Dragon Ball fandom's latest animation quality defense "speaks for itself" per Naruto community

Modified Jan 09, 2025 23:30 GMT

Dragon Ball fandom's latest animation quality defense "speaks for itself" per Naruto community (Images via Toei Animation, Pierrot)

Arguably two of the most combative online anime fandoms are none other than the Dragon Ball and Naruto communities, largely in part due to how passionate each group is. While this passion is understandable and good for a series to inspire, it certainly can be taken too far in the internet age where discussions and debates can go viral in the blink of an eye.

Such is the case with the two communities’ latest spat with each other, seeing them argue over which series has the better fights overall. However, the latest defense made by one of the most vocal members of the former series’ community has a fatal flaw which fans of the latter have been extremely quick to point out.

Dragon Ball fandom’s use of a movie to get an edge on Naruto community backfires in predictable way

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As mentioned above, this latest conflict between the two fandoms began with a generic troll post. However, X (formerly Twitter) user @SLOplays (SLO) then quoted the post with a clip from the Dragon Ball Super: Broly film attached. In the caption, he referenced the original post’s comment about Akira Toriyama’s iconic franchise not providing “better fights than Naruto,” adding a skull emoji to signify a mocking tone.

Unsurprisingly, this interaction highlights the type of drama which each of these communities often find themselves embroiled in, although not usually against each other. With how iconic both series are, issues such as superior animation and visual experience in action sequences are extremely important to the Naruto and Dragon Ball fanbase. Yet in reality, each franchise has several examples of animation quality which is nothing short of the best of the best.

This is what makes this situation especially fascinating, since both fandoms are typically used as the benchmark for other series’ fight and animation quality rather than being put against each other. In any case, each franchise boasts incredible animation at times, with neither of them also being truly “perfect” for the entirety of their franchise’s anime offerings. Likewise, this fact highlights just how silly debates such as these are at the end of the day.

Fan reaction

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As seen in the embedded X post above, fans of each franchise are actively involved in the discussion around SLO’s use of a film clip in the debate. Fans of Kishimoto’s series are having unique reactions to this, however, ranging from plainly saying their series is better to taking additional shots at Toriyama’s franchise:

“Naruto just have better fights bro lol love db but come on now,” shared one user who claims to be a fan of both series.

“Let DB have this that’s all they got is fights,” prodded another.

“I don't think they got sth else ngl,” teased a third.

Dragon Ball fans, meanwhile, are primarily either defending SLO’s use of the clip, or bringing up other franchise fights which would also prove their point:

“I mean.. goku vs cell fight was in 1990s and did well more than newgen anime,” argued one fan.

“It's canon tho,” pointed out another.

“"using a movie" and its literally just a fight

whats the difference,” questioned yet another.

In between these to extremes, meanwhile, lies several users acknowledging the merits of both series’ animation and general visual quality:

“While animation is good(since it's a movie) but it’s just the same loop of punch, fly, scream, repeat. Meanwhile, Naruto fights have actual layers strategic taijutsu, diverse techniques, and way more depth than just "dadadada",” calmly claimed one user.

“DB fights are iconic for other reasons. Not the choreography lmao. It’s good but it doesn’t compare to Naruto’s best.,” asserted a second.

In any case, both series serve as animation benchmarks at multiple points in their respective anime properties. For Toriyama’s series, this includes sequences from the Super movies, while Kishimoto’s fandom often points to Sasuke and Naruto versus Momoshiki from the Boruto movie as the franchise’s pièce de résistance. Cherrypicking either franchise will also yield major lows, proving once again that comparing the two series’ visual qualities is a fruitless endeavor.