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Dragon Ball has a wealth of cultural context and inspiration that’s often overlooked because the fights are cool. Though not averse to fawning over animation and allowing for the Rule of Cool, Jelli and Bekinney delve into the world of Akira Toriyama, and discuss lesser-known facts about the worldwide manga and anime phenomenon that is one of the most well-known and popular Japanese pop culture exports of all-time. Want to learn about the cultural importance of moments, literary inspirations behind scenes and characters, production facts, and more? Whether you‘re a fan of Goku, Vegeta, or any of the cast of characters including Piccolo, Gohan, Frieza, or even Broly, there should be something for you to enjoy as we cover all things Dragon Ball, including DBZ, GT, Super, Daima, and more! We‘ll have discussions, guests, interviews, reviews, and commentaries so grab a senzu bean, power up your fan level to Super Saiyan, and get ready to learn about Kakarot and his friends; and of course, thank you for helping us achieve our FINAL FORUM...We hear it‘s over 9000.
Episodes
5 days ago
5 days ago
Who is the MOST LOVABLE Dragon Ball character?!?!
Jelli and Bekinney take a break from breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon, and pivot away from tearing into the manga and anime that are the most crucial parts of the Dragon Ball franchise to have a little themed fun!
In this episode:
- It's TOURNAMENT SEASON! Kick off your shoes, relax, and listen as we break down 64 of Dragon Ball's most popular (?) characters and discuss who would win in a theoretical episode of The Dating Game
- We discuss the system used for determining outcomes.
- We break down our opponents in each matchup.
- In the Saiyan Region: Will Goku topple Tarble, will Vegeta defeat Paragus, who will win when Broly encounters Goten? Will the timeline handle Future Trunks facing off against his younger self? Can Gohan defeat King Vegeta? Can Cabba beat Bardock? Can Kale topple Nappa? Will Caulifla be able to defeat Raditz?
- In the Earthling Region:
- Krillin vs Yajirobe, Bulma vs Chiaotzu, Android 17 vs Ox King, Android 18 vs Mr Satan, Yamcha vs Chichi, Tien vs Nam, Android 16 vs Videl, Master Roshi vs Launch
- In the Villains Region: Can Frieza out-fox Mercenary Tao? Will Hit topple Recoome? Will Zamasu throttle King Cold? Who is more nefarious, Cooler or Pilaf? Who has the mad skills, Ginyu or Dabura? Will Buu beat down Android 19? Will Jiren smash Dr Gero? Can Cell prove to be more perfect than Garlic Jr?
- In the Deity/Ally Region:
- Who will win when Beerus, Oolong, Korin, Mr Popo, Nail, Elder Kai, Supreme Kai Shin, Puar, King Kai, Gregory, Dende, Kabito, Kami, King Yemma, Piccolo, and Jaco all face off?
Join us as we take a break from uncovering the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise and have some March Madness themed fun!
Tuesday Feb 24, 2026
Tuesday Feb 24, 2026
Jelli and Bekinney have no time to continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime Dragon Ball.
In this episode:
- The climactic battle!
Join us and find out if we will ever continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise, and unspool what we all love so much about Goku, the Dragon Ball franchise, the Dragon Ball anime, Dragon Ball manga, and more.
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Tuesday Feb 10, 2026
Tuesday Feb 10, 2026
We've reached a mid-point(?) of the overall Namek arc of Dragon Ball Z. We've reached Namek, we've dispatched Frieza's henchmen, and even the elite Ginyu Force have been defeated. How do we feel about this saga, as we begin the final battle against Frieza himself?
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by jumping into comparing the Dragon Ball anime to the Dragon Ball manga. We continue discussing Frieza arc, and talk about pacing. We also discuss five episodes of the anime, episodes 76-80, "Picking Up the Pieces," "Plans for Departure," "Nursing Wounds," "Friends or Foes," and "Held Captive."
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney descend to the surface of Mars
- We recap the story a little bit
- We discuss Elder Namekian (aka Guru) being able to unlock potential and why Gohan is able to have his potential unlocked twice throughout the story
- Scouters vs chi and how expertly the Z fighters, as they're known, can alter their flow of chi
- A brief note on Change, Switch, and Ginyu, whether he possibly says Henshin and whether the word choice matters
- Mr Popo's carpet can teleport?
- Bulma's hairstyles
- Gohan says it out loud: Piccolo is his dad
- Vegeta's tail...he claims it will grow back?!?!
- A continuity error the anime fixes
- Some of the timing/timeline differences introduced by the anime taking place at a slower pace
- Frieza killing Cargo or Dodoria, and whether it matters
- Goku reaching 100G on purpose or accident, and whether it matters
- Notes on the title pages, including possible inspiration behind the Driver License episode
- Frieza's chair: does it fly, or does he fly it?
- Wrapping up the arc with grades and comparing the manga to the anime
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise, and unspool what we all love so much about Goku, the Dragon Ball franchise, the Dragon Ball anime, Dragon Ball manga, and more.
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Tuesday Feb 03, 2026
Tuesday Feb 03, 2026
Dragon Ball Super RETURNS!
After the much-anticipated Genkidamatsuri event that took place in Tokyo, Japan, on January 25, 2026, there's a slew of news about Dragon Ball: New games, new anime, now DLC, and new versions of old anime...or old stories done new or...uhmmmm...Dragon Ball Super Kai, basically.
Join Jelli and Bekinney as we do a casual check-in and wrangle together the news from the Genkidamatsuri event and talk about it.
We also catch up on what we've been watching, Jujutsu Kaisen, Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Fallout, housing issues, bad puns, Hunter x Hunter, Predator Badlands, Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Good Boy, Primate, Nobody 2, Bugonia, The Surrender, One Battle After Another, It Was Just an Accident, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Join us for this more casual conversation as we dig through our lives.
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Tuesday Jan 27, 2026
Tuesday Jan 27, 2026
What do you get when you put together all the PLOT of a movie, but little of the ACTION of a Dragon Ball movie? Why are we talking about Jane Fonda on a Dragon Ball Z commentary track?
The answers are within as Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by tackling the 1991 movie, The Tree of Might.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are nearing a certain Red Planet
- We sync up our audio commentary for the listeners
- We discuss some of the production facts about the film Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might such as its 1991 release at the Toei Manga Matsuri film festival, the film's box office, and the production team working on the film
- We talk about the other films released alongside the movie in an event known as Akira Toriyama: The World, namely, Kennosuke-sama and Pink the Rain Jack.
- A little bit about Minoru Okazaki, director of Kennosuke-sama who also contributed to Dr. Slump, Tetsujin 28, Dragon Ball GT, Mega Man: Wish Upon a Star, Astro Boy, Cyborg 009 and more, as well as the voice cast featuring talents that would appear in Metal Gear Solid 2, Soul Calibur III, and the Lupin franchise
- Comparing Pink to Akira Toriyama's later manga, Sand Land, and discussing its director, Toyoo Ashida, most known for the original Vampire Hunter D, as well as Fist of the North Star and the 1986 Guyver anime, as well as the anthology film Batman: Gotham Knight
- A brief discussion of Yuji Ikeda, art director for this film, and through Super Android 13, as well as Barefoot Gen 2, Bleach, Death Note, Demon City Shunjuku, Digimon, The Guyver, Naruto, One Piece, Pokemon and Yu Yu Hakusho
- The first appearance of Icarus, who we likened (A VERY LITTLE BIT) to the DBZ equivalent of Harley Quinn and drew comparisons to a Dr Slump character, Taxi Dragon
- Discussing the film's unique antagonists, Raisin, Lakasai, Cacao, Amond, Daiz and Turles
- Cacao's visual similarities to a slew of creatures that bounced around Jelli's brain including the Inhumanoids characters Tendril and Metlar as well as the design similarity to the third Clayface, Preston Payne
- Delving into a unique aspect of Daiz's design: leg warmers and how they were popularized by the 1980s aerobics fad, originally pioneered by Jacki Sorenson and popularized by Jane Fonda's home workout video series
- Other elements of the 80s leg warmer fad including Fam Flashdance and Xanadu
- A little about Jane Fonda's career, from Barbarella to political activism, to her faux pas that led to her being dubbed Hanoi Jane, to her attempt to rebrand herself with her home exercise tapes
- How Jane Fonda's workout is a trope that is so well-known, people have likely seen homages to or parodies of it (like 2024's The Substance) even if they didn't know it, akin to Star Wars or Dragon Ball Z
- Jelli acknowledging that the popularity of Jane Fonda's home workout paved the way for his exercises of preference, P90X and other Beach Body (or Bodi) workouts
- Trivia around the movie's many dubs, unique design debuts, and cast of characters
- Ron Wasserman's contributions to the original score and his thoughts on Dragon Ball
- Shuki Levy, a partner of Haim Saban and co-founder of Saban Entertainment
- How the Tree of Might may be an allusion to a Tree of Life
- Bekinney pointing out that the Tree of Might is kind of like the Tree of Heaven and is a terrible thing, unlike Toriyama's pre-established Tree of Hell (the Enseijuu Tree, seen in the HFIL episode) that is a healthy, prosperous thing, and how this highlights Toriyama's love of opposites.
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual as we react to this movie and re-evaluate our thoughts on it
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
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Tuesday Jan 13, 2026
Tuesday Jan 13, 2026
What happens when an independent artist unofficially adapts a Dragon Ball-free adaptation of a Dragon Ball video game into a light novel? Did that question even make sense?
Jelli and Bekinney are taking a quick break from breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z by looking at a novelization of the NES game: Dragon Power, inspired by the Worlds of Power book series.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney pass through an asteroid belt
- The Worlds of Power Book series, from its inception as an idea inspired by Seth Godin's conversations with his nephew about reading to its ultimate success
- Nintendo's decision to pass on the Worlds of Power licensing
- Random House's Godzilla books
- A discussion of Quan Millz and Chuck Tingle
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
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Tuesday Dec 30, 2025
Tuesday Dec 30, 2025
What if… Dragon Ball were to implement a Secret Invasion type of story, with a race of Ginyu type aliens body swapping into various bodies? How would swapping two beings into the same body at the same time?
Join Jelli and Bekinney as they continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z by looking at episodes 71 through 75: "Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku," "Calling the Eternal Dragon," "Gohan, Defeat Your Dad," "Captain Ginyu…the Frog" and "Password is Porunga." We continue talking about the Ginyu Force, and this episode, zero in on Captain Ginyu, the namesake of the group.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney pass a certain ringed planet
- A decent batch of episodes
- Vegeta’s outfits and the internal consistency (or lack thereof) of Saiyan armor stretching to fit its wearer
- The man (?) of the hour: Captain Ginyu
- Ginyu’s personality resemblances in WWE, including Ric Flair and the Ultimate Warrior
- Ginyu’s physical resemblance to the Talosians of Star Trek
- Whether Ginyu’s body is his original, which spirals into a conversation about how multiple body swaps would work simultaneously
- What if: Ginyu’s species could ALL do the body swap and we had a Secret Invasion type of story in Dragon Ball with the Ginyus acting as the Skrulls
- Should we have done a Frieza episode before a Ginyu episode?
- Are Ginyu and Frieza stand-ins for Mephistopheles and Satan?
- Nio, a pair of wrathful dharmpala who are guardians of Buddha and destroy obstacles to enlightenment, also known as Agyo and Ungyo
- And invitation to be corrected on the connections we’re making
- Ginyu and Frieza’s comparability to Orcus, Sauron and Galactus
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
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Tuesday Dec 16, 2025
Tuesday Dec 16, 2025
Prepare for Trouble! And make it...two. Two of the...the bad guys. Two of them. At the same time. A tag team of cosmic proportions, when the fastest man in the universe and...another guy team up to take on the forces of good.
Join Jelli and Bekinney as they continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z by looking at episodes 66 through 70: "Goku's New Power," "A Legend Revealed," "Ginyu Assault," "Incredible Force!" and "Frieza Approaches." We continue talking about the Ginyu Force, and this episode, zero in on Jeice and Burter, the two who operate as a tag team withing the unit.
In this episode:
- The season is over...?
- A good bunch of episodes again
- Some trivia about Burter, his height and his involvement in Dragon Ball GT
- A tangent into Ultraman Leo
- Jessie the Body Ventura
- The idea of punctuality and time management as it pertains to Japanese culture, and how the country was not always thought of as the bullet-train-driven hyper-efficient society it is now
- Jeice or Jheese
- Sticking with WWF/WWE bit of comparison with Jeice and Burter being like The Rockers, where Shawn Michaels betrayed Marty Jeaneatty, or a visual comparison point of The Road Warriors, especially with Road Warrior Hawk looking somewhat similar to Burter
- Revisiting the history of punk in Japan
- Tracing punk's history in Japan from Maruhachibu and Zuno Keisatsu into The Stalin and Hantarash and how punk's emphasis on visual style in Japan gave way eventually to Visual Kei
- A brief history of visual kei, via the band X Japan and some American comparison points like Twisted Sister or Kiss
- Jeice as a glam rock superstar
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
Tuesday Dec 02, 2025
Tuesday Dec 02, 2025
They appear as a full team for approximately 1% of the franchise, and yet the Ginyu Force leave an indelible mark up Dragon Ball. How do they do it? Is it their flashy poses, their sense of style, their group dynamic? What is it about these five warriors that make them so memorable?
Join Jelli and Bekinney as they continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z by looking at episodes 61 through 65: "Hidden Power," "New Ally, New Problem," "Guldo's Mind Binds," "Recoome Unleashed," and "Let the Battle Begin." We are officially into the GINYU Saga and we're taking a look at the eponymous Ginyu Force, especially zeroing in on Recoome and Guldo.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are looking out the window. Still.
- A much better batch of episodes
- The Ginyu Force as a microcosm of Toriyama's sensibilities - subversive, parody, colorful, fun, powerful, self-contradictory, everything he likes
- Breaking down the name Ginyu Tokusentai into a discussion of what toku and sentai might mean to American audiences
- Talking about Super Sentai, including Shotaro Ishinomori, the creator of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai
- Ishinimori as the Japanese counterpart to Jack Kirby
- The impact of Super Sentai on the pop culture landscape and the more well-known American counterpart, Might Morphin Power Rangers
- The Ginyu Force as a classic Disney trope of a second-in-command villain who's more of a bumbling oaf than a genuine threat
- Breaking down Ginyu Puns; Ginyu - Dairy, Recoome - Cream, Guldo - Yogurt, Burter -Butter, Jeice - Cheese
- Delving into Guldo or Gurd
- His function as the Saibaman of the Ginyu Force
- Possible comparisons to Herve Jean-Pierre Villechaize, who played Nick Nack in Bond film, the Man with the Golden Gun, and Tattoo on Fantasy Island
- Possible comparisons to Danny Devito, due to the movie Twins with Arnold Schwarzenegger coming out at this time
- Diving into Recoome
- Is Recoome a robot?
- Recoome as a blend of Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren, due to the popularity of Rocky IV at the time
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
Tuesday Nov 25, 2025
Tuesday Nov 25, 2025
Have you heard that Dragon Ball Super Season 2 is coming soon? What about new movies? The continuation of the manga?
It’s that time of year where “Dragon Ball Super Season 2” ‘announcements’ plague the rumor mills and every talks about what to expect for 2026, so we’re here to, frankly…ruin everyone’s fun. It’s time to do some rumor control.
Join Jelli and Bekinney as we do a casual check-in with our friend Lux Edwards.
We talk about Dragon Ball Daima now that it has finished its Toonami airing, and we get into some rumor control. We break down what facts we know about Akio Iyoku, president of Capsule Corporation Tokyo, and his past history with Shueisha. We get into his friendship with Akira Toriyama, and into the ongoing legal stalemate between Capsule Corporation and Shueisha. We don’t out-and-out DEBUNK rumors, but we do tell you to bring some salt to sprinkle on all these rumors. We also bemoan the current lack of a successor to the Goku Black arc’s most hilarious dub line, that has to do with Trunks shouting “Don’t shoot!”
We also talk about Predator Badlands, The Chair Company, I Think You Should Leave, Tim Robinson, put a bow on Halloween, discuss upcoming Thanksgiving plans, and just kinda ramble. It’s a casual conversation and nobody felt much like editing, so just come hang with us.
Join us for this more casual conversation as we dig through our lives.
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