Check Out BLEACH Creator Tite Kubo’s Take on DRAGON BALL Characters

Image by Zantutzuken

Tite Kubo is the man behind Bleach which is a great manga, albeit one of the most convoluted stories I’ve ever read. Back in 2003, he did an interview where we learned that he had a deep love and appreciation for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z  which were created by Akira Toriyama. He even mentions how the villains are “incredibly cool.”

“I don’t mean that I disliked the heroes’ side. I just liked the villains. Starting with the aforementioned Tao Pai-pai, Chiaotzu, Piccolo, Raditz, Vegeta, Nappa, Zarbon, Dodoria, Ginyu, Recoom, and of course, Freeza… Once you start writing the names, there’s no end. It’d be harder to find a villain that I dislike.

Pretty much all of them had a screwy aspect to their personalities, but that just made their strength and their fearsomeness stand out all the more (the biggest collection of such was probably Majin Boo). They were truly so cool that you’d get chills. And, precisely because the villains were so cool, when they were defeated, they would carry out their greatest role, which was to emphasize the heroes’ coolness. To this day, I’ve never experienced a shock from any battle comic surpassing the scene where Trunks first appears, and I surely never will.”

Now take a look at his take on some of the characters from this classic manga. It includes Piccolo, Vegeta, Zarbon, Recoome, Tao Pai-pai, and Trunks. Five out of six have been the villain and either died or became heroes. All six look pretty cool. Now I’m not sure why Zarbon and Recoome are included instead of Freiza and Ginyu or Cell and Majin Buu, but they look great. Each of the characters has a dead-on facial expression and it makes me want to watch Dragon Ball.

Those with eagle eyes may notice some similarities between some of these characters and Kubo’s characters from Bleach. For instance, Piccolo’s face may remind you of Zaraki, or Trunks’ may look a bit like Ichigo’s. Do you spot any other similarities?