Animals in DB-Universe

kaioken12 · Post by **kaioken12** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:11 pm

Hi,

I just noticed that later-on in DBZ there are nearly no more animal-humans left.
In DB there were plenty of "intelligent" rabbits, dogs, dragons and more and in DBZ there only is the king of the world left.
Even among the people watching the world tournament there are only humans.

What happened to the rest of the animals?
Are they still existing?

Learning from my third eye-question, I am asking about the "in-universe" facts and "out-of-universe" facts seperately, if you know any.

I hope you can tell me. Thanks in advance!

Post by **VegettoEX** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:15 pm

I'm pretty sure we discussed this on the podcast a while back in response to an e-mail from a listener, and the conclusion was that Toriyama simply forgot that he had introduced anthropomorphic animals as regular, everyday characters in the series

.

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:24 pm

That's right. If Toriyama can forget about Launch, who appeared in like every episode after she was created, then anything can happen! Wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious if in one of the sagas Akira Toriyama forgot Vegeta? I'd laugh my ass off.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:02 pm

Vegeta ate them, just like he did Gohan's pet dragon.

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:43 pm

Rocketman wrote:Vegeta ate them, just like he did Gohan's pet dragon.

I demand fan art of this event.

SuperSaiyan3Goku · Post by **SuperSaiyan3Goku** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:53 pm

NeptuneKai wrote:
Rocketman wrote:Vegeta ate them, just like he did Gohan's pet dragon.
I demand fan art of this event.

Yes, that would be really interesting...

DemonKingPiccolo · Post by **DemonKingPiccolo** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:24 pm

I noticed that too. Most of the animal-humans are simple re-appearences, like King Furry and Oolong.

DaemonCorps · Post by **DaemonCorps** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:58 pm

Out of Universe Answer: Toriyama forgot. Though I remember when the US Shonen Jump asked him, he said that as the series got longer and longer, he was just moving further away from the human/animal hybrids that were reminiscent of his previous manga success-- Dr. Slump.

In Universe Answer: It's never really explained, but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm gonna say that since Hitler exists in the DB Universe (even if it's just in the movies) that he killed 'em all off in some kind of attempt to purge the world of the weaker race. Sadly, it seems that the Hitler in the DB Universe actually succeeded in doing so.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:14 pm

DaemonCorps wrote:Sadly, it seems that the Hitler in the DB Universe actually succeeded in doing so.

Good thing Goten and Trunks avenged them.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:58 am

... Wow. That's beyond appropriate... that's briliant!

Teclo · Post by **Teclo** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:21 am

Well I'd agree that Toriyama just forgot about them - it does seem to be a very common thing in shounen for the author to either sideline or totally remove characters or elements that used to be common as the series goes on.

I would say, though, that I don't think it's just that they forget; it also seems to be that the things that they start to leave out are things that don't really fit into the changing mood of the series or the focus of the plot. Since most shounen seems to start out pretty laid back and adventure-orientated and ends up being very melodramatic and combat-orientated, it makes sense that the more fun elements, and usually the more comedy-orientated characters, get left behind.

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:26 am

Then again, maybe he didn't just forget about them. Talking animals are great when you're doing a goofy show about a monkey boy and his wacky adventures. Talking animals served no place in an action show like DBZ.

kaioken12 · Post by **kaioken12** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 3:57 pm

TheGreatness25 wrote:Then again, maybe he didn't just forget about them. Talking animals are great when you're doing a goofy show about a monkey boy and his wacky adventures. Talking animals served no place in an action show like DBZ.

Well I thought about that, too.
I had a thought that if he DIDN'T forget about the animals, he probably just left them away, since in DBZ Goku sees the world as an "adult".

I mean, perhaps in DB, where Goku is a kid, he sees people as animals, like parody - something like "he looks like a fox" and then he is shown as a fox.

And in Z (or later manga) this is not longer the way we see the world - now it is "realistic".

But the problem with these thoughts are, that the world's king still is a dog... Oo

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:07 pm

Or, another explanation. DBZ spends almost no time in Earth's cities. The whole Saiyan Saga takes places in the countryside, Namek Sage ain't even on Earth, the Android Saga is almost totally in isolated areas, as is the Cell Games ring, and after the World Tournament, the heros are either in the afterlife, on Kami's lookout, or the Earth's population is dead.

DNA · Post by **DNA** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:45 pm

True, although he do see animal characters every now and then. If you want to have GT in consideration, there was a Hippo cop in the first episodes. Maybe the entire... race... of animal... people thingies o_O just started dying off. Like extinction.

Post by **TripleRach** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:33 pm

I figured it all out the other day. When the Ginyuu frog was transported to Earth, he then mass reproduced, and the resulting ecological problems ruined the animal people population.

Lol · Post by **Lol** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:49 pm

Just as a reminder, Toriyama didn't forget entirely the animals up to Cell Saga, since "The King of the World" (I don't know the name on the English dub) appears at the TV and watching the Cell Games.

They still exists, but, for me, they simple doesn't appear and Humans are more numerous than animal people, so they're not very common to see...

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 12:49 am

lol I don't know why, but reading that post about Goku merely seeing people as animals made me think...imagine the series ended like this:

Everything goes white and Goku wakes up. He sits up in bed and looks around. A nurse comes in with a tray of food. He shakes his head and asks what happened. And the nurse tells him that he's in a special place that can help him with his special problems. And then it flashes back to his epic fight with Piccolo and reveals that it was just him merely beating up a tall guy on the street. Then they become friends when someone tells him that he has a good boy for a son, Goku thinks it's Raditz and beats him up. And the whole series was like that. That would be awesome.

kaioken12 · Post by **kaioken12** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:55 am

TheGreatness25 wrote:lol I don't know why, but reading that post about Goku merely seeing people as animals made me think...imagine the series ended like this:

Everything goes white and Goku wakes up. He sits up in bed and looks around. A nurse comes in with a tray of food. He shakes his head and asks what happened. And the nurse tells him that he's in a special place that can help him with his special problems. And then it flashes back to his epic fight with Piccolo and reveals that it was just him merely beating up a tall guy on the street. Then they become friends when someone tells him that he has a good boy for a son, Goku thinks it's Raditz and beats him up. And the whole series was like that. That would be awesome.

lol ^^
I second that.

But as for the animals and the "King of the World".
As already said, he still appears (even in Buu Saga when he gives energy for the Genkidama in one filler).
This means, the animals still "exist" - so you could say that there are more humans, but then again, why don't we see even ONE animal-human in DBZ (talking about the world tournament where masses of people were seen and not one animal-human).

Well, but as far as I can tell, there just seems to be no real "answer", so I think it's just the typical "just sit back and enjoy"-sort of things ^^

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:03 am

Well that's my motto. You can spend your time overanalyzing something in DBZ that really, you will never answer, all your "analyzing" and "theories" will be gone to waste because it will all just be an opinion in the end...but hey, you can spend your time analyzing and looking for a deep impactful meaning in an Anime...or you could just sit back and enjoy it.

The reason there were no animals? One could be he simply forgot about them. Or two could be, they had no place in an epic battle action Anime.

Kanzenshuu

Animals in DB-Universe

Animals in DB-Universe

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