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I'm just Saiyan; these references come a dime a dozen.
Reign supreme? In your dreams!
You'll never make me bow!
Kick my ass? I'm world class
and Super Saiyan now!
— "I Burn", Yang Xiao Long's Image Song from RWBY

As a juggernaut of anime, Dragon Ball and its sequels have inspired an entire generation, so it's no surprise many have made countless Shout Outs to the series, either by making affectionate parodies to any sort of Take That!. Here is a list that will try to include most of it.

Please, any reference must be deliberate. If you only see any similarity without Word of God to back it up, do not include it here. Also, be kind to include what sets apart the inspirations.


    open/close all folders 
    Anime and Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
    • In Chapter 35, the harem's rage over Shizuka being mocked causes them all to go "Super Smitten", meaning that their hair becomes very light and they start glowing with a bright aura.
    • In Chapter 38, Shizuka's singing, combined with Kusuri's "super-sensitive to cuteness" drug, sends everyone who hears it blasting into the far wall in a Yamcha-like crater from the Cuteness Overload.
    • In Chapter 73, Mei tells of the time Rentarou got her to open her eyes on a date by telling her he had been wearing a Frieza costume the entire time.
  • Asobi Asobase: Kasumi gets dared to pretend to fire a Kamehameha at Sainan. Sainan plays along and pretends to get knocked down.
  • In Episode 80 of Black Clover, a Super Saiyan hairstyle is shown as a hairdo for when Finral surpasses his limits.
  • Blood Lad: Staz is a major fan of various manga and anime, including Dragon Ball. He sometimes imitates scenes and even attempts a Kamehameha.
  • In Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Don Patch at one point attempts to blow up Over in a parody of Chiaotzu's famous failed Heroic Sacrifice/Taking You with Me attack against Nappa. When the smoke clears, Don Patch is perfectly intact and has made his face up to look like Nappa's.
  • Bocchi the Rock!:
    • In Episode 9, Bocchi gets attacked by a flock of birds, and the aftermath shows her lying in the middle of a smoking crater exactly like the infamously memetic "Yamcha Pose".
    • In Episode 12, Bocchi briefly gains a glowing, electric aura that's identical to a Super Saiyan's when the thought of quitting her job fills her with "a mysterious and overwhelming power".
  • Dropkick on My Devil:
    • The father of a kid whom Jashin was bullying resembled Turles. For bonus points, he was voiced by Turles' actress, Masako Nozawa.
    • Jashin does a transformation similar to a Super Saiyan when she eats an angel's halo.
  • Good Luck Girl!: Momiji and Kumagai reenact the scene where Vegeta screams, "It's over 9000!" and crushes his scouter. Later, when trying to find Ichiko, Momiji tells Kumagai it would be easier to find her if he hadn't crushed the scouter.
  • Kill la Kill:
    • During Episode 13, during her speech, Ragyo poses in a way very similar to Frieza.
    • During Episode 23, Mako's power levels while wearing her Two Star Fight Club Uniform are - baring intelligence - well over 9000.
    • Senketsu Kisaragi is very clearly a homage to the ever-classic Dragon Ball Z, from the basic physical details up of turning blond and including "I grow stronger when I'm on the verge of death!"
    • The shot of Ryuko facing a naked Ragyo in space, with Earth orbit as background is visually reminiscent of the final part of Goku and Beerus' fight in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods.
  • Lucky Star: For the ending theme of Episode 5, Konata sings an enthusiastic but very off-key karaoke version of "Cha-La Head-Cha-La", the first opening theme song of Dragon Ball Z.
  • Medaka Box: In the first episode, Medaka does all of the Ginyu Force's poses in quick succession.
  • Molester Man:
    • In Chapter 7, Molester Man realizes he's been "wearing only Vegeta's son"note  the whole time.
    • One of Molester's ringtones is "Cha-La Head-Cha-La", the first theme song from Dragon Ball Z.
  • Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto has stated that Dragon Ball was one of his main inspirations when creating Naruto. This is most visible with Naruto's orange and black outfit.
    • The Four-Tailed Beast is one big reference to Dragon Ball. Its design is partially based off of the Oozaru, the host's name is Roshi and its number of tails is the same as Goku's favorite Dragon Ball. Its horns are also apparently modeled after the diadem worn by Sun Wukong from Journey to the West, who is himself one of the original inspirations for Goku. And the four-tailed beast's proper name is even Son Goku!
    • During the arc where Naruto first learns how to use the Rasengan, a Chiaotzu mask can be seen at a marketplace.
  • One-Punch Man. Vaccine Man is drawn to look like Piccolo in the manga remake. To hammer the point, not only is he voiced by Frieza's voice actor in Japanese, but also by Piccolo's voice actors in the English and Latin American Spanish dubs.
  • Reincarnation Colosseum: When Kouji Mikagami learns he can copy powers, he imagines Kakashi and Perfect Cell.
  • Sailor Moon: In the Viz re-dub, Umino screams that Ami's I.Q. is, "Over 9000!"
  • Seton Academy: Join the Pack!: Whenever King Shishino gets angry, usually when his love interest Shiho Ihara is threatened, his mane grows long, spiky, and glows yellow (but doesn't turn blond), he gets a yellow Battle Aura, and his strength increases. It makes him resemble a Super Saiyan.
  • Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san: The American man who comes in with his father to the bookstore where Honda works to buy the Naruto manga is wearing a shirt that's designed to resemble Goku's iconic orange gi.
  • In Steins;Gate, Closet Geek Makise Kurisu username on @channel threads are KuriGohan and Kamehameha. Compared with Kyoma and John Titor who use wordplays for their usernames, she isn't being clever.
  • Time Stop Hero:
    • When Kuzuno Sekai meets the talking dragon, Bahamut, he nicknames him Shenron.
    • When Sekai learns time flows much slower in the Netherworld, he compares it to both Urashima Taro and The Room of Spirit and Time.
    • Sekai says, "Everyone, lend me your wisdom!" the same way Goku says, "Everyone, lend me your energy!" when creating the Spirit Bomb.
  • To Love Ru: When Lala shows Rito that she has a tail, she comments that despite having a tail, she does not transform when she looks at a full moon. This references the Saiyan transformation into the Ozaru.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • In the first chapter of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi believes that completing the Millennium Puzzle will grant him a wish, saying they're like Dragon Balls.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Amelda/Alister uses a card called Junk Dealer, which has Nappa in its illustration, complete with a device similar to a scouter.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Yusei uses a card called Spirit Force, which clearly has Super Saiyan Vegeta in its illustration.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: When Yuma and Astral go into ZEXAL mode, they resemble Super Saiyans.

    Asian Animation 

    Comic Books 
  • Justice League #25 illustrated by Jorge Jiménez has a moment directly inspired by the manga. When Superman has Heroic Second Wind, the images of his father and son appear behind him as a clear reference to the Gohan/Goku Kamehameha from the Cell Saga. Jiménez later confirmed the connection on Twitter.
  • In Spider-Man/Deadpool, during a discussion between the titular characters about a way of dealing with Itsy-Bitsy, Deadpool tries to persuade Peter that there are better methods for stopping her besides killing her. His last attempt?
    Deadpool: Collect all the Dragon Balls and wish her away!!!
    Spider-Man: ...
    Spider-Man: I did not think of that. Oh. Wait. That doesn't exist.

    Cultural Translation examples 
Dragon Ball Z, due to its popularity, has been used as a substitute for foreign references in regions as Latin America. As such, the following shows make a reference to the show in a foreign dub, not in the original source material.
  • The eponymous protagonist of The Flash (2014) is a big fan of the show, in the Latin American dub. Many websites took the opportunity to write an article about this incident, despite just being a dubbism.

    Fan Works 
  • In Aki-chan's Life, Asuka's hair flows upwards as her body becomes surrounded by a fiery battle aura at the thought of someone using her daughter as a test subject.
  • Pony POV Series:
    • Havoc, the personification of Hell, is sometimes nicknamed the Home For Infinite Losers.
    • After absorbing Destruction's essence, Rancor says she's about to go Dragon Eggs Z as she transforms.
  • In PreCure in a Nutshell, Alice Yotsuba's parody name is Lice Yamcha.
  • Vow of the King: Ichigo mentions being a fan of Dragon Ball Z and hoping to use kido to imitate a Kamehameha. In Ichigo's spar with the super strong Ururu, he describes it as a game of cat and mouse if the cat was a Dragon Ball Z character.

    Film 
  • In Black Panther, Killmonger's primary outfit for a chunk of the film is a blue body armor with additional armour over his torso, which sports yellow shoulder straps, very much resembling Vegeta's. Additionally, Erik is technically a prince for much of the film. Vegeta famously boasts about his status as Prince of all Saiyans. Michael B. Jordan is a proud fan of the series.
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: Aside from singing his infamous "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch" song (see below), Eric Cartman receives a "power-up" similar to the characters from the series during the Final Battle. The camera angles are even shot similar to the fight scenes from DBZ.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • American Born Chinese (2023): Main character Jin is an Otaku who is shown to own a number of anime memorabilia, including a Goku figurine. Fitting, as the series is also partially inspired by Journey to the West.
  • The Flash (2014): The titular protagonist is a huge fan of DBZ, which alienates his fianceé (later wife) due to having no idea what the show's about.
  • Heroes: Hiro's Future Badass self wields a sword and his actor specifically said he was invoking Future Trunks with his sword, design, and personality.
  • Mimpi Metropolitan: When Prima becomes unintelligible for an episode due to swallowing some dry ice, Alan jokingly compares Prima's words to Namekian language.

    Music 

    Professional Wrestling 
  • When he was in the Independent Circuit, Amazing Red sometimes used the Perfect Cell theme as his entrance music.
  • At WrestleMania 31, Ronda Rousey wore a shirt with "Over 9000!" printed on it.
  • At WrestleMania 32, The New Day wore Saiyan Battle Armor during their entrance. Michael Cole of all people name dropped Vegeta when commenting on this.
  • Rhea Ripley wore a Vegeta-inspired gear during her match at WrestleMania 36.
  • Shanna's gear is deliberately designed after Goku's iconic gi.
  • Keith Lee calls his finisher the Spirit Bomb.

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • Dragon Quest:
    • Puff-Puff, first featured in Chapter 15 of Dragon Ball's manga, is still referenced in almost every Dragon Quest game, sometimes with humorous twists such as the one giving the "Powderpuff Massage" is the dancer's father, not the dancer herself.
    • Dragon Quest III: Xenlon in the bonus dungeon Sky Castle is a blatant reference to Shenron and, if you defeat him fast enough, he will grant you one wish. Additional wishes can be obtained by defeating him additional times in even less turns.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy:
    • A zombified Gokunote  appears as the Final Boss of Brawl Royale and Epic Battle Fantasy 1.
    • When an Ancient Monolith first uses its Orange Beam attack, Matt will comment "I once knew a guy with golden hair who shot beams like that. Was rather nasty." This doubles as a Call-Back to a similar attack from Goku back in EBF1.
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 5:
      • Goku reappears in Epic Battle Fantasy 5 (under the name Roku) as a human NPC, this time initiating a Side Quest which requires collecting seven Star Balls (an obvious stand-in for the Dragon Balls), which he uses to grant his wish upon receiving them.
      • The Turtle Gi is heavily based on Goku's Iconic Outfit and is named after the Turtle School of Martial Arts. Its in-game description even calls it "the uniform of the School".
      • God, a Superboss found at the Temple of Trials, appears as a cat wearing the aforementioned Turtle Gi, with bright yellow fur and a faint golden aura which sometimes flares up. He has the ability to fire a Kamehameha as a regular attack, and launch a Spirit Bomb as a Limit Break. To drive the point home, defeating God on Epic difficulty earns a Medal called "Super Sa*yan".
  • Fate/Grand Order:
    • Blackbeard comments that if Hektor joined his crew, their combined power level would become over 9000.
    • The Protagonist can ask Xuanzang Sanzang if she is looking for the seven Dragon Balls.
    • During two conversations, Ereshkigal switches between her own appearance and Ishtar's when she sneezes, like Launch does.
    • Super Karna versus Arjuna Alter is reminiscent of Goku versus Beerus. Karna and Aśvatthāman also train in an area similar to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
    • Romulus=Quirinus and Berserker Oda Nobunaga both use the Kamehameha.
    • In the 2018 Valentine's Day event, you can buy a Hyperbolic Chocolate Chamber.
  • Final Fantasy IX: Zidane's story is similar to Goku in being from a monkey-tailed race sent to another world to ready it for invasion, but suffered amnesia and instead defends his new home. In that aspect, Kuja resembles Raditz as the long-haired 'older brother' with the color scheme and mannerisms of Frieza. Furthermore, they resemble Super Saiyan 4s when in Trance mode.
  • Grow Park includes Son Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and Krillin as possible park residents.
  • Henry Stickmin Series:
    • In the "Just Plain Epic" route of Stealing the Diamond, after Henry grows giant from using a mushroom, two members of the Centre for Chaos Containment have this exchange:
      Corporal: I'm getting chaos readings at 10.6. It's coming from the museum.
      Chief: My god. It's over nine!
      [Beat]
      Corporal: Yeah.
    • The "Fusion" fail in the "Triple Threat" route of Completing the Mission involves Henry and Ellie fusing into Ellry, then fighting a Toppat Clan member named Kabbitz who KOs them and sends them to the ground below. They end up defused in a crater doing the Yamcha pose.
  • Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory: Blanc comments that Nepgear has "Dragon Ball Syndrome" when she becomes envious of Neptune and Peashy, since Nepgear is acting like Vegeta does when he is envious of Goku.
  • In Infinite Craft, "Dragon Ball", "Dragon Ball Z", and "Goku" are possible crafting recipes.
  • Jetpack Joyride: One of the clothing sets for Barry is The Powered Up Hair and the Super Suit, which give him Goku's gi and flowing yellow hair, which turns back to his regular brown Canadian haircut when he's hit by an obstacle. The hair costs 9001 coins, and its Flavor Text is "We're not really sure what the power level of this hair is. It's probably a lot."
  • Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS: In a NijiGaku 4koma that focuses on Ayumu Uehara, the "God of School Idols" mentions the franchise by name as well as mentioning Shenlong.
  • Marsupilami: Hoobadventure: The achievement unlocked upon beating all the classic challenges is titled "It's Over 9000".
  • Monster Hunter 2 (dos) introduces a Fanged Beast to the series named Rajang that is an ape whose fur turns golden when enraged that can be knocked out of said golden state if its tail is damaged enough, a clear nod to both the Oozaru and Super Saiyan forms in the series.
  • In Party Animals, the icon for the "Sayonara" achievement, which is obtained by eliminating an opponent by striking them out of the playfield on the Ichiban stage, depicts a rabbit in a crater making the Yamcha death pose.
  • Persona 5:
    • Yusuke breaks Futaba's Featherman action figures and tries to repair them. The ensuing poses of the action figures are that of the Ginyu Force, albeit not in its members' designed positions.
    • When asked what is in the hand of a famous statue of Hawaiian King Kamehameha, one of the answers is "a dragon ball".
    • The first time Joker attempts to use the treadmill, he wipes out and ends up in Yamcha's death pose.
  • At one point in Shantae and the Seven Sirens, Squid Baron asks Shantae to bring him three Dagron Balls (a Call-Back to the boss of the fourth labyrinth in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse).
  • In Skylanders: Imaginators, Kaos' One-Winged Angel form gives him spiky blue hair resembling that of a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan/Super Saiyan Blue.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
    • Sonic's Golden Super Mode of Super Sonic is a homage to the famous Super Saiyans, with the hair turning spikier, turning gold and the eye-color change that allows Sonic to become even stronger than normal. The twist, however, is that Sonic needs the seven MacGuffins in order to transform. According to an interview with Yuji Naka, this was done in order to appeal to both East and West markets, as there were also Shout Outs to Star Wars. According to Naka, Toriyama never commented about this.
    • Silver the Hedgehog, the idealistic teen from the Bad Future trying to save his timeline who debuted in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), is inspired by Future Trunks. The script of the game even states "Essentially, think Trunks from Dragon Ball Z."

    Visual Novels 
  • Monster Girl Quest: Paradox: Ilias is shown in a crater making the Yamcha death pose.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • The Amazing World of Gumball:
    • In "The Move", "Darkwin" greatly resembles the Hood from Thunderbirds, while flames surround him Super Saiyan-style.
    • In "The Others", the episode opens with Gumball trying to go Super Saiyan. He even actually says "Super Saiyan". In a following episode, he actually does go Super Saiyan, though Darwin notes he's just posturing. He's even suddenly dressed like Gohan.
  • Amphibia: The debut of Anne's Calamity form in the season two finale "True Colors" plays out like Goku first obtaining his Super Saiyan form: A rage-induced transformation brought upon when the Big Bad seems to kill the best friend. While fans have called Anne's Super Mode "Super Saiyanne", Anne's Calamity Form resembles a Super Saiyan Blue in hair color and aura.
  • The Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation: R.E.P.O.R.T." does five parodies in one episode, with Numbuh 4's being a huge one to Dragon Ball Z. At one point, he blows a chewing gum bubble into his hands to make what looks like a Chewing Gum Kamehameha.
  • DuckTales (2017): In "Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!", while playing a video game, Della's scouter breaks and says Huey's power level is over 9,000 while he goes a mix of Kaioken and Super Saiyan after gaining several levels.
  • The Fairly OddParents! movie Channel Chasers has a lot of Shout Outs to many TV shows, but the one with the most focus is Maho Mushi, a "violent and stupid" anime that Timmy was obsessed with, that while incorporating elements from many anime, the focus is a parody of Goku's conflict with Piccolo at the end of the original Dragon Ball, with Timmy wearing a gi like Goku and Vicky wearing an outfit similar to Piccolo's.
  • In Final Space, when Clarence introduces his adopted children Fox and Ash, they can be seen jokingly doing the Fusion Dance behind him.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "Chicken Ball Z" featured the titular characters fighting each other after getting Dragon Ball-like superpowers.
  • Inside Job: Magic Myc is revealed to have been a Dragon Ball Z fan when he was younger, as shown in some footage of him holding a Goku action figure and talking about the plot of the Freeza Saga before a bully shoves him into a locker.
    Myc: You're being a total Freeza right now!
  • Monkie Kid: Both series are based on Journey to the West, so they are a few references to Dragon Ball.
  • A pony version of teenage Bulma is shown in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season 5 episode 21, along with other ponified anime characters.
  • The Owl House episode "Eclipse Lake" has Eda trying to control her new Harpy transformation. Her first idea is screaming, which she thought would work because of an old Dragon Claw Z movie she saw.
  • Robot Chicken:
    • A sketch from the "Robot Chicken Christmas Special" (later used in "Easter Basket") features Goku and Goten helping Santa Claus fight the evil forces which want to take over Christmas. After defeating Mrs. Claus, Goku and Goten state that the Tenka'ichi Budōkai is finally complete while Santa, who is puzzled as to what they're talking about, and also angered by the death of his wife, decides never to deliver presents to Japan again.
    • A sketch from "Shall I Visit the Dinosaurs?" features Piccolo training Gohan to protect the Earth, when child protective services and the police arrive to arrest Piccolo for kidnapping, brainwashing, child endangerment and feeding Gohan Senzu Beans.
  • The Simpsons: In the "Treehouse of Horror XXXI" segment "Into the Homer-Verse", one of the Alternate Universe Homers speaks in Japanese and resembles Majin Buu. When the Homers battle against alternate versions of Mr. Burns, the Buu Homer fights a Burns who seems to be a parody of Dr. Wheelo, of all characters.
  • South Park: Eric Cartman's infamous "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch" song includes the word "King Kamehameha (Bitch)" in its lyrics. (Though this could be a reference to the Hawaiian king, which is where the famous attack got its name.)
  • Steven Universe. Fusion Dances, and something more.
    • Arc Villain Jasper has a lot of parallels to Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z.
    • In "Barn Mates", the Rubies landing on Earth has the opening be a near 1:1 of Vegeta doing the same.
    • The process the Gems use to combine is literally a fusion achieved through dancing, most likely an allusion to the Trope Namer. The difference between both fusion dances, however, is that Steven Universe's fusions is explored a bit more as a metaphor for different kinds of relationships instead of a simple power boost.
      Jasper: Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak Gems stronger!
    • In "Keep Beach City Weird", the crater that Amethyst leaves during Steven Tag resembles the crater left by Yamcha versus the Saibaman.
      • The same happens with Navy in "Room for Ruby", after she crashes from her atmospheric reentry.
    • In "Sworn to the Sword", the outfit Connie wears in the second half of the episode is similar to a Kalaripayattu outfit. Gohan also wears one when he was being trained by Piccolo as a kid. Fitting as they're both child fighters with alien teachers.
    • In "Nightmare Hospital", a hospital door has the label "Dr. Gero, Patient 20", a reference to Dr. Gero/Android 20.
    • In "Earthlings", the fight in this episode has several to the first fight with Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z, including the way in which the Corrupted Quartz falls back first on Jasper and crushes her into a crater, just like Great Ape Gohan fell on and crushed Vegeta.
    • In Attack the Light, to show that Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are more experienced than Steven, he starts at level 1 and they all start at level 9001. "Over 9000" is also the name of the achievement for completely leveling all of the Gems up.
  • Teen Titans Go!:
    • In "Starfire the Terrible", Robin at one point shifts his hairstyle to Goku's when Starfire destroys his hair gel supply.
    • "Beast Boy's St. Patrick's Day Luck And It's Bad" has Robin power up with a Super Saiyan-esque transformation into a leprechaun for a fight. Later in "The Gold Standard", the Titans all become leprechauns, leading to another, more blatantly Dragon Ball-inspired fight between Beast Boy and the others.
  • In the Villainous episode "The Lost Cases of Boxmore", Tao Pai Pai is one of the villains shown in a group photo.

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