it's just a good shonen. if someone likes shonen they should like it. the villains are all damn memorable and freeza (don't describe freeza much to not spoil it for him) makes any top 10 anime villains list for a reason.

the battles are just really damn good, animated well, paced well, full of intensity, as good or better than most shonen he would have seen. people who refuse to watch DB seem to have a misconception that all battles are just screaming and blasting but i'll be damned if the animation for lots of the fights isn't the best i've seen, as well as the actual blow by blows themselves being incredibly cool and intense and dramatic.

good characters, lots of characters have decent arcs and development and are genuinely well written and likeable.

fantastic plot, even though it's rather generic for a shonen with just strong guy after strong guy, the actual plot has genuinely good twists and turns. the twists in the cell/android saga for instance are amazing.

humour, it's just damn funny. pretty much any time there isn't drama or action happening, it's basically a comedy and super damn funny. even tons of the anime filler is worth watching due to the gags.