Although other shonen blockbusters like One Piece and Naruto are similarly awash with adrenaline-inducing battles and swashbuckling heroes, Dragon Ball cemented its position as the genre standard, experts say.
“Naruto and One Piece are also popular overseas, but Dragon Ball stands out in terms of the number of countries that have aired the animation,” Kazuma Yoshimura, a manga studies professor at Kyoto Seika University, told AFP.
The comics have sold more than 260 million copies in Japan and worldwide, according to publisher Shueisha.
What also set Dragon Ball apart is Toriyama’s meticulously detailed art, Yoshimura said.
“He’s someone who did the job of mangaka, illustrator and graphic designer,” the professor said, citing characters and landscapes so richly depicted that they easily survived transformations into 3D mediums like toy figurines.
“Readers cannot simply take their eyes off,” Yoshimura said of the mangaka’s art.
“I think he was indeed a rare talent.”
“TRANSCENDING BORDERS”
Dubbed in different languages, the show over the years became a global sensation, capturing children’s hearts with its madcap battles won by the small hero as his power grows.
Encapsulated in the juggernaut is “the culmination of what entertainment should be like,” anime specialist journalist Tadashi Sudo told AFP.
“Toriyama knew exactly what everybody wants to read – adventure and the growth of characters,” he said.
Source: CNA
