Anyway, despite Toriyama's claims that he likes to write stories that don't have deeper meanings or metaphors, we know Dragon Ball doesn't always work that way in practice: Freeza and the Planet Trade, for example, were inspired by the land speculators of Japan's '86-90 housing bubble, who would buy up land in order to resell it at a good price (minus the genocide
). Toriyama's stories sometimes have deeper meaning than even he cares to let on, which I think is just part of his natural ability as a storyteller: he can't help make his stories about something, you know?We also know that Dragon Ball in general draws heavily from religion and mythology: while his main sources are Eastern myth/religion, we know he doesn't draw from it exclusively.
Which brings me to the Tournament of Power arc. Essentially, I see the storyline as Akira Toriyama's version of Noah's Ark. Android 17 is a stand-in for Noah, his cruiser is his ark, and the Omni-Kings are stand-ins for God/Yahweh wiping out their creations. The big difference, of course (other than the fact that there's a tournament instead of a flood) is that the Zen-Ohs give their creations the chance to prove they're worthy of continued existence by testing their moral integrity with the Super Dragon Balls, whereas in the Noah's Ark story, nearly all mortals were considered to be irredeemable. Furthermore, the ten fighters chosen to represent and fight for the survival of their universe are not unlike the two animals of every species God asked Noah to rescue in his ark to ensure they survived the flood.
I thought the similarities were pretty interesting: I'm not sure if Toriyama had Noah's Ark in mind when working on the ToP (certainly would explain why 17 was so set on getting a ship, of all things), but it wouldn't surprise me if it influenced him on some level, consciously or otherwise. Anyway, I leave it up to you all to discuss!
