Sometimes, current anime doesn’t interest me much. Sometimes, I just want ramble on and on about a topic with no concrete thesis. This’ll be the first attempt.
While trying to decide what to watch next, I noticed Dragon Ball Z Kai. I’m not a big fan of shounens. I haven’t seen more than a couple episodes each of Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail, etc., but I actually have seen a bit of DBZ.
I was a kid once. I remember waking up at 7am on Saturdays to catch the show. I had heard about it on the playground and who wanted to be left out? Sadly, watching DBZ is quite the mental exercise of patience. Goku just stuck his arms up at 4:36. What is he doing? Goku’s making a spirit bomb, the epitome of the “everyone~ let us work together” message. The man draws energy from anything and everything, including space turtles and slugs. You could start the stopwatch to see how long it takes him, but sadly, the spirit bomb will extend into the next episode.
But I’m gonna spoil the story (if I’ve ruined the story for you, I just did you a favor): it doesn’t work this time. In fact, this is the arc where Goku transforms into that golden bastard that everyone’s been trying to copy ever since. Maybe teamwork doesn’t always work. It’s a far cry from a philosopher king, but maybe that’s what we need.
Yes, DBZ is a bastardization (quite an understatement) of one of China’s greatest myth, Journey to the West. Son Goku’s evolution, however, more resembles an imbecilic Man of Steel. Hailing from another planet, he’s the chosen one to protect mankind. But whereas public consciousness of Superman exists, Goku’s universe is blissfully ignorant of their hero.
Superman’s alter ego juxtaposes the human weaknesses of his alter ego against the physical perfection of his true identity. Superman subverts his nature into the pathetic and weak-willed Clark Kent just to live among us humans:
As for Goku, he lives a thankless existence. No matter how many times he saves the world, nobody ever thanks him. Nobody even thanks anything that remotely resembles him — at least Clark Kent can hear people’s praises for Superman.
What does this mean for Goku? Being a superhero is thus just like any other job rather than being the one job. Superman might represent Jesus in the West, but it’s not hard to imagine Goku’s status as barely a step above a salaryman.
Every culture is fixated on heroes and how they can singularly shape the world around them, sure, but perhaps no culture places its trust in the hands of “great individuals” more than America:
All those histories of this country centered on the Founding Fathers and the Presidents weigh oppressively on the capacity of the ordinary citizen to act. They suggest that in times of crisis we must look to someone to save us: in the Revolutionary crisis, the Founding Fathers; in the slavery crisis, Lincoln; in the Depression, Roosevelt; in the Vietnam-Watergate crisis, Carter. And that between occasional crises everything is all right, and it is sufficient for us to be restored to that normal state. They teach us that the supreme act of citizenship is to choose among saviors, by going into a voting booth every four years to choose between two white and well-off Anglo-Saxon males of inoffensive personality and orthodox opinions.
The idea of saviors has been built into the entire culture, beyond politics. We have learned to look to stars, leaders, experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability, obliterating our own selves. — Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Chapter 24
I think it’s interesting how Goku contrasts with Superman. Goku and his heroic deeds exists on the periphery, another cog within the machine. Perhaps a big cog, but it rarely transcends the machine itself. After saving the world, Goku goes back to his idyllic life with his wife in the middle of nowhere. He doesn’t need to subvert himself as Superman does. He literally blends into nature. What does this say about American or Japanese culture?
The Freeza arc is so odd in itself. Sure, Freeza is a threat to the entire universe, but the fight is literally light years away. If you broadcast the fight on Namek, it likely wouldn’t reach Earth till everyone was already dead.
Well, that’s enough rambling on DBZ for today.
P.S. When shit starts getting serious, some strange arrangement of “Bolero” starts up. I couldn’t believe my ears at first, but yeah, it’s “Bolero.”
The question now is…Who will win a battle between Goku and Superman?…
Wow, I miss going home and waiting for DBZ to come on TV. I’m still an admirer, but being older than 13 now, I just realized that I really enjoyed watching this humorous show about big burly men duking it out. Fun times ;]
Well, I wanted to comment that you’ve raised an interesting point here. True, in America, they thrive on the ideas of independence and success. So, it’s only natural for them to want acknowledgment for their deeds. In the east, they are more interdependent and each member of the collective society work for each other. So Goku had the mentality of “Thank bob I saved everyone. Now, where’s chichi’s lovely bowl of rice” since he’s doing his duty for the rest of his people. Haha, seriously analyzing anime, eh?
Then again, maybe Goku’s just funky. He did bang his head as a baby.
I think this raises some interesting following questions. If that’s what Goku stood for back then, what do the present-day shounen heroes stand for nowadays? Has their purpose changed? What does this tell us about present-day Japan if anything? These aren’t rhetorical questions at all. I’m truly curious, but I just don’t enjoy Naruto, Bleach, et al. enough to find out at the moment. Maybe someday I’ll suck it up and watch those anime.
Millions of people watch it. Sure, why not?
Keep in short, keep it simple.
From all the shounen I’ve read (main reading genre), Shounen hasn’t changed much. Every lead is just another idiot who relies on raw strength and creative battle abilities and despite their lack of intelligence their strong belief in friendship more then makes up for it. And at the end of the day to varying degrees, present day shounen heroes are all about the power of friendship.
Globalization, my man (or woman, or whoever), that’s what’s happening to Japan and their heroes, if they’ve changed at all. I don’t read a lot of shounen, but if we compare Goku to Naruto, DBZ’s main idea is of Goku saving earth multiple times because…all of the innocent people needn’t die? For Naruto, he want to become hokage to gain everyone’s respect, and saves people along the way.
I’d have to look at other shounen characters, but if you just compare Goku and Naruto, you can see that Naruto has more individualistic thinking. But then again, there’s a variety of Western and Eastern heroes, right? And Goku did sought Mr. Roshi out to train and become stronger.
Perhaps I can even argue that present day shonen heroes are still quite the same as Goku. Perhaps I can also argue that Goku and Superman are similar in that: the world’s in trouble, they are the only few who can save it, so they do. Like Frodo of LOTR, can I say that these three guys are not trying to be heroes, but they must? They can walk away, yes, but they are compelled to stay.
I kinda forget what I’m trying to argue now ;p But I’ll end off with heroes are formed to inspire, right? At least that hasn’t changed.
Both were sent to earth as children during their planet’s destruction. Both knew nothing about their heritage until they were adults. Superman still endures today as a cultural icon, DB should’ve ended at the Freeza arc like the author wanted it too instead of it being drawn out for several ill-thought out seasons.
Despite all this, Dragonball is still one of my favorite manga, and Superman is one of my least faves. . . .
I had better stop before I confuse myself even more.
Well, despite all their similarities, Goku and Superman stand for very different things (and rightfully so). Personally, although Superman is far more psychologically complex, I never understood his appeal. On the other hand, I enjoyed DBZ like most boys in grade school. I’ve outgrown it, but I’m not embarrass to admit I used to follow it.
Another thing about Goku: With the exception of that odd monkey thing that he did on full moons when he was a kid, Goku got all his power by training. Ridiculous amounts of training, which seems to have consisted of doing very painful and repetitive things for a very long time. Cog, indeed.
I strongly disagree with the Kill Bill monologue. Superman is an alien, yes, but what he does as “Superman” is more indicative of what he thinks of humanity. For example, in an issue that I read a few years ago: A kid says, “Cool costume!” And Superman says, “Thanks. My mom made it.” And it’s true. Martha Kent sewed that blue suit for him to go out and be a hero.
You can tell which character I like more. :)
The one problem with Western superheroes is that it’s so difficult to nail down one true interpretation of any character because they often change hands and change visions. For example, there are three kinds of Batman. The silly, cheesy hijinxes Batman (the one Adam West played), the detective noir Batman (current incarnation) and the Batgod of the Justice League who do heroic deeds just to show off.
Speaking of which, did you like Superman Returns? I only ask ’cause a lot of Superman fans dislike it.
Yes I did. I didn’t like that it was set up as a sequel to the Richard Donner films (which are good, but their own thing), and I suspect a few more wham-bam fights would have helped the movie do better in the box office. But Brandon Routh’s performance was fantastic, with just the right sort of gravitas despite his age.
And who doesn’t love Spacey’s Lex Luthor? “WRONG!!!”
I think it’s a common trade for people of any culture to rely on some greater figure in time of trouble. Call me skeptics but we all are pretty lazy and would rather have someone else carry the burden. :)
I don’t think this is true, though. It is only through the struggles of the people that society can change and people have often taken matters into their own hands throughout history. The problem is when historians attribute these changes to just one person. Ask most Americans and they’ll think Lincoln single-handedly freed the slaves which is ridiculous and somewhat offensive. Howard Zinn’s book is great and everyone should read it.
Not so many people notice it but Goku was kinda selfish compared with other shounen heroes. He didn’t kill Piccollo because he thought that his life would be too boring without a rival and he stopped Krilin when he almost killed Vegeta because he wanted to defeat him in another fight. A big diference between Goku and Superman is that Goku actually enjoy his powers. He doesn’t perceived them as a burden (like many American heroes) or as a curse (like many Japanese heroes) because he loves to fight.
Goku wouldn’t understand “With a great power come great responsability” because he never stopped being a child. Unlike many heroes, Goku never had a hero journey, he is just a kid having fun. I think DB was so succesful because kids can relate with Goku, he just want to hang out with his friends like any kid but just like them, his wife/mother wants to stop the fun. Of course she doesn’t stop him of playing with his pals. Sometimes shit happens (Vegeta arc, the genocide of Namek, Goku actually die at the end of Cell arc) but everything goes back to the status quo thanks to the Dragon Balls. In that point Goku is closer to the comic hero than most shounen series, nobody stay dead and eventually everything returns to the status quo. Another point similar to comic books is that there isn’t any real objective, Goku just have an adventure after another. He isn’t searching for anything, he isn’t trying to stop a real bad guy, he is just doing what he has to do.
At the end this message were just random thoughts.
Defeat means friendship. I guess he just wanted to bring back the villains for later on and prolong their existence by making them Goku’s allies.
Stop blogging already! Your snarky, hurtful, mean-spirited opinions are SO unnecessary.
Hey I like these snarky blogs. I can’t say I agree with them but it’s interesting reading articles from the other side.
When I was in the public school system; having my ass kicked by the bullies, Superman or Goku (or whoever) didn’t come to save me either. I had to learn how to save myself.
Yes, our society looks for, and up to, heroes. And then you have these tyrants and dictators running third-world countries. Those people who lived in said third-world countries will never say the amount of bull I’m seeing on this blog.
Besides; I’m much more of an X-men fan myself. “Having a super power that causes emotional distress before I learn the way to use it for good or evil.” HADES’ YEAH.
This idea of focus on heroes is called the “Great man” approach to history. It is falling out of favor, but you still see traces of it lingering, especially in American textbooks where the presidents of an era receive far more attention than the collective efforts of hundreds of polliticians in congress.
Superman SUCKS
Useless & stupid guy
Superman is scum
His type of entertainment are for weak-minded people (with low IQs)
He must be removed from this face of this planet
Superman SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS & SUCKS
#1 Superman does not suck, YOU DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #2 Superman could beat goku without breaking a sweat and #3 how many times has goku died…..exactly 2 many 2 count and superman hasn’t died at all
You another loser & scum (just like Superman)
You SUCKS
Superman (forever) SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS & SUCKS
Superman SUCKS
He’s useless & stupid guy (The entertainment industry doesn’t need him)
Superman is scum, moron & arrogant asshole (A loser like him is gonna ended up as a villain)
All his comics, films, etc are all shit, rubbish & garbage (His fans are dumb people with low IQ who are like him are gonna ended up as a bunch of losers)
He must be removed from this face of this planet
Superman SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS & SUCKS
Same shit, different year…