Jelli and Bekinney are bored. So, they're pivoting once again from simply breaking down and discussing Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon and looking at a couple episodes of the show, and instead they're doing something BRAND NEW! They're interviewing a special guest
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are adrift in space
- We place a call to Dragon Ball scholar, Derek Padula, author of the Dragon Ball Culture series, as well as the books It's Over 9000! When Worldviews Collide, and Dragon Soul: 30 Years of Dragon Ball Fandom
- Derek's career accomplishments are highlighted, and we breeze through his resume as an author and content creator
- Derek provides his "origin story" as a fan of Dragon Ball
- A powerful moment, as Derek lays bare a low moment in his life and how the philosophy of Dragon Ball and mindset of Goku helped him to continue on
- Derek discusses how being a fan of Dragon Ball led to him studying the shaolin arts, and accumulating decades of knowledge about East Asian culture
- We ask Derek what inspired him to become an author and he unsurprisingly says it is his way of attempting to give back and help contextualize Dragon Ball for people to help everyone understand why it is so beloved.
- We discuss the writing process, the editing process, what self-publishing looks like in the 21st century for an author, how reviews can be so important to up and coming content creators (hint hint: leave us a review while you're at it)
- Derek gives insight into the level of detail to which he has studied Dragon Ball...every panel on every page, compared to hundreds of hours of pop culture content, movies, games, tv shows, books, and ancient history
- We talk about Toriyama's Dragon World and its escapism, and compare his mentality of crafting a world of fantasy opposite his own personality to other creative types
- Derek hints at other ideas he has including books on the anime, a Dragon Ball cook book, physics and math problems based on the feats of Goku and the Z Warriors, and even more commercial applications of his work
- We wrap up by asking Derek: What makes Dragon Ball still so popular and relevant today
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual.
Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.
For more from Derek, feel free to follow him on Twitter @DerekPadula (https://twitter.com/derekpadula) , seek him out on Facebook, and make sure to visit https://thedaoofdragonball.com to stay up to date on Derek's pursuits.
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