In Dragonball, we hear Shenlon (the Eternal Dragon) say, "I will grant any wish..."
But as Kame-Sennin (Muten
Roshi) pointed out, you can't make a wish that exceeds the Dragon's power.
We also find that the Dragon will not make "futile" wishes (e.g.
They couldn't wish Goku to Earth because Goku was coming to Earth on his
own)
One of the major characters once said that the Dragonballs had been on Earth for thousands of years. Kami-sama created them...
But Kami is "only" 900
years old.
Vegeta said that all purebred Saiyans are born with one hairdo, and it can never change -- at least as long as they're in one constant form (so Super-Saiyans don't count). Gohan, Goten, & Trunks don't count because they're all Half-Saiyan.
But in Dragonball GT,
Vegeta shows up with a new hairdo (a la Gohan). Also, when Vegeta
does Garlic Gun against Goku that first time, his hair becomes even spikier
than usual. It stays stuck that way even beyond the Genki-Dama hit,
and through to Oozaru-Gohan crushing him.
Goku, Goten, and Trunks all have hairdo's that change when they become Super-Saiyan.
Gohan and Vegeta do not.
Gohan's changed sometimes because he constantly changes his hairdo as it
is. When he models his style after Goku's, though, it stays the same
when he goes SSJ -- just blond. But changes when he goes SSJ2.
The final do -- Adult Gohan's never changes from form to form.
For that matter, with
anyone except Gohan, it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between
SSJ and SSJ2.
Next to the Half-Saiyans (Gohan, Goten, Trunks), Piccolo is the youngest fighter by a VERY large margin. Piccolo is around 17-20 years younger than Goku.
It took Piccolo about
3-4 years to reach his full height, but Dende took about 20 years to do
so. I think this can be explained by the fact that Piccolo is a Warrior
Namek, and Dende is a Healer -- but I'm not too sure... Can evolution
be so specific?
The legend of the Super Saiya-jin says that there will appear a Super Saiya-jin every 1000 years (in the dub it was 3000 yrs) who will achieve retribution for injustice to the Saiyan people. Goku fulfilled that legend by defeating Freeza(who destroyed Planet Vegeta). Trunks finally came back from the future and killed him(Freeza).
If this is true, then
Trunks should have come from 1000 years in the future. Also, this
would mean that Goku should have been the ONLY one who could achieve Super
Saiyan... but he's clearly not.
The writers tried to
cover up the error by creating a new term -- "Legendary Saiya-jin."
Thus, they also inserted a new character - Broli... In order to create
a dispute as to whether or not Goku really is the Legendary Saiya-jin.
Yet that argument was also put to rest in DBGT when Goku achieved the Super
Goku 4 form.
All the Saiyans are born with tails... The tail must be permanently removed for the Saiyan to go Super Saiyan. However, a Saiyan with a tail can go Super Saiyan if he has done it before the tail was restored.
Vegeta says, that the
Super Saiyan who came before Goku could only go Super Saiyan in the transformed
state, i.e. Oozaru.
Gohan is Half-Saiyan and he was born with a tail. And had a great lot of sleeping power that emerged only when his emotions peaked.
Goten and Trunks are both
Half-Saiyans -- they never appeared to have tails at any time. (some
people say their tails were removed right after birth). Neither of
them ever exhibited "sleeping power" like Gohan did. Bra is Half-Saiyan,
and she never seemed to exhibit any fighting power whatsoever.
Gohan's sleeping powers existed all the way through his life and it was far beyond the power of even SSJ3. He went through training with the KaiOShin to achieve a form called "Mystic Gohan" where he could tap into all of that power w/o even going Super Saiyan. It was said that he was something like Super Saiyan 6, and if he dared to go Super Saiyan while also being Mystic Gohan, he would probably destroy the planet since the power would be so enormous.
How could he have NOT
beaten Buu? Even if it was Buu's 'Ultimate Form'? Secondly,
In Dragonball GT we see Gohan frequently going Super Saiyan. Thirdly,
the "SSJ4" Goku and Vegeta are a lot more powerful than Mystic Gohan, and
most all the planets are intact. Fourth, why JUST Gohan? Couldn't
they have tried the same with others? Krillin also has such "sleeping
power", but his lack of self-confidence keeps it bottled up -- sure, "Mystic
Krillin" wouldn't have been nearly as powerful, but what a team they'd
form!
It was said that Goku finally became the indisputable "Legendary Saiya-jin" when he became Super Goku 4 in Dragonball GT.
Yet Vegeta also achieves
this form (even if he DOES have to cheat). Oh, I get it... Little
devices put together by Bulma can cheat the wreakings of destiny.
Makes sense...
Names --
Vegeta - Vegeta-ble
Nappa - Some type of cabbage
Kakarotto - Ka-carrot-o... also close to Kokoratta,
which in some Far East lang.(not Japanese) means Chocolate...
Raditz - Radi-sh
Tarus - Tar-o-s... A veg. in the Potato family.
Common in Japan, China, Thailand, India, Korea, and Vietnam. Taro
or Taros is supposed to be the English name for it...
Broli - Bro-cc-oli.
Paragas - As-parag-u-s
Bardock - ?????
Freeza - Freezer.
Coora - Cooler.
King Cold - Cold.
Mr. Satan - duh, Satan.
Videl - rearrange to form Devil
Goku - air
Gohan - rice or meal
Goten - sky
ChiChi - Father or breast
"What's your mom's name? Her name is Dad."
"The breasts of GyuuMao's daughter would be ChiChi's chichis."
There's also a pattern with the men in the Son family to have names starting with "Go." "Go" (by itself) means 5, and there are 5 men brought up in that family -- in chron. order... Gohan, Goku, Gohan, Goten, Goku.
Also, Goku's two sons -- Gohan & Goten. Gohan XOR Goten = hanten, which means Cafe.
Dr. Briefs - Briefs
Trunks - Trunks
Bura - Bra
Buruma(Bulma) - Bloomers
Bibi-di ------\
Babi-di ------\__ Form Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo.
Buu ----------/
Uubu (resurrected Buu) - Say it backwards and
it sounds like "Buu"
Krillin - Chestnut.... Anything to do with that
head of his?
Marron - Chestnut Paste. Supposedly, Baker's
Square uses it a lot. Also happens to be the French word for Chestnut.
Conveniently, Krillin had a girlfriend some time back named Maron. So he named his daughter Marron. Maron shows up once or twice in DBZ, and pretty much looks exactly like Bulma.
The Eternal Dragon on Earth is named Shenlon -
from ShengLong... a popular nickname for Jackie Chan.
KameSennin disguised himself once as a guy called
Jackie Chun - from Jackie Chan.
Kami - Japanese for God.
Piccolo's Gang...
Piccolo himself - Piccolo... I can't believe
most people don't realize this is just a miniature flute.
Drum - Drum
Cymbal - Cymbal
Tambourine - Tambourine
Dende - Dende-nmushi, which means snail
Slag - Sl-u-g
Nail - S-Nail
Cargo - (es)Cargo ... French for snail.
(fyi, Cargo is Dende's little brother. The one Dodoria kills)
Ajissa plants - Ajissa(i), which means Hydrangea...
a feast for Snails
Ginyu - From Japanese for 'Milk'... Got Ginyu?
Baata - 'Butter'
Jiisu - 'Cheese'
Rikuum - transposition on Kurim ... pronounced
like 'Cream'... Maybe some people prefer Kurim Abdul Jabbar.
Gurudo - Most commonly interpreted from (yo)gurudo
... Yogurt.
Yamcha - Dim Sum is called Yamcha in some places.
Tenshinhan - Tenshienhan ... Tenshien Rice
Chaozu - Gyaozu... Dumpling
Pooalu (Puar) & Oolong - Both types of Tea.
Factoids...
Krillin is a year older than Goku.
Bra was supposed to be a year younger than Pan by the end of DBZ, but is much older in GT.
Kami's first choice of successor to the Kami-sama throne was not Dende -- it was Goku.
Kame-Sennin(Master Roshi) was over 300 years old when he first met Goku.
Old Son Gohan (the one who raised Goku) was also capable of doing Kamehameha.
ChiChi originally wanted to name Gohan "Einstein."
Krillin learned to fly before Goku did.
Gogeta doesn't exist in the manga. Only Vegitto does.
ChiChi does not have a valid driver's license -- but she drives pretty frequently.
Chaozu's head is supposed to be several times harder than diamond.
Not until Krillin was in his 20's did he have a neck.
Chaozu's not really bald... he has one hair.
Gohan is the first to achieve SSJ2 -- one of the best-done scenes in DBZ. He was only 9 yrs old.
Despite his Saiyan blood, Gohan was born without any hair.
Vegeta achieved the so-called SSJ4 state w/o ever having been SSJ3.
Buu is the only villain in the TV series who was actually defeated by a Genki-dama (Spirit Bomb).
Freeza is the only villain in the TV series on whom the Genki-dama connected on the first chance.
There are more than 20 different somewhat accepted ways to spell Krillin... including Kuririn, Kulilin, Crillen, Kririn, Cyllilin, Clilyn, Clylin, Kulirin, Kurelin, Kreelin, etc. If we go by the closed captioning, then Krillin could also be spelled G-O-H-A-N. :)... It's the price to pay with so many R's and the fact that R and L are interchangeable in Japanese. Kuririn is most common because it's a direct Romanization of the Jap. characters. Kulilin and Krillin are about tied for second. I have a distinct feeling that "Gohan" is the least common spelling...
Despite his pathetic fighting power of around 140, the inordinately lucky Mr. Satan never once died.
In the English dubs of Dragonball, Krillin was entirely left out of the series.
Akira Toriyama intended to end the Dragonball manga series after the defeat of Freeza. But the immense popularity of the series got him give us a full 591 comic episodes. This panned out into 159 episodes in the Dragonball Anime, and 291 episodes in the DBZ Anime. DBGT was spun off from this by some other writers and lasted only 64 episodes. DBGT was also meant to be shorter, but because of delays with the release of the DBGT video game, it was extended with the Super 17 saga.
Unbelievably enough, there's
a scientific explanation for Saiyan to Oozaru transformation. --- "Any
given planet that supports advanced life forms is fundamentally made up
of the same substances as any other such planet. Thus, their moons
are made up of similar stuff as well. Moonlight is little more than
sunlight reflected off a moon. But it's the stuff that the moon is
made of that enables it to reflect, in large amounts, a specific wavelength
of light called the 'Buruz' wave. 17,000,000 units of the Buruz wave
is the minimum needed to trigger a transformation. This is a fairly
bright light, so a full moon is the only thing that will suffice.
The 'Fake Moonlight' trick is quite a misnomer as it only emits the necessary
Buruz wavelength. A hormone flows in the blood which gives rise to
and maintains the transformed state. The gland for this hormone just
happens to be in the holy Saiyan tail. The gland is activated when
the L14 nerve series fires frequent periodic synaptic pulses. The
L14 receptor is located on the retinas, and so a Saiyan must look at the
moonlight for a transformation. Half-transformations occur by looking
at an image of the moon. The subconscious mind of the Saiyan expects
a transformation, so the Oozaru temperament comes forth and the L14 lines
start to sporadically fire in anticipation. The irregularity of this
firing means that no physical change occurs, but power grows somewhat and
mindset is still primitive like the full Oozaru." It's not
quite clear as to what one unit of Buruz wave signifies, so don't assume
that one must have a power of 17,000,000 or higher to do the 'Fake Moonlight'
trick. Also, I'm not so sure about that "L14" thing -- the name may
not be right.
Translations...
--- i.e. renamings from Japanese to English Dubs...
Kamehameha -- Kamehameha
<--- about the only thing kept sacred.
Kame-sennin --
Master Roshi... Though "Kamesennin" is used as the name of the martial
arts style.
Makankosappo --
Special Beam Cannon
Bakuhatsuha --
unnamed
Kikoho -- unnamed
Kai-oh-ken --
Keiyoken, also refers to Kaio-sama's budo school
Masenko -- Kamehameha
(why???!????!??)... also called 'Power Beam' in uncut episodes.
Taiyouken -- Solar
Flare
Garlic Gun --
Gallic Gun
Kienzan -- Destructo-Disc
Birdie -- 'Keep
Your Eyes On The Birdie'... YES, all of that's the name!!
Shishin No Ken
(12 Eyes) -- Multi-Form
Sou-ki Dan --
Power Shot
Souki Dan -- Spirit
Ball
Genki-Dama --
(Fighting) Spirit Bomb
Rikuum Eraser Gun
-- Recoome Flames of Fury
Ginyu-Tokusentai
-- The Ginyu Force
Rikuum -- Recoome
Baata -- Burter
Jiisu -- Jeice
Gurudo -- Guldo
Buruma -- Bulma
Kuririn -- Krillin
Chaozu -- Chiaotzu
Tenshinhan --
Tien... once he's called Tienshinhan.
Karin-sama --
Korrin
Enma-daioh --
Great King Yemma
Pooaru -- Puar
Kaio-sama -- King
Kai
Furiza (Freeza)
-- Frieza
Saichorou -- Guru
Gyuumao -- Ox
King
Blatant Censorship ugh... and other unpleasantries of the dub.
1st episode had scenes with Gohan in the forest which were cut out. While they weren't important scenes, they DO tell us a tad more about Gohan... but those aspects show up later anyway. The only annoying result of this edit is that Gohan is found in a tree and we have no idea how he got there.
Roshi is frequently seen drinking this weird frothy blue stuff -- it was originally colored in yellow, because it's supposed to be beer. But we're supposed to think it's Kool-aid w/ baking soda in it?
When Radditz hits Gohan, we only see Gohan rolling about in the distance and Radditz standing around... the actual contact was left out.
The impaling effect of the Makankosappo was left out entirely. Just as far as the big flash of light was shown.
When Gohan and Piccolo are in the cave, Gohan has a huge swollen bump on his face, but it's covered up by making his eyes look weirdly deformed and wobbly.
The scene where Gohan says one of the apples is sour is cut out, but it's shown in a later flashback.
The way Gohan's genitalia are covered up -- I'm not saying this isn't valid, but they had some not very inventive ways of doing it. Like that tiny tree at the end of the 3rd Movie... A tiny tree? It wasn't even a Bonsai tree! As opposed to the fight against Vegeta -- after Gohan transforms back, they covered it up by putting a flap of Vegeta's clothes over it... Now that was well done. Or Gohan's first transformation -- when he goes back to chibi-Gohan, they cover up the genitalia by moving the image of Piccolo's leg over... But then, back to the tiny tree thing for Gohan's butt, which disappears after Piccolo zaps those clothes on him.
ALL, and I mean ALL scenes with Lunch in them are left out. Lunch is entirely cut out of dubbed DBZ so far.
The way swearing was cut out. It's a valid edit, but some of the phrases they substitute in. "Big old pig piece of putty." "You smell like toenail!" Speaking of the "you smell like toenail" line, the original line was "Your mother's got a big fat belly." Kinda different, huh? But the thing that made it REALLY funny is that Nappa wondered how the kid could know that! :)
When Nappa shoots a helicopter of news reporters, they yell out "They destroyed the cargo robot!" ummm... That helo was a robot? Another time, we hear Tien say "Look! I can see their parachutes! They're OK." Parachutes???!! Where? Where?
When Nappa knocks Tien's hand off, you hear him say "You just wait till it grows back!!" Tien cannot grow his limbs back, they just had him say that so it would seem like he wasn't seriously hurt. On top of that, there's no bone, no bleeding flesh -- just a lame brown stub.
When Yamcha is killed by the kamikaze Saibaman, they just show both of them disappear -- no bloody corpse of Yamcha.
In Piccolo's death scene, they have him and Kami disappear. No body... No Goku checking his pulse.
All the facial blood in the show is colored in black -- like we're supposed to believe dirt will drip like that!!
When Vegeta manages his first good hit on Goku, there's a bright flash covering up contact, and we just hear Vegeta whisper "Gotcha" to assure the viewers that Goku WAS hit.
When Goku first does Kai-oh-ken on Vegeta and does that first punch, the actual moment of contact is cut out. Come on!! It's not even valid for a villain to be hit?
Goku drops on Vegeta with his knee -- the blood that Vegeta coughs up is colored in white so it looks like saliva.
A few weird mistakes came up... The first time Gohan does Masenko, he says "Power HYAA!!" The first Goku tries Genki-Dama, he calls it "Triple Strike."
Piccolo's life was messed up twice -- King Kai said Piccolo was different because he was changed by the evil he witnessed. And when Guru (Saichorou) divined Piccolo's birth, it was
In the 3rd movie, Turles(dub name for Tarus) has a weird sinister voice -- Turles and Goku are supposed to have the same voice!