Dragon Ball Discussion

[Aeritai]

Hello everybody! And welcome to the Dragon Ball Discussion thread! Rather you are a fan of the Original, Z, Super, GT, or DBZA everybody is welcomed to join in on the discussion! Here we will be discussing either the manga, shows, video games and many other things about the Dragon Ball universe itself! The thread will have a poll every week, so we can vote and discuss.

This week's Poll: Favorite Villian from both the show and movies.

Topic: What Got You Into Dragon Ball?

I will start off this topic by saying this, I never grew up watching Dragon Ball since I didn't know what it was back then when I was kid. The thing that got me into Dragon Ball was the Abridged version of Dragon Ball Z which led me to get interested in the original version of DBZ it wouldn't be until December I got five of the DBZ movies to watch which futhered my interest in the anime itself. And then when January rolled around me and dad went to go watch Dragon Ball Super: Broly which I really enjoyed watching. As of recent I was able to download the Saiyan Saga (DBZ Season 1) and the BoG Arc (DBS Season 1) for free from the microsoft store on my Xbox. Recently I have been watching through the Saiyan Saga currently on episode 19 and I plan on finishing the saga tonight hopefully.

What about you NS? What got you into Dragon Ball? Did you grow up with Dragon Ball as a child? Or did you become interested as you grew older over time?

Also if you want me to add more characters to the poll please do let me know!

[Reploid Productions]

We already had a DBZ thread in here awhile back, but it's been quite some time since it last saw any action so I think we can leave the old one buried and start fresh. XD

DBZ was one of my gateway drugs into anime as a teenager in the 90s, it was only years later I went back and checked out the original Dragon Ball. It's somewhat amusing to me that you can often tell with reasonable accuracy when someone got into it through certain fan behaviors: Spelling it "Saiyajin" versus the westernized "Saiyan", whether it's being pronounced the Japanese way versus the English version... and also whether or not they absolutely hate the freakin' Tree of Might movie. I'm in that older-ish camp in that I still spell it "Saiyajin", but pronounce it "Saiyan", and hate that friggin' movie. (For the younger/newer fans, in the late 90s the US dub broadcast got halfway through the Frieza saga, to the episode where Goku finally arrives on Namek and Vegeta spends like half the episode freaking out about how strong Goku's gotten and foreshadowing the whole super Saiyajin thing. And that was as far as it got. The next three days the broadcast would go through the Tree of Might... and then cycle aaaaaaaaaall the way back to the very beginning of DBZ again. We ran through that cycle more times than I care to remember for YEARS while waiting to see if the dub would ever get the rest of the saga.)

Honestly, if you're looking to catch up on DBZ at least, I would recommend going straight to the DBZ Kai version. It streamlines the storytelling and chops out the original anime's absurd volume of filler material so the narrative doesn't drag nearly so badly. Basically when the anime was originally being made, it was constantly in danger of overtaking the manga release so they had to pad out the fights and introduce loads and loads of filler so it wouldn't get ahead of the source material. (At one point around the infamous "five minutes until Namek explodes" bit, the anime was barely two chapters behind the manga, which is an insanely close gap hence soooo much padding.) Although I still recommend watching the driving school episode from Z. Yes, it's absolutely pure filler, but it is gloriously goofy watching two of the most powerful people on the planet struggling to accomplish such a mundane task as passing a driving test. DBZ Abridged re-ignited my love for the series, and in all honesty I suspect Team Four Star's parody is likely very largely responsible for stirring up the fandom enough to make stuff like Battle of Gods and DB Super possible.

As for favorite character, I am, and always will be a future Trunks fangirl. He just has more depth to his backstory given that whole "ruined future timeline" thing, and until the Black arc in Super, the History of Trunks special was easily the darkest story told in the setting. Vegeta's probably my second favorite because he has one of the more interesting character arcs over the course of Z and through Super going from completely unapologetic asshole to ... well, probably the third-best father figure in the series after Piccolo and Gohan.

[Aeritai]

We already had a DBZ thread in here awhile back, but it's been quite some time since it last saw any action so I think we can leave the old one buried and start fresh. XD

DBZ was one of my gateway drugs into anime as a teenager in the 90s, it was only years later I went back and checked out the original Dragon Ball. It's somewhat amusing to me that you can often tell with reasonable accuracy when someone got into it through certain fan behaviors: Spelling it "Saiyajin" versus the westernized "Saiyan", whether it's being pronounced the Japanese way versus the English version... and also whether or not they absolutely hate the freakin' Tree of Might movie. I'm in that older-ish camp in that I still spell it "Saiyajin", but pronounce it "Saiyan", and hate that friggin' movie. (For the younger/newer fans, in the late 90s the US dub broadcast got halfway through the Frieza saga, to the episode where Goku finally arrives on Namek and Vegeta spends like half the episode freaking out about how strong Goku's gotten and foreshadowing the whole super Saiyajin thing. And that was as far as it got. The next three days the broadcast would go through the Tree of Might... and then cycle aaaaaaaaaall the way back to the very beginning of DBZ again. We ran through that cycle more times than I care to remember for YEARS while waiting to see if the dub would ever get the rest of the saga.)

Honestly, if you're looking to catch up on DBZ at least, I would recommend going straight to the DBZ Kai version. It streamlines the storytelling and chops out the original anime's absurd volume of filler material so the narrative doesn't drag nearly so badly. Basically when the anime was originally being made, it was constantly in danger of overtaking the manga release so they had to pad out the fights and introduce loads and loads of filler so it wouldn't get ahead of the source material. (At one point around the infamous "five minutes until Namek explodes" bit, the anime was barely two chapters behind the manga, which is an insanely close gap hence soooo much padding.) Although I still recommend watching the driving school episode from Z. Yes, it's absolutely pure filler, but it is gloriously goofy watching two of the most powerful people on the planet struggling to accomplish such a mundane task as passing a driving test. DBZ Abridged re-ignited my love for the series, and in all honesty I suspect Team Four Star's parody is likely very largely responsible for stirring up the fandom enough to make stuff like Battle of Gods and DB Super possible.

As for favorite character, I am, and always will be a future Trunks fangirl. He just has more depth to his backstory given that whole "ruined future timeline" thing, and until the Black arc in Super, the History of Trunks special was easily the darkest story told in the setting. Vegeta's probably my second favorite because he has one of the more interesting character arcs over the course of Z and through Super going from completely unapologetic asshole to ... well, probably the third-best father figure in the series after Piccolo and Gohan.

Oh XD I didn't know there was a Dragon Ball thread, but yeah I wanted to avoid any grave digging just in case. And I heard about DBZ Kai and to be honest I don't mind watching the fillers I know how some people find anime fillers boring, but to me I don't mind it some of the fillers have their moments ^^

As for the Saiyan part I always said and spelled it "Saiyan" since I'm use to dubs more than subs.

[Aeritai]

Also am I the only one that thinks Raditz had more potienal? I mean after watching Masako's "What If Raditz Turned Good" series and his "Dragon Ball R&R project I feel like Raditz could've have been a great add on to the Z Fighters had he turned good.

[Aeritai]

Poll has been updated!

[Fascist PRUESSENS]

I got into Dragon Ball after getting bored in Naruto

[Reploid Productions]

I got into Dragon Ball after getting bored in Naruto

Huh, that's a bit of a reversal, usually folks went FROM Dragon Ball TO Naruto since the former predates the latter. (And if I recall right, was an influence on the creator of Naruto, but then good luck finding a modern day shonen manga creator who WASN'T influenced in some way by Toriyama.)

[Aeritai]

I got into Dragon Ball after getting bored in Naruto

Oh interesting! Do you have any favorite villians or main characters

[Griemvarant]

I got into DBZ when it first aired on Toonami. That, Gundam Wing and Outlaw Star really marked my love affair with anime. I tried to get into Dragon Ball but the weird pseudo-porn "ecchi" stuff in the beginning just turns me off. Toriyama is also a notorious masochist who loves to torture himself by writing characters he hates and is, like George Lucas and Michael Bay, someone who does his best work under the watchful eye of good editors. I honestly lost interest during the Buu saga as the story completely discarded its theme of passing the torch to the next generation, mostly because Toriyama hated having an actually nuanced main character and switched back to Goku, subsequently making Goku more two-dimensional in the process. Since then, Super has been a regression of the characters and themes explored in Dragon Ball and Z. As terrible as GT was, I honestly prefer it over Super because it at least had a coherent thematic thread.

[Aeritai]

So any opinions on the new Broly movie that came out this year last January? To me I think the DBS Broly has way more character than his DBZ counterpart. Granted I never seen his original movie, but I heard about his backstory about the reason why he hates Goku and to be honest the whole "I hate Kakarot because he cried too much as a baby" is a silly villian backtory.

[Reploid Productions]

Oh good GODS, seriously. Original Broly was basically an invincible cardboard cutout with a nonsensical justification for going after Goku and little other motivation beyond "for the evulz." As far as characters go, he was boring, he was just an obstacle in the way with no real substance. DBS Broly is a vastly more interesting and even likable character because they actually gave him some character depth and he's not just a psychotic murder machine. Honestly, this iteration of Broly is downright adorkable when he's not being driven insane by his uncontrollable power; and the fact he is such a sweet and innocent character makes it that much more effectively terrifying when he does lose control. Seeing an otherwise likable character turn into a raging force of nature like that is far more narratively effective. I mean, it's kinda like when Goku went super Saiyajin for the first time against Frieza or Gohan reaching SSJ2 against Cell; seeing this otherwise good-hearted character effectively turn into an engine of unstoppable or even sadistic rage with (at the time at least) no real assurance that he'd survive or ever come back from that brink. Honestly in this incarnation, the single biggest victim of Broly's insane power is Broly himself and the new movie does a great job of highlighting that.

Also, the new movie kicked Battle of Gods out of my #1 spot for favorite Dragon Ball film. The plot was plausible enough and not JUST an excuse for an awesome fight, the animation was positively gorgeous with that simplified/more retro art style, and the action sequences were pure spectacle. I went and saw it in the theater five times if that says anything. Ten years ago, hell even five years ago, if you'd told me I would like Broly as a character or would pay to see a Broly movie in theaters multiple times I would have called you insane. Now I'm hoping we get to see some more of Broly, and some more character development. If Kale could gain control of a similarly out of control power, surely Broly can too. (Though I imagine by default it will be far more difficult for him given the sheer volume of psychological trauma he's been through and how emotionally stunted he is thanks to it.)

[Aeritai]

Yeah I also liked how the movie made us feel bad for Broly through out the film. From Paragus abusing him to Gogeta almost killing him during the battle this movie wasn't about Vegeta or Goku it centered around Broly's pain and struggle. And the part where Gogeta was charging his full force kamehameha you could see the fear in Broly's eyes making you wonder if he was going to survive or not.

[Aeritai]

I listened to both the Speedy Dub and Big Green Dub clips on Youtube and even those two are bad dubs of the show they're pretty funny like this line.

"Let that child alone."