"jeffbert" wrote:Son Goku is a character in a very old story Journey to the West, which has been retold in various anime by various artists. Though I do not really think that Dragon Ball actually tells this story; if it does, I have yet to see that part.
Two thinks here:
Toriyama and Tezuka: Apparently, Akira Toriyama and Tezuka-sama shared a huge mutual admiration. Tori-san more than probably created the android of his other masterpiece - Dr. Slump -, Arale, as a parody of Astro, and Astro is refered in several jokes. On the other hand, Tezuka-sama, according to Frederick Schodt on "The Astroboy Essays", loved Dr. Slump, and he wanted to create the 1982 Astroboy series as an humorous auto-parody in the same vein as Toriyama's. This can be seen in the couple of chapters he directed there, and on the new manga chapters he made for the First-Grade Student Magazine. However, the idea of his production company prevailed upon his own, and it had that dramatic tone we all know and love (or not
).
Dragon Ball & Jouney to the East: According to a book about Dragon Ball, Toriyama first wanted to make the story following (VERY freely) the events of Journey to the East. Being this the case, intended to end it when Goku loses the 1st (or 22nd) Budokai to his own master Roshi, disguised as old fighter Jackie Chun, as Journey to the East ended with Sun Wukong discovering there was a a stronger being (Buddha, master to all) than the strongest being (Sun Wukong). However, the sucess of the manga made him change his mind and decided to take on a great parody of popular cinema: The Red Ribbon Army saga (with references to The Terminator, Game of Death and other martial arts films, The Spy Who Loved Me, the Universal Monsters, the WWII movies, the pirate movies and a long etcetera). Hope this helps
