Dragon Ball Z Opening Credits

[ronaldnorth_03]

Could someone help me find out the name of this font used in the credits?

[MadSpecialist]

Found a close alternative: Kosugi Maru on Google Fonts

Preview text: 脚本 小山高生

Here's an example against the original text:

Spoiler:

[kei17]

It's Shaken's Nar (写研 ナール). Shaken's former company president was stubborn as hell and hated digital technologies so much that she refused to produce TrueType/OpenType version of their once-industry-standard popular fonts for phototypesetting. As a result, they lost most of their customers and now the company is on the line. Such a typical pathetic end of a company managed by a single family.

The absence of their digital fonts makes it really hard to replicate printings and texts on films and videos from the analog era. Some other companies like Morisawa now provide digital fonts that look like Shaken's analog fonts, but they're not exactly the same and I feel uncomfortable every time I find such substitute imitations in scenes set in the past in Japanese movies and TV dramas. The idiocy of a sole company and its head has been producing negative effects on multiple industries.

In 2018, the former company president of Shaken finally died and people are now expecting them to produce their OpenType fonts, but the company shrank too much through the last two decades and it seems that the possibility is decreasing. They at least purchased their own Internet domain in the beginning of this year, but nothing has happened at this point.

Shaken's Nar:

[MadSpecialist]

It's Shaken's Nar (写研 ナール). Shaken's former company president was stubborn as hell and hated digital technologies so much that she refused to produce TrueType/OpenType version of their once-industry-standard popular fonts for phototypesetting. As a result, they lost most of their customers and now the company is on the line. Such a typical pathetic end of a company managed by a single family.

The absence of their digital fonts makes it really hard to replicate printings and texts on films and videos from the analog era. Some other companies like Morisawa now provide digital fonts that look like Shaken's analog fonts, but they're not exactly the same and I feel uncomfortable every time I find such substitute imitations in scenes set in the past in Japanese movies and TV dramas. The idiocy of a sole company and its head has been producing negative effects on multiple industries.

In 2018, the former company president of Shaken finally died and people are now expecting them to produce their OpenType fonts, but the company shrank too much through the last two decades and it seems that the possibility is decreasing. They at least purchased their own Internet domain in the beginning of this year, but nothing has happened at this point.

Shaken's Nar:

Thanks for clarifying that, saw on a translation of its Wikipedia entry that "Nar became a synonym for the Maru Gothic font" which might explain the similarity of Kosugi Maru.

[MCDaveG]

It's Shaken's Nar (写研 ナール). Shaken's former company president was stubborn as hell and hated digital technologies so much that she refused to produce TrueType/OpenType version of their once-industry-standard popular fonts for phototypesetting. As a result, they lost most of their customers and now the company is on the line. Such a typical pathetic end of a company managed by a single family.

The absence of their digital fonts makes it really hard to replicate printings and texts on films and videos from the analog era. Some other companies like Morisawa now provide digital fonts that look like Shaken's analog fonts, but they're not exactly the same and I feel uncomfortable every time I find such substitute imitations in scenes set in the past in Japanese movies and TV dramas. The idiocy of a sole company and its head has been producing negative effects on multiple industries.

In 2018, the former company president of Shaken finally died and people are now expecting them to produce their OpenType fonts, but the company shrank too much through the last two decades and it seems that the possibility is decreasing. They at least purchased their own Internet domain in the beginning of this year, but nothing has happened at this point.

Shaken's Nar:

Man, thanks for this interesting info! As a typesetter and designer myself, this was really puzzling to hear, more so in country that is being an electronic industry powerhouse... Hating digital things in 21st century is like the emperor Franz Joseph thinking that trains are devil's invention hence the Austria-Hungary being later to the game with railways in the world...

[kei17]

Man, thanks for this interesting info! As a typesetter and designer myself, this was really puzzling to hear, more so in country that is being an electronic industry powerhouse... Hating digital things in 21st century is like the emperor Franz Joseph thinking that trains are devil's invention hence the Austria-Hungary being later to the game with railways in the world...

To be more precise, the former company president didn't hate digital technologies in general, and Shaken was actually the first company that produced an electronic Japanese-character phototypesetting machine. She refused to let the company to provide TrueType/OpenType fonts because she persisted in "quality" that can be maintained by the dedicated hardware and software. It was unbearable for her (and many conservative employees) to have their "beautiful" fonts composited freely and with less care on other companies' computer applications.

Morisawa, the company that have the industry-standard digital fonts today, had been also very popular in the Japanese typesetting industry in the analog era, but they were always cheaper than Shaken and their fonts are considered less beautiful. They produced a lot of cheaper fonts that resemble those of Shaken, and they were once even sued for plagiarism. It was Shaken who ultimately lost the case, though. Morisawa was flexible enough to start the subscription service of their digital fonts, thus they gained the supremacy in the digital era. A lot of Japanese designers and typesetters still prefer Shaken's fonts for their grace. However, they have no choice but to use the substitutions sold by Morisawa, Fontworks, and so on.

Incidentally, Shônen Jump stopped using Shaken's fonts and went digital in 2010.

[MCDaveG]

Again, thanks for all this info. Now I understand that it is not that rudiculous as I first thought but simply a case of being elitist, which in the end damaged all involved in various ways. Intersting and sad story kei.

[Jord]

Was that face supposed to be Gero?

[MCDaveG]

Was that face supposed to be Gero?

Yeah it is Gero, you can see his blink or miss mustache as well in the actual opening.