vivid than when the first chapter was published back in 1984.
So what if it’s just a bunch of musty, browning magazines? Long live history’s rough draft of Dragon Ball.
How old is Gohan? Changes to the manga you may have never known about
For years, we’ve joked about how the FUNimation English dub of Dragon Ball Z aged Gohan up by a mere year-and-a-half, as though that would make much of a difference to the beatings he would soon be subjected to.
It turns out that the manga actually did the same thing.
When chapter 196 of Dragon Ball first ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in October 1988, Gohan actually gave his age as three years old, not four. Looking at his hand, this appears to be more than a simple error: he is actually holding up three fingers. Nevertheless, the very next week, the title page of chapter 197 was suddenly referring to him as four, and tankobon volume 17, released in May 1989, changed Gohan’s line in chapter 196 to match.
Why the change? In the absence of an official comment, we can’t be completely sure, but the answer probably lies in what came between the chapter’s first appearance and the release of volume 17: Dragon Ball Z. With Toei Animation staff already planning out the future of the TV adaptation, they would understandably be worried about such a young child being subjected to violence. (And moreover, a three-year-old isn’t that easy for primary schoolers to relate to!)
With the timeframe already set as “five years later,” Gohan could not be made much older, but he was made as old as biologically possible: four.
But just to be clear, for the record: in his very first appearance anywhere, Gohan was three years old!
The Cigarette That Wasn’t
Back when the kanzenban was first released, the title page of chapter 5 was digitally redrawn (the original manuscript page was probably lost). This change caused a minor stir among fans due to a bit of apparent censorship: in the original version (present, albeit in greyscale, in the first tankobon), Bulma had been smoking a cigarette; in the redrawn version, she was not. Let’s take a closer look.
In Weekly Shonen Jump 1985 #04/05, we find the page accompanied by the tagline, “Even little girls look bigger when they get dressed up!” Bulma is dressed as a fighter pilot, but the plane behind her—a fanciful interpretation of a Lockheed P38 Lightning—is tiny, squat, “toy-like.” Her cigarette is also unlit: a curious detail, since the author almost always draws in “smoke” when characters are smoking. A look at her right sleeve pocket reveals the answer: the pack of “cigarettes” reads “CHOCO”. It was a candy cigarette, all along.
JULIAN (“SaiyaJedi”) is one of the translators for Kanzenshuu. He lives with his family in Japan.
Discovering DBZ
What was it that grabbed your attention? Here’s Masako’s take!
By Lawrence Simpson
I remember when I first discovered Dragon Ball Z: it was at the turn of the millennium and DBZ was new on British airwaves. At once, I was hooked. The action happening before my eyes was FAR more intense than what had I had seen before. That moment when Freeza got taken down was especially brutal. I was thirteen at the time and it left me reeling for days. Despite the censorship and tame dub, its potency remained palpable.
Seeing these characters fight in such an energetic and violent manner as well as screaming at the top of their lungs for hours on end left me wanting more, and I spent the majority of my free time traipsing the Internet for old, low-quality music videos of Dragon Ball, learning about characters and forms of Saiyan I hadn’t seen in the anime yet and all the other fascinating facets of the Z universe. You could say it was what got me into anime in a big way; Sailor Moon had struck a small chord, but it mostly passed me by...but Dragon Ball stuck and continues to do so to this day.
However, it’s only in the last few years that I’ve begun to truly understand the cultural impact that the series has had on not just the anime world, but the entire world and with people of all ages. Tons of references, nods and allusions to Toriyama’s seminal work are littered across world cinema and television. The tale of a young boy and girl on the quest for some mystical orbs that grant wishes has touched millions of people over the last thirty years and will continue to do so for at least another thirty...and probably another thirty on top of that. So Dragon Ball: don’t stop, don’t stop!
LAWRENCE (“MasakoX”) is a member of TeamFourStar and voices Goku in their Dragon Ball Z Abridged fan parody series. He also produces content for Anifiles Reviews.
Memories of…DBZ
The series is actually a time capsule back into your life
By Joe Yancone
It’s hard to think of a time in my life when Dragon Ball wasn’t a part of it.
I first discovered the series back in 1994 while getting Street Fighter cards in a Carddass machine in China Town. There was this odd machine right next to it with cards from a series called “Dragon Ball Z.” I had never heard of it, but the art was really interesting. So, I put my quarter in and out popped a card: it was of Trunks and Goten in the last pose of the fusion dance where they’re touching fingers. Out of context this seemed very strange. I didn’t know what was going on but, I was interested. I got another card; this time a fat pink blob was fighting a guy with long yellow hair. I had no idea what was going on or who these people were but it was the start of something that would last for the next 15 years of my life, and will hopefully continue on until I grow old.
Now, in my early 30s, I feel like I know everything there is to know about Dragon Ball. From the production staff to the story arcs, I could easily have a conversation about any of it, and yet, I’m not tired of it one bit. My fandom has spanned so many years of my life that I now associate Dragon Ball dubs, movies, story arcs and even Dragon Ball games with a period in my life and what I was doing at that moment in time. When I put any episode of Dragon Ball on it’s like seeing an old friend again, and no matter how old I get I think I’ll always feel that way.
JOE (“TanookiKuribo”) is a longtime fan of the series and enjoys diving into and tearing apart any product that falls off the truck ahead of its actual release date.
Get That Dream Job!
One fan’s life ambition becomes reality: Dragon Ball opens the translation door
While Steven J. Simmons was busy translating Dragon Ball Z, GT, and the various movies (not to mention other series FUNimation was picking up at the time), the ever-growing workload necessitated more translation help. Enter the Tomato.
By Clyde Mandelin
I actually can’t remember the first time I encountered Dragon Ball, but I’m pretty sure it was when I was very young and living in Hawaii.
My hazy memories of Goku were suddenly revived over a decade later when I was flipping through TV channels one weekend morning and stumbled upon a show about a strong kid with a power pole and silly friends. Even though I was now in high school, old memories and thoughts of, “Whoa, I remember this!” came flooding back to me. I had no idea there was an anime of it…and that it had been dubbed into English! This was actually my first exposure to FUNimation too—little did I know that in just a few years I’d have the honor of helping to translate even more Dragon Ball for them!
During college, I realized my dream in life was to translate Japanese games, anime, and entertainment into English, so I studied and worked hard for that goal. After graduation, I had trouble breaking into the industry, thanks to the age-old problem of, “How am I supposed to get years of experience if no one will hire me in the first place?” The job hunt continued for months, and just days before I was about to run out of money, give up on my dream, and take an ordinary office job, I was contacted by FUNimation to work as a translator.
To my surprise, one of my very first projects was the original Dragon Ball series. It was a whirlwind of a project, during which I learned so much about the industry and the translation trade and so much more. It almost felt like I was on a big adventure of my own, one that I got to share with all of the Dragon Ball gang.
It’s been almost 12 or 13 years since then, but I still look back fondly on those early days and feel glad to have almost grown up alongside the Dragon Ball franchise!
CLYDE (“Tomato”) translated the original Dragon Ball TV series for FUNimation. He is also responsible for the popular Mother 3 fan translation and runs legendsoflocalization.com
The Dragon Ball Series: Dividing it Up
How do you split the series up? By “arc” or by “saga”…?
By Heath Cutler
Story arc divisions for the series have been a debated topic for as long as I can remember. Whether you call it a “saga” or an “arc,” these divisions have really become dependent on each individual fan. In fact, even my personal division of the series has changed over the years based on my own experiences. Unfortunately there’s really no correct division to follow, so fans have always been left to their own exploits. While many fans have concocted relatively similar divisions, no matter their regional origin, they aren’t necessarily the exact same.
When the series was first being published in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump there was no breakdown by story arc. Events simply flowed from one to another. Even when the manga chapters were being conveniently compiled into tankobon (“standalone book”) volumes, they were simply given numbers with no discretion for a distinguishing story