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 weekend with at least one question straight from the fans. Thanks!

[ Last Updated: Sunday, 05 December 2004 ]
[ Past "Ask VegettoEX" Archives ]

Q. Dabura is supposedly the ruler of the underworld. If so, is that a separate place than Hell in Dragonball? I thought Enma-daiô ruled over Hell, or at least decided who went where. - RMK

A. Dabra is *A* demon ruler, but not necessarily *THE* demon ruler (whether or not there's an actual Devil, beyond DB movie 2's Lucifer, or Akkuman, or Piccolo-Daimaô, or Mr. Satan), isn't really known... for all we know, Hell truly is run by a group of Oni!).

As for Enma-daiô (Yama Maharaja, known variously as Yanmo, or Yinmo, or Yeomma, or Yamraj, depending on what part of the world you're in), he's traditionally depicted as the judge of the afterlife, although whether he's the judge or one among many, whether or not he's in charge of the entire after-world, and whether or not he's also in charge of Death itself (à la the Grim Reaper or YûYû Hakusho's Botan), varies according to sources and local traditions.

From what little is said about Dabra, he seems to come from some other type of "demon realm," possibly even another dimension or universe. As Babidi is quite the powerful magician, it doesn't seem all that far-fetched that he'd drag some Demon Lord from another dimension to be his pawn. - VegettoEX & Julian

Q. In the Saiya-jin saga, Ôzaru-Vegeta really does a number on Goku, so bad that his ribs are crushed and he can't even move his arms (after he shoots Vegeta in the eye). Well... after Kuririn, Gohan and Yajirobe finish him off, Goku is to a point where it hurts even to speak. When he tells Kuririn to spare Vegeta's life, he contacts him telepathically. If Goku had this ability of telepathic speech, why doesn't he use it at any other point in the series (after the fact of course, because maybe he learned it from Kaiô-sama), because there are times when it seems a talent like that could have been quite useful. - Alex Hoffman

A. It seems to be just another "one of those things" that's used... and discarded as quickly as it was brought in. There is one other instance I can think of, which involves both Goku and Kuririn, again. Upon Goku's arrival to Planet Namek, he places his hand on Kuririn's head and receives a whole gallon of mental images, essentially getting himself caught up-to-date on the events thus far.

Now, we could get really creepy and say that Goku exclusively has this kind of weird connection with Kuririn... but he was able to tell Gohan to bounce back the Genki-Dama, so that wouldn't entirely be true, either :P

But you're right... beyond this, Goku seems to rely on Kaiô-sama for his telepathic conversations (though, granted, those conversations tend to cross over the realm of the dead to the living...). - VegettoEX

Q. Do you know if Toriyama-sensei contributed character designs to the movies? Certain characters resemble his art specifically more than others, especially Tapion (Movie #13) and Gokua (Movie #9), who remind me of some of his characters from the Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) video games. - Alex Hoffman

A. What a fine eye you have! While it's true that many of Toriyama-sensei's peers can do quite a good job emulating his style, there are a few times that we, as fans, can just tell when it's our main man taking the job.

You'll be interested to know that Toriyama-sensei contributed a huge number of character designs to the movies (including: Dr. Urio, the Shinseiju, Slug, Coola & his Armored Squad, #13, 14, & 15, Broli, Bojack & his henchmen, Tapion & Minoshia, and even the final designs for Bardock's team).

We're actually hard at work on (and almost finished with!) scanning and translating the designs Toriyama-sensei contributed to the movies, all taken from the sixth daizenshuu. If you'd like a little sneak-peek, head on in and check it out ^_~. - VegettoEX

Q. Does FUNimation create all-new merchandise for North America, or do they simply license all of the pre-existing (older) merchandise from Japan and simply "translate" it? - Tyson Hicks

A. Little bit of both. We've gotten a great deal of some of the original Japanese merch (such as the "Super Battle Collection" series of action figures), but there's also a great deal of things that we've never seen, and probably never will (of course, the "Super Power Desk" is the first thing that comes to mind).

As the North American distributor, FUNimation also has option on licensing new merchandise to be created and sold under their domain. - VegettoEX

Q. Is there any other DBZ CD or collection that inculdes "Batoru Pointo Anrimiteddo" ("Battle Points Unlimited") besides DBZ Hit Song Collection 6? - Matt

A. Amazingly, Hit 6 seems to be the only CD I can find with the song on it. If you can track down the CD, be sure to! Man, I'm ever-so-glad I was able to grab it ^^;;

Interestingly, it doesn't seem all that "strange" in terms of its production. It's credited to Kenji Yamamoto, who's done tons of other music for the series (such as movie themes), all of which ended up on plenty of other CDs (such as the recent Complete Song Collection series). Why this particular song isn't included is a mystery, indeed.

For those possibly unsure, the song in question is a neat synth piece that plays during DBZ episode 120; once when Trunks transforms into a Super Saiyan, and again at the end when Trunks slices Freeza into pieces. - VegettoEX

Q. Is that "Koi no Nazo Nazo" song (from DBZ Hit Song Collection 8 ½ Special) really Vegeta and Bulma's theme song? Just an old V/B fangirl checking up on random internet info. - Gaia Faye

A. See, that's the thing with these image songs...

Is it really *THE* Vegeta/Bulma love/theme song...? Well... only in-so-far as that's what it's called. It's just a song, that happens to be on a CD, that happens to be written about/for the two characters. It's not like the song was ever played in the series, nevermind in some amazing non-existent love scene for the two ^_~.

In case you're wondering, it's actually a duet between KÛKO and Tricky Shirai (NOT Hiromi Tsuru and Ryô Horikawa, Bulma and Vegeta, respectively), who have done plenty of other DBZ image songs on their own. - VegettoEX

Q. What exactly are the property of senzu? I know there has been a similar question before, but I'm getting to the point. There are two points, actually.

When first introduced, senzu keeps its eater from having to eat for ten days. It is later revealed that it restores the body from injury. In the Trunks Story in Volume 33 (if Viz didn't mistranslate this), Trunks claims that if there were still any senzu, Gohan could grow his arm back. If this is true, and senzu can heal permanent injuries as well as just basic battle damage, then what is the deal with Yamucha and Tenshinhan? Both of them develop scars around the same time in the story that both stick around for the duration of the series, even though I know they partake of senzu during the Cell saga at the very least. If it can regenerate limbs, why not eliminate scars?

And as long as I'm on the subject, why wouldn't death have gotten rid of them? I'm assuming that Kami-sama gave Ten his arm back just as he restored Chaozu's body. Since he did this, why not go ahead and heal them completely? Is there a time limit to this sort of thing? - LanceESR2

A. That's something we really don't have an answer for; beyond what Toriyama tells us it does, we don't exactly know. It wouldn't be the first time Toriyama's contradicted himself. :-P But as for a more logical explanation, it's possible that the Senzu will only heal wounds that haven't yet done so on their own. If we go by this idea, then it makes sense: since Yamcha and Tenshinhan only used senzu after their scars had set on their own, these had become a part of their "normal state," and therefore not something that would be healed by the bean's magical effects. I would assume that the reasoning of Kami-sama and Shenlong worked in much the same way.

So, it's possible that, had Gohan taken a Senzu fairly soon after being maimed, he might have been able to grow it back. However, this is only a theory, and nothing that gets expanded upon in the series. Take it as you will. - Julian

Q. Yamcha's Sôki-Dan is one of my favorite attacks in the series. Yamcha first uses it when he fights Shen/Kami at the 23rd Tenka-ichi Budôkai. However, did it appear in the manga, or was it an attack made specifically for the anime? - gojira007

A. Yep, the attack was indeed featured in the manga. Not a whole lot more we can say on the subject, since that's a pretty easy and straight-forward answer ^^;;.

I guess we can say that it would have been nice to... oh, I dunno... see the attack again in more than a filler-episode and a mediocre movie... - VegettoEX

Q. My #1 favorite attack in all of DB/Z/GT: Yamcha's Rôga-Fufu-Ken. What does that translate to in English? I don't fully trust FUNimation's "Wolf Fang Fist" out of sheer paranoia, but the fan-lations I've found don't ring true either. - gojira007

A. FUNimation's translation is actually pretty close, but it doesn't give the complete meaning of the phrase. Allow me to translate, character by character:

• 狼 ("rô," pronounced "ôkami" on its own) means "wolf."
• 牙 ("ga," pronounced "kiba" by itself) means "fang."
• 風 ("fû," pronounced "kaze" by itself) means "wind," but its doubling implies a strong wind. Going by the in-character Yamcha song "Wolf Hurricane," we can justifiably infer that "hurricane" is a good translation.
• 拳 ("ken," pronounced "kobushi" on its own) means "fist."

THIS WEEK'S MESSAGE BOARD DISCUSSION:

Q. Okay, I've always been slightly confused about these two. You have Ki, which is the Japanese version of Chi, essentially spirit energy. The fighters manipulate this to use techniques from flying to energy blasts. They can also surpress it to hide their presence from Ki detection devices (scouters) and those who can sense Ki. Ki seems to be the variable that is effected by training and transformations...

So what is Genki exactly, just life force? I mean, Ki seems to tie into life force also (Ten's Kikoho comes to mind) in the way that one can kill themselves by overextending their power.

Would all people have an equal amount of Genki, or would it be proportional to Ki? I'm just trying to grasp the two terms so I can fully understand them. - MajinVejitaXV

A. Read over the discussion, here! Looking forward to your thoughts!

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!

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