DBZ VS. POKEMON

The question that has plagued us English, and probably Americans for a long time, is this: Which is better – Dragonball Z or Pokemon? The fact that they are both horrendously popular anime’s, with an absolutely huge following is a large factor. these are the two most dominant anime’s in Britain at least.

Pokemon is an anime which tends to be watched by little kids, and it is made with that age group in mind. Whilst it is still suitable for older children, it isn’t really for adults at all. The concept of a small child, and his little creatures knocking out other peoples little creatures is admittedly, a very original idea. It is done quite well too, although many of the things that are about to happen are deemed incredibly obvious, and he gets incredibly powerful pokemon, yet cant utilize them to win easily. I think this is a bit stupid, but it allows the series to go on for a little longer. The catching and training aspect is impressive, and it was always fun when Ash caught a new little beastie to use in his repertoire.

DBZ is an action anime, with all out fighting scenes, and some heart rendering moments. The premise is fairly simple – The heroes go on exciting adventures to retrieve the dragonballs. Once they have the dragonballs, they can make any wish they want. It is a fairly original idea, but the fighting has been tried, tested, and used many time before, but that doesn’t stop it from being great fun to watch. The fact that you always know what the outcome of the fight will be does detract from the enjoyment slightly, but not enough so that you are totally put off. You can’t help but smile when the bad guy is finally defeated though.

Both series have had their spin off movies, which were more of a cash in than anything else in my opinion. Whilst I am a huge fan of all the DBZ movies, I think that they all should have been made in conjunction with the series, and been shown as a special episode. Some of the movies are of a fairly tame standard, but others are gripping. Movies such as ‘Exploding Dragon Fist’ and ‘The Rebirth Of Fusion’ were fantastic. It appears that the makers of these films developed a better style, or realized what people wanted near the end of DBZ. Whilst the movies are cash-ins in a way, that doesn’t detract from the quality of some of them.

There has been one Pokemon film released from what I know, and I was unfortunate enough to see it. It was a very poor film, which made more money than it was worth. Whilst I am being a little bias here, ‘Pokemon: The First Movie’ was a little boring, and had the worlds worst ending. The fight scenes were good, and made a change from the normal ones, where the bad guys tended to win. The animation was pretty slick, and impressed me, but the thing that was letting it down, was the storyline. It was basically an shortened down version of the series: Ash goes to a tournament, gets beat bad ways, then goes home feeling depressed. The difference this time though, was that one of the Pokemon put a spell on everyone, making them all wake up where they were at the start, as if it was all a dream.

DBZ has a lot of merchandising, and whilst most of it is utter tripe, some of it is of a high quality, and worth checking out. I have heard the card game is good, although it hasn’t been released over here, as are the comics which I have been fortunate to read a few issues of. The problem is the same with all well marketed products – Whilst there always is the good stuff, there is the bad stuff which people buy anyway too. I don’t really like the figures much, although that is a personal opinion. I also don’t like some of the items of clothing like caps and T-shirts. The posters are a bit of a rip-off too, as they aren’t anything special compared with what they could make. 

In terms of merchandise, I must admit that Pokemon is very good. Not so much at having good quality stuff, but at selling it all to a lot of people. The phenomenally successful game boy game, the new Pikachu N64, the posters, the card game, the figures, the soft toys. The list is endless. Whilst there are many things on the market, there are very few high quality things. Kids seem to have good fun with the card game, but they tend to swap them more than battle with them, trying to get that elusive Charizard. Theses cards may be expensive, but they keep the punters happy, and whilst this continues to happen, Pokemon cards will be available. The soft toys impressed me too, as my brother got one for Christmas. It was a small Pikachu soft toy, which was of a surprisingly high quality, and didn’t look too shabby at all. Admittedly, I was surprised by this, but my brother soon lost interest in it, as the toy couldn’t do an awful lot. For merchandising, anyone who makes Pokemon stuff makes a fortune, and it is the same with DBZ, although on a smaller scale.

The forth factor that I wish to discuss are the games. Both anime’s have had games made after them, but Pokemon rules in terms of sales and quite frankly, quality.

The Game Boy game made by Nintendo was awesome. It was a ground-breaking genre, and unlike anything that had ever been seen before. Millions flocked out to buy it, and wouldn’t put the damn thing down. There would be battles going on at school with huge crowds gathering round to see who has the upper hand. It always came down to the best Mewtwo which was slightly dull, but fun none-the-less. After you completed the fairly easy single player aspect, you had to catch all 150 Pokemon, which meant that you either need a friend with a different copy of the game to you, or you needed to have both the blue and red copies. Nintendo should be ashamed of themselves for such a blatant cash-in, but it worked. I was one of the few people who caught 150 Pokemon, and I was very disappointed at the mediocre diploma that you receive after all your hard work. Still, you get the advantage of being able to boast to your friends though. Pokemon is an excellent game for the GameBoy, but some of the N64 titles were a little rushed.

The game genre is where DBZ flunks a little. It has no well known titles to it’s name, although it has a few good games. There are far more DBZ games than Pokemon ones though, even if they contrast in quality. ‘The Legend of The Super Saiyan’ for the SNES will always remain a classic in my heart, but it is nothing compared to Pokemon. Sure it is fun, and exciting to be your favorite DBZ characters, but it is designed too poorly, and is over too quickly. All of the games were like this, which is why it never took off too much on the console market.

The final thing that I will look at before concluding the argument are the web sites. Both have a fantastic following on the internet, but they both have hate sites, as well as one devoted to it.

Pokemon has many fan sites dotted around the internet, and it is easy to find a good site. If you want pictures of Pikachu, or want to know Mewtwo’s special attacks, then you could find them easily. The cult following still continues though, although many of the sites have been abandoned. The sites that remain are all pretty good though, and contain all that you could want to know on the wonderful world of Pokemon. The sites include downloadables, ROMs, pictures, sounds, etc. Along with the fan sites are also hate sites though. These are the anti-Pokemon sites which make it clear on how much they hate the little ‘pocket monsters’. Great lengths are taken to ensure that everyone realizes how much they hate Pokemon. There are lots of these around, although they are made to look petty and inadequate by the sheer number of fan sites around.

DBZ has been increasing in popularity for the past few years, since it has aired in England and America, and it has picked up quite a following. Many people have sites on it, just to show their love for the show. Everything is included on these, even more so than some of the Pokemon sites, but when compared, DBZ can’t come close to matching the awesome power of Pokemon on the web (Can anything). I haven’t come across any DBZ hate sites yet, although I am sure that there are some, and more to come no doubt. But along with these hate sites, fan sites are spawned, and whilst the present looks bad for DBZ against Pokemon, in the near future there will be no Pokemon on the web.

After weighing up the factors, I can conclude that although Pokemon overshadows DBZ in many areas, it is without a doubt, no where near as good. The following for DBZ is increasing all the time, there are plans fro DBZ games on next generation consoles, and no doubt even more crappy merchandise to come (From both cults). For these two anime giants just to die out will be impossible, but for now, DBZ has a distinct edge on Pokemon.