He Great Saiyaman is a character who debuts in the Majin Buu arc, the last of Dragon Ball Zin 1993. And without realizing it, the creation of this alter ego of Gohan It was a kind of criticism of Akira Toriyama to modern Japanese culture, demonstrating how ahead of his time he was.
He Dragon Ball official site publishes an interview they did with the psychologist Timothy Takemoto, born in London, but of Japanese fathers. He studied in Edinburgh and moved to the country of his origins when he was 24 years old. His area of expertise is cultural psychology.
He has been researching Japanese culture from the perspective of religion, culture, philosophy, and more. Her main research topics include subculture (manga, anime, etc.), tourism, management and martial arts.
Based on his social knowledge, Takemoto analyzes the Great Saiyaman and finds that he is the representation of modern people in Japan. The land of the Rising Sun has always had a culture very marked through the centuries.
However, with globalization, customs changed, to the point that they consider that the Japanese have stopped being so oriental, giving way to their westernization (if you allow the term). Akira Toriyama has represented him since 1993 with the Great Saiyaman, who is a kind of parody of everything that is not a Dragon Ball hero.
“Great Saiyaman's costume and behavior have Japanese and Western elements. “This is very similar to modern Japanese society, where there is a mix of Japanese and Western elements,” says Professor Takemoto, according to the official Dragon Ball site.
In an extensive explanation, Takemoto differentiates what heroes are from dragon ball and those of the west. For the heroes of DC or MarvelTo give examples from the West, there is no middle ground except for some exceptions: either they are part of the good team or they are villains.
But in the case of dragon ball It is almost a constant to see how the enemies, who in their presentation are the very incarnation of evil, become part of the Z Warriors. It happened with Yamcha (Thief), Ten Shin Han, Chaoz, Piccolo, Vegeta, Majin Buu and even Dábura, who is the devil.
“In Japanese manga there is often no clear distinction between good and evil, and instead it seems that all the characters have something in common, almost as if they were part of a family,” says Professor Takemoto.
“Great Saiyaman hides, but he also has a flashy side where he shouts things like “GREAT SAIYAMAN!!!” while he does a special pose. The hidden transformation seems Western (…) How he transforms himself using a special watch is a very Western characteristic. In modern Western philosophy, it is said that there is a duplication of the self, and that the way to ensure the identity of this duplicated self is through spoken language,” he added.
“In the Dragon Ball series, Great Saiyaman is portrayed as a somewhat comical character. However, it seems to me as if this representation satirizes modern Japanese who have adopted too many Western characteristics and are therefore losing their original image of themselves,” the psychologist concluded.