Why is Dragon Ball so popular in Mexico & Latin America?

Dragon Ball as a series has made quite a name for itself since it first launched. Akira Toriyama's magnum opus first hit the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump in 1984 and an anime adaptation of it was released in 1986. After that, the series made history and became one of the most watched and read titles worldwide.

Interestingly, Mexico has been recorded as the country with the third most Dragon Ball fans and Latin America has been heavily influenced by the series. Statistics depicted that even Japan, the birthplace of anime, did not have as many fans in comparison.

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What makes Dragon Ball so popular in Mexico & Latin America?

Anime fever

Onyx Equinox (image via Crunchyroll Studios Production)

Sofia Alexander's Onyx Equinox queues up behind Tower of God and The God of High School as Crunchyroll's "Originals" slate of programming. The show meanders through a number of Mesoamerican cultures and draws in a massive Latin-American audience. They are the ones who hold the position of Crunchyroll's "second biggest" market worldwide, closely following the United States.

Latin America has quite a connection with anime that is evident at first glance. Dragon Ball Super's penultimate episode was screened in March 2018 for 10,000 fans in the city of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Similar events took place in Ecuador, El Salvador, and many other locations in Latin America. The sheer number of people single episodes were drawing was a testament to their love for the show.

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No homegrown anime content was available in Latin America and Mexico

Goku and Vegeta training with the angel Whis (image via Toei Animation)

In the United States, anime does have quite an impact. However, it is not as much as in other countries. The biggest reason is that production houses are able to create content, especially animated content. Thus, anime releases there need to compete with this homegrown content.

But in the field of animation, Latin America and Mexico were far behind other countries. TV stations in Latin American countries were not able to come up with as much of their own content as it was simply too expensive. Hence, no homegrown content was available. Instead, they chose to purchase the rights for Japanese anime to fill in the time slots.

Another fact that makes anime so popular there is the cost. The price quoted to buy the rights to Japanese anime was awfully cheap in comparison to the rights to broadcast American television programs. Thus, stemming from there, the genre began to skyrocket.

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Final Thoughts

Ultra Instinct Goku vs Full Power Jiren (Image via Toei Animation)

Dragon Ball has no doubt established itself as one of the greatest series of all time. It did not make it into the Big Three but is certainly the fourth in the Big Four anime. The fact that even today it continues to engross fans and draws in new ones each day is evidence of Akira Toriyama's genius.

With the anime set to return in December with a surprise project, fans worldwide are eagerly waiting for what the studio has in store for them this time.