Film Center honored the legendary Akira Toriyama, reflecting on his profound impact on the entertainment world, notably through his creation of "Dragon Ball".
This is Film Center.
Speaker:Your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Now, here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:I'm Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we're talking about today, Nicholas.
Speaker:Today, we are talking about The man, the myth, the legend, Akira Toriyama.
Speaker:Akira Toriyama, today, so today is March 8th.
Speaker:Even though he passed away a week ago on March 1st, his death has been confirmed.
Speaker:I think yesterday actually, March 7th, and then we're
Speaker:talking about today on March 8th.
Speaker:So we're basically saying that he died from a heart attack.
Speaker:Is basically what they're saying.
Speaker:They said a heart attack, and then there was another report saying
Speaker:something about a brain injury.
Speaker:But, either way, this person this man, has passed away.
Speaker:It has affected all of our lives.
Speaker:It's no secret that anime was in America prior to Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:Speed Racer, Astro Boy Was Yeah, that's about it.
Speaker:Gundam Wing was, Gundam was here before.
Speaker:Yeah, Gundam was in the 80's.
Speaker:Yeah, but it wasn't as popular as As the previous two.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:It's just when you are young watching tsunami, right?
Speaker:Everyone remembers Dragon Wall's E who remembers Big O?
Speaker:Yeah, I remember Big O.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it's not as talked about as Dragon Wall's e is.
Speaker:So it's just true.
Speaker:A level of popularity to say that Dragon Ball Z dragon Ball Z, even GT and Super.
Speaker:Had an effect on other creatives is an understatement.
Speaker:A complete understatement.
Speaker:He is like the Stan Lee of Japan.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's Japan's Stan Lee and it's hard to even compare him to that because they're
Speaker:both such great creatives in their own ways I'm not gonna continue saying that
Speaker:but just in perspective I do to get people's head around the fact of how
Speaker:impactful this man was This man's art.
Speaker:This man.
Speaker:So he Dragon Ball has been going on for so long.
Speaker:It's been going on since before we were born.
Speaker:And the crazy part is that you see the character age from being a literal baby
Speaker:to a kid to being a teenager and marrying Chi to then being an adult having his
Speaker:own kids, going on and the show is still going on strong which is crazy.
Speaker:It even has something called Dragon Ball superheroes, which is not canon,
Speaker:but it's apparently some crazy Z Kai that yeah, and there they remade the
Speaker:original Dragon Ball Z, make it Dragon Ball Kai, the story is so great.
Speaker:They just redo that for the video game every day.
Speaker:Every year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And yeah, it's you're never going to run out of Dragon Ball Z material.
Speaker:You just, you can just retell it and people won't care.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:They're retelling it.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:My favorite story ever.
Speaker:That's what happened with Kai, right?
Speaker:They recut it to basically, Cut out all the filler.
Speaker:It's so incredible to see the effect that one person can have on the world.
Speaker:Like, when Stanley passed, it was like, it rocked the earth.
Speaker:And then now with Akira's passing, it's another giant earthquake.
Speaker:Yeah, John I think all of us, who are around our ages, late 20s,
Speaker:early 30s, remember Toonami, right?
Speaker:That was a lot of.
Speaker:That was a lot of people's introduction to anime.
Speaker:Yeah, that or 4KidsTV, but usually it was Toonami.
Speaker:It was Toonami, coming home from school.
Speaker:Or for me, it was, coming home, Staying up a little later
Speaker:than you probably should have.
Speaker:Or, you were like I did aftercare, right?
Speaker:Daycare.
Speaker:After school.
Speaker:And then, so you would go watch Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:One of the things I would ask you this DJ because Chala, we would chala
Speaker:what Dragon Balls Z was, I think.
Speaker:is a very interesting anime because it was extremely violent, right?
Speaker:It was accepted violence.
Speaker:It was extremely violent, but, and a lot of parents didn't let their
Speaker:kids watch Dragon Ball Z, right?
Speaker:Because of the violence, but I had a number of people especially when I
Speaker:started to get a little older, when a little older, 15, 16, 17, right?
Speaker:And, they would talk about, How influential Dragon Ball Z
Speaker:was to their kids' vocabulary.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I didn't even know that you could, I didn't even know art books existed until
Speaker:I started watching Dragon Ball Z as a kid.
Speaker:I didn't know that.
Speaker:I knew people drew them, duh.
Speaker:Everyone knows that.
Speaker:But it's I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker:I wanna see if I don't like drawing, but the first character I've ever oh, let me
Speaker:go find a, you try drawing art, right?
Speaker:They're my first kick at it.
Speaker:Was Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:I went, I like, asked, I was in Walmart and asked, I still remember, I asked my
Speaker:my mom, I was like, Hey, I want this book.
Speaker:And my mom was like, does this draw Dragon Ball Z on it?
Speaker:And I was like, yeah.
Speaker:She goes, you don't draw stuff.
Speaker:And I was like, yeah I want to try it.
Speaker:She goes, okay.
Speaker:It was like four or five dollars.
Speaker:It was like super thin, so she didn't care.
Speaker:And I remember saying they're tracing over Goku.
Speaker:Just like couldn't a whole bunch, I think and then everyone's tried to go super
Speaker:saiyan as a kid Yep, everyone's going in the room be like There's a very famous
Speaker:video of a black kid trying to go super saiyan on the on youtube It's one of the
Speaker:famous one of the first big youtube memes was a black kid Trying to go Super Saiyan.
Speaker:At recess.
Speaker:No, he was at his house.
Speaker:Oh, he was at his house?
Speaker:Yeah, he was at his house.
Speaker:He took his shirt off.
Speaker:He was going crazy.
Speaker:Every kid tried to do a Kamehameha for no reason.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's just one of those things that's just a It's not To say a cultural
Speaker:icon is not accurate enough.
Speaker:It's to say just an icon Of human history.
Speaker:Of epic proportions.
Speaker:Why do you think people's vocabulary increased so much watching the anime?
Speaker:Cause that's what a lot of whenever I was watching it, and whenever we had
Speaker:people that would watch it friends that would watch it, people coming up
Speaker:and parents would be like Jack or John or whoever, you know his vocabulary
Speaker:is like is increasing, is critical thinking, all this kind of stuff.
Speaker:It's important to understand how the human brain actually develops.
Speaker:There has been a numerous amount of studies that have shown, and proven,
Speaker:that if you can capture someone's interest, they learn a lot more.
Speaker:There's a quite so there's a few studies I'd like to point out.
Speaker:There was one done by Not Cambridge, I think it was Harvard actually,
Speaker:that looked at ADHD people and their attention and retention.
Speaker:In one video, they were showing the groups of people with ADHD, who were
Speaker:not on the medicine at the time.
Speaker:The meth.
Speaker:They aren't on the meth.
Speaker:They showed them a math lecture.
Speaker:And you can see them like twisting around and like turning around in the chair.
Speaker:It was a very popular video, you've been sure you've seen it, but
Speaker:you're not really paying attention.
Speaker:Then they show the, then they show this person, and it was only like, I think it
Speaker:was like 3 minutes of the math lecture.
Speaker:Then they played 60 minutes of A New Hope, Star Wars.
Speaker:And they're just sit still, completely glued to the screen, da.
Speaker:It's cause it's actually interesting and entertaining.
Speaker:Now, most people know what they want to be because they find interest in that, right?
Speaker:So There's also, I'm then combining like this knowledge with, there's also
Speaker:proven studies that your child will have learning deficiencies the way
Speaker:you treat them when they're newborns.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:All the way up to their I think to like their seven.
Speaker:Yeah, it's a huge, as most people know, it's a huge learning time, right?
Speaker:They're learning their first language, they learn what
Speaker:a circle is, this and that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There, a lot of times, you'll see two types of parents.
Speaker:See some parents, they go, Come here, Joshua.
Speaker:No, put that down, Joshua.
Speaker:This is that.
Speaker:People go, and you guys see other parents that go, Oh, what the guh duh?
Speaker:They make that little sound.
Speaker:Oh, come here, baby.
Speaker:Oh, how's it's up to something?
Speaker:For some reason, when you speak articulately, not for some
Speaker:reason, but when you speak more articulately to a young child,
Speaker:They just start to learn faster.
Speaker:Because, you have to think about it like this.
Speaker:If you're giving them baby talk, that baby talk, that's what they're learning.
Speaker:And then, it's slowing down their development.
Speaker:Because they don't have any knowledge to base it off of.
Speaker:They're kids, right?
Speaker:They don't have enough experience to have their own knowledge
Speaker:to base it off of, right?
Speaker:They're learning baby talk, and they're learning real talk, and having to discern
Speaker:what is real and what is fake, compared to just learning all the real stuff.
Speaker:And, just growing up that way.
Speaker:It's quite interesting.
Speaker:We have ADHD because our parents talk baby talk to us?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Those are just an example.
Speaker:Like, when things are interesting, people learn faster.
Speaker:When they're giving real content.
Speaker:So when they're interested in something.
Speaker:Okay when you're a kid, you're gonna find Dragon Ball Z and anime interesting
Speaker:because of the colors and whatever.
Speaker:But also, you're learning faster because you're not hearing
Speaker:people give you that small baby treatment because you're a child.
Speaker:And it's oh, okay, cool.
Speaker:It's low key making them mature faster.
Speaker:Just cause it's, and plus it started off as just regular tournament
Speaker:fights and stuff like that before it escalated to the violence it is.
Speaker:I think it was And it also taught you so much obviously anime teaches
Speaker:you so much, just in general.
Speaker:And whenever, it's almost hiding the dog's medicine in the dog
Speaker:food type of type of deal.
Speaker:You get what I'm saying by that?
Speaker:It's basically, it's the same thing anime is doing.
Speaker:It's teaching you about life, love, happiness, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:With the creative genius that is, anime.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Akira this so Dragon Ball Z wasn't the only, Dragon Ball wasn't the
Speaker:only thing that Akira did, but Akira, he is just so influential.
Speaker:Goku, anyone wearing orange in general, even if they're like the orange with
Speaker:the blue combo Even people who don't know or who can't read Japanese.
Speaker:They're just so recognizable.
Speaker:It's like showing someone a picture of spider man or the Hulk or
Speaker:showing someone a picture of Batman and being like Oh, who is this?
Speaker:They're like, oh, I know who that is.
Speaker:That's you know, Batman Superman Spider man, right?
Speaker:Showing someone a picture of Superman.
Speaker:It's the same way.
Speaker:What is the always the biggest debate in all of fiction?
Speaker:It's out of action fiction.
Speaker:It's oh who's super strong Superman or Goku, right?
Speaker:There have been That like that into itself is like a genre of YouTube videos, right?
Speaker:The entire genre is based off of these two characters fighting
Speaker:and and unlike a lot of Western culture Heroes Goku working out.
Speaker:You never seen Superman benching.
Speaker:Oh, sorry.
Speaker:I can't work I can't go to I gotta work out to defeat this enemy.
Speaker:You don't see him doing that You should be in Superman Batman works out but like he
Speaker:does it like In the background, you never really see, there's never really scenes
Speaker:of seeing them training like that, right?
Speaker:Until more recently.
Speaker:Yeah, and I think that I think honestly, as far as even the rest of anime
Speaker:goes and the rest of fiction, the one moment that Akira made that every
Speaker:other fiction writer is chasing is Goku going Super Saiyan for the first time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's just isn't any feeling like it.
Speaker:There's just no emotion like it.
Speaker:I remember seeing it for the first time We were just like
Speaker:and you're like, what is this?
Speaker:What is going on?
Speaker:And the crazy part is he only did that because they He needed to use less
Speaker:black ink Apparently is that the reason?
Speaker:Yeah, he needed to use less black ink.
Speaker:And you know It's black and white when it's in manga go his hair is black, right?
Speaker:They need to use less black ink So he's okay this character design You I'm
Speaker:going to just, in the original manga, his hair is white, but they make it
Speaker:golden, the yellowness in the anime.
Speaker:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker:Also I was looking at some of Toriyama's early stuff, and he
Speaker:did not have immediate success.
Speaker:So he was basically saying that he faced rejection from publishers before
Speaker:finding his breakthrough with Dr.
Speaker:Slump, which debuted in 1980.
Speaker:Just like everybody else, he faced his fair share of people not believing in him.
Speaker:People not, people, it's almost I remember somebody telling
Speaker:me Don't wait for permission.
Speaker:Be undeniable.
Speaker:And something that's really great about Akira is, like I said Dragon
Speaker:Ball is his most famous thing.
Speaker:He did things outside of it.
Speaker:And there are Certain aspects of Akira that's quite interesting.
Speaker:Like for example, he didn't like Vegeta, you know He created that
Speaker:character and Vegeta's some people's favorite characters like Vegeta.
Speaker:Yeah, like when you think of the Dragon Ball duo All right,
Speaker:you're like, oh my gosh.
Speaker:This is you can't no one can meet Goku, right?
Speaker:That's oh, can this person be Goku?
Speaker:Okay But then he's there's Goku and Vegeta.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Whoever they're going against loses.
Speaker:That's the end of the story.
Speaker:What's also crazy is the height of these characters.
Speaker:Vegeta's 5'2 Yeah, I think so.
Speaker:Vegeta's 5'2 and I think Goku's like 5'10 Something like that.
Speaker:He's like 5'10 5'8 Aren't you 5'10 how come you haven't gone
Speaker:Super Saiyan yet, Nicholas?
Speaker:Apparently my white powers, haven't reached their zenith yet.
Speaker:You haven't kicked in, huh?
Speaker:But also, the crazy part about, do you think that Toyama I guess what I'm saying
Speaker:is Toyama, even though he's reached literally God status, Super Saiyan God.
Speaker:Especially among writers.
Speaker:Super Saiyan God status, right?
Speaker:He Lives a relatively modest lifestyle.
Speaker:He doesn't live crazy.
Speaker:I think that's part of the Japanese culture I was just about
Speaker:to ask you do you think that is?
Speaker:Do you think that is tributed to Akira?
Speaker:Or do you think that's attributed to his Japanese culture?
Speaker:I'm pretty sure it's to the culture, but I'm not Japanese enough to answer that.
Speaker:I personally think that But I'm pretty sure it's just
Speaker:really more about the culture.
Speaker:I mean you look at Japan's come out with some, It's not a secret
Speaker:that Japan has come out with a lot of media that Americans enjoy.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:It's not a secret.
Speaker:And yet a lot of them don't live the lavish diet lifestyles you see
Speaker:a lot of American creators make.
Speaker:So I think it's just more of a cultural thing.
Speaker:Although, to be fair, it is possible that it is also their
Speaker:status is treated differently.
Speaker:Japan's, obviously they're a much smaller country than we are.
Speaker:They're a group of islands.
Speaker:And, Japan, I believe is Relatively the size of one of our states depending on
Speaker:which state you're talking about and one of our smaller states like I don't know.
Speaker:And then because he's so revered and he's so famous.
Speaker:He's just He can't go anywhere Yeah, especially in japan.
Speaker:I bet you it's really hard to I think he's like the michael jackson
Speaker:He lives in a rural area of japan, right probably Very modest out
Speaker:of necessity chillin it's crazy.
Speaker:This is, and this is one of the things that really cemented like his legacy.
Speaker:Okay, so Stan Lee passed away, right?
Speaker:Who came after Stan Lee?
Speaker:Do you know?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:That's because there is no one.
Speaker:Stan Lee, in America, you create something great, And corporations steal it from
Speaker:you to make more money off you, and then you as a creative, they shove you
Speaker:into the back until you perish, and then they don't really care about you.
Speaker:It's not a secret that Stan Lee probably might have still even been alive if there
Speaker:wasn't so much elder abuse to Stan Lee.
Speaker:This is Stan Lee!
Speaker:Elder abuse with Stan Lee?
Speaker:Yeah, this, do you know that?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, there was a bunch of elder abuse to Stan Lee.
Speaker:It's part of the reason why his, possibly why his wife passed away, too.
Speaker:A lot.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I didn't know that.
Speaker:Yes, but that's a conversation for another time.
Speaker:But yeah, it's a whole bunch of elder abuse.
Speaker:In fact, it went to court.
Speaker:It was that serious.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's what we, that's what Americans do to creatives who change the
Speaker:face of human history for forever.
Speaker:Like Stan Lee.
Speaker:Stan Lee is like a modern William Shakespeare, basically.
Speaker:Say, people talk about oh.
Speaker:People talk about great writers who've changed the face of human history,
Speaker:culture, Lord of the Rings or Tolkien.
Speaker:Lord of the Rings is awesome.
Speaker:I love Lord of the Rings.
Speaker:I also love Star Wars.
Speaker:George Lucas.
Speaker:Neither of them are even close to Stan Lee's power.
Speaker:Not even close.
Speaker:Not even close.
Speaker:I love, the people can like those franchises more than they can like Marvel.
Speaker:Because a lot of people do.
Speaker:Oh, I just like Lord of the Rings better than I like Marvel.
Speaker:Or I like some people say, oh, I like Star Wars more than I like Marvel.
Speaker:But in terms of cultural impact.
Speaker:In terms of world, global, human history impact.
Speaker:It just doesn't, it's not even a candle.
Speaker:That's a candle to it.
Speaker:So here and that's what Americans do to writers who are like that.
Speaker:For Akira Toriyama, right?
Speaker:I do believe that probably he didn't receive as much money or I think it's
Speaker:more of a respect thing over there, right?
Speaker:They just respect the creators, but they don't pay them as much as they would
Speaker:have been paid if they were Americans me personally and that also could have
Speaker:attributed to their more modest lifestyle.
Speaker:That The culture there is very much Skewed and or not skewed
Speaker:but it's very much revered.
Speaker:The elders are very much respected And no matter the age like elder, respecting your
Speaker:elders is not just about older people.
Speaker:It's just like respecting the person above you.
Speaker:So Stan Lee, we already said how big he is, right?
Speaker:That guy has no successor.
Speaker:That's why I said, do you know who his successor is?
Speaker:He doesn't have one.
Speaker:No, because he was shoved off to the side and then Disney stole and everything.
Speaker:Toriyama does have a successor.
Speaker:That's how powerful this man's writing was.
Speaker:To the part where the corporation came back to him and was like,
Speaker:okay, dude if you're going to stop, you have to choose a successor.
Speaker:Who's going to take the keys to the kingdom?
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:Where they, he has to choose a successor to pass on his legacy.
Speaker:And the business people ask him for him to do that.
Speaker:That would never happen in America.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Ever.
Speaker:They would just they would just love to steal what you
Speaker:have and then tell you to die.
Speaker:Basically.
Speaker:Basically.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's what an American corporation would love to do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But this man is treated with so much respect.
Speaker:It's also it's also a fact, not an opinion, but a fact that when new
Speaker:Dragon Ball Z and when new Dragon Ball Super episodes premiere, that there is
Speaker:actually a drop, now we're Americans, we live here in Los Angeles, but there's
Speaker:actually a drop in cartel activity.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a fact.
Speaker:I saw on Instagram today there was just an absolute mass of cartel people.
Speaker:Giving respects.
Speaker:Giving respects.
Speaker:And they're not Japanese.
Speaker:To Akira Toriyama.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In terms of Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:And this wasn't in Japan.
Speaker:This was in Japan.
Speaker:And Mexico.
Speaker:Yeah, and Mexico.
Speaker:And yeah, Mexico and South, and the South part of the United States.
Speaker:But, also, I don't, I hate to do this, but, who do you think
Speaker:came up with better villains?
Speaker:Who do you mean, who?
Speaker:Stan Lee or Akira Toriyama.
Speaker:That's not really a fair question, just because Akira Toriyama,
Speaker:he's really known for one thing.
Speaker:series and when that series took off he focused on that series so he had to
Speaker:come up with villains for that series you know so he didn't really have he
Speaker:couldn't come up as many diverse villains as stan lee could have that's a fair
Speaker:enough question you know so stan lee you have wolverine you have spider man you
Speaker:have the hulk right these are not to be fair jack kirby came up with the webbing
Speaker:kind of thing but These characters are so wildly different into themselves
Speaker:when you create villains for them.
Speaker:Their other villains are just going to be more diverse and more different,
Speaker:giving you more opportunities to make more diverse villains.
Speaker:To go more in depth.
Speaker:So it's not really a fair question.
Speaker:I will say though, that when it comes to Because, with comics,
Speaker:you write a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker:If they, comics go wide.
Speaker:Manga really goes deep where they double down on one of them instead of just
Speaker:carrying a whole bunch of stuff, right?
Speaker:there's not a lot of especially in before a lot of the corporations
Speaker:like Apple and Disney got into Marvel and DC and Sony and stuff like that.
Speaker:There's a whole bunch of comic crossovers.
Speaker:You would see, Wonder Woman versus Storm, right?
Speaker:You would see the Hulk versus Superman, right?
Speaker:so Americans love doing crossovers with franchises.
Speaker:It's not as popular in Japan.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Who knows, I don't think it's a fair question.
Speaker:However, I will say that, when it comes to, did he create some great villains?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, Frieza.
Speaker:Vegeta's, Frieza's Frieza, I like the earlier Frieza better than I do Frieza.
Speaker:Yes, I, earlier Frieza was, you're just sitting there as a kid and you're
Speaker:just like, This dude is so cool.
Speaker:Also And he was like, and even though he was like, gender
Speaker:questionable, no one cared.
Speaker:I was No one even said anything about it.
Speaker:There was no like, parents in the street like, oh, he's played by a
Speaker:male voice actor in the Japanese.
Speaker:And the Japanese audio, but in the American English audio played by a woman.
Speaker:But, again, it's an alien, so we don't even know if you could have the male
Speaker:or female debate in the first place.
Speaker:But, regardless of which, you have, I think Vidfreeze is great, but Vegeta
Speaker:is one of the best lances, I would say.
Speaker:Lance as in the archetypes of writing.
Speaker:You have the hero, a lance, you have the muscle.
Speaker:We have the brains then you have the hearts of the group and
Speaker:together they make Captain Planet.
Speaker:But or the five Power Rangers.
Speaker:Most D& Ds are like this.
Speaker:D& D campaigns are like that.
Speaker:Who was your favorite villain?
Speaker:From Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:I think Broly is my favorite villain.
Speaker:Broly is your favorite villain?
Speaker:So Vegeta, like he's really I'm a Vegeta fan mainly because like
Speaker:he, his motivation is crazy.
Speaker:Like he just wants to be the best, this guy who always beats him.
Speaker:It's been like 20 years.
Speaker:He shouldn't give up, but he doesn't because that's that
Speaker:type of person that he is.
Speaker:He grows and evolves and becomes a better person, but he's still a jerk, right?
Speaker:What I like about Broly.
Speaker:The old Broly and then the newer Broly is more like he's like crazy, right?
Speaker:What I liked about the older Broly, his reasoning for hating
Speaker:Kakarot is really stupid.
Speaker:What, he was crying as a baby?
Speaker:You were also a baby.
Speaker:What are you talking about?
Speaker:Like, how do you remember this?
Speaker:It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker:But what I did like about him is that how evil he was and
Speaker:how he was just whooping tail.
Speaker:This guy is 10 feet tall, With the frame of Shaquille O'Neal
Speaker:in dodging everyone's attacks.
Speaker:What do you mean he's dodging?
Speaker:This man is 8'8 600 pounds.
Speaker:He has the hitbox of a refrigerator, and people are missing.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:And he's fast and all that.
Speaker:He's just so evil.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:He's just oh, I'm just here to destroy stuff.
Speaker:I destroyed an entire galaxy, and now I'm here to destroy you.
Speaker:And he only, and he had to lose to plot armor.
Speaker:. That's how you know you're a great villain.
Speaker:They, you didn't lose legitimately, you lost a plot armor and then you came
Speaker:back after you died two more times.
Speaker:That's, you were so great that you were actually a just non-car,
Speaker:non cannon character that they had to then make Cannon later on.
Speaker:That's when we watched the Broley movie, which is just two and a half hours of
Speaker:him just whooping their tails, right?
Speaker:There are so many.
Speaker:And there are so many references to Dragon Ball Z in other forms of media, especially
Speaker:American media, and his influence would be felt throughout throughout time, really.
Speaker:I honestly, there are, people say oh, are there animes better than Dragon Ball Z?
Speaker:I think that there are some I have enjoyed more than them.
Speaker:But, if I would say that there's one that I'm more attached to personally,
Speaker:I think that there's one that I'm more attached to personally, No.
Speaker:I don't think there is one.
Speaker:I don't think there is because there's, I don't think if you're in the age
Speaker:range of late Emily, it can't be.
Speaker:Now, if you're in the late age range, if you're in the age range of late twenties
Speaker:to early thirties, there was no better feeling than coming home from school
Speaker:and watching Toonami, getting something to drink, eating some Hot Pockets or
Speaker:pizza rolls or something like that.
Speaker:And then watching and then watching Spike.
Speaker:Cuz he's the guy that voices the Toonami guy.
Speaker:It's also part of the reason why welcome back, everybody!
Speaker:And then, brr!
Speaker:Excuse my horrible impression.
Speaker:I thought it was great, actually.
Speaker:I thought it was pretty, pretty bad on.
Speaker:I think that part of that reason is the longevity of it.
Speaker:It's still going on.
Speaker:Like kids, with American stories, they usually have an ending.
Speaker:Unless there's like a Spider Man comic, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:They have arcs, right?
Speaker:But And a lot of mangas end too.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:A lot of mangas, a lot of French, a lot of stories in general have endings.
Speaker:The creator of One Piece says it's going to end in 2025.
Speaker:Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it.
Speaker:One, it's been like One Piece and Dragon Ball, longevity wise, for a while.
Speaker:Our entire lives As of this recording everything that I know And could
Speaker:possibly process in my brain in my understanding of time itself Has not
Speaker:existed longer than these franchises and all the people making them also
Speaker:when it comes to terms with making money They're going to keep it going.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:If it's American, if it's American, whatever it is, they take a dead
Speaker:horse, make it a zombie and keep it pushing and keep it pushing.
Speaker:Now I'm not sure how they, if they would do that in Japan.
Speaker:I think there's more, I think more reverence for the material.
Speaker:I don't know about that much because Japan, Korea business is still business.
Speaker:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker:There are some money let's not act there haven't been a whole bunch of allegations
Speaker:about the way they treat their animators yeah, and then also they also treat some
Speaker:of their other mangaka's That just proves the power of Dragon Ball Z that he's
Speaker:oh, you're not gonna treat me like that I don't care what other people do it.
Speaker:I'm a curatorial Do you think so?
Speaker:We've talked about this before we've talked about the creator of bleach, right?
Speaker:And how he doesn't want to do Bleach anymore.
Speaker:He wants to start something different.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:And the only reason why he really started doing Bleach again was because
Speaker:nobody wanted to see anything else.
Speaker:Nobody was going to allow him to do anything else.
Speaker:Yeah, they didn't want to back it.
Speaker:A lot of creators do that.
Speaker:When you're a creative person, you don't want to just work on
Speaker:one project your whole life.
Speaker:That One Piece guy is working on a whole bunch of other stuff.
Speaker:There's a ton Dragon Quest, the art, Akira Toriyama did that, if you look
Speaker:at Dragon, the art for Dragon Quest.
Speaker:It's Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:I honestly, when I first saw the video game, Dragon Quest, I was
Speaker:like, Is this a Dragon Ball Z video game that's called Dragon Quest?
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:And then my friend was like, No, that's not Dragon Ball Z at all.
Speaker:It's, yeah, it's by Akira, but it's called it's called Dragon Quest.
Speaker:And I was like, Oh.
Speaker:It looks so much like Dragon Ball that I was like, I just, the style is so iconic.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:So did he work on, did he work on a lot of other animes?
Speaker:Or was it mostly?
Speaker:Yeah, he was done a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker:That, but he's just Dragon Ball Z is the most popular, right?
Speaker:So just like the creative Naruto is trying to make a a manga
Speaker:about Samurais instead of ninjas.
Speaker:Not trying to, he did, but it's not as popular, right?
Speaker:You have this person whose legacy is Dragon Ball Z, and also, it's
Speaker:a legacy that he doesn't hate.
Speaker:You see a lot of creatives because they have a whole bunch
Speaker:of ideas, people only like one.
Speaker:I understand the sentiment.
Speaker:And You guys should hear Rock Gorilla.
Speaker:It is DJ's best work.
Speaker:He's never even read that script.
Speaker:He's never even read that script.
Speaker:He's just making this joke because of a couple things.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:I'm about to get into Rock Gorilla.
Speaker:But, it's, he's most known for that.
Speaker:And he has it's interesting because it says he doesn't like certain
Speaker:characters but then he kept writing them because other people liked them.
Speaker:Now, one question I would ask you is, why do you think Akira Toriyama,
Speaker:out of the many people who create things, and it becomes wildly popular,
Speaker:none more popular than Dragon Ball Z, why do you think it is that he
Speaker:never ended up hating his creation?
Speaker:In your estimation.
Speaker:I personally, once again, I do not know this, obviously
Speaker:I don't know him personally.
Speaker:I, th
Speaker:I will say that he probably, he just, he just, just genuine love for it.
Speaker:There are some things that you create that you're just like, I don't
Speaker:really matter it's like having a kid.
Speaker:I don't care what any parent says, if you have more than
Speaker:one kid, you have a favorite.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:We, me and Nicholas both have siblings, all right?
Speaker:We know which parents like us versus the other ones.
Speaker:That's just how it is.
Speaker:They, every parent has a favorite.
Speaker:Every, any parent who says they don't, they're lying to you.
Speaker:If one of your parents said that to you, I'm sorry that they lied to you.
Speaker:If they might not tell you, right?
Speaker:I think what would, I think what would be a more honest representation
Speaker:of that is that they love them both the same, but they like one better.
Speaker:So in this case, it's like the one that you like ends up being
Speaker:the one everyone else also likes.
Speaker:You're like of course.
Speaker:Damn that's kid number two.
Speaker:I like that guy.
Speaker:Out of the five of them, everyone likes this one, and so do I.
Speaker:Out of the vast difference between Akira Toriyama and the creator of
Speaker:Bleach, because the fact is, I don't know who the creator of Bleach is, but
Speaker:I know who Akira Toriyama is, right?
Speaker:You know what's, that's another thing that's crazy.
Speaker:A lot of people don't know the creators of other animes and mangas, but
Speaker:everyone knows who Akira Toriyama is.
Speaker:So why do you think, in your estimation, Why was Akira, other than the obvious,
Speaker:why do you think he was allowed to work on other animes and the creator wasn't?
Speaker:Also, it's it's Kubo.
Speaker:Kubo is the creator of Bleach.
Speaker:But I don't know if he, I don't know the extent in which he
Speaker:worked on other animes, man.
Speaker:I have no idea.
Speaker:It's not like he worked on a, I personally, not an Akira expert.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Why do you think?
Speaker:One of the reasons why I think is because while Bleach is iconic, it
Speaker:just doesn't touch Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:There's some, I'll tell you what it is right now.
Speaker:It's very hard for some people to discern.
Speaker:And me personally, I'm only really able to tell when a
Speaker:project has the juice, I call it.
Speaker:I think from working in development.
Speaker:There's a lot of people who, like working in development.
Speaker:It's your job to know that something's going to pop off
Speaker:versus something else, right?
Speaker:A lot of people don't work in development and a lot of people can't really it's a
Speaker:hard job to be good at It's one of those jobs where you can do what you don't
Speaker:I'll tell you what it uses right now The long part of the part of it is the story
Speaker:engine Of the franchise itself goku the story of dragon ball Is really like I
Speaker:don't know Find the seven Dragon Balls.
Speaker:Then Dragon Ball Z comes around and it's about defend the earth against Aliens.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Against various aliens and various monsters, okay?
Speaker:Bleach, it's the same thing Except it's oh all the monsters actually come from
Speaker:or just ghosts So defend it against ghosts, but not just like random ghosts.
Speaker:They're like more specific, right?
Speaker:Dragon Ball Z and Bleach you can't just have Some ghosts come from Mars, come
Speaker:down from the sky, and be like, Hey, I'm a Martian, hollow, and we gotta fight.
Speaker:Doesn't make any sense, right?
Speaker:It doesn't really work.
Speaker:But what you can do is have, in Dragon Ball, be like, Hey, it's the reanimated
Speaker:corpse of Gohan, his grandfather.
Speaker:They gotta fight now.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:There's just way more to do there.
Speaker:And when there's way more to do, there's way more to write about.
Speaker:It just has the juice, hey man.
Speaker:R.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:P.
Speaker:Akira Toriyama.
Speaker:R.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:P.
Speaker:Akira Toriyama.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm Derrick Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we'll see you next time.
Speaker:See ya.
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at comicconradio.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major social media platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time, this has been Film Center.