Back when I was a kid and first watched DBZ, I thought that if Goku was going to be Superman just because he shared the same powers and origin-story as him, then that would make the numerous Z-Warriors his personal Justice League. But, as I watched the first story-arc, and later story-arcs like it, I've been proven wrong time and again. Repeatedly, many of Goku's friends, even Vegeta, all get their butts handed to them just as an excuse to demonstrate each new main-villain's powers, as well as to tell the audiences that only Goku, and in some ways Gohan at the end of the Cell Games, were the only ones to stop them. As a result, I became upset that Goku's friends were being rendered obsolete and useless, even though Superman's Justice League friends don't end up getting left behind in-terms of character-development and relevancy to the story, if not power levels.

But then I wrote a thread about it on some message boards, and numerous people told me that Dragon Ball Z was not the same as the DC Comics universe, even if their respective heroes shared the same backstory and powers. Technically, American comics are not written the same way as manga, and not just because the latter have endings while the former barely do. American comics like Marvel and DC are shared universes, which means they have no designated main-protagonist. Every superhero is the main-protagonist of their respective franchises, which means that when they cross over to form teams like the Justice League or the Avengers, there isn't going to be a main-protagonist because it's a crossover. Sure, there are designated leaders amongst those teams, like Superman for the Justice League, and Captain America and Iron Man for the Avengers. But even then, the leaders themselves are not main-protagonists of those two team-up stories, because every other member of those two teams are main-protagonists of their own storylines.

Japanese manga, on the other hand, are not shared universes themselves. They are mostly self-contained, and as a result do have main-protagonists alongside a supporting cast. And usually, in manga, a supporting cast's job is to help the hero reach his goal, namely by fighting henchmen in one-on-one duels so that the hero could focus on the main-villain alone. Otherwise, if the hero fought those henchmen, they would have softened him up enough for their bad-guy leader to finish him off. Dragon Ball Z was no exception, despite it co-existing in the same universe as that other Akira Toriyama manga, Dr. Slump (they only crossed over once for a little while, and then never did it again). Even if Vegeta was the one supporting character who took up most of the spotlight, due to his story-arc of him trying to surpass Goku out of jealousy while being one of the good guys, he was still just that: A supporting character. That meant he and the other supporting characters handled the minions or other low-level bad-guys, while Goku himself fought the main-villain himself, without fear of being softened up by the henchmen.

It's what also describes One Piece. To ensure that every member of the Straw Hat Pirate crew was useful, Eiichiro Oda usually pitted each individual crew member against a certain powerful henchman, so that he or she could clear a path for Luffy to reach the main villain. Luffy may have had a history of enduring enough punishment to kill an entire army, but he would have been softened up by the henchmen just enough for the main-villain of each story-arc to finish him off. Which was why he had his crew, to handle the henchmen so that they would not soften Luffy.

And that's the problem with me right now. I've been approaching manga through an American comic shared universe perspective. I kept thinking that, because Japan has manga, that it means they do shared universes just as much as American comic publishers. The reason I kept getting upset over the uselessness of Goku's supporting cast was because of my American perspective, the idea that if Goku was Superman, then his friends were his Justice League, even though they actually weren't because (a) they were useless and killed off too often, and (b) they were not main-characters of their own franchises the same way American comic-book heroes were.

And, it doesn't just apply to manga, as well. Live action, team-based tokusatsu shows like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers were not shared universes, in that each Power Ranger was not a main-character of his or her franchise. This is most especially true when you look at each Red Ranger, who was often designated the leader, and therefore would be considered the main-protagonist himself. Meanwhile, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may have originated as an American comic itself, but it was not part of any shared universe I know of, nor was it a shared universe in and of itself, despite it crossing over with that other series, Usagi Yojimbo. Not only that, but the TMNT also had their own leader, Leonardo, who would also be designated the main-protagonist as a result, with Donatello and Michelangelo as his "sidekicks", and Raphael as the "anti-hero". Therefore, Leonardo would most likely be the one to fight Shredder in a one-on-one duel, while Raph, Don, and Mikey handled the low-level henchmen.

Toy based franchises with large ensemble casts, similar to My Little Pony, are also the same way. He-Man, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, and Transformers do not exist in any pre-existing shared universe, and are not shared universes themselves, despite He-Man branching off with a spin-off series starring his distaff counterpart, She-Ra. Not only that, but each of those franchises also designated their respective teams into main-protagonist (He-Man, Lion-O, Duke, and Optimus Prime) and supporting cast (Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, and Autobots).

Which leads to one question: Why was I able to discern He-Man, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, Transformers, TMNT, and Power Rangers as separate, self-contained universes, but saw Dragon Ball Z through a DC Comics-style shared universe perspective? If I were to guess, it was probably the fact that Goku was technically Superman in-terms of origin story and powers, while He-Man, Lion-O (who ironically also shared the same origin story as Superman), Duke, Optimus Prime, Leonardo, and the average Red Ranger were not. But the answer just isn't definitive.

So really, perhaps I should stop with the Dragon Ball Z rants. I need to wean myself off of that mindset that Dragon Ball Z was the same way as the DC Comics universe, even though neither of them were the same as each other except Superman and Goku's shared powers and origin-story. Hell, I may need to apply that to My Little Pony as well; Twilight's friends may have turned her into an alicorn princess and helped her unlock the blue box to receive Rainbow Power, but Twilight herself is and will always be the main-protagonist and leader. She isn't part of a shared universe, and her friends are not main-characters of their own respective franchises. It's one of the reasons why the Twilight/Tirek fight worked for most people, because it showed that even though Twilight was a smaller part of a much larger universe, as her friends constantly reinforced, she was still the main-character and main-focus of the entire My Little Pony series, and will always be, and that I need to get rid of that shared universe perspective to fully grasp this concept.