DB30YEARS Page 5

  We all enter this fandom with our own preconceived notions, thinking we know what we want from Dragon Ball: action, adventure, and more action. But if you stick around long enough, Dragon Ball has a remarkable way of giving back.

  The experiences, the knowledge, the skills, and the life-long friends...all these things are my fandom now. It is a remnant of its former self. It is ever evolving, and will surely be even more different years down the road.

  And I’m okay with that.

  HEATH (“Hujio”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. In addition to being one of the manga gurus alongside Julian, he keeps the site from crashing and burning on a daily basis.

  Animazement

  2013 Convention; Raleigh, NC

  By Doug Cruces

  If you asked me what the best day of my life was, I would have to say it was a three-way tie between the three days of Animazement 2013!

  Not only did I get to meet the amazing guests, but I also got to meet fellow members of Kanzenshuu. Even though I had barely talked with them on the forums prior to Animazement, we all became instant friends through our mutual love of Dragon Ball.

  I had the chance to make Masako Nozawa glee with joy over seeing the Battle of Gods “Super Collaboration Ticket” I brought for her to sign. She sounded as excited as Goku would be if he discovered a fridge full of food! Through her translator, she told me that the ticket was very rare and to take good care of it. I can promise you all that you will never see it up on eBay. If times ever get tough I would rather sell the cardboard box I’m living in than that ticket.

  DOUG (“Drabaz”) has taken up the torch of making award-winning DBZ AMVs. He also made a DB LittleBigPlanet level. Doug is a pretty cool guy.

  Con Prizes + EXP

  Looking to level up your fandom? The experiences and prizes at conventions are for you!

  By Mike LaBrie

  My first anime convention was Otakon 1999. Making my way down to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, and having only been running my website for less than two years at that point, I had no idea what was in store for me.

  Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of attending, interviewing, and presenting at Otakon, Shoujocon, AnimeNEXT, Katsucon, Anime Weekend Atlanta, AnimeUSA, and Animazement. Though my attendance has waned over the years, each time I make my way through the sea of fans (and after making it through the usual “I’m too old for this...” apprehension), I somehow manage to come away with a smile on my face and having learned something new.

  The Internet is an amazing place for fans of all types to meet, gather, and share ideas...but there is something particularly special about actually meeting those friends “in real life” and sharing moments together.

  Like meeting Masako Nozawa. Seriously.

  MIKE (“VegettoEX”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. He has gone to conventions.

  Neo-Shonen

  Written for Japanese boys, loved by boys and girls worldwide

  Dragon Ball was one of a few Shonen Jump series to start bringing in a significant female fanbase. How did the “Golden Age” start changing audiences?

  By Daryl Surat

  I confess: I’m not as knowledgeable about the specifics of Dragon Ball as most of you reading this. But Dragon Ball has stayed alive and relevant for 30 years because of its influence on today’s shonen action adventure stories. For thanks to both the timing of its release, the longevity of its run, and the changes to its own formula throughout, Dragon Ball is the bridge between “classic” shonen of the past and the modern shonen of the present day (I’ll call it “neo-shonen”).

  Akira Toriyama got his break in the early 1980s with Dr. Slump. Edited by Kazuhiko Torishima, its art style and often scatological-based gags epitomized the phrase “boys’ comics.” In 1984, once the duo started work on Dragon Ball, the early wacky antics of Son Goku were cut from the same cloth. Why, just look at the edits that had to be made to get it released in English!

  But beyond the pages of Son Goku’s adventure, other gears were in motion. Under the editorial guidance of Nobuhiko Horie—the basis for “Mad Holy” in Blue Blazes!—1983’s Fist of the North Star set the gold standard for “battle manga,” from its character archetypes, narrative beats, and (lest we forget) being forced to continue for 109 additional chapters due to popularity despite concluding its story in chapter 136. Then in 1985, City Hunter—also edited by Horie—proved a surprise success among female readers, thanks in large part to its art style and interplay between the male and female leads. A similar thing happened in 1986 with Saint Seiya, and (oddly enough) 1988’s Bastard!! Dragon Ball would have to adapt to keep from being surpassed.

  (Yes, 1981’s Captain Tsubasa was instrumental in giving rise to BL as we know it now, but we’ll omit that for now because those fans weren’t exactly sending in reader surveys to the publishers!)

  With the way Weekly Shonen Jump operates, the editors may as well be un[der]credited series co-writers/creators. Editorial reigns were handed over to Yu Kondo, a former shojo manga editor who knew how to keep girls interested without alienating the target boys demographic. Penis and poop jokes faded away in favor of planet-destroying battles. Little Son Goku grew up, married and had children, but in his adulthood became [someone who could totally beat] Superman [but NOT Kenshiro]. New characters such as female fighter Android 18 and the handsome (by Dragon Ball standards, anyway!) Vegeta and Trunks were introduced.

  By the early 1990s, Nobuhiko Horie became Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief and a massive turnover in editorial staff occurred. Jump reached its peaks in circulation thanks to titles deliberately crafted to appeal to boys and girls, like Slam Dunk and Rurouni Kenshin. Incidental to this, Dragon Ball changed again; its final three years were edited by Fuyuto Takeda. By this point, Son Goku’s child Son Gohan was now a high school teenager who fought crime as a superhero while being in a relationship with the tomboyish Videl.

  Today, Horie’s influence on Dragon Ball and Jump in general (Fist of the North Star and City Hunter aside) has been downplayed from the official record since he left Shueisha to form his own publishing company, Coamix. But he did make one undeniable contribution to ensuring Dragon Ball remains relevant to English-speaking anime fans in 2014: had Horie not launched the now-defunct Raijin Comics, a weekly manga anthology translated into English, there would’ve never been an English edition of Shonen Jump for Dragon Ball to be re-serialized in! Yep, Shueisha started the entire initiative out of spite, and they put Goku front and center on the cover to lead the charge with then-fledgling series One Piece—the spiritual amalgamation of Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, and Rurouni Kenshin—in the corner. The recently-concluded Naruto started shortly after, in Issue #2. The primary image on most of these covers? You guessed it. A more empirical case for Dragon Ball being the bridge to shonen manga’s present you will not find.

  DARYL writes for Otaku USA magazine and is one of the hosts of the Anime World Order podcast at: animeworldorder.com

  Toriyama World

  The world of Toriyama’s makes all readers its denizens. But what is its defining characteristic...?

  By Kei17

  I am recognized by everyone, including myself, as having a serious case of Dragon Ball addiction. You could even say that I’ve given over a certain portion of my life to Dragon Ball. Even so, up to now, there was something I couldn’t come up with an answer for within myself, no matter how much I’d fret about it: while I like the the Freeza and Artificial Human arcs, with their more serious story elements, I felt like there was something lacking to their stories.

  The topic of “what point Dragon Ball should have ended at,” or “Toriyama-sensei intended to end it at the ____ arc,” is a conversation that’s unfolded between fans regardless of country or culture. And, the arcs that always get brought up as potential candidates are the aforementioned two. Even looking at the wider world, the Freeza arc in particular is the most popular story out of the entire Dragon Ball series, and it is certainly also a par
t that carries a large role in terms of plot, bringing the story involving Goku’s roots to a conclusion. Toriyama-sensei’s depiction of action was well-honed, and when looking at Dragon Ball as a battle manga, I believe it had reached a peak. The subsequent Artificial Humans arc then brought to fruition the generational shift from Goku to Gohan. Gohan, who had a whiff about him of a changing of the guard since his debut, yet remained in a vaguely defined position, at last has his talents blossom, and surpasses Goku to become the hero of the next generation. Writing like this, these two arcs can certainly be thought of as just right for cutoff points at which to end the story. However, there was something about them that just wouldn’t sit with me. It was only just recently that I realized what it was.

  I’m ashamed to admit it, but while I’m a huge Dragon Ball and Toriyama fan, I had actually never properly read Dr. Slump. There was, of course, the simple fact that I wasn’t of that generation, so I had fewer chances to come into contact with it, but the bigger reason is that I thought it was just too old for me to be able to enjoy. However, I recently resolved that as a proper Toriyama fan, I should read everything, so I read it all in one go. As I had anticipated, there were many points that felt dated; as I read, however, I felt an indescribable sense of relief as I became wrapped up in the easygoing world of the series. Dr. Slump is essentially a madcap comedy, but its most distinctive characteristic is the way that pure, innocent Arale-chan, for whom anything can happen with her jaw-dropping strength, gets the universe caught up in all sorts of crazy antics. After getting Dr. Norimaki wrapped around her finger, it’s on to the people of Penguin Village, until finally, everything—up to and including aliens—gets pulled into Arale’s orbit. A surprisingly large number of characters appear, and the series’ world spreads out endlessly, but even so, the destination is always a pure, innocent worldview that ought to be called something like the “Arale World.” I felt the same thing reading Dr. Slump as I did when I saw Battle of Gods. The story spreads out endlessly, and both Goku and his opponent keep getting stronger and stronger. But in the end, everything is subsumed into the character of Goku, and the tale ends together with an indescribable sense of relief and a warm heart. I think that this is the result of everything showing up as-is in the work of the man known as Akira Toriyama himself: his abundance of ideas, his purity, and his astounding openness to let everything fall into his own world. That is the “Toriyama World.”

  Returning to the discussion of the Freeza and Artificial Human arcs, in short, what these are definitively lacking is none other than that “Toriyama World”-ness. Certainly, there is an expansion of the world and a sense of scale due to the abundant ideas characteristic of the author, and serious battles are probably another big draw of Toriyama works. But the things that occur in these two arcs are essentially “clashes with the outside.” Even though there are large developments and conclusions in the story and the background of the characters, for the dénouement, it’s all decisive breaks and partings, and one can’t find any of the things that might be called the openness, or inclusiveness, of Toriyama’s works. The key is in how “it’s wrapped up neatly as a story, yet that’s not really what this work is about.”

  Thinking about it now, it all makes sense: the fact that I like the way that both the Buu arc and Battle of Gods end, and conversely, why I felt an intense discomfort at the end of GT, which punctuates the end of Goku’s tale. Dragon Ball should be a tale about the character of Son Goku and his world. People should always gather together through a variety of events, drawn in by Goku, and it should always end with Goku’s innocent smile and a sense of expectation for an even further expansion of the story. And also, that’s just the involvement between the author, and us, the recipients, as-is. We are attracted by the ever-expanding, innocent Toriyama World, which gets the globe caught up in it, and before we know it, we become its denizens. That expansion, crossing generations and cultures, continues even now, as the original manga reaches its 30th anniversary. I’m looking forward to Toriyama-sensei’s continued expansion of the “Toriyama World” in the future.

  KEI lives in Japan and has been a fan of the series since childhood. He enjoys commenting on the evolving art and music of the series among many other things.

  The Essence of Son Goku

  A Shonen Archetype

  He’s a character all his own. Since Dragon Ball, many other characters have emulated his characteristics, but just who is Son Goku?

  By Scott Frerichs

  In my formative years, I fell into anime much as any other North American my age would: early morning airings of Voltron, Robotech, and later Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z. Before the advent of Pokemon, which would quickly become the essential “anime” that most children would inevitably start with, you were likely to be familiar either with magical wands or energy blasts, often (though not necessarily) divided by gender.

  While I fell into both camps as a child, I always found myself fascinated with Dragon Ball. Its kooky art aesthetic, its violent action, the serialized plot; these were many angles from which no other animated series in North America even began to approach me from, and I was in love. I found this new form of storytelling to be utterly fascinating and, as I grew older, I would only go on to learn more and more about the series that inevitably introduced me, by and large, to anime culture.

  But one essential aspect of Dragon Ball, in almost all its incarnations, has stood out to me as one of the most intriguing and endearing facets of the series: the main character, Son Goku.

  Son Goku’s entire character, from top to bottom, was something that I’d never truly encountered as a child. Completely eschewing his instantly recognizable and iconic design, his personality was strikingly and curiously alien to me. A socially bereft, simple-minded, battle obsessed manchild with several times more battle savvy than common sense, and a glutton at that? Commonly in western animation, these sorts of qualities were reserved for brutish villains or comic relief; very rarely, if ever, did a competent protagonist ever exhibit these qualities.

  That’s where Son Goku, to me, shines as a main character. He’s a selfish, largely single-minded boy/manchild obsessed with food, battle, and physical self-improvement over everything else in his life. While these characteristics are often typical of a less endearing character, they’re tied together with a sense of childlike wonder and genuine heart that takes these qualities and makes them positive aspects of his personality. You find his obsession with food charming, his reckless ambition empowering, and his obsession with battle invigorating.

  If you’re a fervent manga reader/anime watcher, especially within the shonen genre, you have more than likely seen these characteristics in other characters as well. Since Son Goku’s first appearance in 1984, his influence could be felt years after in many manga within the genre to follow. Fans of series such as One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Toriko, and to a lesser extent Naruto and Fairy Tail, will find striking similarities between these series’ protagonists and with Son Goku, to varying degrees.

  Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece fame is perhaps the most immediate, with his simple, uncultured, and frank nature, combined with his lust for both food and battle. Gon of Hunter x Hunter is often lauded as a more realistic interpretation of (what some refer to as) the Goku Type: eternally pure, endlessly dedicated to one task, and someone who began his adventure at a young age. The titular character of Toriko is, in some ways, a hybrid of Son Goku and Kenshiro of Hokuto no Ken, combining Son Goku’s love for food, battle, and his simplicity with the fighting styles and physique of Kenshiro.

  His visual aesthetic has also continued to inspire shonen heroes, with both Toriko and Naruto strutting the iconic orange and blue that Son Goku embodied throughout the entire run of Dragon Ball, and Naruto sporting blonde, spikey hair. Masashi Kishimoto, mangaka of Naruto, has openly stated that he drew inspiration from Son Goku in both his design and personality, as has Yoshihiro Togashi concerning Gon’s character.

  Whether or not one can say for cert
ain the Akira Toriyama did, in fact, inspire all of these creations and their subsequent protagonists with his own, I will always look to Son Goku as an excellent example of subverting the qualities of the traditional hero protagonist and making his very own, distinct impact on the genre, as well as the medium of anime at large.

  SCOTT (“KaiserNeko”) is a member of TeamFourStar and edits their Dragon Ball Z Abridged fan parody series.

  Crossover Madness: Cross Epoch

  Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda combine forces to release a Dragon Ball x One Piece spectacular

  The casts of Dragon Ball and One Piece gather together in small groups in a new fantasy world where Mr. Satan is king, Buggy and Pilaf have joined forces, and Shenlong has a tea party. What else would you expect from these two?

  By Greg Werner

  As I sat down and read through Toriyama-sensei and Oda-san’s collaborative one-shot Cross Epoch for the first time in a good four years, I started to recall where I was when I first read it on December 25th, 2006. I could picture the scenery, the sounds and even the smells of the busy city around me. Somehow I even remembered precisely the chapter number of One Piece it accompanied that week in Jump (#439). So can someone please tell me...