Eric Sun

Period 4
Language and Composition
Dragonball Z vs. Naruto - The Ultimate Showdown?
Watching anime has always been one of my favorite pastimes. As a child, I tuned in at

five PM every day on Cartoon Network's Toonami to watch Dragonball Z, a show about a man

named Goku and his friends who chase after "Dragonballs". These balls can grant one wish to

whoever collects all seven of them, making them targets of great interest to heroes and villains

alike. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood comprise of watching disproportionately

muscular super-humans and aliens fire colossal laser beams out of their hands while screaming at

each other. Many years have passed since then, and I now watch Naruto, an anime about a boy

named Naruto who wishes to become the leader of his village. It details the missions his village

assigns to him and his friends, who fight with ninjutsu (special ninja abilities). After the series

started its filler season (a series of episodes unrelated to the main plot), I turned once again to

Dragonball Z, in hopes of reliving those cherished moments of childhood joy. After watching

around 10 episodes, I found myself baffled at why I ever enjoyed Dragonball Z. I decided to

wait for the Naruto fillers to finish, because I realized I would rather gouge my eyes out than see

the plot of Dragonball Z unfold once again. For those entering the realm of anime for the first

time, it makes sense to find a series that will encourage future interest. If anyone suggests that

you watch Dragonball Z as an introduction to anime, he should be incapacitated and thrown out

of a helicopter into a smoldering volcano. Naruto is superior to Dragonball Z in almost every

way, and should be the first choice for anime newcomers.

Action

Perhaps one of the most important aspects in this particular genre of anime is action. One
of the greatest problems with Dragonball Z is its formulaic approach to combat. Almost every

combat scene can be summarized as follows: 1. Scream in constipated agony while doubling

muscle size. 2. Induce white colored aura around body. 3. Continue screaming in fury, pausing

every 15 seconds to take a breath to prevent asphyxiation. 4. If 10 minutes of screaming has

occurred, end the episode and begin the actual fighting next episode. While Naruto has filler arcs

to slow down the anime so it will not catch up to the manga (comic version often further ahead in

the plot), Dragonball Z is a giant filler in itself. Should one finish watching the excruciating

"power up" process, he gets about 3 minutes to witness fighters shoot different colored energy

beams at each other while teleporting around the screen and punching each other. Although

Naruto does follow a generic combat scene formula, it allows for more action variation than

Dragonball Z does. While ninjas must make hand signals to prepare for attacks in a similar

fashion to how characters charge up in Dragonball Z, they are done within two to three seconds.

There is also a much greater variety of attacks that ninjas will use against each other; the viewer

can always expect a new jutsu (technique) that will be unleashed. The animation for such

techniques always differ, and have new names when new characters are introduced. When

something like "Forbidden Technique: Twin Heaven Hell Lightning Tiger Hooves Fiery Ice

Fetus Crusher" appears in the subtitles, it creates suspense as to what this new attack will entail.

Will it be an elemental attack combining fire, lightning, wind, and water based elemental

energies? Since when do tigers have hooves? Will it possess an undeveloped fetus for a head, the

body of a tiger, and the hooves of a horse? Not only that, but the ninjas also have taijutsu (hand

to hand combat) which can mimic any thrills Dragonball Z provides for those who enjoy martial

arts. Furthermore, characters in Naruto will form multiple strategies combining ninjutsu and

taijutsu to defeat their enemies. In Dragonball Z, one strategy is established as the supreme law

of the universe: punch, kick, and shoot laser beams at someone until he dies.
Believability/Realism

It is all well and dandy for an anime to be unrealistic in terms of intricate explanations of

what we consider supernatural. The concept that some of the laws of physics in these fictional

universes developed differently than ours is easily digested. However, there are certain elements

that cannot be skimped on. As anime usually contains the subject of humans or beings with

human characteristics, it must account for human reason. Just because people live in a world

with break dancing Latin speaking tyrannosaurus rexes who can pilot gigantic space colonies full

of warring Pokémon, does not mean the universe they live in no longer needs to follow the basic

rules of logic and reasoning. Dragonball Z is a major offender of this idea with its battle strategy

of "charging up". Opponents will simply wait for their opponents to charge up before attacking,

allowing them to reach their maximum potential. For example, Frieza (an evil alien) allows Goku

(the main protagonist) three episodes' worth of time to charge up his ultimate attack, while the

planet they are on is about to explode. The idea of striking when an enemy is vulnerable never

occurs to the characters in Dragonball Z. Although one may argue that they do this so they may

fight each other at their best out of honor, this contention is flawed. The protagonists of

Dragonball Z are always fighting for the sake of the universe. Perhaps they should not risk so

much for the sake of honor? In Naruto, much of the action concerns finding weak spots in an

enemy's defense. Nobody ever gives time to an opponent to charge himself up for an attack, and

characters must find ways to keep themselves safe if they are preparing attacks. Many techniques

used in Naruto rely on deception and indirectness rather than just brute strength. For example,

the "replacement" and "illusion" techniques are commonly used to fool one's senses, causing an

enemy to think he is attacking his opponent rather than a log of wood. Fights rarely come down

to a contest of brute force as they do in Dragonball Z; intelligence plays an equally if not more

important role as it does in the world we know.

Characters

A problem that anime often runs into is that the main protagonists always have

exponentially more power than their teammates. This discrepancy in power is usually

compensated by a variety of means, but Dragonball Z makes no attempt at all to address this

imbalance. The actions or attempts at killing enemies by Goku's teammates have no effect on the

outcomes of battles whatsoever, and characters contribute little or none to the plot. Goku's

teammates are so useless that they cannot even weaken enemies or act as decent decoys before

Goku shows up. They drop like moths flying into an electric bug zapper, often by means of an

enemy finger flick. Furthermore, their ineptitude is not limited to just the battlefield, but extends

to their lack of contribution to Dragonball Z 's plot. Teammates spend most of their time failing

and being knocked out during battle, watching and remarking on power levels, or yelling in

exasperation something along the lines of "My God! Goku's so fast I can't follow him with my

eyes!" One of the few times a character actually contributes to the plotline is when Krillin

(Goku's best friend) dies in battle as the result of being a burdening paperweight. His death

drives Goku into a mad rage, causing him to transform into a "Super Saiyan", a mode that gives

him even more power allowing him to defeat Frieza. While the "injuring or death of another

teammate inspiring extreme rage thus leading to power gain" device is also used in Naruto,

lesser characters manage to find ways to contribute to the plot and action without dying. It is true

that Naruto (the protagonist of Naruto) overpowers the rest of his teammates and peers, but his

peers do a decent job of acting as decoys so that more powerful characters can catch the enemy

off guard. Not only that, but the useless characters are not disillusioned by their uselessness; they

know perfectly well they are burdens to the team. Sakura and Hinata, teammates and love

interests of Naruto, state to the team that they are ashamed of being unable to do anything useful

for their teams. Thus, they seek to become more powerful and end up becoming even better
distractions if not key players in ninja battles. Also being one of the most useless characters in

terms of combat, Sakura acts as a motivation for Naruto to keep fighting, as he promised to

protect her no matter what. Every character in Naruto has an effect on the plot or development of

Naruto's power, no matter how insignificant their role may seem to be. In Dragonball Z, the

characters aside from Goku might as well be the unseen civilians and bystanders who are

repeatedly crushed by collateral damage from falling debris caused by stray energy blasts.

Thus, Naruto dominates Dragonball Z in terms of action, believability, and characters. Its

action includes Dragonball Z's trademark martial arts and physical combat, in addition to a much

greater variety of attacks (ninjutsu) aside from giant energy blasts. Naruto also demonstrates

logical soundness in its combat situations; the fighting is more involving with the use of

intelligence for strategies and less likely to be ridiculed than that of Dragonball Z's. Even the

characters make more sense, as the most combat-challenged characters in Naruto still contribute

to the combat and plot, unlike those in Dragonball Z. Why include characters if they are only

going to emulate the behavior of vegetables? I look back on my seven year old self and laugh at

my stupidity and obsession with those over-muscular, raging fighters with questionable

priorities. Sometimes I wish I could just go back into time and kick myself in the Dragonballz.