I recently interviewed the Kirby brothers of K&K Productions to learn more about this project and share it with the Dragon Ball community.

Haven’t heard of Dragon Ball Z: Saiyan Saga?

Here’s their Dragon Ball movie introduction video to bring you up to speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylf3Fg7rPbE

They’re running a fundraiser at IndieGogo, so be sure to contribute.

Today you’ll learn where the idea for a live action Dragon Ball Z movie came from, why Dragon Ball Evolution failed to please fans, how the brothers made their casting choices for Goku and Vegeta, and discover what it’s like to film a special effects laden film on an independent’s budget.

Now let’s turn up the heat and go Kaio Ken x4!!

Get Ready! The Saiyans Are Coming!

Isky Fay gets into character as Yamcha

Derek: Hi Harry, George. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today.

Harry: Hello, Derek.

George: Good morning.

Derek: There are a lot of Dragon Ball fans who are looking forward to Dragon Ball Z: Saiyan Saga, but not everybody knows about it yet, so I want to get it out there. I love Dragon Ball and want to share this with others.

As a general intro for those who don’t know, who are K&K Productions?

Harry: We’re two brothers, Harry and George Kirby. We both used to work in television, for Sky TV, a big broadcaster in the UK. I worked there first for 6 years and then my brother was there for 3 years. During that time we were kind of doing our own stuff and we realized that we could do it on our own.

We started our company about 5 years ago and we’ve been full time with it for the last 2 and a half. We started with corporate work and recently music videos, and we always entered into film competitions and 48 hour challenges.

George is very good with special effects, and doing those films helps us improve those effects. Pushes us farther.

Derek: What originally got you into film? Why make that your career?

George: We both grew up watching film, a lot of anime, played computer games, those sorts of things. That made us a very visual based type of imaginative people. Harry, being older, went to university and did live TV production, something media related. I kind of followed up and that was our entry in.

Brandon Ly will play Goku's son, Gohan

Derek: You did that for a few years and decided enough is enough, let’s do it our way. Now here you are making Dragon Ball Z: Saiyan Saga. Where did the inspiration for this film come from?

George: We always said, “It’d be so cool if we could.” We would mess around with effects with energy, Ki blasts, things like that. We thought it would be cool to do a full on production, but years ago we didn’t have the skills, the technology or the time. It’s always been in the back of our minds.

Harry: We’ve hit the point where our production company is doing well, and now we know we’ve got the friends, crew, and equipment. Now’s the time.

If someone had said to me 5 years ago that you’re going to have all this equipment and the resources you have now, I would have jumped on it to make Dragon Ball Z. It’s the first thing that comes to mind. And now that’s what we’re going to do.

Plus with Dragon Ball Z there’s so many great characters and so much amazing content right there. No one, apart from the Evolution movie, had tapped into it. All that great stuff sitting there waiting to be made into live action.

Derek: Why do you think Dragon Ball Evolution turned out the way it did? And how will your film succeed where Evolution did not?

Harry: I think they just missed the point entirely.

George: I just want to say one thing. Why did they call it Evolution? What is it evolved from? It was the first film! I don’t understand that point. Sorry, that just really got to me when it came out.

Harry: We felt the casting was wrong with the film. There has been a lot of debate on YouTube and elsewhere whether the characters should be Asian or not. It was a Japanese cartoon originally and we always saw the characters as Asian, but I mean, they were drawn in a way that you could interpret them however you want.

[In any case] they changed characters, they changed relationships, and missed the point of the story. Plus, it skips on the action. There are a lot of great stories in Dragon Ball Z, but people love the action.

George: It could be said that it’s tentatively based on Dragon Ball, not Dragon Ball Z, but you still need the Dragon Ball Z essence that people have come to expect. The high action, high impact, the hype and visuals that should have been in it, but weren’t.

Harry: The key thing is what we said before. There’s all this material just laid out for film companies to make stories out of that were massively popular across the world. And the first thing they do is go, “Okay, let’s change them.” Why change it when it’s already great?

Obviously we’ll have to make slight adaptations to make it into live action, but for the most part we want to see what we, as fans, want to see on the screen. That’s the whole point.

Derek: I think you’re absolutely right. I don’t think there were more than even a few minutes of fights in that entire movie.

Harry: You’re seeing a white Goku diving over the bonnet of a yellow Mustang or whatever, and I’m thinking, this isn’t even remotely like the world of Dragon Ball.

George: It was very Americanized. It obviously appealed to the mass American market, that’s what film companies do, but it skipped over the whole fan base of anime. It was too Americanized and missed the mark.

Michael Amariah Becomes Piccolo

Derek: I agree. So what’s your goal with Dragon Ball Z: Saiyan Saga? You said you want to stay true to the spirit. What is your message and why do you want to create a live action Dragon Ball Z movie?

Harry: First of all, yes, our key message is that we want to stay true to Dragon Ball. Watching Evolution, my thoughts the whole time were, “Where is this, why is this missing, why have they not done this?”

You know, you come across videos on YouTube, for example, the Mortal Kombat fan film, and you want to share it with others. I love that feeling, discovering something that a fan has made, you want to share it with your friends, and that’s a great feeling. Our main thing is to give the fans that chance. We want to give that feeling to Dragon Ball fans. When you see a bit with Krillin, or when Goku goes Kaio Ken, you’ll want to share it.

George: That was the whole point of wanting to do a trailer rather than a short film. It’s high impact, really exciting for fans, each and every scene with all the great moments. It will be longer than a regular trailer, but that’s so we can fit more of the action and characters in for the fans.

Harry: We wanted to try and sum up the whole saga and its feeling. With a trailer format we can cut back and forth to all the great scenes, and create an overall summary of the saga. We posted an anime version of what we’re trying to do and that’s getting a good reaction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcmgtgya-fw

Derek: It sounds like what you’re saying is that you want to connect with people, give to the Dragon Ball community and enjoy it together.

On your IndieGogo page, a contributor named Marjorie wrote, “I’m a life-long fan of Dragonball and it is amazing to know how many more hardcore fans are out there! I really think this movie looks like it will capture what DBZ is and how it feels, because it was made by people who love the anime and not just producers who see a market for DBZ but understand nothing about what it’s about.”

I feel that really expresses the hopes of a lot of Dragon Ball fans, including myself. How would you respond to that statement?

Harry: I completely agree and I hope that’s what we can do. There’s so much great stuff you can do with Dragon Ball Z.

George: The thing is, what they missed, was what a huge fan base Dragon Ball Z has got all over the world. They don’t need to sell a new idea to people, it’s already there. You don’t need to change it. That’s what we’re trying to do. Take what is already there, interpret it into live action in a way that fans will relate to and love.

Harry: A good example is the kind of respect Christopher Nolan gave to Batman. He looked to the concept, to the fans, and took it seriously. And he delivered something that the fans now really love. The Evolution guys didn’t take the content seriously, didn’t realize the fan base they had. If they hadn’t changed it so massively, then the fans would have loved it.

Derek: Sounds like they didn’t respect the content.

Now I’d like to ask you about your project funding, your goals, and how you’re going to do it.

Funding and Development Goals

Dorset, the Battle Ground for Dragon Ball Z: Saiyan Saga

Derek: Your IndieGogo funding campaign had the goal of $5,000. Congratulations on reaching that goal well ahead of the deadline! It’s now over $6,000 with over 20 days left. Does the production still need more funding, or are you all set to begin filming?

Harry: Basically we are set. But the fact that more funding is coming in has given us more options. At the moment our actors and crew are working for free.

I drove to Dorset, to the main location, to sit down with a guy and plead that we don’t have much money. Originally he wanted to charge us 5,000 pounds a day. We couldn’t do that, and I think he thought we were a big production company. We explained to him what we were trying to do, and he lowered the price. So at the moment everything is being done as tightly and quickly as we can. We’ve only got one day there, and only one day in green screen. We have to stay in budget.

With the extra funding we can give ourselves a little more time, do some more elaborate shots. One potential thing is to do our wire work at Pinewood studios, a famous British studio where they did the Bond films. If we could go there then we could do much more elaborate wire scenes and make the action much better. Our next goal for funding is to have enough to go there. Right now we’re really limited with what we can do with flying, and it’s such a big part of the series. If we can get in there, we can stay more true to the series.

Derek: That sounds great. Are you going to open another campaign fund or keep this one running?

George: I think we’ll keep this one running. People told us about Kickstarter after we started this one, but we’ll stick with IndieGogo because we still have time left on this one, and…

Harry: We don’t want people to think we’re greedy. We’re not conning anyone. But if they see us trying to run two funding campaigns people might think we’re just trying to raise extra money, or taking liberties with the fans. We’ve been thinking about it, but it’s not right.

For instance, we had someone donate $1,000 on IndieGogo for a set of Saiyan armor, and I don’t want to go on another site, add some extra perks, and then make them feel it’s kind of unfair.

Derek: Okay, I’ll make it clear to the fans that even though the green bar is full, it does not mean that they cannot contribute, and that you guys are very appreciative of any funds that come your way.

Derek: What are your eventual plans for distribution? Online, DVD, or at conventions?

Harry: The first plan is online, on YouTube. The people that have contributed will get a behind the scenes DVD. If we sell DVD’s it would break fair trade, so we’re not sure if we can do that.

George: We’ve been contacted by an anime and manga convention in Canada, so it will get played there. We want to find other avenues where we can show it.

Harry: I think there are a lot of people who will give contributions, and it will be free online to watch.

Tech Specs and Special Effects

Michael Amariah wearing Piccolo eye contacts

Derek: From a technical standpoint, what equipment are you using to film? Are these digital cameras?

George: Yeah, we’re shooting DSLR, Canon 5D Mark II’s. HD with prime lenses, really nice set. We’ve got the 30 foot Jib, the crane. A company called Artisan Films is coming down to help for free as well. The scene we shot with Isky Fay (Yamcha) was done with them.

Harry: We’ve got a steady cam, track and dolly, a lot of options and types of shots. We want to try and do some creative shots.

Derek: The series tends to be very light and positive in its color scheme, with bright colors and uniforms. And the landscapes look like they’re coming out of a Chinese scroll. Does this conflict with typical action movies that tend to be dark and shadowy, like the Batman films you mentioned?

Will the original color scheme be kept in-tact with your film, or is it necessary to change it in order to make it more appealing to today’s viewers?

George: We’re going with a contemporary feel. Kind of darker, grittier, more real world. We did talk about going bright and colorful like the anime, but this is live action. We didn’t want to replicate the anime in terms of color, because you might as well just watch the anime.

Harry: But we are using the same color scheme and colors. Goku’s clothes will be orange, but a more dulled down, earthy looking version.

George: We thought if, with a lot of things, especially the costumes, if they matched the colors from the anime it would just look tacky, cheap. We thought we’d go with something more realistic and earthy.

Harry: Piccolo will be wearing purple, but a little more earthy. We are staying true to the colors, just toned down.

Derek: That makes sense, I understand.

I’ve read concerns from fans over the application of special effects. The anime is so packed with all this action and stuff flying across the screen. They’re worried that if done at a low level of quality, it will ruin the film. How would you respond to these fans?

George: We’re very conscious of that as well. We want to deliver something good.

We’re always playing with them, trying to do what’s best. When it comes to the final thing we’ll spend a lot of time to make sure it looks right.

Harry: One of the key reasons we haven’t set a release date is so we can spend as much time as we need to get the effects right. The finished product will be something that we’re happy with.

As a fan, if I see something that looks like rubbish, it ruins it for me. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen to the fans.

Derek: I’m sure that answer will satisfy them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd1BIAsPc9M

You mentioned flying and wire work. What other types of special effects can we look forward to? This is the Saiyan Saga so there’s a lot going on. Can we see the Kaio-Ken? Obviously there’s going to be a Kamehameha. Will there be a Flying Nimbus, Goku’s cloud?

George: The Nimbus? No. For us, the Nimbus was something brought over from Dragon Ball.

Harry: The first episodes we saw were when Raditz just showed up. Piccolo and Goku were fighting him, and the Nimbus was around and I know it’s important to people, but in terms of Z, for us…

George: The reality is that he was using the Nimbus as a taxi to get to the fight, from Kami’s Lookout to the battlefield. In terms of the trailer we don’t need to see that happen. He’ll just be there.

Harry: Plus it would be a rather elaborate special effect in terms of budget.

George: But you can expect the Kamehameha, the Tri-Beam, the Sōkidan (Yamcha’s move), the Kienzan (Destructo Disc).

Harry: Vegeta’s Galick Gun. You can expect…

Derek: Well don’t give away everything!

Harry: Haha, right, I was about to say. They’ll see all the favorites. That’s the idea. It’s also one of the reasons we released the video update with Yamcha. We always loved the rest of the Z fighters and we want to give each of them a chance to show off a core moment of who they are.

Derek: That way everybody is going to be happy.

George: Exactly.

The Script

Isky Fay, who plays Yamcha

Derek: In regard to the script, you’ve created the template in anime form. Is the dialogue going to follow the Japanese original, an English dub (like from FUNimation), or your own translations with your own dialogue?

George: This is something we’ve been debating a lot. Obviously we want to appeal to the biggest audience, which is in America, and that’s the fan base that has responded the most to our project so far. We grew up watching the American English dub. But a part of us wants to stay more true to the fact it’s a Japanese anime and do it in Japanese. But we’re not sure if people would like that.

From our point of view we’re making the version we grew up watching. We didn’t grow up watching the Japanese version, so for us it would be a bit strange. So far, the comments on the videos have been mostly in English speaking countries, so it seems to make sense.

Harry: We’ve toyed with the idea of recording all the audio in both Japanese and English. But again, with time constraints, we don’t know if that will be possible.

George: In terms of the actual dialogue, it is going to be pretty much as-is in the anime. The anime version we’re basing the script on is the Kai version because it was a lot faster for us to go through that.

Derek: I think that’s much better because the dialogue there is more true to the original Japanese.

George: Right, exactly. We were talking about that today, how the Destructo Disc was changed back to Kienzan. That might help appeal to more fans.

Derek: Definitely. People are always asking this, I see it all over the place. You’re making an extended trailer, but people are asking if it’s a full film. You’ve already responded to that, but do you have plans for a feature length script, has that been written? Because of constraints, I imagine you’re filming just the parts that are necessary for the trailer.

Harry: Right. We see this as hopefully a jumping point. If fans continue responding to it as they have, then the film will get a lot of hits and that will give us an excuse to make more movies.

Ideally of course we’d love to make a feature. If this does well and people like it, then we can make another funding page to make the second one more elaborate. People would have more confidence in us after this one.

Derek: That makes perfect sense and sounds awesome. I think fans out there would love to have every saga made in this fashion.

Let’s jump ahead to the casting and what it’s like to be an independent film developer.

Z Warriors Assemble

Ryan Oliva's battle scarred chest, as Nappa

Derek: Personally, I think you should be applauded for finding such great look-alikes, who not only practice martial arts but are also big fans of Dragon Ball. Seems like it would be one in a million, and yet you found one for each character. I’d like to know where you found them and what the audition process was like?

Harry: We have been ridiculously lucky. We started off by looking for their appearance and martial arts skills, along with the roles they played. That way we’d see a pool of people in the search results that were a good match for the film. Then we went character by character through the results, contacted them, and asked if they’d like to be part of a Dragon Ball Z film.

We got responses from some of the guys saying that “Oh my god I love Dragon Ball Z. I’d love to be part of the project.”

Just the fact that these guys love Dragon Ball Z, it helps us so much. They know the character and what we’re talking about. They can get into the character instantly. It’s not like telling a complete stranger, “This is Goku,” and having to show him episodes to teach him.

Derek: You already have a language you can communicate in.

Harry: Exactly. They know the character and love it themselves. As actors they’ve dreamed about acting like these characters, so it was already in them at the start.

Derek: Is there anything in particular you looked for when casting Goku and Vegeta? We haven’t seen them in action yet, and I’m sure they’re great martial artists, but can you give us some insider info on how they landed the lead roles?

Harry:

Goku being the good guy and sweeter character, I don’t know. Vegeta was just so much more defined in terms of what people would want to see. The arrogance and look. I was looking for that in the actors eyes, that arrogance coming through. Also if they had enough hair, because we didn’t want to use huge elaborate wigs, we wanted it to be natural.

Aaron was staring down the camera in his photos and looked like Vegeta. Plus, immediately, he loved Dragon Ball Z and wanted to play Vegeta.

Aaaron Ly has Vegeta hair

He’s been doing martial arts since he was 8 years old and has over 15 different disciplines of martial arts. He’s been staged in screen fighting and knows what looks good on camera.

Derek: Sounds like he’s perfect for the role.

Harry: Yeah, he’s perfect. Goku was a similar situation. We thought Peter had a good build. In the photo’s we have out now at the moment, he’s smaller than he is now. He’s been training really hard and is larger now.

He’s really nice in real life and has the Goku-esque attributes, plus he’s friends and family and loves Dragon Ball Z. Of all the actors he’s the one that has studied the cartoon the most to learn how Goku acts. He also had a similar martial arts background to Aaron.

Peter Peralta will play Goku

George: Peter has his own production company, does his own acting and those things.

Harry: Being at the level of martial arts these guys are, and being local to the UK, a lot of them have already worked together and are friends. That’s really good because they’ve worked as stunt men together.

Derek: That will help the energy and communication.

Have there been any legal issues with Toei, Shueisha or Dragon Ball license holders? Do they know about this project?

Harry: They don’t know about it so far. But from what we’ve seen from similar projects, as long as we don’t make a profit from it, and we won’t because it’s not a profit making exercise, then legally we’re okay. If it comes up, then we’ll cross that bridge when it does.

Derek: Seems like it’s fair use and there’s not much to worry about. I was worried about it for my book, but legally it is fair use, so you’ll be just fine.

I was going to ask about the issue of race again, but you’ve already touched on it and it’s your choice on how you perceive it, so I don’t think we need to dig into it much more.

Harry: Can I just say one thing on it quickly?

They’re drawn in a way that is open to interpretation. Asian people watching it may interpret them as Asians, while Australians or Americans may interpret them as white or European. I don’t think that matters much, it’s just how we saw it.

Derek: That’s an even better answer. Thank you.

Dragon Ball Fandom

Lee Edward Jones is Krillin

Derek: There seems to have been a large response to your announcement of the film’s production, and it was only a short while, and yet people are already screaming, “Oh my god, take my money, I can’t wait for this!” What are your feelings on the response of fans so far?

Harry: It has been absolutely amazing. I honestly didn’t expect it. We knew people would be interested because there’s a big Dragon Ball fan base out there, but when we put up the first video with pictures of the cast and location, there was no evidence that we would actually follow through with it.

I was saying to George that I didn’t think people would donate to this, and then over the weekend the first $2,000 dollars rolled in. It was amazing, I couldn’t believe it. That’s why in the second video we wanted to show people some evidence that this is really happening and to let them know that we are taking this seriously and really do want to do this.

It’s become a full time job for me to interact with fans on Facebook and Twitter, and I love the enthusiasm on all the platforms. Watching people on Twitter share with their fans that they have to look at this. The Dragon Ball Z fans have been great.

George: It’s a really good community. Everyone is looking to share any kind of content they can about Dragon Ball Z.

Harry: They’re saying stuff like, “These guys are doing it for us.” They’re helping share it and make it more popular.

George: We really appreciate everyone’s support.

Harry: We can’t say that enough. The other thing are the role playing guys who talk to eachother as if they are the characters. There’s a guy on Twitter who calls himself Goku who has like, 75,000 followers. He tweets about the project and then we get 300 or 400 more followers, so I say, “Thanks, Goku,” as if it were really him, and it’s a lot of fun.

Derek: You’re right, the Dragon Ball community will share anything they can find, they get so excited by it. And when it’s something of high quality they’ll share it even more. That’s what they’re doing with your project.

Obviously there are a lot of dragon Ball fans out there, and there’s something in Dragon Ball for everybody. Every fan has their favorite character. Some like Goku, while others prefer Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, Tenshinhan or Krillin. Some even love Yamcha! Why do you think that Dragon Ball is able to appeal to so many different types of fans?

George: I’m a Tien man, myself!

Derek Siow is Tenshinhan

Harry: I think when it comes to liking the different fighters, one of the reasons that people love Piccolo is that he’s really strong, but he’s always a slight underdog to the Saiyans. You’ve got that type of character, the underdog. Also the really strong ones, Goku being the sweet guy and Vegeta being the epitome of arrogance and a bad guy. There are completely different types of characters that everyone can relate to.

Derek: Seems like there’s a lot of humanity in it. Even though at the same time it’s this crazy, off the wall, explosive action packed anime, it’s still relatable somehow, and very touching.

Harry: At the end of every saga it pretty much ends up with Goku going back to Chi-Chi, Gohan, Krillin and them standing around. That’s what it was about, they were fighting for their friends and family. It has that human element.

Karen Tiew will play Goku's wife, Chi-Chi

George: When it gets to the Cell Saga you have that whole relationship with Trunks and his father, trying to get Vegeta’s approval. People can relate to that, making their parents proud.

Derek: I think you’re right.

Do you feel that Dragon Ball is a meaningful series? Some people look at it and say, “Oh, it’s just a simple, stupid young boy’s action comic that was turned into a cartoon and then they milked it for all it’s worth. That’s all it is, so don’t look into it, it’s not that deep.” But I find a lot of meaning in it and I want to ask if you think it’s a meaningful series as well.

Harry: I think it has both. There were episodes where you’re watching Goku and go, “Woah, cool!” and are blown away by the action. But if it was so simple, then you wouldn’t care. You have to care about the characters, what happens to them and their relationships.

You wouldn’t care about two guys fighting if you don’t care about the characters. That was the problem with Dragon Ball Evolution. I didn’t care about the characters. But in Dragon Ball Z I did. You laugh when Vegeta gets angry with Goku. It has loads of moments like that.

Wrapping Up

Raditz gets his hair done

Derek: If you could show a screening of the finished film to Akira Toriyama, what do you think he would say afterward?

George: “Give me my money.” Haha.

Harry: I hope he’d say cool, you obviously love something I love so much that you put this much effort into making it.

George: He may have some qualms about certain elements, but everyone has their own interpretation of it. We hope he’d appreciate the amount of passion and effort that we put into this to make it as good as we could.

Harry: Especially if we can tell him this was a film made by and published by his fans. I hope he’d take it as a compliment.

Derek: If Nappa asked Vegeta what the Scouter said about this films power level, what would it say?

Harry: Hahaha. Well, we obviously know the original amount and then the amount that everyone has come to expect. If we were to do it, then I suppose we’d go with Over 9,000. Haha.

Derek: Can fans expect to see the Over 9,000 scene in your film, or is the joke too played out?

Harry: Let’s just say that they will see it in one way or another, if not in the actual trailer.

Derek: This blog is mostly read by Americans but has an international readership, so is there a message you’d like to share with the global Dragon Ball fan base?

Harry: Sit back and enjoy! Get involved. We all love Dragon Ball Z, so enjoy it. Simple as that.

Derek: Great. If fans have more questions, I know that you’ll be providing more video updates in the future, right?

Harry: Yes. This was brilliant. We really appreciate this Derek. It was cool.

Derek: Have a good night and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.

George: Cheers.

Arrival

Ryan Oliva as Nappa, the Saiyan

There you have it. Live action Dragon Ball Z is on the way!

Filming begins in May, and I’m looking forward to the updates from Harry and George at K&K Productions as production continues.

If you want to see this film get made, then please support it with a tax-deductible donation on IndieGogo. The more the better, because that means they can do more wire work and special effects, really bringing the true spirit of Dragon Ball Z to life.

That’s the whole point of Dragon Ball Z: Saiyan Saga, and it’s what Dragon Ball fans across the world have been waiting for.

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Z: Saiyan Saga Interview

It’s a truth that Dragon Ball fandom is and always has been intense. Regardless of their preferred version, Dragon Ball fans absolutely love their Dragon Ball.

Just before Dragon Ball GT concluded its original television run in Japan in 1997, a rumor spread about a new official series called Dragon Ball AF. Fans wanted the series to continue.

The only problem is that it was never true.

And you might suppose we could end this article right here. But as with everything involving Dragon Ball and its impact across the world, there’s a lot more to the story.

Dragon Ball AF was originally the creation of an unknown fan that evidently had a strong desire for a fourth Dragon Ball anime series.

A single image appeared on the web of a hypothetical Super Saiyan 5 Goku with a “Dragon Ball AF” logo on it, and from there it spread like wildfire.

The rumor grew gradually over the years and took on a life of its own, spawning many fan creations, illustrations, videos, episode listings, action figures, and even high quality fan manga based on the collective rumors.

For example, who is this guy fighting Goku?

Images like this confused the heck out of new Dragon Ball fans. And those who circulated lies about Dragon Ball AF preyed on the gullible nature of fans who simply wanted to see more of their favorite characters.

The desire for a new Dragon Ball series is so strong that even today the rumor is still actively spread that Dragon Ball AF is the next official series from Toei, and that the videos and images “leaked” on YouTube will arrive in “the next year or two.” New fans continue to fall for it, and the cycle continues.

Despite all the time that it has been around, if you search online for an explanation of Dragon Ball AF, you will only find bits and pieces of info. A short wiki article here, some crudely Photoshopped images there, a guy saying it’s not real while another screams back that it is, followed by immature insults and a link to fan made manga. There are, maybe, two good sources on the topic. Unless you spend hours putting the pieces together, you’ll be confused or simply dismiss the whole thing outright.

Because of Dragon Ball Z Kai’s and Dragon Ball GT’s second syndication on TV, there is now a new generation of Dragon Ball fan looking to see what happens next.

With the realization that people are still being confused, I set out to discover the true story behind Dragon Ball AF and write the definitive article.

Along the way I found a captivating story to tell.

The Dragon Ball AF Trend

Before we get into the details of Dragon Ball AF, I’d like you to see just how popular it is.

I’ve been a fan of Dragon Ball since 1997 when it first aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block and Midnight Run. Even back then I remember seeing rumors about it on the Internet.

I’ve never done an article about Dragon Ball AF because frankly, I didn’t think it was worth digging into. As a kid I realized it wasn’t real after 5 seconds of seeing the first image. It was obviously poor quality and made by fans. I was curious, but since it wasn’t genuine I thought the rumor would be dead in a few years.

But Dragon Ball AF continues to be talked about. Somehow people are still falling for the rumors. In fact it’s even more popular now than when Dragon Ball Z was syndicated on national TV.

Consider the following search trends.

According to Google Adwords’ keywords tool, the term “dragon ball AF” received 1,000,000 global monthly searches on average in the previous 12 months (January, 2011 to January, 2012). And at the date of this article it has 3,490,000 Google search results.

For comparison, “dragon ball z kai” received the same 1,000,000 global monthly searches.

This means Dragon Ball AF is currently 100% as popular of a search term as Dragon Ball Z Kai, and it’s not even real! Nor is it backed by millions of dollars in marketing.

How is that possible? The rumor started in 1997 and people are STILL actively looking for it 15 years after its creation?!

Query data for Dragon Ball AF on Google only begins in 2004, when Google began recording trend data. We can see that its popularity grew gradually over the years. There was a huge spike in 2007 for Dragon Ball AF information, most likely coinciding with the end of Dragon Ball GT’s syndication across the world by fans hungry for more. Then this gradually dropped over the next few years. But there are more queries for it now between 2011 and 2012 than there were between 2004 and 2006.

The term “dragon ball” has 30,400,000 monthly queries and “dragon ball z” receives 16,600,000.

Comparing that to two other large series, we see that Star Wars receives 24,900,000 queries and Star Trek receives 4,090,000 queries. This helps prove that Dragon Ball fandom on the internet is still very much alive, as searches for “dragon ball” eclipses both “star wars” and “star trek” combined.

What’s crazy is that the entirely fan created “dragon ball AF” is so popular when compared to these legitimate series, at 1,000,000 queries.

Even more shocking, there are multiple Dragon Ball AF videos on YouTube with over 9 million views, 8 million views and 5 million views, while the incredibly popular Dragon Ball meme, “It’s Over 9,000!” only has 7 million views total. Is Dragon Ball AF really more popular than “Over 9,000!”?

Some fans have speculated that when the rumor began in 1997 it was on April Fool’s Day (April 1^st), and this is why it’s called AF. There’s no proof of this, but if so, it seems like the whole world fell for it, because Dragon Ball AF is exponentially more popular now than when it started.

Where did Dragon Ball AF Come From?

Dragon Ball GT completed its run in 1997 and even though fans knew it was the end, everybody was hungry for more.

GT was for most people a disappointment, as it was written by someone other than Akira Toriyama. In this case, Matsui Aya, the Series Organizer at Toei. Fans wanted Akira Toriyama at the creative helm again, like he was for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

It’s not known where the rumor started (possibly Spain), but it mentioned a new series called Dragon Ball AF, where Goku reaches Super Saiyan 5, Pan turns Super Saiyan, and Raditz comes back alive somehow, also as a Super Saiyan.

The first image associated with Dragon Ball AF was of Super Saiyan 5 Goku.

Nobody knew where it came from. Rumors said it was from a fan made manga (Dojinshi), but no proof was ever provided. Others have said that it’s not Goku at all, rather his son Xicor.

The AF logo was completely fabricated, but even so, fans speculated what it could mean. It was rumored to stand for “After Future,” because the series took place 200 years after the end of GT. Others said it stood for “Alternate Future,” or “AfterliFe,” while those who didn’t believe in it, as they still explain today, said it stood for “April Fools.”

A few crudely drawn images appeared of Goku Photoshopped to have different color hair, Pan with golden hair, Super Saiyan Raditz and other seemingly random combinations of Fusioned characters, like Vegetunks, the Fusion of Vegeta and Trunks.

Meanwhile, Super Saiyan 5 was surpassed by Super Saiyan 6. Goku was now “Evil Goku” because he had been corrupted by the power of the dragon balls and it was up to Vegeta to stop him. And a new set of Potara earrings could now fuse 3 people together, instead of only 2.

Fans argued endlessly about whether or not these were real, with some stating that their “friend in Japan” confirmed it was. Others said, “Yeah, it’s real, I use these characters in my fan fiction and my role playing games,” naively blurring the line between fan made fiction and official releases.

This mess of “real” or “not real” confused others looking for the truth.

What may have been a couple months or perhaps years later, two more images appeared of Super Saiyan 4 Gohan and “King Vegeta.”

These two images were exquisitely detailed and looked very professional, as if they could have been done by Toei staff or even Akira Toriyama. These caused a huge surge in the number of believers and were used as validation that Dragon Ball AF was real.

But on each image was a logo that read, “Studio Tomita.” Who was Studio Tomita? Nobody knew, so more rumors flew around. Maybe it was a company working with Toei, or maybe it was Toriyama’s studio under a different name?

It was neither. Turns out that Studio Tomita was a very talented fan (or group of fans) who drew illustrations of their favorite anime characters. They had a website with a few images on it, but oddly, neither of these two Dragon Ball images was there.

There was however a note that said, “If you accessed this homepage in order to obtain an image of “DRAGON BALL”, you will be discouraged. I do not put an image of “DRAGON BALL” in this homepage currently. And I reply to a request of somebody and do not intend to send an image. I’m sorry.”

This tells us that if even Studio Tomita did create them, they now wanted nothing to do with these images or to be affiliated with Dragon Ball. Most likely due to the amount of emails they received from rabid fans.

But that was all it took. These images sparked the flames of what would become a much larger fire.

The Rise of Dragon Ball AF

It was now sometime between 1999 and 2001. With all this Dragon Ball AF content out there, fans became excited and eagerly awaited this new series.

And they waited.

And waited.

And it never came, because it was never real.

There were no official screen shots or episode clips, no advertising, merchandise or articles in Japanese media.

All the while fans were rapidly producing new content and slapping the Dragon Ball AF logo on it, adding to the confusing mess.

Rumors, fan art and outlandish Fusions of characters fed into one another and created a giant, endless cycle of rampant lies and immature stupidity.

Free websites like Geocities and Angelfire became popular outlets for Dragon Ball fans wanting to “prove” the existence of Dragon Ball AF. They would create a site, post the images, and suddenly Dragon Ball AF seemed a bit more real in the mind of an average web surfer. After all, wherever you looked, there it was!

Fans jumped on message boards saying, “Hey, I heard about a new Dragon Ball series!” Then other fans would get into the conversation and it would derail in various ways.

More established sites also promoted the series. While doing research for The Black Goku article, I found a news post about Dragon Ball AF on the archived DaBlackGoku.com homepage from October 9, 2000. It said, “Hello Everyone. I found some interesting information on the Dragon Ball AF series that everyone has heard rumors about.”

This was in the year 2000, and he was talking about it being a rumor back then and passing it off as news. It’s still a rumor today and people still pass it off as news!

With the advent of high speed broadband internet, YouTube became increasingly popular and fans started to put their work in video form. This immediately led to claims that what they posted was the “official” anime, and that their “leaked” footage was real.

Fans created back stories, episode listings, and even more character splices.

Several “Official Dragon Ball AF” websites sprung up claiming to sell tapes.

Dragon Ball Z was airing on TV at the time, and was sending millions of new fans onto the internet. Those who were naïve bought into it.

That’s really all there is to Dragon Ball AF for the next few years. The inertia of fandom ensured that it kept growing and reaching more people through different platforms.

The Daizex.com April Fool’s Joke

"Toriyama-sensei is very angry!!"

The year was 2004 and a search on Google for “Dragon Ball AF” generated 1,170,000 results. This collective fan creation had become extremely popular.

Dragon Ball Z was still very popular in America and Dragon Ball GT was beginning to be sold on tape and air on TV.

The website DaizenshuuEX had grown over the years to become, in their own words, the “most authoritative and complete stop online for anything and everything DragonBall.” And it’s true. Daizex.com has always provided the latest and most up to date official news regarding the Dragon Ball series. Their forum had (and still has) a reputation for its hardcore and extremely knowledgeable fans. Whatever was posted on the main news page was inarguably official.

That said, the owner, Mike “VegettoEX” LaBrie had a yearly tradition of playing an April Fool’s prank on the community.

He knew better than anyone that Dragon Ball AF wasn’t real, and everyone in the community was tired of hearing about it. Because there had not been any official media reports, advertisements, or video clips surrounding Dragon Ball AF, he decided to make some and act like they were real!

He later said on his site, “If we were going to do this, it had to be insane. Everything had to scream of quality, and above all else, it had to be in Japanese and look / sound authentic.”

They created a print advertisement and a commercial to share on YouTube. Mike said, “The print-ad came first. Julian began work on it, typing up some of the text using a pre-existing “Dragon Box” Japanese ad as a template.”

The original Japanese Dragon Ball ad was modified with images of content from Dragon Ball AF, and some comedic Japanese text was added. Text that, for anybody who spoke Japanese, would immediately give away the fact it was a joke. But for non-Japanese speaking fans everywhere else it would look authentic.

“Soon Mike began work on the video commercial.” Mike had become a talented video editor from his years of working on Dragon Ball music videos, and made it his profession. He very skillfully ripped audio from One Piece and Revolutionary Girl Utena, featuring the same voice actors that are in Dragon Ball, with classic moments from the series. Interspersed throughout the dialogue were Japanese title cards, which just like the advertisement above, would clearly be obvious as a joke to Japanese readers.

Mike released the ad and video on April Fool’s Day and he updated his site to reflect the news (as if it were official), stating it would air September 8, 2004. The site said, “On this date, a new series was officially announced in a mailing to frequent buyers of the DB Kanzenban volumes. And best of all, in a nod to fans who were so anxious for a sign, the series is going to be called–get this–DragonBall AF!!!”

As a result, not everybody realized it was a joke. And that was the point.

He later said, “It wouldn’t be an April Fool’s Day prank if we didn’t cause havoc across the internet. We knew we’d end up fooling some people, and we knew that people would be talking about it.”

This had rather large consequences on the Dragon Ball AF community, because most of them were young, naïve, and didn’t speak Japanese.

One fan named Jose Gonzales was aware that it was a joke and wrote to them, saying, “I hope you realize that because of this little stunt there’s going to be an outpouring of kids freaking out all over the net and it will almost certainly be seen as proof of the existence of AF.”

Of course that is exactly what happened. People shared it left and right, posting on message boards about how they now had proof that “the new Dragon Ball series is real!”

Mike had a lot of fun with it though, saying in response, “I’m not going to regret it and there’s no hate mail to speak of. It’s been a blast, and it’s awesome to see that people are enjoying it and getting a kick outta it.”

Even though a day later he completely admitted to the joke, once you put an image on the internet, it’s their forever. And these images and videos were pushed around by every Dragon Ball AF loving fan that could find them.

I have a copy of the video, but for the sake of making sure that this doesn’t happen again, I’m not going to post it online. Plus it’s not my property to rightfully post.

Why did people believe the ads? Probably for the same reasons they believed in Dragon Ball AF in the first place!

Meanwhile, in the fan driven evolution of Dragon Ball AF, there were now 10 levels of Super Saiyan!

Yes. That is Super Saiyan 10 Goku, apparently.

Dragon Ball AF Fan Manga

Fan manga and fan fiction have always surrounded the Dragon Ball series.

Despite the wild images, there had never been a serious Dragon Ball AF manga. Most of the illustrations were poorly drawn.

These series tried to pass themselves off as real while riding the wave of Dragon Ball AF fandom. They would either share that name, or come up with their own, such as Dragon Ball V, Dragon Ball ST, Dragon Ball AE, and Dragon Ball DR. Basically any other letters you want to add to the end of “Dragon Ball.”

Over time, Dragon Ball AF became the default go-to name for any type of fan creation. It was synonymous with fan made.

That changed in 2006 when a very talented artist in the Toriyama style finally put pen to paper and created a Dragon Ball AF worthy of the name.

Toyble (pronounced Toiburu) deserves credit for making something original, beautifully illustrated and true in spirit to the series. At least for the most part.

The story is about the illegitimate son of Goku, Zaiko (otherwise known as Xicor), who was born by a female Kaioshin that stole Goku’s seed in a dream, while he slept. The child was half-man, half-god, and more powerful than all of the other warriors, including Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta and Super Saiyan 4 Gohan. It’s up to Goku to save the day.

Toyble is unique because he clearly states on his site, “This site and its publications have nothing to do with the original author [Akira Toriyama] and has no relationship with him. Dragon Ball AF is an interpretative story.”

Even so, Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF (ドラゴンボールAF, Doragon Bōru AF) is one of the major reasons that Dragon Ball AF rumors continue to linger. His excellent drawings and story (that weaved many of the existing rumors together) serve as the prime example the stalwart fans present when insisting Dragon Ball AF is real. The images look authentic, so fans jump to the conclusion that they are.

Another artist named Young Jiji has also done a similar Dragon Ball AF manga with an equally impressive Toriyama style of art, making it seem real.

These are really the only two manga with a high enough level of quality I feel are worth mentioning.

Dragon Ball AF Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqr9KJZqzUA

Dragon Ball AF videos? What is there to say, really?

The quality is guaranteed to be poor. They usually consist of edited clips and drawings from Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, with the colors changed or with weird effects added on top.

They won’t be real. The creators try to pass them off like it’s a new series, just as they’ve been doing since this began.

They’ll be annoying. Backed by odd music or simply poorly edited, with ads pointing to something unrelated as an added bonus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2vHuB0rDdg

Other times the videos will simply be the animated intro footage for the Dragon Ball video games, such as Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi, Dragon Ball Heroes or Dragon Ball Online. They are labeled as Dragon Ball AF or the “New Dragon Ball Series,” but only exist to prey on those who don’t know otherwise.

Despite these drawbacks, many of these videos have more than 9 million views! That makes them some of the most popular videos on YouTube.

Why so popular? Because everybody wants the next Dragon Ball series, and they want it now! Remember, Dragon Ball fans love their Dragon Ball!

Some less scrupulous video editors capitalize on this fandom and post videos that have the title of “Super Saiyan 7 to 10,” and so on, but then they talk about things unrelated to Dragon Ball. They bait and switch people to click and watch their crap.

They also feature really odd and unique characters put together via Fusion, or show strange Majin Buu absorptions of other characters, such as Majin Buu after absorbing Freeza. Naturally, the Super Saiyan levels continue to rise, going from Super Saiyan 10 to Super Saiyan 20 and even Super Saiyan 50! Goku’s golden yellow hair is insanely long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z67XXZtQgGc

The creators lie about AF’s existence, or only tell half truths to benefit themselves. For example, from the description of one video it says, “Note everyone: Dragonball AF is REAL, It already has comics based on it and action figures. Comment And Subscribe If You Want To Support Dragonball AF.” They are again passing “real” off as “official,” which it isn’t.

Lastly, they pull content from the Dragon Ball games and try to connect it to Dragon Ball AF. The game Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has alternate outfits showing Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta with white hair, which fans say is all too coincidentally like Super Saiyan 5 Goku to be a coincident.

Fans wondered why the developers in Japan chose these colors. Maybe they did it on purpose to allude to Dragon Ball AF? Or maybe it was foreshadowing of what Toei was going to release “in the next year or two.”?

A few videos that went over 9,000,000 views were posted in 2007, while one with 3,000,000 views was posted as recently as Jun 24, 2010. None of them are real, but the fandom is still alive so people continue to play this silly game of lies.

Suffice to say, if you were falling for it, now you know better.

Dragon Ball AF Images

In the beginning, the Dragon Ball AF images were awful. But now the fans have really taken to it, and more talented artists have produced better art based on these fan fiction characters. Here’s a bit of it.

Dragon Ball AF Action Figures

The fandom has reached such a point that Dragon Ball action figures and models have been created.

I find this interesting. Dragon Ball AF is a fan created series but people apparently spend their money on these models, buying into the fandom, official or otherwise.

It’s as if Dragon Ball AF has become official simply because of consumer demand.

The Heart of a Dragon Ball Fan

Dragon Ball AF is an unofficial, fan made creation that has grown in such leaps and bounds that it’s now on par with Dragon Ball Z Kai in terms of search requests, and even has its own merchandise.

Fans wanted a new Dragon Ball series but Akira Toriyama said he wouldn’t create any more Dragon Ball manga. Toei didn’t provide them with a new Dragon Ball anime, either. With a couple of exceptions, most of what has arrived is rehashed and “refreshed” content.

So what did fans do in the absence of a new series?

They made it themselves!

They wanted Dragon Ball AF to be real, so they made it real.

It all began with a single image of Super Saiyan 5 Goku. Then two more images appeared of Super Saiyan 4 Gohan and “King Vegeta.” This somehow led to new characters being developed, a complete storyline, and episode listings. From there it got mashed together repeatedly over the years, with more and more piled on top of itself.

No matter how crudely drawn, poorly Photoshopped, oddly written, or strangely fused together, Dragon Ball AF has grown to represent the dreams and desires of Dragon Ball fans across the world.

That’s the real story of Dragon Ball AF. The story behind the scenes.

The Dragon Ball fans themselves. Their aspirations and desires.

Why do people want a new Dragon Ball series so badly? What moves them to draw, color, animate, and create their own manga? And what makes people want to believe in, promulgate lies, and trick people into thinking like them… all through the vehicle of Dragon Ball?

I believe Dragon Ball speaks to a part of our humanity and appeals directly to our core. All that fans want is a new series at a high level of quality so they can continue to have the same exhilarating feeling they did the first time they saw Goku transform into a Super Saiyan, or when Gohan defeated Cell with the Father-Son Kamehameha.

It never arrived externally, so fans made it internally. Then they shared it.

Like Cell, Dragon Ball AF is an artificial monster that continues to grow and evolve, becoming more refined as it goes. But instead of seeking to destroy, it seeks to bring more fans into its collective grip, making them hope, dream, and become involved with something bigger than themselves. A community of like minded people who speak the same language and love the same thing.

Once you get fans hooked on a series and then end it, what else are fans to do? Be patient and let it go?

Ha! That’s not how Dragon Ball fans work!

Emerging Dragon Ball Trends

As if Dragon Ball AF weren’t enough, in late 2011 a new rumor mysteriously spread across the internet about yet another new Dragon Ball series, called Dragon Ball Hoshi. Exactly like Dragon Ball AF when it began, this one is also fake and an odd combination of truths and lies.

Similar to Dragon Ball AF, Dragon Ball Hoshi has quickly grown in popularity, as seen in this Google Trends image comparing the search trends for both.

But explaining Dragon Ball Hoshi will have to wait for another day. [Update on Feb 19, 2012. Here is Dragon Ball Hoshi Explained.]

One of the goals of this article was to present the truth of Dragon Ball AF in a logical, rationale way, so that the genuine fans will understand it and stop being fooled by (and then promote) the lies.

Failing that, if it still becomes even more popular at least this article will serve to bring people up to speed on what Dragon Ball AF is all about.

As I mentioned in the intro, I believed Dragon Ball AF was best left un-discussed and that it would eventually die out.

How wrong I was!

But do me a favor. After reading this article, please stop going on the message boards and forums to tell people you’ve heard of a “new Dragon Ball anime series!!”

We’ve got enough of those guys out there already.

Oh, who am I kidding? Dragon Ball fans love their Dragon Ball! This will probably never stop!

Dragon Ball AF Roxors! OMG Broly’s Power Level is Maximum!! Super Saiyan 50 Goku for the win!!!

Resources

Studio Tomita Archived Site

Dragon Ball Wiki Article on Dragon Ball AF

Daizex.com Rumors Guide

Daizex.com Aprils Fool’s Day Prank

Daizex.com Forum Post on Original DBAF Image

Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF

Desire Campbell’s Collection of Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF manga

Young Jiji’s Dragon Ball AF

The “Official” Dragon Ball AF Site

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 Character Skins Forum Post

Dragon Ball AF on Facebook

FreeWebs.com DBAF Posting

Super Saiyan Goku 1 through 10

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball AF Explained

Even after more than 30 years in the industry, and after creating the #1 selling shonen manga series of all time (at 300 million copies), there was until now no book about Akira Toriyama, one of the most influential manga authors in the world.

Written in French by author Olivier Richard, it’s clear that Richard gives respect to Toriyama and other shonen works, and that he understands the genre.

From the foreword, “In fact, as a best seller of the highest caliber, Dragon Ball falls into the same category as Star Wars, the cultural phenomenon. Like George Lucas’ space opera, Akira Toriyama’s manga has captivated millions of children, adolescents, and young adults who followed with almost religious fervor the adventures of Son Goku, the fascinating and charismatic hero of a true modern myth.”

[Note that the preceding quote and all others in this review were translated by Derek Padula.]

The books inside jacket says, “Olivier Richard has been interested in manga and Japanese animation for over twenty five years. He has written on the BD [comics in French], the cinema, animation and music in Rock & Folk magazine, Player One, The Show and Manga Player.”

Richard also worked in European television as a program director at MCM and helped distribute the Dragon Ball trilogy, One Piece, Full Metal Alchemist, and Bleach in Western Europe.

Akira Toriyama – The Master of Manga is 144 pages in total, divided into 13 chapters, plus the appendices and post content.

The book primarily talks about Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball, but also mentions many of Toriyama’s lesser known comics published in Japan, such as Wolf, Pola & Roid, and Kajika.

Unfortunately there is no table of contents or chapter titles, so you don’t know what you’re getting into before you invest the time to read it, and you’ll have to memorize the location of content if you want to reference it again later. There’s also no index, which is a shame since it’s non-fiction.

The book is very historical and follows a timeline of events, but it doesn’t tell much of a story. It’s a biography without really being a biography. Filled with What, When and Where, but not much of How, Who or Why. Some people might prefer that, but be aware that there are few quotes or original thoughts.

That said, there are occasional insights into Toriyama’s life that paint a nice picture of what his perspective might have been like during his rise as a manga author. For example, in Toriyama’s early years when his submissions were repeatedly rejected by Weekly Shonen Jump, and then finally accepted. And the powerful influence his editor, Torishima-san, had on his work.

In Chapter 7, Richard writes, “The editor feels that the character [of Goku] is not sufficiently developed, his potential is not operating at maximum, and is boring. He thinks Toriyama is too far from the original idea and that at present there is not enough fighting in Dragon Ball. …  As always, Toriyama listened carefully to his mentor.”

At the end of the book is an appendix, which contains 13 interviews with notable industry figures talking about Toriyama and his work.

Interviewees include editors in chief’s of many manga magazines, the head producer at Namco Bandai (Daisuke Uchiyama) who made the video game Dragon Ball: Ultimate Tenkaichi, a Bandai Toy developer, a professor of manga, journalists, manga authors, a children’s television director, and others.

The interviews are perhaps my favorite part of the book because they provide original content, even if they are mainly opinions and anecdotal experiences.

After the appendices there is a chronology of Toriyama’s life and career, followed by a timeline bibliography of Toriyama’s work referenced in this book. These can be useful as reference material.

The book is thoroughly researched and up to date, with a short section for the series’ latest incarnations, including the Dragon Ball SD manga, Bardock Super Saiyan Special manga, Dragon Ball Heroes carddass game, and Dragon Ball Online.

The book design is simple, clean, and easy to read, with detailed, full color pictures of Toriyama’s work and related merchandise. This adds greatly to the books value.

Should this book be purchased if you don’t speak French? Being unable to read the content will obviously have an effect on your enjoyment of the book, but if you’re familiar with any of the Romance languages, then you may be able to understand a bit. If you don’t speak French or don’t want to type the content into an online translator, then wait until your preferred translation is available.

It’s hard to find fault with Akira Toriyama – The Master of Manga. It is perhaps too simple, but less is more when you’re trying to achieve a specific goal, and this book achieves it.

Is Akira Toriyama – The Master of Manga worth buying?

If you’re a huge fan of Toriyama, then you probably already know about his life and career and won’t get much more out of this summary, as there’s sparse new content.

But for those who want a beautiful and concise reference manual on Toriyama, one of the most monumental figures in the manga industry, this book is it.

Dragon Ball Book Information

Author: Olivier Richard

Publisher: 12 bis

Price: EUR 19.00

Pages: 144

ISBN: 978-2-35648-332-4

Further Resources

Amazon France Book Page

Publisher Book Profile Page

Publisher Author Profile Page

The Dao of Dragon Ball Interview with Olivier Richard

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Book Review – Akira Toriyama – The Master of Manga

An enormous power threatens the galaxy, and our heroes come together to defend it… in the form of Dragon Ball tattoos!

Is there a specific DBZ character you prefer over the others? Why pick and choose? Why not have ALL of them tattooed onto your body!

That’s what these folks did! So let’s take a look!

Dragon Ball Group Tattoos

Wow!

Those were some detailed tattoos!

It’s amazing that people are so dedicated to Dragon Ball that they would go through such a painful process.

Look at the size of some of them. It would take hours of being needled, and a lot of money, to receive such tattoos.

So tell me, are these people a bit strange, or are they super fans? Are there better ways to show your fandom, or is this the tops?

What do you think?

Come back tomorrow for the next post in this series… even more Goku tattoos! There are so many tattoos of Goku that he’s returning for a second round!

Remember, if you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the RSS Feed to be instantly notified of each post!

Edit: Link to next part… Dragon Ball tattoos part 6

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Tattoos – Groups

Dragon Ball Heroes

Dragon Ball Villains

Who Would Win In a Fight?

Out of all the available tattoo’s represented here, who do you think would win in a fight?! There’s high power levels on both sides.

Majin Buu is strongly represented, but then so is Gohan. Not so sure about that one Piccolo… Looks a little hurt. But maybe Dende or Mister Popo can help him out.

Come back tomorrow for the next post in this series… group tattoos!

If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the RSS Feed to be instantly notified of each post!

Edit: Link to next part… Dragon Ball tattoos part 5

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Tattoos – Heroes & Villains

In Japanese martial arts, the Kiai (気合) is commonly thought of as a loud yell that coincides with an attack. But it’s actually a method of breathing, and is so much more than a simple scream.

In Dragon Ball, the Kiai is taken to an extreme. While drawing upon ancient martial arts legends, Akira Toriyama gives a visual appearance to what used to be invisible. He also illustrates what the Kiai could be capable of when used by a supernormal martial artist.

Toriyama’s creation has inspired a lot of people to practice martial arts, and the Kiai is an integral aspect of eastern martial arts, so it’s important to understand.

From super powerful punches to shields of energy, let’s take a deeper look at the Kiai in Dragon Ball.

Understanding the Kiai

To have a better grasp of what the Kiai is in Dragon Ball, we first have to understand what a Kiai is in traditional eastern martial arts.

Different martial arts masters view the Kiai in different ways, and there are those that believe it is a simple exhalation of air, while others consider it a potent weapon in the martial artist’s arsenal.

Wendell E. Wilson of the Shuri-ryu dojo in Tucson, Arizona, wrote in his essay, ‘Kiai’, “The subject of the kiai is complex and profound, involving critical aspects of the body, the mind, and the spirit, having numerous uses and applications. In truth, no one masters or even understands a martial art without mastering the kiai. … ‘The yell’ is not a trivial, expendable, slightly silly bit of melodrama; rather, it is a core concept and an essential skill to be taken very seriously and to be practiced and refined at every opportunity.”

The character for Ki (気), known as Qi in Chinese, refers to the ‘breath,’ ‘air’ or ‘spiritual energy’ of life. The character for ai (合) is a combination of characters, the top part (亼) meaning “to gather or collect,” and the bottom part (口) meaning, “mouth.”

A literal translation of Kiai could be, “to gather Ki together in the mouth,” and with the given context of the martial arts, it could be translated as, “to gather Ki together and project through (or out of) the mouth.”

Despite this literal translation existing, Kiai is often stated as meaning “to harmonize,” in that you harmonize your energy with that of your opponent, whether to subdue them peacefully or manipulate and defeat them.

These characters are also found in the martial art Aikido (合気道), where the Ai and Ki are reversed in order. In Aikido, a Kiai is used to instill a peaceful harmony or subjugation of the opponent through a meeting of energies via movement. The compassionate philosophy of Aikido is actually a rarity in Japanese martial arts and a relatively new concept, so the traditional meaning is still relevant.

In a traditional sense, the uniting effect of the Kiai is found within the individual practitioner as he unites his mind and body with proper timing and execution.

At a higher level, a Kiai is a complete unification of time and space, spiritual energy and power, mental willpower and determination, compressed and directed at a single point. The body’s concentrated power is let out during the Kiai, which can precede, coincide, or follow the moment of impact, depending on the technique or style.

How the Kiai Works

Basic training for the Kiai involves breathing exercises, similar to the Pranayama practices of India. The practitioner breathes from the lower abdominal area, setting the Ki in motion.

The lower abdominal area of the body is referred to as the Hara (腹) in Japanese, and the Dan Tian (丹田) in Chinese martial arts. It is an important part of the human body, and the place where energy is developed and stored.

Practitioners also perform mind intent exercises to strengthen their will and direct their intent.

Once a sufficient amount of Ki had been built up in the practitioner’s body, they would then practice their yells in outdoor environments. Starting from the lower abdomen, below the belly button, the practitioner quickly expels their Ki and breath while directing it with their mind. An objective was to become louder than nearby oceans, or silence the animals of forests and mountains.

Others use silent Kiai’s during meditation as a concentrated expression of will. And the silent Kiai’s are considered the most difficult yet most powerful to use in battle.

That said, keep in mind there are different types of Kiai, and high volume is not a necessity. It is the proper application that is important. Remember that a Kiai is the unification of spirit and body through the mouth. The most important part is the unification. In battle, high level masters may only make a subtle noise, or none at all, yet the Kiai is still fully executed.

The Kiai can also be used defensively, to harden the body and protect internal organs. The sudden tension followed by immediate relaxation reduces the sensation of impact. Trained martial artists can survive falls from great heights, or otherwise deadly blows, by using such techniques with proper timing.

When performed, the sounds expressed can vary depending on whether it is an offensive or defensive technique. Sounds such as, “hah,” “ah,” “ey”, “ay-sah”, “hai”, “toh,” “yah”, “ohs”, “hup” and others can be heard. Both long and short exhalations exist, and can be done before a technique, during, or after. There is no actual meaning to the vocal expression.

Kiai Jutsu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIXZ4e8x9V0

Actually using and refining the Kiai as a weapon is known as Kiai Jutsu (気合術). Kiai Jutsu can be considered the art of attacking (or healing) through the voice.

This art was considered very esoteric and secretive, taught only to professional warriors or senior students. Through years of dedicated training a practitioner was said to be able to use their own voice as a weapon, like a lion’s roar.

In this form, Kiai-Jutsu was used to knock opponents unconscious or cause mortal harm, without touching the opponent physically. This was known as a “touchless weapon.” They could ring a bell from a distance, stop a punch or kick in mid-strike, knock people over, shock an opponent into paralysis, or even cause birds to fall from their perch. In Japanese, this technique was referred to as “Toate-no-Jutsu” (遠当ての術), meaning “the art of striking from a distance.”

The Kiai Jutsu practitioner would channel the energy from their lower abdomen, and from throughout their body, and out the mouth. The energy wave would be directed at a target via mind intent.

Today, Kiai Jutsu as a “touchless weapon” can be found in dojo’s, but is ridiculed as a scam martial art and highly criticized by skeptics as something promoted by charlatans. Practitioners of the techniques state in their defense that it is because the skeptics, when subject to the Kiai, are not sensitive to Ki, or that martial artists of other practices are not sensitive to the master’s particular energy. This means they do not respond like a normal martial artist would, such as collapsing unconscious, or being pushed and pulled around by the energy. Instead, they suffer long term harm to their organs on a subtle level.

Students who are sensitive to the master’s energy, or profess to be able to use the technique, describe it in various ways: A shockwave, a surge, a type of wind, intense heat, blurred vision and deafness, or an electric buzz. And Veteran martial artists in the United States, who practiced in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, have made claims to experiencing such things while in Japan.

But to the skeptics, the practice is debunked as nothing more than psychological manipulation of the master’s students. Or as Mister Satan from Dragon Ball Z would say, “Tricks.”

Therefore, whether or not Kiai Jutsu’s “touchless weapon” is real is subject to personal opinion or belief, hopefully based on experience, rather than conjecture.

There are no known surviving masters of the original art teaching publicly (if alive at all), and the complete style of techniques have been lost and become the source of legends. There are a few schools across the world that still teach Kiai Jutsu’s “touchless weapon,” but they are subject to ridicule by those who seek scientific evidence and proof.

Only the basic aspects of Kiai Jutsu remain in the eastern martial arts world as a whole, and are found in the majority of practices.

The Kiai is an integral part of proper training, and masters of an art have strong Kiai’s, but Kiai Jutsu as a “touchless weapon” is, generally speaking, no longer given credibility, except for those who profess to have experienced it.

There are however those who still teach Kiai Jutsu in tandem with the pressure point art known as Kyusho (急所). In this form it is for medical healing or reviving unconscious martial artists after pressure point manipulation and knockouts while training.

Kiai Jutsu in Dragon Ball

Here is where things get taken to the extreme. The Dragon Ball extreme!

The Kiai Jutsu technique is used by several characters in Dragon Ball, and it shows up in a lot of different ways, growing in magnitude and power as the series continues.

It’s never explicitly shown how the characters in Dragon Ball trained to use the Kiai as a supernormal projection of their Ki. Some of the characters have the ability while others either do not or never display it.

The characters use the Kiai’s in different ways, so let’s review some of them now.

For lack of specific terms, I provided generic terms for each of these technique categories.

Kiai Strike

The most common Kiai is that which accompanies a powerful strike. The proper timing of a Kiai strengthens their attack. This is a regular type of martial arts Kiai.

I can’t think of any of the warrior’s that don’t use this while fighting. One Kiai for just about every punch and kick.

Kiai Aura Blast

The Kiai Aura Blast is very similar to the “touchless weapon” technique. This is “the art of striking from a distance” exemplified.

Goku used the Kiai Aura Blast while fighting on Planet Namek against Jeice and Burter.

The two Ginyu Force members are attacking him simultaneously, one on his left, and the other on his right. Goku quickly enters a martial arts horse stance, crosses his arms, and then Kiai’s while extending both arms out to the side while looking forward.

The result is a gigantic invisible shockwave that sends both opponents flying away. Dust goes everywhere and Jeice and Burter try to recover in mid-air.

This appears to be an omnidirectional Kiai: A transparent aura blast that rapidly radiates outward. This is important to point out because other aura blasts in Dragon Ball have clearly observable Ki that emanates from the practitioner. The one Goku used did not.

Uub also showed this technique at the end of Dragon Ball Z. He was able to do this technique without any training, when Goku made him so furious with rage that he screamed in Goku’s direction.

Kiai Shield

There are a couple examples where we see the Kiai Shield.

The first is when Tenshinhan is fighting his revenge match against Tao Pai Pai, the Crane Hermit’s little brother, at the 23^rd Tenkaichi Budokai.

Tao Pai Pai fires his Super Dodonpa energy beam at Tenshinhan, who defiantly stands in place. Tenshinhan is so angry and disgusted with Tao Pai Pai’s lack of warrior ethics that he chooses to take the beam head on in an action that also represents the moment he surpassed his former instructor.

But instead of Tenshinhan blocking it with his hands or using some other technique, he Kiai’s.

After the dust clears, Tenshinhan is left standing in the ring, completely untouched and unmoved. He then rushes toward Tao Pai Pai and knocks him unconscious with a single blow.

Another time we see the Kiai shield is when Goku is fighting against Nappa during the Saiyan arc. Goku has just arrived to the battlefield, and Nappa attempts to blow him away. Goku stands in place, puffs out his chest while raising his arms up in the air, and Kiai’s.

Nappa’s blast is completely negated before it even touches Goku’s body.

Goku uses this same technique while fighting against Burter and Jeice on Planet Namek, where they are throwing multiple energy balls at him. He Kiai’s and surrounds himself with an invisible shield that blocks all of the projectiles.

And like the Kiai Strike, the Kiai Shield can be used repeatedly during a fight, such as when absorbing blows or suffering a great fall or impact. Martial artists in the real world frequently use a defensive Kiai when taking hits, so it’s highly likely that the Dragon Ball warriors do the same thing.

Kiai Energy Beam

In Dragon Ball, unless a Kiai technique has its own special name, this type of Kiai is generically referred to as a Mouth Blast. In Japanese, this would be Kuchi Kara KiKoHa (口から気功波), which can be translated as “Ki Skill Mouth Wave.”

This is the type of energy technique from the mouth that most people think of when it comes to DBZ.

Many of the “evil” characters in the series have this ability, such as Piccolo Daimao, Piccolo Daimao Jr., Dodoria, Nappa, Recoome, Cell, Majin Buu, Janemba, and the Oozaru that each Saiyan can transform into.

This technique involves collecting the energy of the body into the mouth and projecting it outward as a beam. There are different colored beams for each character, depending on their individual characteristics.

Because the beam is made of high energy matter, it often explodes on impact or penetrates through defenses.

According to western physics, light exhibits characteristics of both particles (rays) and waves. Most of these types of Kiai’s resemble light rays, or beams, rather than waves.

There is the also the unique case where Majin Buu and Gotenks are trapped in the Room of Spirit and Time inside Kami’s Lookout. They both Kiai with such power that it rips a hole through time and space, allowing them to escape their dimensional prison.

Kiai Energy Wave

Similar to the Kiai Energy Beam, the Kiai Energy Wave is a collection of energy projected out of the mouth. But this time it comes out as a destructive wave, instead of a beam.

Theoretically, the Ki mixes with breath and is then projected forward as a high energy material substance.

For example, in the Majin Buu arc, Babidi orders Majin Buu to destroy a city, and he does so with a Kiai Energy Wave. He takes a really huge inhale, and gives a super elongated exhale of pink Ki waves that is so visibly powerful that it levels the entire city, like the shockwave from a nuclear blast.

Recoome also uses the breath variant technique on Planet Namek fighting against Gohan.

These techniques are in many ways similar to Superman’s super breath. The difference is that because these waves are made of high energy matter, rather than air alone, they are far more destructive.

Alternate Kiai’s

There’s also a different type of Kiai Energy Wave where the character breathes fire.

Dabura does this in the Majin Buu arc. He inhales air and then breathes fire at his opponent, as if he were drawing it up from within his body.

And in Dragon Ball GT, when Goku transforms into the towering Golden Oozaru, he shoots red hot fire out of his mouth in a projected stream. This stream of fire is different than the regular Oozaru Kiai Energy Beam.

Lastly, in Dragon Ball Z Movie 13: Wrath of the Dragon, the giant monster Hildegarn uses a similar technique to project a huge stream of flame from its mouth.

Because of their giant nature, in the case of the Oozaru, Golden Oozaru, and Hildegarn, these types of streams can be likened to Godzilla’s radioactive breath, rather than a traditional Kiai. Toriyama was a fan of Godzilla movies and giant monsters as a child, and so it’s easy to see these same characteristics in the monster’s deadly breath.

Ancient and Modern Kiai’s

Can you now see the string that connects the Kiai’s of traditional Japanese martial arts to the Kiai’s in Dragon Ball?

Dragon Ball’s fighting styles and techniques are rooted in eastern martial arts, which are themselves rooted in religions and spirituality.

Some of this may appear unbelievable or unscientific, but to the warriors of the past, such abilities seemed very real, or at least possible.

Even today there are still some martial artists that take the Kiai and its more supernormal aspects to be real because of their own experiential evidence.

Dragon Ball takes these concepts and the possibilities of such powers to an extreme, and then uses them to weave an interesting tale of mighty warriors.

Why don’t the martial artists of today have such abilities?

Maybe it’s impossible.

Or maybe they aren’t training hard enough!

Increase Your Kiai Power

If you are interested in learning more about the Kiai, please see the resources below or conduct your own research.

Better yet, start taking a martial art and find out for yourself whether or not the Kiai is real.

If you decide to walk the path of a warrior, then perhaps this advice will help.

Wendell E. Wilson ended his ‘Kiai’ essay with the following recommendation. “Don’t be shy with your Kiai… it is nothing less than your source of power and your route to victory.”

Further Resources

1. http://mineralogicalrecord.com/wilson/karate.asp
2. http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19771
3. http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=158
4. http://rizsmartialartstraining.blogspot.com/2009/04/thoughts-on-ki.html
5. http://www.jigokudojo.org/toate.htm
6. http://www.shotokai.com/shotokaiforum/viewtopic.php?t=184
7. http://shotokai.com/ingles/gallery/tokitsu/itinerary2.html
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIXZ4e8x9V0

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

The Kiai in Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball was alive at the 2011 Anime Expo in Los Angeles!

My fiancé and I snapped some pictures of a bunch of the Dragon Ball cosplayers.

I also wrote an article about the Anime Expo for The Epoch Times newspaper, which includes some great pictures and an interview with Dragon Ball fan, Nick Kossman.

Dragon Ball Cosplay!

Check out this amazing Dragon Ball cosplay!!

Goku, by Monica Johnson

Future Trunks, by Yuu Jin

Future Trunks, by Yuu Jin

Yajirobe, by Patrick E Carino

Adult Gohan, by Nick Kossman

Angel Goku, by Jah’lon Escudero

Angel Goku, by Jah’lon Escudero

Goku, by Ivan

Goku, by Ivan

I

Kamehameha!!

Freeza and his #1 fan

Vegeta welcomes challengers

Vegeta!

Eternal Fandom

Dragon Ball Z Kai at the FUNimation booth

From the looks of things, Dragon Ball is still alive and well.

There were some other Dragon Ball cosplayers out there, but I didn’t get pictures.

I only attended the Expo on Saturday, July 2, 2011, but there were still a lot of Dragon Ball fans genuinely wearing their fandom on their sleeves. Hopefully next year there will be even more.

It was a lot of fun meeting fellow Dragon Ball fans, and it’s nice to know that the series is still represented at major conventions.

One of the cool things I stumbled across was a booth run by www.anifashion.com. They had an orange and blue hooded jacket that resembles Goku’s martial arts uniform, with Kanji on the front and back.

I asked about the jacket and the young woman at the booth said that it was their best seller. They only had 1 left, out of the original 20 they came with. I was surprised since Dragon Ball’s popularity had been eclipsed by other series, like Naruto. She said she was surprised too; especially that it wasn’t just young men buying it, but all age groups and genders.

Perhaps Dragon Ball Kai gave the series’ fandom a booster shot, and now it’s becoming popular again.

Or maybe the fandom for this series will always live eternal.

Post from: The Dao of Dragonball Blog

Dragon Ball Cosplay at Anime Expo 2011