dragonball, Dragon Ball Z, GT, Kaior Dragon Ball Super, nothing seems to be able to stop this saga. Worldwide success for more than thirty years, the license continues to attract people. A cine-concert is also touring France, with a visit to Lyon on Saturday February 11, to replay the most emblematic pieces of the saga. The show, accompanied by its symphony orchestra and Hiroki Takahashi original singer of the credits dragonballwill take place at the Halle Tony-Garnier.
And to believe the maximum capacity of the theater (17,000 seats), the license still appeals. “It’s a license that continues to live, notes Olivier Fallaix, manga and anime expert. The cartoon ended in 2018 but the manga continues to be published. People are only waiting for one thing, the announcement of the resumption of Dragon Ball Super on the television “.
Passing of the torch
According to him, the strength of the saga dragonball, is to be “intergenerational”. A real hit in the 1990s, the saga has marked the memories of many children. The oldest first, like Julien, who is now 35, but who remembers “waiting for his father to leave for work on Saturday morning” to “turn on the Dorothee Club “. But also younger people like Baptiste, 23, who discovered dragonball with a license game or Romain, also 23 years old, who remembers having come across “volume 42 at recess in CE1”.
A saga which, despite its different cultural references, has been able to construct a “story sufficiently well written and universal to plunge the spectator into the adventure”, specifies Olivier Fallaix. Son Goku grew up with his fans and allowed them to identify with him. For Issiak, 38, watching dragonball, it is “to see an anime in which the hero evolved”. A character who will marry, start a family and who for the children will allow “to identify with a protagonist of a similar age, capable of accomplishing incredible feats”, specifies Merwann, 30 years old.
Children, some of whom have become parents. The opportunity to discover in turn the heroes of his childhood. This is the case of Christophe, who started dragonball in 10 years. The 41-year-old father says he continued with his brother before resuming a few years later with his two children: “Every evening we got into the habit of watching one or two episodes as a family. It has become an unmissable family meeting that the four of us share. »
A work that stands the test of time
But for Olivier Fallaix, the success of the saga is also explained by its longevity. Akira Toriyama’s drawings have made the work timeless. According to him, it is “impossible to date dragonball allowing the saga not to be out of time: “Nothing changes, whether you look at it in the 1980s or 2020s. Its graphics are timeless and age very well. Children still love to read today. dragonball because the story works very well. »
A drawing ahead of its time which owes it a simple, refined graphic style, allowing the license not to seem old nowadays. For Merwann, “looking dragonball with children’s eyes” was “discovering a visual style that was light years away from the cartoons I could watch at that time”.
Today, the series is still one of the few animated series that requires almost no editing. Thus, by modifying few details to “modernize the line and the animation techniques”, the saga is renewed and seduces a younger audience, confirms Olivier Fallaix. An advantage that drastically distances it from its competitors: “If we want to please a current audience by changing graphics, we generally disappoint fans from the start. Conversely, if we do something like before, young people will find it too dated, ”explains the specialist of Son Goku and Cie.
Iconic music
Finally, if like Benjamin you were able to see at 30 the 291 episodes of the series Dragon Ball Z “a dozen times, or approximately 72,750 minutes of viewing”, impossible to forget the music.
If the last seasons may have lacked emblematic compositions, everyone more or less remembers the credits of their childhood. Benjamin remembers “being rocked to the rhythm of the music of Shunsuke Kikuchi”, Paul, 41, still remembers “the episode where Son Goku turns into a super-warrior following the death of his best friend Krillin” and “the poignant and mythical music” of the stage. This one, according to his memories, flabbergasted him and his brother.
For Olivier Fallaix, who has written a book on the most iconic film credits, these musical memories come as no surprise. This is even what sublimates the recipe for success of dragonball. “The soundtrack of the time is very striking because music has always had an important place in Japanese animation. It compensated for imperfect animation with dynamism and rhythm. And we heard them for almost 200 episodes…”, he specifies.
Now relegated to the background, music is less important in a world where children are “solicited by lots of programs” and do not “savor an episode as we used to [à l’époque] “says Olivier Fallaix. Yet it remains one of the key elements of a successful saga. It is enough to see that thirty years later, the most emblematic music is honored through film-concerts. Further proof that dragonball does not intend to disappear.