DBZ Academic Essay By Luv Vegeta

DBZ Academic Essay

I actually wrote this to turn in for a grad class! DBZ makes its way into academia, yay!

Dragonball Z American Style: Taking Japan out of Japanese Anime

"Hey, who is that?"
"Mom, shhhh! I can't hear! You're going to make me miss what happens. Why can't you just watch this with me everyday?" Jacob asked as he tried desperately to follow the battle between Piccolo and Frieza.
So, I took his advice. I began watching Dragonball Z with my son during the summer of 2000 and found that once I had developed an interest in the characters I couldn't stop watching. The now popular anime series, which originated in Japan, captivated me with its highly sophisticated animation and intriguing storyline. The main character, Goku, along with his friends and son, battle the evil forces wishing to destroy life and rule the universe. Goku's unerring sense of good, the banding together of friends to help one another, and the strong family ties displayed in this superior anime saga makes the show much more than just a "cartoon," as I've heard others describe it. As I've discovered, as well, the series becomes even more sophisticated when viewed in its original Japanese form, safe from the butchering of the American company, which acquired the rights to the show, and the accompanying American censor boards. From the filling in of nearly every silent moment, which might make the average American uncomfortable, to the complete alteration of scripting, Funimation, the company in possession of the American rights to Dragonball Z, molds the original, Japanese anime creation into a product they consider more palatable to the American public. All of the "editing" imposed upon DBZ by Funimation and the Federal Communications Commission adds up into a mountain of dollars spent by American children and their parents, but from a cultural perspective, not much sense. In American culture, animation remains a marketplace, almost exclusively in fact, for children. In Japan, anime, the name given to Japanese animated series, exists as something altogether different.
In her book, Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke, Susan Napier points out that Japanese people who watch anime consist of "Viewers [who] range from little children watching Pokemon . . . to college students or young adults enjoying the harder-edged science fiction" (7), noting that "anime cuts across generational lines to be embraced by everyone from children to grandparents" (7). Maia Tsurumi reflects in her essay that "Westerners . . . may be unaware of the sophistication of the manga genre, and of its power to both reflect and influence social realities in Japan" and includes the thought of critics, Fredrick Schodt and Peter Duus, concerning manga's power to "say as much about life as novels or films"(172). In fact, anime's roots lie in the massively popular manga, or in Americanese: comic book, which can be bought on almost any corner in Japan, often found left behind on subways much in the same fashion as is the newspaper in America (Kinsella 4). Created as a manga sequence in 1984, as a part of the Weekly Shonen Jump, by the unbelievably talented Akira Toriyama, Dragonball, the precursor series to Dragonball Z, was a huge hit in Japan (Planet Namek Manga Guide). Toriyama explains in an ingenious, manga-style narrative how he came up with the idea for Dragonball, which can be seen on Planet Namek's Website. He reveals that he based the boy, Goku, on the Chinese legend of The Monkey King (P. N. Akira Toriyama). As Dragonball's popularity grew by leaps and bounds, Toriyama abandoned his other successful manga series, Dr. Slump, to work full-time on his new creation. Sadly, though, in order for his highly artistic work to be considered appropriate material for American audiences, explaining the lag between the years of popularity experienced in Japan and the only recent interest within the United States, both visual material and script had to come under the knife of capitalistically influenced American censors and has been stripped of much of its cultural connection.
Living in a capitalistic society, most of us recognize the drive behind the commercials shown to us on television, as well as content of the television shows themselves. It seems that as Americans, we are always being sold something, whether it be product or ideal. This enormous economic presence even follows online, berating us with pop-up ads for nearly every link we click. As far as animated series are concerned in America, children account for a huge portion of the target audience, which can be evidenced in the output and earnings of Irwin Toys. The master licensee for DBZ playthings in the U. S., Irwin began producing toys in 1999, creating "more than 170" different toys, while Sony and Nintendo are "planning a big promotional effort'" for the soon-to-be-released video games based upon the anime (Desjardins). Popular cartoons are mangled into forms benefiting big business in America, as can be evidenced through previously Americanized Japanese creations, leaving the beauty of another culture, as well as the aesthetics of an original work of art, in the dust.
Not many Americans who are old enough to remember the nineties will soon forget the overwhelming popularity of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, another Japanese creation. Although it is not an animated series, the Power Rangers' had been similarly been targeted towards an audience consisting of American youth, as DBZ now does. It is a perfect example of how a Japanese product was considered too alien for American children, reshaped into something more marketable, and then projected with more of an economic than aesthetic view in mind by its producers, resulting in what many "consider . . . a `butchering' motivated by anti-Japanese racism" (Allison 264). Exhibiting the rigidity of American cultural acceptance of anything deviating from what is considered commonplace, Power Rangers, as Superman had been in 1938, was considered to overstep the bounds of imagination far too much to be considered consumable (Allison 261-63). Only when the teenagers in the show had become "'a campier California version'" of the way in which they had been portrayed in Japan, combined with the splicing-in of fight-scene footage featuring the Japanese actors-hidden, of course, by costume-was the show seriously considered acceptable for American syndication (Allison 263-64). The resulting $400 million (Allison 264) in sales produced from Power Ranger merchandise is enough to convince any toy, clothing, or school supply manufacturer to target the American child when selecting programming for television. This desire to please an audience of American children, while at the same time avoiding the wrath of displeased parents, drives the censors to do their dirty work and distort anime into a product suitable for an audience for which it was never intended and for a culture whose ideals drastically differ from its creators.
The target has definitely been struck in America, as far as Dragonball Z is concerned. A report by Lycos Inc., which looks at approximately 12 million searches on the world-wide-web (O'Flaherty 1999), "Dragonball" placed number one in their listing of the top ten search terms for the week ending July 21, 2001 (Money Talks). Via The Cartoon Network, DBZ is estimated as being viewed in 1.7 American households during September of 2000 and is ranked as the cable network's number one show (O'Flaherty 2000). The anime's popularity even spawned a three-week campaign by Burger King to include seven of the show's most popular characters in toy form with their kids' meals, ending with the opportunity to send away for a free DBZ video-with the proof of purchase from all seven toys, that is (PR Newswire). The resulting cut of some violent and sexually oriented clips contained within the show, combined with a, many times, complete rescripting of the characters' lines, seems conflicting and unnecessary at times and lies in direct opposition to the expectations of the Japanese audience for whom it was originally created.
In Japan, the attitude toward censorship is much more relaxed. This is based, in part, upon the ideals of the Shintô religion, which tends to influence Japanese popular culture in such a way that it "wholeheartedly embraces life in all its dimensions, with relatively little in the way of efforts to shield its audience from unpleasant aspects of life or to `raise' people to more noble or politically correct standards" (Craig 12). In the introduction to his book, Craig goes on to say that the lack of censorship allows that "The world and human nature can be portrayed as they are, not as they should be" (12), which seems to be a more honest way of looking at life. Therefore, when the Japanese are watching the complete portrayal of Krillin's martial arts trainer, Master Roshi, which includes his habit of perusing pornographic magazines while lying on the beach, Americans may be left in the dark when he is unable to ride a magic cloud reserved only for riders who are pure of heart. Moreover, this reveals the repressive nature of American society, which has its own booming pornographic industry, but one that continues largely to be hidden from sight. The Japanese appear to take a more honest and healthy approach, allowing for the open affirmation that nearly all humans have a dark side to their character, along with a natural and healthy sexual appetite. Furthermore, if this type of eroticism is brought out into the open within a society, will it not then cease to lurk in shadow, making it seem dark and dirty? The idea of the naked human body as something disturbing that needs to be hidden away, instead of a natural state of being, is further perpetuated by the American addition of a fig leaf to cover a naked five-year-old Goku. The American audience is also kept from seeing the bare backsides of Gohan, Goku's son, and Vegeta, Goku's rival, even though they could turn to the Fox Network within the same time slot (6:00 p.m.) and see Bart Simpson moon officials of the Australian government. One further wonders about the targets of censorship when, as one DBZ fan points out in his online essay, "Toys R Us pulled Dragonball comics from their shelves . . . [due to] Bulma lifting up her skirt and Goku's nudity" while there still remained "the huge display of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me videos" (Map), which contains far more lurid suggestions and nudity than Dragonball Z.
This pick-and-choose type of censorship seems to target the series that has been produced in another country. And on other levels, such as violent content, this bias in censorship is further perpetuated. Funimation removes almost every Dragonball Z scene in which blood is drawn (but a trickle is seen from time to time here and there), yet on the Fox network, The Simpson's Itchy and Scratchy, again previously shown at the same time of day, could be seen in such scenes where Scratchy is cut open, allowing his bloody stomach cavity to be used as a cereal bowl for two children to eat from. With the recent onslaught of Simpsons' toys filling store shelves, this American animated series appears to target children as a part of its audience, as well. While parents have the right to be concerned in regard to the level of violence to which their children are being exposed, it is certainly unfair to target five seconds of purple blood escaping from the alien, Frieza's, mouth while Itchy retains free reign to chop Scratchy into small pieces with an axe at, literally, the same time.
This American tendency toward aversion to any country's scripted violence being made available, other than their own, is reminiscent of the refusal to accept the Japanese manga and anime, Barefoot Gen. Concerning itself with the aftermath of Hiroshima, especially upon the children who lived there, the comic was written by Keiji Nakazawa, whose own father, brother, and sister were killed by the bomb that was dropped there by the United States (Shiraishi 305). Apparently, the people of the U. S. could live with the fact that their nation had bombed Hiroshima, but wanted no part of the details of its aftermath. As late as the 1970's, twenty-five years after the bombing, America's Comics Code intervened to stop its distribution, citing that its content was "'too graphically violent'" (305), and as Shiraishi comments, "it was one thing, apparently, to drop the bomb and have children go through the experience, but another to allow an eywitness's visual narration of the tragedy to circulate" (305). This obvious bias toward foreign-produced violence transcends into the anime of today, as heroes, such as Goku, attempting to save the world will be forced to submit to censors, while the idiotic cat and mouse pair from The Simpsons can slice and dice one another as much as they please.
Inequitable censoring in America is not the only obstacle Japanese anime must face when it crosses the ocean. One of the most loathed denigrations of an anime's text by its fans is the drastic change in scripting. When DBZ fans in America get their anxious hands on episodes they lovingly refer to as "fansubs," which are the original, uncut episodes produced and translated in Japan with English subtitles, they are often amazed at the discrepancy between what a character said in an American episode and what he/she actually said in the corresponding Japanese original.
The addition of American slang phrases to make the anime more appealing to viewers in the States is a powerful statement about how Japanese scripting has to be looked upon as inferior or inappropriate. In many instances, the whole connotation of a scene can be changed by the alteration of one line spoken by a character. For example, in Japanese episode 119 of Dragonball Z, "I'll Stop Freeza, A Mysterious Boy Awaiting Goku (its American counterpart is numbered 104 and called "The Mysterious Youth"), two of the characters who develop a love interest between them, Vegeta and Bulma, are shown to react to one another in an extremely dissimilar fashion, when the Japanese scripting is compared with that of the American. The scene depicts Bulma, the female, arriving on the scene where all of the Z warriors have gathered to try to stop Frieza from destroying the Earth. After her current boyfriend at this point, Yamcha, raises objections to her being there, the American version has Bulma say that she wanted to come and see what Frieza looks like, because she has heard that he's cute. Not only is this far from actuality, but also it portrays Bulma as the classic ditzy, boy-crazy female character. Vegeta, the man she will later marry, turns to her at this point in the American version and says, "It's amazing how every time you open your mouth, you prove what an idiot you are!" Did he say something so cruel and biting in the original Japanese version? Not a chance! For one thing, what Bulma really says is that she wants to see "What kind of person Frieza is," which is a far cry from wanting to see if he's attractive to her. Vegeta actually says to himself, "I thought she was another lowly woman, but she's stronger than I thought." Instead of insulting her, he is paying a comment and beginning to see attributes, which will eventually bring the two together. So, the American version not only demeans the original culture's interpretation of the scene, but also perpetuates the tendency of many Americans to perceive women as the gender not to be taken seriously, as well.
Not only does Funimation run the risk of losing female viewers, which probably matters little to the company, given their statement printed in the Business Press' that Dragonball Z appeals to "that all-important juvenile male demographic" (Shepherd), but its annoying addition of cheesy, American slang is a real turn off for some fans. Map notes in his online essay that Funimation tries too hard to fill up silences, which, quite frankly, appear normal when watching fansubs. For instance, every time there is a cutaway shot of Gohan and Krillin watching Goku fight Frieza in the American version, the pair utters some kind of bizarre whining sound, supposed to communicate how nervous they are about the situation. There are other moments when the characters say things that make them appear nonsensical, as when Vegeta chases a frog across the ground in American episode 60, "Captain Ginyu… The Frog," and says, "Get along little froggy." Most of us realize that this is a pun on "Get along little doggy," from a song associated with the American West, leading one to wonder how a warrior from another planet would ever be in possession of a reference completely foreign to him, to which he has never been exposed. Perhaps Funimation is attempting to associate itself with the popular, American cartoon dog, Droopy, who is depicted singing the original song in American cartoons, therefore helping children to feel more secure in recognizing something so familiar to them already. They just might feel warm and cozy enough to have their parents go out and buy them yet another DBZ figure?
For reasons primarily based upon financial gain and cultural arrogance, the American-based companies that "adapt" shows such as Dragonball Z for American audiences are destroying what anime communicates in its uncorrupted form. Whether the method is biased censoring to keep parents from writing angry letters or Americanized slang phrases like "Mondo Cool!" (Krillin Episode 60, American) thrown into the script to make the show more appealing, the bottom line remains that a piece of Japanese-culturally base artwork is being distorted in order to make it "better" for Westernized audiences. This imposition of Western thought, which has typically dominated the world with its influence, not only denigrates a piece of Japanese culture, but relays the message that the extra work of education oneself in order to understand and appreciate the artistic design found in other cultures becomes unnecessary. Instead of broadening the horizons of those especially impressionable, the youth of America, the message communicated becomes, not only that the ideas of other cultures should be seen as inferior, but also that they are in need of some "fixing up," as well. Until Japanese anime can be distributed and enjoyed in unaltered form, and this means learning Japanese in order to be true to theory, none of its viewers really "see" it at all.

Works Cited

Allison, Anne. "Sailor Moon: Japanese Superheroes for Global Girls." 259-78. Japan Pop! Ed. Timothy Craig. New York: East Gate, 2000.
"Burger King Corporation Lights Up Dragonball Z ® Promotion in U.S. Restaurants Three Week Program Offers Big Kids Exclusive Collectible Toys and Video." PR Newswire. May 23, 2000. Ebsco document.
Craig, Timothy. Introduction. Japan Pop! Ed. Timothy Craig. New York: East Gate, 2000. 3-23.
Desjardins, Doug. "Dragon Ball Z Tops Import List." DSN Retailing Today. February 5, 2001. Vol. 40:3, 40-42.
Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Honolulu: U of Hawai'i P, 2000.
"Makers of Dragon Ball Z [sic] Animate On-line World of Good Guys and Bad Guys Using Web Expertise from Aztec Systems." Business Wire. July 25, 2000. Ebsco document.
"Manga Guide." Planet Namek.com. 4 August, 2001. http://www.planetnamek.com/manga.html.
Map (online identity). "The Americanization of DBZ by Funimation." VegettoEx's Home Page. 4 August, 2001. http://www.erie.net/~reeds/VegettoEX/editorials/map_1.html.
"Money Talks; Basketball Star Lisa Harrison Threatens to Show Some Skin; The Lycos 50 for Week Ending July 21, 2001." Business Wire. July 24, 2001. Ebsoco document.
Napier, Susan. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
O'Flaherty, Kristi. "Dragon Ball Z in Demand on the Internet." Fort Worth Business Press. November 5, 1999. Vol. 12:28, 4-5.
O'Flaherty, Kristi. "Fun a Serious Business for NRH Firm." Fort Worth Business Press. April 21, 2000. Vol. 12:52, 1-2.
Shepherd, Shawn. "Cartoons Are Serious Business for Fort Worth Production Group." Business Press. November 27, 1998. Vol. 11:29, 11-18.
Toriyama, Akira. "Formation of Dragon Ball: A Comic Short." Planet Namek.com. 4 August, 2001. http://www.planetnamek.com/toriyama_formation.html.