Dragon Ball Z: An analogy of Japanese history?

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Dragon Ball Z: An analogy of Japanese history?
Tweet Topic Started: Aug 11 2015, 05:41 PM (364 Views)
Flaneur	Aug 11 2015, 05:41 PM Post #1
Posts: 2 Group: New Member Member #12,548 Joined: August 11, 2015 Gender Male Country Hong Kong	As a semi-newcomer to the Dragon Ball Z universe, I fell in love with the anime's exuberant style and characters, and I only wish I saw more of the show back when I was a kid in the '90s. Now that I look back at it in retrospective, I can't help but think that there was a deeper meaning to Toriyama's work, as zany as it was. Recently, I have developed a theory of my own after studying the rise, fall and redemption of the Saiyans. What if Toriyama intended the manga to be a partial metaphor of Japanese history and its influence by the West, with the Saiyans being a fantastic reflection of the Japanese people/spirit? To begin with, their war with the Tuffles and subsequent victory could be seen as a parallel of ancient/medieval Japan's numerous civil wars and struggles (e.g. the Sengoku period), and perhaps also their triumph against technologically superior rivals, especially the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The latter were miraculously thwarted by an act of God (the Kamikaze); not dissimilar to the appearance of the full moon in Planet Vegeta's sky, no? Furthermore, even their cultures shared the common traits of militarism, ensuring the long dominance of the 'warrior class' in both, and social stratification, based on power level/martial excellence in the former and Confucian 'moral purity' in the latter (with the samurai as its exemplar). Both their origins are similarly intriguing as well, with the ambiguity of the Saiyan race's true birthplace possibly alluding to the legend of Xu Fu, a Chinese sorcerer who is said to have sailed to Japan in 210 BC with a crew of thousands and catalyzed its development. The arrival of Frieza's mega-corp, however, truly cements the comparison as it mirrors the grand arrival of the Western powers in the Edo period. With an awesome display of power, Frieza was able to establish dominance over the relatively primitive inhabitants of Vegeta, much like the Perry Expedition's coercion of the Shogunate to trade- or else. This ushered in an age of modernization, as the influx of foreign ideas and technology spurred their appetite for space conquest to new levels, and the means to do so on a scale heretofore undreamt of. Indeed, these were the same circumstances that drove Japan into an age of Empire, and would see them marching onto the world stage to take what they wanted. I need to think out the rest of my post, so I'll put this up for now. What are your opinions? Edited by Flaneur, Aug 11 2015, 06:06 PM.



Darker	Aug 13 2015, 05:58 AM Post #2
The Lord of the Dark Posts: 15,358 Group: Member Member #11,968 Joined: January 7, 2015 Gender Male Country Spain	- ? Dragon Ball is in essence just a parody of Journey to the West, plus with some other concepts added in the mix.
	Piccolo: Just how many people have you sacrificed?! Cell: Sacrifice? Hmph, rubbish! On the contrary, it is an honor to become a fraction of my power.


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