My body is not letting me go to sleep, so - time to make a GAF thread!! This one's about Dragonball Z Kai.
Trigger warning: There will be spoilers in this article.
I went to see Resurrection F at the cinemas with my younger brother a couple of weeks ago. I ended up enjoying it much more than I was expecting. One thing led to another, and now I'm watching Kai. I watched Dragonball Z as a kid of course, and my brother put a lot of time into the Tenkaichi games as I was going through my teens, too - so the general DBZ narrative has followed me around as I've grown up. I remember the sequence of events fairly well, but there's a difference in actually giving the show the faith and time to show off its personality, speaking as a viewer.
I'm enjoying it a lot. It's intriguing to go back and witness this show from the beginning - or, I say beginning... but really it's a sequel to Dragon Ball! That fact is definitely apparent in the early stages of the story. (For the record, I'm up to episode 12, where Goku has been beating up Nappa). It must be incredibly bizarre not knowing that fact and going into Kai as a fresh viewer. For instance, the rapid deaths of characters during the Saiyan saga is - like it's hilarious that Chiaotzu sacrifices himself and everything, and as a viewer I guess I'm meant to feel sad... But it's like, this is a miniature clown-faced baby... thing... and I've seen him for... he's had like 5 minutes (tops) of screen time... and everybody's crying... uhh...
I love the art in the early Saiyan arc. It's so bubbly and removed from the highly-recognizable angular art-style that DBZ metamorphoses towards later on. I was saying to my brother I love the way noses are drawn - in particular Piccolo's nose. There's a lot of form and spatial information conveyed in just three lines.
I also love the emphasis on the upper cheek rolls of characters faces. It is neat how earlier anime tends to emphasize and caricature parts of the face that maybe you wouldn't expect to see detailed like that. I like this transitional phase of art in DBZ.
I started watching with the English dub on but I switched to the JP voices a few episodes ago. I think as a whole I enjoy it more. It sits more in cohesion with what Dragon Ball is, in my opinion. The English dub, though well done, often comes off as a bunch of guys taking a stab at making a cool voice track for this show. Obviously that's what a dub is, but I don't want to be thinking about that as I'm watching. The JP voices come from the same culture that Dragon Ball was invented in. It sort of makes sense that naturally they mesh better with the aesthetic of the show. It's very referential of Asia I guess. It's Japanese, an it's loosely based on Chinese folklore I believe.
I have favourites on both dubs, for instance I think Goku and Piccolo sound better in English, but I much prefer Gohan and Krillin's voices in Japanese. It's kind of interesting how with both languages, if I hear the characters speak, it still sounds like it fits. I guess that's the off-shoot of growing up with the series: the English voices are ingrained in my head. I love how Krillin sounds like a young man in the JP dub. He should sound like a man, but the whole show is such a bizarre, improvisational product of Akira Toriyama's head. I think the anachronistic outcome of his JP voice works really well.
The fights play out both physically and mentally. It's a staple cliche of anime for the characters to talk-out the fight as it unfolds, and I'm sure it's a huge cause for parody - but it really works. It's fun watching the characters verbalize the rhythm of the fights. For instance when Goku comes back to Earth to fight Nappa, he remains constantly one step ahead, dodging every attack, which infuriates the behemoth man. As this is happening, Goku comments right to Nappa's face that he will be unable to beat Goku if that's all he has. Nappa then comments something to effect of "you sure talk a lot of smack". Vegeta then to himself remarks "not only that, but he possesses utter self-confidence". Toriyama does a great job using this simple dialogue to express that Goku's comments are not trash-talk, but rather honest criticism coming from a perspective that Nappa is unable to see. As the fight progresses, Nappa gets more and more riled up. This aspect of the show is really appealing to me on a very simple level, which is why it works so well.
I think that's all I have to say for now. What do you think about this show?
PS: I love you, NeoGAF
Trigger warning: There will be spoilers in this article.
I went to see Resurrection F at the cinemas with my younger brother a couple of weeks ago. I ended up enjoying it much more than I was expecting. One thing led to another, and now I'm watching Kai. I watched Dragonball Z as a kid of course, and my brother put a lot of time into the Tenkaichi games as I was going through my teens, too - so the general DBZ narrative has followed me around as I've grown up. I remember the sequence of events fairly well, but there's a difference in actually giving the show the faith and time to show off its personality, speaking as a viewer.
I'm enjoying it a lot. It's intriguing to go back and witness this show from the beginning - or, I say beginning... but really it's a sequel to Dragon Ball! That fact is definitely apparent in the early stages of the story. (For the record, I'm up to episode 12, where Goku has been beating up Nappa). It must be incredibly bizarre not knowing that fact and going into Kai as a fresh viewer. For instance, the rapid deaths of characters during the Saiyan saga is - like it's hilarious that Chiaotzu sacrifices himself and everything, and as a viewer I guess I'm meant to feel sad... But it's like, this is a miniature clown-faced baby... thing... and I've seen him for... he's had like 5 minutes (tops) of screen time... and everybody's crying... uhh...
I love the art in the early Saiyan arc. It's so bubbly and removed from the highly-recognizable angular art-style that DBZ metamorphoses towards later on. I was saying to my brother I love the way noses are drawn - in particular Piccolo's nose. There's a lot of form and spatial information conveyed in just three lines.
I also love the emphasis on the upper cheek rolls of characters faces. It is neat how earlier anime tends to emphasize and caricature parts of the face that maybe you wouldn't expect to see detailed like that. I like this transitional phase of art in DBZ.
I started watching with the English dub on but I switched to the JP voices a few episodes ago. I think as a whole I enjoy it more. It sits more in cohesion with what Dragon Ball is, in my opinion. The English dub, though well done, often comes off as a bunch of guys taking a stab at making a cool voice track for this show. Obviously that's what a dub is, but I don't want to be thinking about that as I'm watching. The JP voices come from the same culture that Dragon Ball was invented in. It sort of makes sense that naturally they mesh better with the aesthetic of the show. It's very referential of Asia I guess. It's Japanese, an it's loosely based on Chinese folklore I believe.
I have favourites on both dubs, for instance I think Goku and Piccolo sound better in English, but I much prefer Gohan and Krillin's voices in Japanese. It's kind of interesting how with both languages, if I hear the characters speak, it still sounds like it fits. I guess that's the off-shoot of growing up with the series: the English voices are ingrained in my head. I love how Krillin sounds like a young man in the JP dub. He should sound like a man, but the whole show is such a bizarre, improvisational product of Akira Toriyama's head. I think the anachronistic outcome of his JP voice works really well.
The fights play out both physically and mentally. It's a staple cliche of anime for the characters to talk-out the fight as it unfolds, and I'm sure it's a huge cause for parody - but it really works. It's fun watching the characters verbalize the rhythm of the fights. For instance when Goku comes back to Earth to fight Nappa, he remains constantly one step ahead, dodging every attack, which infuriates the behemoth man. As this is happening, Goku comments right to Nappa's face that he will be unable to beat Goku if that's all he has. Nappa then comments something to effect of "you sure talk a lot of smack". Vegeta then to himself remarks "not only that, but he possesses utter self-confidence". Toriyama does a great job using this simple dialogue to express that Goku's comments are not trash-talk, but rather honest criticism coming from a perspective that Nappa is unable to see. As the fight progresses, Nappa gets more and more riled up. This aspect of the show is really appealing to me on a very simple level, which is why it works so well.
I think that's all I have to say for now. What do you think about this show?
PS: I love you, NeoGAF
