#with the kai dub in z's place mind you

[treepan0]

some random hcs for the characters I like writing for because why not? not all of them are here, this is just four characters I had some thoughts on.

note: I'm using a fully romanized version of the spelling of Baby's name (tone indicator removed to clarify) so it's less weird, also there's a lot of rare pairs and I am unapologetic about that.

Cooler:

let's be real here there is a reason why he and Bebi hardly show romantic affection in Chaos Magic, and it's not a discomfort actually. In reality it's because this man gives me the vibes it would be slow work for him to get to that point, he grew up with a family that was actively trying to kill each other, and is written as a stoic character, he's going to take longer than Vegeta to get comfortable with that.

I don't know why, but this man gives me demisexual energy and I cannot unsee it. (don't ask where this came from, I have no clue.)

please for the love of kami someone take this man away from his desk, he desperately needs a break thank you.

completely unaware people find him attractive most of the time, too distracted by work.

learned to control the movements of his tail, so Frieza and Cold couldn't read him like an open book.

Bebi:

I have mentioned this twice, but I like combining his sub & dub portrayals, errors and all.

speaking of errors from the sub he says "Big Bang Attack" while using final flash, on purpose because he knows it annoys and confuses people.

is he bi? is he pan? is he Omni? I don't see him caring much actually. I feel like he doesn't care as much due to his ability to reproduce asexually, while he still feels the needs and urges of the body he possesses (thus the way he is, pretty much I hc it's from vegeta who I see as bi, unless it's an au, I just leave that fact intentionally vague), he's more reliant on romantic attraction if he wants anything outside of that. I see him as panromantic to clarify

if I have an excuse to give him a tail I will, GT robbed me of it so I will do it myself. it's also fun to make him emote with it in a more subtle manner, like I do for some other characters. (Cooler, Janemba and Broly to name a few, I would say Bebi & Janemba are the most open of the four though, since Broly's is hidden)

I think he should have Janemba, android 13 and Hatchiyack as a friend group, as a treat, I think they could all get along with their own individual dynamics and everything.

Bebi & 13 can roast the ever loving crap out of people, Janemba & Bebi can be relaxation buddies who talk about general stuff, and Bebi & Hatchiyack I see as almost like a sibling relationship.

Janemba:

I usually go with the buu's fury background; where he was an organised crime kingpin, before he got caught up in the soul scrubber, outside of that I take from various places. I like to hc he ended up in there, because Beerus sealed him inside, just like elder kai and the z sword.

out of boredom one day I did give him an adoptive mother, since he had no pre-existing canon family. Her name is Koall, she's a succubus who's tired out of her mind and still grieving her loss, despite the passage of time being massive for humans.

just like Bebi I also hc this man gets around at times, and most of it is because of his design. (dear goodness super Janemba's design.....)

it's a common hc that he likes jelly beans, since the spirit shields resemble jelly beans. I actually enjoy this common non serious head canon, I think it's actually cute for him to do that.

kind of claustrophobic, especially with dark environments. however he can subdue it with some sort of activity, so it's not terribly intensive. he keeps a portable console where ever he stays, mostly so he can build blanket forts for Broly.

I straight up said "I don't see why he and kid Buu can't learn sign language, especially since dragon ball has a universal language." so they either use their native tongue, or use sign language. most of the time however they're guilty of saying stuff behind peoples backs in said native language, Cell & Koall are the only ones able to catch them.

has definitely tried to teach some poor unsuspecting soul, to swear in his native language because he thinks it's funny. think of someone teaching a baby swears, it's pretty much the same effect for him considering his age.

complete opposite of how I see Cooler with affection, he's just a tease. this man will smooch Broly in public an the only one who can stop him, is Broly himself and no one else.

DBZ Broly:

doesn't like his neck being touched in general, Janemba completely respects this and has adjusted to such.

when he's in base for an extended period of time by choice for the first time since he was a kid, he ended up being gifted a green rabbit plush from a friend, her name is Mint and she gives him comfort.

I chose a rabbit because I felt like he could empathise with them in general, he grew up in an environment where he had to ensure his own survival, just like rabbits have to since they're at the bottom of the food chain. (nothing to do with the symbolism connected with them)

he won't openly admit it, but he likes head scratches and pats. like almost anyone could touch his head for whatever reason, and he will expect either scratches or pats.

that red fabric around his waist is the only thing keeping people from seeing everything he feels, since he never learned to clasp it like most, nor did he learn to control the movements like I hc Cooler did.

finds small spaces comforting, since the pod trips would be what little time he had away from his father, outside of being dismissed or after Paragus' death.

I feel like after a long extended period of remaining in base, he develops likes and dislikes after time here's just a few I thought of: he likes rock and metal music, he dislikes the taste of coffee, he likes relaxing scents (i.e lavender and chamomile), he dislikes white chocolate. I have my reasonings for both of those likes.

most of the time he'll ask Janemba if he wants certain affections, he's too shy and ashamed to ask anything nsfw though. not that it hasn't stopped Janemba from coaxing him into the baby steps past that, so poor man doesn't make himself suffer in silence.

it's actually been a team effort to help him get to this point, with all sorts of people teaching him proper life skills, not that he's learned to calm.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 031

When Jaco and Bulma team up, anything could happen!   (Narrator: Nothing happened.)

Let’s try to go over Bulma’s plan here.  The upcoming Destroyer Invitational Tournament will decide who gets control over the Super Dragon Balls.  If Champa wins, he plans to wish for the Earth of Universe 7 to switch places with the dead Earth of Universe 6.  If Beerus wins... who knows?  But Bulma doesn’t want to find out.  Since Champa is the God of Destruction from U6, Bulma believes that there’s a second set of Super Dragon Balls in Universe 7.  So she aims to track them down and use them to undo any destructive wishes Beerus or Champa might have in mind. 

To do this, she needs a radar powerful enough to detect the Super Dragon Balls, and she also needs to take it to the center of the universe, where she can use the radar’s range will be as effective as possible.  So she calls in Jaco to take her there.  Except Jaco works for the Galactic Patrol.  Their ships aren’t designed to cover the vast distances from one galaxy to another.  They only operate inside of the one galaxy they’re in. 

Okay, a couple things.  First, I like that this detail is acknowledged in the story.  A lot of sci-fi/space fantasy franchises fail to recognize just how big space is.  Well, specifically, I’m thinking of DC and Marvel Comics.  The Green Lantern Corps divided the universe into 3600 sectors, then assigned a handful of GL’s to patrol each one, and somehow seven or eight of them always wind up sticking close to one planet in one galaxy in one sector.   If I remember right, their headquarters is located at the center of the universe, and Hal Jordan just zips back and forth like it’s no big deal. He also constantly runs into colleagues from other sectors, but, again, space is huge.  Aside from staff meetings on Oa, you would expect him to live out his entire lifespan without ever seeing a Green Lantern from another space sector.  Meanwhile, all of Marvel’s big intergalactic powers rule over entire galaxies.  The Skrulls have the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Kree have theirs and the Shi’ar have theirs.  I’ve lost track of all that lore, so maybe Marvel introduced some shitty new aliens called the Dipshittors to build on that concept, but the point is that the Avengers and Fantastic Four will just fly out to fight those guys whenever it’s convenient. 

Star Trek and Star Wars get it right, because those stories take place in one galaxy.  There’s like one episode where the Enterprise went to another galaxy and it was this insane thing that happened.  Maybe the new shows play with that idea more, but fuck the new Trek shows.  Scott Bakula’s dog can kiss my ass.  The point is that because those shows are confined to one galaxy, they don’t spent a lot of time talking about how impractical it is to go to a different galaxy.  It just never gets brought up. 

But that leads me to my second thing I want to talk about: Jaco seems to imply that Universe 7 is a lot bigger than we’ve heard in the past.  Maybe it’s just the dub, and I’m in no mood to go back and check the subtitles, but he talks about the multitudes of other galaxies in the universe, and how unbelievably far away it all is, and I feel like that conflicts with the cozy four-galaxy scenario introduced in Dragon Ball Z.   Earth is in the North Galaxy, overseen by the King Kai of the North, while the East, South, and West Galaxies are overseen by their own King Kais. 

Then again, I’m not sure how that was all established.  It comes up in the original Broly movie, which is mostly set in the South Galaxy, which all of the characters are able to reach without much trouble.  It also comes up in the Otherworld Tournament arc, because they have to explain who the other three Kais are. 

But I don’t know that it gets much play in the original manga.  Like, South Kai appears in the manga, and the Grand Kai is mentioned, and Kid Buu’s origin story refers to other Supreme Kais who used to work alongside Shin.  But I’d have to check to see if there’s any mention of just four galaxies.  Maybe it’s a Toei invention. 

Anyway, Jaco suggests an alternative: Visit the world of Master Zuno and ask him about the Super Dragon Balls.  I don’t see how that solves anything, though.  Zuno’s gimmick is that he knows everything, and he certainly seems to know everything, but even if he tells Bulma exactly where the Super Dragon Balls are, they could still lie far beyond the North Galaxy, and so they’re completely out of her reach.   Also, the SBD’s are the size of planets.  How was she planning to gather them all together?

Now, most of this episode is Jaco making cracks about Bulma’s age, and Bulma beating the absolute shit out of him for it.  Also, he tries to turn the tables on her by accelerating his ship really fast, but he winds up making himself nauseous as well.  They seem to utterly despise one another, and it’s not much fun watching them interact. 

I mean, for all intents and purposes, this episode is a direct sequel to the Jaco manga.  There’s even a flashback to the chapter where Jaco met Bulma, and she repaired his ship and flew it around Professor Omori’s island.

But the Jaco in that story was a lot more calm and collected, more of a detached observer of humanity.  We see him here freaking out about Tights’ little sister joyriding in his ship, but I’m pretty sure he was only mildly irritated about it in the manga.  The most upset Jaco ever got in the manga was whenever that police sketch came up. 

But now, in Dragon Ball Super, he’s become this cowardly little twerp.  At the beginning of this episode, he vents his frustrations with a little target practice, and accidentally destroys a space monument, which he tries to pin on a wanted fugitive in the area.  And that seems authentic for Jaco, but when he gets to Earth, all he does is try to find some excuse to leave, and when that doesn’t work he trades barbs with Bulma and lets her whoop his ass. 

Which is a shame, because there was something much more humanist about the original Jaco story.  It was about how the characters grew after working together and helping one another.  Jaco’s kind of a dick, and Omori was kind of a bitter misanthrope, but they still cared about one another because their better nature overcame their anti-social tendencies. 

This episode might have tried to hearken back to that theme, but it just doesn’t happen.  When they get to Zuno’s planet, Bulma and Jaco discover there’s a seven year waiting list just to ask Zuno a question.  Then they see this red frog dude show up for his appointment, and Jaco recognizes him as the crook he heard about earlier. 

So Jaco has a choice to make.  If he arrests this guy, he can open a spot on Zuno’s schedule and skip to the front of the line.  However, bringing in this frog guy might expose his lie about the destruction of that space monument.  On the other hand, the frog dude recognizes Jaco as a space cop, but he’s waited seven years for this appointment, and he decides to just play it cool and hope Jaco doesn’t recognize him. 

And Jaco... lets him go.  The frog dude was wanted for dine-and-dash crimes, so it’s not like he’s a violent offender or anything.  In fact, the reason he came to this planet was to ask Zuno how to dine-and-dash without getting caught.  That’s how into dine-and-dash this guy is.  For all his bluster, Jaco isn’t a model patrolman, and besides, this is his day off.  And Bulma’s mission is her problem, not his, so he doesn’t want to risk getting in trouble with his superiors over this. 

But then Bulma tells him they’ll just have to go home and take their chances on Beerus’ wish, and that spurs him into action.

Frog dude tries to take a hostage, but Jaco defeats him with ease, and Zuno’s attendants give him an immediate audience with Zuno out of gratitude.  This s basically the climax of the episode, and it’s presented like some character developing moment for Jaco, except... it really doesn’t work.  Maybe he took action because he didn’t like the idea of letting Bulma down, or he couldn’t stand the thought of failing a mission, or something like that.  But it looks more like he was more frightened of Beerus using the Super Dragon Balls than he was of getting in trouble at work.   And that’s not much of a conflict to build your story around. 

As for Zuno, well, he’s another alien like his attendants, only he has an even bigger head.  You have to kiss him before he’ll answer your questions.  Since Jaco’s a man, Zuno only gives him one question.  Jaco wastes it on a pointless demonstration.  He asks Zuno what Bulma’s bust size is, and he not only gives and answer, but extrapolates what Bulma’s bust size used to be before she got older.   He should have asked why the animators keep drawing Bulma’s blue jeans so weird in every episode. 

As for Bulma, she gets three questions, because she’s a lady, and Zuno is horny, I guess.  So this is just the same gag they used thirty years ago with Master Roshi.  Bulma wastes a question asking if Zuno will answer her questions.  Then she asks him to tell her about the Super Dragon Balls, and when he’s finished, she summarizes it all and asks if she got it right, and Zuno counts that as her third question.    Bulma offers to kiss him some more, but her time is up.

So the only useful information that came out of the whole trip was this: There’s only one set of Super Dragon Balls, which are scattered across Universes 6 and 7.  So Bulma’s plan was doomed from the start, because Champa already has most of the one set secured, and there’s no other SDB’s out there to use.  This also means that Champa must have been trespassing into Universe 7 to collect the SDB’s, since at least some of them must have been there.  But that hardly matters, since we already knew Champa had been lurking around behind the scenes.   We saw him destroy a planet, and then Beerus ran into him during the Golden Frieza battle.  Also, Beerus doesn’t care, since he plans to win the Super Dragon Balls in this tournament anyway. 

So this was all a pointless aside.  I guess this shot of Goku copping a squat with Jaco is kind of neat.  They didn’t interact much during the Res F stuff, so this is the first indication that they’ve met.

Also, Bulma gives Jaco some dairy products for the road, so I guess they don’t hate each other that much.

Oh, and this is the episode where Goku and Vegeta talk about how they like their feisty, feisty wives, and Vegeta says it’s because Saiyans are genetically predisposed to this.  And Piccolo’s astonished to hear this, and I really don’t know why he, of all people, would care.

[kaiowut99]

So I said before I’ll be going ahead on this side-project, replacing Yamamoto’s music with Yutaka Minobe/Wall 5 Project’s work from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s’ awesome soundtrack–just so there’s a consistent soundtrack I can watch the show with, and also just messing around for some fun–and I’ll be sharing it for whoever’s interested in seeing how it pans out.  I downloaded some 320kbps rips of the first two Sound Duels to get some good quality in here, too.  The goal’s to make it to The Final Chapters to give the show a full consistent soundtrack, ideally without any placements rivaling that disco theme (you know the one) in terms of awkwardness.

After months of delaying it, here’s episode 4! I did a new sort of tweak with the scene where I had Godwin’s Theme play for the scene with Yemma, having it cut out as Goku’s all “Yo!” at him (as opposed to my earlier idea of a disc-scratch).  Personal favorite scenes include “The City” over Goku being ridden towards Snake Way, “Showdown” over the Raditz flashback, and one of the twins’ themes over Goku worrying about eating/asking about Baba, since the Yamamoto track had a cutesy track there.  Let me know what you think! 

I might include song lists too, as I get these done; I plan to work on these a little quicker, so hopefully episode 5′ll be done sooner.

[yasbxxgie]

Reggae Britannia (BBC Four, 2/11/11)

385 Willesden High Road is tucked away behind a row of dilapidated 19th century houses, its entrance obscured by high locked gates and a walled yard. But 385 is a treasure trove of reggae history. It's called Theorem, Music Village, and it's where we're recording several artist interviews for Reggae Britannia. As we arrive, there's a band in the studio rehearsing a romantic Lovers Rock number, there's a man up a rickety ladder painting the walls and another mopping up from an all night dance in the 'functions room' with its damp lino and garish red felt walls. T-Jae, the tall soft-spoken proprietor of what was once called BBMC (the Brent Black Music Cooperative) helps us with our camera gear. He's got coffee brewing in the kitchen beside an open can of condensed milk. Before T-Jae's time this was a leisure centre filled with rattle of pinball machines and the click of snooker balls - now replaced by the drum 'n bass of reggae rhythms leaking from the studio.

We're here to interview Dave Barker, one half of the Dave and Ansell Collins vocal duo who set the teenage mods alight, back in 1971, performing a novelty number called 'Double Barrel'. Dave's a quietly spoken man with a hint of a stammer. He tells us how, when he first came to this country (and he stayed here ever after) he peered out through the window of his BOAC plane as it banked over the smoking chimneys of the snow-covered houses below and wondered 'how come they have so many bakeries in England?' On the drive from the airport he was shocked at seeing white men digging the road and taking out garbage: 'Wow man, that was strange, you didn't see those things in Jamaica'. Nor dogs wearing winter vests, nor steak and kidney pies, nor that little sparrow he spied pecking the top off a milk bottle. He can't help himself: Dave sings a refrain from Matt Munro's 'Born Free' and segues into 'Summer Holiday'.

Dave arrived in the U.K exactly ten years before Theorem opened its doors to top British and Jamaican reggae artists passing through. Today, there's the legendary Max Romeo sitting on bench in the winter sunshine, his grey locks neatly tucked into a woolly beret. In 1969, Max brought his wicked song 'Wet Dream' to Britain and its risqué lyrics - which got it banned in clubs and on the BBC - made it an anthem for skinheads in dance halls all across Britain. He sings a few lines, diffidently explaining how it caused an 'upstir' among the rebellious youth of the time. He's a little ashamed of it now because, by the mid 70s, Max had embraced the wisdom of Rastafari. That was when he wrote and recorded some of reggae's most powerful and memorable music in the Black Ark studio of Lee Scratch Perry: 'War In A Babylon' and 'Chase The Devil'. When those songs arrived here, first as pre-releases and then remixed by Island Records, they inspired our fledgling roots reggae bands and then the punks and then Bob Marley too. Max intones a few lines from 'Chase The Devil', an ironic, cautionary tale that has been covered or sampled by dozens of musicians - including Jay-Z in 'The Black Album' - and was featured in the video-game Grand Theft Auto.

'I'm gonna put on an iron shirt and chase Satan out of earth' he sings. 'I'm gonna send him to outer space to find another race'. Max explains: 'The devil is the negative within the psyche. Chasing the devil means chasing the negative out of your mind.' There are people wandering in and out while he speaks; musicians carrying drums and guitars into this studio that's cold as a morgue, or dropping off an amp or a heavyweight speaker, or they've come to pay their respects to the master, with a hug or a high-five.

T-Jae comes sauntering by with a piece of carpet under his arm to help our sound recordist dampen the 'live' acoustic of the room (yes, we still have a sound recordist on our crew) and he tells me that among the band members in the studio today is none other than Bigga Morrison. Bigga's not a front man like Max, but a keyboard virtuoso and music director of renown. Reggae royalty. The band take a another break for a smoke in the yard and Bigga, immaculate in pin-striped suit and brogues, describes growing up in this country as a second generation West Indian: 'My parents had experienced troubles and threats on the streets, back in the '50s, with the Teddy Boys and such, but they wouldn't discuss those things because they wanted to keep you free from the pressures. But as we grew up, we took our message and our fight onto the streets with the roots and culture music we played in bands like Steel Pulse and Aswad.'

Later during the interview, I asked Bigga to show us how the British reggae producers, back in the early 1970s, added violins to the Jamaican imports to make them sound 'more classical'. Unfortunately, he's lost his glasses and so can't read the score. Tee Jay's on hand to send for a replacement pair. Bigga fills in time by playing us a delightful new track by his band the Skatronics, but when the glasses arrive, they're all wrong for Bigga. He wears them anyway, and peers astigmatically at the music for 'Young Gifted And Black' which is layered in symphonic-style strings. Bigga (educated at Trinity College of Music) explains how Jamaican reggae gradually transformed into a British musical experience, first through the dub sounds and conscious lyrics of hardworking roots groups like Aswad and then by the bands that went platinum: the 2 Tone crowd, UB40 and The Police. Bigga's being called back to rehearsals now, so we break for a late lunch. It's a choice of The New Golden Duck Chinese Take Away or the Caribbean place half a mile up the road. We do the walk and settle for salt fish and akee. Or rather, the others do. I choose the goat curry on plantains and soon regret it.

Back in Theorem, Bigga's at the keyboards and a couple of pretty female vocalists are delivering more saccharine Lovers Rock. And that's where we see Big Youth, in among them, gyrating his hips to the pounding bass and chugging upbeat of the guitar. He's chaperoned by a petite Italian lady from an artists' agency called Roots Rockers. She's Trish, and she's exhausted because they've only just returned from a nightmare flight from Spain. Trish is a miracle of calm and efficiency in the maelstrom of the struggling reggae business and it's clear all the artists adore her. Trish has offered us the opportunity to interview Big Youth, the toaster who excited British reggae fans with his revolutionary, rasta-inspired lyrics in the mid '70s. He's on top form today, his wiry body twisting and swaying in the interview chair as he sings lines from 'Hit The Road Jack', telling me how the great Ray Charles called him up one Christmas-time to admit that Big Youth's version was just 'the best'. 'Big Youth stole the scene,' he concludes. Modesty isn't one of Big Youth's virtues. But I can vouch for his status, and integrity. I first met him inside Randy's Record shop in Kingston Jamaica back in '77. He was checking out the sales of his album - visiting these record stores was about the only way an artist could tell how many were selling. He was as big a name as Marley at the time, and revered both on the island and over here. We met again - by chance - in Lagos, Nigeria, when he was on the run from some unscrupulous promoter. He's older and greyer now, but with no loss of energy, showmanship or sharp humour. And the red, gold and green implants in his front teeth are still there.

The filming days at Theorem haven't only been productive for our ninety minute programme, they've also been enormous fun. Maybe it's the familiarity and affection the artists have for this building, or maybe it's what they call 'the spirits' of the house: a combination of all those sounds and experiences imbedded in the cracking plaster walls, the creaky floorboards which once the feet of hallowed artists trod, or the reverberating bass you can hear down Theorem's honeycomb of corridors.

We'll be back here later in the week to interview the fiery, bubbly Lovers Rock singer Sylvia Tella, from Manchester; and Tippa Irie who came to fame DJing for the Saxon sound system, and maybe Dennis Bovell, the multi-talented producer/song writer and bass player, who did so much to anglicise reggae music in this country. Oh, and Trish says Dennis Alcapone's coming by, the dapper, bowler-hatted vocalist who brought a whole new style of toasting to these shores with songs like 'Guns Don't Argue': 'Don't call me Scarface, my name is Capone, C-A-P-O-N-E!'

For him, we'll haul our equipment boxes down the dark corridors of Theorem (we never could find the light switches, thriftily hidden away in recesses above door frames). Because we'll place him in a room, behind the studio, which is every reggae fan's dream, an Aladdin's cave of antique tape machines and mixers, and an expansive crimson casting couch. The wood-trim Rainderk desk dates from the early '70s when Reggae first exploded onto our pop charts with songs like 'Young Gifted And Black', bringing an upbeat musical thrill not just to those of Caribbean origin and the packs of skinheads who followed them around the country, but to the whole nation. This mixing desk was donated by Pete Townshend of The Who. It has made history since, recording reggae artists like The Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, Aswad, Janet Kay, Maxi Priest ... and so many more.

The traffic's slow on Willesden High Road as we leave the studios and T- Jae waves us into the evening gridlock and shuts the gates. Back-in-the-day, Theorem would be filling up with dreadlocked musicians and their natty entourage, ready for another all night session. Sometimes it still does, but with the proliferation of cheap home studios and a music industry in crisis, it's a whole lot quieter now. No sessions tonight. Just the rattling pipes, the whispering corridors, the vacant studio and the ghosts of British reggae history.

[ignis-scientia-estrogen-brigade]

~ISEB in Japan: A Photo Journal~

If you’ve been following me on Twitter lately, you’ll know that I’ve been traveling through parts of Japan the last couple of weeks with my Ignis Play Arts Kai figure in tow. I posted a few pictures over there during the duration of my trip, but those barely scratched the surface of everything I got to do while in Japan. So I thought I’d put together a blog post of my journey while it was still fresh in my mind, featuring everyone’s favorite strategist in what I’ve been dubbing my Great Final Fantasy XV Adventure of 2019!

[Image-heavy content + commentary under the cut]

A brief backstory: I’ve wanted to go to Japan my entire adult life. For years, I’ve watched friends make the trek while I’ve been stuck at home with a severe case of FOMO. The only thing that ever stopped me from going was money (or a lack thereof), so I made the decision last summer to buckle down and sock away every dime I made to make it happen. My only concern before hopping on the plane was that I had missed the wave of FFXV popularity by about a year, but I would quickly learn that—other than not getting to eat any of Ignis’ recipes at the Square Enix Cafe—I had little to worry about.

Literally the only reason I brought my Play Arts Kai figure was so I could take this picture of Ignis at the Citadel (a.k.a. the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building), which was the very first place I stopped at on my first full day in Tokyo. The building + the surrounding plaza, while not 100% accurate, is a fairly impressive facsimile of the one in the game. It’s located in Shinjuku, which also boasts a lot of similarities to Insomnia. Having finished Episode Ardyn mere hours before jetting off on my trip, it felt like I had stepped off the plane and right into the game!

There just so happened to be an Animate right near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, so I popped in to get a feel for what kind of FFXV merch I’d be able to find two years after the game’s release and a year after its height of popularity. Turns out, there was quite a lot of swag to be found! Truth be told, I’ve never been one to chase down official merchandise (unfortunately my job doesn’t really afford that luxury), but I gave myself special permission while on vacation to buy anything I wanted. So I did! Including everything you see above. ^^;;

The next thing I did was take the train to Ginza to meet Lyle/@landscape-gonna  (@landscape_gonna on Twitter), and I simply cannot say enough nice things about her. If you don’t know who she is, there’s a 99.9% chance you’ve seen at least one of her Ignis costumes, and they are A. M. A. Z. I. N. G. We had chatted a bit previously on Twitter before I went full-on stan mode, asking her if she'd be willing to meet up with me (a total stranger) to have lunch and talk Ignis and Final Fantasy. Not only did she say yes, but she gifted me with copies of her incredible cosplay zines and was not the least embarrassed when I busted out my Play Kai Arts figure in the middle of a busy Japanese dessert restaurant haha.

See? Zero embarrassment here.

We even did Noct’s ultimate pose! In public!

I can’t begin to articulate how special meeting Lyle was for me—being brought together from opposite sides of the world to share in our love for Ignis/FFXV is a memory I will cherish my entire life. So Lyle, if you are reading this: どうもありがとうございます ! ٩( ᐛ )( ᐖ )۶

Lyle wasn't the only friend I had in Japan. Another friend of mine, Asuka (who happens to be well-versed in anime/video game culture), volunteered to be my guide through Ikebukuro/Otome Road the next day. Quick otaku lesson: Kbooks is a chain of stores that specializes in the resale of licensed merchandise. For example, if you missed out on some of the limited availability items from the Movic and the Square Enix Cafe collaborations, you might be able to find them at a Kbooks. Otome Road in particular has something like seven different Kbook shops in a 3-block radius, each one specializing in different products (sports anime, idols, cosplay, etc). I, of course, beelined for the video game shop...

...which is where I found this fucking thing:

I’m not gonna lie, I almost bought it. I just didn’t know what I would do with it besides scare the living daylights out of people when they least expected it lol.

Yoooo Adam I found ya boi in Ikebukuro

We popped into the cosplay Kbooks shop since it was right across the street and I found an Ignis costume for sale! Please enjoy this picture of me pretending to come up with a new recipeh (since this is likely the closest I’ll ever come to cosplaying as Ignis).

One of the things Asuka introduced me to was Hanami (picnic under the cherry blossoms, basically). I had timed my trip to coincide with the blooming of the sakura, and the experience of being in Japan during that time was indescribable. I took a bajillion pictures of the sakura while I was there and unfortunately none of my photos ever quite captured the beauty and magic of them in person, but here’s a lil’ pic of a tree in bloom at Yoyogi Park (with the Movic Ignis charm I bought at Kbooks earlier that day).

Another item on my Japan checklist was to stay at a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Hakone, a town famous for its onsen/hot springs. Nothing in Hakone is cheap (at least, not during peak sakura season), and I had spent an absurd amount of money on a night at one particular ryokan with a private bath (shy husband haha). The private bath could only be reserved in 30-minute increments, and by the time we finally rolled into Hakone the bath we wanted only had one slot available for the rest of the night. So what did I do?

If you said, “Waste the first 15 minutes of your 30-minute, super-expensive onsen experience taking the perfect Ignis-in-a-hot-springs photo” then you would be absolutely correct lol.

I actually wasn’t planning on taking a bunch of photos of my Ignis figure on this trip, but after my husband tucked Ignis into my futon while I was in the bathroom, documenting my trip vicariously through Ignis ended up taking on a life of its own. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I popped back over to Tokyo after my stay in Hakone, which is when I finally got to make the Great Nerd Pilgrimage™ to the Square Enix Cafe! Had the FFXV collab been going on while I was there, I might’ve forked over the cash to eat at the cafe, but I opted to skip out on lunch so I could spend more money in their shop. They still had a small collection of FFXV merch...

...including this acrylic Ignis stand that I wanted but thought I would never own after failing to find it at Kbooks earlier in the week. Huzzah!

Also, I just feel the need to let everyone know that this is what the outside of the Square Enix Cafe in Tokyo looks like lmao.

Our next stop was Kyoto, which we arrived in on Gladio’s birthday (April 2nd). Unfortunately I didn’t have time to draw anything for his b-day, but we did stop for a Nissin Cup Noodle in honor of Gladio!

One of the most memorable moments of my trip was when this boating incident happened, and it requires a little bit of backstory. On my first full day in Kyoto, I attempted to field two of the most popular tourist destinations in Kyoto: the bamboo forest in Arashiyama, and the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Both places have their beauty and historical significance, and I suspect during the off-season are inspiring sites to behold. In my case, both places were absolutely swarming with tourists, which really put a damper on my enjoyment of them. Defeated, I followed a local canal back toward my hotel, which is where I spotted a miniature boat enthusiast controlling a boat that looked eerily similar to the Royal Vessel. I pulled my Ignis figure out with the intention of simply taking a photo of the boat in the background; when the man saw me holding my figure and fumbling with my phone, he flagged me over and gestured for me to put Ignis in the boat. I wish I had documented how it all went down a little better, but as I was literally wheezing with laughter, the above was the best I could capture.

One of the more off-the-cuff decision I made was to dress in kimono for a day while in Gion (Kyoto). As the cherry blossoms were at their height during my stay there, you couldn’t sneeze without hitting someone who was dressed traditionally for the numerous festivals that were taking place throughout the city. As a white foreigner, I initially had reservations about wearing a kimono (for fear of cultural appropriation), but I did everything I could to be as respectful and reverent whilst wearing the garb (and the rental shop was certainly happy for the patronage). It was an amazing experience and I would definitely do it again!

Speaking of being respectful, I made it a point not to take pictures of Ignis while visiting any shrines (because nothing screams ‘douchey American’ quite like whipping out an action figure on sacred grounds), hence why I don’t have pictures of any of the major shrines we visited in this post. I did, however, spot this miniature shrine arch in an alleyway, and thought it would be okay for my equally miniature strategist to pay his respects.

Literally, a tiny shrine in an alleyway. I suppose even alleys have their deities!

Osaka is about 20 minutes away from Kyoto by train, and since I had already traveled all the way out to Kyoto, I went the extra few miles to stop by the Square Enix Cafe in Osaka. They actually had a smaller selection of FFXV merch than the one in Tokyo and I didn’t end up buying anything, but I would’ve never stopped wondering if I had missed out on something if I hadn’t gone and seen it for myself!

My last day in Kyoto was a week into my trip, and I still had five days left to go. After walking ~10 miles every day (no joke, I have the GPS screenshots to prove it!), I was really starting to feel the grind. I’m sure Ignis was also desperate for an Ebony after being lugged around in the bottom of my purse for a week lol.

Back on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo!

Weeeeeee (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Said hi to Fuji-san!

Stopped for a delicious matcha parfait! (Shout-out to my husband who never once got annoyed with me whenever I busted out my figure in public spaces lol)

This was without a doubt the craziest and most unexpected find of any of my merch runs. I had gone to the video game Kbooks in Ikebukuro earlier in the week and had sifted through all their Ignis merch with a fine-toothed comb. This particular Movic charm was one I had been on the lookout for, but it was a rare pull even when they were readily available a year ago, and the only Ignis charm I came across in my first trip to Kbooks was the normal Ignis one (see my Hanami pic). I had no real reason to return to Ikebukuro after I got back from Kyoto, but on a whim I went one last time and BAM—this guy was hanging out there in his lil’ baggie, just waiting for me to get my grubby little hands on him. Jackpot!

All in all, I spent way too much money and I couldn’t be happier for it. The only thing I couldn’t find for the life of me was the Ignis cologne by Movic, but after searching through several Animates and Kbooks, I began to suspect it might be an online-exclusive item that wasn’t available in stores. (Which was probably a good thing for me cause I was already stretching my budget to the limit by this point haha.)

On my last night in Japan, I went back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building—only this time I went at night when it was all lit up! I also went up to the observation deck on the 45th floor (something I didn’t know you could do the first time I was there) and enjoyed a fantastic view of nighttime Insomnia Tokyo. It was the perfect bookend to a perfect trip, and my heart is absolutely overflowing right now with love for both Japan and Final Fantasy XV!

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

Dragon Ball Super: Battle of Gods Arc REVIEW:

Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt and as I've said in the past screaming and punching is awesome! This is just an undeniable fact. And when it comes to the "screaming and punching" genre of cartoons there is none that does it better than Dragon Ball Z. (Okay, that's probably not true at all, but shut up alright? I'm trying to segway into this.) The best way to look at Dragon Ball Z, and the Dragon Ball series as a whole is to look at it as just a really cool superhero series, that doesn't try to come across as needlessly "dark" or "mature." It has dark and mature moments for sure, but not in the way that some comic books do where they try to shoehorn in these elements in order to be shocking or edgy. Dragon Ball does something that a lot of superhero type stories now of days tend to forget to do, and that's just be fun. From the over the top characters and powers, to the tonnes of convoluted lore that they make sound important, even though ever arc just ends up being a contest of who can punch the hardest, Dragon Ball was just a fun series. Flawed for sure, yes, (Seriously, next time you watch a Dragon Ball series play this game at home, it's called "Find the inconsistency.") but still a lot of fun regardless.  After finishing up the story of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z the original author, Akira Toriyama, decided to step away from the series for almost twenty years. He did help with some designs for some spin-off properties based off of the series, but for a long period of time Dragon Ball was pretty much over. But, and this a true story, after seeing the American live action adaptation of his series, Dragon Ball Evolution, and hating it so much, it inspired him to make another Dragon Ball Z movie. One that he would be directly involved in. That movie was 2013's "Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods." and the movie was a huge success. So much of a success that it got a sequel called "Dragon Ball Z: Reserection 'F'." The Dragon Ball franchise was given new life. And naturally with all this success, it was only natural for Toei Animation to announce a new Dragon Ball tv series. After 19 years there would finally be a new series, and that new series would be called "Dragon Ball Super." Fan's were hyped....

 ...Until it was announced that the first two arcs would be adaptations of the two newest movies.  

Yeah, fans were not happy to learn that they would have to wait 26 episodes before getting any "new" content. Especially since the movies had just came out a few years ago. But, who knows, maybe this could be a good thing. Maybe these longer versions of the movie could expand on the movies, and add new scenes or different plot elements to improve the movies story, and make it even better. How did this movie retelling work out? Well, let's dive into this and find out. But first some context.  First things first, when it comes to these reviews I will be reviewing the dub. This is because I started actually watching Dragon Ball Super at episode 63, when the website Crunchyroll started subbing it. I was following what was happening in the series before hand using online recaps and such, but I never really went back and rewatched the first 62 episodes, save for a few. So I'm using the new English dub to actually see for myself what I have missed. And since most fans of Dragon Ball seem to like the dub more anyway I think it be better to do it like this. Also, I just want to say that I will be comparing this to the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods film. It's kinda hard not to what with them being the same story and all. Also I want to state for the record that I LOVE the Battle of Gods film a lot. I was a casual Dragon Ball fan before watching that film, but after watching that movie I fell in love with the franchise. I loved the more comedic feel the film had, while still keeping in the drama that was needed. I loved the way it built upon the lore, and how it created a story and a villain completely different from anything that Dragon Ball had seen before. I consider the film of version of "Battle of Gods" as not just a great Dragon Ball film, but a great film in general! So keep all that in mind. Also, SPOILERS for everything Dragon Ball from here on out. Okay, ready? Let's go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsPw7x8LZC4

So just a quick rundown for anybody not in the know. Dragon Ball is the story of Goku, a psychopath man child alien who loves to fight things. He was sent to Earth as a baby to destroy the planet, but forgot about his mission after his adopted grandfather accidentally drops him into a motherfu*king canyon. Goku and his friends travel the world collecting the Dragon Balls, magical orbs that can grant any wish, but over the course of the series pretty much just becomes there "get out of death free" card. Then half way through the show suddenly becomes about fighting aliens. One of these aliens they fight is named Vegeta. A member of Goku's race called the Saiyans who, over the course of the show, goes from evil big bad, to anti hero, to just a frickin' tsundere by the time Super comes around. The Saiyans have the power to become more powerful using the power of "Super Saiyan" transformation, which increases there power and hair mass exponentially. Also this arc takes place four years after Goku defeats the evil pink bubblegum man, but six years before he abandoned his family to train some random Indian boy. HOPE THAT CLEARS EVERYTHING UP FOR ANY NEWCOMERS!  Anyway, this arc begins in space where, in typical Dragon Ball tradition, we are introduced to a new villain who just happens to be way stronger than our last villain, and has just happened to never be mentioned by anybody until now. This new villain is Beerus, a God of Destruction. His job, as we learn, is to go around the universe destroying planets in order to maintain the natural balance in the universe. Beerus looks like a giant purple cat, and this reflects his personality a lot. Because like a cat, all Beerus cares about is eating, sleeping, and being a general dick. Only this cat has the power to effortlessly destroy planets with a touch of his fingers. Beerus also has a helper, named Whis. A flamboyant but snarky blue guy who's job is to look after Beerus and make sure he's doing his job. He also acts as the straight man to Beerus's antics, and these two characters have great chemistry together. This is helped by the great voice talent of Jason Douglasas as Beerus, and Ian Sinclair as Whis. They do a great job portraying the duo.  We learn that Beerus has been sleeping for the last thirty seven years, so he just conveniently been sleeping for most of the Dragon Ball series. But he was awoken by a premonition dream, as he foresaw something called a "Super Saiyan God." and this "God" would provide him with someone he could call a rival. Beerus, like most characters in Dragon Ball, has a love for the thrill of combat. But since he's so powerful there are few who he can fight without just obliterating in an instant. So thus, he is really dedicated to finding this Saiyan. However, despite having the dream, he has trouble remembering the details of it, so he goes around destroying planets and eating, hoping that doing that will somehow jog his memory.  The way Beerus is portrayed is a point of contention for some Dragon Ball fans, when comparing the film to this arc. In the movie, while still mentioned that he was a destroyer of worlds, we never really saw it. And it seemed like he did it less out of malice and more because, as a destroyer god, it was his job to. While in the anime we see him destroy the planets, over petty things like the food he eats on the planets not being tasty enough. Most fans prefer the film version, but I actually don't mind the change that much. I mean we still knew that he had destroyed planets, so I don't see why showing it matters much. What I don't like about Beerus in the first half in this arc though, is the fact that they really play up him bumblingness a bit to much. The Beerus from the movie was able to really balance being a wacky, fun character and a real threat. He acted silly because he was so powerful that he didn't have anything to prove to anybody. Here they push it a bit closer to the comedic side, which I think is a miss because the movie got it just right, in my opinion.  After obliterating some more planets Beerus fully remembers his dream. He ask Whis how many Saiyans are left in the universe and Whis answers five And so Beerus and Whis decide to head out and find out which one of them can be the "Super Saiyan God." But enough about our villains, what are our hero's up to? Well, it's Bulma's birthday and everybody from the original series is invited. I really like this, because after being away from the Dragon Ball series for almost two decades it's great to have ever character from the old series, major or not, show up and just be themselves. It's nice seeing these guys when there not fighting and just hanging out. In the movie the party was just held at Bulma's mansion, but here it's on a cruise shop. I kinda like the former better, but it doesn't really matter.  Goku and Vegeta are both uninterested in the party, and want to spend there time training. Goku goes off to King Kai's planet to train but Vegeta is forced to go to the party because Bulma's his wife and more importantly scary. Meanwhile Old Kai and Kibito Kai sense that Beerus has awoken from his slumber. They are worried that if Goku finds out the Beerus is awake, and is as strong as he is, Goku will try to fight him, and that fight could risk that fate of the universe. By the way, I love how the gods view our hero and our villain as equal threats to the universe...There not wrong. We also learn that it was Beerus who trapped Old Kai in the Z sword. It doesn't say why, but I like to imagine that it was because Beerus wanted to make a SICK prank video for his GodTube channel bra!

 Old Kai tells King Kai to not tell Goku about Beerus. However, this doesn't work out very well as Beerus is already on his way to King Kai's planet to find Goku. When Beerus does find Goku he challenges him to a fight to see if he is the prophesied Super Saiyan God, and Goku accepts. In the original film Goku goes straight to Super Saiyan 3, but here he goes through each form one by one. It is kinda cool to see the fight extended a bit, but it is definitely there to pad the length, and also doesn't make to much sense on why Goku would start at a weaker stage, but it's kinda cool to see. Which version of the fight is better though will depend on what your looking for. Something quick or something a bit more drawn out. (And I'm not going to talk about the bad animation, because it's beating a dead horse at this point, plus they fixed it by the time it aired dubbed so who really cares?)  Regardless of which version you watch though, it's a complete curb stomp. Goku doesn't even land one hit on Beerus, and Beerus takes Goku out in three hits. Goku is left beaten and wounded, and Beerus decides to head to Earth to see if Vegeta is the Super Saiyan God. King Kai uses his telepathy to warn Vegeta about Beerus and tells him that if he can keep Beerus happy, they all might just live. Vegeta suddenly has a repressed childhood memory about a time where Beerus visited Planet Vegeta, and made a mockery of his father, using the King of all Saiyan's as a mere footstool. This knowledge, plus knowing how easily Beerus defeated Goku, makes Vegeta decide to suck up to Beerus. The only problem is that none of the other people at the Bulma's party knows who Beerus is, and Vegeta has no time to tell them. (They assume Beerus is some friend of Vegeta from space. Which is dumb because Vegeta has only been a "friendly" person for a couple of years at this point, and none of those years was he in space to our knowledge.) So Vegeta has to make sure that nobody at the party annoys Beerus, or else they'll all die. It's actually some good stuff as we get some good comedy and some actual character development out of Vegeta. The prideful Prince of all Saiyans has to swallow his pride and act a fool for the sake of the planet. It's good stuff. In the original movie we get to see Vegeta singing and dancing to a ridiculous bingo dance to distract Beerus from his rage, while here we see him being an over the top sushi cook. Both are good but...come on, bingo dance has this in the bag. No contest.

 Oh, something that I forgot to mention is that the Pilaf Gang are in this arc. The reason I forgot is because they really don't contribute anything to the story here. We learn that apparently at some point off screen they managed to find the dragon balls and wish to be younger, but they didn't specify how young and were turned into babies. So now they've naturally aged back up to about Goten and Trunk's age. They basically act like Team Rocket from the Pokemon anime, which is fun to see in a Dragon Ball series, but my problem is that the tv version cut out all there best scenes from the movie! They cut out the weird sudo-romance with Trunks and Mai, they cut out the hostage scene with a drunk Great Saiyan Man. Why? I mean we were trying to extend the film out the twelve episodes anyway, and heck that Trunks Mai romance thing actually comes up later in Super, and only makes sense if you saw the Battle of Gods movie, which I don't think is even cannon anymore. (Though I do like this one scene later on of Whis and the Pilaf Gang just kinda chillin'. It's funny seeing the most pathetic Dragon Ball villains and one of the most powerful characters actually getting along.)  Anyway, back to the main plot Vegeta is actually doing a good job of making sure that Beerus stays happy. This is until Beerus decides that he wants to try some pudding, but finds out that Buu is hogging all of it. Buu refuses to share and this enrages Beerus to the point of him deciding to blow up the planet. If there's no Super Saiyan God AND no pudding then what's the point, right? At this point all of the Z fighters start to realize that this Beerus guy is trouble and try to take him on, only to be very quickly clobbered. Bulma actually get's so fed up with all this crap that she slaps Beerus and tells him that he's ruined her birthday party. This causes Beerus to back hand Bulma, and this infuriates Vegeta. It's a touching and awesome moment showing how far Vegeta has grown since his first appearance as a sadistic killer. (Though this scene drags on way to long in the series.)  Vegeta channels his anger. He refuses to stand by and watch Beerus walk all over him and his friends. Vegeta's rage is so strong that it actually causes him to get stronger. Stronger than even Goku! Vegeta has finally surpassed his rival for the first time since the Cell saga and is about to unleash all of this new found power on Beerus head on!  ...It goes as well as you would expect...

(But hey, at least you landed a few hits onto him Vegeta. Be proud of that.)  Beerus is about to destroy the Earth, but he decides to give our heroes one more chance. If they beat him at rock-paper-scissors he'll spare their planet. Oolong is chosen to represent our heroes. Finally, after like four hundred combined episodes it's time for Oolong to enter the spotlight once again and save the Earth. Also THEY SPEND AN ENTIRE EPISODE ON ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS! OH MY GOD! AND YOU WONDER WHY MOST PEOPLE PREFER THE MOVIES!?  Anyway eventually Goku shows up, healed from his previous battle. Goku decides that if he doesn't know what a Super Saiyan God is, he can just use the dragon balls and ask Shenron about it. Beerus decides to let them, and we get a funny bit where even Shenron is scared by Beerus. (Though is this really a surprise? I mean even King Piccolo could kill him.) Shenron tell the legend of the Super Saiyan God, and how it can only be achieved by six pure hearted saiyans combining there power, and channeling it into one host. This is a problem though, because even with the half saiyans they still only have five. But threat not, as  Gohan's wife Vedel reveals that she is pregnant, and thus the baby is a quarter saiyan. It's a long shot, but they might have a chance to actually pull this off. They all hold hands together, and channel all there power into Goku. And then, Goku starts to transform and OH MY GOD THIS FRICKIN' TRANSFORMATION IS CARTOONISH LEVELS OF OVER THE TOP! It goes on for almost five minutes and has everybody glowing, the sky turns gold. It goes from day to night and back again.(Somehow? Seriously is that effecting the rest of the Earth?) It rains, it snows. It's all just to over the top. Especially since (outside of the manga) we NEVER see this form again after this arc. It really feels just like padding.

Anyway, after what feels like an eternity we finally see it. We see Goku's new form, the Super Saiyan God! I really like the design. After Super Saiyan 3 there was no way to make the Super Saiyan form buffer and with more hair, so like Super Saiyan 4 in GT they chose to reinvent the look. I like how it's slimmer, and the hair isn't as spiky. It works because it's reminisce of his base form, which works as this is suppose to be a new starting point for Goku. I like the way the red looks, and I like the touch of his eyes and even his skin turning red as well. It's really cool.

 Goku and Beerus begin to fight it out, though Goku has the disadvantage as he is still getting use to his new god power. Here Beerus's personality reverts into something a lot closer to the film version, which is very welcome. Old Kai and Kibito Kai monitor the fight and note that it doesn't seem like Beerus is actually trying to kill Goku, but rather teach him how to use his new found power. (After all, all Beerus wants is a rival who can challenge him, so why not help Goku reach his full potential.) It's really cool to see that element in the fight, as Goku and Beerus take on the student and mentor roles. The fight very quickly escalates into upper orbit. Then, as one of my favorite online reviewers Mr. Movie Sunday would say, "They punch for a bit then they're mates."  There are pros and cons to both the fight in the movie and the fight in the series. In the film the fight, in my opinion, feels a bit to brief due to the movies time constraints. The series has the opposite problem though, as the fight seems to drag on in some points. It's weird to say that, considering that the fight only last about five episodes, which is nothing by the standards of the Z. I think it might be because the fight mostly takes place in one location, and the quicker tone of Super makes all the stuff that seemed common place in Z just feel a bit off from a pacing perspective. I wish maybe they spent maybe one less episode on the fight, and devote that episode to more of Beerus at the party.  The film's fight also brings up the idea that Goku actually doesn't like using Super Saiyan God, because he doesn't like the fact that he needed other people's power to obtain it. (Though the Spirit Bomb is just fine I guess?) The theme is touched on in the series, but only in one line or two. Which is a shame because I actually think it's an interesting look in Goku's character.  The series also adds some additions to the fight scene that weren't in the movie, and these additions are very hit or miss. Some things are really cool, like how Goku actually mimics the three attacks that Beerus used to knock him out in there first battle. There's also this really powerful scene where Goku is drowning that really shows what Goku's character is really all about and has AMAZING voice acting from Sean Schemmel. We also get a great scene of the prideful and arrogant Mr. Satan begging for Whis to stop the fight, not because of he's scared for his own life, but because he's scared for the life of his pregnant daughter. It actually really touching. There's a scene of Piccolo getting up in Whis's face that's pretty bad ass and episode fourteen in general is awesome, feature voice acting and even animation that comes close to rivaling the film, which is beyond impressive for a tv budget.  But then there are some less good changes. Like there's this bit where the shock waves of Beerus and Goku's fight are so powerful that it might destroy the universe, and even does destroy some random planets. This is weird because, while Beerus is stronger than anybody we've seen fight in Super afterwords, he's not using full power in this fight and Goku get's way stronger in later arcs. So how come the universe is becoming torn apart here but not say next arc when a stronger Goku is fighting Golden Frieza?  Why is this needed? The fate of the Earth is already at stake, we don't need more risk. Also we get Vegeta dramatically staring up at the fight without talking FOR THE ENTIRE FIGHT! Why? what is this suppose to be indicating? YOU CAN'T SEE THE FIGHT VEGETA, THERE PRACTICALLY IN SPACE!

(D-Don't worry. That planet was PROBABLY not inhabited...Goku PROBABLY didn't just accidentally help commit a global genocide...hehehe.)  Anyway, as the fight goes on we learn that Goku's Super Saiyan God transformation is only temporary and he loses the power half way through the fight. However, he absorbed the godly power, making it a part of him. I honesty don't like this, cause it just confuses things on how this power thing works. Is base Goku now stronger than Super Saiyan 3 Goku was before this arc. And if so, are all the Super Saiyan forms stronger? And how does Blue work? Why couldn't God just be a transformation like it is in the manga, it's design is so cool! (Sigh) Well whatever. So Goku is now fighting Beerus in Super Saiyan Classic, but with the power of a god. But even so Beerus still out classes Goku and actually beats him! Yeah, that's honestly something really interesting to see. Goku isn't able to actually beat the bad guy, even with a new form and all of his talks about breaking his limits. Beerus is just to far out of his league.    Beerus heads down to Earth, ready to destroy the planet, and there's nothing our heroes can do to stop it. Beerus however, so tired from the fight, ends up falling asleep right as he fires the death beam and just happens to miss the planet. Or at least how it appears to be. What we learn afterwords is that Beerus never fell asleep, but rather chose to spare the Earth on purpose, as he finds the two Saiyans on that world most interesting. Probably regrets telling Frieza to blow up planet Vegeta now, huh. (Oh yeah, apparently Beerus did that. You would think that that MASSIVE Revelation would impact something, right?....nope.) In the movie, Vegeta demands that next time they use the Super Saiyan God ritual on him, while in the series Goku suggest doing it, Vegeta refuses, as he believes that he doesn't need some cheap ritual to shortcut his way to more power. I honestly like the series version better here, as I think it's more befitting of Vegeta's character.  So yeah, that's where the arc ends. Do I recommend it? It's kinda tough to say, honestly. Some of the new scenes that are added are really cool, and are definitely worth seeing. But there is also a LOT of padding, with scenes like the Super Saiyan God transformation and the rock-paper-scissors game that are a drag to get through, and only exist to help turn this hour forty minute movie into a fourteen episode saga. If you love Dragon Ball and really want to watch those really good moments, then you'll probably enjoy this arc. You'll just have to slog through some REALLY drawn out padding in order to get there. This arc isn't bad by any stretch, but in my opinion it just doesn't top the movie. The movie is much quicker, has better animation due to having a theatrical budget, and for ever good scene they have in Super there's a good scene in the movie that they cut out. (Seriously, they cut out Beerus break dancing!) You can watch the Battle of Gods film and then just jump into the rest of Super without missing much.  HOWEVER, if you do chose to skip over this arc, I do recommend you watch the first two episodes of Super anyway. These are the "filler" slice of life episodes, and there amazing. One of the best things about Super is the slice of life episodes where we get some fantastic comedy seeing the Dragon Ball gang in pretty much sitcom situations. The first episode is about Goten and Trunks trying to get a wedding gift for Videl, and the second episode is about Vegeta going on vacation with his family. Yeah, remember that one line from Z where Vegeta says that he'll take Trunks to an amusement parks if he's able to hit him? THEY BRING THAT BACK! Akira Toriyama forgot about who Launch was, but remember that! THESE WHERE THE FIRST TWO EPISODES OF DRAGON BALL AFTER ALMOST TWO DECADES OF WAITING! AKIRA TORIYAMA IS A MASTER TROLL!

(I don't care how many flaws Dragon Ball Super has, this one images justifies it's existence to me.)  So yeah, that's my review of the Dragon Ball Super "Battle of Gods" arc. Not as good as the film, but still with some really good elements in it. But what do you think of this arc, or Dragon Ball Super in general? Leave those thoughts in the comments down bellow. I'd love to start a discussion, even if we don't see eye to eye. Also tell me what you think of this review. I hope to review every arc of Super as the series airs on television, so I really hope you all like this review. If you did like this review than please fav, follow, and comment and have a great day! (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Dragon-Ball-Super-Battle-of-Gods-Arc-REVIEW-678214005 DA Link

[tigerlover16-uk]

Do you think that Dragon Ball Super is going to hold up better than Dragon Ball GT did long term? Or do you think it'll eventually fade into the background for most of the fandom as well and become a niche thing?

Part of that I think is going to depend on how the movie and the inevitable follow up series(s) are received… but most likely, yes.

Here’s where Super has the advantage over GT in that regard… it’s canon.

Or at least, it’s being treated as canon and is being used as the foundation from which modern Dragon Ball stories and products are going to be built off of for the foreseeable future. We can get into debates about semantics and this fandom’s rather annoying “There is no canon except maybe the manga!” mantra that I’ve never been in favour of, but Toei is treating it as the current canon for the moment and so does Toriyama, it seems.

The upcoming movie is going to be a follow up on Super. FighterZ, the recent fighting game that blew up and became a huge success recently to the point of bringing in a lot of new fans, has it’s story take place sometime during the events of Super, has beerus and Whis show up in the story, and includes characters like Hit and Goku Black on the base roster while Merged Zamasu and Vegito Blue are DLC, while no GT character has been added yet. 

Even the Xenoverse games treated the events of Battle of Gods and Resurrection F as canon events, while GT was an afterthought in both, having DLC packs for the first game and it’s characters only appearing in side quests in the sequel, and it’s timeline treated as an alternate future on par with the old movies.

Even the upcoming PR anime for Dragon Ball Heroes is adapting an arc that’s more or less a follow up to the Future Trunks saga in Super. And when a ongoing “Canon” Dragon Ball show does get made (And it will. Toei aren’t going to keep it off the air for too long, Dragon Ball’s gotten too big and profitable again since Super started for them to want to let the franchise go dormant again for too long), it will inevitably be a sequel to Super.

Unless Toriyama changes his mind and decides to scrap everything from the last few years and start over with another new continuation of the manga (Which is unlikely considering how involved he’s been in Super’s production as well as the upcoming movie, and he’s shown no signs of wanting to stop putting out new stories), then it’s likely that for the foreseeable future, all future Dragon Ball series, movies and spin-offs are going to be made with the idea that Super and it’s follow ups are “Canon” events.

And that’s going to inevitably influence how hardcore fans, casuals, and the portion of general audiences who consume Dragon Ball content view things.

Whatever people’s perception of the Prequel Trilogy was initially, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that more people have watched those, and new fans getting into Star Wars for the first time are ENCOURAGED to watch them, than have watched, say, the Star Wars Holiday Special or the Ewoks cartoons and specials.

Why? 

Because love or hate them, the Prequel Trilogy is, now and forever, a crucial part of the Star Wars saga and the foundation for a large, important era of the franchise that has spawned a large number of spin off works, from comics to at least two cartoons, one of which is basically the predecessor to the most current Star Wars animated series, Rebels, and a number of it’s events and characters are followed up on in that show.

The Prequel Trilogy is an essential cornerstone of the Star Wars franchise, and even casual fans who aren’t interested in all the expanded universe stuff are going to watch them, because they’re episodes of the main film series that are the backbone of the entire franchise and whom millions and millions of people watched in theatres when they came out. For all the controversy and handwringing about “MY CHILDHOOD IS DEEEEEAAAAAAD!”, there’s no getting around the fact that the Prequel Trilogy will continue to have an overarching presence over the rest of the Star Wars franchise going forward. And over time, the movies have also been increasingly vindicated with more and more supporters feeling safe to express their support of it publicly.

As for the Holiday Special and Ewoks cartoon and movies? They’re not canon, never had as big a presence and impact in the first place, and the former is especially reviled among the fandom and is treated as a laughingstock that people only watch ironically, and considering it’s reputation for being terrible, not a HUGE amount of people are going to be inclined to watch it these days or in the next few decades because of that. I’ve never watched it, for example, and I never intend to.

No one is going to tell you that you have to, or even should, watch those products if you’re getting into the franchise. The general public who only care about the most mainstream installments of the Star Wars franchise, I.E the films, doesn’t even realize the Ewoks HAD their own cartoon and made for TV films. I’ll bet there are going to be people reading this post shocked about it.

This goes for the rest of the Star Wars expanded universe too, the old one and the new. If you ask people on the street or people who are generally casual Star Wars fans for the most part, they’ll probably be able to tell you who Darth Maul and Captain Phasma are… but significantly less people will know what you’re talking about if you bring up Thrawn, Asajj Ventress or Savage Opress. 

Not because they aren’t good characters who are memorable and interesting in their own right, heck they’re more developed and interesting than Phasma ever was. But because they’re not mainstream, and in Thrawn’s case he wasn’t even canon to the current EU anymore until Rebels introduced their own take on him (I haven’t seen the 4th season, so I can’t discuss how that worked out).

I think GT has, and is going to have a similar issue to a lot of those expanded universe and non-canon Star Wars works going forward.

Let’s not kid ourselves, while it might have had some support when it was first airing, GT came out at a bad time both in Japan and in the West, and here in the West especially didn’t leave a good lasting impression.

In Japan, franchise fatigue for Dragon Ball as a whole was starting to set in around the time of the Buu Saga. While the saga was well received there and is looked back on fondly, Z’s ratings were continuously declining after the Cell Saga, and they declined more sharply during GT’s early run because the majority of people found the Black Star Dragon Balls saga boring.

While GT did pick up momentum again with the Baby saga which restored some interest, it didn’t actually do a thing to help the gradually increasing sense of fatigue. Ratings still steadily declined later on in the shows run (Admittedly not much more than they were during the Buu Saga, to be fair), but merchandise and revenue for Dragon Ball was going down really fast, which caused Toei to hastily pull the plug on the series, recognizing the fatigue and that Dragon Ball needed a bit of a break. (This is likely why the ending felt so rushed and sudden, BTW).

 So while it wasn’t viewed as a disaster or anything and a lot of elements from the series are still well regarded and promoted in merchandise and video games like Heroes (Super Saiyan 4, some of the villains, etc), it’s never been as well regarded as the rest of the series and certainly wasn’t as successful in terms of profit and renewed interest in the franchise as Super has brought forth.

In the West, it’s case is even worse. The Buu Saga was much more controversial when it aired in America to the point that for years a significant segment of the franchise ragged on it as being the worst thing to come out of Z. Buu was supposedly the worst villain, Babidi stinks, “THEY RUINED GOHAN!”, etc. (I personally always thought that was nonsense and I love the Buu Saga, and in recent years the general consensus has improved, but these reactions were common and a lot of people still resent the saga to this day or at least hold it in less regard than the previous ones).

Dragon Ball Z’s popularity and the initial hype the show had gained after finally catching on in America (And here in the UK) had started to wane by this point, and a large portion of viewers who had been watching jumped ship by that point. While GT enjoyed some acceptance by the fanbase at first, by the time it finished and in the years that followed, it became regarded as the black sheep of the entire franchise (Until Evolution came along, anyway), with loud and vocal hate thrown at it for years. 

People were quick and eager to declare it non-canon and shoot down the possibility of it being so, to the point that even before the franchise itself started gradually downplaying it’s significance in favour of the newer works, pretty much the majority of people were in agreement over it’s non-canon status. 

And the fact that it came out at a time where Dragon Ball Z was starting to slowly lose it’s hype among casual fans and the general public (And then became an internet laughing stock until roughly the start of the current decade when Kai’s dub came out and starting a gradual renaissance where the series regained a lot of respect in the West), means that GT, while a lot of people do know about it, has never had as much of a mainstream presence in the West (Kind of like the Original Dragon Ball, sadly), being mostly something the hardcore fandom was invested in enough to watch and discuss… and again, for years the consensus was that most people hated it.

It’s true that GT hate has calmed down in more recent times among the fandom, and while it’s still not well regarded it’s defenders are more vocal and comfortable about supporting the show than before. And there is a common consensus that the show had a lot of good ideas, even if most of them weren’t executed as well as they could have been. 

There are definitely people who have revisited the series and appreciated it more nowadays… and people like me who used to defend it but immediately started hating it after re-watching it :P.

But here’s the thing a lot of those defenders might be surprised or try to smugly lecture me about how wrong I am over… GT these days is, like you suggested anon… a NICHE.

GT’s fans may be vocal in a lot of places online, but in the grand scheme of things… people generally don’t care much about it either way. And the fact that it’s non-canon and has officially been replaced as the “Official” Dragon Ball follow up means that in the years to come, it’s only going to become less and less relevant.

Regardless of how much of a broken base there might be over the series in the fandom, you can’t argue that Super isn’t a big success for Toei and the Dragon Ball brand in terms of promotion and profits.

Here’s one of several graphs I can find online demonstrating the revenue the Dragon Ball franchise as a whole has been bringing in for Toei over the last decade.

Notice how when Kai first aired, it barely made a blip in merchandise sales and overall income for the franchise, and by the time it ended it’s initial run in Japan revenue kept falling until the year after Battle of Gods came out, and then in 2015 after Super was announced suddenly everything started to explode and it’s become super profitable, peaking this year even with Super’s conclusion?

Heck, it’s Toei’s most profitable franchise again nowadays, bringing in slightly more than twice as much as One piece even in Japan, which is a longtime juggernaut franchise. And general enthusiasm from both the public and fandom is at a high not seen in years.

It’s certainly not to the level of when it first aired. Super is also significantly less of a mainstream hit in Western Countries that aren’t Latin America than Z was aswell, certainly (Probably doesn’t help that the Toonami Block it now airs in is a late night slot that only fanboys stay up to watch).

But it’s still popular and watched by a lot of people, and the fandom is especially deep into it.

Heck, bringing up Latin American countries again where Dragon Ball has historically been extremely popular and a staple of pop culture, Super and the movies it spawned from are huge hits, to the point that across various countries including Mexico, huge public events were held in many cities and community centres where large crowds of people, many numbering in the THOUSANDS, gathered to watch the streams for the last two episodes of DBS. Which were huge hits, of course.

All things considered, Battle of Gods, Resurrection F and Super left more of a positive impact for the franchise starting out since, regardless of Super’s… very bumpy start and production, these works have been big hits that caused a franchise renaissance that generally brought Dragon ball back to a level of prominence and success it hasn’t seen in a long time.

A far cry from GT which pretty much signalled Dragon Ball’s leave of absence from the mainstream, during which time interest in the series waned for years even with Kai helping to restore it’s rep a fair bit (At least in America, said series was met with more of a meh reaction in Japan).

The results of this can’t be understated. Worldwide, Super has brought in a number of new fans. For many children and teenage fans, it’s going to be their introduction to Dragon Ball, or at least a cornerstone of their formative experiences with the franchise. 

Many casual fans who had long drifted off from Dragon Ball were drawn back into the fold when Super came out, many people becoming bigger fans of Dragon Ball than ever as a result of that. I’ve talked with a number of people on this site who have admitted that Super actually helped them to appreciate Dragon ball in general a lot more whereas they only had a casual interest in the franchise before.

And a lot of those people are probably going to stick around rather than drift off again in favour of other series, considering we have the movie coming up, potential new shows in the near future, and other high profile Dragon Ball products like FighterZ to keep them occupied.

For every fan who complains about Super or is put off by it, I’ve seen as many, actually more, express a lot of thanks to it. Right before my recent break I remember reading a post from someone who admitted to never liking the Dragon ball franchise, being a Naruto fan before that started to disappoint them later on to the point they felt nothing when it ended (A feeling I find tragically relatable).

Said person said they started watching Super at some point as a joke… and by the time of watching the last episode, they had become a big converted fanboy, loved the majority of characters, had watched the previous series (I think, I might be remembering that part wrong), and even cried at the last episode due to being so emotionally invested.

For as many fans as there are who like to pick apart Super (And to be fair it is a flawed series and I do think it’s fair to criticise it’s missteps, I have issues like anyone else despite overall loving it), it IS generally a well liked series.

It’s true that a lot of that could fade with time. Heck, I’m sure a lot of people will like it somewhat less with hindsight and the hype wearing down.

On that note, I think some people might also like it more after a while.

Did you know that earlier on in Super’s run, people actually complained A LOT about the Slice of Life episodes, finding them a waste of time and no different to DBZ filler? Even by the end of the Champa saga that opinion started to soften and everyone started realizing how fun the slice of life episodes were, to the point that everything between the Future Trunks and Universe Survival Sagas is some of the most beloved content from the show now.

Even the potaufeu arc, widely despised when it first aired, has a bit of a better reception now. it’s not considered particularly GOOD, mind you, but people generally regard it as okay and at worst harmless now, compared to the hate it got earlier on. Helps that Brian Drummond was cast as Copy Vegeta for the dub, I guess.

A lot of other elements of the show have been viewed more fondly over time too, in addition to the stuff that gets more flak.

So it’s highly possible that, if the upcoming movie and any Dragon Ball series that follow up on Super in the near future are generally well received, opinions on Super from people who are critical of it now might gradually soften over time, at least to the point that a lot of people complaining about how the franchise is supposedly being “Ruined” might stop and realize they might have overreacted a little.

The opposite could also be true, we could have another series that’s a complete trainwreck and that could sour the fandoms opinions over modern Dragon ball as a whole, lead to a great decline in public interest and probably put us back on a franchise hiatus.

Which would stink a lot, let me tell you, and Super probably wouldn’t be remembered THAT fondly in that case… but to be honest, I have faith things will turn out at least reasonably well. Everything I’ve heard about the recent movie and it’s production suggests that Toei have put a ton of care and effort into making it right, and giving us the best product possible for a milestone movie like this.

And that suggests to me that they’ve learned from their missteps.

The big issue with Super, both in terms of it’s production values and writing, was ALWAYS down to it’s rushed production. The show was rushed to be aired, and that had a catastrophic effect that the show never completely recovered from, even when it did mostly stabilise later on.

But between the big increase in it’s production quality later on, the care that seems to be going into the movie, and the fact that behind the scenes Toei and Shueisha seem to be restructuring a lot of stuff to better focus on producing Dragon ball content and planning out new directions for the franchise… it feels like Toei are making all the right moves to keep Dragon ball relevant, and more importantly, GOOD into the foreseeable future.

They seem to have learned from their mistakes. And considering Super DID have a number of talented animators and writers working on it who did do a lot of good even though they were in far from suitable conditions… I for one feel confident that Toei could produce a much better follow up to Super down the line.

And if that’s the case, and Super does continue to be the launching pad for future stories in the Dragon Ball franchise for years to come… that’ll help it’s image to an extent. 

Because even if the series itself is continuously acknowledged as having problems, if Dragon Ball is still relevant two or three decades from now and still producing moderately well received series… fans are going to encourage newcomers and casuals to watch Super to “Get the full story”. Just like Star Wars fans these days unanimously agree that, whatever the quality, you should watch the Prequels and yes, they do count (Even if begrudgingly to a lot of people).

GT… will never have that.

See, as much as it’s fanboy’s like to pretend the support for GT these days is bigger than it is… most people who watch Dragon Ball either haven’t watched it, haven’t watched it in years, and probably aren’t going to watch it anytime soon.

Heck, half the people watching Super these last few years haven’t watched Dragon Ball Z since it was initially airing. I have a mutual who’s a BIG Dragon Ball fangirl, who writes fanfiction (Usually Vegebul related) and is one of the most passionate and positive people you’ll see on this site when it comes to Dragon Ball… she also regularly admits that while she needs to get around to it, she hasn’t actually watched Dragon Ball of Z since she was a kid, just clips of it and I think Kai. (On that note she didn’t watch GT because she couldn’t get into it, she did watch the first two episodes recently but seemingly hasn’t found the time to get further into it).

This is actually surprisingly common among the fandom. I remember when the first episodes of the Super dub were airing someone who had clearly only watched the dub of Kai before was confused while watching Super and Kai: The Final Chapters back to back, wondering if Elder Kai as seen in Super was the same character as Shin The Supreme Kai. There’s a ton of people out there who’s only experience with Dragon Ball was watching Kai’s dub years ago and getting back into it now because the franchise is putting out new major installments.

FYI, this is also one of the big reason that memes, particularly TFS related, have taken over the fandom and warped the perception of the series and the characters so much over the years. A majority of people who call themselves Dragon ball fans are actually casuals who don’t re-watch the series often and look to the fandom side of things to refresh their memories and base their opinions off of since they probably never thought too hard about the series other than “This show is fun, and these characters are my favourite!” before.

And no, that doesn’t make those people less of a fan than people who re-watch/read the series yearly and are obsessive about it, because screw that elitist noise. I’m just pointing out that… well… many people’s interest in Dragon Ball, as with many mainstream franchises, is very much in the “Here and now” variety. Especially in the age of Crunchyroll, Netflix and online streaming, where anime fans are constantly binging and hopping around from one series to the next.

Hardcore fanboys and people who have nostalgia for it are the only people who actually care about GT more than enough to casually acknowledge it’s existence from time to time. And while you might get the impression by browsing the internet, fansites, forums, comments sections, etc that the hardcore fandom is most of the people that watch and talk about Dragon Ball… they’re really not, in the grand scheme of things.

Going by Star Wars comparisons again, this video by Moviebob should explain what I’m talking about better than I can. 

To sum everything up nicely though… GT is non-canon and hasn’t actually been relevant for two decades. It has long had a reputation as one of the worst things in the franchise, and while there are certainly things the fandom likes about it and plenty of people willing to go back and watch and then defend it (And people like me who re-watch it and end up hating it where we used to defend it, too), it’s status as non-canon and the fact that it has officially been replaced by a new ongoing continuity means that it’s only going to become more and more niche over time as the fandom grows and changes.

And about two or three decades from now, new fans aren’t likely to be encouraged to watch it when there are various other sequels to Z starting with Super to get through, even before you take supplementary material like the movies and video games into consideration than only people looking to go hardcore will want to look up.

However Super is viewed in the future, it seems highly likely to me that it’s going to be held in at least higher regard by a significant portion of the people who are really into Dragon Ball over the next few decades if only because it was the necessary flint that sparked the era of new content more ambitious than the occasional OVA we’d been getting every few years before Battle of Gods came out.

Heck, even in terms of content, I think people in the fandom are going to look back on Super more fondly than GT because it gives people more stuff that appeals to them.

Think about it, Super has given us a plethora of popular characters. Beerus and Whis and Jaco are holdovers from the movies sure, but the former two are easily more popular than literally any character to come out of GT.

And in Super itself? We have huge fan favourites like Hit, Caulifla, Vados, and various characters from the universe Survival Saga. Super arguably has introduced a lot more popular characters than GT did, which included… uh… Baby, Nuova Shenron and maybe Omega Shenron to those who don’t find him unremarkable.

And be honest… unless you intentionally go looking for it, when was the last time you really saw fanart or anything about Baby or Nuova Shenron floating around here? Now when was the last time you saw stuff for Frieza, Cell, Beerus or Broly?

There’s probably a big gap there. Sure is for me.

And Super did a lot more for the supporting cast too. Krillin and Gohan got their own character arcs, Android 18 was a highlight in the Tournament of Power and saw the most action she’s seen in any series (Plus a ton of extra insight into her and Krillin’s relationship and great shipping moments, plus new interactions with her brother and other characters). Frieza may have hit a rough spot with the RF saga, but the Universe Survival Saga showed him at his very best and made the fandom fall in love with his character all over again.

And Android 17? He went from being the least appreciated of the trio of him, 18 and Android 16 to being a huge fandom darling and is regularly agreed to be the MVP of the universe survival saga, if not Super PERIOD. 

I could go on too, because for all it’s missteps, Super actually did go out of it’s way to do things with the characters and expand the universe in various ways, leaving tons of potential for new stories for years to come in it’s wake…

GT though? Let’s be honest, the most popular thing to come out of that was super Saiyan 4. And while I love that form… in the grand scheme of things, transformations are actually one of the least important things about the Dragon ball series, so that right there is a sign that somethings off there.

GT really is designed to be a series that appeals to certain subgroups of fans, and feels alienating to many others. It starts off with an arc that jettisons the majority of the cast in favour of a trio featuring Goku reduced to a kid again, a grown up Trunks, and Pan… who’s portrayed as an annoying brat who’s more of a detriment to the group than anything. Plus a cute robot sidekick to boot, and they all go on boring space adventures for a while.

It has all of one arc that’s all around good (…mostly…), followed up by what’s almost unanimously considered a trainwreck of a mini-arc that, as I’ve said before, looks worse than ever in light of Super due to it’s mishandling of Android 17′s character and the past villains, in comparison to how 17 and Frieza were handled in Super’s last arc. And then we get a final arc that had an awesome premise that devolved into a huge mess due to poor writing and most of the villains being annoying, underwhelming monsters of the week and the final boss being very unsatisfying, capped off by an ending that’s always been wildly divisive.

I’m not going to say that GT, as a what-if spin-off like it currently is, was a complete flop. But it’s definitely a series that I think takes a certain kind of fan to appreciate, whereas I think that Super, for all it’s own faults, in general is a show that captures a lot more of what gave the previous series their wider appeal and generally gives more people what they want.

Not everyone of course… but unlike GT, which really isn’t going to have any continuations anytime soon to do any course corrections or make up for any lost potential, a lot of Super’s missed opportunities can easily be made up by whatever series and movies come after it.

In general I just think that Super has more stuff that a wider group of people are going to be inclined to want to come back to.

Heck, on that note, a lot of people only like GT because it’s pretty much their only resource for Next Gen, post EoZ official Dragon Ball content. People starved for content about Uub, Pan, Bulla, Marron etc especially still use their GT designs as a basis for aged up fan art, and a lot of people who are fans of said character look to GT because outside of a few video games, they don’t have a lot of content for them.

I guarantee you though the minute a new series is made someday set past EoZ again which does more with those characters or otherwise portrays them better than GT did, those holdovers will gladly jump ship, because who in their right mind is going to buy bread crumbs from a shady street vendor when that new bakery across the street is giving away whole loafs?

I could really go on and on talking about this subject, because I actually find this interesting to discuss and speculate on, but it’s getting late and this is getting ridiculously long, so I’m just going to leave it here for now and give you my conclusion.

Yes. I think for most people, Super will be remembered more fondly than GT in the long run. Whether Super will be viewed particularly well in of itself years from now is another matter entirely, it’s probably always going to be a big base breaker at the very least. But on the whole… regardless of how you feel about the two series, I think it’s safe to say it has the advantage.

[davidmann95]

Top 5 things you want to see from Dragon Ball Super going forward? Realistic hopes, utterly unrealistic hopes, whichever.

Keeping in mind I’m just watching the dub as it comes out, and I’m only passingly familiar with what’s going on overseas:

1. If they’re doing multiple universes, square their shoulders and do some kind of GT crossover, why the hell not. Hell, even acknowledge Broly given that transformation’s back in play; I think the main reason he’s still presented as a heavy after all these years (aside from his position putting him in an inherent place of prominence in the series’ mythology) is that there was never any kind of satisfying conclusion between him and Goku, so just give us that if you’re glancing in his direction anyway.

2. I’m fine with everyone but Goku, Vegeta, and maybe Gohan again being irrelevant combat-wise as far as the biggest threats go, but Goku’s had a power multiplier on top of SSB almost as long as he and Vegeta have had it, plus this new thing; at least give the co-lead a way of keeping up again and let it stay that way for a bit.

3. Maybe acknowledge that at this point Goku could probably beat Beerus pretty easily if he wanted to, since Beerus used most of his power to beat him as God and he’s a few leagues past that by now?

4. Given how much this is trying to act as a continuation of Z’s spirit, get back to that arc of hit-and-run strategizing against an increasingly more powerful villain that defined so much of it for a change - aside from the upcoming Goku Black stuff, it’s pretty much all been tournaments or straight-up “hold them off until Goku and Vegeta get here” material, which work in their own right but lower the stakes in the long term.

5. The end of Z with Uub seems to still be in canon, so given Bra’s just been born and it’s made clear that Goku hadn’t seen the Briefs family for awhile when she and Pan were very young, maybe they should do a timeskip soon.

And given Team Four Star recorded an amazing cameo for Kai that was apparently cut, how about they do a little something with them for real this time (aside from the Xenoverse inclusion)?

[theimaginatrix27]

So. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been deeply nostalgic for Dragon Ball Z. Specifically, The Funimation dub of Dragon Ball Z that I grew up with as an Aussie girl with some rough stuff going on at home, whose heart was captured by these characters. And I’ve been watching some videos about the history of that dub and the history of the releases of DBZ, and my deep yearning for the series has only been increasing. I’ve also heard criticism of the dub, and I understand it. I understood the criticism of the Yu-Gi-Oh dub when I came online and started learning things. And I was so grateful to find out that One Piece was redubbed after the 4Kids fiasco.

But here’s the thing I want y’all to know. I love the DBZ dub. I’m not a sub-hater or anything like that. I’m just blind. I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy this series without an English dub, however flawed. I loved the soundtrack to absolute pieces. I listened to some of the Bruce Faulconer Productions music for DBZ recently and felt like I was being swept back in time to the early 2000′s, where I would sit on the lounge-room or bedroom floor, hands busy with my clay as my imagination flew away to Z Earth, and the warriors who defended it. My father used to say I was obsessed, that I’d grow out of my love for this “kids’ show”. I never, ever did. I mellowed out, certainly. I found other stories to revel in and hiper-fixate on. But Dragon Ball Z will always be my first anime love. I can’t tell you one specific reason for this. It’s too many things to neatly sum up. The characters were my friends. They were there for me through some extremely rough years. And they had the voices of the Funimation dub. I would pay good money to own that dub in its entirety. I would treasure every disc, every single one, and I could probably binge-watch this series like I can’t with most others.

I wouldn’t mind trying the sub out either. I wouldn’t understand jack shit because I’m blind and although I learned basic Japanese in school, I never got beyond that. But I’d listen to it if I had the series on DVD. I’d still come back to the dub of my childhood, my old friends, the characters who kindled my creative fire and struck the sparks of what would evolve into my longest original series, the labour of love I call The Sisterlands, as well as the fanfiction series that became the Maginite Chronicles, a story that started as a silly little fantasy about fairies and warriors I would lose myself in, and became something richer and more precious to me than I ever would have guessed. The bunnies wouldn’t leave. They knew I needed them still.

One day, I want to own the original Funimation In-House dub, with the Bruce Faulconer soundtrack, in all its flawed glory. I would love to meet even one of the English voice cast and thank them, tearfully, for the gift they gave to me. This is no slight on the Japanese folks who made the series in the first place. I’d never have met Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Krillin or any of the others without their hard work. But the DBZ dub will always have a place in my heart. Kai is not the same, though I’ll admit what I’ve heard of it in snippits and snapshots is actually pretty good. I’ve wrestled with whether or not to accept Super into the canon of my fics, and honestly, I’m slowly coming to accept more of the series than I initially did. I’d love to own the entire series (sans GT). But I think Dragon Ball Z is always going to be my favourite version of my favourite section of that series. My heart is very full of memories, tears warm my eyes as the longing within me crests. I miss Watch Cartoons Online even more the longer I wish I owned the series legally. I can only hope that, one day, I do and can lose myself in it again.

[duhragonball]

I was thinking about Goku and Krillin's friendship and it occured to me that they spent months training with Roshi together but then only saw each other for maybe a day every few years. Have you ever had a realization that tripped you out like this?

This is a really good ask, anon, and I just wanted to take a moment to say so. 

I have had a few ‘a-ha’ moments like these, but I’m kind of blanking on specific examples.  I’ll see what I can come up with.

1) For openers, there’s the whole thing where the Red Ribbon Army has a Dragon Radar, but it’s nowhere near as sophisticated as the handheld one Bulma invented.  I think the same holds true for Emperor Pilaf, but his gang is only three people.   You’d expect the RRA to have the best equipment possible, because that’s their whole deal, and by normal standards they probably do have the best possible Dragon Radar... but Bulma’s is simply that much better, because she’s on another level.   And it’s easy to overlook that, because Bulma’s supposed to be a genius teenager, like Donatello in TMNT, but the RRA’s Dragon Radar is the first hint that she’s even more special than we could have guessed. 

2) Rewatching Dragon Ball in 2019, I gained a new appreciation for the filler episodes where Mr. Popo trained Goku.  The first time I saw them, I was hoping we’d see Goku grow up and make progress over the three year gap, but instead they just focused on his early days on the Lookout, with Popo just saying things and Goku failing to understand.  It was very frustrating to watch.  

But in 2019, I noticed that all those episodes get paid off in the Piccolo Junior fight.   Popo kept telling Goku to be “quicker than lightning” and “quiet as the sky”, and Goku just couldn’t figure out how to do that, let alone fight at the same time.   He had to unlearn all the stuff that had helped him defeat King Piccolo, and he couldn’t do it... at first.    But by the time he fought Piccolo Junior, he put it all together, as demonstrated with his big finishing move.   Piccolo thought he had vaporized Goku, only for Goku to fly up into the air and crash into him.   Why didn’t Piccolo sense Goku’s presence?   Because Goku had learned to become as “quiet as the sky”.  Why couldn’t Piccolo dodge it?   Because Goku had learned to become “quicker than lightning.”  So it vindicates those filler episodes pretty nicely.   They weren’t just marking time, but they were setting up what the manga was going to do later.

3) I think last year, it hit me that Vegeta had probably never lost a fight before he went to Earth.   That alone isn’t probably any big deduction.  The only people stronger than him were all working for Frieza, and he knew to steer clear of them until he was ready.   But it explains why he was so giddy about the zenkai effect.   He had always known about it, but he never mentioned or cared about it until he experienced it for himself after losing to Goku, and then Zarbon. 

Yeah, I think this occurred to me during a conversation about Vegeta killing Nappa instead of helping him.   In theory, Nappa could have recovered and gotten a lot stronger, just like Vegeta did.   But Saiyans Saga Vegeta didn’t care about that.   He only gave his henchmen one chancemand discarded them as soon as they lost.   This attitude would also explain why he never dared to challenge anyone at a higher level.    He knew no one would show him any mercy, so the zenkai boost would have been meaningless to him. 

So he might have regretted killing Nappa after he experienced the zenkai firsthand, although he was so drunk on his own increased power that he probably never stopped to consider it.   But before Earth, Vegeta probably dismissed the zenkai as a crutch for lesser Saiyans.   In his mind, a truly great Saiyan never loses battles in the first place.  Or so he believed, until he lost a few times, and became stronger for it, and had to reconsider.

And that also explains how he warmed up to the Super Saiyan Legend over the course of one afternoon.   He and Goku made such sick gains that week that he started to wonder if you could zenkai your way to Super Saiyan, and then he was begging Krillin to shoot him just so he could get a step closer.

4) In the same vein, it occurred to me at some point that Bardock was probably stronger than King Vegeta, and neither of them realized it.   Maybe it was just a dub-ism, but I’m pretty sure “Father of Goku” has a line about Bardock’s power level being 10000.   At the time it was released, 10k wasn’t that big a deal, but in the Saiyans Saga, Vegeta was somewhere around 18-24k. Later, he would claim to have surpassed his father as a child, so I think it’s fair to assume that King Vegeta must have been in that 10,000 neighborhood. 

Which makes a nice subtle commentary on why the Saiyan Kingdom failed. They tried to breed better warriors, putting all their stock in the royal family, when the true secret lay in warriors like Bardock, who were constantly getting clobbered and healed.  Prince Vegeta only started to make real progress once he began fighting on that same regimen.

5) Also about “Father of Goku,” Frieza only wanted Planet Kanassa subjugated because of the psychic powers of its inhabitants.   I think the dub insinuated that the planet itself gave people those powers, but whatever the case, Frieza heard about these people with unusual powers and wanted them stamped out immediately.   Just like he wiped out the Saiyans over the Super Saiyan Legend, and just like he planned to destroy Namek to prevent anyone else from using the Dragon Balls. 

In short, Frieza fears and despises legends.  Why?  Because he’s so powerful that real people can’t hurt him, so his fears naturally turn to half-truths and folklore.   He chases down ghost stories and rumors, because let’s face it, what else does he have to occupy his time.   That’s why King Cold was happy to have the Saiyans working for him, while Frieza wanted them all dead.   Cold didn’t share Frieza’s hangups.   Cold barely knew what a Super Saiyan was, while Frieza thought about it all the time. 

6) One day I thought about that timeline where Cell killed Trunks and took the time machine to find the androids.    That specific timeline is pretty much empty.  The Z-fighters are all dead, and so are all of the androids and Trunks.  They don’t even have a Cell anymore because he went back in time and never returned.   There’s still a population, I guess, because the Trunks of that world wouldn’t have just stood by while Cell absorbed everyone on Earth, but that’s about it.   Bulma might have survived Cell’s attack on Trunks, but she’d be the only “name” character on the board.  It just sounds like a pretty depressing world.   Maybe this was the timeline Whis picked out to relocate Blunks and Future Mai in Dragon Ball Super.

7) It sort of blows my mind that the entire Majin Buu arc takes place over a couple of days.    Like, episode 207 through 250 all takes place over one day.   We know this because Goku only had 24 hours to be back in the living world, and that time was cut short by his use of SSJ3.  Then the Elder Kai started doing his ritual to make Gohan stronger, and that took like 25 hours, I’m pretty sure.  That wrapped up in #262, and there was no break in the action from that point onward, all the way up to the defeat of Kid Buu in #287.  So yeah, eighty episodes over two days.   It’s practically real-time footage, save for skipping over the Elder Kai’s ritual and Goten and Trunks practicing and sleeping. 

It’s hard to catch on to this, though, because so much stuff happens in the anime version that leads you to think that it’s a much longer span of time.    After Vegeta wrecks the stadium, the anime can’t decide whether or not Mr. Satan would stay there or return to his dojo.   In the Fusion Saga, Mr. Satan wanders from Buu’s house to the nearest town, then he wanders to the next town over, doing his “Last Man on Earth” bit, except this all happens during the Gotenks/Super Buu fight, which barely lasts half an hour.   In the afterlife, Chi-Chi is worried that she can’t find Gohan, but she wouldn’t have even been there that long, and wouldn’t she still be in line to meet King Yemma?  She was one of the last Earthlings to die, so how did she end up in heaven so quickly?

8) I used to think Movie 13 (the Hirudegarn one) was canon, but the last time I watched it, I noticed all these glaring problems.  They use the Dragon Balls in this one, which means it has to be set six months after the wish to make everyone forget about Majin Buum which means it’s been a year since Kid Buu was defeated.  Okay, fine, except Gohan and Videl are still in high school.   Shouldn’t they have graduated by then?   

More importantly, their high school and Bulma’s house seem to be in the same city.   I guess that’s an easy mistake to make.   It took me a long time to even notice, but Orange Star High is in Satan City, which is a totally different place from West City.   I mean, right?  They’re not terribly far apart, but they’re not the same place either.

Then again, they seemed to make the same error in Episode 287, where Bulma’s out shopping and Great Saiyaman 1 and 2 foil a robbery.   Are they in West City or Satan City?  Maybe there’s more to this...

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fusion Reborn (6/6)

One of the criticisms I’ve seen about this movie (From Team Four Star, because they seem to be the only ones still sleeping on how cool Movie 12 is), is that the Veku vs. Janemba part takes up too much of the film.   I find this absurd for a couple of reasons.

First, it illustrates the immense risk involved with the Fusion Technique.  If you screw it up, you may end up worse off than when you started.   As far as I can tell, Veku has greater power and stamina than Fat Gotenks, and he lasted a lot longer against Janemba than Goku or Vegeta did individually, but he’s still in deep trouble, and things could have gone even worse depending on how badly our heroes botched the pose.   

I think the presumption here is that Goku and Vegeta should have pulled it off on their first try, allowing time for an epic fifteen-minute brawl with Janemba to close the movie.    But that’s not how Fusion works in this franchise.    It’s a high-risk/high-reward manuever.   If you get it wrong, it’s a disaster, but if it works, you can overwhelm an opponent in minutes, if not seconds. 

The second objection I have is that every gorram one of these movies wastes a bunch of time on goofy stuff.   Movies 3 blows like a third of its runtime on a camping trip that has nothing to do with Turles or anything else.   And then Movie 5 goes on another camping trip,because I guess they still had camping stuff they hadn’t used the first time around.   Movies 1 and 2 had friggin’ musical interludes.  

The only exception I can think of is “Mystical Adventure”, which has a frantic pace very similar to “Fusion Reborn”, but I feel like that whole part set in Penguin Village was kind of a weird diversion, even if it did function as the climactic battle of the movie.      The point is that even if Veku was a big waste of storytelling time, it’s well inside the bounds for these movies.  And it’s not a waste of time, because this is part of the effort to master fusion.  

Anyway, when we last left Veku, he had fled Janemba to hide in what’s left of the Needle Mountain in Hell.  But now Janemba’s tracked him down.    To attack him, Big J uses a spike from the mountain and somehow transforms it with his weird powers, making it extend towards Veku like a spear.

It’s kind of hard to get this across with just screencaps, but you can tell by the look on Veku’s face that he’s in deep trouble. 

But then at the last possible instant, Veku’s fusion expires, and he splits into Goku and Vegeta, avoiding the impact.   

Janemba is shocked.      Maybe he didn’t realize Veku was his previous two opponents fused together?   Before he can figure this out, Goku and Geets sucker punch him and fly away,

I don’t know how smart Janemba is supposed to be, but by now he’s probably figured out that Goku and Vegeta are trying to combine together to keep fighting him.

As they run away, Vegeta is livid.   He didn;t like the idea of fusing with Goku in the first place, and that was when he thought it might actually work.  Then he goes through with it, and it ends up making them weaker.

Then King Kai contacts Goku telepathically, and explains how Vegeta screwed up the last part of the pose by not extending his fingers.   Goku’s all smiles, because now that they know what went wrong, they just need to try it again and it’ll work perfectly.

But Vegeta’s outraged that he would even suggest doing all of that a second time.   Bad enough that he had to do it once, and it nearly got them killed.  Well, they’re already dead, but you know what I mean.  Don’t you?   Look, Janemba’s not trying to tickle these two, that’s all that matters.

But they have to do it again, because this is still their only hope of winning.   They just need to get the pose right this time, because now there’s no margin of error.   

Trouble is, Janemba’s onto them now, and they can’t do the fusion dance because he keeps shooting ki blasts at them.   WIthout the element of surprise, or a decent place to hide, they won’t have time to fuse, properly or otherwise.

But then...!

Fuck yeah, Pikkon’s here!   I guess he sensed all the trouble they were having, or maybe the Kais asked him to run interference for Goku and Vegeta.  Yeah, that must be it, since he already knows what Goku is trying to do.

So Goku’s all grateful to Pikkon, and he thanks him as they move to a safe distance.

And I love this dirty look Vegeta gives Pikkon before he leaves.  “Look, I don’t know who you are, but you stay away from my rival, thot.”

So now it’s Pikkon vs. Janemba, and you’d think he’s screwed, right?  I mean, he got clobbered by Janemba’s first form earlier in the movie, so what good can he do against this red version?

Ah, but Pikkon knows exactly how to keep this guy off-balance, because he’s been dealing with Janemba’s barrier all this time, and so...

I’m pretty sure “mental defective” isn’t quite what Pikkon called him in Japanese, but verbal abuse is verbal abuse, and it works!  Janemba’s skin cracks up just like that barrier did.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this image.   Is this just shadow, or is the idea that Janemba is hollow on the inside, like a Faberge Egg?   I like that idea, even if it’s not what they had in mind.  Janemba’s made of the spiritual waste of a buttload of wicked souls.  For all his power, he’s just a shell of a person.   Maybe that’s why he’s vulnerable to harsh words.  He can’t stand being called out for what he is.

Then Pikkon shoots ki blasts at him, and I don’t understand that at all, because that didn’t do anything to the barrier, so why even try it on Janemba himself?  The insults were working, buddy.    Just call him a tiny-handed idiot and tell him his red trucker hat makes him look like an even bigger jackass than that stupid combover on his scalp.  Tell him that he’ll go down in history as a total joke, and he’ll rank among world leaders somewhere between the Roman Emperor who married his horse and the other Roman Emperor who clubbed amputees to death while pretending to be a gladiator.   Sorry, I got distracted there for a minute.

But Pikkon doesn’t do any of that, and I guess his harsh words are only effective enough to surprise Janemba, and maybe only hurt him a little bit.   Like the barrier around Yemma, Janemba seems able to withstand it to some degree, so he does the disassemble-y relocation trick, reappears behind Pikkon...

And boxes his ears!  Owwwwwww!  

But meanwhile! 

OH YOU DIDN’T KNOW?

Janemba would probably finish Pikkon off right here, except he’s seen that blinding light before, which means....

.... This thing!   What is it?  What does it mean?   I dunno! 

But then we see this badass mofo right here.    Who be bad now, Janemba?   WHO BE BAD NOW?

Pikkon looks over and sees that the fusion worked, and he breathes a sigh of relief as he passes out.  

So they did it.    Vegeta didn’t want to do this, but it worked.   Now he can defeat Janemba, but as part of Gogeta, not as himself.   There’s something kind of bittersweet about this, because there were no options for Vegeta to retain himself in this.  In death, he was doomed to lose his identity as a disembodied soul.   Restored as he was by Janemba’s tampering, he was too weak to fight Janemba on his own, which was the only thing that would have given his temporary resurrection any meaning.   He could have run away, or even helped Janemba to preserve his own existence, but doing that would betray his principles, and that would erase his identity too. 

The Saiyans are extinct.   Goku and Vegeta were the only ones left, and they’re both dead in this movie.   They’ve been dead for a while now, as far as I can tell.  But what they stood for, their ferocious martial skill and their boundless courage, will live on.   That’s what this is about for Vegeta.  He’s already gone, but he can at least see to it that someone can rise up to defeat a monster like Janemba.   If that warrior doesn’t exist, then he can at least fuse with Goku and create him. 

And when this is over, that’ll be it for Vegeta.     He’ll go back to hell, and eventually be reincarnated as a dolphin or something.    Eventually, even the legacy of Vegeta will fade from living memory, and no one will remember who and what he once was.   This moment can stand as a coda to his fleeting time in the universe.    Z stands for the end.  

But not yet.    Not yet.

Somehow, Goten and Trunks can sense their dead father’s fusion and it inspires them to do their own fusion.  I’m not sure why they didn’t just do this in the first place.  Given the crisis on Earth, maybe they didn’t want to risk using fusion early, in case they might be too tired to do it later.  

I also don’t understand why the boys need to go to these lengths to beat Hitler and his army of zombie Nazis, but they did it anyway.  Well now you got Gotenks, dummy.   Shoulda just stayed in the bunker.

Gogeta only gets a few lines in this movie.  Really, he doesn’t get a whole lot to say anywhere, because he has so few appearances.   This is his debut, of course, and then Toei brought him back for the fuck-finish of Dragon Ball GT.   Then he came back in 2018′s Dragon Ball Super: Broly, where he got a lot more time to shine, but it was after a 21-year drought.

Anyway, Janemba seems to know this is serious business, because he takes one look at Gogeta and powers up.

So other than promising to avenge Pikkon, all Gogeta has to say in the original script is this: I am neither Goku nor Vegeta!  I am the one who will destroy you!”  That’s how it was worded in Budokai 3, anyway.  

In the dub, Gogeta’s lines are a little different.   First he says “I am not Goku or Vegeta! I am Gogeta!   It’s over, Janemba. I’ve come for you!”   Then he says in this shot: “Every force you create has an echo.   Your own bad energy will be your undoing.”

I dunno, the lines are memorable enough that I managed to quote them without looking, but I would have preferred they stuck to the Japanese script more, mostly because Schemmel and Sabat sounded so cool playing Gogeta in Budokai 3.  That was the problem I had with the later Funimation dubs.   By 2004 I was playing video games that covered movies and GT episodes I hadn’t seen yet, and when Funi! finally adapted those scenes, they never seemed to hold up to the video game performances.  

In any event, I feel like there was a push at Funi! to have Gogeta a) identify himself for the audience, and b) provide some sort of explanation for what was about to happen next.   I’m not sure this was necessary.    Does it really matter if Gogeta says his own name?  Lobot was never identified in Empire Strikes Back, but I still know who he is.   As for the rest...

Well, these streaks of light jump from Gogeta and hit Janemba in the chest, leaving craters in his body.   At the same time, Gogeta slides forward, moving behind Janemba.

Then he just turns around and drives his knee into the back of his neck, twice.  Janemba manages to turn around, but he just eats a kick to the face for his trouble.

Then he raises his hand, and turns around to stare at Janemba, who doesn’t get it until...

Gogeta makes a glowy, sparkly ball with his hand.   Actually, Janemba seemed to sense this before it happened, so I guess he has some idea what’s going on here.

Now maybe this is some variation of the Spirit Bomb, perhaps combined with some technique of Vegeta’s.    All I know is that this ki ball shrinks and disappears, and then Gogeta closes his empty fist.    But there’s light coming out of the fist, so yeah. 

Anyway, it scares the hell out of Janemba, so he knows something’s up.

So he charges Gogeta, who throws his attack, but it just looks like harmless sparkles, and Janemba doesn’t even slow down once it hits him.

But you can see how nettled Janemba is.   He’s clearly afraid of Gogeta, for one reason or another.

When he closes the distance, he throws a punch, and it looks like it connects.    Gogeta doesn’t block it, and he doesn’t flinch.   Dude doesn’t even move. 

And for a moment, it looks like Janemba’s doing okay, and then he suddenly looks shocked, and his whole body begins to sparkle.

Then his back explodes.   Ouch.

In the games, this movie is called the Stardust Breaker, which I never totally understood until now.    The glowing orb always distracted me from the fact that the attack itself looks like stardust, and stardust explodes out of Janemba’s wound, and Janemba himself seems to dissolve into stardust.   The breaker part speaks for itself, though.

This shot confuses me, because it makes it look like Janemba’s fist never actually made contact with Gogeta’s face, although the previous screencap suggests otherwise.  Maybe Big J took a step backward after the attack got to him.   In any case, Gogeta ain’t hurt, and Janemba’s body is disintigrating.

All he can do is scream as he fades away.  

And Gogeta just watched like he knows exactly what’s going on.  

And then the Tank Clerk reappears.   Did Gogeta plan all of this, or is it just a lucky break?

Anyway, the Tank Clerk takes one look at Gogeta and runs in terror.   We can see from the scenery that things are already returning to normal.   All those jellybean things are gone.

And Gogeta seems amused by the Tank Clerk’s panic. The kid has no idea what just happened, and maybe that’s for the best.   So it’s a weird fight, and very short, but I think that’s what makes it so captivating.   We didn’t need a long martial arts clinic to put Janemba away.  The whole idea of this movie is that Janemba is this anomaly in creation, and that it would take something more than just a powerful warrior to beat him.   If punching were enough, Goku could have handled this on his own. 

This is why I’ve never been a big fan of Gogeta vs. Broly as a scenario, because no matter how strong Broly is, he’s still one Saiyan, so having Goku and Vegeta combine into this otherworldly character to beat one Saiyan kind of cheapens the concept.    It should be reserved for villains like Janemba, Omega Shenron, and Majin Buu, who demonstrate bizarre powers that defy reality. 

This is also why I’m not crazy about the dub’s effort to explain the Gogeta/Janemba fight.   It sort of defies explanation.  What makes Gogeta look so awesome here is that he not only beat Janemba in a few seconds, but he seemed to know exactly what he was doing the entire time.  It’s like his fused mind could sense exactly where and how to strike.   Why did he bother kicking Janemba in the neck?   Was that somehow part of his offensive, or was he just getting his measure?   We’ll never know.    That’s what makes it so cool.  Gogeta’s a man of mystery.   In thirty minutes, he won’t even exist anymore.

I think a lot of Gogeta’s mystique was calculated as a response to Gotenks.  When Goku first spoke of Fusion in the main story, he seemed confident that if he could fuse with Gohan or Vegeta, they would beat Majin Buu easily.  But that would be a fusion of adult Super Saiyans.   Gotenks is a kid, and the results haven’t been as great.   So this movie sort of shows what Goku originally had in mind.   With greater experience, Gotenks could eventually reach the same heights...

But as a kid, he’s limited to bizarre techniques based on whatever he thinks is cool.    Which is why he’s doing the Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack again, only this time with 100 ghosts instead of one or ten.

And it works.  The ghosts blow up all the bad guys, but it’s only a hint of the incredible things Gogeta is capable of. 

Thirty minutes later, the fusion expires, and hell looks like it’s back to normal, right down to the bloody pond.   Vegeta smiles at Goku and tells him he never wants to do that again, but somehow you can tell he doesn’t quite mean that.   It reminds me of his farewell to Future Trunks in Dragon Ball Super, where he says he never wants to see him again.   It’s not that he hates the guy, it’s more that he wants Trunks to become strong enough to handle his own problems without having to use the time machine to get help.    Likewise, in this movie, the only way Vegeta could ever return to fuse with Goku is if another Janemba popped up, and he doesn’t want that to happen.

Goku says he’ll see Vegeta “later”.   I don’t know if that’s supposed to be ironic or if Goku’s just not thinking, or maybe he’s got some faint hope that Vegeta will return somehow and Goku will meet him again somehow, some way.

Anyway, Vegeta fades out, which is kind of sad, but the smile on his face is a nice consolation.

And all the dead people on Earth fade out the same way.    So that takes care of that.

King Yemma’s back in business, and all is right with the universe once again.

Videl and the boys head back after a long day of punching the undead.   They don’t know what happened or why, but at least it’s over.   But Goten and Trunks claim to know who saved the day.   I guess they figure their fathers fixed things in Otherworld, since they could sense them fusing.

But they won’t tell, I guess just to mess with Gohan and Videl.   So why couldn’t Gohan sense Gogeta’s ki if Goten and Trunks could?   Oh, right, he was making out with Videl the whole time.  

Anyway, Gohan chases the boys, anxious to learn their secret, and Videl gets flustered because they’re leaving her behind.   This background is gorgeous.  

Oh my gosh this is such a good movie.This scene doesn’t even matter and it’s still beautiful.

So that wraps things up, right?    Wrong.   There’s just one last piece of business...

No one made any wishes, so Shenron’s still waiting patiently in Bulma’s front yard.  D’oh!

And then the credits roll, including this shot of Goku from Movie 8, for some reason.

I posted caps from the credits earlier, but hot damn I like these.   And the ending theme is just magnificent.   This is such a good-ass movie.   No wasted motion, villain shows up in the first ten minutes, and there’s tons of stuff going on that’s all tied into the main plot, so the supporting characters can get their hero moments in without getting in the way of the main players.   There’s tons of action, plenty of comedy, and the visuals are gorgeous from start to finish.   

The only complaint I could possibly have is that it’s too short.  A story like this could have easily been expanded into a 90 minute film, or even longer.  You could have Goku and Vegeta botch a second fusion attempt, or just pad out the fights that are already in the story, or add some other characters running around dealing with the dead villains.    Piccolo and Krillin fight Dr. Gero or something.   Dabura and Broly try to gang up on Gohan and he gets some bloody satisfaction.  Shoot, have Videl beat up some Red Ribbon Army guys.   By now she’s probably strong enough to take most of them.    And of course, Tiencha vs. Perfect Cell.  

But you know, as a 50-minute affair, this thing rocks.   I’ve sat through movies three times as long that weren’t even a third as good.    It’s just so good.    Ahhh...

Bravo.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 228

Last time, Gohan “””fought””” Dabura, until Dabura suddenly took a powder and left.    Vegeta was already pissed about Gohan’s lackluster performance, but now he’s extra furious because he had to watch that turkey of the fight and it didn’t even accomplish anything.  

I know I already complained about Gohan vs. Dabura, but just to recap why the fight sucks:

Dabura made them wait three episodes before showing up to fight.

Everyone complained the entire time the fight was going on.

Nobody won.

So now we’re right back where we were five episodes ago, when Goku killed Yakon.

So tensions are running high in Stage 3 of Babidi’s ship, because they’ve been stuck there this whole time, unable to proceed with the mission.  So Vegeta takes out his frustration on Gohan, because who else is he going to yell at?   The Supreme Kai is God, basically, and Goku will kick his ass and he knows it. 

 Vegeta makes this a Saiyan thing, telling Gohan that he should have gone for the jugular in his fight with Dabura, and let nothing stop him from killing his opponent.  

“You’re right, Vegeta, I should have finished him off as quickly as possible.   Just like you did when you killed Cell.    Oh, wait, you didn’t kill Cell, did you?    You screwed around with him for twenty minutes, and then you let him become perfect because you were bored,” is what Gohan would say in the Sassy Gohan AU that I just made up.

Then Vegeta starts ranting about how dumb it is the way Gohan and the others fight for “justice”.   

Then he goes on about survival of the fittest, which is pretty cliche, even for Vegeta.  It’s almost like he’s auditioning for someone...   “You know, it’s a good thing I’m on your team.   If I was on Babidi’s side, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you all, and none of you would be able to stop me!     But that would never happen... unless...”

The only point Vegeta makes that really leaves an impression on Gohan is that he was fighting for the lives of Piccolo and Krillin.    Remember, they came here to kill Dabura, becaue that’s the only way to undo the magic that turned them into stone statues.   If Gohan had tried a little harder, if he had trained more diligently over the past seven years, they might be back to normal by now.

Goku sticks up for Gohan, but kind of half-heartedly, like he knows Vegeta has a point, at least to some extent.    But Vegeta won’t have it.   All he cares about is fighting Goku, and all he’s been doing is farting around on this dumbass spaceship because everyone’s too scared to blow it up.   

The Supreme Kai (once again) tells him not to do that, because if they accidentally break Majin Buu’s seal, he could destroy the whole earth, even at partial strength.   Vegeta flat out tells him he doesn’t care about the Earth or anyone on it.   

Finally, Goku steps in and tells him to knock it off, and Vegeta backs off.    I’ve never really understood this scene, but now I think I finally get it.    In the past, Vegeta wouldn’t just talk about blowing up the ship; he would just do it, in spite of anyone’s protestations.    Remember when he wanted to fight 17 and 18?   Everyone told him it was a terrible idea, but he refused to listen, and no one could stop him, so he did it, to hell with the consequences.  

But in the Babidi Saga, he’s repeatedly suggested that Majin Buu probably isn’t that big a deal, and that they could settle this quickly by dispensing with the games and just blowing up the whole ship, and the Supreme Kai tells him not to, and he just backs off.    This is like the third time they’ve had this argument.  Don’t tell me Vegeta defers to the Supreme Kai, because I don’t buy it.   

I think what we’re seeing here is some of the maturity Vegeta has learned since he first started living on Earth.   He still wants to take the direct approach, and to shout down anyone who says otherwise, but deep down, he knows that’s unwise.  It bit him in the ass against Android 18 and Cell, and on some level he knows it could work against him here.    That’s why he threatens to blow up the ship, but he never actually follows through.   He’s waiting for Goku to stop him.

Meanwhile, Dabura has returned to Babidi with the idea of turning Vegeta against the others.   Babidi’s been watching them in his crystal ball, and he likes what he’s seen.    Vegeta’s not like the others, and it’ll be easy to control him, and it’ll save him from having to risk Dabura’s life in battle.  

On Stage 3, the Supreme Kai starts to suspect that this is what the bad guys are up to, but it’s too late.    Babidi casts his spell and Vegeta starts grabbing his head and crying out in pain.    Also he poses like a complete diva, because he’s still Vegeta, after all.

Vegeta turns Super Saiyan for some reason, and the Kai tells him what’s going on.   Babidi’s trying to exploit the wickedness in his heart, so he should empty his mind and not think of anything.    Not even the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?

Now, later, Vegeta will claim to have fallen under Babidi’s spell intentionally, but it seems kind of at odds with this scene, where he appears to be resisting Babidi.  

But Babidi seems confident that he’s already won.    Kind of weird how he says Vegeta is “ours” now.  Who else is he referring to?   Dabura?   The rest of his crew?  They’re all mind-controlled slaves just like Vegeta.   But Babidi seems to be rather cordial toward his henchmen, treating them almost like friends.   I suppose he would enjoy their company, seeing how they wait on him hand and foot and cooperate with him in everything he does.  

Having secured Vegeta’s mind (I guess?), Babidi starts amplifying his power.    Remember, Yamu and Spopovitch were much stronger as Babidi’s minions than they were before, so this is apparently a side effect of the spell.   

But Vegeta was already one of the strongest guys on this whole show.   If Babidi can make him even stronger... hoo-boy.

And when the whole process is finished, Vegeta ends up with an “M” symbol on his forehead.   In the dub, they actually call it an “M”, I think, and Shin explains that it’s Babidi’s symbol.   The Japanese version doesn’t bother with this, probably because by this point we’ve already seen the “M” on all of Babidi’s stuff.   All his henchmen have it, it’s on his belt.   It’s printed on the hull of his spaceship, on all the doors, and on all of his equipment. 

Fans call this incarnation of Vegeta ���Majin Vegeta”, although I’m pretty sure that’s not official.   “Majin” is a term for Buu specifically, because he’s an evil djinn.    Evil = “Ma”, “Ma” + “Djinn” = “Majin.”

As far as the symbol goes, I’m pretty sure it’s intended to stand for “Madoshi”, which is Babidi’s title.   But this never gets spelled out in the source material, perhaps because Babidi’s from outer space, and it wouldn’t make much sense for him to use the Latin Alphabet for his monogram.     In-universe, it’s probably just an alien glyph that just happens to look like a stylized “M”.   

The other thing is that you rarely ever see anyone refer to any of the others as “Majin”.   No one talks about “Majin Puipui” for instance.    I did see that once on an ad for a DBZ wall scroll, which featured all of Babidi’s gang.    for some reason, the ad copy listed them all as “Majin Buu, Majin Vegeta, Majin Dabura, Majin Puipu, Majin Yakon, Majin Yamu, and Majin Spopovitch.”   It’s like they were getting paid by the letter.   But that’s about the only time I’ve seen that.  

The Supreme Kai is all upset because he never expected this to happen.    There’s a lot you didn’t expect, Shin.   You kind of blew this whole mission.

Then Babidi teleports them all to the Tenkaichi Budokai stadium.    I’m not sure how he even knew about this place, unless he read Vegeta’s mind or something, but this is convenient, since the show has been switching back and forth between these two sets of characters.   Mr. Satan is in the middle of celebrating his second world championship victory, and the crowd is going nuts.   

Chi-Chi is pleased about this, because she thinks that if Goku beats the shit out of Mr. Satan right now, in front of everyone, then he’ll have a valid claim to the prize money.   Yamcha’s pretty sure it doesn’t work that way, but Chi-Chi’s pretty sure this is C-Z-fuckin’-W.    She wants Goku to drop Mr. Satan through a table covered in light poles.

The World Tournament Announcer is confused, but he sees Goku and just walks past Vegeta while he explains that the tournament’s already over, and that’s what sets Vegeta off.   Okay, so that’s brilliant, because he’s literally standing there, glowing yellow, and all WTA can think about is chatting with Goku.     That’s just Vegeta’s frustration in a nutshell.   

So Vegeta powers up, and his aura is so intense that WTA and Mr. Satan get pushed aside.

Satan crashes into the retaining wall, and I feel like that’s the second or third time this has happened to him today.

So Babidi’s all set to take this dude for a test drive.    First order: Beat up Goku, Gohan, and the Supreme Kai and take their energy for Majin Buu.

Vegeta’s reply: Fuck you sideways, Babidi.   All he wants to do is fight Goku.   Period.  

Babidi’s shocked, because this has never happened before.   Vegeta isn’t entirely under his control, but he figures that he can still work with this.  

Meanwhile, Mr. Satan finally realizes that these are the guys from the Cell Games.    You’d think he would have caught on before now, but Toriyama did a pretty careful job of keeping Mr. Satan away from the other tournament participants until the Z-Fighters left the stadium.    He only knew Goten and Trunks had super powers, but he didn’t realize that his opponents in the adult division tournament were part of the same group.   But with Vegeta in full on Super Saiyan mode, there’s no mistaking it. 

Just so there’s no confusion about Vegeta’s priorities, he points at Goku...

Then fires an energy blast at him.   Maybe this is Big Bang Attack?    I don’t know.    Goku blocks it...

But he can’t stop it from hitting the stands.

And it blows right through the crowd, and through several buildings along the way.  

Fortunately, Goku’s pals are in a different part of the stadium, although Bulma might wish it were otherwise.    She’s so horrified by Vegeta’s actions...

... that she faints.   

So yeah, there’s no room for interpretation here.   It’s about to go down.  

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fusion Reborn (2/6)

This time around, I’ll try to explain just what Janemba is, exactly, and why he’s a big deal.  But to do that, we have to get through the first ten minutes of this movie, so...

Movie 12 opens at the Grand Kai Planet, then pans to an asteroid orbiting the planet, where there’s a stadium hosting a tournament.    I never really paid attention to it before, but this is a whole other venue than the one used in DBZ 196-199.    If nothing else, this arena has a big green ring.   It looks like it’s made ouf of jade or something.   It’s a really nice touch.

I always assumed that the idea here was to hold a second Otherworld Tournament, since the one from Episodes 196-199 ended without a winner.    Then again, it’s been seven years since that event, so it seems odd that they would have waited so long.   On the other hand, everyone involved is either dead or a Kai, so seven years may not seem like that long a wait.  

King Kai, also known as the North Kai, is feeling really confident, since his top fighter, Goku, dominated the last tournament.   As before, East Kai and South Kai’s camps aren’t doing very well at all.   

But South Kai is still confident, since one of his fighters is still in the semifinals.   The subs refer to him as “Clove”, but I’m pretty sure he’s talking about Frog, or “Frogue” as he’s credited in the Funimation version.

So he and King Kai bicker about who’s gonna win, but Goku beats Frogue with a single kick, and I’m pretty sure the bout was shorter than their argument. 

Meanwhile, Pikkon defeats Aqua, aka Argua, in the other semifinal match.   I guess Aqua must have improved over the past seven years to have made it this far.

So that eliminates the East and South Galaxies from the tournement.    South Kai immediately starts rooting for Pikkon just to spite King Kai.   It’s kind of weird how Pikkon is a West Galaxy guy, but we don’t hear a lot from West Kai in this movie.    Maybe South Kai got the nod because he was actually in the manga, so he’s more “canonical” than the West or East Kais. 

So the final match is Goku vs. Pikkon, in a rematch of their epic match from Episodes 198 and 199.   That ended in a draw when both men touched the ceiling of the arena, and maybe that’s why they switched the venue this time.  

Both men do Respect Knuckles and the match begins.  

What I like about this movie is that this isn’t even the main story, but it totally could have been.  Toei did a five episode arc about the Grand Kai holding a tournament of all these dead fighters.  They could have done a movie that was just a sequel to that arc.   I don’t know how well-received it would have been, but I would have gone for it.    Maybe a new fighter dies and joins this group in the afterlife, and Goku has trouble against him.   Maybe you have Broly escape hell and crash the tournament.  There’s a lot of cool things you can do with this, but you could just have Goku and Pikkon fight some more.

But Movie 12 has even bigger things to get to, so this is just a scene to establish some of the characters.   And that’s how this movie rolls.  You could expand this story into a twenty-or-thirty-episode saga very easily.   

So we move on to King Yemma’s place, which the dub refers to as the “Check-In Station.”   I’m not super-familiar with Japanese mythology concerning the afterlife, but my understanding is that when you die, you go to King Yemma for judgement.     DBZ satirizes this idea by having the dead people’s souls wait in line, and all the oni who work for Yemma are like white collar wage slaves, and King Yemma has a desk with a big rubber stamp to notarize each soul’s fate.

In this particular scene, they’re having a busy day, probably echoing the episodes from the Buu Saga where millions of people were showing up every few minutes while Majin Buu was wiping out the Earth’s population.   Yemma’s basically zipping right through these guys, which I think is meant to be ironic.   I feel like the real King Yemma is supposed to take longer to examine a person’s moral character.  

Anyway, if you get sent to Heaven, you’re escorted to this big aircraft that flies you to a planet somewhere in Otherworld.     We’ll see it later in the Fusion Saga, but the plane was last seen in Episode 195, although Goku used a second, smaller plane to travel to the Grand Kai Planet. 

On the other hand, I’m pretty sure this hole that opens up in the wall is new.   In Episode 195, Goku and King Kai just walked through a doorway.

If you’re condemned to Hell, you have to go through a machine to cleanse your soul of evil.  I was under the impression that hell itself was meant to do that, but this franchise can never make up its mind about how hell works. 

According to Episode 237, when you’re a bad person and you die, you don’t get to keep your body like Goku did, and your soul is eventually purged of memory, and reincarnated as a new life form.    I don’t know how much of that is based on actual Japanese mythology, if any, but at least in DBZ, the idea of hell is not to act as a place of eternal suffering for the wicked.    It’s more like a very long jail sentence, designed to redeem the wicked so that they can proceed onto reincarnation or maybe some other phase of existence.   The suffering is part of the rehabilitation process.

I think that’s why Frieza still had his body in Movie 15, even after so many years in hell.    They let him keep it, but only so he could experience greater torment.   In theory, he would get so worn down that he would come to accept his punishment as the rightful consequence of all his evil deeds, and then his body would dissipate and he would lose his memory and identity.    But Frieza’s such a hateful bitch that he hung in there long enough to get wished back to life.  

On the other hand, these souls are all formless clouds.   It seems like only important characters get to keep their bodies in hell.   That may just be a convenience for the audience, or maybe stronger bad guys can maintain their physical form more easily.   Maybe that’s why they didn’t send Frieza through this machine.    He would have gummed up the works and broken it.    Maybe it’s only used for the not-so-evil souls who are easier to deal with.   Instead of spending 100,000 years climbing the needle mountain, they can just go through the cleansing machine and move on.

Whatever the case, this movie establishes that a machine cleans souls and extracts their evil residue in the form of a dark purple liquid that gets stored in special tanks.  

And they have an oni on duty to keep an eye on things and switch out the tanks when they get full.    But it’s a dull job, and the pay sucks, so he listens to a Walkman and plays air guitar to help pass the time.

But King Yemma’s sending an awful lot of people to hell today.   He’s not even taking a break for lunch.   So that waste tank’s going to fill up quickly.

Okay, I just realized that all of these guys wear tiger-striped clothes, and I think that’s because oni in folklore wear tiger-skins.   They do in Yu Yu Hakusho, and I assume they dress a little more authentically there.    Their version of King Yemma is treated like a bigger deal.    Anyway, one of the older workers scolds the Tank Clerk for slacking off, and threatens him with a pay cut.  

He also points out the rapidly filling tank, and the clerk seems enthusiastic about switching it, but he never actually does.

I really dig this guy’s jacket.   That skull and crossbones looks cool.

But soon enough, there’s an overload on the waste system, and the line breaks.   I guess the oni don’t believe in relief flanges, but maybe spiritual waste is too hazardous to release into the atmosphere.     Well, it’s happening now.

Tank Clerk knows right away that he’s screwed.   He’s worried for his job, and he has no idea what to do about a spill this big.    I think it’s more than just the one tank breaking.    Like, somehow it set off a chain reaction that blew all the other tanks they had sitting nearby.   Man, OSHA would have a field day with this place.   Why is Tank Clerk wearing shorts to work when he’s surrounded by toxic waste?    What good is a fire extinguisher going to do?   Does he have no idea how to respond to this situation?   Who here does?

But then things go from bad to worse, as the spirit waste mutates him into some sort of bizarre creature.  

Yeah, you might want to have a doctor take a look at that.

As soon as King Yemma hears what’s going on, he shits a brick.   Those tanks contained accumulated evil from countless souls that have been through that cleansing machine.    Why didn’t they dispose of any of it?   Can it be destroyed?   Is that Beerus’ job?  Like he just shows up every hundred years and zaps the full tanks into oblivion?   Well, he won’t be invented for another 18 years, so Yemma’s on his own for this one.

As for Tank Clerk, well he looks like this now.   

Then he sits on top of Yemma’s building and... I’m not really sure what this is.   Let’s start over.    So this monster that was once the Tank Clerk only says one word, and that’s “Janemba”, which isn’t even a word, I think.   So everyone calls him that like it’s his name.  

Apparently his power is some sort of reality manipulation?   That’s pretty vague, actually, since manipulating reality implies you can basically do anything, but what else can I call this?   Janemba creates all these huge jellybean-looking crystals, and some of them used to be other objects, but maybe others were created from nothing.    I think he encased Yemma’s palace in a crystal, but it sort of looks like he distorted the building at the same time.

Inside, things look pretty normal, but there’s some crystal formations within the building, and one of the ogres gets encased in it himself.  

Also, Janemba can project his image in different parts of these crystals.    Maybe this is meant to be simple reflections and refractions, but it seems more magical than that.  

Yemma seems to understand what’s going on better than I do, but there’s nothing he can do about it.    Janemba is the result of the tank clerk being possessed by the evil ki in the spirit waste.    This gave him the ability to surround Yemma’s domain with a barrier, and that barrier has suspended Yemma’s control over the boundary between the living world and the afterlife.   The only way to stop it is to defeat Janemba, and Yemma can’t very well do this while he’s trapped in his own stronghold.  

As I think about it, I sort of wonder if it’s not just the spiritual waste and the evil ki it contains that gave Janemba this power.    Maybe it has something to do with the Tank Clerk as well, since he’s an oni.    Alone, he’s just a lowly subordinate of Yemma, but he must have some sort of power in matters of the living and the dead, and maybe all this evil ki amplified that to make him strong enough to thwart King Yemma.

But that only explains “how”.   There’s still the question of “why?”   It’s often pointed out that Janemba is a pretty weak villain because he doesn’t talk and he has no apparent goals or motives.   But I think that’s a common trait with a lot of Dragon Ball villains.  

Pilaf and Piccolo wanted to conquer the world, but I’m pretty sure both guys only said that because that’s such a stock answer.    It’s a vague expression of desire for power and control, but Pilaf can’t even run more than two people at a time, and Piccolo only wanted to rule the world so he could destroy its people and stick it to Kami.   I think you can lump in with that all the bad guys who wanted to be immortal:  Garlic Junior, Frieza, Vegeta.   Lord Slug only wished for youth, but that’s just because he lacked the imagination to wish or immortality.    The ultimate point was just to eliminate any threats to their existing power.  

Then you have guys like Turles and Dr. Wheelo, who only seemed to be interested in acquiring greater power for themselves.  There were hints in Movies 2 and 3 about what those guys would do with their power once they had enough.   Wheelo would probably continue doing evil experiments on the world, and Turtles maybe would have overthrown Frieza, but Turles strikes me as a free spirit, and he only wanted to be strong enough to keep guys like Frieza from hassling him.    For all we know, Dr. Wheelo only wanted Goku’s body because he missed having sex.   

Then you’ve got the revenge squad: Dr. Gero, Cooler, Crane Hermit, Paragus, Broly ‘93, Lord Jaguar, Babidi.   All of these guys wanted blood in exchange for some personal slight that really isn’t worth it.   Well, Jaguar didn’t actually want to kill anyone, but that only makes him an idiot.    You don’t clone an army of bio-warriors unless you want someone dead.  

The point I’m getting at here is that most of these guys have really lousy motivations, and that doesn’t even get into the villains with seemingly no motivations at all. 

Commander Red wanted to be taller, which is so stupid he kept it a secret because he knew it was stupid, and the only guy he told ended up shooting him in the face because of how stupid it was.   

Mercenary Tao was in it for money, even though he famously never paid for anything.  

Tien wanted to kill people because he looked up to killers until they started killing people he liked.

Android 17 and Cell wanted to have fun.   I’d throw 18 into that group, but honestly, I think she just sort of went along with whatever 17 did, which is almost sadder.

Who the hell knows what Bojack wanted?    He got killed before he could really spell it out. 

And then you have Majin Buu, who doesn’t even understand his own motivations.   He thought he only killed people for fun, and then when he decided it was wrong, he stopped, only to transform into another form who wanted to fight, and then another form who killed people for its own sake.

Now these are all really shitty motivations, and yet at the same time a lot of these guys are classic villains.   That’s because the thesis of Dragon Ball is that power without purpose is self-defeating.    Goku uses his strength to improve himself and help others.   The bad guys always try to use their power for selfish reasons, and it always leads to empty achievements.   Conquests they can’t enjoy, endless searches for fulfillment, and pointless scrambling for even greater power.    Any fool with a weapon can murder someone, so what difference does it make to rule the world or be the strongest in the universe if that’s all you know to do with your time?

What’s all of this have to do with Janemba?   Remember, he’s been possessed with evil ki from a multitude of wicked souls.    In other words, he’s got the distilled essence of the same thing that made all those other bad guys tick.    Frieza, King Piccolo, whoever your favorite is, Janemba’s got the same urges times a billion.   And this is what he’s become:

Just some goofy man-child-thing that only knows how to hit people and say his own name.   He’s powerful, sure, but he doesn’t know what to do with all that power.  I think it’s safe to assume he could do a lot more than we see in this movie, but this is as far as his imagination goes.   

And that does resemble Majin Buu in a lot of ways.   Let’s face it, Janemba is clearly a knockoff of Buu.    I don’t think that’s a big shocker from a movie series that gave us such bold ideas as “Evil Goku” and “Frieza’s Brother” and “More Androids.”

But I do think Janemba has a bit more to offer than that, because unlike Buu, we get to witness his origin.    Think about all the souls who went through that spirit cleansing machine.    All of their evil desires were stripped away and concentrated into Janemba.   What was their one common thought, the one sentiment that united them all?  What was the one experience they all shared and would want to avenge?    Here’s a hint:

I submit that Janemba represents the combined loathing of millions of souls towards King Yemma.   But Yemma’s not their enemy; he’s just doing his job.   The universe is designed to have Yemma pass judgement on the dead.    That’s just the way it works.    And once those damned souls pass through the cleanser, they can appreciate that with a newfound clarity.    But the evil residue they left behind?   That stuff is still sore about it.  

And, to a point, I think that spiritual waste can find a kindred spirit in Tank Clerk, since he’s also kind of frustrated with the Way Things Are.   He’d rather goof off and listen to his tunes, but he has to go to work and pay attention to his job.    That’s no one’s fault, that’s just life.   I don’t think Tank Clerk was ever angry about it, but the spirit waste comes from people who were, and when they got mixed together...

... You end up with a monster who’s made it his business to rebel against the natural order of the universe.   He traps King Yemma, but doing so causes dominoes to fall all over creation.    Maybe Janemba understands the consequences of this, or maybe he doesn’t, but he isn’t concerned with consequences.   He’s just lashing out like a child who’s mad that he can’t have his own way.    Well, your own way wrecks things for everyone else, Janemba, as we’ll soon see...

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 275

Last time, Buu went to eat cake before blowing up the Earth...

... while Goku and Vegeta are inside his head, and they’re about to remove their sons and Piccolo from Buu’s body.

Meanwhile, Dende and Mr. Satan are following Buu around, hoping to ambush him somehow, since it’s either that or wait to die with the Earth.   But Dende tires out easily.

Just as Buu gets ready to blow up the world, Goku and Vegeta cut the cords, and Buu reverts back to the form he had back in Episode 255.    He’s still monumentally powerful, but at least he doesn’t have Gohan’s power on top of that.

I think I told this story already, but when I first saw the Buu episodes on Cartoon Network, I happened to catch this episode on the International Channel.    It blew my mind, because it was about forty episodes ahead of where I was on Toonami.  I hadn’t even seen the Elder Kai yet, so it looked like the Supreme Kai had melted, and Kibito had shrunk and changed color. 

I do remember their excited dancing, though.   Not sure why they’re so uptight about touching faces, though.

The problem now is that the have to get out of Buu’s body, except they won’t stand a chance against Super Buu, even with all of his absorptions undone.   Goku was hoping that the Potara would recombine them into Vegito on the outside, but Vegeta crushed his, so that’s out of the question.

There is the Fusion Dance, however, but Vegeta saw that nonsense while he was in Otherworld, and he wants no part of it. 

Then they notice another pod besides the ones that held their sons and Piccolo.   This one has Majin Buu in it.   The fat one who started this whole mess.

For some reason, at this point, the Elder Kai’s crystal ball stops displaying what’s happening inside of Buu’s body.  I’m not sure how it was ever able to see inside in the first place, but that’s no longer working. 

Now, in the dub, Goku and Vegeta read Fat Buu’s mind to find out what happened to him, but in the original script, it’s Vegeta who explains Episode 255 to Goku.    I used to think this was the narrator, but I guess back then I wouldn’t have recognized Vegeta’s voice. 

Anyway, once Goku learns that the skinny Evil Buu turned Fat Buu into chocolate and ate him, Goku wonders if other victims might  be found.

But then Super Buu appears and explains that Fat Buu was the only one to get this special treatment. 

It figures that Buu could extend his consciousness into his own body like this, and it wouldn’t have taken him long to realize that someone was inside him cutting out his victims.

Fusion’s out of the question, but Goku still feels confident that he can blast open a hole in Buu’s head and escape. 

But it doesn’t work, and Buu explains that Goku and Vegeta are smaller than fleas in this place, so their attacks only cause him mild discomfort.

So they try to fight, but that doesn’t go so well either.

Meanwhile, Majin Buu is just standing on a cliff, completely still.

Dende notices he’s powered down to the way he was before, but he doesn’t know how or why.

Inside Buu, things aren’t going well for the good guys.

So their only choice is to do... whatever this is.  I remember watching this on the Inernational Channel and hoping that the dub would explain it when Toonami finally got to this episode.  It did not.  My best guess was that they learned this trick from being fused together, but no.

Whatever they did, it seemed to work, and they start destroying the pieces of Buu before he can reform...

Except that makes no difference, because this whole place is Majin Buu, so he can reform his body anywhere, and from anything.  

The pressure gets to Vegeta and he nearly hits the boys with a stray ki blast, but it doesn’t matter how upset he gets.   There’s no way out, and no way to stop Buu’s attacks.

Then Vegeta gets knocked out, and it looks like he’s about to get absorbed next.

And that’s the Fusion Saga!  Just one more to go and that’ll be it.   Will Vegeta survive?  Well, he’s already dead, but, you know what I mean.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 245

Last time, Goku teased a new form, one beyond the Super Saiyan 2 form Vegeta and Gohan used against Buu at the start of this arc.   But he’d prefer not to use it if possible.  

The idea here is just to keep Majin Buu busy long enough for Trunks to fly there first and get the Dragon Radar.   After that, it won’t matter (as much) if Buu destroys the place, because the Z-Figthers can use the Dragon Radar to collect the Dragon Balls and wish back all the casualties.   But Trunks is distracted by Goku’s abilties.   He can sense that Goku is about as strong as his father, and he’s apparently unfamiliar with Goku’s teleportation ability.    The reason he’s got his eyes closed here is because Babidi is psychically broadcasting Buu vs. Goku to the world, so Trunks can watch their confrontation simply by closing his eyes.

And Goku uses that trick to speak directly to Trunks, telling him to quit gawking and do his job. 

With that taken care of, Goku decides that he’s got no choice but to demonstrate his new form.   First, he powers down completely, presenting this as a review of the Super Saiyan forms.   Babidi doesn’t see the point, but Buu’s interested, and that’s the one Goku’s worried about.

So this is Goku in his base form.   

And then he turns Super Saiyan.   This is the form he used to beat Frieza.   No worries there.

Then he transforms again, into the form Gohan used to beat Cell, and the one Goku and Vegeta used when they fought each other about fifteen episodes ago.

Crucially, Goku dubs this form “Super Saiyan 2″, about sixty episodes after it was introduced.    So now we can finally stop calling it “beyond Super Saiyan”, “ascended Saiyan”, and whatever else this show has been throwing around.    The funny thing is, everyone kind of stops referring to this form altogether after this.  Goku and Vegeta continue to use it, but you almost never hear anyone spell out “Oh, he’s using Super Saiyan 2″.    I don’t think anyone mentions the form in GT at all, even though a lot of guys use it.   

The story I heard was that when Movie 14 happened, Akira Toriyama was so rusty with DBZ continuity that he forgot Super Saiyan 2 was ever a thing.   That seems kind of odd, considering that he must have remembered the higher levels, but it doesn’t surprise me a whole lot, because it looks so similar to Super Saiyan 1, and for a very long time the form didn’t have a true name.     I know that when I was watching this arc back in 2001-2002, I just considered this “Ascended” nonsense to be irrelevant.    To me, the forms were one and the same, and SSJ2 was merely a Super Saiyan fighting at full power.  But then I got to this episode, where Goku made it clear that Super Saiyan 1 and 2 were different things.   

And this is important, because we need to establish these things so that it means something when Goku decides to go... even... further beyond!    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Back in Otherworld, King Kai is freaking out, begging Goku not to do this.   It’s too much!  This form he’s going to use is so extreme that it’ll use up the rest of his 24 hours in the living world!

BUT THERE’S NO TURNING BACK NOW!    THE MUSIC IS ALREADY PLAYING, KING KAI!    Oh, shit, I forgot the music.

It’s called “Ssj3 Power Up” on Bruce Faulconer’s DBZ American Soundtrack volume IV.   

The Japanese version, sadly, does not have a theme song this badass for this moment.    I really don’t understand that, because they should have known one was called for here.    Let’s face it, not much happens during this scene, and they seemed to recognize that issue when Gohan turned Super Saiyan 2 for the first time.     Then again, Faulconer kind of whiffed it on Gohan turning Super Saiyan 2, so I can’t critique the Japanese score too harshly.    But if you’re a subs-only fan and you want to give the American dub a chance, this is one of the better episodes to sample.   

Meanwhile NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON THIS IS INSANE!    GOKU’S ENERGY IS SO HUGE RIGHT NOW U GAIS!

WHAT ARE THESE CLOUDS DOING THIS IS NUTS!

NO SAILING TODAY, THERE’S A SUPER SAIYAN 3 WEATHER ALERT!

I’M GOING TO YELL THE REST OF THIS LIVEBLOG BECAUSE IT’S SO EXTREEEEEEEEME!    GOKU’S GOTTA FIGHT THIS DUDE AND HE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SEX WITH HIS WIFE INSTEAD BUT THAT’S OUT OF THE QUESTION NOW!    SHE’S PASSED OUT BECAUSE SHE THINKS THEIR SON IS DEAD, WHICH IS QUITE THE MOOD-KILLER IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!    ALSO IMAGINE YOU’RE TRYING TO FOOL AROUND WITH YOUR WIFE AND SOME TALKING ANCHOVY STARTED TALKING IN YOUR MIND AND YOU CAN’T CLOSE YOUR EYES BECAUSE NOW YOU CAN SEE THE PUBES ON HIS SCALP.    AND HE’S ALL “TEE HEE HEE I’M GOING TO SEND MY BUBBLE GUM MONSTER TO BLOW UP SOME MORE SHIT!”    THAT WOULD ALSO BE QUITE THE MOOD-KILLER IN ADDITION TO THE DEAD SON THING.   

I MEAN MAYBE A COUPLE COULD WORK THROUGH ONE OR THE OTHER BUT NOT BOTH.   IF I WERE MARRIED TO CHI-CHI I’D LIKE TO THINK I COULD FULFILL MY MARITAL DUTIES IN SPITE OF THE TALKING ANCHOVY IN MY HEAD.   I WOULDN’T ENJOY IT AS MUCH, BUT CHI-CHI’S A FINE WOMAN WHO DESERVES THE BEST IN LIFE.   BUT IF OUR SON WAS DEAD THAT WOULD JUST BE TOO MUCH.    ONE HUNDRED PERCENT BONER POISON I’M SORRY CHI-CHI IN THE AU WHERE WE’RE MARRIED AND HAVING SEX.

THERE’S NO STOPPING THIS KING KAI.    E! C! W! E! C! W!  E! C! W! 

O-LAYYYYYYYYY, O-LAY!   OLE, OLE, OLE, O-LAYYYYYYYYYYYY!

CROSSWALK SIGNS EXPLODE FROM THE SHEER INTENSITY OF GOKU’S POWAAA

WINDOWS BREAK AND SPILL GLASS ALL OVER EVERYBODY!

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PART WHERE THIS NEWSCASTER IS COVERING THE HORROR OF THE BUU CRISIS--

WHEN SUDDENLY HE CAN FEEL IT!     THIS JUST IN THERE’S SOMEONE SCARIER THAN MAJIN BUU AND HE’S BROUGHT GOKUTOWN BACK TO EARTH!   ONE NIGHT ONLY!

THEN THE TV BREAKS BECAUSE IT KNOWS BETTER

GOKU’S KI IS SO POWERFUL IT EVEN BREAKS THE NO-TIEN RULE ON THIS WHOLE ARC.    PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THIS BUT CHIAOTZU SLEPT WITH THE PRESIDENT OF TOEI’S WIFE AND HE WAS SO MAD HE TOLD TORIYAMA “YOU KEEP THAT LITTLE HOMEWRECKER OUT OF YOUR STUPID KARATE COMIC, YOU GOT IT?”    AND TORIYAMA DIDN’T HAVE TO DO IT BUT HE RESPECTED WHAT THE GUY WAS GOING THROUGH SO THAT’S WHY THEY DIDN’T SHOW UP IN THE TOURNAMENT BUT GOKU’S SCREAMING HAS SHATTERED THE TIMESPACE CONTINUUM AND NOW TORIYAMA HAD TO DRAW THESE TWO AGAIN BECAUSE REALITY BROKE DOWN THAT BAD. 

EVEN THE MIGHTY MISTER SATAN IS POWERLESS AGAINST THE SHEER METAL THAT IS COURSING THROUGH THIS DOOMED EARTH.  

MULLETS EVERYWHERE VIBRATE IN HARMONY WITH GOKU’S EXPANDING HAIR

THEN HE’S ALL TINY AND THE WHOLE WORLD GOES BLACK IT’S LIKE A METAPHOR OR SOMETHING THIS IS ART YOU PHILLISTINES

I DON’T KNOW WHAT OOZARUS HAVE TO DO WITH ANY OF THIS GOKU LOST HIS TAIL LIKE 20 YEARS AGO AND IT WAS SO UNIMPORTANT THEY DIDN’T EVEN SHOW IT.

IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE PLANET VEGETA?   IS GOKU JUST THINKING ABOUT PLANETS HE LIKES?

BABIDI DIDN’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THIS A MINUTE AGO, BUT GOKU’S GOT HIS ATTENTION NOW DOESN’T HE?

AND THEN HE’S ALL DONE!     WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE, GOKU, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD?

JUST IN CASE ANYONE’S NOT CLEAR ON THIS, HE EXPLAINS THAT THIS IS SUPER SAIYAN 3.     WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS EYEBROWS?   THEY GOT SUCKED INTO HIS HEAD, THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED.

SO NOW HE JUST LOOKS AT BUU AND HE’S LIKE YOU COME GET THIS WORK.   

MEANWHILE ON THE SUPREME KAI PLANET THEY CAN FEEL GOKU’S POWER ALL THE WAY FROM THERE AND THEY’RE LIKE WHAA?

SO BUU SAW ALL OF THAT BUT HE’S NOT IMPRESSED.    GOKU’S LIKE FINE LET’S DO THIS ALREADY.

MEANWHILE TRUNKS MADE IT HOME BUT NO ONE KNOW WHERE DRAGON RADAR NO

BUU TRIES TO ATTACK BUT ALL HE DOES IS CATCH THESE HANDS.   GOKU BEATS THE CRAP OUT OF HIM....

... OR THAT’S WHAT WOULD HAPPEN, EXCEPT BUU HARDLY TAKES ANY DAMAGE, AND HE RESPONDS WITH A RAPID FIRE ATTACK.    GOKU’S ALL “THAT’S VEGETA’S MOVE WTF” AND I’M LIKE “HOW IS THAT VEGETA’S TRADEMARK THING  IT’S JUST SHOOTING HAND ENERGY VERY FAST.   DON’T ACT LIKE BUU IS SOME SORT OF GENIUS FOR FIGURING THAT OUT.     I DON’T THING VEGETA EVEN USED THAT ON HIM, SO HOW DID HE LEARN IT?”

KING KAI’S STILL PLEADING WITH GOKU TO CALL IT A DAY.    IF HE RUNS OUT OF TIME, HE WON’T BE ABLE TO TEACH GOTEN AND TRUNKS HOW TO FUSE!   

BUT NO THESE TWO BIG OL’ BOYS ARE HAVING A WRESTLE.

BUU’S REALLY INTO THIS BUT BABIDI KEEPS YELLING AT HIM TO FINISH GOKU OFF.   HE’S LIKE SOME SHITTY ALIEN JIM CORNETTE WHINING ABOUT HOW BUU DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO WORK.   SO BUU TELLS HIM TO STFU.

BABIDI’S LIKE HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME THAT WAY I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW I’M A LEVEL 20 WARLOCK WITH ANCHOVY-BOOGER POWER SIR.

GOKU’S JUST FRUSTRATED THAT TRUNKS STILL HASN’T LEFT WEST CITY YET, SO HE JUST HAS TO KEEP DROPPING HURTIN’ BOMBS ON THIS PINK FOOL.  

MEANWHILE TRUNKS CAN’T FIND THE RADAR BECAUSE IT’S NOT ANYWHERE ASSSDFGHJKL;;

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 11: Bio-Broly

Sigh...

Okay, Bio-Broly.  

The 11th DBZ movie premiered on July 9, 1994, as part of the Toei Anime Fair.    This would have been right after Episode 232 aired, but before Episode 233.   So a fan in 1994 could watch Majin Buu hatch from his magic ball, then go to the theater to see this movie, and then see Buu begin wrecking everyone’s shit.  

This is widely regarded as one of the worst, if not the worst Dragon Ball movie.   In 2015, Team Four Star made a list of the top 24 movies and specials, and Bio-Broly was at #21, beating out various specials, the live-action movies, and its sister film, “Broly: Second Coming.”   The only real surprise was that they ranked Movie 11 above Movie 10, but I think they made a pretty good argument for that.   Movie 10 is pretty darn bad.   I think 11 is worse, but I’ll admit it’s a close call.   

Does anyone actually like this movie?   I don’t just mean “Does anyone think it’s pretty okay?”   To be honest, I’ve been looking forward to watching this one again, and there’s some cute moments and decent action in this one.    It’s a DBZ movie.  There’s a lot of worse things I could be watching instead.   I’ll take “Bio-Broly” over a Harry Potter film festival any day.   When I say Movie 11 sucks, that’s kind of dishonest of me, because it just sucks compared to the rest of Dragon Ball.

No, what I’d like to know is, is this movie anyone’s favorite, or near-favorite?   My assumption has always been that Movie 11 is in everyone’s bottom three.    But you never know.   Team Four Star’s Kaiser Neko loves Movie 2, and hates Movie 6, and that blew my mind when I found that out.   He’s wrong of course.    Meta-Cooler is rad, and Dr. Wheelo is dumb, but it just goes to show that there’s no accounting for taste.   So I’m just throwing the question out there.    There must be someone out there who really digs Bio-Broly.   They’re fascinated with Lord Jaguar, and the purple slime, or they’re just super-into Android 18.   Maybe this was one of the first DBZ things you saw, or you saw it at an early age, and it left a lasting impression.     If you’re out there, drop me a line.    I’d be interested to hear your perspective.   

But for now, I’m here to rip this movie a new one, so if this is your favorite one, be warned.

So, just to make my case, I’d like to skip ahead to the ending of the movie and start there.    Bear with me for a moment.   

On the Grand Kai Planet, Goku’s eating lunch, when he gets word that Broly is running amok in hell, and King Kai wants him and Pikkon to go down there and beat his ass.    

Somehow, Bubbles is the one relaying the message to Goku, and I have no idea how, since he can’t talk.  

Anyway, Goku’s ready to rock.... just as soon as he finishes eating, wokka wokka.    Goku, you rascal!

And that’s how the movie ends.    We’re not going to get to see Goku fight Broly in hell.     I’m pretty sure this epilogue was only included to work Goku into the film, and to establish that Broly will never bother anyone ever again.   

The thing is, wouldn’t you like to see Goku and Pikkon fight Broly in hell?     Wouldn’t you rather see that than what we ended up getting in Movie 11?     Because Movie 11 doesn’t actually feature Goku or Broly.   They’re both dead.   Vegeta and Piccolo aren’t in this movie either.   Gohan isn’t in this movie.

And this is why Movie 11 ticks me off so much.    Maybe it’s objectively better than Movie 10, but at least Movie 10 was up front with you.   It attempted to act as a sequel to Movie 8.    Broly comes back, and it’s up to Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and Videl to deal with him in Goku’s absence.    It’s not very good, but it at least delivers on the promise of a second Broly fight.    Movie 11, on the other hand, is trying to do a Broly movie without Broly.  Worse, the movie seems determined to rub my nose in it. 

I mean, let’s take a look at all the major characters in Movie 8.

Broly

Paragus

Goku

Vegeta

Future Trunks

Gohan

Piccolo

In Movie 10, that list gets whittled down to this

Broly

Gohan

To be sure, I think that’s part of the point of Movie 10.    A lot has changed over the years, and when Broly wakes up, he’s lost in a world that’s moved on.    It’s up to Gohan to finish up his father’s old business.    The problem is that a lot of what made Movie 8 so good lay in those jettisoned characters.    It was Paragus who laid the insidious trap for Vegeta.   It was Future Trunks who went along just to investigate and save his father from his own ego.   It was Goku’s presence that sent Broly into an epic meltdown.   It was Piccolo who bought them time, and got Vegeta to shake off his fear and join the fight.    It was Vegeta who put aside his pride and gave Goku the power he needed to win the day.   When Movie 10 cut all of those characters, they cut out most of what made the first Broly movie work so well.    By himself, Broly was reduced to a dopey monster. 

In Movie 11, the Movie 8 cast was pared down even further.    Here’s a list of all the Movie 8 main characters who were major players in Movie 11.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yeah, there is no list, because they’re all gone.    Goku makes a cameo in Movies 10 and 11, but that hardly counts.   Krillin appears in all three movies, but only in a supporting role.    Kid Trunks is in all three movies, but he’s a baby in the first one.   In the second one he doesn’t even know who Broly is.   

I’m not pointing this out to knock the main cast of “Bio-Broly”.   My point is just that they tried to do a second and third Broly movie without the character dynamics that made the first one work.   What’s the point of having Android 18 fight a clone of Broly?   She doesn’t even know who that is.    If you’re going to do an 18 movie, have her fight a clone of Dr. Gero, or Cell.   At least then there’d be some impact.  

Okay, let’s get into this.    This movie is essentially a continuation of Episode 226 of the anime, where 18 offered to take a dive so Mr. Satan could win the 25th Tenakichi Budokai.   All he had to do was pay her 20 million zeni, which is twice as much as the grand prize for the tournament.    But Mr. Satan’s rich, so I guess he could afford it, and he agreed to her terms.    In this movie, 18 has dropped by his mansion to collect.     Krillin and Marron are waiting outside with Goten and Trunks.   Apparenly Krillin had promised to treat them to lunch once 18 got her money.   

Meanwhile, this other dude lands on the property in an air-limo, and as soon as he steps out of the car, his pants fall down and he falls in the pool while trying to catch his hat.  This is Menmen, and I really don’t know what the deal is with this guy.   They seemed determined to give him lots of gags and personality, except he really isn’t important enough to the story to justify that effort. 

So while 18 is breaking stuff and demanding her payment, Menmen just waltzes right into the room and issues Satan a formal challenge.    Satan brushes the guy off, until he mentions that Mr. Satan wet the bed in 6th grade.

That’s when Satan realizes that Menmen’s cousin must be his childhood friend, Lord Jaguar.    Well, that’s what he’s called in the dub.     In the original version, he’s called “Baron Jaga Batta”, which is apparently a wordplay involving potatoes.   The Japanese word for “baron” resembles another word for a type of potato, and “jaga batta” means “Buttered Potato”.   He also lives in “Mei Queen Castle”, and this is a reference to May Queen potatoes.    I always thought “Lord Jaguar” was a little too badass a name for the guy, and now I see the truth.    I’ll keep calling him that, though.  

For some reason, the two of them get down on the floor while they talk about this.    The story is that Satan and Jaguar both studied martial arts as children, but when Satan defeated him, Jaguar gave up fighting, and he’s never heard from him since.    Also, at some point Satan must have pissed his futon and Jaguar found out about it, so now he’s blackmailing Mr. Satan.   If he refuses the challenge, Jaguar plans to go to the press and reveal to the world that Mr. Satan is a bedwetter.   Honestly, would anyone even believe that?    Would anyone care?  Well, Mr. Satan doesn’t want to chance it, so he accepts the challenge.    Only he won’t be fighting Jaguar, but a team of Bio-Warriors he’s assembled.   As long as they don’t have glowing golden hair, Satan likes his odds, so he’s down to clown.

But 18 is not.    Well, specifically, she doesn’t seem to care if Satan fights these guys, just so long as she goes with him, to make sure he doesn’t try to run out on her without paying.   I don’t really understand this.    Why should 18 bother with any of this?   She wants the money, and she seems to think Mr. Satan has the money, so why let him leave the house at all?   For that matter, if Jaguar’s in such a hurry, Menmen could probably cut her a check to get her to stand aside.  

So 18 tells Krillin to head home with the kids while she sticks with Satan.     But Goten and Trunks have stowed away in the trunk of Menmen’s car, because... I dunno, I guess whoever wrote this part watched Speed Racer that day.  

Krillin could fly after them and fetch Goten and Trunks, but Marron has to go potty.    He runs inside Satan’s house to find a toilet, but the dialogue indicates that he doesn’t make it in time.    So here’s another reason this movie is the worst: Piss jokes as a running gag.   It’s not that DBZ doesn’t indulge in this sort of humor from time to time, and honestly, I’m down for a good piss gag once in a while.    Hey, we all gotta go sometime.   But this movie is just relentless with it, like it doesn’t know how to do anything else.  

I don’t get why Goten and Trunks are so fascinated with this trip to Jaguar’s place.   I mean, they get a gorgeous view of the ocean this way, but they could have done this by flying under their own power.   Anyway, cool dolphins.   

"Tee hee!   What if this seawater was pee?”  -- The screenwriter, probably.

And here’s May Queen Castle.   A little ostentatious, don’t you think?

When they arrive, we see all these nude, bug-eyed dudes working out in the courtyard.    These are the Bio-warriors, not to be confused with the Bio-Warriors from Movie 2, which were also very stupid.    Jaguar comes out to greet Satan, and he’s astonished to see Jaguar looking so out of shape.    Also, he probably hasn’t grown since they last saw each other, but whatever.

While they talk, Goten and Trunks are snooping around, and they encounter Jaguar’s dog, Hei.   I think Hei is supposed to be some sort of genetically engineered creature like the Bio-Warriors, but he might just have a very stylized design, kind of like Commander Red’s weird-looking cat.  Anyway, Goten calms the dog down because he’s good with animals.   

There’s a cute gag here where the boys overhear Jaguar talking about the biotechnology used to create the Bio-Warriors, and Trunks tells Goten that biotechnology is genetic engineering, which he knows because his mother and grandfather are scientists.   Goten asks what genetic engineering is, and Trunks is stumped, so he just says it’s biotechnology.    Goten is young enough that he is impressed by this answer.  

I don’t know, maybe I should take the time to explain this properly.    I learned about DNA from G.I. Joe cartoons, and I think Jurassic Park was a popular enough movie that everyone’s familiar with the concept, but just in case: Living things are made up of many, many cells, and each cell contains DNA, molecules whose structure represents the “instructions” for building a particular organism.    In theory, if you had a sample of DNA, you could use it to grow an entirely new specimen of the creature it came from, which is called a clone.     Or you could modify the DNA to produce a different creature.   This is what people talk about when they say “GMO’s” with regards to food.    A lot of modern agriculture relies on crops that have been genetically modified to resist disease or to produce more food.   It creeps people out because they’re used to thinking of genetic engineering as mad scientists making horrible monsters, like in this movie.    But the reality is that humans have been genetically modifying organisms for thousands of years.     Breeding dogs and cattle to favor certain trait is just another kind of genetic engineering.    The apples we eat are grown through asexual grafting rather than by planting seeds.   Most of the fruits we know of look completely unlike the wild versions they originated from.  

Anyway, Jaguar leads Satan to a battle stage, and Trunks and Goten like the look of the place, but then they notice someone familiar next to Jaguar...

It’s Maloja from Movie 10.    As you may recall, he was the guy who wore a purple tie around his head and convinced the people of Natade Village to sacrifice their children to appease the mountain god.   

So here’s the thing.    I watched this movie before I saw Movie 10, mainly because I had no idea that this would be a direct sequel.    “Return of Cooler” was the first movie to follow the plot from the one before it, but “Bio-Broly” is the first one to act as the sequel to a sequel.    So when Goten and Trunks reognized this guy and had a flashback about him, I was amazed.   

Anyway, the Bio-Warriors are way too strong for Mr. Satan, so he asks 18 to take care of them in his place.   For some reason, he told Jaguar that she was his star pupil, and she didn’t see any reason to dispute this.   18 agrees to save his bacon, but it’ll cost him another 20 million zeni.  

Jaguar isn’t so keen on that idea, because this is his show, and he wants to organize brackets for this.    I have no idea how that diagram is supposed to work.   Is this some sort of round robin thing?    We’ll be here all week...

But 18 insists on a battle royal, much like the one she fought in during the 25th Budokai.   Jaguar objects, but then Goten and Trunks offer to participate as well, and I guess that satisfies Jaguar, since there’d be an equal number of fighters on each side?   

He asks the Bio-Warriors to make a “village fest”, and 18 corrects him by saying he wants a “bloodfest”.    That’s the gag with Jaguar.    He says the wrong words sometimes, and someone has to correct him.    I have no idea why.

Anywy, Satan’s group wins without Mr. Satan even having to get involved.   Maloja takes this as his cue to leave, but Jaguar insists that he stick around while he plays his “trump card”.   

Satan tells him to bring it on, since he figures no one could be any match for his squad.   

Then Jaguar has the walls of this arena lift up to reveal a vast scientific complex all around them.   This is impressive to see, but I don’t get why it should change anything.   He just uses this to grow Bio-Warriors, and we already saw how those did.   

Then the movie kind of goes off the rails a bit.   Instead of just unleashing his best fighter, Jaguar just kind of sits there while Goten and Trunks take a tour of the facility.     They look at the Bio-Warriors growing in tanks, and talk to the scientists.

Then they spot one specimen with a tail and...

Yeah, it’s Broly.  

Again, this was a shock to me, because I hadn’t seen Movie 10 when I first watched this, so it was weird that Goten and Trunks knew who Broly was, and that they had fought him before.   He’s supposed to be dead, so what’s the deal?

Ah, good another piss joke.  Just what we needed.

While Jaguar’s scientists very slowly release his next fighter, Goten and Trunks confront Maloja, figuring that he must have something to do with Broly.   Maloja explains that when they showed him up in Movie 10, he lost the confidence of the Natade villagers, and he couldn’t find work anywhere else.  

Apparently, Maloja witness the fight in Movie 10, and knew that Broly had been killed.   But then he found the space pod that brought Broly to Earth, and discovered some of his dried blood inside.    He took a sample and sold it to Jaguar, whose scientists used it to create a clone of Broly.   

I find all of this pretty hard to swallow.    The only part that makes sense is that Maloja might have watched Broly die and that he would have become fascinated enough with Broly to discover his pod.  

The rest, not so much.   How did Maloja know about Jaguar?     Did he just stroll up to the front door of May Queen castle with a beaker of blood crust in his hand?    How do the scientists know that their Broly clone is so much stronger than the other Bio-Warriors?  None of these characters know anything about Saiyans or ki.   

Goten and Trunks ask him why he would do all of this, after seeing the terrible power of the original Broly.    Maloja knows what’ll happen when they release the clone, which is why he’s cutting out now.    Okay...

One reason I wanted to watch the movies and TV episodes in order was to get a handle on what the movies were referencing.   Obviously, 18′s business with Mr. Satan is a direct reference to the 25th Budokai, but in addition to that, there is a similiarity between Jaguar’s relationship with Broly and Babidi’s with Majin Buu.    They’re both little creeps who seek to unleash forces they don’t understand, all to settle a petty grudge.    Like Babidi, Jaguar is convinced that he has full control over the situation.   Like Gohan against Buu, Goten and Trunks decide that their best bet is to destroy Broly with a Kamehameha before he can wake up.

Except the clone is already aware of his surroundings, and when he senses Goten and Trunks powering up their attack, he bursts out of his tank in full-on Legendary Super Saiyan form.    All the green glop that was in the tank with him sort of stays put for a second, and then spills away.  

The scientists, led by Dr. Kori and Nain, have a contingency for this, and they raise a containment wall around the broken tank.   The thing is, they seem more worried about the culture fluid than the Super Saiyan who was soaking in it.   

Naturally, Clone-of-Broly breaks out easily, spilling green glop everywhere.   

Then he turns into a glop monster himself.

Annnnnd here’s Bio-Broly, folks.   Drink it in.

Hei runs up and starts barking at Bio-Broly, but before they can fight, Hei gets too close to the culture fluid that’s spilling all over the platform they’re on.    Hei is immediately dissolved and abosrbed into it.   

So here’s the deal with the culture fluid.    Inside the tanks, it’s not a problem.   But when it’s exposed to the air, it turns into a mindless monster like the Blob, consuming other life forms and replicating uncontrollably.   I guess that answers one of the things that’s bugged me for years.   I never understood why this fluid was so dangerous, yet they soak all of their monsters in it.    Apparently it’s only dangerous in the presence of air.   And I guess this is why it didn’t alter Clone-Broly’s appearance until he stepped out of the tank.   

On the other hand, why didn’t it kill the clone completely, the way it killed Hei? 

Lord Jaguar doesn’t seem to care about Bio-Broly’s appearance or the leaking culture fluid.    He just wants Bio-Broly to beat up Mr. Satan.   In turn, Satan asks 18 to handle this, and she agrees, for another 20 million.    I’ve lost track of his tab, but I think he’s up to 60 million zeni.  

But 18 quickly realizes that Bio-Broly is too much for her to handle, and Jaguar sends him to attack Mr. Satan.   

Goten and Trunks rescue him...

...And they charge into battle.   

Of course, there’s still the culture fluid to worry about.   As the three of them fight, they wreck the whole facility, which causes even more purple glop to spill out.    Fortunately, most the casualties are Bio-Warriors, and the dumbass scientists who should have known better.

So in the last movie, the original Broly pretty much kicked the crap out of Goten and Trunks, and the only reason they lasted as long as they did was because Broly was too dumb to finish them off.    This time, the boys don’t have Gohan to help them, but it doesn’t seem to matter much, because they can read Bio-Broly’s moves a lot more easily.    In other words, Bio-Broly is clearly weaker and slower than the original.    By itself, that isn’t such a bad thing.     The bad guy needs to be weaker because he’s fighting weaker opponents: Goten, Trunks, and 18.   So at least this movie took the time and effort to explain why this battle is more even than the ones in Movies 8 and 10.    Maybe it was the cloning process, or the culture fluid, or some other issue, but this clone of Broly isn’t as strong as the original one.  

But that’s still a let-down, because the general pattern with these DBZ films is to raise the stakes, nor lower them.   There’s some counter-examples to this, notably Hirudegarn in Movie 13.   But at least Hirudegarn was a whole other character.     If Janemba had returned from Movie 12, and Goku beat him without using fusion, then he would clearly be weaker than he was in Movie 12.   And what would the point of that be?   Why bring a villain back if he’s going to be weaker than his last appearance?   

As much as I hate how they keep bringing back Frieza, as least they’ve handled him properly.    Mecha-Frieza was much stronger than the original version, and the only reason he died so quickly was because Trunks was that much stronger   When he came back in Movie 15, he got a new form to allow him to keep up with Goku and Vegeta.   A weaker Frieza would be pointless.   You might as well introduce a new character.    But that’s basically what they did with Broly.  He had a strong start, and then he came back weaker in Movie 10, and even weaker in Movie 11.  I mean, it’s not even really Broly this time, but you get the idea.   Toei went out of their way to clone him just so he could return for a third appearance.  

Meanwhile, Jaguar’s island is getting overrun with purple glop.    I don’t know if this is because new glop got spilled during the fight, or if the stuff we started with has had time to grow.    

Maloja supposedly bugged out, but he’s actually been somewhere in Jaguar’s home, filling a sack with cash.    Was this the money Jaguar paid him, or is he just stone cold robbing Jaguar before he leaves?    Either way, the purple glop drips in from the vent and kills him.   

A bunch of scientists try to escape in an elevator, only for it to get stuck and flooded with purple glop.   

Back at the fight, things go haywire for Goten and Trunks because they can only hold off Bio-Broly by working as a team.   When Goten wanders off to rescue people from the culture fluid, Trunks gets his ass kicked.

18 tries to step in and help, but she gets overwhelmed.   Then Krillin shows up and pulls her out of harm’s way just in the nick of time.

Krillin’s the best, but he still can’t save this movie.  

Bio-Broly nearly shoots them with green hand energy...

  But then Mr. Satan falls on Bio-Broly, distracting him long enough for Goten and Trunks to step in.   

Honestly, that’s the problem I have with this fight.    It’s pretty well-produced, with some good action sequences and nice teamwork between all the players, but so much of it is played off as slapstick.    18′s the only serious one here.    Krillin’s kind of a sidekick, and Satan’s comic relief, and Goten and Trunks are as chilidish as they are strong.    On the other side, you’ve got Bio-Broly, who literally has no motivation here at all.    I assume he’s only fighting on instinct.   He was literally born today.

Apparently Jaguar draws the line at murder, so he commands Bio-Broly to stand down.    Only Bio-Broly just attacks him instead.   Was he ever under Jaguar’s control?   Who cares?

Krillin throws a Kienzan disc to save Goten...

But Bio-Broly’s head just reattaches itself after getting cut off.    D’oh!

Things look pretty bad at this point.    Goten and Trunks can’t fight and save people at the same time.    Then Trunks realizes that he might be able to use one crisis to solve the other.   

First, he moons Bio-Broly, because of course he does.

Then he lures him over to a vessel of culture fluid and blasts it open so it’ll spill on to the jerk when he approaches.

It doesn’t spill right away, but then it finally does, and Bio-Broly is covered in purple glop.

Although, I don’t understand why this should work, since Bio-Broly was already exposed to this stuff from the beginning.    Why should it kill him now?

Well, it doesn’t exactly.   A big purple Bio-Broly emerges from the glop like it’s going to attack Goten and Trunks....

But then it sort of collapses, like this was Bio’s last gasp or something.

When Goten recovers, Trunks explains that he beat Broly with his strongest muscle... his brain.    Up yours, Trunks, this is Dragon Ball Z.    Nobody wants to see you outsmart the villain.    Especially when the villain is mindless to start with.

Anyway, there’s still purple crap all over the place.    I guess it must be self-replicating, because I don’t see why they would have had this much of it on hand.

The gang evacuates the survivors.   Krillin carries Nain to safety, and gets her to hold on tight.

18 is not amused.    Hey, who’s watching their kid right now?    Master Roshi?   That’s a terrible idea.

Trunks saves Jaguar and Menman, and Jaguar is amazed that anyone would bother to rescue him, since he’s responsible for the plot of Movie 11.   “Look,” Trunks tells him, “this movie is bad, but it’s not nearly as terrible as ‘Hocus Pocus’ or ‘Seven Pounds.’“  

Everyone crowds onto boats that put as much distance from the island as possible.   Why is there a child here?    Did the scientists have their families on this island?  

But that still doesn’t solve the problem of the culture fluid.   Dr. Kori theorizes that its power increased when it absorbed Bio-Broly, making it even more aggresssive than it was before.   It’ll eventually expand until it covers the entire world.  

Meanwhile, Mr. Satan is trying to swim away from the stuff, and as he kicks up seawater, he splashes it on the glop, which causes it to solidiy.  

Goten notices this and realizes that seawater will deactivate the fluid.   I always thought that was a little too convenient, but now that I know it only becomes dangerous when exposed to air, that makes a little more sense.   Cover it in enough water, and it can’t get the air it needs to sustain it.   

So the boys and Krillin fire off a Kamehameha at the shore, which kicks up a big enough wave to flood the entire island.    You know, I once saw a T-shirt based on this scene at a Hot Topic, if you can believe it.   

I don’t see why they needed to do this at all, though.    The fluid was already confined to an island, so it would have just died off on its own after absorbing all the available biomatter, right?    But I guess it’s better to resolve this sooner than later.   

Then another giant Purple Glop Bio-Broly rises up out of the water.  

And it immediately solidifies.    This is stupid.    They already pulled this gag earlier, so why would anyone believe it now, after they’ve already killed the monster twice over?   

Goten and Trunks blast it to pieces anyway, just to be safe.

And we’ll never see Broly again!   Until 2018.   Thankfully, Broly IV was a much better movie than this turkey.

Below, Mr. Satan pleads for someone to pull him out of the water.    18 offers to help him....for 40 million zeni.    Damn, girl.   18′s the coldest bitch in the land, and she’s adorable.  

Anyway, Mr. Satan swims away, which I can only assume means he can’t afford to pay.   The thing is, I think 18 kind of has to save him.   I mean, if he drowns, she can’t collect any money from him, right? 

From there, we get that scene I already talked about with Goku and Bubbles, and that’s the end of the movie.

The end credits here are notable, because they feature original animation of Goten and Trunks’s early childhoods.    I’ve seen people on the internet ask where these are from, and the answer is here, in th closings credits of this movie.

And yeah, there’s another piss joke.    Great job, Movie 11.

On a personal note, the ending theme “Dragon Power Mugendai“ is what inspired the name of this blog, “Duhragonball”, because the refrain is “DORAGON!   DORAGON POWAA” which sounds a lot like “Duh-ragon”, and I thought that would be cute.  

And that’s it for Movie 11.    Not a complete trainwreck by any means, but still a very poor showing by DBZ standards.   These movies really took a bad turn starting with Bojack, but it’s over now.    In March 1995, Toei would premier a new movie.    One that would be better than ten Super Bowls.  But we’ll get to that...