Hey guys, so odds are by now this is a pretty familiar topic of debate on the internet. Well I figured since DB Super is making Dragon Ball relevant again and Sonic's 25th anniversary is still in full swing it would probably be an appropriate time to bring up this fun little topic.
So it's pretty apparent just by looking at it that the Sonic series is pretty inspired by the Dragon Ball series. You may even say it's derivative. It's no surprise, the series' creator admitted to being a huge fan of Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball, so it's only natural that he expressed this through some of the lore and characters Yuji Naka kept building during his tenure as the head of the franchise. Some were subtle and cute, like having Sonic have a more or less similar personality to Goku, while others were a bit more overt and obvious, like Chaos Emeralds and Super transformations.
Despite those glaring similarities though, it still comes off as something entertaining to see and has really come into it's own for a long time now. I see it as just another case of greatness inspiring more greatness (such as Bambi inspiring Astro Boy...whole nother story).
But now for the fun part, actually identifying and sizing up the comparisons! I'm mostly focusing on characters since they're probably the most iconic and the source of a lot of these comparisons between the two series anyway. I'm interested in who you guys think is comparable to whom. A lot of these might seem obvious, but others have also been up for debate. I'd also like to point out that while it's more easy to see comparisons with the characters, objects, and plot points introduced while Naka was still in charge, you could still make some loose comparisons with Iisuka-era stuff too. After all, it's all in the eye of the beholder, maybe you've noticed a similarity that others haven't.
I'd just like to start things off with addressing what I feel are the most obvious comparisons and then offering some of my thoughts on some less obvious ones that you may or may not agree with.
First off, Sonic and Goku. Kind of speaks for itself. Knuckles and Piccolo also makes sense to me, not just in how their story arcs work (once an adversary to Sonic, but later becomes one of his greatest friends and allies), but also in how they are portrayed and even drawn. I swear to god, his brows are almost too similar to Piccolo's, and how many times have they both been depicted with their arms crossed, looking over the environment of where ever they currently are? It's just a little too dead-on to ignore. And of course they've got similar personalities, both not being too worldly, Piccolo not really being much of a social butterfly and choosing to spend most of his time meditating at the Lookout or natural areas, and Knuckles spending most of his life alone on Angel Island, not interacting with society too much. And of course, both tend to take things pretty seriously at times (well, except for Knuckles lately, even outside of Sonic Boom. They just seem to write him being very laid back in Generations and Lost World for some reason).
Shadow and Vegeta is also too obvious to write off. The only significant difference between them lies in their overall personalities. Both can be prideful and boastful, but to varying degrees, Shadow being much more reserved and reasonable at times, with Vegeta being much more passionate and quick to temper. Silver and Trunks are also very obvious due to both their appearance and roles in their respective stories. The main differences between them are their place in time (Trunks from 17 years in the future, Silver roughly 200 years at least) and their heritage, Trunks' parentage being revealed almost as soon as he was introduced while Silver's has been consistently kept unexplained. While comic writer Ian Flynn has speculated that in his opinion if Silver were to truly be considered the "Trunks" of Sonic's universe, his parents/ancestor's would have logically been Amy and Shadow, but considering how he's a comic writer and not one of the creators of the series proper, I wouldn't take that statement too far, it's mostly just another bit of fan speculation coming from another fan.
That does bring me to one of my more debatable comparisons though, Amy. Many would be quick to place her as being Bulma's counterpart, as both are pretty infamous for mouthing off at the other characters being considered largely annoying to most fans, but I would argue against that. I'm more inclined to compare her to Chi-chi, as both are infatuated by the main character of their series, both also have huge tempers and can be pretty judgmental, and both have had a history of having rather unique weapons (Chi-chi's axe-helmet and Amy's Piko Piko hammer). Both their love interests can get easily intimidated by them, despite knowing that they can easily overpower them. Goku has mostly been careful to be gentle with his strength around Chi-chi (well, except one or two times by accident) and I'm of the opinion that Sonic never really goes all-out when being pursued by Amy. Like, it's fair to assume that Amy has gotten fast enough to at least keep up with him at some points, but I have no doubt that Sonic can go faster than Amy can, and most of the time he isn't usually running in terror, it's almost in a teasing sort of manner. Maybe Amy wasn't wrong about him playing hard to get after all...?
Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now, I've already taken up a lot of space, but I'll offer more as you guys bring up your own thoughts. So what do you think? What notable comparisons do you guys make between both the Dragon Ball and Sonic series? It's been a trying week so let's try to break the tension with something fun, huh?
Hey guys, so odds are by now this is a pretty familiar topic of debate on the internet. Well I figured since DB Super is making Dragon Ball relevant again and Sonic's 25th anniversary is still in full swing it would probably be an appropriate time to bring up this fun little topic.
So it's pretty apparent just by looking at it that the Sonic series is pretty inspired by the Dragon Ball series. You may even say it's derivative. It's no surprise, the series' creator admitted to being a huge fan of Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball, so it's only natural that he expressed this through some of the lore and characters Yuji Naka kept building during his tenure as the head of the franchise. Some were subtle and cute, like having Sonic have a more or less similar personality to Goku, while others were a bit more overt and obvious, like Chaos Emeralds and Super transformations.
Despite those glaring similarities though, it still comes off as something entertaining to see and has really come into it's own for a long time now. I see it as just another case of greatness inspiring more greatness (such as Bambi inspiring Astro Boy...whole nother story).
But now for the fun part, actually identifying and sizing up the comparisons! I'm mostly focusing on characters since they're probably the most iconic and the source of a lot of these comparisons between the two series anyway. I'm interested in who you guys think is comparable to whom. A lot of these might seem obvious, but others have also been up for debate. I'd also like to point out that while it's more easy to see comparisons with the characters, objects, and plot points introduced while Naka was still in charge, you could still make some loose comparisons with Iisuka-era stuff too. After all, it's all in the eye of the beholder, maybe you've noticed a similarity that others haven't.
I'd just like to start things off with addressing what I feel are the most obvious comparisons and then offering some of my thoughts on some less obvious ones that you may or may not agree with.
First off, Sonic and Goku. Kind of speaks for itself. Knuckles and Piccolo also makes sense to me, not just in how their story arcs work (once an adversary to Sonic, but later becomes one of his greatest friends and allies), but also in how they are portrayed and even drawn. I swear to god, his brows are almost too similar to Piccolo's, and how many times have they both been depicted with their arms crossed, looking over the environment of where ever they currently are? It's just a little too dead-on to ignore. And of course they've got similar personalities, both not being too worldly, Piccolo not really being much of a social butterfly and choosing to spend most of his time meditating at the Lookout or natural areas, and Knuckles spending most of his life alone on Angel Island, not interacting with society too much. And of course, both tend to take things pretty seriously at times (well, except for Knuckles lately, even outside of Sonic Boom. They just seem to write him being very laid back in Generations and Lost World for some reason).
Shadow and Vegeta is also too obvious to write off. The only significant difference between them lies in their overall personalities. Both can be prideful and boastful, but to varying degrees, Shadow being much more reserved and reasonable at times, with Vegeta being much more passionate and quick to temper. Silver and Trunks are also very obvious due to both their appearance and roles in their respective stories. The main differences between them are their place in time (Trunks from 17 years in the future, Silver roughly 200 years at least) and their heritage, Trunks' parentage being revealed almost as soon as he was introduced while Silver's has been consistently kept unexplained. While comic writer Ian Flynn has speculated that in his opinion if Silver were to truly be considered the "Trunks" of Sonic's universe, his parents/ancestor's would have logically been Amy and Shadow, but considering how he's a comic writer and not one of the creators of the series proper, I wouldn't take that statement too far, it's mostly just another bit of fan speculation coming from another fan.
That does bring me to one of my more debatable comparisons though, Amy. Many would be quick to place her as being Bulma's counterpart, as both are pretty infamous for mouthing off at the other characters being considered largely annoying to most fans, but I would argue against that. I'm more inclined to compare her to Chi-chi, as both are infatuated by the main character of their series, both also have huge tempers and can be pretty judgmental, and both have had a history of having rather unique weapons (Chi-chi's axe-helmet and Amy's Piko Piko hammer). Both their love interests can get easily intimidated by them, despite knowing that they can easily overpower them. Goku has mostly been careful to be gentle with his strength around Chi-chi (well, except one or two times by accident) and I'm of the opinion that Sonic never really goes all-out when being pursued by Amy. Like, it's fair to assume that Amy has gotten fast enough to at least keep up with him at some points, but I have no doubt that Sonic can go faster than Amy can, and most of the time he isn't usually running in terror, it's almost in a teasing sort of manner. Maybe Amy wasn't wrong about him playing hard to get after all...?
Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now, I've already taken up a lot of space, but I'll offer more as you guys bring up your own thoughts. So what do you think? What notable comparisons do you guys make between both the Dragon Ball and Sonic series? It's been a trying week so let's try to break the tension with something fun, huh?
Edited by Hero of Light XIV