Have you heard of this before? The internet is abuzz.

In this Google Trends image you can see that searches for “dragon ball hoshi” became a noticeable trend in July, 2011. Searches rose sharply in August before taking a dip, and then increased dramatically in early November to December.

So what is it about? Is it even real?

Today you’ll learn what Dragon Ball Hoshi truly is and find out why it matters so much to Dragon Ball fans!

What is Dragon Ball Hoshi?

The official FUNimation forum has the first verifiable post discussing Dragon Ball Hoshi on June 10, 2011. It states that other forums had been discussing it for a while, and traces it back to a DeviantArt profile that has since been deactivated, named “Goku9.”

Here is the exact rumor often added to YouTube video descriptions.

“Akira Toriyama is to be making a new Dragon Ball series alongside mangaka Naho Ooishi, the creator of the 2008 Dragon Ball Z special, “Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return,” called Dragon Ball Hoshi. Ooishi will be making a manga that continues the Z Manga past the Buu saga. It will have a newly designed Super Saiyan 4, and even a Super Saiyan 5. Akira Toriyama will be assisting her and backing off. The events in Japan (earthquake, tsunami) slowed this down. Now Toriyama is taking care of that. Launch in 2012, 2013.”

Wow, a new Dragon Ball series?! Time to get excited!!

But wait, hold on. There are a few problems with this rumor.

The first is that it’s an outright lie in every single way!

It’s not mere speculation or even grapevine gossip originating from an official source. It’s a bold faced lie! None of it is true.

The second is that it would be illogical for Toei to announce “a newly designed Super Saiyan 4, and even a Super Saiyan 5” before it actually appears in a new series, as this would ruin the story, build up and development of the characters. They would lose viewership and profits.

The third is that you can be guaranteed that a new Toei produced Dragon Ball series would have an extremely specific launch date. Not some vague “in a year or two” like we’ve been hearing about the rumored Dragon Ball AF over the last 15 years.

There would also be an enormous marketing push, with press releases, media coverage, and so on. None of this has happened.

To state clearly, there have been no official announcements of any kind regarding Dragon Ball Hoshi or this rumor.

But that hasn’t stopped people from looking for Dragon Ball Hoshi news.

According to Google AdWords Keywords Tool, there were an average of 49,500 global monthly searches for “dragon ball hoshi” over the last 12 months and 18,100 for “new dragon ball series.” But because these numbers are an average, and the number has recently risen sharply, I believe the current numbers are higher.

In short, a lot of people are hearing the Dragon Ball Hoshi rumor and looking for news on the internet.

What are they finding and then sharing with others?

Let’s take a look.

Dragon Ball Heroes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7fHmw6pQUo

This is labeled “New Series Dragon Ball 2012 Hoshi *All Trailer* Original”

What is it really?

Dragon Ball Heroes, an arcade game in Japan where players insert collectible cards to perform moves or summon allies.

The game has had several big marketing pushes, each one accompanied by a short promotional video with newly animated scenes, like you see above.

Did you notice that the singer continuously repeats the jingle, “Dragon Ball Heroes,” as the videos play? This is because it’s the name of the game, Dragon Ball Heroes. NOT Dragon Ball Hoshi.

As you’ll find with most of these videos, they are missing the beginning and ending. This is done on purpose so that you don’t see the title cards and identify what the animation really belongs to.

The main character of Dragon Ball Heroes, named Hero, is the one you repeatedly see interacting with Goku. He’s a new character made specifically for this game.

Most of the videos you’ll see here are by the same small group of people, primarily the YouTube users “DragonBallHoshi1,” “SuperDragonBallAf2″ and “DBHoshi.” They may even be the same person, as the videos have the same descriptions.

They have created multiple videos with misleading titles, all aimed at building up hype and confusing viewers.

Sometimes if you try to comment on their videos to tell people the truth, the comment has to be approved first, and it never will be. Only the “I’m so excited” and “Dragon Ball Hoshi looks awesome!” type of comments are approved. Or comments are disabled outright.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball Online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph9ZY2C5E3Q

This video is labeled “Dragon Ball Hoshi New Series 2013 Original.” It has 1.4 million views.

And you know what it really is? It’s the intro to Dragon Ball Online, the new MMO currently being played in Korea and Taiwan.

Dragon Ball Online is an official video game that continues the canon Dragon Ball story. It takes place after the end of the original Dragon Ball manga (DBZ anime), and completely ignores Dragon Ball GT.

Akira Toriyama is involved in its production. He spent over 5 years working on the character and world designs.

The game is massively multiplayer and allows you to select from several races and classes from within the Dragon World, including some new ones, and then train them to have different skills. You take your character and go on adventures, team up with others, make friends, and chase after the dragon balls.

An English release has not been announced, but there are English modifications that allow you to play the Korean version.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi

Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu1oMJ6LrIw

This video is labeled “New Series Dragon Ball Hoshi 2012.”

It’s actually “Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return,” an animated special from 2008 in Japan. It tells a short story about Goku and his friends battling against a new bad guy and introduces Vegeta’s long lost younger brother, Tarble.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AplTH454H7c

Here’s one called “New Series Dragon Ball 2012 (Dragon Ball Hoshi) Real Full HD).” It has 2.8 million views.

What is it?

It’s the opening for Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi [aff] in slow motion, because apparently that makes it better.

The two characters fighting Goku are personifications of the types of characters you can create in the Hero character customization mode.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

The Episode of Bardock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIoxUjhjiBc

This video is titled “New Series Dragon Ball Hoshi Episodes 1 Real Full HD 1080p.” It has 214,000 views.

But what is it really?

The Episode of Bardock.

A single animated episode based on the 3 chapter manga created by Naho Ooishi, that tells an alternative story of what happened to Bardock after Freeza killed him and all the other Saiyans.

Instead of dying, Bardock goes back in time and faces off against Chilled, Freeza’s predecessor. In the process, he becomes a Super Saiyan.

The manga had appeared in V-Jump, Shueisha’s Video Game magazine, between August to October, 2011.

Why a video game magazine? Because Bardock was going to be transformed into a Super Saiyan for the very first time in the new update of Dragon Ball Heroes, the arcade game mentioned above.

As you can see in this image, Bardock, Chilled, Freeza and King Cold are positioned next to the Dragon Ball Heroes arcade unit.

The Episode of Bardock premiered in Japan during the Jump Festa event from December 18 to 19, 2011. It then streamed live on Bandai’s website for another week.

These guys on YouTube recorded the stream, added subtitles, and then labeled it Dragon Ball Hoshi.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans

Want the official version of The Episode of Bardock? It was distributed on a disc as a bonus in the March 2012 issue of Monthly Saikyo Jump, published by Shueisha.

Also included on the disc is the recently re-animated film, The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans. This is a special film that originally appeared as animated clips on a Dragon Ball video game for the Playdia console in Japan in 1993, called Zetsumetsu Keikaku (Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans).

The scenes were reanimated as a bonus for Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 [aff] on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and this is the first time it has been published outside of the game.

This film was also streamed online, on Sheuisha’s Official V-Jump Website. But it’s region blocked for those in other countries.

Naturally, The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans is also passed off as Dragon Ball Hoshi, as you can see in this clip where they overlaid all the sound with Dragon Ball Heroes music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cqm6cPZPCE

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball SD

The first issue of Monthly Saikyo Jump was also the premiere of a new, official, Dragon Ball manga, called Dragon Ball SD.

This one is actually real!

The manga is done by Naho Ooishi, with supervision by Akira Toriyama. The series retells key moments of the Dragon Ball series in a SD (Super Deformed) style, where the characters are shrunk down and cute. It’s made to appeal to little kids.

Saikyo Jump was released as a quarterly magazine for 1 whole year before it turned monthly on December 3, 2011. The Dragon Ball SD manga therefore had 4 chapters. The story retold Goku’s training with Kame Sennin, his fight against Freeza, against Cell, and against Majin Buu.

Now that it has appeared monthly, it has returned to the beginning of Dragon Ball and is retelling the story in a cute style.

It’s unknown how many issues are planned.

Luckily nobody is trying to pass this off as Dragon Ball Hoshi because it’s a manga. But just to make it clear…

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Dragon Ball SSSS

In early January, Bandai announced a new project called SSSS, which stands for Saikyou Super Saiyan Secret.

This is a collaborative project with Toei to do cross promotional Dragon Ball video games and animation. The streaming of Episode of Bardock was the first result, and they are working on new video game titles.

Since it’s a secret, very little else is known.

There are already videos out there being titled SSSS that consist of other content. So don’t be fooled in the future when you see more.

This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.

Why does Dragon Ball Hoshi Matter?

By now it should be obvious that Dragon Ball Hoshi is none of the things you’ve seen above.

So I’m sure you’re dying to know, what IS Dragon Ball Hoshi?

The truth is that there is no such thing as Dragon Ball Hoshi. It was a lie from the beginning!

That’s right, the cake is a lie!

Dragon Ball Hoshi merely consists of recycled clips from other Dragon Ball properties. That’s why most of them are so shallow and there are never any title screens.

It’s not even a fan made creation like Dragon Ball AF, where people have created new characters, illustrations, manga, action figures, original videos, and even video game modifications.

Nor is Hoshi like the other fan creations, Dragon Ball AE, Ultimate Z , V, SF, X, Absalon, Neo, or H, that contain stories or illustrations.

Dragon Ball Hoshi is nothing. It is an empty name devoid of substance.

Dragon Ball Hoshi only matters because it exists so prevalently.

Put an End to Wild Rumors

Even with Dragon Ball Hoshi clearly explained, you may still wonder, “Why then is there all this content on the internet labeled as Dragon Ball Hoshi, and so many people talking about it?”

I would ask, “How can something so fake still fool so many people?”

Is it because of the animation quality? Because of the crafty editing and withholding of valuable information? Because of the deceptive lies?

Sure, these contribute. But the real reason is because Dragon Ball fans inherently WANT to believe that there will be a new Dragon Ball series.

Deep in their hearts they seek to relive the same experiences from the first time through Dragon Ball, and they want to reconnect with their favorite characters. Everybody wants a new Dragon Ball series!

Dragon Ball is still relevant to its fans, and the new releases of films, video games, and re-animated works like Dragon Ball Kai continue to excite their interests without fully satiating them.

Unfortunately, just like those who promulgate Dragon Ball AF as the next official series, these YouTube guys are con-artists and attention seekers. They either want you to click on whatever they are advertising, or watch their videos and be fooled into believing it so they can get a laugh.

Or they’re just plain dumb and honestly don’t know what they’re doing.

Just look at this conversation on the unofficial Dragon Ball Hoshi Facebook page, which has 3,858 likes.

Mason says, “They are making a new dbz series.” Robin replies, “Mason, they are not..” and the owner of the page says, “if dragon ball hoshi was fake than why did they make it. Common sence if i was fake i wouldn’t of putting this page in the first place. Duhhhh.”

Yeah. I rest my case.

The same thing happened with AF between 1999 and today.

To point, the Dragon Ball Hoshi rumor is so prevalent because once a rumor is started on the internet, it’s hard to kill.

Spreading rumors and gossip is wrong in the first place, and knowledge of truth is the remedy. So now that you know, please stop believing and telling others about it.

There is no value to Dragon Ball Hoshi’s existence.

Unless a new Dragon Ball series is finally made, the rumors may never die. But let’s try to end them, shall we?

When official news comes down the pipeline you’ll be sure to see it across the web on legitimate news sources. There’s no need to make up stories.

Remember, all you have to do the next time you see something labeled as Dragon Ball Hoshi, is close your eyes, tap your heels together three times, and think to yourself…

“This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi. This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi. This is not Dragon Ball Hoshi.”

Then you’ll be whisked away by Kinto’un and magically wake up from this illusory dream.

Resources

The Truth About Dragonball Hoshi

Dragon Ball Hoshi New Series 2012 (New Character)

New Series Dragon Ball Hoshi 2012

Daizex.com forum post on “New Dragon Ball Series

Saikyo Jump Official Website

Kanzentai.com article on Dragon Ball SD

FUNimation forum post about Dragon Ball Hoshi rumor

Dragon Ball Hoshi Facebook Page

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Hoshi Explained

It’s a truth that Dragon Ball fandom is and always has been intense. Regardless of their preferred version, Dragon Ball fans absolutely love their Dragon Ball.

Just before Dragon Ball GT concluded its original television run in Japan in 1997, a rumor spread about a new official series called Dragon Ball AF. Fans wanted the series to continue.

The only problem is that it was never true.

And you might suppose we could end this article right here. But as with everything involving Dragon Ball and its impact across the world, there’s a lot more to the story.

Dragon Ball AF was originally the creation of an unknown fan that evidently had a strong desire for a fourth Dragon Ball anime series.

A single image appeared on the web of a hypothetical Super Saiyan 5 Goku with a “Dragon Ball AF” logo on it, and from there it spread like wildfire.

The rumor grew gradually over the years and took on a life of its own, spawning many fan creations, illustrations, videos, episode listings, action figures, and even high quality fan manga based on the collective rumors.

For example, who is this guy fighting Goku?

Images like this confused the heck out of new Dragon Ball fans. And those who circulated lies about Dragon Ball AF preyed on the gullible nature of fans who simply wanted to see more of their favorite characters.

The desire for a new Dragon Ball series is so strong that even today the rumor is still actively spread that Dragon Ball AF is the next official series from Toei, and that the videos and images “leaked” on YouTube will arrive in “the next year or two.” New fans continue to fall for it, and the cycle continues.

Despite all the time that it has been around, if you search online for an explanation of Dragon Ball AF, you will only find bits and pieces of info. A short wiki article here, some crudely Photoshopped images there, a guy saying it’s not real while another screams back that it is, followed by immature insults and a link to fan made manga. There are, maybe, two good sources on the topic. Unless you spend hours putting the pieces together, you’ll be confused or simply dismiss the whole thing outright.

Because of Dragon Ball Z Kai’s and Dragon Ball GT’s second syndication on TV, there is now a new generation of Dragon Ball fan looking to see what happens next.

With the realization that people are still being confused, I set out to discover the true story behind Dragon Ball AF and write the definitive article.

Along the way I found a captivating story to tell.

The Dragon Ball AF Trend

Before we get into the details of Dragon Ball AF, I’d like you to see just how popular it is.

I’ve been a fan of Dragon Ball since 1997 when it first aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block and Midnight Run. Even back then I remember seeing rumors about it on the Internet.

I’ve never done an article about Dragon Ball AF because frankly, I didn’t think it was worth digging into. As a kid I realized it wasn’t real after 5 seconds of seeing the first image. It was obviously poor quality and made by fans. I was curious, but since it wasn’t genuine I thought the rumor would be dead in a few years.

But Dragon Ball AF continues to be talked about. Somehow people are still falling for the rumors. In fact it’s even more popular now than when Dragon Ball Z was syndicated on national TV.

Consider the following search trends.

According to Google Adwords’ keywords tool, the term “dragon ball AF” received 1,000,000 global monthly searches on average in the previous 12 months (January, 2011 to January, 2012). And at the date of this article it has 3,490,000 Google search results.

For comparison, “dragon ball z kai” received the same 1,000,000 global monthly searches.

This means Dragon Ball AF is currently 100% as popular of a search term as Dragon Ball Z Kai, and it’s not even real! Nor is it backed by millions of dollars in marketing.

How is that possible? The rumor started in 1997 and people are STILL actively looking for it 15 years after its creation?!

Query data for Dragon Ball AF on Google only begins in 2004, when Google began recording trend data. We can see that its popularity grew gradually over the years. There was a huge spike in 2007 for Dragon Ball AF information, most likely coinciding with the end of Dragon Ball GT’s syndication across the world by fans hungry for more. Then this gradually dropped over the next few years. But there are more queries for it now between 2011 and 2012 than there were between 2004 and 2006.

The term “dragon ball” has 30,400,000 monthly queries and “dragon ball z” receives 16,600,000.

Comparing that to two other large series, we see that Star Wars receives 24,900,000 queries and Star Trek receives 4,090,000 queries. This helps prove that Dragon Ball fandom on the internet is still very much alive, as searches for “dragon ball” eclipses both “star wars” and “star trek” combined.

What’s crazy is that the entirely fan created “dragon ball AF” is so popular when compared to these legitimate series, at 1,000,000 queries.

Even more shocking, there are multiple Dragon Ball AF videos on YouTube with over 9 million views, 8 million views and 5 million views, while the incredibly popular Dragon Ball meme, “It’s Over 9,000!” only has 7 million views total. Is Dragon Ball AF really more popular than “Over 9,000!”?

Some fans have speculated that when the rumor began in 1997 it was on April Fool’s Day (April 1^st), and this is why it’s called AF. There’s no proof of this, but if so, it seems like the whole world fell for it, because Dragon Ball AF is exponentially more popular now than when it started.

Where did Dragon Ball AF Come From?

Dragon Ball GT completed its run in 1997 and even though fans knew it was the end, everybody was hungry for more.

GT was for most people a disappointment, as it was written by someone other than Akira Toriyama. In this case, Matsui Aya, the Series Organizer at Toei. Fans wanted Akira Toriyama at the creative helm again, like he was for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

It’s not known where the rumor started (possibly Spain), but it mentioned a new series called Dragon Ball AF, where Goku reaches Super Saiyan 5, Pan turns Super Saiyan, and Raditz comes back alive somehow, also as a Super Saiyan.

The first image associated with Dragon Ball AF was of Super Saiyan 5 Goku.

Nobody knew where it came from. Rumors said it was from a fan made manga (Dojinshi), but no proof was ever provided. Others have said that it’s not Goku at all, rather his son Xicor.

The AF logo was completely fabricated, but even so, fans speculated what it could mean. It was rumored to stand for “After Future,” because the series took place 200 years after the end of GT. Others said it stood for “Alternate Future,” or “AfterliFe,” while those who didn’t believe in it, as they still explain today, said it stood for “April Fools.”

A few crudely drawn images appeared of Goku Photoshopped to have different color hair, Pan with golden hair, Super Saiyan Raditz and other seemingly random combinations of Fusioned characters, like Vegetunks, the Fusion of Vegeta and Trunks.

Meanwhile, Super Saiyan 5 was surpassed by Super Saiyan 6. Goku was now “Evil Goku” because he had been corrupted by the power of the dragon balls and it was up to Vegeta to stop him. And a new set of Potara earrings could now fuse 3 people together, instead of only 2.

Fans argued endlessly about whether or not these were real, with some stating that their “friend in Japan” confirmed it was. Others said, “Yeah, it’s real, I use these characters in my fan fiction and my role playing games,” naively blurring the line between fan made fiction and official releases.

This mess of “real” or “not real” confused others looking for the truth.

What may have been a couple months or perhaps years later, two more images appeared of Super Saiyan 4 Gohan and “King Vegeta.”

These two images were exquisitely detailed and looked very professional, as if they could have been done by Toei staff or even Akira Toriyama. These caused a huge surge in the number of believers and were used as validation that Dragon Ball AF was real.

But on each image was a logo that read, “Studio Tomita.” Who was Studio Tomita? Nobody knew, so more rumors flew around. Maybe it was a company working with Toei, or maybe it was Toriyama’s studio under a different name?

It was neither. Turns out that Studio Tomita was a very talented fan (or group of fans) who drew illustrations of their favorite anime characters. They had a website with a few images on it, but oddly, neither of these two Dragon Ball images was there.

There was however a note that said, “If you accessed this homepage in order to obtain an image of “DRAGON BALL”, you will be discouraged. I do not put an image of “DRAGON BALL” in this homepage currently. And I reply to a request of somebody and do not intend to send an image. I’m sorry.”

This tells us that if even Studio Tomita did create them, they now wanted nothing to do with these images or to be affiliated with Dragon Ball. Most likely due to the amount of emails they received from rabid fans.

But that was all it took. These images sparked the flames of what would become a much larger fire.

The Rise of Dragon Ball AF

It was now sometime between 1999 and 2001. With all this Dragon Ball AF content out there, fans became excited and eagerly awaited this new series.

And they waited.

And waited.

And it never came, because it was never real.

There were no official screen shots or episode clips, no advertising, merchandise or articles in Japanese media.

All the while fans were rapidly producing new content and slapping the Dragon Ball AF logo on it, adding to the confusing mess.

Rumors, fan art and outlandish Fusions of characters fed into one another and created a giant, endless cycle of rampant lies and immature stupidity.

Free websites like Geocities and Angelfire became popular outlets for Dragon Ball fans wanting to “prove” the existence of Dragon Ball AF. They would create a site, post the images, and suddenly Dragon Ball AF seemed a bit more real in the mind of an average web surfer. After all, wherever you looked, there it was!

Fans jumped on message boards saying, “Hey, I heard about a new Dragon Ball series!” Then other fans would get into the conversation and it would derail in various ways.

More established sites also promoted the series. While doing research for The Black Goku article, I found a news post about Dragon Ball AF on the archived DaBlackGoku.com homepage from October 9, 2000. It said, “Hello Everyone. I found some interesting information on the Dragon Ball AF series that everyone has heard rumors about.”

This was in the year 2000, and he was talking about it being a rumor back then and passing it off as news. It’s still a rumor today and people still pass it off as news!

With the advent of high speed broadband internet, YouTube became increasingly popular and fans started to put their work in video form. This immediately led to claims that what they posted was the “official” anime, and that their “leaked” footage was real.

Fans created back stories, episode listings, and even more character splices.

Several “Official Dragon Ball AF” websites sprung up claiming to sell tapes.

Dragon Ball Z was airing on TV at the time, and was sending millions of new fans onto the internet. Those who were naïve bought into it.

That’s really all there is to Dragon Ball AF for the next few years. The inertia of fandom ensured that it kept growing and reaching more people through different platforms.

The Daizex.com April Fool’s Joke

"Toriyama-sensei is very angry!!"

The year was 2004 and a search on Google for “Dragon Ball AF” generated 1,170,000 results. This collective fan creation had become extremely popular.

Dragon Ball Z was still very popular in America and Dragon Ball GT was beginning to be sold on tape and air on TV.

The website DaizenshuuEX had grown over the years to become, in their own words, the “most authoritative and complete stop online for anything and everything DragonBall.” And it’s true. Daizex.com has always provided the latest and most up to date official news regarding the Dragon Ball series. Their forum had (and still has) a reputation for its hardcore and extremely knowledgeable fans. Whatever was posted on the main news page was inarguably official.

That said, the owner, Mike “VegettoEX” LaBrie had a yearly tradition of playing an April Fool’s prank on the community.

He knew better than anyone that Dragon Ball AF wasn’t real, and everyone in the community was tired of hearing about it. Because there had not been any official media reports, advertisements, or video clips surrounding Dragon Ball AF, he decided to make some and act like they were real!

He later said on his site, “If we were going to do this, it had to be insane. Everything had to scream of quality, and above all else, it had to be in Japanese and look / sound authentic.”

They created a print advertisement and a commercial to share on YouTube. Mike said, “The print-ad came first. Julian began work on it, typing up some of the text using a pre-existing “Dragon Box” Japanese ad as a template.”

The original Japanese Dragon Ball ad was modified with images of content from Dragon Ball AF, and some comedic Japanese text was added. Text that, for anybody who spoke Japanese, would immediately give away the fact it was a joke. But for non-Japanese speaking fans everywhere else it would look authentic.

“Soon Mike began work on the video commercial.” Mike had become a talented video editor from his years of working on Dragon Ball music videos, and made it his profession. He very skillfully ripped audio from One Piece and Revolutionary Girl Utena, featuring the same voice actors that are in Dragon Ball, with classic moments from the series. Interspersed throughout the dialogue were Japanese title cards, which just like the advertisement above, would clearly be obvious as a joke to Japanese readers.

Mike released the ad and video on April Fool’s Day and he updated his site to reflect the news (as if it were official), stating it would air September 8, 2004. The site said, “On this date, a new series was officially announced in a mailing to frequent buyers of the DB Kanzenban volumes. And best of all, in a nod to fans who were so anxious for a sign, the series is going to be called–get this–DragonBall AF!!!”

As a result, not everybody realized it was a joke. And that was the point.

He later said, “It wouldn’t be an April Fool’s Day prank if we didn’t cause havoc across the internet. We knew we’d end up fooling some people, and we knew that people would be talking about it.”

This had rather large consequences on the Dragon Ball AF community, because most of them were young, naïve, and didn’t speak Japanese.

One fan named Jose Gonzales was aware that it was a joke and wrote to them, saying, “I hope you realize that because of this little stunt there’s going to be an outpouring of kids freaking out all over the net and it will almost certainly be seen as proof of the existence of AF.”

Of course that is exactly what happened. People shared it left and right, posting on message boards about how they now had proof that “the new Dragon Ball series is real!”

Mike had a lot of fun with it though, saying in response, “I’m not going to regret it and there’s no hate mail to speak of. It’s been a blast, and it’s awesome to see that people are enjoying it and getting a kick outta it.”

Even though a day later he completely admitted to the joke, once you put an image on the internet, it’s their forever. And these images and videos were pushed around by every Dragon Ball AF loving fan that could find them.

I have a copy of the video, but for the sake of making sure that this doesn’t happen again, I’m not going to post it online. Plus it’s not my property to rightfully post.

Why did people believe the ads? Probably for the same reasons they believed in Dragon Ball AF in the first place!

Meanwhile, in the fan driven evolution of Dragon Ball AF, there were now 10 levels of Super Saiyan!

Yes. That is Super Saiyan 10 Goku, apparently.

Dragon Ball AF Fan Manga

Fan manga and fan fiction have always surrounded the Dragon Ball series.

Despite the wild images, there had never been a serious Dragon Ball AF manga. Most of the illustrations were poorly drawn.

These series tried to pass themselves off as real while riding the wave of Dragon Ball AF fandom. They would either share that name, or come up with their own, such as Dragon Ball V, Dragon Ball ST, Dragon Ball AE, and Dragon Ball DR. Basically any other letters you want to add to the end of “Dragon Ball.”

Over time, Dragon Ball AF became the default go-to name for any type of fan creation. It was synonymous with fan made.

That changed in 2006 when a very talented artist in the Toriyama style finally put pen to paper and created a Dragon Ball AF worthy of the name.

Toyble (pronounced Toiburu) deserves credit for making something original, beautifully illustrated and true in spirit to the series. At least for the most part.

The story is about the illegitimate son of Goku, Zaiko (otherwise known as Xicor), who was born by a female Kaioshin that stole Goku’s seed in a dream, while he slept. The child was half-man, half-god, and more powerful than all of the other warriors, including Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta and Super Saiyan 4 Gohan. It’s up to Goku to save the day.

Toyble is unique because he clearly states on his site, “This site and its publications have nothing to do with the original author [Akira Toriyama] and has no relationship with him. Dragon Ball AF is an interpretative story.”

Even so, Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF (ドラゴンボールAF, Doragon Bōru AF) is one of the major reasons that Dragon Ball AF rumors continue to linger. His excellent drawings and story (that weaved many of the existing rumors together) serve as the prime example the stalwart fans present when insisting Dragon Ball AF is real. The images look authentic, so fans jump to the conclusion that they are.

Another artist named Young Jiji has also done a similar Dragon Ball AF manga with an equally impressive Toriyama style of art, making it seem real.

These are really the only two manga with a high enough level of quality I feel are worth mentioning.

Dragon Ball AF Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqr9KJZqzUA

Dragon Ball AF videos? What is there to say, really?

The quality is guaranteed to be poor. They usually consist of edited clips and drawings from Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, with the colors changed or with weird effects added on top.

They won’t be real. The creators try to pass them off like it’s a new series, just as they’ve been doing since this began.

They’ll be annoying. Backed by odd music or simply poorly edited, with ads pointing to something unrelated as an added bonus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2vHuB0rDdg

Other times the videos will simply be the animated intro footage for the Dragon Ball video games, such as Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi, Dragon Ball Heroes or Dragon Ball Online. They are labeled as Dragon Ball AF or the “New Dragon Ball Series,” but only exist to prey on those who don’t know otherwise.

Despite these drawbacks, many of these videos have more than 9 million views! That makes them some of the most popular videos on YouTube.

Why so popular? Because everybody wants the next Dragon Ball series, and they want it now! Remember, Dragon Ball fans love their Dragon Ball!

Some less scrupulous video editors capitalize on this fandom and post videos that have the title of “Super Saiyan 7 to 10,” and so on, but then they talk about things unrelated to Dragon Ball. They bait and switch people to click and watch their crap.

They also feature really odd and unique characters put together via Fusion, or show strange Majin Buu absorptions of other characters, such as Majin Buu after absorbing Freeza. Naturally, the Super Saiyan levels continue to rise, going from Super Saiyan 10 to Super Saiyan 20 and even Super Saiyan 50! Goku’s golden yellow hair is insanely long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z67XXZtQgGc

The creators lie about AF’s existence, or only tell half truths to benefit themselves. For example, from the description of one video it says, “Note everyone: Dragonball AF is REAL, It already has comics based on it and action figures. Comment And Subscribe If You Want To Support Dragonball AF.” They are again passing “real” off as “official,” which it isn’t.

Lastly, they pull content from the Dragon Ball games and try to connect it to Dragon Ball AF. The game Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has alternate outfits showing Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta with white hair, which fans say is all too coincidentally like Super Saiyan 5 Goku to be a coincident.

Fans wondered why the developers in Japan chose these colors. Maybe they did it on purpose to allude to Dragon Ball AF? Or maybe it was foreshadowing of what Toei was going to release “in the next year or two.”?

A few videos that went over 9,000,000 views were posted in 2007, while one with 3,000,000 views was posted as recently as Jun 24, 2010. None of them are real, but the fandom is still alive so people continue to play this silly game of lies.

Suffice to say, if you were falling for it, now you know better.

Dragon Ball AF Images

In the beginning, the Dragon Ball AF images were awful. But now the fans have really taken to it, and more talented artists have produced better art based on these fan fiction characters. Here’s a bit of it.

Dragon Ball AF Action Figures

The fandom has reached such a point that Dragon Ball action figures and models have been created.

I find this interesting. Dragon Ball AF is a fan created series but people apparently spend their money on these models, buying into the fandom, official or otherwise.

It’s as if Dragon Ball AF has become official simply because of consumer demand.

The Heart of a Dragon Ball Fan

Dragon Ball AF is an unofficial, fan made creation that has grown in such leaps and bounds that it’s now on par with Dragon Ball Z Kai in terms of search requests, and even has its own merchandise.

Fans wanted a new Dragon Ball series but Akira Toriyama said he wouldn’t create any more Dragon Ball manga. Toei didn’t provide them with a new Dragon Ball anime, either. With a couple of exceptions, most of what has arrived is rehashed and “refreshed” content.

So what did fans do in the absence of a new series?

They made it themselves!

They wanted Dragon Ball AF to be real, so they made it real.

It all began with a single image of Super Saiyan 5 Goku. Then two more images appeared of Super Saiyan 4 Gohan and “King Vegeta.” This somehow led to new characters being developed, a complete storyline, and episode listings. From there it got mashed together repeatedly over the years, with more and more piled on top of itself.

No matter how crudely drawn, poorly Photoshopped, oddly written, or strangely fused together, Dragon Ball AF has grown to represent the dreams and desires of Dragon Ball fans across the world.

That’s the real story of Dragon Ball AF. The story behind the scenes.

The Dragon Ball fans themselves. Their aspirations and desires.

Why do people want a new Dragon Ball series so badly? What moves them to draw, color, animate, and create their own manga? And what makes people want to believe in, promulgate lies, and trick people into thinking like them… all through the vehicle of Dragon Ball?

I believe Dragon Ball speaks to a part of our humanity and appeals directly to our core. All that fans want is a new series at a high level of quality so they can continue to have the same exhilarating feeling they did the first time they saw Goku transform into a Super Saiyan, or when Gohan defeated Cell with the Father-Son Kamehameha.

It never arrived externally, so fans made it internally. Then they shared it.

Like Cell, Dragon Ball AF is an artificial monster that continues to grow and evolve, becoming more refined as it goes. But instead of seeking to destroy, it seeks to bring more fans into its collective grip, making them hope, dream, and become involved with something bigger than themselves. A community of like minded people who speak the same language and love the same thing.

Once you get fans hooked on a series and then end it, what else are fans to do? Be patient and let it go?

Ha! That’s not how Dragon Ball fans work!

Emerging Dragon Ball Trends

As if Dragon Ball AF weren’t enough, in late 2011 a new rumor mysteriously spread across the internet about yet another new Dragon Ball series, called Dragon Ball Hoshi. Exactly like Dragon Ball AF when it began, this one is also fake and an odd combination of truths and lies.

Similar to Dragon Ball AF, Dragon Ball Hoshi has quickly grown in popularity, as seen in this Google Trends image comparing the search trends for both.

But explaining Dragon Ball Hoshi will have to wait for another day. [Update on Feb 19, 2012. Here is Dragon Ball Hoshi Explained.]

One of the goals of this article was to present the truth of Dragon Ball AF in a logical, rationale way, so that the genuine fans will understand it and stop being fooled by (and then promote) the lies.

Failing that, if it still becomes even more popular at least this article will serve to bring people up to speed on what Dragon Ball AF is all about.

As I mentioned in the intro, I believed Dragon Ball AF was best left un-discussed and that it would eventually die out.

How wrong I was!

But do me a favor. After reading this article, please stop going on the message boards and forums to tell people you’ve heard of a “new Dragon Ball anime series!!”

We’ve got enough of those guys out there already.

Oh, who am I kidding? Dragon Ball fans love their Dragon Ball! This will probably never stop!

Dragon Ball AF Roxors! OMG Broly’s Power Level is Maximum!! Super Saiyan 50 Goku for the win!!!

Resources

Studio Tomita Archived Site

Dragon Ball Wiki Article on Dragon Ball AF

Daizex.com Rumors Guide

Daizex.com Aprils Fool’s Day Prank

Daizex.com Forum Post on Original DBAF Image

Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF

Desire Campbell’s Collection of Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF manga

Young Jiji’s Dragon Ball AF

The “Official” Dragon Ball AF Site

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 Character Skins Forum Post

Dragon Ball AF on Facebook

FreeWebs.com DBAF Posting

Super Saiyan Goku 1 through 10

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball AF Explained

When people ask about Goku’s race, they tend to think Asian or Caucasian.

That’s because Goku’s skin tone appears light, even though it varied throughout the series, especially in Dragon Ball GT when he had a darker tan.

Also because of his literary and actual origins in East Asia.

But back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, American Dragon Ball fans started to connect with Dragon Ball and relate it to their own lives.

Some African American fans assimilated Goku and purposefully made him black, so as to better connect with their hero.

Today you’ll learn about this social phenomenon.

You’ll also see how FUNimation, the American dubbing company that licensed Dragon Ball from Japan, may have contributed to or capitalized on this trend, and how this then resulted in Americans further assimilating Dragon Ball into their lives.

Get ready to “Step into Da Grand Tour” of The Black Goku.

DaBlackGoku.com

Dragon Ball reached the height of its popularity in America between 1999 and 2003. During this time, the series appeared on Cartoon Network and was seen by millions.

The affect that this had on American youth was interesting, to say the least.

The first notable example of the African American assimilation occurred in October, 1999, when a young man with the screen name DaBlackGoku founded DaBlackGoku.com

Like many others, the site had general Dragon Ball information and trivia. But the main feature was a showcase of fan created works of Goku with black skin.

Most were simply an original Toriyama drawing edited to have darker skin, but some were modified or even original creations where the character’s hair was styled in an afro or dreadlocks, while their clothes were adorned with ghetto paraphernalia.

Almost every major character was present, including black Krillin, black Trunks, black Piccolo, black Majin Buu, black Freeza and black Vegeta, with a golden watch hanging from his neck like Flava Flav.

The black Bulma and black Chi-Chi were drawn like ghetto girls with skimpy clothes and overly sexy poses.

And my favorite was Super Saiyan black Goku with a golden afro slam dunking a basketball!

In another illustration, black Goku had his dreadlocks stuffed underneath a backwards baseball cap, wearing basketball sneaks and street clothes, jamming to some music with his headphones on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG8TOIV7OKs

The owner held an annual “Draw Me a Black Goku” contest, where fans could submit their work for Dragon Ball related prizes.

What’s noteworthy is that in the rules DaBlackGoku stipulated the following, “No lude or degrading pics. This includes things like guns and gold teeth. Remember Goku is a Dragon Ball Z hero and is not into gangsta rap.”

From this and other content on the site, I surmise that DaBlackGoku simply wanted to express his fandom for the series and share that with others, in his own unique way.

Granted that this website is most likely a representation of a minority within a minority but its social and pop cultural significance is worth further attention.

Accepting and Assimilating

It seems like most of the drawings submitted to DaBlackGoku.com were by little kids.

For children, a hero with super human powers and the ability to save the world is easy to admire.

The illustrations depicted a hero that children were connecting with on a daily basis, yet altered from the original.

Children want to connect with their heroes completely, and the differences in skin color stand out, so these differences are negated or transformed and turned into something new, yet the same.

While the core feelings of the character remain unaltered, the externalities change and cultural additions are made that reflect the artists’ environment, such as clothing and hair styles.

The site even had its own rap song, submitted by a fan in 1999. The techno bass track repeatedly loops, “Here comes Da Black Goku… Hoe’s in this house, got some hoe’s in this house,” and “Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks.” The last line of lyrics of this song are taken from a Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg track.

And it’s not just Goku, either. I remember hearing from fans over the years that, in general, black people often associate with Piccolo, feeling that he is the “blackest” of all the characters.

Perhaps this is due to his physical features, his outcast relationship with the others, his stoic personality, or the deep rugged voice he was given in the American version.

The site stopped being updated after December, 2002, but it showed that for African American youth, Dragon Ball held a special place in their hearts.

It also shows the universal appeal of Dragon Ball. But it might be no accident that Dragon Ball, this inherently Japanese and East Asian creation, connected with so many young African Americans.

Kawaii Culture and American Consumerism

Dragon Ball is a martial arts epic, but it’s also a cute and silly show filled with gags and immature humor, such as poop jokes and boob grabs. These come from the silly mind of Akira Toriyama.

Japan’s stereotypical obsession with cuteness (Japanese: Kawaii, 可愛い) since the 1970’s can be seen in many aspects of its society. For pop cultural examples, look to Hello Kitty or Kirby, a floating pink smiley face. Even Dragon Ball is super cute at times.

But it’s believed by American marketers that Kawaii culture does not necessarily carry over to the general public.

Japan is a homogenous society, where generally speaking, people think alike, act alike, and look alike.

America, on the other hand, is a combination of many races and creeds, as it continually assimilates other cultures into itself. This includes foreign pop culture, such as that from Japan.

In Japan, cute and hardcore can go together. In America they apparently cannot.

Videogames or anime that are cute and colorful in Japan are often edited by American marketing departments to become dark, aggressive, angst filled, overall Americanized, or stereotypically in line with supposed consumer interests.

The makeover from cute to edgy is most likely a manifestation of the overall trend in America to make things more masculine.

The fact that Dragon Ball is already very masculine, filled with characters that have ‘angry eyebrows,’ and huge explosive fights, made it easy to capitalize on while completely downplaying the more cute, friendly and silly aspects.

Why was this done?

To make more money.

FUNimation’s Dragon Ball GT

The changes that FUNimation made to the American Dragon Ball Z were purposefully done to appeal to American youth.

This included a new soundtrack by Faulconer Productions, filled with guitar riffs and synthetic sounds, replacing the orchestral arrangements by Shunsuke Kikuchi.

It also included the addition of American slang in the dialogue, an ideology of ‘constant sound,’ and the removal of Japanese cultural references.

Having achieved success with such edits, FUNimation appeared to go even further to appeal to American youth with Dragon Ball GT, by directly targeting the African American demographic.

Stylistically, Dragon Ball GT represented a return to the cuter aspects of the original Dragon Ball, with Goku being transformed back into a child, and the main cast consisting of kids.

FUNimation felt they had to Americanize it in order for it to sell.

In November, 2003, FUNimation premiered a completely different rendition of Dragon Ball GT then had ever been seen in the world.

In an interview in Wizard Anime Insider magazine, Gen Fukunaga said, “If you think you know Dragon Ball GT, just wait! Nobody has done Dragon Ball GT like we have.”

And boy was that the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H9di7tCLVg

They attempted to make it hard, dark, and street, even though it was the exact opposite.

The happy go lucky J-Pop intro song of Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku (“Gradually You’re Charming My Heart”) by Japanese band Field of View, and the series’ score, were replaced by a rap song and heavy bass lines.

The Japanese intro was a top charting love ballad used to express the friendship and camaraderie of the adventurers.

The American intro provided by composer Mark Menza was heavy, gloomy, rap-based and repeated the lines, “Step into da Grand Tour, Grand Tour, Grand Tour. Step into da Grand Tour [Grand Tour, Grand Tour], Dragon Ball GT!” The entire mood of the series was edited to appear edgy and serious, even though the actual content wasn’t.

FUNimation producers and executives, such as Barry Watson, decided that this would increase sales of the GT series.

They were right.

For the week of July 20, 2003, the first two GT tapes secured the #1 and #2 positions (compared to all other VHS sales) for the edited versions, and the #9 and #19 for the uncut versions. For DVD’s they earned #17 and #18. These home video sales prepped the market for the series televised debut.

Dragon Ball GT premiered on Cartoon Network in November, 2003, and scored a monstrous 9.7 on the Nielsen ratings for males age 9 to 14, and an 8.6 rating for males age 6 to 11.

Either FUNimation’s business decisions to appeal to Americans were an effective change, or Dragon Ball was an unstoppable winner no matter what was done to it. Artistic integrity be damned.

For the casual fan in America it made no difference that Dragon Ball was a Japanese creation, because they had no idea this was the case. It felt American, and so it was.

In either case, FUNimation’s profits soared, and Dragon Ball became further ingrained in the minds of American youth.

Dragon Ball Rap Music

As the years went on and young African American boys grew up, a small number began to express their continued fandom for Dragon Ball through rap music.

Each of these songs contained references to Goku and Dragon Ball pop culture, while at the same containing heavy rap culture references.

Some of them became popular hits.

In July, 2010 the rapper Soulja Boy (real name DeAndre Cortez Way) created a single titled “Goku.”

In “Goku,” Soulja Boy says, “Uhhhhhh, bitch, I look like Goku. Bitch, I look like Vegeta … Super Saiyan swagger. Bitches on my dick … Bitch I look like Gohan, smoking up that marijuana.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kgpbHdbZA0

Soulja Boy is a self professed anime fan. He released this alongside another single titled “Anime” where he apparently tried to say the word anime as many times as possible within the three minute constraint of the song, while dropping the names of different anime series to the beat amidst gunshot sound effects.

In September he provided a more on target follow up in tandem with Lil B titled “Super Saiyan,” with lyrics like “Super Saiyan Chain, Dragon Ball diamonds. Kamehameha, yep boy you know we shinin’. Gimme all your energy, yeah we ‘bout to power up. Super Saiyan swag so you know it ain’t no stoppin’ us. Goku on my wrist. Chi-Chi on my dick. I need Senzu beans cuz my swag super sick!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx772RKxAds

Many of the hardcore Dragon Ball fans laughed in dismay, while others suggested it might lead a new generation in an untapped section of society to watch the series.

In August, 2011, the rapper MarZ B, who actually goes by the pseudonym Black Goku, released a rap song in tandem with rapper Uriah, called appropriately enough,“Black Goku.”

The song is extremely graphic and profane, so I’ll exclude typing out the lyrics, but here is the video in case you want to hear it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3XGLVLWqo4

Rap is a style of music where the artist sings about their surrounding environment and what they are passionate about. From these rap songs you can see that Dragon Ball definitely had an effect on these young men.

Dropping The Equivalent Beat

There are African American equivalents of most every type of white superhero.

But the assimilation of an already established character founded on East Asian legends and created in Japan that is then transmogrified into an African American cultural equivalent is rare.

In the case of DaBlackGoku.com, the process whereby a sub-culture of a community brought together by racial commonalities redefines the already seemingly established cultural assumption of Goku’s race to that of African American can be likened to the racial recreation of Superman or Jesus.

Superman, Jesus and Goku have all been transformed into a black equivalent, as have other messianic figures.

The questions I wonder about are these.

Would Dragon Ball have become so popular with African American youth if FUNimation hadn’t made the edits they did, to appeal to this demographic?

And would these youth have rapped about Dragon Ball if Dragon Ball GT hadn’t been given the rap treatment and given national syndication?

We can see that Dragon Ball Z had already been accepted and assimilated between 1999 and 2003.

When Dragon Ball GT came out, it was then aimed directly at this demographic, where it became further accepted.

Perhaps it was a combination of the right product, with the right treatment, at the right time.

But Dragon Ball GT is generally considered a lesser product compared to DBZ, so that may not explain everything.

What do you think?

Were FUNimation’s edits necessary? Were they good or bad, overall? And how do you feel about Dragon Ball being turned into rap music?

UPDATE on May 16, 2012: See this related Black Goku Art Gallery for more pictures of Black Goku.

Resources

DaBlackGoku Internet Archive

Rules for DaBlackGoku contest

The Second Annual DaBlackGoku Contest Results

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

The Black Goku

DEREK: You stated that Dragon Ball Z is the greatest action anime of all time. Why do you feel that way?

MARCUS: Because, man! No fillers baby! They got straight to the point. The action!

They had one filler, and that was the Garlic Jr. Saga. Which wasn’t that bad! It was a nice little break, like 5 episodes, and then they got right back to Future Trunks and the Androids. They got right back on it.

And they had a little fun with Goku and Piccolo trying to learn how to drive, you know, that little bullshit, but for the most part Dragon Ball Z stayed the course, it always stayed focused on the action.

Fuck No you wouldn’t! Because Krillin and Yamcha are the fucking weakest ones, you don’t care about them. I mean, they’re great to be the gauge for the enemies strength, but if I had to watch The Adventures of Krillin and Yamcha, I really wouldn’t be watching it. I’m trying to skip that. It’s like that whole saga of Bleach, like, c’mon, really?

DEREK: Yeah, I haven’t watched the last 20 episodes of Naruto because it’s all been filler.

MARCUS: Right, right that’s what I’m saying! After Sasuke left, it was like 30 episodes of bullshit. There was like 5 episodes where something happened in the Sand Village where Gaara’s student got kidnapped. They should have just skipped all that shit and gone right to the kidnapping and then bam, go right into Naruto: Shippuden. It was just so much and I was getting tired of it.

And the other reason I was like, “Fuck Naruto,” is because I was buying these motherfuckers! I didn’t know about animefreak.tv and the torrent sites, I was buying them. I was like, “What the fuck?!” After all that. Spending $39.99 on this, and then all of a sudden, it’s like, “Okay, that was fucking pointless.” And that shit pisses me off. That’s money, dude.

DEREK: Yeah, the crappy filler episodes wasting your money.

MARCUS: See, that’s what I’m saying. You go right now and buy Dragon Ball Z Uncut Season 1 and you’ll be all, “Holy shit. I’ve got to buy Season 2. Holy shit. I’ve got to buy Season 3.” It doesn’t stop because it keeps you into it. It never loses your focus.

DEREK: Yeah, I absolutely agree. So as an expert martial artist, how would you describe the fighting styles in Dragon Ball Z?

MARCUS: Hmm. I would have to say it’s more traditional, but at the same time they utilize their own skill. Especially with Goku and Master Roshi. I didn’t have to do half the stuff Goku did because I didn’t start off with traditional martial arts. I started off in MMA and I focused a lot on boxing.

In boxing and MMA gyms you don’t have the whole respect culture that the traditional martial arts have. I felt I was adapting to it because I was partaking in Brazilian Jujitsu now, and to the Brazilians I was all like, “You won’t hit me once I figure out how to tie my fucking belt.” It took me like an hour, you know?

At the same time, while I didn’t like it, it taught me to respect the belt.

You know, in boxing there is no belt. You get better by beating this dudes ass. That’s how you get better at boxing. Same thing in MMA.

But traditional martial arts, they teach you how to respect the mat, how to respect the belt, respect your Gi.

DEREK: So there’s a different type of ethics to it, or a martial morality?

MARCUS: Yeah, like the Goku – Master Roshi experience, it’s more traditional. Even though he has surpassed his master, he still has a relationship with him. And Goku is so open minded, he’s like a mixed martial artist. After he learned what he could from Master Roshi, guess what, he went to King Kai after that.

DEREK: Actually, it was Karin, Mister Popo, Kami, and then King Kai.

MARCUS:

Like when he grabs Vegeta and then like, I just saw this on the Uncut, which pisses me off because Cartoon Network cut the Vegeta and Goku battle in half. They made it look like Vegeta barely lost to Goku. No, Vegeta got his ass whupped! If I had seen that in high school, it would have completely changed my whole perspective of Vegeta.

Haha. He utilized it because it was there, you know what I’m saying?

DEREK: Some fans I’ve spoken with have noticed a difference in the fighting styles of the original Dragon Ball and then Dragon Ball Z. It seems like the original one is very traditional Chinese, a little Japanese, fighting styles with deep stances, very Kung Fu.

MARCUS: Exactly. It changed though because of their ability to fly. Because you can’t do an iron horse stance in the air.

DEREK: How would you describe the changes in the characters fighting styles as the series continued?

MARCUS: They had to adapt because these are more powerful enemies. I mean, fuck, Freeza destroyed a planet with his finger. So of course he might not be as active as he should be. Especially with the aerial attacks, because in Dragon Ball Z they fought a lot in the air.

Like I said, you can’t do a traditional stance in the air. An iron horse stance, you’re drawing energy up from the ground, you plant yourself. Like when a boxer throws a punch, it’s all connected because he throws it from the hip. The power comes from the hip, which is drawn from his feet being turned when he pivots his foot on the ground.

Now when you’re fighting in the air, there’s no ground to touch. You have to use the forward momentum of your flight to make your punches harder.

DEREK: I never thought about that before. That’s a really good insight.

MARCUS: Yeah. You know I know my Dragon Ball Z!

I noticed it, the difference between the two. I liked every minute of the original, but it was different because they were fighting more on the ground, like humans.

But then in Z they’re fighting against aliens, and all these guys have flight abilities. It changes the whole scenario when a guy can fly.

Just like on Avatar, Nickelodeon’s Avatar. You remember how he defeated the blind girl, the earth bender? He flew. Then he wasn’t on the ground anymore and she didn’t know where that shit was coming from. That changes the game when you know how to fly.

DEREK: Absolutely. Good insight. So let me ask you, if you could have one of the supernormal abilities depicted in Dragon Ball, those really advanced techniques, which one would it be?

MARCUS: Which one would it be? You know what, mine wouldn’t be that advanced, because I would have the Saiyans ability to not age.

DEREK: Ohhhh.

MARCUS: Yeah, see, they maintain their youth as they fight. That’s just their race.

DEREK: Wow. Good wisdom. I did not expect that answer. I think it’s a great one.

Okay, I have a few questions that don’t really flow together, so I’ll just ask them.

Who do you think is the best fighter in Dragon Ball?

MARCUS: Are we talking hand to hand combat, ki blasts?

DEREK: I’m going to say over all, your subjective opinion of who’s the best.

MARCUS: It has to be Goku. Goku is constantly evolving. And guess what, [in GT] he got turned into a fucking kid. And now he has the knowledge of a 40 year old, in a 10 year old body. So guess what, when he grows up to be a 25 year old as a youth, he’ll have a completely different mentality. Could you imagine? Have you ever said, “Man, if I was 10 years younger and I had this mind, I’d do this!”

DEREK: You’re right. It would be a totally different perspective on life. A lot more experience and wisdom.

MARCUS: Exactly. And he was already constantly evolving as a fighter, as a grown man. Now that he has reverted back to a kid. I mean, at the beginning of GT, I’m just like Okay. But when he grows up again, he’s going to be even stronger. And at the end of GT the dragon balls absorb into him, so we don’t even know how powerful he is.

DEREK: Right. A lot of fans have wondered what that meant. And if they do another series, what that would be like.

MARCUS: Whatever happened to that Dragon Ball AF series? I was going crazy looking for it.

DEREK: Yeah, it’s actually not real. But there are fan made versions called Dragon Ball AF. There’s a really good comic by a guy named Toyble. It looks just like Akira Toriyama’s drawings, it’s really well done. That is essentially what happens after Dragon Ball GT. It’s good. I would recommend it. You can find it free online. But there is no new animated series.

Now there’s another rumor out there of a series called Dragon Ball Hoshi. And a lot of people are going frantic for that one. But that too isn’t real. It’s just like Dragon Ball AF.

So it’s like every 4 or 5 years another rumor starts, “Oh, another Dragon Ball series is coming out.” But there isn’t one. And unfortunately everybody wants it, but they don’t have it.

The only thing that is coming out, they got the new video games, and there’s another one coming out soon called Dragon Ball Online, which is like World of Warcraft meets Dragon Ball. You can make your own characters and play online. It’s a whole world.

MARCUS: Damn. Daaaaaaammn. I can’t play that. I would never train.

DEREK: I know. You can actually play it in Korean and Chinese right now. They don’t even have a Japanese or English version yet. That should be coming to the States within the next year or two, hopefully.

MARCUS: That’s going to change the game. The whole World of Warcraft, they don’t have a fucking chance after that.

DEREK: Haha. So, are you a fan of the English dub, or the Japanese sub?

MARCUS: I’m more of an English dub guy. But the thing is, with the English dub they cut out a lot of the dialogue. The only way you can get a true Dragon Ball experience is to watch the Japanese version. Because the uncut American version…

I’m more a fan of the English uncut versions, but the thing is, they take so fucking long to get out.

I’m starting to get over this, but I’m not going to lie, I hate the Japanese voice. [Does a high pitched scream]. Agghh! It ruins it for me! In the American version, we do a better job with the voices.

And the fucking music! I just remember the music when Gohan is doing the father-son Kamehameha against Cell and is walking forward. Dude, that music, it traps you into that moment. But when you hear the Japanese version, it’s like… cooky. It’s like, I don’t know, the song doesn’t fit that moment. The soundtrack that the American’s put into the English and the uncut, man it just really pulls you into that scene. It traps you.

DEREK: Yeah, still to this day there’s a huge debate between the American music and the Japanese music, and people are… It’s so divisive. There’s no middle ground! People take sides.

MARCUS: The music is so different. And I’ve got to admit, some things you can read, but it doesn’t get you as crunked as when you hear it.

For instance, when Imperfect Cell was fighting against Vegeta. You remember he was getting frustrated because Vegeta was beating his ass. “This is impossible. I’m Cell. I am the most powerful person in the world!” Vegeta’s like, “You are nothing.” Then he knocked him out.

DEREK: I would have to agree with you. Did you know that Blu-ray just came out? Dragon Ball Z on Blu-ray.

MARCUS: Yeah, man, but I’m going to stick with my DVD’s. I’m already at Season 3, and I’ll go ahead and buy 4 through 9, they’re uncut. And right now I’m getting my path on becoming a member of the UFC, so I don’t have money like that, for a fucking Blu-ray. So right now the DVD’s are tight.

And you know what, that goes to show you something. I love Dragon Ball so much I refuse to download off the internet. That is fucking love. Naruto? I’ll fucking download all them hoe’s. But Dragon Ball Z? No. No. I have to pay for them.

Also you know, when you go on porn sites, they have something where Dragon Ball characters are fucking Sailor Moon characters. I won’t even watch it. No. No. You’re messing up the integrity of Dragon Ball! I won’t even watch it.

DEREK: That’s an interesting segue. I want to ask you about some spirituality questions.

The Dao of Dragon Ball is a book that talks about Buddhism, Daoism and how it relates to the series. Dragon Ball is a Japanese creation and it’s related to Journey to the West and all these ancient cultures, the spiritual energy and all that stuff.

Do you feel, personally, that Dragon Ball has a spiritual aspect to it? And if you do, how would you describe it?

MARCUS: I never saw Dragon Ball as a spiritual outlet. I always believed in my God. I never really saw that in Dragon Ball.

And I saw that all that came from the inner workings of Goku, Vegeta and how Goku just wouldn’t stop. He had to. His love for his family was the reason he trained so hard. So he could protect them. I never saw the spiritual side of Dragon Ball.

Personally, I have a tattoo on my chest that says, “I can do all things through Christ, Jesus, that strengthens me.” Yeah. And that’s honestly how I feel about my spirituality as a fighter. A lot of people told me you can’t do this, you can’t do that. I was like, you know what, if I believe in Jesus I will. And guess what? I’m on the show. I’m the first person from Alabama to be on The Ultimate Fighter.

I hate to say this, but some of it’s true. Alabama just got boxing commission. It’s been a world renowned sport for centuries but why are we just now getting boxing commission? Where I’m from had a lot of drawbacks, but it had some good things to, like I’m a leading child, so I have a strong commitment to family, to my religion, all that stuff, I grew up in the church.

DEREK: Really? That’s a very profound statement.

MARCUS: Hm-hmm.

DEREK: You mentioned on one of your video blogs, that while everybody else on the show was raiding the fridge and having a barbeque, you were off in the corner reading your Bible. You are a Protestant, correct?

MARCUS: Yeah, Protestant. I’m Baptist, but Protestant, for some reason not Catholic. That’s why I have to put time into the military. Haha.

DEREK: Would you consider yourself to be a spiritual man? And if so, how does your spirituality interact with your life as a fighter?

MARCUS: It keeps me motivated. You think about where you come from, how did you get this far. I was so scared to move. I was so unhappy in my home state of Alabama. One day. This is the weirdest shit ever. One day I was driving and I felt really bad. I pulled over and was fucking crying. Really bad, like somebody just shot my dog or something. I can’t describe it. I think that was the Lord telling me it was time to go. “You’re not happy here. Time to go.”

I just graduated from college. I was 25 years old. I was in the military and had a job, it honestly wasn’t that bad, but I had to go. People were telling me that I needed to go to succeed at MMA, and there were other hints.

DEREK: Because you are so… Christ is in you to such a degree, but you’re not familiar with Eastern cultures, like energy, spirituality and all that. How do you explain the supernormal martial arts of Dragon Ball?

MARCUS:

That’s all they needed to advance. You saw that the harder they trained the better they got. When they went into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, that was the equivalent of a years’ worth of training in one day.

That’s how I understood that in order to be the best, you have to constantly train. And that’s what I saw in Dragon Ball, Goku was always training, Vegeta was always training. They were always training to be the best at all times. And training became an everyday regiment of their life.

That’s how I understood that I have to train, I have to push myself past that limit. I got to this point. Tomorrow I need to pass that point. I need to get to a new point. Everyday, life is about the regiment of training.

DEREK: Really? I agree. That reminds me of a saying, “How you live your days, is how you live your life.”

MARCUS: Hm-hmm.

DEREK: I think that is really true. And a person who is always training and improving is going to always be transcending their former self and rising upward. I think that’s a really great way to live your life, as long as you have balance.

So if training allows you to keep improving and rising up, the eventual endpoint of that might be some type of superhuman ability, it just goes beyond normal. Do you believe that human beings can fight like the characters in Dragon Ball, using those types of supernormal abilities?

MARCUS: To be honest with you, I don’t think humans will evolve to that point no time soon. But ain’t it a damn thing to try? To strive for that?

Just to strive to be that type of fighter, like Goku, it’s going to put you above everybody else. Goku is such a high standard, he’s such an elite athlete and fighter that you will surpass people as you try to catch him.

DEREK: Absolutely. That reminds me of another question. Another Dragon Ball fan in the community wanted me to ask this one. He wanted to know, how do you mentally prepare for a match?

MARCUS: Really, it’s a whole bunch of visualizations, like what am I going to do? A lot of that has to do with your corner. I’m getting my iPod, blasting rap music like Lil’Jon to get me amped, and then my coach in the background is saying,

You don’t understand how your corner gives you trust, love and respect and all these things. He believes in you, which fortifies your belief in yourself. That mental preparation is so important to me. Some people like to sit and meditate, but I need some amount of love, trust and somebody to tell me what I’m going to do to this man. That’s my mental stimulation.

“You going to throw a jab? What you gonna do? You gonna throw an uppercut, a cross, you gonna knee him, you gonna hit the ground, you gonna ground and pound, you gonna throw a triangle, you going to escape, you going to knee rise, then you gonna punch him in the face.” As he’s telling you this you’re visualizing it, and because he believes it, you believe it. You believe it even more because he said it.

DEREK: Yeah. Wow. It really gives me a feeling for what it must be like to be in that cage and to have somebody in front of you, it doesn’t matter who they are, you’re just going to go through them, and you are so confident and have that support. It’s a team and you’re doing it together. I think that’s really amazing.

It’s also very similar to the Dragon Ball spirit. It’s not like what Vegeta had going on. It’s not about being strong by yourself. You have to have other people that are with you and support you. That’s where strength comes from.

MARCUS: Yep. Exactly.

DEREK: What do you think of Vegeta when he let himself be possessed by Babidi to gain more power? And this is kind of a silly question, but would you ever let that happen to you, if it meant you could become the most successful fighter in MMA history?

MARCUS: Man, that is a tough question.

Vegeta sold his soul to the devil in order to get stronger than Goku. And that’s the thing about being lower than being the best. If you dangle that in front of somebody’s face for a long time, they’re going to cave. If you’re hungry and starving and I have this steak: “You want the steak? Well why don’t you just sign this contract and you can have as much as you want. And a glass of cold water.” It’s tempting. It depends on that person.

Now Goku never fought for himself, he always fought for his friends. Along with his friends, they’re like, “Nah we don’t need that.” But Vegeta always fought for himself, and to see somebody like Goku, who first of all, was supposed to be a low class Saiyan, surpass him. All of a sudden this elite Saiyan gets surpassed, works hard to get back up to Goku’s level, and then Goku surpasses him again.

And you have to remember, everything that Goku did, Vegeta did. Because Vegeta thought that if he had a family, he would be strong like Goku. But he had Trunks and Bulma, and nothing happened. “Why is he so much damn stronger than me?” It was pissing him off. And now he’s got this temptation: “You want to be stronger than him, sell me your soul.”

You don’t think [about the ramifications] like that, because you think that it’s all you want to be. “It’s all I want. I have one dream, to be the best and be better than him.” And someone offers you that… Would you take it? To be honest with you, we’re all human. We’re all human.

DEREK: Right. Do you see a corollary there between Vegeta’s choice… I see a corollary between Vegeta’s choice and the Temptation of Jesus in the desert, where it’s like, “I know you want this, here it is, I’ll give you whatever you want.” And Jesus says no, I didn’t come here for those things. And like Goku, he can’t be tempted because his heart is pure. But Vegeta can be tempted, and then he actually welcomes it. He tells Goku later, “I chose to let Babidi possess me to gain more power.” Do you see that as well?

MARCUS: Yeah, it’s just like that. And it shows just how strong God is, how strong Jesus was, because he was offered it and he said hell no.

DEREK: So that would never… we’re all human, like you said, but yeah, that’s a crazy scenario to be in where it’s like, there’s your dream, there’s your chance. That’s tough.

I have two more questions.

When you hear the title The Dao of Dragon Ball, what does this make you think the book will be about?

MARCUS: From what I read, it’s going to talk about everything. How Dragon Ball relates to real subjects, spiritualism, religions, training ethics, dreams, temptations. And how all of that that we go through in our daily lives is all reflected, the sentiments of that are in your Dragon Ball book.

And the way you just said how Vegeta was tempted, and how Jesus was tempted, that’s a great correlation. So I would like to see how if I read something about Dragon Ball, I can see how Goku was going through that, when this happened.

DEREK: So it’s really the relatable aspects of individual people and what makes them human, and how Dragon Ball helps you to see that and look within? Got it.

What made you excited to read this book when you found out about it? I tweeted you to let you know about it, and you wrote back saying that you wanted a copy. Why was that?

MARCUS: Because it’s Dragon Ball. I love anything Dragon Ball. I am so a fan. I love it. Anything that is Dragon Ball. I can’t describe it. Dragon Ball is the greatest. Hands down.

There’s a book that somebody is trying to relate our everyday lives and what we go through to a Dragon Ball saga? I’m like, “Okay I have to read this.” And then when you made that correlation, I’m like, wow, what the fuck else have you thought about?

DEREK: Haha. Yeah. I’ve been thinking about this… for a long time.

That was all my questions. Thank you! Is there anything else you’d like to express?

MARCUS: I just want to express my love for Dragon Ball. And I would also like to apologize to the Naruto fans out there. It’s not fuck Naruto. It’s fuck Naruto fillers! I just don’t like the fillers. Let’s get to the meat. Stay on focus with the task.

Naruto is actually a great action anime as well. But I just didn’t like the fillers, so just be to sure tell all your fans, I LOVE NARUTO, Naruto fans!

And Rock Lee is my favorite. I love Rock Lee. They don’t show him as much in Shipuuden. But Naruto is getting badder. And I can’t wait to see that final battle between him and Sasuke, because now he’s got the toad sage powers.

DEREK: Well okay. Do you have any questions for me?

MARCUS: Who is your favorite MMA fighter right now?

DEREK: MMA? I’ve been out of watching it for so long, honestly, I don’t even have one.

MARCUS: Well since you don’t have one, you can start with this person right here, Marcus Brimage! Get started with me. And you follow my career and I will follow your career. Hopefully we can make something happen. Maybe a real Dragon Ball movie. Although honestly I don’t think Dragon Ball should ever be made into a movie, because some things just can’t be done well.

DEREK: Yeah. Well if they ever do I hope that I get to be a part of it somehow, and make sure that it stays true to the series, because they just did not stay true to it at all, and that’s why it failed.

MARCUS: Exactly. I was like, why are people going to watch this? It looks fucking horrible. I boycotted that shit. I’m sorry. Please put that in your book, that I boycotted Dragon Ball Evolution.

DEREK: Haha. I will, I will. I might not name you specifically, but I will mention that.

Oh, I do actually have one last question. Do you have any inspiring words of wisdom for anybody like you who has seen Dragon Ball and has been so motivated that they want to become a fighter, but they don’t know how?

MARCUS: Tell those guys to believe in themselves and pray. Then go for it. That’s it.

DEREK: Very good advice. I guess it really is that simple too, if you can do that and make it.

This has been great. I really enjoyed this and you’ve given me so many great quotes, it’s going to be hard to choose. I feel like I’ve met a true fan of the series.

That’s one of the goals I had in writing this book. To meet other people… like me, really, so we can talk about it and enjoy one another’s company.

Dragon Ball is one of those things that brings people together no matter who they are, no matter how old they are, what race, financial background or anything, I think Dragon Ball can unite people. And I really enjoyed this. So thank you very much.

MARCUS: Thank you so much for thinking about me for the book. I greatly appreciate that.

DEREK: You’re welcome, and thank you for the interview!

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Marcus Brimage – DBZ and MMA Part 2

These fights have awed and inspired fans across the world. And there are some fans who become so inspired that they decide to pursue martial arts and make it their career.

I had the privilege of interviewing one of those inspired fans recently: Marcus Brimage, a Mixed Martial Artist who can currently be seen on Season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) on Spike TV.

Here is Marcus’ introduction interview on the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3Y-bdcjFc

This caught my attention and I decided to reach out to Marcus on Twitter. He agreed to the interview and the results were amazing.

We ended up talking for over an hour!

How and why did Dragon Ball inspire him? As an expert martial artist, what is his opinion on the fighting styles of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z? How does spirituality play a role in his fighting? And did Dragon Ball influence his fighting style?

We also discussed his time growing up in Alabama and his desire for a greater life. His early experiences getting tough love from his MMA instructors. And the superiority of Dragon Ball over other action anime.

Not to mention another comment by Marcus for all of the Naruto fans out there!

*Warning that this interview contains occasional swear words.

*Warning that this interview contains violence and mixed martial arts content.

*Warning that this interview contains Dragon Ball spoilers because Marcus and I are super-fans and discuss the series in detail.

That’s right, kids!

So without further ado, here is The Dao of Dragon Ball’s interview with Marcus Brimage, a mixed martial artist and Dragon Ball fan!

Dragon Ball Z Inspires a Young Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vpK0wlIP1I

DEREK: Dragon Ball Z really inspired you to join MMA.

On The Ultimate Fighter, you said, “Quinton Jackson and Dragon Ball Z are the reason why I do mixed martial arts today. Dragon Ball Z is the greatest action anime of all time. All time. All these little kids talking ‘bout Naruto. Man, fuck Naruto. Dragon Ball Z.”

You said that on national TV. That was your introduction to the series, people didn’t know who you are and you’re mentioning that Dragon Ball Z and Quinton Jackson, another MMA fighter, are what inspired you. How exactly did Dragon Ball Z motivate you to pursue martial arts and join the MMA?

MARCUS: Just because of the power that the Saiyans emit. It was crazy. Goku is such a super nice guy, but he’s super powerful. Vegeta is a badass, you expect him to be powerful. But I was always a nice guy and like making people laugh, and to see someone that was good hearted and kind, and all of a sudden he’s this powerful fighter, it really made me think that, “Man, I can do that.”

And that’s how I like to fight, because I push my conditioning so hard, I want to fight just like that, whup your ass from bell to bell.

It inspired me because in Alabama we don’t really have any martial arts, except Taekwondo. I just never liked Taekwondo. We have a few boxing gyms, but I wanted to learn how to kick and knee and all this other stuff.

I was in Alabama and I just basically had all these ambitions because of Dragon Ball Z. I mean, dude, c’mon, you’ve seen it, the fights are unreal. One of my favorite fights is when 17 fought against Piccolo, and the way Piccolo was using the body blows. He was hitting him so hard that the fucking fist was coming through the back of his shirt.

I was like, “Oh my God!” I knew I had to watch this cartoon. It was off the chain. It motivated me. I felt that I really wanted to learn how to do that. How to fight like that.

But at the same time, I don’t have to be a super badass guy like Vegeta. Vegeta has this attitude that everyone likes, but it’s not one that many people really have. More people are more like Goku than Vegeta. Happy go lucky: “I just want to eat food and fight!” So I thought that was pretty cool.

DEREK: How old were you when you saw Dragon Ball and you felt this way.

MARCUS: When I saw Dragon Ball I was actually in the 4^th grade. It came on WNEM-68, and I don’t know what made me watch that cartoon, because it was about this kid with a tail, and all of a sudden this hot chick with blue hair comes over to find his Dragon Ball that he thought was his granddad.

I remember I watched it before every football game, before I had to leave the house for little league football, I would watch an episode. I don’t know why, because Dragon Ball wasn’t that action packed, but the story gravitated to me, and then come to find out that Goku killed his granddad because he stepped on him. When he was younger he told him, “Don’t look at the moon because the evil monster will come out,” and all of a sudden he looked at the moon and turned into the ape. So it had a very cool story line, but even though it wasn’t action packed, I’m not sure why I was so drawn to it.

Now when Dragon Ball Z came out, I was in 6^th grade, and it used to only come on each Saturday, before Cartoon Network picked it up, and they used to show two episodes… and I lost it. The first fight with Goku versus Piccolo and Raditz, man… the thing is, with Dragon Ball, it stopped right after the first season, after they made the wish for supreme underwear.

It stopped after that, so I saw Dragon Ball Z and was able to put it together that, “Hey that’s the little boy, okay he’s strong now.” Not that it was hard to put together.

It was fast, it was ferocious, but somehow it was controlled. It wasn’t like, “Boom, Crash.” It was fast, ferocious, precise. Precision. Every blow was a precise movement. There was no unneeded movement at all. Everything was with precision, and so fast.

DEREK: Yes, it was very efficient. So you were in the 6^th grade, playing football, and you were into athletics, was there a particular moment when you were watching Dragon Ball Z and you said to yourself, “I want to be a fighter.”

MARCUS:

Because I didn’t know how to fight. And like I said, because I’m from Alabama, we’re a football state. We just got boxing commission in 2008, and in my opinion that’s fucking pathetic. We utilize the Victorian Era boxing rules in professional boxing today. The Victorian Era, do you know when that was?

DEREK: Well, yeah, centuries ago.

MARCUS: Exactly! A long ass time ago! Why the hell are we just now getting a boxing commission in 2008? And that’s what my situation was. It was football, or die. It was football, or just be a regular person. There was no other outlet.

DEREK: Oh, I see. Very limited options with what you could do.

MARCUS: Yeah, you go two hours to Atlanta, they had Jujitsu, they had Muay Thai, they had boxing, they had other styles that I would have gravitated to if I had that outlet by me. I just didn’t. When I saw Dragon Ball I immediately wanted to learn how to fight. But it wasn’t until I saw Quinton Jackson that I said, “I want to be a fighter.”

DEREK: Oh, I get it. Did you see that on TV, the clip of Quinton Jackson?

MARCUS: No, my brother actually downloaded his highlight reel. And he showed me it, him knocking out, what was his name, Marona, when he hit him with a power bomb, and they showed him slamming Shakarama in Prague.

It gave me that same feeling I got when I watched Dragon Ball Z. I got that when I saw Quinton “Rampage” fight. That’s when I said, “I want to fucking fight.” You know what I’m saying?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxyvdpk3WDU

DEREK: This is a really life changing decision, to become a fighter. So it must have had a really powerful influence on you, those two things, that feeling.

MARCUS: Oh yeah, it really did. To be honest with you, my whole life I kind of just did whatever my parents told me to. In Alabama, everyone is marrying, everyone has kids, around the age of 23. If you’re 25 and don’t have kids and are not married, it’s like, what’s wrong with you? Yeah. I even asked my mom, “Mom, is this all life is about? You graduate from high school, you go to college, meet a girl, graduate from college, marry the girl, have kids and have a family?” And my mother was like, “Yeah, son, that’s about it.”

I didn’t want that. “I’m 26 years old, I’m married, and I got a child” … Why? Why would I want to do that? But that’s the mindset in Alabama. You don’t know how many people have been trying to twist my wrist to marry my girlfriend of 3 years. I’ve known her since high school. “When ya’ll getting married? When ya’ll getting married?” That’s just their mindset.

But Dragon Ball Z and that Quinton Jackson clip made me think that there has to be something more than getting a 9 to 5 job, getting married and having kids. It really made me believe that there had to be something more.

DEREK: I see. So it broadened your perspective and showed you something greater, and made you want a different type of life.

MARCUS: Yeah.

DEREK: Dragon Ball obviously had a huge influence on you. What did you do to go and pursue that dream? Because there were no other places to train, except for Taekwondo in your neighborhood.

MARCUS: I was saving up money to move to Atlanta. Because Atlanta had some cool Muay Thai places, and I wanted to learn Muay Thai so I could fight like Sagat from Street Fighter, but at a Dragon Ball Z pace. My Sergeant in my guard unit told me that he knew this guy that could check out my moves before I left. I was like, “I don’t get it.”

So he took me to this place in Clay, Alabama, and I’m telling you I was the only black person for say, 30 miles. I know you’ve heard the stereotypes about Alabama, the part I was in, kinda true. So that was kind of awkward, being in that kind of place. But that guy who I was introduced to was not doing MMA anymore. So he introduced me to my coach back in Alabama, Chris Collins. Ever since then I’ve been with Chris [at American Top Team].

I wanted to show him I wasn’t a punk, so my first day I told him, “I want to be a fighter.” My first day, I said, “I want to fight” He said, “Yeah, how about you take some classes and then see how it goes.” “Nah, fuck that. I want to fight.” Haha. Yeah, I said it just like that.

So the first day, he dropped me, three times. Yeah, body’s. “Boosh, Boosh,” he dropped me, and I got back up. “Boosh, Boosh,” he dropped me, and I got back up. “Boosh, Boosh,” he dropped me, and I got back up! That repeated three times. Then at the end of practice I was like, “That was off the chain man, see ya’ll tomorrow!” He was looking at me like, “Yeah, you’re not going to be back.” But I was so excited I actually beat him back to the next training session. He turned on the gym lights and I was there ready for him. Yeah. I was a 19 year old kid, and I asked to fight him again. He dropped me again, for a week straight, over 2 times each session.

DEREK: How were you guys fighting at that time? Was it in a ring, did you have gloves, equipment and everything?

MARCUS: We had boxing gloves, shin guards, the whole nine. But the thing was, back then I was full of heart. You know that line I use in The Ultimate Fighter, “I’m nobody’s punching bag.” I got that from him.

He was like, “Look, I see that you’re excited. The reason I keep knocking you out is because you’re trying to kill me, and I’m nobody’s punching bag. So now that I see that you’re serious about this, how about we calm down and I’ll start showing you some shit.” I said, “Okay! Let’s see it!” Haha.

I started as part of the game, like, I think it was part of my initiation process. Truth be told, in boxing gyms that’s how it is. People who come in there, when you spar, they put you against advanced guys so you can get your ass whupped, and the guys who don’t come back, well fuck you, we don’t want you coming back.

The guys who do come back, okay, he’s a little hard headed, give him another ass whupping.

If you tell me that you want to be a fighter, but you get your ass whupped and then don’t show back up, well fuck you, get the fuck outta here and stop playing. If you get your ass whupped and show up the next day, then okay! That’s when we’re ready to work with him.

DEREK: Sounds like you had a lot of endurance and a really youthful, optimistic spirit, to keep going and push forward.

MARCUS: Yeah.

DEREK: Are there any characters in Dragon Ball that you relate to or connect with?

MARCUS: Truthfully, I hate that I… like I said before, I’m more like Goku. I’m happy all the time, I like making people smile. All around nice guy. But truthfully I wish I was more like Vegeta.

DEREK: Why do you wish that?

MARCUS: Because Vegeta got the fucking attitude. There’s something that draws you to that. I don’t know what it is, because he’s not as powerful as Goku. It’s just his persona, his aura, the way he presents himself: “I’m the prince of all Saiyans!” I gravitate to it. I can’t even describe it. The only thing I can describe it as, is impressive.

DEREK: Okay, that makes sense. Having watched Dragon Ball for so long, has it in any way affected your style of fighting?

MARCUS: Yes, it has. Like I said before, the way they move is so action packed, so fast. If you go back and look at my fights on YouTube, you’ll see all my fights are action packed, I’m in their face the whole time, “Pow, Pow, Pow Pow!” I’m chasing them around the ring.

Dragon Ball Z is like, “Boom to the temple, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom Boom Boom Boom!” You know what I’m saying? They’re everywhere. And that’s how I fight.

The thing is, right now I’ve got to learn how to be more controlled with it, but they’re just so in your face. And you know what, that’s what the crowd likes too. The crowd likes people slugging it out, going all out, balls to the wall, everywhere. That’s the shit that gets people standing up on their feet. So that’s how Dragon Ball Z is, and that’s why I always push my cardio.

DEREK: Do you train like the Dragon Ball warriors? Do you do that with a really high intensity, extreme difficulty and push yourself super hard?

MARCUS: Yes, I do that! And that’s another problem with me because I push myself too hard. I’m always thinking my opponent is training harder than me. “Last week, that shit was easy. Hey, how about I jump this 4 foot box and then make it even higher next time?”

DEREK: That’s very cool. So, regarding your comment about Naruto…

DEREK: Haha. Okay, so I guess there’s a little bit of an apology to the Naruto fans, maybe. You actually are a fan?

MARCUS: Yes. Just let them know that it wasn’t fuck Naruto, it was fuck fillers.

DEREK: Okay. Got it. Got it. So you were really inspired by Dragon Ball. Do you think that Dragon Ball has inspired other martial artists, and do you know of anybody else that has been inspired by it?

MARCUS: One of my friends from the show, his name was Prince Albert, he told me that he felt the same way I did, but he didn’t want anybody else to know that. But you can’t be like that. You’ve got to let the world know, like I did. Fucking Dragon Ball Z. You know?

He told me he understood what I was saying because he felt the same way, but he wasn’t as open with it as I was. Because man, Dragon Ball Z, I’ll tell you, it’s the greatest action anime of all time.

You can’t touch Dragon Ball Z. All them other animes, they fight for second place, because first place is already got.

Dragon Ball is #1

Learn from Marcus how mixed martial arts are different from traditional martial arts, in Part 2 of the DBZ and MMA interview »

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Marcus Brimage – DBZ and MMA Part 1

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:

1. Red Army
2. Stars
3. Hitler
4. Hooked Cross Z
5. 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.

Red Army

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZs_mrR02MA

The Red Army is a term used to describe an army that gathers under the Red Flag, a militaristic symbol of a Communist force.

The term Red Army was first coined by its commander Leon Trotsky to refer to the newly created army of Soviet Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.  The term continued to be used in Europe for the next several decades and became synonymous with violence, bloodshed and power.  Afterward, the term spread east when Mao Zedong created his own Red Army in China, which would later be known as the People’s Liberation Army.  Both of these army’s militarily dominated Asia for several decades, including several wars with the Japanese, the birthplace of Dragon Ball.

Commander Red

We find the Red Army in Dragon Ball in the form of the Red Ribbon Army, a spoof like representation of a unified military threat.  Most of the Red Ribbon Army and all of its leaders are “Foreigners,” i.e. Westerners (or talking bipedal animals).  They represent the stereotypical socialist or communist army trouncing across the country and taking whatever they want with their military might.

The Red Ribbon Army has a collection of foot soldiers, military experts, assassins, evil scientists, technicians, a mobile division (speeders, trucks and tanks), a flight division (planes, helicopters), a sea division (subs, boats), killer robots, androids and special operatives (scuba divers, flamethrower shock troops) and more.  Red Ribbon Army headquarters is a huge base surrounded by and filled with defensive weapons technology.

They appear to be depicted like the army of an evil villain in a James Bond film.  Though more accurately they are reminiscent of the Red Army of Soviet Russia, upon which many of the James Bond villains were based.

The main theme that accompanies the Red Ribbon Army contains the following lyrics (translated):

Dye a red ribbon in a sea of blood

Hands of demons creep through the wilderness

A screen which reflects the dark desires

The leader, Red, watches and laughs

Blue, Black, Silver, the sky is scorched

Yellow, White, Brown, a mechanical army

Only if we conquer everything in this world

will our supreme pride be fulfilled

Soldier Red Ribbon

We’ll drop the world into a deep terror

Soldier Red Ribbon

The demons that came from hell

Red Ribbon Army

All of the soldiers are dressed resembling World War II era troops with a minimum of personal equipment, consisting primarily of a jacket, baggy trousers, a rifle and high-top boots.  The Red Ribbon Army’s “RR” logo is placed on their chest and hat.  The elite soldiers wear colored “RR” logo armbands to denote their superior rank.

Red Ribbon Army's Red Flag

The “RR” logo stands for “Red Ribbon” and is usually seen as a symmetrical red ribbon with white text placed anywhere the logo could be applied, such as on a military uniform or tank.  But it is also seen on a Red Flag that is very similar to Stalinist and Nazi versions of the Red Flag.

Their leader is Commander Red, a short power obsessed man with a Napolean complex and a desire to gather all the dragonballs so he can make a wish to grow taller, and thereby (naturally) rule the world!  He also has bright red hair that is styled a lot like Leon Trotsky’s, the original commander of the Soviet Red Army.  It seems oddly similar, though this could just be a coincidence as Toriyama has never commented on his inspiration for the character.

General Blue

In addition, one of their leaders, General Blue, is based on the ideal disciplined soldier of Hitler’s eugenics program.  Blue is lean and strong with blond hair and blue eyes and it is implied that he is of German descent as he speaks German in one line of the English comic book, saying the phrase “Auf Wiedersehen” (Goodbye).  He is the strongest fighter of all the Red Ribbon Army soldiers and matches up against Goku for several episodes, employing super human strength and psychic abilities.  The funny thing is that in the anime Toriyama made him into a very effeminate (with implied homosexuality) character.  He loves his own appearance, stops to smell the roses and is disgusted by mice.  However in the comic book he is much more serious and clever.

The Red Ribbon Army is already well established by the time Goku comes along, and they have generated a healthy dose of fear and respect in the world community.

The Red Ribbon Army met its match time and time again at the hands of Goku, and he defeated them almost entirely by himself.  He had some slight assistance from a few companions he met along the way, but there were no other Z warriors or main characters of the series involved.  Just him against an entire communist inspired army.  And he won.

Stars

Red Star of Communism

Stars are another communist symbol, and they are frequently seen in the Dragon Ball series because each of the dragonballs contains stars.  Red five-pointed stars in particular carry the most symbolism.

The five-pointed Red Star is a symbol of communism and socialism movements in general.  There are different interpretations as to why this is, and the argument is often made that the five points represent the five fingers of the common worker’s hand, or the five major continents of the world that will one day be ruled under a communist government.  It could also be indicative of the five forces that would bring communism to power, namely the youth, the military, industrial laborers, peasants and intelligentsia.

The Red Star is a symbol used throughout all Communist nations, along with the Sickle and Hammer, and can be seen on national monuments and government buildings as well as flags and military uniforms.

Often times the Red Star will stand alone or be outlined in yellow on a red background.  Sometimes the stars will be completely yellow on a red background or feature multiple yellow stars arranged around one another, such as in the Chinese Communist Party flag.

Dragonball Collection

The seven dragonballs are a golden orange amber type color and the five-pointed stars inside them are all red.  The seven balls are named by the amount of stars that each ball contains, such as the 1-star ball, the 4-star ball and so on.  The dragonballs naturally play a major role in the series and so we see this imagery again and again.

But we also see stars elsewhere.

We spot a red five-pointed star time and again on Emperor Pilaf, another diminutive character with an out of control ego questing for more power, power that can only be granted by the dragonball’s.  Pilaf is a blue skinned impish character that repeatedly has his plans foiled by Goku’s presence.  Goku doesn’t even go out of his way to interfere with Pilaf’s schemes; they keep bumping into one another as if it were fated to be.

Pilaf wears a red and blue cap with a black band around the rim.  A red five-pointed star is placed on a yellow background front and center.

Emperor Pilaf

It’s possible that the star is there to represent his “Imperial Status” as stars have also been used throughout medieval history to denote royalty.  But once again Toriyama has left us with no explanation.

The shape-shifting pig Oolong also wears a Red Star on his hat in the beginning of the series.  He is a short and fat pig seen dressed in a green Chinese Communist style uniform similar to the one Mao Zedong would have worn.

It’s not known exactly why Toriyama decided to create him to look like a Chinese Communist soldier, but it’s possible that he was trying to take a jab at the CCP by dressing up a pig in their clothes and making him short, fat, obnoxious, loud and selfish.  What do you guys think?

Oolong in CCP Clothing

Goku and his traveling companion Bulma soon trick Oolong into traveling along with them on their quest for the dragonballs, and while Oolong never really improves his demeanor he does learn to tolerate his new friends, at least more so than he did initially.  He stays with them for the rest of the series.

In addition, we see the star in every episode of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, as they are featured in the logos.  Dragon Ball Z’s logo has a small orange 1-star ball standing in for the “O” in Dragon.  Dragon Ball GT’s star is placed inside the “O” of Dragon and is a red five-pointed star on a yellow background, like the one Pilaf wore before.  It can also be seen in logos of derivative works, such as the video game Dragon Ball Online where the red star inside a circle is used as the entire “O” of Dragon once again.

So why are there so many stars in Dragon Ball?

We are left to ponder.

Hitler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSd4E1U1kzY

The biggest and most frequently talked about reference to socialism in Dragon Ball is Hitler himself.  Hitler is in Dragon Ball Z Movie 12, Fusion Reborn (Japanese title:  The Rebirth of Fusion!  Goku and Vegeta!) as a guest villain who comes back from the dead after a demon takes control of the underworld and the laws of life and death.

Hitler comes back to life with his whole zombie army and rolls his tanks through the city, crushing cars and barking out orders like the dictator he is.

He is depicted as a diminutive man (once again) dressed in a purple Nazi uniform with a red “X” armband wrapped around his left arm.  The red “X” is also on the front of his hat.  This is because the Nazi double hooked cross (German: Hakenkreuz), which we often refer to as a Swastika, was replaced by the red “X” for censoring issues.  Aside from those changes he looks just like his namesake, mustache and all.

Hitler starts to destroy the city and is challenged by Goku’s son Goten alongside Vegeta’s son Trunks.  Hitler orders his men to fire at the pre-teen boys and they dodge the hundreds of tank shells and bullets with ease.  The two pint-sized heroes make a mockery of his entire army while they punch and kick his tanks into tin cans.

Hitler screams to “Destroy the infidels!” and the pair turn into golden Super Saiya-jin fighters in response.  Their hair and eyes change color and they are surrounded by golden flames.  Hitler looks at them in confusion and replies, “Blonde hair, blue eyes, super strength, I should be recruiting them.”  Then he yells, “… Shoot them down, they are no match for us, they are inferior!”

In the Japanese version after a bit more fighting with Goten and Trunks he says, “What are they, bright youths outshining the gods?”

These comments are in reference to Hitler’s philosophy and world perspective, as he stands looking at that which he pursued in life, a master race of perfect warriors that are superior to anything created on earth and powerful enough to conquer heaven.  Slight downside is he’s not in control of them.

The line about “bright youths” is also a comment from Japanese parents on counter culture youth dying their hair blonde and other colors.  The joke is that Hitler thinks they are rebellious kids.

Goten and Trunks kill Hitler and destroy his zombie army, sending them back to where they came from.

Hitler’s presence in the movie and the “golden haired supermen” that defeat him have led many fans online toward a presumption that DBZ is racist or has racist connotations.  There are other pieces of supporting evidence to their arguments within the show, but this Hitler reference will almost invariably be used at some point in an argument on the topic.

This isn’t an issue that will be settled any time soon unless Toriyama decides to join the conversation.

Yet so far we have seen how Goku, who is believed to be natively Japanese by the Japanese people, has crushed a Western Red Army, repeatedly stopped an Emperor from ever gaining power, changed the wicked ways of a fat Chinese Communist pig, and now defeated Hitler himself through his superior genetic offspring of “supermen.”

What’s noteworthy is that this scene was cut from the German and French versions of the film due to strict prohibition of Nazi emblems and references.  Likewise it was removed from the Hebrew version of the film to avoid the sensitive nature of the scene in relation to Holocaust survivors.  It was also removed from the American televised version shown on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block.

Recognition of these separate yet relatable events that are already within Dragon Ball has caused some fans to question Toriyama’s motives.

Did Akira Toriyama have ulterior motives?  Unfortunately the definitive answer to the question is unknown.

Keep in mind it’s a parody scene and is humorous, but it’s still there nonetheless.  Quite an odd thing to include in a major theatrically released animated film, and it’s not something you would ever see in a Disney movie.

Hooked Cross Z

Dragon Ball Z Logo

The Z in the Dragon Ball Z logo is very unique and unlike a regular roman alphabet Z.

The logo is something which has yet to be talked about on the net, and this may in fact be the first time anyone has discussed the logo in greater detail, at least from what my research has discovered.  I guess it’s just taken at face value, like many other logos.

This is my attempt to explain why the Z is drawn the way it is, as it is displayed promptly in every single episode, movie, video game and piece of related merchandise.   It is an iconic and easily recognizable logo and I am surprised no one has ever looked beyond its superficial value.

Perhaps you never gave it a second thought but it has some noteworthy aspects.

DBZ Logo Z

This Z has two unique elements.  These are notably the hooked cross ends and the slanted cross in the middle.

The hooked cross ends of the Z in the logo are the ends that point both diagonally up and down, like the German hooked cross (German: Hakenkreuz).  A normal Z does not have these, and these two ends appear similar to a single hooked cross.

Please remember that the Swastika was two hooked crosses placed on top of one another and inverted.  I am not implying that the Z logo is a Swastika, rather I am saying that it resembles a single hooked cross.  If you placed another Z on top of the original than it would resemble a stylized swastika, but this is never seen in the series and a presupposition like that should not be made.  The Z just is what it is.

The second element is the slanted cross in the middle of the Z.  The cross is slanted from the top left to the bottom right in a form similar to a Russian cross.

Russian Cross

A Russian cross is a variant of the familiar Latin cross, and is a three tiered cross (a Latin cross is one tiered).  The Russian cross’s first tier is a horizontal line near the top that stretches across half the horizontal distance.  The second tier is placed just beneath it and stretches all of the horizontal distance.  The third tier is short and placed near the bottom, where Jesus’ feet would have hung while on the Cross.  It is slanted from the top left to the bottom right.

There are different interpretations as to what the slanted cross means in the Biblical sense, but I’ll leave those to the Biblical scholars.

What does it mean in Dragon Ball Z?  Nothing as far as I can tell.  There does not appear to be any correlation between the slanted cross and the contents of the Dragon Ball series.

But in researching Z’s and their overall meaning I found that the Z is often associated with the lightning bolt, and a Z with a horizontal cross in the middle of it was once used by Hitler to denote his Socialist party, as seen in the yellow on black flag (pictured).

Crossed Z Hanging from the Wall of a German Town

In addition, the Z and S in the German language are used interchangeably, as seen in the symbol for “SS,” two sharp S/Z lightning bolt shapes next to one another.

Furthermore, a single S or Z with a horizontal cross in the middle of it was the precursor to the use of a full double cross Swastika.  This is the single hooked cross.  At some point the single and the double hooked cross began to be used alongside one another.

Moreover, a study of Hitler’s signature shows that in the late 1930′s and early to mid 40′s he signed documents with an S/Z shaped lightning bolt shape, this time with a slanted cross like in the DBZ logo and third tier of the Russian cross.

Now all of that may sound very interesting, but there are no hard and fast correlations between Dragon Ball and the socialist party of Germany or the Nazi party and I don’t wish to make accusations or lead anyone to assumptions based on a small amount of conjectural evidence.  This is simply the best explanation I’ve come up with so far for the Z’s unique shape.

SS Logo

It’s entirely possible that Akira Toriyama merely thinks this particular Z looks nice and that it has no deeper meaning.  This would be in line with his usual explanations of doing what is easiest.  If he comes out and says something to that effect, then the mystery is solved.  But until he does we are left to our own devices to try and figure out why the Z is drawn like it is.

We are each free to our own interpretations.  I like to ask “Why?” and Toriyama likes to stay quiet.  So far this is the best explanation I can produce and I’m totally open to it being refuted with logical arguments to the contrary.  If you have a rational alternative explanation, then please let me know.

What do you think?  Does this theory make sense?

Whatever the case may be, we march onward…

One World Government

Dragon World

The goal of communism is to unite the world in a communist controlled utopia, ruled by the people.  The goal of socialism is state ownership and control of the fundamental means of production and distribution of wealth, to be achieved through restructuring existing capitalist or political systems.

The government in Dragon Ball doesn’t exactly fit the communist description, as it is ruled by a King, but the concept of a single united world government is still strong.

In Dragon Ball the entire planet is ruled by the King of the Earth, a talking bipedal dog named King Furry (Japanese name: King Koku) who resides in the World Capital.  There are several capitals, such as the Northern Capital, Central Capital, etc, similar to a Dynastic Chinese feudal organization system (Beijing, Nanjing, Xi’an, etc.).

King Furry seems to run things fairly peacefully and everyone appears to get along rather well.  Of course the world is not without its problems by any means and there is an army established to suppress any serious evils (such as aliens and super villains that attack the kingdom or planet) as well as city employed police forces and systems of law to handle domestic issues.  There are individual mayors within the 43 districts of the complete landmass, but they all pay homage to the king.

There are no other countries on this planet, and because there is only one large landmass in Dragon Ball it means that there is only one world government.  One government is in charge of everything, including (presumably) banks, schools, large farms and production facilities.  Private and smaller enterprises like local village farms and residential areas appear to be managed without supervision, such as Goku’s house in the mountains, but city life appears somewhat regulated, as almost every city across the world looks the same.

I noticed this same thing while traveling through China in 2003.  Were it not for the traditional ancient buildings, palaces and natural landscapes, all of the cities would look the same.  Everything created by the government had the same style.

King Furry

So how was this socialist utopia formed?  The country must have been broken up at some point and then unified and placed under the leadership of a king at another.  It’s not known when this happened, but no world of such diversity, race and culture could have been unified at the outset.  There must have been some type of social change which led to this grand unification.  But we’re given no evidence or hint as to what this could have been.  A large threat or looming crisis?  Military conquest?  A slow and gradual shift of power toward the few?  It’s unknown.

Now granted that it’s an immense landmass with great differences in environment and ethnic people, but it’s all ruled by the same talking dog.  Whatever that talking dog says, goes!

Conclusion

These were 5 communist and socialist elements in Dragon Ball.

Hopefully this article helped shed some light on a few of the more unique aspects of Dragon Ball and helped you think a little more about the series and its creator.

Perhaps Toriyama had more in mind when he created this show then is visible at first glance.  There are definitely some unique aspects.  Maybe he’s trying to tell us something and provide a message.  If so, what is it?  The unanswered questions are food for thought.

The neat thing is that you can still find all of these elements there today, so please feel free to watch the show and come up with your own interpretations.  I’d love to hear them.

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

5 Communist and Socialist Elements in Dragon Ball

Goku Faces Towards the Light

I recently received a question from a visitor to the main Dao of Dragonball Book site.  He asked “What of Falun Dafa is similar to Dragon Ball?”  This post reveals the relationship between personal cultivation, Goku, and Falun Dafa.

As visitors to the site may know, Dragonball is what actually led me into the martial arts.  I started with Shaolin Gong Fu, progressed into Tai Qi, and then Qi Gong, and eventually Falun Dafa.

As I practice Falun Dafa I am able to gain a higher understanding of the three universal principles of Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance.  Looking through these three principles at Dragonball, and Goku especially, I see a lot to relate to in my own life.

If you look at Goku through this lense, for example, you can see all three principles.

He is a completely True person, and he is very honest and genuine.  His mind is simple and straightforward and he does what he feels is right.

Goku is a very Compassionate person even when he fights his opponents, because he does not fight to win… He fights so that he does not lose.  The only reason he fights at all is to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and to simultaneously raise his level and improve himself.  Training and sparring allow both himself and his training partner to improve, and he places more of the emphasis on his partner, so that in time he will also rise up.  He thinks of others first and is so sensitive and broad minded that he can fight for the salvation of the entire universe and all sentient beings.

He is also a very Forbearing and tolerant person who can go through the most extreme examples of pain and suffering and come out the other side a savior, and he always gives his opponents more chances to redeem themselves.  This tolerance to allow their redemption even while enduring blows is what turns TenShinHan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Majin Buu, and others, into his allies.  He looks past the character flaws and directly into their hearts, and gives them time to turn around and walk an upright path.

Throughout Goku’s life he always takes the road of personal cultivation.  During this process he struggles with his inherent Saiya-jin emotion, compassionate human upbringing, balances his personal aspirations with responsibilities, and fights against external interference.

At each stage of his journey he faces greater and more challenging opponents and trials, and each one causes him to look inward and rise up to meet the challenge.  Goku is able to quickly and consistently improve because he is always looking inward at how to better himself in response to the higher standards suddenly placed on him.

On the other hand, Vegeta is always looking outward.  He constantly strives to defeat Goku, his rival.

When Vegeta pushed harder and harder to attain Super Saiya-jin, in a jealous and competitive response to Goku’s progress, it is noteworthy that no matter what he did he was not able to reach that level.  It is only while on the asteroid, facing life and death, alone, that he gave up his attachment to this pursuit and finally focused inward.  When Vegeta let go, enlightenment followed.  The void within was filled with something greater.  He lost the attachment, and he gained first level enlightenment.

Falun Dafa is a complete cultivation system that helps practitioners focus on looking inward, let go of attachments, correct incorrect notions, and eliminate karma.  Practitioners do so in the midst of society and do not shy away from conflict.  It is an extremely quick way to improve one’s character because it focuses directly on the mind.

As I walked the path of cultivation and watched Dragonball at the same time, I could not help but notice the similarities, and that is where the idea for The Dao of Dragonball originated.

The difference of course is that Falun Dafa is a cultivation system to be practiced by real people, and Dragonball is a cartoon show.  Dragonball cannot be used as true spiritual guidance, only perhaps for reflection upon your own path.  It’s simply that Falun Dafa was so powerful in helping me better understand the show.

Falun Dafa also helps a person better understand East Asian culture, which allowed me to see Goku’s beginning as Son WuKong, and his alterations from an Indian deity, to Buddhist hero, to Japanese pop culture icon.  Furthermore it is a grand awareness of all spiritual cultivation paths, including those of the West.

The Dao of Dragonball is a vehicle for explaning higher level principles and the meaning of life, and it does so through the medium of Dragonball, a pop cultural phenomenon that millions can relate to.

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

How Does Dragonball Relate to Falun Dafa?