‘Dragon Ball Z’ Composer Wins Texas State Senator Vote

In the same way anime fans have learned to Rock The Dragon, it seems they learned how to Rock The Vote this week. Yesterday, midterm elections were held across the United States, and the vote ended with a member of the Dragon Ball Z family being put into office.

According to the latest election results, Nathan Johnson pulled in a major win in his home state of Texas. The lawyer defeated sitting state senator Don Huffines to nab a spot in the Texas Senate. Johnson represented the democratic party for the 16th district, and he won the election with 54% of votes.

For plenty, Johnson’s win is another point added to the so-called blue wave emerging from the recent midterm elections. However, for fans of Dragon Ball Z, they are taking this win as a personal one. After all, the elected state senator is the one who composed the dubbed theme song for Dragon Ball Z way back when.

For those unaware, Johnson split his work as a lawyer back in the 1990s in order to compose music. After meeting Funimation co-founder Robert Cocanaugher, Johnson found his way to Dragon Ball Z as he was asked to score several Dragon Ball Z themes. Films such as Broly — The Second Coming, Fusion Reborn, and Wrath of the Dragon all house work from Johnson, and the composer was also tasked with scoring episodes 1-67 of the original Dragon Ball Z anime.

After leaving music behind, Johnson resumed his career in law, and it led him to take up interest in politics. As fans know now, Johnson came to campaign for a spot in the Texas senate, and he admitted his work with Dragon Ball Z did help form his political platforms.

“One of the things that is comparable to my political philosophy, is that in Dragon Ball you have episodes that deal with a set of very different kinds of people — sometimes different species and people from other planets — but they have to work together,” Johnson said in a recent interview.

“Sometimes we find that a person who was formally your opposition is now your ally. Through show after show and various movies you see how unlikely combinations of personalities and abilities come together to fight a common threat.” (via Dao of the Dragon)

While Johnson may have left his days with Son Goku behind for the senate, Dragon Ball has yet to leave the pop culture landscape. These days, the anime is as popular than ever thanks to its most recent anime, and Dragon Ball Super will continue shortly with its first-ever film this winter. You can read the synopsis for Dragon Ball Super: Broly below:

“This is the story of a new Saiyan. Earth is peaceful following the Tournament of Power. Realizing that the universes still hold many more strong people yet to see, Goku spends all his days training to reach even greater heights. Then one day, Goku and Vegeta are faced by a Saiyan called ‘Broly’ who they’ve never seen before. The Saiyans were supposed to have been almost completely wiped out in the destruction of Planet Vegeta, so what’s this one doing on Earth? This encounter between the three Saiyans who have followed completely different destinies turns into a stupendous battle, with even Freeza (back from Hell) getting caught up in the mix.”

So, would you vote Goku into office if you could…? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!