Dragon Ball Z vs. Sonic Comparison= The Forgotten Comparison

[Yuli Ban]

We always compare things like Chaos Emeralds, characters, heroes, villains, super forms, and whatnot, but there is one comparison that is always overlooked! It's the true comparison between franchises! If you look at Sonic and DBZ, you see them both, always! If you're looking. Without further ado, here is Sonic and Dragon Ball (not really Z, though)- The Forgotten Comparison!

 

 

 

 

Looking at it, the similarities between '06 and Evolution are borderline creepy.

• Realistic characters
• Supposed to be a "Deep" Plot that goes nowhere and is actually marginally worse than some average fanfiction.
• Redesigns. Terrible. Terrible. Redesigns
• Supposed to be an "evolution" or "renewal" of the franchise
• Convoluted love plots that didn't exist before
• Horrible casting
• Horrible dialogue
• Who Is This, Not The Main Hero! They Made Him (and everyone else) Look Like Crap! (same with redesigns, but dammit, it needs to be restated)

But Evolution wins on the Suck-O-Meter, just blows the lid off the charts (one might even say, heehee... that it sucks OVER 9,000! Ok, we got that out of our systems) I've never seen such fail crammed into an 80-Minute movie. At least Sonic'06 had the decency to have good music and animemo cutscenes, and Sonic wasn't a 1-bit rip-off of Peter Parker; just Mario.

Sonic'06 is an Epic Fail that I still find myself coming back to at least ever so often for the music, cutscenes- and occasionally, the gameplay.
Dragon Ball: Evolution is a Mythic Fail I actually find tearjerking because of how brutally it fucked my childhood. Seriously, DB Evolution= Fuck the fuck off.

 

Even Eggman was recognizable in '06. He looked like he was raped by Chaos, but you knew that was him. I didn't even know that I was looking at Piccolo until they used his name. Even then, my neurons were not connecting.

They also had clones. Chi Chi Clone=Mephiles? Just not as awesome/cheesy as Mephiles.

IN the end, you can't take away "Sonic" and just leave "The Hedgehog", because people would still know it's Sonic the Hedgehog.
But if you took away "Dragonball" from "Dragonball: Evolution", people wouldn't give a fleeting damn. "Evolution", for the Queen's sake, probably it would make them want to watch it more. What's evolving? Nothing in the movie has anything to do with Evolution, so it sounds mysterious and pointedly misleading.

Yeah. "The Hedgehog", for Xbox 360 and PS3. It's obviously Sonic the Hedgehog, ya knob! 
"Evolution" out in theatres. Looks like a cheesy action movie, and what the heck, who are these people? Why is that guy green like that guy from Dragon Ball Z? What's going on? Screw this, I want my money back. No, keep my money. I don't care. Get me out of here.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Sky Hedgehogian Maestro

[Zaysho]

Ugh, I've always hated Sonic/DBZ comparisons. While there may be some vague references in Sonic to Dragon Ball (notably Super Sonic, in appearance, the Sonic 3 special zones are based on King Kai's planet, and Silver is loosely based on Trunks, if Trunks didn't have his facts straight), but the connection really isn't all that deep. You can compare character archetypes, and find similarities, but you can do that with any piece of fiction from any medium, really. Hell, I made a connection to NiGHTS into Dreams when I was reading The Tempest in high school (though since it's been so many years now, I really can't recall how I came to that...).

 

On topic... what am I supposed to be looking at? I see a title screen for Sonic '06, but the other image isn't available. EDIT: Oh, OK, you're saying they both had something terrible associated with their respective properties. I see.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Zaysho

[Yuli Ban]

Ugh, I've always hated Sonic/DBZ comparisons. While there may be some vague references in Sonic to Dragon Ball (notably Super Sonic, in appearance, the Sonic 3 special zones are based on King Kai's planet, and Silver is loosely based on Trunks, if Trunks didn't have his facts straight), but the connection really isn't all that deep. You can compare character archetypes, and find similarities, but you can do that with any piece of fiction from any medium, really. Hell, I made a connection to NiGHTS into Dreams when I was reading The Tempest in high school (though since it's been so many years now, I really can't recall how I came to that...).

 

On topic... what am I supposed to be looking at? I see a title screen for Sonic '06, but the other image isn't available. EDIT: Oh, OK, you're saying they both had something terrible associated with their respective properties. I see.

Dragon Ball Evolution.

[azoo]

The only obvious resemblances between one another is Super Sonic (super saiyajins) and Silver (Trunks). I guess I could sort see the resemblances between DB:E and Sonic06, but DB:E was completely insignificant in the long run, while 06 was a mainstream series title..

 

Meanwhile DB:E was also so bad that it had its own ridiculously cheesy-bad charm (like Super Mario Bros: The Movie), while 06.. yeah, didn't.

Edited July 30, 2013 by New Age Retro Azoonky

[Zaysho]

I guess I could sort see the resemblances between DB:E and Sonic06, but DB:E was completely insignificant in the long run, while 06 was a mainstream series title..

 

In all fairness, didn't '06 effectively erase itself from continuity? Granted, the story was full of plotholes and inconsistencies anyway, and the ending is slightly ambiguous (does Sonic somehow remember the events?), but for what it's worth '06 "didn't happen."

[Tara]

DB:E came after Sonic '06 anyway, so it can't really be said one is an homeage of the other as you can with the Chaos Emeralds and Super forms.

 

Also, if we are to compare Sonic '06 to DB:E namely because of it being a silly, "mature" reboot, then we'd have to draw comparisons to every other silly, "mature" reboot.  It's not like DB:E is the only time this has happened.  Plus, your bullet points can sort of apply to just about anything, really.  I mean, sure, you could compare the two, but it's not an "uncanny connection" or anything like that.

[Tori Himemiya]

I do want to point out that while both are meant to be reboots in some way, DBE for the original Dragonball and 06 was originally this in mind for the Sonic series 06 still used elements from its series intact for the most part while DBE was more of a re-imagining of DB. For example DBE throws out the Pilaf gang (most of them anyways) and the Red Ribbon Army for Piccolo, the last villain of the series and Oozaru went from giant ass ape to Piccolo's servant despite Piccolo not knowing about the great ape and Goku not having a tail during the Saga. 06 does feel a bit like a continuation of the series yes but I guess its not as awful as DBE but that does have its cringe worthy moments obviously.

But I don't know where I'm going with this so I'm just gonna post for the sake of posting some random thoughts.

[TailsTellsTales]

My Sonic and DBZ for comparison selection.

Android 16 = Omega

Android 17 = Metal Sonic

Android 18 = Cream

Bulma = Blaze

Cell = Chaos

Chaotzu = Charmy

*Chi Chi = Amy

Freiza = Mephiles

Dr. Gero = Dr. Robotnik

*Goku = Sonic

*Krillin = Tails

Launch = Rouge

Majin Buu = Tails Doll

*Piccolo = Knuckles

Roshi = Vector

Tien = Espio

*Trunks = Silver

*Vegeta = Shadow

Xicor = Nazo

Yamcha = Jet

Yarchurobi = Big

*Strongest Comparison!

[Tani Coyote]

I'm a fan of both franchises.

I absolutely hate when people call Sonic "furry DBZ." Then I remember some people don't comprehend the concept of archetypes. Vegeta and Shadow are both antiheroes with their angsty personalities, but they quickly diverge from there. Silver may have some similarities with Trunks, but he's hardly the same and furthermore can't even get saving his future right. The list goes on.

Seven powerful items? That's not DBZ, that's everywhere; it's because 7 is a lucky number, because it is the number of God.

Only really valid comparison is the Super form which I believe we all know was intentional. Otherwise saying the two are the same demonstrates an enormous amount of misunderstanding.

As for the topic at hand: ultimately I think it's coincidental more than anything else. Modernising a franchise for a new generation is a fairly common practice. See the abomination that now passes for Chuck E. Cheese, or the tendency to redesign characters every 10-20 years in general.

[Mogtaki]

I think the problem is DBZ and Sonic both follow the very basic character creation archetypes and very typical obvious personalities attached to them. Both series seem to have very basic characters with very little if no depth with the stereotypes of fiction rolling in such as guy from the future trying to save the past, a broody and somewhat tragic anti-hero rival, an ill tempered but friendly rival, jolly best friend etc.

 

It's not a bad thing, just we could compare a lot of series with Sonic and DBZ under the same character archetypes. It seems to be something that's quite commonly found in fiction aimed towards children as if to get them used to these archetypes and learn to love them.

[Tani Coyote]

Looking at that, it really does make me wish Sonic Team would break out the pencil and paper and begin expanding on the characters' history and personalities more, albeit not to the point it becomes a soap opera. The more meat there is to the story and its characters, the easier it is to separate the franchises...

Though there will always be trollish types (often the same folk who doubt Sonic can be good and whose last game was 06) who say "furry DBZ," we can at least remove the comparison from the common person's lexicon.

[Tara]

In regards to complaints about people calling the franchise a "furry DBZ" you have to remember that in the United States, Sonic and DBZ were both prominent in around the same time period.  It's only natural to draw comparisons when two franchises that utilize similar tropes are both culturally relevant at the exact same time.

 

But I think any fan of Sonic would know that the similarities end at the similar tropes.  DBZ's method of story-telling is considerably different than that of Sonic.  Plus, there's no long, drawn out fight scenes and the characters and general world they live in are completely different.  So yeah, I think we all know that although they are comparable (sometimes intentionally as in the case of super forms), they're completely different.  But to an outsider looking in, I can see how they would look uncannily similar, which isn't really a bad thing if that's what gets them into Sonic.  It's when a non-fan makes the accusation that it is literally just a furry DBZ that it becomes vexing, because it shows that they have either never actually sat down and played a Sonic game or they only paid attention to the base properties of the one or two games they may have played.

[Tani Coyote]

I mean, if we're going to look at arbitrary physical qualities as evidence of a connection, then Knuckles should be Cell. Travis Willingham voices both, after all. How's that for a mindscrew? I can see Knuckles making echidna kind extinct by sucking them up through his dreadlocks already. And then, Tails goes Super Tails 2 and destroys him.

Also, Black Doom is Goku. Sean Schemmel you magnificent, talented son of a gun.

Actually, strike that. In terms of origin, Shadow would be Cell - he seems to have every main character's abilities and in abundance, while also being a "perfect" creation.

We can conclude that the moment one goes beyond the archetypes, the similarities pretty much fall apart and the "furry DBZ" comment is ultimately borne of not knowing the materials in question. What's worse is when the person stating such shows no desire of learning how wrong they are, either being closeminded or trolling, whichever.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[StaticMania]

Super Sonic is based off of Super Sayain(SSJ). That is the only official statement for any inspiration Sonic got from DBZ.

[Nepenthe]

I believe the leaked script for Sonic 06 directly compared Silver to Trunks as well.

[Komodin]

I believe the leaked script for Sonic 06 directly compared Silver to Trunks as well.

 

This much is true, yep. Pulled from the script in question:

 

 

   

　(The below is all temporary)

　A young male hedgehog who has traveled through time to change a ruined future.Despite coming from such a grim world, he is very forthright, and is focused on restoring peace to the world.

　

He's also able to get riled up, and this time around, he's going after Mephiles.

 

He possesses some special powers which can draw upon the Emeralds.

It is unknown how he got these powers, though.

Essentially, think Trunks from Dragon Ball Z.

[Kuzu]

Like it was said, both series have characters with very similar archetypes and roles so its natural for people to compare them. The comparison isn't unwarranted, but its still damn annoying.

[TailsTellsTales]

It not that bad if they are similar or not I like seeing how some characters are similar to other characters. What about people who call DBZ the non-furry Sonic? The point is they both are similar and different. They both are fun and that is why you see lots of people who tend to like DBZ or Sonic who tend to like the other one in.

Edited August 4, 2013 by TailsTellsTales

[Tani Coyote]

With DBZ and Sonic it seems it's a case of people doing the opposite of what they normally do in life: looking at similarities rather than differences.

Let's just do plot advancement. Each Sonic is mostly self-contained and doesn't consist of the villain going "Muhahaha! I am all powerful!" followed by the hero, "Haha! Now I am!" then the villain going, "I ate/absorbed character x so I'm more powerful again, muhaha!" then "I just gained the power of clusterfuckery, I'm stronger now!" then the villain going, "Noooo! My arc has drawn on too long so I'm going to get blasted to pieces now; I love corrrrnbreaaaaad!"

Ahem. Long story short, DBZ made its characters beyond the Saiyans meaningless (jokes about the contracting Sonic cast aside), and every arc had the exact same formula of "My muscles are bigger than yours, now they're not, now they are, etc." There was no cleverness whatsoever to how these arcs resolved - it was literally a dramatised going to the gym until you could curbstomp the guy. Every time you got your ass whooped you just needed to train more or pull a technique out of nowhere; to mix it up sometimes a friend was killed off but these deaths were meaningless given you could just revive them two episodes later. The series set itself up to fail because each villain had to outdo the last... which leads to a race to the bottom as eventually you run out of ideas.

For the record I like DBZ for nostalgia but I can still point out how terrible a lot of it is (the time travel shenanigans with Trunks' four timelines, ugh).

Sonic, meanwhile, usually has at least some challenge to overcome, and he hasn't had to do roids to do it; while he's gotten stronger given that he can destroy Chaos without going Super these days, it's nowhere near comparable to DBZ's powergaming contest. No matter how brilliant or dumb Eggman's scheme is, he will be foiled by at minimum, only two things: a run and a homing attack. The schemes mixing up avoids repetition, whereas every main DBZ villain had the same goal - world domination or destroying everything for the evulz - and the same way of achieving it: punching the other guy's face in to win.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[MugiMikey]

Seven powerful items? That's not DBZ, that's everywhere; it's because 7 is a lucky number, because it is the number of God.

 

Actually, as for the seven Dragon Balls, I remember Toriyama said he chose the number seven just because he felt like it. There was nothing special behind it.

 

I mean, if we're going to look at arbitrary physical qualities as evidence of a connection, then Knuckles should be Cell. Travis Willingham voices both, after all. How's that for a mindscrew? I can see Knuckles making echidna kind extinct by sucking them up through his dreadlocks already.

 

Travis Willingham only voiced Cell in a handful of games; Dameon Clarke voices him in Z and Kai.

 

Ahem. Long story short, DBZ made its characters beyond the Saiyans meaningless (jokes about the contracting Sonic cast aside), and every arc had the exact same formula of "My muscles are bigger than yours, now they're not, now they are, etc." There was no cleverness whatsoever to how these arcs resolved - it was literally a dramatised going to the gym until you could curbstomp the guy. Every time you got your ass whooped you just needed to train more or pull a technique out of nowhere; to mix it up sometimes a friend was killed off but these deaths were meaningless given you could just revive them two episodes later. The series set itself up to fail because each villain had to outdo the last... which leads to a race to the bottom as eventually you run out of ideas.

 

To be fair, not all of it followed the same formula. Things weren't radically different, but they weren't exactly the same either. Freeza and the Saiyans were out for power, fame, and immortality. The Androids only wanted to defeat Son Goku because they felt they had no purpose if they didn't follow their programming. Cell's goal was to prove he was the best, which is also why he took his time fighting the heroes and even let them have so much time to train. Buu wasn't really driven by anything; he was just a wild animal lacking reason with a desire to kill (Mr. Buu is different because he was being influenced instead).

 

Ironically, though, I felt the Buu arc was really good because there really weren't any villains for Buu to outdo; he just had to keep adapting to every new trump card the heroes pulled out of their sleeve, something which he did a very good job at. Freeza, Cell, and the Androids didn't really do that at all.

 

As others have said before, these two series share similar archetypes, and the "similarities" the OP listed are just coincidences that could be said just about anything else. At least it's not the same old song and dance that offers nothing new to the table, though.

Edited August 6, 2013 by MugiMikey

[Yuli Ban]

It's funny how everyone's discussion Dragon Ball Z vs Sonic "Sonic=Goku, Super Sonic=Super Saiyan, etc." per usual when the topic is about comparing Sonic '06 to Dragon Ball Evolution. But whatever starts a discussion, it's all good.

 

Also  you're all missing one thing that Dragonball does that Sonic doesn't and never will (and it's easy to overlook this)- in Dragonball Z, the strongest opponents are almost always the smaller ones. Think about it.

Nappa, a hulking mountain of muscle- PL is 4,000. 

Vegeta, a shrimp of a shrimp- PL is 18,000 and can shake the world apart.

 

Frieza restrained form- 520,000.

Frieza third form- god only knows, was it 1.5 million?

Frieza, final form, that robotic svelte thing- full power, 120 million.

 

DBZ destroyed the David vs. Goliath cliche. 

Sonic keeps it alive and well. The only characters that can wipe out planets are those that are the size of planets. You never see Super Sonic fighting Mephiles, do you? Yet when Shadow does fight Mephiles straight on... doesn't it feel a bit more like DBZ? "specially when Shadow goes Kaioke- er... Chaos Boost? Whereas when you're Super Sonic vs Perfect Dark Gaia, I never thought of this being remotely like DBZ. If it were like DBZ, Gaia would've been three feet tall. 

[Sparky]

It's funny how everyone's discussion Dragon Ball Z vs Sonic "Sonic=Goku, Super Sonic=Super Saiyan, etc." per usual when the topic is about comparing Sonic '06 to Dragon Ball Evolution. But whatever starts a discussion, it's all good.

 

Also  you're all missing one thing that Dragonball does that Sonic doesn't and never will (and it's easy to overlook this)- in Dragonball Z, the strongest opponents are almost always the smaller ones. Think about it.

Nappa, a hulking mountain of muscle- PL is 4,000. 

Vegeta, a shrimp of a shrimp- PL is 18,000 and can shake the world apart.

 

Frieza restrained form- 520,000.

Frieza third form- god only knows, was it 1.5 million?

Frieza, final form, that robotic svelte thing- full power, 120 million.

 

DBZ destroyed the David vs. Goliath cliche. 

Sonic keeps it alive and well. The only characters that can wipe out planets are those that are the size of planets. You never see Super Sonic fighting Mephiles, do you? Yet when Shadow does fight Mephiles straight on... doesn't it feel a bit more like DBZ? "specially when Shadow goes Kaioke- er... Chaos Boost? Whereas when you're Super Sonic vs Perfect Dark Gaia, I never thought of this being remotely like DBZ. If it were like DBZ, Gaia would've been three feet tall. 

Well, there is the fact that Sonic himself (and by extension, Shadow, Silver and Metal) are very powerful, yet 3 feet tall.

[NocturnalTwilight]

Well, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Yuji Naka was a huge fan of the DBZ series, so it's understandable how some things can be easily related.

 

7 Chaos Emeralds = 7 Dragon Balls

Sonic = Goku

Shadow = Vegeta

Tails = Krillen

Silver = Trunks

Super Sonic = Super Sayain

 

It just makes sense, nothing to get your jimmies all rustled for or anything.

Actually, I think it's really cool, because I love DBZ as well as I do Sonic. So did Yuji Naka.