May 9th, Age 753: the very first Piccolo Day ends in tragedy as the newly appointed World King is assassinated by a disgruntled youth before his visionary social policies can be fully implemented. Fortunately the king has an heir lined up... #HistoryofEver
Yes, Piccolo is dead. Long live Piccolo! His son/reincarnation/doppelgänger/whatever hatches safely, thus carrying on the mystic link between Piccolo Senior and Kami. God only knows how this stuff works, but it does. Apparently.
(In the manga Piccolo hatches alone. The anime version is a parody of the Japanese fairy tale of Momotaro, who hatches from a giant peach found by an elderly couple) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momotarō
Despite being within earshot of Piccolo’s lengthy speech to his son, Goku doesn’t notice any of this. Instead, his concern is to revive everyone killed by Piccolo and co. But to do that, he’ll have to get Shenlong fixed first, and that means going right to the top.
After a brief case of mistaken identity, Goku and Kami work out a deal: Kami restores Shenlong at once, in exchange for Goku staying up in cloud city so he can train with Kami/Popo in order to beat Piccolo Mach 2 at the next tournament.
(Why don’t they just go take care of Piccolo Junior now, especially since Kami’s eventual plan is to seal him away without any help from Goku? I guess lil’ Piccolo is just too darn cute to lock up in a rice cooker)
Shenlong comes back and revives Piccolo and co’s victims (an encore performance after granting a wish the day before). And with that, everyone vows to train real hard for the next three years so they can reunite at another one of those darn tournaments.
This is it: May 9th. An actual date stated in the series! The joke here is that May 9th=5 9=Go Ku according to the versatile rules of Japanese number punning, which is why this date is also designated as Goku Day, thus leading to a rather overcrowded holiday for fans.
This is also the same number pun logic behind Goku’s jacket having a 59 on it, and DB quiz books containing 590 questions. And before anyone asks: yes, 9 in Japanese is typically read as kyū, but it’s kū for number pun purposes. Trust me, number puns get way crazier than this.
The upshot to this is that Piccolo Junior’s birthday is May 9th, thus making him the only character to have a birthday specified in the series itself. Well, him and Drum. And the Cell Juniors, I guess (though the date of the Cell Games is variable, as we’ll see)
Only three specific days of the month are ever stated in the original manga, and they’re almost or entirely all in May (depending on which edition you read). From these, the Daizenshuu timeline calculates specific dates for most onscreen events. Because someone had to.
May 9th in particular does the lion’s share of the work. It’s two days after the 22nd TB, meaning the tournament must’ve been May 7th. By assuming the TB is always May 7th, the daizenshuu derives dates for every story arc up to the 23rd TB, plus the Buu arc to boot. Quite a coup!
Yet despite this supreme significance of May 9th, the Funi dub changes Piccolo Day to May 13th, presumably to play off the superstition of unlucky 13. Oh well, I suppose that sort of numerology might be the closest you can get in English to a number pun.
Tomorrow: time chamber time!
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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
May 15th, Age 767: after three days of rest, Goku recovers from his heart disease (a week earlier than Trunks expected). The situation may be dire, but Goku knows the perfect place where Vegeta and Trunks can finally spend some quality father/son time together... #HistoryofEver
Speaking of quality time, Goku and Chi Chi get a nice moment together in the anime, sharing a kiss far too hot to actually show on screen. Or include in the canon, for that matter.
Alright, so…in the original manga, Goku and Chi Chi are never shown kissing. In DBZ ep.147 they share an offscreen kiss (they later made a figurine based on this). In the DBS anime and manga, Goku claims never to have kissed his wife. Draw your own conclusions.
May 12th, Age 767 (Bad Future Edition): at 10 AM on an island 9km southwest of South City, 17 and 18 begin their assault. Vegeta and co are mowed down, leaving Gohan sole survivor. Even the dragon balls are no use, since Pilaf and co wasted them on a dumb wish. #HistoryofEver
May 12th, Age 767 (Better Future Edition): 19 and 20 appear on schedule, but Our Heroes are ready. Well, Goku gets a bit sick, but Vegeta covers for him. While 19 and 20 don’t last long, 17 and 18 make short work of the gang. And that’s just the beginning of their problems…
Yes, it’s another busy day. May 12th has the honor of being one of the few specific dates mentioned in the series, although the year 767 comes from the Daizenshuu 7 timeline. If there’s any number pun significance to this date, I haven’t been able to find it.
May 7th, Age 767: after 11 years, the Tenkaichi Budokai is finally reopened, though Goku and co are apparently too busy android-training to notice. Instead, Mister Satan is champion, beating some jerk called “Spopovitch” in Round 1, then facing Jewel in the finals #HistoryofEver
The 24th TB also introduces a new “youth division” for entrants under 15, which is won by Satan’s daughter Videl. Satan becomes famous as world champ and moves to Orange Star City, which is renamed “Satan City” in his honor. Though they don’t bother renaming the high school.
When Mister Satan first appears in the lead-up to the Cell Games, he’s introduced simply as the world martial arts champion (using 格闘技/kakutōgi, a different word for “martial arts” than 武道/budō ala the Tenkaichi Budokai).
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai ep.40: tons of great action cuts, but it’s another episode that would’ve been better if it rushed through less stuff. 3.75/5 #DragonQuest#ep40
In the manga, Popp specifies that he’s only ever heard about Flazzard’s Finger Flare Bombs and never got the chance to see them in action before trying the technique out himself (I get the feeling this was in response to reader complaints)
When admiring Chiu’s guts, in the manga Crocodine refers to him as チビ/chibi/“shorty”, but the anime leaves this out. The anime likewise changed Leona calling Dai chibi in ep.1/2 (to the less insulting 小さい/small). Can you really not say chibi on TV anymore?