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, 15 February 2004 ]
[ Past "Ask VegettoEX" Archives ]

Q. Is it true that Toriyama hates Vegita? I've heard from others that Toriyama
once stated that he didn't like Vegita, and only kept the character in Dragon
Ball due to a positive fan response. - End Reshiki

A. I don't think he hates Vegeta... I just don't think he's as popular with Akira Toriyama as he is with the fans. After all, Toriyama's said before that he likes the carefree, can-do nature of Goku a lot better. Even so, he gave Vegeta a convincing character development over the course of the series: from the cocky, spoiled prince who kills for fun and waits for the day that he'll be able to crush Freeza, to the defeated warrior, driven by rage to avenge his hurt pride, to the man who finally acknowledges his place and fights to protect the people he cares about. That's a pretty big feat, and I don't think Toriyama would've been able to do it if he hated Vegeta. And besides, he just appeared in Neko Majin Z 3, so it's obvious the author hasn't given up on him just yet. - Julian

Q. I was just reading over the manga and I noticed something. They didn't
explain exactly how Piccolo, Tien, and Yamcha were able to use their bodies in the afterlife. I know Chaozu was blown to bits and had his reassembled. But the last time the others' were seen, they were put in those cryogenic capsules. They didn't explain if they were transported or if there was any reaction by the still living to them being gone. Season 1, butchered as it was actually said something with them alluding to Yamcha getting blown to bits and Piccolo and Tien fading into the afterlife. Any thoughts? - Wassup2

A. You have an interesting point there. Although Chiao-tzu's reappearance is explained easily enough (Enma Daiô can give someone of special merit their body back, even if it's been destroyed -- just like Goku after the Cell Game), Tenshinhan and Yamcha's bodies were recovered and placed in those freezer capsules. The only reason I could think of to explain why nobody panicked when their bodies disappeared, is that they were kept in some out-of-the-way spot at Capsule Corp., away from prying eyes. Hell, I certainly wouldn't want to be going about my daily business with a couple of stiffs taking up space in the living room. As for Piccolo... we don't really see what happens to him, do we? I guess we can only assume that Kami, after fading into the afterlife himself, was able to pull Piccolo's body along with him (as he did with Goku's body after the Raditz fight) so he could go train. That's really all speculation, though, so feel free to come up with your own explanation. - Julian

Q. Is the DBZ Card Game the same in Japan as it is in America (see here for the Japanese version)? - Tanooki Kuribo

A. Actually... I haven't got the foggiest idea. I'm not really one to play CCGs, myself, so I don't follow them too closely. The art on the package certainly seems a lot different than the American vesion, and it seems like it inolves DB as well, but I really don't have a clue. - Julian

Q. I would like to know if you could send or tell me where i can find the
Animetal tracklists, but not in kanji - Eduardo Ozawa

A. Well... I've looked, but I can't seem to find any pages that list all of their songs in English. I know from looking at their official Japanese site that they've done plenty of covers of songs from many anime, as well as live-action sentai shows, but it doesn't look like anybody's catalogued them in English. Sorry! - Julian

Q. I read on the site that Goku and other characters have particular Japanese dialects in the anime. I was wondering if in the Japanese manga they also had these defined accents, or if they just added them for distinction in the anime. I haven't seen any of the manga in Japanese, so I was wondering this point for a while. If you can answer this I would be grateful. - BCGE20

A. The accents are indeed in the manga. In the anime, they seem to be the teensiest bit exaggerated compared to the comics, but that might have to do with the voice actors themselves, since some VAs voiced multiple characters and didn't want to come across as the same person. Take Mayumi Tanaka, for example. She played both Kuririn and Yajirobe in the series (Goku even comments that the two sound similar). When she was playing Yajirobe, who has his own accent anyway, she tended to play this up a bit to differentiate him from Kuririn.

I suppose a better example would be Masako Nozawa (Goku, etc.), but I didn't feel like trying to explain the nuances between the four characters she played over the course of the series (five if you count DBZ movie 3). But in general, yeah, the accents in the anime and manga are identical. - Julian

THIS WEEK'S MESSAGE BOARD DISCUSSION:

Here we are in the fifth week of this new feature! I think it's a really neat thing to add to the section, and I'm glad to see people are getting involved. Please feel free to contribute to the discussion, and even start up your own!

Q. Ah, nostalgia... last month, Mike started up a thread asking the question: what are your memorable, enjoyable experiences that you've had visiting DragonBall websites in the past? Was it the first time you saw a clip from the Japanese version, read about a part of the series you were dying to see, or downloaded one of the original themes? Share it with us!

A. Read it over, and feel free to share your own fond memories of your own online fandom! We've gotten a pretty good number of DB webmasters, current and former, involved, so we've gotten some pretty interesting memories. Help contribute to our collective trip down memory lane!

We're trying to stay with our weekly schedule for the section... so... e-mail us your questions for next week's update! We love getting all these questions, each week, so the more you send us, the more we can (try to) answer for you!

[ "Ask VegettoEX" Archives ]