IMPress Polly
09-08-2015, 11:39 AM
Whether the new Dragon Ball Super anime series can achieve the same heights that Dragon Ball Z (to which it is a sequel series) did remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the 291-episode Dragon Ball Z series that ran originally from 1989 to 1996 has cemented itself as a seminal work in the history of Japanese animation, and many say as the greatest action cartoon of all time. But you may be wondering why someone like me would enjoy such a series, what with its rather gratuitous action-violence, frequent supply of sexist jokes, and other elements that I commonly describe as personal turn-offs vis-a-vis media in general. Why would someone like me find this series appealing, you ask? Because, unlike so many other boy's action cartoons and movies and such, DBZ uses these fairly standard devices as means to other ends rather than as ends unto themselves. Much of what on the surface level can appear, even to many fans of the series, to be pretty shallow material that's simply about fulfilling male power fantasies, is actually much deeper than it may appear at first glance if you just think about it for a minute. Let me give you my rundown of the surprisingly deep and thought-provoking sub-messages that appear to be conveyed in the form of allegory.
Dragon Ball Z can be broken down into three main sagas and a pair of short minor sagas that are just simply filler material. I'm going to focus on the three main sagas. Here's the core message I get out of each:
The Frieza Saga:
The first saga in the series spans a little over 100 episodes. It reveals early on that series protagonist Goku is actually an alien from the planet Vegeta who was sent to Earth in infancy Superman-style not long before his planet was destroyed. He is soon confronted by other surviving members of his alien race, the Saiyans, who attempt to conquer the Earth and wipe out its population in order to sell the "cleansed" planet to the highest bidder for the villainous Frieza's intergalactic empire. The threat is repelled, but not before much damage is done and many lives are lost. The heroic Z Fighters travel to the planet Namek in search of its dragon balls (which, in genie-like fashion, grant the user wishes) in the hopes of reviving the deceased. There they encounter Frieza and his army, who are seeking to use the planet's dragon balls to achieve immortality for Frieza. The Saiyan Prince Vegeta, who led the earlier attack on Earth, opportunistically turns on his former master in a bid for immortality of his own, which ultimately requires that he temporarily fight alongside the Z Fighters. Ultimately though, only the pure-hearted Goku, who achieves a new Super Saiyan form, is able to defeat Frieza, but not before acquiring a dose of tempered pride in his Saiyan warrior race despite its history.
This saga contains much talk and argument about race and pride to the point of these elements seeming to serve as the dominant themes. One must bear in mind that this is a Japanese program originally intended for a Japanese audience, that the Japanese have a warrior heritage, and the that Japan is a former (overt) empire that has long struggled to reconcile its past with its new, post-WW2 position and role in the world. That is what I feel is at the heart of this saga. The Frieza Saga seems to me very much about the struggle of the Japanese people to shed the tyrannical, imperial elements of their past without losing all pride in their heritage; the challenge of finding their identity as a people in the modern world, given their history. References to the Saiyans as a "warrior race", to their work for an empire, and allusions to atomic blasts don't strike me as collectively coincidental.
The Cell Saga:
Running roughly from episode 118 to episode 199, the Cell Saga takes place some time after Frieza's defeat. It turns out the he has barely survived his fight with Goku and, in a new, cybernetic form, visits Earth with his father to exact revenge. The Z Fighters are unprepared for this challenge, but a mysterious youth calling himself Trunks intervenes, making short work of both Frieza and his father. Trunks then reveals to the Z Fighters that he has come from the future to warn them that a mad scientist from their past (see the original Dragon Ball series) by the name of Dr. Gero is in the process of creating a pair of super-powered androids in an unknown location that will ultimately lay waste to human civilization. He warns the Z Fighters to begin training to confront this threat immediately, which they do. A number of plot twists later though, it turns out that the previously unknown android Cell (unknown previously even to Trunks, that is) is the greatest threat of all, as he uniquely possesses the ability to absorb the other androids and, with them, their strength. Upon thus absorbing Androids 17 and 18, he easily proves himself a superior combatant to the Z Fighters and egotistically challenges them to a tournament called the Cell Games wherein all participants fight him until either he is defeated or he defeats them all and obliterates the Earth as a penalty for his amusement. He is ultimately defeated by Goku's frequently-underestimated son, Gohan, and the deceased are revived with Earth's dragon balls.
This is the most contrived and conservative of the major DBZ sagas and has emerged as kind of my least favorite. Though it contains many touching moments and worthwhile side plots and nuances, the core message of this second major saga is pretty obvious: This is supposed to ultimately, primarily be a coming-of-age story. Coming-of-age stories are important for any society, as they define what it is to be a mature adult and in this case a man. Unfortunately, the definition of masculinity provided here does not stray from convention. Gohan learns that he must shed his weaknesses, which in this case mean his natural empathy and reservations about fighting, and let an uncontrollable desire for revenge drive him to victory.
Perhaps more interesting than the core message of this saga is a side element that is its portrayal of Americans. Americans are notably in this saga really for the first time, and are portrayed poorly. It was interesting for this viewer to see some of the stereotypes that Japanese people have about us. Americans in this saga are portrayed as gangsters and posturing blowhards who will say and do anything for fame and fortune. According to DBZ, martial arts should be an art, not a sport; one should fight for the love of fighting, not to win trophies and recognition. While the negative portrayal of Americans is clearly exaggerated, perhaps there's an element of truth somewhere in there. I think we as a society are too obsessed with our image and status both individually and nationally and perhaps martial arts have become too Americanized.
The Buu Saga:
Fortunately though, the Buu Saga, which spans the rest of the series, makes up for many of the Cell Saga's faults. For example, taking place a number of years after the confrontation with Cell, early on we learn that Gohan has actually grown up a more complex and nuanced character than the previous saga led us to believe he'd become. It turns out that he has decided to fulfill his mother's desire for him to become a scholar even though there remains a part of him that cannot give up fighting entirely, which he uses to hilariously play the role of Western-style goofy superhero called the Great Saiyaman who stamps out ordinary crimes in a silly costume as a side endeavor. :grin: Likewise, in another unexpected development, Krillin, a human Z Fighter who has displayed perhaps the most negative attitude toward women over the course of the series so far (lines like "This [the battlefield] is no place for women!" abound with him) has, in an ironic twist, married Android 18: a female fighter much stronger than himself. One might say that, in these senses and others, this is the most pro-feminist of the DBZ sagas. But these are only the beginning points of interest!
The Buu Saga deals above all with a very unusual topic: schizophrenia. You know, split personality. An ancient wizard has released a mysterious fighter named Buu, legendary for his intergalactic destruction. Buu, it turns out though, while as powerful and destructive as the legends suggest, is a child-like character who is simply goofing around without realizing that he's doing anything wrong. But one day the blowhard martial arts champion Mr. Satan thinks of doing something that no one else has yet considered: simply telling Buu that what he's doing is wrong. It works! Buu is an innocent, child-like character, so as soon as he learns that it's wrong to cause all the death and destruction that he is, he immediately changes his ways. But his actions have convinced many people that the apocalypse is upon them and they begin to behave on base instincts as a result. Humanity's base instincts are laid bear as depraved when, among other things, our camera follows a pair of opportunists who go around shooting people just for the adrenaline rush involved in doing something taboo because they know that, in this context, they won't suffer any consequences. When Buu's new pet dog, who, together with Mr. Satan, has helped him adjust to a more normal lifestyle, becomes one of their victims followed by Mr. Satan himself, Buu cannot keep himself together anymore and splits into two characters: good Buu and evil Buu. The latter emerges victorious in a subsequent fight, absorbing the good Buu. Evil Buu moves to exact revenge on humanity by resuming, and accelerating, his previous pattern of mass destruction, thus reversing the logic of the previous saga that had cast revenge as righteous. No fighter by themselves can defeat this new incarnation of Buu and thus are a (kinda sorta) new technique called fusions, wherein two characters merge into one new, more powerful, being required. The rest of the saga is spent with various logically opposite pairs of characters (Goten and Trunks in one case, Goku and Vegeta in another, and finally Buu's own divided personality) negotiating control over the same bodies, being forced to learn how to find common goals and cooperate. There is something implied here even for those of us without schizophrenia if we think about the natural divide between what psychologists call our id and super-ego respectively.
This has emerged as my favorite saga of late.
Other Themes:
Dragon Ball Z also has some themes that stretch across all of its sagas. One of these is redemption. Unlike in your average American superhero cartoon, many of the villainous characters in Dragon Ball Z eventually wind up on the side of justice, joining the Z Fighters themselves in the end. Across the various sagas, Piccolo, Vegeta, Android 18, and Buu all serve as examples of characters who start out evil and wind up among the ranks of the heroes. This is the kind of complexity and dynamic character development that is too often absent from Western programs in general, to say nothing of our cartoons. Second, third, and fourth chances and beyond are valued by the creators of this series. Even the most rotten of villains are given these chances to reform.
Similarly, renewal is another common theme across the series. Large-scale destruction and recreation occur throughout the series, both vis-a-vis the Earth and elsewhere. At the end of the day, through every challenge, things always seem to wind up better than they were beforehand: bonds strengthened, etc.
Summation:
Yes, there's a lot of action-violence and such to DBZ, but it's not nearly as mindless as it may at first appear. It has a purpose! THAT's what makes Dragon Ball Z so awesome: because while it can be petty, the more carefully you look behind that seeming pettiness, the more depth you'll find. How many action shows can that be honestly said of?
Dragon Ball Z can be broken down into three main sagas and a pair of short minor sagas that are just simply filler material. I'm going to focus on the three main sagas. Here's the core message I get out of each:
The Frieza Saga:
The first saga in the series spans a little over 100 episodes. It reveals early on that series protagonist Goku is actually an alien from the planet Vegeta who was sent to Earth in infancy Superman-style not long before his planet was destroyed. He is soon confronted by other surviving members of his alien race, the Saiyans, who attempt to conquer the Earth and wipe out its population in order to sell the "cleansed" planet to the highest bidder for the villainous Frieza's intergalactic empire. The threat is repelled, but not before much damage is done and many lives are lost. The heroic Z Fighters travel to the planet Namek in search of its dragon balls (which, in genie-like fashion, grant the user wishes) in the hopes of reviving the deceased. There they encounter Frieza and his army, who are seeking to use the planet's dragon balls to achieve immortality for Frieza. The Saiyan Prince Vegeta, who led the earlier attack on Earth, opportunistically turns on his former master in a bid for immortality of his own, which ultimately requires that he temporarily fight alongside the Z Fighters. Ultimately though, only the pure-hearted Goku, who achieves a new Super Saiyan form, is able to defeat Frieza, but not before acquiring a dose of tempered pride in his Saiyan warrior race despite its history.
This saga contains much talk and argument about race and pride to the point of these elements seeming to serve as the dominant themes. One must bear in mind that this is a Japanese program originally intended for a Japanese audience, that the Japanese have a warrior heritage, and the that Japan is a former (overt) empire that has long struggled to reconcile its past with its new, post-WW2 position and role in the world. That is what I feel is at the heart of this saga. The Frieza Saga seems to me very much about the struggle of the Japanese people to shed the tyrannical, imperial elements of their past without losing all pride in their heritage; the challenge of finding their identity as a people in the modern world, given their history. References to the Saiyans as a "warrior race", to their work for an empire, and allusions to atomic blasts don't strike me as collectively coincidental.
The Cell Saga:
Running roughly from episode 118 to episode 199, the Cell Saga takes place some time after Frieza's defeat. It turns out the he has barely survived his fight with Goku and, in a new, cybernetic form, visits Earth with his father to exact revenge. The Z Fighters are unprepared for this challenge, but a mysterious youth calling himself Trunks intervenes, making short work of both Frieza and his father. Trunks then reveals to the Z Fighters that he has come from the future to warn them that a mad scientist from their past (see the original Dragon Ball series) by the name of Dr. Gero is in the process of creating a pair of super-powered androids in an unknown location that will ultimately lay waste to human civilization. He warns the Z Fighters to begin training to confront this threat immediately, which they do. A number of plot twists later though, it turns out that the previously unknown android Cell (unknown previously even to Trunks, that is) is the greatest threat of all, as he uniquely possesses the ability to absorb the other androids and, with them, their strength. Upon thus absorbing Androids 17 and 18, he easily proves himself a superior combatant to the Z Fighters and egotistically challenges them to a tournament called the Cell Games wherein all participants fight him until either he is defeated or he defeats them all and obliterates the Earth as a penalty for his amusement. He is ultimately defeated by Goku's frequently-underestimated son, Gohan, and the deceased are revived with Earth's dragon balls.
This is the most contrived and conservative of the major DBZ sagas and has emerged as kind of my least favorite. Though it contains many touching moments and worthwhile side plots and nuances, the core message of this second major saga is pretty obvious: This is supposed to ultimately, primarily be a coming-of-age story. Coming-of-age stories are important for any society, as they define what it is to be a mature adult and in this case a man. Unfortunately, the definition of masculinity provided here does not stray from convention. Gohan learns that he must shed his weaknesses, which in this case mean his natural empathy and reservations about fighting, and let an uncontrollable desire for revenge drive him to victory.
Perhaps more interesting than the core message of this saga is a side element that is its portrayal of Americans. Americans are notably in this saga really for the first time, and are portrayed poorly. It was interesting for this viewer to see some of the stereotypes that Japanese people have about us. Americans in this saga are portrayed as gangsters and posturing blowhards who will say and do anything for fame and fortune. According to DBZ, martial arts should be an art, not a sport; one should fight for the love of fighting, not to win trophies and recognition. While the negative portrayal of Americans is clearly exaggerated, perhaps there's an element of truth somewhere in there. I think we as a society are too obsessed with our image and status both individually and nationally and perhaps martial arts have become too Americanized.
The Buu Saga:
Fortunately though, the Buu Saga, which spans the rest of the series, makes up for many of the Cell Saga's faults. For example, taking place a number of years after the confrontation with Cell, early on we learn that Gohan has actually grown up a more complex and nuanced character than the previous saga led us to believe he'd become. It turns out that he has decided to fulfill his mother's desire for him to become a scholar even though there remains a part of him that cannot give up fighting entirely, which he uses to hilariously play the role of Western-style goofy superhero called the Great Saiyaman who stamps out ordinary crimes in a silly costume as a side endeavor. :grin: Likewise, in another unexpected development, Krillin, a human Z Fighter who has displayed perhaps the most negative attitude toward women over the course of the series so far (lines like "This [the battlefield] is no place for women!" abound with him) has, in an ironic twist, married Android 18: a female fighter much stronger than himself. One might say that, in these senses and others, this is the most pro-feminist of the DBZ sagas. But these are only the beginning points of interest!
The Buu Saga deals above all with a very unusual topic: schizophrenia. You know, split personality. An ancient wizard has released a mysterious fighter named Buu, legendary for his intergalactic destruction. Buu, it turns out though, while as powerful and destructive as the legends suggest, is a child-like character who is simply goofing around without realizing that he's doing anything wrong. But one day the blowhard martial arts champion Mr. Satan thinks of doing something that no one else has yet considered: simply telling Buu that what he's doing is wrong. It works! Buu is an innocent, child-like character, so as soon as he learns that it's wrong to cause all the death and destruction that he is, he immediately changes his ways. But his actions have convinced many people that the apocalypse is upon them and they begin to behave on base instincts as a result. Humanity's base instincts are laid bear as depraved when, among other things, our camera follows a pair of opportunists who go around shooting people just for the adrenaline rush involved in doing something taboo because they know that, in this context, they won't suffer any consequences. When Buu's new pet dog, who, together with Mr. Satan, has helped him adjust to a more normal lifestyle, becomes one of their victims followed by Mr. Satan himself, Buu cannot keep himself together anymore and splits into two characters: good Buu and evil Buu. The latter emerges victorious in a subsequent fight, absorbing the good Buu. Evil Buu moves to exact revenge on humanity by resuming, and accelerating, his previous pattern of mass destruction, thus reversing the logic of the previous saga that had cast revenge as righteous. No fighter by themselves can defeat this new incarnation of Buu and thus are a (kinda sorta) new technique called fusions, wherein two characters merge into one new, more powerful, being required. The rest of the saga is spent with various logically opposite pairs of characters (Goten and Trunks in one case, Goku and Vegeta in another, and finally Buu's own divided personality) negotiating control over the same bodies, being forced to learn how to find common goals and cooperate. There is something implied here even for those of us without schizophrenia if we think about the natural divide between what psychologists call our id and super-ego respectively.
This has emerged as my favorite saga of late.
Other Themes:
Dragon Ball Z also has some themes that stretch across all of its sagas. One of these is redemption. Unlike in your average American superhero cartoon, many of the villainous characters in Dragon Ball Z eventually wind up on the side of justice, joining the Z Fighters themselves in the end. Across the various sagas, Piccolo, Vegeta, Android 18, and Buu all serve as examples of characters who start out evil and wind up among the ranks of the heroes. This is the kind of complexity and dynamic character development that is too often absent from Western programs in general, to say nothing of our cartoons. Second, third, and fourth chances and beyond are valued by the creators of this series. Even the most rotten of villains are given these chances to reform.
Similarly, renewal is another common theme across the series. Large-scale destruction and recreation occur throughout the series, both vis-a-vis the Earth and elsewhere. At the end of the day, through every challenge, things always seem to wind up better than they were beforehand: bonds strengthened, etc.
Summation:
Yes, there's a lot of action-violence and such to DBZ, but it's not nearly as mindless as it may at first appear. It has a purpose! THAT's what makes Dragon Ball Z so awesome: because while it can be petty, the more carefully you look behind that seeming pettiness, the more depth you'll find. How many action shows can that be honestly said of?