All Systems Goku 02

I don't usually post much, I just need to let you know that this is a very very very good time. Thank you.

These are so good. I hate waiting a week for these as much as you hate watching only a handful of episodes per week.

I'm personally just hoping you guys make it to the end of the Frieza arc, I imagine you'll love it.

This show is the best

I've finished the first two disc which cover up to episode 13. Some crazy stuff has definitely happened to this point. And there has been clarification on a well known meme, which is probably my most known thing about the show before watching a full episode if it.

When I first started watching giant bomb many moons ago I was so happy that one of the members, that being one Vinny Caravella, knew of and liked Dragon Ball z stuff. I would have never imagined Jeff and ESPECIALLY Dan watching and making a podcast about this strange series. I love everything about this. Can't wait to see their reactions to the next 5 episodes.

Don't forget Ryan also really loved DBZ :)

I don't think it's ever explicitly explained but I do remember in the OG Dragon Ball manga, maybe the anime too, during the fighting tournament Krillin was fighting some dude who was stinky AF. And goku basically said he would be fine cause Krillin had no nose, and Krillin was like OH YEAH DUH.

I was thinking the same thing, I just hope they make it to the end of the Frieza arc. I've never watched Kai but I do remember some episodes on Namek especially get boring. I can't believe Kai cut out Hell and Snake Lady though. Thought those were pretty interesting when I watched the series back in the day. Hell comes back later in the series to a certain extent too if I remember correctly.

@ildon: From what I remember, Goku initially gives his age as 12. Later, after training with Master Roshi and going to school, he says that he´s 14 and that when he gave his age initially he didn´t know how to count properly, suggesting that its now more likely to be his correct age.

However, having apparently arrived at earth at age 3 or so according to a more recent manga, there doesn´t seem to be any good way for him to know his real age accurately. All you can do is assume that it is what it is because they say that it is.

Yea it’s already been covered but yea, Kai took out like 10-15 episodes of gohan developments and gokus adventures on snake way and meeting the other characters

I love that they are doing this podcast so so much

Him too :') I loved the dragon ball quick looks featuring Ryan and vinny, classics!

Krillin will get plenty of time to win their hearts :)

5 episodes per episode is the perfect decision. Kai starts out really fast paced, but now it will settle into more of a groove.

Awesome call by Jeff to call Kami Raiden.

@mosaicm80: As someone who was never able to watch Dragon Ball Z back in the day, and has basically only read the manga, Snake Lady and Hell was never a part of it. Nor was any of the other cut parts I´ve heard people mention so far.

That´s not to say that I think some parts of the story couldn´t benefit from being extended. I´ve seen my share of scenes on youtube recently that I´ve never seen before, that I think are pretty cool. So I sort of hope that Kai doesn´t mercilessly cut out anything that wasn´t in the manga, that´d probably be a little harsh.

@rokettopanchi: mondays mondays mondays . . . and the rest of the week

Not sure I'd say Bardock was attempting to save Kakarot, as it seemed that the baby was being jettisoned into space with or without his input anyway. Bardock didn't actually seem to even care about his kid until he saw his final vision of Goku vs. Freeza, but by that time he'd already been launched out. At least that's how it is in the TV special. I know DB Minus changes things but I choose to ignore that ^_^

@primworm: None of the movies are canon (Garlick Jr. weirdness as a result of the filler arc aside), but the Bardock movie isn't technically a movie. It's an OVA/Special. Basically, the Bardock "movie" and the Future Trunks "movie" are actually canon. It helps that those are pretty much the only two that don't take place at an impossible point of time, and instead just give clarification on events that only get referenced or glossed over in the anime. Even Battle of the Gods and Revival of F aren't technically canon since they're movies. That's why Dragon Ball Super's first two arcs are just retellings of the events from those two movies. That said, if you have any interest in watching DBS, just watch the movies and skip the first two arcs of DBS. The DBS version may be the "canon" version, but it's basically just a long drawn out version of the movies with more filler thrown in to pad them out.

Of course, the whole "what is or is not canon" discussion is a big dumb rabbit hole with no good answer. Is the filler canon? Well, the filler wasn't in the manga or Kai, so you could say it isn't. But then that just means large swaths of DBZ isn't canon which is weird since the filler is mixed into the show at various points and they don't denote what is or is not filler. But then if it is canon, how could there have been a Garlic Jr. arc when the Garlic Jr. movie isn't canon. So then you end up with cases where someone who watched DBZ but didn't read the manga would have no idea what is or is not canon and AAAAAH.

So yeah, it's best to just take a "don't worry about it" approach to this stuff. The only thing everyone can explicitly agree on is that Dragonball GT was a mistake.

Hope this is ok to post here? Anyway, original Dragon Ball had the best music.

So excited for this. Best podcast on the internet right now!!

What episodes would I need to watch if I'm watching the original DBZ(using the excellent value of FUNimation subscriptionc on PS4) to follow along with the next 5?

Listening to this is surreal.

I was chatting about this with someone on reddit. It feels like the Bardock movie retconned a little of Goku's story, just like Jeff said. Taking the show at its word, it seems like Goku, Raditz, Vegeta, and Nappa were all off-world by coincidence when Frieza blew it up. Honestly, there are good points to be made from either side, or maybe it's a mixture of both, but in any case I don't want to be an arbiter of truth on this case.

I'm pretty sure Vegeta or somebody clears it up later anyway.

"Oh, I'll just watch along with these guys."

Three days later I'm on episode 20...

AFAIK, it's supposed to be A god, and not any specified/pre-existing God (from the DB Wiki: "the character known as Kami on Earth [...] no longer even remembers his real name"). There are multiple Kami in Shintoism (if you watched the Persona 4 stuff, Izanagi, Izanami, Amaterasu, and Susano-o are all Kami, amongst others), and you quite often see the phrase "X no Kami" used to mean "God(ess) of X".

FWIW, you also hear Majima use it in Yakuza 0 - "Okyaku-sama wa Kami-sama desu" (lit. "The customer is God").

Wow. Topical and completely correct.

Great podcast! Piccolo's motivation was to conquer Earth. Piccolo Sr. does basically conquer earth for a short amount of time in Dragon Ball and Piccolo Sr. is kind of hilarious. Also, to clear up your confusion about dinosaurs... there's anthropomorphic animal people in this world. Don't worry about the dinosaurs.

@frytup: Kami, the Namekian guardian of earth, is Earth's god in the Japanese version. His shirt literally says "God" ("Kami") on it, and Dragonball loves literal pieces of clothing. (See Krillin's hat in the next arc, King Kai's Robe, Bulma's first dress, etc.)

Likewise his evil side is the Demon King, and his shirt says so. Dragon Ball has an entire system of gods like Kami and King Kai, which you will learn more about later.

Let's increase the hype on this and do 5 episodes per week.

This is the best content Giant Bomb has ever done. Without question.

I love the idea of doing 5 episodes per podcast and I enjoy watching this along with you guys! Great stuff!

I imagine that Goku initally was slated to be sent to conquer Earth, but they had to send him prematurely when Frieza showed up. I bet that Raditz thought Goku was sent for that reason because he himself was sent to another planet as a child to conquer it. Seems like a misunderstanding.

Is Kai available for streaming anywhere? Funimation Now doesn't have it.

@bacterialbeaver: I'm handling this situation by jumping back and watching original Dragon Ball episodes after I finish the DBZ episodes each podcast will cover.

Original DB is freaking weird, and whoever said it was perverted was right, but its interesting seeing where all these characters come from.

By the time they get to the Majin Boo saga, the podcast will turn into SSJASG Level 3

@ouchmyfingers: Episode 11 of Kai ends with

So stop once you see that.

I love how enthusiastic these two are

King Kai´s monkey is originally called "Bubbles" like Michael Jackson´s pet/friend.

This is quite possibly my favorite thing you have ever done. I expected cynism and sarcasm and got a completely honest attempt to get into the show, successfully as it seems.

Quick note: Kami is just straight up God. Kami means god but I guess they didn't feel comfortable tarnslating it in the english version? In the german version they simply translated it to Gott...so, god in german. That green alien is god. Friend of mine who came from a deeply christian household was forbidden from watching the show after his parents found out about that. Poor dude.

This series is so good. I really like your enthusiasm for the material.

This may give a little bit of context on why people in Goku's world react a certain way to monsters vs aliens.

Dragon Ball is loosely based on a famous literary work called "Journey to the West". In that story and other contemporary folklore, it is accepted that mosters (Yokai) live among humans. That's why in Dragon Ball, people don't flinch when they see non-humans, like this anthropomorphized pig:

So in their minds, Piccolo is just another green/lizard monster, so they kind of accept his existence. But him and Goku being actual aliens is a revelation to them.

This podcast is great! I was wondering how it would go for two dudes just jumping into Z. There are so many things you wouldn't know or expect if you didn't see/read the Dragonball arcs before Z, but you just take it all in stride and have fun with it, which is really the best approach.

Your enthusiasm was so contagious I've been following along, and while I know all the story from reading the manga, it's been fun watching those episodes. Give or take a few scenes that they couldn't remove during editing, because of their integration into the canon stuff I suppose, Kai is very faithful to the manga. Which is pretty merciful. I would've been so bored if they had all the plot points of the original but then padded it all out with actually showing all the training for 6 months or Dragonball huntin' or whatever.

I dunno if I'll watch all of this along with you, some parts of DBZ aren't so hot. But I'm happy to be along for the ride for this arc at least. 5 episodes are a lot more reasonable too, I think. Episodes go by in a flash for this kinda show.

I've listened to these first 2 pods with no context, never having watched the show and only vague memories of childhood friends who enjoyed it on Cartoon Network back in the day... seems incredibly dumb/fun/silly and sounds like I need to start watching this now based on Dan and Jeff's enthusiasm. Don't know why I never gave it a shot as a kid. I had never watched an anime series at all until recently - got into Legend of the Galactic Heroes based on a discussion on Waypoint's podcast and that show is goddamn incredible. It seems to have opened the floodgates for me consuming anime, now I'm playing Persona 5 and digging that too. 28 years old and just coming around to realizing anime can be dope, go figure :)

Everyone should watch this masterpiece along with Dan and Jeff. I just bought all the Kai Blu Rays.

Do you get "Spirit Bombcast" yet?

Also, Goku reaches Snake Way at the end of the twelfth episode in the original cut. At least there were sexy snake ladies, I guess. Inspiration for XCom 2?

This is the best.

Even when they get stuff wrong, I can't be mad because they're SO genuinely enthusiastic. It's like experiencing the show for the first time, but as an adult.

Also the "canon" of Dragonball is nonsense. Toriyama was very much making it up as he went along (see: the numerous editor's notes/changes from the Android and Cell Sagas...also the fact that the Androids, besides 16, are ACTUALLY cyborgs).

Man, this is so good. Totally gonna start re-watching along with the podcast.

This is my favorite new feature on GB.

Man I need to go back and watch Kai. Love that it cuts so much of the filler. All the snake way stuff takes forever in the original.

Would love to see you guys going into Dragon Ball after this is done so you can see the origin story of most of the things you're confused about so far (Piccolo, Tien, the Dragon Balls, Kami, etc) that you don't think is explained very well since you guys kind of just jumped into the middle of the saga while missing most of the beginnings of this stuff pre-Saiyan Saga. They aren't spending the entirety of Dragon Ball's run hunting for all seven Dragon Balls, as in for one wish. It's not One Piece in that regard where Luffy and his crew are still searching for the One Piece after hundreds of episodes. Dragon Ball is much faster paced and doesn't let fights last more than an episode outside of a few special instances.

Dan is probably off with his assumption that because the Earth has North and South America that it's basically real Earth, as I believe they don't have the defined countries or anything like that despite there being caricatures of people from India, the US, Native Americans, etc. They really don't present any form of world politics in any part of the show beyond whenever Goku runs into the Red Ribbon Army that is some sort of major force in the world, but that is about it. It's either about extremely local and remote places like much of Dragon Ball or it's on a global scale like in Dragon Ball Z and Super.

Hey, don't talk shit about Krillin. He's the best! >:( And easily the most competent.

Behind Piccolo? ;)

Not sure we really need spoilers for a thirty year old anime.

@lesliemagnafuzz: Oh man, LotGH is an amazing pick for your first anime. Just don't expect every other show to be as well written. I need to re-watch it at some point, don't think I ever finished it. I believe a new LotGH series is coming out this year also.

Listening to these two freak out about Dragon Ball makes me feel like I'm rediscovering it. I thought I was over Dragon Ball 12 odd years ago. Now I want to rewatch/read it.

Jeff calling out anime fans was pretty great at the end there.