Dragon Ball: Body control and epic excess in manga and anime

Abstract

Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball mixes the sports manga codes with references to kung fu and action movies of the 1980s and 1990s, playfully appropriating them in order to build a Bildungsroman whose epic emphasis and dynamic layout underline body discipline. The animated version of the manga tends to emphasize the effects of the return of topoi and amplifies the duration of pivotal events. The transnational reception of this fiction generates misconception and re-appropriation. The physical suffering accentuating heroic determination was perceived negatively by some of the public, who expressed concern about the influence of Japanese cultural products on youth. The Japanese hero may also have served as an alternative model in the construction of a subaltern masculinity.

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