Oh, no, I’m aware that DBZ jumped the shark from the word “go”, and also vaguely aware of the original Dragon Ball being a retelling of Journey to the West. Truthfully, I expect I will actually enjoy Dragon Ball more than DBZ because while I hold a lot of nostalgia for DBZ, in rewatching it I realized how much it’s very much like a modern mythology story, where you already know the outcome (Goku wins) so there’s not the same kind of narrative weight we’re used to (not to mention some absolute bullshit maneuvers from time to time), but a lot of the fun is just getting to see the big, unbelievable battles and how they keep getting bigger and unbelievable-er. Dragon Ball being just an adventure story is probably going to be closer to my tastes nowadays.