The Ellimist
So at the beginning of Dragonball, most battles seemed to be modeled after old kung fu movies with the occasional mystical stuff (e.g. ki) thrown in.
By mid-dragon ball fights were very technique and style oriented, with the fighting itself still looking fairly kung fu-y just with stuff like afterimages, more frequent ki attacks, more blatantly superhuman attacks, etc.
By late-dragonball you start seeing the early signs of what would be to come with really energetic ki attacks, more frequent superspeed, fights on a far greater scale and spanning a vaster distance, etc.
By the arrival of Raditz people are still fighting somewhat like what they were at the end of Dragonball. Then you begin to see the hints of the Superman aesthetic coming in as characters start flying more frequently and that just gradually becomes a thing, "casual" ki blasts become more common, people start routinely "teleporting" and fighting at extreme velocities while causing massive environmental damage, etc. You see a gradual power creep up to SSJ Goku on Namek by which the fight looks pretty similar to what we envision DBZ fights to be.
After that things remain pretty constant aesthetically, except for a possible downgrade (SSJ Vegeta vs. Android 18 barely damaging a highway) until Super comes along and now their attacks are threatening the universe, they're breaking out of time loops and black holes, etc. More specific techniques and rock-paper-scissors relationships also appear to be making a comeback.
Thoughts?
By mid-dragon ball fights were very technique and style oriented, with the fighting itself still looking fairly kung fu-y just with stuff like afterimages, more frequent ki attacks, more blatantly superhuman attacks, etc.
By late-dragonball you start seeing the early signs of what would be to come with really energetic ki attacks, more frequent superspeed, fights on a far greater scale and spanning a vaster distance, etc.
By the arrival of Raditz people are still fighting somewhat like what they were at the end of Dragonball. Then you begin to see the hints of the Superman aesthetic coming in as characters start flying more frequently and that just gradually becomes a thing, "casual" ki blasts become more common, people start routinely "teleporting" and fighting at extreme velocities while causing massive environmental damage, etc. You see a gradual power creep up to SSJ Goku on Namek by which the fight looks pretty similar to what we envision DBZ fights to be.
After that things remain pretty constant aesthetically, except for a possible downgrade (SSJ Vegeta vs. Android 18 barely damaging a highway) until Super comes along and now their attacks are threatening the universe, they're breaking out of time loops and black holes, etc. More specific techniques and rock-paper-scissors relationships also appear to be making a comeback.
Thoughts?