Dragon Ball Culture Volume 1: Origin

Dragon Ball Culture

Volume 1

Origin

Derek Padula

thedaoofdragonball.com

Legal Disclaimer

Copyright © 2014, by Derek Padula

Written and published by Derek Padula in The United States of America, all rights reserved.

Cataloging In-Publication Data

Padula, Derek.

Dragon Ball Culture / Derek Padula

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-0-9831205-7-5

1. Fantasy comic books, strips, etc. – Japan – 20th century – History and Criticism. 2. Martial arts – Comic books, strips, etc. 3. Spiritual life – Buddhism 4. Spiritual life – Daoism. 5. Good and evil. 6. Imaginary wars and battles. 7. Ethics, ancient. 8. Heroes.

PN6790.J33 – P2 2014

741.5952 – 23

LCCN: 2014922138

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Notice of Liability

The author has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

Trademark Notice

Rather than indicate every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

License Information

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Kai, Dragon Ball Online, and all other logos, character names, and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of TOEI ANIMATION, Akira Toriyama, BIRD STUDIO, SHUEISHA, FUNIMATION, VIZ MEDIA, BANDAI NAMCO, ATARI, and all other respective license holders unmentioned.

This book was not prepared, licensed, or endorsed by any entity involved in creating or producing the Dragon Ball series. It is an independent, unofficial work that has no connection to the official license and is written within fair use guidelines.

Image Information

The illustrations in this book and on the cover that are rendered in the Dragon Ball style are original works, created through work for hire contracts with independent artists unaffiliated with the official Dragon Ball license. They are not licensed images, nor official artwork owned by the Dragon Ball license holders. All rights to the images are owned by Derek Padula, and may not be reproduced without his express written consent. The Dragon Ball license holders in the United States (FUNIMATION and VIZ MEDIA) recognize these as independent and wholly owned works, and do not claim ownership of them, nor claim that they infringe upon their official licenses, nor that they are equal to an official license.

Cover Art Illustration by Javier Secano.

Index by Mary Harper.

Version 1.0

Web: http://thedaoofdragonball.com

Contents

Introduction

Dragon Ball and Culture

Storytelling through Action

Symbols and the Eyes to See

Meaning and Art

Dragon Ball Brings Joy

This Book

Content

Basics

Structure

Return to the Source

Mistaken Identity

Speaking the Language

My Translation Approach

Thorough yet Succinct

Summarizing

Images

Toriyama’s Progression

Perfectly Imperfect

A Scholar and a Fan

Pronunciation Guide

Chinese Language

Chinese Pronunciations

Japanese Language

Japanese Pronunciations

Sanskrit

Have Fun Learning

Origin

Akira Toriyama

Toriyama is Born

Product of His Environment

Springtime of Youth

Raised on TV

Cinema Lover

Western Cinema

Gōngfu Cinema

Cinematic Influences

Model Hobbyist

Auto Enthusiast

Meka Enthusiast

Introvert

Budding Art Career

Taking a Chance

Torishima Kazuhiko

Opening the Door

Toriyama’s Debut

Onward and Upward

Toriyama’s Rising Star

Dr. Slump

Gyagu Manga

Something about Arare

Toriyama and Torishima

Tanaka Hisashi

An Orange Star Rises

Dr. Slump Anime

Merchandizing

Matsuyama Takashi

Bird Land Press

Wealthiest in Japan

Birds of a Feather

Wedding Bells

Japanese Media Blitz

Tetsuko no Heya

Toriyama and Mikami

Bird Studio

Toriyama’s Art Style

Toriyama’s Writing Style

Creating Art

Crummy Manga Lab

Tori-bot

Famous Introvert

What’s Next?

Origin of Dragon Ball

Working Vacation

A New Story Begins

Dragon Ball Prototypes

Doragon Bōi

Tonpū Daibōken

Dragon Ball is Born

Saiyūki in Brief

Why Dragon Ball?

Etymology of Dragon Ball

Toriyama’s Method

Dragon Ball Premieres

The Dragon Soars

Dragon Ball Origins

Xīyóujì

Journey to the West

Return Home

Xuánzàng’s Influence

Xuánzàng’s Fame

Wú Chéng’ēn writes Xīyóujì

Three Belief Systems

Buddhism

Dàoism

Confucianism

Separate but United

Three Realms

Saṃsāra

Xīyóujì’s Story

Gathering Disciples

81 Hardships and Eternal Liberation

An Analogy of Life

Toriyama’s Xīyóujì

Why Xīyóujì?

Xīyóujì or Saiyūki?

Growing up with Saiyūki

Toriyama’s Version

Simplified Over Time

Hidden Spirituality

Míng and Qīng

Easy to Understand

Entertaining

Opposites

Flaws

Illustrations

Humor

Subversion

Perversion

Censoring Perversion

Episodic

Narrator

Hook

Vehicle for the Author

Use as Needed

Dragon World

What is the Dragon World?

Origin of the Dragon World

Timeline

State of Society

Dragon World Culture

They Walk Among Us

Appearance of the Dragon World

Geography

One World Government

Monetary System

Fusion World

Enter the Dragon World

Conclusion

Next Steps

Rate this Book

Share this Book

Write to the Author

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Glossary

Index

Introduction

See Dragon Ball with new eyes. This book is your cultural tour guide of Dragon Ball, the world’s most recognized anime and manga series.¹

Dragon Ball is about a young martial artist named Son Gokū who travels on a quest to increase his power. Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama from 1984 to 1995, Dragon Ball is a comic meant to entertain and inspire you by telling Son Gokū’s exciting journey through life. It is one of the best-selling series of all time, having sold over 230 million volumes of manga in Japan² and been localized into over 40 countries. It has hundreds of millions of fans, including myself.

This book is about going deep into the core of what makes Dragon Ball so special and showing you why you love it so much, or will learn to love it. As you read you will gain a better understanding of the ideological and psychological dimensions within the series. During the creation of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama simplifies esoteric concepts that have remained a mystery to the masses for thousands of years to the point where anyone can accept them, but he never explains them. Only now are they explained to you as we explore the processes of Toriyama’s mind.

If you are experiencing Dragon Ball for the first time, then welcome to one of the most entertaining, inspiring, and grand stories ever told. If you are a Dragon Ball veteran who has read every chapter of the manga, watched every episode of the anime, seen all the movies, played all the games, and are wearing a Dragon Ball T-shirt as you read this, then you may think you have Dragon Ball figured out, but that’s not the case. Forget everything you think you know. I will get you to reassess your established notions, shatter the misinformation you’ve been given by less informed fans or localized dubs of the anime, and show you the true Dragon Ball Culture.

Dragon Ball and Culture

Dragon Ball is the world’s most culturally rich anime and manga, and by the time you finish this book you will see the proof on every page. There is so much culture embedded in Dragon Ball that you can delve into it for years and still find something fresh. Each time you return to this series it becomes further tied to your identity and shapes your worldview. This happens internally without you having to join an external group, such as a sports team, fraternity, religion, or political party where you follow a code of principles. Instead it subtly and gradually takes root inside you and alters your perceptions as you inherit its spirit. You may not have realized it, but you’ll come to understand what I mean as our story unfolds.

Dragon Ball is a modern testament to traditional culture and a traditional testament to modern culture. It’s a series that combines East Asian martial arts and extrasensory powers with Western technology and science fiction elements, such as space-time devices, futuristic robots, and flying cars. This mix of East and West creates a unified ecosystem allowing for gods and aliens to intermingle while traveling across a Chinese landscape filled with immortal martial arts masters to fight against cyborgs. It’s both a supernormal place where dinosaurs walk among humans and a mundane place where people shop in malls, work in office buildings, and earn their driver’s license. The Dragon Ball world represents a fantastic version of the globalized world of today mixed with classic storytelling elements, and is therefore relatable while mystical. It is a fusion manga of interwoven cultures that appeals to everyone and achieves success wherever it goes.

Yet as a fan of Dragon Ball you may not fully understand the culture the series is derived from. That’s because Toriyama strives to tell a story that is easy to understand, but in so doing he creates a story that is difficult to explain. Here I will reveal something old in something new. I’ll give you the cultural context to see what you think you already know in a new light, which will by happenstance be an old light.

Storytelling through Action

Akira Toriyama is a master storyteller because he lets his action do the talking. He has Son Gokū or the villains take action that leads to more action, with minimal dialogue to hold it together. The lack of exposition is why it appears simple and is easy to read or watch, but the contextual glue behind these actions is rich and multifaceted, going back thousands of years.

The traditional beliefs and values in Dragon Ball are grounded upon a Buddhist and Dàoist cosmological framework. It is by incorporating this traditional culture in a modern work of manga that Akira Toriyama introduces these elements to the masses. By writing his work for boys aged 8 to 15 Toriyama lowers the barrier to entry and makes the culture accessible to everyone, just as Xīyóujì ("Journey to the West"), the Chinese novel Dragon Ball is inspired by, further popularizes Buddhist and Dàoist culture within China in the 17th century. The novel and its inherent belief systems travel from China to Korea and then Japan, where Dragon Ball repeats the process in the 1980s on an even grander, more simplified level, promoted through mass media and distribution channels.

Toriyama illustrates the simplified shell of this culture, but does not explain the heart of it. He does it in a way that seems less cultural and religious, so you may see it and feel it if you’re sensitive enough to pick up on it, but without the knowledge of the symbols involved you may not recognize its original nature. In so doing he creates a series that is acceptable to all and offensive to none. In being so accepted, it plants cultural seeds in the minds of hundreds of millions of impressionable youth who see the leaves on the cultural tree but don’t examine the roots from which it sprung. To them it’s simply fun, mystical, and uplifting; but there’s more to the story. I want to show you that Dragon Ball isn’t just about punching and screaming. It’s about heart, character development, and what this means to you.

As a result of Dragon Ball’s success, the once esoteric secrets of monks and noble elites have become so superficially common as to become jokes within popular culture, as students power up and fire imaginary energy beams at one another. How many Dragon Ball fans understand the symbolism contained within their actions?

Symbols and the Eyes to See

Everyone can love Dragon Ball, and that’s because it speaks to our humanity through symbols. Symbols are letters, graphics, insignia, and cues that contain meaning, and Dragon Ball is filled with symbols, from the Japanese characters on Gokū’s martial arts uniform to his magical cloud and the dragon balls themselves. But in order to perceive the beauty in the symbols you need the right knowledge of their meaning and the right holistic attitude to see past the trivia. Just as those without the eyes to see beauty will miss it, those without the knowledge to decipher symbols will miss their message. Once you’ve learned how to perceive these symbols, then you can see the beauty in Dragon Ball and forever carry that beauty within you.

It is probably the case for most fans that they have not studied the East Asian culture from which Dragon Ball is derived, since it’s the case for most people in general. Eastern thought and culture has long been considered esoteric and difficult to understand, since it is internal, holistic, subtle, and sometimes appears illogical. This is due to a lack of exposure and the experiential knowledge of putting the concepts into practice. In this regard Dragon Ball Culture will save you a lot of time.

I’ve spent over 16 years walking the path that Dragon Ball inspired me to walk, from training with the Shàolín monks and tàijí sword masters of China, to practicing Fǎlún Dàfǎ meditation, becoming a scholar of over 5,000 years of Asian history, studying Chinese and Japanese language, art, and beliefs. Dragon Ball is a holistic fusion of these elements, so to fully understand Dragon Ball I felt I had to learn everything there is to know. And let me tell you, that’s difficult to do. You’re fortunate in that you don’t have to do it from scratch. Just read each page of the book and you will be a Dragon Ball expert.

Meaning and Art

I wrote this book for the fan who feels that Dragon Ball is meaningful art that speaks to their humanity. Toriyama may have created Dragon Ball as a gag manga (漫画, comic) that was then adapted into an anime (アニメ, animation), but it grew into something grand and soul stirring. As the series and the characters within it matured, so did you. It is part of your life because it’s filled with culture that you have accepted and made part of your heart over decades of youth and young adulthood.

Dragon Ball is a manga and anime but it is not incorrect to associate comic book culture and TV culture with meaningful art if it stirs the soul of its perceiver. Dragon Ball has a power that can be found in the greatest paintings and sculptures of our civilization. It tells a timeless story through a multifaceted medium of old and new, traditional and modern, while appearing simple yet being deep.

Dragon Ball is art, but because Akira Toriyama does not explain his art in the context of the work itself or reveal its deeper meaning in interviews, his art is left for you to interpret. Because of this, fans have different interpretations. This book represents my effort to interpret and explain Dragon Ball’s deep artistic and traditional cultural meaning. It is not an encyclopedia or trivia book. It’s a volume of culture and truth. Even though there may be fans of Dragon Ball who have a notion of the series as a certain, unchangeable thing, I seek to show you how to enjoy it on a deeper level. Your perception of the series will grow richer. In turn you will have a better understanding of the culture that led to its creation, and therefore of yourself.

Dragon Ball Brings Joy

Each generation that experiences Dragon Ball feels the same spirit and inner joy as the first because it is a timeless series. Toriyama stops writing the original Dragon Ball in 1995, but to this day fans cry out for more. They don’t want it to end because it would mean the end of the connection to their childhood; to their cultural roots as experienced each day with Son Gokū and his friends. More importantly, because they want to feel that sensation of open-hearted excitement, adventure, and intensity anew. They want the feeling of inspiration that Dragon Ball emanates from within its dragon soul.

Thus there are always fans who complete the series and ask, What’s next?

That’s all there is, my friend. But be joyous, because the true journey has just begun. You’re about to see Dragon Ball with new eyes.

Now step with me through the doorway of Dragon Ball Culture.

1 Dragon Ball is the world’s most recognized anime and manga series according to a global report published by Orikon Kabushiki-gaisha (オリコン株式会社, Oricon Co., Ltd., founded 1999) on August 7, 2012. http://www.oricon.co.jp/special/145/#rk

2 According to the official Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary website, Dragon Ball has sold over 230 million volumes of manga in Japan: http://db30th.com/into/into01.html. If sales outside of Japan are included, the total exceeds 300 million volumes: http://comipress.com/article/2008/12/31/3733

This Book

The purpose of Dragon Ball Culture is to inform, entertain, and inspire you. It will deepen your understanding and enjoyment of your favorite series. This information will merge with your own life experiences and give you the eyes to see Dragon Ball in a deeper way, enriching your wisdom and strengthening your insights.

There are hundreds of millions of Dragon Ball fans, but they each see things differently. No two people are at the same level of perception or insight. For some fans Dragon Ball is an action-adventure comic with silly humor and non-stop fighting filled with big muscles, screaming, and explosions. For others it is a heartfelt tale that inspires them to overcome hardships, endure, and believe in their hidden potential. Perception is everything.

In order to change your perception you have to become familiar with the deeper meaning of the symbols within Toriyama’s work. If you don’t know the meaning of these symbols, you might think this content is shallow. But if you do, then you’ll see how deep the content goes, and through this realize why the series is so popular across the world.

Content

The content of Dragon Ball Culture covers Chapter 1 to 194 of the Dragon Ball manga, plus selective content from Episode 1 to 153 of the anime. This includes anime filler episodes between certain chapters, after the conclusion, and as a bonus, all 4 Dragon Ball movies.

It does not explore the "Dragon Ball Z" portion of the series, from Chapter 195 to 519, but I will mention it on occasion. Why did I put that title in quotes? Because Toriyama’s manga is just called Dragon Ball from start to finish. It’s the anime staff in Japan who change the name of their adaptation after Chapter 194 of the manga to Dragon Ball Z for marketing purposes. There is no such division in Toriyama’s original work. The reason I don’t explore "Dragon Ball Z" here is because its cultural content is vast and requires its own book. I’m a self-published author and rely on your support to continue writing The Dao of Dragon Ball series. If this book you’re reading receives enough positive ratings and sells well enough for me to see a demand, then I’ll write Dragon Ball Z Culture.

The best way to read the book is from front to back because I will introduce new terms and concepts within each chapter, like the blocks in a pyramid building up to the capstone. It follows a linear progression through the story, so I recommend reading some of the manga or watching the anime, proceeding through a chapter of the book, and then continuing this process one chapter at a time until you finish both Dragon Ball and the book.

Basics

Why write about Dragon Ball and not "Dragon Ball Z"?

Dragon Ball is a martial arts adventure that follows the principle of mastering the basics and establishing a solid foundation. This is because Akira Toriyama follows the basics in his craft and in his stories, as a product of a traditional Japanese worldview. The fundamental concepts that are established in the first 194 Chapters of the Dragon Ball manga create a foundation upon which the rest is built, leading even further beyond to the movies, video games, and other official works. It all starts here. If you want to understand "Dragon Ball Z" and these other works, you must begin with the basics of Dragon Ball.

Structure

Dragon Ball Culture was written as one manuscript of over 2,000 pages. There is no publisher that can publish a 2,000 page book, and probably no reader that would want to carry it around. They’re liable to hurt themselves. So it’s out of necessity that the book spans 7 Volumes.

Volume 1 of Dragon Ball Culture starts with the origin of Dragon Ball. Here you’ll learn about Akira Toriyama and discover why and how he creates a series that changes the world. This is something that no Dragon Ball fan has ever encountered, and it’s the missing piece to your understanding of the series. I feel that Toriyama’s story is just as interesting as Gokū’s. After all, without Toriyama, Gokū doesn’t exist.

The rest of Dragon Ball Culture explores Son Gokū’s story. This is organized into 3 Parts that mirror its original structure in the first 16 tankōbon (単行本, standalone volumes) of the manga. A tankōbon is a sequential collection of the serialized manga containing about 12 Chapters per Volume, starting at Chapter 1 and proceeding forward. There are 42 tankōbon for the entire series, going from Chapter 1 to 519.

Dragon Ball Culture is focused on Chapter 1 to 194, which are contained in Volumes 1 to 16 of these tankōbon releases, so these are the ones we’ll explore together. Here, Part 1 of Son Gokū’s story consists of Volumes 1 through 4, Part 2 consists of Volumes 5 through 9, and Part 3 consists of Volumes 9 through 16.

That means Part 1 of Son Gokū’s story is explored in Volumes 2 and 3 of Dragon Ball Culture. Part 2 is explored in Volume 4 of Dragon Ball Culture. And Part 3 is explored in Volumes 5 and 6 of Dragon Ball Culture. Volume 7 of Dragon Ball Culture explores the anime and provides additional scholarly content.

I’ll walk you through the journey from the first page to the last.

Return to the Source

What is the genuine Dragon Ball? Is it only the Japanese manga, or does it include the anime, movies, games, toys, spin-offs, localized versions, and other merchandise? Since Toriyama wrote the manga, but not the anime, there are endless debates among fans about which parts of the series are canonical, and what the true canon is.

Canonical is a term that refers to the authoritative version of something. For example, canonical texts of a religion are those transcribed in their original language during or near the time the teachings are