"Why Black Men Love Dragon Ball Z"

[K.Dot]

I fukking died at the title of the article alone.


Why Black Men Love Dragon Ball Z

My older brother watched Dragon Ball Z every day growing up, and I still hear young black men talking about it all the time. On the train, I hear black teenage boys sharing their takes on Dragon Ball fighting games. When I black men my age, ones who scoff at my love of anime, they still know what I’m talking about if I mention Saiyans.

In conversations I’ve had with black male Dragon Ball Z fans, I’ve heard how the show lured them in with over the top fights, and how, as adults, they realize it also helped them mature emotionally.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO,

For Malcolm Jones, an engineer at Adobe who describes himself as a “techie nerd,” he sees similarities between Dragon Ball Z and “hood classics” like Scarface, Set It Off and even Blade.

I cant breathe

Dragon Ball Z tells the story of an underdog and outsider. In his book The Tao of Wu, the rapper Rza says the story of Dragon Ball Z, “represents the journey of the black man.”

“You see it more clearly as the story goes on,” he writes. “Son Goku has super powers and doesn’t realize it—a head injury destroyed his memory, robbed his knowledge of self. Then one day, gets stressed beyond his limits and Hulks out into his alter ego, Super Saiyan—a nikka with dreadlocks.”

ALLLAAAAAH

Those of us that are black and born in the U.S., at least some of us to an extent don’t know where we’re from and I feel that is something that a lot of people of color can identify with.”

Black men don’t just like the show because it reflects the broader narrative of black history. It also helps demonstrate the lives they’re already leading. “I think black men like Dragon Ball Zbecause the show is so fukking extra,” said Rokashi Edwards, a game dev and freelance tech writer who has contributed Gizmodo. “I think that over-the-top lifestyle seems to attract black youth.”

“I think a lot of the characters in Dragon Ball Z are relatable to a black dude’s crew, and they might not even realize it,” he said. He compared Krillin to the dorky kid you hang with anyway, Picollo to the guy who’s real cold but you know still cares about everyone. “Vegeta, he’s the guy that roasts everybody in the crew,” he said. “He’s got love for everybody, but he sees himself as, a level of different from everyone else.”

 

[Majestic]

Anime in general goat

 

[GrindMode]

 

[Big Brown Areola]

Original DB>>>>DBZ

 

[The Fade]

You can honestly relate that Frieza/Planet Vegeta shyt to colonization and Cointelpro. That's really the only part that has levels

 

[SuperGrizzy]

 

[Rusty$hackleford]

What in the entire fukk

@Lover of Anime

 

[SuperGrizzy]

Any slander will get you

 

[FukYaFeelings]

Vegeta was on that shyt


You're just a namek

 

[Steel]

The cell games

 

[Neuromancer]

 

[ben anderson]

DbZ>gantz(awful ending Christ)>berserk>one piece, AOT

 

[larsattack]

There was a point in middle school when almost every group at my school connected through dbz and would talk about the new episode. People would print out pictures and bring them to school

 

[75 Others]

damn the cartoon, DBZ: Budokai is the GOAT fighting game trilogy

 

[Boolean]

i don't have proof to back this but a couple of years i read a article about how Akira Toriyama wanted Goku & Vegeta to draw parallels to the dynamic of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X