A Random Movie: Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies (1986)
Not the best way to pay tribute to Akira Toriyama
How on earth am I going to do justice to Akira Toriyama?
He was one of the most influential manga artists in history, inspiring countless artists and animators, as well as the poop emoji. His game characters - whether in Dragon Quest, Blue Dragon, and even games without “dragon” in the title like Chrono Trigger - are some of the world’s most recognizable. Hell, in typing this out, I had the thought “maybe I should get a tattoo of the Dragon Quest Slime, that little bugger is the best.” Dragon Ball and its sequels were an integral part of the wave that made anime and manga a cultural force outside of the country. His style was instantly recognizable and somehow impossible to imitate.
It’s hard to really grasp what it meant when he died earlier this year. It doesn’t seem possible for a titan to fall, and yet he did at a mere 68. He was a figure that looms large over popular culture around the world, in a way that very few artists can ever achieve.
For me, the majority of his influence has been through games. The art style of Dragon Quest served as my introduction to JRPGs, the cute-but-vacant stare of Slimes and Drakees providing compelling little buggers to clobber over the head with a sword. As a budding cub, the extremely buff Toughie NPC gave me feelings I couldn’t quite articulate but found compelling. Dragon Quest didn’t look like anything else, and his style translated surprisingly well to an 8-bit context. The little dude with the spiky hare in Dragon Quest III is one of the great protagonist designs - even if he doesn’t really say anything.
I’m a lot less familiar with Dragon Ball, though I have watched some of the anime - not enough to be an authority. I was surprised to discover how weird and horny it was, and I was surprised that Bulma wore a shirt with her own name on it. It’s goofy and endearing, an action-comedy that’s quite delightful even if you don’t entirely believe what’s happening on screen. It also has the very unique problem of having an overwhelmingly powerful character that has to still face a challenge. Goku, as written, seems to have near limitless power, and so does everybody he fights, leading to an unstoppable force vs. immovable object scenario and often making it work. Goku is also a likable little goober, and the contrast between his naivety and his power provides fun tension.
I haven’t watched Dragon Ball Z yet, because I’m a completionist and can’t go to the sequel before the original. What are you, mad?
The awkward part of talking about Toriyama in this context is that now we have to address Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies.
It’s an alternate retelling of the first arc covered in the Dragon Ball TV Series. The Emperor Pilaf arc in the original Dragon Ball TV series is 13 episodes. Dragon Ball: The Curse of the Blood Rubies is 50 minutes. These are slightly different running times. There was no way that this could be as satisfying as the show, and it’s not.
They don’t tell the exact same story. Pilaf is replaced by King Gurumes, who just wants to eat all the best food. The ending is a whole lot less silly than the end of that story arc. But the biggest change is just how compressed the entire thing is. Why is it a mere 50 minutes? Characters are introduced but can’t develop. Yamcha in particular gets shortchanged - his arc just doesn’t fit, so his actions feel arbitrary. Scenes flash by before moving to the next one, and the villain isn’t at all developed because the fan-favorite characters are what people want to see. A bunch of stuff happens and then suddenly it’s all over.
It would have been tricky to pull this adaptation off at double the length, but at 50 minutes it’s way too short. It’s not even a Wikipedia summary, and it simply doesn’t work. Everything feels arbitrary, everything feels like a shortcut, every scene is less than it needs to be. It’s fun, but the TV show exists, and does all of this so much better.
There’s no reason to watch this movie, but that’s fine. We have the original manga, we have the TV adaptation, we have Goku in a multitude of different forms. If we’re sitting here reflecting on the outsized influence of Toriyama, we have so much to turn to that we can leave the blood rubies behind. Like the people of this film, we don’t need them.
Just because an artist might be essential, that doesn’t mean everything connected to their art is. Though it’s weird to eulogize someone using an inessential film adaptation of their work.