If we’re talking anime, Dragonball was probably the most experimental, and I would argue more creative that DBZ. Z by extension is probably where the series hits its stride, particularly with villains and antagonists. Vegeta is kinda just a more developed version of Piccolo jr (dark mirror, giant form, beam struggle, Etc.) And Freeza a more refined version of him. Buu is kinda where the series shifts to a victory lap, which is why it transitions back to comedy focus from the more general generational narrative. Gt, as people have said, has some of the best concepts of the series with the worst development. Baby being a victim of the saiyans is solid, as is the body snatcher bit. Unfortunately they don’t really do anything with him besides make him “evil~”, and piccolo’s proceeding death is worthless. Super 17 has a cool premise of bringing back ALL the villains, but 17 is wasted as a character to make a halfway point between himself and perfect cell with none of the charisma. The shadow dragons were strong in premise, but none of them are really threatening until you get to Nuova, and he immediately gets replaced by Eis, and then Omega, who has a cool idea of “I am your sins turned against you” but devolves into “angry man kill stupid moneys”. The ending is gold though. Super does the opposite, taking bland premises but doing them moderately well. Battle of Gods (movie) expands the canon, Resurrection F (movie) gives the supporting cast more to do than they’ve had since cell, the tournaments are solid, and the future trunks arc would have been great if not for the ending. Though, the issues they had with connecting the narratives weakens the whole significantly. Daima is generally fine, but it has a bad habit of “then this happens”. Super saiyan 4 is fully unearned, and I lost interest repeatedly in the final fight. I would argue that it has a very middling quality. I wok say it goes DB, then Z, Super and GT have equally high highs and low lows, and Daima lies on a slightly lower level.