Dragon Ball Art – The Black Goku
The Black Goku’s back, bitches! Get your pimp suit on, don your bling and puff up your golden afro, ’cause it’s time to hit the streets!
Dragon Ball Z was at its peak of popularity in the early 2000′s. At that time, Goku and the other characters of DBZ were assimilated into African American culture.
One of the results was a transformation of the characters into “black” versions of Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and the other main characters.
There was a popular website that sprung up to specifically showcase this perspective of African American Dragon Ball fans. It was called DaBlackGoku.com.
The site ran from 1999 to 2003. It stopped being updated shortly afterward and then got lost to time.
Luckily I was able to find the site in the Internet Archive and download the pictures that were still accessible. I now have over 320 Black Goku pictures.
Then I went through a selection process, picked the best ones, color corrected and cropped them into today’s art gallery.
Since I had already showcased a few in the original The Black Goku article, they won’t be repeated.You can read more about the phenomenon there.
This gallery is different from the others in the Dragon Ball Art series. It’s not about displaying beautiful art. The idea is to show people how Goku and friends were assimilated by children and teenagers in the late 90′s and early 2000′s to become “black.”
A lot of the art is really unprofessional. Some of it’s a little better. None of it is exceptional. But the quality is irrelevant. It’s the message behind its creation that matters.
The fact that it EXISTS is worth sharing. You can’t find this anywhere else on the internet. That alone makes it valuable.
The sociological message behind it makes it even more fascinating. Try looking past the technical side and into the philosophical side. Why was this art created? Where did it come from? Who made it and why does it exist?
What you see here is a time capsule of Dragon Ball fandom. A thin slice of a sub culture within a sub culture.
Anime was on the rise but wouldn’t become “mainstream” until around 2004. Yet these fans took Dragon Ball to their hearts and produced something the world had never seen…
A Black Goku.
The Spirituality of Dragon Ball Premiering at AM2 Convention
I’m going to give my first Dragon Ball panel presentation! It will be at the AM2 (Animation, Manga and Music) Convention in Anaheim, California on June 16, 2012, from 4 – 5 pm.
The subject of the panel is “The Spirituality of Dragon Ball.”
Here’s the official description:
Exciting!
It’s an hour long show and there will be time at the end for questions. Plus you’ll be able to meet me in person. Who’d want to miss out on that, right?
The poem on the image above says:
“Coming…
I Am Coming Over the Mountain for You
I Am Coming Through the Stars and the Sky
I Am Coming Out From Where I Am
I Am Coming for You…”
That means I want the room packed with Dragon Ball fans. Let’s do this!!
Even if you don’t live in California, get on your Immortal Dragon and fly there!! The world is counting on you!!!
More info about the convention can be found at the AM2 website, along with the other panelists mentioned on Anime News Network.
Dragon Ball Art – Alternative
The beauty of the following Dragon Ball alternative art pieces will leave your eyes wide open. From Goku to Vegeta, Recoome and Bulma, you’re sure to see something new.
Alternative art is difficult to define and is a subject of much debate. I define it as the creative artistic license of established characters or places.
The art takes what you already know and transforms it into something new.
But how do we distinguish “alternative” art from any other fan art? To me, what makes a piece alternative is the feeling I get inside. It has to grab me and make me think, “Oh, now that’s different!”
And that’s what you’ll find in the following images.
Created by fans from across the world, each is in a unique artistic style. Even though they depict the same characters we all love, they’re done in such alternative ways that it really grabs your attention.
For example, the image above is titled “Vegeta Over 9,000″ by Sparky del Ireland, and is a modern twist of the Over 9,000 scene from Dragon Ball Z.
Remember, if you’d like to see more of these, please Like the article on Facebook (the button is at the top of the article) and leave comments at the end. Otherwise how else am I going to know?
Now let’s jump into these Dragon Ball inspired alternative works of art!
The Science of Dragon Ball
The science of Dragon Ball is an extremely vast and engaging yet untouched subject. I now present the idea of analyzing Dragon Ball from a scientific perspective.
The original Dragon Ball series was inspired by ancient cultural concepts and paradigms written about in ancient China, inspired itself by Indian religions and native Daoism.
It has been logical that on The Dao of Dragon Ball blog I have focused my efforts on culture, history, spirituality and philosophy.
But with the beginning of Dragon Ball Z we are quickly introduced to aliens, other planets, space travel, evil scientists and artificial humans. The series becomes more outlandish and influenced by science fiction with every passing saga.
If I were to avoid this aspect of the series, then a complete understanding of the Dragon Ball mythos would be impossible.
There have been several scientific books written about other pop cultural series, such as The Physics of Star Trek [aff], which I greatly enjoyed, and The Science of Star Wars [aff].
Why hasn’t there been anything written about the science of Dragon Ball?
It seems I’ll be the first to do so, however, I’m not a trained scientist, so what can be done?
Instead of writing articles filled with heavy mathematical equations or argumentative posits, I will introduce the scientific elements while integrating modern technological equivalents from our real world. These will serve as stepping stones that show how the science of Dragon Ball can be found in our modern world, or is on the way to becoming more like the Dragon World every day.
Then I’ll present them in a sociological, psychological, cultural and analytical framework that makes it easy to understand and relate to.
Now what content can we discuss?
Advertise on The Dao of Dragon Ball
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You’re in luck, because over 50,000 of them visit The Dao of Dragon Ball every month, and the site now supports advertising.
Read the advertising page to learn about your advertising options and the going rates.
For starters, we’re talking about a 91% focused demographic of young men in their late teens and 20′s that are interested in anime, martial arts, philosophy, culture, and Japanese entertainment.
Secondly, they are heavy internet users and hardcore Dragon Ball fans, having been fans of the series on average for more than 10 years.
Thirdly… well, just go and read the advertising page already, why don’t ya?
Dragon Ball’s White Rabbit of the Moon
Happy Easter, Dragon Ball Fans. To celebrate this day I’ve decided to dedicate a blog post to our favorite talking bunny, Boss Rabbit.
Who is Boss Rabbit? Don’t remember him? Well that’s not surprising considering he’s only in a single issue and episode. But even if you do, I doubt you know his full story.
In this article you’ll learn about Boss Rabbit’s origins in Dragon Ball as well as his roots in Japanese, Chinese and Indian legends as the white rabbit of the moon. Yes, it goes that far back!
Boss Rabbit’s depiction in Dragon Ball is simple and comical, but Akira Toriyama manages to connect him to an ancient source at the very end.
You may have been confused by this reference since it was intended for a Japanese audience. Today you’ll finally learn what it’s all about.
Follow me as we dive into the rabbit hole and see how far down it goes.
continue …
Dragon Ball GT Music – Composer Mark Menza Interview Part 2
Mark Menza. Photograph by Kris Hundt.
Welcome back to Part 2 of my interview with Mark Menza, composer of FUNimation’s Dragon Ball GT. We are continuing from Part 1.
In this interview you will learn about Mark’s perspective on Bruce Faulconer, hear his thoughts on the Dragon Ball fandom, and discover the origins of the Dragon Ball GT rap intro!
That’s right, the full explanation for the GT rap intro!
You’ve been waiting 9 years to hear the answer to this great mystery surrounding the Dragon Ball GT dub, so don’t miss it!
continue …
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