The story of dragonball z starts off on earth, where we left Goku off in dragonball, he is seen carrying a tree, and is a bit older. His son Gohan is quite young at the moment, but nevertheless Goku has an established family. There is a gleam of light in the sky, as a space pod lands on earth, and a strange figure arises from it, Although he has a human appearance, this "man" if you would call him, has a tail. This tail will be talked about later on in the summary. The strange man first encounters a local farmer who is shocked at the landing, and heads over to investigate. The strange man laughs at the farmer as he uses a device on his head called a "scouter" to access the farmer's power level. He Finds that the farmer is pathetically weak, and as he begins to interact, the farmer fires off a shotgun in the direction of the strange man but instead of falling to the ground in pain, the man catches one of the bullets, and looks at it. It seems as this man is almost like superman. He flings the bullet back at the farmer, and knocks him out. He then flies off into the sky. Now we're really beginning to think that this man is someone related to superman.

Back on the scene of Goku, he is prepared to go see his old friends Krillin, Master Roshi, and the others whom he hasn't seen in a while, and he decides that he should bring Gohan along. When they arrive on master roshi's island, Goku shows his son Gohan to everyone, and even though Gohan also has a tail, just as this strange man who landed it is overlooked because Goku says that he will get it surgically removed later. Is there a resemblance between the strange man and Gohan? Our question is about to get answered when this strange man lands on the island, and begins calling the name "Kakarrot". Goku doesn't know who Kakarrot is, but he figures that he is talking about him because he is looking at Goku when he is saying it. It turns out that the strange man's name is Raditz, and that he is looking for his brother Kakarrot, who he later proves is Goku. So Goku has a brother, and his name is Raditz, which also explains why Goku had a tail when he was young, because Goku isn't really a human, he is a saiyan. The tail gives the saiyan the power to transform into a giant monkey on full moons, but only adult Saiyans can control the power. Raditz bashes goku for losing his tail, but notices that Gohan still has his, and remarks that Gohan is a true saiyan warrior.

After refusing to help Raditz destroy earth, which was Goku's original objective when he was sent to earth, Raditz takes Gohan hostage until Goku changes his mind, As you already know Goku tried to stop him but failed miserably, and if you didn't know it's common sense because you know Goku wouldn't just "let" someone take his son away. So you can only assume he got pounded into the ground...which he did. Goku then meets up with an old arch-nemesis Piccolo. and they go and team up against Raditz. Although they cannot defeat him, they do find a weakness, Raditz' tail is his weakness, and when grabbed renders him immobile, and totally helpless. But after some messing of the head with Goku, Raditz convinces Goku to let go of his tail, and back stabs. So Gohan comes out of captivation, and gives a nice head blow to Raditz, cracking his armor. Amazed at the power, Raditz becomes afraid, and taking this distraction, Goku comes up behind Raditz, and locks his arms around him and legs, so that Raditz and Goku are both trapped.

This allows Piccolo to charge up his strongest attack, and destroy Raditz, along with Goku. After the death of Goku and Raditz. Piccolo, after noticing the extreme power boost that Gohan had when he plummeted Raditz, takes Gohan into custody, to train him in the ways of martial Arts. While Goku is in heaven he finds that there is a way to train in heaven to prepare for the warning that Raditz gave right before he died which was "more Saiyans are coming". Raditz also mentioned that these Saiyans were a LOT stronger then he was, and that Goku would stand no chance against them. Goku finds out about a deity called King Kai, and the only way to get training from King Kai is to cross an endless path called Snake Way. If you fall off of Snake Way then you will never be able to get back. So Goku sets off in the direction of King Kai while the rest of the earth's Special Forces prepare to battle the Saiyans who are on their way to earth this very moment. Gohan's training begins with the wilderness, he is told to survive by himself and after he can to that Piccolo will train him in the ways of martial Arts. Back in heaven Goku falls asleep on a road cleaner thing, and falls off of snake way while trying to hitch a ride.

Is there no way back for Goku, not at all, he finds 2 demons and he makes a bet with both of them saying that if he can beat them at their challenges that they will tell him how to get back to snake way. So he naturally defeats them and either challenge, and after countless attempts of trying to get back through the clouds and onto snake way they finally give up. So one of the demon's tell him that there is a secret stairway that leads back to heaven. As Goku is leaving he grabs a bit of special fruit which sustains him for months. As he gets tot he top of the stairway he finds that he is back at the very beginning of snake way, but since he has the fruit in him, it gives him extra energy, so he catches up on what he missed, as he runs for months on end, without eating or stopping, he reaches a house and inside is a woman who goes by the name of Princess Snake. She treats Goku to some food, and Goku accepts since he had not eaten for months and the effects of the fruit must have obviously worn off. He then gets a bubble bath, and rest. But while Goku is sleeping Princess Snake tries to eat him, however Goku wakes up, and tangles her in her own body, escaping her wrath. He then sets back on his journey to King Kai's Back on Earth, Gohan has successfuly survived in the wilderness, and has not been getting training from piccolo directly. Although this training is very brutal, Gohan presses on desperately trying to get stronger.

The rest of the Earth's special forces train at Kami's lookout to get stronger and stronger. Back in Heaven Goku finally reaches King Kai's after a few more months of running. King Kai Seems to be a funny character at first, but turns out that he is quite serious, and as for his first test, Goku is told to get used to the gravity on the planet, which is much stronger then Earth's gravity by trying to catch a monkey called Bubbles. After a while, Goku finally catches the monkey, and for his second test he is told to hit an extremely fast cricket called Gregory on the head with a super heavy mallet...in the gravity. But nevertheless Goku eventually does it. Then the training actually begins, and as everyone is training, The Saiyans head closer to earth. When they finally arrive on earth, 2 space pods crash in the middle of a city, and 2 figures emerge wearing similar clothing to that of Raditz. These are the Saiyans he was talking about. They immediately scout the area, and head towards the strongest power levels, which is in this case Piccolo and Gohan. The rest of the Earth's Special forces join Piccolo and Gohan and it's a stand off. 2 of the Saiyans against the entire Earth's special forces team. The Saiyans are insulted by the weakness of the fighters so they plant seeds which grow into little green fighters. The Earth's special forces however eliminate each one of these fighters but in the process Yamcha is killed.

At this time Goku finishes his training at King Kai's and learns the technique Kaio Ken which boosts his power level dramatically by whatever he says (times 3 times 4) he also learns a devastating attack called the Spirit Bomb, which is used all throughout the series. He begins on his way back, but using Kaioken, he does it extra fast. Once the little green men all got eliminated One of the Saiyans Called Nappa (The other called Vegeta) begins to prepare for battle, he eliminates Tien and Choutzu from the scene, he later eliminates Piccolo who got in the way of a beam meant to kill Gohan. When he is about to eliminate Gohan and Krillin Goku shows up just in time. Goku had been wished back by the eternal dragon so that he could have his life back. Mr Popo made the wish. Goku takes out Nappa with ease, and amazes everyone including Vegeta. Vegeta gets mad at Nappa and kills him for being disgraced by a low level Saiyan. Gohan and Krillin Leave, and The battle between Goku and Vegeta begins. This is a rivalry which will exist all throughout dragonball Z and GT. They exchange blow for blow and everything seems equal when Goku uses Kaioken to boost his power, and totally annihilates Vegeta, but Vegeta also has some techniques up his sleeve, and as he launches a beam of light into the sky that mimics moonlight, he transforms into a giant monkey, and annihilates Goku. When Goku is about to be killed once again, his friends come in and save him, with Yajerobe chopping off Vegeta's tail causing Vegeta to transform back into a normal saiyan. Goku prepares the spirit bomb with the rest of the energy he has left, and gives it to Krillin, Krillin throws it but misses, hitting Gohan who redirected it into Vegeta, totally taking Vegeta out, but not out for good, for Vegeta survives, and is angrier then ever. Gohan sees the moonlight and transforms into a giant monkey, weakening Vegeta a little bit, but eventually after Gohan looses his tail and falls on Vegeta as a giant monkey. Vegeta is now out of the game for good.

As Krillin struggles to barley finish Vegeta off with a sword, Goku tells Krillin to stop and let Vegeta leave. Goku shows mercy on Vegeta, and tells his friends not to kill him when Goku had clearly lost the battle if it wasn't for his friends he would have been obliterated. Vegeta leaves earth barley conscious promising revenge, and as he flies off into space he goes unconscious in his spaceship which is programmed to take him back to medical care. Goku and the rest of the gang celebrate their Victory. But now that Piccolo is dead, there are no dragonballs so how are they supposed to wish everyone back. Read the next saga summary to find out what happens.