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Nazis
on Emerald City
by "RedRibbon"
Originally Posted: 33 August 2000
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Many
people know (or at least heard) that Akira Toriyama's masterpiece
Dragon Ball is loosely based on an old chinese folktale
about a monkey tailed boy, a desert bandit, and a 3-eyed
God. But is that the only allusion found on the Dragon Ball
Universe? Probably not. On the following editorial I will
go on detail on some of the allegories that I spotted, some
of them are pretty obvious and some of them weird but logical;
well, is not exactly an editorial, is more like one of those
magazine articles or a report or...whatever. In any case
I'm pretty sure that some of you while reading this will
be saying to yourself: "I didn't know that", or "Hey, that
makes sense" or "What the hell are you talking about!?".
Enjoy
-
The Wonderful Dragon of Oz.
Fifteen
years ago Toriyama introduced the pure-hearted kid Son Goku,
a strange little boy with a monkey tail, and a strength
far above normal men; however, what he doesn't know is that
he's from another planet, he's living on an alien world
that is not his own, he was supposed to conquer the Earth
but after the head injury during childhood he finds himself..."confused".
Goku, you're not in Kansas anymore! That's right! After
Goku meets Bulma, Son Goku's very first quest to find the
Dragon Balls is based on Lyman Frank Baum's "The Wizard
of Oz"... but wait a second, isn't the "Wonderful World
of Oz" an allegory itself criticizing the American Gilded
Age during the end of the 19th Century? I guess you can
call it an allegory of an allegory. Anyway, we already have
the innocent Goku/Dorothy (heh), when he/she suddenly meets
Bulma/the Scarecrow. Bulma as the Scarecrow? Well Bulma
is the brains of the team and the Scarecrow was the one
with the ideas that saved Dorothy and the rest of the gang
from danger, although he didn't have a brain. So now we
have Goku/Dorothy and Bulma/Scarecrow together on their
quest to find the Dragon Balls/the Wizard of Oz, and on
their way they find the Communist pig Oolong/the Tin Woodsman.
How is Oolong similar to the Tin can man? Oolong is a pig
that only cares about himself so you could say that he's
a cold-hearted pig or he doesn't have a heart at all, he
doesn't have any feelings, now the tin can man, he's noble
though, but he also doesn't have a heart. Finally the gang
meets Yamcha (or Yamucha)-he would be the lion- a man who
displays fear on those who meet his way but his appearence
is just a hoax created to stimulate danger on those who
oppose them, but deep inside he's just a coward teenager
afraid of...women! The lion also attacks Dorothy and crew
when she (Dorothy) slaps the lion, therefore reveling his
fear to everything; during the Oozaru affair on Pilaf's
castle Yamcha ignores his fears toward women and rescues
her and his friends from the awful Pilaf and his evil henchmen.
So they finally meet the dragon (actually Pilaf summons
the dragon but you get the idea), but after all their efforts
and adventures, Shen Long/Wizard of Oz cannot satisfy their
needs: on "The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy discovers that the
Wizard was just a fraud and on DB...they just were not present
during the summoning, except for Oolong, he got what he
desired most. It's all over, nobody got what they wanted...or
maybe they did: Bulma found a boyfriend on Yamcha, Oolong...er...met
friends that care about him, and Yamcha eliminated his fear
toward women; the Scarecrow found that he had a "brain",
the Tin Woodsman had his "heart" and the lion found the
courage he needed. And Goku? He found that he had a lot
of potential and followed Master Roshi's advice to train
him, he followed his own path to "home": to find someone
who could match his fighting abilities, defeat him and be
the best; Dorothy? she found her way to Kansas, too.The
End But they didn't get their wishes from the Dragon or
the Wizard, instead they developed these values form their
friendship and their adventures. So you see, Toriyama was
probably influenced by "The Wizaerd of Oz" while writing
Goku's first quest for the Dragon Balls and at the same
time putting the Toriyama "touch" that made Dragon Ball
famous. Hmmm...I really used a lot of "inverted commas"
back there, uh? Do not worry people, this is far from over
because there are many more parables and inverted commas
to come!
-
Kakarrot, the Man of Steel.
Deja
vu. Fifteen years ago Toriyama introduced the pure-hearted
kid Son-Goku, a strange little boy with a monkey tail, and
a strength far above men; however, what he doesn't know
is that he's from another planet, he's living on an alien
world that is not his own, he was supposed to conquer the
Earth but after the head injury during childhood he finds
himself...saving the Earth! Sounds familiar? It should....from
all the allegories or parodies this one is the easier to
catch. Son-Goku IS Superman! or in other words...Kakarrot
IS Kal-El (for all you that don't know "Kal-El" is Superman's
Kryptonian name) Heck! Both names even start with the same
letter! Of course, Superman was not sent to Earth to destroy
it BUT he was sent to our planet right after Krypto exploded
and same thing happened to Goku, Planet Vegita suffered
the same fate Krypto did, they were both sent to Earth by
their alien relatives, and both landed on the middle of
nowhere: Kal-El was found on some Midwest state by Pa' and
Ma' Kent, an old married couple, living apart from the rest
of the civilization (Smallville) and no children; Kakarrot
was found on who-knows-where by Son-Gohan, an old man, living
apart from the rest of civilization and no children. Both
were found on the same space pod-like ship (same "design")
both were raised by their old fosterparents with love,both
have only one weakness: Goku's tail and Superman is kryptonite,
they both thought that they were just like any normal kid,
or in other words, Earthlings; however, as they grow up,
they start to explore their roots, secrets are discovered
and revelations occur, at first they don't agree with what
they really are (Goku had never seen another human being
before, besides Grampa Gohan. In other words he's confused)
but after a while they start to accept it; thus, Kakarrot
and Superman become the saviors of mankind, "the most powerful
beings on the universe!Bardok is like Jor-El --Superman's
father-- they were both respected but both men were misunderstood
by their races: Jor-El tried to warn his people after Krypto's
inevitable destruction, but he was ignored, so he sent baby
Kal-El as far away from Krypto as possible on a space ship,
Jor-El stayed on his planet with his fellow comrades, as
Krypto bursts into space dust (I forgot why Krypto exploded,
probably a meteor shower ); Bardok was a soldier, father
of two, leader of his own underdog army of saiya-jin, he
suspected that his "client" Freeza would someday betray
his people, --thanks to his "visions"-- one day Bardok and
his troops were ambushed by Freeza's soldiers commanded
by Dodoria, political and "cultural" tensions have been
building up between the Saiya-jin and their uneasy alliance
with Freeza's Empire, it was just a matter of time... Bardok
managed to survived Dodoria's ambush, so he decided to attack
Freeza head on, he knew of his arrival on Vegita, the destruction
of his planet was inevitable, so he took his child -baby
Kakarrot- and sent him as far off Vegita as he could so
he would take on Freeza himself without worrying about his
son, he tried to warn the Saiyan Army of Vegita's destruction
but they laughed at him, the only ones who knew were King
Vegeta and the "Saiyan Special Forces"; NO soldiers, NO
troops, Freeza's spaceship was alredy on orbit, King Vegeta's
rebellion was crushed, Bardok attacked Freeza head on on
outer space, he went through Freeza's infantry on a desperation
attempt to reach the spaceship, Bardok tried to kill the
evil dictator but it was too late. Vegita exploded into
space dust...
-
Your Friendly Neighborhood Saiyaman
And
so the origin of Son-Goku closely resembles the Man of Steel,
defender of the American Dream, that was the Golden Era
. Now let's make a jump to the Silver Age: Goku has a son,
his name is Son Gohan, he grows up, studies and becomes
a great scholar in Orange Star High School. So to what famous
American icon does Gohan represent? that'll be your one
and only friendly neighborhood Spider-man! Another character
fom the Comic book industry, a young man bitten by a radioactive
spider during a science demonstration, nerd Peter Parker
becomes the Amazing Spider-man knowing that with great power
there's a great responsability! Sure we all know that, but
how is Gohan similar to Peter Parker? The Dragon Ball series
also resembles the Spider-books:
- First
of all, 1) they both have their secret alter egos (Great
Saiyaman; Spider-man).
- 2)
They are both boy genuises that attend school (Orange
Star High; Midtown High).
- 3)
The death of a familiar relative (Goku, father of Gohan;
Uncle Ben and Peter's parents)
- 4)
An overprotective person (Chi-chi; Aunt May)
- 5)
Girlfriends discover secret identity (Videl; Mary Jane)
- 6)
Eventually, girlfriends marry...or something like that.
(Videl; Mary Jane)
- 7)
Death is a joke! (Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Tenshinhan, and
the list goes on and on...; Aunt May, the Green Goblin,
Dr. Octopus, the Spider-clone, and the list goes on and
on...)
- 8)
Enemies turn into allies. (Vegeta, Piccolo, Android 18,
Tenshinhan; Venom, Puma, Black Cat, Prowler...)
There
may be another hidden similarities between the two, but
these are the most obvious ones. But maybe, the closest
resemblance there is between these two is their "origin".
When Peter Parker discovered he had these amazing powers,
instead of fighting crime, he decided to choose fame and
money, he made his debut on wrestling and then working on
television. One night, after making a TV appearance, the
arrogant Peter Parker failed to stop a burglar when he passed
by him, instead he didn't even care about the consequences
but a short time later he found out that the same burglar
he failed to stop broke into his house and killed his beloved
Uncle Ben, and so a grief-stricken Peter vowed to use his
powers for the benefit of mankind, realizing that with great
power also come great responsability. Gohan is a different
story, but same plot: During the Cell Game, Goku knew that
his son, Gohan, was the only one able to defeat the Red
Ribbon perfect biotechno-android Cell, Gohan achieved the
SSJ2 stage by letting his anger take over, he fought Cell
and easily defeated him, everybody tried to convince Gohan
to destroy him once and for all, but the arrogant Gohan
wanted to make him suffer; however, Cell was an unpredictable
foe, and made his final move by threatening to blow up the
Earth with an unstoppable bomb mechanism he had inside his
body, Gohan didn't eliminate Cell when he had the chance
and the world was going to pay for the conquences, he had
the power but he didn't act responsibly and so his beloved
father had to step up and sacrifice his life in order to
save the planet. Kaio's planet explodes. Casualties: 4.
The end.
-
"Heil Freeza!"
The
following parable is the hardest one to believe but the
most fascinating one of all. Wouldja believe that the Saiya-jin
Saga and the Namek Saga are a parody of World War II ? It
may be a coincidence, but it sure is a very strange coincidence.
How is Dragon Ball Z an allegory of the bloodiest war in
the history of humankind? Ok, first of all let's identify
our participants: THE ALLIED NATIONS: Goku, Krillin, Yamcha
(all the guys dressed in orange and blue) and Gohan/The
United States; Piccolo and Namekians/Britain and France;
Tenshinhan, Chaotzu, Yajirobe/other Allied powers; Vegeta/Soviet
Union. THE AXIS POWERS: Freeza's Empire/Nazi Germany; Saiyans/Japan.
Now the battlefield: Planet Earth/ the Pacific front; Planet
Namek/Europe. I really hope that the reader is pretty good
in History, that way it'll make more sense...Now let's begin,
the Saiya-jin saga, first all we focus on the war on the
Pacific, before attacking the American strongholds the Japanese
invade the European colonies on the Indochina region/Radditz
makes the first move and attacks Piccolo. Now the Japanese
make a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor causing heavy casualties
on American forces/Radditz arrives on Kame House taking
out Krillin and Goku. Japan takes Ameican hostages on the
Phillipines/ Radditz kidnaps Gohan using him as a hostage.
On the Pacific front, American soldiers start to weaken
the enemy, on the Indochina region English forces counter
attack the japanese/Goku and Piccolo fight Radditz. Casualties
are heavy on both sides/Radditz and Goku die in battle.
Allied powers are prepared to meet the opposition, Japanese
attack full force in an attempt to regain what is lost/The
Z Warriors train with Kaio-Sama, Nappa and Vegeta go to
Planet Earth. Japanese soldiers kill civilians (Chinese,
Filippinos,etc.)/ Nappa levels a city. With the help of
Australian and Filippino forces, Allied powers battle the
Japanese/With the help of Tenshinhan, Chaotzu and Yajirobe,
the Z Warriors battle Nappa and Vegeta. After Kamikases,
heavy casualties and nuclear weapons, Japan surrenders/After
the death of Chautzu, Saibamen, death of most of the Z fighter
and the Genki-dama, Vegeta retreats. That was the War on
the Pacific, the Marines win, yay! Now, the European front,
in this part of the story, the Saiyans are not the Japanese,
they're the Russians! BACKGROUND: Hitler=Freeza, with a
doubt Freeza is the representation of Adolf Hitler, they
are both evil dictators, militaristic maniacs, their name
means absolute fear, rascist, Freeza even sounds like Hitler
on the Japanese version, and rumors say...they're both gay.
Hitler hates communism, he hates the Russians, they are
his true and most hated enemy and he knows that he most
eliminate them before they eliminate him, so what does he
do? he makes a pact, the Stalin-Hitler Pact!/ Freeza hates
the Saiya-jin, they are his true and most hated enemy and
he knows that they're the only ones with the power to eliminate
him, so what does he do? he makes an alliance with them.
Hitler breaks the treaty of nonagression between Fascists
and Communits, invades Russia and kills millions and millions
of soldiers and civilians/Freeza betrays the Saiya-jin and
obliterates most of the Saiya-jin population. Hitler also
depends on his special forces: the Gestapo and the SS/Freeza
relies on the Ginyu force for special missions.GEOGRAPHY:
Planet Namek is Europe, Freeza's spaceship is Germany, each
Namek village is a separate country. THE WAR: The Germans
move quickly and easily conquer several nations on a very
short amount of time with very few casualties/By the time
Vegeta arrives on Namek, Freeza had already collected four
Dragon Balls without any difficulties. American forces cross
the Atlantic Ocean and arrive on North Africa/Gohan and
Krllin travel through outer space and land on Planet Namek.
The German army invades France, British and French troops
battle the Nazis, but they can't handle the Panzer division,
France surrenders,Allied men are saved at Dunkirk/Freeza
invades another village, the Nameks battle Freeza's soldiers,
but they are defeated by Dodoria, the elder Namek surrenders,
Dende is saved by Gohan and Krillin. Hitler started to make
critical mistakes, when he had already conquered most of
Europe, he decides to invade Russia, at first it seems Hitler
was going to achieve another easy vistory, but the Russians
fought back and defeated the Nazis and Finnish forces at
Stalingrad, changing the course of the war. Freeza started
to make critical mistakes, when he had already five Dragon
Balls, he underestimates Vegeta, Zarbon wins the battle,
but later Vegeta steals the Dragon Balls and kills Zarbon,
changing the course of the war at Namek. Hitler is getting
desperate, after the defeat of Nazi troops at Africa and
Normandy the Allies starts to advance on German controlled
territory in Europe, in a desperate move German troops meet
the Allies at the Battle of the Bulge, at first the Nazis
are succesful in their advance but after American reinforcements
arrive they lose their position/Freeza is getting desperate,
after losing all of his Dragon Balls to the enemy he summons
the Ginyu force, at first it seems that the Ginyu was going
to defeat Vegeta, Gohan and Krillin, but after Goku's arrival
he easily defeats them. The Russians invade Germany itself,
the Nazis can't hold the Allied advance, Hitler commits
suicide, Germany surrenders/Vegeta attacks Freeza's spaceship
killing everyone, the Ginyu force is defeated, Freeza gets
pissed off, Gohan and Krillin summon the Dragon. yay! And
the whole battle with Freeza? that's just Dragon Ball, is
not like Hitler fought the whole Allied army by himself
and transform and whatever. You could say that Guru or the
Great Elder or whatever you want to call him has that same
personality Winston Churchill had and Nail could be Charles
DeGaulle but maybe I'm getting too carried away.
All
of the allusions found above are just assumptions! Nothing
official. But are there any other allusions? Probably. The
rivalry between Goku and Vegeta could be called a parody
of the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet
Union during the Cold War, Goku was the first one to reach
the Super Saiya-jin stage then Vegeta followed, the US perfected
the Nuclear Bomb and a few years later the USSR had its
own nuclear weapon; The Red Ribbon Army is a parody of the
Red Menace, the Red Army, everybody was afraid of the communist
threat in the 50's and 60's; Toriyama also makes of fun
of religion, hell is a real nice place with road trips and
theme parks and then there's the Mr Satan name, Toriyama
also makes fun of the Japanese mafia on the early episodes
of Dragon Ball, there's an Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation
on Red Ribbon's muscle tower and a Frankenstein monster,
the RR Androids #19 and #20 wear traditional Russian attires,
there are also lots of stereotypes to be found. As a conclusion,
Dragon Ball is not appreciated to the skeptical eye, you
gotta give credit to Toriyama for his close attention to
detail and characterization, that's arguably the main reason
for Dragon Ball's success around the world.
Contact:
redribbon19@aol.com
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