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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 Aug 26, 2025
Tuesday Aug 26, 2025
What would have happened if they saved Hitler's brain and put it in the body of a robot with a bubble-dome? What does the film Phantasm have to do with Dragon Ball? How did we manage to work in a reference to the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out multiple poison attacks on Japanese public transit in the early 90s?
The answers to these, and similar questions, abound as Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by tackling the 1990 movie, The World's Strongest.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney narrowly escape disaster
- We sync up our audio commentary for the listeners
- We discuss some of the production facts about the film Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest such as its 1990 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: Akuma-kun: Welcome to Devil Land, and Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Sally the Witch movie.
- A little history about Misuteru, including his creation of Tesujin 28, Babel II, Iga no Kagemaru, Sally the Witch, and adaptations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water margin
- Contextualizing the box office of the film
- Shedding light on Shinji Fukumitsu, the editor, who worked on Dragon Ball Z, Gegege no Kitaro, One Piece, and Transformers: The Movie
- A little bit on Motoaki Ikegami and his career spanning Neon Genesis Evangelion, Dr Slump, Pokemon, Inuyasha and Twilight of the Cockroaches
- Discussing the film's unique antagonists, Kishime, Ebifurya, Misokatsun, Dr. Kochin, and Dr. Wheelo (or Uiro)
- Misokatsun --> Buyon --> The Blob --> horror movies --> Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (yes, really)
- A bit about the Funimation composer, Nathan Johnson and his career, including his time as a Texas state senator
- (Nathan) Johnsons, (Anthony) Wieners, adult film parodies of Chinese classic novels...things are coming unglued
- A bit about the Metaluna Men from This Island Earth, Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Universal Monsters movies, especially Ghost of Frankenstein
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual as we react to this wickedly fast-paced film
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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