How Dragon Ball turned Catalonia into a manga powerhouse

Every year, thousands attend the well-known Manga Barcelona, a fair focused on Japanese culture held in the Catalan capital.  

This year, marking its 30th anniversary, it once again broke attendance records with 167,000 visitors. 

The event has become one of the key reference points for otaku culture in Europe, alongside others like the Japan Expo in Paris and DoKomi in Germany. 

"Catalonia is the spearhead of manga and anime," explains Oriol Estrada, an author and expert in Japanese culture who helps organize the fair. 

Estrada describes the "sweet moment" otaku culture is experiencing in Barcelona, growing year by year, with fans visiting from all over the world. 

"People from around the globe, even Japan, come to the fair because of our guests and activities," he says. 

This expanding fandom isn't new - it stems from a long-standing tradition of embracing Japanese culture that many other countries have yet to match. 

"We’ve always had a strong comic culture: all the major publishers and authors in Spain are based in Barcelona," Estrada adds. 

But it was Dragon Ball, the legendary anime written by Akira Toriyama from 1984 to 1995, that truly ignited this fandom. 

"Dragon Ball sparked the craze for manga and anime that still continues today, 30 years later," Estrada explains. 

The series debuted in Catalan on the national public broadcaster TV3 in 1990, and it quickly captivated audiences. 

However, its arrival wasn’t universally welcomed. "There was some controversy at first, with people accusing Dragon Ball of being too violent," Estrada recalls.

The legendary manga was the catalyst that shattered the stereotypes surrounding Japanese anime, once seen as inferior, childish, and overly violent or sexualized. 

"Dragon Ball, like manga and anime in general, is a product for adults in Japan, not children. But when it was adapted in Catalan, it was seen as a children's show," explains Daniel Cassany, professor of Discourse Analysis at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. 

Cassany highlights the significant role translators played in adapting and reshaping Japanese anime for the local culture, despite the "differences between the two communities." 

Despite initial skepticism, anime slowly gained acceptance. As Dragon Ball's success became evident, TV3 recognized the potential of manga and began acquiring more series to air during children's programming. 

Soon, other beloved shows followed, like Dr. Slump, Detective Conan, Doraemon, Inuyasha, Crayon Shin-chan, and many others, each leaving their mark on generation after generation. 

To learn more about Dragon Ball and how it made manga popular in Catalonia, have a listen to this episode of our podcast Filling the Sink.