Age 733: on Earth, a new king takes the throne as world ruler. We all know him as a friendly dog man, but at the time he was apparently still hairless. Around this same time, Briefs and Bikini have their second child, Tights’ younger sister Bulma. #HistoryofEver
DB ep.113 shows the current world king celebrating his 20th anniversary. According to the game DBZ: Kakarot, he became a dog man via the drug Animorphalin around when Bulma was 10, meaning he was still a human-type for the first decade of his reign.
Curiously, DBZ ep.173 shows the walls of the king’s palace adorned with pictures of other dog men. Previously we might have assumed he came from a long line of dog kings, but DBZ: Kakarot would seem to put the kibosh on that.
Still, DBZ: Kakarot establishes that not all animal people are Animorphalin users, so perhaps many previous kings were indeed dog men, and the current monarch just took the drug to seem suitably regal (assuming of course that not all kings come from the same family)
As for Bulma’s birth: she gives her age as 16 when she first meets Goku...and also 8+ months later during the RR arc (meaning she should be close to 17 by then). In keeping with this, per the official timeline Bulma is born in Age 733 and meets Goku in Age 749.
Also born in 733: Yamcha and Tenshinhan. Their ages aren’t specified in the main series, but the Adventure Special pegs them both as 20 during the Piccolo arc (set in 753, four years after Goku meets Bulma), and Daizenshuu 7 first gave their birth years
A Weekly Jump feature from August 1986 (when the manga was in the RR arc) gives Bulma’s birthday as August 18th, and Yamcha’s as March 20th. This trivia wasn’t repeated in any of the guides, but did get a shout-out in That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha kanzenshuu.com/translations/w…
Tomorrow: Freeza meets the Saiyans!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
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