The series starts out with Goku having a reunion with Bulma, Master Roshi, and
Kurillin. He introduces them to Gohan, his five year old son and everything seems
peaceful for a change. However, a Saiyan alien lands on Earth to seek Goku. He
introduces himself as Raditz, Goku's older brother! Surprised that Goku has not
destroyed everyone on Earth, he asks Goku to join him in the Saiyan quest of
universal destruction. But, when Goku refuses, Raditz kidnaps Gohan to blackmail
Goku. His command is to kill everyone on Earth. However, Goku remains loyal to
Earth and decides to rescue Gohan through another method-- by killing Raditz!
Surprisingly, Piccolo allies himself with Goku and the first fight of Dragonball Z
begins. After a short time fighting Raditz, Piccolo loses his arm and decides to gather
energy to do a Special Beam Cannon on Raditz. Meanwhile, Goku stalls for time. When
Piccolo is finally powered up, he fires at Raditz, but only grazes his shoulder. Goku
then pulls a surprise attack and grabs Raditz's tail, rendering him helpless. However, the sneaky Raditz fools
Goku into believing he will leave the Earth in peace. Once Goku lets go, Raditz starts
beating him up. Once it seems that Goku is doomed, suddenly there is an explosion
from where Gohan is being held captive. Gohan suddenly displays his hidden powers
and head butts Raditz, breaking his Saiyan armor. Of course, the blow to the head
gives Gohan a slight case of amnesia, and he can't remember a thing he just did. After
Raditz beats up on Gohan for a while, Goku puts his brother in a hold. At the
advantage, Piccolo powers up and unleashes another Special Beam Cannon which blasts and hits both
Goku and Raditz! Piccolo laughs at the dying Raditz and he mocks him that Goku will
be brought back to life through the power of the Dragonballs. Goku's brother retorts
that the device he uses to detect energy levels can also be used for communication. He
sends the news about the Dragonballs to his two comrades, and dies.
Because Piccolo discovered that Gohan had hidden powers when Gohan unknowingly
head butts and damages Raditz, he takes Gohan from the terrified friends of Goku in
an attempt to train him. Goku, rather than retiring in Heaven, is sent on a quest to
run on Snake Way and to seek King Kai to receive training for the upcoming fight
with the Saiyans (now headed for Earth thanks to Raditz). The rest of the Z warriors (Krillin, Yamcha, Tenshin-han, and
Chauzu) are gathered to receive special training from Kami.
In the mean time Goku is training hard on King Kai's planet. He is learning to be extremely quick and is mastering the art of Kaio-Ken.
The storyline progresses showing Goku and his Earth warriors in constant training for the upcoming battle.
One year later, Nappa and Vegeta (the evil Saiyans) arrive on Earth. (Instead of
deciding to use the Dragonballs to restore their fellow Saiyan, they intend to wish for
immortality.) Nappa plants some seed in the ground and out come some Saiba-men. These little green monsters do a number on Yamcha.
The Saiba-men fight, but are eventually killed by Tenshin-han and
Krillin. (At one of these fights, Yamcha is killed when a Saiba-man latches on to him
and blows himself up.) After the Saiba-men's defeat, our heroes fight Nappa while
Vegeta stands in the background and watches. In a series of battles, Chauzu dies as he
sacrifices himself in an attempt to blow up Nappa in the same way the Saiba-man did
with Yamcha. Tenshin-han dies by using up all of his strength to try to kill Nappa. On
an impulse, Vegeta calls for a three hour break to wait for Kakarot (Goku), for
Vegeta hopes to convert Goku to the Saiyan cause. When the time is up, the fighting
resumes without Goku. Piccolo dies when Gohan angers Nappa to where he unleashes
a powerful fireball, and Piccolo blocks Gohan with his body. Finally, Goku arrives and
easily knocks out Nappa using his new Kaio-ken technique. Vegeta sees Nappa's
uselessness and kills him with a single fireball.
Now comes the powerful battle between Goku and Vegeta (Gohan and Kurillin are
ordered to go away so they won't be held hostage or distract Goku). After a while of smacking each
other, Vegeta faces defeat and decides to blow up the Earth! To save the Earth, Goku
breaks his promise to King Kai, by using Kaio-ken times three. Goku and Vegeta
shoot two huge fireballs at each other and achieve a stalemate. Goku decides to go
even farther and does a Kaio-ken times four. Vegeta is overwhelmed and shot into
space as an angry speck. Then Vegeta realizes all he has to do is transform into his
Saiyan form. So Vegeta creates a energy ball that substitutes moonlight allowing him to change into an Oozaru
(A giant gorilla looking beast). Our hero gets kicked around
but blinds Vegeta temporarily. He then gathers energy for his other new technique,
the Spirit Bomb. Unfortunately, Goku doesn't have enough time to throw the bomb at
Vegeta. But in surprise move, Yajirobe cuts off Vegeta's tail. This shrinks him back to his regular form. Also, the other Z
warriors have returned to help. Goku gives his Spirit Bomb energy to Kurillin which misses,
and Gohan unwittingly deflects it back to Vegeta! Vegeta is blasted into the atmosphere but still survives. When Vegeta lands back on Earth he decides to have a little fun with Gohan.
Gohan's tail has grown back, so Vegeta makes him transform into Oozaru form. Vegeta's plan backfires as Gohan pounds him. Later, Gohan gets his tail cut off by Vegeta and finally turns back into a little
boy... landing right on top of Vegeta.
Vegeta, weary and defeated, crawls to his space shuttle and hovers on the brink of
death. Kurillin takes Yajirobe's sword and tries to kill him, but Goku tells him not to.
Vegeta laughs and says the have made a mistake, for he will come back for revenge.
Slowly he crawls in the shuttle and leaves Earth. But this is not the last we see of
Vegeta...