RADITZ
RA
The big brother who kicked the door open to the entire Z era! Raditz showed up, casually caught a bullet, dropped the bombshell that Goku was an alien, and completely broke the power scale with his iconic Scouter. He forced the unthinkable: Goku and Piccolo teaming up. While his time on screen was short, he is the ultimate "welcome to the next level" boss fight that changed the franchise forever.
RADITZ THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
POWER LEVELS //
Open page →GUIDE: 1,500.
The first villain of DBZ is roughly three-and-a-half times Goku and Piccolo's normal Raditz-era readings, and it feels impossible. That is worth remembering after a page full of billions.
Raditz is not scary because 1,500 is a large number. He is scary because 416 used to be Goku.
The first villain of DBZ is roughly three-and-a-half times Goku and Piccolo's normal Raditz-era readings, and it feels impossible. That is worth remembering after a page full of billions.
Raditz is not scary because 1,500 is a large number. He is scary because 416 used to be Goku.
COMBAT LEDGER //
Open page →Goku & Piccolo vs. Raditz
Open →Saiyan Saga · Gohan's Rescue · Result: Double Fatality (Goku & Raditz Dead)
The desperate alliance that opened DBZ. Raditz completely outclasses Earth's two strongest fighters, shrugging off Goku's full-power Kamehameha and breaking Piccolo's arm. The tide turns only when four-year-old Gohan snaps, unleashing a 1,307 PL headbutt that shatters Raditz's chest armor, opening a window for Goku to full-nelson his brother while Piccolo charges the Special Beam Cannon.
The Breakdown
Pure tactical desperation. Goku sacrifices his physical life to hold his brother in place, establishing the show's foundational rule: victory in DBZ is bought with blood, sacrifice, and zero room for error.
SAGA SUMMARIES //
Open page →DBZ wastes almost no time destroying the comfortable ending of Dragon Ball. Goku has a son, everybody has settled down, and then a stranger lands on Earth and tells him his entire life story is wrong.
Goku is not an unusually strong human. Piccolo is not really a demon. The moon accident that killed Grandpa Gohan was not some unexplained curse. Suddenly all of those weird pieces from the original series belong to a much larger world.
And then Goku dies.
Goku is not an unusually strong human. Piccolo is not really a demon. The moon accident that killed Grandpa Gohan was not some unexplained curse. Suddenly all of those weird pieces from the original series belong to a much larger world.
And then Goku dies.
What changed
Dragon Ball's mythology becomes science fiction. Earth is no longer the whole world, death becomes a place you can physically train in, and the strongest techniques on the planet suddenly are not enough.
Eps 001–006 · Goku learns the name Kakarot
Goku and Piccolo fighting together should feel impossible if you have just finished Dragon Ball, and that is the point. Raditz is strong enough that the old hero and villain have to cooperate just to hurt him. Gohan's first rage explosion hints at where the series is ultimately going, and Goku holding his own brother in place for the Special Beam Cannon is a remarkably brutal way to open the sequel.
Raditz dies. The information he brings does not.
Raditz dies. The information he brings does not.
What changed
Six episodes turn Goku from the strange boy Dragon Ball never fully explained into a member of an alien warrior race, make Piccolo an emergency ally, introduce Gohan, and put the next two enemies on a one-year clock. DBZ does not ease into being a sequel.
