Dragon Ball (All Series)

[LumRanmaYasha]

I know this sounds too much of a stretch, but the Universal Survival Saga feels like a meta-narrative arguing for Dragonball's place in Toei's catalogue, where they have to fight against their other brands like PreCure (i.e. Ribrianne) and Super Sentai (the Pride Troopers), while the child-like yet sociopathic Toei overlords (Zeno) decide which of these franchises is deemed appealing enough to survive. Helps that Super is in the same time slot as some of Toei's other shows, meaning the company regularly duels with itself in the ratings.

That's a pretty interesting interpretation. I wouldn't be surprised if that was what inspired who the competitors were in the different universes, especially since Zeno is clearly supposed to be a stand-in for the fans.

Bulma has been recast.

Sailor Mercury is Bulma now, huh? That's a pretty good choice. Actually surprised that a prolific seiyuu like Aya Hisakawa has only played minor roles in the Dragon Ball franchise before now.

Super Eyepatch Wolf just released a pretty neat video about the impact and influence of Dragon Ball Z: https://youtu.be/tuvSwb5KM6Q

Some of his statements about the dub and Falconer's soundtrack were cringey, and he's flat out wrong about DBZ being the first anime to feature recurring overarching antagonists who have an arc centered around them with a final showdown that lasts for multiple episodes. FOTNS, which he references in the video, being one of those very examples - Raoh, anyone? But overall SEW is really great at conveying how important the show was for those who grew up with it and emotionally expressing his connection with it, and I always appreciate that.

[gunswordfist]

Then it's fitting that the fans hate Zeno.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Why you should be excited for the new Dragon Ball movie: https://youtu.be/Iq98LxorkxY

The animation staff really needed the shake-up, and it looks as though Toei is putting some real time and effort into this one.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Don't ever take anything said on a site like Comicbook.com at face value. It's a garbage click-bait buzz feed and has actually been known to spread misinformation in the past. Generally speaking, when it comes to Dragon Ball, anything posted by one of the Kanzenshuu regulars (such as Herms, among others) can be trusted. In fact, most other sources end up using their scans and translations as their source.

Now, in the case of DBS, I never doubted that DB will return to TV eventually within the forseeable future. However, to my knowledge, nothing has been officially stated on the matter by Toriyama, Shueisha, or Toei, other than that the movie will be picking up after the events of the Tournament of Power arc from Super, and that the manga will also cover past the Tournament of Power arc. Nothing has thus been stated about any more TV episodes being broadcast after 131 so far (though, again, I won't be surprised if we get such an announcement later on).

[Dr. Insomniac]

So in usual Toriyama fashion, a lot of the Universal Survival Saga was made up on the spot.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I always knew that Dragon Ball was and still is a hugely popular franchise all throughout Latin America, but damn: https://kotaku.com/massive-crowds-gather-to-watch-dragon-ball-super-togeth-1823882122/amp

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, here's a 20-second preview of what Dragon Ball looks like from the first production of the reorganized staff: https://youtu.be/xBflpbZawAY

It already looks miles better than both of the last two films, and even Super's best bits of animation.

The guy in charge of the animation is the very same person behind One Piece Film Z's animation team, and if you've seen that movie, you know that we should be in for some pretty slick visuals and incredible fluid movement.

Also, I detest Super's use of color saturation and horrendous lighting, so it's so refreshing to see all of that gone here as well. You can really tell that someone else is in charge of all of this, and really coming at this project with genuine passion for their craft.

[Dr. Insomniac]

At last, the detailed origins of Gohan Blanco.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So in case you were worried that Dragon Ball was going away: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-03-27/toei-animation-to-establish-department-focused-on-dragon-ball/.129582

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, has anyone else been following the Giant Bomb podcast series All Systems Goku?

It features two of the site's founders/editors Jeff Gerstmann and Dan Ryckert going through all of Dragon Ball Z Kai for the first time week-by-week in multi-episode chunks and discussing it. The twist here is that not only are they completely unfamiliar with Dragon Ball outside of coming across it in memes or various other forms of pop culture, but they have barely any prior exposure to anime in general, so naturally their reactions to the craziness unfolding before them is outright fucking hilarious to listen to as they try to make sense of what they just watched. What's great about it though is seeing them actually get into the show and switch back and forth on which characters they root for or hate while also trying to figure out how the next batch of episodes will go. In particular, I love their commentary on Vegeta's moments in the Namek arc since that features both some of the show's most bad-ass and outright bizarre moments. It's also a blast to see their "WTF is that?" reactions to the many strange side characters in this series, though.

[Avaitor]

I'm really liking the Zamasu arc, but I do have to ask, are Saiyans really mortal? They're pretty damn powerful mortals, anyway.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I think it's more of a lifespan-based thing than a power-based thing. The Gods live for millenia and also play roles of creation, destruction, or guarding their respective Universe. While Saiyans do live a longer life-span than humans, they seem to be implied to last centuries at most, and also don't play any divine role in the Universe. Also keep in mind that Saiyans like Goku, Vegeta, and their offspring are anomalies among their race, whereas average Saiyans that represent the race in general are considered to be sub-par on a power scale compared to other beings like Freeza or various more powerful races and entities in their Universe. Freeza himself implies that their strength is grouping up in numbers, before Toriyama retcons their natural characteristics to be preferring one-on-one battles. In general, though, Zamasu seems to think anyone other than the Kais are inherently evil, and refers to anyone who's not a Kai, Angel, or God of Destruction as mortal.

Come to think of it, having read through most of Walt Simonson's Thor run recently, they seem to use a similar methodology for differentiating Gods and mortals despite the fact that there are clearly non-Gods as strong or even stronger than Thor, along with the fact that Thor can also most definitely be killed.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I watched that Dragon Ball Heroes thing that came out a day ago, and not a lick of it made any sense. Then I read the wiki that explained what Dragon Ball Heroes was, and it made even less sense.

[Daikun]

It's promotional material for a video game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The movie's villain has been revealed to be Broly.

....And just like that, my interest level has gone way down.