MovieChat Forums > Dragon Ball (1995) Discussion > The thing I hated most about Dragonball

The thing I hated most about Dragonball


Don't mistake this for trolling, it's just some something I want to get off my chest.

I don't have a beef with Dragonball, it is one of my favorite shows of all time, however, like I said, it has one of the worst possible flaws I can imagine.

I'm OK with the fact that Akira Toryama kept changing the tone of the series, it went from a goofy slapstick kung fu comedy where nobody actually got hurt or died and even the mystical Dragonballs were used to comedic effect.

However, with the change of the tone of the series from going to mature, dark and graphic violence and the introduction of people actually dying, comes one of the things most despise about this show. It's a glaring flaw, perhaps I'm nitpicking here, but I simply hate the way this comic book and TV shows portray death.

In the world of Dragonball, death is treated, not as something tragic, but as just an inconvinience.

Sure, when someone dies in the show, it's meant to be tragic, but at one point, one character turns around and says: "Hey, we can bring him back using the Dragon Balls." and everyone magically stops grieving.

This goes from brining back Goku's best friend, Kuririn, to, in later iterations such as Dragon Ball Z and GT, bringing back entire civilizations!

First off, if you have lost anyone recentely, this aspect is both ridiculous and offensive.
And second, it pretty much makes the whole point of changing the tone of the serie completely redundant.

In the early days of the show, people never actually died.
Later one, people die, but they can still be brought back.

Why change the tone if you were never going to get out of your safe zone?

This later becomes painfully obvious that the scriptwritters didn't give a damn, because in DBZ, Goku is always one step ahead of everyone else, with when fighting a major villain, ussually results in everyone but Goku(or Gohan) getting killed off, but of course, the Dragon Balls make the whole tragedy seem absolutely pointless and unnecessary.

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[deleted]

I didn't really noticed that as much of a problem in Dragon Ball, mainly because it was explicitly stated that at the time, a person could only be revived once with the Dragon Ball and once they died again, they could not be brought back to life. Now where it does get problematic is in DBZ, where the writers do openly contradict themselves with allowing unlimited revival.
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Talking about my movie experience in here: http://astarisborn94.livejournal.com/

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People can't be brought back more than once, at least with Earth's Dragon Balls. But the Namek ones, as they are created by superior magic, allow a person to be revived anytime the Dragon Balls are reunited.

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I think they did it for two reasons that come to mind first (obvious spoilers, just to be safe)

1. it allows people to use even more powerful attacks. Nobody died at the beginning of Dragon Ball because the stakes weren't that high, it was just an abnormally strong child throwing some punches and kicks, that won't kill anybody. However, if people kept increasing in strength, and the characters willpower kept increasing, they're going to keep trying to endure stronger and stronger attacks...they'll eventually have to die. But of course they're not going to kill off important characters that easily.

2. plot device. The first time the Dragon Balls are used to revive somebody, Bora in Dragon Ball, it gives him motivation to finish collecting them. Once Goku had his 4 star ball and defeated Tao, there wouldn't have been much reason to continue on with the series. Goku didn't care about getting a wish, he just wanted the 4 star ball. He also didn't care about the Red Ribbon Army, but once they killed Bora, he wanted to defeat the Red Ribbon Army to avenge his friend's death, as well as to collect their dragon balls. When Krillin dies after the second martial arts tournament (technically 22nd) it gives Goku motivation to fight against Piccolo. (although, if Piccolo eventually collected all of the dragon balls and wished himself young then took over the castle, Goku would have probably tried to stop him anyways...but that wouldn't have been as interesting, would it?)


So yeah, basically, with characters dying more often, it just shows the enemies becoming even stronger, yet the Dragon Balls are used to revive them so they wouldn't have to kill off viewers favorite characters. Also, it makes for a nice plot device

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It's not offensive. My grandpa died right while I was in the middle of watching Dragon Ball, and the use of the Dragon Balls to bring back the dead did not bother me.

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I believe it's your right to be offended by the depiction of death. But that would probably mean you'd be offended by many comedies that deal with death in humorous or supernatural ways and typically make the penalty obsolete (i.e. Beetlejuice, South Park, Supernatural, etc.). Yes, I agree that the use of dragon balls to undo death lowers the stakes dramatically thus lowering the drama, but I find it hard to be offended.

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