Dragon Ball influences in Western products

[Goe]

Hi:

It's known that Dragon Ball has influenced posterior manga and anime like Naruto or One Piece, and is also known that Dragon ball is influenced by Western products like Star Wars, but...how about Dragon Ball influences in Western products? Let's search some examples:

1. A 1999 SIMPSONS EPISODE (SEASON 10 CHAPTER 13)

In 1988, the farmer tried to kill Raditz with a rifle, but Raditz took the bullet with his index and thumb finger. Then he threw the bullet to the farmer and killed him. 11 years later, in 1999, The Simpsons used the same idea in Season 10 chapter 13. Homer and his family are watching a new TV series starring by 2 cops, one of them is causally called Homer Simpson, like real show main character. A criminal shooted cop Homer and he killed the criminal in the same way Raditz killed the farmer.

2. COMIC ARTIST JOAQUIN CERA

Spanish comic artist Joaquin Cera has admitted he has been influenced by Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball (source: https://www.cachislamar.com/pafman/entrevista2.htm). Some examples:
His short comic "el Tramoyano" is strongly inspired in Oolong's story: the main characters, Pafman and Pafcat, find a girl crying, and she said a monster called Tramoyano is going to kidnap her and has the transformation power. Tramoyano appears and Pafman and Pafcat fight him. Tramoyano used his transformation powers but Pafman finally killed him. Then, the girl got angry and she said girls who are kidnapped by Tramoyano live with lot of luxuries and she was crying because Tramoyano hadn't appeared yet, so she thought he wouldn't appear.
In another short story, villains kidnap Pafcat's wife and said to him "now we are going to abuse her in fronf of you". Then, the chief of the villains kissed her in a cheek and she said "only that? Phew! I thought he would take off my clothes or touch my breasts!". The villains said "how dirty!!!! AAAAAAAH" and fainted. It has a big resemblance to Pilaf and Bulma joke.
Cera used the previous joke again in a long comic called "La noche de los vivos murientes". However, this time, main villain was a dwarf, and his henchmen were a ninja girl and a wolf. Pilaf was a dwarf, and his henchmen were a ninja dog and a girl.

3. CHICKEN BALL Z (ADDED BY DRAGON BALL IRELAND)

There's an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy called Chicken Ball Z where Mandy enters a tournament to win $50,000 cash prize, eats chicken ball, which gives her super strength and allowing her to beat all her opponents, then Billy gains the same skills and the have a big fight causing the building to be destroyed.

4. MXY IN MY ADVENTURES WITH SUPERMAN (ADDED BY JULIE YBM)

In My Adventures With Superman, Mxy is redesigned to look a bit like a Kaioushin, and employs some Majin Buu-esque techniques, like splitting into multiple selves and firing off ki blasts.

5. ATOMIX AND THE HA-ME-NA CHANT (ADDED BY TIAN)

Ben 10 Omniverse has this alien called Atomix, whose main ability is a charging attack with a Ha-Me-Na chant.

Art director Derrick J. Wyatt was asked about it on his Spring.me and he replied the following:

SolotheYoloRolo (the person who asked): Are "Atomix's" Ha-me-na chants while charging his energy ball inspired by anything or were they just a fun little thing you guys added in?"

Derrick: "I think they [the producers] said it was a Goku-esgue (sic) chant"

6. SONIX 2 (ADDED BY KID BUU)

Super Sonic debuted in Sonic 2, a game co-developed by Sega USA and Sega Japan in California.

7. CODENAME KIDS NEXT DOOR REFERENCE (ADDED BY KAMICCOLO9)



8. 24 HORAS PARA UN RESCATE

In this spanish novel cover, the girl looks like A-18:

https://www.amazon.es/24-horas-para-res ... 8421662716



If you know more examples, please share, thank you!!

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

There's an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy called Chicken Ball Z where Mandy enters a tournament to win $50,000 cash prize, eats chicken ball, which gives her super strength and allowing her to beat all her opponents, then Billy gains the same skills and the have a big fight causing the building to be destroyed.

[MasenkoHA]

The similarity between the aforementioned Simpsons episode and the scene in Dragon Ball Z ends at the bullet being thrown back. I highly doubt the writers and storyboard artist at The Simpsons got it from DBZ. The scenes and execution are completely different.

[JulieYBM]

In My Adventures With Superman, Mxy is redesigned to look a bit like a Kaioushin, and employs some Majin Buu-esque techniques, like splitting into multiple selves and firing off ki blasts.

[Tian]

Ben 10 Omniverse has this alien called Atomix, whose main ability is a charging attack with a Ha-Me-Na chant.

Art director Derrick J. Wyatt was asked about it on his Spring.me and he replied the following:

SolotheYoloRolo (the person who asked): Are "Atomix's" Ha-me-na chants while charging his energy ball inspired by anything or were they just a fun little thing you guys added in?"

Derrick: "I think they [the producers] said it was a Goku-esgue (sic) chant"

[Goe]

The similarity between the aforementioned Simpsons episode and the scene in Dragon Ball Z ends at the bullet being thrown back. I highly doubt the writers and storyboard artist at The Simpsons got it from DBZ. The scenes and execution are completely different.

https://youtu.be/YWDUEVL0PMI?si=8hRDTwY8hSF_NiQq (In 1:13)

https://youtu.be/50ELVaso2NE?si=uDcXSAlBl_Bi_AJt (In 2:37)

I think similarity is big. I am not sure the writter took the idea from DBZ but probabilities are high in my opinion.

Thank you to everyone who posted here!

[MasenkoHA]

The similarity between the aforementioned Simpsons episode and the scene in Dragon Ball Z ends at the bullet being thrown back. I highly doubt the writers and storyboard artist at The Simpsons got it from DBZ. The scenes and execution are completely different.

https://youtu.be/YWDUEVL0PMI?si=8hRDTwY8hSF_NiQq (In 1:13)

https://youtu.be/50ELVaso2NE?si=uDcXSAlBl_Bi_AJt (In 2:37)

I think similarity is big. I am not sure the writter took the idea from DBZ but probabilities are high in my opinion.

Thank you to everyone who posted here!

Yeah...again the scenes are not even close other than catching a bullet and throwing it back. Raditz flicks the bullet and the farmer goes flying into his truck. The cop throws the bullet and the criminal goes down. Catching something meant to kill you and throwing it back at your attacker isn't even a unique trope. The two examples could not be more different.

There's also the fact that the episode aired in 1999. 3 years after DBZ debuted in America. If anyone working on Simpsons at the time knew what a Dragon Ball Z it was "some dumb violent Japanese cartoon their kids or nephews and nieces were into". It wasn't going to inspire much influence at that time period beyond stupid parodies like the aforementioned Chickenball Z thing Ireland mentioned.

[Goe]

Catching something meant to kill you and throwing it back at your attacker isn't even a unique trope. The two examples could not be more different.

Hum...then I may remove from the list. For me, both examples are similar, because both Raditz and the cop are fired with a rifle, and bot stop the bullet with his hand, and we see both with the bullet between thumb and indez finger.

However, That trope may have been used in Superman or similar American Super-heroes (I know bullets can't damage Superman and other american superheroes, but I don't remember watching that trope in then. Superman doesn't like to kill, so he would probably don't do so), so if someone show me the same trope in a western product, and before 1988, I'll remove the Raditz example from the list.

Tian and JulieYBM, I have added your examples.

[Kid Buu]

Super Sonic debuted in Sonic 2, a game co-developed by Sega USA and Sega Japan in California.

[Kamiccolo9]

I remember this one from Codename: Kids Next Door. Walked in on my brother watching this, and was like "Oh hey, I know where that's from."

[Hellspawn28]

The Simpsons have reference anime before with a couch gag with Lisa as Sailor Moon, Bart as Astro Boy, and Marge as one of the Gatchaman members. There was even a Pokemon reference in Season 10. So the animation crew throwing in a DBZ easter egg doesn't feel that far off.

[Goe]

In this spanish novel cover, the girl looks like A-18:

https://www.amazon.es/24-horas-para-res ... 8421662716

Thank you for both Sonic and Codename examples!

[LostTimeLord]

The Fairly OddParents (2001)
The episode(s) Channel Chasers includes a scene where the characters are trapped in the TV programme Maho Mushi, which very superficially parodies Dragon Ball.

War of the Worlds (2005)
Early in the film, Justin Chatwin's character has some Dragon Ball toys in his bedroom. Chatwin, of course, would play Goku in Dragonball Evolution a few years later.

Steven Universe (2013)

• In the episode Nightmare Hospital, a door in the titular hospital is labeled "Patient 20: Dr Gero".
• In Room for Ruby, Navy recreates Yamucha's famous death pose when she lands on Earth.
• Fusion plays a major role in the story and is no doubt inspired by Dragon Ball, although Steven Universe uses the concept to explore Interpersonal relationships in a way that Dragon Ball does not.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The War of the Worlds example reminded me but in the movie Boyhood when Mason was a little boy he was shown to have a blanket with Dragon Ball characters printed on it, a bedroom set of the Freeza arc, a poster of Super Saiyan 3 Goku and an episode of The Majin Boo arc was shown on TV in the background. This movie was shot over various years showing Mason's growth into adulthood but because they started when he was a boy I thought it was a neat reference particularly because that time in his life was shot in 2002-2003 when the show was at its peak in America.

[Kid Buu]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEvMHBm57k

[Koitsukai]

The similarity between the aforementioned Simpsons episode and the scene in Dragon Ball Z ends at the bullet being thrown back. I highly doubt the writers and storyboard artist at The Simpsons got it from DBZ. The scenes and execution are completely different.

https://youtu.be/YWDUEVL0PMI?si=8hRDTwY8hSF_NiQq (In 1:13)

https://youtu.be/50ELVaso2NE?si=uDcXSAlBl_Bi_AJt (In 2:37)

I think similarity is big. I am not sure the writter took the idea from DBZ but probabilities are high in my opinion.

Thank you to everyone who posted here!

IDK, that seems more like a callback to Robocop 3 when Robo catches a bullet mid-air and shoots the crook, than to Raditz.

I'd add that the latin dub of The Simpsons when they go to Japan, and are working with the fish, they have Homer change the channel asking if there's any DBZ on TV.

[WittyUsername]

Richard Linklater’s Boyhood shows DBZ playing on TV (the scene was filmed in 2002), and there’s other pieces of DBZ memorabilia in the protagonist’s room.

[MasenkoHA]

Man of Steel storyboard artist Jay Oliva cited Dragon Ball Z as one of the influences for the climatic battle https://twitter.com/jayoliva1/status/10 ... MiXqA&s=19

Big Dragon Ball Z fan Michael B. Jordan named Dragon Ball Z among other shonen anime as an influence on Creed III https://ew.com/movies/how-iconic-anime- ... creed-iii/

Ironically the cross punch between Goku and Majin Vegeta cited by Entertainment Weekly originated in a boxing anime Tomorrow's Joe https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/featur ... ic/.132635. So that's that a nice full circle influence.

[JulieYBM]

Man of Steel storyboard artist Jay Oliva cited Dragon Ball Z as one of the influences for the climatic battle https://twitter.com/jayoliva1/status/10 ... MiXqA&s=19

Big Dragon Ball Z fan Michael B. Jordan named Dragon Ball Z among other shonen anime as an influence on Creed III https://ew.com/movies/how-iconic-anime- ... creed-iii/

Ironically the cross punch between Goku and Majin Vegeta cited by Entertainment Weekly originated in a boxing anime Tomorrow's Joe https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/featur ... ic/.132635. So that's that a nice full circle influence.

This is ironic, considering how many shots from the Superman v. Zod battle are ripped directly from Tetsuwan Birdy Decode, but I don't recall any direct shots from Dragon Ball. https://youtu.be/qZjbNhLODKU?si=FeGfghcvxjhILE0T

[MasenkoHA]

Man of Steel storyboard artist Jay Oliva cited Dragon Ball Z as one of the influences for the climatic battle https://twitter.com/jayoliva1/status/10 ... MiXqA&s=19

Big Dragon Ball Z fan Michael B. Jordan named Dragon Ball Z among other shonen anime as an influence on Creed III https://ew.com/movies/how-iconic-anime- ... creed-iii/

Ironically the cross punch between Goku and Majin Vegeta cited by Entertainment Weekly originated in a boxing anime Tomorrow's Joe https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/featur ... ic/.132635. So that's that a nice full circle influence.

This is ironic, considering how many shots from the Superman v. Zod battle are ripped directly from Tetsuwan Birdy Decode, but I don't recall any direct shots from Dragon Ball. https://youtu.be/qZjbNhLODKU?si=FeGfghcvxjhILE0T

I haven't seen Man of Steel since it came out nearly 11 years ago and I'm in no hurry to to revisit so I'm just taking him at his word that Dragon Ball was an influence.