I'm not joking and I'm not trying to be racist in the slightest (I'm mixed lol), and if you don't believe me search the reactions on YouTube from the latest game Sparking Zero, 95 percent are black YouTubers, even the smallest channels. Why is that? I'm not from USA, if that changes anything.
It's huge in Mexico as well, they had public viewing of new DBSuper episodes (Toei Animations tried to cease and desist them but got told to stfu).
Police reports regularly showed a significant decrease in cartel activity around the times new DB episodes dropped.
For a serious answer, as someone who grew up in a family that couldn't afford cable television. DBZ, Sailor Moon, and Pokémon all aired on network, antenna, televison in the morning before school or after school throughout the 90's.
So it's probably a function of income more than race. All the poor white kids I grew up with worshiped those three shows too.
There's a scene in the netflix show, Daybreak, where RZA as a narrator explains how eastern warrior culture became popular in the black community. Which is what i thought of reading your question. I couldn't find a clip but here's an article about it, and the relevant quote:
"It's not your fault you want to be a samurai," says RZA. "See, that's the economical pressure being expressed as warrior code. It started when young black men couldn't afford to go to the movies, so we watched kung fu reruns. We found beauty in things that had been neglected." He explains the socioeconomic forces that raised a whole generation of "blerds," spinning out into everything from Jim Kelly to The Last Dragon to Kendrick Lamar's "Kung Fu Kenny" to The Boondocks to Wu-Tang Clan itself.
I towed a guys truck one time. Nerdy fella, talked a ton. Said he loved DBZ. I fucking went for it, said "yo why did every one of the black dudes I know growing up love DBZ?" And without missing a beat he looks at me and goes "they talk MAD shit in the show man." Blew my mind.
blew your mind because you were convinced that's the reason. so many black people like dbz?
does dbz talk shit different than other anime? I feel like everyone kind of talks shit to everybody else in every anime with heroes and villains.
or just cause it's the original?
I'm curious about the rest of the conversation.
Was he saying that talking mad shit was specifically compelling to black people?
It blew my mind because I wasn't expecting it.
does dbz talk shit different than other anime? I feel like everyone kind of talks shit to everybody else in every anime with heroes and villains.
I don't know. Never watched it.
Was he saying that talking mad shit was specifically compelling to black people?
That is what he meant. I interpreted it as "fuck yeah dude, that shit rules" more than "we talk shit" but who the hell knows.
I live in a black town and I can confirm this. The phenomena remains mysterious, I have no answers.