DB

This will probably be the last Dragon Ball Month. It's not like there's not more DB/Z to cover, but I feel like I don't need to dedicate an entire month to it anymore, I've made most of the points I wanted to make about the franchise. This is one of the reasons I chose Wrath of the Dragon to review last, because it was the last DBZ movie until 2013's Battle of Gods (or maybe you want to count 2008's Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, which we still don't have over here, with an English dub).

The wraparound material is just explaining or showing bits of the last Penguin Chronicles (one of my old strips) arc that I never finished in strip form. I have fun.

My Dailymotion page

I thought I'd get back to the "storyline", or bookend material, this month, because the videos are pretty short. I know you probably just skip to the review portion (I'm glad anyone even bothers with that much), but I like doing this sort of thing now and then, because it allows me to play with more sprites. I love playing with my (and Rob's) sprites!
 
I have toyed with ideas I mentioned here about a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fanfic, but I feel like I'm getting a little too old to be writing anime fanfics. And yeah, I was going to do a separate video series, aside from Otaku Evolution, on the DC animated films that come out straight to DVD/Blu-Ray. I had a lot of things ready for it, too, like a rating system for each feature. I somehow just never got to it. Should I still do it? Eh.

Also, Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure, folks. It's a Dragon Ball movie. With Arale in it!

 

My Dailymotion page

 

My final entry in this year's Dragon Ball Month is the eighth Dragon Ball Z movie, that one with the mountain of muscles who dumb people seem to enjoy. Seriously, Broly is a complete waste, because he's not even really a character. He's such a two(at best)-dimensional villain, and yet they give him this back story to try to get us to sympathize, or at least understand. Sorry, but that only works for characters with personalities. With Broly, it's just a lot of wasted potential. Granted, at least they tried, but maybe they should have shifted that effort into giving him something that defines his role, aside from a lot of screaming, and cry-induced insanity. Sure, most DBZ movie villains are shallow, even in the better movies, but this is a case of aiming high and falling low.

"Great Flaming Dragon Balls! A Theatrical Experience!! Penguin Truth Enjoys A DBZ Dub!!!"

 

 

 

Episode 113, "A Wicked Heart is Revived; Vegeta, the Prince of Destruction!"

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Episode 112, "The Star Performer Takes the Stage! Take Down the Demon King!!"

*****SPOILERS*****

 

 "I don't need this shit."

 

PART I: The Preamble
 

 

 

Few people talk about Shunsuke Kikuchi. While not the quality of say, Yoko Kanno's contributions, or the emotional power of Hiroshi Miyagawa's work, Kikuchi has been in the business of incidental music (that is to say, background music) for decades. Cutting his teeth on tokusatsu programs, Kikuchi got work scoring the anime adaption of the popular Akira Toriyama manga Dr. Slump. He is best known, however, for scoring the anime adaptation of Toriyama's most popular work, Dragon Ball. Taking cues from old films, Kikuchi is a little Wang Fu-ling and a little Bernard Hermann.

 

My pick: Masako Nozawa Reasoning: Nozawa's child Goku is spritely, spirited, and has little nuances to it that are perfect for the character, who's been living out in the woods on his own for so long. Naldony's Goku has a similar "wild" edge to it, but I can't stand her laugh and lacks that sense of charm Nozawa had. Clinkenbeard and Henderson's Gokus are similar, but I find Henderson's Goku is too collected, while Clinkenbeard's has a bit of a rougher quality like Naldony's, but with better acting. Slusar's Goku sounds a lot like the English voice for kid Kuririn in the Funimation dub. I'd say it's also a bit like Henderson's, but that's not necessarily a good thing.

Funimation has announced the cast for the new English dub for the new DVD release of Dragon Ball Movie 1, "Curse of the Blood Rubies" (1986):  

SON GOKU ..... Colleen Clinkenbeard BULMA ..... Monica Rial OOLONG ..... Bryan Massey ROSHI ..... Mike McFarland YAMUCHA ..... Chris Sabat PU'AR ..... Brina Palencia PANSY ..... Cherami Leigh GURUMES ..... Jeremy Inman PASTA ..... Kate Oxley BONGO ..... Jonathan Brooks SHENLONG ..... Chris Sabat NARRATOR ..... John Swasey 　

This movie is largely a retelling of Goku's first encounters with Bulma, Oolong, Yamucha, and Roshi, with a new context added involving new characters like Pansy, Pasta, and Gurumes, a king who has been transformed into a monster.