List of inconsistencies

This is a list of inconsistencies in the subject matter of the Dragon Ball manga and the Dragon Ball Super manga, and the anime series: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and the Dragon Ball Super anime.

Dragon Ball

Emperor Pilaf Saga

• At the conclusion of the chapter "Carrot Top", Goku binds Monster Carrot and his subordinates and carries them to the moon on his Power Pole. During Dragon Ball Z however, many characters assume that Goku cannot breathe in outer space, such as Dr. Brief who designs a state of the art spacecraft for Goku's travel to Namek which equipped with an emergency space suit, and Frieza who ruptures Namek with the conscience that even if Goku would survive the planet's destruction, he would die of asphyxiation in outer space. However, nobody has realized Monster Carrot and his men would have died too, not because the moon is destroyed later in the series, but because of asphyxiation (it should be noted that in Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans it is revealed that Monster Carrot and his men managed to return to Earth as they are still alive long after Roshi destroyed the moon). However, as a gag, this is most likely not to be taken seriously (or the Earth's moon in Universe 7 has an breathable atmosphere).
• In the chapter "The End of the Tale", Goku's size while transformed into a Great Ape is inconsistent between panels. At one point, he is seen bursting through the upper floors of Pilaf's Castle, and has a size comparable to the whole structure itself. Later, the Great Ape is depicted as being roughly three times the height of Yamcha (as the two are illustrated together in one panel).

Tournament Saga

• In the Dragon Ball anime, the World Martial Arts Tournament is originally stated to be held in South City, but it is later stated in both the manga and anime that it is held on Papaya Island.
• In the anime, tournament participants arrive and register for the tournament the night before the tournament actually begins. However, the next morning, Goku and Krillin can be seen registering for the tournament a second time (when it originally happened in the manga), when they should already be registered.
• In the manga, when drawing numbers for the quarterfinals of the tournament, Krillin draws #1, forcing him to face off in the quarterfinals against Bacterian, who drew #2. However, after that, the two fighters are shown inexplicably switched around, with Bacterian as #1 and Krillin as #2. This was corrected in the anime, where Krillin drew #2 from the outset.
• The anime pads out the fight between Krillin and Bacterian to pad for time. During one of these filler moments, Krillin manages a hit on Bacterian. However, the Tournament Announcer still says that Krillin is about to be defeated without landing a single blow on Bacterian.
• In the English dub, during the match between Goku and Jackie Chun, when Goku says that he could have flown back with the Kamehameha Wave like Chun did, Chun defied that Goku could even do the Kamehameha Wave. However, he already saw Goku do it, which was no small lapse in memory, since it was witnessing that feat which inspired Roshi to train Goku in the first place. It was also unlikely that he said this as Jackie Chun, since this slip-up was immediately followed by him taking credit for inventing the move. However, this is actually an error in translation; in the original Japanese version, all Chun said was that Goku could not do a Kamehameha Wave nearly as good as he could; in other words, the small Kamehameha he saw Goku do at Fire Mountain was not strong enough to propel Goku like a rocket the way Roshi did.

Red Ribbon Army Saga

• When Goku starts his second quest to find the Dragon Balls (during the Red Ribbon Army Saga) only eight months have passed since the last time they were gathered, meaning that the Dragon Balls should appear as round stones, which would presumably take longer and make them more difficult to spot.
• The color of Bulma's panties change three times during the General Blue Saga which took place all in one day giving her no chance to change her underwear let alone her clothes. Her underwear is plain white in the episode "Kame House: Found!". Her underwear is shown again inside the Pirate Cave in "The Trap is Sprung" where they are white but with strawberries on them and, the final time, in "The Pirate Treasure" when she strips down to them to swim where they are completely red.
• After defending himself from an oncoming Kamehameha, Mercenary Tao's clothes appear to have been rendered simple rags. However, in the sequences that follow, Tao's pants appear completely untarnished.

Tien Shinhan Saga

• In the previous tournament saga as well as this one, the anime created its own rule for the World Martial Arts Tournament that was not in the manga, saying that non-combatants are not allowed inside the gymnasium to watch the preliminaries (although they are still allowed to watch if they find a way to do so without entering the room, like how Bulma in the previous saga used a giant hole in the wall to watch). However, in this saga, Master Shen is seen in the gymnasium with his two pupils during the preliminaries. This isn't just a contradiction between the manga and anime, either, since this scene is also a filler scene.
• After Manwolf pulls a knife in an attempt to stab Jackie Chun, the Announcer accurately points out that the use of a weapon is strictly against tournament rules. Later, Jackie throws a bone to trick Manwolf into leaving the ring, at which point, the Announcer declares Jackie the winner by ring-out. However, by this point, Manwolf should have long been disqualified for using a weapon.
• When Goku faces Pamput in the quarterfinals, Pamput falls face-first to the ground after Goku's attack, and the Announcer declares him knocked out on the spot. This contradicts all other instances of a knock-out, where, excluding the preliminaries, the Announcer is supossed to issue a ten count and only declare the other fighter as the winner if the prone fighter cannot make it back to his feet before the Announcer reaches ten.

King Piccolo Saga

• Bacterian and Giran appear smaller than their previous appearances when later seen fighting Tambourine.
• It is uncertain how Yajirobe is able to create a necklace where a string is depicted going through a Dragon Ball, as they are considered virtually impervious to damage. This is likely due to aesthetic reasons.
• After getting his strength back after eating Yajirobe's fish, Goku punches a boulder into pieces and then says "I'm coming for you, Tambourine!" However, Goku by this point should not know what Tambourine's name is.
• During the previous tournament, Tien breaks Yamcha's left leg. For most of the Piccolo Saga, Yamcha is shown with a cast on his left leg. However, after arriving on the Battlefield (possibly because Toriyama only had to draw Yamcha from the waist up when he was flying the plane), Yamcha is seen with a cast on his right leg, and it stays that way until he heals. The anime fixes this plothole by having Yamcha's leg heal completely before he sets out to confront Piccolo, but that creates another plothole in itself, as only a few days have passed in-universe since his leg was broken, and it is highly unlikely that his leg would have completely healed by that point, since Tien had crushed the leg so thoroughly that it appeared completely flat against the Tournament ring, and there is no indication that medicine in Dragon World (not counting obvious exceptions like sensu beans or alien technology like Frieza's healing pods, neither of which Yamcha had access to) is any more advanced than those in the real world.

Piccolo Jr. Saga

• At the beginning of the Piccolo Jr. Saga, when Oolong is asked to use his shapeshifting ability to sign in as Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Krillin, Oolong explains that he can only sign in as one of them because his transformations require a 1-minute cooldown period. However, in his debut episode, Oolong the Terrible, he is clearly shown being able to switch immediately between multiple forms on a single, collective five-minute timer, first going from a demon to a handsome man to a bull, and then going from a robot samurai to a bat to a rocket.
• In the episode, "Super Kamehameha", Goku listened to Krillin's reassurance that Kami can be wished back with the Dragon Balls if Piccolo were to be killed by the aforementioned technique. However, in "The Victor", Goku automatically seemed to know about Kami and Piccolo's life link to the Dragon Balls as he was stopping the former from killing the latter after the tournament.
• When Piccolo destroys the ring (as well as everything around the ring as far as the eye can see), that should have triggered the technicality that Tien Shinhan hoped to exploit in the previous tournament: Without a ring, whoever touches the ground first loses, even if it was ground where the ring used to be. One possible explanation for this plothole is that the Announcer could not tell who touched the ground first after the ring was removed, and since the finals of the World Martial Arts Tournament could not end in a draw, the rule had to be waived, although this is never clarified at any point during the show.

Dragon Ball Z

Saiyan Sagas

• In "The Arrival of Raditz", Raditz claims that Planet Vegeta was destroyed when a comet crashed into it three years prior. While the surviving Saiyans were under the impression that their home planet really was destroyed by a comet (except Vegeta, whose belief otherwise is shown in a flashback later in the series, although only in anime filler), it was later established that Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta just after Goku was sent to Earth as a baby; 24 years prior to Raditz's arrival on Earth (the planet's destruction would soon be illustrated several times, and was often used to depict backstories for characters in Dragon Ball films), thus retconning the statement time-wise. Frieza also once stated in the manga that he destroyed Planet Vegeta 30 years prior to the Battle on Planet Namek (which occurred just a little over a year after Raditz's arrival on Earth), though it is possible that Frieza used an approximation or that the Saiyans and Frieza use different years than Earth. It should be noted that Raditz's claim about Planet Vegeta's destruction was not actually an inconsistency as it is later revealed that he was simply misinformed as Frieza had lied to Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta about the nature of their planet's destruction in order to maintain their loyalty (though in the anime Vegeta is shown to have suspected Frieza's story was untrue, which was later confirmed to him by Dodoria during their battle on Namek).

Krillin's inconsistent height during his encounter with Raditz

• In both the manga and anime Krillin's height often varies depending on the scene, sometimes changing multiple times in one scene.
• In the event Goku had agreed to join Raditz, it is unclear how Raditz planned to take Goku with him. He arrived on earth in his space pod that was only big enough for one person, and there is no indication that the Frieza Army even has dynocap technology or anything similar, so it is not likely that he had a spare spaceship stored away inside his own one-man-sized space pod.
• In "Terror on Arlia", Vegeta and Nappa are shown breathing and speaking outside their pods in outer space without space suits, which should be impossible since it's stated by Frieza that Saiyans are unable to survive in outer space, and Goku had to use a space suit to repair his spacecraft from outside during his travel to Namek. However it is implied that Saiyans can survive in a vacuum for brief periods (as shown by Bardock fighting in orbit around Planet Vegeta during the Genocide of the Saiyans and Super Saiyan God Goku during his battle with Beerus orbit above the Earth).
• While training in the Pendulum Room, Tien Shinhan, Yamcha, and Krillin are told that they have gone to the Planet Vegeta 100 years prior in the Funimation dub. This would be quite impossible, as the Saiyan-Tuffle war began only 40 years prior, and the planet would not have been called Vegeta yet, and the planet would not have been barren and without Tuffles. However this inconsistency is only present in the dub, whose writers may not have been aware of the inconsistency.
• Contrary to what is stated in the original manga and Dragon Ball Z Kai where the Snake Way is stated to be 1,000,000 kilometers (about 625,000 miles) long, the original Ocean and Funimation dubbed version of the anime states that the Snake Way is 10,000 miles long. 10,000 miles long is inconsistent because Goku was able to swim half-way around the world, which is over 20,000 miles, in only one day to go to the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament when he was 15.
• In the episode "Princess Snake", Goku has a nightmare where Nappa and Vegeta attack Chi-Chi and Gohan. However, at this point in the series, the only Saiyan he is familiar with besides himself is his brother, Raditz, and so he should not have any idea what Nappa and Vegeta look like. However, after Goku drank the Ultra Divine Water, he had visions of the future and a clear understanding of things, implying that he had developed some level of psychic ability. Furthermore, in the TV special Bardock: The Father of Goku, Bardock implies that he feels psychic ability within Goku with lines like "You see it too, don't you?" For these reasons, it is perfectly reasonable for Goku to have psychic foresight within his dreams. Another fact to back this up, is when Gohan has a vision of Cell while training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, despite never having seen Cell before suggesting this trait might be hereditary or the result of having his hidden potential unlocked by Guru similar to how his father's ability may be the result of having his potential unlocked by the Ultra Divine Water.
• In "Reunions", it is revealed that Grandpa Gohan found Goku and his space pod somewhere in the woods (presumably somewhere within Mount Paozu). However, in "The End of Snake Way", Goku's space pod is mysteriously somewhere in the desert (around the Break Wasteland area). However it should be noted that its appearance in "The End of Snake Way" was anime filler thus this inconstancy is only present in the anime.
• When Goku uses the Kaio-ken in battle against Vegeta, the manga narration states that it doubles Goku's power. However, when Vegeta proves too strong, Goku uses a move he believes is more powerful, the Kaio-ken x2. According to the Daizenshuu, higher numbers multiply Goku's power by the number stated, meaning that Kaio-ken and Kaio-ken x2 should have the same result. The reason that Kaio-ken x2 was stronger is never resolved, and creates an inconsistency between the manga and the Daizenshuu. It's possible the "regular" Kaio-ken (times one) is simply a 50% increase in his power, rather than doubling it outright.

Namek-Frieza Sagas

• When Vegeta prepares to depart Planet Frieza No. 79, he declines to take a scouter with him, only to inexplicably have one when he arrives on Namek. The anime fixes this plothole by including a filler scene where Vegeta runs back and takes the scouter on second thought.
• During the scene in the episode "Defying Orders" where the Capsule Corporation spaceship built for Goku by Dr. Brief takes liftoff, the Capsule Corporation logo on its outer surface reads "CPSULE CORP.", rather than "CAPSULE CORP." Unlike some animation errors, this was not corrected in Dragon Ball Kai.
• While spying on Dende's village with Gohan, Krillin overhears Frieza stating that he wants to use the dragon balls to wish for immortality. Krillin remembers that this was the wish Vegeta wanted. However, there is no way Krillin should have known about that wish, since Vegeta and Nappa never discussed that wish when any of the Z-Fighters were around.
• While fighting, Recoome gets most of his teeth knocked out, but a few scenes later he has most of his teeth back.
• In "Guru's Gift", it is acknowledged that Frieza (as well as Zarbon) is aware that Goku is one of the few surviving Saiyans in the universe. However, later in "Another Transformation?" Frieza seems to have forgotten this as he refers to Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz as the only Saiyans who survived the destruction of Planet Vegeta, and wonders which one of them could be Gohan's father (this is present in even the Japanese version). Even when Frieza finally meets Goku in "The End of Vegeta", he does not realize that Goku is a Saiyan until Vegeta addresses him as Kakarot, which Frieza recognizes as a Saiyan name (he then also notices Goku's resemblance to Bardock). This inconsistency is also present in the manga as well, though Zarbon is unable to remember Goku's name and only mentions him having a son. One explanation is that while Frieza was aware of the two Saiyans (Goku and Gohan) living on Earth, he knew neither of their names (as he likely considered them to be unimportant which is likely give his character) nor what they looked liked (as all the information he and his army knew about them was from Scouter transmissions) and only realized who they were after encountering and fighting them on Namek (he presumably put two-and-two together after Goku revealed himself to be a Saiyan from Earth).
• In a filler scene, when Vegeta returns to Frieza's ship after fighting the Ginyu Force, he faces off against several of Frieza's grunts and squashes them. However, most of these grunts are clearly shown to be wearing scouters. They were not likely delivered by the Ginyu Force, because the Ginyu Force is clearly shown only delivering one scouter aside from their own, which Frieza takes for himself. This begs the question of why Frieza didn't simply use any of those scouters when the three of them in Dende's village were destroyed.
• In a scene during his face off with Frieza, Vegeta is shown wearing his old armor which he wore at the beginning of the saga, despite the fact that he had switched to a new armor just before his face off with Frieza.
• The length of Frieza's tail after being partially severed by Krillin's Destructo Disc is never consistent. In select sequences that follow, Frieza's tail is sometimes shown completely intact.

Krillin is shown wearing his training gi (right) in what is literally the following frame from where he is shown wearing his then-common Saiyan battle fatigue (left)

• In the episode "The Ultimate Battle", there is an inconsistency between Krillin's uniform in two adjacent scenes. Krillin, who had been wearing a suit of Saiyan Battle Armor since the Frieza Saga began, is seen wearing his training gi briefly during a scene where he, Piccolo and Gohan flee the area to allow Goku to face Frieza. Making matters more curious, this sequence occurs in literally the following frames after Krillin is shown, wearing the battle fatigue. This was NOT corrected in Dragon Ball Kai, despite Kai correcting numerous larger animation errors.
• During the episode "Trump Card", the Ginyu Force, minus captain Ginyu, arrive on King Kai's planet where they are greeted outside of the kai's home by King Kai, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu. The Ginyu Force then proceed to test their special abilities in the planet's atmosphere by destroying King Kai's property. However, the early sequences of the following episode, "Keep the Chance Alive", seem to partially ignore this discovery, as while it seems to pick up where the destruction left off in the previous episode, King Kai is shown stepping outside of his home (which is where the Ginyu Force were initially discovered in "Trump Card", and which by the end of the episode had been partly caved in by a tree). King Kai is then shown to be surprised at the sight of the soldiers, despite being among his understudies when the Ginyu Force had first arrived in the previous episode.
• At the beginning of the episode "Power of the Spirit", Frieza remarks his astonishment that not all the Nameks have been killed, upon recovering from a counterattack by Piccolo. However, at this point, Frieza had been aware of Piccolo's presence for no less than ten episodes, as Piccolo was the first Z Fighter capable of showing Frieza any sort of challenge, while he was in his second transformation. In fact, the reason Frieza killed Dende was because he saw him heal Piccolo. However, in the manga Frieza simply comments in frustration on how he completely overlooked Piccolo's presence after the Namekian had kicked him to save Goku, thus the inconsistency is only present in the anime.
• In "Transformed at Last", during the aftermath of the Spirit Bomb, in one screen, Krillin is shown missing the armor on his legs and they suddenly return in the next screen. Later in the same episode, Krillin is shown missing the hole in the stomach-area of his armor in one scene.
• As established in "Goku's Unusual Journey", when it is requested that a character receive some treatment in the afterlife besides passing onto Heaven or Hell, that character's physical body vanishes, allowing them to retain it in the afterlife rather than becoming a generic wisp. However, in "Namek's Destruction", Gohan flies by the corpses of the Ginyu Force members who were invited to King Kai's planet in the Other World.
• In the Funimation dub of episode 85, "Gohan Returns", the dialogues of Gohan and Frieza, as well as the result of the fight directly prior, lead viewers to believe that Goku has been killed, and then revived by the wish to the Earth's Dragon Balls that revived all of Frieza's victims on Namek (which contradicts the fact that Goku had already been brought back to life once by Shenron by that time and thus could not had been revived twice). In most other versions, including the original manga, Goku is merely knocked out for an extended time.
• Mr. Popo revives the Namekians with the Dragon Balls of Earth after Kami and Piccolo are revived, but that shouldn't be possible since the Dragon Balls had been used to revive Goku just one month prior in the Saiyan Saga. However, Kami could have made an "exception" like he did in the original Dragon Ball prior to Shenron first being brought back following his death at King Piccolo's hands or that once Kami/Piccolo were revived, the Dragon Balls automatically became active again.
• When Shenron agrees to revive all those killed by Frieza and his minions, that should have also revived Yamcha and Tien, as Yamcha was killed by a Saibaman, who worked for Frieza, and Tien sacrificed himself to try and defeat Nappa, who also worked for Frieza. This is not an error, because they had gone rogue and weren't working for/doing a mission for Frieza. Vegeta betrayed Frieza and continued to act as such, which is why the Namekians he killed didn't come back to life.
• In the anime, Frieza kills several of his own henchmen, such as Orlen, who Frieza kills in anger because he killed the only surviving Namekian who could have told them where Vegeta hid the 4-Star dragon ball, and an unnamed soldier who told Frieza that the Ginyu Force would be arriving shortly. These minions should have also been revived by the wish made to revive all of those killed by Frieza. However, when Goku goes to Frieza's ship in an attempt to escape the planet, the ship is still completley desserted. Alternatively, these minions should have been transported to Earth with the third wish to the Namekian dragon, where they would have been promptly dispatched by Gohan, yet they are nowhere to be seen.
• There are several inconsistencies with landmarks on the surface of Namek during its destruction. For instance, the pillar where Guru's home is perched atop is demolished, causing the eldest Namek's home to plummet. However, when the Nameks are revived by a wish Mr. Popo makes to Shenron, the home is later shown resting on a plateau, with Guru's body still resting soundly upon his throne. Another inconsistency involves Goku's spaceship which Bulma, Gohan and Piccolo would be using to escape the collapsing planet Namek. While a fault line forms underneath the spaceship causing it to sink into a resulting chasm, it is later shown spontaneously resting on solid ground in subsequent episodes.
• While on Earth, Vegeta is recalling the past where Zarbon speaks with an Australian accent in the flashback in episode 104, Frieza Defeated!!.
• In the episode "Namek's Explosion... Goku's End?", after a conflict with Gohan, Vegeta takes flight and disappears in the distance. However, in the following episode, "Goku's Alive!!", Vegeta is again seen among the survivors of planet Namek, despite leaving in the episode prior.
• In the episode "Goku's Alive!!", Moori is appointed by Guru as his "Eldest Namek" replacement. However, when Guru pronounces his name, he calls him 'Moly'. It was not until "Goku's Alive" that 'Moori' was established to be the Namek's concrete name.

Androids-Cell Sagas

• There are a number of inconsistencies with the area surrounding Goku's house. Early in Dragon Ball Z (as well as the first Z film, Dead Zone), Goku's house lies at the foot of a forest and at the base of a mountain. This is also the surrounding area as seen at the conclusion of the episode "Goku's Alive!!", where Piccolo is standing atop this mountain, looking down on the house. In other episodes, among them "Goku's Ordeal", the house is located on a grassy plateau, with the mountain and surrounding forest absent. "Goku's Assassin", as well as several episodes that follow, shows a surrounding terrain similar to the one seen in "Goku's Ordeal", but with the inclusion of a lone tree nearby, as well as a pond situated next to the house. "Closing In" shows a completely different terrain, when an aerial view of the surrounding land shows a river along the side of the property, along with what appears to be farming fields just beyond the house. In this view there also appears to be some minor modifications done to the shape of the structure as well. It is possible Goku's family house is a capsule house and has been moved around Mount Paozu in the past.
• In the manga chapter "The Terrifying Message", the Androids that Future Trunks knows of are Android 19 and Android 20 and he states that they are the ones who killed Dr. Gero. Later, Future Trunks is unaware of 19 and 20 and it is 17 who killed Gero. This inconsistency is likely due to Akira Toriyama changing plans for the Android Saga due to his editor's suggestions.
• In "Goku's Special Technique", when Goku is telling the others how he managed to escape the explosion of Planet Namek, the flashback shows Goku still inside Frieza's wrecked spaceship when he notices one of the Ginyu Force's space pods outside, which he uses to escape the planet. However, in the earlier episode "Namek's Explosion... Goku's End?", Goku was forced to ditch Frieza's ship before it was engulfed in lava, and he was last seen hovering in the sky before the planet exploded.
• In "Z Warriors Prepare" while Goku, Gohan and Piccolo are training, Goku is shown wearing his blue undershirt. However, in another frame where he exchanges blows with Piccolo, he is shown wearing his orange shirt.
• In episodes such as "Goku's Ordeal" and "A New Guardian", Chi-Chi laments over her inability to drive a vehicle. However, there are several sequences during the Vegeta Saga and Garlic Jr. Saga where Chi-Chi, accompanied by her father Ox-King, is shown driving a hovercar and an aircraft, respectively. She is also seen driving a car after her wedding in a flashback in "The Newest Super Saiyan". She also is clearly shown in multiple parts of the series to be capable of riding the Flying Nimbus, which Goku does not use anymore.
  • Perhaps the Flying Nimbus can be explained away by suggesting that, because Chi Chi is obsessed with Gohan's upbringing to the point of being excessively overprotective, this means she is no longer pure of heart.
• When Android 18 stole her cowgirl looking uniform from a clothing store, it showed the license plate on the Androids pink van that they stole. It said 69-69. However, later on, when they were being chased by the Toad Warrior bike gang, it showed their license plate again, but this time, it said BB 1223.
• After coming out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Vegeta explains that a full-blooded saiyan's hair doesn't grow from the day he is born. However, there were at least a few times in the series when Goku has had a portion of his own hair chopped off by enemies, only for it to regrow later. One example is in Chapter 91 ("Battle in the Sanctuary!!"), at the bottom of Page 12, when Mercenary Tao uses a sword to chop down a tree and chop off a portion of Goku's hair, only for Goku's hair to be intact in the very next chapter.
• In the episode "Bow to the Prince", while Goku and Gohan are training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Goku instructs Gohan to imagine that Cell is destroying everyone close to him, in an effort to trigger the Super Saiyan transformation inside him. Gohan dispels this method, confessing that he has never seen Cell. However, later during their stay in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Gohan has a nightmare where Perfect Cell kills Chi-Chi and Piccolo. Apart from the fact that Gohan has never seen Cell at this point in the series, this is even more unfounded because Cell did not achieve his perfect form until after the pair entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
• In "Awakening", Gohan kills eight Cell Jr., even though Cell only created seven of them. This was corrected in Dragon Ball Z Kai.
• When Super Perfect Cell returns, he explains that he was able to regenerate because the part of his brain that allows regeneration survived his self-destruction. However, Cell's entire upper body, head included, had been vaporized by Goku in a Kamehameha blast earlier, and he regenerated from the remains of the torso. If the regeneration core was in the brain, this should have been a fatal blow. This inconsistency is not present in Funimation's English dub of the anime, as Cell states that "every cell in his body has a life of its own", and that one survived, which allowed him to regenerate. This was also corrected in Dragon Ball Z Kai. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, when revived after the Majin Buu Saga, Cell will reveal that he was lying about the location of his core and that he would not actually divulge such important info to an enemy.
• While attacking Cell during his Beam Struggle with Gohan, Tien Shinhan states to himself that surpassing Goku had been his goal ever since becoming a martial artist, and that if it were not for Goku he would not be as strong as he was. However, it is known that he was a martial artist under the Crane Hermit long before he met Goku. However it is possible that Tien was referring his decision of choosing to dedicate himself to the martial arts over his original goal of becoming an assassin as a result of his battles with Jackie Chun/Master Roshi and Goku at the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament.

Majin Buu Sagas

• Supreme Kai and Kibito are revealed to be able to read minds en route to Babidi's spaceship. Yet to go after Yamu and Spopovich to find where the ship is, they waited until Gohan's energy was drained and followed Yamu and Spopovich to the ship. Why didn't they just read Yamu and Spopovich's minds and find out where the ship was that way? However, it is possible they can't read the minds of people possessed/controlled by Babidi.
• When Goten and Trunks' Mighty Mask disguise is cut in half by Android 18 at the World Tournament, they immediately take off the ripped clothes and throw them away. The kids are then disqualified and fly away. Later on they are shown taking off the ripped clothes again right before meeting Videl when she is flying. This, however, was edited in the Japanese airing in Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters where they take off the ripped clothes only at the World Tournament, and replaced by a prolonged still frame for a few seconds before they meet Videl.
• The Tournament Announcer disqualifies Goten and Trunks for fighting together. However, the match was actually a battle royale, done at Mr. Satan's suggestion as a means of compensating for the lack of fighters. Therefore, Goten and Trunks fighting alongside each other should have been perfectly legal. Rather, the Tournament Announcer could have disqualified them on the grounds that they were competing in the adult tournament despite being children, which was still against the rules. But the Announcer did not use that excuse.
• In a scene during the face off between Majin Vegeta and Goku, Goku is seen without his halo, despite the fact that he was dead at the time.
• In the episode "The Warrior's Decision", right before Vegeta uses the Final Explosion in an attempt to destroy Majin Buu, Piccolo tells him that he will not be able to keep his body in the after-life as Goku did since keeping your body is a reward given to those who selflessly dedicate their lives to doing good and helping others. Yet in filler episodes, villains such as the Ginyu force (minus captain Ginyu), Frieza, and Cell are shown in Hell with their body.
• When Bulma summons Shenron to revive Majin Vegeta's victims at the Tournament, everyone on the lookout begin to panic that the Dragon Balls are about to be wasted. Dende explains that, if they use the Dragon Balls now, it will be a whole year before they can make another wish, at which point, they will be unable to revive Majin Buu's victims, since when reviving multiple people, Shenron can only revive those who have been dead for one year or less. However, in Manga Chapter 165: "Shen Long Resurrected!," Kami reveals that he has the ability to restore the Dragon Balls immediately on a case by case basis. Therefore, Dende should have nothing to worry about.
• Bulma warns Goku that, if Majin Buu destroys West City, they will also destroy the Dragon Radar, which would make it impossible to find the dragon balls. However, in the King Piccolo Saga, Bulma was clearly shown as being able to create an entirely new dragon radar from scratch, in as little as half a day.
• As Mystic Gohan is arriving on the battlefied to confront Super Buu, Piccolo wonders if it may be a new enemy. However, it has long been established that every person has a unique ki signature. During the Frieza Saga, Goku, while sitting in the healing pod, senses Piccolo's ki and immediately recognizes it as Piccolo (though he second-guesses this because of the enormous quantity of ki, it nonetheless shows that Piccolo's ki signature is unique). Later, in the Android Saga, everyone at Kame House recognizes Cell's ki as being a combination of Piccolo, Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza. Thus, Piccolo should have instantly recognized the incoming ki as belonging to Gohan.
• Early in the series, it is stated by King Kai that once you are dead you can not die again. This is also stated by Dende, the Alien Announcer, and a few others throughout the series. However, it is stated by Goku during the Buu Saga, that if someone dies while dead, they cease to exist. Goku's inconsistency is further proven false when the deceased Frieza and Cell are killed by Goku in Dragon Ball GT while in Hell, which results in them simply regenerating.
• The ogres in Hell state in Dragon Ball Kai, while watching Goku battle Buu, that Goku "was the guy that fell off Snake Way," But that scene was cut out of Dragon Ball Kai (as it was filler and never happened in the original manga).

Dragon Ball GT

• Only in the Funimation dub of "A Devastating Wish", when Goku and Uub emerge from their sparring session and collapse, Dende asks Mr. Popo to retrieve a first aid kit. This should not be necessary, as Dende has healing abilities at his disposal.
• After Trunks got home in "A Worldwide Problem", Baby Vegeta said: "It's been a long time, eh son? ... The last time was on the planet M-2." However, Baby last saw (and possessed) Trunks on the planet Pital, not M-2. It's possible Baby simply forgot that he had seen Trunks on Pital or didn't even know Pital's name.
• Only in the Japanese version and Blue Water dub of "The Fall of the Saiyans", Baby Vegeta performs a Final Flash on Goku. However, when Baby Vegeta fires the Final Flash, he says "Big Bang Attack".
• Only in the Japanese version of "A Dangerous Union", Trunks says he could tell it was Android 17 who attacked him due to him possessing a ki similar to Android 18 even though in The Androids Appear it is stated that the artificial ki of android can't be sensed.
• When 17 attempts to control 18, Krillin states that 17 hates Dr. Gero. He states that the reason why is because he gave 17 human emotions. However, it was stated earlier, during Dragon Ball Z, that 17 hated Gero because the doctor kidnapped him and his sister off the streets and forcibly turned them into androids.

General Rilldo, General Blue and Staff Officer Black with halos in GT

• In the Tenkaichi Budokai, Uub, as Papayaman, wears a helmet during the tournament but head wear is prohibited while competing.
• During the Super 17 Saga, deceased villains in Hell and on Earth are shown without halos, despite being crowned with them in filler episodes of Dragon Ball Z, but they have ones while waiting in front of the Check-In Station.
• Goku states the Dragon Balls can be used to revive Krillin, however, the Dragon Balls have previously revived him in Dragon Ball which makes it impossible to use them to revive him again. Later, Krillin is revived when the Dragon Balls are used to bring everyone back, even though they should being incapable of bringing Krillin back again.
• In the Funimation dub of "Until We Meet Again", Krillin claims that Turtle is nowhere near 1000 years old, however Turtle celebrated his 1000th birthday in the filler episode "Krillin's Proposal".
• In "The Limits of Power", the Dragon Team and the Supreme Kais believe that Goku and Vegeta will be able to fuse back into Gogeta immediately, but in the Majin Buu Saga it was said that there was a thirty-minute wait between fusions.

Dragon Ball Minus

• Baby Goku is said to be three years old, while Bulma is said to be five, thus making the two characters two years apart in age. While this may be consistent with the events of the Pilaf Saga, Toriyama appears to have forgotten that, in the Tournament Saga, he had retconned that conversation and stated that Goku was actually two years younger than he actually was. Thus, either Goku should have been one year old, or Bulma should have been seven.

Dragon Ball Super

• Beerus claims to have wiped out dinosaurs on Earth. However, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z show that dinosaurs still exist on Earth. He also makes this claim in the film Battle of Gods only for a dinosaur to be seen on Earth while Super Saiyan God Goku and Beerus are fighting later in the film. One possible explanation for this inconsistency comes from Dr. Slump as Arale Norimaki used Senbei Norimaki's Time Slipper to prevent the Dinosaurs from going extinct, thus potentially explaining their appearance in the Dragon Ball series (as they are shown to share the same fictional universe in crossovers between the two series).
• In the Super anime only, Earth has continents that match the size and location of those in the real world. This is different than the Dragon World geography seen in Dragon Ball.
• In the anime, Videl's wedding hairstyle is different than what is seen in a picture frame in the Peaceful World Saga.
• In the films, despite Bulma being older than Goku in Dragon Ball, she says that she is 38 making her younger than Goku. It is possible Bulma was lying to hide her true age, but there is no indication she is lying other than her reputation for vanity (it should be noted that it is not uncommon for older women to lie about their age).
  • It should be noted that according to Daizenshuu 7, Bulma was born on August 18, Age 733 which would mean she actually turned 45 on the day of her birthday party in Age 778 indicating it is highly likely that Bulma was lying to conceal her true age. It should be noted that Goku was born in Age 737 the same day planet Vegeta was destroyed in the anime and film making Bulma 4 years older than him; however in Dragon Ball Minus Goku was born in Age 736 making Bulma three years older than him in the manga.
• In the anime Bulma's hair color changes from turquoise to blue without any explanation in Dragon Ball Super. Though it's possible she chose to dye her hair. In the manga Bulma has often been depicted with having blue hair.
• In the anime Future Trunks' hair color changes from lavender to blue without any explanation nor mention of it by any of the characters, yet Present Trunks' hair color still retains the lavender color. In the manga the two versions of Trunks have always possessed blue hair.
• Goku Black mentions about the Goku in his timeline beating him in a Super Saiyan 2 like the main timeline. There is no explaination in what led Goku into going to Universe 10 and battling him if Future Trunks never interfered with the original unaltered main timeline and told him of Goku Black. 
• Mai's eyes are black in the Dragon Ball Super anime, but in the Dragon Ball anime, her eyes are blue.

Krillin's height inconsistency comparison

• Like in Dragon Ball Z, Krillin's height varies in Dragon Ball Super, in this case not meeting up to Android 18's shoulders anymore.
• By the time in Age 780 Trunks should noticeably look like a teen, since Future Trunks looked noticeably older at Age 780 in his timeline.

Dragon Ball Heroes

• In the manga, the Special Dragon Ball given to Vegeta by Fu is drawn with Seven-Stars, but when Fu is explaining about the prisoners who possess Special Dragon Balls, Vegeta is shown to have the Six-Star Special Dragon Ball while another unknown prisoner has the Seven-Star Special Dragon Ball.
• In "Goku Goes Berserk! The Evil Saiyan's Rampage!", Future Mai gives Shin's Potara earrings to Goku and Vegeta so they can fuse into Vegito. In "Rage! Super Fu Appears!" she suddenly has them back in her possession after Vegito defuses.

External links

• Animation errors in the Dragon Ball series at fullpowerdbz.com