Is the Red Ribbon Army a placeholder for the communist armies of Soviet Russia and Communist China? How did the dire state of the Japanese film industries in the 1970s impact Akira Toriyama?
Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 35 and 36 of the show, "Cold Reception," and "Major Metallitron" and we dig further into the Red Ribbon Army as well as their current base of operations for this portion of the arc: Muscle Tower
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are preparing for invasion
- We recap the episodes and discuss our favorite moments
- We talk about whether the Japanese would say the "h" in White
- We introduce the General White character
- Muscle Tower resides in a snowy landscape that Akira Toriyama said was like Siberia, does that mean the setting is Northern Russia?
- The hosts discuss Suno/Snow and where the name came from, whether it was inspired by the anime or if the mangaka gave it to the anime
- We talk about some of the James Bond influences, like You Only Live Twice
- An anecdote is shared from Masako Nozawa about her reaction to the episodes
- We talk about the inspirations behind Muscle Tower, being, surprise Kung Fu Films, namely Game of Death
- We discuss the game Spartan X that was released for Famikon, which was ported to the United States as "Kung Fu" and is inspired by Game of Death, not Spartan X (aka Meals on Wheels) as might be expected
- Surprise, a part of Dragon Ball is inspired by Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee
- We talk about pagodas and their importance in traditional Chinese culture
- Major Metallitron, who is totally not Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator, appears
- We discuss Goku "killing" Metallitron and praying, as Nam prayed in the Tenkaichi Budokai
- We talk about the psychological examination of General White via Muscle Tower as a metaphor and how Goku interacts with that
- We talk about what might have inspired Toriyama to start bringing in so much Western Culture into his manga
- The state of cinema in Japan in the 1970s and how it affected companies like Toho, and bankrupted the studio Daiei, including stressful situations on the set of Gamera films
- We talk about how the desperate state of Japanese cinema in the 70s led to importation of American films
- We remind our listeners about Toriyama's westernized style catching the eye of Kazuhiko Torishima
- Is Dragon Ball (or Dragonball Z) responsible for creating a sort of homogenized Japanese culture that Americans understand?
- Toriyama is at the forefront of bringing Western inspirations to his story, does the rest of the Japanese pop cultural spectrum follow suit? Just ask Godzillla, who brings in references to Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, James Bond, and more ten years after Toriyama had done so.
- The pop culture news shift and how things have sped up over the decades, and an anecdote about Jurassic Park
- Quick aside: is it a problem that Goku uses the Power Pole to skip only the first floor of Muscle Tower? (Answer: shut up)
- and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual
This is a breezy, quick episode, and we hope you enjoy!
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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