Dragon Ball: A Twisted Love Affair
By: MSJ
Growing up in the 90s nothing excited me more than getting home from school, throwing away all responsibilities, and tuning in for the latest episode of Dragon Ball Z. There wasn't any other show that could fill me with such glee and anticipation as Dragon Ball. Massive beams of energy that would be hurled across the screen in a blur of lights and sound, as Goku would do everything in his power to overcome an opponent that he was facing. If his signature Kamehameha wave proved ineffective he would resort to the Spirit Bomb; a move that called on the energy from all the living things in his surroundings area (eventually the universe), requiring those that would willingly give their energy to him to raise their hands. On the other side of the TV, I would stand up screaming for Goku to take my energy so that he could defeat Frieza.
As you can more than likely tell by now I was highly invested in everything that involved the Z fighters so much to the point that after a half hour of viewing I was boiling over excitement questioning what could happen next, how would the Z fighters defeat Cell? All the while I was still trying to perfect my Kamehameha wave. This passion I held for Dragon Ball stuck with me well into my teenage years, constantly mistaking it as my first anime (it was Sailor Moon for those wondering), but it is still today one of the reasons I love anime. This was back in 1999, with Dragon Ball undergoing a resurgence today with the production of Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Heroes. A veritable smorgasbord of Dragon Ball content is being produced today, which causes me a tinge of dissonance.
I love Dragon Ball, I can say that confidently without doubt, but as I grew older and analytical the series did not hold up so well to scrutiny. The more I sat and ponder what Dragon Ball is more of, it began to not mesh well with me. Things like characters that were not Saiyans being pushed more into the background with each passing saga, transformations being vague power increases, or Goku literally giving a villain assistance to ensure a fair fight vexed me, but I could not turn away. The way the story would bend over backward for convoluted solutions to the problems at hand drove me mad, yet I could not let my fandom for Dragon Ball die despite my growing reservations. Very similar to a loveless relationship that one stays in out of convenience, Dragon Ball always will maintain its position as one of the greatest anime of all time almost purely due to the stakes constantly rising for no reason other than it had to keep going. Despite blatantly displaying some of the greater issues with shonen anime, legions of anime viewers (both casual and hardcore) all love Dragon Ball while casually ignoring some of the things that hold it back from perfection; but maintaining it as a red flag that we cannot see because we choose to look at it with rose colored glasses.
The characters are over the top hyper-masculine power fantasies that would beat each other into oblivion to settle the very fate of the universe. While at the same time being charming, hilarious, and role models that even to this day help me be a good person. Dragon Ball was the series I could never get enough of, by my late teens however I had become much more invested in anime and storytelling, that I noticed the issues of the show.
After almost 30 years of existence Dragon Ball regretfully outlived its natural conclusion, not very long after the Namek Saga it soon became a near-parody of itself. With the advent of Goku's Super Saiyan transformation it opened the door for other characters such as Vegeta and Gohan to follow suit. That should be the end, right? Everyone can become a super Saiyan, how much more powerful can a character become? This train of thought was quickly dismantled with the introduction of the ascended Saiyan transformation, then super Saiyan two, three, etc. Dragon Ball not only took note of the power ceiling it shattered it by creating more powerful threats the characters had to face, only for those threats to be defeated after a new transformation was showcased.
As I have mentioned earlier, as the threats the Z fighters faced became more and more powerful this forced Goku, the main character, to become more powerful to the point where weaker. More interesting characters were given diminished roles in the story, namely Piccolo. Although he is a prominent character throughout the series, later towards the end of Z he ultimately became solely a guiding voice for the more powerful characters. Arguably, recurring plot decision is one of the biggest issues many have with Dragon Ball, due to Goku being a fairly stock character having every plotline hinge on his victories is what frustrates many. In fact, ask a fan you may know about who their favorite character is in Dragon Ball most will say Vegeta due to his more complex character arc. Others will say Gohan, Piccolo, Tien, even Frieza with a smaller percentage choosing Goku due to nature of being fairly one-dimensional with simplistic motivations as a fan insert.
That in itself is the power of Dragon Ball: the fan service. during its early Z days it would make callbacks to Dragon Ball and now during the Dragon Ball Super era that is what Dragon Ball is one wildly successful bit of fan service. Characters such as Piccolo and Gohan display their father-son-like bond often, Frieza has returned and is supposedly on equal footing in terms of strength with Goku, and finally, Broly the most well-received movie character of Dragon Ball has returned to headline his own movie for Super. What more could fans want, right? Those very sentences are enough to make me overfilled with glee at the insane heights the series will continue, even though I do have pet peeves about the show I do not hate it at all. Rather, I feel these annoyances are what keep an already great series from perfection or rather similar to the Simpson's a cultural icon has become a shadow of its former self. Merely resting of the laurels of past highs to the point where its success is due to the most loyal of fans that range in the hundreds of thousands to keep it afloat.
Dragon Ball at this stage knows what it is, a mere power fantasy that anyone can relate to serving easily digestible material so that it can quickly move on to the centerpiece of the series the epic clashes of power. That is actually fine because most of us turn to anime for a breather from the real world. Power fantasies have their place in society because sometimes we cannot overcome our own challenges. Some of the challenges we do face are not as easily resolved as punching it in the face, the real world is abstract. Whereas in Dragon Ball Z problems are tangible and easily resolved. When Goku triumphs after a long battle, so do we. When he overcomes his limits it gives us hope that we too can do the same. Dragon Ball may have grown obese in its self-indulgent nature as of late, but it knows what it is. A fantasy that we can share to get us through some of our hardships even for a moment. This is why Dragonball will forever endure in lieu of its shortcoming.
Check out these other great articles:
The False Number One
Spyro Retrospective
Kingdom Hearts Retrospective
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As you can more than likely tell by now I was highly invested in everything that involved the Z fighters so much to the point that after a half hour of viewing I was boiling over excitement questioning what could happen next, how would the Z fighters defeat Cell? All the while I was still trying to perfect my Kamehameha wave. This passion I held for Dragon Ball stuck with me well into my teenage years, constantly mistaking it as my first anime (it was Sailor Moon for those wondering), but it is still today one of the reasons I love anime. This was back in 1999, with Dragon Ball undergoing a resurgence today with the production of Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Heroes. A veritable smorgasbord of Dragon Ball content is being produced today, which causes me a tinge of dissonance.
I love Dragon Ball, I can say that confidently without doubt, but as I grew older and analytical the series did not hold up so well to scrutiny. The more I sat and ponder what Dragon Ball is more of, it began to not mesh well with me. Things like characters that were not Saiyans being pushed more into the background with each passing saga, transformations being vague power increases, or Goku literally giving a villain assistance to ensure a fair fight vexed me, but I could not turn away. The way the story would bend over backward for convoluted solutions to the problems at hand drove me mad, yet I could not let my fandom for Dragon Ball die despite my growing reservations. Very similar to a loveless relationship that one stays in out of convenience, Dragon Ball always will maintain its position as one of the greatest anime of all time almost purely due to the stakes constantly rising for no reason other than it had to keep going. Despite blatantly displaying some of the greater issues with shonen anime, legions of anime viewers (both casual and hardcore) all love Dragon Ball while casually ignoring some of the things that hold it back from perfection; but maintaining it as a red flag that we cannot see because we choose to look at it with rose colored glasses.
The characters are over the top hyper-masculine power fantasies that would beat each other into oblivion to settle the very fate of the universe. While at the same time being charming, hilarious, and role models that even to this day help me be a good person. Dragon Ball was the series I could never get enough of, by my late teens however I had become much more invested in anime and storytelling, that I noticed the issues of the show.
After almost 30 years of existence Dragon Ball regretfully outlived its natural conclusion, not very long after the Namek Saga it soon became a near-parody of itself. With the advent of Goku's Super Saiyan transformation it opened the door for other characters such as Vegeta and Gohan to follow suit. That should be the end, right? Everyone can become a super Saiyan, how much more powerful can a character become? This train of thought was quickly dismantled with the introduction of the ascended Saiyan transformation, then super Saiyan two, three, etc. Dragon Ball not only took note of the power ceiling it shattered it by creating more powerful threats the characters had to face, only for those threats to be defeated after a new transformation was showcased.
As I have mentioned earlier, as the threats the Z fighters faced became more and more powerful this forced Goku, the main character, to become more powerful to the point where weaker. More interesting characters were given diminished roles in the story, namely Piccolo. Although he is a prominent character throughout the series, later towards the end of Z he ultimately became solely a guiding voice for the more powerful characters. Arguably, recurring plot decision is one of the biggest issues many have with Dragon Ball, due to Goku being a fairly stock character having every plotline hinge on his victories is what frustrates many. In fact, ask a fan you may know about who their favorite character is in Dragon Ball most will say Vegeta due to his more complex character arc. Others will say Gohan, Piccolo, Tien, even Frieza with a smaller percentage choosing Goku due to nature of being fairly one-dimensional with simplistic motivations as a fan insert.
That in itself is the power of Dragon Ball: the fan service. during its early Z days it would make callbacks to Dragon Ball and now during the Dragon Ball Super era that is what Dragon Ball is one wildly successful bit of fan service. Characters such as Piccolo and Gohan display their father-son-like bond often, Frieza has returned and is supposedly on equal footing in terms of strength with Goku, and finally, Broly the most well-received movie character of Dragon Ball has returned to headline his own movie for Super. What more could fans want, right? Those very sentences are enough to make me overfilled with glee at the insane heights the series will continue, even though I do have pet peeves about the show I do not hate it at all. Rather, I feel these annoyances are what keep an already great series from perfection or rather similar to the Simpson's a cultural icon has become a shadow of its former self. Merely resting of the laurels of past highs to the point where its success is due to the most loyal of fans that range in the hundreds of thousands to keep it afloat.
Dragon Ball at this stage knows what it is, a mere power fantasy that anyone can relate to serving easily digestible material so that it can quickly move on to the centerpiece of the series the epic clashes of power. That is actually fine because most of us turn to anime for a breather from the real world. Power fantasies have their place in society because sometimes we cannot overcome our own challenges. Some of the challenges we do face are not as easily resolved as punching it in the face, the real world is abstract. Whereas in Dragon Ball Z problems are tangible and easily resolved. When Goku triumphs after a long battle, so do we. When he overcomes his limits it gives us hope that we too can do the same. Dragon Ball may have grown obese in its self-indulgent nature as of late, but it knows what it is. A fantasy that we can share to get us through some of our hardships even for a moment. This is why Dragonball will forever endure in lieu of its shortcoming.
Check out these other great articles:
The False Number One
Spyro Retrospective
Kingdom Hearts Retrospective
Follow us on social media:
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