I finally got in my copy today and spent a good chunk of work today looking it over (gotta love a job where you have free time to do crap like that
), and this is probably one of my favorite Dragon Ball related purchases in a while. So much of my Dragon Ball experience is anime based, so that I often forget just how amazing Toriyama's art, and not just his style as aped by the animators at Toei, really is. While I was looking it over though, a good number of questions and comments came to mind.1.) This artbook is really just daizenshuu #7, and is the only one that we and many other countries have ever gotten, correct?
2.) Under each artwork entry, there's a listing along the lines of '6 Weekly Jump, No. 19'. I'm assuming this is listing which issue of Jump the artwork originates from, but beyond that what does this really read as? I would have guess this was the 19th issue of Jump that year, in the month June, but that doesn't really seem to add up, especially not when looking at other listings like this.
3.) I almost instantly heard 'This is Kanzenshuu: The Podcast' upon seeing that artwork of Goku in front of the album player.
That's way too ingrained now apparently.4.) There's a series of artwork showing Bulma bathing, Lunch stripping (seen both of these before), and Roshi about to take a bath (Gah!) before another panel of him beaten and shot, that all says it's from the 'Dragon Ball Adventure Special'. What exactly was this?
5.) On some pages, there's one large artwork that will have two listings. For example, on page 62, there's this picture of Goku uppercutting Tenshinhan. Goku is listed with '92 Weekly Jump, No. 29' and Tenshinhan is '93 Weekly Jump, No. 29'. So where these artworks originally separate somehow?
6.) On page 100, there's a selection of artwork from something called 'The World of Akira Toriyama Special'. I believe I've heard of this before, but what exactly was it?
7.) On page 149, there's a picture of Goku in SS form, fighting a group of weird aliens. At first I thought perhaps this was artwork meant to show what Goku was up to in the afterlife (since in the manga it's stated he couldn't find anyone truly worth fighting, correct?), but the listing at the back of the book says this is artwork for the 'Saiyan Extermination Project' video game. Pretty safe bet that that's 'The Plan to Eliminate All Saiyans', but are any villains looking like this actually in the game? They certainly don't look like the things they fought in the anime cutscenes anyway.
8.) This one would probably go better in the Translation thread, but I have no way of locating this picture, so...on page 150, there's two comic strips. One of them is the infamous 'Vegeta finally defeating Goku...at a video game' strip, but the other one is of Gohan and Piccolo. From what I can gather Piccolo is saying something that Gohan has to clear up, but all the annotation lists for this is that it's a special message from Toriyama for the 25th anniversary of Weekly Jump. What exactly is being said here?
9.) On pages 194 and 195, they've got all of the spine art for the original 42-volume run of the manga, plus an unused 43rd one with the rest of Goku's feet. Where exactly did that come from? Did Toriyama just have that last bit prepared on the off chance there was enough material left that they had to do a 43rd volume?
10.) In the interview section of the book, on page 204, there's an artwork of teen Goku (his face certainly seems to imply it's more from the 23rd Budokai than it is further along anyway) wearing a somewhat different gi than usual. The wrist bands seem bigger, the gi itself has far more black on it, the Kame emblem is much larger and in a different background, and even Goku's boots seem different. What in the heck is this from, and have we ever seen this design from the front? It's a pretty neat design, I wouldn't mind seeing it as a bonus outfit in a game some day.
11.) Speaking of the interview, I could have sworn this was the interview from which Masakazu Katsura pops in and interrupts briefly, but apparently it wasn't. Which interview was that again?
12.) And finally, a question for anyone that also has the Chogashu - what kinds of artwork are in it that aren't in this one, and would it be worthwhile for someone that already has this to eventually import that as well?
Thanks in advance!
)
