What's Wrong With Dragon Ball Z Part Two
We're not really interested in bashing DBZ just for the sake of bashing DBZ. That would be pointless – and honestly you can go to any anime forum and find plenty of that already. No, what we'd like to do here is something a bit more…academic.
One of the interesting things about the DBZ series is that for every DBZ lovin' fanatic you'll find an equally passionate DBZ hater that feels the series ruined anime for them completely. Unfortunately there is very little intelligent debate between the two factions. Far too often, anyone that disagrees with the hordes of DBZ fans is answered with something along the lines of "STFU, DBZ rox. OMG Goku pwns".
In our previous segment in this two part series, we discussed the areas where the production of the DBZ anime series was lacking. In part two, we discuss some of the deeper thematic issues with DBZ along with one particular social issue that DBZ may have had a big hand in creating.
Click here to get to Part One of our What's Wrong With Dragon Ball Z feature.
One more thing before we get started – we will be visiting other popular shonen franchises over time. "What's Wrong With…" will be a regular series on IGN Anime, so be sure to let us know what you'd like to see analyzed!
With the possible exception of Vegeta, most of DBZ's antagonists are rather simple. They're usually extremely powerful and sufficiently cruel, but beyond that…they're pretty boring. Their typical traits include casual disregard for life, a desire to bend everyone and everything to their will, a penchant for underestimating the lead hero, and a love of maniacal laughter.
This is certainly not unique to DBZ; plenty of western and Japanese shows are guilty of it. But few of those shows are considered as amazing as DBZ, those shows are rightfully panned for their lackluster villains. DBZ, however, somehow gets a pass for this rather obvious flaw.
DBZ portrays a lot of one-dimensional characters, but Son Goku is definitely one of the least complicated heroes in any anime series before or since. Akira Toriyama spent a lot of effort infusing Goku with humor and playfulness, but not too many deep thoughts, moral dilemmas, or personal demons. Goku is portrayed mostly as a big kid really - a big kid with a heart of gold and insane levels of power. This model of a silly superhero has been repeated many times in the anime industry. Maybe it's justified since many believe it's just a "kids" show, but most DBZ fans see it as more than that so the show should be held to higher standards.
Goku has become a very popular lead character, and as such later anime creators have emulated him. This tradition can be seen in the later works that were obviously influenced by Toriyama. Luffy in One Piece has a lot of Goku-like traits; he shares Goku's notable appetite, and he often takes a thorough beating but always finds some hidden reserve of power to save the day in the end. The same could be said with Naruto. Naruto, however, goes a step further on the Goku emulation/homage path by actually physically resembling Goku as a Saiyan (blond spiky hair, blue eyes, orange and blue clothing).
To be fair, both Luffy and Naruto have moments where they shine as complex characters, but at first glance their similarities with Goku surpass the unique elements that these characters bring to the table.
Okay folks, we're about to get a little controversial here and talk about race. Let's chat about our good friend Mr. Popo, the black-skinned, red-lipped, turban-wearing servant of Kami. Oh my…where to start with this one…
Many, many people have called the character blatantly racist – a leftover of the old offensive Sambo parody that sadly did make its way into Japan. The debate about the offensiveness of characters like Mr. Popo has been going on quietly for a while now. But he's not the only one guilty of this; black, Indian, and Arabic characters in anime and videogames are still subject to various stereotypes but things have gotten much better recently. American licensors are also becoming a bit more aware of the issue; Viz has picked up the habit of "downsizing" Mr. Popo's exaggerated lips in the manga.
The argument has been made that Popo's appearance is just a little artistic license for an imaginary character, or that Japanese animation has a history of exaggerating non-Japanese characters because the Japanese population is not very diverse and they just don't have the kinds of racial sensitivities that the Western world has. And those are all valid points; it's quite probable that Toriyama didn't mean to make a racist joke here.
But does the fact that something isn't supposed to be offensive make it any less so? Does "it's only a joke" or "they don't know any better" absolve all guilt? It's certainly not our place to answer those questions, but we'd like to know what you think.
Boys Are Better Than Girls
We've all heard the arguments about how women are treated in anime. Yes, the focus of the ire is often the extremely objectifying hentai genre, but regular anime series meant for general consumption are often guilty of portraying women in less than flattering roles as well.
Bulma is the primary female character in the DBZ series. She's a brainy gal, as a scientist at Capsule Corp you might even say she's the smartest character in the main cast. But like most female characters in shonen anime, she takes a backseat to all the male characters. Her intelligence is often downplayed as nothing more than a useful plot device. She spends most of her time fawning over Yamcha or running away or doing something for comic relief.
The girls don't get to do much fighting in DBZ. Chi-Chi is an accomplished martial artist, but her primary role is as Gohan and Goten's doting mother. And when you consider that "chichi" is also a Japanese slang word for "breasts", these things start to really seem quite intentional.
Android 18 spent a bit more time in the spotlight as a capable fighter, but even she is eventually relegated to not much more than mommy duty. Videl is perhaps the most favorable female member of the DBZ cast, but much of her purpose is to provide a side story to develop Gohan. It often seems like the female characters in DBZ are mainly there to provide love interests for the main male characters, or to birth more male fighting Saiyans to continue the series.
And finally we're going to talk about an unpredictable result of the Dragon Ball Z franchise, a phenomenon that has helped the spread of anime and simultaneously stained the outsider's image of American anime supporters.
We're talking, of course, about fanboyism.
Fanboyism certainly existed before Dragon Ball Z and it will continue to exist for a long time to come, but there is perhaps no series in anime history that has created such a virulent, antagonistic American fanbase - a fanbase so formidable that we had to carefully consider even writing this article because of the threat of hordes of DBZ fans destroying IGN Anime for all time.
How did this happen? Well, here's a theory.
DBZ was arguably the first non-robot show to hit huge commercial success in the states by playing upon themes that captivate the young male psyche. DBZ was one of the earliest anime shows in America to have boatloads of merchandise; everything from toys to school supplies and clothing. The early nineties saw an interesting fashion trend, the proud wearing of Super Saiyan Goku on shirts and jackets. Perhaps it was considered as a display of pride for anime fans, as if DBZ's popularity suddenly gave validation to anime and it became okay to be an out and proud otaku. As such, anything that attacked the series was perceived as attacking the art form as a whole and the very people who loved it. Those fans, taking these critiques of the show on an almost personal level, fought back with ferocity. So criticism of the show within the otaku ranks became taboo, DBZ got away with perhaps more praise than it deserved, and the stereotype of the typical anime fan as an unruly and immature fanboy was created.
Despite all the aforementioned problems, anyone being fair and honest has to admit that DBZ is still one of the most important franchises in anime history. Likewise, anyone being fair and honest also has to admit that we live with both the good and bad legacies of the DBZ franchise.
Source: http://anime.ign.com/articles/866/866063p1.html
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