Final Forum: A Dragon Ball Podcast

Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater (S3E28)

Jelli and Bekinney take a break from Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon (are we ever getting back to that?) by breaking down some early manga from the man himself. We're talking about Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater....welll...most of it

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney have landed
• A note on some very different formatting because notes were hard to come by
• Contextualizing these stories and their reasons for existence, as best we can
• Digging into the likes of Wonder Island, Wonder Island 2, Cutesy Tomato Gumshoe (aka Tomato Girl Detective), Pola & Roid, Mad Matic, Chobit, Chobit 2, Today's Highlight Island, Escape, Pink the Rain Jack, Dragon Boy, The Adventure of Tongpoo, Mr. Ho, The Elder (aka Sanchoh), Little Mamejiro, and Karamaru and the Perfect Day
• We have notes about Godzilla, Ultraman, name puns, Mad Max, Dragon Ball, and more and a heap of confusion around opaque humor and social commentary
• 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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Dragon Ball Movies: Good, Bad, or Ugly? (Summer Convention Series) (S3E27)

It's Summer Convention Season! You think it's not, just because it's winter? Well, tune in to find out why it is! Jelli takes you into the world of our summer conventions by presenting one of the panels we held this year, at Anime Texas 2024, in Spring, TX from Fandom Events. This panel was also presented at San Japan in San Antonio, TX but the audio got too blown-out sounding to put out the full episode...but the Q&A portion of that event is retained here. The panel was also presented at Fan Expo Denver, in (of course) Denver, CO from Fan Expo HQ, the audio from that was unfortunately entirely unusable.

In this episode:

• Jelli is on his own.
• We delve into the background behind the Toei Manga Matsuri – Toei Cartoon Festival and its inception in 1969 and other such festivals around the country such as Toho's Champion Festival
• Contextualizing the box office of the films
• Going through all of the original movies and looking for what interesting facts and value they possess
• Curse of the Blood Rubies - notes on censorship and references
• Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle - Ghastel and his relationship with Prince Nezha
• Mystical Adventure - Similarities to the movie The Last Emperor
• Dragon Ball Z Movies
• Dead Zone - The Phantom Zone and Garlic Jr's unique properties
• The World's Strongest - Hal 9000
• Tree of Might - A possible Tree of Life
• Lord Slug - Super Saiyan and Pseudo-Super Saiyan, or False Super Saiyan
• Cooler's Revenge - Predator
• Cooler Returns - The Death Star, the Big Gette Star, the Borg Cube, and Star Trek's Vger
• Super Android 13 - Don't Lecture Me with Your $30 Haircut
• Broly the Legendary Super Saiyan - Meme culture in Japan and Nostradamus
• Bojack Unbound - Stan the Lariat Hansen and WWF/WWE references
• Broly Second Coming - Toribot and Nata de Coco
• Bio Broly - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• Fusion Reborn - The Dictator, YIKES
• Wrath of the Dragon - Hirudegarn and kaiju
• Q&As
• 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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Daima Discussion Pt 2 (Eps 6-10) - BONUS EPISODE

There is new Dragon Ball for the first time in years and we felt it was important to share our thoughts and opinions. 

Join Jelli and Bekinney as we continue looking at Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball franchise by tackling a discussion of Dragon Ball Daima, and its next five episodes: "Lightning," "Collar," "Tamagami," "Thieves," and "Ocean".

Who is Glorio, and what are his motives? Have we learned anything new?
What does the recently-introduced Panzy bring to the table?
What of the minotaur who wants to eat everyone?
Are there any readily apparent cultural underpinnings with the revelation that Shin (Supreme Kai) has a real name, and it's Nahare?
What of the rest of the cast? Where do Bulma, Piccolo, Vegeta, Gohan and others fit in?
What's the potential significance of Majin Kuu, and the character Hybis?
Did we crack the code and realize that Daima is basically Toriyama's riff on Charlie's Angels?
Why isn't Drew Barrymore allowed on Final Forum?
What about Lucy Lui, Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Banks and the other actors from those movies?
Wait, what?
Are we okay?
Why did we talk about the Hair Club for Men?
Join us for this more casual conversation as we dig through the world of Daima and continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.

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Dale D. Kelly Interview [Ginyu, Narrator] (S3E26)

Was the original voice of Dragon Ball Z's narrator almost arrested before he ever got a chance to work on the show? To paraphrase his most famous saying: Find out [THIS] Time, on [Final Forum]!

Jelli and Bekinney are still on a break from format and Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball, and are interviewing one of the voices of our childhood, Dale D. Kelly, the original voice of The Narrator and Captain Ginyu, as well as Porunga. 

In this episode:

• We dive into Dale's career, beginning with his time in radio and his early years in entertainment.
• Dale tells us how he almost got arrested on his first night on the job
• Why he chose to answer an ad in a Dallas newspaper
• What made him initially turn down the opportunity
• His philosophy behind voice acting as well as music, as he became the composer for Episode of Bardock and The History of Trunks
• What led to his leaving Funimation
• His time after Funimation, including working with Rich Little and Tommy Lasorda, as well as a story about Johnny Carson
• 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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Dragon Ball Video Games Part 2 (S3E25)

Jelli and Bekinney take a break from Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon (because we don't do enough of that, right?) by breaking down some early video games. We're talking about Dragon Ball 3: Goku Den, aka Dragon Ball: Goku's Story from the Famicom; Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure for the Gameboy Advance; Dragon Ball: Origins and Dragon Ball: Origins 2, for the Nintendo DS

In this episode:

• Bekinney is checking the ship for abnormalities
• Cleaning up some items about pre-console video games and talking briefly about Tiger Electronics handhelds
• A reminder about TOSE Software, the programming company behind Dragon Ball 3: Goku Den
• TOSE's credits, including Bases Loaded, Mappy-Land, Toxic Crusaders, Tetris 2, Yoshi's Cookie, Resident Evil Survivor, Resident Evil Zero, Scarlet Nexus, Dragon Quest, WWE and Metal Gear Solid
• Dragon Ball 3 Goku Den story recaps and how it goes through the end of Dragon Ball
• We discuss early Nintendo RTS (real time strategy) games
• The port of Goku Den to the Wonderswan color, and a brief discussion about that system, including a reference to the Nintendo Virtual Boy and Gunpei Yokoi
• Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure story elements and how the game goes from the beginning of the story through the Demon King Piccolo arc
• How Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure's gameplay works and the mind behind its creation
• A brief summary of the company Banpresto
• Getting into Dragon Ball Origins and Yoshiki Okamoto, best known for creating Gyruss, 1942, and Street Fighter II. He also helped created Rockstar’s Red Dead franchise, and was a supervisor on Resident Evil 2 and Dino Crisis
• Discussing the use of the stylus on the Nintendo DS
• How Origins 2 functioned as a last-time-out for Stephanie Nadolny as Kid Goku and Tiffany Volmer as Bulma
• SURPRISE! We mention the game Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo for the Nintendo Wii
• 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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Masako Nozawa (S3E24)

What does it take to be one of the most well-respected voice actors of all-time? Jelli and Bekinney have finished the "Dragon Ball" portion of Dragon Ball. That means it's time for Dragon Ball Z, right? Welllll....let's take a break from format and Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by pivoting and talking about the life and personality and career of one of the most important figures in Dragon Ball, the voice of Goku himself: Masako Nozawa.

In this episode:

• Jelli has Bekinney prep for a spacewalk.
• We have already discussed the life and career of Akira Toriyama, Daisuke Nishio, Toshiki Inoue, Takao Koyama, Chiaki Imada, Jackie Chan, and Kazuhiko Torishima. Slowly chewing up "behind the camera" talents to discuss, we talk about one of the "faces" of Dragon Ball, Masako Nozawa.
• Nozawa's birth in Nippori Town and childhood in Numata, in Gunma Prefecture
• Her early career in child acting and theater acting
• Her father Ryoshu Nozawa, a moderately well-known painter, and her unique parentage
• Why Nozawa moved from Tokyo to Numata as a child (hint: in 1944)
• Her initial intentions to pursue stage acting and her first forays into voice acting, doing dubbing for Western films
• Her "big break" in anime voice acting, in an episode of Astroboy, considered by many to be the "first" anime series
• An interesting synergy with her husband, voice actor Masaaki Tsukada, and how they both have a character voiced in English by Sean Schemmel
• Her career with various talent agencies and her foray into establishing her own
• How missing out on a return to Gegege no Kitaro led to her landing the Dragon Ball gig
• Her philosophy when it comes to voice acting and her work process
• What Akira Toriyama said to her that makes her continue to portray Goku, even as she nears her 90s
• 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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Daima Discussion (Eps 1-5) - BONUS EPISODE

The world of Dragon Ball is all abuzz so we felt we needed to put together a special BONUS episode for everyone. There is new Dragon Ball for the first time in years and we felt it was important to share our thoughts and opinions.

Join Jelli and Bekinney as we continue looking at Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball franchise by tackling a discussion of Dragon Ball Daima, and its first five episodes: "Conspiracy," "Glorio," Daima," "Chatty," and "Panzy".

Who is Glorio, and what are his motives?
What will the recently-introduced Panzy bring to the table?
What interesting cultural concepts are behind the likes of Warp Sama and the Evil Third Eye?
What of the rest of the cast? Where do Bulma, Piccolo, Vegeta, Gohan and others fit in?
What's the potential significance of a three-person fusion?
Did Jelli and Bekinney have a good Halloween?
How many trick-or-treaters did they get?
Wait, what?
What's happening in now in Jelli's household?
Are we okay?
Join us for this more casual conversation as we dig through the world of Daima and continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.

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Dragon Ball Wrap-Up ft. Kame House Party and We Gotta Podcast (S3E23)

We couldn't do this one alone, so we reached out to some new friends. Joining us on Final Forum this week, we have Vince and Aaron of Kame House Party and Randy of We Gotta Podcast as we tear into the original Dragon Ball one more time and wrap up the first 153 episodes (194 manga chapters).

We run through the arcs, talk about favorite moments, funniest bits, best animation and give our rankings along the way. Who's got the hot takes? What's a show like with five voices on it? Tune in and find out!
We also discuss Dragon Ball Daima and Dragon Ball Sparking Zero at the end, so make sure to listen all the way through!

Kame House Party Links:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnRm6TPfFd6lnfA_JWz0SOQ 

https://moonshotpods.com/kame-house-party/ 

https://www.instagram.com/kamehouseparty/ 

We Gotta Podcast Links:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCitidhDC9ExX7sVtytQc9Lg 

https://x.com/wegottapod 

https://open.spotify.com/show/6CIbbgkAwkma5nR7sramSt

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-gotta-podcast-dragon-ball-from-a-to-z/id1554086515 

 

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.

https://www.facebook.com/FinalForumPodcast

https://twitter.com/finalforumpod

 

Dragon Ball-oween MINISODE - Jelli's Top Ten Dragon Ball Villains

Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!
In this special Jelli-only mini-sode we take a complete break from format, and from breaking down Akira Toriyama's manga and anime smash success to continue our October/Halloween Festivities and on this episode, it's all about villainy. Because dastardly evildoers are a big part of Halloween. That makes sense right? Right?
Sure.
So, who will make Jelli's Top Ten Dragon Ball Villains? The pool to choose from is ENORMOUS:
Vegeta, Tien Shienhan, Oolong, Emperor Pilaf, Giran, Ninja Murasaki, General Blue, Tao Paipai, Commander Red, Piccolo, King Piccolo, Raditz, Nappa, Frieza, Dodoria, Captain Ginyu, Zarbon, Jace, Burter, Recoome, Guldo,  Android 19, Android 20, Dr. Gero, Android 17, Android 18, Android 16, King Cold, Cooler, Turles, Lord Slug, Super Android 13, Garlic Jr, Cell, Perfect Cell, Semi-Perfect Cell, Majin Buu, Dabura, Babidi, Fat Buu, Evil Buu, Kid Buu, Beerus, Jiren, Goku Black, Zamasu, Hit, Frost, Cell Max, Moro, Gas, Elec....
....and more...?

Jelli threw all these in a pile and picked out just TEN of his favorites. Who will they be?

Castle in the Sky: Commentary (S3E22)

Why are we talking about Castle in the Sky and Studio Ghibli on our Dragon Ball show? Tune in to this episode to find out! It's time for Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!

In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney break down the 1986 movie, Castle in the Sky directed by Hayao Miyazaki and released by Studio Ghibli via a watch-along commentary. It's part of our October/Halloween Festivities where we're taking a break from breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon and delving into times our franchise's creators have "put on a costume" and worked on other shows and movies. 

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney get right into it, with no time for frivolousness. This movie is two hours long. There's no time for silliness.
• Contextualizing Castle in the Sky and why we're covering it on a Dragon Ball podcast
• Where Castle in the Sky fits into the timeline of Dragon Ball, notably during the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai in the anime, and the Red Ribbon Army Saga (specifically during Tao Paipai's appearance and the training with Master Korin) in the manga
• How Miyazaki was inspired by a trip to Wales and the Coal Miner's Strike in the UK
• Shindo Productions, who did keyframe animation for this movie....and Curse of the Blood Rubies
• A brief biography of Mitsuo Shindo, and his worko n Dragon Ball, Dr Slump and Dragon Ball Z
• Tadayoshi Yamamuro, and his career in Dragon Ball, including his work as lead character designer for Dragon Ball Super
• How Yamamuro's style differs from that of Minoru Maeda
• What drew Yamamuro to Dragon Ball and his thoughts on characters such as Goku, Frieza, Bojack, and Janemba
• Yamamuro's thoughts on the most difficult thing to draw
• Voice actress Mayumi Tanaka, voice of Pazu, Yajirobe, and of course, One Piece's Monkey D Luffy
• How Tanaka utilized a career in theater, to break into the world of voice acting via Urusei Yatsura, and leveraged her part as Pazu to become cast as the voice of Luffy in One Piece
• Other Dragon Ball notables from the voice cast: Keiko Yokozawa, voice of Sheeta here and Anin from the Bansho Fan filler episodes we just discussed; Ichiro Nagai, voice of the General here and Crane Hermit and Master Korin; Ryuji Saikachi, voicing the engineer here, and Grand Kai in the Other World Tournament filler arc; Tomomichi Nishimura, voice of the Supreme Kai of Universe 4 in Dragon Ball Super's Tournament of Power arc
• Notable actors from the dub cast including Eddie Frierson, voicing the train engineer here, but Tienshinhan in the Harmony Gold dub of Dragon Ball, as well as Ken in the Street Fighter II animated movie
• Anna Paquin, Jim Cummings (leading to a lot of Winnie the Pooh talk), Mandy Patinkin (Hallo, my name is Inigo Montoya), Richard Dysart (The Thing), Tress Macneille (a million things including Mom in Futurama and Agnes Skinner in The Simpsons); and Cloris Leachman aka Frau Blucha
• Mark Hammill...ever heard of him?
• Discussing Studio Ghibli, their start, and how a double bill of Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro finally led to them breaking out; their partnership with Disney; Disney helping propel Ghibli to Miyazaki's first Oscar win at the 75th Academy Awards Ceremony for Spirited Away; and how GKids wound up swooping in due to a disagreement between Ghibli and Disney over From Up on Poppy Hill
• We also talk about how Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was edited for a movie called Warriors of the Wind, give thoughts on Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, When Marnie was There, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke, The Cat Returns, Howl's Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, Ponyo, Arrietty, The Wind Rises and Earwig and the Witch throughout the episode, as well as our plans to eventually watch The Boy and the Heron
• Miyazaki's career, including his work on The Wonderful World of Puss in Boots (and Toei's mascot Pero), Wolf Boy Ken, Doggie March (and helping to launch the Toei Manga Matsuri), and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
• Miyazaki's philosophical disagreements with Takashi Yamazaki (director of Godzilla Minus One and The Eternal Zero) as well as Naoki Hyakuta (author of The Eternal Zero)
• Miyazaki's influences including Osamu Tezuka, Lewis Carroll, Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit), Roald Dahl and the 1957 animated Soviet film, The Snow Queen. 
• Miyazaki being dubbed the Disney of Japan as well as the Kurosawa of Animation
• ...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....or in this case, the Sand Land trans-media franchise....for our special Dragon Ball-o-Ween event!

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