Are you sure this was a show for children?

[Monki D]

First I'd like to start off by saying I love the Dragon Ball franchise, and its' been apart of my life since I was a child; Even now as an adult I watch it whenever I decide to relax.

I guess I should put a spoiler's warning.

*SPOILERS*
With that aside, It's come to my attention that the show is quite gruesome. My argument is about whether or not this was really targeted towards young kids in Japan. So are you sure this show was aimed towards children in Japan? And not targeted towards Teens or adults at all? Because if you sit down and watch the uncut japanese episodes of Dragon Ball Z; You'll see just how FUCKED UP it can be.
We aren't talking about the funimation dubs. I'm talking about the Japanese verison where there is no intense music to keep your spirit up; Seriously, ever listen to the japanese episodes? The music is depressing.
Ok first let me put you in my position. Say you never seen Dragon Ball Z before and you started of by watching Dragon Ball first; You follow powerful Goku and his friends on thir adventure for the 7 mystical Dragon Balls; Sounds lovely right? Its a cute series then BAM Kuririn getting his neck snapped from a kick to the head by a monster some alien barfed up. That was the first hint towards Akira's road down a dark story; But that's nothing.

Then Dragon Ball Z comes. This is when the show seems to target towards a more older crowd. It seems like they are thrown into a new world with more ruthless villians. Before Goku fought anthropomorphic bad guys with his friends and sparred at Tenkaichis; now there up against bad guys they can't fucking handle.
I can't get into everything but here are a few things that made the series disturbing:
1) Saiyajin Saga- Remember Goku and his powerful friends? Think they are ganna beat the bad guys up and save the day? NOPE. Yamchu, Tenshinhan, Piccolo, Kuririn, Gohan, Chaozu are all beaten and utterly defeated by the Saiyajins Nappa, and Vegeta.

Tenshinhan steps up to the plate first to fight a saibaiman and wins. Psssh you're thinking "These guys are push overs" than BOOM, Vegeta blows the saibaiman up. Holy shit; these guys aren't fucking around- He just blew up his ally. Gruesome.
Then Yamchu steps up next telling Kuririn to back down. Yamchu beats the pathetic weak saibaiman. Ha, see? Our heros are ganna..

BOOM..Yamchu is dead; WTF JUST HAPPENED?
The saibaiman grabbed him and self destructed. WTF? Gruesome.

Later on; we find out how much of a monster Nappa is. Chaozu decides to blow himself up to try and kill Nappa. Which has no effect. WTF? The series just started and the main characters are already dying in horrible ways.
Next gruesome thing is when Tenshinhan gets his arm PUNCHED off trying to block a move with blood flying out.

Gruesome

Now if you thought the Saiyajin saga was gruesome well that's not shit compared to how fucked up the Freeza saga is.
2)Freeza Saga. Honestly the Freeza Saga was quite scary if you think about it; I like to put myself in the shoes of the characters, in this case put yourself in Kuririn's shoes. They land on Namek expecting to get the Dragon Balls from the friendly natives and bring their friends back to life. But when they get there, they find themselves between a rock and a hard place. The most terrifying monster of the universe Freeza is there with his minions slaughtering everyone to get the dragon balls with a power level of supposedly 1 million.

And then there is just them. Kuririn, Gohan, and Bulma. No Goku, no anyone to help; Because why? They are all dead with the exception of Goku who was still hospitalized after the beating he got from Vegeta.
Time to get the fuck out of there right? Oh wait their ship just got blown up. Now there stuck. And wait whose that in the sky? Oh shit it's VEGETA AGAIN.
It seems like the Akira Toriyama was trying to torture the main characters in the most horrible ways possible.
Now Gohan, Bulma and Kuririn's job is to STAY ALIVE UNTIL GOKU COMES. There objective went from getting the dragon balls to having to stay alive long enough. Doesn't seem a little intense for kids?
Skipping ahead. Heres the brutal points of the Freeza saga.
Freeza and his minions are interrogating another village for there Dragon ball. They blew up and killed everyone in the last few, we just didn't see that.
Well during this interrogation we see; A child namekian getting blasted to death, someone getting impaled by Dodoria, and someone getting there neck snapped. Really? This is what kids watch o.o?



The Ginyu Force. Ah yes them; Vegeta is shit scared of them and we don't know why, they seem like a group of flameboyant idiots.
Kuririn, Gohan and Vegeta have teamed up! and Goku is comming to? Great seems like everything is going to be Alright? Right? Wrong.
Gohan and Kuririn show what they are made of before Vegeta cut's Guldo's head off. Clean off his shoulders to, We see his headless body through out the duration of the Ginyu Force battle.
During this period of time:
Recoome beats Vegeta into a weakened state; Breaks every bone in Kuririn's body with a single hit; and SNAPS GOHAN'S NECK.

We then see Gohan figiting on the ground having convulsions. He literially got his lights knocked out. Lovely. They show kids that too o.o?
And who can forget about how Vegeta broke Burter's neck by kneeing him in it while he was unconscious?


I'm getting lazy now so I'll try and wrap it up.
Later on the Big Boy Freeza comes and pwns EVERYONE.
He IMPALES KURIRIN THROUGH THE GUT AND YANKS HIM AROUND ON HIS HORN FOR LIKE 5 MINUTES;


This by far a very gruesome scene. I can't see how Japanese parents can walk by their children watching shit like that on TV and not feel any kind of way; I just don't get it
TL;DR:

Like I said in my last paragraph- I can't see how Japanese parents can walk by their children watching shit like that on TV and not feel any kind of way; Are you people certain that Dragon Ball Z was not aimed towards an older audience? Because it can get really really gruesome. Not to mention the 2 assholes in the Buu saga that decided to shoot and old couple and a puppy -____-

I Love the series but I just refuse to believe it was a showed aimed at young children; I just can't. Can someone explain to me please how the japanese culture is towards violence?
I noticed that in the japanese version of Kai they even edited out some of the gore.

[JulieYBM]

1980s Japan is a thing very different from modern America and modern Japan. Airing in prime time (7PM on Wednesday) probably helped with what was and wasn't allowed to be shown, but this is without a doubt a children's show adapted from a children's comic from a children's magazine.

[Piccolo Daimao]

We're doing this shit again? Seriously?

Whether you like it or not, Dragon Ball is a Shonen manga, meaning it's aimed at young boys. At least, in Japan. Obviously, Japan and numerous Western countries have different cultural standards, so what's acceptable there isn't acceptable here. For example, Japan are fine with a kids' show showing a teenage girl's breasts, but over here, parents blow a vessel and compaign for its censorship.

Stop trying to justify the fact that you're an adult who likes a kids' show. If your friends want to make fun of you because of that, then they're the ones who are being childish, not you.

[Monki D]

1980s Japan is a thing very different from modern America and modern Japan. Airing in prime time (7PM on Wednesday) probably helped with what was and wasn't allowed to be shown, but this is without a doubt a children's show adapted from a children's comic from a children's magazine.

Well I do understand your point about the 1980s being different from now considering if you watch old cartoons such as Tom & Jerry with people being smacked with hammers and irons; But still you never saw things like people's necks being snapped and being killed in cruel ways. Is there any quotes about as to why Japan decided to deem what they use to show as to violent? I'm just very interested in the evolution of the culture seeing as I'm part Japanese myself and watching Dragon Ball Z and I try to submerge myself into how they watched it than and why they decided to tone the violence down in anime over the years but still keep much nudity =p. This is because I noticed recent animes like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece don't get as intense and gorey as Dragon Ball Z was back in the day.

We're doing this shit again? Seriously?

Whether you like it or not, Dragon Ball is a Shonen manga, meaning it's aimed at young boys. At least, in Japan. Obviously, Japan and numerous Western countries have different cultural standards, so what's acceptable there isn't acceptable here. For example, Japan are fine with a kids' show showing a teenage girl's breasts, but over here, parents blow a vessel and compaign for its censorship.

Stop trying to justify the fact that you're an adult who likes a kids' show. If your friends want to make fun of you because of that, then they're the ones who are being childish, not you.

See, you misunderstood my point; I don't care whether or not its a kid show, everyone loves the series so I doubt anyone would make fun of you for liking it. What I'm trying to understand is the Japanese culture, and how it is different from now & then. I just find it rather strange for any culture to see some of things they showed suitable for children. Did they not worry about kids imitating these acts? Were Japanese children raised to accept such violence? Ect.

And again; nobody should be embarrassed about watching a show targeted towards kids especially if it was apart of your own childhood.

[MCDaveG]

Don't need to add explanation, but this is show for children.....
We didn't see it that much differently here either, grewing on action movies with Sly Stallone, Swarzenegger etc.
and seeing kung-fu films in TV. I think that the morale standards are somewhat arising with the years, as in 90's, it was normal to see action flicks in TV during the day.

[Freeza Heika]

No. No one was worried about kids impaling each-other with energy beams. They didn't think anyone was going to detonate planets. No one was going to karate chop heads off.
No matter how many people ask this question the answer will ALWAYS be that it is a show for kids. Culture does not matter. Time does not matter. It is what it is.

[Adamant]

This was also for kids, from what I recall. And I'd say that cover is more violent than any of the pictures you posted.

[Freeza Heika]

This was also for kids, from what I recall.

Don't forget this too.

[Herms]

Kids love violence. Or at least many of them do. It's surprising how many people forget this.

[DanielGClapp]

Didn't we just have this conversation?

[TheGreatness25]

It was a show for children. It was a show for children in the US, now wasn't it? And after FUNimaton's first dealings with the series, they started leaving in the deaths and blood and all that. But BEST possible case scenario is it was targeted for teens, which I can kind of see. But the intention was for kids, and that's because the rules of censorship and all that were way different in the past.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Kids love violence. Or at least many of them do. It's surprising how many people forget this.

Very true. I think older people have a somewhat overly rosy idea of what children are like. Most kids I know are playing "Call of Duty" videogames by the time they're eight years old.

[MCDaveG]

Damn I saw Alien when I was 7 years old. As we were watching this movies, it was fun. Same as the gore movies are for fun.
Only the adult people are demonizing it in insane manner. Yeah, grandma came one day and was terrified what we are watching.
She thought, same as lot of people, that it will twist and taint our minds. My dad and mother were okay with it.
Well, I'm normal member of society now and never haid any weird thoughts about killing someone.

This oveprotective parent's politics is what are making kids into f**king annoying and spoiled cretins
and that's worse than my brother watching Predator.
I read some article on this from one well-known european psychologist.


When I was watching this same Dragon Ball Z on TV, my dad's response was: You're watching those stupid jesters again?
Everyone I know thinks it's a kid show and anime are mostly shows for kids from what is going out from Japan here.
I don't see how some people think that DBZ is OMG cool adult show, only to not be embarrased, because they are in their late teens and is actually enjoying it.
Never heard anyone to say this about One Piece or Naruto and there are bloody moments too. This is some DBZ phenomena....

When I was kid, I was always irritated how in the US cartoon, they are figting as hell and there is no blood or bruise.
Always using lasers and anything of light that can destroy the whole burrough, but when hit: ''aw, my butt hurts!!!''
Well, that's why I'm regarding Batman TAS as the best US cartoon ever and I can say that outside the few dumber episodes, The Clone Wars is pretty good cartoon for kids.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

This was a show for Japanese children. Different parts of the World just have different standards for what is OK for a kids show. I'm sure when American kids and teenagers (me included) first saw DBZ they thought it was way too violent to be considered a kids show. But, we're just so used to our standards we forget there isn't one global standard. ::drops mic, walks off stage::

[Piccolo Daimao]

Damn I saw Alien when I was 7 years old. As we were watching this movies, it was fun. Same as the gore movies are for fun.
Only the adult people are demonizing it in insane manner. Yeah, grandma came one day and was terrified what we are watching.
She thought, same as lot of people, that it will twist and taint our minds. My dad and mother were okay with it.
Well, I'm normal member of society now and never haid any weird thoughts about killing someone.

This oveprotective parent's politics is what are making kids into f**king annoying and spoiled cretins
and that's worse than my brother watching Predator.
I read some article on this from one well-known european psychologist.


When I was watching this same Dragon Ball Z on TV, my dad's response was: You're watching those stupid jesters again?
Everyone I know thinks it's a kid show and anime are mostly shows for kids from what is going out from Japan here.
I don't see how some people think that DBZ is OMG cool adult show, only to not be embarrased, because they are in their late teens and is actually enjoying it.
Never heard anyone to say this about One Piece or Naruto and there are bloody moments too. This is some DBZ phenomena....

When I was kid, I was always irritated how in the US cartoon, they are figting as hell and there is no blood or bruise.
Always using lasers and anything of light that can destroy the whole burrough, but when hit: ''aw, my butt hurts!!!''
Well, that's why I'm regarding Batman TAS as the best US cartoon ever and I can say that outside the few dumber episodes, The Clone Wars is pretty good cartoon for kids.

Agreed. It's just sad that when there are stories of children that are influenced by certain shows, violent or not, and end up imitating acts from it, they don't realize that it's only a minority and, if anything, it's the parents' fault for not raising their kids well to understand that you don't just run out and stab another child because you saw it on TV and it looks cool.

[MCDaveG]

Agreed. It's just sad that when there are stories of children that are influenced by certain shows, violent or not, and end up imitating acts from it, they don't realize that it's only a minority and, if anything, it's the parents' fault for not raising their kids well to understand that you don't just run out and stab another child because you saw it on TV.

I also read lot of stories where these people were only blaming these shows or games, so I think there is bigger minority of people, who actually did something based on show or game and most of them aren't patologically normal. Like those idiots who beaten up the little girl to death and said that they played Mortal Kombat before.
There was a study, which came to a result, that the players of violent games are actually non violent in real life and the game isn't affecting them. These games rather works as simulators so you won't need to express things from the game in real life, also that person without family problems and healthy mind have some morale kodex implemented as part of the personality.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Agreed. It's just sad that when there are stories of children that are influenced by certain shows, violent or not, and end up imitating acts from it, they don't realize that it's only a minority and, if anything, it's the parents' fault for not raising their kids well to understand that you don't just run out and stab another child because you saw it on TV.

I also read lot of stories where these people were only blaming these shows or games, so I think there is bigger minority of people, who actually did something based on show or game and most of them aren't patologically normal. Like those idiots who beaten up the little girl to death and said that they played Mortal Kombat before.
There was a study, which came to a result, that the players of violent games are actually non violent in real life and the game isn't affecting them. These games rather works as simulators so you won't need to express things from the game in real life, also that person without family problems and healthy mind have some morale kodex implemented as part of the personality.

Exactly. Most people, children or adults, don't get the urge to grab a rifle and shoot a random person in the head if they're not mentally unstable or have had bad parenting.

[VegettoEX]

Can I just say that Piccolo Daimao's and DanielGClapp's responses should *not* be viewed as the general attitude that the rest of the community abides by? That was really out-of-line, folks -- we shouldn't expect everyone to have read every single thread ever and already know everything you think you already know.

Everyone else has already covered it, and I think Herms has the most succinct explanation, 'cuz it's true. When you think back to being a kid (specifically if you were a young boy), people punching each other and oh my god that was crazy awesome and maybe sometimes blood is holy cow crazy cool!

[Hellspawn28]

This thread again? Like most people said that the US and Japan have different cultural standards. Dragon Ball is a kids show like it or not. I do find annoying where people act like the show is some hardcore show for adults when it's really not.

Kids love violence. Or at least many of them do. It's surprising how many people forget this.

So did I since I enjoy playing Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Doom and reading/watching Spawn as a kid. I remember that kids in my elementary school where fans of horror characters like Jason, Freddy, Ghost Face and Michael Myers.

This was also for kids, from what I recall.

Don't forget this too.

Don't forget that they made toys for R rated series like Alien, Predator and Terminator. And that Mortal Kombat had a saturday morning cartoon back in 1995-1996 as well.

[Cipher]

That, and aside from its general tone, it's brimming with tropes designed specifically to appeal to Japanese children. Those battle powers that are floating around the Saiyan and Namek arcs? That's as much a ploy to appeal to Japanese children as anything. It's a culture where collecting, cards, numbers, etc., is a much more popular among children than in Western countries.

The way I see it, Dragon Ball is designed to appeal to children through and through. Sometimes it does so through low-brow (but still funny) humor, a la the beginning of the series. Sometimes, when its in vogue, it does so through being bad-ass (look at Toei's marketing of the show/the movies from 1990-1993). But it's always, always about its child audience. All the way up to Toriyama beginning the final chapter with a message saying, "You'll just have to imagine it on your own from now on."