#dbza christmas

[darthmasterchief]

The Father

The Son

The Holy Spirit

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged – Plan to Eradicate Christmas Review

Originally posted... today!

Instead of the true meaning of Christmas, we see the true meaning of an abridged series.

Over the course of Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, Team Four Star has established a lot of minute details about its characters. We saw in Christmas Tree of Might that Goku is earth’s most ardent defender of Christmas. We also learned that across the universe, very few people got to celebrate Christmas, as it was replaced by Freeza Day on any planet he conquered. And we learned that even before Freeza conquered Planet Vegeta, Santa was never able to visit them to spread love and good cheer, because the Saiyans tried to shoot him down.

Every single one of those details is capitalized on here in Plan to Eradicate Christmas. Through snippets of character interaction, we learn that Goku has been itching to defend Christmas yet again. We see Freeza’s ego displayed as he commands the Villains of Christmas past to referthemselves as the Villains of Freeza Day Past, despite them having agreed upon Christmas. Even Santa’s inability to deliver presents to Planet Vegeta is called back to, as Vegeta nostalgically recalls his favorite Christmas pastime of shooting energy blasts at Santa’s sleigh.

If these callbacks rested solely on referring back to things we already know, it’s possible that they could fall flat, but every single one is rooted in the nature of these characters we’ve come to know and love. Of course the violent egomaniac Vegeta would try to shoot down Santa’s sleigh. Of course Freeza would refuse to bow to the demands of Cooler, Turles, and King Picc…Lord Slug, who he all views as his lesser. And of course, the battle hungry, ever optimistic Goku would be salivating over another opportunity to save Christmas, his most wonderful time of the year.

The specificity of these characters is also what makes Santa work so well as a villain here. After our heroes defeat the Villains of Christmas Past, they are confronted by Santa, who reveals that all have been naughty and fallen short of the glory of Santa. Vegeta is, well Vegeta, we know what he’s done. Goku’s lust for battle endangers the entire universe, brought to the forefront with a perfectly timed ad for Dragon Ball Super, and Piccolo is held to account for his and his father’s past attempts at world domination.

Even Trunks is at fault, having time traveled so recklessly as to endanger the space-time continuum, brilliantly highlighted with a cut to what I believe is Dragon Ball GT footage. Only Gohan is without naughtiness, and is granted a present by Santa, but like every Christmas before, Santa gives him what he likes, and he likes books.

The jokes in this Christmas special all land so well because they draw on our understanding of these characters, who we’ve gotten to know over the course of the last decade Dragon Ball Z: Abridged has been produced. It’s genuinely delightful to see Team Four Star tackle a Christmas special once more as well, as they manage to turn a story from an uninteresting OVA with a generic villain into a hilarious Christmas romp.

Plan to Eradicate Christmas is a great example of what abridged series can do at their best. They can take weak ideas and repurpose them, giving them new life and meaning with a comedic edge. Team Four Star really did go and give us a gift in Christmas 2018, and showed us what abridging is really all about.

Rating: 4.5/5

Stray Observations

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fantastic music Cliff Weinstein composed for this special. Christmas Eve-olution / Carol of the Hells is the standout track in particular. It is wonderfully ominous and builds perfectly to the final confrontation and group Kamehameha.

Thanks for reading! You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[greatwyrmgold]

I've been thinking about Team Four Star.

For reasons I'm not privy to, TFSdecided to end their flagship Dragon Ball Z Abridged series six years ago. On Christmas day, 2018, they uploaded the Cell Arc epilogue, and that was that. For a while there were plans to do the Bojack movie and the Buu Arc, but I guess they lost their passion or struggled over creative disagreements or just got sick of Shueisha's copyright claims.

So TFS pivoted to other creative projects, hoping to use the skills they developed over a decade of abridging anime and the audience they gathered to launch new projects. How did those go?

DBZA season 3 videos generally have 10-20 million views. The roughly contemporaneous Hellsing Ultimate Abridged and FF7 Machinabridged series have less; HUA hovers around ten million views an episode, FF7M about a million. TFS also have a few other anime-parody-ish projects, like the intermittent "X Minutes" series. "Demon Slayer in 6 Minutes!" has about six million views, but their other X Minutes (and similar videos with different branding) hover around a million views.

TFS tried tried all-original projects, too. They've made a few video essays; the best-performing by far is "Beastars is Beastars," with almost 800K views. The others have about an eighth to a quarter as many views.

More notable are the TFS Originals, which includes individual skits and whole series alike. Most of these do about as well as the video essays, with view counts between 60k and 140k. The pilots for Fist Master and Unabridged have almost half a million views each. Unabridged is by far the most popular of their series; I don't know if that's because more than two episodes were made, or if those episodes were made because it was more popular.

Good numbers by the standards of general YouTube. Not so good by the standards of channels with 4.3 million subscribers and a series which drew tens of millions of views for a decade.

And of course, TFS still does Dragon Ball stuff. There are the Dragon ShortZ, and the HFIL series. Both start with view counts above five million, with the most recent entries having around a million views. That's lower than any DBZA episode or movie, even the awkwardly-bifurcated Christmas Tree of Might, but it's better than anything else they've been uploading.

Well, until the Buu Bits came along. Little fragments of what DBZA Season 4 might have been, they were made for TotallyNotMark's Buu Arc retrospective. And people loved them. View counts for most individual shorts are above two million, and the full compilation video has six and a half million views at time of writing.

That's wildly better than basically anything TFS has done since Hellsing Ultimate Abridged. The Buu Bits compilation was even more popular than the last episodes of Dragon Ball Abridged Kai, a series only technically distinct from DBZA.

This is what their audience wants.

Team Four Star wants to move on. They started three original animated series between 2018 and 2021, for Kai's sake! But they only got 1-2 episodes each, probably because animation is hard. Team Four Star isn't just a bunch of peers and friends making silly internet videos any more; it's their job.

If TFS is going to spend all the time and effort and money needed to make more DieselDust, they need to be able to see some return on that investment. They can't pay everyone a living wage with less than a hundred thousand views of ad revenue, sponsorships aren't gonna pay much without more viewers, and good luck selling Kadence merch.

You know what does pay? More stuff that's DBZA-adjacent, but original enough that it doesn't trip YouTube's copyright bots. Team Four Star's fans will come back and watch Abridged!Cell and Abridged!Guru and the other villains tooling around in HFIL, and maybe some will buy an orange!Piccolo "DODGE" shirt or buy their sponsor's stuff while they're there.

That's sad. Team Four Star aren't master storytellers, but they shouldn't have to be to pursue their passion. They have so much more backing them up than 99.9% of artists; they have a platform and millions of fans and more than a decade of work proving their skills.

But that's not enough. They tried, and they failed, and they're returning to the old hits. Their original series aren't unsuccessful, but they're not successful enough to justify making more. TFS gets more eyeballs on their DBZA creator commentary videos than they do for original series.

TFS didn't want to make more DBZA (if they did, they would have), so they compromised. Most of their videos from the past couple years are Dragon-Ball-related in some way; HFIL skits, or Buu Bits, or Dragon ShortZ, or the aforementioned creator commentary. They wrapped up Unabridged last year; that was their most successful original series, and they haven't replaced it with anything.

I'm not sure how to wrap this up. I've followed TFS for about a decade, for most of DBZA season 3 and beyond. I wish I could say I've watched them grow creatively, but while they're clearly more skilled than they were when they made DBZA season 1, they've been stuck in a rut by their material circumstances and business needs. HFIL and Dragon ShortZ are basically DBZA, but freed from the limitations of editing DBZ footage and sticking to DBZ's story.

[tigirl-and-co]

DBZA + YGOtAS Christmas playlist :3c

[zeravmeta]

time to watch my favorite christmas movie

[azrael-the-lucifan]

Happy Frieza Day. Remember to celebrate by killing a planet. Just not the one we live on.

[snomfee-cup]

This one TFS clip perfectly describes my reaction to this post taking off

It's December so YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

[kalach-cha]

so i probably don’t have covid but i am still very sick :(

[rinka-fuka]

If you haven’t watched Plan to Eradicate Christmas then what the hell are you even doing

[gorillageek27]

(I know it’s spooky season and not Christmas, but I was watching DBZA...again and I had to do this.)

Weiss: “Ruby you need to act like a good leader or Santa won’t give you any presents.”

Ruby (mumbling): “He’s just going to give me books again.”

Weiss: “He brings you what you like and what do you like!!?”

Ruby: “I like books.”

Weiss: “See, he brings you what you like.”

Jaune: “Well what am I getting for Christmas?”

Weiss: “The same thing as last year.”

Jaune: “Oh so that thing you do with your mouth?”

Weiss: jaune! Not in fromt of ruby!

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged - Christmas Tree of Might Review

Originally posted on December 25th, 2015

Goku starring in a Christmas special somehow makes perfect sense.

It is incredibly strange to me the ease with which Team Four Star blends the themes characteristic of a Christmas special with the universe of Dragonball Z. The idea that Goku would be the most stalwart defender of Christmas in the universe works surprisingly well, and making it so the Tree of Might sucks the Joy of ChristmasTM from the earth instead of its energy is a change that I didn’t question for a second.

I’m also reminded of Princess Snake, and I see this film as a good indicator of the growth experienced by Team Four Star between then and now. Back then, they wrote an entire episode based on the (unfunny) joke that Princess Snake and Solid Snake share the same name, so why not have her voice be a (albeit decent) David Hayter impression? With this film though, Team Four Star has taken the strange concept of a Dragonball Z Christmas film and built upon that in every possible aspect.

Part of the success of this is that they go out of their way to imbue every aspect of the film with signifiers of the Christmas season; the inclusion of Christmas music at every opportunity is one of the tricks they use most often, and their use of a metal rendition of “Deck the Halls” as the theme for the destruction of the earth is particularly clever.

All of the villains being “misfit minions” of Christmas is a great touch as well, and though the casual mentions of animal rape and child molestation tip slightly over the line of good taste, it’s still made very clear that these villains are just the type of despicable who would wish to destroy Christmas.

Except for Turle, that is. His story of the injustice of Freeza Day is just unfortunate enough to raise the question of whether or not we have a right to celebrate joy and peace when many around us are suffering, and Team Four Star wisely leaves that question unanswered. Even the reveal that Santa didn’t visit planet Vegeta out of fear for his own safety calls into question our willingness to actually spread the love we preach during this holiday.

Another significant moral question is raised when Gohan passingly mentions the rise of depression and suicides during the holidays, as he makes fun of Yamcha for his obsession with material possession causing him to feel destitute. Who’d have thought that a comedic adaptation of a silly Japanese anime would raise such significant questions about our holiday?

Rating: 4.5/5

If you enjoyed this review, consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

I love that Krillin’s wish for a kickass Christmas tree is the reason for Turle and his gang’s arrival.

King Kai: “Are we laughing at Yamcha, ‘cause I’m always up for that.”

Gohan: “Santa’s just gonna bring me books again.”

Chi Chi: “He brings you what you like, and what do you like?”

Gohan: “I like books!”

Gohan: “Don’t talk s*** about Santa!”

Jinga: “Jinga!”

Beru: “And Beru!”

Tien: “F***ING WEABOOS!”

“This is so non-canon it hurts.”

Goku: “What’d you get for Freeza Day?”

Turle: “He blew our planet up!”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[dreadsuitsamus]

Would it be in-character for Vegeta to tell Trunks and Bulla that Santa isn't real when they're kids because his pride wouldn't let a pigment of their imagination take credit for getting the presents and eating the cookies?

i choose to go with the belief that santa is real in the db universe and vegeta dreams of killing him 🤣 there's a dbza christmas special featuring this and i like going with that

but to give an actual answer, i don't think bulma would let him do that, since it's most definitely her getting the presents for the kids and wanting them to have a nice christmas. he's a tough father but he doesn't want his kids unhappy, so if he would maybe want to tell them santa isn't real, i don't think he would do it out of pride. but largely i don't see him caring all that much outside of maybe thinking believing in santa is silly

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Charas christmas list

- Primary Shareholder position of Nestle

- The souls of the innocent

- a Pony

- The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

- TFS to continue doing DBZA

- another pony

[dragonsballsz]

cannot stop thinking about whis having undetermined (not malicious) motives for wanting goku and vegeta to work together. if dbs 2 happens i would love them to have whis revisit this in the story. "thought it was about time to have you two train together" like. What Is He Planning

the only thing i can think of is that he wanted to get rid of beerus. having the last two saiyans kill the guy who ordered their extinction is pretty karmically satisfying, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re both op as hell (so it beerus tho).

it kind of looked like that was a potential twist later on, but i think the creators got too attached to beerus (which is just. why? why tho?). or it’s just bad writing.

not that dragon ball has ever been known for its in-depth examinations of the psyche (which isn’t a problem; the point is friendship and punching things), but super is a lot more cavalier about certain things (read: genocide) than any of its predecessors.

it’s possible that there was an idea to have goku become the new god of destruction, but (hopefully) that idea would’ve been shattered pretty quickly, since it’s not the first time goku has been offered godhood, and the last offer was a lot better. it’s also possible that they planned to have vegeta do that but then realized that that would kinda fuck over his whole character arc of becoming marginally less homicidal.

the issue i have with whis is that while he’s got a fun and genuinely likeable personality, his function in the story is a lot closer to a plot device than an actual character. this isn’t inherently a bad thing, but it doesn’t work quite as well in this case bc the beginning of super really did appear to be setting him up as a full-fledged active character - a dragon with an agenda, if you will, to beerus’s big bad of the first arc. that also wouldn’t be a problem, except that beeurs no longer appears to be acting as an antagonist.

i’ve gone into why i don’t like beerus (as an antagonist or as a character in general) on my personal blog a few times, but the issues with beerus also directly impact whis, and whis’ lack of any real importance outside of his job (i.e., his connection with beerus and the rest of the dragon ball pantheon) means that he’s pretty badly hurt by said issues.

dbs also has the issue of setting up some genuinely new and interesting ideas, but being afraid to deviate from the show’s status quo to properly execute them. this is becoming more and more common in anime, from what i’ve seen, and it ends up sacrificing character development, usually for comedic value. and not good comedic value either, just running gags that enough of the fans find amusing for the writers to just stick with that instead of having the characters grow and potentially lose the ability to keep the gag around.

think about fullmetal alchemist (the manga). one of the most famous running gags is ed’s height, but as the story progresses and gets more serious, those jokes begin to peter off and eventually stop more or less completely. this is in part bc ed himself has physically grown, but it’s also illustrative of how the story has progressed and the characters have progressed with it. it was a fun gag while it lasted, but it wasn’t permanent. it’s also important to note that ed’s lack of height was in part due to the weight of his prosthetic limbs, so the gag would have to be left behind eventually bc it wasn’t worth sacrificing so much of the story for. dbs and other newer shōnen don’t seem able to put the story before the jokes. and in light-hearted moments that can sometimes be okay, but when it’s consistent throughout the story (or worse, part of the story), it kind of ruins the feeling.

bouncing back to dbs, there are two examples of jokes illustrate this: mr. popo and goku. plenty of people know that the scene where popo warns vegeta not to break the hypertonic lion tamer (sorry) is a reference to tfs’s running gag of popo being absolutely terrifying. this works without knowledge of the abridged series bc it looks like an otherwise nice guy getting fed up with these assholes who keep breaking his shit, and it works with the reference bc pecking order. does it properly mesh with his kind, gentle, and extremely patient nature? no, not really. but it’s a little side joke that doesn’t really hurt anything.

compare that with goku. goku was never characterized as an intellectual genius, but the original incarnation of him in db and later in dbz wasn’t so much stupid as thoughtless, naive, and occasionally just uninformed (which makes perfect sense - he’s an amnesiac alien kid who spent the last few years alone with no one to teach him things). but he had a good heart and generally tried to do the right thing. if the world was in danger, making sure it was safe was his top priority. he was a smart and clever fighter who learned from his errors, and he frequently showed his own form of intelligence outside of battle by thinking ahead in ways that no one else had - such as realizing that the earth would still need protecting after he died for good, and choosing to stay dead after bulma pointed out that many of the recent threats to earth’s safety were there because of him. he doesn’t think the way most people do, but he certainly wasn’t a brainless idiot who didn’t care about anyone but himself. not perfect, but still.

in dbza, he becomes said brainless idiot bc it’s a parody series and that’s what’s funny (sort of like tenshinhan and chiaotzu randomly being jewish, or turles trying to steal christmas). but that characterization got popular, and super’s goku frequently leaned a lot more towards the abridged incarnation rather than the original goku. again, that would be fine if it was a one-off joke, but it often feels like the audience is getting bounced back and forth between canon!goku and abridged!goku all the time, which is.... frustrating. to say the least.

beerus and whis suffer from something similar, only instead of being related to comedy, it’s related to their roles in the story and how they affect the plot.

tldr: writing is hard, status quo is NOT the end all be all, and i apparently have a lot of unresolved feelings about this that i should probably bring up with my therapist bc wow

[toomanyf4ndoms7]

The real reason why Kronika didn’t bring back Shinnok.

Cetrion: We're here to make this day your final virtuous act of sacrifice!

Shinnok: (floating down) Seriously, it's always got to be about you, doesn't it?

Cetrion: Well, that is what mother said.

Shinnok: She also said she loved us both equally.

Cetrion: Well, you know how fond mother was of jokes.

Shinnok: And that's why you were created second, punchline!

(Kut to the group on Shang Tsung’s island ruins)

Nightwolf: This is really uncomfortable.

Fujin: That’s sibling rivalries for you.

(Later)

Kronika: So let me get this straight: instead of working together to get the crown you just argued and let each other get hurt?

Shinnok: Yes.

(Source: DBZA Plan To Eradicate Christmas.

[azrael-the-lucifan]

I would once again like to thank TFS for creating my favourite Christmas special, “Plan to Eradicate Christmas”. I watch it every year and it never fails to make me smile and laugh.