Dragon Ball Z is a sequel to the anime Dragon Ball, and both are the animated version of the Dragon Ball manga. As it is known by a wide mass of people, Akira Toriyama, the author, had no intentions of extending the story farther, but the opportunity spoke louder than the artistic sense. With that, we got one of the worst things Japan has ever made: Dragon Ball Z. Unlike the original Dragon Ball, Z lacks comedy, which was one the main thing that made the first version good. Instead of light comedy, this show is basically about villains with almost no personality, huge explosions and very long "battles". In fact, the battles are so long and boring not because of the slow animation nor the immense quantity of useless dialog - it is because of the lack of creativity in fight scenes: we all know who will win before the battle even starts, and there is no thing such as a balanced battle. Everything is a curb-stomp until the weaker side gets a miracle power-up and defeats the rival. If you have never watched it, but is tempted to, because of the huge memetic idolizing some "fans" are doing in the internet nowadays, think again. The show is only good for those who watched it in the past, and the main argument "fans" use to say it is good is the strength of the boring one sided protagonist, Goku. Do watch Dragon Ball, though. It is of a very species of good comedy.

Long story short: the show is incredibly bad and popular nowadays, but you can still enjoy if you watched it during your childhood.