DB30YEARS: Special Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Magazine

by Michael LaBrie

entire experience, Goku has the most perfectly, well, “Goku” kind of reaction imaginable. Obtaining the power of a God disappoints and aggravates him, in line with his perpetual desire of wanting to become stronger by his own hard work and not through the assistance of others.

  Despite all this, the movie’s namesake ends in a way you’d probably expect, but not at all in a bad way. As it’s been recently revealed, another new DBZ movie, this time written and conceptualized entirely by Toriyama himself, will be hitting Japanese theaters during Golden Week of 2015. Battle of Gods gives longtime fans of all kinds a fantastic and fun new story with all of their old friends, but yet again, in true Dragon Ball style, leaves things open for more…things bigger and better. That’s exactly what it sounds like we’re going to get in the years to come and Battle of Gods is a great start to a whole new universe worth of DBZ-related excitement to be had. If you grew up with the series in any capacity, do yourself a favor and check it out.

  CHRIS (“Kirbopher”) is a professional voice actor & long-time fan. Watch “TOME” and “Did You Know Voice Acting?” at: youtube.com/Kirbopher15

  Super Saiyan God

  Skinny with red hair…but that was not the original plan

  By Sean Gallagher

  Any attentive Dragon Ball fan should be familiar with “Super Saiyan God” by now. Introduced and used by Son Goku in 2013’s Battle of Gods film, it was certainly a departure from the norm as far as new “power-ups” for the characters go. Achieved by a multi-person ritual rather than training, dependent upon righteous character rather than rage, and even making use of a different quality of ki than what’s normally used, it was unlike anything fans were expecting.

  Perhaps the greatest surprise was the form’s appearance. Instead of building upon the exaggerated and flamboyant looks of the original comic’s three Super Saiyan levels, or the animation-only Super Saiyan 4, the Super Saiyan God form went in a totally different direction. It was intentionally designed to appear less visibly “flashy” than its predecessors. Super Saiyan God Goku mostly still resembled his normal un-transformed state, save only for a hair and eye color change from black to red, and becoming even skinnier than usual. This “less is more” design, we eventually learned, was the work of franchise creator and original author Akira Toriyama, who was heavily involved in the film’s production.

  What fewer Dragon Ball fans may be aware of is that, before Toriyama gave it his magic touch, Super Saiyan God was quite different in its earliest prototype stages. Tadayoshi Yamamuro, the animation supervisor for Battle of Gods and quite a handful of other animated Dragon Ball works before it, originally envisioned a design quite different from the final one by Toriyama.

  Information on this early design is scarce, but a few interviews with Yamamuro himself have revealed bits and pieces about it. He described a few key traits: bulky and muscular, a hairstyle “between Super Saiyan 3 and 4,” and—finally and bizarrely—a cape. There’s really not much else to go by, aside from the assumption that Toriyama’s use of the “strong looking color” red wasn’t originally part of Yamamuro’s version. If we put it all together, and inject a little creativity, we can come up with something that doesn’t look too shabby, if not a bit less “unique” than the final Toriyama-crafted design.

  SEAN (“Kaboom”) can be found hanging out at Kanzenshuu. He doesn’t like to wander too far.

  The Excitement!

  The announcement for a new movie in 2015 = insanity

  By Lauren Costantini

  I was stunned. I had taken Beerus going back to sleep for three years to mean we wouldn’t see another film until 2016. And yet here we are! New Dragon Ball movie in May 2015! Sequel to Battle of Gods! With reportedly even more action! My biggest excitement so far came from the mention that this new movie’s story has the approval of Toriyama’s notoriously hard-to-please former editor, Kazuhiko Torishima. My hopes are high.

  Riding the waves of leaks and official news is fun because it places you in a position to play detective. V-Jump’s website has become a go-to place for updates—with two Dragon Ball games in arcades and no manga running in Weekly Jump, it’s understandable why Shueisha uses V-Jump as their DB movie news vehicle—so I find myself checking their site the week leading up to the magazine’s monthly release date to see their “Next Info” page with mini-previews.

  Recent hints include listings on the Shonen Jump website of five untitled DXF tie-in figures to be released over the course of next spring. There were four of these released with Battle of Gods (Goku, Vegeta, Beerus, & Whis). If you theorize two of DB15’s will once again be Goku and Vegeta, could this mean there are three antagonists this time? Or perhaps a new hero character who ties into the plot plus two bad guys? There’s also a Master Stars figure on the way in June related to the movie (Battle of Gods didn’t even have one of those); will that be a Super Saiyan God Goku figure, or one of the big bad?

  I can’t wait until DB15’s title and poster are revealed and we begin deciphering the meaning behind it all. I fondly recall the speculation about who Whis was; is he a Makaioshin, is he good, is he evil, is he even a he? And if he was a Makaioshin, was he some sort of puppet-master feeding Beerus false information? And what of Beerus, whose accidental-dual-name-pun spelling was an even more hotly debated topic than if he was a cat or a rabbit (those ears)? If you were on Kanzenshuu’s forum for Battle of Gods speculation, you probably remember “Bills,” not to mention Gohan’s hair. Things like that photo of what turned out to be likely a prototype of Super Saiyan God Goku on a door at Toei Animation and the use of blocked-out artwork near the tail end of the pre-release (which hinted at the appearance of the second “kami” mentioned in the film’s title) fueled the big Battle of Gods thread on the forum.

  Taglines can be even more interesting to examine. Battle of Gods’ “A God of Destruction who Violates the Common Sense of ‘Z’ Descends!!” was fascinating. It set off all kinds of thoughts on Beerus being a reality-warper. I connected that to the reveal of the tie-in WCF mini-figures of irritated green Pilaf and eerily-cheerful Vegeta to a theory that Beerus had body-swapped Pilaf and Piccolo and cast a spell on Vegeta for being a grump. None of that came true of course; Pilaf was green because they were going off of coloring Toriyama had used in his character designs and Vegeta’s false cheerfulness did end up in official Toei character art, but whatever scene it went with—most likely him trying to keep Beerus content—never made it to the final cut. Exercising your imagination as you try to piece together the mystery of “What’s this movie about?” while conversing about it on forums, exchanging theories with other members...it’s something that can almost-only happen on the journey to a theatrical release.

  DB15 continues after Battle of Gods left off, but how long after? A few days or more like a few years? Will Beerus and Whis return? Will Goku learn more about his new god-powers and will we even see his god form again? Has Super Saiyan 2 and 3 been retired by Toriyama, and will this hold true? Will DB15 be “The Vegeta Movie” as hinted at by comments made prior to the film’s announcement? Will we get to visit any of those other universes Beerus mentioned near the end of Battle of Gods?

  It’s been so long since we’ve had this much fresh Dragon Ball plot from the author; this feels like the closest you can get to what I imagine theorizing on the manga’s plotline during serialization must have felt like. Since November 2012’s V-Jump was the issue that revealed the title and poster for Battle of Gods, I’ve put my hopes behind this November’s issue for the next big DB15 reveal. And if it’s not there, there’s always Jump Festa!

  LAUREN (“Chuquita”) enjoys drawing and can be found hanging out at Kanzenshuu.

  Homages in U.S. Television

  Gintama, Bo-bobo…Sure, lots of Japanese series pay homage to Dragon Ball, but in the U.S.?

  By Mike LaBrie

  It can be a little difficult these days to remember what it was like when Dragon Ball Z episodes were airing for the first time on Cartoon Network in North America
. Walking through the mall you would be hit with merchandise all over the place before stumbling onto the Score collectible card game Hummer Tour featuring English voice actors. It was absolutely massive for quite a few years! While Dragon Ball clearly influenced Japanese creators, the series’ influence started to make its way to creative and production staff on American shows as well. Here are just a few of the significant homages we’ve been treated to.

  THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY & MANDY - “CHICKEN BALL Z” (Season 2, Episode 9B)

  Originally Aired: 15 August 2003

  Summary: Mandy enters a tournament in hopes of its $50,000 grand prize. An ancient “Chicken Ball” from shopkeeper Kuan Ti allows her to become a great fighter, which in turn causes her to abandon her dreams of the cash prize and simply aim to become the greatest combatant. It turns out Kuan Ti was Eris in disguise causing chaos. Grim turns Billy into a hero as well, and they fight until the arena is destroyed. Mandy still wants the prize, though.

  Other notes: Released shortly after the peak of Dragon Ball Z’s popularity on Cartoon Network, it’s no surprise to see one of the channel’s own shows bring in the clear homages. Very funny, and very well worth watching.

  CODENAME: KIDS