Dragon Ball 40th Anniversary
January 5,2025 | Written by jeremy "kokugatsu" griffin
2024 brought us many things, but it also took away many as well. But the hit Dragon Ball fans across the world took at the passing of Akira Toriyama hit deep. Last year marked the 40th Anniversary of the franchise as we took time to reflect on it. This was supposed to release last year, but instead we at The ZONE took time to offer tribute to Toriyama to remember all of his works alongside the DB franchise and the impact he had on anime and manga to make it what it is today. With news now that Toyotarou will take up the mantel and finish Super, Daima’s increasing success and Sparking Zero still dominating videos across platforms, now is as good a time as any to reflect on 40 years of the Dragon Ball franchise. So without further ado, let’s ZONE in on it!
History
Akira Toriyama wrote and illustrated the initial Dragon Ball Manga in 1984 and it ran all the way until 1995. There were 519 tankōbon (or manga) volumes that Shueisha published. The anime first premiered in 1986 and was the beginning of the biggest change in anime. The story was heavily inspired by the journeyof Son Wukong, the Monkey King, in the chinese novel Journey to the West. Toriyama was a big fan of chinese kung-fu and in the original franchise when Son Goku was a child, the story focused heavily on martial arts and techniques. We got to meet villains like like Tao Pai Pai and General Blue with growing and dangerous Red Ribbon Army. Things escalated as we see antagonists turn into heroes who become the legendary Z fighters that we love and know today, such as Tien Shinhan and the great King Piccolo’s son, Piccolo Jr. (who later dropped the Jr.) in the following series Dragon Ball Z. Would you believe that Yamcha was actually a big part of the story and his fighting style, Wolf Fang Fist, alongside his various techniques saved our hero many times.
Not long after, in April 1989 Toriyama was finally able to change the world with Dragon Ball Z forever changing the world of Dragon Ball for fans everywhere. DBZ hit the U.S. with such intensity, that it changed the view point of what the term “anime” meant here. Before anime was a big hit for little children in the U.S., with shows like Hamtaro, Sailor Moon, and Astro Boy, but in the 1990s, DBZ struck worldwide. Shuiesha and Funimation allowed for several different iterations for the show to be made which led to a worldwide blow-out. And our little Wukong- like boy was no longer a being from the heavens, but an alien from another planet. We were introduced to a plethora of characters like Raditz, Vegeta, Nappa, the Ginyu Force and of course the ultimate alien tyrant Frieza. We even got to open up and explore more for Piccolo and Kame with the exploration of Planet Namek and dive into the history of the Saiyans with Prince Vegeta. Toriyama intended for the series to officially end at Z with end of the Frieza Saga, but fans were too hyped and with money pouring in, Toriyama expanded the series with the androids, Cell and even the Majin Buu.
Here is where things started to take a turn. At the beginning of the Majin Saga, Toriyama was ready to end Goku’s story after Cell Saga, much like Vegeta after the Frieza Saga, but again, fans said otherwise. He tried to change Z back into how the original Dragon Ball was with Gohan, Goku’s son, being the new protagonist, but after straying so far away from the original idea, fans couldn’t get with idea of the continual jokes or Gohan being the protagonist. Toriyama was finally done afterwards and wanted to focus on other projects, but almost 30 years later, from 1996-2013, Toriyama finally came back with Super.
Between the end of DBZ and the beginning of Super, we had several other projects led off by fans: Dragon Ball GT (Grand Tour), Dragon Ball Heroes/Super Heroes, AF and that’s just to name a few. We haven’t even touched on the video games. during Toriyama’s hiatus from the DB franchise, the popularity and revenue continued to grow and grow and then finally in 2012 we got a snippet of something new which became the Battle of the Gods and soon after Resurrection F. We finally got back to the beloved franchise with an official continuation to the story. Dragon Ball Super continued to great success despite mixed views with various arcs. We got more movies and new characters that sparked even more fanfics and many more games that still pull tournaments today. Not long after we finally received the news for Dragon Ball Diama where Toriyama finally started closing all the loopholes that many fans have poked and wondered about. It is sad that he passed before the release of this new series, but glad his story is still getting told. Toyotarou has finally decided to finish up Super and I am absolutely excited to see what we have in store.
Influence
If you listened to our tribute, it was heavily mentioned that not just his work, but Toriyama inspired many of the manga and their mangakas that we have today. Today you can see Dragon Ball references (mostly the Super Saiyan/Super Saiyajin transformations) in tons of other media. Not only in other anime and manga, but various TV shows showcase posters in the background, characters doing transformations and attacks. MAX has Codename: Kids Next Door on there and I watched the episode where Numbah 4 turned Super Numbah 4 to beat the Hydra-Frieza morphed Delightful Kids from Down the Lane. It’s honestly funny that they went with the original Super Saiyan 3 design that Toriyama went with and we get a tease of this form in Daima as well (no spoilers!!).
We get to see that story for Son Wukong became the biggest influence in media today and I honestly believe that the 2024 Game of the Year Nominee, Black Myth: Wukong, would not have gotten as much popularity as it did this past year without the influence that Goku had to make people want to go back and visit the story. Don’t get me wrong, the game is fantastic, but the popularity that Goku brought back to the original story is what really raised the bar. in another example, Raiden from Mortal Kombat made people want to go back and watch Big Trouble in Little China again just based on the character design alone.
Once of my favorite iterations of the DBZ franchise is the Brazil version. Many people online constantly assumed that Frieza was a female and that was not error on us. in Brazil, Frieza is a female and they even re-drew their body shape to reflect more feminine features in each form. The change in dubbing is also hilarious, but no version of DBZ can top the infamous abridged version made by TeamFourStar. They went through a journey abridging DBZ from the begging of the Saiyan Saga all the way to the Cell Saga. They even have bits they pre-worked on for Super and was so awesome enough, they helped out fellow YouTuber TotallyNotMark by creating and releasing the Buu Bits where they had several abridged dubs of various segments for the Buu Saga. I still go back and listen the from time to time.
And of course the games are staple in fighting and con tournaments. There is never a tournament that does not have some form of Dragon Ball fighting game to compete against. In terms of games, there are very few households who do not have or have never owned at least one of the vast video games. Tournaments from the Tenkaichi/Sparking frachise back to the Budokai and as far as FighterZ, have been in major competitions and even helped either create or majorly influence the “House Rulez.” You have to have the rules and the main ones usually are that if you loose to someone playing Hercule or Yamcha—well then you better kiss your gaming career and street cred goodbye.
Conclusion
In the end, the Dragon Ball franchise his a major staple in the world today. Last year we celebrated the 40th year anniversary and the celebration of life for the infamous Toriyama himself. Rest in Heaven King. Your work will continue to be the biggest influence in the world as we move on to these awesome new games, anime and stories that have yet to unfold. Stay Nerdy Friends. Great things are coming and for now, we are ZONEing out.
all images used in this blog are not owned by zealots of nerd entertainment and are rightfully owned by Shueisha, funimation, fuji tv and the toriyama estate. all images are used for entertainment and self promotional purposes of our critizism only.