Death of Akira Toriyama
Film Center honored the legendary Akira Toriyama, reflecting on his profound impact on the entertainment world, notably through his creation of "Dragon Ball".
Transcript
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.
