Sunday, February 3, 2019
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Takedown
"Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others."
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Even More Dragon Ball Valentines Cards
Another February, another batch of these wonderfully dumb things. You can find the original batch from 2013 right here, and last year's batch right over here. Feel free to send them to your sweetie.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Piccolo Fights (Top 7 Saturdays)
Piccolo. The son of a demon, the other half of a god, and the last of his line. In a fandom as expansive and diverse as Dragon Ball, there are few things we in the fandom can agree upon; But Piccolo's place as one of the best characters is never up for debate. A lot of that is to do with history and character arc - it's one of the most emotionally fraught in the franchise - but it's hard to deny that a large appeal is Piccolo's style. Part and parcel with that are the iconic battles that Piccolo engages in. Though he often played the role of a protector, no fan can deny that when the cape and turban came off, they didn't get hype.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Review: Dragon Ball Movies (1995-2015)
"In handling the scripts for the films, what I always worried about each time was the problem of what to do about the opponent Goku fights against. That's because, at the very least, they had to be stronger than [the ones from] the previous movie. After much hard work, I was unable to come up with an opponent stronger than Broly, and fell into a rut where I made him appear three times." -Takao Koyama, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z head writer, and author of DBZ movies 1-13, speaking about his work. (Full thoughts here, on Kanzenshuu.)
The mid-DBZ section of movies and specials were some of the weakest in the bunch. And from looking at Koyama's own thoughts years later, it seems a lot of this was due to writer's block he ran into after writing DBZ Movie 8. Akira Toriyama has expressed a similar problem with writing Dragon Ball before, too -- an expectation to always raise the stakes with stronger villains with each villain. As Dragon Ball came to a close, and then revived over a decade later, we'll see the strategy shift from "stronger" to ... something else, for better or worse.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Review: Dragon Ball Movies (1991-1994)
1986 through 1990 were great years in the world of Dragon Ball-related movies and specials, with several entries becoming all-time classics, and the others hidden gems. But no King rules forever, Tony Jay once said in a video game about ice zombies. And we'll find that, while not immediate, the reign of Dragon Ball cinema couldn't last forever.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Vegeta Fights (Top 7 Saturdays)
Vegeta is one of the most popular characters, full stop. Not just in Dragon Ball, not even just in anime, but in fantasy, sci fi, and kung fu genres he dominates as a persistent, magnetic force that attracts seemingly endless fandom. It's easy to see why -- he's a smug, morally compromised little shit, whose heart grows three sizes just in time to save the day. He's the Grinch, but with high flying kung fu and the haircut of a troll doll. While I love to roast Vegeta, both on this blog and just in day to day life, there's no denying that he is fucking cool. Maybe not Piccolo levels of cool. But still pretty cool. And a large part of that is to do with his down-and-dirty style of fighting. In a world of well-choreographed karate, Vegeta uses flight, rapid fire ki blasts, grapples, throws, and handfuls of sand like no one else had before. So let's celebrate that storied history of Vegeta battles with a little countdown!
Friday, January 20, 2017
Review: Dragon Ball Movies (1986-1990)
Dragon Ball's anime premiered in February of 1986, and by December of 1986, the first animated motion picture spin off of Dragon Ball was shown at the Toei Cartoon Festival. Since then, Toei has made hours of Dragon Ball movies that have become well known to fans both for their alternate takes of classic Dragon Ball moments, and their minimal involvement by series creator Akira Toriyama -- for better or worse, on both counts. Even though I have various summary posts for each of these movies, I never gave them a proper review. So here, retroactively, I'll be giving each movie a quick review using my normal system, if nothing else but for completion's sake.
Monday, January 16, 2017
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