What happens when Toriyama inverts Dragon Ball's entire fish-out-of-water dynamic?
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 44 and 45, "Master Thief, Hasky," and "Danger in the Air." We continue discussing the Red Ribbon Army, break down some trivia on a few filler episodes, and have a discussion about how society is basically just the worst.
In this episode:
- Your cohosts remain missing
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments (spoiler: we don't have a lot of favorite moments)
- Mentioning Toriyama's love of inversions, reminding listeners about his Frankenstein inversion with Android 8 (8er) and how he's going to continue that with a "fish out of water" motif on Goku
- We discuss the destruction of Kintoun/Flying Nimbus and remind listeners about Kume Sennin and the inspirations behind Master Roshi
- We talk about how Daoist mentality suggests that as society becomes more complex, the magic fades from the world
- We talk about West City's design and its inspiration points including the Jetsons, Star Wars, and Blade Runner
- Inspiration points behind the Bruce Lee fight in West City including Bolo Yeung's King Boxer (and how Yeung ties into Enter the Dragon), and infamous Three Card Monty games
- We discuss the film The Idiot by Akira Kurosawa, albeit briefly
- We talk about Legend of Korra
- Possible inspiration points behind the design of Capsule Corp, including the film, Gamera vs Guiron (and then we divert into talking about Mystery Science Theater 3000 - MST3K - and how the crew reacted to the Daiei movie)
- Dr Brief's cat, Tama, is brought up, and all the cultural inspiration that goes behind naming a cat "Tama" in Japanese
- We talk about Dr Brief's potential inspiration points, including the original Godzilla film and the movie Terror of Mechagodzilla, which features a character who looks almost exactly like Dr. Brief
- We discuss the potential inspiration behind Tiny Bulma, from the show Ultra Q
- We talk about Bulma's mother and how her name is not OFFICIALLY Panchi
- And then we get into our main topic for the day, and discuss how Goku's incorruptibility in the face of the failings of a complicated and uncaring society make him an inspirational character that we really enjoy seeing
- 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.
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