Things you adore and appreciate

[TrunksTrevelyan0064]

So here I was, about to post how negativity in general grinds my gears in the "Things that grind your gears" thread, when I thought: why not create something positive instead?
Not to bash on that thread or its creator! This thread is merely meant to coexist as its opposite. Talk about little aspects of Dragon Ball that you love, adore, and appreciate.

Here's my list to start things off with.

- Mayumi Tanaka's portrayal of Kuririn. Super opened my eyes to this. She makes him sound so soft-spoken and kind-hearted! A guy you want to root for. He tugs at my heartstrings just by existing, the same way Winnie the Pooh has always managed to do. I now completely understand why this is Goku's best friend, why #18 fell for him. How did that perverted, devious little brat grow up into such a genuine good guy?

- Piccolo's leadership in the Boo arc. When Boo attacks God's Temple, Piccolo manages to keep a level head despite the insane pressure he is under. In his mind, there's a 99% chance everyone is about to get killed, but somehow, Piccolo manages to say just the right things and make just the right moves to keep Boo from annihilating everyone (well, except for the people in the lower realm).

- Norio Wakamoto's scream in Cell's FighterZ intro (and that video doesn't even do it justice, with its blaring music). Holy flying squirrels.

- Only semi-related, but... Kanzenshuu's existence. It's easy to take for granted, but it is so wonderful to have a voice of reason amid all the chaos and toxicity any fandom can bring. They are a light in the darkness (and the HOPE OF THE UNIV- *Hakai'd*) without which the Dragon Ball community would be a lot less pleasant to hang out in.

[Kinokima]

The fact that the main hero of Dragon Ball started out as a kid but is now a grandfather.

The fact that the main character of Dragon Ball is now played by a woman in her 80’s which I find beyond awesome.

That I feel the show is rewarding in the sense that I can look back and see where the characters started and where they are now and how relationships changed & formed over time.

That most of the main characters in the series are adults not teens or kids.


I love the family aspect of Dragon Ball. Again this ties into the main characters being adults but the story doesn’t end even when characters get married and have kids as most adventure stories do. Family to me is an integral part of Dragon Ball. The kids fight along side their parents. It’s something that makes Dragon Ball feel unique.

[ABED]

How serialized the story is.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

My list obviously will start with my favorite moment in the entire franchise and I'm pretty sure nobody has this as his or her favorite moment. That is Wakamoto Norio's
CHIKUSHOU. It is unforgettable and Wakamoto is pure gold of an actor that no one can top. I run out of words how to describe this moment. It is that good.

Kikuchi Shunsuke's musical score. The prime reason why I became a Dragon Ball fan. Most people would say Toriyama's writing and the characters and the fights and all that stuff make this franchise memorable, but for me it is the music. The wuxia-esque score is what first comes to my mind when I think about Dragon Ball. It is what gave the series a distinct identity.

Some of the good and most important anime staff. I wish more people were aware of them. They sadly aren't recognized by the fandom when infact they played a very crucial role in shaping the series.

Nishio Daisuke - The series director for the majority of Dragon Ball and some of the films. This man's vision was as important in making the anime a success as much as Toriyama's was for the manga. His individual talent of directing and storyboarding was also pretty damn good. Look no further than the Gokuu Vegeta fight and the Gokuu Cell fight to see a showcase of his talent.

Yama'uchi Shigeyasu - The director of the Majin Boo arc and some of the fan favorite films. Responsible for nailing some of the most important eps in the anime. Gokuu's SS transformation and Majin Vegeta fight come to mind immediately. He was an excellent idiosyncratic director. The best in the series by far. A legend in the industry as well. Dragon Ball was lucky to have him.

[8000 Saiyan]

The music, the animation and the voice acting.

[ABED]

The voice acting in the original is fantastic and the dub has come a long way. There are a few voices I could listen to all day long. For example, Brice Armstrong, Doc Morgan, Joji Yanami (clearly I have a thing for narrators), Kōhei Miyauchi, Ryusei Nakao, and Chris Ayres.

[Michsi]

That most of the main characters in the series are adults not teens or kids.
.

In a high school setting.
Not only that, main characters are parents!
Usually, when a character gets a kid that usually means their adventure days are over and they get put on the bench while the kid takes over. Looking at you Naruto and Bleach!

Other things to appreciate';

- Toriyama's crisp and clear art and his story board-like paneling
- his tiny, compact vehicle designs
- the fantasy/SF genre mash-up (demons and robots and dragons and aliens and gods and time-travel machines)
- that one of the most iconic moments of not only the franchise, but anime/manga industry in general, was the result of the author wanting to make work a little easier for his assistant.

And many more.

[ABED]

The genre mashup is also something I love. Toriyama takes Journey to the West, Chinese martial arts movies, sci-fi, fantasy, and meshes it together with his blend of humor to create something unique.

I keep posting in because I continually think of more things that I adore about DB.

[8000 Saiyan]

When it comes to voice acting in Japanese, I could listen to Nozawa, Horikawa, Furukawa, Tsuru, Nakao, Wakamoto, Yanami and Gori all day. For English, Chris Ayres, Chris Rager, Rick Robertson and Dameon Clarke.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan.

Light blue is my favourite colour, and I just love how ethereal it looks! The aura looks fantastic and really drives home the godly-ness. Also like how in it's début in Resurrection "F" Sumitomo played an ominous track and subsequently now the audience knows what it is in Dragon Ball Super he uses the godly chant theme.

I also adore Super Saiyan God think Goku looks great in it and it pops really well on screen! Wish it got/gets more lovin' when it comes to merchandising.

[Cipher]

Besides the art, pretty much the whole soul of the series as a fly-by-the-seat-or-your-pants product of its author's own personal amusement, humor, and whimsy, that nevertheless vehemently treats its world and characters sincerely. It's goofy, it's serious, it's so much better crafted than it deserves to be.

So it goes for Dr. Slump and most of Toriyama's shorter works as well. So it goes much less so for the post-revival material.

It would be an understatement to say that despite a few misgivings, and even taken with them, I both adore and appreciate the original run of Dragon Ball.

[Kunzait_83]

Building off of Cipher's post: during its original run, one of the things that impresses me most is how shockingly little the series' gigantic level of mainstream popularity and moving of merchandise had managed to impact the creative integrity and auteuristic nature of the manga itself. And by extension, how ridiculously faithful the original anime run had managed to stick to that source, even as Toriyama took risks with the material that made all the suits at Shueisha and Toei uneasy. A LOT Of faith and leeway was extended to Toriyama throughout the entirety of Dragon Ball's 1984-1995 run, to a degree that you RARELY to almost-never see with properties of the stature and levels of commercial appeal that something like DB has attained.

Only NOW in the 2010s, roughly 20 years after it had ended, are we starting to see any telltale signs of what a truly corporately "compromised" longform run of Dragon Ball straight out of Japan looks like (GT was far too brief a footnote and had far too much in the way of genuine good intentions going on behind the scenes to fully qualify, and the FUNimation dub and all its nonsense is a wholly separate entity divorced from anyone or anything related to the original creative production).

Its a shame that it had to get to that point at all, but that's still a hugely better deal overall than most things of this nature ever tend to get.

[MajinMan]

This is a pretty generic one, but I really like the character of Son Goku. He's incredibly simple and not really all the complex, but he somehow finds a way to be unique and different compared to other major shonen protagonists. Goku basically pioneered the whole "I'm dumb but incredibly strong and goofy and also hungry" type of characters.

What makes him stand out from the rest is his selfishness. Comparing Goku to Naruto, you would find many similarities, but they do have key differences. Naruto always boasts about protecting everyone, helping his friends, being a general good guy and hero. Goku does not give a shit about most of those things. He protects and helps his friends when they're in need, but he also does many questionable things like letting Piccolo (this ones a little different, though) and Vegeta live, not killing Freeza, letting the Androids attack, not finishing off Majin Buu, the list goes on. Even though he saw all his dead friends in the Saiyan arc, he still begged Kuririn to not finish off Vegeta because it would be a "waste." That's one of the big reasons that makes me love Goku. You don't see characters like him too often.

[MaskedRider]

The little things in GT like Goku dancing with Giru, Pan play boxing with Giru, Trunks and Giru's relationship. Giru in general as a character.

Super era of Dragon Ball because of Beerus, Whis, Golden Freeza, Cabba, Hit, Black, Zamasu, Gowasu, various ToP contestants. Its also a welcome to see the Kais. I also love SSBKK, it pushes Goku to test himself. I also love the calm nature of SSG versus the rage inducing SSJ.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

The voice acting in the original is fantastic and the dub has come a long way. There are a few voices I could listen to all day long. For example, Brice Armstrong, Doc Morgan, Joji Yanami (clearly I have a thing for narrators), Kōhei Miyauchi, Ryusei Nakao, and Chris Ayres.

If you haven't already check out episode 30 of DBS dubbed when you have the chance. Doc Morgan has an extended role besides opening and closing narration and he really knocked it out the park!

Just makes me even more sad he wasn't cast as Kaio.

[Cipher]

Building off of Cipher's post: during its original run, one of the things that impresses me most is how shockingly little the series' gigantic level of mainstream popularity and moving of merchandise had managed to impact the creative integrity and auteuristic nature of the manga itself. And by extension, how ridiculously faithful the original anime run had managed to stick to that source, even as Toriyama took risks with the material that made all the suits at Shueisha and Toei uneasy. A LOT Of faith and leeway was extended to Toriyama throughout the entirety of Dragon Ball's 1984-1995 run, to a degree that you RARELY to almost-never see with properties of the stature and levels of commercial appeal that something like DB has attained.

I'd like to co-sign all of this as well, and tried to hint at it in my post above. The series steadfastly bucking conventional wisdom and remaining as idiosyncratic as it did (in a way that was still finely polished and stemmed from a place of wanting to do right by its world and characters, and sometimes just appealing to its author's whimsy), in the midst of its runaway popularity is one of the things that keeps me delighted with it.

Toriyama threatening to walk if he couldn't age Goku into adulthood is one of my favorite behind-the-scenes anecdotes related to the series, and an attitude I think is very much reflected throughout the end product.

[Michsi]

Building off of Cipher's post: during its original run, one of the things that impresses me most is how shockingly little the series' gigantic level of mainstream popularity and moving of merchandise had managed to impact the creative integrity and auteuristic nature of the manga itself. And by extension, how ridiculously faithful the original anime run had managed to stick to that source, even as Toriyama took risks with the material that made all the suits at Shueisha and Toei uneasy. A LOT Of faith and leeway was extended to Toriyama throughout the entirety of Dragon Ball's 1984-1995 run, to a degree that you RARELY to almost-never see with properties of the stature and levels of commercial appeal that something like DB has attained.

I'd like to co-sign all of this as well, and tried to hint at it in my post above. The series steadfastly bucking conventional wisdom and remaining as idiosyncratic as it did (in a way that was still finely polished and stemmed from a place of wanting to do right by its world and characters, and sometimes just appealing to its author's whimsy), in the midst of its runaway popularity is one of the things that keeps me delighted with it.

Toriyama threatening to walk if he couldn't age Goku into adulthood is one of my favorite behind-the-scenes anecdotes related to the series, and an attitude I think is very much reflected throughout the end product.

And yet: #17/#18, Cell, the focus on fighting even though he himself didn't like it. There are some contradicting statements regarding his obstinacy.

[ABED]

And yet: #17/#18, Cell, the focus on fighting even though he himself didn't like it. There are some contradicting statements regarding his obstinacy.

That's not a contradiction. Sometimes, people fight more about different issues. There are certain hills people are willing to die on and not others. I can easily see why allowing Goku to age would be a sticking point for him and not Cell's appearance. I never got the idea that the focus on fighting was a problem for him.

[Cipher]

And yet: #17/#18, Cell, the focus on fighting even though he himself didn't like it. There are some contradicting statements regarding his obstinacy.

It wasn't an all-the-time, all-or-nothing thing, but I do think it's an attitude that colors the series. It's also worth noting that Torishima was a major influence in shaping Toriyama's craft, so giving weight to his ideas is in some ways part and parcel of its idiosyncratic/personal bent. Toriyama wasn't writing in a vacuum, but he also didn't seem to be catering to pressures he greatly disagreed with in respect to where the series needed to go.

(What ABED said above.)

I also think he was all-in on the fighting, even if he found drawing it irksome. And he nevertheless managed to invent more or less a whole new visual language to sell it, adapting his style to fit.

[sintzu]

Everything Vegeta, especially manga Black arc Vegeta.

Dragon Ball Kai as it made my favorite anime even better.