MistareFusion's Dragon Ball Dissection! (Updated 2/16/26!)

[Vegeta th3 4th]

I don't read most of your replies because I know you're not worth responding to most of the time.

In that case let's agree to disagree and stop derailing this topic. You have your opinions and ways of expressing them, and I have mine. Let's leave it at that and move on. Thank you.

[Scsigs]

I don't read most of your replies because I know you're not worth responding to most of the time.

In that case let's agree to disagree and stop derailing this topic. You have your opinions and ways of expressing them, and I have mine. Let's leave it at that and move on. Thank you.

Make good arguments that make sense & I will, cherry-picker.

[Zephyr]

I figured that might be the case, but since multiple auto-translations spat out "fairy," and I don't know anything about Chinese, I decided I had to defer to it! If that's the worst I did with Chinese in this video, I will happily take a victory lap!

Totally fair. While I took a few years of Mandarin in highschool, I actually recognized the term "Xian" as also being one of the major character archetypes described in the Wuxia Thread. I think you did great with the Chinese otherwise!

[DanielSSJ]

What are you talking about? I don't pick fights. I disagree with opinions I don't agree with & try to explain my side. Which is what I just did.

I don't really have a dog in this race, but I think saying "Now you have to come into THIS thread & spew your dumb shit?" can be considered picking a fight.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but there were reports early on leading up to the film's production that the budget was $100 million, but was cut down until it eventually reached $30 million. If that's the case (does anyone know for sure ?), then I wonder how much better this movie could've been with basically three times the amount of money to work with. Would they have hired more talented writers and director with it ? Maybe a better cast, or at least lead actor ?

What are you talking about? I don't pick fights. I disagree with opinions I don't agree with & try to explain my side. Which is what I just did.

I don't really have a dog in this race, but I think saying "Now you have to come into THIS thread & spew your dumb shit?" can be considered picking a fight.

Not to drag you into this, but thank you.

[Kid Buu]

- Those old Namek covers. NOSTALGIA!
- Never seen Super Mario Bros film but I'm aware of its reputation. I think the first US adaptation of a Japanese IP I saw was Godzilla 98 or.....MMPR!
- I WAS GONNA MAKE THAT YAMCHA VS. VEGETA JOKE MYSELF! You read my mind!
- James Marsters was Piccolo in this and Braniac in Smallsville. Only person to be in both IPs?
- BTW, is this the first time is the term Oozaru used in an English language DB adaptation?
- Haven't seen much Avatar so those comparisons I missed when I first saw this.
- Another PGSM mention, you're as obsessed as I am!
- Not mentioned in your video, but I like the Ayumi Hamasaki song for the video.

Overall a bad film, but with a rewrite, could have been a mediocre Spider-Man clone.

[WittyUsername]

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but there were reports early on leading up to the film's production that the budget was $100 million, but was cut down until it eventually reached $30 million. If that's the case (does anyone know for sure ?), then I wonder how much better this movie could've been with basically three times the amount of money to work with. Would they have hired more talented writers and director with it ? Maybe a better cast, or at least lead actor ?

What are you talking about? I don't pick fights. I disagree with opinions I don't agree with & try to explain my side. Which is what I just did.

I don't really have a dog in this race, but I think saying "Now you have to come into THIS thread & spew your dumb shit?" can be considered picking a fight.

Not to drag you into this, but thank you.

I certainly remember the initial reports that the movie cost $100 million, then right before opening weekend, it was reported that the budget was apparently $45 million, then a few months later James Marsters said the movie actually cost $30 million, which was a shockingly low number, even by 2009 standards.

I don’t know if a bigger budget would’ve really improved the film. Its big issue is that it’s basically a Spider-Man knockoff that uses the Dragon Ball name. The extremely short runtime probably doesn’t help either. I’m not saying that every movie needs to be over two hours long, but 85 minutes is too short for all the ground the movie tries to cover.

[DanielSSJ]

I certainly remember the initial reports that the movie cost $100 million, then right before opening weekend, it was reported that the budget was apparently $45 million, then a few months later James Marsters said the movie actually cost $30 million, which was a shockingly low number, even by 2009 standards.

I don’t know if a bigger budget would’ve really improved the film. Its big issue is that it’s basically a Spider-Man knockoff that uses the Dragon Ball name. The extremely short runtime probably doesn’t help either. I’m not saying that every movie needs to be over two hours long, but 85 minutes is too short for all the ground the movie tries to cover.

It might’ve worked okay if the movie didn't waste time on dumb shit like Goku in high school. The first Dragon Ball movie practically has the same structure — the Hunt from the Dragon Balls arc with a more central villain — and that had barely over half Evolution's runtime

[WittyUsername]

I certainly remember the initial reports that the movie cost $100 million, then right before opening weekend, it was reported that the budget was apparently $45 million, then a few months later James Marsters said the movie actually cost $30 million, which was a shockingly low number, even by 2009 standards.

I don’t know if a bigger budget would’ve really improved the film. Its big issue is that it’s basically a Spider-Man knockoff that uses the Dragon Ball name. The extremely short runtime probably doesn’t help either. I’m not saying that every movie needs to be over two hours long, but 85 minutes is too short for all the ground the movie tries to cover.

It might’ve worked okay if the movie didn't waste time on dumb shit like Goku in high school. The first Dragon Ball movie practically has the same structure — the Hunt from the Dragon Balls arc with a more central villain — and that had barely over half Evolution's runtime

That’s a fair point. You could easily cut out the high school segment and just introduce Chi-Chi as a fighter in the tournament we see in the film.

[Scsigs]

What are you talking about? I don't pick fights. I disagree with opinions I don't agree with & try to explain my side. Which is what I just did.

I don't really have a dog in this race, but I think saying "Now you have to come into THIS thread & spew your dumb shit?" can be considered picking a fight.

Probably, but it wasn't my intent. It was more of an "Ugh, this guy?" kinda thing. I've stated some of my reasons for being tired of him.

[Gaffer Tape]

Revival Arrival - Dragon Ball Dissection: Battle of Gods

The modern Dragon Ball era begins with the 2013 reunion film, Battle of Gods. It's surreal to think I'm actually here. Battle of Gods didn't even exist when I started making Dragon Ball Dissection videos. It's the beginning of Beerus, the beginning of new hair colors, and the beginning of what will become Dragon Ball Super. What did Toriyama bring to the table? Does the movie still hold up? It's time for an extremely deep dive.

[jcogginsa]

As far as "Stuff Dragonball Kai adds to the discussion" goes the most relevent thing would be the newer dub which has a more accurate translation. And you don't talk about the dubs anyway so that's not relevent to your series at all.

My personal headcanon regardings Beerus orchestrating the death of the Saiyans is that he called Frieza up and told him to do it 5 minutes after Frieza blew up Planet Vegeta.

[Scsigs]

So, I have 2 different things to say from this retrospective video. That being of Kai & Battle of Gods itself.

Kai, I unabashedly love as a product. I know certain fans can't live without the excessive filler scenes & moments that bogged the pacing down to an absolute crawl from Z & older dub fans who were children when Z was dubbed & broadcast 20+ years ago can't live without their dumb lines that ruin characters, plots, or moments, or certain dub cast members' voices, but Kai is a product that is perfect for someone like me. That being a fan who was either bored or agitated by the majority of the filler from Z because it was either useless to the storytelling or just outright bad & hated the original Z dub as it is. Granted, I've only watched the Buu Arc in full from Z at this point through the Dragon Boxes, but even a lot of that filler from later on in the arc gets on my nerves because it just wastes time & brings on some really bad jokes.
The Final Chapters, though, while I think it's definitely a better watch than the original Z version of the arc for cutting out the more egregious filler I don't care for, it's definitely a lesser product than the first 98 episodes. I don't understand why Toei didn't keep 4:3 copies of the episodes, I don't understand why they can't figure out how to get rid of the green tint on everything, & I don't understand why they didn't cut more filler out, but cut the scene introducing the psycho guy who kills Bee & pisses off Buu enough to expel his evil energy that then kicks off the rest of the arc. However, I still prefer it over the original Z version of the arc, especially thanks to the English dub.
The new English dub is also just a godsend. I know you don't usually watch the dubs of the franchise, but the dub of Kai is very good. Minus a few dumb moments, you can tell that Chris Sabat's intention with this dub was to provide a more accurate translation of the Japanese dialogue. Hell, sometimes it seems to me that they went out of their way to be more accurate to the Japanese at times than they usually get. My favorite moment of this is that Sean Schemmel insisted that they keep the "I AM THE SUPER SAIYAN, SON GOKU!" line as close as they could get. That entire moment is very good with how Schemmel did everything. I especially love his scream when Goku finally goes Super Saiyan. Whether or not it's accurate to the Japanese, I couldn't tell you or care, but it sounds like an exceptionally pained scream like the transformation hurts him a bit, which I think is an ok interpretation of the moment. We also got some really good recasts like Chris Ayres as Freeza, who finally got us off Linda Young's shit (who was just doing her best impression of the Canadian VA) & now Freeza sounds much better in English. And most every other recast also fits the characters & the returning cast members have more polished performances from better direction & more experience voice acting for years beforehand. The dub in general is just more polished than Z's & it's funny when OG Z dub fans argue any differently.

As for Battle of Gods, I love it as a movie. It's in my top 3 Dragon Ball movies. As a jump start to this era of DB we've been in for the last over a decade, I think it was a great starting point. I've only really seen the extended cut because I don't care to watch the theatrical one, but I really enjoy the movie every time I watch it. I like Beerus & Whis as characters a lot & I like a lot of the developments we got after this movie in Super. The movie has a great tone & I think it's very close to being a perfect Dragon Ball movie.

[MisteryOne]

I'm dealing with some awful stuff lately (got syntomathic vitreous dettachment at 26, yay..) but I'm really looking forward to seeinf you finally cover BoG. Not onoy because it's one of my favourite DB products, but also bevause it feels like such a milestone- I have "only" been following your videos since you covered the Frieza arc but it still feels surreal you are covering the revival period. Great job coming this far, you really deserve all the support.

Also...if you truly hate RoF as much as I do (or at least did, because by now it's old enough I'm nostalgic about it despite being aware of how terrible it is for a Toriyama-written DB media) I'm also really looking forward to that.

[Koitsukai]

BoG was indeed a blast.

The Pilaf stuff bored me the fuck out. Detective Goten Edogawa an was nice, though. The main fight wasn't anything to write home about, but the entire movie made up for it. Beerus stole the show.


RoF really was a nose-dive... BoG raised the bar just for RoF to fuck us all.

[Kid Buu]

No PGSM mention?

CRAP VIDEO.

All jokes aside, I hadn't seen the film in over a decade, so I forgot how Vegeta-centric it was.

[Kid Buu]

Just gonna copy/paste my YouTube comment here.

I gotta say, it's pretty surreal to hear you pronounce some of the names like a regular English-speaking DB fan rather than your usual ways (mainly Goku).

Yeah, the fact that the script writer threw in weird references to Airbending is just really weird & reeks of him researching something that was popular at the time that a lot more people, which ended up being Avatar: The Last Airbender for some reason. Funnily enough, Avatar would receive its own adaptation the next year, which while being closer to its source material than DB Evolution, definitely was as much of a letdown as it because M. Night Shyamalan also came into it without much passion for the original series (he literally said he did it because his daughter loved the show) & it showed with how he adapted the episodes of the show he did in the script & how elements of the film came out filmmaking-wise. Avatar's a good show, but it's not that compatible with Dragon Ball.

I think it's only more recently that most fans have realized that most DB characters have only 1 name with no surname, hence why "Bulma Briefs" is used for her since a lot of English-speaking fans at the time assumed that was her last name since her dad's name is Dr. Briefs. Though his name is more of a Dr. Phil situation.

You're...actually right when it comes to where this movie takes most of its narrative inspiration. I didn't even realize the parallels between this movie & the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie. I get that that movie was a hug success & is a good movie, but that doesn't fit Dragon Ball, at least when looking at anything with Goku as the main protagonist.

I think the best piece of trivia about this movie is that McFly was apparently tapped to write a song for this movie which they recorded a demo of, but didn't make it into the movie. They then rerecorded it a few years ago & released it as a single. The song's story has nothing to do with either the movie or the show, but it's pretty good, imo.
https://youtu.be/qNHiEuIBC5Y?si=OwMRr4klyU4YnLqB

Also, the serendipity that a band named after Marty McFly and Mr. Fusion from Back to the Future would be involved in something DB related. Though, McFly I think was tapped because they were in a shitty Fox movie 3 years earlier & Fox liked them enough to ask them about it.

Wait, how did I know not this about McFly? I'm literally seeing them in concert in a few weeks!

[Gaffer Tape]

Modern Dragon Ball's Missing Link - Dragon Ball Dissection: Jaco the Galactic Patrolman Part 1

What do Goku's parents, Resurrection F, the Broli movie, and The Moro Arc all have in common? They all spring from Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. This may not be Dragon Ball, but it's required reading to understand ANYTHING going forward. I can't believe I'm here at Jaco. It still seems like yesterday it had just come out, that we were all talking about it here on the boards, and Kanzenshuu was putting out so much info about it. I certainly hope I've managed to do it justice. I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't even know about Sachie-chan and Jiya as prior Galactic Patrol entries until I was prepping for this video. So as always, I'm learning a lot too!

[Scsigs]

I honestly forgot that Jaco was a thing. It still baffles me that Toei hasn't adapted it into a miniseries or something. Jaco's just dropped into Resurrection F & they just expect you to know who he is going in from reading the manga. A miniseries would be more accessible to the fandom at large that hasn't read it.

[Gaffer Tape]

I honestly forgot that Jaco was a thing. It still baffles me that Toei hasn't adapted it into a miniseries or something. Jaco's just dropped into Resurrection F & they just expect you to know who he is going in from reading the manga. A miniseries would be more accessible to the fandom at large that hasn't read it.

I guess that breaks into the bigger question as to whether or not a manga is accessible enough or if it needs to be animated for people to care. Because, while I certainly understand differing tastes, it does make me a little sad how often people seem to treat manga as a storyboard, nothing more than a template for the inevitable animation.