Holder of the Heel
Fiat justitia, pereat mundus
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Link to original post: [drupal=5196]Some Thoughts on Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z[/drupal]
I'm a Dragon Ball series fan. I can't say I am a hardcore fan nor am I supremely knowledgeable. I'm like most people who was raised watching Dragon Ball Z, not even knowing there was a show about Goku's life before it, nor did I even know what "anime" was then either. Just like any child, I was crazy and mesmerized by the nonstop action and the incredible art. Around Christmas last year I got all of the manga (the Vizbig edition where there are three volumes in one and the pages are larger), all 14 of them (needless to say I had a lot of fun :D), breezing through them in a short time. I had seen most of Dragon Ball when I was younger, but his was the first time I've seen it from start to finish and with an older mind, and of course I got to revisit Dragon Ball Z, having seen some Kai on Nicktoons around then as well. I then began to realize something.
Toriyama absolutely SUCKS at writing stories. It's true, everyone would have to agree. But that is because that isn't his strong suit. His strong suits being art and gags. For example, before Dragon Ball all he did was gags, even the recurring Dr. Slump was very episodic in nature. Dragon Ball itself started out with perhaps 3/4 gag and 1/4 action until demand forced him to go half and half for the sake of popularity. That ratio is perhaps what I'm going to argue is the best that the series ever sees. Every so few pages you get a smile or a chuckle and the action is very playful, you never expect much of a complex story out of it nor do you expect any logic. And surprisingly, there aren't very many inconsistencies. That is because Toriyama can focus still on what he does well without having to pander too much to the adrenaline seeking reader and the fact that because the focus on action is still slight, there is no demand for too much story essence. It would be easy to agree probably that action is far more dependent on consistency and content than comedy. In fact, gags almost imply for a complete disregard for such elements. Now, towards the end of Dragon Ball, when King Piccolo is introduced, the story starts to go 3/4 action and 1/4 comedy (if even that). This is a bit warranted, considering the series is starting to close to an end, and the characters start to become so powerful that explosions become almost necessary if the steady increase of power is to continue. Interestingly though, it still becomes a bit one dimensional in areas, although the series still retains purpose in techniques and spells.
As strength and explosions becomes more focused, techniques and the like start to disappear, which we will go back to in a second. But what also seems to happen is that Son Goku starts to create a larger rift between himself and the other characters. This is something I'm personally not fond of, though I'm positive this is not a popular opinion. When the main character becomes the atlas of the entire series and the other characters become filler or almost insignificant in prowess because the main protagonist is obviously the one with the splotlight and thus becomes the one guy who gets anything done, and the story becomes very formulaic, predictable, and stagnant in terms of character development outside of the protagonist, for what reason would characters develop if they begin to disappear, unless you were to consider becoming a mere shadow of their former self as development (which I do not, and don't think anyone actually would). It is interesting all that this becomes particularly bad becomes it now suddenly becomes important as you begin to EXPECT dimension when a story shrinks the importance of the gags and raises the importance of the action and the stakes. The planet is in danger, Dragon Ball has reached its greatest threat, and naturally so at the end of it, and the world being threatened is a good way to wrap it up. Excellent. This is a factor we will also return to in a second.
Dragon Ball ends, and popular demand cries out for me, and Dragon Ball Z is born. And thus being born out of demand, it can only be assumed that the action would increase in focus. In fact, the end of Dragon Ball also fortifies the necessity for a plethora of reasons. How do you follow up on the world being saved? How do you make characters who can make massive explosions and destroy moons easily better? Dragon Ball Z fires off with roughly a 9/10 focus on action and 1/10 of comedy that shows up only briefly, the source being Krillin and the sheer quality of the characters (which is actually another good quality that it has). The rift between Goku and everyone else remains, only Piccolo can stand beside Goku, and this actually doesn't remain for long. Explosions and fast paced limb flailing becomes the definition of the fighting, and thus remains quite the same throughout the series. People at the start can destroy whatever they please really, and they can move deadly fast as well. These factors do not evolve, at all. Explosions are the same, they simply are induced with a higher power level. Same with punches and kicks. The rate at which people move even seems the same, and watching people struggle to see people moving so fast seems quaint. What makes someone disappearing and appearing somewhere else any different than someone who has done it earlier in the show, how is one harder to follow? When Semi-Perfect Cell becomes so fast he can blast off and catch up to Android 16 running off with 18 and everyone marvels at his speed. But Frieza could seemingly transmit himself anywhere. I understand, it is people having trouble to witness it, but how can popping up wherever you please be any slower or faster than someone else doing it? Someone blasting off is surely slower than people doing this. It all becomes nonsensical. Everytime a villain appears of a saiyan comes around and shows off their power level, the filler characters always have the same remarks. "It is through the roof!" "It is endless" "I've never seen anything like THIS!" etc. How is chi sensing any different for all of these people when everyone has the same unimaginable description of it. Nevermind, time to get back on topic.
As a result of all of this, blowing up a planet becomes a joke, and the focus on action is never very serious, which is a bit necessary since Dragon Ball is now trying to be something that has to be taken seriously, almost none of it is a joke. The characters that were meaningful and had attention in Dragon Ball had almost no roles (Launch literally vanishes despite her interest in Tien, which now that I think about it means little, since the powerful and formidable Tien gets perhaps two memorable moments in the series that actually don't get too much accomplished compared to almost any single memorable moment anyone else possesses). The first arc in Namek is actually the best, Krillin who is pretty much the strongest human actually gets some attention, despite it mostly being him hiding and running. The events that transpire there are actually the most interesting and plot driven that the series gets, in fact, techniques are not extinct as of yet. But even here, the fighting outside of spells and techniques are the same and quite dull. Not to mention the series started with this typical formula that carries what I mentioned before, Goku is the guy who gets **** done. He comes in, wrecks some *****es, then has to rest for a while and the weakling characters struggle to handle things. In fact, this carries into the next saga a little as well. Speaking of the Android/Cell saga, I must actually say something most would probably contest with. It just might be the worst of the three. I know, I know, the Buu saga is generally elected that by just about everyone, but I'll explain.
At the end of the Frieza saga, it was played pretty similarly to how Dragon Ball ended. Probably considering Toriyama wanted it to end there, but of course demand started to show its ugly head again and we got another go, and things were left even worse than at the end of DB. The rift between Goku and everyone else is larger than ever, and few characters get even the slightest bit of mention or love, whereas DB treated them at least a bit better. Yeah, there was Vegeta, but he pales in comparison to Goku unlike Piccolo did with Goku at the end of DB. And Vegeta, who is a very cool and fun character, gets totally **** on this time around. This is the worst saga for him, his character becomes even more predictable and in the worst way. His greatest moment is his unveiling of "Super Vegeta" and destroying the weakest and ugliest Android. From then on, he immediately shows that not only Goku can have a typical formula. His formula goes as follows": "I can take on anyone! Let's let the bad guys show up or get stronger so I can test myself!" He then proceeds to get his butt kicked and the world becomes hugely in danger as a result. This happens multiple times until he just doesn't get anything done at the end, whereas Goku does a little and this his SON finishes the deal. But that is not the only flaw with this arc. It becomes nonexistent story wise, Toriyama has given up at this point, admittedly he perhaps should at this point because he didn't want to continue further. There are bad guys. They run around bored (being bored or filled with testosterone are the two major personality types in characters, and sometimes people switch between them) and the good guys either hide or try to get something done. That is it. For the story to continue they even have Android 17 pull a Vegeta and get himself absorbed and endanger all life in the universe because of stupidity. Cell is just an awful villain, he has to hide or rely on Toriyama's very characertistic deus ex machina that DBZ is practically defined by now. Characters grow in power level as Akira needs them to for the story to continue, logic is thrown out the window. Even the fan base at their most hardcore dispute in confusion over who is stronger than who, and sadly power level is all that matters. Techniques are dead at this point, the only way they surface in the slightest in this saga is through Cell, who can only do what everyone else has done so far. Thus he doesn't have much of his own essence to offer to the table. Frieza was far better and the arc was far better and Vegeta wasn't a complete annoyance then either. One could argue that Vegeta developed here (and indeed, he one is of few that change, the other that comes to mind is Piccolo, and sadly that means the most that there is in development in DBZ is when a good guy begins to become good) because of his anger that Goku showed him up. It is debatable whether it warrants, let alone justifies, the mess that is Vegeta in this arc.
What happens in the Buu arc is that things get a little bit more silly, but in a sense this is an improvement. Toriyama is more in his element here, he can do spells and have characters be funny. At this point you don't expect anything serious, partially because the reader/watcher has given up, but also because the story is now finally cognizant of how awful it is when it tries to be serious and has a little bit of fun. Buu is interesting, different, we have fusion which is a funny and strange idea. We even almost had some character development at the start of it, too bad it was interrupted by the god awful tournament segment which is the worst part in my view, but moving on. One may even consider the growth of the family as a "form" of development, especially in Krillin's sense. Vegeta also seems to have turned a bit good with all of the years of peace on Earth, even when he lets himself get "controlled" by Babidi and acts like a total ****, it is seemingly more justified because we can see it is like he was burning up from all of the peace and missed the lust for battle (that and he was probably partially mad from the spell, despite trumping most of it with his insane power level). He then even feels a bit sorrowful at all of it and hugs his son and kills himself. This is one of the best moments for Vegeta fans, and shows the most change out of these one dimensional characters (gotta love them some of them though, honestly). He even at the end realizes finally why Goku was ahead of him, it was great, Vegeta finally gets some closure. He becomes complete. This saga, filled with nonsense that doesn't take itself seriously finally, and an interesting Vegeta, seemingly makes for a more acceptable arc, and therefore a good note to end on, in my opinion.
That being said, although DBZ is seen far more popular and superior, I really do feel that the gags and character love seen in DB makes it to be as a piece of art superior, whether the content is more exciting or superior or not. Toriyama was still writing what he loved in DB, and had the worst time with DBZ and kept trying to end it, as much as I still like it despite my rather critical analysis of it. This is the same reason why I view that the Buu arc is not the worst, which is also an unconventional opinion that I wanted to share and see if anyone can come to agree with my points. Thanks for reading. ^_^
I'm a Dragon Ball series fan. I can't say I am a hardcore fan nor am I supremely knowledgeable. I'm like most people who was raised watching Dragon Ball Z, not even knowing there was a show about Goku's life before it, nor did I even know what "anime" was then either. Just like any child, I was crazy and mesmerized by the nonstop action and the incredible art. Around Christmas last year I got all of the manga (the Vizbig edition where there are three volumes in one and the pages are larger), all 14 of them (needless to say I had a lot of fun :D), breezing through them in a short time. I had seen most of Dragon Ball when I was younger, but his was the first time I've seen it from start to finish and with an older mind, and of course I got to revisit Dragon Ball Z, having seen some Kai on Nicktoons around then as well. I then began to realize something.
Toriyama absolutely SUCKS at writing stories. It's true, everyone would have to agree. But that is because that isn't his strong suit. His strong suits being art and gags. For example, before Dragon Ball all he did was gags, even the recurring Dr. Slump was very episodic in nature. Dragon Ball itself started out with perhaps 3/4 gag and 1/4 action until demand forced him to go half and half for the sake of popularity. That ratio is perhaps what I'm going to argue is the best that the series ever sees. Every so few pages you get a smile or a chuckle and the action is very playful, you never expect much of a complex story out of it nor do you expect any logic. And surprisingly, there aren't very many inconsistencies. That is because Toriyama can focus still on what he does well without having to pander too much to the adrenaline seeking reader and the fact that because the focus on action is still slight, there is no demand for too much story essence. It would be easy to agree probably that action is far more dependent on consistency and content than comedy. In fact, gags almost imply for a complete disregard for such elements. Now, towards the end of Dragon Ball, when King Piccolo is introduced, the story starts to go 3/4 action and 1/4 comedy (if even that). This is a bit warranted, considering the series is starting to close to an end, and the characters start to become so powerful that explosions become almost necessary if the steady increase of power is to continue. Interestingly though, it still becomes a bit one dimensional in areas, although the series still retains purpose in techniques and spells.
As strength and explosions becomes more focused, techniques and the like start to disappear, which we will go back to in a second. But what also seems to happen is that Son Goku starts to create a larger rift between himself and the other characters. This is something I'm personally not fond of, though I'm positive this is not a popular opinion. When the main character becomes the atlas of the entire series and the other characters become filler or almost insignificant in prowess because the main protagonist is obviously the one with the splotlight and thus becomes the one guy who gets anything done, and the story becomes very formulaic, predictable, and stagnant in terms of character development outside of the protagonist, for what reason would characters develop if they begin to disappear, unless you were to consider becoming a mere shadow of their former self as development (which I do not, and don't think anyone actually would). It is interesting all that this becomes particularly bad becomes it now suddenly becomes important as you begin to EXPECT dimension when a story shrinks the importance of the gags and raises the importance of the action and the stakes. The planet is in danger, Dragon Ball has reached its greatest threat, and naturally so at the end of it, and the world being threatened is a good way to wrap it up. Excellent. This is a factor we will also return to in a second.
Dragon Ball ends, and popular demand cries out for me, and Dragon Ball Z is born. And thus being born out of demand, it can only be assumed that the action would increase in focus. In fact, the end of Dragon Ball also fortifies the necessity for a plethora of reasons. How do you follow up on the world being saved? How do you make characters who can make massive explosions and destroy moons easily better? Dragon Ball Z fires off with roughly a 9/10 focus on action and 1/10 of comedy that shows up only briefly, the source being Krillin and the sheer quality of the characters (which is actually another good quality that it has). The rift between Goku and everyone else remains, only Piccolo can stand beside Goku, and this actually doesn't remain for long. Explosions and fast paced limb flailing becomes the definition of the fighting, and thus remains quite the same throughout the series. People at the start can destroy whatever they please really, and they can move deadly fast as well. These factors do not evolve, at all. Explosions are the same, they simply are induced with a higher power level. Same with punches and kicks. The rate at which people move even seems the same, and watching people struggle to see people moving so fast seems quaint. What makes someone disappearing and appearing somewhere else any different than someone who has done it earlier in the show, how is one harder to follow? When Semi-Perfect Cell becomes so fast he can blast off and catch up to Android 16 running off with 18 and everyone marvels at his speed. But Frieza could seemingly transmit himself anywhere. I understand, it is people having trouble to witness it, but how can popping up wherever you please be any slower or faster than someone else doing it? Someone blasting off is surely slower than people doing this. It all becomes nonsensical. Everytime a villain appears of a saiyan comes around and shows off their power level, the filler characters always have the same remarks. "It is through the roof!" "It is endless" "I've never seen anything like THIS!" etc. How is chi sensing any different for all of these people when everyone has the same unimaginable description of it. Nevermind, time to get back on topic.
As a result of all of this, blowing up a planet becomes a joke, and the focus on action is never very serious, which is a bit necessary since Dragon Ball is now trying to be something that has to be taken seriously, almost none of it is a joke. The characters that were meaningful and had attention in Dragon Ball had almost no roles (Launch literally vanishes despite her interest in Tien, which now that I think about it means little, since the powerful and formidable Tien gets perhaps two memorable moments in the series that actually don't get too much accomplished compared to almost any single memorable moment anyone else possesses). The first arc in Namek is actually the best, Krillin who is pretty much the strongest human actually gets some attention, despite it mostly being him hiding and running. The events that transpire there are actually the most interesting and plot driven that the series gets, in fact, techniques are not extinct as of yet. But even here, the fighting outside of spells and techniques are the same and quite dull. Not to mention the series started with this typical formula that carries what I mentioned before, Goku is the guy who gets **** done. He comes in, wrecks some *****es, then has to rest for a while and the weakling characters struggle to handle things. In fact, this carries into the next saga a little as well. Speaking of the Android/Cell saga, I must actually say something most would probably contest with. It just might be the worst of the three. I know, I know, the Buu saga is generally elected that by just about everyone, but I'll explain.
At the end of the Frieza saga, it was played pretty similarly to how Dragon Ball ended. Probably considering Toriyama wanted it to end there, but of course demand started to show its ugly head again and we got another go, and things were left even worse than at the end of DB. The rift between Goku and everyone else is larger than ever, and few characters get even the slightest bit of mention or love, whereas DB treated them at least a bit better. Yeah, there was Vegeta, but he pales in comparison to Goku unlike Piccolo did with Goku at the end of DB. And Vegeta, who is a very cool and fun character, gets totally **** on this time around. This is the worst saga for him, his character becomes even more predictable and in the worst way. His greatest moment is his unveiling of "Super Vegeta" and destroying the weakest and ugliest Android. From then on, he immediately shows that not only Goku can have a typical formula. His formula goes as follows": "I can take on anyone! Let's let the bad guys show up or get stronger so I can test myself!" He then proceeds to get his butt kicked and the world becomes hugely in danger as a result. This happens multiple times until he just doesn't get anything done at the end, whereas Goku does a little and this his SON finishes the deal. But that is not the only flaw with this arc. It becomes nonexistent story wise, Toriyama has given up at this point, admittedly he perhaps should at this point because he didn't want to continue further. There are bad guys. They run around bored (being bored or filled with testosterone are the two major personality types in characters, and sometimes people switch between them) and the good guys either hide or try to get something done. That is it. For the story to continue they even have Android 17 pull a Vegeta and get himself absorbed and endanger all life in the universe because of stupidity. Cell is just an awful villain, he has to hide or rely on Toriyama's very characertistic deus ex machina that DBZ is practically defined by now. Characters grow in power level as Akira needs them to for the story to continue, logic is thrown out the window. Even the fan base at their most hardcore dispute in confusion over who is stronger than who, and sadly power level is all that matters. Techniques are dead at this point, the only way they surface in the slightest in this saga is through Cell, who can only do what everyone else has done so far. Thus he doesn't have much of his own essence to offer to the table. Frieza was far better and the arc was far better and Vegeta wasn't a complete annoyance then either. One could argue that Vegeta developed here (and indeed, he one is of few that change, the other that comes to mind is Piccolo, and sadly that means the most that there is in development in DBZ is when a good guy begins to become good) because of his anger that Goku showed him up. It is debatable whether it warrants, let alone justifies, the mess that is Vegeta in this arc.
What happens in the Buu arc is that things get a little bit more silly, but in a sense this is an improvement. Toriyama is more in his element here, he can do spells and have characters be funny. At this point you don't expect anything serious, partially because the reader/watcher has given up, but also because the story is now finally cognizant of how awful it is when it tries to be serious and has a little bit of fun. Buu is interesting, different, we have fusion which is a funny and strange idea. We even almost had some character development at the start of it, too bad it was interrupted by the god awful tournament segment which is the worst part in my view, but moving on. One may even consider the growth of the family as a "form" of development, especially in Krillin's sense. Vegeta also seems to have turned a bit good with all of the years of peace on Earth, even when he lets himself get "controlled" by Babidi and acts like a total ****, it is seemingly more justified because we can see it is like he was burning up from all of the peace and missed the lust for battle (that and he was probably partially mad from the spell, despite trumping most of it with his insane power level). He then even feels a bit sorrowful at all of it and hugs his son and kills himself. This is one of the best moments for Vegeta fans, and shows the most change out of these one dimensional characters (gotta love them some of them though, honestly). He even at the end realizes finally why Goku was ahead of him, it was great, Vegeta finally gets some closure. He becomes complete. This saga, filled with nonsense that doesn't take itself seriously finally, and an interesting Vegeta, seemingly makes for a more acceptable arc, and therefore a good note to end on, in my opinion.
That being said, although DBZ is seen far more popular and superior, I really do feel that the gags and character love seen in DB makes it to be as a piece of art superior, whether the content is more exciting or superior or not. Toriyama was still writing what he loved in DB, and had the worst time with DBZ and kept trying to end it, as much as I still like it despite my rather critical analysis of it. This is the same reason why I view that the Buu arc is not the worst, which is also an unconventional opinion that I wanted to share and see if anyone can come to agree with my points. Thanks for reading. ^_^
) quite a while before the original, that and maybe Vegeta.
