Dragon Ball

[Ringworm128]

Everyone sounds like a little girl in the Japanese. I'm like, what made you think it was a good idea to make Goku and Vegeta sound like a preteen female?

No, just no. The only male character who sounds female is Goku. And that doesn't change the fact Masako Nozawa portrays Goku's child like characteristics perfectly. But seriously if the little girls in your area sound like Norio Wakamoto or Daisuke Gori there must be something REALLY messed up in the water.

[Reichu]

The only male character who sounds female is Goku.

Poor Kururin. Nobody cares about him.

[Ringworm128]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Krillin and Yajirobe. Also a good deal of Goku's family.

From what I understood they made the series for Gohan to grow and become stronger than Goku (peaking in the Cell Saga). However, fans basically couldn't handle it and due to pressure they had to "bring Goku back."

And Gohan can't go SSJ from his Mystic form - his Mystic form IS his ultimate SSJ form, it just doesn't have the same powerup aspect to it.

The main reason was that he couldn't see Gohan in the role, which makes sense since Gohan wasn't that into fighting and just wanted to study and become a scholar. It would be like if Evangelion was a shonen manga and timid Shinji replaced hot blooded Asuka as the lead character.

[hui43210]

Dragon Ball is essentially a great gateway drug into Anime, and I thank it for keeping me into the fold. Truth be told however, my first Anime was samurai pizza cats, and quite frankly I'd rather watch that today then Dragon Ball.

It is not a bad Anime, I also personally believe the Dragon Ball section is better than Z, but Z has some pretty good moments too, the android arc representing its peak in coming to an excellent end with Gohan beating Cell and replacing Goku as Earth's hero. It's the perfect end...... Then the Buu arc happened. I don't mind the timeskip, I like the new characters but the biggest problem with the arc itself is Goku. I don't care about him anymore, he really seems like he's a lot less interesting in this arc and a borderline asshole. "Don't help Videl Gohan!", "Why not?", "You'll get kicked out of the tournament! who cares if she dies!" Of course, Goku later let's his two children die in order to save Mr. Satan, and continues to abandon his family and friends in order to train, what a guy.

So overall, it's all right but I'm not really interested in it anymore. Every Anime I've watched since no matter if it was good or bad I had the same thought," well that was better than Dragon Ball." I watched the battle of the gods movie in September, and through the first half I was hit by a wave of nostalgia for all the characters, and I liked how it focused on the humor aspect which is one of its greater strengths. However, by the midpoint I was pretty bored and the end reaffirmed my sentiment that post-Cell Goku is an ass. I'm glad I saw it, but I just don't care anymore.


As for GT........ P.O.S Anime.

[Dataprime]

I been re watching the original Dragonball again. Been Watching off & on up to the mid-60's right now
I think sometimes DBZ gets so much love we tend at times to forget about Dragonball As much as I LOVE
DBZ, OG dragonball can outshine it
with some of the killer story arcs
like Red Ribbon & King Piccolo.

[NIkkolas]

Original Dragon Ball is in all ways superior to Dragon Ball Z. Toriyama tried and failed to tell a more compelling narrative with character development and other assorted "deeper" elements. He did not succeed at all.

My beloved Kid Goku grew up into a bloodthirsty barbarian who let the man responsible for all his friends dying, and who tried to vaporize the planet, go because he wanted to fight him later. Remember how lil' Goku chased down Tambourine hen he killed Krillin?

And the less said about Vegeta moving in and shacking up with Bulma after killing Yamcha the better.

The entire Saiyan concept and Goku's retconned origins just make me feel sick. If a mangaka tried this today, people would go to Japan and beat them to death.

Original Dragonball had no pretenses. It was a fun series and that was it. Even when it got serious, it never tried for anything really special or big. It understood its station as a silly comic for little boys.

Also original DB had the best insert songs outside of Fushigi Yuugi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1RLV_HJgEo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA8YQReKJ50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HYy-41eYuk

[Dataprime]

You bring up some good points but, arguably the 'Z' part of the Dragonball story is the more
popular & successful one. I think the last 'Dragonball only' movie we had was the 10th Anniversary one.
The rest have been all DBZ.

[Bagheera]

Original Dragon Ball is in all ways superior to Dragon Ball Z. Toriyama tried and failed to tell a more compelling narrative with character development and other assorted "deeper" elements. He did not succeed at all.

A debatable point. Lots of us think he did quite well, and are happy with the end result.

[Genesis]

Just recently saw Dragon Ball Z: Kami to Kami, and while the movie was good for the nostalgia it wasn't what I expected. I expected there would be more action, exciting battle scenes and screentime for the major characters (i.e, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Kuririn). It's more like a comedy movie rather than being an action movie. Not that there is anything wrong with it though. It has this Original Dragon Ball feeling which is quite nice instead of being action-packed only.

All in all, the movie is mediocre at its best.

[Dataprime]

We are in the homestretch Now!

Remember folks that on April 6th, Dragonball Kai
Returns to TV(in Japan) with the Majin Buu Saga.



It's gonna be great.

[Falcon_of_the_Sun]

I don't think there was much development in the pre-Z DB characters a part from some people going from hostile to friendly (well, kinda everybody: Kuririn, Yamcha, Tenshinhan etc). But the search/adventure theme was great and enjoyable, plus the variety. The dragon balls were the fil rouge, but the various searches were pretty different, plus had some really nice breaks with the Tenkaichi tournaments or the genius training period with the Kame Sennin. And the fanservice goddamnit.

What ruins DBZ is the fact that its eternally repeating itself with stronger and more evil villains and the Saiyans upgrading each time. And it's pretty much all about them freaking battles... The direction is set in such an obvious way that I find it hard to believe I managed to go through the whole manga. Oh well, I was 15...

And I guess it's a staple in shonen manga, Saint Seiya, loads of stuff from Buronson/Hara, Naruto I presume?

[Dataprime]

And here she is Gine the mother of Goku:

http://www.saiyanisland.com/2014/04/gokus-mother-revealed-in-dragon-ball-minus-manga/

[hui43210]

And here she is Gine the mother of Goku:

http://www.saiyanisland.com/2014/04/gokus-mother-revealed-in-dragon-ball-minus-manga/

I gotta say that's awesome, bout time the mom finally gets her due.

[ChaddyManPrime]

You know what I've always wanted to ask Toriyama? What Superman material did he read? Did he see the movies? Did he get the idea for Vegeta and Napa from Zod and Non? Was he a fan of Silver Age comics? Where did he see Superman's origin? I mean I didn't even think that people read American Comic books in Japan.

[Dataprime]

This new music for the Buu Saga of Kai sucks ass

In the last episode, in which Goku meets his family & friends again for the first time in 7 years ,
They end up playing tenco-like music for his arrival


This was supports to be an emotional scene

I pray that Funimation changes it
because it doesn't fit the series at all.

TOEI is dropping the ball... as usual

[moonwolf2024]

So I've finally gotten from under a rock and watched Battle of God's. It wasn't what I was expecting but it was pretty cool. Definitely hilarious....that Vegeta dance..priceless. And the animation was flawless. I'm glad it ties into the other movie that introduced Vegeta's brother. Looking forward the other movies.  

[Defectron]

And the less said about Vegeta moving in and shacking up with Bulma after killing Yamcha the better.

Thank you! I was beginning to think that I was the only one who found the way Vegetas post villain development was handeled was made of fail and incoherent.

Seriously, the way they handeled his character after the freeza arc made no sense whatsoever and is one of the big reasons why I say the series really began to jump the shark when that arc ended. Here's my problems with it.

1. After its over with, Vegeta attempting to use the dragonballs to gain immortality never comes up again and no explanation is ever givin in story for why. Fans speculate thats its most likely because he wants to become a super saiyan and have a fair fight with goku which immortality would detract from, but never having this addressed at all is just bad storytelling.

2. The way his romance with Bulma was handeled was just terrible. This is a guy who indirectly killed her boyfreind and she ends up getting together with him with no real explanation for why it happens. No, just no, thats just sloppy story telling, it would be one thing if they showed a progression for how and why it happened, but no it was just, bam their together, it made no sense. I think Toryama just wanted them together to give vegeta an excuse to start reforming, but it was handeled a lot more sloppily then piccolo and Gohan was. In the case of Piccolo they show more of how being around Gohan changed him as a character. They didn't do that here.

[ChaddyManPrime]

I can't believe I'm still saying this after all these years but Toriyama should have had Bulma and Goku hook up At least I'll always have Strawberry Saga and Parallel Saga, even though they are cheesy.

[Dataprime]

Toriyama should have had Bulma and Goku hook up

Some people say that if Goku married Bulma instead, Gohan would not have been as
powerful. Thus he wouldn't be able help his father defeat Raditz.
Because Raditz was not weakened by Gohan's attack he would have killed Goku & Piccolo
and ending the series.

[ChaddyManPrime]

^
Oh Yeah I don't believe in power stacking except for maybe when fusion is involved but even then it doesn't work like that. I think that Saiyans have more in common with their Western cousins the Viltrumites when it comes to who the child inherits the majority of genes from, pretty much I believe it's all Goku's doing.