Chinese Influences in Dragon Ball
This page covers several areas of Chinese influence in Dragon Ball, whether in Akira Toriyama's original manga or in its various adaptations, continuations, and spin-off works.
Story
Characters
Language
Music
Every Dragon Ball composer has written music that deliberately invokes Chinese traditional music, often in the stereotypical manner of the Western classical tradition, up to and including 20th century film music. These stereotypes include parallel perfect fourths and fifths, pentatonic movement, and imitations of traditional Chinese instruments using Western instruments or sound synthesis.
Shunsuke Kikuchi
Below is a table of Shunsuke Kikuchi's Chinese-style compositions, their parallel diatonic tonalities, and their stereotypes.
| Shunsuke Kikuchi's Chinese-style Dragon Ball works | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanzenshuu Catalogue |
Official Catalogue |
Tonality | Chinese elements | Debut | Release |
| K-2 | H4 | D Minor | pentatonic movement, instruments | Dragon Ball Episode 1 | Daizenshuu 2:7(d) |
| K-3 | H3 | pentatonic movement, parallel fourths | Daizenshuu 2:7(c) | ||
| K-225 | K-225 | pentatonic movement, parallel fourths, instruments | Dragon Ball Movie 1 | Unreleased | |
| K-227 | M229† | F Minor | pentatonic movement, parallel fourths | ||