If Dragon Ball wasn't based on Journey to the West...?

[DerekPadula]

My initial response is the Rigveda (and Baghavad Gita). These are the stories that Journey to the West borrowed many themes from, including (most likely) Sun WuKong and Son Goku, as the precursor was the Monkey Demi-God Hanuman.

These stories are filled with epic battles, fights between gods and humans, prolonged adventures and titanic wars filled with superhuman powers. It would make for an awesome anime, and Toriyama would probably nail it perfectly.

[kaialone]

Continuing off of alternate beginnings, but leaving this type behind, I've also seen doujinshi where the entire cast is switched places. Instead of it being child Goku and Bulma at the beginning of DB, they've got child Vegeta and Zarbon. It goes through various arcs (Nappa is Kuririn, Ginyu is Tenshinhan, etc) before finishing at Freeza's where they have Goku and company running around in armor and scouters and Vegeta in a Kame gi. This isn't a pure-hearted Vegeta though, he's still the same sneaky guy. He tricks Zarbon early on and doesn't hold back on Ginyu. Goku also seems cheerful despite stealing Namek's Dragon Balls and Chi-Chi's the leader of her own version of the Ginyu Force. Vegeta even has his own Kinto'un.

[/quote]


where can I read/buy the rest of it?

[Hellspawn28]

Seeing Dragon Ball based on The Divine Comedy would have been cool to see.

[Chuquita]

where can I read/buy the rest of it?

I found it long ago on an old fan-site that had a doujinshi section. I should have the rest of it somewhere, but rl has me really busy for the weekend so the earliest I can expect to actually have time to search through my computer to find the rest of the pages (and I'm pretty sure it's there) would be Sunday night. Sorry. ^^;

[kaialone]

I found it long ago on an old fan-site that had a doujinshi section. I should have the rest of it somewhere, but rl has me really busy for the weekend so the earliest I can expect to actually have time to search through my computer to find the rest of the pages (and I'm pretty sure it's there) would be Sunday night. Sorry. ^^;

Ah, okay. No big deal. I can wait.

[Chuquita]

I found it long ago on an old fan-site that had a doujinshi section. I should have the rest of it somewhere, but rl has me really busy for the weekend so the earliest I can expect to actually have time to search through my computer to find the rest of the pages (and I'm pretty sure it's there) would be Sunday night. Sorry. ^^;

Ah, okay. No big deal. I can wait.

Sorry more time has passed since I intended. ^^;
Here's what I've got of this one though:

[kaialone]

Awesome, thank you very much.

[caejones]

At the risk of annoying people...
... How about a certain batch of Bible stories? Samson (super strong, hair is weakness), the talking donkey... perhaps some incarnation of Elijah (summons bears, sets things on fire, travels impressive distances via some manner of flaming whirlwind chariot...)?

Or... Goku is Moses. Or.... maybe not Goku, but one of the other characters (Piccolo? Vegeta?).

*Thinks of the opening to DBZ movie5*
... Maybe Goku is already Moses. o_o

Or, more easily yet, just base Dragonball on Genesis.
Starts off with the protagonist hanging out innocently enough in "paradise". Perhaps, instead of being tempted to eat the fruit, Adam-Goku (... wait, what about Eve?) is convinced / made to go on a quest of some kind...?
(Didn't Sun Wukong eat divine fruit, too?)

[DerekPadula]

(Didn't Sun Wukong eat divine fruit, too?)

Yeah, he ate a bunch of Immortal Peaches. He also swallowed Lao Zi's Pills of Immortality. After that, he trained himself in the Buddhist and Daoist arts and became an Immortal once again. In the end he enlightened and became a Buddha, thus escaping the cycle of rebirth and life within the Three Realms (Hell, Earth, and Heaven).

[StarRot]

I've started re-reading Epic of Gilgamesh after a looong time (about 5 years, I think), and I think Goku is very like Enkidu (wild man who lives in the forest with animals ... familiar, right?) Maybe Bulma could be Shamkat – they’re both pretty sexually provocative? (Or perhaps "flirty" would be a more accurate way to describe Bulma).
Gilgamesh is very similar in many ways to early Dragonball. Going on a long journey, fighting interesting enemies, searching for special items … I think it fits pretty well.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Or, more easily yet, just base Dragonball on Genesis.
Starts off with the protagonist hanging out innocently enough in "paradise". Perhaps, instead of being tempted to eat the fruit, Adam-Goku (... wait, what about Eve?) is convinced / made to go on a quest of some kind...?
(Didn't Sun Wukong eat divine fruit, too?)

If this means Eve-Chichi gets to be naked, I'm all for it.