Manga Logo Catalogue

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KBABZ
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Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Wed Dec 04, 2019 3:34 am

This is a totally dumb post, but it catalogues stuff so it should be right at home here at Kanzenshuu, right? One project I've always wanted to do is catalogue all the various logos used in the manga, since it seems to use only a few and yet so many. It goes through many different phases, so here we go!

If you want to see the Imgur gallery version, go here! Also, Chapter 366 is the only Chapter in the manga to not use a logo at ANY point! Oh and please excuse some of the names, I don't know the actual names for a lot of these fonts.


Son Goku Arc

21st TB to Piccolo Daimao

Shuffled Family

Piccolo Jr. to Namek

Frieza to Cell

Buu Arc
Last edited by KBABZ on Wed Dec 04, 2019 10:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by MadSpecialist » Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:30 am

Thanks, this is totally not so dumb.

I haven't got around to reading the manga in its entirety yet so it's great to see and learn about all the variations. This could even be extended to treatments found in promotional artwork and packaging.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by Soppa Saia People » Wed Dec 04, 2019 10:53 am

oh i love this! i did something similar with my boyfriend a while ago to kinda simplify how much different toriyama's art style got, it was really fun, and it's super neat (and helpful) too see someone put a lot of effort into cataloguing this kinda stuff.
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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Wed Dec 04, 2019 11:49 am

MadSpecialist wrote: Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:30 am I haven't got around to reading the manga in its entirety yet so it's great to see and learn about all the variations. This could even be extended to treatments found in promotional artwork and packaging.
I was considering that as some sort of next step, but I don't have nearly enough information and imagery to attempt this. All these images were just taken from Kanzenshuu's manga guide, so that part was easy.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by MetaMoss » Wed Dec 04, 2019 11:58 am

I don't have much to add, other than I want to express my appreciation for "Shenlong Shuffle". :thumbup:
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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Wed Dec 04, 2019 12:33 pm

MetaMoss wrote: Wed Dec 04, 2019 11:58 am I don't have much to add, other than I want to express my appreciation for "Shenlong Shuffle". :thumbup:
Yeah I kinda use the word shuffle a lot, haha.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by MajinTrunks » Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:26 pm

That's kinda cool to see actually, I didn't realize there was so much variety in the logos used throughout the manga.

Thanks for posting this! :D

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:22 am

Hey guys! I decided to actually go ahead and add a BUNCH of non-title page logos to the Imgur gallery!

https://imgur.com/a/l9Zxudu

Everything is laid out chronologically, so you'll see the DB and Z logos pop up before a full switch to the post-manga logos from over the years. Everything's been dated, and I also added dates to the logos in the original posts too. Hope you enjoy it, it's now over double the size as before!

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by kei17 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:53 am

Thanks for gathering all these logos and information. Toriyama worked for an advertising design company before becoming a manga artist and he's skilled at lettering, so my guess is that he designed a lot of these logos himself.

Image

Easily and inarguably the most famous logo in the entire franchise, this logo first appeared on the VHS covers for the Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans features in 1988. It takes the logo used in the original intro, arranges the letters in a line (with a bit of shuffle to remind viewers of the comedy), and adds a sweep that flows into the Z. This logo has since been the basis for the GT, Kai and Super logos.
PtEtS in 1988? Also I remember seeing this logo (but colored differently) in an issue of some anime magazine released before the beginning of the broadcast of DBZ.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Thu Dec 05, 2019 3:07 am

kei17 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:53 am Thanks for gathering all these logos and information. Toriyama worked for an advertising design company before becoming a manga artist and he's skilled at lettering, so my guess is that he designed a lot of these logos himself.
Oh that's AWESOME! That explains so much, that really must have saved his bacon on the tight deadlines that he could do that.

...which kinda has unfortunately implications when you look at the Buu arc and how it pretty much uses only one logo for the entire run. To me it says that Toriyama had checked out by that point and he didn't even want to switch up the logo anymore.
kei17 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:53 am
Image

Easily and inarguably the most famous logo in the entire franchise, this logo first appeared on the VHS covers for the Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans features in 1988. It takes the logo used in the original intro, arranges the letters in a line (with a bit of shuffle to remind viewers of the comedy), and adds a sweep that flows into the Z. This logo has since been the basis for the GT, Kai and Super logos.
PtEtS in 1988? Also I remember seeing this logo (but colored differently) in an issue of some anime magazine released before the beginning of the broadcast of DBZ.
I would love to get more information on the earliest use of this logo. I'm a tad surprised there isn't a Logo History article anywhere on the site, at least for the really important ones like the Horizontal DBZ logo. Oh and yes you're right, it's meant to say 1993, haha.

Also if anyone has information on the fonts used that'd rock as well.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:25 am

This is great!! :)

Though you missed one:
Image
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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:54 am

Robo4900 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:25 am This is great!! :)

Though you missed one:
Image
I tried to shy away from logos that were "Existing logo + subtitle" like that one is. It's the reason why I didn't include the logo for the Broly movie, and represented the two modern Z movies with one generic logo rather than two specific ones. If I did include a minor variation then some significant change must have happened, like the 3D Shenlong Shuffle logo for Path to Power, or it needs to be a historically important one, like Funi's OG DB logo (which is basically just a colourized Shuffled logo). Plus, I veered away from the video games; Super DBH is the one with the anime (right?).

Also, found an earlier use of the horizontal DBZ logo! It was also used kinda for the Dragon Ball 3 game on NES, where the Z was replaced with a 3, so I'll include that for historical purposes.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:31 pm

KBABZ wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:54 am Plus, I veered away from the video games; Super DBH is the one with the anime (right?).
No, this is Toyotaro's manga from 2009-2014, Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission. He did this before he did the Super manga, after he stopped working on his AF fanmanga.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:35 pm

Robo4900 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:31 pm
KBABZ wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:54 am Plus, I veered away from the video games; Super DBH is the one with the anime (right?).
No, this is Toyotaro's manga from 2009-2014, Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission. He did this before he did the Super manga, after he stopped working on his AF fanmanga.
Oh, okay! I'll definitely replace the Super Dragon Ball Heroes logo with it then! Although the Kanzenshuu site says it started in 2012, not 2009?

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 2:23 pm

KBABZ wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:35 pm
Robo4900 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:31 pm
KBABZ wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:54 am Plus, I veered away from the video games; Super DBH is the one with the anime (right?).
No, this is Toyotaro's manga from 2009-2014, Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission. He did this before he did the Super manga, after he stopped working on his AF fanmanga.
Oh, okay! I'll definitely replace the Super Dragon Ball Heroes logo with it then! Although the Kanzenshuu site says it started in 2012, not 2009?
Correct. I was mixed up. It was 2012-2013 plus a pair of one-offs in 2014.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Thu Dec 05, 2019 2:36 pm

Robo4900 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 2:23 pm Correct. I was mixed up. It was 2012-2013 plus a pair of one-offs in 2014.
Cool! I put the logo in 2010 (when the games started) and added a note about Victory Mission.

Also HEY GUESS WHAT, I updated the gallery AGAIN! Now I've gone through and added all of the unique video game logos, which should now cover all the Dragon Ball logos that aren't it written in Helvetica for an art book or something. I also added a new new notes, updated some of the images with larger versions, and fixed the spacing issues for some of the manga logos.

Yes I am insane. :crazy:

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by kei17 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:26 pm

Here's the earliest usage of the horizontal DBZ logo. It's a poster made to advertise DBZ as the new series. This horizontal logo is often referred to as "later" or "modern" one, but it's actually one of the varieties that did exist from the beginning. Maybe it was the one designed first, because the original rough sketch of this poster has a hand-written title that says "Dragon Ball: Gohan's Great Adventures" which was the earliest working title of the show. It suggests that the poster started to be designed before they made the formal decision about the title, which means that the opening animation with the different logo was not finished as well or not even being produced at the time.

Image Image

Also it's used in the cover of the first VHS release of DBZ movie 1.

Image
Last edited by kei17 on Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:52 pm

kei17 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:26 pm Here's the earliest usage of the horizontal DBZ logo. It's a poster made to advertise DBZ as the new series. This horizontal logo is often referred to as "later" or "modern" one, but it's actually one of the varieties that did exist from the beginning.

Image
Dope! Do you have a date on when that first poster was put out?

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by kei17 » Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:12 pm

KBABZ wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:52 pm Dope! Do you have a date on when that first poster was put out?
As what I added in the last post suggests, it must have been designed in the earliest stage of the production, so my guess is late 1988. I've also noticed that the color scheme of Goku's dougi looked like that of the original DB, which strongly suggests that the poster art was finished before they officially started to work on the production of DBZ.

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Re: Manga Logo Catalogue

Post by KBABZ » Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:15 pm

kei17 wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:12 pm
KBABZ wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:52 pm Dope! Do you have a date on when that first poster was put out?
As what I added in the last post suggests, it must have been designed in the earliest stage of the production, so my guess is late 1988. I've also noticed that the color scheme of Goku's dougi looked like that of the original DB, which strongly suggests that the poster art was finished before they officially started to work on the production of DBZ.
Ooo interesting! I'll look into the Kanzenshuu archives to figure out when they started working on Z production so I can figure out a good approximate date.

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