“Your greatest weakness can become your greatest strength.”
In anime, characters struggle with inner demons or physical weaknesses that make them feel insecure and prevent them from achieving goals. Yet when these characters overcome their adversity, they can finally be able to express who they are or in other words, “Free to be Me.”
To start off this blog tour month, I will be talking about finding strength in weakness by using the knowledge of Dragon Ball Z. Specially, I will be only focusing on one character because the character I have chosen is something that I felt like is worth talking about. It’s not Goku but this character had a bumpy start in the beginning of Dragon Ball Z.
I will try to keep the spoilers a minimum but I will be jumping around in the anime.
Strength: Physical and Mental
Before we begin, let’s talk about strength. The word strength can be both physical and mental. In physical strength, people uses their body to perform tasks like carrying luggage or moving objects around. Mental strength is different because it’s not something you can train by touch. Physical strength training requires people to practice by touching and repetition like lifting weights or working out in breathing with cardio training in treadmills, something you would expect from a gym or workout facility. Mental strength is different because it’s not about touching something, it’s more about focusing on fear or personal thoughts such as fear of heights or fighting. However, just like physical, it can be trained. If the person seeking mental training wants to be able live life to the fullest, they must be prepare to face their fears. It’s either fight it or just run away, this could also be the fight or flight response. Before I get sidetracked and start acting like PE teacher, onward to the blog tour!
Who’s the Topic Character?
You might be wondering, “if the topic character is not Goku, then who is it?” Drum roll please!
*drum roll* *drum roll* *drum roll*
It’s… his first son, Son Gohan!
Personally, I feel Gohan is the best representation of the topic because the struggles he goes through can relatable (if you have been through his life, I will be surprised).
Gohan – Peter Parker of Dragon Ball Z
When Dragon Ball Z first started, fans were introduced to Goku’s son, Son Gohan. I am not sure if the information was true but I heard the anime focuses on both Goku and Gohan in a parallel story. This is evident when watching the Saiyan and Namek Saga. Anyway, when we meet Gohan, he wasn’t like Goku where he could train and fight like the original Dragon Ball. Instead, Chi-Chi (Goku’s wife) wanted Gohan to focus on studying for school. This caused him be sheltered.
However, this anime also introduced the first villain, Saiyan who is Goku’s older brother named Raditz. Radtiz kidnaps Gohan and this causes Goku to team up with his first rival Piccolo to save him.
Gohan – From Bruce Banner to Hulk
After the fight with Raditz, Piccolo saw that Gohan had some hidden power inside them that helped save Goku and him. Based on his logic, Gohan can trigger his Saiyan powers from angry or fear emotions which causes his him to do a series headbutt or energy blast. To prepare for the upcoming Saiyans, Piccolo trains this sheltered boy and teach him to fight like his father and him. It was not easy since he had to survive on his own against Piccolo and dinosaurs.
During the fight with the Saiyans, Gohan was still too scared to fight and he was unable to help Piccolo and the others. Whenever, Gohan does use his emotions to fight back, he only gets strong for a brief moment before he exhausts himself and leaving him vulnerable.
In the Namek Saga, Gohan and Krillin meets the Grand Elder of the Namekians named Guru and gets his powers awakened to new heights. This makes them stronger but unfortunately, it doesn’t help that much when they face the Ginyu Force and Frieza. Skipping ahead to fighting Frieza (in his Second Form), after believing Krillin died (the first time), Gohan once again gets angery and fights Frieza and does some major damage on him. This happens again when Piccolo is pinned down from Frieza (Third Form) and Gohan jumps into take on the alien overlord. Even though Gohan wasn’t strong enough to kill Frieza, his emotions got the best of him and causes to fight without thinking.
In these two Sagas, we see that Gohan can fight but he has yet to control himself.
Gohan – Captain America
In the Cell Saga, Goku decides to train Gohan and help him become a Super Saiyan and also prep him for the upcoming Cell Games, a tournament where fighters from all over the world fight against Cell and save the world. Gohan was able to become Super Saiyan but strange enough is that Goku sends him to fight against Cell and convinced him that Gohan is stronger than him. During the fight, Gohan tells Cell that the reason why Goku sent him to fight because whenever he gets angry, he gets strong. To test that, Cell creates mini versions of himself called Cell Jrs. and makes them fight against Z-Warriors in order to make Gohan mad. Gohan tries to hold back his emotions and doesn’t want to fight but thanks to a short talk with the destroyed Android 16, he changed. In his last speech, 16 tells Gohan that even though he is a gentle person who refuses to fight, he needs to let go and fight. Fighting doesn’t always have to be a senseless match but it can be a good thing. To save life, you need to fight for the life and it’s not a sin to fight for a right cause.
After Cell destroyed Android 16, this was the final straw and Gohan let go all of his emotions and learn to transform into Super Saiyan 2. With this form, Gohan killed all the Cell Jrs. and overpowered Cell. By the time the Cell Saga ends, Gohan gained some new powers and in which he uses it to defend and safe the Earth without Goku alive.
Conclusion
Dragon Ball Z is more than just an anime where you watch people fight each other in high-speed combat, Dragon Ball Z shows the audience what happens when you are faced an against an obstacle and having to deal with the stress of situation. Unlike Gokue, Gohan is a Saiyan with real life human traits and reasoning, such as the fear of fighting and trying to resolve his emotions. Just like humans, Gohan starts off being afraid of new challenges and forces to act without thinking. However, thanks to listening to wisdom and doing intense training, Gohan is able to control his emotions and justify his actions and fight. At first, he struggled on controlling his emotions and causes him to exhaust himself but after learning about control, he became a great threat on enemies like Cell.
How can this apply to us? We may not have bad guys like Cell where they can destroy Earth but we do have enemies where they think they can bully you anytime. We could actually fight back but going back to the topic, some of us have weakness in which we can’t stand for ourselves. If you read in the Bible in the book of Exodus, in chapter 3 and 4, Moses talks to God in which He appeared as a Burning Bush. God told Moses to tell the Pharoah of Egypt to let His people go in Egypt. Moses tells God he can’t do it because no one will believe him and he can not speak properly. Regardless, God told him that he will always be there for him and will give him wisdom. Thanks to God, Moses set free his enslaved brothers and sisters and escaped from the Pharaoh clutches. The point is this, we may start off with a weakness or more but if we can learn to train it or break it, we can use it and make our strength.
Anyway, sorry for rambling on in this blog tour. I hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as you did with my posts. The next person for the tour is Pink from Pinky’s Place.
So long Z-warrior!
What a great read, it is true you can find strength in your weakness and Gohan proved it more than once. He found strength in his emotion which is probably the biggest weakness of the human being.
Yeah definitely.I feel like we can understand Gohan because he is part human and sometimes we feel the same whenever we face a trial.
👏👏👏👏 gohan was a perfect character to write about for this tour. The struggles he went through and how he was a crying baby hahah. Then he grew up badass. Anyone could have chosen vegeta or Gorky. Even piccolo. But gohan was great.
Perfect!!!!
Thank you. I felt like Gohan was a good example because he is someone I can relate. The other characters are good choices too especially like Piccolo. 🙂
But I think gohan was just perfect!
Thanks. I thought so too ^^
Great post! His progress from being a crybaby to the most fearsome warrior is definitely a great spotlight in the show. I started to see his burning soul in Cell saga. He was awesome in the battlefield. He proves to the audience that weakness is the source of one’s strength, and we learn a lot from it.
Thank you. I find it amazing how much he changed through out the series. He ended up being a hindrance to ally to hero.
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gohan all the way !!!! During when gohan came out during his hidden power during the cell games oh god was the moment i had been waiting for. That was an epic moment for me and one I cannot never forget. I loved your post on dragonballz really good choice matty ^^
Thank you Lita. I loved that moment too, it empowered me and encouraged me to take on challenges. Gohan was awesome in the Cell Games and I felt like this post fit the topic. 🙂
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Nice work Matt! I’m finally catching up on everyone’s posts so please forgive me for coming in late! Gohan has always been one of my favorite characters in DBZ for all of the reasons you listed above!
That’s okay Kat. I am happy to hear you like this post. Gohan is one of my favorite characters in the series. I think we can all relate him and his character.
100% Agree!
Gohan is part human and I think we can somewhat understand the emotions going on and what we can relate.
Exactly. He goes through moments of self doubt and anxiety. Goku pretty much barrels through with overwhelming confidence. It never crosses his mind that he could lose. Gohan isn’t like that though and it’s very endearing.
Yeah exactly. Even though Gohan is strong was taught by Goku and Piccolo who experiences a lot of fighting, Gohan shows us his human side and reveal the internal conflicts like anxiety.
I’ve been rewatching Dragonball and I can’t wait to get to DBZ again to see Gohan!
Really? That’s awesome. I really need to watch the classic Dragon Ball anime. I remember watching the classic DBZ in Saiyan Saga, and we got to see Gohan in action as kid.
Yeah! It’s been a really long time since I watched it! So it’s really crazy going back to the beginning like this. Do you have Hulu? That’s the only place I’ve been able to find it so far to watch it.
Well, I watch the anime on Toonami on TV but if you mean the classic anime, I got season 1 DVD and I watch that. In the past, I have been watching Kai but if you watch the classic anime, we get to see action more than just Goku. I love Dragon Ball Z!
This was a fantastic post Matt!! I especially loved how you used Marvel heroes to frame your discussion of Gohan’s growth throughout the series! Wow, you picked a great character to write about, excellent job Matt!
Thank you Naja! I wanted to use the Marvel heroes for fun. I was already thinking about Gohan and his similarities with the Hulk and I thought “I can make this interesting.”
Awesome analogy Matt, definitely made your post stand out!
Thanks. This was something I wanted to try out for fun. I do love Marvel.
Dragon Ball! Makes me so nostalgic. Used to watch it as a kid like most 90’s kid. Indeed, Gohan exemplifies hidden strength. And you make a great point that unlike Goku, Gohan was born to be more “human” with human vulnerabilities and emotions. When we first meet him, he looks like a weakling but then we discover that he is indeed a Saiyan with powers and all. It’s interesting that these characters get stronger when they’re mad or unleash intense emotions. And then as he trains more, he is able to control his emotions and his powers. Anyway, good post, bro. Great kick-off for this blog tour. Cheers!
Thank you Arria. Dragon Ball will always be one of my favorite series. I could have talked generally about the anime or all the characters but I picked Gohan because he can be someone that we can relate to. With enough training, he was able to maintain stable emotions and use enough power to fight evil. I am always doing my best to start off these blog tours. Cheers!!! 🙂
You’re very welcome. Indeed, I don’t think that our generation of anime viewers would be complete without Dragon Ball.
I agree. Dragon Ball, I think it is, is one of the top well-known anime in the mainstream world. It is one of those series that helped start other series like One Piece, Bleach, Naruto and Fairy Tail.
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I remember watching Dragon Ball Z with my son over 20 years ago on Toonami!
Dragon Ball Z is a classic anime that will forever be my favorite anime.
Funny. When i click the like button for comments it works but when I click it for the post itself, it does not.
That’s weird. It might be a glitch, that is happening.