DB30YEARS: Special Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Magazine by Michael LaBrie
S: Special Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Magazine
Published by Kanzenshuu
Copyright 2014 Kanzenshuu
DB 30 Years
Older than most of its fans, DB keeps on going
By Mike LaBrie
The Dragon Ball series is 30 years old. Can you believe it?
When I started “VegettoEX’s Ultimate DBZ Links Page” in 1998—the foundation for what would become “Daizenshuu EX” and now “Kanzenshuu”—never in a million years did I have any kind of expectation that I would be here in 2014 putting together a celebratory magazine.
Within these pages, you’re going to read words from a few people that I consider to be some of my closest friends in the world. Some of them I see on a regular basis, and some of them I’ve never met in real life at all...but that doesn’t matter, ‘cuz Dragon Ball, yo.
I have Akira Toriyama to thank for that—a guy who wanted to make some quick cash, to write some poop jokes, and didn’t want to work too hard.
Man, I can relate to that!
The Biggest Fight
Dragon Ball’s first foray into fighting games: Super Butoden
By Joe Walker
In the early 90s there were two things that dominated the thoughts of boys and young men across Japan: Dragon Ball and Street Fighter. Akira Toriyama’s masterpiece was dominating both the manga and anime scenes and Capcom had popularized an entire genre with its innovative one-on-one fighting game. Someone at Bandai saw an opportunity: dropping Dragon Ball’s powerful cast into this new genre was the perfect fit. The result was Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden, developed by TOSE and published by Bandai for the Super Famicom in March 1993.
Despite the obvious influence from Street Fighter, Super Butoden definitely brought a flavor all its own to the table. Rather than having multiple buttons dedicated to various strengths of punches and kicks, Super Butoden played to what made Dragon Ball’s spectacular battles so interesting by pairing punch and kick buttons with buttons dedicated to dashes, ki attacks and flight.
The stages were massive, not only featuring both “ground” and “sky” planes that players could jump between with the tap of a button, but characters were also able to get so far away from each other that a split-screen mode would kick in. This allowed for the huge, cinematic ki attacks the series is known for, with the action pausing to highlight trademark techniques like a fully-voiced Kamehameha. All of these features would come to define the Butoden series, setting it apart from more traditional 2D fighters.
Later that year in December, the game’s sequel, Super Butoden 2, was released. While such a quick turnaround would almost surely mean the game was slapped together, things turned out quite the opposite. Super Butoden 2 improved on the original in every way: fights were faster and more fluid, the story mode was expanded upon, the graphics were greatly improved and the cast was updated to focus on both the Cell arc as well as movies 9 and 10.
Bandai and TOSE weren’t done yet, and a third game was released in September 1994. In almost a complete flip-flop from the transition between Super Butoden and Super Butoden 2, the third iteration seemed rushed and unfinished despite the longer development period. The story mode was removed (understandable, given that the Buu arc was still ongoing at the time), there were fewer stages with much less variety and there were only three playable characters without blonde hair. To its credit, it played wonderfully, with even faster battles than Super Butoden 2.
While Super Butoden 3 was the end of the “official” Super Butoden series, there were still several games that carried on its legacy. Dragon Ball Z: Buyuu Retsuden hit the Sega Mega Drive in April 1994, featuring many of the same mechanics as its Super Famicom cousins. Shin Butoden, released for the Saturn in November 1995, mixed the hand-drawn graphics from the PlayStation’s Ultimate Battle 22 with mechanics more reminiscent of the Super Famicom titles. That seemed to be the end of the Butoden series until 2011, when Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden landed on the Nintendo DS.
These days it’s impossible to think about Dragon Ball video games and not think about gigantic casts, enormous 3D battlefields and fighting through the series from Raditz to Buu. Despite all the advancements in modern day gaming, it’s always fun to remember a time when all we had was a dozen or so characters, two dimensions and 16 bits of power with which to play out our own dazzling skirmishes.
JOE (“SpaceKappa”) hosts The Backlog, a retro game show: youtube.com/PKBloggin
Super Dragon Ball Z
What if Capcom made a DBZ game? They sorta did back in 2005.
Noritaka Funamizu and his team at Crafts & Meister pulled from their experience working on games like Street Fighter to create one of the deepest fighting experiences the Dragon Ball franchise has ever seen. It hit Japanese arcades in 2005 and PS2 in 2006. You probably missed it. Shame on you.
By Rory McHugo
Dragon Ball games aren’t exactly a rarity; in fact, besides a small gap in the late 90s to the early 2000s, there’s practically been a home console Dragon Ball game pushed out every year since 1986! Though there has been some variety in the franchise’s video game outings, the majority tend to be shallow “pick up and play” fighting games, with the main goal seemingly being: “recreate the feeling of the anime.”
It wasn’t until 2005, when Crafts & Meister—headed by an ex-Capcom producer for the Street Fighter series and Arika (yeah, those Street Fighter EX guys!)—co-developed a game for Japanese arcades (later to be ported to PS2), where Dragon Ball saw its first truly fleshed out fighting game, in the form of Super Dragon Ball Z. Using the control scheme of a traditional 2D fighting game, Super Dragon Ball Z is actually a 2D/3D-hybrid fighter of sorts, where two characters fight using 2D inputs, with the ability to move up and down to navigate a full 3D environment. Though a well-crafted fighting game engine was a serious talking point for the game, it also tossed other Dragon Ball game conventions out of the window, especially in regards to its visuals. Super Dragon Ball Z’s art style was entirely based on the manga—as opposed to the anime—with the game’s 3D characters and environments having textures reflecting Akira Toriyama’s original color schemes and even his more-subdued coloring style. With this, an option to level up your own characters, and even the ability to give your characters some “what-if” moves (Freeza using the Kamehameha!?), Super Dragon Ball Z was a Dragon Ball game like none before it.
Flow is the name of the game here; everything in Super Dragon Ball Z has a sense of fluidity to it. Sure you’ve had your quarter-circle motions before, but Super Dragon Ball Z executes it with such grace that every Kamehameha feels fantastic to pull off. This is further enhanced by the game constantly running at a rock solid 60fps, and the character animations are no slouch either, continuing to add a feeling of diversity to the cast. Ultimately, every character feels completely unique; Goku and Freeza aren’t just 3D models on a screen with different looking energy blasts, they’re entirely different characters with varying move-sets, strengths, and weaknesses which require different strategies to utilize. When combined with everything else, this gives Super Dragon Ball Z a feeling of polish that had never really been seen before in the series, and arguably has still not been seen since.
What Super Dragon Ball Z excels at is really bringing you into Toriyama’s world of Dragon Ball. The atmosphere presented in the game is a real testament to the developers at C&M and their ambition to replicate the manga as closely as possible. If there was a mood board for this game, it would just be pinned up tankobon covers. With hand drawn textures, and an environment that looks like a constantly moving manga panel, Super Dragon Ball Z executes its visual
Though it had no sequels with which to refine its mechanics, add to its roster, or to even enhance its visuals, Super Dragon Ball Z still holds up brilliantly. Its expertly crafted fighting mechanics and inspired visual style allows it to stand out as not only a Dragon Ball game, but as a solid fighting game in its own right.
RORY, a devoted DBZ game fan, works as an illustrator and game designer in the UK.
Look to the (Jump) Stars
Jump Super Stars & Jump Ultimate Stars on the Nintendo DS honor the various Jump manga in their own way
By Mike LaBrie
If you weren’t paying attention, you might have missed some of the best licensed games of all time.
Jump Super Stars (2005) and Jump Ultimate Stars (2006) allowed you to pull from the rich history of Jump series and characters to construct your teams literally panel-by-panel. Developed by Ganbarion and published by Nintendo on the DS, they are essentially Smash Bros.-type games filled with your favorite shonen heroes and villains.
They never left Japan—what a shame!
MIKE (“VegettoEX”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. He played a lot of Jump Ultimate Stars.
10 Years: Budokai 3
Still widely regarded as one of the best DBZ games.
By Mike LaBrie
Dragon Ball Z 3—known internationally as Budokai 3—was a seminal release for the franchise. It remains one of the most highly-regarded Dragon Ball video games, and for good reason. Improved graphics? Check. International re-releases featuring both the English voice cast and selectable Japanese voice cast? Check. Solid gameplay mechanics? Check. Branching story mode with tons of unlockables? Check. Huge roster of playable characters? Check. Endless rumors about extra playable characters? Check. Bombastic soundtrack from Kenji Yamamoto? Check.
Said soundtrack full of songs ripped from other artists? Check. Well, hey: I guess you can’t win ‘em all.
It feels like we’re still trying to recapture all the magic that Budokai 3 brought to us back in 2004, which is what made the HD Collection (PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360) such a disappointment.
Many of the changes make sense from a production standpoint, but do a disservice to the game’s legacy and show a lack of respect for historical preservation. Censorship in the original European releases is present in the North American edition, while the Japanese voices (and their inadvertently-hysterical subtitles) are not also ported over. “Rock the Dragon” remains as the only song from the original versions, with the entire musical score haphazardly replaced with music from other, non-Kenji Yamamoto games. Budokai 2—with its repetitive yet innovate board game story mode and original fusion characters—is nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps we’ll see a Sparking! HD collection one day. Will it include optional international soundtracks? Probably not. For now, if you want to experience these games, stick with PS2 versions.
MIKE (“VegettoEX”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. He bought a Japanese PS2 to play DBZ3 all over again before it received a bilingual re-release.
A Game Not Forgotten
Dragon Ball Online may have closed, but its legacy is about to live on…!
By TheDevilsCorpse
Dragon Ball is a franchise with an ever-expanding library of games that encompasses a wide variety of genres. You have the now standard 3D fighters, the classic 2D fighters, traditional RPGs, action RPGs, card battle games, and many more. In my opinion, out of all of them, none are more important than the MMORPG: Dragon Ball Online.
Dragon Ball Online was a game changer, from the moment it was announced back in 2007. South Korean developer NTL partnered with all the rights holders for the manga and games to produce something the fans had not quite seen before. While the likes of the DBZ / Budokai and Sparking! / Budokai Tenkaichi series are relevant for their gameplay and sales, DBO took an entirely fresh approach by introducing new concepts on a whole new level, all of which were under the strict supervision of Shueisha and series author, Akira Toriyama. Not only was DBO the franchise's first official MMORPG, but it also allowed players to insert themselves into the game by creating their own avatar with which to traverse the Dragon Ball world in a new, distant AGE. In addition to experiencing the new story created specifically for the game while playing, a rich history was conceived just to set up the new take on the Dragon World as set forth by the game. You could meet new characters, friends and foes alike, or travel through time with Trunks and interact with the original characters you love…all with other players from across the world. It was a dream come true for many fans.
Ultimately though, while some fans were lucky enough to play it after the February 2010 launch, the game was never released outside of select parts of Asia. It never even made it to the series' homeland of Japan before the final server closed 31 October 2013. The lack of references to the game's content in modern guidebooks for the franchise suggested that the game's failure would leave DBO's original characters, story and lore to be ignored throughout the rest of the franchise once closed. However, it was not long before those worries were put to rest.
May 2014 brought the announcement of Dragon Ball Xenoverse and during the course of its promotion, updates revealed the presence of DBO-inspired material: avatar customization, traveling through time with Trunks, combating the evil Towa and Mira. All of the important bases appear to be included and are being utilized on platforms with much wider reach than DBO's limited install base to boot. This material is scheduled to spread even further thanks to a cross promotion, as Xenoverse's content will be debuting in the next, new card series for the Japanese exclusive arcade game Dragon Ball Heroes, sometime after the Ja’aku Ryu Mission 8 update in January 2015. It will be exciting to see what is kept or left out of both at release!
CHRIS (“TheDevilsCorpse”) hangs out at Kanzenshuu and is a DBO info guru like none other.
The Tale of Publication Dates
When did Dragon Ball actually premiere in Weekly Shonen Jump? Was it November 20th or December 3rd back in 1984?
By Heath Cutler
Before the Dragon Ball series was conveniently compiled into tankobon (“standalone book”) and kanzenban (“perfect edition”) formats as most fans see it today, it was printed one chapter at a time in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump (hereafter referred to as Jump), a weekly manga anthology magazine for young male readers established in 1968 by Shueisha. The manga within Jump was roughly printed, with faded and blotchy ink, on cheaply produced paper so thin the reader could often see through it. And to read their favorite series, fans would venture down to their local convenience store each week to pick up a copy of the latest issue, which was roughly the size of a phone book, for less than a dollar.
Being a continually running weekly magazine, each issue of Jump is categorized by its corresponding publication year and weekly issue number (i.e. 1984 #51). At the time Dragon Ball was in serialization, Shueisha also provided a single date along with this volume number, typically corresponding to the Monday of that week of the given year. However, this “issue date” printed on the cover of each issue was merely for categorical purposes only, and is not the actual date the issue was released.
During the serialization of Dragon Ball from 1984 to 1995 copies of Jump were officially released on Tuesdays, usually (though not always) the Tuesday two weeks prior to the “issue date.” However, retailers commonly put copies on sale as soon as they received them, which meant that the magazine was generally available on Mondays in all but the most remote parts of Japan, even before its official switch to a Monday release in May 2003. Exceptions to this Tuesday rule were generally when the Monday of that week was a holiday (pushing it to the Saturday before), and the last issue of December and first issue of January were even more variable. Nevertheless, this is the “sale date,” the official release date of the issue.
Until the beginning of the 21st century, when Jump began posting the “sale date” on their o
Finding an empty table, Julian sat down and for hours combed through each issue of Jump published during Dragon Ball’s serialization. Each time he was done with his current batch of issues, a library employee would wheel out the next batch of issues, by the hundreds. After a few weekends, and somehow managing to avoid excessive paper cuts, Julian had finally documented every publication date.
From there we’ve undertaken numerous manga-related projects for Kanzenshuu, but ultimately it brings us full circle to this 30th anniversary magazine. How can one properly celebrate unless we know the actual anniversary date of the series’ premiere? Well, since you’re reading this magazine, you should already know the answer to that: November 20th.
HEATH (“Hujio”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. In addition to being one of the manga gurus alongside Julian, he keeps the site from crashing and burning on a daily basis.
The Big Review
Podcast Segment: Manga Review of Awesomeness
The hosts and friends of Kanzenshuu review the entire 519 chapter Dragon Ball manga series in a monthly podcast segment
By Mike LaBrie
What we were getting ourselves into?
The goal with our podcast was to cover news in a timely fashion, sure...but also to produce timeless content that could be visited and revisited at any point in the future. Reviewing the entire manga would provide us with predictable content for a long stretch of time. We tossed some ideas around, and in February 2007 we launched what would later be christened—by our own co-conspirator Jeff Heller—the “Manga Review of Awesomeness.”
It needed a fresh perspective, though. That’s where our buddy Jeff came in. Whereas I had read the whole thing front-to-back, Julian had read the whole thing front-to-back in English AND in Japanese, and Meri had read a bunch but was primarily familiar with the anime...well, the only thing we were missing was someone who had never read it before. Enter Jeff.
Through Jeff’s eyes, we saw and learned things we never noticed. When you are so intimately familiar with material like this, you tend to miss the obvious things. Why did so-and-so just do that? Wait, where are they going? Who is that again?
We’re already fans. We