Finally figured out why people keep calling Dragon Ball Z 'deep storytelling'

I noticed at least 20 posts this week in the sub comparing Goku's character arc to classic literature. But DBZ is literally about fighting stronger guys while screaming for 50 episodes. Does the community just not watch anything outside shonen or what?

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terry_carter151h ago

I read a thing on a blog last week that basically said Dragon Ball Z fans confuse "having a long running time" with "having deep themes." Like yeah, there are some cool ideas about redemption with Vegeta and Piccolo, but that's like saying a soap opera is deep because characters have emotional meltdowns every episode lol. The original Dragon Ball actually had way more depth with its martial arts philosophy and Goku's character development as a kid. By the time Z rolled around, Toriyama even admitted in interviews he was just making stuff up as he went along because the editors wanted more fights. It's not bad that people love it, but calling it high art feels like someone who's only ever eaten fast food saying McDonald's is a fancy restaurant.