Ask John: Why Do Americans Love Dragon Ball But Not Other 80s’ Shonen Jump Manga?
Question:
Although 1980s “Golden Era” Shounen Jump titles are famous in Japan and Europe, none of the big properties have made it big in America except Dragonball. Cobra, Doctor Slump, Captain Tsubasa, Hokuto no Ken, Saint Seiya, Otokojuku, Cat’s Eye, City Hunter, Kochikame, Kimagure Orange Road, etc. Many haven’t even been licensed for American distribution and those that have over the past two decades have not experienced success. Could it really be only DB appeals to Americans? Hokuto no Ken failed despite multiple attempts, so what gives? Did the rest of them just pass their cosmic expiration dates for new audiences that have never experienced them before?
Answer:
It would be possible, and in regard to certain titles, easy to individually explain why each of the major 80s’ Shonen Jump manga titles didn’t attain the breakout success of Dragon Ball in America. But that route creates the impression that Dragon Ball succeeded wildly in America only by default. It’s not my intent to imply that Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is characteristically leagues better than any of its contemporaries, but I do believe that there must be some characteristic of Dragon Ball that sets it apart from its contemporaries and makes it uniquely appealing to Americans. Calling Dragon Ball more accessible to Americans than its contemporaries seems superficial and simplistic, but that is, I think, the explanation. And it’s a little bit more complex than it may initially seem.
English speaking readers and fans are quite well aware that Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is heavily inspired by the Chinese Saiyuki fable. Son Goku is the monkey king who rides a magic cloud and fights with a magic staff. Also well known but frequently forgotten is Toriyama’s homage to Joe Shuster & Jerry Siegel’s Superman. Like Superman, Son Goku was sent to earth as an infant just before his home planet was destroyed. Superman gains his tremendous strength from the radiation of the Earth’s sun. Son Goku has superhuman strength and gains even greater power from the influence of the Earth’s full moon. Like Goku’s kinton cloud and nyoi-bo staff, the transformation into oozaru was largely discarded as the Dragon Ball story evolved, but the fact that these attributes were part of the early foundation of Son Goku’s character establishes their importance. So it can be said that Dragon Ball literally is Japan’s version of Superman. As Superman is iconic and representative of America, Dragon Ball is iconic in and representative of Japan.
The reason why such a distinctively Japanese work earned tremendous American popularity lies in its conceptual similarity to Superman. By their nature, Shonen Jump manga are the Japanese equivilant of mainstream DC and Marvel superhero comics. They’re both targeted at pre-adolescent boys, despite being appealing to readers of all ages. But titles including Hokuto no Ken, Otoku Juku, and St. Seiya don’t have equal American equivilants. Titles like Kochikame, Cobra, Orange Road, Cat’s Eye, and Captain Tsubasa don’t have mainstream American pop culture equivilants; aren’t within genres that have tremendous American audience appeal; and don’t utilize conceptual themes that have a great deal of resonance with American audiences.
The contemporary American success of Shonen Jump franchises including Yu Yu Hakusho, Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach demonstrates that American readers are receptive to fighting and battle action comics – the imported equivilant to Superman, Spiderman, and X-Men. Hokuto no Ken, Otoku Juku, and St. Seiya are overladen with homoerotic, exuberant masculinity that seems to appeal to Asian and European readers, but has never been well received by Americans. Dragon Ball, particularly the later half of the manga known to Americans as Dragon Ball Z, is the singular landmark 80s’ Shonen Jump fighting action manga that doesn’t revel in sentimentality nor musings on the philosophical nature of strength and power, and does star instantly recognizable iconic characters typified by chiseled muscles. In other words, Dragon Ball is the only major 80s’ Shonen Jump manga that’s stylistically similar to popular, mainstream American comic heroes. That accessibility and subconscious familiarity gives Dragon Ball a head start in American popularity that other Shonen Jump manga of the era don’t have and will never be able to overcome.
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“Cobra, Doctor Slump, Captain Tsubasa, Hokuto no Ken, Saint Seiya, Otokojuku, Cat’s Eye, City Hunter, Kochikame, Kimagure Orange Road, etc.”
Said it before, but Cobra, City Hunter, and Fist were mishandled, which is why they aren’t doing as well as they could be here. But Fist seems to be finding a new audience, judging by ADV’s second re-release of the ’03 OVAs and acquisition of Raoh Gaiden. St. Seiya isn’t doing as horribly as it could be, if Viz is at least finishing the original manga. Otokojuku is doing horribly for the same reason Worst did horribly for DMP: Only people living on the east and west coasts in the U.S. would “get” gang culture. Dr. Slump tanked, because the jokes suck, and the art is too similar to American 80s comic strips you can read for free on Jim Davis’s site. And personally, I’d rather see Go! Go! Ackman here more than Slump, too. Kochikame is too damn long, and thus, expensive, for anyone to get into anytime soon. As for Captain Tsubasa, same problem as Whistle!: Americans hate soccer and sports in general. KOR, OTOH, was received badly, because non-hardcore fans likely didn’t take too kindly to Animeigo’s pre-order fee for the show. I think that, if given a thin-pack style release, or some Crunchyroll love, it might get a second chance at success.
And to be fair, DB actually bombed the first time as an anime. Furthermore, it wasn’t worth releasing uncut until that effing “adaptation” from FOX. [Don’t gimme that bs about legal rights. I know no one gives away syndication rights to anime for over a decade. Otherwise, we’d be waiting that long for uncut OP.] But anyway, Z came at the right time when American cartoons started to blow and were becoming “educational”, rather than educational. And even the action-oriented stuff became more dumbed-down, art-wise, to the point that it was clearly just used as a place-holder for ad revenue, rather than anything resembling content. [*cough* Transformers: Beast Wars and New Batman Adventures *cough*] So DBZ managed to fill the void of “cool” shows.
Anyway, while the superhero connection might be a factor, Superman’s not really that popular nowadays, because the stakes are rarely high for the guy. That’s why they had to kill him too, to get attention. ^_- DB works, because the main character’s a kid at heart, even into his adult years. And that’s always a popular cliche which Robin Williams and Seth Rogen have milked endlessly.
I’m also gonna disagree about the lack of equivalents. What about Mad Max, Clash of the Titans, Police Academy and Super Troopers, Saved By the Bell, Bend it Like Beckham, Rudy, 90210, and Total Recall?
It just worked I guess. Mostly everyone in school I knew liked Dragon Ball Z. The generation that saw it, hadn’t had much of anything good really. We had Pokemon, Digimon before that etc. Some stuff in the early 90’s. Its easy to see Akira Toriyama is a good character designer and his designs are attractive but I think its the action that gets people watching it. You know like your sister could watch Dragon Ball Z but she’d never go out and buy a dvd volume of Berserk or Naruto…
I hope I didn’t over-emphasize the similarity between DBZ and Superman. It wasn’t my intent to suggest that DBZ caught on in America because it was the Japanese equivilant of Superman. I only wanted to suggest that Americans may have found DBZ easier to relate to than series like Otoko Juku and Hokuto no Ken because DBZ shares some characteristics with American comics that other 80’s Shonen Jump titles don’t.
I feel the Superman analogy is nearly perfect. There are many similarities between Goku and Superman. From their origins to their actions.
I didn’t really get into DBZ (or much anime) growing up, but when I did finally get around to it… it did feel like an eastern take on the Superman mythos (I wasn’t aware of the Son Goku/Monkey King thing at that point).
This, in edition with Akira Toriyama’s art, I feel, could definitely be attributed to the success of Dragonball (Z).