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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 Apr 26, 2022
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
What is it about elderly hermit masters in Japanese media that causes them to be problematic when it comes to their pursuits of young women?
Jelli and Bekinney return to format and continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by tackling episode 14 of the anime, "Goku's Rival" then have a discussion about the character of Master Roshi and his inspirations from cultural and literary history as well as where Toriyama may have been introduced to these concepts via film
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are adrift in space
- Brief plot synopsis of episode 14 of the Dragon Ball anime
- Brief discussion of favorite moments from the anime episode
- A quick aside about the state of the Dragon Ball franchise after the conclusion of the Pilaf arc
- We talk about how Kazuhiko Torishima wanted some changes made and the steps he and Akira Toriyama took to change Dragon Ball to make it more popular including looking at Yoshiyuki Okamura's (aka Buronson) manga hit Fist of the North Star for inspiration in not only tone, but paneling
- We discuss Master Roshi aka Muten Roshi aka The Turtle Hermit aka Kame-Sennin and what all these names mean
- We take a look at the legend of Kume Sennin, a Daoist monk who could once fly through the clouds until impure thoughts made him crash down to Earth (sound familiar?)
- We discuss how Daoism became intermingled with the idea of having concubines and being obsessed with young women
- There's extensive discussion down this line of thought, including the propensity for old men in fiction to be depicted as dirty old men, and a lengthy discussion about where we stand on Master Roshi's lecherous ways as viewers in more modern times
- We talk about the Toshiro Mifune movie The Great Bandit aka The Lost World of Sinbad aka Samurai Pirate which features a lecherous old hermit whose biggest weakness is boobs and discuss whether a young Toriyama may have seen that movie as Mifune was Japan's most popular actor when Akira Toriyama was a child
- (Jelli forgets to recall the name of the movie...and another similar movie known as Adventure in Kigan Castle which ALSO features a hermit helping a swashbuckling Mifune, though much less lecherous this time; apologies to director Senkichi Taniguchi and screenwriter Takeshi Kimura)
- We briefly touch on the legacy of Master Roshi and how a dirty-old-man mentor has become a trope in Shonen manga to this day, including in the popular manga/anime Naruto
- 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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