Why Dragon Ball is still popular after more than 30 years? This is the answer: It's a hollywood-influenced series.
Well, the Dragon Ball Super series ended yesterday, on March 25th, for the time being. The last episode was plagued with nostalgia, and with lots of good ol' fashion enlighting thoughts about trust and how with unity, you can accomplish everything. Just look how Goku and Frieza managed to defeat Jiren fighting together.
All the world watched the episode, and speciffically in Latin America there were public gatherings up to 8,000 people to watch the last episode. People of all ages were there cheering when Universe 7 won the Universal tournament.
Now, how come this anime franchise became so popular? How this anime series resounds all over the world? Well, most of the stories are heavily inspired by western comics and Hollywood movies. Here are some examples:
1. Trunks based story arcs/Back to the Future - Terminator
In the picture above you can even see the resemblance of John Connor with Trunks, son of Bulma. And of course, it's not only this that resembles the Terminator 2 movie. Remember that the first Trunks based arc is the Cell Saga, plagued by Androids who wanted to destroy the earth, as Skynet uses androids to do the same.
Heck, even the Dragon Ball original series had a "Major Metallitron":
In the last Trunks-based arc, there's a lot of fiction-theory about time travel, and about alternate universes. That kind of argument was pretty discussed in the Back to the Future movies. They even had a song that resembles the original Back to the Future song in theit OST:
2. Goku - Vegeta relationship / Rocky - Apollo Creed
One of the key elements of this series is the constant race between Goku and Vegeta to be the most powerful Saiyan. They fought as enemies in the first arc of Dragon Ball Z, and after that they became odd friends, that actually cared each other. Just like Rocky and Apollo. The last scene of Goku and Vegeta fighting in episode 131, resembles the first fight they had in Dragon Ball Z. When I saw it, it reminded me of the last scene of Rocky III:
The chemistry between them (Rocky - Apollo) is undeniable. Talking about Rocky movies, the 5th and 6th movies don't have Apollo Creed as a character and they pretty much failed un the Box Office. The producers had to bring Creed's son to relaunch the move franchise. Would you imagine Goku without Vegeta? They are both a symbol of the mix of trust and humility with pride and honor.
3. Goku character / Superman
Superman is an old character, one of the first superheroes to be created in modern times (the 20th Century). So I don't find it surprising that he could've influenced the creation of other recent superheroes, like Goku, for instance. Here below are some similarities I have noticed between these two characters...
Superman was born on another planet and came to Earth as a baby on a small spaceship (in the '78 movie)... Goku was born on another planet and came to Earth as a baby on a small spaceship.
Superman's home planet was destroyed... Goku's home planet was destroyed.
Superman was raised by two old senior citizens (in the original story)... Goku was raised by an old man, Son Gohan.
Superman has a "real" name, "Kal-El"... Goku has a "real" name: "Kakarot" (notice that both names begin with the letter "K").
Superman has a "unique" hairstyle: his trademark "S" in front of his forehead... Goku has a "unique" hairstyle: spiky hair.
Superman married an Earth woman, Lois Lane... Goku married an Earth woman, Chi-Chi.
Superman has made a profession of saving the Earth repeatedly... Goku has made a profession of saving the Earth repeatedly.
Superman has a positive personality... Goku has a positive personality.
Superman can fly up in the air... Goku can fly up in the air.
In the Superman II movie, Three criminals who were born on the planet Krypton visited the Earth and caused terror and destruction… In Dragon Ball Z, three (yes, three!) Saiyan warriors visited the Earth and caused terror and destruction.
So there you have it. Apparently, Toriyama was strongly influenced by the Superman legend when he started developing the Goku character. Another influence for the same character was the ancient Asian myth of the Monkey King, who flew around on a cloud and had a magic staff.
This one was pretty much obvious. Now, Goku personality differs from Clark Kent/Superman. And that really was well stated in episode 130, after Jiren attacks his friends:
Goku is not a traditional hero. He doesn't think he is. He just cares about his friends and family. And he loves to fight. That differs a lot from Superman. And that's a thing lots of people can relate to it.
I can talk about other comparisons to movies like Star Wars, 101 Dalmatians, Cinderella, etc. But I prefer you guys to comment on it!
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