This entry was posted on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 8:23 pm by Brandon Hanvey and is filed under Comic.
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I like Dragonball over Dragonball Z due to how DragonBall makes me think of Akira Toriyama’s real works. Full or action, comedy, and a linear plot of magic and martial arts. Titles that come to mind have to be Dr. Slump, Sandland, and Kowa. The eyes of childhood in Japan, in my opinion.
With Dragonball Z, the fun is somewhat lost, but it entails about growth and the rise of character development with the characters of the first series. Then again, the Z is just to explain to the American audience about the time skip, yet Naruto didn’t get this treatment at all in the American translation. Makes me wonder why Viz and the dubbers of the animation adaptation didn’t just call it Dragonball without any confusion of having to make 1 series into two different entities?
The Z was added in 1989 by Toei Animation. Which was about three or four years before anyone in America had heard of Dragon Ball. And I’d hardly compare Toriyama’s usage of Journey to the West to Sandman or Fables, given that he got too lazy to sustain it about 5 chapters in. And if I remember correctly, he’s confessed to this. Toriyama is the first to tell you how much of a lazy bum he is. A lazy bum who created one of the greatest manga of all time, but a lazy bum nonetheless.
Also, I think that DBZ gets a bum rap compared to DB. People have such horrible memories of the anime, and the original series is so unknown compared to DBZ that the cool thing to do has become to bash DBZ in favor of DB. But my favorite part of the whole franchise is the Namek saga. I maintain that it was Toriyama’s best work, story-wise, and it was the only time that the power scale was big enough to be really thrilling, but still small enough not to be completely ludicrous.
That’s a good way of describing the Namek Saga. The first time I saw a scouter overload and explode, it was awesome, and I even enjoyed the constant power-level bluffing characters did (at least in the beginning).
But past that, the power levels weren’t the only thing to be dragged on to ludicrous proportions.
Hehehe yes, I loved the actual Dragonball manga even though the DBZ show was sooooo wretched… especially the chopped up dub they show on American TV with all the good parts edited out!
As member of the Latin American Generation who grew up with Dragon Ball I feel the obligation to explain that DB is awesome. I’ve glimpsed at what the US got, and I weep.
The Latin American version was amazing, straight from Japan (I think); and it was the best thing on TV back in the Day (and we got it in order). Of course we mocked Namekusei’s “Final Five Minutes” and stuff like that; but we loved it. My entire generation was touched by Dragon Ball; so it makes me very sad the treatment it received in the States.
Speaking of soundtracks, I actually shelled out $60 for the 5-disc Japanese OST back in college (this was pre-Napster). Great music, but man, did I piss an awful lot of money away in those days.
My favorite reviews usually come from Geekvolution where they… you know… review stuff. I’ll go in spurts where I’ll really enjoy a sarcastic reviewer, but that approach has really worn thin over the years, and for me was more “miss” than “hit” even when this comic was new.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
I for one thought it was an incredibly informative review and look forward to more in the future.
July 13th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
The loose adaptions of characters in DB/DBZ are derrived from Journey to the West, a Chinese novel written in the 1590s. Duh.
July 19th, 2009 at 2:30 am
That may have been what the original concept was based on, but the comparison ends after the first story arc. From then on, it was all new ideas.
September 14th, 2010 at 3:36 am
I like Dragonball over Dragonball Z due to how DragonBall makes me think of Akira Toriyama’s real works. Full or action, comedy, and a linear plot of magic and martial arts. Titles that come to mind have to be Dr. Slump, Sandland, and Kowa. The eyes of childhood in Japan, in my opinion.
With Dragonball Z, the fun is somewhat lost, but it entails about growth and the rise of character development with the characters of the first series. Then again, the Z is just to explain to the American audience about the time skip, yet Naruto didn’t get this treatment at all in the American translation. Makes me wonder why Viz and the dubbers of the animation adaptation didn’t just call it Dragonball without any confusion of having to make 1 series into two different entities?
October 14th, 2010 at 12:18 am
The Z was added in 1989 by Toei Animation. Which was about three or four years before anyone in America had heard of Dragon Ball. And I’d hardly compare Toriyama’s usage of Journey to the West to Sandman or Fables, given that he got too lazy to sustain it about 5 chapters in. And if I remember correctly, he’s confessed to this. Toriyama is the first to tell you how much of a lazy bum he is. A lazy bum who created one of the greatest manga of all time, but a lazy bum nonetheless.
Also, I think that DBZ gets a bum rap compared to DB. People have such horrible memories of the anime, and the original series is so unknown compared to DBZ that the cool thing to do has become to bash DBZ in favor of DB. But my favorite part of the whole franchise is the Namek saga. I maintain that it was Toriyama’s best work, story-wise, and it was the only time that the power scale was big enough to be really thrilling, but still small enough not to be completely ludicrous.
October 14th, 2010 at 7:04 am
That’s a good way of describing the Namek Saga. The first time I saw a scouter overload and explode, it was awesome, and I even enjoyed the constant power-level bluffing characters did (at least in the beginning).
But past that, the power levels weren’t the only thing to be dragged on to ludicrous proportions.
November 15th, 2010 at 2:25 am
Hehehe yes, I loved the actual Dragonball manga even though the DBZ show was sooooo wretched… especially the chopped up dub they show on American TV with all the good parts edited out!
As a note, I love this comic. <3
February 1st, 2011 at 1:04 am
my God, i thought you were heading to chip in with some decisive insght at the finish there, not depart it
with ‘we depart it to you to decide’.
February 2nd, 2011 at 4:01 am
Hm? It doesn’t ask anyone to decide anything.
May 5th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
As member of the Latin American Generation who grew up with Dragon Ball I feel the obligation to explain that DB is awesome. I’ve glimpsed at what the US got, and I weep.
The Latin American version was amazing, straight from Japan (I think); and it was the best thing on TV back in the Day (and we got it in order). Of course we mocked Namekusei’s “Final Five Minutes” and stuff like that; but we loved it. My entire generation was touched by Dragon Ball; so it makes me very sad the treatment it received in the States.
June 21st, 2011 at 1:35 am
I loved both DB and DBZ. I was surprised at the adult humor in DB. DBZ was my soundtrack to working out and boxing during college.
August 16th, 2011 at 3:07 am
Speaking of soundtracks, I actually shelled out $60 for the 5-disc Japanese OST back in college (this was pre-Napster). Great music, but man, did I piss an awful lot of money away in those days.
February 27th, 2013 at 10:48 am
Obviously way late to be commenting but why not?
My favorite reviews usually come from Geekvolution where they… you know… review stuff. I’ll go in spurts where I’ll really enjoy a sarcastic reviewer, but that approach has really worn thin over the years, and for me was more “miss” than “hit” even when this comic was new.