One thing I appreciate about My Adventures with Superman is that even though you can tell the creators were clearly inspired by DBZ, they knew enough to not turn the series into just DBZ. It’s like the right mix of still being a Superman story while also letting the anime influences drive the show. What I mean is:
1) Superman is obviously Goku. Clark’s always been mild-mannered, but the series also gave him some of Goku’s goofy wholesomeness like when he stopped to buy the miniature farm during Lois’ investigation. But MAWS Superman is still clearly Superman. He’s not going around wanting to pick fights with villains just to test his own strength. You can especially see this in season 3 since Superman is getting more annoyed with being a superhero.
2) Supergirl is obviously designed after Android 18 but with the personality of Vegeta. I’ll concede that this is more the DBZ influence leaking out here. However, the show made it work for their version of Supergirl. This Kara was raised by Brainiac and never had a chance to be a regular person, so of course she’s gonna be walking around and talking like a Kryptonian warrior all the time.
3) The storylines definitely have the vibe of classic DBZ storylines but not to the point where it feels out of place with DC. I mean, the current season has Superboy with a sword going to the past because Cyborg Superman destroyed the world. On one hand, that’s obviously the Android 17 and 18 arc. On the other hand, DC would 100% do this kind of storyline on their own. I mean, that’s basically a Flash arc.
4) In general, everyone still reads like their DC counterparts. Superman is still Superman, but with a bit of Goku’s wholesomeness sprinkled in. Lois Lane is still Lois Lane, but with Chi Chi and Bulma characteristics. Jimmy Olsen is still Jimmy Olsen, but with Krillin.
If I had to summarize, MAWS feels like it’s being made by people who grew up with Toonami and DC Comics. Then when it came time to make the show, they noticed a lot of similarities with Superman and DBZ that it felt appropriate to implement the DBZ influences into the show. And then when it came to extending the universe like with the upcoming Green Lantern spin-off, they kept the same approach since they realized Green Lantern shares a lot of similarities with Sailor Moon/the magical girl genre (DON’T DENY IT DC FANBASE, YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT WITH MAGICAL GIRL GREEN LANTERN).
I really love that kind of approach. It’s using the stuff you were influenced by to enhance the story they’re creating, like they still knew what makes a Superman story work.