The Compelling Reasons the Dragon Ball Franchise Has Endured For 40 Years (2024)

Few anime have maintained the legacy and staying power of Dragon Ball. The franchise's heroes and villains are familiar faces to even those who've never watched the series, the manga's fights are legendary, and multiple sequel anime have been released since the conclusion of Dragon Ball Z, including Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super. The franchise has spawned endless spin-off material, movies, and merchandise, and there are no signs that fans are losing interest in Dragon Ball anytime soon.

Dragon Ball has remained a cultural touchstone for 40 years, and it's no coincidence that Goku, Vegeta, and their friends are still anime icons to this day. Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z inspired nearly every shōnen battle anime to come after it, and the series' main characters, their adventures, and the lessons they've learned throughout the decades have touched hearts across generations. There's a good reason Dragon Ball has remained so popular forty years later despite changing so much.

Dragon Ball Created and Perfected Many Shōnen Tropes

Modern Shōnen Anime Owes So Much to the Dragon Ball Franchise

From Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, to Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, nearly every successful manga author of the past few decades has cited Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration. While Dragon Ball wasn't the first battle shōnen anime by any means, it was the first to feature many of the genre's most popular tropes. Both the original series and Dragon Ball Z introduced countless staple concepts that are now seen as clichés, but were once fresh and new; throughout their runs, the series developed these ideas to make them even stronger. The first arc in Dragon Ball, the Pilaf Arc, has more in common with gag manga like Toriyama's Dr. Slump than a typical battle shōnen. That said, even the Pilaf Arc introduces several iconic elements in quick succession.

Goku's defining traits of superhuman strength, purity of heart, simple-mindedness, and an endless appetite are all qualities that would later be given to protagonists like Hunter X Hunter's Gon Freecss and Zatch Bell's eponymous hero, along with many others. Master Roshi originated the concept of a wise sage who's also a pervert, which would most famously be reused with Naruto's Jiraiya; he also passes on his signature attack to Goku and the rest of the cast, the Kamehameha, which became the inspiration for every beam-based attack in anime and beyond. The titular 21st World Martial Arts Tournament also laid the groundwork for the series' subsequent tournaments, and for other series' tournament arcs, like Yu Yu Hakusho's Dark Tournament Arc and My Hero Academia's Sports Festival Arc.

The influence of Dragon Ball Z, specifically, on later anime cannot be overstated. Dragon Ball Z's narrative structure, style of bombastic combat, power levels, and limit-breaking transformations have all been imitated countless times. When it comes to transformations, nearly every major shōnen protagonist owes their respective powered-up form to Goku's original Super Saiyan transformation in the Frieza saga. The concepts of characters regularly dying and being resurrected, along with characters fusing to become stronger also got their start with Dragon Ball, and the rivalry between Goku and Vegeta defined what the relationship between a shōnen hero and their rival should be.

Dragon Ball's Characters Have Aged and Grown with Their Fans

The Passage of Time Can Be Felt from the Original Dragon Ball to DBZ, GT, and Dragon Ball Super

One of the most unique aspects of Dragon Ball is how it handles the passage of time. While many anime feature timeskips — especially those directly inspired by Dragon Ball — none do so in the same way. From the Pilaf Arc to the Super Hero Arc, the series began in Age 749, and currently takes place in Age 783, with timeskips having occurred at regular intervals.

In the first episode of Dragon Ball, Goku and Bulma are introduced as a twelve-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl, respectively. As of the Super Hero Arc of Dragon Ball Super, Goku is a 46-year-old man with two sons and a granddaughter, and Bulma is a 50-year-old woman with a son and a daughter. Fans have watched them, and the rest of the cast, grow up, and whether someone has been a fan of the series since the '80s or not, anyone who's been engaged with the series for a long time has grown up right along with them. Not only does this method of storytelling allow for a constantly changing and developing narrative that makes for consistently fresh arcs, but it bonds the audience with the characters in a way that a single two or three-year timeskip can't. Allowing an audience to spend time with characters throughout their entire lives is something very few other series have ever been able to offer.

Even more than Goku, no character embodies this aspect of Dragon Ball better than his son, Gohan. The introduction of Gohan at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z changes everything about the series, as he's given equal focus as his father. Gohan undergoes a completely different character arc than his father did when he was the young protagonist and acts as a child hero among adults, whereas Goku was the youngest kid among a group of teenagers. Throughout the series, Gohan grows into a teenager, and even briefly becomes the main character. By Dragon Ball Super, he's a married man with a daughter, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero slots him back into the role of main hero. Fans have watched not one, but two generations of the Son family grow up into great heroes, and seen the potential for the series expand beyond just the life of Goku.

Dragon Ball's Themes Have Resonated with Multiple Generations

There Will Always Be Someone Better – And That's a Good Thing

Despite appearances and the perception of the series held by casual fans, Dragon Ball is about so much more than simply mindless fighting and screaming. Goku, Gohan, and the other Z Warriors have all learned a variety of lessons throughout their years fighting against evil, and these lessons drive home the themes of the series. Dragon Ball isn't an especially deep series and it straightforwardly delivers its messages, but that just makes it easier for fans to connect with them. The core theme of Dragon Ball is that, no matter how hard someone works, there will always be someone better.

This concept was first introduced by Master Roshi during his training of Goku and Krillin during the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament Arc. The arc is centered around Goku and Krillin entering their first tournament. Master Roshi, disguised as Jackie Chun, fights to keep either boy from winning to cement the lesson that there will always be someone stronger in their heads. In the final battle of the tournament, Jackie defeats Goku, inspiring his lifelong will to always keep training and insatiable desire to constantly seek out those who are stronger than himself. This theme echoes throughout every arc, as every time Goku breaks his limits and becomes stronger than ever, a new, more powerful villain is always just around the corner. For countless fans, this attitude of Goku's is exactly what has inspired them to train and never stagnate in skill in their chosen talent.

Other prominent recurring themes in Dragon Ball are redemption and pride. A vast majority of the heroic fighters in the series began as Goku's enemies, if not outright villains, including Yamcha, Krillin, Tien, Chiatozu, Piccolo, Androids 17 and 18, Majin Buu, and Broly. While all these characters turn over a new leaf and become Goku's allies, Vegeta best exemplifies the idea that even the worst villain can be redeemed. Throughout Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta stops being a cold-hearted villain, moves on to being a ruthless anti-hero, and then finally becomes a true hero who cares for his family and Earth. That Vegeta is able to reach that point after betraying the heroes several times speaks both to Goku's compassionate nature and the theme that anyone can change for the better. Vegeta's pride is one of his defining traits and, through his transformation into Majin Vegeta during the Buu Saga, it's shown how worthless this quality is. Abandoning his pride and accepting Goku's superior strength allows Vegeta to be happy with the life he has.

With the upcoming releases of the Dragon Ball DAIMA anime and Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO video game, fans remain as engaged with the series as ever. Akira Toriyama's magnum opus is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary. As long as the franchise continues to stick to the tenants it always has, there will be just as much excitement around the series when it comes time to celebrate its 50th — and even 100th — anniversary. One thing is certain: Dragon Ball will never die.

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  Dragon Ball (1986)

  Son Gokû, a fighter with a monkey tail, goes on a quest with an assortment of odd characters in search of the Dragon Balls, a set of crystals that can give its bearer anything they desire.

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  Dragon Ball Z (1989)

  With the help of the powerful Dragonballs, a team of fighters led by the saiyan warrior Goku defend the planet earth from extraterrestrial enemies.

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  Dragon Ball Super

  With Majin Buu defeated half-a-year prior, peace returns to Earth, where Son Goku (now a radish farmer) and his friends now live peaceful lives.

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  Dragon Ball

  Dragon Ball tells the tale of a young warrior by the name of Son Goku, a young peculiar boy with a tail who embarks on a quest to become stronger and learns of the Dragon Balls, when, once all 7 are gathered, grant any wish of choice.