arc. It was not really until both the anime and manga series had run their course that companies began putting much consideration into designating story arcs. Why, you may ask? Well, for the sole purpose of guidebooks.
Following the conclusion of the manga, Shueisha released the Daizenshuu (lit. “Great Complete Collections”) guidebooks, but they needed a way to more conveniently divide things up within the pages. This would mark the first real division of the series by an official company, and it most certainly would not be the last. Not only did the Daizenshuu provide story arc divisions for the manga series, but also the anime series, which it divided up into arcs with smaller “acts” within each. Over the years Shueisha released numerous other guidebooks, all with varying divisions.
Toei Animation eventually divided up the series themselves with the release of the “Dragon Box” DVD sets, but this did nothing to squelch the ongoing debate. All of these “official” story arc divisions have contradicted each other, even within the same companies. It has become clear over time that the majority of these “official” divisions came out of mere convenience for that specific company, depending on what product they were trying to sell. And that is all just in Japan.
Enter the foreign markets, each with their own story arc divisions. Some foreign companies stuck with very basic larger divisions, while some divided them up so much they had seven to eight episode “sagas.” There is no true global consensus or consistency. Even in the United States, there are two companies that at times are in conflict not only with each other, but with themselves as well.
So just stick with what you have, or go switch it up a bit. In the end it’s not that one fan is more right than the other, it’s that each fan gets the opportunity to decide and interpret the series for themselves.
“Saga” vs. “Arc”
I often get into discussions about my use of the term “arc” over the traditional American use of “saga” to describe the various major story elements of the Dragon Ball series. My reasoning is frequently assumed to be based on some anti-FUNimation sentiment, or that is how the Japanese do it. Well the latter is the easiest to explain away
In Japanese they don’t use either term—“saga” or “arc”—to refer to these sorts of things. The word used is 編 (hen) or 篇 (hen), both of which mean “compilation” or “volume.” For instance, in Japanese it is written サイヤ人編 (saiya-jin hen), which I typically translate as “Saiyan arc.” It is just one of those instances where it is easier to adjust to the English language’s vernacular, because in English these terms are not normally used with respect to animated works. But I know what you might be thinking now: why not translate it as “saga” then, since that is what FUNimation uses?
Well, it all comes down to understanding the difference between these two terms. The definition of a “saga” is a “very long story with dramatic events or parts” and is typically a “narrative or legend of heroic exploits.” This does not describe the individual divisions of the series; if anything it is how you would describe all of Dragon Ball as a whole. However, the definition of a story arc is “an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media.”
So by definition, the saga of Dragon Ball is made up of numerous story arcs, but not vice versa. Think of other great fictional stories, such as Star Wars. Each film is a piece of the entire Star Wars saga, but they are not actual sagas themselves on an individual level. Sometimes fans must use their own judgment in these cases. Just because someone told you that is the way it has to be, that doesn’t make it so.
HEATH (“Hujio”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. He’s very exact about things.
Continuous Evolution: Viz Manga
By Julian Grybowski
Starting out as the underdog thumbing its nose at FUNimation, Viz promised to bring us the real story. For at least a few years, their manga was also the only place English-speaking fans could follow Son Goku’s boyhood adventures past the initial Dragon Ball hunt, although the dual-focus on “DB”/“DBZ” made its progress slower than it could have been.
Times change, though, and as FUNimation started getting its act together with the anime, Viz reneged on its promise of uncensored manga, and a petition to get it back only helped for a few years. Still, they blazed a trail through the Anglosphere with the series that other series would soon follow, with a market now dominated by unflopped manga, and a domestic Shonen Jump that would eventually release day-and-date with the Japanese original. Every step of the way, Dragon Ball has been Viz’s vanguard, at the forefront of these tectonic shifts in the industry.
Now would it be too much to ask for a new translation and a competent uncensored release? Pretty please?
JULIAN (“SaiyaJedi”) lives in Japan and provides translations for Kanzenshuu.
Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission
The card-based arcade game gets a spin-off manga
Naho Ooishi may have been the first new spin-off author on the scene, but Toyotaro took center stage with his Dragon Ball Heroes comic
By Mike LaBrie
Little did they know it, but Bandai Namco and Shueisha set a new stage of history with just two pages in the November 2012 V-Jump.
Dragon Ball Heroes, a popular card-based arcade game for the franchise, was already becoming massively popular with Japanese kids. Episode of Bardock successfully launched across a manga release, an anime adaptation, video game inclusions, and related home video releases. What else could the companies do to spread the success of Dragon Ball Heroes?
Enter “Toyotaro.” An accomplished fan artist in his own right (see next page), the mysterious “Toyotaro” stormed the pages of V-Jump with Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission, a spin-off and promotional manga taking elements from the arcade game and introducing them to new and existing players alike. It was not at all unlike the Pokemon TV series, which acted as a sort of strategy guide and hype machine for the games.
What started as a self-contained, two-page first chapter has now grown into a fully-serialized monthly comic. Victory Mission helps introduce new gaming mechanics, new characters, new transformations, and does so with an astounding eye for Akira Toriyama’s art style.
It’s not just the art, though. Each month, Victory Mission readers are treated to fully-realized name pun schemes and even the occasional cameo from various Toriyama works. Check out chapter four to see hidden Jiya, Dub & Peter, and even Dragon Ball GT cameos!
Who is the mysterious “Toyotaro”…?
Similarities to work from “Toyble” are huge.
Soon after the first Victory Mission chapter hits V-Jump, fans start to notice artistic similarities with work from “Toyble,” author and illustrator of a Dragon Ball AF fan-comic.
A big hint comes from Toyble in mid-2012.
Toyble releases a message stating that, “due to a variety of circumstances...” he will be unable to give his fan-comic much more attention. The message is accompanied by what is obviously a silhouette of Beat from Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission. Confirmation from Toyble himself?
MIKE (“VegettoEX”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. He has lots of V-Jump issues.
Who is Bardock?
He’s Goku’s father…but what else do we know for sure?
By Lance Rumowicz
Perhaps out of all of Dragon Ball’s diverse cast, Bardock, Goku’s father, is its most unique character....which is very interesting considering that, design-wise and vocally, he’s basically a Goku-clone accessorized with evil. And even in that regard, he was beaten out of the gate by a good three months by his sinister, botany-loving doppelgänger, Tullece, from the third DBZ movie. Still, despite his meager appearances in any Dragon Ball medium, Bardock stands out. In the past, that was because the story he inhabited was far more sinister and tragic than any other Dragon Ball had told. While that is still the case, more recent outings have made him almost as memorable for his confusing and contradictory histories unparalleled in the Dragon World.
D
esigned by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru and revised by Toriyama himself, Bardock debuted 17 October 1990 as the protagonist—although not hero—of Dragon Ball Z’s first double-length television special, “A Final, Solitary Battle. The Father of Z-Warrior Son Goku, Who Challenged Freeza.” On paper, the idea of a prequel wherein Goku’s near-identical father faces off against Freeza sounds like the worst kind of fan-servicing tripe. In reality, the “Bardock Special” managed to avoid most of the prequel pitfalls. Bardock isn’t a famous hero. He doesn’t “see the light” and become a good guy. He doesn’t even care about his son until he becomes aware that the boy could kill Freeza in his stead. He’s a murderous thug, and all of his plans to rebel fail. His “epic showdown” with Freeza is barely even noticed by the latter. No, Bardock is just a standard lackey, albeit achieving pathos due to a telepathic curse that allows him to see the unpleasant fate he has in store, but lacking any way to do anything about it. It was the kind of story that Dragon Ball, with its upbeat tone and persistently happy endings, had never told, and was in fact, the kind of story that Toriyama himself admitted he lacked the ability to tell. Instead, he gave the special what could be considered the highest of honors: he included a brief flashback to Bardock’s final moments in a chapter of his own manga. It was shockingly
DB30YEARS: Special Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Magazine Page 5