The famous Japanese manga series Dragon Ballwritten and illustrated by Akira Toriyamadraws inspiration from the Chinese novel Journey to the Westa classic of the literature of the 16th century. This work, traditionally attributed to Wú for the anonymously published during the Ming dynasty Around 1590, he tells the adventures of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang. The figure of Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey king protagonist of the novel, remember closely Gokuas well as the plot of the manga, born in the 80s and became an icon of pop culture.
The story of the novel “Journey to the West”
The 16th century novel, attributed to Wu Cheng’en, is the imaginative report of the pilgrimage of the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzangwho traveled to India in the seventh century to search and Collect Buddhist Scriptures. In history it is the Buddha itself that indicates the road to the monk, also providing him with protectors who agree to help him to atone for their sins: Sun Wukong (the “Monkey king“), Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing. Riding a white horse, the monk and protectors travel through a mythy version of China and India.
Dragon Ball and the novel that inspired him
Akira Toriyamaauthor of the manga Dragon Ballhe was clearly inspired by the novel at the suggestion of his publisher, Kazuhiko Torrishima. The story follows the vicissitudes of They are Goku telling us about his evolution, from child to adult, and his dedication to the study of martial arts: The heart of his adventure is the exploration of the world in search of the dragon spheres, seven magical spheres that evoke a dragon that fulfills the desires of those who collect them: a gluttonous prize, to obtain which he will clash with many enemies.
The character of Goku It seems to have numerous points in common with Sun WukongThe “Men’s King”with which he shares a superhuman force and the spirit of inner research, but also some physical traits, for example the tail; Bulma Instead it presents correspondences with Oolong Zhu Bajie, because of his transformative skill.
The text of the novel Journey to the West It is full of comic adventures, satirical and suggestive episodes settings who lent themselves very well to a manga rewriting. But the plot of Dragon Ball is certainly less spiritual and leaves more space for martial arts than the original version of the 16th century: second Torrishima, To create a success story, the publisher had to ride the wave of the growing interest in Kung Fuand proposed the films with protagonists as inspirational sources Jackie Chan And Bruce Lee. Torrishima believed that theChinese setting Of Journey to the West, Uncommon in the manga at the time, he would have made his production unique, but chose the novel as a source of inspiration also because it was a free intellectual property. Over time, many other texts have been inspired by this classic of Chinese literature, from Osamu Tezuka’s manga “The Monkey” to the anime “Starzinger” by Leiji Matsumoto, and in Italy, at the 2013 comic “Lo Scimmiotto”, scripted by Silverio Pisu and designed by Milo Manara.
