Before and After Goku
There is anime before Dragon Ball, and anime after Dragon Ball. Akira Toriyama's creation didn't just popularize the battle shounen genre — it invented the template that every action anime since has followed.
The Formula
Tournament arcs. Power scaling. Transformations. Training montages. The rival who becomes an ally. The villain who keeps getting stronger. We take these tropes for granted now, but Dragon Ball pioneered every single one. Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen — they all exist because Toriyama drew a boy with a monkey tail searching for magic orbs.
The Transformation Moment
The first Super Saiyan transformation on Namek is arguably the single most important scene in anime history. It established the "power-up transformation" as the ultimate emotional climax — a device that has been replicated thousands of times but never quite matched.
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