Shonen anime has learned a lot from Dragon Ball. It's no secret that modern shonen anime would not even exist in the form that it does today if not for the foundation laid by Akira Toriyama's magnum opus. It wasn't planned that way though. In an early interview with Telepal Tokyo in 1986, Toriyama had this to say when asked about his writing process, "I take things as they come and I don't really have a plan about the story."
This simple line is extremely revealing when considering the concepts and story beats that arose throughout Dragon Ball’s 10 year, 519 chapter anthology. That off-the-cuff style of writing is apparent in the evolution of the series, and vastly contrasts many modern series whose stories and characters tend to have a definitive direction in mind at the start. It may seem like a small difference of preference at first, but it's one that has various interesting consequences that modern series should at the very least pay attention to.
Dragon Ball Lets Simplicity Grow Into Complexity
One of Dragon Ball's greatest superpowers is it's ability to begin with a simple concept, and then allow that idea to grow into something greater over time. Dragon Ball's story was never about the larger overarching narrative, but more about the smaller moments and morals of each arc or chapter. This is greatly contrasted with a modern series like Attack on Titan, whose narrative tackles lofty themes of subjective morality and the dehumanizing aspect of war that expand throughout the entire story. Dragon Ball on the other hand, preferred to keep things simple and light, as though with the subconscious awareness that such themes would show themselves in the end without ever having to force it. By virtue of being created by a human being, human issues are always implicit in every part of Dragon Ball without it having to purposefully push the story in that direction.
A great example of Dragon Ball's simplicity becoming something more complicated is Vegeta and Goku's rivalry. What began as a simple matter of Goku showing compassion to his worst enemy (an infinitely common hero tope), eventually grew into a complex relationship between characters with very different demeanors that play perfectly off each other. Later in the series, their sons Goten and Trunks begin a lifelong friendship that shows their characters being molded by their friendly rivalry. While simply introducing Goten and Trunks from the beginning would have made the relation between them come off the same as any childhood friendship story, the context of their familial history makes Goten and Trunks' relationship that much deeper at multiple levels.
Another strong example of how this simplicity works in the long run is in the case of the Androids in Dragon Ball Z. While the Androids begin as simple and straightforward villains, a sub-narrative slowly begins to unfold regarding the nature of what it means to be human. This is fully fleshed out in the relationship between Android 18 and Krillin, as well as with Android 17's redemption arc which continued well into Dragon Ball Super. These were not concepts that had to be planned out ahead of time, they instead grew organically alongside the characters themselves.
There's nothing wrong with the more focused approach of many modern shonen series; they are often created that way as a direct response to the kind of all-over-the-place nature of some of Dragon Ball's most uninspired and silly moments. However, some of those unplanned moments are what actually led to the series' most interesting themes, and they often feel less contrived when they inevitably get there.
Goku Grew Up With His Fanbase
More than any other, the complexity in simplicity is best personified in Dragon Ball's main character, Goku. As Dragon Ball fans are well aware, there's no character more simple-minded than Goku. However, diving deeper into his past throughout the series shows very clearly and distinctly why he is who he is today. As a character, fans got to watch Goku's life pan out – through all his ups and downs. While backstories are still an integral part of storytelling in modern shonen, few have had the ability to entirely show a character's growth through childhood and adulthood like Goku.
For example, My Hero Academia gives incredible insight into its characters' childhoods that completely inform the people they became by the time the bulk of the story began taking place. However, because readers were already placed into the story at the middle point, the characters' personalities and growth can't ever feel as natural as in Dragon Ball. The full adventures of Goku's youth have been completely chronicled for all to see, and that gives him an almost historical or mythological essence that is hard to come by in a character of any artistic medium.
That goes for many of the series' characters though, not just Goku. From Gohan's own early childhood to his adulthood, fans have watched him mature and develop as well – making him feel more like a member of the viewers' family than a distant character whose story they are watching from afar. As each character in Dragon Ball has literally grown over years, their personalities have developed organically like any real person's would, and their mistakes and triumphs shaped who they became in the long run. This also gives characters like Piccolo and Vegeta much more genuine villain-turned-hero stories, rather than just using them as a cheap plot twist.
Even in Dragon Ball's anime adaptations, filler episodes often served to add onto the characters and their backstories rather than just coming out of the blue, which helped in the long run. While series now have much less filler than Dragon Ball did in its hay-day – as well as much faster pacing – that's not always automatically better. In the long term, side-characters like Krillin, Yamcha, and Bulma ended up seeing a kind of growth and development that's probably just not possible in today's age of shonen. Alongside its characters, the Dragon Ball series' themes were consistently evolving and growing with the times as well. This is perfectly clear with the jump from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z, with the latter being clearly darker and more serious. Dragon Ball is a series that was, and still is, constantly evolving based on the fan base and response, and that interplay is what has ultimately made its success possible.
Modern Shonen Can Learn From Both Dragon Ball’s Successes and Failures
Just like any ancestor, modern shonen series can learn from the mistakes of their precursor just as much as they try to emulate its strengths. It's undeniable that Toriyama's more organic, episodic writing style led to some iconic material, but it also led to many of the series' flaws as well. Situations like great characters falling into the background like Tien, or even forgotten characters like Launch, can show modern anime series what not to do as well. The Dragon Ball series is no stranger to plot pulls, plot armor, and plot holes in general, and much of that simply stems from Toriyama's unplanned writing style – for better or worse.
Every style of writing will have its drawbacks and that's equally true for Toriyama's with Dragon Ball, but there's also so much that he created that has become a staple of the shonen genre for good reason. Modern shonen series can learn from those mistakes as well as the strengths of the style, even if they don't fit the mold of every single series. If there's anything that Goku has taught fans, it's that sometimes a warrior's greatest strength only comes when he has his back to the ropes, and no one's style of writing more fully embodied that philosophy than Akira Toriyama's.