Popo, the black-skinned, red-lipped, turban-wearing servant of Kami. Race and Anime Okay folks, we're about to get a little controversial here and talk about race. To be fair, both Luffy and Naruto have moments where they shine as complex characters, but at first glance their similarities with Goku surpass the unique elements that these characters bring to the table. Naruto, however, goes a step further on the Goku emulation/homage path by actually physically resembling Goku as a Saiyan (blond spiky hair, blue eyes, orange and blue clothing). Luffy in One Piece has a lot of Goku-like traits he shares Goku's notable appetite, and he often takes a thorough beating but always finds some hidden reserve of power to save the day in the end. This tradition can be seen in the later works that were obviously influenced by Toriyama. Goku has become a very popular lead character, and as such later anime creators have emulated him. Maybe it's justified since many believe it's just a "kids" show, but most DBZ fans see it as more than that so the show should be held to higher standards. This model of a silly superhero has been repeated many times in the anime industry. Goku is portrayed mostly as a big kid really - a big kid with a heart of gold and insane levels of power. Akira Toriyama spent a lot of effort infusing Goku with humor and playfulness, but not too many deep thoughts, moral dilemmas, or personal demons.
Typical Male Anime Protagonist DBZ portrays a lot of one-dimensional characters, but Son Goku is definitely one of the least complicated heroes in any anime series before or since.
DBZ, however, somehow gets a pass for this rather obvious flaw. But few of those shows are considered as amazing as DBZ, those shows are rightfully panned for their lackluster villains. This is certainly not unique to DBZ plenty of western and Japanese shows are guilty of it. Their typical traits include casual disregard for life, a desire to bend everyone and everything to their will, a penchant for underestimating the lead hero, and a love of maniacal laughter. They're usually extremely powerful and sufficiently cruel, but beyond that…they're pretty boring. Typical One Dimensional Villains With the possible exception of Vegeta, most of DBZ's antagonists are rather simple. "What's Wrong With…" will be a regular series on IGN Anime, so be sure to let us know what you'd like to see analyzed! One more thing before we get started – we will be visiting other popular shonen franchises over time. Click here to get to Part One of our What's Wrong With Dragon Ball Z feature. In part two, we discuss some of the deeper thematic issues with DBZ along with one particular social issue that DBZ may have had a big hand in creating. In our previous segment in this two part series, we discussed the areas where the production of the DBZ anime series was lacking.
Far too often, anyone that disagrees with the hordes of DBZ fans is answered with something along the lines of "STFU, DBZ rox. Unfortunately there is very little intelligent debate between the two factions. One of the interesting things about the DBZ series is that for every DBZ lovin' fanatic you'll find an equally passionate DBZ hater that feels the series ruined anime for them completely.
No, what we'd like to do here is something a bit more…academic. That would be pointless – and honestly you can go to any anime forum and find plenty of that already. We're not really interested in bashing DBZ just for the sake of bashing DBZ. But not everyone seriously talks about the faults of the franchise, and the bad habits that it has encouraged in both the industry and the fan base. Everyone knows the good side of DBZ the merits of the franchise are discussed in many areas. Frenetic action scenes, likable characters, and great humor – a great formula for shonen franchise success. One of the most influential and commercially successful anime franchises ever created.