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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
Thursday Oct 19, 2023
Thursday Oct 19, 2023
Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!
In this special Bekinney-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 Bekinney'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...?
Bekinney threw all these in a pile and picked out just TEN of his favorites. Who will they be?
And will Bekinney get himself into more trouble than he bargained for...? Stay tuned to find out!
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
Tuesday Oct 10, 2023
Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!
In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney break down the Halo franchise, with specific focus on three pieces: the short film Halo Landfall, the animated anthology Halo Legends, and the new Paramount+ streaming show, Halo. 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 Daisuke Nishio, director of a segment on Halo Legends (Odd One Out) and Dragon Ball.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney say hello to Halloween
- We discuss our introductions through Halo, whether that be playing Halo 2 in college, or just gaming in general, and if we've experience other Halo media outside the games prior to this episode.
- Breaking down the origins of Halo from creative studio Bungie with Halo: Combat Evolved and through Halo Infinite
- Discussion of the lore of Halo, discussing the Covenant, the Flood, Forerunners, humanity's place in the universe, Halo's importance in the franchise, and who the Master Chief is.
- We talk about Daisuke Nishio, and give a biography, from his birth in Miyoshi City in Hiroshima in 1959 to current day, covering his entry into Toei, working with directors who also worked on Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Dr. Slump.
- Discussing Nishio's strengths as a director and looking at some interviews he gave talking about how he approaches production, as well as his work on Gegege no Kitaro
- Introduction some of the mythology in order to contextualize the franchise for listeners including a history of the Forerunners, what the Halo installations are, what the Ark is and its function, and breaking down the races of the Covenant
- Talking about how the Prophets, Drones, Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, Elites and Brutes all work together (or don't) to begin what they call the Great Journey
- The role of a special Elite known as the Arbiter
- Who the Master Chief is
- An introduction to the AI Cortana
- A discussion of Neill Blomkamp's short film Halo Landfall with special assistance from Weta Workshop.
- A discussion of Halo Legends, first discussing its role in the Halo franchise as Microsoft's first attempt to expand the franchise beyond the confines of the Xbox under the newly created 343 Industries banner when Microsoft acquired the IP from Bungie
- Talking through each entry in the anthology
- Origins, by Studio 4C directed by Hideki Futamura (Akira, Gundam, Vampire Hunter D, The Animatrix)
- The Duel, from Production IG and directed by Hiroshi Yamazaki (Ghost in the Shell)
- Homecoming from Bee Train directed by Koji Sawai (Parasyte, Ranma 1/2)
- Odd One Out from Toei and directed by Daisuke Nishio
- Prototype from Bones (Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, My Hero Academia) and directed by Tomoki Kyoda (Rebuild of Evangelion, Eureka Seven)
- The Babysitter from Studio 4C and directed by Toshiyuki Kanno (Dragon Ball)
- The Package from Casio Entertainment and directed by Shinji Aramaki (Ultraman)
- Discussing the Halo series on Paramount+ with showrunners Kyle Killen and Steven Kane, who worked on The Beaver, Netflix's Death Note, The Closer, Alias, and Curb Your Enthusiasm as well as Amazon's Jack Ryan show
- Some of the creation history behind the series including originally thinking it would be helmed by Rupert Wyatt and Steven Spielberg
- ...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 26, 2023
Tuesday Sep 26, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 87, 88, 89, and 90, "Yamcha vs. Tien," "Yamcha's Big Break," "Full-Moon Vengeance," and "The Dodan Wave." We continue discussing the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi, and delve into the topic of flight in Dragon Ball.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney try to chart their course
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- Some notes on the techniques Tien uses during his battle against Yamcha
- Revealing how Jackie Chun is able to hypnotize Man Wolf using a method similar to that employed by General Blue
- Defining buku jutsu and how it is the name for the cloud dancing flight technique employed in Dragon Ball
- Unveiling how xianren (senin) became associated with the ability to fly, along with red crowned cranes, thus deepening the connection for the Crane School and Master Shen's Crane Hermit abilities
- Talking about lingzhi mushrooms and their ability to make you believe you can fly
- How flight as buku-jutsu is different from Puar's ability to fly
- Then we discuss how Dragon Ball flight may be similar to or different from that employed by Superman or Peter Pan, we get off on a tangent about Mr. Satan, and we discuss whether we would want to be able to fly
- 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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Tuesday Sep 12, 2023
Tuesday Sep 12, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 83, 84, 85 and 86, "Which Way to Papaya Island?" "Rivals and Arrivals," "Preliminary Peril," and "Then there Were Eight." We begin discussing the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi, and delve into the Crane Hermit, or Master Shen.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney prepare to leave Kemani
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- How Toriyama became among the first manga ka to incorporate a time skip into a Shonen Jump manga
- The possible origins of Konkichi, the green fox
- Jelli throws out some movie recommendations including Battle Royale, Kwaidan, and Godzilla's Revenge
- How Dragon Ball continues to borrow from Journey to the West
- A discussion of durian and papaya, two of the most controversial fruits (if such a thing can be called controversial)
- A brief biography of Andre the Giant
- Some things to be on the lookout for as the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi ramps up
- And then we delve into the Crane Hermit, his design inspirations from Hideyo Amamoto and Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu, and why Toriyama chose a crane
- We wrap up by saying some predictive thoughts about the forthcoming 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.
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Tuesday Aug 29, 2023
Tuesday Aug 29, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by ...jumping off the manga and onto our second feature film commentary!
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney roast some food over a crackling fire
- We sync up our audio commentary for the listeners
- We discuss some of the production facts about the film Dragon Ball Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castl such as its 1987 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: Metalder, Super Sentai, and Saint Seiya
- We delve into the background behind the Toei Manga Matsuri – Toei Cartoon Festival and its inception in 1969 and other such festivals around the country such as Toho's Champion Festival
- Contextualizing the box office of the film in terms of a modern-day episode of The Simpsons
- Shedding light on Keiju Terui - a Toei staff writer who also worked on Dr Slump and Legend of Zelda
- Discussing the film's producer: Chiaki Imada and his career at Toei which began with the release of Tower of Lilies
- We discuss the different dubs created for the film by studios such as Creative Products, Speedy, and Funimation
- The difference between the 2005 original Funimation release and the 2010 remastered version
- Discussing the characters Lucifer and the hunchback and their inspirations from Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Slump
- Breaking down Ghastel from his appearance to his cultural background as a Prince Nezha interpretation from Journey to the West
- Talking about Minoru Maeda's career as a character designer for Dragon Ball
- 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 15, 2023
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 78, 79, 80, 81 and 82, "The Eternal Dragon Rises," "Terror and Plague," "Goku vs Sky Dragon," "Goku Goes to Demon Land," and "The Terror of InoShikaCho." We continue discussing the Fortune Teller Baba mini tournament and a few unexpectedly interesting filler episodes, as well as round up with a discussion of the Baba arc in the manga.
In this episode:
- Jelli is on an ant-hunt
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- The hidden meaning behind Baba's chanting as she intones the final dragon ball's location
- Kazuhiko Torishima's take on Goku's pants being burned
- Some Voltron and Power Rangers comparisons
- Terror and Plague's similarities to both Journey to the West and Seven Samurai
- Jelli and Bekinney discuss Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, and....A Bug's Life? Also The Three Amigos.
- The similarities between Goku's clash with Sky Dragon and the films Tiger and Crane Fists and Fist of Fury
- The movies being borrowed from for Goku's trip into Demon Land
- How Shura looks like the destroyer Shiva, and how Shiva may be repurposed in Super later on
- InoShikaCho's inspirations from a popular card game and the influence of said game on anime, including Naruto
- And we round it all out with a discussion of the manga and do our usual comparison 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.
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Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 74, 75, 76 and 77, "The Mysterious Fifth Man," "The Strong Ones," "True Colors of the Masked Man," and "Pilaf's Tactics." We continue discussing the Fortune Teller Baba mini tournament and break down the identity of the fifth fighter, Grampa Gohan, as well as his importance culturally and to the story.
In this episode:
- Jelli is on an ant-hunt
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- How Toriyama is subverting expectations by pivoting from Western-Themed monsters to an Eastern-inspired hermit for his fifth fighter
- The meaning of Gohan, being cooked rice, how it's colloquially "Let's Eat" in Japan, and how Gohan comes to clash with Toriyama's Sun Wukong-inspired Monkey King
- The importance of hermits in Eastern culture and a brief mention of the film Amongst the White Clouds
- How Gohan has some minor parallels to Star Wars
- An explanation of why a dead fighter needs money
- Baba's status as an onmyoji
- We talk about Obon, the Japanese festival built around paying homage to one's deceased ancestors, and how important it is to Buddhist culture and future characters in Dragon Ball (Enma Daio, aka King Yemma)
- How Toriyama repurposed halos for Dragon Ball
- Why Gohan wears a fox mask
- An elaboration on Kitsune (fox) in Japanese and Chinese culture
- How kitsune are similar to tanuki
- Why Japanese culture views foxes as more benevolent than Japanese culture and how foxes became intermingled with the concept of the Shinto god Inari as well as a symbol of Shintoism itself
- The importance of a fox fighting a monkey in Eastern culture as a clash of kitsune and saru or even Shintoism vs Buddhism
- How foxes relate to No Theater
- A Pokémon connection to Ninetails and Vulpix
- A Miles "Tails" Prower reference
- Toriyama repurposing the fox mask from Dr. Slump
- And we look for further examples of the importance of foxes in Japanese pop culture and get into a tangent on the film Pom Poko
- 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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Tuesday Jul 18, 2023
Tuesday Jul 18, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 71, 72, and 73, "Deadl Battle," "Goku's Turn," and "The Devilmite Beam." We continue discussing the Fortune Teller Baba mini tournament and break down the identities of four of Baba's five champions.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney arrive on a new planet
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- Fangs the Vampire's inspiration points, which are obviously Dracula and Vlad Tepes
- How Fangs is a Muai Tai fighter and that is appropriate for his character
- A discussion of how Japanese pop culture tends to utilize Western (specifically Christian) religious iconography when telling fictional tales
- More Dracula discussion, as we did when we looked at Don Dracula
- The Invisible Man and where his name came from, the prime time soap opera Water Door Earth Gate
- The background of the song Baba sings to distract Yamcha during his fight with Sukesan
- And discussion of the Invisible Man Universal films
- Mummy Kun's obvious inspiration points front Boris Karloff's portrayal of Frankenstein and The Mummy
- How Toriyama subverted expectations with his mummy by making him nimble
- And discussion of mummies in movies, especially the Universal films of the 30s and 40s and the 1999 Brendan Fraser Mummy film which is called by your cohosts "perfect"
- Devilman aka Akkuman and his name being derived from Akuma
- Why Devilman's evil exploitation ray aka evil expansion beam does not work on Goku
- If Goku is pure of heart or just dumb
- And a discussion of Devilman, the anime series
- We finish up with a discussion of how Toriyama subverts expectations by not using further Universal Monsters and ponder why we did not get a Gillman or possibly a Wolf Man.
- 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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Tuesday Jul 04, 2023
Tuesday Jul 04, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 69 and 70, "Who is Fortune Teller Baba?" and "We are the Five Warriors." We pick up the trail of the final Dragon Ball and start to bridge Dragon Ball into the afterlife.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney make a bet
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- The first example of Goku inspiring allies to refocus their training efforts
- Breaking down the contradictions of Baba's Palace and how male and female, living and dead, and beauty and desolation mingle
- The inspiration behind Obake, Baba's ghost usher, from Obake no Q-Taro and Ultra Q
- Goku's classic inability to get ceremonial titles correct
- Whether Baba, which means crone in Japanese, is a pejorative term
- The history of Fortune Tellers in Eastern culture, including the movie The Lost World of Sinbad (aka Samurai Pirate)
- How Baba may be mildly inspired by the Baba Yaga
- And then we discuss our main talking point of the day, which is how we feel about this arc really introducing the concept of the afterlife and spirits living beyond life into the Dragon Ball universe
- 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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Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 65, 66, 67 and 68, "Confron the Red Ribbon Army," "A Real Bind," "The End of Commander Red," and "The Last Dragon Ball." We put a bow on the Red Ribbon Army, get into breaking down the manga as it compares to the anime, and talk about the significance of Goku's gi
In this episode:
- Your cohosts try to unravel a mystery
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- Violet's inspiration from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
- More Star Wars influences
- Silver, Purple, White, Blue, Yello, Red, Violet, Brown, Copper, Metallic, Black...all defeated by a little boy in Orange
- We talk about the importance of Goku's gi, or dogi and why Toriyama chose the color he did, and how the gi he wears is inspired by Chinese dogis and yet differs due to design considerations
- Why Goku wears his dogi almost constantly
- Commander Red's sometimes Scottish accent is analyzed
- More Indiana Jones influences
- Red's Napoleon Complex
- Then we get into some manga an anime comparison points and look at some shocking filler moments and a few other notes on things like cover art and at least one great pun
- A shocking typo (shocking? sure. Why not?)
- 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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