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: Sunday, 19 October 2003 ]
[ Starring both VegettoEX & Julian !! ]
[ Past "Ask VegettoEX" Archives ]

Q. I've got an observation, a possible plot hole here. Or at least something that was swept under the rug storywise. In the Freeza saga, when Kaiô-sama has Mr. Popo make the wish to Shenlong, "Have all of Freeza's victims brought back to life," doesn't this kinda exclude all the innocent victims that Vegeta and Nappa killed in the Saiyan saga? Think about it, a year would have passed after this wish, and all the people Nappa and Vegeta killed would remain dead. Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chiao-tzu would be fine, of course, cause the Namek balls bring them back, but these people the Saiyans killed were convienently forgotten about. Did I miss something here, or am I right about this? - Karen A. Previte

A. I don't normally do this, but because some people have questioned whether there are specific rules governing the revival of the dead by Shenlong (whether or not there needs to be a body, etc.), and since I don't have a resource to check against...I'm changing my answer.

This mystery can be solved fairly simply. The wish Popo made to Shenlong was to revive "all those killed by Freeza and his men." Now, under normal circumstances, Vegeta and Nappa would have qualified as such, but considering that Vegeta clearly didn't count as one of Freeza's henchmen when he was on Namek (those he killed on Namek stayed dead, because he was out for his own gain at the time), this can be explained by the fact that Vegeta and Nappa weren't invading Earth in the name of Freeza, but to get the Dragon Balls and obtain eternal life for themselves. Whether they had started to rebel openly against Freeza by that point is unknown, but they clearly didn't wait for any orders from on high to go to Earth. But that's another question entirely... - Julian

Q. When exactly does Vegeta reach full Super Saiyan 2? I figured he eventually figured it out in the seven years after the Cell game, before Buu came around, but I've also heard people saying that when Babidi tries to take over his mind in the early Buu saga, the stress causes him to go Super Saiyan 2 right there. Which one is it? - Karen A. Previte

A. I think it's safe to say that for ALL of us... unless it's Gohan during the Cell Games, it's VERY difficult to tell when a character is in SSJ2. I think we're able to speculate that when Vegeta is turned into a Majin by Babidi, he reaches SSJ2. At the same time, it appears that Goku ALSO reaches SSJ2 in this battle. Why? Both characters' hair seems to spike up slightly more than normal, and we see the "electricity"-type energy flowing around them every so often, very similar to Gohan in his battle with Cell.

WHEN was Vegeta able to reach this stage, however? It's probably a safe bet to think that he first reaches it under Babidi's spell. We know that when you're turned into a Majin, your energy increases exponentially. We also know that Vegeta "let" himself be taken over (in a sense), in order to obtain this huge energy increase. It's quite possible that he knew once he got this extra energy, he'd be able to reach SSJ2 with little- to no-effort. So yeah... it was either he KNEW he would be able to reach SSJ2 once he got the power-up, or it was indeed the stress of being taken-over that caused the transformation.

At the same time, however, it seems like Goku was able to reach SSJ2 with none of this "extra" energy necessary (SSJ2 also seemed to be no problem, as he reaches SSJ3 later on... we can only assume that he reached SSJ2 in the seven-years he spent in the afterlife, when he also mastered SSJ3).

Hopefully that at least makes SOME sense.. I know I get confused, easily :P - VegettoEX

Q. What are those voices at the beginning of "Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power" ? - Stan Samuels

A. Well, frankly... I can't tell. It appears to be a highly distorted voice saying something-or-other...perhaps backwards. Either way, I can't make it out. - Julian

Q. As of the last two years, I've really gotten into DragonBall, moreso than DragonBall Z. I finally got the Piccolo Daimao series and noticed something: Daimao has red blood, but Piccolo (Ma Junior) has purple blood. What's the explanation behind that? - Matt Schwartz

A. Probably just another one of Toriyama's (well, Toei's) mysteries! They're never very consistant about this kind of thing. - VegettoEX

I'd just like to add something here...At the time they started animating the Piccolo saga, Toei didn't know anything about Piccolo's off-world origins, so they probably just decided to give him blood the same color as every other vertebrate lifeform's. With the younger Piccolo (at least from DBZ onwards), though, they decided to make him seem a little more "alien," so they gave him purple blood. It's kinda the same reason why Manga Piccolo has four fingers on each hand, while Anime Piccolo has five. - Julian

Q. In DragonBall there is a mention of years and dates. Is this system based on religious events like ours? I mean, we remember the birth of Christ etc. in our AD. I'm wondering what the people in DragonBall are "remembering" by having this calender. I don't think it should be just any random event, but also I can't find references to a religion that would support such a thing. The only deities in DragonBall are Kami, the Kaio and Kaioshin, but the people dont seem to be aware of them. - Smile83775

A. It's unclear from what point, exactly, DragonBall's dating system reckons itself. At any rate, they're up to somewhere in the middle of their 8th century of whatever calendar they use during DB. Whatever possible event might have occurred (that was so important that the entire calendar system is based on it) isn't alluded to anywhere in the series, so... I guess you're free to imagine whatever you want for that. - Julian

Q. On the DBGT discs from "Proliferation" and up there are no textless closings for "Dont you see!" and they don't have the correct animation for "DAN DAN Kokoro Hikarete 'ku" with Goku changing from SSJ to SSJ3 to SSJ4, also not textless. What's up with that? - ZeroGZ2

A. Well... that's pretty interesting. FUNimation gets the actual TV masters for the episodes, themselves (which is why all the episodes have the correct credits for them during the opening and ending, in the Japanese version), so it may just be a case of Toei not yet giving them creditless intro / outro animations for later theme songs.

Then again, they could just be idiots and not know what they're doing... either way, it wouldn't surprise me ^^. - VegettoEX

Q. It is implied that Planet Vegeta is not the Saiyan home planet. The story says that King Vegeta came to Planet Tsufuru with a huge Saiyan army... all in spacepods. Has Toryiama ever commented on this? - BigBrotherRaditz

A. Seems to be just another case of something that's left up to your own imagination. Beyond what you've read in the manga and seen on the show, there's nothing more official to the story. [Note from Julian: See the final question from 21 September for more information about this subject.]

However, I think the past of Planet Vegeta / Tsfuru (and its inhabitants) would be incredibly interesting! See how they all got there... what REALLY happened in that giant war (Vegetables vs. Fruits), how Freeza came into play with them...

Please, Toriyama / Toei... give us a REALLY good story for a future anniversary movie :P. - VegettoEX

That's all we can manage for this week! We've still got some left-over questions from the week, so they may show up next week if we need them. Regardless, e-mail us your questions for next week's update! No matter which one of us ends up answering, you're sure to get your money's worth (and don't complain if you don't, 'cuz you didn't spend anything anyway)!

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