Final Forum: A Dragon Ball Podcast

Piccolo’s Children (S3E3)

Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by breaking down episodes 108 and 109, , "Goku's Revenge," and "Goku vs. King Piccolo." We continue on with Demon King Piccolo Saga, and break down Piccolo's Children, Tambourine, Cymbal, Drum and Piano (and more).

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney are trying to find a way off the planet where they are stranded
• We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments 
• Discussing puns, Piccolo, Drum, Piano, Cymbal and Tambourine
• Mentioning Piccolo's non-canon children, Ukulele, Harp, Mandolin, Maraca, Organ, Castanets, Harmonica, and Bongo, and their appearances in video games, including Damaio Fukkatsu
• Breaking down Tambourine, his voice actors Dameon Clarke and Ryusei Nakao and their connections to other characters like Frieza, Cell, Krillin, Nuova Shenron and Eis Shenron
• Discussing Cymbal, his voice actors Brad Jackson and Daisuke Gori, and their connections to other characters including Ox King, Turtle, Ghastiel, InoShikaCho, Drum, King Yemma, Porunga, Mr. Sata and King Cold
• Drum, his voice actors Daisuke Gori and Bob Carter, and Carter's voicing of Bojack and Syn Shenron
• Piano, his voice actors Masato Hirano and Sonny Strait and their connections to Man Wolf, Mummy-kun, Bardock, General Blue, and Krillin
• The Mazoku race and breaking down the word and how mazoku differ from yokai or oni
• Why Piccolo's children are not mere Namekian clones
• 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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Yajirobe (S3E2)

Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by breaking down episodes 105, 106 and 107, "Here Comes Yajirobe," "Terrible Tambourine," and "Tien's Atonement."  We continue on with Demon King Piccolo Saga, and introduce a new character, Yajirobe.

In this episode:

• Jelli digs Bekinney out of the cold, cold ground
• We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments 
• Yajirobe's design inspirations, coming from the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo and the actor Daisuke Kato
• A note about a first when it comes to a fight within Dragon Ball, between Yajirobe and Cymbal
• Yajirobe's swordsman skills
• What Yajirobe means in Japanese both as a toy (Circus Sam) and in breaking down the characters that make up the name
• Yajirobe's status as a Ronin and inspiration from the real life historical figure Musashi Miyamoto
• How Kurosawa redefined the narrative around Ronin
• 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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Evil Containment (S3E1)

Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by breaking down episodes 102, 103 and 104, "Enter King Piccolo," "Tambourine Attacks!" and "Mark of the Demon."  We leave the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi behind, and delve into the Demon King Piccolo Saga, starting out with the idea of the Evil Containment Wave, or the Mafuba.

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney collect themselves after a harsh battle
• We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments 
• Some notes on the episodes about translations with Master Mutaito and Master Roshi, timeline items with Master Shen (Crane Hermit) and Chiaotzu, canon issues regarding Piccolo's Namekian heritage, and some censorship notes
• We talk about Master Mutaito and the origin of his name
• Looking at Mutaito's gi
• Mafuba, and breaking down the word and its translation as Evil Containment Wave
• How Daoists, Buddhists, and Shintoists inspired the Mafuba
• The origins of sealing demons or foes in general for centuries, with a few examples from Journey to the West (Laozi sealing Sun Wukong within the heavenly crucible and Buddha trapping him under a mountain)
• The Japanese art of onmyodo
• How runes become jewelry in Japan
• Toriyama's playful nature in having Piccolo sealed within the denshi-ja (electric rice cooker)
• A look ahead at the arc and our initial impressions
• 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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Season Two Finale - The Battle of the Bekinneys (S2E25)

Jelli and Bekinney have no time to continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime Dragon Ball.

In this episode:

• The climactic battle!

Join us and find out if we will ever 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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Kazuhiko Torishima (S2E24)

Jelli and Bekinney take a break from format and Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by pivoting and talking about the life and personality and career of one of the most influential creative minds behind Dragon Ball: Akira Toriyama's first editor Kazuhiko Torishima.

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney are fired upon!
• We have already discussed the life and career of Akira Toriyama, Daisuke Nishio, Toshiki Inoue, Takao Koyama, Chiaki Imada, and (one of the men who inspired the creation of Goku himself) Jackie Chan...let's talk about one of the key men when it came to the birth of Dragon Ball itself: Kazuhiko Torishima, Toriyama's first editor, the man who pushed and pulled Toriyama all the way from up-and-comer to one of the most successful manga ka of all time, and one of the most important men in the history of Shueisha and Shogakukan.
• Torishima's birth and childhood in Niigata prefecture
• His early career, in which he wanted to be an editor for Playboy
• How he wound up working for Weekly Shonen Jump
• His initial opinion that manga was a lower form of entertainment
• His first job working on Doberman Deka, created by Buronson, who would go on to create Fist of the North Star
• Torishima's role in pushing Akira Toriyama to make Arale the main character of Dr. Slump
• How Torishima's occasionally harsh style led to the creation of the antagonist of Dr. Slump, Dr. Mashirito
• Shueisha's desire for a hit to follow up Dr. Slump when it ended
• How Torishima kept pushing Toriyama to make Dragon Ball better when popularity initially slumped and again and again in order to make it more and more popular
• How Torishima helped make sure the Dragon Ball anime was more faithful to the manga than most anime at the time
• Torishima's general philosophy behind storytelling and his preferred reading, including philosophy (like Nietzche and Confucius) 
• Torishima's work with Nintendo to create a fusion of manga and video games, in Famicon SHinken
• Other works Torishima helped launch including Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Quest, Bleach, Death Note, Gantz II, and Pokemon
• His rise to being the editor-in-chief of Shueisha and ultimately director of Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions
• Creatives who have been inspired by Torishima, including the minds behind Tottemo! Luckyman, Momotaro Dentetsu, Yudetamago, and Kinnikuman
• Why Torishima even became an editor in the first place
• Some of Torishima's activism as a face of the manga industry as a whole
• 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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22nd Tenkaichi Budokai Manga Comparisons (S2E23)

Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by breaking down episode 101, "The Fallen" and then jumping into comparing the Dragon Ball anime to the Dragon Ball manga. We continue discussing the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi, and delve into the topic of Tien and his third eye.

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney are on their way to a new planet.
• We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments 
• The cliffhanger ending involving Krillin and how shocking it is
• The physics of the end of the battle
• Whether Tien or Goku is technically the stronger one and whether latent ability and power level (ugh) determine a battle's outcome
• Comparing the manga to the anime, as we do when we wrap up an arc
• 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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Tien Shinhan (S2E22)

Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by breaking down episodes 96, 97 ,98, 99 and 100, "Tail's Tale," "Final Match: Goku vs. Tien," "Victory's Edge," "Tien's Insurrection," and "The Spirit Cannon."  We continue discussing the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi, and delve into the topic of Tien and his third eye.

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney split up. That will end well.
• We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments 
• Some notes on Toriyama's claims of making it all up as he goes along
• Parallels in the fighting to Daoist concepts about levels of refinement and control
• Breaking down the Taiyo Ken, or Solar Flare, and its relationship to ying and yang energy
• Where the volley ball attack came from, and a brief note about shojo manga being essentially created by the manga Attack No. 1
• Breaking down the Shiyo-ken or Four Supernatural Fists Technique
• How Shiyo-ken ties Tien to Hindu deities such as Ganesh
• Breaking down Tien, Tien Shinhan, Tenshinhan, Ten, and which is the "correct" pronunciation
• Tien's ties to the Qing Dynasty
• Tien's all-important tenme, or third-eye and its metaphysical importance
• How a tenme is inspired by humanity's pineal gland
• A brief note on the movie From Beyond, which features the pineal gland as a plot point
• How Daoists believe it is possible to utilize your pineal gland and open a third eye
• A note about Tien and his retroactive explanation of being an alien from the Mistume-jin (three-eyed people)
• Toriyama's possible inspiration from Osamu Tezuka's manga, The Three-Eyed One, and Journey to the West, and the character Erlangshen
• Comparisons between Erlangshen and Tien Shinhan including uses of a third eye, fighting a monkey child, being able to defeat Sun Wukong (Goku), and more
• 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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Chiaotzu (S2E21)

Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 91, 92, 93, 94, and 95, "Counting Controversy," "Goku Enters the Ring," Tien Shinhan vs. Jackie Chun," "Stepping Down," and "Goku vs. Krillin"  We continue discussing the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi, and delve into the topic of zombies (kind of) in Dragon Ball.

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney are faced with a veritable ocean of molten rock
• We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments 
• Some notes on Panputto and the less important matches that happen herein
• We begin discussing Chiaotzu with how his name is derived
• Breaking down language to explain who and what Chiaotzu is
• The topic of zhiren in Japanese culture and how Toriyama may have been inspired by the Bruce Lee film, Fist of Fury and the Sammo Hung film The Dead and the Deadly
• The concept of jiangshi in Chinese and Japanese (and Daoist) culture
• How jiangshi are akin to Western zombies
• How jiangshi relate to the concepts of shishen and yuanshen as well as fengshui
• Toriyama's possible inspiration points for bringing a jiangshi into Dragon Ball, including the Sammo Hung films Ghost Beats Ghost and Mr. Jiangshi, and a 1985 film known as Kung Fu Wonder Child
• How Chiaotzu is also inspired by Prince Nezha, whom we had previously covered in our Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle commentary 
• 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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Dragon Ball-oween MINISODE - Jelli’s Top Ten Scariest Dragon Ball Moments

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 FEAR, because it's almost Halloween and there's nothing like a good scare to get you ready for the season.

So, who will make Jelli's Top Ten Scariest Dragon Ball Moments? The pool to choose from is ENORMOUS:
Vegeta in his early years had many moments
Bulma can be fearsome when she gets mad
Oolong used to try to scare villagers
Master Roshi's perversions would scare most women in the MeToo era
Emperor Pilaf...uh probably not
Giran is a literal monster
Eighter (Android 8, 8-chan) evokes Frankenstein and his monster
Tao Paipai's villainy knows no end
Mister Popo could strike fear into the hearts of anyone insisting that Dragon Ball is culturally sensitive
Fortune Teller Baba communicates with ghosts
Demon King Piccolo is a literal demon (kind of...at least until we learn what Namek is)
Nappa creates seed people (saibamen) and uses them to murder our heroes
Frieza is the ruthless emperor of the galaxy and his henchmen Zarbon, Dodoria, and the Ginyu Force are no slouches in the nasty department either
Chi-chi
Android 19, Android 20, Dr. Gero, Android 17, Android 18, Android 16 - Will any of the artificial humans make the cut?
King Cold is Frieza's father and perhaps even more ruthless
What about any of the movie villains? Cooler, Turles, Lord Slug, Super Android 13, Garlic Jr, Janemba, Bojack, or the like?
Cell, Perfect Cell, Semi-Perfect Cell...they eat people!
Majin Buu, Fat Buu, Evil Buu, Kid Buu, Buuhan - The shapeshifting monster could make anyone shudder in fear
Dabura is the king of the demon world
Babidi and his father Bibidi are evil wizards
Beerus is a literal destroyer god who almost blows up the Earth because he can't get pudding
Mr Satan, probably not, but he has SATAN in his name...
Jiren's quest for absolute power and emotionless focus may take one aback
Goku Black, or Zamasu - bodysnatching Goku and murdering your best friends is definitely a scary thought
Hit is a trained assassin
Caulifla goes Berserk
Speaking of Berserk, Broly's power can be scary
Many antagonists have scary moments Bergamo, Frost, Magetta, Botamo, Top, Dyspo, Cell Max, Moro, Granolah, Gas, Elec....
....and more...?

Jelli threw all these in a pile and picked out just TEN of his favorites. Who will they be?

Stay tuned to find out!

Drunken Master Commentary (S2E20)

Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!

In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney are joined by Trevor Snyder of the Failure to Franchise Podcast as well as Days of Future Podcast Examining the X-Men for a fun break from format and into the world of kung fufilms. 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 Akira Toriyama's favorite movie of all-time and the film that helped create Dragon Ball (we've told the story about Toriyama's wife helping he and Kazuhiko Torishima coming up with the idea...and we tell it again here): Drunken Master, starring Jackie Chan.

In this episode:

• We get right into syncing because it's a longer movie and commentary track.
• Stats on the movie including release date (pre-dating Dr. Slump and even Toriyama's first official publishing credit with Wonder Island), box office and key personnel
• Dragon Ball connections as it being Toriyama's favorite movie, the connections to Jackie Chun, Drunken boxing fighting style, and more including some surprise Master Crane similarities and Master Roshi inspiration points
• An introduction to the studio behind the film, Season Film Corporation, founded by Ng See-Yuen as he left Shaw Brothers to create this competitor and build a third studio behind Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers
• A brief BRIEF history of Brucesploitation where actors who had a passing resemblance to Bruce Lee were passed off as him appearing in a posthumous feature
• Connections to Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain
• Connections to Jean Claude Van Damme, Michelle Yeoh, and Cynthia Rothrock
• A dive into the life and career of Jackie Chan, from his beginnings in the Peking opera, to his early film roles, on through his breakout to stardom in Asia, his run-in with the Triad, his attempts to gain fame in Hollywood (finally captured when Rumble in the Bronx and Rush Hour broke through in a major way), and even his later career and current persona
• A dive into the life and career of the film's director Yuen Woo-ping, having worked with Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat and more, from his beginning working with his father on to his own Hollywood success working on the Matrix trilogy of films as well as Kill Bill, Kung Fu Hustle and later work with War Kong-Wai
• How Woo-ping worked on the Once Upon a Time in China series, helped launch the career of Donnie Yen (Star Wars: Rogue One and John Wick Chapter 4)
• The real-life cultural inspiration for this movie, an a discussion of Wong Fei-hun, a well-known Chinese folk hero and real-life master of martial arts, who worked with the Ten Tigers of Canton to create a style still taught in Chinese martial arts schools today
• The importance of Wong Fei-hun to China and Chinese film with over 100 films featuring the character and having been played by actors such as Gordon Liu, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Eddie Peng, and Vincent Zhao
• An introduction to the Beggar So character, So Chuan, and his status as one of the Ten Tigers of Canton
• How Yuen Siu-tien became known as THE most famous person to play Beggar So, and is Yuen Woo-ping's father
• A brief history of Drunken Master's home video releases
• A discussion of the film's many imitators and homages, including those found in Naruto, the works of Edgar Wright, and Mortal Kombat
•  
• ...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 Drunken Master Franchise....for our special Dragon Ball-o-Ween event!

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