0 Comments
Even with a lack of accuracy in some cases, many say that new fans should watch the anime first. While many others say that it is the manga that should be the introduction. With its larger overall accuracy and little changes from version to version. Original Release The manga was originally released in Shonen Jump on a pretty much weekly basis by chapter. Of course this is the most accurate and unedited version, but is pretty much unobtainable in modern day and is only in Japanese. The Black And White Era The Tankōbon format is one of the most accurate releases despite its completely grayscale format of the colored pages that were in the Shonen Jump magazine. “The Tankōbon was always just kind of a classic way to go back to it.” said Kendamu, a manga enthusiast in the Dragon Ball community. “It’s really hard to go wrong with the Tankōbon.” After the Tankōbon, came the Kanzenban, or perfect edition, release in 2002. Many fans collect the Tankōbon format, barely acknowledging the Kanzenban. This set was released with special guides in every other collection as well as the colored pages put back in. It also had a slightly changed ending to wrap things up more tightly. So it is not Toriyama’s original piece through and through, while the alternate ending is still written by him. Both sets came with the extra chapter involving Future Trunks. "Torankusu za Sutōrī -Tatta Hitori no Sensh-" otherwise known as "Trunks The Story -The Lone Warrior-." While both came with this extra chapter, its placement in the Tankōbon is much more fitting. While in the Kanzenban it is placed in the last volume, in the Tankōbon it is in volume 33. Volume 33 was the beginning of the Cell Games. Which actually fits perfectly as it was right after the first episode involving the Cell Games did the TV special version air. This may lead some to want to buy the Tankōbon more. Both sets have their upsides.
A Swing And A Miss The 3-in-1s came before the Full Colors, but are all but useless now. Due to mishaps in printing, censored versions were released. This caused fan outrage and the problems were fixed for later 3-in-1 releases. These basically collected 3 Tankōbon volumes into 1 giant one. Many fans bought these versions, expecting no censorship as advertised. But like stated before, they were censored. Whether it was intentional or not, the censorship made these versions of the manga basically useless to many fans who seeked an uncensored and barely edited version.
Croker’s death was a sudden one, and his projects live on for those to see.
"A wise man once said 'Knowledge is Power.' The trick is making sure it gets passed to the next generation. When a master takes on someone who is ready to learn, amazing things happen. Teaching techniques vary, but if everybody works hard, it pays off. There's nothing like the day when a teacher sees their student succeed. A mind is a terrible thing to waste." - Moltar, 1998 On February 26, 1986 on Fuji TV in Japan, a new adventure anime series called Dragon Ball first aired. An opening shot with 7 round orange objects with stars in them quickly switching to a scene of a very active sun’s surface which these same 7 objects fly by soon after. Then you the viewer find out just what you’re watching. Dragon Ball. The enormous brightly colored words fly onto the screen, connecting atop each other in the middle. A single orange one-starred object attaches to the words on the side and a blue, smiling dragon appears within this object. A Dragon Ball. An opening with a beat that lets you know just what’s about to happen. Even as an international viewer outside of Japan, you can tell just from the song and the imagery of the opening that you’ll be taken on an adventure with Son Gokū and his friends. Toriyama’s Beginnings Akira Toriyama born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan is the creator of the Dragon Ball manga which is what the anime is adapted from. Before he created Dragon Ball he was already a manga superstar in Japan with his first major series Dr. Slump. Slump ran from 1980 through 1984 in Shonen Jump. With 228 chapters published, it was turned into 18 tankōbon volumes. But Toriyama’s work in the manga industry was far from over with Dr. Slump in 1984. Beginning of a Mystical Adventure On November 20th, 1984 Toriyama was back with an idea that would take the manga, and eventually anime, world by storm. Dragon Ball. With its first chapter, Bloomers and The Monkey King, released, Dragon Ball was going to rise to the top and fast. To the point where it went far past when he planned to end it. Dragon Ball consisted of 519 chapters while Toriyama initially wanted to end it with chapter 20, Shenron e no Negai!! (The Wish To Shenlong). There were many intended endings, but with its popularity came more and more chapters to the point of it being serialized for 10 years. It was popular enough to get itself an anime. Dragon Ball On The Small Screen Most people in America only know the series Dragon Ball Z. Whether it be the Ocean dub, the Faulconer score or Kai. But what came before Z was something more amazing. It was Dragon Ball. The anime adaptation of the first 194 chapters of the manga. From when Son Goku meets Bulma to the defeat of Piccolo at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, with some added filler as well. With many talented voice actors, animators and directors in its corner, Dragon Ball had nothing stopping its rise to fame. It took over the timeslot of Dr. Slump, Toriyama’s other anime, keeping many of the same staff. This 7 pm time slot became known as the Toriyama Block for 18 years. With 153 episodes under its belt as well as 3 theatrical films, it was time for a change. With a major turning point of the manga approaching adaptation, the staff felt it was time for a change. A sort of rebrand one could say. The Genki-Dama Roars Into Action Whether it be Cha-La Head-Cha-La, Rock The Dragon, or We Gotta Power you hear, you’ll know what’s coming when you do. A whole new type of adventure in the form of Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball Z was what the rest of Dragon Ball became. It became such a staple of the series that when released in America, Viz Media redubbed the last 26 volumes “Dragon Ball Z” instead of Dragon Ball. This was not your father’s Dragon Ball. Z took things in a whole new direction with larger fights, stronger enemies and space adventures. Fights were no longer 1 to 2 hours long. Now they were over 4 hours. Characters had power ups that would become pop culture icons. Screaming was needed to power up as well as charge an attack. It was something no one expected. Dragon Ball would be brought to America, but not in a way many would enjoy as the years passed. Rock The Dragon Though being in syndication for 2 years, Dragon Ball first made its way to the States on August 31st, 1998 in the form of Dragon Ball Z. With its punk rock theme, Shuki Levy composed techno/synth soundtrack and Canadian cast, this dub would come to be known as The Ocean Dub. Many would also know this dub as one with some of the most censors, mistranslations and the one to spawn the meme of Over 9,000 which itself was a mistranslation. This dub ran for 53 episodes and 3 movies before Cartoon Network ran out of episodes. Though they would finish up the dub in Canada much, much later, the repeating of episodes led to confusion and outrage among fans which meant only one thing. Anime Of The South With little money left and fans demanding more, Funimation did the only thing they could do. Make the dub in house. With Goku’s arrival on Planet Namek being as far as was dubbed, this is where the Ocean Dub would come to a close. But in its place spawned something new and exciting. The Funimation dub. This dub still kept many script changes but used a set of music made by a man known as Bruce Faulconer, which many fans would come to call their favorite and one true dub. With cast from within Texas, Funimation was ready to go. Finishing up the series by the end of Spring 2003. The series was released on DVD and that was it. Except Toei Animation had something else up their sleeve, though we’ll have to look back to 2000 before we go there. The Journey To The West Is Complete With DBZ’s success, Funimation thought it was time to revisit the original Dragon Ball. Episodes 14-16 with the Funimation dub cast were released on VHS, as the Ocean dub had done the 1st 13 episodes. But even those were redubbed eventually. This series would be treated differently from DBZ. Deciding to drop Faulconer all together, Dragon Ball kept its original Japanese scores with an english version of the Dragon Ball theme. Dragon Ball would be completed by Fall of 2003, and there was nothing left to do. Or was there? A Ratings Failure Of A Return Looking to keep the money and hype train rolling, on February 7th, 1996, Toei aired what would come to be considered one of the worst things to come out of Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball GT. With Toriyama barely being involved and the series being of its own creation with no manga to adapt from, it quickly became clear that Dragon Ball had a problem on its hands. Bad ratings and fan backlash. Lasting a little less than 2 years, GT came to an end in Japan on November 19th, 1997 with 64 episodes and 1 special. Step Into The Grand Tour As if it couldn’t get any worse, Funimation brought GT to the US in early 2003 without doing the first 16 episodes. They opted to do an intro episode full of flashbacks instead to get to the action quicker. It was there try to defy the expectations of failure by the fans. It didn’t work. Cartoon Network began by airing GT the Funimation way, but that did not work out. So they switched it up and showed the first 16 episodes which Funimation had dubbed “The Lost Episodes” when releasing it on DVD prior after the series completed its first run through. Home Releases Galore From VHS to Blu-Ray, Dragon Ball, Z and GT have seen their fair share of home releases. From Funimation redubbing the original episodes of Ocean with the Texas cast to the current blu-rays with all new dubs done by the Texas cast. From 1999 to 2003, DBZ was put on DVD episode sets with proper ratio format, but not the original Japanese score as that had yet to accompany the dub. In ‘05 came the Ocean episodes re-dubbed by Funimation, but that was never completed. From 2000 to 2003 was the release of Funimation’s Dragon Ball dub on single DVDs. In 2009 through 2010 fans would finally get an uncut, 4:3 version of the entire DB series with the Blu-Ray season sets. From 2007 to 2009 would come one of the worst releases of DBZ. The Orange Bricks. With a new 16:9 cropping and a semi-green tint, this would come to be known as probably the worst way to watch DBZ on home release. From 2009 to 2011 would come the saving grace of DBZ home releases. The Dragon Boxes. Considered the greatest release, with some would say even better quality than the soon to come blu-rays, it is greatly sought after. This set also did not include the Faulconer score with its English dub. Running for hundreds of dollars on Ebay now, they are extremely hard to come by. But for those who didn’t get these box sets, they would obtain their perfect set as well. Or so they would think. Winter 2011 marked another time a great home release would be around for fans. The Blu-Ray Level Sets. These lasted up to episode 34, with a release window of a little over a month. They were set to be probably the greatest release of DBZ all time. But Funimation quickly stopped producing them. Come 2013, with fans wanting more with a new series on the air, Funimation thought it time to begin again. On December 31st, 2013 came a new Blu-Ray release. These were not considered the best quality at first, but as time went on they became much better. Many fans say that if you don’t have the money for Dragon Boxes, these are your best hope. 2013 would also mark the release of something no one thought coming. DBZ: Rock The Dragon Collector’s Edition. For Ocean Dub fans, this was a last hurrah for a home release. Everything done by the Ocean Dub during their first run was released in one box set along with a 48 page info book about characters, history and much more. GT got its release in single DVD releases as well as boxsets in the early 2000s. It got another DVD release with the Green Bricks from late 2008 to Fall of 2010. These finally fixed the order. Dragon Ball’s movies were released very few times, but got a full collection in February of 2011. DBZ’s movies got many releases as well with single releases, blu-ray remasters from 2007 to 2009, with a revert back to DVD boxsets in 2011 to 2012. All these home releases would be all Dragon Ball would have in ways of visual media beyond Video Games for quite awhile.
|
AuthorJoin Aaron on a Mystical Adventure through the amazing series of Dragon Ball. He has been a Dragon Ball fan since circa 2008. Since then he has read the manga, watched old and new Funimation dubs of DB, DBZ and GT, recently begun to watch the Japanese dubs, and started reading his way through Dragon Ball Culture by Derek Padula. He is also constantly involved with the growing Dragon Ball community online by talking with others and working on personal projects. ArchivesCategories
All
|