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Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Personal Canons: Dragon Ball

There have been numerous conversations about Science Fiction and Fantasy canon this year. Can works age out of the canon? Is the gatekeeping essential to canons necessarily racist and xenophobic? Is a single objective canon possible? How do canons help us?

Amid this, Sarah Gailey has run a great series of essays by various critics and authors on what works they feel belong in a greater canon. I've enjoyed reading them, and I'm pleased today to see my entry published.

I'd like to talk to you about Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. Both the manga and anime were massive breakout hits for Japanese SFF writers abroad, including in the US where I live. The anarchic weirdness of that series was as enchanting and formative for me as any work of Tolkien.

Please come join me for the conversation. You can read my piece for free by clicking right here.

3 comments:

  1. I loved your piece.
    And yes, there is always room in my world for weirdos. And fun and funny ones are even better.
    Mind you, my ignorant self hadn't heard of Dragon Ball. I will have to explore.

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  2. I love Dragon Ball heroic action. In my country the film is famous and loved by children and adults.
    Thank you for the stories you share. Greetings from Indonesia.

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    1. Thank you for the comment! Great to hear how that series was received in Indonesia. Toriyama has affected so many of us.

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