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40 years ago this week, a young boy with a tail encountered a young woman looking to use the magical power of the Eternal Dragon to set her up with a boyfriend. 40 years of training arcs, rivals-to-allies character arcs, and new variations of the Super Saiyan transformation. November 20, 2024 marks 40 years since the original Dragon Ball manga first debuted and changed pop culture forever.

Dragon Ball wasn’t the first anime to grace American television, but it was one of the first that didn’t get brutally censored and edited to make it safe for consumption in the West. Unlike Speed Racer, Pokémon, or the infamous Sailor Moon DiC dub, Dragon Ball was mostly intact when it aired on Cartoon Network. Some of the gore was replaced and lines were added to imply that characters just went to “another dimension” when they died, but it was still undeniably Japanese. Undeniably weird. Undeniably anime when we watched it.

Maybe that is why Dragon Ball was such a driving force for expanding anime’s fanbase in the West. It became a cultural touchstone in a way that few shows have managed since. Look around and you will see someone who has been changed by Akira Toriyama’s work. Daniel Sampere, who is best known for his work on Wonder Woman, told the Popverse Focus panel at New York Comic Con about his introduction to comic books. “It was like when I was 12, 13, 14, I don’t remember exactly, watching TV shows in Spain, like Dragon Ball, this kind of stuff. I started getting into comic books. First was manga, because of Dragon Ball, and then I discovered American comic books.”

Meanwhile, DC comic book artist Dan Mora has been sneaking Dragon Ball references into his work for years. The creators of Steven Universe were so heavily inspired by Dragon Ball that they probably should have paid Toriyama royalties. The animated series My Adventures with Superman borrowed liberally from Dragon Ball for their tone and animation style, going so far as to put Supergirl in an Android 18 cosplay when she is first introduced. For four decades now, the show has crept into almost every corner of the pop culture world.

It is hard to put into words just how complete the cultural penetration of Dragon Ball is, even when New York’s iconic Thanksgiving Day Parade float features a giant Goku balloon every year. The franchise has broken out of the usual restraints of anime fandom and burst into mainstream pop culture in a way few shows ever have. Noah “The Fastest Man Alive” Lyles has repeatedly paid tribute to Dragon Ball during his career, including dying his hair silver to channel Goku’s Ultra Instinct form for a race. Lebron James stood up and compared himself and his sons to the Son family without worrying that anime was too geeky or niche. Britney Spears has posted pictures of her son in a Frieza cosplay on social media. Dragon Ball is as mainstream as any anime could hope to be.

For four decades, we’ve watched Goku grow up, have a family, and save the world not because he is always the strongest but because he trains the hardest and, despite some worries about the series’ copyright status, that doesn’t look to end anytime soon. As Sean Schemmel, the voice of Goku in most English dubs since 1999, put it, “I believe a hundred years from now, there will be no anime bigger than Dragon Ball… It’s a special show that inspires those who don’t have a voice.”

Dragon Ball has changed pop culture forever, but it has also changed me. I wouldn’t have the job I have right now – writing about anime on the Internet – without it making space for anime in the West. The first piece I wrote for Popverse was our Dragon Ball watch order. One of the first anime I forced my wife to watch with me was Dragon Ball Z Kai – the best way to experience the show. The first bedtime story I told my son was the complete adventures of Goku through the end of the Buu saga. I still sing Cha-La Head Cha-La to him every night before bed. Maybe that's why he took his first steps in the shadow of the Dragon Ball hero on the NYCC show floor.

It is a franchise that has taken root in my heart and soul in a way that leaves room for few others; I don’t apologize for that. And why should I? Dragon Ball changed my life, and, for the past 40 years, it has been changing the world.

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