Dragonball Z: a show for heterosexual males only?

[Eire]

Hey, OP is incomplete! Where's the question abut color of the skin and favorite pet?
Yes, that's annoying that author couldn't make a logical female character, but to be honest if I started to list things that were taken in DB without second thought I would fill Daizex's servers and it wouldn't be enough.

[CODii]

Just remember, the manga was written with young Japanese boys as its target audience. I don't think young boys are really all that concerned about how balanced the portrayal of the female characters is. That doesn't mean however that women can't enjoy the series just because they're not part of the target audience. Heck, pretty much every member on this forum would be too old to enjoy Dragon Ball if only its target audience could get anything from it.

[Eire]

Good authr wouldn't need such an excuses. Other mangakas that wrote to specified target didn't leave any important aspect, becouse "they wouldn't care".

[MCDaveG]

Yeah, manga is for ''boys'' and I think the show as anime is okay, but mostly due to it's time of creation.
But anyone saw Saint Seiya??? It's Shonen too and has more female audience then male.
I really liked a lot that show and manga from the 80's until in 21st century TOEI decided to make
a part that was left from manga in 80's and included slow paced homosexual opening.
Imagine your heroes from childhood crying and looking to the distance with pink petal flying all over them
and some awful Japanese pop star is singing really horrible song accompanied by piano.

GT almost got that right, but if you don't know the lyrics it's almost bearable (still I hate that opening).
I think any series can have it's fans, of both genres. You know, my girlfriend likes Batman comic
and I have a normal hetero friend who was watching Sailor Moon. (I really am feeling like an idiot to talk like this in my age, but since I wanna highlight that in the sense of this thread)
But I hate how the anime on all fronts mutated into some gayish franchise as a whole,
which is done mostly by acclaimed Japanese pop stars, who really are in all of our European sense (I count US culture
also as European in this globalized matter) tasteless and un-musical shitnoids.
It really started with Gundam Wing's openings, that was one of my first WTF's in the 90's and starting the era of ending the cool openings done by real artists and inserting whatever crap they want to sale.
I don't say that rock music is superior, but electronic can be also done with some manner (I'm electronic producer myself).
The worst thing probably is Para Para, both dance and music..... damn.

[CODii]

Good authr wouldn't need such an excuses. Other mangakas that wrote to specified target didn't leave any important aspect, becouse "they wouldn't care".

I don't know quite what you're getting at. I can't really think of any Shonen manga where the lead character(s) isn't(aren't) male.

[Eire]

(Wonder if Matsumoto counts, but nevermind)
Who wrote anything about lead character?
I wrote about lack of female characters at all and the fact that those who appear as series goes on usually lose that little amount of personality that they used to have. It can be explained by target, times etc, but it doesn't change the fact: it's a lack that on second thought can be irritating.

[Rostir]

I don't see what sexuality or gender has to do with enjoying this show, another excuse of a thread to put in the General Franchise Discussion.

[CODii]

(Wonder if Matsumoto counts, but nevermind)
Who wrote anything about lead character?
I wrote about lack of female characters at all and the fact that those who appear as series goes on usually lose that little amount of personality that they used to have. It can be explained by target, times etc, but it doesn't change the fact: it's a lack that on second thought can be irritating.

I think Bulma is a fairly well written female character. Heck, she sets the whole series in motion. For the most part she remains a central figure throughout the series. To top it all off, she also seems to be the most intelligent person on Earth.

Besides, I still think it would be a mistake to be to harsh on DB over this. Writing for a specific audience doesn't make Toriyama a bad writer, any more than Metallica is a bad band because they only write songs for fans of heavy metal, or Sergio Leone is a bad director because his films may not appeal to you if you're not a fan of Westerns.

[Eire]

But still Bulma usually lose her mind when she sees pants. When Vegeta appears she is mostly shown as mother/love interest. Chi-Chi while being the most reasonable and responsible character in the series is shown ad that bad, who just spoil fun of our precious heroes by being worried about so trivial things as money, health and education. Well, the two at least managed to stay afloat after Lunch was lost somewhere.

That's not a matter of audience- in FMA for example we see not so many woman, but no one there can be called useless. Ikeda wrote about woman for woman, but her male characters are equal heroes with proper characters. Appealing to somebody isn't equal with making mistakes.

[Michsi]

Yet I still prefer DB females over the hundreds of Mary Sue like female characters I see in other shonen stories. They are flawed, but then again so is pretty much everyone else in the story, including Goku.

18 was the only female fighter and she never really got her chance in the spotlight of major fights, but I think that has mostly to do with fact that she sorta joined the group around the time only the saiyans mattered as fighters. Nevertheless, I found her fight at tournament entertaining.

And I'd rather not have any female fighters at all if the alternative is something like GT Pan. (I haven't seen much of it but what I did see I did not like )

OT: Didn't Toriyama himself comment on having become aware of a growing female audience in one interview?

[Cipher]

My girlfriend and I started watching the series from the beginning (of Dragon Ball), starting last summer. She thought it was adorable and hilarious. We're currently at the beginning of the Namek arc, and while I don't think she enjoys it quite as much now that humor has taken a back seat to action, she's still plugging right a long and having a good time. I just tell her to wait for the Boo arc.

I should comment also that's she's been fairly impressed with Toriyama's use of women. At least, she was throughout Dragon Ball. I suppose they kind of fall by the wayside in Z, but even then, we have #18, Videl and later Pan. There's still a discrepancy, but it's not terrible for a 1980s/'90s shonen franchise.

[TripleRach]

I can't really think of any Shonen manga where the lead character(s) isn't(aren't) male.

Dr. Slump? It ran in Weekly Shounen Jump, anyway.

[Michsi]

I can't really think of any Shonen manga where the lead character(s) isn't(aren't) male.

Dr. Slump? It ran in Weekly Shounen Jump, anyway.

Maka, from Soul Eater?

The series is named after the male character (Soul Eater) but from what I remember, she sorta takes the lead. She is the one who fights.

[VegettoEX]

Another pointless thread

Instead of you adding an absolutely worthless complaint, why not let the moderators deal with it if it's truly pointless?

It's obvious you have never listened to the Daizex podcast before, because there happens to be a girl on there almost every week.

Well, it's not like I expect every single person who visits any portion of the website to know about each and every single other portion of the website (main site / forum / chat / podcast / etc.).

My memory of the "early" DBZ web community is filled with the womenz. OK, maybe somewhere between first and second generation of sites, but they were there none-the-less. Lots of character shrines (both to female and male characters alike), overwhelming amount of fanfiction... all done by females.

Keep in mind that this was also around the time that the Shonen Jump demographic was starting to change. What are we at today... 50/50 split male/female? It was the "golden age" with DragonBall that started it, so it was no surprise to see that demographic shift reflected online, as well.

[kaialone]

To be honest the only people I personally know who watch dragonball and consider themselves fans are girls, including me. So no, Dragonball isnt for heterosexual males only.

[sangofe]

To be honest the only people I personally know who watch dragonball and consider themselves fans are girls, including me. So no, Dragonball isnt for heterosexual males only.

I could tweak the question a bit: Is DBZ a show for heterosexual guys and lesbian girls only?

[MCDaveG]

To be honest the only people I personally know who watch dragonball and consider themselves fans are girls, including me. So no, Dragonball isnt for heterosexual males only.

Your avatar is priceless

[Adamant]

I can't really think of any Shonen manga where the lead character(s) isn't(aren't) male.

Dr. Slump? It ran in Weekly Shounen Jump, anyway.

Medaka Box has a female main character and is still running in Jump, and Oumagadoki Doubutsuen, which ended in April, did as well.

So yeah.

[kaialone]

Your avatar is priceless

Thank you ^^

I could tweak the question a bit: Is DBZ a show for heterosexual guys and lesbian girls only?

I dont think that wether you enjoy Dragonball or not has anything to do with your sexuality and your gender. There many different reasons why people enjoy or hate this show. Some might find it funny , which doesnt really have anything to do with gender and/or sexuality, some might enjoy it bcause there´s a lot of action going on, which doesnt have to do that much with gender and/or sexuality either. Everybody has their personal preferences regardless of gender and sexuality.

[SonEric84]

I'm not sure I really understand what sexual preferences have to do with enjoying a show. I mean, there were plenty of straight people who watch shows such as "Queer as Folk". You don't have to be able to relate to every single aspect of a character's lifestyle in order to enjoy something. (If that were the case none of us would like Dragon Ball because we're not all martial artists who can manipulate ki).