Essential / Primer Podcast Lineup?

[VegettoEX]

Hi there, Kanzenshuu superfans!

A few of you -- and one in particular with a nine-hour car trip ahead of himself -- have asked recently what some of the "essential" podcast episodes to listen to might be. It could be for someone totally new to the listening experience and wants the best-of-the-best to get a feel for things, it could be for a longtime listener that wants to relive some of those best times, etc.

I have a few thoughts of my own, plus I recently asked on Twitter what a few folks thought. There were definitely a few recurring answers, so I'll just go ahead and assume those really resonated with people and are good recommendations!

THE OBVIOUS
C'mon now. "Manga Review of Awesomeness" is where it's at. We went through the entire manga volume-by-volume, recapped the story, gave all the different perspectives (new fan who's never read it, fan who's read some of it, fan who's read all of it in English, fan who's read all of it in English and in Japanese, and so on and so forth), analyzed, tore it apart... we had a wonderful few years. Plenty of you suggested this entire series back to me, and I'd agree. You've got hours upon hours of material to go back to and marathon. All of the episodes are listed on our "Podcast >> Reviews" page for easy reference.

IMPORTANT REVIEWS
A bunch of you suggested certain review-based episodes, which I was somewhat surprised about. I think some of the fun might be going back in time and getting an exact feeling of what the perspective and atmosphere actually was at that time. Some of the specific episodes suggested were:

• Episode #0328 - Battle of Gods
• Episode #0198 - FUNimation DBZ TV Dragon Box Vol. 1
• Episode #0172 - Dragon Ball Evolution – Part 2 (American Theatrical Release)
• Episode #0065 - FUNimation Remastered DBZ "Season 1" DVD Orange Brick Set (and I seem to remember Julian telling a story about getting stuck in the snow to start the episode...?)

CHARACTER-FOCUSED EPISODES
While we haven't done a ton of them (they take a bunch of extra research and refamiliarizing!), our character-focused episodes seem to have a lot of love around here.

• Episode #0293 - Deconstructing Vegeta with Gaffer Tape
• Episode #0260 - Bulma character analysis
• Episode #0207 - Yamcha character analysis
• Episode #0073 - Why is Tapion so popular?
• Episode #0040 - Gohan character analysis

THE ONE-OFFS
These are the ones I love the most: episodes that are totally timeless, because the subject matter has little-or-nothing to do with the time we recorded/released the episode. Retrospectives, interviews, story analysis, etc. All great times! Some of the ones that were suggested back to me, along with some of my favorites, were:

• Episode #0319 - Myself, Herms, and Kaboom talk about Gohan's hair for an hour (WHY IS IT GOLDEN ARGH?!). It's amazing.
• Episode #0311 - "Super Butōden" video game retrospective with myself and Joe/SpaceKappa
• Episode #0294 - What it was like to be a fan in 1997 as "Final Bout" (PS1) was hitting store shelves, a fun conversation between Meri and myself
• Episode #0259 - History of Dragon Ball VHS fansubs with Meri and myself
• Episode #0252 - "What the Hell just happened to Dragon Ball Kai…?" (right as the "refreshed" series was officially announced to be ending "early")
• Episode #0249 - Herms and I break down all the "Journey to the West" story adaptations in the DB series
• Episode #0235 - Myself, Meri, and Corey review the original (1993) "Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans". They're ghost warriors? OH, OK THEN!!!!!!!!
• Episode #0190 - Ethics in fandom with Mike, Meri, Scott, and Jeff
• Episode #0052 - Interview with Steve Simmons ("Daimao"), translator of FUNimation's DBZ subtitle tracks

Do you have any favorites that you think really define what we've been doing here with the podcast since 2005? I'm looking for stuff that either really cements our great coverage/analysis of the series, a topic that really resonated with you... stuff like that. I'm OK with "this was a funny one" kind of answers, too, but I'd like to have a good list of substance-over-style to recommend .

[Gyt Kaliba]

Hmm...I forget what episode it was, but there was one that deconstructed Bulma if I recall, or at least talked about her at great length, and I remember that one being a lot of fun as well. I'd call that one, and any other character discussion ones I might be missing, 'essential' as well, as they're always lots and lots of fun to listen to.

[Big Momma]

Wasn't there an April Fools episode where you all acted like some big incident happened, and a few of you died? It's been awhile, so my memory is a little fuzzy.

[Kamiccolo9]

There was a really early one where you, Julian, and Meri went over all of the Trunks themes. I really enjoyed that one, and it didn't really have anything to do with what was going on at the time. It was just a fun episode.

[Shiyonasan]

I'll agree that "The Obvious" episodes are very essential material for the podcast, especially the Manga Review of Awesomeness/GT Review of Awesomeness. As a fan, it's always interesting to hear different perspectives on material from Dragon Ball that you're already familiar with.

The character deconstruction episodes also resonated with me. It's always interested me to hear a topic on a character where you analyze them and break them down to their basic personality traits and, for lack of a better term, characteristics.

Wasn't there an April Fools episode where you all acted like some big incident happened, and a few of you died? It's been awhile, so my memory is a little fuzzy.

Yeah. That was Episode #71. Hard to believe that episode is over six years old now.

[Insertclevername]

Episode 40 for Gohan's character analysis.

Episode 73 for Tapion's character analysis.

I can't find the number for the Bulma one

It's 260.

[Gyt Kaliba]

There were Gohan and Tapion ones? And looking through my collection of podcasts, I don't have the Vegeta one either...I need to go through the podcasts again and get any character discussion ones, cuz that's what I want to hear more of.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Wow, Mike knows his audience too well. I love the episodes he listed!

The GT Reviews (obviously) and the two crossovers they did with the Unofficial One Piece Podcast are definitely worth listening too. The video game reviews are good too, even if they are a little irrelevant now. Same goes for CD reviews- they're especially good because of the sound clips though. TeamFourStar episodes are fun too. Also highly recommend the first 100 episodes- they may be old, but they're easily the funniest of the lot.

Anyway, here are some of my other favourites:
#310: http://www.kanzenshuu.com/generalinfo/p ... e_0310.mp3
#309: http://www.kanzenshuu.com/generalinfo/p ... e_0309.mp3
#273: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0273.mp3
#254: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0254.mp3
#253: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0253.mp3
#233: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0233.mp3
#220: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0220.mp3
#200: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0200.mp3
#154: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0154.mp3
#148: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0148.mp3
#140: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0140.mp3
#129: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0129.mp3
#115: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0115.mp3
#108: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0108.mp3
#104: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0104.mp3
#085: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0085.mp3
#060: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0060.mp3
#057: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0057.mp3
#055: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0055.mp3
#046: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0046.mp3
#030: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0030.mp3
#027: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0027.mp3
#019: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0019.mp3
#018: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0018.mp3
#017: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0017.mp3
#010: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0010.mp3
#006: http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu ... e_0006.mp3
^ Listen to these, you won't be disappointed. Seriously, I spent ages trying to compile this list. Don't waste it.

Interestingly enough, I find great enjoyment in the episodes that have topics I don't care about...like the cos-play episode. I really enjoyed that one so I'd suggest trying some episodes that don't interest you, you may be surprised.

[Insertclevername]

Oh and there's the Yamucha episode which is #207.

I found the Bulma episode! It's #260!

[VegettoEX]

Thanks, all. I've edited in a separate "Character-Focused Episodes" listing. Cool that you like those so much! I guess that means we should do more of them...

[Gyt Kaliba]

Thanks, all. I've edited in a separate "Character-Focused Episodes" listing. Cool that you like those so much! I guess that means we should do more of them...

Um, yes. Yes, yes yes. Please do. Not that I'm begging or anything.

*cough*Kuririn*cough*

[Saiga]

Ooh, the Gohan one has piqued my interest. I might give that a listen tomorrow after I hand in my assignment.

[Ringworm128]

After viewing this thread I think I might finally listen to the Steve Simmons episode.

[Kakarot88]

Haha thanks again, this is awesome! The one I am most excited for is the Journey to the West discussion...the car drive is gonna be great!

[Kamiccolo9]

I've got a 15 hour ride to Virginia tomorrow, so these should make that a lot more bearable.
So, other than that Trunks one I brought up earlier, are there any other podcasts that focus on characters' musical themes?

[Gyt Kaliba]

Decided to bite the bullet and skim through all the old podcasts to see what else of interest there might be for me, starting with the ones listed in this thread - and discovered some kind of issue with the Yamcha analysis episode.

I tried refreshing the page linked from here a few times, but the same thing happens every time - the page itself loads up, but the actual download link that should be towards the end of that page isn't there. I decided then to go to the actual Podcast list page, and find where it would be there. Got to the early 200s on page 13 here, and where the Yamcha episode should be as episode 207...it's not. The listing on the page goes from episode 206 (the Daisuke Gouri memorial) to episode 208 (Kai's licensing announcement). So...uh, yeah. ^_^; Not sure if I'm not looking in the right place somehow or another, but I'm at the end of my rope as to where else to look.

[VegettoEX]

Weeeeeeird. OK, the file's at least re-attached to the post. Not sure how that happened. As for it not showing up in the master list as you browse through, looks like I accidentally categorized it as a "News" post instead of a "Podcast" post. That's all corrected now, too.

And this is exactly why I still maintain the RSS feed by hand .

[Gyt Kaliba]

That was a quick fix, thanks heh. I'll try and keep an eye out if there's any others missing like that while I browse through the master list, though I only noticed this one since I was specifically looking for that episode.

And downloading now. Let the stockpile of podcast episodes begin!

[VegettoEX]

I guess it might also be worth pointing out to newer listeners that we jerry rigged the whole production with Radio Shack equipment up through (I think) Episode #0112 in early 2008, and then the quality suddenly jumps when I got my first real microphone and real mixer. I then upgraded again to the current equipment around February/March 2011, but it wasn't as significant a step up in the recording quality as it was before... until multiple people were in my basement at once, in which case it WAS a big step up (mainly for the manga reviews).

Here's the 2009-and-before version/explanation, and here's the 2011-and-onwards version (which is still mostly accurate-enough).

One big difference is that I'm so pro (and I clearly mean that sarcastically) that I don't even bother recording a back-up of the other side of the call to line up with. I just know where it goes. Yeeeeeeeah~ Of course, not having a back-up did mean that I had to lead Jake through Audacity recovery tools once after it crashed upon clicking "save" on his end... Also, totally don't use Premiere to line up segments anymore. WTF was I doing?!

Maybe it is time for a new ~2013ver.~ post...

[Gyt Kaliba]

Found another one that doesn't seem to have it's download link, though it was categorized as a 'Podcast' rather than a 'News' item so it is viewable from the master list. It's Episode 107, the discussion on the various voices of Kame-sennin.