i cannot even put into words how much dragonball changed my life. i know he was responsible for other properties but dbz/db is what sunk its claws into me in my earliest and most influential years as an escape i couldn't get enough of
like idk man. i was a bullied neurodivergent kid back when ADHD and other assorted neuroses were "your kid just needs to be hit in the mouth and told to shut up" in the eyes of most. i was in a super white suburb where i had little engagement with my identity as a black person and the job of my parents to reinforce my roots was done with the poorest quality because they were too busy reacting negatively to me being a weird kid but never really teaching me how to figure shit out. my parents were divorced, abusive and made me and my brother wake up for church at like 5 in the morning. i liked art and hated math. i went on dbz fan sites and chat rooms between getting yelled at and having to show my parents my homework over long nights at the dinner table
you couldn't have created a better stew for the type of kid who practiced the fusion dance with his friends in the middle of the hallways and pretended to go super saiyan
dbz came into my life during the most traumatic period of my life and probably came in clutch to give me a place to put my attention while my mind was being flayed and salted by a world that didn't seem to want to deal with me. it bridged the communication gaps between me and others and gave me the ability to make friends with other people despite being a human social disaster
it also was the first cartoon that exposed me to the concept of long-spanning arcs and plot developments that had permanent (or at least heavy) effects on the series. you weren't getting a lot of that in american cartoon media where most things are resolved in 30 minutes (or if you were lucky, a 2 parter episode)
it fucking changed my art in ways i am still benefitting from like 25 years later. i learned about dramatic elements and story beats and would spend my free time drawing comics abt made up super saiyans that usually lost steam 3 pages in but was still fun for me. i once finished a whole comic that had my friends and i all fighting as super saiyans. i had to throw it away because my parents were furious at my schoolwork and disorganized manner. it was one of the few things i ever saw to completion
"weird niggas bonding with dbz" is a silly kind of trope but its one i can giggle with because its also extremely real. its hard to explain the specific brand of comfort it brought to niggas who didn't have a firm grasp of identity and weren't being given proper nurturing when they most needed it both at home and in schools. especially in the late 90s and bush jr. years where it was still just a matter of hitting your kid until they were normal
not to imply this doesn't still happen, but at least you hear more conversation than i ever did in 2001.
dbz was a home base in more ways than one and it can't be underestimated how much it stings to lose toriyama.
RIP unc. i think i can finally forgive you for creating mr. popo
P.S. sorry to the several printers i drained ink from bc i was printing out pictures of super saiyans for like 4 years straight