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| Onward To Adventure! |
Well, duh!
Okay, so maybe cliche is not exactly the right word for it.
By current standards, yeah. Thing is, DB made most of the stuff we call cliches
now. DB is the trend setter. If you think DB has things you see in other Shounen, well, then it’s because, most likely, those things were inspired by DB
in the first place.
Maybe Dragon Ball wasn't exactly the first to use many of
the common Shounen tropes (Tournament Arcs, Naïve Protagonist, Time Skip,
Transformations, etc.) but it did make a lot of these things popular.
I mean, who doesn't know what a Super Saiyan is? Even if you
have never watched DBZ, chances are you have at least heard of this Super Aryan
power up!
But that’s not what this post is about. I mean, yeah, DB is cliche
in many ways. Even now, you can see traces of Goku in characters like Naruto and Luffy.
But in many other ways, isn't this a manga that did quite a few things
differently?
I’m not sure if I will ever make more of this type of post, but
let’s focus on something simple this time.
Losing.
The Shounen Hero Wins. Plain and simple.
Oh sure, he will lose like one or two times in the whole
manga to a rival character or a main villain. He might even lose in not serious
matches. When it’s “for real” though? Fate of the world, life or death and all?
Winning.
So let’s analyze Goku. Let’s look at the times Goku loses.
Not the times he fights and happens not to be 100% or something silly like
that. Hazard so hates that type of losing. It’s so fake. No, we are talking real
loses here, which means I am not including guys like Yamcha, Tambourine, or 19 here.
Goku vs Roshi
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| The Master |
The first time Goku really goes against someone who could match
him blow by blow. Also, he could blow up the moon when he really got going; so Goku
got a little lucky in this fight. This was an expected loss from a
Shounen perspective. The hero never wins the first tournament.
Goku vs Tao Pai Pai
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| The Assassin |
A new challenger appears, and he is good. A expected loss
before the required training in order to win in the rematch. Tao crushes Goku.
Takes his best Kamehameha and only loses his clothes. The guy is probably the
first “real” threat Goku faces in Dragon Ball.
Goku vs Tien
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| Square Triangle Beam! |
Okay, so this one is a bit weirder. If the hero got to the
finals last time, he is expected to win the second time. In the case of a
Sports manga, he will win the regional and lose at the national. In any case, you don't lose the same tournament twice. Here,
Goku loses for the tournament for second time against a new rival.
It’s a close match. Really damn close. Hazar vividly
remembers staring at the screen as a kid whispering, “Fall. Fall. Fall.” Hoping
to somehow make Tien fall faster. At the
end it came down to luck, but Tien won all the same.
Goku vs King Piccolo
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| The Overlord |
Expected. Come on, you don’t win against the evil King on
the first try. Piccolo’s overwhelming power is way too much for Goku. Obviously, he wins the rematch.
Goku vs Vegeta
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| The Rival |
I could count Raditz, but that one was kind of a win, Goku
dying notwithstanding. Dragon Balls and all. Anyway, Goku has trained. Goku is
ready. Goku still gets beaten within an inch of his life. Vegeta is a monster.
He takes everything Goku has and comes back for more.
Pure overwhelming power here.
At the end, it is an intervention
of Gohan, Krillin and a half formed Genki Dama that saves the day.
Goku vs Ginyu
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| The Captain |
And odd one. Goku has the advantage.
A solid one at that. Ginyu is one of the most powerful guys of the universe,
but Goku outclasses him.
So in a rare reversal, Ginyu
outsmarts him.
Body switching is cheap like
that.
Goku is left in a wounded,
nearly dying body. Meanwhile Ginyu leaves with a brand new,
stronger body. It’s only the aid of Vegeta, Gohan and Krillin (plus Ginyu not
really knowing how to work Goku’s body) that saves the team for certain loss,
but make no mistake, when you are left to die with
a hole in your chest...
Yeah, you pretty much lost that one.
Goku vs Cell
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| The Perfect |
One really awesome fight.
And one simple loss. Goku
gives up. Yep. Gives up. Just like that.
Now, Goku had been saying it
the entire time since he finished his training. He wasn't strong enough to beat
Cell. He said it. He really did.
But we were all expecting him
to do it anyway, because Hero.
He doesn't. He surrenders
because he recognizes he is up against someone way stronger than him. Which is
true as Cell demonstrates when preparing to fight SSJ2 Gohan.
Still one heck of a surprise. There is something incredibly alien about a Shounen Hero just shrugging and going, "No, I'm not going to beat that guy.'
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| Serious Face |
Now Goku doesn't really lose in
the Buu Saga. At least not in the way that I am counting for this post. However
the Buu Saga does introduce something else in terms of power.
The protagonist is not the
strongest.
The final battle is between
Goku and Kid Buu.
But Gohan, Buutenks, Buuhan
and others are quite a bit stronger than those two. In the end Buu’s weakest
form faces off against a weakened Goku for the final battle. Not that Goku isn't
strong, but the manga makes it clearer that there are/were way stronger guys in
the arc.
It’s an odd dynamic.
So there you have it. A
shounen hero that loses a lot and that doesn't end up as the strongest one in
the end.
If you compare to current Shounen manga, then Naruto has only lost once, Luffy has lost four times kinda,
and Natsu hasn't really lost.
Ichigo is probably the one
that comes closest in terms of “real” battles lost.
Yet, Goku still manages to
look really cool, despite having a large number of loses and not really being
the strongest in the end.
In that sense at least, you can say Dragon
Ball is definitely not cliche.
Final thing, huh, this may be
my longest post.
Final final thing, Yeah so don’t
expect an update tomorrow or Monday come to think of it.
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