Episode #0260 (29 May 2011)

[VegettoEX]

Episode #0260 (download MP3) (rss feed)
63:35; 96 kbps, mono; 43.9 MB

Episode #0260! VegettoEX, Meri, and Hujio discuss the second character ever introduced in the series: Bulma! Just how deep of a character is she, and does an author like Toriyama actually know what to do with her? A good week's worth of news and great e-mails round out the show. Referenced sites:

• Supposed "Heroes" Manga Discussion @ Daizenshuu EX
• "Z Kai" Part 5 Delay News @ Robert's Anime Corner
• JASRAC Award News @ animeanime.jp
• JASRAC Award News @ Anime News Network
• "Zenkai Battle Royale" Official Website

It's a podcast episode! About a character! And we talk about her a lot! Hurray! Sorry it's a little late. Long weekend will do that to ya'.

EDIT: Yeah, we fudged the DBGT time frame. It does indeed take place five years after the 28th Tenka-ichi Budokai. So that extra conversation can be ignored .

[Bura]

Well Bulma really is an awesome character, I'm glad you discussed her.

Anyway, the Netherlands, that country that is mostly forgotten by everyone is in the same boat as the UK. When DBZ still aired on TV we got the episodes from the UK, and we get the manga from France. So because the UK got no home release, neither did we. Which really sucks, but my English is pretty good so it doesn't really matter to me, I'll just import. But it's sad that the anime isn't available in the Dutch language, except for the subtitled Big Green VHS/DVD releases so many years ago.

[Son Goshen]

There's nothing in China either... I got most of my DBZ news from Daizenshuu EX and using a proxy...

I think Bulla is really 11, because only 5 years elapsed since the end of DBZ and the start of GT. The 10 years thing came from FUNimation.

[Bura]

I think Bulla is really 11, because only 5 years elapsed since the end of DBZ and the start of GT. The 10 years thing came from FUNimation.

The perfect files seem to say 10 years, which makes a lot more sense seeing as how Bra dresses and the fact that people were HITTING ON HER. And there's also her height, she is about as tall as her mom.

[LeprikanGT]

Does anyone have a picture of scan of the SS Goku with red eyes from movie 5 that they talked about in the podcast somewhere around the 50:00 mark?

[VegettoEX]

http://www.daizex.com/multimedia/images ... r_designs/

[kaialone]

You dont know Barbapapa :O ?



I loooved this show as a kid ( Even though I cant remember a single episode ^^; )
If I remember correctly this stuff was even partly made by an american guy

[Herms]

EDIT: Yeah, we fudged the DBGT time frame. It does indeed take place five years after the 28th Tenka-ichi Budokai.

Darn it, what am I paying you people for?

...Oh wait.

The perfect files seem to say 10 years

No, they say 5 years.

[SHINOBI-03]

The eyes were green in the manga.

[PuppetDoctor]

Aww, it was nice to be mentioned in the last podcast episode with my response for the previous podcast via my forum post.

As for my favorite Bulma hairstyle that would be her hair style in the Saiyan arc. I love the way her ponytail looks more rough and not very made-up looking. It also makes her character look more younger.

Bulma's fro from the Trunks' saga though will always have a special place in my heart. I guess its because I got into Dragon Ball because of The Legacy of Goku II and the little dialogue box with the picture of Bulma was full of Bulma's hair and then I remember seeing her hairstyle that way in the TV series. Although, when I first saw DBZ on TV it was the episode when Cell became his second form I think. I don't know why I remember her fro style so well. Also I think it was when I began to notice her hairstyle changed a lot.

I was surprised when I became more involved in the Dragon Ball community and Bulma's fro style was made fun of a lot because it is my second favorite hair style. I guess its because of how goofy it is.

Actually, that is one thing I have always loved about Bulma and Dragon Ball itself. I loved that not every characters style stayed static, and the hairstyles would change up. Especially, with Bulma's hair that it would change a lot of the time. Furthermore, that the series had many time changes so characters aged.

With that being said my least favorite hair style is Bulma when she became older and her hairstyle in the Majin Buu arc. I dislike it because it took the youth out of Bulma. But then again she was getting older so I guess it is fair.

Wow, enough about the hair now about the character.

I love Bulma as a character. She is one of my favorite characters because I love her temper, and her comic relief. I especially love those scenes in the anime where in the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai she is fighting with that fat mother when Trunks' is fighting the other mothers child. It is moments like those where she gives you a good laugh.

I love too that she gets together with Vegeta who is my favorite character in the Dragon Ball universe and has two children together. And, her mother is hilarious as well. Her whole family is cool although dysfunctional.

My favorite invention that she made was in Dragon Ball which was the one which made her shrink.

All in all after all my ramblings she is just an awesome character. She brings a lot of laughter to the series, and is a genius at the same time. She is a great character and the series wouldn't be the same without her.

[Leviathus]

Anyway, the Netherlands, that country that is mostly forgotten by everyone is in the same boat as the UK. When DBZ still aired on TV we got the episodes from the UK, and we get the manga from France. So because the UK got no home release, neither did we. Which really sucks, but my English is pretty good so it doesn't really matter to me, I'll just import. But it's sad that the anime isn't available in the Dutch language, except for the subtitled Big Green VHS/DVD releases so many years ago.

Well, I actually saw DBZ DVDs and one of the Dragon Boxes (:O DragonBox!) in a store a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if it has Dutch subs though. But yeah, we were really getting ignored back in the days it still aired.. Oh well, glad we have internets.

But to stay on topic... I think I'll listen to the podcast tomorrow. Really curious on your thoughts on Bulma.

[songohan619]

There is NO release of the series in Norway, not even a dub.
We got some of the movies dubbed, but thats it.
AND, those dubs were based on the Bridge Entertainment/Big Green/AB Groupe Dub.

[kenisu3000]

You guys own Daizenshuu 7, right?
Check out the timeline: Bra was born in Age 780. It doesn't specify what day, though. This means she was either 3 or 4 at the 28th Budokai (the end of Z).

It was in manga volume 24 where Bulma thinks to herself about Goku. After Gohan and Kuririn retrieve the Dragon Radar, Gohan tells her his dad has arrived on Namek and has gotten much stronger. Here's my rough, quick translation of what Bulma says to herself after they leave:

"Son-kun, hm? I had no idea he'd turn out to be so cool. And here I am, always fighting with Yamucha, the guy who's supposed to be my lover... I think I might have blown my chances..."

And not to rain on anybody's parade, but I also thought I'd throw in my two cents here: I absolutely cannot stand Bulma. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely arcs where I find her at least tolerable, but I've always hated having to deal with girls/women who have her manipulative and controlling attitude. I share Toriyama's sentiment from one of his early Q & A corners, that it's really surprising (and to me a little appalling) she has so many fans.

Not that I'm not enjoying this episode, but yeah, I just couldn't find it in me to hold that back.

[Herms]

You guys own Daizenshuu 7, right?
Check out the timeline: Bra was born in Age 780. It doesn't specify what day, though. This means she was either 3 or 4 at the 28th Budokai (the end of Z).

OK, here's the rundown:

Like you said, Daizenshuu 7's timeline places Bra's birth in the year Age 780, making her 4 (or maybe 3 depending on birthday) during the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai in Age 784. However, Daizenshuu 7's character dictionary says in Bra's bio that she was born in Age 778, making her 6 (or 5) at the 28th TB. Since Pan's birth year is universally given as Age 779, this makes Bra either a year older or younger than Pan, depending on which part of Daizenshuu 7 you go by.

Fast forward to the GT Perfect Files Vol.1, which has a timeline putting Bra's birth in Age 780. The Perfect Files timeline is mostly based off of the Daizenshuu 7 one, but with only the dates relevant to Saiyan/Tsufruian history included and GT events thrown in too of course, so it's not surprising that they'd use the Daizenshuu 7 timeline's birth year for Bra rather than the character dictionary's. This same Perfect Files timeline places the start of GT in Age 789, five years after the end of the manga/the Z anime in Age 784. So going solely by the Perfect Files timeline, Bra is 9 in GT, though if you use the Daizenshuu 7 character dictionary birth year for her, she'd be 11. Hence why my Age Guide listed her as "9 or 11" at the start of GT.

So the GT Perfect Files and Toei's official site for GT say that it takes place 5 years after the end of Z (nothing is said about the time gap between Z and GT in the actual series itself). Since as far back as anyone can remember though, there's been this fan rumor that it takes place 10 years later. This predates Funi, but apparently it was influential enough for them to describe GT as 10 years after Z in some of their advertising, though apparently not in their dub of the series itself. In the podcast Mike got confused about which number was the official one and which one was the fan rumor that Funi sorta-kinda went with. Interestingly, in the Golden Warrior artbook, the person interviewing Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru describes GT as being 10 years after Z, but since this is just an anonymous interviewer and not someone actually connected with the making of GT we can probably just ignore this.

All this time gap/character ages stuff would probably make a good podcast episode.

[Eddie]

I just finished listening to the episode. I thoroughly enjoyed it (as usual), but I have a few things to say about Mike's Bluma stuff. Never, in all of her 200+ podcast appearances, have I agreed with Meri more than I do right now. Why in the world would you try to move toward Bluma when you already know the character as Bulma, and how is Bluma more correct? I have no problem with people saying/spelling the name in different ways, but saying that you're more correct by calling the character Bluma is absurd. In fact, it may be the most fanboyish bit of craziness I've ever heard you say.

When I see the characters in this name romanized, it's always spelled B-U-R-U-M-A: Buruma (Or Buluma, in keeping more in line with the bloomer pun). When you say "Bulma", you lose the "u" that comes after the "l". You were certainly correct. As you also pointed out, you do not lose that "u" when you say Bluma. You do, however, lose the "u" that precedes the "l". You've solved your problem by replacing it with another problem. A problem that's nearly identical to the one you had in the first place. How is that more correct? Meri's right. This comes across as you wanting to be different for the sake of being different, just like using "Seru" and "Torankusu".

There is, of course, one decent argument that could be made for saying Bluma. It does sound more like bloomer than Bulma does. Are you suggesting we completely ignore a romanization that's been used ever since chapter 1 of the manga, though? It doesn't make sense. She isn't called Bluma at all. It's an invented name. If you're not sticking with seemingly official romanizations and you're not saying "Buruma" or Buluma", you may as well use made up names for all of the characters in order to more accurately convey the puns. Why not use Cacarrot (kuh-carrot), for example? Pronouncing it like the actual orange vegetable would make the pun stand out more, but I've never heard Mike say it that way. Besides, in this very episode you referred to a certain Tenkaichi Budokai competitor as "Ranfan". If you're trying to preserve the pun (lingerie and foundation), why aren't you using something along the lines of "Lanfan"?

Just to be clear, I loved the episode. Meri and Hujio were great. Mike was great as well, but I do have to question his sanity.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Just started listening to the topic of the episode. A little disappointed that you guys didn't talk about the 'Zenkai Battle Royale' website and the new trailer that just came out.

[desirecampbell]

You dont know Barbapapa :O ?



I loooved this show as a kid ( Even though I cant remember a single episode ^^; )
If I remember correctly this stuff was even partly made by an american guy

Just to elaborate, "Barbapapa" is not Japanee, but French. It's a play on barbe à papa (literally "father's beard", but specifically what the French call Cotton Candy). The conceit is that the "barbapapa" are able to shift and contort their bodies (like cotton candy). And they have extremely bland adventures.

[Bura]

Anyway, the Netherlands, that country that is mostly forgotten by everyone is in the same boat as the UK. When DBZ still aired on TV we got the episodes from the UK, and we get the manga from France. So because the UK got no home release, neither did we. Which really sucks, but my English is pretty good so it doesn't really matter to me, I'll just import. But it's sad that the anime isn't available in the Dutch language, except for the subtitled Big Green VHS/DVD releases so many years ago.

Well, I actually saw DBZ DVDs and one of the Dragon Boxes (:O DragonBox!) in a store a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if it has Dutch subs though. But yeah, we were really getting ignored back in the days it still aired.. Oh well, glad we have internets.

Pretty sure it's imported stuff, and hello there fellow Dutchie. XD

[MetaMoss]

Interesting topic this week, and awesome conversation to go with it. Though I see your argument to call her "Bluma", I think since that we have a romanization from Toriyama and that fandom has gone with it for so long (also, when they say her name in the Japanese anime, it sounds like to me they emphasize the first u more), we can just keep it. Goku points out the pun when they are introduced, so I think that's plenty.

On Bulma's character: I think she was interesting enough as a character, and that she uses, how should I say, unconventional tactics to get what she wants. I think her best arc was the Red Ribbon arc, where she uses her smarts very well, and her giving the big diamond to Roshi as payment was kinda different for her character, IMO.

[ThunderPX]

But it's sad that the anime isn't available in the Dutch language, except for the subtitled Big Green VHS/DVD releases so many years ago.

I sure hope you're not implying you want a Dutch dub, because that would be horrible.