While attending high school, Gohan comes up with the hero alter ego "The Great Saiyaman" to conceal that he is secretly the so-called "Golden Warrior" who defeated Cell years prior. While hiding his true identity behind the persona of the eccentrically clad Great Saiyaman, Gohan easily overcomes criminals that even the police are no match for.

The Great Saiyaman isn't in the crime-fighting business for the money, nor for the fame; he just wants to bring peace to his city. So just what fuels this young hero? To find out, we sat down with Timothy Takemoto, a professor at Yamaguchi University's Faculty of Economics. Professor Takemoto researches all kinds of superheroes through the lens of cultural psychology, and when we asked him to use his expertise to analyze the Great Saiyaman, he presented us with a fascinating conclusion!

Profiles

Interviewee: Professor Timothy Takemoto
Born in London, England, Professor Takemoto currently is a professor in the Faculty of Economics at Yamaguchi University. After completing his masters in Japanese Studies at the University of Edinburgh, he attended Graduate School at Kurume University. His main field of study is cultural psychology. After moving to Japan at the age of 24, he has been researching Japanese culture from the perspective of religion, culture, philosophy, and more. His main research subjects include subculture (manga, anime, etc.), tourism, administration, and martial arts.

Interviewer: Ryuta Shimabukoro
Freelance writer. Reporter for web-based outlets primarily, with bylines on Shueisha Online, Gendai Business, Biz/Zine, and more. As a child, he shunned trains, dinosaurs, and bugs and was obsessed instead with tokusatsu heroes.

Contents

・ Are Western and Japanese Heroes Different?
・ Things Aren't Always "Good" and "Evil" for Japanese Heroes
・ The Great Saiyaman "Lectures" Criminals Because He's a Western-Style Hero
・ Is the Great Saiyaman Satire?

—For starters, could you tell us a bit about your field of research, cultural psychology?

Professor Takemoto (Hereafter, Takemoto): Cultural psychology is the study of the human psychology involved in the formation of a given culture, as well as the influence of said culture on human psychology. As for my research, I analyze subjects such as Japanese subculture, tourism, and administration through the lenses of Japanese self-image and self-esteem. Heroes are also included in that research. There are a considerable number of differences between the Western and Japanese conception of what a hero should be, so I am interested in the cultural and psychological influences that create those differences.

—According to your analysis, what kind of hero is the Great Saiyaman?

Takemoto: Simply put, he represents modern-day Japan.

—Wow, that seems like quite an important message! Could you go more into detail for us?

Takemoto: The Great Saiyaman's costume and demeanor both have Japanese and Western elements to them. This is very similar to modern Japanese society, where there is a mix of Japanese and Western elements.

—I see! Just what are the differences between Western and Japanese heroes?

Takemoto: In cultural psychology, the hero is thought of as the "ideal self". It is a projection of the desire to escape the mundaneness of your everyday self and transform into an idealized version of yourself.

One manifestation of this ideal is "strength". American-born heroes like Superman, Spider-Man, or the Hulk and Japanese heroes like ULTRAMAN or MIGHTY ATOM (also known as Astro Boy) all share the trait of being incredibly strong. This symbolizes the desire to forget real-world and physical limitations and transform into an ideal self, a point which both Western and Japanese heroes have in common.

On the other hand, how this transformation occurs is where these heroes differ. For example, Superman and Spider-Man try to avoid being seen when they transform; while Japanese heroes transform in such a way as if to show themselves off. In the Super Sentai, ULTRAMAN, and Pretty Cure series, the transformation sequences are one of the highlights and take place in public for all to see.

—Oh, you're right! They really are different.

Takemoto: This difference isn't just limited to heroes. Even in period dramas such as Mito Komon or Tooyama no Kin-san, symbols such as inro (traditional pill cases) and cherry blossom tattoos are used to draw attention to a character's special status. You could say that this is a transformation of sorts. In my opinion, contrasts such as these stem from cultural and psychological differences between Japan and the West.

—How did these differences between Japanese and Western heroes come to be?

Takemoto: I think the root lies in the differences in self-image. One way I discuss this difference is by dividing it into "language-centric" and "imagination-centric".

According to general theories of linguistics, people form their self-image through language. The linguist Ferdinand da Saussure argued that there is an "arbitrary nature" to language. This is because we perceive the world by making arbitrary linguistic distinctions.

For example, we recognize "dogs" and "cats" to be different things because we distinguish them linguistically. It's the same with "I" and "you". It is through repeating these linguistic distinctions that the self-image of "I" emerges. This is the language-centric model of self-image that I theorize to be primarily used by Westerners.

On the other hand, I think that Japanese self-image is more visual. In Japan, there is the saying, "God is watching", right? It's not "God is scolding you" or "God is accusing you of sin", but "watching". I contend that the self is therefore captured as an image by using the divine as a mirror. This is a characteristic that differs from self-image that Westerners create linguistically.

—How does this difference influence heroes?

Takemoto: Take Batman and Joker, for example. These two are polar opposites and fundamentally incompatible. They're linguistically separated as being "good" and "evil".

However, I think this distinction is much less clear for Japanese heroes. The same is true for "Dragon Ball". In many Japanese hero manga, characters that started off as enemies end up becoming allies to the heroes over the course of the story, and "Dragon Ball" is of course no exception.

In Japanese manga frequently there isn't a clear distinction between good and evil, and instead it seems like the characters all have something in common, almost like they are a part of a family. Boss characters like Majin Buu that are supposed to be the embodiment of evil are often also used as comic relief. Of course, there are exceptions like Fist of the North Star where objectively mean or evil villains do appear, but I argue that Japanese hero stories have elements of familial resemblance to them.

Earlier I mentioned that Japanese heroes show off during transformation scenes, and I think that this stems from Japanese people having a visual self-image. For Japanese people, donning a special suit or costume is an extremely important step for transforming into an ideal self.

—Looking at it that way, the Great Saiyaman really does seem to incorporate a mix of Western and Japanese elements.

Takemoto: Right? For example, the Great Saiyaman dons his costume in hiding, but he also has a flashy side where he shouts things like "THE GREAT SAIYAMAN!!!" while doing a special pose. The hidden transformation seems Western, whereas the ostentatious posing seems more Japanese.

In particular, I'd argue that the "pose" behavior is especially Japanese in nature. In traditional Japanese performing arts and martial arts, the repetition of kata (lit. "forms") is highly emphasized. By repeating the same movements, practitioners acquire their own physical awareness and make their own self-image distinct. When a group of heroes and the like transform and perform a pose, it seems to me to be a confirmation of a Japanese sense of self-image.

—Oh, I get it now. Are there any other interesting points about the Great Saiyaman?

Takemoto: One more is how he transforms via a special watch. This is a very Western characteristic. In Western modern philosophy, it is said that there is a duplication of the self, and the way to ensure the identity of this duplicated self is through spoken language.

For example, when you pronounce a word, you are listening to the pronunciation at the same time. By performing "speaking" and "listening" as a set, you can confirm the identity of the duplicated self. However, the philosopher Jaques Derrida focused on the time gap between "speaking" and "listening" and argued that language does not ensure self-identity.

—Wow, this is getting pretty complicated!

Takemoto: To put it simply, as long as humans are restricted by the limits of time, it is difficult for us to confirm that we are who we are. However, the Great Saiyaman uses a watch to transform. I argue that the watch, as an item that indicates time, ensures the identity of Gohan and the Great Saiyaman. This is probably based on a Western understanding of humanity.

—While it is true that Gohan and the Great Saiyaman are the same person, don't you feel that they have different personalities? There are scenes where the Great Saiyaman lectures and admonishes villains, but Gohan doesn't normally do that kind of thing.

Takemoto: Lecturing is the act of trying to guide "evil" to become "good". Since one of my arguments is that this clear distinction between good and evil is much more in line with Western heroes, I think that this is a Western characteristic of his. It seems to me that Gohan is an easygoing, down-to-earth hero with largely Japanese characteristics, but when he becomes the Great Saiyaman, he suddenly becomes more Western. As you can see from these various examples, the Great Saiyaman is a very complex hero.

—I think I'm starting to understand what you meant earlier when you said that the Great Saiyaman contains a mix of Western and Japanese elements.

Takemoto: Oh, that's great! I'd also say that modern Japanese society in general contains that same mixture. For example, I think that "verbalization" has become extremely important recently in Japanese society.

In the fields of education and business, evaluation systems such as "Portfolio", "PDCA", and Appreciative Inquiry's "Positive Core" have been adopted, and various methods of verbalizing one's own values and strengths are becoming more and more widespread across Japan.

However, I argue that since Japanese people are used to perceiving themselves visually, there is no reason to think that they would be used to praising and analyzing themselves through language. I am actually concerned that such activities will damage the self-esteem of Japanese people.

—Yes, statements like "Japanese people have lower self-esteem than people in other countries" are fairly common.

Takemoto: From my perspective, that is not the case at all. Although Japanese people may appear to be humble if you base your assessment on the "status-lowering" polite language many people use, I think that they are full of self-esteem when it comes to image.

For example, while Japanese martial artists like sumo wrestlers and karate masters have a reputation for being reticent and of few words their facial expressions and behavior tell a completely different story. Therefore, I argue that Japanese people's version of self-image, including self-esteem, merely differs from Westerners'.

In the Dragon Ball series, the Great Saiyaman is portrayed as a somewhat comical character. However, it feels to me as though this portrayal is satirizing modern Japanese people who have taken on too many Western characteristics and thus are losing their original self-image.

—Wow, so we can really see the changes happening in modern Japan when we look at the Great Saiyaman. I never thought we'd end up coming to a conclusion like this! Professor Takemoto, thank you so much for your time today!