DB30YEARS Page 11

  Kanzenshuu Fun Fact

  Kanzenshuu wasn’t supposed to debut until December 2012, complete with a wiki, when I jokingly suggested that we bring the date forward in order to pull a pretend April Fool’s prank. We all pulled long hours getting it ready in time, but in hindsight, it was more than worth it: we wouldn’t have survived the news onslaught without the pooled resources and modern backend the new site provided. And to think we were only prepared for the sake of a gag. Toriyama would be proud.

  JULIAN (“SaiyaJedi”) is one of the translators for Kanzenshuu. He lives with his family in Japan.

  U.S. Theatrics

  The “Battle of Gods” North American Premiere

  Josh covers the red carpet theatrical premiere of the film “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods” in Los Angeles in July 2014.

  By Josh Christopher

  2014 was huge for Dragon Ball! A lot of stuff, both awesome and awful, happened this year in regards to our favorite space people. One of the biggest events of all was the red carpet premiere of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods in the US!

  It wasn’t enough that Dragon Ball got its own limited theatrical run for the very first time in a long while, but this movie wasn’t just any ordinary Dragon Ball flick: this was the first original Dragon Ball feature film since the ‘90s and it’s the first made-for-theaters Dragon Ball Z release that was dubbed by FUNimation’s DBZ cast!

  At the premiere event in Los Angeles, we got to see a lot of celebrities from both movies and television make their way across the red carpet on their way to go see (of all things) a new DBZ movie! Of course, for the Dragon Ball fans on hand, the real stars were guys like Sean Schemmel and the ever-friendly Chris Sabat, who never even dreamed that a day like this would come when they started recording Dragon Ball Z on the cheap back in the late 1990s at FUNimation HQ in Ft. Worth, Texas.

  Fans were in the same boat as him, too, many of whom were cosplaying as their favorite characters, electrifying the theater with so much energy that it would destroy even a new model scouter! The event may have only been for one day, but time seemed to slow down for us as the movie finally started. You could’ve sworn that a year had passed inside the screening rooms.

  After the event, fans and press alike were invited to a nearby bowling alley and tavern for a few drinks and to chat it up with each other or with cast, crew, and other FUNimation employees such as Justin Rojas, who was gracious enough to let Kanzenshuu send us as representatives to the event to capture everything for its readers, listeners, and forum members.

  With an event like the Battle of Gods premiere in LA during the weekend of Anime Expo, 2014 is destined to go down in history as a huge year for Dragon Ball Z fans in the US!

  JOSH (“Kendamu”) produces videos on YouTube, enjoys training in martial arts, and hangs out at Kanzenshuu. Check out some of his work, including video coverage from the Battle of Gods premiere, at: youtube.com/BGPawesome

  Battle Review

  How does “Battle of Gods” actually stack up for fans?

  By Chris Niosi

  The Dragon Ball franchise is one of those “special” cases in it that it has many different types of fans—with very different tastes—depending on how they grew up with the series and in what country. With that in mind, it’s safe to say that Battle of Gods is a product where all fans have a reason to be excited like never before. Through video games, merchandise, remastered home releases and even the presence of Kai there’s nothing that tops a full-length feature film…except maybe a feature film with direct involvement by Dragon Ball’s original manga artist and author, Akira Toriyama.

  Battle of Gods takes place at a perfect period of time in the DBZ timeline: just after Majin Buu was defeated but before the final timeskip that leads to the finale of the story in the manga…and of course, before GT occurred. Seeing that the “Z” era was clearly the most successful piece of the franchise worldwide, Toei made a brilliant decision in where to chronologically place the events of this movie. This placement allowed Toriyama to treat the story of Battle of Gods as if it were continuing where the manga would have “left off” had he not ended the series in the mid-‘90s. The overall feel and theme of the movie retains that signature mix of being able to take itself just seriously enough, but not to the point where Toriyama’s expected sense of humor is lost.

  The biggest piece of evidence on this is our new “enemy,” Beerus. He not only continues the tradition of Goku and his friends meeting progressively-stronger and more-challenging opponents; in this case Beerus is a God of Destruction, and Beerus being originally based on Toriyama’s housecat speaks volumes. He, along with his classy assistant Whis, fits right in with the rest of the cast, yet still adds a fresh and interesting dynamic. Not to mention, some of their comedic moments are major highlights of the film. They’re not alone though; the regular cast of the series—the Z-Fighters included—get some amazing gags showing sides of our heroes we’ve never seen before…including Goku doing an impression of Vegeta and Vegeta himself singing a song about bingo to calm Beerus’ nerves to prevent Earth’s imminent erasure.

  The most satisfying thing about the movie overall is the handling of Goku’s new “Super Saiyan God” transformation sequence. This concept, which, along with the God of Destruction, were the original ideas set in place for the movie’s creation, could have been easily done in all of the worst possible ways. In past DBZ movies produced by Toei we’ve had new “transformations” for various villain characters and the like…and with how DBZ’s fandom in America has grown in particular, it’d be easy to assume that this new form could be the closest thing to a stereotypical “Super Saiyan Insert Number Higher Than 4 Here” sort of thing. Quite the opposite occurred. Goku achieves this new form through a very clever (and cute!) method, and upon facing off against Beerus in the big fight scene the audience hypes themselves for the entire experience, Goku has the most perfectly, well, “Goku” kind of reaction imaginable. Obtaining the power of a God disappoints and aggravates him, in line with his perpetual desire of wanting to become stronger by his own hard work and not through the assistance of others.

  Despite all this, the movie’s namesake ends in a way you’d probably expect, but not at all in a bad way. As it’s been recently revealed, another new DBZ movie, this time written and conceptualized entirely by Toriyama himself, will be hitting Japanese theaters during Golden Week of 2015. Battle of Gods gives longtime fans of all kinds a fantastic and fun new story with all of their old friends, but yet again, in true Dragon Ball style, leaves things open for more…things bigger and better. That’s exactly what it sounds like we’re going to get in the years to come and Battle of Gods is a great start to a whole new universe worth of DBZ-related excitement to be had. If you grew up with the series in any capacity, do yourself a favor and check it out.

  CHRIS (“Kirbopher”) is a professional voice actor & long-time fan. Watch “TOME” and “Did You Know Voice Acting?” at: youtube.com/Kirbopher15

  Super Saiyan God

  Skinny with red hair…but that was not the original plan

  By Sean Gallagher

  Any attentive Dragon Ball fan should be familiar with “Super Saiyan God” by now. Introduced and used by Son Goku in 2013’s Battle of Gods film, it was certainly a departure from the norm as far as new “power-ups” for the characters go. Achieved by a multi-person ritual rather than training, dependent upon righteous character rather than rage, and even making use of a different quality of ki than what’s normally used, it was unlike anything fans were expecting.

  Perhaps the greatest surprise was the form’s appearance. Instead of building upon the exaggerated and flamboyant looks of the original comic’s three Super Saiyan levels, or the animation-only Super Saiyan 4, the Super Saiyan God form went in a totally different direction. It was intentionally designed to appear less visibly “flashy” than its predecessors. Super Saiyan God Goku mostly still resembled his normal un-transformed state, save only for a hair and eye color change from
black to red, and becoming even skinnier than usual. This “less is more” design, we eventually learned, was the work of franchise creator and original author Akira Toriyama, who was heavily involved in the film’s production.

  What fewer Dragon Ball fans may be aware of is that, before Toriyama gave it his magic touch, Super Saiyan God was quite different in its earliest prototype stages. Tadayoshi Yamamuro, the animation supervisor for Battle of Gods and quite a handful of other animated Dragon Ball works before it, originally envisioned a design quite different from the final one by Toriyama.

  Information on this early design is scarce, but a few interviews with Yamamuro himself have revealed bits and pieces about it. He described a few key traits: bulky and muscular, a hairstyle “between Super Saiyan 3 and 4,” and—finally and bizarrely—a cape. There’s really not much else to go by, aside from the assumption that Toriyama’s use of the “strong looking color” red wasn’t originally part of Yamamuro’s version. If we put it all together, and inject a little creativity, we can come up with something that doesn’t look too shabby, if not a bit less “unique” than the final Toriyama-crafted design.

  SEAN (“Kaboom”) can be found hanging out at Kanzenshuu. He doesn’t like to wander too far.

  The Excitement!

  The announcement for a new movie in 2015 = insanity

  By Lauren Costantini

  I was stunned. I had taken Beerus going back to sleep for three years to mean we wouldn’t see another film until 2016. And yet here we are! New Dragon Ball movie in May 2015! Sequel to Battle of Gods! With reportedly even more action! My biggest excitement so far came from the mention that this new movie’s story has the approval of Toriyama’s notoriously hard-to-please former editor, Kazuhiko Torishima. My hopes are high.

  Riding the waves of leaks and official news is fun because it places you in a position to play detective. V-Jump’s website has become a go-to place for updates—with two Dragon Ball games in arcades and no manga running in Weekly Jump, it’s understandable why Shueisha uses V-Jump as their DB movie news vehicle—so I find myself checking their site the week leading up to the magazine’s monthly release date to see their “Next Info” page with mini-previews.

  Recent hints include listings on the Shonen Jump website of five untitled DXF tie-in figures to be released over the course of next spring. There were four of these released with Battle of Gods (Goku, Vegeta, Beerus, & Whis). If you theorize two of DB15’s will once again be Goku and Vegeta, could this mean there are three antagonists this time? Or perhaps a new hero character who ties into the plot plus two bad guys? There’s also a Master Stars figure on the way in June related to the movie (Battle of Gods didn’t even have one of those); will that be a Super Saiyan God Goku figure, or one of the big bad?

  I can’t wait until DB15’s title and poster are revealed and we begin deciphering the meaning behind it all. I fondly recall the speculation about who Whis was; is he a Makaioshin, is he good, is he evil, is he even a he? And if he was a Makaioshin, was he some sort of puppet-master feeding Beerus false information? And what of Beerus, whose accidental-dual-name-pun spelling was an even more hotly debated topic than if he was a cat or a rabbit (those ears)? If you were on Kanzenshuu’s forum for Battle of Gods speculation, you probably remember “Bills,” not to mention Gohan’s hair. Things like that photo of what turned out to be likely a prototype of Super Saiyan God Goku on a door at Toei Animation and the use of blocked-out artwork near the tail end of the pre-release (which hinted at the appearance of the second “kami” mentioned in the film’s title) fueled the big Battle of Gods thread on the forum.

  Taglines can be even more interesting to examine. Battle of Gods’ “A God of Destruction who Violates the Common Sense of ‘Z’ Descends!!” was fascinating. It set off all kinds of thoughts on Beerus being a reality-warper. I connected that to the reveal of the tie-in WCF mini-figures of irritated green Pilaf and eerily-cheerful Vegeta to a theory that Beerus had body-swapped Pilaf and Piccolo and cast a spell on Vegeta for being a grump. None of that came true of course; Pilaf was green because they were going off of coloring Toriyama had used in his character designs and Vegeta’s false cheerfulness did end up in official Toei character art, but whatever scene it went with—most likely him trying to keep Beerus content—never made it to the final cut. Exercising your imagination as you try to piece together the mystery of “What’s this movie about?” while conversing about it on forums, exchanging theories with other members...it’s something that can almost-only happen on the journey to a theatrical release.

  DB15 continues after Battle of Gods left off, but how long after? A few days or more like a few years? Will Beerus and Whis return? Will Goku learn more about his new god-powers and will we even see his god form again? Has Super Saiyan 2 and 3 been retired by Toriyama, and will this hold true? Will DB15 be “The Vegeta Movie” as hinted at by comments made prior to the film’s announcement? Will we get to visit any of those other universes Beerus mentioned near the end of Battle of Gods?

  It’s been so long since we’ve had this much fresh Dragon Ball plot from the author; this feels like the closest you can get to what I imagine theorizing on the manga’s plotline during serialization must have felt like. Since November 2012’s V-Jump was the issue that revealed the title and poster for Battle of Gods, I’ve put my hopes behind this November’s issue for the next big DB15 reveal. And if it’s not there, there’s always Jump Festa!

  LAUREN (“Chuquita”) enjoys drawing and can be found hanging out at Kanzenshuu.

  Homages in U.S. Television

  Gintama, Bo-bobo…Sure, lots of Japanese series pay homage to Dragon Ball, but in the U.S.?

  By Mike LaBrie

  It can be a little difficult these days to remember what it was like when Dragon Ball Z episodes were airing for the first time on Cartoon Network in North America. Walking through the mall you would be hit with merchandise all over the place before stumbling onto the Score collectible card game Hummer Tour featuring English voice actors. It was absolutely massive for quite a few years! While Dragon Ball clearly influenced Japanese creators, the series’ influence started to make its way to creative and production staff on American shows as well. Here are just a few of the significant homages we’ve been treated to.

  THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY & MANDY - “CHICKEN BALL Z” (Season 2, Episode 9B)

  · Originally Aired: 15 August 2003

  · Summary: Mandy enters a tournament in hopes of its $50,000 grand prize. An ancient “Chicken Ball” from shopkeeper Kuan Ti allows her to become a great fighter, which in turn causes her to abandon her dreams of the cash prize and simply aim to become the greatest combatant. It turns out Kuan Ti was Eris in disguise causing chaos. Grim turns Billy into a hero as well, and they fight until the arena is destroyed. Mandy still wants the prize, though.

  · Other notes: Released shortly after the peak of Dragon Ball Z’s popularity on Cartoon Network, it’s no surprise to see one of the channel’s own shows bring in the clear homages. Very funny, and very well worth watching.

  CODENAME: KIDS NEXT DOOR - “OPERATION: R.E.P.O.R.T.” (Season 2, Episode 9A)

  · Originally Aired: 05 December 2003

  · Summary: A task to retrieve “the goods” is interrupted by the “Devious Villains From the Consortium of Crime.” Each sequence follows another KND Sector and their ultimate mission failure, each animated in a different style. It turns out “the goods” was a pizza.

  · Other notes: Similar to Billy and Mandy, this was released while hype for DBZ was still massive. The parodies are obvious with “Numbuh 4” (Wallabee) being Goku, the Super Saiyan hair, gigantic Super Saiyan 3 hair, the villains taking on variations of Freeza’s forms, and claims about needing to use their “full power” to win.

  ROBOT CHICKEN - “ROBOT CHICKEN CHRISTMAS SPECIAL” (Season 2)

  · Originally Aired: 22 December 2005

  · Summary: Three legendary kung-fu masters are on a rampage up at the North Pole (inc
luding the little drummer boy, a DB-esque character who conjures villains by playing his drums). Santa recruits Goku to help battle the villains, but it turns out that the ultimate foe plotting behind the scenes is someone Santa knows all too well.

  · Other notes: The sequence’s random turn into an Akira parody sells it, with Goku teaming up with Rudolph to fight the overgrown monster. We also got the great (nonsensical) line: “The Tenka’ichi Budokai is finally complete!”

  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE - HOST: ALEC BALDWIN (Season 32, Episode 5)

  · Originally Aired: 11 November 2006

  · Summary: The animated TV Funhouse segment tells the story of Japanese competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi as he saves the day. Villains set houses on fire and create a flood, so it’s up to Kobayashi to rescue the women and children and teach them valuable lessons along the way...about eating hotdogs.

  · Other notes: FUNimation’s subtitle style is matched, while some of the Faulconer Productions replacement score is occasionally intermixed with the footage. The ending theme is a musically-accurate parody of DBZ Movie 13’s original Japanese closing theme (“Ore ga Yaranakya Dare ga Yaru”) complete with some of the same lines (such as “passion” right before the final “Kobayashi!”). Someone on the production staff was clearly a huge fan.

  TONS OF OTHER REFERENCES ON TV

  These four shows are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dragon Ball homages in American television. They are the most obvious ones, but there are plenty other one-liners and subtle nods here and there across a wealth of other shows.