Thank you for my childhood.
Thank You
09 Saturday Mar 2024
Posted Life
in09 Saturday Mar 2024
Posted Life
inThank you for my childhood.
14 Saturday Oct 2023
Posted Literature
inTags
adventure, Akira Toriyama, books, books in translation, comics, Dragon Ball, fantasy, fiction, humour, Japanese Literature, Literature, manga, review
Ciao, my dear strangers đ
Iâve done a lot of rereading throughout 2023, particularly when it comes to childhood favourites. Maybe itâs got something to do with turning 30 this year. Yes, I know itâs just an arbitrary number and that I shouldnât read too much into it, but dang, what the hell happened to my teens and twenties?! I barely remember anything, not because I spent those years pie-eyed, but because⊠I donât know. They just⊠Passed.
I donât understand time.
Anyways, Iâve been feeling pretty nostalgic for Dragon Ball for a while now. And so, with Dragon Ballâs 40th anniversary just around the corner, I decided to dedicate 2023 to slowly rereading the manga. Only, when I went to Goodreads, I saw that it wasnât in my read pile. Turns out that it had been so bloody long since I first read the manga, that I wasnât even on Goodreads back then. And I joined the website in 2011. Apparently, Iâd completely forgotten to even list this manga as something Iâd read.
So, with all that out of the way, letâs jump into Toriyama Akiraâs whimsical world.
Initially, I planned on writing separate reviews for each section of the story as I made my way through the kanzenbans. But do you know how many of those bloody things there are? It wouldâve been nigh impossible. So I instead jotted down notes that would go into the making of one (incomprehensive) review of the entire manga. This review, to be exact.
And, boy, where do I even start? I love Toriyama for his missteps as much as I do for his triumphs. The man can be saidâand has been saidâto be lazy, forgetful, and scatterbrained, though also something of a genius. He singlehandedly managed to create two hit manga and change the shĆnen manga landscape forever.
You name a popular (or unpopular) contemporary battle manga, and I guarantee it owes a great deal to either Akira or Dragon Ball. Or both. Naruto, One Piece, My Hero, Bleach, and countless others would either not exist today, or not exist as we know them without the groundwork laid by Dragon Ball.
Perhaps unfairly, Iâve always considered Toriyama an artist who not so much created great stories as stumbled on them. Itâs no secret he pens everything on the fly, and his storytelling skills sometimes leave much to be desired. And yet, he created some of the most memorable scenes and character arcs in all of manga, scenes that, to this day, still make audiences around the world weep and cheer.
Just as Shylock is famously said to have been a character who got away from Shakespeare and was simply too complex for the confines of a comedy like The Merchant of Venice, I am convinced there are characters and story arcs that got away from Toriyamaâkernels of a larger narrative that he stumbled on without fully understanding their potential at the time, elements that, to put it bluntly, are too complex and sophisticated for a comedic manga artist like him.
Now, donât get me wrong, I donât hold that against Toriyama. This is just a personal opinion, one hypothesis among many, on how Dragon Ball developed and changed over a period of ten years.
Iâm sure everybody already knows how this series came to be, the various works and influences that went into the creation of that first arc, et cetera, so I wonât waste anyoneâs time on that. Iâll just say that the first arc is a fantastic introduction to the magical world of DB. I mean, you have talking dinosaurs coexisting with the kind of technology we donât have.
Forget the ability to fly or bench-press a planetâthe one DB superpower I want is capsules! Think about itâyou can put a house, a vehicle, food, books, and just about anything else you can think of inside a capsule that can fit in your pocket! You can go anywhere you want and, wherever you call it a night, youâre home! I would travel the shit out of DBâs Earth. Shut up and take my money! Some genius had better invent those in my lifetime!
Rereading that first story arc made me realise my sexual misconduct tolerance threshold is far lower than it used to be, specifically when it comes to narratives that frame said misconduct in a humourous, light-hearted way. I hate everything thatâs done to (predominantly) Bulma throughout DBâs run. That also makes RĆshi my least favourite character. Even so, I managed to look past the more unsavoury parts of the story and find it deeply captivating.
I love Pilaf. Maybe because I love comically inept villains in general. He is so cute! Whenever he starts talking about wanting to become a dictator, I feel like picking him up and nuzzling him and talking to him in a voice reserved for pets and babies. Well, of course youâre a mighty emperor! Yes, you are! Yes, you are!
What even is Pilaf? Heâs neither an animal-type nor a human-type earthling. He looks like some adorable little goblin-troll. Iâm sure thereâs an exact explanation somewhere on the DB Wiki or Kanzenshuu, but I donât want to know! Not knowing what exactly he is is part of his charm.
Pilaf and his equally incompetent crew are so much fun. I always light up when I see them on the page. Reading about the clueless emperor negotiating with Piccolo about how much of the planet heâs owed is the best thing ever. Iâm so glad later DB works decide to bring the Pilaf gang back.
The whole Red Ribbon Army thing⊠Ugh⊠I tried! I keep trying, whether by page or screen, to find some enjoyment in this arc, but I never succeed. I downright hate it. The Muscle Tower section damn near broke me.
It has its moments, of course. The design of the armyâs HQ is great, for instance. On the whole, though, itâs a boring slog I never look forward to watching or reading.
Except for Babaâs fights. Love those. Love the Devilâs Toilet! Two demons, sitting on opposite toilets, pooping, their tongues meeting in the middle? And thereâs even a toilet roll on the wall? Yes! Thank you, Toriyama! Thatâs the part of your brain I love, not the low-hanging sexual harassment humour! SidenoteâKrillin couldâve easily helped Yamcha without humiliating Bulma by, oh I donât know, flinging some mud on the arena until it hit the invisible fighter?
I adore all three tournament arcs. The 21st is a wonderful introduction to the wider world that features some of DBâs most whimsical fights. And allows GokĆ« to cheat his way into the finals? The 22nd has some neat themes of rivalry and loyalty. And the 23rd is just all around fantastic.
All three tournaments show us a clear progression of the charactersâ designs, skills, abilities, intelligence, and maturation. I love them all almost equally. If I had to rank them, Iâd say the 22nd is my least favourite and that the 23rd is the best.
The 23rd introduces us to the grownup versions of several characters. It shows us the many skills theyâve picked up since the last tournament. It has end-of-the-world stakes. I mean, Piccolo swallows God!
It also gives us GokĆ« at his smartest and most charming. He constantly outsmarts and one-ups the literal child/reincarnation of a demon king! I think thatâs a subtle way of showing that Piccolo might be powerful, but he is still a literal child, an inexperienced three-year-old facing off against a much battle-savvier GokĆ«.
I donât have much to say about the fight against our Big Green demon king. I find it one of the least interesting and least memorable sections of the storyline. Itâs fine? A bit dull and repetitive, if you ask me. That said, it has one of the greatest WTF moments in the entire manga. Piccolo Sr. killing Shenron totally blindsided me the first time I saw it happen, and the shock of that moment is just as potent on repeat viewings.
The Namek/Freeza arc starts off brilliantly, absolutely brilliantly. Following the torturous fight against Saiyans, the story slows down a bit to allow for some mourning, contemplation, and planning. Healing, resting, finding spaceships, finding Namek, organisingâitâs all brilliant! The intensity abates, but the story very much goes on in a more tactical manner.
This strategic plotting continues when the characters arrive on Namek. Itâs all about scrambling for the Dragon Balls, outwitting and outmanoeuvring the enemy. We have three factionsâFreezaâs crew, Krillinâs crew, and Vegetaâs crew⊠Which is mostly just Vegeta by himself, since he needs nobody⊠Until he does.
I honestly canât decide who the smartest, best tactician in this section of the story is. Theyâre all amazing, constantly coming up with new ways of one-upping their rivals. Especially Vegeta, who somehow always manages to find a way out of almost any pinch. Watching him humiliate Freeza time and again was such a bloody joy.
I reckon the Namek arc has a brilliant beginning and a brilliant ending, as both are concerned with plotting and organising, rely more on brains than brawn, and are all about testing the limits of the Dragon Balls. What if we could go to Namek and use their Balls? What if someone died prematurely from emotional distress? What if we somehow coordinated the two sets of Dragon Balls? What if this, what if that?
Compared to all that scheming and outwitting, the middle section is boring and unmemorable, consisting mainly of strong guys punching and getting punched by other strong guys.
Needless to say, thatâs a pretty broad, reductive statement. There are plenty of great moments and character interactions peppered throughout, even in arcs that I canât stand. I already said I all but hate the Red Ribbon Army arc, but GokĆ« putting a mouse in his mouth to save it is still the single greatest thing Toriyamaâs given the world. Likewise, Freezaâs feet are awesome. See? Thatâs the beauty of this mangaâit gives you something to enjoy even in the sections you arenât particularly fond of.
I consider the entire Cell arc one major shift in tone, style, characterisation, et cetera. Or, rather, a series of shifts that take the story in a new direction and expand the in-universe horizons for characters and readers alike. Some of my earliest memories of DB come from this section of the tale and Iâll always hold it in high regard. Even after twenty-plus years, knowing where the storyâs going, reading and watching the many juicy twists and turns is still such a bloody joy.
That said, it can also be a bloody slog at times. Considering how much Toriyama was being jerked around behind the scenes, constantly forced to steer the plot in a different direction, itâs a miracle we even got a narrative this satisfying, its enduring popularity a testament to Toriyamaâs quick thinking and inventiveness.
This story arc features some of the best mystery and drama. Itâs also got some of my favourite character interactions and introduces us to Future Trunks, one of the franchiseâs most beloved characters. The whole time-travel shebang is a Swiss cheese of a storyline, riddled with plotholes, oversights, and inconsistencies. Still, I am and always have been willing to let all that slide, since the resulting story, for the most part, is so bloody satisfying.
The Buu arc is a similarly jumbled mess. Itâs at once DBâs gravest and goofiest arc. Somehow. Over the years, itâs gained a reputation as the weakest saga. Given that I couldnât remember what I thought of it when Iâd initially read it and that Iâve since absorbed plenty of negative opinions about it, I fully expected to loathe this closing chapter.
While I can certainly see where those overwhelmingly negative opinions stem fromâand even largely agree with themâI still love Buu. I think itâs a fantastic plotline worth reassessing. Letâs not forget that this was also DBâs final storyline, and thus had the unenviable task of bringing to an end a manga of monumental importance and popularity.
I will never not cry when Vegeta embraces his son and sacrifices himself for the greater good. I will never not cheer for him when heâs desperately fighting to buy GokĆ« that precious one minute. I will never not raise my hands in the air when GokĆ« begs the earthlings to help him complete the Genki Dama.
There is so much dramatic tension in this plotline, so much sacrifice, so much to lose. The stakes are at their highest in Buu. Character after character perishes, even the ones most of us considered exempt from carnage. There are multiple heroes training to take down this new threat, each pushing past his own limits, desperate to restore peace to Earth.
Sure, itâs messy as all hell. But did Toriyama succeed in salvaging this arc despite the colossal messiness? It depends on who you ask. Some fans loathe this final chapter of DB, whereas others consider it a shining example of how to conclude a long-running manga. I reckon both opinions are valid. Depending on the section itâs currently dealing with, the plot can feel either too rushed or too dragged out.
Overall, I enjoyed it, my favourite chapters the ones concerning Vegetaâs culminating character arc. But more on that later.
The Cell and Buu arcs are very similar in this regard. Both start off great, but get lost somewhere along the way. Their weaker sections are disappointing in much the same wayâpromising ideas that somehow fail to reach their full potential. I love them both, but Iâm not blind to the fact they couldâve been monumentally better.
Iâve saved the best for last. Look, I hate to be a basic bitch, but the Saiyan arc is where itâs at for me. In my opinion, itâs not only DBâs greatest plotline, but also one of the best story arcs in all of shĆnen. Itâs out-of-this-world good. I guess thatâs an apt way to describe it, given that it very much revolves around out-of-this-world elements. Itâs so good that I actually have nothing to say about it.
I could fill an entire wall with printouts of my favourite panels and pages. Toriyama is a master of his craft and thereâs no end to the illustrations I consider exceptional. So, instead of subjecting anyone to that, letâs talk characters. I am sacrificing a lot of specifics here for the sake of brevity, so Iâll mention only the most prominent ones.
Son GokĆ« is⊠A perfectly serviceable protagonist. I reckon heâs at his best in the earlier years, concluding with his fight against the Saiyans. After that point, he loses much of his appeal. Paradoxically, itâs in the post-Saiyan DB that GokĆ« transcends a mere character and becomes something more. Namely, a blueprint for all future shĆnen manga protagonistsâtenacious, gluttonous, not terribly smart loudmouths. In a way, you could say that GokĆ« sacrifices his individual character to pave the way for subsequent heroes.
Krillin is fantastic! He goes from an insecure brat perfectly willing to walk all over others to a humble, relatable everyman. He is far from the strongest, yet remains relevant throughout the story. Precisely because he isnât the strongest, Krillin has to be the tactician, the planner, the strategist, the organiser. He is consistently shown to be one of the smartest fighters and frequently has all the most interesting subplots revolving around him.
I think Piccolo works best in the nanny/mentor role. And Iâm referring here to Junior, not his Big Green papa. Though most fans will be quick to point out his chemistry with Gohan, I believe he works even better as a foil to Goten and Trunks and their smug fusion. Piccolo facepalming amid one heart-attack-inducing stupidity of Gotenksâs after another makes my day every single time.
Speaking of Son Gohan, I love everything about him from start to finish. I love that he isnât like his dad. I love his reluctance, his fears and insecurities. While most DB fans arenât too happy about Gohanâs retirement to nerdom, I can think of no better way for his journey to wrap up. He spent years and years of his life fighting to secure a safe, stable planet he can become a scholar on. Of course I want him to do what he loves after heâs sacrificed so much to ensure that peace and stability.
I fully expected to hate Mister Satan, mostly because I donât like what Toei does with him in both Z and Kai. Having now reacquainted myself with Toriyamaâs Mr. Satan, I can only say that I adore this blustering buffoon so much that Iâm never jumping off the Hail Satan bandwagon. This arrogant, cowardly, limelight-hogging idiot may not be the hero we expected, but he still managed to save the world (or contribute immensely to its saving) twice.
Lastly, my favourite character is technically my favourite family. From Bulmaâs ditsy mother to her even ditsier father and their menagerie, across both Trunkses, to the absolute power couple that is Bulma and Vegeta, our wealthy capsule family, in my humble opinion, is Toriyamaâs greatest contribution to the world. Am I slightly biased in saying that, swayed by years and years of consuming VegeBul fanfiction? . . . . . Perhaps.
But, come on! Be honest, if you could choose to be anyone in the world, youâd choose to be Bulma, right? A superrich genius with access to amazing technology, piles of Zeni and Dragon Balls? Fuck yes, sign me up!
Yes, she can be brash and conceited and spoiled, but Bulma is also highly adaptable and matures immensely over the course of the manga. She starts out as a pampered brat more than willing to throw others under the bus, but gradually evolves into a quintessential asset, someone who helps others and actively fights that good fight. Just look at everything she manages to achieve in the future timeline thatâs been all but eradicated by Dr. Gero.
And Vegeta? Aah, Vegeta⊠*melting* What is it about this genocidal mass murderer that we love so much? As an unapologetic Vegeta fangirl, Iâm not sure I have an objective answer to that. Vegeta constitutes such a large chunk of my fanfic diet that itâs hard for me to divorce his ff character from the character Toriyama created.
Even so, itâs clear why so many fanfiction writers latch onto him. There is something inherently changeable about Vegeta, and I believe it is precisely this quality that prompts so many creators to take him down so many different paths and reinvent him in so many different scenarios.
On a personal level, I have to admit that Vegeta is the most relatable character Iâve come across in fiction. Yepâout of all the numerous characters Iâve met in movies, manga, TV shows, books, anime and all other forms of media, Vegeta is the character I identify with the most. Think of me what you willâŠ
I am stubborn and petty in the same way he is. I am insanely proud in the same way he is. I live with unhealthy levels of both self-love and self-loathing, just as he does. I reject everything I havenât earned by myself just like he does. And when we do accept help, we canât live with ourselves, canât forgive ourselves for that weakness. I am self-destructive just like he is, to the point of causing real damage to both myself and my loved ones just so I can uphold my warped set of principles.
In short, weâre both screwed up in the same ways.
This loveable bastard is by far the most developed and complex character in the manga. Vegetaâs journey takes him from the highest highs to the lowest lows. Over the course of the story, he matures, adapts, relapses, suffers crushing defeats and humiliations, matures some more, relapses yet again, only to arise from his own ashes even wiser and stronger. Sometimes even humbler.
By all accounts, Vegeta shouldnât belong in this predominantly comedic, light-hearted, HEA manga. And yet, he does. Vegeta occupies such a large, central role in Dragon Ball that youâd be forgiven for forgetting there ever was a Dragon Ball without Vegeta.
Characters like Vegetaâlucky enough to get a second chance at life, to suffer both a literal and metaphorical death, to experience rebirth as someone different, someone betterâinspire. I reckon thatâs one of the crucial reasons fans consistently single out Vegeta as their fave. Vegeta shows us thereâs always a way to start over, even if youâve journeyed to hell and back and done some pretty horrendous things along the way.
One of the things I love most about Dragon Ball is that things are constantly changing. There is no status quo to return to. The first chapter introduces us to Gokƫ as a child. By the time we reach the last chapter, Gokƫ is a grandfather. Throughout the series, we watch these characters grow, change and mature, get married, start families, and achieve ever greater things. In a sense, we get to grow alongside the characters we met when they were children.
Take Bulma, for instance. When we first meet her, sheâs a fickle, self-centred adolescent. From there, we watch her mature into a confident scientist, an intrepid adventurer, a partner, and a parent. We watch her make new friends, start and end romantic relationships, and develop ever more advanced technology. When we reach the final page, she is a happily married middle-aged scientist, friend, and parent.
As I rant often enough to anybody whoâd listen, most contemporary manga give us adolescent characters who stay roughly the same age throughout the run of their story. Itâs only in the closing chapters, the epilogue, or the sequel that we see these characters grow up, start families, and so on.
The implicit message I get from those tales is that your teens and twenties are the only era of your life worth a damn and that, once you settle âdownâ, nothing remotely fun, interesting, or exciting can ever happen to you again. The older I get, the more I resent this glorification of youth as the only important and exciting period of your life.
Thatâs what I love so much about Dragon Ball. Sure, itâs got its fair share of female characters literally retiring to motherhood, but on the whole, Toriyama isnât afraid to age up the characters, nor to give us long time skips other manga artists wouldnât dream of committing to and only started doing themselves once Toriyama paved the way.
Change is a chief component of Dragon Ball, and this manga perfectly demonstrates that life is one big adventure that goes on and on, regardless of what life stage youâre in. The franchiseâs oldest fans are now in their fifties and sixties. I donât think itâs a stretch to assume they continue to love this story partially because it features ageing characters who are constantly evolving, becoming parents and grandparents, but not slowing down.
Iâve spent 2023 reading some pretty hard-hitting books. Itâs also the year my mental health was at its lowest. It took an intervention of sorts to even get me into the shower, let alone back into a therapistâs office, where he discovered a whole host of diagnoses with my name on them. I spent an entire season of this year in a state of semi-homelessness that sometimes saw me spending the night in public transport because I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to.
Iâve recently turned 30 and can say with absolute certainty that 2023 was the worst year of my life. I hope no future year turns out worse because, frankly, I donât think I could handle it. There are still many things I canât do, things that used to be a cinch. I hope Iâll be able to manage them in the future as I slowly work on mitigating all the emotional and physical damage thatâs been done to me.
Given all that, itâs no wonder rereading Dragon Ball was one of the few bright spots I looked forward to this year. The individual sections of the manga served as a great respite between heavier books. Dragon Ball is fun. Itâs also bloody inspirational. Whether it gets you into the gym or simply nudges you to finally take a shower, itâs wild how bloody helpful this seemingly silly, straightforward story is.
Dragon Ball is one of the seminal works of my formative years, my adolescence, and even adulthood. I see its characters in me as I trudge along. When faced with a dilemma, I think about how, say, Bulma or Gohan, might handle the situation.
Elements of Toriyamaâs story and its offshoots have even entered my vocabulary. I donât say âGodâ, âOh, my Godâ, etc. Owing to the many gods of Dragon Ball, itâs become my habit to say Gods in plural. When something bad happens, I mutter âcrapbasketsâ. When something really bad happens, I snarl âson of an Arlian whoreâ, and so on. All in all, itâs quite amazing how much this narrative and its derivatives have managed to seep into my day-to-day life.
Iâve rated the individual volumes everything from one to five stars, with the mean coming out at, lemme grab a pen and paper⊠3.47. Yup, that sounds about right, both mathematically and emotionally.
Dragon Ball is a flawed masterpiece, one of its greatest legacies being how much itâs inspired other creators. With that in mind, now that Iâve reread the manga, I canât think of a better way to spend the next half-hour than watching TFSâs newly-released compilation of âBuu bitsâ.
Have a nice day, my dear strangers đ
14 Tuesday Dec 2021
Posted Literature
inTags
Akira Toriyama, American Literature, anime, books, Derek Padula, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, It's Over 9000 When Worldviews Collide, Literature, manga, Non-fiction, review
Ciao, my dear strangers đ
As a long-time fan of Dragon Ball, Iâve known for at least the last fifteen years that the original manga line is actually âover eight-thousandâ, not ânine-thousandâ. Even though I enjoy the (deliberate?) mistake in its execution, as well as the subsequent meme thatâs entered the popular lexicon of an entire generation, I have to admit I donât care for it all that much. I think that Brian Drummond gave a fantastically over-the-top performance when recording that line for the Ocean Dub, arguably the only reason that scene reached the heights of popularity that it did, but thatâs about the extent of it for me.
What Iâm far more interested in is that second part of the title or the subtitle â When Worldviews Collide. As an unapologetic Vegeta fan-girl, I never tire of analyses of his character, his motivations, his beliefs, the core of his being and his overall arc. He is undoubtedly the single most complex and developed character in Dragon Ball, bar none. His journey takes him from the highest highs to the lowest lows. Over the course of the franchise, Vegeta matures, adapts, suffers relapses, experiences crushing defeats and humiliations and matures some more till, at the end of the day, he finally discovers something truly worth fighting for. His character arc perfectly reflects the whole literary want vs. need development.
He is such a lovable bastard, so beautifully complex (and complicated!) that I sometimes have a very hard time believing he came from the pen of a creator as mercurial as Toriyama Akira. Just as Shylock is famously said to have been the character who âgot away from Shakespeareâ, so too do I think the same can be said of Toriyama and Vegeta. Dragon Ball, for the most part, is comedic and light-hearted, and the kinds of stories it tells are predominantly simple. By all accounts, Vegeta shouldnât belong here. And, yet, he does. He fits in the storyline so perfectly and occupies such a large, central space in it that itâs sometimes easy for fans to forget that there ever was a Dragon Ball without Vegeta.
Whilst I found this book slightly repetitive and while there were some annoying typos and other grammatical errors here and there, I still enjoyed the deep dive into the central charactersâ psyches. There are some wonderfully poignant lines in it that really make you stop and think about all the underlying messages of this seemingly simple story about muscular meatheads screaming and powering up. Padula says that Vegeta and Gokuâs first battle is âthe result of their different worldviews colliding, the prelude to an epic rivalry, and the fundamental source of their growthâ. I wholeheartedly agree with all three of those statements, especially the last one.
Growth is a fundamental part of Dragon Ball. Change is ever-present and constant. The first chapter opens up on a kid Goku, whereas the last presents us with Goku in his forties, a grandfather. We watch these characters age and grow, start families and constantly shift from one role to another. There is no status quo. Change is a chief component of Dragon Ball and is something that I really appreciate about it and that I donât see nearly often enough in other Japanese manga and anime. Usually, the storyline ends, and it is only in the very closing chapters or the epilogue or the sequel that we learn these characters actually grew older, got married, had kids. These other stories are basically telling us that the adventures end once you settle âdownâ and that nothing fun, important or exciting can ever happen to you again.
In an action-based, martial-arts-oriented story such as Dragon Ball, this change and growth naturally occur through combat. Combat and conflict are what allow the characters to push through their limits and achieve ever wilder and crazier hairdos. As Padula points out â Dragon Ball inspires. Characters such as Vegeta, lucky enough to get a second chance at life, lucky enough to suffer both a literal and a metaphorical death and be reborn as something different, something better, inspire.
As the author says, Vegeta, Goku and the rest of the characters continuously push themselves because they are aware of the key behind success and self-fulfilment: âSuffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regretâ. And that is some powerful shit right there! Itâs something we should all remind ourselves of whenever we donât feel like that morning jog, whenever we do feel like a cigarette, whenever the declension of adjectives of the language weâre currently learning becomes so complicated we start thinking we may as well just give up.
Padula also briefly touches upon the very real, tangible impact Dragon Ball has had on peopleâs personal lives. The most touching of these stories is the one about a fan named Joshua who contemplated suicide before this show pulled him away from the edge. People often sneer at the love we have for certain fictional content, not really capable of understanding how something fictional can touch us so deeply. In my experience, people like that deserve only pity. As in â if a great narrative canât move you, what can? Humans, after all, are a narrative-driven species. Itâs like that meme of Vegeta telling the audience that thereâs no shame in letting an anime inspire you to exercise and live healthier. Why would there be?
The author makes several references to Taoism and how its teachings helped shape both Journey to the West and, subsequently, Dragon Ball. For this reason, Iâve decided to read Tao Te Ching next and learn what the Old Master himself had to say about life and happiness.
Keep reading, my dear strangers đ
23 Thursday Sep 2021
Posted Literature
inTags
Akira Toriyama, anime, books, DB30YEARS: Special Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Magazine, Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Kanzenshuu, manga, review
Ciao, my dear strangers đ
Iâve been a fan of Dragon Ball for some twenty years now. Itâs a franchise which just keeps giving and giving, even when we may not want it to. KanzenshĆ« is considered the leading website in English on all things Dragon Ball, a truly comprehensive place where you can find out just about everything there is to know about this manga and anime juggernaut, the godfather of shĆnen stories as we know them, one thatâs helped shape our world so much that the contemporary battle-anime landscape would look significantly different had Toriyama not decided in 1984 to introduce us to an odd monkey-tailed boy and a blue-haired girl trying to shoot him in the face.
In 2014, for the franchiseâs thirtieth anniversary, KanzenshĆ« decided to issue a special edition magazine to celebrate it, compiling memories, reviews and opinion pieces. Most of the information presented in it may be considered obscure by the casual fan, so Iâm happy to say ***BRAG ALERT*** I was already familiar with most of it.
Some of my favourite entries are the ones in which fans describe their first exposure to Dragon Ball and the ensuing madness of becoming obsessed and falling deeper and deeper in love with it in a mad dash to gain more information, a near-impossible mission in the late nineties. The special magazine features roughly fifty different entries, but Iâll mention only the most striking ones.
Julian Grybowski, better known as âSaiyaJediâ in the fandom vernacular, wrote some of the most memorable pieces. I especially enjoyed his entry on some of the characteristics of Dr. Slump being reused in creative (and less creative) ways in Dragon Ball, as well as his outline of the mangaâs stretch in ShĆnen Jump in which he essentially celebrates the storyâs imperfections and Toriyamaâs scatterbrained, largely improvisational approach to storytelling, criticising subsequent editionsâ attempts to fix all the inconsistencies and perceived mistakes, as if narratives have to be perfect in order to be enjoyed. He also provides us with an almost hauntingly beautiful and philosophical take on the events covered in Jaco, urging the fans to evaluate it not only as a fun, standalone manga, but also in relation to the larger Dragon Ball mythos.
Heath Cutler, one of the founders of Kanzenshƫ, also provides the readers with some intriguing and insightful entries. I especially enjoyed the one on the division of the story into arcs or sagas, depending on your persuasion, as well as the one on his personal take on the Dragon Ball fandom as a whole, where he outlines exactly what makes this particular franchise special and why it suffers from such polarisation, how its uniqueness in the West provides it with both some advantages and near-crippling drawbacks. He also takes us on a fun little ride into the world of the dreaded filler content and the reasons behind its plaguing the Dragon Ball anime to such an infuriating degree.
Scott Frerichs, better known to fans as âKaiserNekoâ of DBZ Abridged fame (which I somehow still keep hoping will come back and cover the final arc), wrote a compelling piece that feels very personal and intimate, about who Son GokĆ« is and what he means to us, comparing him to the ensuing shĆnen protagonists and describing his influence on them. It comes as no surprise that so many are modelled after and inspired by him, given how influential Toriyamaâs magnum opus is for younger mangakas.
Most of us Dragon Ball fans know Toriyama took inspiration for the early plot developments, character designs and character names from the sixteenth-century Chinese novel Monkey: The Journey to the West. What most of us donât know is that the anime staff incorporated some of Son Wukongâs adventures into filler arcs and episodes and thatâs where Mike LaBrie, âVegettoEXâ, comes in. He gives us both an overview of some of the story beats present in the novel and their implementation into filler content, as well as offer us different ways of accessing and consuming the original work.
Meri LaBrie in turn treats us to a familiar story, one of a fan discovering a piece of fiction theyâre about to become obsessed with for the first time. Those early days of becoming a fan, especially if they take place in the early or even the pre-internet era, are extremely evocative and nostalgic. Iâve been there, traversing the clumsy terrain of the early world wide web, on a hunt for whatever piece of information I could get my hands on. Itâs easy nowadays to forget what being a fan in the nineties and early noughties was like. Weâve become so used to having all the info in the history of humanity available to us, just a click away, that we sometimes forget how precious those early days were, even when we take into account the fact we tend to view them through rose-coloured glasses.
Jake Schutz provides an extremely riveting take on Dragon Ballâs hierarchy of deities. He explains how Toriyama came to utilise divine beings and aliens â is it a job, a status, a permanent state of being, an inherent trait, a title passed down â tracing the history of divinities in Dr. Slump and the reception of godlike beings in the West where, more often than not, these terms would go through a watering-down process so as to become more palatable to a different culture with very different stances on what a god is supposed to be, do and look like. For my part, I love the way Toriyama depicts godhood, making all these insanely powerful deities perverted lechers and lazy gluttons, not that much different from us.
Due to the thirtieth anniversaryâs temporal proximity to the release of the Battle of the Gods movie, itâs hardly surprising many of the magazineâs contributors decided to focus on that element, covering their emotional states, expectations, hype and reaction to the movie. One of the best has got to be Julianâs description of the frenzied state of KanzenshĆ«âs staff, covering events from when the first hints at new material got strategically dropped to the viewing itself. Even though all of this took place in the early 2010s, long after the dark ages of the internet, this entry still manages to capture what being a desperate fan is like when information is scarce, how oneâs expectations, wishes and predictions combine to create a veritable frenzy, perfectly reflecting what discovering Dragon Ball for the first time was like for many of us.
My favourite piece though has got to be Lance Rumowiczâs take on the character of Bardock. Heâs better known in the fandom as MistareFusion and is, in my totally biased opinion, the single greatest Dragon Ball content creator in the English language. His Dragon Ball Dissection is a gem for any fan of this franchise and his piece on Bardock demonstrates all the intelligence, common sense and insight he tends to bring to his videos on a regular basis as well. Every Dragon Ball fan owes is to herself to check out his content and enrich her knowledge of this story.
I fully intended to read this magazine shortly after it got released, but I find myself reading it only now, in 2021, closer to Dragon Ballâs fortieth anniversary than to its thirtieth. And that got me thinking â the contributors whose pieces I read all mentioned the hype surrounding Battle of the Gods, but many also mentioned their excitement about the upcoming movie. That movie turned out to be Resurrection/Revival F, an abomination of a narrative that served no purpose whatsoever other than to milk a popular character that really shouldâve stayed dead. I found Battle of the Gods to be a pleasant, enjoyable movie, nothing more and nothing less, all in all â nothing particularly special. However, when compared to Resurrection F, it may as well be the Godfather.
Since then, over the course of just a few short years, we also got the Dragon Ball Super manga, the Super anime and another movie, featuring Broli/Broly no less. Nowadays, weâre all hyped for that upcoming 2022 movie we still know next to nothing about, making all sorts of wild predictions, much like the KanzenshĆ« staff did for Battle of the Gods nearly a decade back. What Iâm trying to say is that, in just three short years, weâll find ourselves celebrating Dragon Ballâs fortieth anniversary. And all I can say about that is that I hope KanzenshĆ« releases an even longer and more comprehensive edition. How could they not? Look at how much new material we got in the span of just a few years. Like I said, Dragon Ball is a franchise that keeps giving, even when we donât want it to, ahem, Resurrection F, ahem.
Hope you have a nice day, my dear strangers đ