Shonen Jump reveals Goku's real fatal flaw in brutal new manga

Ashibi Yao thinks he's doing the right thing by freeing the world from its evil makers, but he's showing why the world doesn't need another Goku.

Warning: This contains SPOILERS for Fabricant 100 #1

In the new Shonen Jump series Fabricant 100, teenager Ashibi Yao will make it his life's mission to avenge the killing of his family, and in doing so, reveal why Dragon Ball's Goku does more harm than good as the guardian of the Earth.

In Daisuke Enoshima's Fabricant 100, 14-year-old Ashibi Yao's family is slaughtered by Fabricants, artificial humans created by a doctor obsessed with creating ideal humans. The doctor died before perfecting his experiment, leaving 100 makers behind. Without his leadership, the Makers killed the humans they considered special, stripping their skins and taking their body parts. Due to the incredible longevity of Ashibi's family into adulthood, they were hunted by the Fabricants. Ashibi was not killed by the Fabricants because he was under 18, however, to overcome the pain of his family's death, he promised to give his body to the Fabricants who killed the remaining 99. Fabricant #100 accepts Ashibi's offer and kills the few Fabricants present. Ashibi and 100 form the ultimate human-Fabricant hero team on a mission to find and destroy all remaining Fabricant in the wild.

Fabricant 100 Shows that Goku's Heroism Has Its Limits

Although Ashibi believes he is doing good for the world By hunting down the evil Fabricants, Ashibi's core conception of himself is fundamentally shaken when a victim of a Fabricant attack decides that Ashibi's help is "too little, too late." The victim's point of view is not only relevant to the story, but also questions the purpose of other manga heroes who, like Ashibi, see themselves as the savior of humanity and protector of the world. Nothing fits the victim statement better than Dragon Ball's Goku, an alien who decides that only he can protect the world from its enemies. According to the victim's analysis, Goku and Ashibi just perpetuated the pain the victim felt rather than helping them resolve or overcome it.

Goku Can't Help People His Villains Already Hurt

In victim analysis, unless the hero can prevent the crime from happening or being done, there's no need for them to try. This is because after the sin, pain and suffering begin already. There is nothing the hero can do to change that fact. Indeed, when heroes hunt down villains after the fact, their aim is not to make their victims whole, but to satisfy their own needs feel important. Comic book readers rarely see heroes meeting their victims after their final battle and taking other steps to help them recover.

When the victim directed his comments at Ashibi, he could have easily spoken to Goku, the poster child for the hero who saves the world after the fact. How many times did Goku fight the villain after committing a crime? How many times has Goku followed up on a villain's failure by offering support to a suffering community before he arrives to save the world. As shown by the victims in Shonen Jump's Fabricant 100, the world would be a better place without Goku and other heroes who fill people with hope but never seem to be able to achieve it.

Next post: Shonen Jump's top heroes all have one trait, and it's not what you think it is