Dragon Ball is the epitome of the Shonen genre, with tons of battles and escalating power systems. Goku is also the perfect protagonist, who houses a constant hunger for power as well as stronger opponents. The villains created by Akira Toriyama, however, are a completely different story.
There have been several great villains in Dragon Ball, including Vegeta, Majin Buu, Cell and others. However, very rarely will you feel true apathy toward these characters. Why is that so? Akira Toriyama explained in an interview.
Why Akira Toriyama Never Created a Completely Evil Villain
Dragon Ball has always stood on the slippery slope of inflation. Every battle in the series is grander than the previous one, and every villain is stronger by miles. Similarly, Goku’s strength also increases by leaps and bounds. In this setting of a fast-paced world, it is hard to maintain a continuous rhythm with new characters and villains.
It is extremely important to slowly develop characters in such cases and not just introduce powerful characters to who no one can relate. Thus, Akira Toriyama never introduced a villain who is completely black at heart and rather preferred antagonists who have a morally gray side to them.
The author stated in an interview:
There would be no sense of freshness if it were just a strong enemy making his appearance, so I thought I’d make a change in that pattern.
Akira Toriyama thus thought that just one capable villain after another would get too boring after a while. This is why he introduced morally gray characters whose development he can show over several chapters. These characters and the nooks and crannies of their twisted minds are far more interesting than any conventional villain.
To show you some examples: Vegeta was first introduced as an antagonist, but he later saw the fault in his ways and turned to Goku’s side. Even Majin Buu, who was supposed to be pure evil, had a cutesy yet innocent side to him. Granolah, on the other hand, was driven by his circumstances and did not know the complete truth before attacking the Saiyans. These characters might have been introduced as villains, but they eventually learned their lesson.
Goku Only Cares About Winning in Dragon Ball
Toriyama further justified that there was never any need for a purely evil villain, mainly because of the protagonist’s nature in Dragon Ball.
Goku’s basic rule isn’t defeating an enemy, but “winning”, so he doesn’t mind whether it’s a good guy or a bad guy.
Goku is always interested in battles and learning new techniques. He has learnt several power-ups as well as Super Saiyan forms and is a nerd for training. Goku is often genuinely excited to take part in a fight, regardless of who he is facing. He never cared about the nature of his opponent as long as he got a good workout.
So, why should Akira Toriyama go the unnecessary mile to create extremely evil villains for Dragon Ball? Especially when fans already liked the ones he had always created. As long as Goku gets to achieve a new technique and comes out victorious, the opponent’s intentions are not of utmost importance.
You can read Dragon Ball on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
