Why Dragonball?

dchan316 · Post by **dchan316** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 3:58 am

From what I can tell, Dragonball established and set a standard for a new wave of shonen manga. Strong design style, adventure, humor, action, and unique and lovable cast of characters helped it to stand out, and it influenced and inspired a lot of people.

And in those short 42 volumes, a lot happened; bringing down fiery mountains, fighting through an old underwater pirate hideout, taking out an army, climbing an endlessly tall tower, tournaments, crushing a clan of demons, fighting aliens, traveling through time, battling with magical beings, etc. The list goes on and on, feeling like so much has been accomplished in such a small space.

The only manga I see as truly better than Dragonball is One Piece (its like the evolution of Dragonball), but for personal reasons, I like Dragonball a bit more.

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:03 am

SSj_Rambo wrote:
mrkaizoku wrote:The reason that I keep coming back to "Dragonball" is the simple fact that it is awesome. Sorry for the novel.
Don't be sorry, I loved reading it, almost brought a tear to my eye, almost.

Yeah, it was a really nice read.

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:09 pm

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:37 pm

mrkaizoku wrote:The reason that I keep coming back to "Dragonball" is the simple fact that it is awesome. Sorry for the novel.

I have a similar experience to that, except for instead of Dragonball 35 it was DBZ: Legends for PlayStation. And, instead of ordering it and waiting forever and a day to get it, a friend of mine just kinda mysteriously had it in his possession one day and gave it to me because he was interested in other things by that point.

I still have the game, but I don't have a Japanese PlayStation.

As for why I keep coming back to Dragonball: In the way Ninja Turtles inspired me to get into martial arts, Dragonball kept me interested in martial arts by taking things to a fantastic level of skill and power that I had actually never really imagined before. In a way, coming back to it is my way of paying respect to the series.

Daburcor · Post by **Daburcor** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:34 am

[I've loved "Dragonball" since they first aired it back in 1995. It used to come on Sundays mid-morning. My brother and I would get so excited about it. Then suddenly they kept showing the same thirteen episodes over and over and over and over again. So we took a break from it for a little while. Then one day (somewhere around a year later I think) I happened to be tuning into the preview channel, and saw the listing for "Dragonball Z". At first I thought that they had made a mistake. So my brother and I decided we would tune in, and we just so happened to catch "Dragonball Z" from the first airing in the US. Everything was different. Goku was grown up, had a son and was married to Chi Chi. It was amazing. From then on my brother and I watched/taped every Sunday. After they would play an episode (which eventually turned into TWO episodes) we would go back and watch the tape from the start. We continued on that way for what seems like forever. Then the show stopped having new episodes for a while, and we stopped tuning in, but I didn't forget. The show was always on my mind. I'd go through the entire week waiting for it. Then heartbreaking disappointment. They were showing Raditz AGAIN. As much as I loved it I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I stopped watching and taping it every weekend for a while.

Then one Monday my brother went to school and a friend was talking about Goku making it to King Kai's. At first he thought he was lying. He was known to do that. So the following Sunday we set the VCR up, and waited for "Dragonball Z" to come on. When it finally did I thought my heart was going to explode. It was NEW! Goku had made it to King Kai's planet! I was shocked. From then on I was hooked again taping every episode (went back and got the episode I missed) until they stopped again. There was something about this time though that was different. It seemed like they were never going to show anything past it. Just a couple of weeks after this (could have been longer) my girlfriend at the time received a few tapes in the mail from a French pen-pal. These tapes were very special.

The tapes that she had received in the mail were tapes of Dragonball Z movies (WHAT! Dragonball Z has MOVIES!) taken from Japanese laserdiscs. She let us borrow them. My mind was completely blown. I watched those tapes over and over and over again. I started to remember dialogue in a language I didn't understand. It gave me a feeling of excitement (*Japanese omitted because I can't speak it* ) that nothing has given me since. These were the days before the internet. Well, not really before just before most American families had it. So I knew nothing of the stories in these movies other...

I WAS going to go through his whole post, but can't be bothered with re-reading/personalizing it. My story is pretty much the same as his, except I didn't learn Japanese. However; I AM the prettier of the two of us. That counts for SOMETHING, right?

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:39 am

Kunzait_83 wrote:The length of it IMO is in fact one of it’s major strong points due to how much the series changes and grows via it’s cast of characters and themes. Some arcs I prefer over others, but it’s always kept fresh and never static or stagnant like a lot of other lesser series.

I couldn't agree with this more.

Good read, all around.

Vivisection · Post by **Vivisection** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:30 am

Kunzait_83 wrote: realistic sense of the passing of time

I've always loved that aspect of the series, too, albeit I found myself almost sad in some instances, particularly at how Bulma was drawn in her last few scenes.

Very nice read.

Velasa · Post by **Velasa** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:19 am

mrkaizoku, that is possibly one of the coolest DB stories I've heard.

What keeps me close to Dragonball? The characters. Of course I love the story and the craziness and the humor and the fighting and the good points of the art, but if my boys weren't there the story would leave my head and I'd wander off to other things for a few months. The senshi are dear to me- for their good points and their blaring flaws, their moments of spectacular genius and superb idiocy, I've loved them for years and I'll keep doing so. Even for a few years when I didn't think much about the cannon I stuck with my boys.

DBZ was the first series I saw on television save Beast Wars that made me take it seriously- people died, as much as FUNi tried to cover it up I knew there was something amazing and deep here, in the eyes of those eight men. Even though I've seen shows since then that were technically deeper and more complicated, DBZ was my first love and still the closest to my heart. That's why all these years later I'm still dedicating so much time, love and money to the series. A mix of nostalgia and straight-up awesomeness that makes me happy like no other show or series can even attempt to.

I wasn't certain is this post was too old to reply to, but as it was barely ten days I figured it would be alright.