Dragon Ball Time Setting

Piccolo Daimao · Post by **Piccolo Daimao** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:27 am

As many of us know, Dragon Ball is set long before our time, going as far back as Age 749 (the year Son Goku and Bulma met). However, it is obvious that it would be impossible for this to be the case in the real world, because of Dragon Ball's advanced technology (such as the Capsules and planes).

Dragon Ball/Z seems to be much more present-day, with the differences from Dragon World and our world becoming more apparent as the series goes on. Not only is the technology one of the major difference in Dragon World and our world (even Dragon World's technology is more advanced than ours), there is the clothing style. In Dragon World, the characters (not including the Z-Fighters when they are in their fighting get-ups) wear basically the same clothes that we do in our world.

I know Dragon Ball's only fiction and of course there are going to be differences, but aside from that, for a world that hasn't even made it into the year 1000 yet, it's a pretty advanced planet. So, could we say that the technology and culture in Dragon World is much more advanced than in our world?

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:44 am

Keep in mind that it's a different Earth. Doctor Slump and Daizenshuu 7 show us that 1980 of our (yearly) calendar is the same as 745. That means the story started in 1984. So it's not an alternate past or alternate future, it's a completely alternate present.

Adamant · Post by **Adamant** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:49 am

"Age" is not the same as "AD", so you're not making too much sense here. In our world, we're currently living in the year 2000 after some random year that was decided to be "year 0", in the Dragonworld the Dragonball story is set 750-ish years after some random year that was decided to be "year 0".

That's all, really. Hell, it's not like our world is operating with a single calendar either.

jjgp1112 · Post by **jjgp1112** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:28 pm

Hmm...if Dragon Ball takes place at first in 1984, then that makes Gohan as old as me

Shiyonasan · Post by **Shiyonasan** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:04 pm

jjgp1112 wrote:Hmm...if Dragon Ball takes place at first in 1984, then that makes Gohan as old as me

Gohan premiered in the manga in 1988, though....

Dr. Casey · Post by **Dr. Casey** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:10 pm

And storywise, that would make him born in 1992. What a kid. :(

And Goten would be born in 2001 or 2002, and the Majin Buu saga would've been in 2008. Man, those were crazy times last year.

jjgp1112 · Post by **jjgp1112** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:14 pm

Dr. Casey wrote:And storywise, that would make him born in 1992. What a kid.

And Goten would be born in 2001 or 2002, and the Majin Buu saga would've been in 2008. Man, those were crazy times last year.

This is what I was getting at.

Shiyonasan · Post by **Shiyonasan** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:14 pm

Dr. Casey wrote:And Goten would be born in 2001 or 2002, and the Majin Buu saga would've been in 2008. Man, those were crazy times last year.

No wonder the stock market crashed....

Sunlight & City Night · Post by **Sunlight & City Night** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:08 pm

Isn't Caterpy supposed to hatch from his cocoon in 1967?

Captain Awesome · Post by **Captain Awesome** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:30 pm

Piccolo Daimao wrote: While I understand that Dragon Ball could be percieved as being in an ancient time

Have you actually watched Dragonball?, it's rife with capsules, flying cars, submarines and giant airships.

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:07 pm

Like others have said, it's just a different calender system. I could decide right here and now to make my own calender and start year 0000 this very moment.

Look at Gundam for example. The first story was in UC 0079, not even up to the year 100 yet by their calender, yet it's in our future. All it means is they stopped using AD and switched to UC 79 years before the story starts, for whatever reason.

Technically speaking, Dragon Ball could be our world in the distant future, but...I think it's quite obvious that Dragon World isn't meant to be our world.

goku the krump dancer · Post by **goku the krump dancer** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:13 pm

Well 4 years from now Goku becomes a kid again.

Post by **Herms** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:36 pm

As Dayspring said, according to Daizenshuu 7 both the Age and Western calendar system are used on DB Earth. The Age system is the most common, but certain places like Penguin Village use the Western calendar. This comes from the fact that Dr. Slump referenced the real-world Western year a few times, and the passage of time in the series overall matched the passage of real-world time. Daizenshuu 7 doesn't give any way to convert between the two calendars, but it does give birth/creation Age years for the various Dr. Slump characters, so it seem that Age 745 is equivalent to 1980 A.D. Using that we get the following:

Goku's born (Age 737): 1972 A.D.
Beginning of series (Age 749): 1984 A.D.
21st TB, RR (Age 750): 1985 A.D.
22nd TB, Daimao (Age 753): 1988 A.D.
23rd TB (Age 756): 1991 A.D.
Freeza arc (Age 762): 1997 A.D.
Cell arc (Age 767): 2002 A.D.
Boo arc (Age 774): 2009 A.D.
28th TB (Age 784): 2019 A.D.
GT (Age 789): 2024 A.D.

This would also make 0 A.D. be in Pre-Age 1235.
edit: Darn, I forgot there is no year 0. So Pre-Age 1235 would be 1 B.C., and 1234 would be 1 A.D.

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:26 pm

Semi-off-topic: What does A.D. stand for again? B.C. stands for "Before Christ" and "Before Common," C.E. for "Common Era," B.C.E. to distinguish the B.C.s, but I can never remember A.D.

Post by **Herms** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:37 pm

Anno Domini, "in the year of the lord".

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:14 am

Herms wrote:Anno Domini, "in the year of the lord".

Oh, duh. I keep thinking it's something English. If that's the case, is B.C. ("Before Christ" aspect) also Latin?

And why do so many North Americans keep using A.D.? What's wrong with us?

Post by **Herms** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:30 am

Dayspring wrote:If that's the case, is B.C. ("Before Christ" aspect) also Latin?

The Latin for "Before Christ" is Ante Christum.

And why do so many North Americans keep using A.D.? What's wrong with us? :P

Beats me. It's not like we actually know exactly when Jesus was born. But force of habit is hard to break.

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:15 pm

Dayspring wrote:
Herms wrote:Anno Domini, "in the year of the lord".
Oh, duh. I keep thinking it's something English. If that's the case, is B.C. ("Before Christ" aspect) also Latin?

And why do so many North Americans keep using A.D.? What's wrong with us?

Some guys are hard-headed and don't care for being P.C. That includes some of other faiths/non-believers.

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:47 pm

Herms wrote:
Dayspring wrote:If that's the case, is B.C. ("Before Christ" aspect) also Latin?
The Latin for "Before Christ" is Ante Christum.

Huh. Wonder why people don't "A.C." then.

And why do so many North Americans keep using A.D.? What's wrong with us?
Beats me. It's not like we actually know exactly when Jesus was born.

Which further confuses me (in regards to debate over the specific year).

Non-Luke Gospel sources:
1) Birth occured in either 5 or 6 BC (When Herod The Great ordered The Massacre of the Innocents)
2) Death occured when he was 33-years-old, somewhere between 27 A.D. and 37 A.D. -Pilate's reign as Govenor of Judea (getting us a birth anywhere from 6 B.C. to 4 A.D.)
3) For the above two to work together, Christ must have been born in 6, 5, or 4 B.C (Herod died in 4 B.C.).

Luke sources:
1) Birth occured in either 5 or 6 B.C. (When Herod The Great ordered The Massacre of the Innocents) OR 6 A.D. (The Quirinius Census).
1b) Luke mistakenly implies that the two events occured in the same year, leading to confusion over what year Luke believes the birth occured in.
2) In 7 A.D., Christ is 12. (Uhh... 7 - 12 would give us a date Luke believes he wa born in...)
3) Christ died at 33 in the "15th year of Tiberius" (28 A. D.)
4) For the above to work, Christ must have been born in 5 B.C.

Would this not imply 5 B.C.?

But force of habit is hard to break.

True enough. I just used A.D. how many times in this post alone?

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:27 pm

Uh, are we talking about dropping the AD calender system completely, or just changing its name? Even if you change its name to be 'PC', that doesn't change what the date revolves around, and replacing the whole calender would affect a bit more than just North America.

Kanzenshuu

Dragon Ball Time Setting

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