The Dammed Anime

by Alvarez Mariela

The Japanese anime, Dragon Ball Z, has been one of the most watched animated cartoon on TV. It was first televised in Japan, in 1989 by Fuji Television, and then it was rapidly distributed to the rest of the world through Cartoon Network. The name “Dragon Ball” comes from seven magic spheres that being together, they call a magic dragon who grants wishes to their possessor. Goku, the main character, uses the wishes to save humanity from evil.

However, the end not always justifies the means. Goku is extremely violent and he slams his fist with rage against his enemies exposing his darkest feelings of anger and wildness. Blood seems to exit the screen and the violent movements of martial arts are constantly repeated images along the duration of the program. Also in the fight scenes, one can observe a high content of savagery and brutality and is evident that Dragon Ball Z ´s aggressiveness negatively influences children´s behaviour.

Taking into account the hours that the kids are in front of the TV set, the exposure to violent cartoons is as inevitable as the fact that they copy the aggressive acts contained therein. In the case of Dragon Ball, the ferocity of the images attracts the audience ´s attention to the point that they repeat these cruel actions against to their friends, family members and sometimes to their classmates. For example, the fact that Goku wants to demonstrate that he has more power than his opponents is something that many children tend to reproduce. When they see so many bloody stages, the traits of hate in the characters’ face, and the darkness perceived in the atmosphere of the setting, where actions are developed, they behave like their favourite character.

Toddlers are vulnerable to the attack of harsh cartoons like Goku, Krilin, Vegeta, Piccolo or Freezer. All of them are personages that fight between good and evil, and their characterization is so wild that it is difficult to distinguish between them, it is not easy to identify the bad and the good one. Children do not have any chance to choose  a pacific character to imitate, so they copy what they see. That is the reason why “Dragon Ball Z” encourages the youngest people to violence and disturbs their behaviour making them more aggressive and rude.

In other words, despite the fact that Goku fights to save the world from tyranny and madness, he is as rude as his enemies. That is what children see and repeat, the exposure to the Dragon Ball is so harmful that it poisons our children´s mind, and affects their behaviour in a negative way.