I managed to finish my Dragon Ball saga, watching all the episodes from the series just a few days ago, seeing them in varying frequency over the last several months.
I think I missed the Dragon Ball generation for a couple of years, and I spent my childhood times watching other, more recent anime series. Notwithstanding, Dragon Ball is a canonical memory for several of my friends, and after years over years of hearing about Goku and Vegeta and company from them, I decided to fill in that gap of collective memory, and started watching Dragon Ball for the first time in my twenties.
Ridden off warm childhood nostalgia towards Dragon Ball, I found the plot of the series to be thin to the limit of reasonability. Dragon Ball is pure afterwork (or afterschool, as it was in most of the cases) escapism, something to see after a hard day's work, to sit on the sofa and switch the mind off and let yourself loose on those martial arts/fantasy fights. Everything in between them is mined with plot holes, brusque changes of pace in the story and pure indifference from the creative team to keep such errors under a minimum of control.
So, what's the secret behind the success of an anime series so blatantly careless about the consistency of its story? I'd say that, even though the plot of Dragon Ball is so limited, the story is aware of those limits, and can even be satirical about its own weaknesses. It's a humble position that is lacking on most of today's top animes, and the great secret behind Dragon Ball's irresistible charm. Just try to name another anime's main villain who is so bad and so amusingly aware of its own maleficence as Piccolo.
And even though we can name all the plot between the fights in Dragon Ball as "fillers", something quickly sketched just to rush the viewers into the next epic battle, I can safely assure you that those same battles are (at least the majority of them) something noteworthy. The come out of each battle and the way they develop follow almost always the rules of predictability, but no one can assert that the animation crew isn't able to create some great action scenes. The way the characters are designed and move around the screen are brimming with adrenaline, and one cannot help but feel fully engaged on the fights.
Another stand out from the series is the character of Goku: his mix of naivety and unbreakable resilience may seem simple on paper, but sure is a winning formula. And as the monkey boy flies over the cities and towns on his magical Nimbus, filling the hearts of its inhabitants with hope in times of despair, you can be sure you'll also feel inspired to always put all of you in everything you do.
I think I missed the Dragon Ball generation for a couple of years, and I spent my childhood times watching other, more recent anime series. Notwithstanding, Dragon Ball is a canonical memory for several of my friends, and after years over years of hearing about Goku and Vegeta and company from them, I decided to fill in that gap of collective memory, and started watching Dragon Ball for the first time in my twenties.
Ridden off warm childhood nostalgia towards Dragon Ball, I found the plot of the series to be thin to the limit of reasonability. Dragon Ball is pure afterwork (or afterschool, as it was in most of the cases) escapism, something to see after a hard day's work, to sit on the sofa and switch the mind off and let yourself loose on those martial arts/fantasy fights. Everything in between them is mined with plot holes, brusque changes of pace in the story and pure indifference from the creative team to keep such errors under a minimum of control.
So, what's the secret behind the success of an anime series so blatantly careless about the consistency of its story? I'd say that, even though the plot of Dragon Ball is so limited, the story is aware of those limits, and can even be satirical about its own weaknesses. It's a humble position that is lacking on most of today's top animes, and the great secret behind Dragon Ball's irresistible charm. Just try to name another anime's main villain who is so bad and so amusingly aware of its own maleficence as Piccolo.
And even though we can name all the plot between the fights in Dragon Ball as "fillers", something quickly sketched just to rush the viewers into the next epic battle, I can safely assure you that those same battles are (at least the majority of them) something noteworthy. The come out of each battle and the way they develop follow almost always the rules of predictability, but no one can assert that the animation crew isn't able to create some great action scenes. The way the characters are designed and move around the screen are brimming with adrenaline, and one cannot help but feel fully engaged on the fights.
Another stand out from the series is the character of Goku: his mix of naivety and unbreakable resilience may seem simple on paper, but sure is a winning formula. And as the monkey boy flies over the cities and towns on his magical Nimbus, filling the hearts of its inhabitants with hope in times of despair, you can be sure you'll also feel inspired to always put all of you in everything you do.