4th Time's The Charm

[Herms]

So for my 4,444th post, I've got two different things to celebrate. It was originally supposed to be four different things, but I blew half the budget on soda pop.

Toriyama Dragon Box Intros
First, to go along with Funi's release of the Dragon Box, over on Kanzentai we've updated our pages on the Japanese Dragon Boxes to now include pictures and translations of Toriyama's introduction to each set. These introductions include some interesting thoughts from Toriyama, including his favorite characters, how he feels about DB fans buying such expensive box-sets, and his involvement in GT and the movies. My favorite part is Toriyama's sketches of Gogeta and Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku. The downside is that for some strange reason, Toriyama didn't write any intro for the original DB Dragon Box. That one came out right in the middle, so it's not like he just quit making intros. Was he just too busy with other things at the time, or what? But this does have the advantage for me that it leaves exactly 4 intros to plug! Here's the intros for Dragon Box Z Vol.1, Dragon Box Z Vol.2, Dragon Box GT, and Dragon Box The Movies.

More Information On The Number 4 Than You Require
Daizenshuu 7 has this odd section towards the back called the Particulars Dictionary, which is essentially just a series of short, unrelated catalogs of random things. One of these is a 4-page long list of various numbers that pop up throughout the series: stuff like weights worn, days that elapse, money spent, and other extremely trivial stuff like that. Then there's a seperate page for the various times of day mentioned throughout the series. You just know they drew lots to determine who got stuck compiling all this stuff. Anyway, I threw together all the entries that contain the number 4 in them somewhere.

1/4th: The density of the atmosphere in the Room of Spirit and Time compared to that in the outside world. It’s extremely thin, in other words.

4 Months: The number of days that Goku’s doctor judged would be necessary for the injuries he received fighting Vegeta to heal.

4 Months: The amount of time it takes Dende’s dragonballs to reactivate if Shenlong grants only 1 wish.

4 Years Old: Pan’s age when she entered the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai

4 Sets: The number of spare sets No.17 has of his favorite set of clothes.

4 Days: The number of days between Zarbon’s death and the Ginyu Special-Squad’s arrival on Planet Namek.

4 Years: The period of time during which Kami-sama had an ominous feeling due to Cell having come to the present era using the time machine.

10.4 Seconds: Kuririn’s time running the 100 meter dash, back when he first became Kame-sennin’s pupil (his record was 10.1 seconds).

14: The number which Goku thought came after 11, before he learned arithmetic. 12 comes after 11, for the record.

14 Years Old: What Goku mistakenly thought his age was at the start of the series. He was actually 12.

14 People: The number of people who drank the Super God Water before Goku. They all died.

24 Hours: The amount of time which Goku (being dead and all) could be in the living world during the Boo arc.

40 kg: The weight of the shells which Goku and Kuririn wore during their last month of training in the Kame-sen School.

40 Days: The number of days it took Goku to catch Bubbles.

#84: The fuselage number of the RR Army plane which shoots down Bulma’s unmanned reconnaissance plane.

774: The Punch Machine score which No.18 got when she hit it without holding back enough.

470,000 Zeni: The cost of the meal which Kame-sennin treated Goku and the others to after the 21st Tenkaichi Budoukai.

4:30 AM: The time of day when Goku and Kuririn began their training in Kame-Sen School martial arts, after becoming Kame-sennin's pupils. It's so early in the morning that Kuririn was still asleep.

11:43 AM: The time of day when Vegeta and Nappa's spaceships arrive on Earth, crashing into East City as they do. Their fight with the Z Warriors stretches on to the afternoon all the way through to the evening.

1:40 PM: The time of day when the Adult Division of the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai begins. There's a 30 minute interlude between its opening and the end of the Youth Division.

And, of course, last but not least is the 4-Star Ball, Goku's memento of his dead adopted grandfather. Without this, Goku would have never met Bulma, meaning DragonBall would have just consisted of 11-12 years of Goku hanging out in the mountains breaking wood, being frequently nude, and fighting really big fish, until Raditz comes along and kills him for being a stupid, naked weakling. Actually, that would be kind of fun to see.

So that's my post in memory of my post count reaching four 4s. Now I just need to start planning the huge event I'll have for my 55,555th post!

[rereboy]

I enjoyed reading those translations. It was awesome.

I especially liked reading from Toriyama`s mouth that he considers GT to be a side story.

[Chuquita]

Aww, those introductions to the various boxes were nice. :3 I liked getting to see his artwork of Gogeta.


Also, four months for Goku to heal in the hospital sans senzu? That'd be brutal for him; I imagine being in that machine for that long would bother him after a while.

[Hujio]

Just to clarify a little about the Dragon Box introductions, we only added the translations and the intro image for the "Dragon Box The Movies". All of the other pages had the scans included already, so those have always been there and aren't really new (except now you can read them). For some reason I didn't add the movies intro scan all those years ago... not really sure why I left that out. Oh well. Enjoy~!

[Kendamu]

I enjoyed reading those translations. It was awesome.

I especially liked reading from Toriyama`s mouth that he considers GT to be a side story.

Same here. Very enjoyable. The Dragon Box intros from Toriyama really did it for me, though. It's nice to get it from the source what exactly he worked on in GT without having to search archived interviews and junk.

I really thought the Z intros were especially nice.

[John]

Are these intros present on the Funi Dragon Boxes?

[Kendamu]

Are these intros present on the Funi Dragon Boxes?

Nope. Looking at them, they really wouldn't make sense, anyway... Plus, there's only like 2 while we're getting 7.

[Hujio]

Are these intros present on the Funi Dragon Boxes?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. As far as I know they are not included since they are splitting them into seven Dragon Boxes, rather than two. I don't think they'd fit in too well, since there are only two of them, and they reference the two Japanese Dragon Boxes and him seeing people buying them. They would just be out of context. I suppose they could include them as a special bonus at some point, but I doubt they will.

Here's an image of the domestic Dragon Book, where the Toriyama intro was originally printed in the Japanese Dragon Book.



Edit: Kendamu beat me to it... oh well.

[Son Wukong]

I especially like what Toriayma wrote on the first Z Box : ).

[nathantheguitarist]

It reminds me of Lost, with the "Lost Numbers" thrown in the series everywhere possible.

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

[Kingdom Heartless]

Wasn't there also the 40 tonnes Goku trained with in Other World?

Or was that another amount?

[Herms]

Wasn't there also the 40 tonnes Goku trained with in Other World?

It was 40 tons total, but 10 tons for each arm/leg weight, which is what Daizenshuu 7 lists. I guess I could have added it in myself, but I didn't remember that number.