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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
Wednesday Oct 22, 2025
Wednesday Oct 22, 2025
What is it about giant fire-breathing turtles that can become airborne flying saucers that delights children and even worms its way into the hearts of cynical adults?
Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!
In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney break down the 1969 film, Gamera vs. Guiron. 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 case, we're talking about Shunsuke Kikuchi, the composer behind Dragon Ball. And since we felt like we couldn't do it alone, we've brought along a friend: John DeSentis is a composer, musician, and kaiju fan who has conducted orchestras, scored films, and helped organize kaiju conventions. His credits include the anthology Worst Laid Plans, the short film The Conduit, and Kaiju Crescendo: An Evening of Japanese Monster Music. He has appeared on the Kaiju Transmissions podcast, as well as Imaginary Worlds, Growing up with Godzilla and is a frequent guest on the Gen X Lounge. (He also loves Vin Diesel memes and enjoys being confused with Ron DeSantis.)
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney say hello to Johnny
- We discuss why we chose to look at Gamera vs Guiron
- Production facts and history behind 1969's Gamera vs Guiron, including its place in the Gamera pantheon of films, budget, and release history
- Brief discussion of Daiei studios as a company
- Why Gamera exists and how it kept Daiei afloat for close to a decade
- Discussing the film's "stars" including Yuko Hamada, Khan Omura (aka Kon-Chan, aka Cornjob), and Christopher Murphy
- A look at the life of director Noriaki Yuasa, his filmmaking prior to Gamera, including Nezura and If You're Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands, how Gamera became his signature franchise, and how Yuasa differed from his contemporaries, especially Ishiro Honda
- Yuasa's filmmaking philosophy and his thoughts on the 1990s Heisei Gamera films directed by Shusuke Kaneko
- How budgetary limitations affected the production of the film including the creation of Space Gyaos and the Guiron suit
- Daiei's financial struggles in the late 60s leading to their bankruptcy in 1971, as well as a unique agreement worked out with screenwriter Niisan Takahashi and how that may have influenced some of the Showa Gamera crew's feelings about the 90s Gamera films
- A discussion of Counter Earth or Opposite Earth and the Greek philosopher Philolalus, a disciple of Pythagoras and Aristotles thoughts on Philolalean cosmology as well as Pythagorean discipleship
- Shunsuke Kikuchi, his life, his background, and his career including Doraemon and Grendizer
- A comparison of Gamera films to fantasy and fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilock and the Three Bears, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel (including a recommendation to check out the 2025 film The Ugly Stepsister)
- A brief discussion of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (aka MST3K) and their history with the Gamera franchise including the KTMA season of the show
- A closing in which we talk about our Halloween viewings including the Hammer Dracula films (and particular focus on The Satanic Rites of Dracula), Blacula, Tales from the Hood, Let the Right One In, the Grudge films, Sadako vs Kayako, Weapons and the documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror
- ...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 Gamera franchise....for our special Dragon Ball-o-Ween event!
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John DeSentis:
https://www.instagram.com/johndesentis/?hl=en
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5044010/
Tuesday Oct 21, 2025
Tuesday Oct 21, 2025
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 attacks. Because of the punching. That's...scary...right?
Sure.
So, what will make Jelli's Top Ten Dragon Ball Attacks? The pool to choose from is ENORMOUS:
Vegeta's Final Flash and Galick Gun and Big Bang Attack and Final Explosion, Tien Shienhan's Kikoho, General Blue's Hypnosis, Tao Paipai's Dodonpa aka Dodon Ray, Piccolo's Makonkosappo aka Special Beam Cannon , Frieza's Laser Blasts and Death Ball, Android 16's Hell's Flash, Majin Buu's Candy Beam and Human Extinction Attack, Dabura's Stone Spit, Beerus' Hakai, Goku Black's Sickle of Sorrow, Hit's Time Skip, Yamcha's Wolf Fang Fist, Gohan's Masenko and of course Goku's Kamehameha
....and more...?
Jelli threw all these in a pile and picked out just TEN of his favorites. Who will they be?
Tuesday Oct 07, 2025
Tuesday Oct 07, 2025
What makes the 1986 adaptation of Journey to the West so endearing?
Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!
In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney break down the 1986 Chinese television event, Journey to the West. 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 case, it's a little bit different, as we talk about Wu Cheng'en and the inspiration behind the Dragon Ball franchise.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney say hello to Halloween
- We discuss why we chose to look at Journey to the West
- The life of Wu Cheng'en, novelist, poet, and politician who is the most likely author of Journey to the West
- Why the authorship of Journey to the West is up for debate and assertion from Anthony Christopher Yu, scholar, theologian, sinologist, and professor who translated JTTW that Cheng'en did in fact write the novel originally
- The production history of the show and how that ties into Mao Zedong, the Cultural Revolution, and China's moves towards embracing its traditions
- The struggles that Yang Jie, director, showrunner, producer, writer, editor, location scouter, casting director, and budget overseer had while making the show, including a single camera and accusations of theft
- The cast being largely derived from Peking Opera backgrounds
- Liu Xiao Ling Tong's performance as Sun Wukong
- The dangers of the show
- The reception of the show and its legacy
- Plans to continue breaking down the show in the future
- ...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 Halo trans-media franchise....for our special Dragon Ball-o-Ween event!
Tuesday Sep 23, 2025
Tuesday Sep 23, 2025
Quarks! Quantum entanglements! Relativity! Non-Einsteinian simultaneity! What do these have to do with Bulma making a phone call from Namek to Earth? Everything, it turns out.
Join Jelli and Bekinney as they continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z by looking at episodes 46 through 50: "Defying Orders," "Namek's Defense," "The Hunted," "The Prince Fights Back," and "Unexpected Problem." Wedive into the Namek Saga and tackle the problem of faster-than-light communications and time travel.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are being cagey
- Back to a solid run of episodes
- Putting some SCIENCE into our science fiction
- How long it SHOULD take to send a message to Namek
- Ursula K LeGuin and her creation of the ansible
- What is an ansible? Why is it called an ansible? How does an ansible work?
- Robert Heinlein's (Starship Troopers) answers to how faster than light communication would work
- Non-Einsteinian simultaneity and how early work on non-simultaneity and relativistic speeds influenced Einstein's theory of relativity
- Lorentz transformations and Einstein's train thought experiment
- How the term ansible and the work of Le Guin influenced people like David Langford and Orson Scott Card
- A brief slagging of Card
- Research done into tachyons and reverse time travel
- The work of physicists Ben Tippet and David Tsang in the math behind reverse time travel
- Whether changing the past changes the future
- 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.
Tuesday Sep 16, 2025
Tuesday Sep 16, 2025
We've still never heard of editing but we HAVE heard of Dragon Ball this time...kind of.
Join Jelli and Bekinney as we catch up after just a couple weeks.
Bekinney discusses a new book series he's reading, while Jelli delves back into Japan, walking through Osaka, Dotonbori, Tanuki statues, the Orix Buffaloes, Expo 2025 (which leads us into a brief discussion of the movie Gamera vs Jiger) the Curse of the Colonel and the Hanshin Tigers, Hiroshima and Peace Park, and the Hotel Gracery or the Godzilla Hotel in Tokyo. Jelli also talks about some general tips for travel and alludes to a video that may or may not ever happen.
We also discuss The Princess Bride, and the Buffalo Bills, and Dragon Ball Gekishin Squadra
Join us for this more casual conversation as we dig through our lives.
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Tuesday Sep 09, 2025
Tuesday Sep 09, 2025
How do you pad for time between arcs? Are those Crows? What awaits us as we begin a new story arc?
Join Jelli and Bekinney as they continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z by looking at episodes 41 through 45: "Look Out Below," "The Search Continues," "A Friendly Surprise," "Brood of Evil," and "Frieza Strikes." We begin discussing the Namek Saga and attempt to break down some filler episodes and preview this new arc.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney try to plot their next move
- The run of great episodes is over, but let's not lose hope.
- Breaking down the names for Raiti and Zaacro, as well as Cui
- Attempting to evaluate the Treedon birds through the lens that they might be crows and looking at how crows are viewed in Japan
- Cannibalism? One of us totally would. Which one will (not) shock you
- Jack and the Beanstalk and its origins as a very different story from the one we know
- A little bit about Group TAC, which allows us to talk about the voice talents behind Pokemon's Mewtwo, and get tangentially into a wild tokusatsu movie...
- ...Rex: A Dinosaur's Story, the tale of how a baby tyrannosaurus rex is raised by a little girl, gets in a food fight, escapes marketing executives on a snowmobile after stealing a Christmas cloak from Colonel Sanders and the story of how the movie's production led to the arrest of the head of Kadokawa for smuggling drugs
- A bit about Japan's Sesssho-seki, or Killing Stone famous in Tochigi Prefecture
- Nautilus, their shells, the Golden Ratio, the Fibonacci Sequence, and illusions
- We're not grasping at straws AT ALL
- Setting the stage using examples from X-Men, DCEU and Journey to the West
- Vegeta's history as the heir to the throne, and his early life
- Some of Toriyama's thoughts on Vegeta, at least early in the story
- Vegeta and Goku: Opposite sides of the same coin
- How Vegeta so internalizes the lessons he learns as a child that it shapes his entire worldview, and how the very existence of Goku flies in the face of said worldview
- The Six-Eared Macaque from Journey to the West, one of Sun Wukong's most formidable foes
- Some researched theories about the relationship between Wukong and Six-Ears and how that is mirrored by the relationship between Goku and Vegeta
- The Lego series Lego Monkie Kid and its portrayal of Six Ears
- Why Vegeta is always invoking his prince status as if it is a boast, despite there being only a handful of Saiyans left
- Why Vegeta is so relatable
- 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.
Monday Sep 08, 2025
Monday Sep 08, 2025
Dragon Ball? Editing? Never heard of those things.
Join Jelli and Bekinney as we catch up after six weeks of not talking much.
Bekinney discusses a family reunion and riding sketchy rides on the boardwalk, including the Himalayan, and Jelli regales everyone with the first week of his trip to Japan, with his usual penchant for rambling and self-indulgence
We also discuss Superman, Thunderbolts, Captain America: Brave New World, Better Man, Robbie Williams, Paddington in Peru, James Gunn's DC universe, Jurassic World Rebirth, and provide one of the only reviews you're likely to hear about the movie Brush of the God.
Join us for this more casual conversation as we dig through our lives.
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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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Tuesday Aug 12, 2025
Tuesday Aug 12, 2025
We've reached the end of the Saiyan Arc. How do we feel about it having reached its end and being primed for the next adventure?
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by jumping into comparing the Dragon Ball anime to the Dragon Ball manga. We continue discussing Saiyan arc, and talk about pacing. We also discuss five episodes of the anime, episodes 36-40, "Picking Up the Pieces," "Plans for Departure," "Nursing Wounds," "Friends or Foes," and "Held Captive."
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney destroy the gravity generator
- We recap the story a little bit
- Wukong Hospital and Goku's unique looking hospital bed, with a possible inspiration from Alien
- Bulma's outfit being inspired by Alien, and its possible influence on Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion
- A theory about Bulma's evolving hairstyles
- A brief discussion of Frank Frazetta, the "godfather of fantasy art" who was a well-renown illustrator who worked on Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars among other things in his career
- A conversation about the Russian attempts to place mirrors in space, and a brief tangent into discussing Archimedes' Sun Death Ray
- Wrapping up the arc with grades and comparing the manga to the anime
- 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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Tuesday Jul 29, 2025
Tuesday Jul 29, 2025
How do you handle introducing a rival? Why does Vegeta always call himself the Prince of All Saiyans? Is there any basis for this character in the story Journey to the West?
Join Jelli and Bekinney as they continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z by looking at episodes 30 through 35: "Goku vs. Vegeta," "Saiyan Sized Secret," "Spirit Bomb Away!" "Hero in the Shadows," "Krillin's Offensive," and "Mercy." We continue discussing the Saiyan Saga and talk in detail for the first time about one of the franchise's most iconic characters: Vegeta. We talk about his in-universe history, and his psychology, as well as his possible sources for inspiration, and what makes him so popular
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney enter into the gravity well
- Just how good are THESE episodes? For really real.
- Who is Vegeta?
- Setting the stage using examples from X-Men, DCEU and Journey to the West
- Vegeta's history as the heir to the throne, and his early life
- Some of Toriyama's thoughts on Vegeta, at least early in the story
- Vegeta and Goku: Opposite sides of the same coin
- How Vegeta so internalizes the lessons he learns as a child that it shapes his entire worldview, and how the very existence of Goku flies in the face of said worldview
- The Six-Eared Macaque from Journey to the West, one of Sun Wukong's most formidable foes
- Some researched theories about the relationship between Wukong and Six-Ears and how that is mirrored by the relationship between Goku and Vegeta
- The Lego series Lego Monkie Kid and its portrayal of Six Ears
- Why Vegeta is always invoking his prince status as if it is a boast, despite there being only a handful of Saiyans left
- Why Vegeta is so relatable
- 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.