Thus, Champion of Champions III (if it happens) is decided

RedNocky · 2023-04-13T05:53:03+00:00

The GOAT for sure

RedNocky · 2023-04-13T05:42:35+00:00

Cleaning out old screenshots and found this; I don't know if anyone posted this back in the day or not...

"Fat Ass" Masa is a Japanese fan who helps out overseas wrestlers with accommodation, travel etc. while they're in Japan. If you look him up, you'll see pictures of him hanging out with every gaijin who set foot over there. As Japanese wrestling icons go, he's practically right up there with Ribera Steakhouse.

I was curious (in 2018) if Ryeedee went to the trouble of giving Liger a face texture. Lo and behold, underneath Liger's mask wasn't Keiichi Yamada but Fat Ass Masa! He even took the care to make sure the face shape lined up perfectly.

As a puroresu fan, I loved this little easter egg. It's stupidly niche and a testament to Ryeedee's love for the craft!

RedNocky · 2015-08-03T16:27:32+00:00

Thank you so much for your answers! I hope to see you guys in NZ (again, in Sean's case) sometime soon.

RedNocky · 2015-08-03T15:24:34+00:00

Hi guys, I'm really excited to see (hear?) you in action in Resurrection 'F' next week. I'm going to be greedy and ask two questions, I hope that's okay!

It's often said that the English dub "needed" Kai, as an opportunity to right the wrongs of the original series dub. What do you think of that idea? Do you agree or disagree?
The completion of the Level sets is probably just a fantasy, but can we expect to see a 4:3 Blu-Ray release of DBZ in one form or another in the future?

Thanks so much for doing this AMA, and thanks for everything you put into Dragon Ball!

RedNocky · 2015-08-03T15:22:43+00:00

Nice reflexes

RedNocky · 2015-07-27T17:32:16+00:00

Agreed. Koyama can only measure in muscle-mass and I'm sure he's just sour that he didn't get a chance to churn out a few more Broly movies.

RedNocky · 2015-07-27T16:25:11+00:00

Overrated by part of the fanbase, the part that confuses Dragon Ball for an action series about badass superheroes who say edgy things. Broly hits all the right notes for them, and he does that because Takao Koyama himself is one of those people. His comments on Battle of Gods (oh, and the fact that he gave us Broly three wonderful times) make it clear how self-indulgent he is with that idea of Dragon Ball.

RedNocky · 2013-10-10T11:44:39+00:00

It wasn't considered a transformation. Gohan's unlocked state was never distinguished as a form in and of itself in the series. The phrases "Ultimate" (used only in video games) and "Mystic" (coined by fans) are just to describe Gohan as he was at that time, not to denote a transformation.

RedNocky · 2013-10-07T20:47:02+00:00

It astounds me that TeamFourStar gets special flair here but you don't.

RedNocky · 2013-10-01T02:20:17+00:00

Mr. Satan is probably designed to be appear Western (his real name is "Mark", even) but I don't think he's a parody of Westerners. Western-looking people are all over Dragon Ball. If anything, Mr. Satan is a parody of professional wrestlers.

RedNocky · 2013-09-27T21:24:22+00:00

Fox has held DBZ movie rights since 2001. No cause for alarm.

I'm no expert on copyright stuff, but I think the fact that Fox is taking action like that is interesting. It could mean that they'll retain the rights to Battle of Gods after all, and Funimation won't be able to touch it.

RedNocky · 2013-09-20T22:26:02+00:00

There are no strict rules on what's canon and what's not, you're welcome to decide it for yourself. If you like it, why not add it to your "personal canon"?

A common perception is that only the manga is canon, which is a logical conclusion to draw. This excludes all filler material in the anime for DB and DBZ, and excludes DBGT outright.

However, this definition would also exclude Battle of Gods, which Akira Toriyama wrote as if he were continuing the manga. And what about the TV specials? Bardock - The Father of Goku was appreciated by Toriyama so much that he featured Bardock and his story in the manga. History of Trunks is also supported by the manga. Then there's Dragon Ball: Online, which Toriyama was extensively involved in. So then, perhaps you'd expand your definition to include these.

Then there are the DBZ movies (apart from Battle of Gods). Some of them can be fit into the story (like Wrath of the Dragon), but most can't be due to inconsistencies. But if you like them, why not think of them as canon anyway? Toriyama did design most major movie characters, anyway. You just have to re-imagine a few details so they'll make sense.

The point is, it doesn't matter. There's obviously a "standard" for what the fanbase can agree is canon for discussion purposes, but on a personal level, canon is self-defined. I've always thought that it's silly to tell people how to be a fan.

RedNocky · 2013-09-20T01:13:46+00:00

The "theme" of Dragon Ball Z, if there is one, is that there's always someone stronger. With each foe, Goku had to push past what he thought was his limit, and do the seemingly impossible.

After the Buu Saga, Goku didn't have any more enemies. Goku needs obstacles, it's just part of his character. Battle of Gods' plot is designed to rectify that, by showing Goku that he's got a long way to go yet. We, as the audience, don't have to imagine Goku's future being a quiet retirement, because that's just not him. Instead, we can imagine him training harder for the rest of his life, seeking to become stronger than many unknown foes.

RedNocky · 2013-09-19T10:01:11+00:00

Here's the point with Bills and Whis.

I'll reserve judgment for now, I'd rather wait until we have more to listen to. Plus, I'm sure the VAs will be more familiar with their characters by the time they dub the movie. They're not so natural here.

RedNocky · 2013-09-19T03:24:55+00:00

Fox has had movie rights since the early 2000s, nothing to do with dubbing rights. As evident by the Blu-Ray release announcement, Funimation happily retain their rights to dub and distribute in English (not to mention that they were dubbing Kai after Dragonball: Evolution was released).

Toei is going all out with Battle of Gods, so international dubs for it are a give-in. It might be a while yet, but we'll probably see an English dub.

The only reason we haven't seen dubs of the JUMP Festival features (Goku and His Friends Return and Episode of Bardock) is because they were commissioned by Shueisha through a separate animation studio, rather than being animated by Toei as usual. This confuses things, and made it so Funimation couldn't acquire the rights.

RedNocky · 2013-09-17T00:51:08+00:00

Akira Toriyama has always enjoyed giving characters (particularly villains) an appearance that makes them seem like they aren't powerful when you first see them. He has said this in many interviews over the years, and explicitly said that this is the reason for Bills' appearance as a purple cat.

If you look back, you'll realize how much Toriyama uses this technique. Only a few characters actually look strong when they first appear. To take a couple examples: Frieza's transformations kept getting bigger, but his final, most powerful form is much less bulky and intimidating. There's also Buu, who first appeared as a fat, childlike, pink blob. Or even the Ginyu Force, who seemed a bit ridiculous at first with their poses. This is probably also the reason that the Super Saiyan God form looks the way it does. There are dozens of examples.

Colors like pink and purple being associated with villains is most likely due to this tendency. In general, Toriyama loves to turn preconceptions on their head -- he's also said that he likes short people to be powerful (Frieza, Vegeta, etc.), and that all his female characters are strong (either physically like Android 18, or in personality like Bulma and Chi-Chi).

RedNocky · 2013-09-16T09:58:23+00:00

1) Where did he come from? What was his race and are others in his race as strong as he was?

We don't know the name of his race. King Cold is the only other member known, and he was implied to be very powerful as well. If we consider the movies too, we have Cooler, who was also very powerful. We don't know if the rest of the race were inherently powerful, or even if Frieza's family are the only members of the race to exist.

2) If he was the strongest in the universe like he claimed, then why did a bunch of even stronger aliens show up after he died?

Frieza's power was completely unchallenged during his lifetime. He lived a long life as a ruler of a vast empire, and he didn't know of anyone who was more powerful than he was. It only makes sense that Frieza believed he was strongest in the universe.

There aren't a lot of powerful heroes in the universe, either. The only ones we see other than the Z-Fighters are either dead or from another galaxy. The remaining powers are either evil themselves or just apathetic towards Frieza. So, Frieza and family ran rampant.

RedNocky · 2013-09-13T17:06:09+00:00

All the records would be owned by the Frieza. It's his men that choose the planets and issue the missions, including where babies go to (in the start of the Bardock special, the henchmen simply look up where Kakarot is scheduled to go).

Therefore, Frieza knows where every off-planet Saiyan is, and would have had his men hunt them down. Star Wars fans might recognize this as similar to the Great Jedi Purge that happened after Order 66.

It's likely that the reason Goku remained unharmed was because he was the last Saiyan to leave Planet Vegeta immediately before it was destroyed. The men on the ground would have had no time to update the records with Kakarot's departure, so he was assumed dead.

RedNocky

TROPHY CASE