Red Ribbon Army
Dragon Ball fictive organization
The Red Ribbon Army (レッドリボン軍, Reddo Ribon Gun) is a fictional antagonistic faction featured in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball anime and manga series. The many operatives of the Red Ribbon Army, led by Commander Red (レッド総帥, Reddo-Sōsui), serve as opponents for series protagonist Goku during his second quest for the Dragon Balls. In the aftermath of the Red Ribbon Army's defeat by Goku, a surviving member known as Doctor Gero continues the group's legacy and creates a series of powerful artificial humanoids known as Androids as part of his vendetta against Goku.
The group was generally well-received by reviewers. Commentators noted that the Red Ribbon Army arc, in which the group is presented as the first legitimate threat to Goku, marked a shift to a darker tone for the series and was a notable example of antiquated or politically incorrect attitudes towards real-world stereotypes and tropes in Japanese anime. Some of the group's members, including the Red Ribbon Androids, who appear as recurring villains in the franchise, have left a lasting impression on popular culture and have received commentary from media outlets.
Conception and creation
Dragon Ball series creator Akira Toriyama drew inspiration for the military organization, particularly its Muscle Tower (マッスルタワー, Massuru Tawā) base, from the video game Spartan X (known as Kung-Fu Master internationally), in which enemies tend to spawn at a rapid rate while the player character ascends a tower; the game itself was based on two Hong Kong martial arts films, Jackie Chan's Wheels on Meals (known as Spartan X in Japan) and Bruce Lee's Game of Death. Some of the Red Ribbon Army members wear uniforms reminiscent of the Hitler Youth, the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, albeit without their signature swastika armbands.
One of the group's major characters, General Blue (ブルー将軍, Burū-Shōgun), is coded as a stereotypically homosexual character, and is similar in concept to the Sturmabteilung co-founder Ernst Röhm. Blue's Japanese voice actor, Toshio Furukawa said it was a difficult role to play due to the character's sexuality.
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