- Joined
- May 30, 2015
- Messages
- 1,293
- Age
- 28
For a deceptively simple story, it says some real shit about society.
Commercialization of Competitive shorts
Back in the original Dragon Ball, the Tenkaichi Budokai was a competition that had fighters from across the world to see who's the strongest under the heavens. Originally it was more of an underground scene that attended out of tradition and love for the sport so you had to fighters perform many extraordinary feats but after it was rebuilt many years later, the level of competition was reduced to regular humans and the contestants weren't real martial artists but rather celebrities. The general public had forgotten all about Piccolo Daimao and Muten Roshi's legacy plus Mr. Satan, the reigning world martial arts champion, convinced them that all those incredible feats were mere tricks. It makes the mass look like total idiots but that's how people really are- people fear and hate what they don't understand so they have no choice but to believe the champ's lies.
Despite this, Goku and co. allow Mr. Satan to take credit for their hard work because they don't want fame. They just wanna live their lives.
Slavery & Racism
This one is an obvious subject. Various articles, blogs, and videos have drawn comparisons to the persecution of the Saiyans to the persecution of black people. Saiyans were seen as a race that is "violent" and "barbaric" on a planet that is "violent" and "barbaric". Being the pride of his people, Vegeta made sure to carry out his job as efficiently as possible even to the point of alienating his fellow Saiyans but even though he's a cut above the rest, he's still a "Saiyan Monkey" so Freeza took every opportunity to demean and belittle him (shown clearly when they fought). The most tragic part is that Saiyans have been subjected to the role of planet brokers for so long that they've embraced it as part of their culture and it didn't start with the Planet Trade Organization. They were also oppressed by the Tuffles till they retaliated and took over their land.
Thankfully Goku, who originally rejected his heritage and was considered an outcast by the race, later took pride in being Saiyan after learning of their pain.
Child Soldier
One that people wouldn't quite expect to be here. We have Gohan who was involved in the Z-Warriors' fighting business since he was 5 so clearly he had to deal with a lot of shit kids his age wouldn't even think of facing. When people think of Gohan they tend to think of the badass SSJ2 Gohan that smoked Cell but what about the real Gohan- the peace-loving, mild-mannered rice boy?
His uncle turned out to be a vicious space pirate, his father died trying to save him, saw the Z-Warriors being killed off one-by-one, and he himself nearly died multiple times forcing him to grow up early. It's clear all the war shit scarred him in more than one way (*cough*gtsaiyaman*cough*) but he joins in because he feels obligated to it. Even though he gets stronger with time, he is still just a boy throughout most of the series which came to a head during the Cell Games where Piccolo calls Goku out for pitting Gohan against Cell without preparation and reminds that even though he's got the powers, he's still a child. Even though he has more potential than virtually every fighter in the series, his lack of fighting spirit keeps him from keeping with his training showing altruism can only get you so far.
Fans (and sometimes even the anime) tend to write Chi-Chi as nothing more than a nagging shrew who won't the heroes have fun or do as they need to (which... is partly Toriyama's fault) and even blame for Gohan being 'weak' but all things considered it's easy to see why she wants her kids (namely Gohan) to have as little involvement in the fighting business as possible. It's not like she's a stranger to the danger either...
The End.
Commercialization of Competitive shorts
Back in the original Dragon Ball, the Tenkaichi Budokai was a competition that had fighters from across the world to see who's the strongest under the heavens. Originally it was more of an underground scene that attended out of tradition and love for the sport so you had to fighters perform many extraordinary feats but after it was rebuilt many years later, the level of competition was reduced to regular humans and the contestants weren't real martial artists but rather celebrities. The general public had forgotten all about Piccolo Daimao and Muten Roshi's legacy plus Mr. Satan, the reigning world martial arts champion, convinced them that all those incredible feats were mere tricks. It makes the mass look like total idiots but that's how people really are- people fear and hate what they don't understand so they have no choice but to believe the champ's lies.
Despite this, Goku and co. allow Mr. Satan to take credit for their hard work because they don't want fame. They just wanna live their lives.
Slavery & Racism
This one is an obvious subject. Various articles, blogs, and videos have drawn comparisons to the persecution of the Saiyans to the persecution of black people. Saiyans were seen as a race that is "violent" and "barbaric" on a planet that is "violent" and "barbaric". Being the pride of his people, Vegeta made sure to carry out his job as efficiently as possible even to the point of alienating his fellow Saiyans but even though he's a cut above the rest, he's still a "Saiyan Monkey" so Freeza took every opportunity to demean and belittle him (shown clearly when they fought). The most tragic part is that Saiyans have been subjected to the role of planet brokers for so long that they've embraced it as part of their culture and it didn't start with the Planet Trade Organization. They were also oppressed by the Tuffles till they retaliated and took over their land.
Thankfully Goku, who originally rejected his heritage and was considered an outcast by the race, later took pride in being Saiyan after learning of their pain.
Child Soldier
One that people wouldn't quite expect to be here. We have Gohan who was involved in the Z-Warriors' fighting business since he was 5 so clearly he had to deal with a lot of shit kids his age wouldn't even think of facing. When people think of Gohan they tend to think of the badass SSJ2 Gohan that smoked Cell but what about the real Gohan- the peace-loving, mild-mannered rice boy?
His uncle turned out to be a vicious space pirate, his father died trying to save him, saw the Z-Warriors being killed off one-by-one, and he himself nearly died multiple times forcing him to grow up early. It's clear all the war shit scarred him in more than one way (*cough*gtsaiyaman*cough*) but he joins in because he feels obligated to it. Even though he gets stronger with time, he is still just a boy throughout most of the series which came to a head during the Cell Games where Piccolo calls Goku out for pitting Gohan against Cell without preparation and reminds that even though he's got the powers, he's still a child. Even though he has more potential than virtually every fighter in the series, his lack of fighting spirit keeps him from keeping with his training showing altruism can only get you so far.
Fans (and sometimes even the anime) tend to write Chi-Chi as nothing more than a nagging shrew who won't the heroes have fun or do as they need to (which... is partly Toriyama's fault) and even blame for Gohan being 'weak' but all things considered it's easy to see why she wants her kids (namely Gohan) to have as little involvement in the fighting business as possible. It's not like she's a stranger to the danger either...
The End.
