Abridged Series

That was well worth the wait. Easily my favorite TFS special so far (which is saying a lot considering how good the Bardock specials were, IMO), and probably one of my DBZTAS episodes in general.

They took one of the most iconic DBZ anime-exclusive stories (which I still personally consider canon despite recent DBZ stuff kind of messing with the canonicity of older specials like this), and did it justice by making the best possible parody of it, yet surprisingly enough left the most memorable dramatic scene of the special completely in-tact to great effect.

Gohan imagining Piccolo's voice in his head and the callbacks to his training with Piccolo (as an analogue to him training Trunks), was my personal favorite comedic running joke of the special. In general, though, the hardcore Dragon Ball references were everywhere in the dialogue, and you can really tell how much the people at TFS are having fun with this. They really are just big Dragon Ball fans like the rest of us.

LumRanmaYasha · March 19, 2015, 02:42:05 PM

History of Trunks isn't an anime-exclusive story. It's based on a bonus chapter of the manga included in volume 33 (iirc). The only major differences are that the premise is expanded upon with more details/scenes (which they kind of had to do since a 20-ish page story wouldn't make for a good 45 minute special on it's own) and Trunks is already a super saiyan before Gohan's death. Otherwise, it's perfectly canon, unlike the Bardock special which Toriyama outright retconned with that DB Minus chapter last year.

My favorite parts were definitely Gohan's training with Trunks mirroring Piccolo's training of him, him repeatedly hearing Piccolo's voice in his head, honestly most things involving the portrayal of Gohan in the special in general. Excellent stuff and well worth the wait, though my favorite TFS special is still probably Episode of Bardock.

BTW, has anyone else watched TFS' Xenoverse let's play vids? They are pretty amusing (they have to work Dumplin into the abridged series for a joke somehow when they do the Buu arc), and the game itself looks like a lot of fun to play (though also somewhat frustrating).

Dr. Ensatsu-ken · March 19, 2015, 02:52:01 PM

Actually, you're right. I completely forgot about that bonus chapter, which is odd considering that I did read it quite a few years ago when I was first reading the manga back in my Freshman year of college.

As for Xenoverse, I've heard mixed things about the game itself, but I'll get around to TFS's LP of it eventually. I am however a fan of the "Krillin Plays" series specifically, though, as it's just a good combination of his character voice commentating and reacting to horror games.

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Abridged Series