Age 732: with the Tsufruian war concluded (unless that never happened) and his alliance with Freeza and/or Cold forged, King Vegeta III finds himself a queen and quickly produces an heir: Vegeta IV, the prince of the Saiyans. #HistoryofEver
Young Prince Vegeta lives an idyllic childhood playing with Saibaimen, pulling Nappa’s hair out, and exterminating the odd civilization. His few unpleasant memories from this period, long repressed, concern the occasional visits by one of his father’s acquaintances...
On another occasion (or an alternate version of the same occasion, or whatever), Beerus sent King Vegeta out on a fetch quest, but naturally it didn’t end well
Sometime after the crown prince’s birth, but before the destruction of Planet Vegeta, King Vegeta has a second son, Tarble. Frankly, he’s a bit of a disappointment, and is quickly sent off and forgotten about (but apparently not before the brothers get to know each other a bit)
Vegeta’s age relative to Goku isn’t specified in the original manga, beyond the idea that Vegeta was already a promising warrior when their planet got nuked, implying a greater age than Goku. The Bardock TV special takes this up, showing Vegeta as a kid when Goku is a newborn
Their official birth years: Age 732 and 737, putting five years between them. DB Minus makes the exact age gap more questionable, but still shows Vegeta as an older child relative to Goku
The Daizenshuu 7 timeline describes King Vegeta as marrying his queen “around Age 731”. It seems likely they already had 732 in mind as Vegeta’s birth year and simply backtracked from there, on the assumption a king would waste no time in producing an heir
And so far this vague timeline entry is all we’ve ever been told of Vegeta’s mother. You can look at Gine and draw your own conclusions as to whether that’s a shame or a blessing
In the original manga, the name “Vegeta” first pops up when Raditz explains about the Saiyan planet. Later, Nappa claims that Vegeta the man was named after Vegeta the planet, as a sign of his strength.
It’s not until the Namek arc that we get the more familiar explanation: that Vegeta is prince and named after his father. Yet even this is only spelled out in the anime, while the original manga never names Vegeta’s father beyond “the king”.
Vegeta’s younger brother Tarble was created by Toriyama for the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special, and he’s later alluded to (but not named) in the BoG film. He’s pushing 40 in the special, so his extremely youthful looks are thanks to Saiyan genes
Tomorrow: Tao’s career change!
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Dragon Ball Daima, ep.20: it’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for. The fight with Gomah is samey but looks amazing and is over soon enough for Kuu to ascend the Iron Throne, plus other fun wrap-up stuff. Thanks for everything Toriyama, and farewell. #DAIMA #ep20
Since Daima airs at 11:40 PM in Japan, the final episode on February 28th ended right as the date ticked over into March 1st, marking the one year anniversary of Toriyama’s death. So far there’s no word on if this was intentional on the part of the production team, though.
The title ゼンカイ/Zenkai comes from 全開, meaning “full power”, hence the translation “Maximun” (see also the DBZ ending theme ZENKAI Power). I’ll give it another week, but if there’s no further clues on the red letters, I’ll assume it was just about using all 20 dakuten letters
Executive producer Akio Iyoku discusses Daima’s origin: 6 years ago during DBS: Super Hero’s production, they decided to do a new TV series. At first Toriyama’s involvement was going to be minimal, but he really got into it, creating most of it in the end. mantan-web.jp/article/202502…
Iyoku says Daima was intended as a show that parents could watch with their children, so it was made to appeal both to kids and adults in their 30s who were kids back when DBGT first aired. So yes, making Goku and co kids was specifically done to appeal to the GT generation.
While making Goku a kid was seen as making the series accessible to a wider audience, it was Toriyama’s idea to turn the entire main cast into kids too. Toriyama was also concerned many people wouldn’t know DB’s story, hence the general overview at the start of each Daima episode
It’s already November 20th in Japan, which means Dragon Ball has officially reached its 40th anniversary. In case you weren’t paying attention and/or born at the time, here are some highlights from the first 40 years of DB history… #DragonBall40th
1984: gag manga superstar Akira Toriyama concludes megahit Dr. Slump, and in November debuts its follow-up in Weekly Jump. This Journey to the West-inspired kung-fu adventure kicks off as inventor girl Bulma recruits monkey boy Goku to track down the titular dragon balls.
1985: after last year’s tail-end teaser, things begin in earnest. The initial “quest for the dragon balls” arc wraps up in May, and Toriyama shifts gears to a tournament arc (always a fan favorite in his Dr. Slump days) with the lecherous Roshi and Goku’s new cueball-esque BFF.
According to Bunshun Online, Dragon Room head honcho Akio Iyoku has stepped down from Shueisha and established his own company, Capsule Corporation Tokyo. Supposedly he wants Shueisha to keep DB’s manga publishing rights but for CC Tokyo to handle DB games/anime/etc.
As you might imagine, Shueisha is reluctant to part with DB to any extent, and negotiations are still ongoing. According to this article, anyway. Shueisha has apparently confirmed that Iyoku is stepping down, but not confirmed any of the particulars so far.
Bunshun Online reached out to Toriyama and asked if he would be working with Iyoku in future, but Toriyama said he couldn’t comment publicly, only through Shueisha. He also said the company name “Capsule Corporation Tokyo” was Iyoku’s idea, not his own.
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai ep.41: Pissed Myst’s great and the logistics of Dai’s sword are interesting, while the castle’s just there to be knocked down. But it knocks down well. 4/5 #DragonQuest#ep41
Rewatching the DBS panel, there’s a few things I want to note about the subtitles. They’re fine overall but there’s a few things I think are oversimplified or left out. Going through roughly in order of importance…
When discussing the artwork for New Character 1 and 2, in Japanese Hayashida says how it’s Toriyama’s original artwork, unlike the Piccolo/Pan/etc images that have been developed into full-fledged anime designs. The subtitles instead say it was made before movie production began
Now, it might indeed be true that Toriyama would’ve made the initial artwork before movie production began, but that’s not really what Hayashida is talking about. He’s contrasting this image with the earlier ones shown of Piccolo and co, which weren’t Toriyama’s original artwork