Anime films
Main article: List of Dragon Ball films
Sixteen anime films based on the Dragon Ball series have been released in Japan. The first three films were based on episodes of the first Dragon Ball anime with a few aspects of the original episodes changed. The remaining 13 films were set in Dragon Ball Z and featured original stories that were based on neither the manga nor the anime.[37] Funimation Entertainment licensed and released all of the films to DVD in North America.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Specials
Specials
Main article: List of Dragon Ball specials
Four anime specials based on the series were released in Japan. The first, Bardock - The Father of Goku, was released on October 17, 1990. A prequel, it is set years before the start of the manga and details how Goku's father, Bardock, discovers that Frieza is planning to kill all the other Saiyans, and his efforts to stop him. The second special, The History of Trunks was released on March 24, 1993. Based on an extra chapter of the original manga, it is set in a parallel universe where most of the series characters are killed by a group of soldiers known as androids. A two-episode original video animation (OVA) series titled Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyan Zetsumetsu Keikaku and based on the Famicom video game of the same name, was released in 1993 and was set during Dragon Ball Z.[38] A Hero's Legacy, released on March 26, 1997, is set 100 years after the end of Dragon Ball GT. It features one of Goku's descendants who begins looking for the Dragon Balls in order to help his sick grandmother. The newest special, Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, premiered at the Jump Super Anime Tour in November 24, 2008. The special is set two years after the defeat of the Kid Buu and has Goku and his friends facing against new enemies, Avo and Kado, and meeting Vegeta's younger brother, Tarble.
Main article: List of Dragon Ball specials
Four anime specials based on the series were released in Japan. The first, Bardock - The Father of Goku, was released on October 17, 1990. A prequel, it is set years before the start of the manga and details how Goku's father, Bardock, discovers that Frieza is planning to kill all the other Saiyans, and his efforts to stop him. The second special, The History of Trunks was released on March 24, 1993. Based on an extra chapter of the original manga, it is set in a parallel universe where most of the series characters are killed by a group of soldiers known as androids. A two-episode original video animation (OVA) series titled Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyan Zetsumetsu Keikaku and based on the Famicom video game of the same name, was released in 1993 and was set during Dragon Ball Z.[38] A Hero's Legacy, released on March 26, 1997, is set 100 years after the end of Dragon Ball GT. It features one of Goku's descendants who begins looking for the Dragon Balls in order to help his sick grandmother. The newest special, Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, premiered at the Jump Super Anime Tour in November 24, 2008. The special is set two years after the defeat of the Kid Buu and has Goku and his friends facing against new enemies, Avo and Kado, and meeting Vegeta's younger brother, Tarble.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Video games
Video games
Main article: List of Dragon Ball video games
The Dragon Ball franchise has spawned multiple video games across various genres and platforms. Earlier games of the series included a system of card battling and were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System following the storyline of the series.[39] Starting Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation most of the games were from the fighting genre including the series Super Butoden.[40] The first Dragon Ball game to be released in the United States was Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PlayStation on July 31, 1997.[41] For the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable games the characters were redone in 3D cel-shaded graphics. These games included the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series and the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series.[42][43] Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit was the first game of the series developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.[44] A massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Dragon Ball Online is currently in development for 2009. It has been stated that Akira Toriyama has been working on character designs for this project for the last five years.[45]
Main article: List of Dragon Ball video games
The Dragon Ball franchise has spawned multiple video games across various genres and platforms. Earlier games of the series included a system of card battling and were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System following the storyline of the series.[39] Starting Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation most of the games were from the fighting genre including the series Super Butoden.[40] The first Dragon Ball game to be released in the United States was Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PlayStation on July 31, 1997.[41] For the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable games the characters were redone in 3D cel-shaded graphics. These games included the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series and the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series.[42][43] Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit was the first game of the series developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.[44] A massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Dragon Ball Online is currently in development for 2009. It has been stated that Akira Toriyama has been working on character designs for this project for the last five years.[45]
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Soundtracks
Soundtracks
Main article: List of Dragon Ball soundtracks
A myriad of soundtracks were released to the anime, movies and the games. The music for the first two anime Dragon Ball and Z and its films was directed by Shunsuke Kikuchi, while the music from GT was directed by Akihito Tokunaga and the music from Kai was directed by Kenji Yamamoto. For the first anime, the soundtracks released were Dragon Ball: Music Collection in 1985 and Dragon Ball: Complete Song Collection in 1991 although they were reissued in 2007 and 2003, respectively.[46] For the second anime, the soundtrack series released were Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series. It was produced and released by Columbia Records of Japan from July 21, 1989 to March 20, 1996 the show's entire lifespan. On September 20, 2006 Columbia re-released the Hit Song Collection on their Animex 1300 series.[47][48] Other CDs released are compilations, video games and films soundtracks as well as music from the English versions.[49]
Main article: List of Dragon Ball soundtracks
A myriad of soundtracks were released to the anime, movies and the games. The music for the first two anime Dragon Ball and Z and its films was directed by Shunsuke Kikuchi, while the music from GT was directed by Akihito Tokunaga and the music from Kai was directed by Kenji Yamamoto. For the first anime, the soundtracks released were Dragon Ball: Music Collection in 1985 and Dragon Ball: Complete Song Collection in 1991 although they were reissued in 2007 and 2003, respectively.[46] For the second anime, the soundtrack series released were Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series. It was produced and released by Columbia Records of Japan from July 21, 1989 to March 20, 1996 the show's entire lifespan. On September 20, 2006 Columbia re-released the Hit Song Collection on their Animex 1300 series.[47][48] Other CDs released are compilations, video games and films soundtracks as well as music from the English versions.[49]
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Live action films
Live action films
A live-action Mandarin Chinese film adaptation of the series, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, was released in Taiwan Province in Republic of China in 1989.[7] Considered a "tacky" version of the story by critics,[7] the plot revolves around a rag-tag group of heroes, led by "Monkey Boy" (Goku) trying to stop King Horn from using the wish-granting "Dragon Pearls" (Dragon Balls) to rule the world.
In March 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise[50] and began production on an American live action film entitled Dragonball Evolution.[51] Ben Ramsey was tapped to create a screenplay based on Dragon Ball Z.[52] Directed by James Wong and produced by Stephen Chow,[51] the film was released in the United States on April 10, 2009.[53]
A live-action Mandarin Chinese film adaptation of the series, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, was released in Taiwan Province in Republic of China in 1989.[7] Considered a "tacky" version of the story by critics,[7] the plot revolves around a rag-tag group of heroes, led by "Monkey Boy" (Goku) trying to stop King Horn from using the wish-granting "Dragon Pearls" (Dragon Balls) to rule the world.
In March 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise[50] and began production on an American live action film entitled Dragonball Evolution.[51] Ben Ramsey was tapped to create a screenplay based on Dragon Ball Z.[52] Directed by James Wong and produced by Stephen Chow,[51] the film was released in the United States on April 10, 2009.[53]
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Art books
Art books
There are two companion books to the series, called the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files, released in May 1997 and December 1997 by Shueisha's Jump Comics Selection imprint. They include series information, illustration galleries, behind-the-scenes information, and more. They were out of print for many years, but were re-released in April 2006 and this edition is still in print.[54][55]
There are two companion books to the series, called the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files, released in May 1997 and December 1997 by Shueisha's Jump Comics Selection imprint. They include series information, illustration galleries, behind-the-scenes information, and more. They were out of print for many years, but were re-released in April 2006 and this edition is still in print.[54][55]
Sunday, January 1, 2006
Reception
Reception
Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga series of its time, and it continues to enjoy high readership today. By 2000, more than 126 million copies of its tankÅbon volumes had been sold in Japan alone.[4] By 2007, this number had grown to pass 150 million.[14] It is the "quintessential mainstream manga" driven by an unending story. Its immense popularity resulted in the series being continuously extended, first through the use of acrobatic devices that regularly kept the series from falling into the routine characters and story lines, then by having the central characters surpass death itself using miraculous devices. In Little Boy: The Art of Japan's Exploding Subculture Takashi Murakami notes that Dragon Ball's "never-ending cyclical narrative moves forward plausibly, seamlessly, and with great finesse."[4] Goku's journey and his ever growing strength resulted in the character winning "the admiration of young boys everywhere".[6] On several occasions the Dragonball anime series has topped Japan's DVD sales.[56][57]
In a survey conducted by Oricon in 2007 between 1,000 people, Goku, the main character of the franchise, ranked first place as the "Strongest Manga character of all time."[58] Manga artists, such as Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, have stated that Goku inspired their series' main protagonists as well series structure.[59][60] When TV Asahi conducted an online poll for the top one hundred anime, the Dragon Ball series came in place twelve.[61] The first episode of Dragon Ball Kai earned a viewer ratings percentage of 11.3, ahead of One Piece and behind Crayon Shin-Chan.[62] Although following episodes had lower ratings, Kai was still maintained as one of the most viewed anime series from Japan.[63][64]
Animerica felt the series had "worldwide appeal" that uses dramatic pacing and over the top martial arts action to "maintain tension levels and keep a crippler crossface hold on the audience's attention spans".[5] Ridwan Khan from Animefringe.com commented on the manga to have a "chubby" art style but as the series continued it gets more refined with the characters leaner and more muscular. He also noted he preferred the manga versions of the series to their animated counterparts that makes the story slower and pointless.[65] Anime News Network praised the story and humor of the manga to be very good due conveying of all the characters's personalities. They also remarked Viz's translation to be one of the best ones of all the English editions of the series praising the lack of censor.[66] Rationalmagic.com remarked the first manga volume as "a superior humor title". They praised Goku's innocence and Bulma's insistence as one of the funniest parts of the series.[67] Writer Jason Thompson commented that the series popularity comes from a formula that Toriyama used in various story arcs from which he describes as "lots of martial arts, lots of training sequences, a few jokes." Yet, he noted that such formula became the model for other manga from the same genre such as Yu-Gi-Oh! or Naruto.[68]
The anime adaptations have also had different positive reviews. Dragon Ball Z was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series.[69] T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the series characters are different from stereotypes characters and noted that they have much more development and in its sequels.[70] However, they criticized Dragon Ball Z for having long and repetitive fights, though they remarked the show has good characterization.[71] The storylines of Dragon Ball Z have been compared to Greek mythology.[72] Anime News Network considered Trunks's storyline to have an actual storyline with characters having more motivation than the common plot of the series.[73] IGN commented that Dragon Ball GT "is downright repellent" mentioning that the material and characters have lost their novelty and fun. They also criticized the character designs of Trunks and Vegeta as goofy.[74] Anime News Network has had negative comments of Dragon Ball GT. They mentioned the fights from the series are a very simple childish exercise and that many other anime were better. The plot of the series has also been criticized for giving a formula that was already used on its prequels.[75]
Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga series of its time, and it continues to enjoy high readership today. By 2000, more than 126 million copies of its tankÅbon volumes had been sold in Japan alone.[4] By 2007, this number had grown to pass 150 million.[14] It is the "quintessential mainstream manga" driven by an unending story. Its immense popularity resulted in the series being continuously extended, first through the use of acrobatic devices that regularly kept the series from falling into the routine characters and story lines, then by having the central characters surpass death itself using miraculous devices. In Little Boy: The Art of Japan's Exploding Subculture Takashi Murakami notes that Dragon Ball's "never-ending cyclical narrative moves forward plausibly, seamlessly, and with great finesse."[4] Goku's journey and his ever growing strength resulted in the character winning "the admiration of young boys everywhere".[6] On several occasions the Dragonball anime series has topped Japan's DVD sales.[56][57]
In a survey conducted by Oricon in 2007 between 1,000 people, Goku, the main character of the franchise, ranked first place as the "Strongest Manga character of all time."[58] Manga artists, such as Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, have stated that Goku inspired their series' main protagonists as well series structure.[59][60] When TV Asahi conducted an online poll for the top one hundred anime, the Dragon Ball series came in place twelve.[61] The first episode of Dragon Ball Kai earned a viewer ratings percentage of 11.3, ahead of One Piece and behind Crayon Shin-Chan.[62] Although following episodes had lower ratings, Kai was still maintained as one of the most viewed anime series from Japan.[63][64]
Animerica felt the series had "worldwide appeal" that uses dramatic pacing and over the top martial arts action to "maintain tension levels and keep a crippler crossface hold on the audience's attention spans".[5] Ridwan Khan from Animefringe.com commented on the manga to have a "chubby" art style but as the series continued it gets more refined with the characters leaner and more muscular. He also noted he preferred the manga versions of the series to their animated counterparts that makes the story slower and pointless.[65] Anime News Network praised the story and humor of the manga to be very good due conveying of all the characters's personalities. They also remarked Viz's translation to be one of the best ones of all the English editions of the series praising the lack of censor.[66] Rationalmagic.com remarked the first manga volume as "a superior humor title". They praised Goku's innocence and Bulma's insistence as one of the funniest parts of the series.[67] Writer Jason Thompson commented that the series popularity comes from a formula that Toriyama used in various story arcs from which he describes as "lots of martial arts, lots of training sequences, a few jokes." Yet, he noted that such formula became the model for other manga from the same genre such as Yu-Gi-Oh! or Naruto.[68]
The anime adaptations have also had different positive reviews. Dragon Ball Z was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series.[69] T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the series characters are different from stereotypes characters and noted that they have much more development and in its sequels.[70] However, they criticized Dragon Ball Z for having long and repetitive fights, though they remarked the show has good characterization.[71] The storylines of Dragon Ball Z have been compared to Greek mythology.[72] Anime News Network considered Trunks's storyline to have an actual storyline with characters having more motivation than the common plot of the series.[73] IGN commented that Dragon Ball GT "is downright repellent" mentioning that the material and characters have lost their novelty and fun. They also criticized the character designs of Trunks and Vegeta as goofy.[74] Anime News Network has had negative comments of Dragon Ball GT. They mentioned the fights from the series are a very simple childish exercise and that many other anime were better. The plot of the series has also been criticized for giving a formula that was already used on its prequels.[75]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)