Dragon Ball has hundreds of episodes under its belt, and that means it has tons of space for easter eggs. Over the years, tons of these nods have made it into the anime and manga courtesy of Akira Toriyama. And now, it seems fans are just discovering a nod Dragon Ball Z made to Batman back in the day.
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The whole thing popped up on Reddit when the user iamlevel5 showed fans a new discovery. As you can see below, the fan noted an unusual car in episode 26 of Dragon Ball Z. And if you look at it closely, you will see it is the 1989 Batmobile in an orange shade.
From its extended hood to its sleek shield, this card is hard to mistake once you see a side-by-side shot. Clearly, an animator on Dragon Ball Z was ready to bring Batman into the universe, and they felt Goku would approve of the easter egg so long as the car was orange.
For those doubting the nod, well – you only have to look at the timestamp of this episode and the Batman movie. Episode 26 of Dragon Ball Z debuted in Japan in November 1989 just before Tim Burton’s Batman was released. By this point, fans had seen the Batmobile thanks to commercials, and its vintage feel had fans worldwide excited. It seems like one of these fans happened to work on Dragon Ball Z, so they chose to immortalize their hype with a special reference.
While this is far from the only pop culture nod in Dragon Ball, it is one of the most clever out there. Batman deserves all the love, and it is nice to see Goku’s squad hand it over. So if you thought a Dragon Ball x DC Comics crossover was impossible, well – think again!
What do you think of this clever little easter egg? Did you ever notice this before…? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.
