From the moment Akira Toriyama and his editor decided to include the Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball, the series rose to a whole new level. Budokai Tenkaichi – epic tournaments with grand prizes for the winner, have become some of the most memorable events of the series.
The martial arts conference is held on a worldwide scale and anyone can attend. The tournaments were initially held every 5 years, later changed to every 3 years. The tournament includes fighters from around the world.
Since the Martial Arts Festival is an iconic event in the Dragon Ball world, many people have wondered how much it would cost to attend Budokai Tenkaichi if it existed in real life?
To answer this curious question, the official Dragon Ball website interviewed Nobuyuki Sakakibara, CEO of Dream Factory Worldwide and a key figure in organizing tournament events in Japan. If you're not familiar, Sakakibara-san is the man behind the PRIDE line in the 90s and currently leads the RIZIN Fighting Federation, two giants in the world of mixed martial arts.
Sakakibara, based on his experience, estimates that a ticket to an event like Budokai Tenkaichi will cost about 1 million yen (about 160 million VND).
If we convert that amount to dollars, it would equate to about $6,800 per ticket. To put it simply, tickets to a top fight like Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul ranges from 5,000 – 20,000 USD. According to Sakakibara, Budokai's ticket prices will be in that range because attendees will not only be able to watch regular battles but also witness a cast of real martial arts experts in action.
If it were you, who wouldn't want to spend money to buy tickets to see Goku perform the Kamehameha live or Vegeta destroy the stage with just one blow?
Why can't there be a tournament like Budokai Tenkaichi in real life?
While the idea of doing Budokai Tenkaichi is exciting, the reality is that organizing such a tournament is nearly impossible in the real world. According to Sakakibara, current rules and regulations make an event with these characteristics impossible.
The main obstacle is the physical exhaustion that participants face. In Dragon Ball, Budokai champion Tenkaichi must fight five matches in one day, including the preliminary round. However, in real life, this is completely meaningless.
Sakakibara clarifies: “According to the athletic commission that governs these types of events in the United States, an athlete can only participate in bouts of a maximum of five minutes per day. These rules are designed to protect the health of competitors Even in Japan, where there is no similar sports commission, the general opinion is that even two fights on the same day have exhausted the fighters too much. .”
In other words, the high-intensity combat we see in Dragon Ball is simply not feasible for us humans. Even if the tournament were held in Japan, the physical limitations of the participants would make the format completely different.
Additionally, the warriors in Dragon Ball are not exactly “normal”. Even the most ordinary participants of Budokai Tenkaichi have strength and endurance that far exceeds that of any real human. Goku and his teammates survived explosions, received blows capable of destroying mountains, and still had enough energy to fight for hours.
By comparison, the best boxers in the real world need days (or even weeks) to recover from an intense match. So thinking about a tournament like Budokai Tenkaichi in the real world is more like a dream than a possibility.
