Dragon Ball Z
Everybody knows Dragon Ball Z. It is possibly the most popular anime in the world! Everywhere except for the United States; that is, until 1996.
While Dragon Ball Z remained one of the top animated programs in Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, and France, the United States remained oblivious to the fact that the show even existed. Only the most die hard of anime fans in America knew of it, and only through imports from Japan. The manga didn't even get released until this year from Viz! The show started in it's original incarnation, (simply Dragon Ball) in 1986. As big as the anime phenominon has become in America in the '90s, it is amazing that Dragon Ball did not get picked up for American release sooner than it did!
Thankfully though, it did get picked up by the Saban Kids Network in 1996. It came out in the fall of that year on Saturday mornings on the Warner Bros. Station. That year also started the release of the original Dragon Ball series on video.
And Dragon Ball Z finally came to video late last year. Now America too can celebrate the adventures of Goku and all his friends!
Dragon Ball Z is the creation of Akira Toriyama, one of the most popular manga creators in Japan. He started the Dragon Ball manga in 1984. The style of the comic was comedy/adventure, with lots of quick gags and plenty of fighting. It wasn't popular at first, but after redefining of the story, making it more serious at times, and introducing some of the more popular mainstay characters to the story,(like Krillin and Piccolo)the comic took off to become one of the hottest titles in Japan!
Akira Toriyama had one thing in his comic that made it surpass all other manga's in popularity at the time: the manga had Fun! The continuing adventures of Son Goku and his friends as they travelled around the world in search of the faballed Dragon Balls; it was something new to look forward to each week that it came out! The same was true of the anime, which Toriyama helped produce, and which was very faithful to the manga.
He was clever in making the world similar, yet unlike Earth. That way he didn't have to focus on realism, and could escape into the fantasy aspect of the story, which helped make it even more of an epic! Toriyama's work has been enjoyed by so many fans, he is perhaps they only manga creator to actually earn the title of the "new Osamu Tezuka" , the fantasy master who helped manga become the popular form it is today!
In Dragon Ball Z, the characters from the original series have grown up. Son Goku is married to Chi Chi, and seeminly settled down. They have a son named Gohan, who is being raised to be a typical boy in school. All seems okay with the world, and the adventures of youth(which the first Dragon Ball series emphasized) are behind them now. In the first episode, Goku has a reunion with his friends Krillin, Bulma, and Master Roshi. Everyone is happy, and in this scene, we get a moment of peace before the storm hits; the storm, of course, is the alien Saiyans; and once again a brand new fabolous adventure starts for our enjoyment.
What's great about this is that Toriyama had the chance to end the story, for our hero's to lead nice quite lives. But his characters always try to do whats right, and so they give up their happiness to fight evil. Dragon Ball Z, more than most anime's, has morality lessons, one of the biggest is shown right in episode 3, where Goku sacrifices himself to stop Raditz, and "dies".
This anime has been labeled a "childrens show", but clearly is enjoyable by all ages. The show is a "human saga", as it explores the depths of good and evil, and makes the characters reflect on themselves, and what they as individuals can do to better their world(or universe, as this is a space travel story also). The show reminds me of Star Wars in it's epicness, and no one calls Star Wars a "kids show".
Another label for this anime is a "martial arts" or "fighting" show. True, most of the conflicts are solved through violent fights, but this is no "violence for the sake of violence" show. That in fact is one of the things the story seems to warn against the most! The heros are training in martial arts to better themselves and to better others. The "fighting" is the conflict we see on screen, but the real conflict is between opposing views on what people believe. In other words, between what is right and what is wrong.
And besides, this isn't an ultra-violent anime. You won't see any exploding heads here! Martial Arts is just the medium through which the conflict is portrayed!
Dragon Ball Z is everything you could hope to see in an anime show. Intense action, high drama, loveable characters, and a grand, sweeping story: it is all of the above. So yes, Dragon Ball Z is indeed the most popular anime in the world. Including the United States.
***** stars!
LINKS TO DRAGON BALL Z SITES:
There are so many Dragon Ball Z pages, I figured it would be easier to give this address:
The Anime Web Turnpike The Turnpike has tons of links to Dragonball pages on the web!
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