View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Repositori d'Objectes Digitals per a l'Ensenyament la Recerca i la Cultura Folktales and Other References in Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Xavier Mínguez-López Valencia University, Spain ELCIS Group
[email protected] Departament Didàctica de la Llengua i la Literatura Avgda. Tarongers 4 46022 València Tel. ++34 605288430 Published in Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal, 9(1). 2014 Abstract: The aim of this article is to show the relationship between Japanese folktales and Japanese anime as a genre, especially how the intertextuality with traditional tales and myth subvert its conventional use. To meet this goal I have used Toriyama’s successful Dragon Ball series, which has enjoyed continued popularity right from its first publication in the 1980s. I analyse the parallelism between Dragon Ball and a classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West, its main source. However, there are many other folkloric references present in Dragon Ball connected to religion and folktales. The author illustrates this relationship with examples taken from the anime that correspond to the traditional Japanese Folklore but that are used with a subversive goal which makes it a rich source for analysis and for Literary Education. Keywords: animated TV series, anime, Dragon Ball, Japanese animation, Japanese folktales, Japanese religion, literary education, myth, narrative, subversion, Toriyama Corresponding Author: Xavier Mínguez López, Departament Didàctica de la Llengua i la Literatura, 1 Universitat de València Avgda. Tarongers 4, 46022 València, Spain. Email:
[email protected] Pop culture is too pervasive, rampant, eclectic and polyglot to be unravelled and remade into an academic macramé pot holder[...] It's a cultural gulf defined by differences in view of how cultures are transforming and mutating through transnational activity.