The Cuter aspects of Dragon Ball.

[Cure Dragon 255]

To make threads other than dubs and tv deals lol.

One of the aspects of Dragon Ball is that when it wants to it can be REALLY CUTE. Most of THE EARLY DRAGON BALL Early Manga and MOST CERTAINLY early Anime was very cute, Masako Nozawa had a really cute kid charm and its a testament to her acting ability she can make the transition to serious good faith Wuxia epic protagonist both as kid and adult.

This is something that hasnt really been carried by any of the english dubs, but the Latin American dub has perfected to an art. Despite replacing Laura Torres as Goku, Gohan and Even Goten ages, Laura Torres' performance has ALWAYS nailed the cuter aspects of Dragon Ball.

Romantic Ageru Yo is also such a cute song and added to the girl appeal for Dragon Ball. My sister loves that song.

EDIT: OH GOD I FORGOT HIROMI TSURU. Her early voice is just so cute! And also another voice nailed by the Latin American dub.

EDIT: LOL CORRECTED WORDING.

[MasenkoHA]

Masako Nozawa's young Goku is very cute, it's something none of the various English voice actresses have been able to replicate.

[JulieYBM]

Shimada Bin and Mizuki Nana added so much cuteness to Dragon Ball Super: Broli. I really do wish those two could get material that builds off of that film.

[M16U3L2015]

https://youtu.be/Bw0O1l42o28?si=FIOddyRWhXTY1mBd
https://youtu.be/Hn3ksr0TZWc?si=sE4ATnKkWz9R4e34

This scene of Goku reuniting with his grandpa always makes me cry, I think it's the only time you see Goku cry.

Both in Japanese and Spanish and they managed to capture the innocence and joy of Goku seeing again the person who raised him.

Another example that comes to mind are GT songs, already almost all of them are romantic songs that have nothing to do with DB.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Shimada Bin and Mizuki Nana added so much cuteness to Dragon Ball Super: Broli. I really do wish those two could get material that builds off of that film.

I kept wondering who did Shimada Bin play and I just remembered He played Broly... A powerful male character most people associate with toxic masculinity being tender and cute is such a great thing.

And lets not forget Gohan, who is so cute as a kid and surprisingly dorky and sweet as an adult.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I think it's the only time you see Goku cry.

There's also losing Master Roshi in Super, both scenes are incredibly touching though.

Off the top of my head there are at least two other ocassions we see Goku cry, once during the Sugoroku Space episode in GT and again when losing Android 8 in Path to Power:

[Jord]

I'd say everything in early DB concluding with the Pilaf escape is very cute. From Goku's character to Yamcha's shyness to Roshi's naughty behaviour. After that, with the introduction of Kuririn and the tournaments, the show gets a bit less cute and bit more action oriented.

[Kunzait_83]

To make threads other than dubs and tv deals lol.

At this point, threads about dubs and TV deals are what this forum has largely turned into overall (whenever people aren't nitpicking powerscaling nonsense or dealing with alt-right/reactionary troll posters anyways).

Most of Early Manga and MOST CERTAINLY early Anime was very cute

I know exactly what you mean. The very first thing I always think of when I think of older anime is "cute".

Spoiler:

To the topic itself: this is one of the first things I always think of when I think "Dragon Ball" and "cute".



Ok ok, for real though: the whole Zenkai Power closing credits scene is probably the singular most well executed "cute" aspect of the whole series, with Gohan's alcoholic apple-induced tripout in the first Z movie being a close second.

Anything involving kid Gohan and demented psychedelia generally gets my stamp of approval usually.

And in a more broad sense, anytime kid Goku in early DB is being an intentionally obnoxious ball-buster to his opponents - channeling the original Sun Wukong's mischievous troll persona for which he's well known - is also peak Dragon Ball in itself. Stuff like his busting up laughing uncontrollably at Murasaki getting the Nyoi-Bo stuck up his ass, or virtually any time he starts to gets the upper hand on any of his opponents in the 21st and 22nd Budokai tournaments (especially the 21st) and has that lovable shit-eating grin on his face.

[Cure Dragon 255]

To make threads other than dubs and tv deals lol.

At this point, threads about dubs and TV deals are what this forum has largely turned into overall (whenever people aren't nitpicking powerscaling nonsense or dealing with alt-right/reactionary troll posters anyways).

Most of Early Manga and MOST CERTAINLY early Anime was very cute

I know exactly what you mean. The very first thing I always think of when I think of older anime is "cute".

Spoiler:

To the topic itself: this is one of the first things I always think of when I think "Dragon Ball" and "cute".



Ok ok, for real though: the whole Zenkai Power closing credits scene is probably the singular most well executed "cute" aspect of the whole series, with Gohan's alcoholic apple-induced tripout in the first Z movie being a close second.

Anything involving kid Gohan and demented psychedelia generally gets my stamp of approval usually.

And in a more broad sense, anytime kid Goku in early DB is being an intentionally obnoxious ball-buster to his opponents - channeling the original Sun Wukong's mischievous troll persona for which he's well known - is also peak Dragon Ball in itself. Stuff like his busting up laughing uncontrollably at Murasaki getting the Nyoi-Bo stuck up his ass, or virtually any time he starts to gets the upper hand on any of his opponents in the 21st and 22nd Budokai tournaments (especially the 21st) and has that lovable shit-eating grin on his face.

I dont know how to feel about this post. I love it most because yeah, that "Early Anime and Manga" REALLY lent itself to that awesome post showing how FUCKED UP "Early Anime and Manga" can be. I MEANT SPECIFICALLY DRAGON BALL. (The caps are for emphasis not yelling). Early Dragon Ball anime and manga IS ridiculously cute, and not in the MOE "OMG I WANT MY MOE WAIFU" way most otaku do.

But if I REALLY wanted to respond to Kunzait, I would say the 80's and 90's ARE NOT early anime. The anime industry has existed since the 60's and I am a bit amazed Kunzait didnt make note of this. Sure even back then anime could be REALLY messed up. But if he can object to my careless wording so can I object his. Like Gatchaman has no blood or gore to it but so many messed up stuff happens in it and it would it still be hardcore, like so many scenes of what another Kanzenshuu user described as "Filling graveyards" of people in each episode. An episode called "Duel On Galactor Island" has the bad guys throw a granade, Our Hero Joe Asakura dodges it and kills two innocent people with astonishing casuality.

And lets not forget Zambot 3, which is just SO MUCH MESSED UP SHIT. The villains destroy the cities that are full of people in every single fight and then the populace blames the heroes and want them dead to pay for it. And that's without even mentioning the the human bombs.As in the villains grab innocent people, put an energy bomb that will obliterate most in its path and release them to their loving families full of innocent people and then detonate them

I love this post by Kunzait I just object that I already knew "Early Anime" was not Moe shit but to that I said neither was Dragon Ball, its just a really cute wholesome way... along with REALLY messed up sexual humor that is awful.

My only objection is that I KNOW early anime was not cute cuddly stuff. Cmon Kunzait, GO 70's! Where is Asura the sweet little girl orphan from Space Runaway Ideon getting beheaded by a bazooka in that list? Go earlier!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx_OoOZKYqs

[Kunzait_83]

I dont know how to feel about this post. I love it most because yeah, that "Early Anime and Manga" REALLY lent itself to that awesome post showing how FUCKED UP "Early Anime and Manga" can be. I MEANT SPECIFICALLY DRAGON BALL. (The caps are for emphasis not yelling). Early Dragon Ball anime and manga IS ridiculously cute, and not in the MOE "OMG I WANT MY MOE WAIFU" way most otaku do.

Yeah, the way your post was worded didn't really indicate you were referring to early Dragon Ball: it was worded to indicate early anime and manga broadly overall. And no don't worry, I didn't interpret the caps as yelling: that'd be hilariously hypocritical of me, considering the number of times folks here have misinterpreted my own use of caps in a similar way.

But if I REALLY wanted to respond to Kunzait, I would say the 80's and 90's ARE NOT early anime. The anime industry has existed since the 60's and I am a bit amazed Kunzait didnt make note of this. Sure even back then anime could be REALLY messed up. But if he can object to my careless wording so can I object his. Like Gatchaman has no blood or gore to it but so many messed up stuff happens in it and it would it still be hardcore, like so many scenes of what another Kanzenshuu user described as "Filling graveyards" of people in each episode.

I mean, I have a whole ton of 60s and 70s manga examples I also would've used, but I didn't want the embed to get even more larger than it already was. Well, that and also a lot of the 70s manga examples I have are SO extreme (to the point they make the 80s anime examples I used seem relatively tame in comparison) that they'd probably violate what content guidelines this site does have.

But point taken obviously.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I dont know how to feel about this post. I love it most because yeah, that "Early Anime and Manga" REALLY lent itself to that awesome post showing how FUCKED UP "Early Anime and Manga" can be. I MEANT SPECIFICALLY DRAGON BALL. (The caps are for emphasis not yelling). Early Dragon Ball anime and manga IS ridiculously cute, and not in the MOE "OMG I WANT MY MOE WAIFU" way most otaku do.

Yeah, the way your post was worded didn't really indicate you were referring to early Dragon Ball: it was worded to indicate early anime and manga broadly overall. And no don't worry, I didn't interpret the caps as yelling: that'd be hilariously hypocritical of me, considering the number of times folks here have misinterpreted my own use of caps in a similar way.

But if I REALLY wanted to respond to Kunzait, I would say the 80's and 90's ARE NOT early anime. The anime industry has existed since the 60's and I am a bit amazed Kunzait didnt make note of this. Sure even back then anime could be REALLY messed up. But if he can object to my careless wording so can I object his. Like Gatchaman has no blood or gore to it but so many messed up stuff happens in it and it would it still be hardcore, like so many scenes of what another Kanzenshuu user described as "Filling graveyards" of people in each episode.

I mean, I have a whole ton of 60s and 70s manga examples I also would've used, but I didn't want the embed to get even more larger than it already was. But point taken obviously.

Oh that ol' Rascally Kunzait!

"Sitcom laugh"

Even that new post I just made ignored how even more messed up was early manga was. Even mainstream artists made so much shit that is REALLY fucked up. Like what were they thinking!?

Even Grendizer, a really mainstream kids show had the villains take children from their parents and then threw them out of UFO's. A whole rain of innocent children falling to their deaths. It is astounding what was seen as "Kids adventure shows" back then lots of manga about even MORE EXTREMELY messed up shit.

To put this back on Topic. I think Krillin is a cute character too, so much funny and cute stuff happens when he's training and being friends with Goku. Like running around delivering Milk and more quirky mishaps and funny stuff isnt cute?

The first shot that murdered the cute early vibe of Dragon Ball was Bora's death...And then the BOOM HEADSHOT that was Krillin's death. And then brought back with Gohan.

Gohan's leitmotifs for most of his early life are so cute. Like BOOM HEADSHOTS any doubt of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMPvHtWTdYM

[Rafa Fast]

I think something crucial is missing here, the overall art that Dragon Ball itself and Akira Toriyama himself offers, I absolutely love it and its evolution, it starts with the round, friendly and delicate style from Dr. Slump and Tori's previous works, the world surrounding Goku is colorful and cute, the stories are silly and very light hearted. But as the manga progresses, Goku's world becomes more dangerous, with more threatening enemies, more serious stories and more violent battles, the rougher and sharper the art becomes, more detailed, cool, but somehow, still cute? I just can't explain it and that's why I just love this series' art, of course, the change in Toriyama's style was very likely influenced by the overall evolution of the art in anime and manga at the time, 60-80's anime/manga art was naturally mostly simple and round, giving a cute aspect to it, it was starting from the very late 80's and entering into the 90's where things took more shape and became more complex visually, Toriyama and the anime staff for sure were victims of this, but it's just amazing how Tori kept the spirit of his early artwork, he knew the goofiness and simplicity of the first arcs was still there, so you somehow, even with those extremely muscular guys with cool designs, somehow, you can still see the cuteness in the art style, even the simplicity.

Heck, you can see that even in the villains, Freeza's Final Form, The Cell Juniors, Fat Boo. They can look cute or not menacing, but they can be brutal and painful, showing how versatile Toriyama's art was even with the villains.
It's awesome how the anime staff embraced this, in Movie 12 for example, you have 1st form Janemba being a giant fat cutie, then changing into that demonic figure in his second form.

The later half of the Cell Saga really catches my attention with the detail given to "Super Saiyajin Full Power", after the entire final part of the previous saga, and the beginning and the middle parts of this story, showing Super Saiyajins looking extremely angry and serious, Toriyama decides to give the fourth version of this form a look that, can be serious for the right moments, but also relaxed, friendly and specially, cute!
I love this so much, It was really cool to see how Yamamuro considered this for Movie 8, for that you reason, you see SSJ Goku making funny and cute faces multiple times in that movie, such a good detail!



Of course, it's not always perfect, I personally think the anime team some times exaggerated way too much, making the characters look even more "manly" than they already are (couldn't think of a better term for this), look at how cute Goku is when meeting Cell for the first time in the manga

And then, there is the same scene, in the anime

I can just say, what a neck , jokes aside, the art is definitely good, can't deny, but it's a fact that they're completely distinct, but I admit that is really cool to see how different animators interpret Toriyama's style, even though some of them can give a different approach, I think each of them still tried to keep some of the cuteness and simplicity of the master's original, for that reason I like to use for comparisons and appreciate even the works of very infamous studios/animators, such as Studio Last House/Masayuki Uchiyama's style, you never expect how well these can simulate the original!



I'm glad that modern Dragon Ball keeps this tradition, Toriyama made a "permanent" huge change to his style in the 2000's, but the animation team decided to keep it similar enough to how it was in the "Toriyama's Golden Years", taking a different route from the creator, so you can see that even if Toriyama's art isn't even used as basis anymore, Dragon Ball continues very versatile visually, looking cute but also very detailed and serious some times. Very interesting to see how in a movie we have Naohiro Shintani giving a very early-ish Dragon Ball art style with simpler and round designs, while in the next movie we have Chikashi Kubota giving highly detailed cool designs.


In the manga, we also have Toyotaro, and even though he's not one of my favorite artists in the series, he definitely lives to this spirit, so we can see him doing awesome takes on the cuteness of these characters while also doing some rough pieces!


Anyway, I wanted to talk about how cute I think Dragon Ball and Toriyama's art style is, but I ended up saying a lot more, which is common

[Cure Dragon 255]

I have to apologize to Kunzait once again, that death of the little girl from Space Runaway Ideon WAS ON HIS GIF LIST. Its right there and I missed it. So if you wanted to see a little girl being beheaded by stray fire, today is your day lol.

[Vegetto95]

I know exactly what you mean. The very first thing I always think of when I think of older anime is "cute".

Spoiler:

A little off topic I know, but I would seriously LOVE it if you could possibly send me a list of what all those are from. I recognize a lot of them; Space Runaway Ideon, Hokuto no Ken, Evangelion, Barefoot Gen, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, Ninja Scroll, Labyrinth Tales, Demon City Shinjuku, Wicked City, Urotsukidoji, Guyver, Midnight Eye Goku, Genocyber, etc. But there are definitely a LOT I don't. And tbh, I've recently been on a binge lately checking out older anime actually made for grown adults because I'm just so beyond sick of the nigh all-encompassing oversaturation of generic, brainless "battle shōnen" (for lack of a better term, since I know we both agree that it's not a good one lol), ecchi moe harem sex comedy crap, and the endless barrage of samey medieval fantasy isekai that seem to be just about ALL that ever comes out these days.

(Obviously I know rampant blood and guts in and of itself isn't exactly a sign of the thematic maturity of a work, but for the most part, I have pretty greatly enjoyed the shows/movies/OVAs that I recognized above for their thematic and storytelling value, so I have a hunch most of the other things you posted will probably similarly be much more worth checking out than vapid, forgettable, fad-of-the-month, overrated and overdone genre fare like, for recent example, Delicious in Dungeon, Wind Breaker, Blue Lock, or Solo Leveling lmao)

[SupremeKai25]

When villains have casual moments with each other in-between battles.

Like Frieza having a friendly chat with his minions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Pj93ryw1c

Black and Zamasu sipping tea in their cabin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK8IA1v9CoM

Majin Buu hunting for candies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p_83EGDNdU


I wouldn't describe it necesarily as "cute", especially when genocide is involved in at least two of these scenes, but it certainly humanizes the villains in some way. Like they have an actual personality and life beyond just killing people.

DBS does this more btw.

[Majin Buu]

Majin Buu hunting for candies

To jump off of this, Majin Buu in general stands out as an antagonist due to the way his primary forms juxtapose that cute playfulness with the atrocities they commit. Buu is cute yet very unsettling at the same time. Such an inspired creation.

[jjgp1112]

Outside of voice performances, I could never really call Dragon Ball characters particularly cute outside of toddler Gohan; even when they do behave that way it's treated as pure comedy...

There is one exception though...Kid Goku in Path to Power. And I HATE that shit. Goku in that movie isn't really Goku at all, more like Kid Gohan in a Goku suit.

[MasenkoHA]

Outside of voice performances, I could never really call Dragon Ball characters particularly cute outside of toddler Gohan; even when they do behave that way it's treated as pure comedy...

There is one exception though...Kid Goku in Path to Power. And I HATE that shit. Goku in that movie isn't really Goku at all, more like Kid Gohan in a Goku suit.

Yeah outside of Nozawa's performance Goku in early Dragon Ball was more cheeky than cute

"Was not having peepee and balls supposed to be a secret?"