I don't gonna act like the show has no impact on the media, because it did. For good or bad.

But, I think the success of the series, at the least in México, was that before DB almost all cartoon shows the Main character used to be always a perfect model role, with ultra moral and almost perfect; then you met Goku a clueless, selfish, hungry, some times dumb, martial artist, who also is a good guy. A main character was not a perfect role mole, somoene who can do mistakes, somoene who can fail, somoene who can improve and funny because he reacts different than the rest of other character of the show.

When I was kid, I freaking loved He-man, but in the end of the day the guy never loses, but Goku can lose the Tournament, he is defeated by Raditz, Piccolo, even Yamcha beat him in some point, heck he even doesn't end beaten the bad guy in the end (Mr. Satan defeated Majin buu 2 times!).

Being so simple is the best part of the show, anywho in any point can start watching the show and understand waht in the heck is happening, my mother liked how Vegeta was obviously the "Guy who hates everything", my uncles ended calling everything japanese Goku, except 1 who actually liked the show, because is so simple to follow.

I think that saying that all heroes were infallible before guys Goku and Dragon Ball came along is a bit of an exaggeration.

Truth be told, the '80s -- the age of He-Man, Transformers, and G.I. Joe -- were full of a lot of heroes who seemed nearly perfect in every way. Albeit, that's not a bad thing. A lot of people still like Optimus Prime because he serves as a sort of father figure, which is played up a lot more than that "war hero" aspect a lot of later series would focus on. (and for that matter, the comics going on at the time made him feel more like that too) Giving kids someone to look up to and aspire to be like is not a bad thing. At that, when written properly, they tend to be pretty well-done characters too. '80s cartoons, however, probably shouldn't be praised for their writing so much as their imagination.

That said, there are a number of cartoon heroes that do have a more fallible side to them, even before Dragon Ball. In terms of action show protagonists, probably the easiest examples to fish out would be the ones adapted from comic books, Spider-man probably being the most prominent example. A large part of the reason the character is so popular is because Peter Parker's life sucks and is full of teen angst, something that certainly stayed true for his '90s cartoon adaptation. Outside of the action genre, a lot of the secondary protagonists from Mickey Mouse and Looney Tunes shorts tend to fall in the same boat. While Bugs Bunny is typically untouchable and Mickey isn't exactly heavily flawed, their co-stars, Donald and Daffy Duck are naturally fallible and it tends to be used for comedy. The same general thing goes for the star characters of a lot of cartoons lacking in continuity. Cinematic animation is also a rich source of "just a guy" kind of heroes, especially during Disney's '90s "renaissance" -- even most of the princesses they introduced then were far from perfect.

I think that anime in general has definitely had an impact on how westerners see "heroes" today, but to say that everything got turned on its head because of Dragon Ball is something of an exaggeration.

Hmmm let's see....i think i loved db/z when i was a kid...

I remember how my friends and me ran after school as fast as we could to get home for db/z xD...It was just awesome and i'm happy that i lived in that times...If i see TV now i'm like "dafaq"...what's that shit? XD ...My best friend and i loved db/z so much that we fought in school hahahahahaha...i was goku and he was vegeta. We ran to the toilettes made our hair wet to form it to ssj hair. Then we ran out and fought eachother....Not like for fun..we really hit eachothers face with fists until we bleed xD btw...we were just 6-9 years old xD

Our teacher were always screaming at us hahahahhaha...really miss that old days xD

for me it wasn't only entertainment...it was life! I really feel sorry for the kid these days....they just missed a legendary age^^

I remember stuff like that too. I kept asking my mom to drive faster so I could watch DBZ. Since a kid I loved the anime. I will remain like that forever.

It personally had no effect on me what so ever. When I first saw the very first episode as a child (When I say child, I mean like 6 or 7) I thought, "They made a Bruce Lee cartoon?" But then there were other cartoons (And anime alike as it's called now) that's had more of an impact than Dragon Ball, DBZ and GT.

As a teenager, the only thing I had outside of games that was remotely Dragon Ball related was the model kits, that you had to put together part by part and slip on the plastic clothing doused in powder.

Well DragonBall is where my Loving of anime began thats all i gotta say. I agree with Revolution the kids these days missed out on a cool and awesome show that no longer plays. Also kids now a days are about Yolo this yolo that....Or swag this swag that.....Its gets very annoying knowing that the human race is being intoxicated with stupidity.

YO MAN, I MEAN YOLO! I BE SWAGGIN ON DA STREETZ. I'M YOLO SWAGGINS <-- Kids these days.

Someone who understands, Thanks for the example by the way.

Fun Fact.

swag = secretly we are gay
YOLO = you only live once(by way I never seen/hear any one scream YOLO on a daily bases or at all)

My expression on you

fun fact, you're a tumblr user, or you'll now Realize that you're wrong.



I'm definitely extremely passionate about db, I'd say, I was always in love with the Instant transmission ability, that's notably the #1 ability in the series for me.

Though i'd have to say seeing Dragonball online back in 2010, had rekindled my love for the series.