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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 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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