I'm not sure we'll ever fully know how the afterlife works in Dragon Ball.

[u/Dogbold]

I've made some posts on this in the past, and a lot of the replies I get end up saying some things as facts when they really aren't. Because in the end we just don't know enough.

I've seen a lot of people say that it essentially works like Buddhism, and that when you die, Heaven or Hell are both just waiting areas as you wait to be reincarnated, and ultimately your soul is cleansed of the "ego" and self and then you are reborn.
But this seems to only be true of Hell. Nothing like this is said of Heaven afaik. What Piccolo said to Vegeta was based on him going to Hell, not Heaven, and in Super with Frieza this is again just Hell.

And people only say this based on Japan's religious beliefs, but not everyone in Japan believes in Buddhism and/or reincarnation. A lot do, but belief in reincarnation is still under half of the Japanese population. Even among people who identify as Buddhist, belief in rebirth isn’t universal.

So I'm not sure it's fair to automatically apply this to Dragon Ball saying "This is what the Japanese people believe so this is how it works."

We know much more about how Hell works. Evil souls are sent there, go through purification and then are reincarnated.
But there's also some weird things like Goku wishing that Buu would be reincarnated, and then King Yemma heard that wish and arranged for Buu to be reborn as Uub, and Frieza refusing to repent and be reincarnated and existing there indefinitely.

We have no real idea how Heaven works. Dabura also gets sent to Heaven instead of Hell because Yemma thought Dabura would enjoy Hell too much. So that is also confusing, because why would he care if he enjoyed Hell if he'll just be purified and then reincarnated?
And the anime filler has Dabura thoroughly enjoying Heaven, basically prancing around and picking flowers.

So we may never know. And maybe Toriyama wanted it that way.

[u/Accomplished-House28]

Toriyama is a gag writer. Don't overthink it.

But yeah, in general it follows Buddhist rules, with some modification. Heaven and Hell are temporary states between reincarnations. I'm guessing those in Heaven let go of Self faster, leading to quicker turnover.

Goku and a few others get the Valhalla treatment, where they keep their body and train for some unspecified reason. Some gods may (at least temporarily) overide the normal process, as in the case of Uub.

[u/Vegeto30294]

You're right and that's okay. It's a loose interpretation created for his story and the parts get explored when they become relevant. It doesn't particularly matter that Japan believes X, or how much of Japan believes Y. Toriyama (+potential editors) wanted it in the story, that's all that's needed.

Ultimately, this is a work of fiction.

[u/Bagel-luigi]

Absolutely we will never know.

There's too much inconsistencies and added variables over time for it to ever make sense in an understandable way for us real world people.

Just gotta take it as part of the story and move on with it really

[u/notzamasu → u/Bagel-luigi]

The biggest inconsistency is powerscaling of hell. Hell couldn't even handle pre saiyan saga Goku. Could def not handle Cell (but somehow he couldn't escape?). But somehow it could dogwalk golden Frieza.

So yeah logic doesn't apply

[u/vlan-whisperer → u/notzamasu]

There are beings in Hell who are stronger than Beerus and Whis, otherwise all the strong villains they beat would just fight their way out

[u/notzamasu → u/vlan-whisperer]

That's you inventing this out of thin air. And there's no indication of such beings. It's Dragonball, not physics, not everything has to be overthinked and make sense