Years ago, there might have been small fights among fans wondering what a meeting between Goku from ‘Dragon Ball’ and Luffy from ‘One Piece‘ would be like. Luckily, they’ve crossed paths so many times over the years that they’re practically buddies. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make much sense: they’re both shonen fighters in the end, right? Well, if we believe there’s a dragon that grants wishes when you gather seven balls, we can believe that the Straw Hats can meet the Saiyans.
Stretch out your arm, Kamehameha!
The first crossover between both series was in the form of a video game: in 2005, ‘Jump Super Stars’ was released in Japan, a fighting game for Nintendo DS that featured characters from Shonen Jump magazine, including Goku, Luffy, Naruto, Arale, and the protagonists of ‘Slam Dunk’. It was a good start, but not exactly what we were looking for.
Just one year later, on December 25, 2006, Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda published ‘Cross Epoch’, a one-shot manga that, after crowning Mr. Satan as king, brought together characters from both universes to interact for a while: Bulma teaming up with Nami, Krillin chatting with Chopper, Sanji and Turtle Hermit fantasizing about girls, Trunks, Usopp, Vegeta, and Nico Robin forming a band, Piccolo and Zoro getting lost, and, of course, Luffy and Son Goku.
And here is where we discover something crucial about Luffy: when he falls off a cliff, the protagonist of ‘Dragon Ball‘ helps him by sending his Flying Nimbus, on which, as we remember, only people with a pure heart can ride. The leader of ‘One Piece’ seems to have it because he holds on without any problem, and he takes the opportunity to launch a double attack against a criminal gang formed by Buggy and Pilaf: a Kamehameha mixed with a Gomu Gomu No Bazooka. As you can imagine, things don’t end well for the villains.
The episode is just a silly occurrence in another alternate timeline, but in 2013, they officially came together again, this time in the anime and including ‘Toriko’ as well: ‘Super Collaboration Special!’ consisted of one episode of ‘One Piece’ and another of, of course, ‘Toriko,’ during a race that culminates in a fight against a character named Akami, who is defeated by the combined strength of the three heroes. What were you expecting from a promotional crossover, after all?
