At the age of 6, I was playing in my room with my brother, and at a certain point, I hear the sound of the front door handle, and I see my father with the bread bag under his arm, as he did every day. We approached to greet him, and this time, along with the bread, he brought a gift. It left a lasting impression on me because it was a black and white comic book. Manga culture was not yet popular in Italy, so for us, the reason the comic was devoid of colors could only be one: to color it! We started coloring these characters; they were unusually strong and reassuring, surrounded by an aura of power and with hair so tall that not even with the strongest Prokrin (gel) of the moment could we emulate them. It was a Dragon Ball comic, and to be precise, it was a fairly crucial chapter in the saga, containing the showdown between Gohan SSj 2 and Perfect Cell. From that day, as I grew up, I apologized for the outrage of coloring a manga and became passionate about comics.
Over time, I had the opportunity to read Dragon Ball and watch the TV series, curse the translations invented by Mediaset, an Italian TV channel that was called Italia 1 at the time, and, like everyone else, try to transform with a scream of anger and pain during adolescent crises.
I already knew as a child who Akira Toriyama was, and although I didn’t delve into it, I always found the character of Dr. Slump & Arale funny, but without a doubt, Dragon Ball became the most popular saga, earning the fourth place in the ranking of the world’s best-selling manga.
The adventures of this strange tailed child, invincible, with an unstoppable determination against the Red Ribbon Army and the villain Pilaf in search of the 7 Dragon Balls, which then turns into a story of aliens coming from other planets with increasingly captivating power challenges, giving way to the creation of non-canonical works and continuing to thrill new generations with the Super version. Certainly, now I realize the narrative gaps or the characters presented and forgotten by Toriyama, but this does not diminish the importance of the extremely valuable work that the master has left us.
On March 1, 2024, Toriyama passed away, and now he watches over us from King Kai’s planet. May he rest in peace. Now, Dragon Ball is talked about everywhere, admiration is strong, and the awareness of the value of what his genius has generated has grown, as always happens when someone great leaves us, on the border between marketing and the need to express one’s sadness.
I, too, have decided to create something in honor of Akira Toriyama and the Dragon Ball saga, and I hope it will be to your liking. I decided to do a cover of “We Gotta Power,” originally composed by Keiju Ishikawa, the second opening of Dragon Ball Z in Japan because it was one of the songs that moved me the most as a teenager and made me look at life with more confidence. I used my Ibanez Rg2020X with a drop D tuning and recorded the electric guitars, then created the base and arrangements with virtual instruments, entrusting the care of mixing and mastering to Soundream Studio (www.soundreamstudio.com). The voice you hear in the song is the original voice performed by Hironobu Kageyama. The song was initially intended to be released as an instrumental cover, but in the end, to add an extra touch of nostalgia, we decided to present the new version with the legendary voice of the original performer.
You can listen to my version of the song here, and soon, the instrumental version will also be released to allow those who want to sing and contribute to do so on my track.
Thank you for reading and listening, and I will never stop thanking Akira Toriyama for giving us such a beautiful dream. My slogan is Thanks to you We Gotta Power!!
Thank you! Goodbye!!