I question how much the smaller fighter winning is even a subversion. That's been a trope since forever.
This song needs more love.Yeah, it's been noted before that the ultimate enemy being smaller is something that's not culturally uncommon over in Japan, and is arguably more common than having the big bads be bigger and more physically intimidating. It's certainly a genre staple in Shonen.
edited 17th Apr '18 5:30:29 PM by KnownUnknown
Well the only shonen pre-DB I can think of is Fist of the North Star where that is explicitly not the case.
The reason it became a thing is because DB was so influential.
If it's a cultural Japanese thing then I guess that might be it. I don't know enough about that sort of stuff.
edited 17th Apr '18 5:32:57 PM by Sigilbreaker26
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"Hell, if anything, they subverted that stereotype with Nappa (bigger and stronger than all the heroes and actually stomped them into mush) and Recoome.
Especially, the latter, who ever Vegeta couldn't stop. Not so much when Goku came along but still.
One Strip! One Strip!The smaller person beating the larger one has been a thing since at least David and Goliath and probably before that as well.
This song needs more love.True. I didn't say it was perfect, but Goku's the main hero, so of course he's stronger.
And Vegeta is an example of Toriyama's usual stuff anyway.
One Strip! One Strip!Wasn't the novel idea he had just that Frieza's progressively larger and more monstrous forms ended with a very smaller and more seemingly harmless form? More Bishōnen Line then David And Goliath.
From what I understand Japan has a very different ideal of what a "strong person" looks like. Their ideal image of strength is a lean but muscular person like a gymnast, emphasizing speed and tactics in addition to physical power. A very large, burly person closer to the Western idea of a "strongman," conversely, would be seen as a big galoot too dumb and slow to reasonably defeat the prior-mentioned sort of person.
It's not like the characters in Dragon Ball aren't beefcakes.
True, but the little guy utterly crushing the big dude is too much of a stereotype.
I mean, I'm not saying the bigger guy should dominate either. I want variety. It comes off as not being able to think of a way to make the bigger dude interesting.
If they really want to surprise us, have the big guy win for reasons beyond just being a big dude. Proved a real shock.
One Strip! One Strip!King Piccolo won because he had the higher power level, which is a whole 'other kettle of fish in DB...though being a demon, he should be far stronger than what the series is familiar with at that point, so I guess that's not actually bad.
One Strip! One Strip!Come to think of it, there was a joke in Abridged where Goku assumed Oozaru Vegeta would be much slower due to his increase in size...which he was not.
One Strip! One Strip!

If you keep doing something like that, it stops being a subversion.