Today I was watching the timeless serie : Malcolm in the middle. This serie was hilarious, and I wish we could get another one as good as it... As I wish Dragon Ball Z was still alive!
Dragon ball Z, is the following of Dragon Ball whom the first publications were made in 1984 in weekly Shonen Jump, a magazine. Then, it became a manga from 1985 to 1995, and the cartoon we all know ("we", the kid form the 90's). If you are a fan of BDZ, I'd like to drag your attention on the fact that DBZ was inspired by a chinese novel entitled "journey to the west", I let you do the reasearchs on it, but if you wonder how inspirational this novel has been to Akira Toryama (the creator of DBZ), just note the main character of the chinese novel was called "Sun Wukong". As a kid (8 to 12 years old), in my clan, to spot if a guy was a pussy or not, our technic was simple: "what do you watch on wednesday morning man?" If the anwser was "Tom sawyer", he could have been "someone we know, he s cool". If you were 11yo and still convinced that Mickey was the shit... Well, you couldn't speak to us. But if you were sayin' Dragon Ball Z, ah man, you could join us for karaté afternoons and work outs !
You know, thats a proper shame nowadays all the cartoons broadcasted are really .. Soft! I guess it's better like that, I guess it might help to have a society a bit less violent. Well, in the meantime we have GTA, porn movies everybody can watch, and drugs can be found easily nearly anywhere, so I don't know if it will help that much... But one thing for sure, DBZ was probably the best cartoon ever for boys loving fights, and you can prove it easily: DBZ still does exist, still has new stuff, the video games keep making money, and people still are doing movies on it. 30 years later!!!!
Why? Why was DBZ so good? Well, firstly, anybody could find a character who was like him. I was Vegeta. My friends were goku, trunks, or cell. Thanks god, none of them were Krilin, or the little pig! The DBZ world, was like the real world with people having the same qualities and defaults as everyone. I was always trying to push it to the limits, a bit angry all the time, and not a fan of the soft people, no wonder my favorite one was Vegeta. If you were fan of Kamé Sennin (turtle guy), there is a chance you've been to jail at some point, but for stuff that do not help your street credibility...! As well, you could see evolutions all the time (Tom sawyer could not! And Mickey was just too soft to start to work out or anything), heroes were always getting stronger, and enemies were always weirder and stronger. You always wanted to see what the new monster would look like, and what would be the next technic our favorite guy would develop... By the way, I think the "super work out" used by Goku and Vegeta (before going to fight Booboo) has influenced me a lot... I probably would never have tried one armed pushed either way, but I probably would not have done high session of karaté without DBZ, simple as that.
And well, the fire bullets, the kaméhaméha, all the different weapons. They were a proper army, no doubt. It was pure violence. But not only; Dragon Ball Z was funny as fuk! Full of humoristic moments, and it was easy to get attached with characters. The music was an important part of it too, the instruments played were creating such an atmosphere... Each music had its meaning, and each of them was really nice to the ear too, or would just motivate you when hiiting your ear! Seriously, some hiphop beatmakers might have a try on it...!
Finally, the graphics were so well made. I know it's a manga, and most mangas look like the same, but Akira Toriyama really had his style. He had the style, the universe, the soundtrack, the concept (i mean, you have to be very creative to picture people getting their hair long and yellow, only when they were getting well angry... Proper artist!). DBZ was a whole universe which made me travel a lot when alone in my bedroom, it influenced me to get into sport, it was promoting the good values of life? It helped me to get interested into asian culture and food (I ve been searching for the magical beans, i was a kid, remember) and I even learned a bit of japanese! So, mad props to Akira Toryama, and keep watching the old school stuff, nothing better than that! PS : always watch it in japanese with subtitles, it definitely changes it all.
- BECRI
