Israeli fans of the popular Dragon Ball franchise have broken another kind of power level, with nearly 1,000 fans breaking a Guinness world record for the largest number of participants performing a "Kamehameha" in honor of the new film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero last Thursday.
What does the scouter say about the participant number?
The 974 participants involved went to Israel's Cinema City theater, where they were led by Israeli voice actors Avi Meir and Uri Har Lev. Meir is famed as the voice of Dragon Ball franchise protagonist Son Goku in the Hebrew dub, while Har Lev voices his son, Gohan.
The two characters are associated with their signature technique, the Kamehameha wave - a signature blast of ki energy that is accompanied by a now-iconic pose of holding the wrists together with the hands open before thrusting forward.
The crowd of participants featured Israelis of all ages, with some even coming in costume.
The previous record was set in 2019, when 784 participants gathered together at San Diego Comic Con.
The enthusiasm of all these fans was praised by Cinema City CEO Avi Edry.
"It's amazing that another record was broken in Israel and it's also a great opportunity to invite everyone to enjoy the last days of for summer and to come see films of different genres with us."
"It's amazing that another record was broken in Israel and it's also a great opportunity to invite everyone to enjoy the last days of for summer and to come see films of different genres with us."
Cinema City CEO Avi Edry
Dragon Ball: A juggernaut of anime
Created by Akira Toriyama, the Dragon Ball franchise began when it was first published as a manga in the 1980s in Japan's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. It soon exploded in popularity and critical acclaim and continued into a sequel series, Dragon Ball Z. This soon continued into films and a wide number of popular video games.
Nearly 40 years since its debut, Dragon Ball has become one of the most popular and commercially successful manga/anime series worldwide and is second only to the hit anime/manga franchise One Piece.
The anime, particularly Dragon Ball Z, was also a major hit around the world, having been dubbed into different languages, and is seen by many as being instrumental in the spread of anime worldwide. This is especially true in Israel, where the Dragon Ball fandom is one of the largest local fan communities with some 8,300 people since it was founded in 2015, and is part of Israel's thriving anime/manga fan community.
In recent years as the series continues to remain relevant, a sequel series began known as Dragon Ball Super, which in turn led to the recent film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
The film has so far been an absolute smash hit around the world in terms of box office success and critical acclaim.
It even topped the box office in the US, with Variety reporting that it is expected to net some $21 million in its first week in theaters.