Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Gohan

Pictures Of Gohan (Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 2)

Vegito

Pictures Of Vegito (Normal, Super Saiyan Or Super Vegito)

Gotenks

Pictures Of Gotenks (Normal, Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 3)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Dragon Ball GT : A Hero's Legacy

One hundred years after the end of Dragon Ball GT, Pan is the only surviving member of the Z Fighters. She takes care of and trains Goku Jr., her one and only grandchild. It is unknown who his parents were nor what happened to them. Goku Jr. is a very timid person, to the point where he wouldn't fight Puck, a bully who constantly picks on him. Suddenly, Pan fell unconscious one day after Goku came home from school early after an encounter with Puck. Goku considers himself "weak" while he actually has potential, just like other Saiyan-Human hybrids.

After Pan falls unconscious, she and Goku go to Satan City Hospital. While in her bed, Pan tries to encourage Goku to have courage, and that he is special because he is much like Son Goku himself, but to no avail. Goku, seemingly having low self-esteem, retaliates by saying that he'll never be strong. In one final, futile attempt, Pan says to Goku "Be brave and no one can ever beat you." Afterwards, Pan faints for the second time, and the doctors react quickly. One nurse leads Goku to the waiting room, and he asks if his grandma will be okay. The nurse, however, does not and cannot answer his question, and Goku bursts out of the hospital in the pouring rain, running and crying the way home alone.

Back home, Goku hopes his grandma won't die, but then remembers that he could retrieve a Dragon Ball to make Pan better again. The next morning, he sets out for the Dragon Ball and encounters Puck and his gang along the way. One of Puck's friends asks where Goku is headed, and he tells them Mount Paozu. Goku faces put-downs from the gang, telling him he can't go there because there are monsters of all sorts and that he is a coward. The put-downs eventually make him angry, and he tells them to get out of his way. He walks by the gang and proceeds down the road to Mount Paozu. After following the road for hours, he rests for a moment. A truck passes by, and the truck driver offers him a ride. Goku accepts the driver's offer. After driving for a while, the truck driver pulls over and tells Goku to relieve himself because the trip will be long. While Goku is doing business, the truck driver empties his oversized book bag (which is full of food), and throws the bag onto Goku, and speeds off. Goku, surprised, shrugs it off and continues the long journey to Mount Paozu. He meets Puck yet again at a roadside grocery store, who tells him that he became bored and thought it was interesting if he went to Mount Paozu with him, admitting that it would be fun to see a monster eat Goku.

To acquire supplies for the long journey, Puck steals a cart full of food with Goku and escapes the grocery store just in time. While taking the long journey to Mount Paozu, Puck and Goku actually have fun and get along with each other. After encountering obstacles along the way, such as a pack of wolves and a "nice" lady who turns out to be a witch, Goku and Puck finally make it to a long rope-and-wood bridge, which looks dangerously unstable. Puck crosses the bridge first with ease, telling Goku that it seems okay to cross it. Goku crosses the bridge nervously, and a gust of wind distracts him, which makes him stumble. Because Goku stumbled, along with the force of the wind, the bridge rocks back and forth, which was enough to break a rope. With one rope cut, the bridge becomes extremely unstable, and Puck had to rescue Goku before he falls. Puck struggles to save Goku, who is dangling on only one rope above a deep trench. Another rope is broken, and the bridge collapses, causing Puck to fall into the trench. Luckily, Goku was still dangling on half of the bridge, which is still attached to the other side of the trench. Goku climbs out, and with nothing to do to save Puck, continues his journey alone. After traveling another great distance, Goku runs into a purple pig like demon, with the ability to manipulate his forearms into weapons. A grizzly bear, thankful to Goku for helping her cub earlier, attacks the demon trying to distract it so Goku and the cub could escape. Goku becomes enraged, and transforms into a Super Saiyan. He easily dismisses the demon, and soon after passes out. When he comes to, he has no memory of the transformation. Goku arrives to the summit of Mount Paozu, where he finds the old house which Grandpa Son Gohan harbored his ancestor in. He goes inside the old, dusty house, and finds the four-star Dragon Ball in the same place Goku kept it when it was first seen in the first episode of Dragon Ball. Goku takes it and, thinking that you can have one ball to grant the wish, tries to summon Shenron. When nothing happens, Goku becomes aggravated and shouts at the Dragon Ball as if there is someone in there. Again, when nothing happens, Goku throws the ball away, and starts yelling, telling himself that he was foolish to believe such a fairy tale about the Dragon Balls. Apparently, the Dragon Ball rolled to the feet of Goku Jr.'s ancestor, Son Goku himself.

Goku explains to his descendant that he has to collect all seven to get his wish. Goku Jr. gets on his feet, wipes his tears, and turns to his ancestor, stunned to see him. He asks him who he is, and Goku explains that he is his "great-great-grandfather." Confused about how many "greats" that would be, he tells Goku Jr. that he could just call him "Grandpa Goku" in short. Goku explains to Goku Jr. that he is strong and brave, because of his lineage. Out of the blue, a helicopter descends upon the ancient lawn of Grandpa Gohan's property, and reveals that Pan and Puck are inside it. Goku Jr. becomes excited to see everyone alive and well, exclaiming that the Dragon Ball granted his wish. He turns to where Grandpa Goku stood, and is stunned to see that he is nowhere to be seen, but Goku Jr. could hear his voice. Grandpa Goku tells him that it was actually his bravery that restored his grandma's life, including Puck's.

In a final farewell, Grandpa Goku wishes Goku Jr. good luck. Goku Jr. boards the helicopter with newfound strength, courage, and bravery with the four-star Dragon Ball in his hand. The Dragon Ball will be a keepsake for Goku Jr. to remind him of Grandpa Goku, just like how Grandpa Goku kept the Dragon Ball as a keepsake of Grandpa Gohan.

Monday, July 6, 2009

All About Super Saiyans

Super Saiyan

A Super Saiyan (超サイヤ人, Sūpā Saiyajin), is a fictional legend in the Dragon Ball manga created by Akira Toriyama. The first character to transform into a Super Saiyan is the series' main protagonist Son Goku, in volume 27 of the 42 volume manga series, better known to general fans as Dragon Ball Z; named so after the anime adaptation of the manga series was split into two sub-series. The Super Saiyan also appears in a third, anime-only series called Dragon Ball GT. In the series, the Super Saiyan is a transformation that is only accessible to characters who possess heritage from the fictional race called the Saiyans. The effects of the transformation results in greatly enhanced physical abilities.

The first transformation to Super Saiyan occurs involuntarily, when a Saiyan has reached his natural limit and is overcome with intense emotion. The ascended Super Saiyan levels, Super Saiyan 2 and Super Saiyan 3 can only be reached due to training, but sometimes severe emotional stress can trigger Super Saiyan 2, as in Son Gohan's case. As the series continued, the status of the Super Saiyan as being "legendary" is quickly departed from due to more characters developing the ability to transform.

Appearance

Toriyama first drew the Super Saiyan as a lean warrior with upright golden hair and green eyes surrounded by a flame-like gold aura. As the series progresses and more forms are introduced, each form is slightly altered from the previous one; often possessing more upright hair and altered aura appearances. The two stages of the regular Super Saiyan are achieved between Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2. This produces an increase in strength and bulkier muscles. The two forms surpassing Super Saiyan introduced later in the series possess a much greater increment of power and longer hair. Blue electrical bolts also occasionally appear in the aura. Toei's anime adaptation of the Super Saiyan forms were slightly altered. The depiction of the different auras for the forms in the anime was usually less distinguishable than in the manga. Toei also added electrical bolts in the aura to the first-level Super Saiyan forms in the anime or occasionally left them out of the appropriate ones.

Concept

As the series continued and more powerful villains were introduced, the Super Saiyan concept was modified by Toriyama several times. As a result of these new villains, Toriyama at first had created "upgraded" forms of the original Super Saiyan, but then later created all new Super Saiyan forms. At the end of the manga, there were three forms or levels of the Super Saiyan, with two intermediate forms between the first and second form. As the anime was produced, Dragon Ball's animation company Toei created more forms, such as a pre-Super Saiyan form called Giji Super Saiyan, and an alternate genetically exclusive form called the Legendary Super Saiyan. Later in Dragon Ball Z's spin-off sequel Dragon Ball GT, Toei created Super Saiyan 4. Dragon Ball GT was cancelled after only 64 episodes due to lack of popularity, and no more Super Saiyan forms were officially created by Toriyama or Toei.

Heritage and gender controversy

Toriyama ran into a problem with his Super Saiyan concept in the last manga volume, where the quarter Saiyan female named Pan is introduced as the granddaughter of Goku. Toriyama's Super Saiyan concept had become a staple concept in the Dragon Ball series, so Toriyama had received many questions about Pan's ability to become a Super Saiyan. Toriyama wrote that Pan's Saiyan heritage was too diluted in order for her to ascend to Super Saiyan, but later admitted that the only reason he made that rule was because he could not come up with a logical design for a female Super Saiyan because most of the characteristics associated with the Super Saiyan were characteristics typical of males, and not females. Toei ignored this heritage rule in their spin-off series Dragon Ball GT when they made distant Saiyan descendents Son Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. have the ability to transform into Super Saiyans, even though their Saiyan heritage was even more diluted than Pan's.

Naming scheme

When the ascended Super Saiyan forms were introduced in the series, Toriyama had never actually given them names. It wasn't until volume 40 that the ascended Super Saiyan forms were given names by Goku. Goku was facing an opponent named Majin Buu, and decided to show him the different Super Saiyan forms, as a result he came up with names for them. He showed Buu his regular form, then Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 2, and then as a climax, introduced Super Saiyan 3. When the stages of the first Super Saiyan form were introduced, several names were given by the characters, but no official names for the advanced grades were decided on in the series. It wasn't until the Daizenshuu was produced that the stages of the regular form of Super Saiyan were actually given names, such as Super Saiyan 1 Stage 2 and Super Saiyan 1 Stage 3.

Daizenshuu vs GT Perfect files

When referencing characters that can achieve the Super Saiyan forms, there are two official guides that are used for this. The first guide is a ten volume book series called the Daizenshuu, published by both Toriyama's manga team and Dragon Ball's animation company Toei. The Daizenshuu is referred to by many fans as the "Dragon Ball Encyclopedia", and generally used as the primary reference of the two series. The second series published was two books called the GT Perfect Files, created solely by Dragon Ball's animation company Toei. Several differences between the two guides cause debate in the fandom; on several occasions, the GT Perfect Files either labels or leaves out characters on lists of people who have achieved certain Super Saiyan forms. For example, The GT Perfect Files lists the character Gotenks as a character who achieved Super Saiyan 2, while the Daizenshuu does not (however, the seventh Daizenshuu notes that Gotenks is indeed capable of going Super Saiyan 2). Also in the GT Perfect Files, Vegeta is only listed as a Super Saiyan 2 while in his "Demon Prince" or Majin state, but it doesn't list him as a Super Saiyan 2 in his regular state despite him making usage of the form in both his battles against Buu and on occasion in GT.

Legend

This account of the Super Saiyan legend is based on the storyline presented in the manga series, being that the manga storyline is more consistent with the rest of the Dragon Ball timeline.

The legend of the Super Saiyan is first introduced by the Saiyan prince Vegeta during the second story arc of the series called the Frieza Saga.^[1] Even though a detailed description of the legend is stated in the Frieza Saga, an indirect reference was made to it earlier in the series in the previous story arc called the Saiyan Saga.^[2] The legend told the story of a Saiyan with unlimited power who had existed a millennium prior. Even though only one Super Saiyan is usually referenced in the legend, Vegeta in the series occasionally has made reference to more than one; however, it was never confirmed if more than one actually did exist. The assumption that modern Saiyans had was that any Saiyan becoming a Super Saiyan was an extremely rare event, and only being a possible transformation for the stronger individuals of the race.^[3] When a Saiyan achieved the state of Super Saiyan, it was said that his heart would be overcome by rage, which would result in a transformation, both physically and mentally. The Super Saiyan legend was known by many races, and was considered the strongest being in the galaxy.

Because the Super Saiyan transformation had not been demonstrated by any Saiyan in over a thousand years, most races that had heard the legend of the Super Saiyan dismissed it as simple mythology, even most Saiyans. This was until several Saiyans emerged that possessed physical potential that had rapidly evolved beyond their known natural limits. The galactic overlord Frieza also had dismissed it as simple legend until he witnessed a genetically weaker Saiyan defeat one of his elite warriors. As a result, Frieza realized that a Super Saiyan emerging was a possibility. Fearing the Saiyans, he destroyed the race and their planet.

However, some would survive and one of the survivors (Goku) would defeat Frieza by ascending to the legendary form. Goku and Vegeta procreate with humans later in the series to produce hybrids, and most of the hybrids inherited the potential to ascend to Super Saiyan in spite of their impure heritage.

It was originally stated that a Saiyan must be pure of heart to make the transformation,^[4] whether it be pure good or pure evil. It is unclear whether or not the legend stated that a single Super Saiyan would appear every thousand years, or simply if no Super Saiyans had emerged in over a thousand years. This is simply due to plotholes in the legend. However, a year after Goku transformed, another Super Saiyan appears^[5]. As a result, the legendary status of the Super Saiyan ceases due to several characters being able to use the form. In the written series, all the male characters with Saiyan heritage who existed after the Frieza Saga managed to achieve Super Saiyan, and some of the characters managed to achieve advanced Super Saiyan transformations, but later on Vegeta's brother Tarble was introduced in an anime special, this was the only male living Saiyan that did not reach Super Saiyan status.

Evolution in the manga series

Early concept

Super Saiyan (超サイヤ人, Sūpā Saiyajin^?) was introduced in volume 24 of the 42 volume manga series, in the character Vegeta's recounting of a legend about a super warrior from the Saiyan race. Vegeta suspected that Goku was a Super Saiyan due to his substantial increase in physical power in a short amount of time. During the events of volume 27, Goku is seen to transform into what he calls a Super Saiyan, confirming Vegeta's suspicions earlier in the series.

Goku uses his new power to defeat Frieza, the antagonist of the series at the time. Frieza had destroyed the Saiyans out of his fear of their growing power, and the idea of a possible "Super Saiyan". As a result of defeating Frieza, Goku avenges the Saiyan race, and the death of his best friend Krillin.

As the series continues, the Super Saiyan becomes a staple concept in Dragon Ball, being achieved by several other characters in the series, with the sons of Goku and Vegeta seeming to access the form much easier than their fathers at a young age. Details about the Super Saiyan are revealed such as its limits and weaknesses. Goku later contracts a virus that attacks his heart, and his Super Saiyan transformation is revealed to actually increase the virus's effects on his body. By this time, the character Vegeta had also achieved Super Saiyan, and it is his defeat as a Super Saiyan at the hands of the Androids that reveals the Super Saiyan had limits, despite its incredible power.

Super Saiyan (Supa Saiya-jin)

Advanced stages

Continuing with the story, Toriyama decided to introduce several advanced stages of the Super Saiyan. The character Vegeta is the first one to reveal a second stage of the Super Saiyan in battle, which he uses to battle the character Cell. However, due to Vegeta's arrogance, Cell is allowed to reach his perfect form and defeat Vegeta, revealing yet more limits. Vegeta's son from the future, Trunks, displays a further stage of Super Saiyan, however the stage's weaknesses such as bulky mass and a speed reduction lead to his defeat. These flaws are exploited by Goku later in the series, who decides that simply mastering the regular Super Saiyan is the most effective way to become stronger. As a result of this revelation, these advanced stages are not used beyond a few chapters in the series.

Goku and his first child Son Gohan later emerge from the Room of Spirit and Time, having mastered the Super Saiyan form. After witnessing Goku, Vegeta deduces that the training had made him stronger than both himself or Trunks after using the minimum amount of chi to maintain the form, allowing him and Gohan greater access to their chi reserves, and constantly being in the Super Saiyan state. The only main difference between it and a regular super saiyan is that they are not usually covered with a golden aura, and as such, their hair appears to be a pale blonde rather than golden. Despite his increased power in his mastered state of Super Saiyan, Goku was unable to defeat Cell. Gohan also battled Cell in his mastered form of Super Saiyan, but was also unable to defeat Cell with his current strength.

Super Saiyan Stage 2 (超サイヤ人第2段階 Sūpā Saiyajin Dai Ni Dankai)
Super Saiyan Stage 3 (超サイヤ人第3段階 Sūpā Saiyajin Dai San Dankai)
Super Saiyan Full Power (超サイヤ人フルパワー Sūpā Saiyajin Furu Pawā)

Ascended levels

Toriyama had introduced the possibility of Gohan becoming stronger than his father earlier in the series, when Gohan had unknowingly assisted his father in defeating the evil Saiyan Raditz, who was revealed to be Goku's older brother. Gohan had revealed a massive dormant power that emerged whenever he threw fits of rage. During their training to battle Cell, Goku trained Gohan to become a Super Saiyan, knowing that if he became a Super Saiyan, his dormant power would probably be a catalyst in the defeat of Cell. Gohan was able to achieve Super Saiyan and master it, due to his father's guidance and training. Although he had not realized it, he was already stronger than his father.

Gohan later fought Cell, where his dormant power revealed itself, transforming him into a Super Saiyan 2 ^[6]. Gohan easily defeated Cell with this new form of Super Saiyan. Goku and Vegeta later are revealed to achieve this form, however the form's limits are exploited by the villain Majin Buu, and as a result, Goku reveals an even stronger form of Super Saiyan^[7]. There are no more Super Saiyan forms revealed in the manga series, as Toriyama ended the series shortly after.

Super Saiyan 2 (超サイヤ人2 Sūpā Saiyajin Tsū)

Power further increases far beyond any of the previous forms. In terms of appearance, it is similar to the first form. However, the muscles become larger, although not by as much of a factor as an ascended Super Saiyan. The user's hair stands straighter with fewer bangs of hair hanging over the forehead, and also seems to increase in length slightly. A stern look on the user's face is also maintained. In this form, blue electrical arcs always appear (in the manga, but the anime only depicts them from time to time), and are more prominent when the user powers up. Besides the electricity, the aura also grows in size and becomes more fierce than most of the previous forms.

Super Saiyan 3 (超サイヤ人3 Sūpā Saiyajin Surī)

Power increases greatly from the previous form. In terms of appearance, it is differentiated from the previous form by the user's straight standing hair growing almost to waist-length, similar to the hairstyle that Raditz had, and the user's eyebrows retracting, revealing a more prominent brow ridge. The muscles also increase slightly in size from the previous form. Blue electrical arcs constantly surround the users body, unlike Super Saiyan 2, which may lack electricity in some anime episodes. The shape and size of the aura from Super Saiyan 2 is also retained.

Toei transformation variants

The following Super Saiyan forms only appeared in the anime series, and were created by Dragon Ball's animation company Toei in order to elaborate on and expand Toriyama's written Dragon Ball series.

False Super Saiyan

During the development of the Super Saiyan concept, Dragon Ball's animation company (Toei) produced a movie depicting Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation. However, the form was later called Giji Supa Saiya-jin,^[8] which depicted Goku with his regular black hair, but flowing, eyes lacking irises and the golden aura of the anime Super Saiyan coloring the body gold. Goku uses this form in his fight against Lord Slug in Dragon Ball Z movie 4 after he catches a punch from him and easily overpowers him, however, though his power was extremely great his rage soon started to fall due to surprise that Slug is a Namekian. This form is an example of a Saiyan on their way to becoming a true Super Saiyan.

Legendary Super Saiyan

The Legendary Super Saiyan (Densetsu no Sûpâ Saiyajin^[8]) first appeared in Dragon Ball Z movie 8 in the form of a Saiyan survivor named Broly. In this film, Toei created a Super Saiyan whose abilities exceeded all other Super Saiyans in the series; an attempt to create an idea that there was a superior form of Super Saiyan that would be considered the "Legendary" form. Broly was originally designed by Toriyama for the movie, and strongly resembled one of Toriyama's manga Super Saiyan forms called Super Saiyan Stage 3. Even though the two forms appear very similar, The Legendary Super Saiyan form does not have the same physical flaws of massive ki consumption and speed loss that Stage 3 does. This form has many advantages when compared to the other Super Saiyan forms, as it requires no ki consumption, gives the user phenomenal strength and speed, and constantly raises the user's power as long as they remain in the Legendary Super Saiyan form.^[9]

Super Saiyan 4

Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama's depiction of the Super Saiyan 4, drawn exclusively for the Dragon Box.

The Super Saiyan 4 (超サイヤ人4, Sūpā Saiyajin 4^?) is a form that exclusively appears in Toei's spin-off anime series Dragon Ball GT, and was not part of the original series. Even though Toriyama supervised the production for Dragon Ball GT, he did not design the characters or Super Saiyan 4. The Super Saiyan 4 was designed by Toei artist Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, and was designed to more closely resemble the Saiyan Ape form which appears early in the written series. As a result, the Super Saiyan 4 design does not resemble the original Super Saiyan design of golden-yellow hair and green eyes. While Toriyama did not design the Super Saiyan 4, he did draw a manga version of Goku as a Super Saiyan 4 for the Dragon Box, a massive media boxset containing all the Dragon Ball movies and episodes ever produced by Toei^[10].

Wanting to expand the Dragon Ball series, Toei created a new series called Dragon Ball GT. As new enemies emerged in the series, Goku searches for a way to ascend what he had originally thought was the last Super Saiyan form. As a result, he went through a process that enabled him to transform into a Super Saiyan 4. The Super Saiyan 4 form is the most advanced Super Saiyan transformation achieved in the anime series, and is widely believed to be only accessible to pure blooded Saiyans; this was discovered when the parasitic Tuffle Baby had infected Vegeta, and Baby Vegeta could not transform to this because Baby was not a Saiyan, making Vegeta's heritage impure.

The Super Saiyan 4 has several unusual characteristics like it only being possible for pure Saiyans to achieve the transformation. Odd visual characteristics can be observed with disappearing articles of clothing after transformation, and the instant aging of Goku from child to adult when he transforms into Super Saiyan 4. It should be noted that the aging can be explained by the form's power. Super Saiyan 4 is strong enough to overpower the red dragon's magic, reverting Goku to his proper age. When compared to the previous Super Saiyan forms, the Super Saiyan 4 also has an unusual appearance. The Super Saiyan 4 does not have yellow hair. Instead the Saiyan retains his original hair color, regrows a tail, and develops a shade of red "fur" that covers most of the body. Each Saiyan who can utilize the transformation has different tone of red fur and eye color from other Saiyans who can achieve the form. The Super Saiyan 4 form is much more powerful and faster than the previous Super Saiyan transformations. The only two Saiyans known to be able to complete this transformation in the Dragon Ball series are Goku and Vegeta. Their combined form, Gogeta, was also able to achieve Super Saiyan 4, though he was shown having red hair and brown fur.

Appearances in other media

After the success of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama created a self-parody manga entitled Neko Majin Z, which features Goku and Vegeta, and introduced a new Saiyan named Onio, who also has the ability to transform into a Super Saiyan. In the series, the Super Saiyan transformation was altered slightly, so the aura of the regular Super Saiyan contains bolts of electricity. As part of his self parody, the main character Neko Majin actually has a transformation that is similar to the Super Saiyan, where he becomes "Super Neko Majin".^[11]

Due to Dragon Ball receiving such iconic status in the manga and anime world, gags referencing the ability to "turn" or "go" Super Saiyan are often used in other pop cultural media in Japan.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Sonic and a few other characters have the ability to transform into a "Super" state, a form which closely resembles a Super Saiyan.

In the Nintendo 64 Game Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Goemon obtains a power that allows him to transform into a more powerful version of himself complete with blond spiky hair closely resembling that of a Super Saiyan.

Dragon Ball GT

Main article: List of Dragon Ball GT episodes

Produced by Toei Animation, Dragon Ball GT (ドラゴンボールGT(ジーティー), Doragon Bōru Jī Tī , G(rand) T(our)^[4]) premiered on Fuji TV on February 2, 1996, and ran until November 19, 1997.^[31] Unlike the first two series, it was not based on the original Dragon Ball manga.^[32] The series lasted 64 episodes.^[4] In Dragon Ball GT, Goku is turned back into a child by the Black Star Dragon Balls and is forced to travel across the universe to retrieve them.

Funimation Entertainment licensed the series for an English language Region 1 DVD release and broadcast in North America. Funimation's English dub of the series aired on Cartoon Network from November 2003 to January 2005. The television broadcast skipped the first 16 episodes of the series. Instead, Funimation created a composition episode entitled "A Grand Problem", which used scenes from the skipped episodes to summarize the story. The skipped episodes were later aired after the remaining episodes of the series had been broadcast.^[31] The dubbed episodes also aired in Canada on YTV, which divided the episodes into two seasons instead of sagas.^[33]^[34]

Dragon Ball Z

Main article: List of Dragon Ball Z episodes

With the ending of Dragon Ball, Toei Animation quickly released a second anime television series, Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールZ(ゼット), Doragon Bōru Zetto, commonly abbreviated DBZ). Picking up where the first left off, Dragon Ball Z is adapted from the final twenty-six volumes of the manga series. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996.^[4]^[28]

Following the canceled dub of Dragon Ball, Funimation licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English language release in North America. For the dubbing of the series, the Ocean Group was contracted to produce an English dub track. Like the original dub of Dragon Ball, the Ocean Group's dub of Dragon Ball Z was heavily edited for content, reducing the first 67 episodes into 53. The dubbed episodes of the first saga premiered in the United States on Fox in September 1996 and ended in May 1997. The second saga premiered on the The WB in September 1997, though it was eventually canceled in May 1998, once again due to low ratings. Three months later, the dub began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel's new Toonami programming block. Soon after, Funimation continued dubbing the series from where the cancelled dub left off, now using its own in-house voice actors, a new musical score, and less editing. The new dub of Dragon Ball Z ran on Cartoon Network from September 1999 to April 2003. In August 2004, Geneon Entertainment lost its licensing rights to the old Ocean Group dubbed episodes of Dragon Ball Z, allowing Funimation to re-dub the first 67 episodes, restore the removed content and replace the old dubbing with its in-house voice cast. These re-dubbed episodes aired on Cartoon Network throughout the summer of 2005. The Funimation dubbed episodes also aired in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.^[29]^[30]

In the United Kingdom, the Funimation dub of episodes 107 through the final episode were replaced with a new dubbed version. This version used a dub language track produced by Blue Water and dubbed by the Ocean Group.

Dragon Ball

Main article: List of Dragon Ball episodes (series)

Due to the high popularity of the Dragon Ball manga, Toei Animation produced two anime television series based on the manga chapters, and a third based on the series characters. The first series, also titled Dragon Ball, premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on February 26, 1986 and ran until April 12, 1989.^[4]^[23] Spanning 153 episodes, it covered the first 16 volumes of the 42 volume manga series.^[23]

Harmony Gold USA licensed the series for an English language release in North America in the late 1980s. In their voice dub of the series, Harmony renamed almost all of the characters, with some names appearing very odd, such as the central character Goku being renamed "Zero" and the character Korin's name changed to "Whiskers the Wonder Cat". This dub version was quickly canceled.^{[citation needed]}

In 1995, Funimation Entertainment acquired the license for the series for broadcast and home video distribution in North America. Funimation contracted with BLT Productions to create an English voice track for the series, and the dubbed episodes were edited for content.^[24] Thirteen episodes aired in syndication before Funimation canceled the project due to low ratings, switching to working on the second anime series Dragon Ball Z.^[4] In March 2001, Funimation announced the return of Dragon Ball to American television, featuring a new English audio track produced in house and with less editing.^[24]^[25] The redubbed episodes aired on Cartoon Network from August 2001^[26] to December 2003. Funimation also broadcast the series on Colours TV and their own FUNimation Channel starting in 2006.^[27] Funimation began releasing the uncut episodes to Region 1 DVD box sets in March 18, 2003. Each box set, spanning an entire saga of the series, included the English dub track and the original Japanese audio track with optional English subtitles. These sets were released in Australia the following year. They were eventually discontinued and the series was re-released in 2008 as two box sets, the first containing 12 discs and the second containing 10 discs.

In 2003, a new dub, produced by Blue Water Studios, was created and began to air in the United Kingdom and Canada. It used different episode titles and voice actors versus the Funimation version.^[23]

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Dragon Ball Z : Characters

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Dragon Ball Z : Official Logo

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Dragon Ball Z : Super Android 13

The film opens with the introduction showing the death of Dr. Gero at the hands of the Androids 17 and 18, and also revealing that Gero is still around in the form of an underground computer, still working on three new Androids.

The real film now opens with the completion of Androids 14 and 15, who attack Goku while he is shopping with Chi-Chi and Gohan. Not wanting to destroy the city they're in, Goku and Future Trunks, who had arrived just then, leave for an uninhabited Arctic area. The fight seems even until Android 13 shows up - at least until Vegeta and Piccolo arrive. At that point of time, both Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks ascend to their Super Saiyan forms and 14 and 15 are destroyed by Trunks and Vegeta, respectively. Just when the fight seems won, 13 shows off his "Super" form by absorbing two components of the two fallen Androids, transforming into a blue behemoth and vastly increasing his power, changing the battle's outcome yet again. Despite all their efforts, Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and Trunks are subsequently beaten by the powerful android. But then Goku prepares his Spirit Bomb, and, after transforming into a Super Saiyan, he absorbs its energy into his body (Krillin remarks that Goku's ability to transform shows that he retains his pure heart in Super Saiyan form) and destroys the Android menace. As 13, 14, and 15 are ultimately destroyed, Dr. Gero's computer shuts down for good, while still shouting the words "Goku must die!".

The film closes Goku and his friends healing in the hospital, but Piccolo and Vegeta, in isolation, are sitting back-to-back on a small chunk of ice in the sea.

Dragon Ball Z : Return Of Cooler

A few years prior, the tyrant Frieza destroyed the Planet Namek during his battle with the newly transformed Super Saiyan Goku. The peaceful Namekians found themselves without a home for months. Eventually they had a new planet created for them with the help of the Dragon Balls. For three years or so they lived in peace on their new planet. One day however, a strange metal planet began to absorb New Namek within itself. The star buried its way and wrapped around the planet, absorbing its energy. Dende, who is now the Earth's guardian, senses the plight of his people and calls Goku to ask for help.

Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Oolong, Yajirobe and Master Roshi arrive and encounter an army of strange, large, silent robots. We learn that Cooler, Frieza's older brother, that Goku was thought to have killed a few years earlier, is the one who deployed the robots on the planet to enslave the Namekians, whom he plans to use as biological fuel for the Big Gete Star. Goku then fights Cooler, while the other Z-Fighters battle Cooler's robots.

At first the Z-Warriors have trouble penetrating the robots' armor, but Piccolo instructs them to concentrate their energy to one point, and doing so allows them to destroy a few of the robots. However, there are far too many to handle and all the warriors, except Piccolo, are captured along with a village of Namekians. Piccolo is left behind, and destroys all the robots. He then makes his way to rescue those who were captured. Throughout the battle, Goku is distracted by a familiar face - that of Cooler, who he was sure had perished years ago. Goku battles Cooler, but it is apparent that Goku is no match for Cooler's new metallic form which gives him the ability to regenerate himself. Cooler also reveals his ability to use the Instantaneous Movement technique, which Goku also uses. Goku continues to struggle even after becoming a Super Saiyan. Cooler reveals that the Big Gete Star constantly monitors his body, and fixes any flaws that may occur, in this case Cooler's arm being torn off by Goku.

Just before Goku is choked to death by Cooler, Vegeta, who had arrived in a separate pod, shows up just in time to help Goku. The two Super Saiyans attack Cooler and they soon are able to kill him. However, the Big Gete Star once again corrects a flaw in Cooler's design. In this case the flaw was having only one body. So, the computer gave Cooler one-thousand bodies. Outnumbered and exhausted, Goku and Vegeta are captured and transported to the Big Gete Star's core to be used as energy. As Cooler is leeching their Saiyan strength via strange wires, Goku and Vegeta regain consciousness and release all their Super Saiyan energy to the wires, overloading the system. They then blast the true Cooler with the last of their energy, causing his ultimate demise. Meanwhile, Piccolo arrives in the Big Gete Star, and meets up with a clone of Cooler, which explodes. Eventually, all the other clones of Cooler, and every other robot, in the Big Gete Star explode. Piccolo and the rest escape before the Big Gete Star explodes in New Namek's orbit.

Goku and Vegeta fall from the sky near the rest of the Z Fighters, and everyone rejoices. They then realize that Vegeta is nowhere to be found, and Goku looks up at the sky. Vegeta is shown flying in space in his spacepod with the last remaining chip of the Big Gete Star in his hands. He then crushes it, ensuring that Cooler will never return again

Dragon Ball Z : Cooler's Revenge

In this movie, Frieza's older brother Cooler is introduced. It begins with a flashback to when Frieza destroyed the Saiyan home world, Planet Vegeta. Cooler's ship soon picks up Goku's space pod on the radar. Goku's ship is shown to be heading towards Earth, but Cooler's henchmen believe it is an escape. Cooler lets the ship go, believing it to be no threat. More than twenty years later, Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan and defeats Frieza on Planet Namek. Showing no compassion towards his brother, Cooler takes his Armored Squadron - Doure, Naiz, and Salza to Earth. He plans to kill Goku in order to reclaim his family's honor. His forces ambush Goku and his friends on a camping trip, and Goku is wounded when he takes a blast from Cooler that was intended for Gohan.

After Krillin sets up a shelter in a cave with Goku, Gohan flies off to obtain Senzu beans from Korin. After obtaining the beans, he is ambushed by Cooler's henchmen, but is saved by Piccolo. Piccolo dispatches Doure and Naiz, and takes on Salza, easily gaining the upper hand. During the battle, Cooler arrives and catches Piccolo off-guard with a powerful energy beam, which impales him through the chest but does not kill him. Cooler then sends Salza after Gohan as he continues to blast Piccolo. Gohan gets to the cave with the Senzu beans, but they are destroyed by Salza. However, he heals Goku with a spare bean Yajirobe gave him earlier. After Krillin and Gohan are beaten down by Salza, Goku appears fully healed. Cooler shows up, holding onto an unconscious Piccolo. He then blasts his body with an unexpected attack as Goku watches in horror. Goku blasts Salza into the distance, and begins to fight Cooler.

After Goku proves to be a worthy opponent, Cooler tells of his history with Frieza. He then reveals his final transformation, and pummels Goku around effortlessly, despite Goku using the Kamehameha and Kaio-ken techniques numerous times. Cooler then proceeds to destroy the landscape. However, after seeing a bird die from wounds inflicted by damage caused during the struggle, Goku thinks back on his friends and family, how they all would be killed if he let Cooler kill him. He then picks up the dead bird, letting out a yell so powerful it cracks solid stone. Goku then transforms into his Super Saiyan form, and gives enough of his energy to revive the bird. Cooler then finds himself, like Frieza was, grossly outclassed. After attempting to punch and blast the Super Saiyan with no effect, Cooler summons a trump card when he powers up an enormous ball of energy. Cooler launches the attack with hopes to destroy Goku and the Earth along with him. After a stint of struggling, Goku eventually manages to send it back with the Kamehameha, forcing Cooler off the Earth, towards the sun. Cooler thinks about destroying the sun, which would end life on Earth, until he realizes that he himself is headed into the sun itself. As Cooler curses Goku, he suddenly realizes that Goku is the Saiyan he let escape. His body is then seemingly disintegrated by the sun.

Goku, drained after his battle, is found by Krillin and Gohan. They are looking for Piccolo when Salza reappears, and prepares to kill them all. However, before he can attack, he is killed by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon from a distance. Gohan looks around for Piccolo, and the movie ends with Piccolo gazing skyward.

Dragon Ball Z : Lord Slug

Lord Slug is one of the legendary Super Namekians. A Namekian that has been traveling through space for a number of years after being banished from his home world for misusing his powers. Along with his crew of vicious fighters, he travels from planet to planet wreaking chaos as he goes. An asteroid alert is wreaking havoc all over the planet as it is going to destroy the entire Earth. Goku and Krillin go to deflect the asteroid off course so it doesn't hit Earth, but though they succeed, a spaceship lands on Earth. Slug's men attempt to carry out the same destruction there that they had at a countless number of other planets. The way they dominate a planet is to literally change its atmosphere, freezing the planet. By conforming it to their liking, they make it more suitable for themselves and almost unlivable for any other people, including the native occupants of the planet. Slug's men manage to gather the Dragon Balls knowing of their power because of his Namekian heritage and uses them to restore his youth and health; like King Piccolo before him, being fully restored gave him a far greater power.

Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo square off against Slug's team and manage to defeat them all. The final battle against Slug is left in the hands of Goku. The battle is not going well for Goku, who is repeatedly beaten down by Slug, until he catches a punch from Slug and his anger causes him to power up into what King Kai interprets as a Super Saiyan(only with blach hair like a super saiyan 0.5). Goku then angrily attacked Slug in a fierce battle and thanks to his increased strength, is able to deal several effective blows to the Super Namekian. However, Goku is not able to control this power for long and regresses back to his normal form, though he does manage to break Slug's arm. Despite this, Slug is able to tear off his broken arm and grow back a new one, revealing his Namekian heritage to Goku. He then transforms into a giant, more powerful version of himself (something Piccolo was able to do once also) and proceeds to completely annihilate Goku until Piccolo steps in. He becomes caught by Slug's giant hands and cannot escape. Piccolo then rips off his own ears and tells Gohan to whistle in order to use Slug's ultra sensitive hearing against him. Gohan does as told and whistles, causing Slug great pain.

Exploiting a weakness of all Namekians; their extremely sensitive hearing, Gohan's whistling is able to bring Slug to his knees (Piccolo had earlier torn off his ears, so he isn't harmed by this strategy). Piccolo then transfers all of his power to Goku, rejuvenating him. Goku then uses the Kaio-ken attack and succeeds in knocking down the giant Slug. Goku then flies up into the sky to destroy the weather changing generator and absorbs energy from the sun to form a Spirit Bomb. Slug attempts to stop him, but Goku launches the Spirit Bomb and it hits Slug, sending him into the generator, destroying them both. The final scene involves Master Roshi waking up from his nap which he started before the aliens landed and he wishes that something interesting would happen.