Dragon Ball (Z) Anime

[Nex Carnifex]

Also Majin Buu is definitely not a genie and Djinn doesn't even go with the Majin M on his belt so it just is really inconsistent.

A Djinn is a magical being with supernatural powers. A Majin is a magical being with supernatural powers. Not all Djinn live in magic lamps and grant wishes, you know. And I don't think the "M" stands for Majin, so I don't think it's inconsistent.

It was never even stated whether or not the "M" on Bobbodi's minions' heads and Boo's belt stood for anything in the first place, and even if it did, it could easily stand for "Madoushi" (which is what Bobbodi is = "Madoushi" means "mage" or "warlock") or just be an alien or demonic symbol that happens to bear resemblance to "M", like how Superman's crest happens to bear resemblance to the English "S".

Oh, and "Majin Vegeta" was a fan/dub term. In the Daizenshuu, he's named "Maouji Vegeta", meaning "Demon Prince Vegeta".

Overall, the Viz translation really isn't as bad as you're making it out to be, Nex Carnifex. I know you might be a purist, but a few mistakes here and there doesn't tarnish the whole product. A while ago, Herms gave it 7/10 in terms of accuracy. So yeah, still room for improvement, but you can still read the thing and get the overall tone without obsessing over them leaving out the line where Vegeta says Oozaru multiplies a Saiyan's power by 10. Either way, it's nowhere near FUNimation's treatment (although, I remember Viz tried a bit too hard to show that they were "mature and uncensored!" when they incorrectly began referring to the whole afterlife as "Hell" in their second DBZ volume).

Wish they'd get Herms to do their translations :I

[Piccolo Daimao]

Considering that #8 (according to the anime) and #16 are both fully mechanical with no human base, 17 and 18 could have been the first cyborgs that Gero made, which is why they are collectively called Androids/Jinzoningen.

In the manga, I think #8's stated to be a cyborg in that title page detailing Gero's creations. Either way, he's shown to be eating, drinking and sleeping, and is quite clearly based on Frankenstein's monster.

But as for an in-universe reason, it could be that Gero just thinks of all his creations as Androids, nothing more than machines for a purpose, rather than actually having a human background. This could be why Gero completely neglects the fact that #17 and #18 hate him for turning them into cyborgs.

[Deep Thought]

I find the anime to be badly paced and pretty hard to watch, at least compared to the manga. Not necessarily due to filler, or deviations from the characters/plot or anything like that, but because, at many times, it's boring. An action series can survive a lot: bad characters, gimmicky plot devices, etc., but being boring (for me, anyway), is something that can cause an irreparable decrease in the quality of an action series. Rest assured that the Dragon Ball Z anime has boring moments in droves, there's power-up sequences that last up to seven minutes (that are sometimes only one or two panels in the manga), stare downs, the secondary/tertiary character of the moment fucking around in the woods where nothing is accomplished (and these vacuous voids of wasted animation can be the premise of an entire episode). I don't dislike filler because it deviates from the manga, I dislike it because it is creatively bland where there could be moments of character building/analysis. Even fights have a tendency of dragging out for too long, until you wish it was over, just so you don't have to watch an endless sequence of looping punching animations or, god forbid, teleport sequences. Some of these faults are just inherent to anime when compared to manga; when reading manga, you can quickly read and flip through action scenes, since they are relatively dialog free (not in all action mangas, but more often then not this tends to be the case). With anime, you can't control the pacing as much, and it's left at the discretion of the company, which can sometimes be a good thing or a bad thing. Even in the case of Dragon Ball, however, I tend to be much more lenient towards the movies then the anime. Plot-wise they are mediocre to quite bad, sure, but they fix a lot of the problem inherent with the anime. For one, the limited time frame of 45 minutes forces them to reign in their worst habits to a degree, they have to cut the bullshit and get to the fight. For another, they tend to have bigger budgets with movies, so the fights tend to be visual interesting, quick-paced, and varied (notice how there are less teleport sequences, they still existed, but they are a lot rarer, physical blows that actually make an impact are more prevalent). Rest assured that I'm not a shallow person who only craves action, I can sit through genuine, interesting moments of character building, but more often then not the filler in Dragon Ball Z doesn't fulfill this criteria. There should be genuine moments of introspection and character-building or there should be exciting, interesting fights. Since the source material is an action-oriented series aimed at young boys, which, lets face it, lacks depth, I would be fine, and in fact prefer it, if they went for the latter. But the filler that lasts the span of an episode is usually uninteresting and lacking in action, and the filler added to fights is extremely bland and exists only to drag out the punching sequences. Since the anime adds very little to nothing in terms of character building or plot, and is considerably less viscerally entertaining than the source material or even the movies, I don't consider it to be very good.

I will not deny, however, that the anime was instrumental in attracting the attention of millions of fans, including myself, to the source material and the series as a whole, so I am somewhat indebted to it. If it can attraction the attention of millions of children and even somewhat adults, then it must be doing something right. It's just that, upon introspection, I find the anime hard to watch except to fulfill my inner child-like sense of nostalgia.

[Gaffer Tape]

Considering that #8 (according to the anime) and #16 are both fully mechanical with no human base, 17 and 18 could have been the first cyborgs that Gero made, which is why they are collectively called Androids/Jinzoningen.

In the manga, I think #8's stated to be a cyborg in that title page detailing Gero's creations. Either way, he's shown to be eating, drinking and sleeping, and is quite clearly based on Frankenstein's monster.

Yeah, Daizenshuu 4 lists #8 under the organic types, along with #17 and #18.

[Saiga]

Considering that #8 (according to the anime) and #16 are both fully mechanical with no human base, 17 and 18 could have been the first cyborgs that Gero made, which is why they are collectively called Androids/Jinzoningen.

In the manga, I think #8's stated to be a cyborg in that title page detailing Gero's creations. Either way, he's shown to be eating, drinking and sleeping, and is quite clearly based on Frankenstein's monster.

Yeah, Daizenshuu 4 lists #8 under the organic types, along with #17 and #18.

Ah, crap. I just remember seeing his insides in the anime and he looked like a robot.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Talking of which, someone mentioned that, in Path to Ultimate Strength , he seems to be more like an android than cyborg, due to his mechanical parts falling out when he's holding back Black's mecha from Gokuu. But then Gokuu wishes him back to life with the DBs, and would androids really have "lives"? Maybe, in the movie, #8 was just more mechanical, akin to #20, or a different model of cyborg (an unknown one at that, since he's neither energy absorption nor infinite energy reactor).