Dragonball Z: A Study of Purgatory

A man lays on his death bed, moments before breath leaves his body. He's lived a good life. Not always a moral life, but a good life. He's lived, he's loved, he's hated, he's fought. All that's left now is to go gentle into a good, gracious night. God will judge him and heaven will no longer have to wait. It is time for peace.

Though unfortunately, some of that isn't true. A man is not perfect and his devotion to Jesus Christ will only take him so far. He has sins that must be cleansed and what comes now is a most righteous baptism that shows the Lord's fair grace. The man awakens. He sees not a Sunday school crossroad but the image of a vast containment cell that his soul will live and rest in as it is given one final purification before the gorgeous eternity. He does not witness the glory of God in heaven. What he sees is the greatest gift of all: a second chance.

Dragonball Z, more than anything else, illustrates a world sandwiched between the boundaries of Heaven and Earth. It remains the most exhaustive, comprehensive work by Japanese theologian Akira Toriyama, whose studies on comparative religion and commentaries on various religious texts have been celebrated since their publications in Weekly Shonen Jump. Toriyama is well known for passionate analysis of his choice subject matter and Dragonball Z is arguably his greatest work. It is a narrative essay, told over years and years, detailing how a world would operate if it existed beyond the veil of mortality and in the strange, homoerotic nest of stagnation. What is it like to live only to be purified for your afterlife?

In the interest of sophistication, this paragraph will be about balls.

In Dragonball Z, nobody ever truly dies. Via a single dragon's seven testicles (cleverly layered with symbolism, combining the Abrahamic relevance of the number seven with the distinctly Egyptian creation myth of masturbating to produce life), those who die are always given the gift of life once again. Most who die, such as Krillin, do not actually accomplish much of anything during both their lives and the great battles fought for like ever. And it is this very reason that they are not ALLOWED to die. The relinquishing of their life but not exchanging great deeds for salvation is what keeps them routed in limbo. The Dragon's Balls are like a great equalizer that keeps purgatory in check: without them, impure souls would leak into heaven and the balance of the universe would be upset. By Toriyama's theology, you earn your keep. In purgatory, the cleansing of sins is symbolized by battling great, powerful beings and only through great struggle and combat will you finally ascend to heaven.

He seems to like it.

The Saiyans, of course, are God's chosen people. Just like Moses, Goku was sent down the river to escape the explosion of his dying planet and landed on Earth as a feral child who fondled squirrel balls and attacked older gentlemen passing by to see their grandchildren on the last days of their life. But, like all people, Goku must struggle with the Original Sin of his ancestors and mutate into a giant gorilla representative of all of his past deeds that he must overcome. For some of us, this is merely our journey into the wild, awkward jungle of pubescence and unwanted ejaculatory naps. But for Goku, scion of purgatory, it is the great revelation that he is a horrible, horrible bundle of shame.

If the Dragon's Balls are the great equalizer of life in purgatory, Goku is the shining example of behavior. Goku does not concern himself with things like family, friends, or that one thing you did that one time that nobody knows about except for Cindy and, though she's a bit of a gossip, you trusted her and now everybody knows so fuck you, Cindy. All of those things are aspects of shame. Goku is not defined by his wife, children, and friends but only defined by his desire to purify himself and cleanse himself and thus, by Toriyama's theology, he will continuously battle and reach higher and higher stages of enlightenment after defeating every opponent. Sun Wukong will break out of his chains and become Buddha.

Maybe you'd get this joke if you've ever read a fucking book.

Later writers have picked up from Toriyama's cues, but have committed a cardinal sin. Theologian Aya Matsui penned the text "Dragonball GT", which shows Goku finally succeeding in purging all of his sins and ascending to Heaven on a giant penis (I'm assuming that metaphor works. Whatever). There's a reason, however, that GT is a minor theological curiosity much like the Gospel of Thomas or Halloween: Resurrection. By allowing Goku to purge of his shame and every time he ever diddled a jungle sheep while being raised by Grandpa Gohan's corpse on the periphery of civilization, we present a tangible goal for our faithful. The theology tightens, the goal is visible, and the effort to reach this goal now becomes visible. How will people be able to reach this unrealistic goal now? Toriyama's genius is that he leaves Goku's ultimate salvation ambiguous: though he reaches newer and newer levels of Super Saiyan, he never achieves total salvation and never truly leaves his purgatory. He starts and raises (kind of) a family within this null void of sin, with this generation all ascending to Aryan race to cleanse the sins of the father. In fact, when Toriyama's treastise ends, you could almost say Goku goes back to square one and has a whole new plate of sins to cleanse when he becomes friendly with a small Ethiopian child.

Butter's in the fridge!

Dragonball Z is a complex work and doesn't always tell us what we want to hear. Whether Goku spiritually awakens on Namek, during the Cell Games, or against the Pillsbury Dough Boy, he will be destined to do so again. Likewise, there will always be a more powerful opponent to signify even more sins to purge and evils within to redeem yourself for. But does this mean that you can never ascend to Heaven, or does it simply mean that Heaven only comes for those whose faith lets them survive longer than everyone else? Well, Dragonball Z doesn't answer that question. That's for every individual reader to assess in perspective with his own relationship with God. But, if you'd prefer some respectable commentary to leave us off as you ponder our roles in life, here're some wise words from the man who voiced Goku for several years and thus has much familiarity with Akira Toriyama's thoughts on religion and the cosmic state of man, Sean Schemmel.

"I don't kill people for moral reasons. It's just to watch them die."