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, 13 September 2003 ]
[ Past "Ask VegettoEX" Archives ]

Last week, we had a question asking where the hand-motions for the Kamehameha (and also the Hadoken in the Street Fighter video games) originated from. I started up a thread on our message board, but unfortunately, we haven't really seemed to come up with any good answers.

If anyone has anything they'd like to contribute to the discussion, please feel free to do so!

Q. I have Bardock: The Father of Goku uncut on DVD. Naturally it's got all the licensed music. For the Hell of it, I decided to watch the edited version Toonami last week...and some of the music had changed. Stuff like Sum-41 was now Android 16's Theme...and I saw on a message board that most people actually preferred that to the uncut music. Question is, did the edited version on tape have Faulconer or music from bands? Or did Toonami do a one-time airing of a re-music'ed edition? - Knux Five

A. Honestly...I didn't watch it on Toonami. I had no idea that they were even AIRING on television (shows you how much Cartoon Network I watch these days). I'm assuming that FUNimation only had the rights to those specific songs for a HOME release...once they air on TV, it's a totally different story, and probably different licensing issues.

I'm relatively sure the "edited" VHS had Sum-41 and American Hi-Fi, but I'm not positive (as I would never buy an edited VHS :P).

Q. This is more of an opinion thing. You've had to watch some of DBZ or DB on Toonami. Does the lack of the original (FUNimation) intro tick you off, or do you enjoy the custom intros? Or would it be best what they did with Bardock and air both a custom intro and the FUNimation intro? - Knux Five

A. Like I kinda mentioned in the last answer, I haven't really watched anything on Cartoon Network in QUITE some time. Here's how I feel about it: if you're going to play the opening theme for one show, play it for all of them. If you're going to do custom intros for one show, do it for all of them.

From what I saw a long time ago...that's how they do it. As long as they're fair about it, their decision matters not to me.

Q. Can Saiya-jin survive in space or not? Freeza makes a big point of pointing out they cannot to Goku during their fight, but Bardock and all of Freeza's men are clearly in orbit of planet Vegeta before it gets blown up. And Vegeta flies through space in the Garlic Jr. saga as well. It this just plot inconsistency or is there something to it? - Karen A. Previte

A. Yeah... that IS a pretty big plot-hole, isn't it? It's probably one of the biggest Toei ever (never?) tried to write around. First off, let's point out what's "filler."

The Bardock special never existed in the manga, so that's all Toei. Vegeta and Nappa on Arlia was all filler. The Garlic Jr. saga was all filler. So right there, three MAJOR instances of Saiyans apparently breathing in space was done by Toei... NOT Toriyama.

So what's the answer? Probably the same reason that Gohan kills eight Cell Juniors... ^^

Q. When Akira Toriyama originally drew the DragonBall manga, he gave each of the manga's 519 chapters its own individual title page, and each of these title pages ran with the manga when it was first published in Shônen Jump in Japan. However, in some of Viz's graphic novels, some of these title pages are missing (the volumes with the most missing title pages are volumes 2 and 4 of the DB manga). So I'm wondering, are these title pages also missing in the original Japanese tankôbon? Is there anywhere I can view these missing title pages? I'm very curious, because to me, these title pages are just about as important as the manga itself, and it would be very nice to have some light shed on this mystery. - Matt Rowe

A. Fantastic question... one to which, once again, I have to turn to Julian for help on :D. Here's what he had to say:

Although Viz does occasionally omit a title page due to a mistake or too low a page count (so they have to catch up later in a volume with more free pages), the missing title pages in volumes 2 and 4 are due to the fact that they were not included in the original Japanese tankôbon. If you really want to see them, you can find them in the "Kanzenban" edition of the manga (available through Amazon Japan, etc.). That version, with the odd exception of the Chapter 19 title page (which was also the cover of tankôbon #2), contains all of the title pages that were used Jump. Also, the color title pages (and chapters) remain in color as well, which is a nice plus compared to the completely black-and-white tankôbon.

Unfortunately, there is a bit of a trade-off: the Kanzenban does not include any of the "attention-grabbing" text that was present on the original title pages, ostensibly to make the art itself the center of attention. I'm personally indifferent about this, although others might find it annoying. But, if you can't understand Japanese, it's only an aesthetic issue, really...

Q. Explain to me why/who thought up the concept of Bid For Power...what was supposed to come of it...and what ended up happening and why, with the game being DragonBall Z oriented? - dbz_doomrider

A. Bid for Power was originally being developed as a mod for the computer game Quake 3 Arena. From there is where my information gets a little hazy and I start relying on Google searches. I'm not exactly a computer-game player, so I'm not up on all the hip jazz and terms that the kids use these days.

Apparently the mod had been in development for quite some time. I know at least three "beta" versions were released. Full character models (such as SSJ Gokuu) and map locations right from the show.

Unfortunately, this mod was being developed around the time that Infogrames (now Atari) started working on licensed games for FUNimation. Clearly this would cause some problems. A cease-and-desist letter was send out to the BFP coordinators, and the "officially"-backed DBZ BFP had to be abandoned. The mod was still later released, only without specific DBZ-elements (such as licensed characters and/or sound effects). From what I'm reading, the game still has a pretty deep DBZ-feel to it (with six characters that are very DBZ-like), and there have even been some "slipped-out" DBZ models and maps for the mod.

All in all, it was a pretty interesting time for the DBZ game community. Unfortunately, I'm just not interested (at all) in computer games, so I hope I at least covered the half of it.

That's it for this week! E-mail us your questions for next week's update! It was kind of an average week for questions this time, but the ones that were submitted were genuinely good questions. I look forward to answering them all, so get crackin' !

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