{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T05:15:16Z","timestamp":1783401316461,"version":"3.54.6"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.159864.1","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]],"date-time":"2026-06-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781481600000}}],"reference-count":8,"publisher":"F1000 Research Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]],"date-time":"2026-06-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781481600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001691","name":"Japan Society for the Promotion of Science","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["22K13014"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["22K13014"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001691","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["f1000research.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["F1000Res"],"abstract":"\n Background This paper analyzes the mechanism of the proliferation and disappearance of graphical characters in the manga\n Dragon Ball<\/ns5:italic>\n , a globally successful media franchise.\n Dragon Ball<\/ns5:italic>\n was serialized by Japanese manga artist, Toriyama Akira (1955\u20132024), in\n Weekly Shonen Jump<\/ns5:italic>\n magazine between 1984 and 1995. The manga, published in 42 volumes, was animated for TV from 1986 to 1996 as\n Dragon Ball<\/ns5:italic>\n and\n Dragon Ball Z.<\/ns5:italic>\n Methods In support of the arguments on animation, such as Susan Napier\u2019s metamorphosis, Sergei Eisenstein\u2019s plasmaticity, and theories on characters in anime and manga studies, this paper analyses visual properties of characters in Toriyama\u2019s\n Dragon Ball<\/ns5:italic>\n , with a special focus on the graphical and biological reproduction. Results This paper found that characters in\n Dragon Ball<\/ns5:italic>\n operate as a vessel for the shape-shifting fluidity of ink lines. The free kinetic movement of lines results in the graphical proliferation of characters and reproduction devoid of sexual expression. This is a version of the \u201cabjection\u201d \u2014 a reaction of the subject to reject familiar things as something horrific \u2014 that Napier argued regarding metamorphosis in turn-of-the-century Japanese anime. In\n Dragon Ball<\/ns5:italic>\n , muscular men\u2019s battles hide the potentially grotesque graphic\/biological proliferation of the characters. What stops this medium-specific proliferation of images is light as the lack of ink, a media-aesthetic element inherent to manga and anime. It is not flesh-and-blood combat but energy waves that inflict death on the villains who resurrect even from a single cell, just as lines drawn in ink multiply endlessly. Conclusions These findings offer rich insights into the history of visual popular media in post-war Japan. The glow of the energy waves expressed by the lack of ink echoes the repeated motif of mass destruction in the history of Japanese anime and manga, which reminds us of the extinction of lives in the atomic bomb explosions.\n <\/ns5:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.159864.2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T04:19:07Z","timestamp":1783397947000},"page":"236","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/f1000research.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Crush of Plasmatic Flesh: Dual Reproduction of Characters and Abjection in Manga Dragon Ball"],"prefix":"10.12688","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9616-6790","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kohki","family":"Watabe","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Tsukuba Ibaraki 3058577 University of Tsukuba"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2560","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref7","article-title":"Past, Present, and Future of Digital Animation, Part 6 (Dejitaru Animeshon no Kako Genzai Mirai, Dai 6 Kai).","author":"K Goshima","year":"2017","journal-title":"Media Art Current Contents."},{"key":"ref10","article-title":"Celebs, athletes give \u201cDragon Ball\u201d pop culture super status.","year":"2019","journal-title":"Denver Post."},{"key":"ref1","article-title":"Anime News Network.","year":"October 7, 2009"},{"key":"ref19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"251-265","DOI":"10.1177\/1746847708096728","article-title":"The line and the Animorph or \u2018Travel is more than just A to B\u2019.","volume":"3","author":"V Sobchack","year":"November 2008","journal-title":"Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal."},{"key":"ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"250-267","DOI":"10.1080\/07053436.2018.1482670","article-title":"Dragon Ball: Body control and epic excess in manga and anime.","volume":"41","author":"B Suvilay","year":"2018","journal-title":"Loisir et Soci\u00e9t\u00e9\/Society and Leisure."},{"key":"ref22","first-page":"130","article-title":"The secret of Dr. Slump, which I hardly talk about seriously, vol. 6 (Mezurashiku Washi ga Majime ni Kataru Dr. Slump no Himitsu sono 6).","volume":"16","author":"A Toriyama","year":"1984","journal-title":"Dr. Slump."},{"key":"ref2","article-title":"Anime News Network.","year":"August 22, 2000"},{"key":"ref24","article-title":"Characters\u2019 Amnesia in 2.5D Culture: Affective Reception of Bronze Statues of Anime and Manga Characters and Public Sculptures.","volume":"15","author":"K Watabe","year":"2023","journal-title":"Mechademia."}],"container-title":["F1000Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2\/iparadigms","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T04:19:08Z","timestamp":1783397948000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]]},"references-count":8,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/f1000research.159864.2","relation":{"has-version":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.12688\/f1000research.159864.1","asserted-by":"subject"}],"has-review":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5256\/f1000research.198823.r495833","asserted-by":"subject"}]},"ISSN":["2046-1402"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2046-1402","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2#article-reports","order":0,"name":"referee-status","label":"Referee status","group":{"name":"current-referee-status","label":"Current Referee Status"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.175650.r371099, Laurence Green, University of the Arts London, London, 25 Mar 2025, version 1, 2 approved with reservations","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v1#referee-response-371099","order":0,"name":"referee-response-371099","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"Kohki Watabe<\/b>; \nPosted: 13 Apr 2026<\/i>; I am grateful to the reviewer for such an engaged and perceptive reading of the manuscript. The reviewer's comments have been genuinely helpful in clarifying the paper's argument and improving its presentation. I respond to each point below. \nOn the overall presentation and argument<\/b> The reviewer's observation that the paper feels "muddled" and that it claims to focus on the line while spending more time on character elements is a valuable one, and I understand why the paper can read this way. I have revised the conclusion to make the theoretical logic more explicit: the paper's core claim is that in the static medium of manga, plasmaticity \ncannot<\/i> be expressed as pure line movement but must pass through the vessel of the character (\nkyara<\/i>)\u2014and it is this necessary mediation that generates the "dual reproduction" central to the argument. I hope the revised conclusion makes clearer why the paper moves between line and character, and why this movement is the argument rather than a distraction from it. \nOn "why should we care"<\/b> The reviewer is right to press on this point, and I appreciate the sharpness of the challenge. I have added a passage to the conclusion that more directly articulates the broader stakes of the analysis: the paper's framework for reading how medium-specific properties of ink and line encode cultural and historical meaning offers a transferable methodology for manga and anime studies more broadly, and connects the formal analysis to Japan's postwar visual imagination in ways that I hope will resonate with readers beyond the immediate field. \nOn Lamarre and Dennison<\/b> The reviewer's suggestion to engage with Lamarre and Dennison is well taken and has pushed me to think more carefully about how to position this study within current debates. I have added a footnote in Section 2 that engages with Lamarre's concept of animetism (\nThe Anime Machine<\/i>, 2009). As the note explains, Lamarre's framework focuses on the moving image and cel animation technology, whereas the present study addresses the static medium of manga\u2014but the footnote acknowledges the productive tension between the two approaches and situates the present study more clearly in relation to this influential body of work. Regarding Dennison's \nAnime: A Critical Introduction<\/i> (2015), her focus on transnational genre history and industrial circulation is somewhat outside the formal and medium-specific scope of the present paper; I have addressed this point in the response rather than in the text itself, but I am grateful to the reviewer for prompting me to consider how the paper's argument might speak to those broader debates. \nOn over-reliance on Napier<\/b> The reviewer's point about Napier is well taken. Napier is necessarily central to this paper because her account of metamorphosis and abjection in Japanese animation provides the direct theoretical foil for the argument about \nDragon Ball<\/i>; without that interlocutor, the paper's contribution would be harder to define. That said, I take the reviewer's point that the conclusion's claim to situate the paper within a broader "trend" in anime\/manga studies should be better substantiated. The addition of the Lamarre footnote, together with the existing engagement with Steinberg, It\u014d, \u014ctsuka, Bukatman, and Lippit, I hope, goes some way toward demonstrating that the paper is in dialogue with a wider field. I have also revised the relevant passage in the conclusion to frame the paper's position more carefully. \nOn the citation base<\/b> I am grateful for the reviewer's encouragement to broaden the citation base. The Lamarre footnote represents the most substantive addition in this regard. I believe the existing bibliography\u2014spanning English-language and Japanese-language scholarship across animation studies, manga studies, film theory, and philosophy\u2014reflects the interdisciplinary scope of the argument, and I hope the revised version demonstrates this more effectively.","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2#referee-comment-15941","order":1,"name":"referee-comment-15941","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.175650.r371095, Nor Afian Yusof, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, 16 Apr 2025, version 1, 2 approved with reservations","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v1#referee-response-371095","order":2,"name":"referee-response-371095","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"Kohki Watabe<\/b>; \nPosted: 13 Apr 2026<\/i>; I thank the reviewer for the careful and constructive reading of the manuscript. Below I respond to each of the four points raised. \n1. Lack of empirical data or reception studies<\/b> The reviewer suggests adding reception studies or fan interviews to support arguments about audience perception and cultural implications. I appreciate this suggestion; however, the present study is intentionally designed as a medium-specific formal analysis of the manga text rather than a reception study. The paper examines the visual and graphical properties of \nDragon Ball<\/i> as a media object, drawing on animation theory and manga studies rather than audience ethnography. Incorporating reception data would require a substantially different methodological framework and is beyond the scope of this study. I have clarified the paper's scope in the Methods section to make this boundary more explicit. \n2. Lack of comparative analysis with other anime and manga texts<\/b> The reviewer suggests broader comparison with works such as \nAkira<\/i>, \nNeon Genesis Evangelion<\/i>, and \nParasyte<\/i>. I note that \nAkira<\/i> already plays a significant comparative role in the paper: Tetsuo's transformation in \nAkira<\/i> is discussed at length in Section 2 as a counterpoint to the abjection dynamics in \nDragon Ball<\/i>, and the Neo-Tokyo explosion is referenced in Section 3.4 in the context of light and annihilation in Japanese anime. The paper thus does situate \nDragon Ball<\/i> within a broader landscape of Japanese visual culture. A systematic comparison with additional titles would, however, shift the paper's focus away from its core argument about the medium-specific properties of \nDragon Ball<\/i> as a manga text. I have added a brief note in the conclusion to clarify how the analytical framework developed here might be extended to other works. \n3. Imbalance between visual and narrative analysis<\/b> The reviewer suggests more close readings of specific manga panels. I have added a further chapter reference in Section 3.3 to strengthen the grounding of the argument in the primary source material. I would also direct the reviewer's attention to Figures 1\u20137, each of which is accompanied by detailed analytical discussion in the main text, and to the extensive chapter-specific citations throughout Sections 3.1\u20133.4. The paper's analytical approach is to treat selected panels as evidence of broader medium-ontological patterns rather than to perform exhaustive panel-by-panel commentary; I believe the existing visual apparatus adequately supports this approach. \n4. Overemphasis on sexuality while neglecting masculinity<\/b> I respectfully suggest that this comment reflects a misreading of the paper's argument. The paper does not simply emphasize sexuality; rather, its central argument is precisely that \nDragon Ball<\/i> systematically \nsuppresses<\/i> sexuality and romance in favor of an asexual, graphical mode of reproduction. The surface narrative of muscular masculine combat is acknowledged\u2014and indeed foregrounded in the Introduction\u2014as the mechanism through which this suppression is effected. In other words, the paper treats masculinity not as an absent topic but as the surface ideology that renders the underlying logic of dual reproduction invisible. Adding a separate analysis of hyper-masculinity along the lines suggested by the reviewer would duplicate rather than complement the paper's existing argument.","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2#referee-comment-15940","order":3,"name":"referee-comment-15940","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.198823.r495833, Valentina-Andrada Minea, University of Munster, M\u00fcnster, 07 Jul 2026, version 2, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-236\/v2#referee-response-495833","order":4,"name":"referee-response-495833","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"22K13014 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.","order":5,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}