Dragon Ball: Good is not enough.

I always remember a quote that says "Alcohol, because no great story started with a glass of milk." Even though the following story didn't start with a glass of milk, it kind of did with a bottle of milk. But you might be wondering what does this have to do with Dragon Ball? Well, one of my earliest memories of Dragon Ball is an episode where Master Roshi takes Krillin and Goku to the mountains to train them while delivering milk bottles. It might sound silly, and it technically is, but I cherish that memory as something truly special. To be honest, if it wasn't for Dragon Ball and that episode, I would have never started this blog, I would have never watched anime, and many other things in my life would have been different. 

There isn't much I can say about this anime that hasn't been said yet, but just for the sake of having a clear structure, I will summarize Dragon ball in a few sentences. Dragon Ball is a simple story and it follows the life of Goku, an alien from a race called "Saiyans". Goku is sent to earth as a newborn baby and is adopted by an old man, who raises him as his own child. Time goes by and the old man trains Goku as a martial artist, but this kid is something special. Goku's strength is unmatched and the old man clearly realizes that he is not a normal child...also, he has a tail, so that's a huge hint that he is not human. Little soon after, Son Gohan (the old man) dies and Goku starts to live alone in the mountains, but everything changes when a young girl crosses paths with our protagonist. The girl's name is Bulma and she's looking to collect some very special objects: The dragon balls. The legend says that the one who collects all seven dragon balls will have their wishes granted. Bulma has some of the dragon balls, but Goku has one as well. As Bulma realizes that Goku doesn't want to give her his dragon ball, she decides to invite Goku to join her and collect all seven dragon balls. This is how our journey starts, and this is how Goku's legend begins.

Dragon Ball is something very special for me, so I would be lying if I say that this article is objective. In fact, my idea is to do quite the contrary; I want to make people appreciate Dragon Ball, and what better way to do it than by sharing my own experience watching this anime. The first time I watched Dragon Ball, I was probably 6 or 7 years old, so I didn't pay attention to storytelling devices or character development. The only thing I cared for was probably having fun, and Dragon Ball absolutely nailed that aspect. I remember being in school and talking about the anime with my friends, drawing the characters in the back of my copybooks, and simply being obsessed with the anime. But, did that change as I grew up? Absolutely, I grew up and my interests changed because so did I. As I became a teenager, I started to watch other animes and, as I read different mangas, I gained more knowledge in regards to artwork, panel distribution, storytelling, etc. In fact, my favorite mangas were now part of the seinen genre; the characters, their struggle, everything felt right about those stories. At that moment, I realized that, even though Dragon Ball started my "passion" for mangas and anime, I was no longer seeing it as the best anime nor manga for me. Maybe the nostalgia was gone or I became aware of the simplicity of Dragon Ball, but one thing was for sure: My days trying to become a Super Saiyan were long gone.

Time went by and I always thought of Dragon ball as a part of my childhood that was very good, but one that I didn't want to revisit again. Nonetheless, all of that changed in my first year at college, a time where I started to lose my interest in animes and mangas. In those early college years, I often found myself enjoying novels more than mangas, and thinking they were more fitting to my taste. Yet, in an attempt to recover my "passion" for anime,  I decided to watch some old shows and remember what made them so special to me. The first thing I watched was Shaman King, an anime that I enjoyed quite a lot as a kid. My expectations were very high, but they were quickly buried by how bad the anime was. The story was childish and different from what I remembered, and even the character's designs were no longer cool. Once I realized that nostalgia was blinding my judgment, I started to doubt if all the animes I watched as a kid were actually good or not. Most of them stood the test of time, and some of them failed miserably...but most importantly, Dragon Ball was back into my life.

Dragon Ball (anime) was first released in 1986, almost 34 years ago, but surprisingly enough, the anime is still popular among kids. All-time fans are always excited about new episodes of the anime, and they fill the theatres when a new movie is announced. Is this a coincidence? I don't think so. There is a very good reason for Dragon Ball's success and it is called Akira Toriyama (The man, the myth, the legend). The first thing I noticed when I rewatched Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, was the values that Toriyama was teaching through the story. Goku's childhood is all about overcoming obstacles and making friends along the way. Goku's adolescence is about protecting what's important to you and the bonds you've created. Goku's adulthood is about proving yourself by testing your limits and pushing others to be better versions of themselves. Every single part of Goku's life has something that you can relate to and, most importantly, something you can learn from. Dragon Ball stood the test of time for me because it was just as I remembered it, simple yet entertaining. 

When I think about DB and DBZ, there's something very pristine about it. Even though it's true that characters are sometimes forgotten along the way, some of them are stale, and most of the arcs follow a similar structure, DB still feels right and it can still entertain you. That is no coincidence, that is the result of meticulous work and excellence in execution. Toriyama's work is groundbreaking and cemented a lot of the foundations of what we see in other animes and mangas nowadays. His work influenced hundreds if not, thousands of other stories. It's no surprise to see the color palette of Goku replicated in other characters or see how many other Vegetas you can find in other stories. Toriyama's work is often overlooked and almost taken for granted, but DB's success has a lot to do with how he structured the manga and how he was able to create an interesting and unique world. To further exemplify my point, just pay attention to how every arc is connected and structured. In the case of DBZ, the Saiyan arc establishes new limits and new characters who threaten Goku's life. The reality is heavily altered, and the main objective of that is expanding the universe created by Toriyama. Then, the Freezer saga comes and further develops what the Saiyan saga established. We have a new level of evil and the whole saga is structured around a cocky villain who toys with our beloved characters and tortures them. The Android and Cell saga comes and it's the whole opposite; our characters are the ones who became cocky. The newly discovered power levels are the biggest enemy of our protagonists, and that is clearly shown by Vegeta against the androids, Vegeta against Cell, and Gohan against Cell. Plus, we have 2 stories being developed at the same time, the Android threat and the strange creature from the future, Cell. Even though the structure is somehow similar to what was made in the Freezer saga, it is made in a reversed role, so it feels more dynamic and fresh. Lastly, we have the Majin Buu saga, which is arguably the weakest, but the one with some of the most memorable moments for some fans. Those moments really compensate for how weak the argument is since they nail some very nice details that were established in the past. For example, Vegeta's fight with Goku is an amazing moment that is only a small part of the saga, but it's memorable and it feels like a huge deal because we saw Vegeta's evolution. Throughout the anime, we witnessed how much Vegeta changed, so the battle gained a whole new level of importance when it happened. The same goes for Gohan's role in the Majin Buu saga, we saw a newfound power awaken in him in the previous arc, but we also saw how did peace affect him. All of those moments are there just to complement the argument of the saga, they are not even the focus of it. Those moments are THE example of character evolution, but most importantly, they are the example of Toriyama's commitment to his work and his storytelling. 

One of the biggest takeaways of Toriyama's legacy is how anime was never the same after Dragon Ball was released. Battle shonen became an extremely popular subgenre and all of that came from Dragon Ball and other similar mangas. Goku became one of -if not-  the most famous anime characters ever, and just like I've been saying, that's no coincidence. Nevertheless, somewhere along the way, we started to judge things no longer by their core value, but much rather by the technicalities that surrounded them. I remember that when I was a kid, anime used to be about having fun watching it, and not about paying attention to all the structures behind it. To illustrate this perspective, let's think about anime as if it was a painting. The painting (and art in general) is simply there, we don't judge the technique used to create the painting, nor the technicalities that made that painting possible. Sure, you can pay attention to those aspects and even delve into them, but the painting is not about that. The painting is supposed to be about the emotions it evokes in you, the message it contains, and the possible sensations it produces when you look at it. If you are unable to find anything or the painting doesn't provoke anything in you, that's fine. Art is about that, embracing the experience it brings to your senses, and to some extent, that's how anime should be seen as well. Let's just enjoy things by how they make us feel, and not by the technicalities surrounding them. 

If you still have fun watching Dragon Ball or any other old anime, that's excellent. These are the shows that established the foundations for the ones that came after. As long as these animes have an entertainment value for you, make sure you cherish them, you talk about it with your friends, draw the characters in the back of your copybooks, and simply be obsessed with them if you want.