IncredibleGuy wrote:
The original Dragon Ball may have been influenced by humor and goofy situations (Drunken Master I believe is the movie Toriyama cited in its creation), but DBZ is about as cliche as you can get - Last of a race, oppressed by an unruly tyrant, transformed by emotional connections to his friends, blah, blah, blah. But like you said, "It basically only takes itself seriously enough to be considered a fighting/action manga instead of a comical one", which for me is too serious. The plot simply isn't strong enough to exist without a notable amount of humor. And the fight scenes that make up the bulk of this serious demeanor are simply too long, and too numerous, even in the manga.
Satan was a nice touch, as was Saiyaman, and SS3 Gotenks, but how much of an impact did these people have on the bulk of the story? Practically nothing! For every 5 minutes of humor there's about 100 minutes of drawn out fight scenes, story recanting, and grunting. And for good reason, it sells!
You say real fans don't take DBZ seriously? Bologna! DBZ's fanbase is primarily teenage and prebuscent boys. Hell, even a lot of the people on this board consider Dragon Ball's overall plot to be novel worthy material as they move well into adulthood.
Let me be clear, however, because I know DBZ isn't the most serious anime on the planet. But a few sight gags now and then aren't enough to make up for the fact that on the whole Dragon Ball post Raditz is pretty boring.
Well, for one, I think you need to separate the anime from the manga.
The manga doesn`t drag at all. Its a very fast paced manga in fact. Consequently, the manga equivalent of DBZ is a perfect mix of seriousness and goofiness, as far as I`m concerned, because the fighting doesn`t really drag.
Its serious enough for the fights to matter (and make the reader interested in the outcome) and goofy enough for the reader to realize how lightly the manga takes itself.
In fact, thats the all point of the entire story/manga. It entertains the reader with a good amount of humor and goofiness that influences all the manga, but it also entertains the reader with good enough and serious enough action/fights.
Without these two elements, it wouldn`t be Dragon Ball at all. And frankly saying that the story it not strong enough to stand on its own without humor doesn`t make sense at all.
If the author wanted to do a serious fighting manga without humor we would do it. He would simply create a story fitting of a total serious fighting manga and he would do it. But he simply doesn`t want that. Thats not what he likes to do. He primarily likes gag manga, which is the premise of Dragon Ball, he just added some seriousness later on to make the fights matter and keep the reader interested in the outcome. But Dragon Ball never lost its goofiness and its obvious that it never took itself too seriously.
In all honesty I can not agree with you, and you also need to separate the fan base from the story. Just because there are a lot of fans out there who are adolescents and take the action of the manga too seriously that doesn`t mean that the manga or the author take it that seriously, and that is evidently in Dragon Ball.
The main reason why I don`t agree with you is simply because one of the reasons why I love Dragon Ball so much is its goofiness and the fact that it never takes itself too seriously. It just blends perfectly the action with the goofiness, the same way it blends perfectly sfi-fi with supernatural and mythology. Its a rather unique mix which I love.
And you stating the contrary... Well... I just can´t agree at all.
