We all frequent message boards and online forums (such as alt.fan.dragonball), and we all contribute as much as we can. Unfortunately, we don't KNOW of all the places people post questions, so it's impossible for us to reach everyone. However, if you're reading this, you at least know where WE are, so it's possible for you to ask us directly.

What we're going for here is sort of an "Answerman" or "Ask John" (from Anime News Network and Anime Nation, respectively). We'd like you to e-mail in whatever questions you may have, so long as it somehow relates to the world of DragonBall; be it the manga, the anime, merchandise... whatever. We've been around for a few years, now, and we know the ropes... we like to think we know our stuff.

And we want to help. E-mail your questions to VegettoEX@aol.com with the subject "Ask VegettoEX." We'll try to update this section every Saturday, with at least one question straight from the fans. Thanks!

[ Last Updated: Saturday, 19 July 2003 ]
[ Past "Ask VegettoEX" Archives ]

Q. Hello. Since I only started watching DragonBall Z during the Buu Saga, 1 question stumps me. How did Vegeta meet Bulma?? - Sandra Montenegro

A. Bulma first "met" Vegeta on Namek when Vegeta arrived after being chased by Zarbon. The two of them never actually spoke, though, until everyone remaining on Namek was teleported to Earth so Goku could battle Freeza without having to worry about other people. After the Freeza battle, it's presumed that Vegeta came and left Capsule Corp. as he pleased, training off in space and such.

Three years after the battle with Freeza and King Cold, Bulma shows up with a baby Trunks, indicating that she and Vegeta had gotten together. We really don't know much of the details, since it's not really explained!

Q. Exactly what do all the symbols the characters wear mean?- theandroid

A. I'm a pretty bad person to ask this question. Luckily, I remembered that Chris Psaros had written a pretty detailed editorial about this back in July of 1998. It took a little searching to find it, but here you go... should answer a good portion of what you were looking for!

[Note: the one Chris couldn't figure out is an outdated form of the kanji pronounced "raku," "gaku," or "tanoshi(mi)," meaning "music" or "enjoyment."]

Q. In the dubbed series, the 'new' FUNimation voices took over somewhere during the Freeza Saga. In England, from the episode after the Trunks Saga, we've been watching the Ocean Group dubbing of the series. I was just wondering, has the Ocean Group dubbed the entire DragonBall Z series, or just the episodes beginning after Future Trunks goes back to his timeline? If yes, then where can I get a hold of these Ocean Group-dubbed episodes?- *~*kestra_kaito * ]

A. This is a pretty complicated question, only because the answer is so insane! As we all know, FUNimation owns the rights to produce and distribution all things DragonBall in North America. That's fine and dandy...but what about OUTSIDE of the US?

Over in the UK, a group called "AB" started airing DragonBall Z...dubbed in English... with the Ocean cast! Long-time fans will remember that FUNimation originally started the dubbing of both DB and DBZ with the Ocean cast (which is based out of Vancouver in Canada, and is well known for their work in such shows as Ranma ½).

The ENTIRE rest of the series has been dubbed with the Ocean cast (1-2 originally with FUNimation, and season 3 right to the end with AB), and as far as I know, has all been aired on television. Some has been aired in the UK, some has been aired in Canada, and it's even gotten out into other countries. The specific legalities of this WHOLE situation pretty much elude me. They used FUNimation's exact scripts for their own dub (with a little ad-lib and extra censorship here and there), and started out by using the old MegaMan cartoon background music (ugh...).

Plugging right along, production was moved into DBGT, which has ALREADY completed running in the UK (on CNX; finished during the summer of 2003). While the original Japanese score was used for the episodes (with the exception of the opening and ending themes, which had new words sung in English over the original tune), the Ocean cast was not used. Instead, the "Blue Water Productions" studio (which is actually a sister-studio of Ocean) was used for the voice-overs.

So yeah... it's pretty complicated! NONE of these episodes are available for purchase anywhere; they seem to have only been created for television broadcast, thus far.

That's it for this week! E-mail us your questions for next week's update! It's not like I've got better things to do than answer all your questions :P. Actually, I do... but I really have fun with it, so load me up with these impossible questions so I've got material for you all next week. Ja~

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