What do Bastion Booger, Jackie Chan, Lingerie, Buddhist stereotypes, Toho's kaiju Gigan, and Fist of the North Star have in common? Something, something DRAGON BALL. Listen to find out more!
Jelli and Bekinney return to format and continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by tackling episodes 20-23 of the anime. We're taking on "Elimination Round," "Smells Like Trouble," "Quarterfinals Begin," and "Monster Beast Giran", and then having a discussion about the characters we meet, specifically Bacterian, Jackie Chun, Nam, Ranfan, and Giran, their inspirations from cultural and literary history as well as where Toriyama may have been introduced to these concepts via film or television.
In this episode:
- Jelli and Bekinney are on a new planet and face all new challenges
- Brief plot synopsis of episodes 20-23 of the Dragon Ball anime
- Brief discussion of favorite moments from the anime episodes
- A talk about some of the Easter Eggs in the episodes
- We talk about jokes that may not have translated well, characters who appear in the backgrounds, and the importance of the backgrounds and backdrops and settings we see
- A possible explanation of where the two monks who face Krillin come from and their roots as a manzai comedy duo
- Bacterian's inspirations from professional wrestling
- Jackie Chun's inspirations and how his name might have been different if Toriyama had been introduced to Jackie Chan via different means
- Ranfan's inspirations from Toriyama's time drawing lingerie ads
- Nam's inspirations from Buddhism
- Giran's inspirations from kaiju films
- Our opinions on the quarterfinal matches and their level of interest
- Whether the subversion of expectations in the brevity of Giran vs Goku works
- The inspiration for the tournament itself from the popularity of baseball in Japan and Fist of the North Star
- History of actual martial arts tournaments over the years, including similar winner-takes-all battles that took place in China hundreds of years ago and also a Chinese novel, Water Margin
- How Toriyama was likely not inspired by these actual tournaments or literary history but rather movies like King Boxer and Master of the Flying Guillotine
- The legacy of the Budokai Tenkaichi and how it impacted future manga moving forward
- 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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