if you're one of those kids like me and
you grew up with the Christopher Reeve
Superman movies there's a very good
chance that you dreamed of flying one
day taking to the skies and soaring
among the clouds and not just Superman
but also other forms of fiction like
Peter Pan for instance always portrayed
how awesome it was to just fly to
wherever you want to go and not have to
get into a car or a bus and not be
limited by the constraints of gravity
well when Dragon Ball first entered our
life we saw that flying was kind of a
common thing amongst most of the
characters well at least in the DBZ
portion because that's when everybody
could fly but have you ever wondered
what inspired Akira Toriyama to make his
characters fly in Dragon Ball well on
this edition of Dragon Ball in depth
we're going to examine the history of
flying not just in Dragon Ball but also
the principles of buku jutsu its origins
and give you a better picture of where
this concept came from and what it means
to the series
[Music]
Konoe Rosaura grandma's Panzano take yo
their penis early in dragon ball when
kid Goku had a tail he would spin his
tail to give himself like a helicopter
effect so that he could fly but later in
the series Goku learned a completely
different method of flying called the
buku jutsu technique which literally
translates to dancing sky art this
technique would of course be adopted by
the vast majority of the main characters
in the main cast in Dragon Ball when
having a tail became a thing of the past
Toriyama first introduced the concept of
the buku jutsu technique in the 22nd
Tenkaichi Budokai when we saw the crane
school composed of the crane hermit
tension han & chaozhou using the
technique which was foreign to those who
trained in the calm a scented form of
martial arts they did not know how to
fly but every one of crane students that
we saw seemed to know pretty damn easily
but it's interesting considering that
crane hermits brother Tao pipe I never
used makuu jutsu instead he would break
a pillar and fling it in the air and
then hop on top of it why didn't sue do
sin and teach Tao his own brother how to
fly hey maybe he never cared who knows
now the first time that we actually see
Goku used the technique was in the
closing moment of the climactic final
battle in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai as
goku literally fought for his life
against piccolo diamas reincarnation
piccolo who by that time had broken
almost every bone in Goku's body and as
a last resort
Goku utilized the buku jutsu announced
it to the world that he knew how to fly
and hit piccolo with a devastating head
but eliminating piccolo from what was
left of the ring and securing Goku spot
as the champion under the heavens for
the first time in his life now earlier
in the tournament kuda dean revealed
that he also knew how to use boku jutsu
and he had no idea that Goku also knew
so it seems like Goku was hiding this as
a last ditch resort in case he needed it
and it won him the tournament which I
love because it's the technique that was
used by his rival in the previous
tournament that's some great riding by
Toriyama
so then the question becomes well when
did Goku actually learn how to fly we
didn't see him fly under his own power
against his fight with piccolo daimao
before the tournament so when did it
happen
well most hardcore Dragon Ball fans
pretty much have narrowed it down to
Goku learning how to fly from his
training in the Sacred Realm for three
years with Tommy and mr. Popo now what I
find interesting is that we didn't
actually get a real thorough explanation
of what the technique was until
significantly deeper into the series in
fact it was Goku Son Gohan who taught
all of us including Vidal how to do it
and this is of course covered in Dragon
Ball Z episode 207 which correlates to
Dragon Ball manga chapter 428 Goku's
climactic fight with piccolo was Dragon
Ball manga chapter 193 so it was quite
some time later but anyways Gohan
teaches Vidal the very basics of ki
control and doesn't go into the real
origins of it but I really like this
scene because it's the first time in the
series we actually have these metahumans
or these meta characters explaining to
the audience how they actually do what
they do and Gohan talks about how you
have to draw out the energy from within
your body from within your solar plexus
and push it out slowly
now that concept might be hard to grasp
for somebody who's well I guess a Normie
but remember Vidal is a trained martial
artist and a pretty tough girl and has
been for most of her life so naturally
she would pick up on how to use this
technique and how to use energy and
manipulate it a little bit easier than
well say her father and ever since I was
a kid now watch that scene I've tried it
myself and I failed
now obviously the inspiration for
characters flying is not one that
Toriyama invented we know that Toriyama
loved movies both eastern and western we
obviously see the Superman comparison
made many times but I think that the
flying and Dragon Ball is based on a
much much deeper root than just Superman
that's where I got it from now pretty
much everybody knows that Toriyama was
heavily influenced by Journey to the
West that's what the original basis was
for the Dragonball story but as the
series progressed he would diverge
further and further away from his
inspiration but he would always go back
and pull a little bit from here a little
bit from there to create his story for
example take Sun Wukong the character
that son Goku is derived from Sun Wukong
enduring to the west
wore these magical cloud hopping shoes
that would allow him to hop between
clouds and have fights in midair now of
course the cloud hopping shoes would be
the direct inspiration for Goku's King
tone cloud otherwise known as the flying
Nimbus but if you want to find out more
you have to dig a little bit deeper into
the culture behind Journey to the West
and thus the culture behind Dragon Ball
derreck Padula has a wonderful article
on his dao of dragon ball comm blog
where he speaks about some of the real
deep roots of the flying technique and
it all comes from Taoism they would
practice something called internal
alchemy and external alchemy where you
could actually extend your life and
become essentially immortal or at least
live a very long life which is usually
the easiest way to explain why guys like
Roshi and Tao are so old and yet they're
in such good shape for their age because
they've mastered this kind of Taoist
Buddhist principle now they believe that
with enough practice you could actually
obtain supernatural powers like
levitation and whatnot where you could
actually fly in midair the ancient
hermit were the ones that would dedicate
their entire life to finding out how to
unlock these abilities within us as
human beings and part of Toriyama's
genius is his extreme knowledge of this
for example the Taoist symbol of flight
is the crane which is why the crane
master of the crane Hermits hoodoo Senen
is the one who knows how to fly and
taught his students how to fly it all
makes sense when you look at it from a
much deeper perspective in fact in the
article from Derek he goes on to point
out some incredible incredible symbolism
within these characters for example the
fact that their hats have like a crane
with
a red dot on top the red dot signifies
that their energy has ascended to the
top of the head and their supernatural
powers are unlocked
Toriyama is amazing when it comes to
this and there's so much symbolism and
dragonball that it would take you quite
some time to unravel all the mysteries
within this manga which is why it's so
freakin amazing science has pretty much
proven throughout the years that
everything in the universe everything
that exists around us in matter has
particles molecules protons electrons
neutrons and it's interesting because
Dow is internal alchemy kind of
correlates with that they also believe
that our entire existence is controlled
by our own consciousness and thus it is
believed that there are actually higher
levels of existence higher levels of
heaven with creatures or beings that
have actually unlocked higher levels of
existence such as flying this has
obviously been explored in other forms
of media like certain movies in some
religious texts as well besides just the
Taoist about the ability to become a
greater being through a form of
evolution for lack of a better term but
this evolution only comes from the
powerful unity of your body and your
mind and your spirit in other words you
can't just learn how to fly by teaching
your body how to fly by flapping your
arms up and down that's not how it works
even though mr. Satan did try that in
Dragon Ball Z and it was pretty damn
funny that's not how it works the body
and the mind have to be in sync to the
point where you tap into an energy field
to lift your body up and essentially
create well telekinesis just like Jean
Grey from x-men now in my life I've seen
a lot of weird but I've never seen
somebody actually fly in front of me so
it's most likely not possible I think
can safely say that but it's still fun
to talk about and it's interesting that
this kind of ancient belief system
inspired so many people to take the
martial arts to right forms of fiction
whether it be novels films or in this
case Dragon Ball
so guys
if you're going to spend some time
meditating and trying to figure this out
in the real world pretty please don't
try jumping out your window and things
like that I really really don't think
this is a good idea but thank you so
very much for watching this edition of
dragon ball in depth I hope that you had
a good time learning more about flight
and unfortunately I cannot fly but what
I can do is drive so I'll catch you down
the road don't forget to punch that
subscribe button and enable
notifications so that you get every
video that I upload right to your device
right when it goes up and thank you for
your continued support