Holy AI
Nah, jk.
I do think some manga try to teach people how to live to some degree. They try to influence morals and behaviour and in some cases even provide practical guidance. A manga like Night Patrol Teacher or Skip and Loafer are definitely trying to give practical life lessons, such as how to treat others or how to make the most of school. For sure teen girls read shoujo manga to get ideas of how to do relationships (same as watching reality TV or netflix shows). Some manga also don't teach how to live, but show a realistic depiction of life, almost like a documentary (I'd say some of Oshimi's work is like this, and the two aforementioned manga. Night Patrol is based on a teacher's real experiences). But intention is beside the point — (lol emdash. Never knew these long dashes existed until ChatGPT) the manga that set an example of how to live are valued for this, whether it was the author's intention or not. DBZ perhaps didn't aim to inspire people to train, but the impact it had on people's habits is a huge part of why it's valued as a series. DBZ has no little value showing how the world is or how to live your life better in a practical way. It's just inferior in this regard.
It's psychologically bland compared to many series. We're comparing to other series, not to a zero.
The human characters aren't shown with the emotional or psychological depth we know humans possess. They show almost no worries about life, finding meaning in life (including the fighters who are now on the wayside), half of them are basically hermits which is very unusual. 18 and Krillin are married, but what can you tell about their relationship? Nothing really. Do they go on trips, do they argue and if so what about, who handles different aspects of Marron's parenting, how do they spend their free time at home? Bulma and Briefs are engineer businesspeople, but we don't see them struggle with running a business or coming up with new ideas or juggling work-life balance. These guys part ways for years and then meet up again like "yo hey" - is this how real people interact?
You're reaching so hard on that first Piccolo and Vegeta dialogue. A lot of DBZ psychology is headcanon by fans who've been thinking about the series for ages. Whereas for other series a single read- or watch-through would present more psychological depth.
This is pretty much a major selling point of reading any story or watching any show for me. How it shows the human condition.
It's also unrealistic in how basically nobody dies. They all come back. So it misses that entire part of human life (not merely death, but later stages of grief and adjustment after death).
Another issue is in DB Goku beats every major villain, except for Cell. This was cool for the RRA because it was like wow he went and did it alone, which provided some shock value. But after that it gives nobody else a chance to shine.
