Dragon Ball is a series that originally started out with a heavily comedic bent, and despite its evolution into a battle shonen anime, it has never truly forgotten that it's a comedy at heart. That unique mix of serious fights and character deaths with goofy gags and ridiculous names is a key part of what makes Dragon Ball so successful.

From the very beginning, Dragon Ball hasn't been afraid to joke around even about important topics. Bulma's Japanese name, for example, is "Bloomers," and she's one of the first characters introduced in the series. Goku fights ridiculous enemies, like the Rabbit in the Moon, or the entire cast of classic horror movie monsters. Even moving into Dragon Ball Z, Goku's son is named after rice, while his brother is named after radishes, and that's without getting to names like Vegeta and Frieza. These ridiculous aspects make it hard to take seriously, but it was never really meant to be.

Dragon Ball Became An Icon Due to Its Silliness

Dragon Ball Can Make Anything Look Cool

Akira Toriyama always thought of himself as a gag artist, not the purveyor of an epic tale of good vs. evil. No doubt this mindset helped to influence the naming conventions of many characters, such as the vegetable-based Saiyan names. Toriyama was always looking for somewhere that he could insert a joke, and a lot of the time, character names were an easy way to do that. It acted as a reminder to both himself and the audience that this story shouldn't be taken too seriously; Frieza may be a cold-blooded killer, but he's still named after an electrical appliance.

It takes a certain kind of writer to pull off this careful balance of comedy and drama, and Toriyama happened to be a master at it. Frieza is perhaps the perfect example of how he managed to create a terrifying, truly evil character, while still joking about his height. Buu managed to destroy the entire planet Earth, all while turning people into chocolates and being named after the magic words from Cinderella. It works so well because the jokes and the threat are kept separate; Buu may look and act silly, but his tremendous power makes him a threat all the same.

Dragon Ball also definitely understands when it's time to get serious and forego the jokes as well. The series generally won't ruin a real dramatic moment with a joke, but one still must contend with their silly names as a reminder that it's all just fiction from Toriyama's mind.

Dragon Ball Sets the Mold for Shonen Comedy

The Series is a Clear Inspiration for What Came After

Other shonen series often defuse tense moments with comedy as well, although few do it as well as Dragon Ball does. Fullmetal Alchemist is probably one of the series that handles it best, able to turn on a dime with a short joke aimed at Ed or a crazy situation that one must simply stop and appreciate the absurdity of. Often times the puns are a bit obscured in English; My Hero Academia, for example, has some absolutely ridiculous names, with Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu topping the list. His name is reflective of the word for iron (tetsu), referencing his Quirk, but it never uses the Kanji for iron.

While many have tried to emulate Dragon Ball's unique balance of comedy, action, and drama, very few artists have succeeded in nailing it the way Toriyama did. Toriyama's lack of seriousness when naming characters and places and willingness to fit in gags wherever he could kept Dragon Ball from becoming an overly serious affair, and that's a big part of what fans around the world love about it.