Intro a Franchise

Hey, this is Steve Bloom, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. and welcome to

the Cyber Dragon Ball. I'm your host, Steve,

or I should change my name for this show, Majin

Phillips, and joining me is... I would be Master

Birdman, because I'm the perverted older man

who will teach you the Kami Kami Ha or the Turtle

Dragon Wave, and that's how I roll. Hey, and

you wouldn't be that much different from Master

Roshi, so... Yep. It's only when you see porn.

So, I guess jumping into the gist of this show

is, this episode is going to be a light overview

of our experience with Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball

Z, and so on. Each episode will more or less

take a stance of, in the vein of our review shows,

we're going to be doing this in Saga. Because

we all know that it can take, you know, 20 episodes

to get to the end of a particular saga. Depending

on how much screaming they get through. So we're

going to go that route. So like the, you know,

the Raditz, you know, Saiyan saga and then the

Vegeta saga and so on. I have an official breakdown

on another. I just have to dig it out. Too lazy

to do it tonight. I mentioned to you off air

that I happen to have a Pojo Dragon Ball magazine.

1996. This particular issue I have, it's the

515 character bios. It is from May 15, 2001.

I still have this magazine. It's in pretty damn

good condition, which is actually funny. I've

had it in a notebook for years because I used

to write Dragon Ball Z fan fiction. You friggin'

nerd! Yeah. Well, what's funny is when I was

in middle school, my friend that I had during

that time used to write... In collaboration with

me, we'd write Dragon Ball Z Mega Man X crossover

fanfiction. Then we'd introduce slowly our own

characters into the mix. He at one point passed

the series on to me, and then I continued it.

I finished one of his fanfics, and then I continued

on beyond that. Then I had this whole mapped

out plan, and then I never executed it. So I

had this magazine as a reference guide. So what

are your experiences or how did you get into

the land of Dragon Ball? For me, it started back

in the 90s. I was in high school, probably about

grade 9 or 10. I remember hanging out with my

friends Brad and Ben. And at the time, my parents

had satellite, but they didn't have cable. I

know you could have one or the other. And I didn't

get a chance to see a lot of really cool cartoons.

So my friend Brad, I think it was, it was either

Brad or Ben, loaned me a VHS tape of Dragon Ball

Z. And it was something they recorded off of

a channel up here in Canada called YTV, which

would be equivalent to your Nickelodeon, more

or less. And I was like, holy shit, what the

hell is this? And it was so cool. So I started

boring. more and more tapes from ben at this

point and he loaned me all the tapes up until

just before goku goes super saiyan in frieza

and i never saw past that until years upon years

later and it wasn't until i went to an anime

convention uh anime north in 1998 i remember

this because i bought a bunch of cds off a guy

who had dragon ball z in these little 2x40 window

thumbnail clips that were real player format

and they were subtitled you couldn't yeah you

couldn't oh wow real player crap on these things

and i was like oh my god this is so cool and

then i saw like the majin buu stuff i saw all

that happen and then the final wouldn't call

it nail in the coffin experience with Dragon

Ball is there was an RPG company in the 90s,

Talosian or Talosian, I don't know. They're the

same people that make Cyberpunk 2020. They produced

a Dragon Ball Z RPG. An actual pen and paper

role -playing game. Which is the most unbalanced

thing you can possibly imagine. Like, you were

literally throwing attacks that could range in

the hundreds of dice and just The game mechanics

are complete garbage, but the fact that they

had it was amazing. And even back then, they

had the age -old question, could Goku beat Superman?

And there's actually one section in one of the

books where it says, in all technicality, Krillin

could hand Superman his booty in a super -powered

sack. And that's the exact quote from the book.

And I'm thinking, man, that's really weird. So,

yeah, that's mostly my experiences with early

Dragon Ball. However, though, as the years have

gone by through doing This Week in Geek, I've

actually become friends with a number of the

Dragon Ball Z voice cast. I'm friends with Sean

Schemmel, who plays Goku in the Funimation dub.

I'm friends with Kyle Hebert, who was the original

Dragon Ball Z announcer. He plays Gohan. Teen

Gohan. He was also Ox King in the Dragon Ball

Z Kai dub. I want to say he plays Pycon as well,

but I want to say that might be Chris Sabbath.

And randomly, Chuck Hubert. I did some work for

him way, way back. And you may know him as Garlic

Jr. or Android 17. So yeah, it's been really

weird. I've always had the peripheral of Dragon

Ball Z in my life. Best experience is when Goku

stole my mic. I was recording at a convention

back in 2007 or 2008, and I'm interviewing Sean,

and I have this device called a Morant, which

is like a digital field recorder. And he's like,

hey, you, Birdman, hold on a minute. I'll be

right back. And he literally takes my mic and

runs away for like 10 or 15 minutes. And it's

just him babbling in it as Arnold Schwarzenegger,

as Nicolas Cage, as Christopher Walken. He's

just... saying random shit for 15 minutes like

giving us like really weird like um audio promos

for our show he called me steve he called me

mike e honda dodd and steve a film negative sailor

and it was just very very very odd and uh sean

is a one -of -a -kind man let me tell you that

much um and yeah that's that's dragon ball in

me Okay, and for me, I remember watching back

when Ian James Perlite was Goku. I remember being

pissed off when it became Sean, and then going

back, I'm like, you know, Ian wasn't all that

good. Well, and I don't think it was even him.

Like, it was just, it was that dubbing studio

that did it. And he, I think he did well for

what it was, but you could tell it was him. like

i was like oh it's megaman and and cheetor and

and i was like oh okay it's he's playing goku

too and then when uh you know because all i think

as far as i got was like just the vegeta battle

like before namik um with with him playing goku

and then they changed it to sean shemel and i

was to begin with was a little peeved and wasn't

happy about it but then I can't imagine anybody

else besides Sean Schimmel playing Goku and Chris

Sabat playing Vegeta. I remember when they changed

the voice from Brian Drummond, who played Vegeta,

to Chris Sabat. I was like, man, that's really

weird. And then even looking back on that, I

can't picture anybody else playing him either.

But the meme, it's over 9 ,000, sounds way better

with Brian Drummond. I don't know why. It just

does. Oh, yeah. Well, I think it was the guttural,

It's over 9 ,000! Like, just... So, I mean, it

was just... It was crazy, but that's why it was

such a popular meme, was just because of the

strength and intensity that went into that voice.

I also remember when they changed Krillin's voice,

and I remember thinking, I don't know which one

I like better. They actually both sound kind

of totally appropriate for the character. But

I remember specifically when those voices all

changed. It was like halfway through Namek. And

you're like, hey, where'd Sheetor go? And all

this crap. And everybody's voice was so different.

Yet, consistently, I'm pretty sure the woman

who did Gohan did it all the way through Cell.

I'm pretty sure it was still her. Colleen something.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm... I... This show, like...

There was a point in time that when I watched,

I used to record the episodes on VHS because

most of the time I wouldn't catch them because

they would come on right around dinner time at

home. So I would always miss the episodes and

I'd get so mad if I missed one. And I was like,

I can't miss it, blah, blah, blah. Back in the

pre -DVR days for you people, you had to actually

program a VCR and hope that the tape recorded.

and hope that somebody didn't change the channel

on you. So I had that. And then in school, I

knew so much about it because, one, the internet

was kind of, you know, it was kind of getting

out there for the most part. I frequented so

many Dragon Ball Z sites and soaked up as much

information as I could on the show that I was

the go -to reference guy at school. for younger

and older students that wanted to know anything

about the series. So I was kind of that go -to.

And then I'd have to sit there and explain all

the differences in the sagas and their powers

and who has this and who does what and how some

of their names are after vegetables or after

musical instruments or just various factoids

like that. Definitely one of the highlights of

my childhood. And then I actually ran a Dragon

Ball Z website, which actually spawned from writing

the fanfiction. So to begin with, it was called

Majin Phillips and Baby Gojitos, or Bilby Kilburn's

Dragon Ball Z GT website, which later on got

renamed to the Cyber Dragon Ball. To shorten

it up. Hence the name of the show. And then I

changed it later again. To the Dark Dragon Ball.

When I was running it solo. But I got bored.

And went on to Transformers by then. But I also

watched all of the Dragon Ball Z Saga. So there

was nothing left to watch. Because I don't acknowledge

GT. I think GT to a certain extent. Does get

kind of a bad rap. I do kind of like Pan. Actually.

I think that that and the Super Saiyan 4 were

about the only positive thing about the show.

Super Android 17 was kind of cool, but Baby was

stupid. Yeah, Baby was stupid, and I liked that

Trunks got to play kind of a front -running role

to kind of replace his dad, in a sense, and kind

of Gohan and some of those other guys. So it

was a nice dynamic. I wasn't happy about him

being a kid again. Yeah, I thought that was a

bit of a step backwards. But then again, I guess

I'm happy having Goku alive than be an angel

500 years in the future sort of thing. So I was

better. I was more happy with that. But I don't

know. I mean, it's funny. I never much cared

for the original Dragon Ball series. Like the

one that was all kind of cutesy. Yeah, I'm not

really a fan of that either. But the dice have

some pretty cool fights in it. In fact... One

of the things that really got me more into Dragon

Ball than anything else was the video games.

Almost all of them were done by Atari, I think.

The one that I liked, and I think it was the

best. I still think it's the best Dragon Ball

Z game, and I'm really sad that I sold it. It

was for the PS2, and it was called Dragon Ball

Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. That had a... Yes, it

was. That was such an awesome game. You went

through the entirety. of every Dragon Ball fight.

You also went through several what -if scenarios.

And you get to do some of the GT. The only other

game that comes close would be Dragon Ball Z

Xenoverse, and that came out last year for the

next -gen consoles. And it's an amazing game

in its own right, too. I haven't... I haven't

had a chance to play it yet, although I do own

it. I bought that game actually used, so that

was kind of nice. And then I bought one before

that, and I can't remember for the life of me

what it was. It wasn't that, but it came out.

Raging Blast? Maybe? You'll probably recognize

it when I say it. It was one of the... I would

recognize it, but I can't. The last one that

was released for the PS2 was Dragon Ball Z Another

World. It was garbage and a half. Raging Blast

and Raging Burst... Sorry, Burst Limit and Raging

Blast both built upon similar mechanics. They

weren't bad games. They weren't great. It took

the series to go back to Xenoverse before it

got good. And let's not even talk about the Dragon

Ball Z Kinect game, which is so ridiculous. In

fact, I remember getting the press kit for that

game. You got a scouter with it, fake Goku hair,

and a headband. And I remember just looking at

this mail. The FedEx guy hands me this Dragon

Ball Z envelope. I'm thinking, what the hell

is this? Yeah, awkward day is awkward. I remember

sitting around my apartment at the time, because

I was still in college with this, looking at

my friends. And I'm like, all right, so who wants

to be the first asshole to try this? And everyone's

like, nope. I don't know if you remember any

of the imported emulators of the Super NES games.

I remember playing those in my high school cafeteria

because someone was too cool to have a laptop

running it in my high school cafeteria. We played

that during lunches. Yeah, I used to play some

of these games back when I was... Because I used

to run an emulator site, so I used to get those

all over the place too. They... There was one

with cards. You had to play with cards to decide

the moves that you did. And it goes all the way

through Super Saiyan and defeating Frieza and

then that's the end of the game. And then there

was a couple other fighting games that were on

the Sega Genesis that was like... It's almost

like a Hyper Dimension or something like that.

But it was such an awesome game, and that's where

I learned to button mash for the first time.

And then I started figuring out how to actually

play. Because I'd never played a fighting game

until Dragon Ball Z. And to this day, that is

the only game I will get that is a button mash

fighter game. Because I enjoy the tournaments

of it. Well, I should say that the only other

game that I would play is... smash brothers but

this is for an actual fighting game this is what

i go to and i did figure out what game i bought

that it was ultimate tenkaichi i'm trying to

remember if that one was good or not yeah it

was okay i the expectations for it that i had

were not as good as um because a lot of the the

fighting a lot of the the the stuff you had it

would either lock on aim or you would have that's

right i remember the fighting being incredibly

frustrating in that game and that was part of

the problem and then they had timed things so

like you had to hit the the like you know xyz

you know or or the certain colors or whatever

of the buttons uh or x y a b or something in

a random order and if you didn't it you'd get

smashed by a hit or you you would have like a

side scroller because you had to fight like hildegard

and you had to fight like the the uzar and you

had to fight um uh like stuff from the from the

movies in the game and i was kind of like and

then it wouldn't let you get to like gt characters

so you couldn't use or something like that super

saiyan 4 Yeah, something like that. I think you

could use... Maybe you could use Gogeta. I can't

remember, but it's been a while since I played

it. But I know you couldn't play the actual sagas

of some of the stuff. And so it kind of... It

didn't really mesh well with me. Whereas when

I played... Because I'd played sagas too at one

point, and that wasn't all that great. But I'd

played Budokai, Budokai 2, and Budokai 3. And

Budokai 3 was good back in the day. And then

all the Tenkaichis have been... Now, if you want

to check out something really good, go on YouTube.

There's a YouTuber known as ProJared. He's former

ScrewAttack. He does a lot of things now with

Dungeons and Dragons, I think. He's a really

good YouTuber. And he did a series when he was

working for ScrewAttack where he goes through

every Dragon Ball Z game up until, I want to

say, Ultimate Tenkaichi. and it's really, really

well in -depth. They talk about the car games,

they talk about the role -playing games. There

was a couple for the DS, actually. There was

one for the Nintendo Wii. There was Dragon Ball

Sagas, which was a role -playing game for the

PS2 and the Xbox. And he goes through each title.

He goes through even the Super Nintendo ones.

There was actually a Dragon Ball Z Tournament

Fighter, which actually played, I think, at Evo

for, like, a year or two. So that's how legit

Dragon Ball Z got for a while. So if your listeners

are really curious, I highly recommend you go

check out his series on YouTube. I think it's

five videos long, and I don't think they're any

less than half an hour each. Huh. Yeah, I'll

probably end up checking them out in my free

time. And I... I gotta check out Xenoverse since

I actually own it now. Because I haven't played

any of that game yet. I think I created a character

and I think it's about as far as I went. My experience

with Dragon Ball Z has been between the television

show and I think for a little bit there I did

collect the comics. Which I think was through

the Namek saga when I was collecting. I don't

think I had very much, but I had enough to go

through some of the first fights with Frieza,

and then I stopped collecting, unfortunately,

due to money issues. I remember the company that

produces the manga, Viz, they sent me this huge

omnibus, and it went through Raditz all the way

to the end of Vegeta. This thing was like a small

city's phone book. I couldn't believe how long

the manga was. I never did get around to reading

all of it. I think I got halfway through it.

I was like, man, okay, I might tap it out. Can't

do it anymore. And then, well, obviously we saw

how long the series was on TV. That's why I was

really glad when they did Dragon Ball Z Kai and

condensed the hell out of it. Yeah, I still have

yet to watch the actual Kai setup of it. I'm

one of the throwbacks to the original entire

long, drawn -out saga. I actually like how it

paces the first saga really, really, really well.

It cuts out so much filler in the Frieza saga,

too. It also takes out a good chunk of Cell as

well. I haven't kept up with it post -Cell, though.

Just because I haven't had a chance to contact

the company to send it to me. But I know it's

been out for like a year or two now. But I remember

Kai definitely being worth checking out, though.

Now, have you had a chance to check out Dragon

Ball Super yet? I'm... I've heard that the animation

is batshit terrible. Some episodes will look

great, some will look like shit. And I'm not

precisely sure why that is. The movies... See,

that's really unfortunate because that's the

first series post Resurrection of... Which I'm

glad they actually released those theatrically.

I was really surprised when they did that, when

they did... battle of gods and then did this

one although i do think it's kind of cheating

where they just oh now your hair is blue is that

all you got um but yeah super super saiyan god

super saiyan ridiculous and then it turns out

god's not as powerful as regular it's see that's

one thing akira toriyama basically said He's

like, don't ever pay attention to power levels

or anything. And it just got so confusing because

even during the original saga, they're like Super

Saiyan 1 is stronger than Super Saiyan 2, but

3 is the most powerful, but not as fast as 1,

and thus not as powerful. I'm like, what? If

I want to kick his ass, what do I got to do?

Sort of thing. And I always hated that. Sometimes

Dragon Ball, for as simple as it should be, They

overcomplicated the crap out of it sometimes.

Uh -huh. Yeah, I... It was one thing that I kind

of thought was stupid with since that movie came

out was they were like, oh, it's Super Saiyan

God, Super Saiyan. And then everybody can do

it now. Yeah, I just... mind -boggling to me,

but I did enjoy that film, despite the fact that

it had kind of a really phony cop -out way of...

Hey, Whis! I was... Yeah, they're like, Whis,

fix it! It's just... I don't know. I wanted to

choke somebody at the end of that film, but...

Yeah, it was great. I mean, I really enjoyed

it, but then it had that, and I was like, eh.

They pulled a Dragon Ball Z Eternal Dragon move

without using the dragon. Because they used it

at the beginning. So yeah, I mean, it was pretty

good, though. With the duration of this podcast,

obviously going to cover the sagas, but I thought

we'd cover each film as well. That's the plan.

Things may not turn out that way, but that's

the plan. And just because I'd like to actually

sit down and converse about some of the films

as well because I acquired them all over the

last year and I've watched all of them numerous

times. And besides the fact that the animation

is inconsistent with the film. I love the dubbed

soundtracks. Randomly they have like Finger Eleven

and Disturbed in some of them. And it makes no

sense. Although as a child that very much did

influence some of my musical taste as a kid.

One of my favorite musical bits of Dragon Ball

Z was the starting that they had while it was

on Toonami. That's the best one. I don't like

the theme song at all, but Rock the Dragon, that's

awesome. Bring that shit back. I mean, that instantly,

like, I can associate with it, and it's so catchy.

You know what's weird, though? They actually

released a special edition box set a couple years

ago where they purposely restored just that.

The intro is different. Every other thing was

the same, except that. I'm like, wow, that's

kind of a cash grab. That's a smart cash grab,

but it's a cash grab. I want to say it was also,

yeah, it may have been the original Ocean dub

too, yeah, up until things changed, and it was

Rock the Dragon as the theme song. I always thought

that was the superior theme song then, as opposed

to the random Japanese guy singing. Yeah, Dragon,

Dragon. It sounds... Like it's saying something

bad when you play it on QuickTime in slow motion.

But it's so badass. I know. It's such a great,

great theme. So being that this is just a overview

of all of our memories and thoughts and everything,

is there anything that you'd like to bring up

that we may have missed in our gushing of the

series? I will bring out my Dragon Ball Z role

-playing books because one of them, is incredibly

rare and i picked it up for five bucks on ebay

on amazon i've seen it going for four or five

hundred dollars and one of the authors of dragon

ball oh wow rpg actually wrote an unofficial

book he had the manuscript done but he couldn't

publish it because the company had lost the rights

to it so he published the um end of the cell

saga and the beginning of majin buu saga in a

book he called magical wishing dreaming spheres

and it was the rules that would be compatible

with the dragon ball z rpg i think i still have

it but i was so happy that someone actually completed

the series quote unquote in this but uh Yeah,

to talk about character creation, some of the

unique things the book would give you, I think

it'd just be a fun trip down memory lane about

a piece of memorabilia almost nobody talks about.

Yeah, that'd be interesting. And then, like I

said, I had this old Pojo magazine with some

of their bios in there. Even though it references

some sites that aren't around anymore. Like Planet

Namek and some of those type sites. So yeah,

I'll probably reference some of the characters

in there at some point since it's got the entire

bios. It's even got this interesting thing that

it's their English to Japanese names. and their

dub names, and their alternate spellings. Yeah,

I think I'll be really kind of looking forward

to actually kind of hearing about this more.

Because, like, for instance, Vegeta, like the

Japanese name is Vegeta. And the English dub

translated name is Vegeta, like vegetable. Vegetable.

And then the alternate spellings is actually

the same as the Vegeta. except they replaced

the B with the V. And then there's three different

spellings for the Vegeta, like V -E -G -E -T

-A or V -E -J -I -T -A or V -E -G -I -T -A. So

it's like, there's a lot of, like Kame, Senen

is Master Roshi, obviously, or Mutant Roshi,

which those are, you know, everybody knows that.

Oh my God, Steve, you know what we have to do.

We have to do commentary for the Dragon Ball

Z, or sorry, Dragon Ball Evolution. I have a

theatrical one -sheet poster for that. Is that

the Dragon Ball movie? And James Marsden and

Ernie Hudson randomly. Oh, you're talking about

the live action movie. Oh, you will. I've never

watched that. I have it, but I've never watched

it. We are going to Mystery Science Theater the

shit out of that. Yeah, it's... I would be interested

in doing that, actually. Man, I'm almost tempted

to drive down to Michigan so we can literally

Mystery Science Theater 3000 this shit. My God.

Yeah, it's so, so bad. But it's so entertaining

at the same time. That's funny. I think it would

be really funny to actually go over that film.

I have an intimate knowledge of the making of.

I had to, in a not very proud moment of my career,

had to ask for a lot of press material related

to that movie. Like I said, I still have my theatrical

one -sheet poster around here somewhere. Were

you disappointed that you asked for so much on

it? This is going to be my Zardot. This is going

to be my Highlander 2, The Quickening. This is

my beautiful disaster. It just happens to star

Goku. Ish. Goku Light. Goku Ish. Goku Light.

Who's randomly a white kid now. And yet Yamcha

is the only Japanese guy outside of Chao Yan

Fat in the entire freaking movie. And Piccolo

does nothing. Which is kind of messed up. The

Ozaru as something. It gets so stupid. I remember

there was a time when people wanted Jason David

Frank to star as Vegeta. in if there was a sequel

like there was a really weird fan campaign around

it and i think he responded to it on like several

occasions but we'll get to that that just makes

me laugh oh man so with that uh anything else

you want to bring up look forward to us talking

about this it'd be nice to get back into some

anime type stuff and maybe talk about series

that are similar to dragon ball at some point

in terms of violence or content or even stuff

that's kind of dragged out and you know more

than i would introduce you to some rather new

stuff and hopefully you'll take a liking to some

of it so we'll wait and see this is my goal for

this podcast is to show steve some new and exciting

things i have seen some anime My knowledge of

anime is like anime light. I know like... I've

seen a little bit of... You know, like obviously...

I've seen Sailor Moon. I've seen like a little

bit of Outlaw Star. I've seen Cowboy Bebop. Basically

anything that had shown up on Toonami at one

point I've seen. My main knowledge ends with

Death Note back in 2008. But with series like...

Attack on Titan, Kill la Kill, Space Dandy. I'm

looking to get back into anime in a very large

way. So hopefully I'll be able to change some

hearts and minds with this because it's an art

form and a genre that I really used to love as

a kid. And maybe it's time now that I'm that

older adult, I can get back into it and see it

with a fresh set of eyes. I mean, right now I'm

just going through Avatar. the last Airbender

series, and hopefully going to move on to Legend

of Korra. And I'm looking forward to going through

that again. So hopefully, like I said, I will

be able to show you some crazy stuff like Fist

of the North Star, which is ridiculous yet amazing,

and really cool series like Attack on Titan.

So stay tuned, guys. Lots of fun stuff, but mostly

Dragon Ball and people screaming about power

levels for the next X many episodes. Yep. Power

level 9 ,000. Yeah, it's just priceless. So,

yeah. Thank you for listening to the Cyber Dragon

Ball and catch us next week as we... Soon! Maybe

not next week, but catch us soon. Yes, for the

next episode. Please find all my Cyber Dragon

Balls. Please. She's like, shut up. But I have

not ordered pizza as Goku, because if I did,

it'd probably be something like, yeah, I'd like

all the pizzas. Just send me all of them. How

many do you have left? A couple hundred? Yeah,

put everything on it, send all of it, and just,

you know, that'd be awesome. Okay, thanks!