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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
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Return to Monke. Reject modernity, embrace ape.
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by tackling episodes 12 and 13 of the anime, "A Wish to the Eternal Dragon" and "The Legend of Goku" then have a discussion about the Great Ape, Oozaru, and its inspirations from kaiju film and television
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney find themselves trapped after an unfortunate encounter
- A call is placed for outside assistance
- Special Guest: Matt Parmely from the Kaiju Transmissions podcast joins our discussion
- Brief plot synopsis of episodes 12 and 13 of the Dragon Ball anime
- Brief discussion of favorite moments from the anime episodes
- Breaking down the most obvious influence of Oozaru, King Kong and his popularity in Japan, which bolstered that of Godzilla
- A debunking of the claim that Kong was Japan's first kaiju via an unearthing of some facts about the films King Kong Made in Japan and King Kong Appears in Edo
- What leads most people to claiming these are Japan's first kaiju films, and what we know to the contrary, despite the films being lost forever due to the bombing of Hiroshima
- A recommendation to check out the book, Kong Unmade, by John Lemay
- How King Kong influence Donkey Kong and Godzilla and Eiji Tsuburaya and Akira Toriyama
- The original name of Oozaru, kaibutsu-zaru, and its meaning
- How the Wolf Man (1941) influenced Oozaru
- Discussion of Sun Wukong's transformation abilities and how those literary roots influence Oozaru as well
- What Eastern mind-sets about one's consciousness and subconsciousness have to say about Goku's transformation
- Why cutting off the tail is the method of de-transformation
- A discussion of how the Oozaru form has ceased to be used in more recent years
- A bit of praise for Dragon Ball GT for bringing the form back to use
- A very brief discussion of what 'canon' is in the Dragon Ball franchise
- How the appearance of Oozaru affects all the characters, even the Pilaf gang, and makes them work together to survive
- What the most memorable moments of the Oozaru are
- How the form does some inversion of tropes and ideas, and potential ideas for how it could further be used for Toriyama's favorite idea of subverting expectations
- A plug for Kaiju Masterclass, an online convention, which includes interviews with Ryhuei Kitamura, Bear McCreary, Shusuke Kaneko, and more creators behind the Godzilla, Ultraman, Gamera, Evangelion, and other kaiju, tokusatsu, and related franchises.
- and more, including some general pop culture, kaiju trivia, and editorializing, as usual.
Join us, and Matt, as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
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