Age 753 to 756: to prepare for his rematch with Piccolo, young Goku trains in that most hyperbolic of all time chambers, the Room of Spirit and Time, but he’s unable to stand its harsh environment for more than a month. He also samples Popo’s off-brand time room. #HistoryofEver
Meanwhile, down on the ground floor, kid Piccolo’s wacky adventures continue. He’ll grow into an adult over the course of the next three years, putting Dende to shame (yet he’s still a late bloomer compared to Piccolo Senior’s other children, who came out full-grown in seconds)
Now that he’s got Goku close at hand, Kami permanently removes his tail so that he can safely bring back the moon without any future monkey mayhem. But he doesn’t fully explain his true motives to Goku, so it’s not until years later that Goku finally puts two and two together.
This factoid about the moon’s restoration and the final fate of Goku’s tail is first mentioned early on in the 23rd TB, and explains why the moon is around again for Piccolo to blow up in the Saiyan arc after Roshi destroys it the first time around at the 21st TB.
Goku’s training with Kami and Popo is mostly skipped over in the manga, but the anime adds plenty of incidents. Besides traveling back in time to meet young Roshi, he tries to steal the crown of Mt. Goro-Goro, goes fishing, fights his doll clone, and generally makes zero progress
Then in the Android arc, we retroactively learn that kid Goku tried out the time chamber during this period, only to crack up after about a month inside (so 2 hours in outside time). But it’s thanks to this that Goku knows of the room and suggests using it for the androids/Cell.
We know that Toriyama submitted various ideas for anime filler, and while the time travel room isn’t specifically cited as one of these, it is suggestive that it pops up twice in filler, long before Toriyama introduced a lookout room with time-warping properties in the manga.
On the less mystical side, it’s during his training with Kami and Popo that Goku begins wearing weighted clothes, including the boots and blue undershirt that form his trademark outfit as an adult (fan artists take note: kid Goku has slipper-style shoes and no undershirt)
Not to be outdone, Yamcha and co train together at Karin Tower for awhile, then split up and train on their own until the tournament. It’s sometime during this period that Yamcha receives his distinctive facial scars, though the details remain highly classified.
On Tuesday: the marriage of heaven and hell!
Thanks as usual to @Terez27 for all the clips this week
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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