Nathan Johnson might be in the fight for Texas Senate District 16 now, but not long ago he was scoring world-shattering battles between Goku, Vegeta and the cast of characters from Dragon Ball Z.
Johnson's career was always leading him on the path to politics, he told Dragon Ball fansite The Dao of Dragon Ball. He graduated from The University of Texas School of Law in 1993 and worked as an attorney in Dallas for seven years.
![State Senator District 16 candidate Nathan Johnson speaks during the Democratic Primary...](https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/VUYXBYZGDTLEOXUGR5L3VHIQ2M.jpg?auth=409673d1c3b7c0f0759d2e807bc1a065be59c4fe0016dd324e6644ebcdc72e18&width=430)
"Dragon Ball is one of the rare phenomena of super-popular pop culture products that ventures into all sorts of ideas about how society is ordered," Johnson said. "A lot like politics."
Then, as part of his company, Music for Pictures, Johnson started building original musical compositions and scores for broadcast TV, live theater and independent film. He also scored 67 episodes of the "Ultimate Uncut Special Edition" of Dragon Ball Z -- and five of the series' films.
These special cuts of the popular anime were released by Funimation, the Flower Mound-based studio responsible for much of Dragon Ball's exposure in the West. The series has since been re-released and re-packaged a number of times. A sequel series, Dragon Ball Super, is now airing in the U.S.
Johnson returned to law in 2007, working as an attorney for another local firm, handling cases of commercial litigation and bankruptcy. But in the aforementioned interview, Johnson connected his work with Dragon Ball to law and politics.
He said working on Dragon Ball sometimes means managing drama from across the galaxy, dealing with different races and species from any number of planets. Like the talking cat, Korin, or actual demons from hell (stylized as HFIL in some American releases of the series).
![A group of characters from the Japanese anime 'Dragon Ball Z.'](https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/7MT5NZYHTIAK2ZTA5O6OPBA55A.jpg?auth=4fb43ab53047eaab759e2eb297666c03f5358173e9114e70c41c63ac8ff2135f&width=830)
"Sometimes we find that a person who was formally your opposition is now your ally," he said. "Through show after show and various movies you see how unlikely combinations of personalities and abilities come together to fight a common threat."
Now Johnson faces a new battle -- the fight for Texas Senate District 16. Will he come out on top? Find out on the next episode of... Dragon Ball -- uh, the Texas election season.
Read more about Nathan Johnson and his campaign platform in The Dallas Morning News' 2018 voter guide.