Episode 34
Death of Akira Toriyama
Nicholas and DJ, two Southerners, delve into Japanese entertainment, covering anime, manga, and more. In a recent episode, they pay tribute to Akira Toriyama, discussing his passing, his monumental impact on the anime world through Dragon Ball, and his legacy's profound influence on both creatives and fans globally. They explore Toriyama's unique contributions, comparing his work to that of Stan Lee in the West, and discuss how Dragon Ball's storytelling, characters, and Toriyama's approach to creation have left an indelible mark on pop culture worldwide.
Transcript
Howdy, it's the Southern Senpai Show.
Speaker:Where small town Southerners explore big time Japanese entertainment, anime,
Speaker:manga, and everything in between.
Speaker:Here's your hosts, Nicholas and DJ.
Speaker:Hey
Speaker:What's going on, y'all?
Speaker:Southern Senpais here.
Speaker:Two American guys from the South.
Speaker:Yeah!
Speaker:Yeah!
Speaker:Who explore Japanese culture.
Speaker:Hell yeah!
Speaker:You're such a dick, dude.
Speaker:Come on, man.
Speaker:Let's do the episode.
Speaker:It's the best I want to do.
Speaker:I'm DJ!
Speaker:I'm Nicholas.
Speaker:What are we talking about today, Nicholas?
Speaker:Today, we are talking about.
Speaker: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, is
Speaker:basically what they're saying.
Speaker:They said a heart attack, and then there was another report saying that
Speaker:he, 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 80s.
Speaker:Yeah, but it wasn't as popular as the previous two.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:It's just when you're young watching Toonami.
Speaker:Everyone remembers Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:Who remembers Big O?
Speaker:Yeah, I remember Big O.
Speaker:Yeah, but he's not as talked about as as Dragon Ball Z is, right?
Speaker:So it's just a level of popularity.
Speaker:To say that Dragon Ball Z Dragon Ball Z, even GT and Super had an effect on
Speaker: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
Speaker:because they're both such great creatives in their own ways.
Speaker:I'm not going to continue saying that but just in perspective.
Speaker:I do to get people's head around the fact of how impactful this man was.
Speaker:This man's art, this man, so he Dragon Ball has been going on for so long, it's
Speaker:been going on since before we were born.
Speaker:And the crazy part is that you see the character age from being a
Speaker:literal baby, to a kid, to being a teenager, and marrying Chi, to then
Speaker:being an adult, having his own kids.
Speaker:You know going on and the show is still going on strong, which is crazy It
Speaker:even has something called dragon ball superheroes, which is not canon, but
Speaker:it's apparently some and there's dragon ball z kai the yeah, and they remade the
Speaker:original dragon z make a dragon ball kai, the story is so great They just redo that
Speaker:for the video game every day every year.
Speaker:You're never gonna run out of Dragon Ball Z material.
Speaker:You can just retell it and people won't care.
Speaker:They're like, oh cool, they're retelling it?
Speaker:Awesome.
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 Stan Lee passed, it was like It rocked the earth and
Speaker:then now with the Kira's passing it's another giant earthquake.
Speaker:Yeah, John Yeah I think all of us, you know who are around our ages, late 20s
Speaker:early 30s You know remember tsunami right?
Speaker:That was a lot of That was a lot of people's introduction to anime.
Speaker:Yeah, if that or for kids TV, but usually it was Toonami.
Speaker:It was Toonami, coming home from school, or like for me, it was,
Speaker:coming home Staying up a little later than you probably should have.
Speaker:Or, you were like I did aftercare, right?
Speaker:Daycare, after school.
Speaker:And then so you would go watch Dragon Ball Z one of the things I would ask you
Speaker:this DJ because I mean What Dragon Ball Z was I think Is a very interesting anime
Speaker: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.
Speaker:But I had a number of people especially when I started to get a little older.
Speaker:When a little older, I mean 15, 16, 17, right?
Speaker:And, they would talk about How influential Dragon Ball Z
Speaker:was to their kids vocabulary.
Speaker:Yeah, I didn't even know that you, 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 I knew people drew them, duh, everyone knows
Speaker:that, but it's I was like, Oh, okay.
Speaker:I want to see if I don't like drawing, but the first character I've ever Oh, let me
Speaker:go find and you try drawing art, right?
Speaker:They're my first kick at it.
Speaker:Was dragon ball z I went I like asked I was in walmart and asked
Speaker:I still remember that's my my mom was hey You know I want this book.
Speaker:I was like this is draw dragon ball z on it and I was like, yeah, she
Speaker:goes You don't draw stuff And I was like, yeah I want to try it.
Speaker:She goes Okay, it was like Four or five dollars.
Speaker:It was like super thin so she didn't care and I remember saying they're tracing
Speaker:over goku Just couldn't a whole bunch, you know You I think, and then everyone's
Speaker:tried to go Super Saiyan as a kid.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Everyone's going in the room and be like, Haaaaaa!
Speaker:There's a very famous video of a black kid trying to go Super Saiyan.
Speaker:On the, on YouTube.
Speaker:the famous One of the first big YouTube memes was a black kid Trying
Speaker:to go super saiyan at recess, right?
Speaker:And no, he was at his house.
Speaker:Oh, he was at his house Yeah, he's at his house.
Speaker:He took his shirt off.
Speaker:So he's going crazy And everyone every kid tried to do a kamehameha for no reason.
Speaker:Yeah, It's just one of those things that's just a it's not to say a cultural
Speaker:icon is not accurate enough It's to say just an icon 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, and
Speaker:parents would be like, Jack or John or whoever, his vocabulary is is increasing,
Speaker:is 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, right?
Speaker:In one video, they are 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 twisting around and turning around in the chair.
Speaker:It's a very popular video, you've probably seen it, but you're
Speaker:not really paying attention.
Speaker:Then they show the, then they show this person, and it was only
Speaker:like, I think it was like three minutes of the math lecture.
Speaker:Then they played 60 minutes of A New Hope, Star Wars, and they're just sit
Speaker:still, completely glued to the screen.
Speaker:It's because it's actually interesting and entertaining.
Speaker:Now, most people know what they want to be because they find interest in that, right?
Speaker: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.
Speaker:They're learning their first language, they learn what
Speaker:a circle is, this and that.
Speaker:There, a lot of times, you'll see two types of parents.
Speaker:You'll see some parents that go, Come here Joshua.
Speaker:No, put that down Joshua.
Speaker:This is not, you'll see people go, and you'll see other parents
Speaker:that go, I want that, got that.
Speaker:They make that little sound, Oh, come here baby.
Speaker:Oh, how's 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, 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 going to 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:So it's basically it's the same thing anime is doing is teaching you about life
Speaker:love happiness all that kind of stuff With the creative genius that is, anime
Speaker:Akira that's so dragon ball z Wasn't the only dragon ball wasn't the only thing
Speaker:that akira did but akira He is just so influential Goku anyone wearing orange in
Speaker:general even if they're like the orange with the blue combo like Even people who
Speaker:don't know or who can't read Japanese.
Speaker:They're just so recognizable, right?
Speaker:It's right It's like showing someone a picture of spider man or the Hulk
Speaker:or 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's man.
Speaker:It's my man, right?
Speaker:So it's not a picture Superman.
Speaker:It's the same way.
Speaker:What is the always the biggest debate in all the fiction?
Speaker:It's out of action fiction is oh, who's super strong?
Speaker: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 He 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 other
Speaker: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 I'm
Speaker:gonna just, in the original manga, his hair is white, but they make it
Speaker:gold and 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:So just like everybody else, he faced his fair share of people not
Speaker:believing in him, people, not people.
Speaker:It's almost I remember somebody telling me don't wait for permission, be undeniable.
Speaker:And something that's really great about.
Speaker:Akira is like I said, like Dragon Ball is his most famous thing.
Speaker:He did things outside of it.
Speaker:And there are there are Certain aspects of Akira that's quite interesting.
Speaker:Like for example, he didn't like Vegeta he created that character
Speaker:and Vegeta's like some people's favorite character is 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 Can this person be Goku?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But then it's there's Goku and Vegeta.
Speaker:Alright, whoever they're going against loses.
Speaker:That's the end of the story.
Speaker:You know 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:I'd say among writers, like 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 attributed to akira or do you think that's
Speaker: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 really
Speaker:more about the the culture.
Speaker:I mean you look at You I mean Japan's come out with some, it's not a
Speaker:secret that Japan has come out with a lot of media that Americans enjoy.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, it's not a secret.
Speaker:And yet a lot of them don't live the lavish diet lifestyles that you
Speaker:see 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 and Japan, I believe is Relatively the size of
Speaker:one of our states depending on which state you're talking about and one of
Speaker: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
Speaker:it from you to make more money off you and then you as a creative They shove
Speaker:you 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.
Speaker:There wasn't so much elder abuse to stan lee this is stan
Speaker:lee elder abuse with stan lee.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, this is now what no yet There was a bunch of elder abuse to Stan Lee's
Speaker:part of the reason why his possibly why his wife passed away, too Really?
Speaker:Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker:Yes, but that's a conversation for another time But yeah, it's
Speaker:a whole bunch of elder abuse.
Speaker:In fact, it went to court.
Speaker:It was that serious.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yes, and that's what we that's what Americans do to creatives
Speaker:who change the face of human history for forever Like Stan Lee.
Speaker:Stan Lee is like a modern William Shakespeare, basically.
Speaker:Say people talk about oh You people talk about great writers who've
Speaker:changed the face of human history, 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, 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:It's a candle to it.
Speaker:So here and that's what Americans do to writers who are like that.
Speaker:For Akira Toriyama I do believe that probably he didn't receive as
Speaker:much money or I think it's more of a respect thing over there, right?
Speaker:They just respect the creators, but they don't pay them as much as
Speaker:they, they would have been paid if they were Americans, me personally.
Speaker:And that also could have attributed to their more modest lifestyle.
Speaker:The 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.
Speaker:It.
Speaker:Right and no matter the age like elder Respecting your elders
Speaker:is not just about Older people.
Speaker:It's just like respecting the person above you, right?
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 because you shoved up to the side and then
Speaker:disney stole and everything.
Speaker:So Toriyama does have a successor.
Speaker:That's how powerful this man's writing was So the part where the corporation
Speaker:came back to him and was like, okay, dude if you're gonna stop you have
Speaker:to choose a successor who's gonna take the keys to the kingdom, right?
Speaker:That's crazy Where they he has to choose a successor to pass on his legacy and
Speaker:the business people ask him for him to do That would never happen in America
Speaker:They would just love to steal what you have and tell you to die, basically.
Speaker:That's what an American corporation would love to do.
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
Speaker:cartel people, given respects.
Speaker:Given respects.
Speaker:And they're not Japanese to a curator.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In terms of Dragon Ball Z, and this wasn't in Japan.
Speaker:This was.
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.
Speaker:Just because, Akira Toriyama, he's really known for one villain.
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 so he didn't really have you couldn't
Speaker:come up as many diverse villains as stanley could have that's a fair enough
Speaker:question so stanley you have wolverine.
Speaker:You have spider man you have the hulk, right?
Speaker:These are not to be fair jack.
Speaker:Kirby came up with the webbing kind of thing But These characters are
Speaker:so wildly different into themselves 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 You would see you know
Speaker:wonder woman versus storm, right?
Speaker:You would see the hulk versus superman so so Americans love
Speaker:doing crossovers with franchises.
Speaker:It's not as popular in Japan, right?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Who knows, I don't think it's a fair question.
Speaker:However, I will say that when it comes, did he create some great villains?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Vegeta's Frieza's Frieza, I like the earlier Frieza better than
Speaker:I do like the modern Frieza.
Speaker: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, I wouldn't even say anything about it.
Speaker:There was no like parents in the street.
Speaker:Oh, he's played by a male voice actor in the Japanese.
Speaker:And the Japanese audio, but in the American English
Speaker:audio played by a woman, but.
Speaker: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 Frieza's great, but Vegeta's
Speaker: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, We have the brains, right?
Speaker:Then you have the heart of the group, right?
Speaker:And together they make Captain Planet, right?
Speaker:But or the five Power Rangers, right?
Speaker:Most D& Ds are like this.
Speaker:D& D campaigns are like that.
Speaker:Who was your favorite villain from Dragon Z.
Speaker:I think Broly is my favorite villain.
Speaker:Broly is your favorite villain?
Speaker:Vegeta he's really I'm a Vegeta fan mainly because like he, his motivation is crazy.
Speaker: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 not
Speaker:the 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.
Speaker:With the frame of Shaquille O'Neal and dodging everyone's attacks.
Speaker:What do you mean He's dodging this man?
Speaker:This man is 8, 8, 600 pounds.
Speaker:He has the hit box of a refrigerator and people are
Speaker:missing, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:And he's fast.
Speaker:And not only that, 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, and there are so many references to Dragon Mal and other.
Speaker:Forms of media, especially American media, and his influence will be felt
Speaker:throughout time, really I honestly, There are, I would say oh, are there
Speaker:animes better than Dragon Ball Z?
Speaker:I think that there are some I have enjoyed more than then, but if I
Speaker:would say that there's one that I'm more attached to personally?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:I don't think there is one.
Speaker:I don't think there is.
Speaker:Because there's, I don't think if you're in the age range of Emily, it can 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, 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 bent 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, 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:It's been like One Piece and Dragon Ball, longevity wise, for our entire lives.
Speaker:As of this recording, everything that I know and could possibly process in
Speaker:my brain, in my understanding of time itself, has not existed longer than these
Speaker:franchises and the people making them.
Speaker:Also, 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 horse,
Speaker:make it a zombie and keep it pushing.
Speaker: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.
Speaker:Business is still business.
Speaker:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker:There are some Money's still money.
Speaker:Let's not act there haven't been a whole bunch of allegations about
Speaker:the way they treat their animators.
Speaker:Yeah, and then also And the way they also treat some of their other mangakas.
Speaker:But, that just proves the power of Dragon Ball Z that he's like, Oh,
Speaker:you're not gonna treat me like that.
Speaker:I don't care what other people are doing.
Speaker:I'm a curatorial.
Speaker:Do you think So we've talked about this before.
Speaker: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, they didn't want to back us up.
Speaker:A lot of creators do that.
Speaker:When you're a creative person, you don't want to just want to work
Speaker:on one project your whole life.
Speaker:That One Piece guy is working on a whole bunch of other stuff.
Speaker:There's a ton, like Dragon Quest.
Speaker:The art, Kiritoriyama did that.
Speaker:If you look at the art for Dragon Quest, 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 it looks so much like Dragon Ball.
Speaker:And 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:Yeah, he worked on a whole bunch of stuff that, but he's just Dragon Ball Z.
Speaker:It's 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 of ideas.
Speaker: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, I, one question I would ask you is, why do you think Akira Toriyama, out
Speaker:of the many people who create things, and it becomes wildly popular, none
Speaker:more popular than Dragon Ball Z, why do you think it is that he never ended
Speaker:up hating his creation I personally, once again, I do not know this,
Speaker:obviously I don't know him personally.
Speaker: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:We, me and Nicholas both have siblings.
Speaker:Alright?
Speaker:Alright.
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.
Speaker:Ends up being the one everyone else also likes.
Speaker:And you're like of course.
Speaker:That's, 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?
Speaker: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 you, I don't know the extent in which
Speaker:you worked on other animes, man.
Speaker:I have no idea.
Speaker:It's not like you worked on a, I personally, not an Akira expert.
Speaker:I don't know, what 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, and it's very
Speaker: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 versus something else a
Speaker: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 a
Speaker:story engine 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 aliens.
Speaker:Various aliens and various monsters.
Speaker: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 Southern Senpais on Comic Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at Comic ConRadio.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:You can follow the show at Southern Senpais on all
Speaker:major social media platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh episode.
Speaker:Y'all come back now.
