‘Dragon Ball Z’ Mistakes You’ll Never Be Able to Unsee

Dedicated fans are very familiar with this series, so even small mistakes become noticeable. Things like simplified animation, inconsistencies in the story, and confusing timelines sometimes appear throughout the show. While these don’t ruin the overall experience, they offer interesting things to look for when rewatching.

This list highlights ten noticeable mistakes and inconsistencies throughout the Saiyan, Namek, Android, and Cell sagas. Each point details exactly when and where these errors appear, helping you catch them during your next rewatch of these classic Dragon Ball battles.

Gohan’s tail that vanishes and returns

In the early parts of ‘Dragon Ball Z’, Gohan has a Saiyan tail which allows him to transform into a Great Ape. Throughout the Saiyan and Namek sagas, this tail appears and disappears inconsistently. Sometimes he’s shown without it while traveling or training, and other times it suddenly reappears in a scene without any explanation.

The inconsistent appearance of Gohan’s tail is due to shifts in the story’s focus and the team reusing older animation. Sometimes they animated Gohan without a tail, while other scenes used older designs that still showed it. Eventually, the tail disappeared altogether as the story no longer required Gohan’s transformations.

A moon that gets destroyed more than once

As a huge ‘Dragon Ball’ fan, one thing that always struck me as funny is the whole moon situation! Remember when Master Roshi just *blew up the moon* to stop Goku from turning into a giant ape? Then, later in ‘DBZ’, Piccolo does the *same thing* to Gohan, even though… well, shouldn’t it already be gone? It’s weird because the show often shows the sky with a perfectly normal moon, going through its phases, like nothing ever happened! It’s a little continuity goof, but honestly, it just adds to the series’ quirky charm.

The show recycled the idea of the transforming trigger and scene setups without explaining a previous event. While some fan guides claim the moon was fixed in editing, the show doesn’t actually show it being restored, leaving the second destruction unexplained.

Vegeta’s hair and armor colors that shift within arcs

Throughout the Saiyan Saga and parts of the Namek Saga, inconsistencies appeared in how Vegeta was animated. His hair color would sometimes look dark brown in outdoor scenes, and then appear completely black in other shots. Similarly, the colors of his armor and the suit underneath would switch between blue and gray shades, even within the same episode.

The inconsistencies in color happened because different studios used different color settings, and scenes filmed for day and night didn’t always match. When footage from various teams was combined, these color differences became noticeable. While the coloring becomes more consistent later in the series, the earlier episodes often show these shifts.

Gohan’s age that does not line up with school and tournament timelines

The show’s timeline regarding Gohan’s age doesn’t quite add up. While conversations mention his age around the time of the Cell Games and during his days as the Great Saiyaman, factoring in time skips and the time he spent in the Spirit World creates inconsistencies. Based on the events in the series, he often appears younger than he should be given the amount of time that’s passed.

The show presents training, rest, and breaks in time that don’t always follow a strict calendar. This creates inconsistencies with the character’s age – later mentions don’t add up with what was established before. Ultimately, there’s a noticeable difference between how old the character is supposed to be and what his school life and relationships suggest.

Trunks’s time travel rules that contradict outcomes on screen

Future Trunks clarifies that time travel creates separate timelines, so changing the past shouldn’t directly affect his future. However, his future *does* get better after events unfold in the present timeline – even when those changes shouldn’t logically reach back to his time. When he returns to his future, he finds that threats have changed in ways his original understanding of time travel couldn’t explain.

The show’s time travel creates inconsistencies because it switches between two different ways of working. Sometimes, changing the past directly alters the present, like fixing a single mistake. Other times, it creates alternate timelines. This means certain scenes fit one version of time travel but not the other, leaving viewers confused about what’s actually happening.

Scouter numbers that swing wildly within the same battles

Throughout the early Dragon Ball Z battles, from Raditz to Vegeta, the scouters show power levels that change inconsistently. Power levels will suddenly jump up when a character powers up, but then drop back down in the next shot even if nothing has changed. Also, the scouters seem to give very different readings for the same attack depending on who is using them.

Instead of using numbers to show exact amounts, the show used them to build suspense. Different animation groups each contributed parts, which were then combined in editing. This means the numbers on screen feel more like emotional cues than precise readings.

Halos for the dead that appear and disappear between shots

In ‘Dragon Ball Z’, characters who die but continue to fight are shown with halos. However, these halos aren’t always consistent. They sometimes appear and disappear between camera angles, and occasionally, a character with a halo will be shown without one in group scenes, while another character with the same status still has theirs.

When working with complex animations, visual effects like halos can sometimes disappear unexpectedly. This often happens when editing cuts quickly or adjusting timing, or if the animation reuses older frames where the halo wasn’t originally present. This creates a visual inconsistency that needs to be tracked and fixed.

Namekian blood color that changes from scene to scene

Piccolo and other members of the Namekian race are shown bleeding throughout the series, but the color of their blood isn’t consistent. Sometimes it’s purple, especially when they’re seriously hurt, and other times it appears green, staining clothes or the ground. This color change can even happen during the same fight.

The color differences happen because we’re combining footage originally created with one color scheme and then painting over it with colors from a different source. Additional adjustments to lighting and color correction can also shift the colors towards green or purple. This becomes noticeable when the scenes are shown one after another.

Nappa’s hair in flashback that clashes with Saiyan hair rules

The show includes a memory of Nappa with hair, which contradicts an established rule that Saiyans don’t change hairstyles after they’re born. Currently, Nappa appears bald, and this inconsistency isn’t addressed within the story.

As a huge fan, I’ve always noticed something a little odd. While the show establishes that Saiyans don’t seem to grow their hair *after* a certain point, there’s this one flashback where it looks like a character’s hair is styled differently, almost like they’ve grown a beard but it’s actually hair on their head! It’s a bit of a continuity error, and what’s strange is it’s *never* addressed or revisited later on. So that flashback just sticks out as an exception to the rule about how Saiyan hair works.

Dragon Balls on Namek that change size in characters’ hands

The Namekian Dragon Balls appear much bigger than those found on Earth. However, their size seems to change depending on the camera angle. Sometimes a character can easily lift one with just their arms, while in other shots the same ball looks far too large to carry, even being wider than their whole upper body.

The props were animated by different teams who relied on visual estimation rather than precise measurements, and storyboards often focused on the overall look rather than accuracy. As a result, when the episode is put together, the size of the sphere noticeably changes from one scene to the next.

Tell us about the first mistake you spotted in the comments, and share any other memorable moments from ‘Dragon Ball Z’ that came to mind.

2025-10-14 05:46