Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal 2014, Vol. 9(1) 27–46 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1746847713519386 anm.sagepub.com Folktales and Other References in Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Xavier Mínguez-López Valencia University, Spain Abstract The aim of this article is to show the relationship between Japanese folktales and Japanese anime as a genre, especially how the intertextuality with traditional tales and myth subvert its conventional use. To meet this goal, the author examines Toriyama’s successful Dragon Ball series, which has enjoyed continued popularity right from its first publication in the 1980s. The article analyses the parallelism between Dragon Ball and a classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West, its main source. However, there are many other references present in Dragon Ball that are connected to religion and folktales. The author illustrates this relationship with examples taken from the anime that correspond to traditional Japanese folklore but that are used with a subversive goal, which makes a rich source for analysis and for literary education. Keywords animated TV series, anime, Dragon Ball, Japanese animation, Japanese folktales, Japanese religion, literary education, myth, narrative, subversion, Toriyama Pop culture is too pervasive, rampant, eclectic and polyglot to be unravelled and remade into an academic macramé pot holder … It’s a cultural gulf defined by differences in view of how cultures are transforming and mutating through transnational activity. Pop – more than anything else – is the implosive point around which these gulfs form and the nexus of their attraction. (Philip Brophy, 2005) The successful anime series Dragon Ball offers much insight into the complicated and interwoven relationships that exist between past and present storytelling traditions. This article specifically explores intersections between Japanese folktales and Japanese anime; I take my lead from Philip Brophy, cited above, who explains that despite its extreme complexity, popular culture helps us to understand how cultures are transformed and mutate through transnational activity. Japanese anime Corresponding author: Xavier Mínguez-López, Departament Didàctica de la Llengua i la Literatura, Universitat de València, Avgda. Tarongers 4, València, 46022, Spain. Email: xavier.minguez@uv.es 519386ANM 0 0 10.1177/1746847713519386Animation: An Interdisciplinary JournalMínguez-López research-article 2014 Article