Kame Sennin and Kume Sennin – The Perverted Hermits
Every Dragon Ball fan is familiar with Kame Sennin, the immortal martial arts master and perverted hermit. But how many of you have heard of Kume Sennin, his legendary counterpart and the source of Akira Toriyama’s inspiration for this character?
Many of the characters seen in Dragon Ball were inspired by pop or traditional culture. It’s well known that Goku was inspired by the Monkey King from Journey to the West, as well as martial arts actor Jackie Chan. Likewise, there are characters throughout the series who were visibly inspired by the Terminator and Aliens films.
But not all of the characters’ points of origin are as easy to see.
In this article I will reveal for the first time the original inspiration for Kame Sennin.
You’ll learn who Kume Sennin is, hear his legend, and see how his transformation into a Japanese pop cultural figure was later emulated in cinema and then once again by Toriyama in Dragon Ball.
You’ll also learn why this legend is so essential to the Dragon Ball story, and how it’s so well integrated that you may never have realized it.
continue …
Potara, Potala, Potaraka
The Potara Earring in Dragon Ball Z
The Potara earrings are a device in Dragon Ball Z introduced near the end of the Majin Buu Saga. They allow one character to fuse together with another and increase their power level dramatically.
Everybody knows and loves them. But is there more to these simple earrings than meets the eye?
When all hope seems lost, Goku is given a Potara earring by Eldar Kai (Japanese: Rou Dai Kaioshin) that allows him to fuse with another person. They look like spherical ball earrings suspended by silver beads attached to a hoop that is placed in the earlobe.
Goku and Vegeta Fuse Together
Goku convinces Vegeta to wear one of the earrings while Goku wears the other. Immediately they are drawn to one another and their two bodies slam together, creating a new superhuman warrior.
The pair combined has the best of Vegeta’s pride and Goku’s rage, creating Vegetto, self-named after the combination of Vegeta and Kakarotto (Goku’s birth given Saiyan name).
According to Kanzentai.com, in The Super Exciting Guide: Story Volume, “On p.63 it describes the Potara fusion as being closer to multiplication rather than simple addition in the way it increases power. Supposedly, Vegetto’s battle power is equivalent to Goku’s battle power multiplied by Vegeta’s. Also according to the introduction of the Super Exciting Guide’s training section, all the information in it is based on data that was supervised by Toriyama, though we have no idea how extensive this supervision was.”
This makes Vegetto the strongest character in the entire manga.
But where did Akira Toriyama come up with the idea of Potara? What’s the story behind them?
Dragon Ball Zee or Zed?
Dragon Ball Z. How is it pronounced? Perhaps you never asked yourself the question, but it turns out there are a few different ways to say it. All because of the Z.
For example, is it pronounced Dragon Ball Zee, Dragon Ball Zed or something else entirely? The title of the show represents a linguistic problem with various answers that depend on where you live and what language you speak.
Why does it matter? Because the show is an international phenomenon with no agreed upon standard for how to pronounce its name. And the differences stand as another example of diversity seen within the localized versions of the Dragon Ball series.
To really understand why this is the case we have to learn a little about languages and world history from within the Dragon Ball perspective.
Dragon Ball’s Bloody Pond of Hell
Welcome to the "Bloody Pond" from DBZ's Hell
Have you been to the Bloody Pond of Hell? It’s a great place to visit… They have row boats.
Many fans of Dragon Ball may be aware of the Bloody Pond in Dragon Ball’s Hell, but how many of them know that you can actually visit it?
It turns out that there is a real Bloody Pond in a city of Japan, and that it was the most likely source for Dragon Ball’s version.
This Bloody Pond also has an interesting part to play in traditional Japanese culture and society.
What is the Bloody Pond and why does this matter in Dragon Ball? And where exactly did Toriyama receive the inspiration for his Bloody Pond?
5 Communist and Socialist Elements in Dragon Ball
Hitler Heil's Hello in DBZ Movie 12
There are many unique aspects to the Dragon Ball series and several may contain socialist and communist elements. In this article I will introduce 5 of them.
They are the following:
- Red Army
- Stars
- Hitler
- Hooked Cross Z
- One World Government
The elements on this list are the results of watching the Dragon Ball series and seeing what is already there. I am not making any of these up.
This article is not only here to reveal what was in front of us all along, but to also help explain how and why.
Red Star Hammer and Sickle
Please keep in mind that Dragon Ball is above all else a fun and lighthearted show with a heavy dose of silliness and martial arts antics. These socialist and communist elements do not detract from the Dragon Ball experience in any way.
It’s possible you may disagree with some of the inherent meaning behind these elements within the series, and a lot has been said about one of them in particular, but that does not take away from the fact that they are there to begin with and left for us to explore and understand.
If you have any thoughts on their meaning and why the creator’s put them in, then please state your thoughts in the comments below.
Now let’s begin our adventure. continue …
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