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  And despite this tendency to try and smooth over inconsistencies that no one ever complained about (and which would have been fodder for jokes in Dr. Slump), the kanzenban still misses a ton. The original title page for Chapter 12 has never been reprinted since it ran in Jump back in 1985. Trunks still warns Goku of Artificial Humans “19” and “20” despite only knowing of 17 and 18. The original title pages of Chapters 19 and 44, once spared from oblivion as the covers of tankobon volumes 2 and 4, are omitted completely (and in the latter case, actually replaced by a complete fabrication using different artwork).

  All this might sound like fanboy whining, and I suppose to an extent it is. I’ve certainly caught flak from some fans who think pointing out mistakes like these, whether by Toriyama or by the publishers, amounts to a kind of heresy, or at least trying to ruin others’ fun. But hear me out: once you’re exposed to Dragon Ball in Jump, it’s hard not to see the manga as something alive. Akira Toriyama toiled on this for over ten years, one week at a time, but he was never as methodical or painstakingly precise as the kanzenban tries (and fails) to make it appear. Rather than the product of careful plotting, Dragon Ball is the distillation of the author’s creative energies, and these more recent attempts to “perfect” it after the fact take away from that. You don’t respect the series by taking what was once alive and draining it of that vitality until it becomes inert. Instead, you should embrace its faults and its imperfections, letting it jump off the page of its own accord, no less vivid than when the first chapter was published back in 1984.

  So what if it’s just a bunch of musty, browning magazines? Long live history’s rough draft of Dragon Ball.

  How old is Gohan? Changes to the manga you may have never known about

  For years, we’ve joked about how the FUNimation English dub of Dragon Ball Z aged Gohan up by a mere year-and-a-half, as though that would make much of a difference to the beatings he would soon be subjected to.

  It turns out that the manga actually did the same thing.

  When chapter 196 of Dragon Ball first ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in October 1988, Gohan actually gave his age as three years old, not four. Looking at his hand, this appears to be more than a simple error: he is actually holding up three fingers. Nevertheless, the very next week, the title page of chapter 197 was suddenly referring to him as four, and tankobon volume 17, released in May 1989, changed Gohan’s line in chapter 196 to match.

  Why the change? In the absence of an official comment, we can’t be completely sure, but the answer probably lies in what came between the chapter’s first appearance and the release of volume 17: Dragon Ball Z. With Toei Animation staff already planning out the future of the TV adaptation, they would understandably be worried about such a young child being subjected to violence. (And moreover, a three-year-old isn’t that easy for primary schoolers to relate to!)

  With the timeframe already set as “five years later,” Gohan could not be made much older, but he was made as old as biologically possible: four.

  But just to be clear, for the record: in his very first appearance anywhere, Gohan was three years old!

  The Cigarette That Wasn’t

  Back when the kanzenban was first released, the title page of chapter 5 was digitally redrawn (the original manuscript page was probably lost). This change caused a minor stir among fans due to a bit of apparent censorship: in the original version (present, albeit in greyscale, in the first tankobon), Bulma had been smoking a cigarette; in the redrawn version, she was not. Let’s take a closer look.

  In Weekly Shonen Jump 1985 #04/05, we find the page accompanied by the tagline, “Even little girls look bigger when they get dressed up!” Bulma is dressed as a fighter pilot, but the plane behind her—a fanciful interpretation of a Lockheed P38 Lightning—is tiny, squat, “toy-like.” Her cigarette is also unlit: a curious detail, since the author almost always draws in “smoke” when characters are smoking. A look at her right sleeve pocket reveals the answer: the pack of “cigarettes” reads “CHOCO”. It was a candy cigarette, all along.

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

  Discovering DBZ

  What was it that grabbed your attention? Here’s Masako’s take!

  By Lawrence Simpson

  I remember when I first discovered Dragon Ball Z: it was at the turn of the millennium and DBZ was new on British airwaves. At once, I was hooked. The action happening before my eyes was FAR more intense than what had I had seen before. That moment when Freeza got taken down was especially brutal. I was thirteen at the time and it left me reeling for days. Despite the censorship and tame dub, its potency remained palpable.

  Seeing these characters fight in such an energetic and violent manner as well as screaming at the top of their lungs for hours on end left me wanting more, and I spent the majority of my free time traipsing the Internet for old, low-quality music videos of Dragon Ball, learning about characters and forms of Saiyan I hadn’t seen in the anime yet and all the other fascinating facets of the Z universe. You could say it was what got me into anime in a big way; Sailor Moon had struck a small chord, but it mostly passed me by...but Dragon Ball stuck and continues to do so to this day.

  However, it’s only in the last few years that I’ve begun to truly understand the cultural impact that the series has had on not just the anime world, but the entire world and with people of all ages. Tons of references, nods and allusions to Toriyama’s seminal work are littered across world cinema and television. The tale of a young boy and girl on the quest for some mystical orbs that grant wishes has touched millions of people over the last thirty years and will continue to do so for at least another thirty...and probably another thirty on top of that. So Dragon Ball: don’t stop, don’t stop!

  LAWRENCE (“MasakoX”) is a member of TeamFourStar and voices Goku in their Dragon Ball Z Abridged fan parody series. He also produces content for Anifiles Reviews.

  Memories of…DBZ

  There series is actually a time capsule back into your life

  By Joe Yancone

  It’s hard to think of a time in my life when Dragon Ball wasn’t a part of it.

  I first discovered the series back in 1994 while getting Street Fighter cards in a Carddass machine in China Town. There was this odd machine right next to it with cards from a series called “Dragon Ball Z.” I had never heard of it, but the art was really interesting. So, I put my quarter in and out popped a card: it was of Trunks and Goten in the last pose of the fusion dance where they’re touching fingers. Out of context this seemed very strange. I didn’t know what was going on but, I was interested. I got another card; this time a fat pink blob was fighting a guy with long yellow hair. I had no idea what was going on or who these people were but it was the start of something that would last for the next 15 years of my life, and will hopefully continue on until I grow old.

  Now, in my early 30s, I feel like I know everything there is to know about Dragon Ball. From the production staff to the story arcs, I could easily have a conversation about any of it, and yet, I’m not tired of it one bit. My fandom has spanned so many years of my life that I now associate Dragon Ball dubs, movies, story arcs and even Dragon Ball games with a period in my life and what I was doing at that moment in time. When I put any episode of Dragon Ball on it’s like seeing an old friend again, and no matter how old I get I think I’ll always feel that way.

  JOE (“TanookiKuribo”) is a longtime fan of the series and enjoys diving into and tearing apart any product that falls off the truck ahead of its actual release date.

  Get That Dream Job!

  One fan’s life ambition becomes reality: Dragon Ball opens the translation door

  While Steven J. Simmons was busy translating Dragon Ball Z, GT, and the various movies (not to mention other series FUNimation was picking up at the time), the ever-growing workload necessitated more translation help. Enter the Tomato.

  By Clyde Mandelin


  I actually can’t remember the first time I encountered Dragon Ball, but I’m pretty sure it was when I was very young and living in Hawaii.

  My hazy memories of Goku were suddenly revived over a decade later when I was flipping through TV channels one weekend morning and stumbled upon a show about a strong kid with a power pole and silly friends. Even though I was now in high school, old memories and thoughts of, “Whoa, I remember this!” came flooding back to me. I had no idea there was an anime of it…and that it had been dubbed into English! This was actually my first exposure to FUNimation too—little did I know that in just a few years I’d have the honor of helping to translate even more Dragon Ball for them!

  During college, I realized my dream in life was to translate Japanese games, anime, and entertainment into English, so I studied and worked hard for that goal. After graduation, I had trouble breaking into the industry, thanks to the age-old problem of, “How am I supposed to get years of experience if no one will hire me in the first place?” The job hunt continued for months, and just days before I was about to run out of money, give up on my dream, and take an ordinary office job, I was contacted by FUNimation to work as a translator.

  To my surprise, one of my very first projects was the original Dragon Ball series. It was a whirlwind of a project, during which I learned so much about the industry and the translation trade and so much more. It almost felt like I was on a big adventure of my own, one that I got to share with all of the Dragon Ball gang.

  It’s been almost 12 or 13 years since then, but I still look back fondly on those early days and feel glad to have almost grown up alongside the Dragon Ball franchise!

  CLYDE (“Tomato”) translated the original Dragon Ball TV series for FUNimation. He is also responsible for the popular Mother 3 fan translation and runs legendsoflocalization.com

  The Dragon Ball Series: Dividing it Up

  How do you split the series up? By “arc” or by “saga”…?

  By Heath Cutler

  Story arc divisions for the series have been a debated topic for as long as I can remember. Whether you call it a “saga” or an “arc,” these divisions have really become dependent on each individual fan. In fact, even my personal division of the series has changed over the years based on my own experiences. Unfortunately there’s really no correct division to follow, so fans have always been left to their own exploits. While many fans have concocted relatively similar divisions, no matter their regional origin, they aren’t necessarily the exact same.

  When the series was first being published in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump there was no breakdown by story arc. Events simply flowed from one to another. Even when the manga chapters were being conveniently compiled into tankobon (“standalone book”) volumes, they were simply given numbers with no discretion for a distinguishing story arc. It was not really until both the anime and manga series had run their course that companies began putting much consideration into designating story arcs. Why, you may ask? Well, for the sole purpose of guidebooks.

  Following the conclusion of the manga, Shueisha released the Daizenshuu (lit. “Great Complete Collections”) guidebooks, but they needed a way to more conveniently divide things up within the pages. This would mark the first real division of the series by an official company, and it most certainly would not be the last. Not only did the Daizenshuu provide story arc divisions for the manga series, but also the anime series, which it divided up into arcs with smaller “acts” within each. Over the years Shueisha released numerous other guidebooks, all with varying divisions.

  Toei Animation eventually divided up the series themselves with the release of the “Dragon Box” DVD sets, but this did nothing to squelch the ongoing debate. All of these “official” story arc divisions have contradicted each other, even within the same companies. It has become clear over time that the majority of these “official” divisions came out of mere convenience for that specific company, depending on what product they were trying to sell. And that is all just in Japan.

  Enter the foreign markets, each with their own story arc divisions. Some foreign companies stuck with very basic larger divisions, while some divided them up so much they had seven to eight episode “sagas.” There is no true global consensus or consistency. Even in the United States, there are two companies that at times are in conflict not only with each other, but with themselves as well.

  So just stick with what you have, or go switch it up a bit. In the end it’s not that one fan is more right than the other, it’s that each fan gets the opportunity to decide and interpret the series for themselves.

  “Saga” vs. “Arc”

  I often get into discussions about my use of the term “arc” over the traditional American use of “saga” to describe the various major story elements of the Dragon Ball series. My reasoning is frequently assumed to be based on some anti-FUNimation sentiment, or that is how the Japanese do it. Well the latter is the easiest to explain away

  In Japanese they don’t use either term—“saga” or “arc”—to refer to these sorts of things. The word used is 編 (hen) or 篇 (hen), both of which mean “compilation” or “volume.” For instance, in Japanese it is written サイヤ人編 (saiya-jin hen), which I typically translate as “Saiyan arc.” It is just one of those instances where it is easier to adjust to the English language’s vernacular, because in English these terms are not normally used with respect to animated works. But I know what you might be thinking now: why not translate it as “saga” then, since that is what FUNimation uses?

  Well, it all comes down to understanding the difference between these two terms. The definition of a “saga” is a “very long story with dramatic events or parts” and is typically a “narrative or legend of heroic exploits.” This does not describe the individual divisions of the series; if anything it is how you would describe all of Dragon Ball as a whole. However, the definition of a story arc is “an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media.”

  So by definition, the saga of Dragon Ball is made up of numerous story arcs, but not vice versa. Think of other great fictional stories, such as Star Wars. Each film is a piece of the entire Star Wars saga, but they are not actual sagas themselves on an individual level. Sometimes fans must use their own judgment in these cases. Just because someone told you that is the way it has to be, that doesn’t make it so.

  HEATH (“Hujio”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. He’s very exact about things.

  Continuous Evolution: Viz Manga

  By Julian Grybowski

  Starting out as the underdog thumbing its nose at FUNimation, Viz promised to bring us the real story. For at least a few years, their manga was also the only place English-speaking fans could follow Son Goku’s boyhood adventures past the initial Dragon Ball hunt, although the dual-focus on “DB”/“DBZ” made its progress slower than it could have been.

  Times change, though, and as FUNimation started getting its act together with the anime, Viz reneged on its promise of uncensored manga, and a petition to get it back only helped for a few years. Still, they blazed a trail through the Anglosphere with the series that other series would soon follow, with a market now dominated by unflopped manga, and a domestic Shonen Jump that would eventually release day-and-date with the Japanese original. Every step of the way, Dragon Ball has been Viz’s vanguard, at the forefront of these tectonic shifts in the industry.

  Now would it be too much to ask for a new translation and a competent uncensored release? Pretty please?

  JULIAN (“SaiyaJedi”) lives in Japan and provides translations for Kanzenshuu.

  Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission

  The card-based arcade game gets a spin-off manga

  Naho Ooishi may have been the first new spin-off author on the scene, but Toyotaro took center stage with his Dragon Ball Heroes comic

  By Mike LaBrie

  Little did they know it, but Bandai Namco and Shueisha set a new stage of history with just two pages in
the November 2012 V-Jump.

  Dragon Ball Heroes, a popular card-based arcade game for the franchise, was already becoming massively popular with Japanese kids. Episode of Bardock successfully launched across a manga release, an anime adaptation, video game inclusions, and related home video releases. What else could the companies do to spread the success of Dragon Ball Heroes?

  Enter “Toyotaro.” An accomplished fan artist in his own right (see next page), the mysterious “Toyotaro” stormed the pages of V-Jump with Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission, a spin-off and promotional manga taking elements from the arcade game and introducing them to new and existing players alike. It was not at all unlike the Pokemon TV series, which acted as a sort of strategy guide and hype machine for the games.

  What started as a self-contained, two-page first chapter has now grown into a fully-serialized monthly comic. Victory Mission helps introduce new gaming mechanics, new characters, new transformations, and does so with an astounding eye for Akira Toriyama’s art style.

  It’s not just the art, though. Each month, Victory Mission readers are treated to fully-realized name pun schemes and even the occasional cameo from various Toriyama works. Check out chapter four to see hidden Jiya, Dub & Peter, and even Dragon Ball GT cameos!

  Who is the mysterious “Toyotaro”…?

  Similarities to work from “Toyble” are huge.

  Soon after the first Victory Mission chapter hits V-Jump, fans start to notice artistic similarities with work from “Toyble,” author and illustrator of a Dragon Ball AF fan-comic.