(Music) The release of Resurrection F
has made Dragonball Z a hot topic once again.
And since we've addressed American superheroes at length,
perhaps it's time to talk about those beyond the Pacific.
So we've managed to gather six of the seven Dragonballs and
by that of course I mean here are six things you didn't know about Dragonball Z.
Probably. (Music)
The internet has pitted Goku against Superman in countless fantasy matches and
that's got a lot to do with the heroes' plentiful similarities.
Both are last sons of a doomed alien planet.
Both have alien birth names, Kal-El and Kakarot respectively,
which were presumably change at the immigration office.
What you may not know is, these similarities aren't coincidental.
Dragon Ball began as a cheeky adventure spoof with plentiful links to pop culture.
Master Rochi assumes the not so
subtle martial art's alias Jackie Chun at one point.
Goku meets creatures like Android 8 and Major Metalatron
who are send ups of Frankenstein and the Terminator and that's just naming a few.
>> You must get past me to proceed upstairs.
>> Given how Superman 2 was one of the 80s biggest blockbusters it's
easy to see how DBZ's Saiyan Saga could have drawn from it.
The series creator Akira Toriyama clearly loved to riff on western movies.
Four years into his epic, he suddenly reveals that
cute little monkey-boy Goku has actually been an alien Saiyan all along,
and right when his long-lost brother arrived to threaten his adopted home.
Come on.
Much like the Phantom Zone villains,
the evil Saiyans tear Goku between two worlds, almost literally.
Hey, Internet, enough debating Goku versus Superman.
Let's see Vegeta versus General Zod.
>> Yeah.
>> No. No, you can't do this to me.
(Sound).
>> Speaking of Vegeta, if the name Vegeta sounds silly to you, well, it's meant to.
As mentioned, Dragonball might have evolved into something more serious in its
Z era, but it started as a gag strip and
Toriyama never shook off his love of easy jokes.
He's always picking goofy English words for his character's names and
if he can extend those puns into naming schemes, even better.
So yes, the saiyans Raditz, Kakarot and
Vegeta are named after, you guessed it, vegetable.
Even the vilest villains can't escape the pun-ishment.
Sorry, anyway Bippity, Boppity, and Boo, they're named for
that nonsensical song in Cinderella as you probably guessed.
And Frieza, Cooler, and King Cold, do we really need to spell that one out?
(Sound) Let's move on to one of DBZ's loftier
sources of inspiration.
Journey to the West, a seminal work in asian literature.
This epic tome mythologizes the spread of Buddhism from India to China,
following a seventh century monk's retrieval of sacred texts with
the aid of Sun Wukong the monkey king.
Son Goku, Son Wokong, Son Goku, Son Wuko?
Get it?
You don't?
Look, I don't either.
That's fine.
So let's just move on, like Son Wokong, Goku.
Goku has an inconvenient monkey tail.
He runs on clouds and wields a nasty battle staff.
He'll also turn into a giant raging ape at times and
one of his friends is lecherous pigman.
>> Boy the way she was nagging me you would think we were married or something.
>> Much like the lecherous pigman Sun Wukong travels with.
Clearly it's a starting point.
Toriyama even chose to set Dragon Ball in a hilly countryside,
like those depiceted in traditional Chinese art.
However, as he does with most of his creative inspirations,
it isn't long before Toriyama scampers off in his own fanciful direction.
So the connections really end there.
As such saying Dragonball is based on Journey to the West is about the same as
saying that Arrow is based on Robin Hood.
Or that Shrek is based on Sleeping Beauty.
(Sound) Here's a tidbit for all you Game of
Thrones fans who are anxious that your favorite show has outpaced the books.
You guys may not realize you actually have something in common with DBZ
fans who are puzzled by these seemingly endless shouting they've seen on DBZ.
(Sound) Races between animated shows and the manga they're based on are quite
common in the anime world, especially if the shows begin production
before the first print installment has even been published.
When animation staff has to make up more plot without any new source material to
base it on, spinning their wheels basically,
the content is called filler and DBZ has a ton of it.
Sometimes, its supporting characters going off on meandering side quests and
more often, it's fight scenes stretched out over multiple episodes.
There's always room for another pose down, right?
>> Come on!
I haven't got all day.
>> So when Goku charges up for
all that time, he's literally filling up air time with hot air.
This is an unfortunate byproduct of anime's grueling weekly schedules,
where the notion of seasons is meaningless.
Shows like DBZ will just run continuously and maybe take one week off a year.
So before you point any fingers let's see how much space you can fill?
Toei, the company that owns DBZ,
has actually acknowledged this excess with Dragonball Kai, an official abbreviated
edit of the series that cuts all the filler out for better pacing.
It's not a bad idea.
How many of you wouldn't mind seeing something similar for Game of Thrones?
Get rid of all that crippled Bran (Bleep).
(Sound) We've revealed why DBZ has so much filler but a lot of people don't know
that Dragon Ball actually has a whole series of filler, 64 episodes worth.
After DBZ ended Toei tried to keep the gravy train rolling with Dragon Ball GT
and it wasn't well received.
GT starred a magically deaged Goku traveling
across the galaxy with his granddaughter Pan.
Somewhere along the line he reaches a super say in level four
possibly the most glam transformation in this whole universe.
(Sound) Toriyama wasn't involved in this iteration though and unsurprisingly he's
chosen to just pretend it doesn't even exist as he plots these new movies.
And really, who'd blame him?
>> Are you still on our side?
The good side?
>> Yeah!
(Sound) >> While we're on transformations,
remember that it's over 9,000 clip that tagged pretty much every
message board everywhere?
>> It's over 9,000!
>> Is over 9,000 penises.
>> What was that meme about?
>> Vegeta, what did you say his power level is?
>> It's over 9,000.
>> Turns out that scene occured in the aforementioned Saiyan saga,
when the evil Saiyans, Vegeta and Napa first encouter Goku.
They're shocked to see his power registers above the upper-limit measured by their
Google Glass like Scounters.
It was originally over 8,000 but they had to change it to 9,000 for
the dub to fit properly with the character's mouths.
Anyway, while obsessing over power levels and
endlessly debating who is stronger then whom, like say Superman and
Goku is a big part of the fun for hardcore fans, Toriano finds it all laughable.
Characters win or lose depending on his whims and what best serves the story.
It's not like he keeps a chart around.
He tried to say this explicitly with that scene, but
fans still want to know whether Super Sam,
level three Goku, could beat Super Saiya and God Vegeta, and why stop them?
That's pretty much what the internet was made for.
That and tasty hoots.
Okay, that's it for this one.
Let us know if you have any other fun,
obscure facts about Dragon Ball Z in the comments.
Maybe if we get enough, we'll all get to make a wish.
And if you were going to wish for more anime content,
you can get your fix over on our partner channel, Anime Vice.
Seriously, that's all we do over there.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to check out cinefix.com and
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granting balls that aren't mine, right here on Things You Didn't Know.