Thread by @Herms98

Age 761: five years after becoming world champion and marrying Chi Chi, Goku’s life is irrevocably changed by unwelcome visitors. He’ll have to join forces with his arch-rival Piccolo in order to beat his most powerful foe yet and rescue his kidnapped son. #HistoryofEver

Also, later that same year Raditz shows up.

Raditz tracks down his brother and gives him a semi-accurate explanation of his Saiyan origins. Sure, he doesn’t seem to know the truth about Planet Vegeta’s destruction or the real reason Bardock sent Goku to Earth, etc etc, but cut him some slack. He’s a fighter, not a teacher!

Raditz takes Gohan hostage to ensure Goku’s compliance, but this doubly backfires: first by allowing Goku and Piccolo to track him down via the DB in Gohan’s hat (their ki-sensing skills apparently still suck) and second by putting him on the receiving end of Gohan’s hidden power

Ultimately though it’s the Goku/Piccolo tag-team that seals the deal, as Goku sacrifices himself so that Piccolo can nail Raditz with his fancy new drill beam attack. But Raditz has some bad news: Vegeta and Nappa will be arriving in a year (more or less) to avenge him!

Actually, Vegeta and Nappa don’t give a crap about Raditz, but they’re real intrigued about these “dragon balls” Piccolo mentioned. They take off for Earth without bothering to get Freeza’s permission. Freeza’s upset…for a bit. But those dragon balls sure do sound nice…

(Freeza doesn’t leave for Namek until next year in 762, so it’s unclear exactly when he finds out about Vegeta and Nappa’s trip to Earth. Maybe the two were due back on Planet Freeza No.79 in a year and their absence isn’t noticed until then?)

Meanwhile, Kami and Piccolo both have a psychic premonition of their impending death a year hence, and take roughly similar actions: Kami sends the dead Goku off to get trained by North Kaio in the afterlife, while Piccolo takes Gohan to a wasteland for his own brand of training.

Piccolo is apparently drawn to this particular wasteland by instinct, since it looks vaguely similar to Namek (kind of, a bit). He leaves Gohan to survive on his own for the next six months, but stays close by to keep an eye on him, and supply apples as necessary.

Gohan’s very first night out in the wild just so happens to be a full moon, and the Saiyan half of him goes apeshit. Is this a coincidence, or did Raditz intentionally schedule his arrival for a full moon night, just as Vegeta and Nappa do?

Regardless, Piccolo’s not going to stand for this nonsense. He reverts Gohan to normal by blowing up the moon…or so the manga would have us believe. The video game DBZ Kakarot on the other hand claims Piccolo merely conceals the moon via Namekian illusions. Wake up, sheeple!

And with that, another eventful day comes to a close. What day is that, exactly? Per Daizenshuu 7, the year is 761 (5 years on from the 23rd TB in 756), and the exact date is October 12th. Why October 12th? I’m not sure exactly, but it seems like a mistake.

See, the date they give for Vegeta and Nappa’s arrival is November 23rd of 762, more than 13 months later. However, the series indicates that the timeframe is closer to 11 months (characters even comment on it being a month earlier than the expected full year).

On the other hand, if you switch the dates around so that Raditz arrives on November 23rd 761, followed by Vegeta and Nappa on October 12th 762, it fits the 11 month timeframe. Was this the original plan before the dates got swapped around by accident? We’ll probably never know.

Still, there’s at least one reason for dating the Namek arc to December, which makes November fit for the Vegeta/Nappa battle (more on this next week). Overall, it’s far easier to ditch the date of Raditz’s arrival but keep the other daizenshuu dates rather than renumber it all.

Oh, also: the Daizenshuu 7 timeline includes Garlic Jr and co abducting Gohan, as shown in DBZ Movie 1. The only other movie event they include is Cooler’s attack from DBZ Movie 5 (the Chouzenshuu 4 revision adds BoG). Why these two movies exactly? Beats me.

(The timeline also includes Garlic Senior’s role in Kami’s backstory, Planet Makyo’s approach to Earth 5,000 years ago, and the events of the Garlic Jr filler arc. For whatever reason, they can’t get enough of Garlic Jr. Maybe they’re just DBZ Movie 1 fans? Who can blame them?)

On Tuesday: the year of living dangerously!

Thanks as usual to @Terez27 for the clips, and @DetectiveX for the DBZ Kakarot info and screenshots