)