Toriyama's a Tail Hater

batistabus · Post by **batistabus** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:15 pm

Seriously! Here's a list of characters that get their tails chopped off (Just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are more).

Goku (multiple times)
Gohan (multiple times)
the dinosaur Gohan eats from (multiple slices)
Vegeta
Freeza
Cell (regenerates)
Hildegarn

There's not much discussion to be had here I guess...its just something I noticed and decided to mention.

Luke Groundwalker · Post by **Luke Groundwalker** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:36 pm

I wasn't aware Toriyama wrote Movie 13!

All jokes aside though all are explained with logical reasons.

Maphisto86 · Post by **Maphisto86** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:43 pm

Hmm . . . perhaps I should not point out a possible Freudian analysis on this one.

I noticed this before but I guess the tail is a obvious target to attack showing the power of the tail owners opponent without killing the former character.

Li'l Lemmy · Post by **Li'l Lemmy** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:46 pm

Goten had no tail. Grr.

~Da Lemmy

batistabus · Post by **batistabus** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:56 pm

Luke Groundwalker wrote:I wasn't aware Toriyama wrote Movie 13!

All jokes aside though all are explained with logical reasons.

I know but it was a story written with the intent to mimic Toriyama's story telling mentality.

CatouttaHell · Post by **CatouttaHell** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:05 pm

He's also a sword hater, as is most evident in early Dragon Ball.

Bura · Post by **Bura** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:37 am

Li'l Lemmy wrote:Goten had no tail. Grr.

~Da Lemmy

Neither did Trunks. Although Bulma did say what happened to it. Still, I found it a shame.

Gaffer Tape · Post by **Gaffer Tape** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 5:42 pm

Bura wrote:Although Bulma did say what happened to it.

No, she didn't. The only time it's ever even brought up is when Kuririn asks about its lack of presence, but the question is never answered.

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:33 pm

Gaffer Tape wrote:
Bura wrote:Although Bulma did say what happened to it.
No, she didn't. The only time it's ever even brought up is when Kuririn asks about its lack of presence, but the question is never answered.

I was going to say this myself, but I wasn't sure whether or not Bura had made a typo. In any case, Toriyama did give an explanation in an interview, saying that the gene for tails is recessive...which doesn't make a lot of sense, but I suppose it means that Goten and Trunks were born without them as far as he's concerned.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:32 pm

It makes no goddamn sense at all unless ChiChi is a Saiyan.

Fox666 · Post by **Fox666** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:03 pm

I guess humans can have the genes, even if they don't have tails...

batistabus · Post by **batistabus** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:32 pm

Fox666 wrote:I guess humans can have the genes, even if they don't have tails...

If they did, then around half of the human population would have tails...

lash · Post by **lash** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:39 am

It's better than Kubo's limb hating in Bleach. Rather tails be constantly cut off than an arm.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:30 am

batistabus wrote:
Fox666 wrote:I guess humans can have the genes, even if they don't have tails...
If they did, then around half of the human population would have tails...

That's not how recessive genes work... they usually come out to more like 25%.

Some people are born with tails in real life. I rather doubt they'd turn out to be similar to saiyan tails at all if they weren't removed at birth, but yeah.
Some genes tend to require other genes to be expressed propperly. It's not always as simple as the punnet squares.
So maybe earthlings carry half of the necessary genes to express the tail, but the entire population is missing that one part that saiyans have. Which then requires that a saiyan mates with a human carrying the expressive gene. ChiChi would therefore happen to have one expressive and one unexpressive version of that gene, and they got split between Gohan and Goten.

Of course, I never liked the genetics explanation. If Goku hadn't grown back his tail between the 21st and 22nd tournament, I'd blame it on the presence of lack there of of the moon.
Then again, we never see half saiyan tails grow back without a moon.

batistabus · Post by **batistabus** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 8:31 am

I'm pretty sure that the reason people grow tails in real life is due to mutations, not recessive genes. And I'm not sure that you can "split a gene" between two people. Either way, I'm no biologist and maybe this is somehow possible.

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:13 am

batistabus wrote:I'm not sure that you can "split a gene" between two people.

Is this in response to caejones saying the genes were split between Gohan and Goten? What he meant was that everyone has two copies of every gene--one inherited from your mother, the other from your father--and you pass one down entirely randomly to your child. For Toriyama's recessive gene explanation to work, Chichi would have to have a tail gene from one side of her family and a no-tail gene from the other; completely by chance, Gohan would have received one and Goten the other.

batistabus · Post by **batistabus** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:36 am

Bussani wrote:
batistabus wrote:I'm not sure that you can "split a gene" between two people.
Is this in response to caejones saying the genes were split between Gohan and Goten? What he meant was that everyone has two copies of every gene--one inherited from your mother, the other from your father--and you pass one down entirely randomly to your child. For Toriyama's recessive gene explanation to work, Chichi would have to have a tail gene from one side of her family and a no-tail gene from the other; completely by chance, Gohan would have received one and Goten the other.

I misunderstood. Still, I don't know if any of that is possible. Have there been examples in nature of something like this happening? Where two similar species breed and produce offspring with varying traits?

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 10:48 am

batistabus wrote:Still, I don't know if any of that is possible. Have there been examples in nature of something like this happening? Where two similar species breed and produce offspring with varying traits?

It depends what you mean by varying traits. Siblings often have completely different traits depending on which genes they inherited. I can't think of a dramatic interspecies example (other than ligers and tiglons, but that's not quite the same thing), but a person of average height and a person with dwarfism can produce both a child of average height and a child with dwarfism due to the dominant/recessive relationship of the genes.

batistabus · Post by **batistabus** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:11 am

Well I think the liger would be a better example. If there were children with stripes and without stripes, that would be a similar comparison. However, all of the ligers that I've seen have stripes.

ArchedThunder · Post by **ArchedThunder** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:40 pm

I think it's easier to assume that Goten and Trunks were born with tails that were quickly removed, since Toriyama has no idea how recessive genes work. Also I know this has no bearing on the canon of Dragon Ball, but didn't Goten have a tail in the credits of one of the movies(the Bojack one if I remember correctly)?

Kanzenshuu

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