March 12, 2024 • 23 mins
The news of Akira Toriyama's passing, leaves a void in the hearts of many, including my own. In an emotional journey, I share how the creator of Dragon Ball shaped not only my childhood but also the very fabric of my identity. As the unexpected news reached me, it sent me spiraling down memory lane, reminiscing about early morning viewings, the scramble to collect every VHS tape, and how Dragon Ball's humor and heart became a cornerstone of my own life story. Toriyama's global influence on manga and anime cannot be overstated, and as a long-time fan, I ponder the immeasurable impact of his storytelling genius.
As we bid farewell to a legend, I can't help but wonder about the future that awaits the Dragon Ball franchise. Should it forge ahead in its current trajectory, or would a new direction better honor the legacy of its creator?
As we bid farewell to a legend, I can't help but wonder about the future that awaits the Dragon Ball franchise. Should it forge ahead in its current trajectory, or would a new direction better honor the legacy of its creator?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to the WDYM, the what Do you Mean?
Podcast.
Now everyone gather around andlisten to one of Hamilton's best
podcasts.
No research to back this up.
Your host, Michael Gillespie.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And welcome to another episode of the WDYM.
I'm your host, michaelGillespie.
Hope everybody's doing good.
Hope everybody's doing well.
This episode is an impromptuepisode.
I didn't plan this.
I didn't write no-cliff notesor anything like this.
I was hit with something thatwas very personal to me On
(00:53):
Twitter, getting ready to go tobed at 10, 10.30 at night, and I
get on Twitter and one of thepeople I follow on Twitter
geeked in 101, puts out a tweetsaying Akira Toriyama, the
creator of Dragon Ball, is dead.
No joke, right?
So it's 10.30 at night.
I'm like man usually you knowGoogle or you know Safari,
(01:20):
something will be out there likea search at Akira Toriyama, and
it would confirm it.
And it wasn't the case.
So I stayed paying attention toX or Twitter or whatever you
want to call it.
I'm looking for something,someone else, to confirm it.
So he puts out the tweet sayingthat you know Akira Toriyama's
(01:41):
passed, and then, shortly later,the Dragon Ball website put out
a press release confirming whathas happened.
And I'm still I'm still amazedto hear this.
(02:01):
I'm still shocked to hear thatAkira Toriyama is gone Now.
Again, if you know, if youfollow Dragon Ball, you follow
Akira Toriyama.
This dude doesn't come out foranything right.
He just doesn't do media.
He just is real to himself,he's his own.
He just does not do any of thismedia and stuff like that.
(02:23):
So, as the press release comesout, this man died March 1st and
the first hearing about it was10 for me, 10.30 at night on
March 7th, and it was.
It's a shock to me that thisman is gone.
(02:43):
Like, if you know me personally,you know I love my drag, I love
Dragon Ball.
In my studio I have two postersup of the Z fighters and the
Saiyans Raditz, vegeta, napawhich is a good poster, by the
way, I think.
Shout out to my boy, dylan, forthe posters and everything.
So losing something like thatmeant easily stopped my world.
(03:09):
Now, when I say that there'sonly certain things outside of
my family that can stop my world, like if anything happens to
Elton John, billy Ocean, michaelJordan and Akira Toriyama, I
need to pause, because those arepeople that have heavily
influenced my life, and AkiraToriyama is definitely one of
(03:33):
them, because as the night wenton, where I'm looking for
sources and I'm looking forsomething to confirm it and
everything, I just see a wholebunch of people on Twitter, a
whole bunch of people onInstagram that are just as
shocked as I am.
And, funny as it was, as soon asI heard this news, dude, I
(03:56):
couldn't sleep.
I couldn't fall asleep or rest.
You know it's 10.39.
I got to get up at 5 o'clock toget ready for work.
Yeah, that's not happening.
One man's vision, manga, has hasan impact worldwide across you
know everybody.
Millions of people are affectedby Dragon Ball or Dragon Quest
(04:18):
or Chrono Trigger or I thinkanother one's, blue Dragon, but
I don't know, I've never readthat Sandland, I think that's
another one.
All his work has had someimpact, some touch on somebody,
and that's even including myself.
To hear that Akira Toyama isgone has really made me sad.
(04:39):
From a personal point, dragonBall has always been my thing
Since Junior High waking upearly in the morning and
watching the first episode whereRaditz comes to Earth and kills
the farmer, and that that thingtriggered so many things.
To this day, one of the thingsthat I used to love back then
(05:05):
was actually getting the VHStapes and yes, I'm dating myself
talking about the VHS tapes,but that was my thing.
I would go to Tri-County Malland over here in Ohio and go to
Suncoast Video and get thelatest VHS copies of Dragon Ball
(05:25):
Z.
And it was, it was, it was mything.
I would watch those nonstop,watch them, watch them nonstop,
periodically, all the time afterschool, like it was.
It was the Bible for me.
And I was never ashamed ofwatching anime, right, because
(05:49):
back in the 90s anime wasn'tvery popular.
Nobody was going like now youcan go to a theater and watch a
anime movie in a theater.
Let's, let's take a minute forthat and say that was not a
thing in the 90s.
It was more of a hey man, youwatch this show called Dragon
Ball or something like that.
(06:10):
And now it would perk my earsagain.
I may know a thing or two aboutDragon Ball I love, I used to
love Dragon Ball Z, but gorewinding or fast forwarding to
that.
I used to get the tapes all thetime and think about the VHS
tapes.
Have you lined them by on theirside to give a picture of the
latest saga and everything?
(06:31):
And I got to a point where thatpeople used to come to me for
the dragon.
I was a, I was a Dragon Balldistributor, you know say like,
yeah, man, michael, you got anyof those namex saga VHS.
I said, man, Do I ever you wantone or two of these?
I was the dealer for DragonBalls.
(06:51):
Yeah, that's how.
That's how I was back in the90s.
You know what I'm saying.
It was, it was.
It was just a great time to bea Dragon Ball fan.
And the thing about the VHStapes or buying the extra tapes
because it wasn't DVD, becauseDVDs were expensive Buying the
tapes I ran risk of you know,people damaging on them and
(07:14):
stuff, and boy I would have beenupset.
Another thing about getting theVHS I can go beyond the TV show
, because back in the day the TVshow would go all the way up to
a certain point and reset backto episode one.
So when I was getting those VHStapes, I'm ordered, I'm talking
about things they ain't evenheard about.
Yeah, yo, there's this kidnamed trunks comes out and he's
(07:36):
a Super Saiyan too.
And they were like oh, what'sthat?
What's like Mike, I need thosecopies.
Man and I was out there justdistributing Dragon Ball.
The thing about that is thatthat that sparked a passion.
So for so many things.
Again, you know that anime madeanime popular all Over the
(08:00):
United States and then, oncethat came out, then you got the
big three with bleach, not a toeand one piece, and just to say
that Dragon Ball was the takeofffor anime in the US and and
that was just amazing to me.
That was just one of the thingsthat Made me who I am.
(08:20):
And now I Always wondered likehow much life lessons or
anything that I learned fromDragon Ball?
It was just, you know, always,you know, being humble.
That's the one thing I learned.
I, at least what I picked upwas from Goku that he was always
humble and anxious to helppeople and all that stuff.
So you know, I I'm verythankful for a Kirito Yama and
(08:47):
his creation of Dragon Ball, andit doesn't go there like one of
the things that Stands out tome when we, when we talk about
Dragon Ball and everything, wasthe movies, man, I used to watch
.
I used to watch the moviesconstantly.
Before the Super Saiyan stuffhappened.
It was dead zone, tree of mightand the world's strongest dead
(09:10):
zone Tree of might, worldstrongest.
I used to watch those thingsreligiously Ocean dub, mind you,
ocean dub, ocean dub, theoriginal og and everything I
love, smoking.
I used to watch thoseReligiously and it's like, like
it's so, it's, it's just so.
(09:31):
It was so fun for me to watchthis movies.
I get everything in One onesetting.
You know I don't have to waittill next time on Dragon Ball Z.
I get everything.
Then in there, boom, boom, bang, bang and I'm up.
You know that's it.
And I could watch it again andagain and again.
Just analyze, do all that stuff.
I used to be so knowledgeable ofDragon Ball.
(09:55):
I used to like when peoplewould talk about things like the
power levels listen do.
Power levels are trash, don'tgo by power levels.
That was still that's still oneof the Most debatable things
and with the Dragon Ballcommunity, power levels are
trash.
And I used to go on aboutthings and hype and theories and
all that stuff.
And Another thing about DragonBall that I'm always
(10:17):
appreciative of is that IBranched off and, you know,
decided.
When I started writing, Istarted writing my own Dragon
Ball story and when I used towrite, I used to write like you
know, different things,different aspects and all that,
and I was like wait a minute.
I started seeing people likewho can draw Dragon Ball?
(10:39):
You know draw, you know docommissions and all stuff, and
that started back in, you know,mid 2000s and all that stuff,
2014, whatever and that led meto meet another Dragon Ball fans
, or at least artists that doDragon Ball.
All that because of a KiraToyama's vision.
That Vision led to me writingmore and making my own
(11:00):
characters, creating my ownideas and Eventually writing my
own version of the manga.
Now, you know, and in doing allthese commissions so all that
Goes back to a Kira Toyama, youknow, like because of his vision
, I was able to write my ownthings and meet new people, who,
who do commissions and stuff,and I'm so eternally thankful
(11:26):
for that.
You know, if it wasn't forDragon Ball, I would never have
met some of the artists thatI've had, like, numerous
conversations with, like EricBabs, one of the guys who did my
commissions for a while.
Ishii 1694, the guy Iconstantly work out, james D
Frosty all these people thatI've met that love Dragon Ball
(11:46):
that has a connection to AkiraToyama, king Kino Arts.
I cannot forget him.
That's one of my favoriteartists too.
All these people I've metbecause of Dragon.
Ball and they've done wondersfor me, as far as you know,
taking my ideas and giving themlife.
(12:07):
I've always, always, always,always appreciated all the
artists that do commissions forme, and it's all because of
Akira Toyama.
So the question now is what inthe world is going to happen
with Dragon Ball?
One of the most popular IPs inJapan.
(12:28):
Worldwide has lost its creator.
I see that you know, thecreator of Yu-Gi-Oh passed away
recently.
Me personally, I haven't seenanything since then.
Now, mind you, I'm not thebiggest Yu-Gi-Oh fan, like I was
in the early 2000s and stuff,but when you lose a creator,
(12:49):
where do you go from this?
Now I wonder if Torotaro, theguy who's doing the manga now,
what's he going to do?
Are we still going to getDragon Ball Super?
Or about Dragon Ball Diamond,which is supposed to come out in
2024?
I'm pretty sure it's already inproduction and everything.
(13:09):
But where are the ideas?
Is it doomed?
Is Dragon Ball doomed to goaway?
And I also wonder what's theonline community going to do as
soon as something that we don'tlike or something that doesn't
fit the idea of Dragon Ball, orwhat are we going to say?
(13:31):
Well, if Akira Toyama was stillhere, it wouldn't be this way.
So it's a weird situation we'rein as a Dragon Ball fan in the
community as well, and it goesto show.
And one of the things that Ismirk about is because I just
started talking about DragonBall on the podcast.
(13:53):
I think I did last two episodeswith Dragon Ball podcast.
Now this one's going to beanother episode of Dragon Ball
and as a little episode I don'teven want to put out there.
I don't want to put thisepisode out there because it's
near and dear to me, like dudethis is.
It's rough, man.
It's rough when you lose thepeople that inspire you, that
(14:14):
make you happy, and it's just ajoy to be here on this earth and
everything.
And now that he's gone, it'slike it's the biggest downer
ever.
Like I said, my studio has twoposters.
I got Sinsu beans, two energydrinks that are all Dragon Ball
related that, mind you, I'mnever open those energy drinks,
(14:35):
but this is like I got all thisinfluence and now the creators
gone.
It's just such a big mentalblow to me that this has
happened and I'm hoping that youknow, like you always want your
, your favorite things to keepgoing on forever and this is the
(14:55):
greatest showing thateverything lasts forever and you
have to take time to enjoy themoments you have on earth.
So I'm just out of lost words,man, I'm.
I'm mentally trying to get likeagain.
I took off work Friday and Ihad to weekend off, kind of had
crystal classic this weekend,but like I'm trying to wrap my
(15:18):
head around moving on and itsounds weird that I'm saying
that, like you know, moving onfrom this situation, but you
have to, you know what I meanLike I know he's gone and I feel
like, even even though he'sgone and everything like the IP
is in good hands I'm hoping, I'mhaving faith in that, because
I've had no problem with DragonBall Super other than retelling
(15:38):
the stories over and over andover and over again, telling us
a superhero which has alreadybeen a movie or that stuff.
So I'm hoping that the propertyis in good hands and that it
continues to prosper, or thatstuff, so what?
So I'm very I'm anxious to seewhat happens for the rest of
(16:00):
this year as far as Dragon Ballcontent and all that stuff.
And I don't want to soundgreedy or anything like that,
but it's like Do you want thisto continue?
I mean me personally.
Yes, of course I do want DragonBall to continue, but at what
point?
Like, what do you?
What do you do in thissituation when the creator dies
(16:22):
and I'm pretty sure he hasmemoirs and everything like that
, like of what, what he wasdoing, what he's writing.
I'm pretty sure there's stuffout there or on his desk or in
his person, but I wonder, what's, what's next?
Do you just even, do you juststart over?
Do you just say, hey, westarted a new direction, go to,
I mean, I think In the, in thelooking, looking forward.
(16:45):
Do you just build your ownDragon Ball?
You know, we've been in what?
The North Hemisphere, theseventh, the seventh universe.
What do we do somethingdifferent with the fans?
We vote.
I mean, like, I don't meanpersonally, but I was taken over
, taking over a character Yama'swork and doing Dragon Ball.
I don't know if I feelcomfortable continuing to write
(17:05):
Dragon Ball as is.
Do you put a in cap on the storywe got with Goku and Vegeta,
gohan and all that stuff?
Do we put in cap, say, look,look, let's tell the story for a
year and then create a newstory, a new universe, new
characters and all that stuff.
Would that be a way of honoringa character, yama?
That's a good question in mybook.
(17:25):
What would?
What would, what would you doin that situation?
I mean, if we continue DragonBall but tell a different aspect
of it, because you can't matchwhat a character Yama has done?
You know, the thing with thething with Dragon Ball was that
there is some humor in DragonBall.
Prime example, goku, one of thestrongest warriors in the whole
(17:49):
series, is afraid of needles.
You know, majin Buu will fallasleep in the middle of battle
because he's bored of takingbeating your tail in.
Those are things that are, thatare a character Yama's type.
Funnies that remain, I get nomore.
So it may be good to honor himby doing a different direction.
(18:10):
But then we get close to thatblack panther thing, which is
which is a whole another story,for a whole another time.
So it's a question of what isthe right thing to do.
Going forward, I'm hoping.
I'm hoping that he may be leftWell, I mean, I'm pretty sure he
didn't know he was going to dieeither.
(18:30):
So it's like he was only 68.
Can you imagine passing away at68 years old?
You know, we all aim to live aslong as we can, but 68, man,
that's, that's young man.
And the thing is like how hedied.
He died from a blow to the headand I think it was like a blood
clot.
(18:50):
I haven't read it because Idon't want to read it.
I don't, I don't want to readhow One of the most influential
people in my life passed away.
So I don't know, it's just justa very bitter pill to swallow,
just sucks.
It just sucks to lose somebodythat has brought so much joy to
(19:13):
the world and everything.
So yeah, so one of my favoritethings of Dragon Ball has always
been the characters, the sidecharacters.
Man, I mean, we all love Gokuand all that stuff, but man,
I've always loved Krillin.
The thing I love about Krillinwas that, like he's this one,
(19:36):
well one, he's one of theshortest people on Dragon Ball,
and that speaks to me.
And the man was bald too,because I used to rock the ball
too, but bald.
And one thing about Krillinlike he was willing to fight,
you know, he was willing to getdown and fight, like hey, I may
be short, I may be from Earth, Iain't no stinkin saying, but I
am going to fight, and that wassomething I always thought was
(19:59):
cool Krillin.
And then, on top of that, on topof that, my boy got one of the
baddest women in Dragon Ballwith the Android 18.
So then, a boo boo, I got thegirl and all that stuff.
That was one of the things Iloved about Dragon Ball.
One of the things I absolutelyhated about Dragon Ball will
always be sell.
(20:20):
I freaking hate it so so much.
I mean, the thing about sell isthat One.
He was a punk, picking on allthe humans and taking their
energy, and then then, when hegot to a point where you know
his old thing was to be perfectand be the perfect Android, just
that and the other you startwhining.
(20:41):
I hated that.
There's one part where he wasgetting his butt handed by
Vegeta and he was up therescreaming it's not fair, I gotta
do.
What are you talking about?
You've been eating all thesehumans this whole time.
Now you want to whine.
It's not fair, because Vegetais putting his hands on you.
I haven't hated that about so,and then, on top of that, he
(21:02):
manipulated it.
Yeah, well, you, let me do it,and you're 17.
You'll get to match you One.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I said.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But she's like, really, what's going on?
What are you talking about?
Beat him and go home and fightKakarot or something.
You know, I just couldn't standthat the thing about sell.
He just manipulated people andhe was perfect.
What do you do?
He mopped the hell out of thecheetah.
He had a lot of cheetah, servedhim right, and then he beat
(21:31):
trunks.
And then he's sitting there and, oh man, I could go on and on
about how much I hate sell.
He made a tournament that yougot 10 days and then sat there
just chilling and then you wantto go around terrorizing people.
I couldn't stand.
So I hate sell to this day,even post super and I'm not
talking about GT, I think sellsthe worst enemy, worst villain
(21:56):
of all time.
I cannot stand sell At all Atall.
So yeah, now, now in the episode.
So, um, you know, thank you,kirito Yama.
Thank you for so much man, Imean dude, I wonder what my life
(22:18):
would be without Dragon Ball.
Seriously, there are so manypeople, so many artists, so many
commissions that I've doneinspired by Dragon Ball, and now
that he's, now that he's gone,it's, it's um, I wonder, I
wonder what the future holds forDragon Ball.
So, that being said, yeah, um,so you know, it's just still a
(22:50):
bitter pill to swallow.
It's just the sucks.
Uh, man, thinking about itright now just not cool.
Um, thank you for tuning in, asalways, to the WDYM Show.
Quite, seasons finally over, soI get back to doing my thing
(23:13):
Because, man, it's required.
It takes a lot of boy.
You never thought of singingand dancing.
It takes so much out of you,but it does.
Uh, I'm your host of the WDYM,michael Gillespie.
Thank you, as always, fortuning in.
Make sure you love each other,man, because you never know when
time is up.
Peace out girl scout, boy scout, peace.
You're listening to the WDYM, the what Do you Mean?
Podcast.
Now everyone gather around andlisten to one of Hamilton's best
podcasts.
No research to back this up.
Your host, Michael Gillespie.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And welcome to another episode of the WDYM.
I'm your host, michaelGillespie.
Hope everybody's doing good.
Hope everybody's doing well.
This episode is an impromptuepisode.
I didn't plan this.
I didn't write no-cliff notesor anything like this.
I was hit with something thatwas very personal to me On
(00:53):
Twitter, getting ready to go tobed at 10, 10.30 at night, and I
get on Twitter and one of thepeople I follow on Twitter
geeked in 101, puts out a tweetsaying Akira Toriyama, the
creator of Dragon Ball, is dead.
No joke, right?
So it's 10.30 at night.
I'm like man usually you knowGoogle or you know Safari,
(01:20):
something will be out there likea search at Akira Toriyama, and
it would confirm it.
And it wasn't the case.
So I stayed paying attention toX or Twitter or whatever you
want to call it.
I'm looking for something,someone else, to confirm it.
So he puts out the tweet sayingthat you know Akira Toriyama's
(01:41):
passed, and then, shortly later,the Dragon Ball website put out
a press release confirming whathas happened.
And I'm still I'm still amazedto hear this.
(02:01):
I'm still shocked to hear thatAkira Toriyama is gone Now.
Again, if you know, if youfollow Dragon Ball, you follow
Akira Toriyama.
This dude doesn't come out foranything right.
He just doesn't do media.
He just is real to himself,he's his own.
He just does not do any of thismedia and stuff like that.
(02:23):
So, as the press release comesout, this man died March 1st and
the first hearing about it was10 for me, 10.30 at night on
March 7th, and it was.
It's a shock to me that thisman is gone.
(02:43):
Like, if you know me personally,you know I love my drag, I love
Dragon Ball.
In my studio I have two postersup of the Z fighters and the
Saiyans Raditz, vegeta, napawhich is a good poster, by the
way, I think.
Shout out to my boy, dylan, forthe posters and everything.
So losing something like thatmeant easily stopped my world.
(03:09):
Now, when I say that there'sonly certain things outside of
my family that can stop my world, like if anything happens to
Elton John, billy Ocean, michaelJordan and Akira Toriyama, I
need to pause, because those arepeople that have heavily
influenced my life, and AkiraToriyama is definitely one of
(03:33):
them, because as the night wenton, where I'm looking for
sources and I'm looking forsomething to confirm it and
everything, I just see a wholebunch of people on Twitter, a
whole bunch of people onInstagram that are just as
shocked as I am.
And, funny as it was, as soon asI heard this news, dude, I
(03:56):
couldn't sleep.
I couldn't fall asleep or rest.
You know it's 10.39.
I got to get up at 5 o'clock toget ready for work.
Yeah, that's not happening.
One man's vision, manga, has hasan impact worldwide across you
know everybody.
Millions of people are affectedby Dragon Ball or Dragon Quest
(04:18):
or Chrono Trigger or I thinkanother one's, blue Dragon, but
I don't know, I've never readthat Sandland, I think that's
another one.
All his work has had someimpact, some touch on somebody,
and that's even including myself.
To hear that Akira Toyama isgone has really made me sad.
(04:39):
From a personal point, dragonBall has always been my thing
Since Junior High waking upearly in the morning and
watching the first episode whereRaditz comes to Earth and kills
the farmer, and that that thingtriggered so many things.
To this day, one of the thingsthat I used to love back then
(05:05):
was actually getting the VHStapes and yes, I'm dating myself
talking about the VHS tapes,but that was my thing.
I would go to Tri-County Malland over here in Ohio and go to
Suncoast Video and get thelatest VHS copies of Dragon Ball
(05:25):
Z.
And it was, it was, it was mything.
I would watch those nonstop,watch them, watch them nonstop,
periodically, all the time afterschool, like it was.
It was the Bible for me.
And I was never ashamed ofwatching anime, right, because
(05:49):
back in the 90s anime wasn'tvery popular.
Nobody was going like now youcan go to a theater and watch a
anime movie in a theater.
Let's, let's take a minute forthat and say that was not a
thing in the 90s.
It was more of a hey man, youwatch this show called Dragon
Ball or something like that.
(06:10):
And now it would perk my earsagain.
I may know a thing or two aboutDragon Ball I love, I used to
love Dragon Ball Z, but gorewinding or fast forwarding to
that.
I used to get the tapes all thetime and think about the VHS
tapes.
Have you lined them by on theirside to give a picture of the
latest saga and everything?
(06:31):
And I got to a point where thatpeople used to come to me for
the dragon.
I was a, I was a Dragon Balldistributor, you know say like,
yeah, man, michael, you got anyof those namex saga VHS.
I said, man, Do I ever you wantone or two of these?
I was the dealer for DragonBalls.
(06:51):
Yeah, that's how.
That's how I was back in the90s.
You know what I'm saying.
It was, it was.
It was just a great time to bea Dragon Ball fan.
And the thing about the VHStapes or buying the extra tapes
because it wasn't DVD, becauseDVDs were expensive Buying the
tapes I ran risk of you know,people damaging on them and
(07:14):
stuff, and boy I would have beenupset.
Another thing about getting theVHS I can go beyond the TV show
, because back in the day the TVshow would go all the way up to
a certain point and reset backto episode one.
So when I was getting those VHStapes, I'm ordered, I'm talking
about things they ain't evenheard about.
Yeah, yo, there's this kidnamed trunks comes out and he's
(07:36):
a Super Saiyan too.
And they were like oh, what'sthat?
What's like Mike, I need thosecopies.
Man and I was out there justdistributing Dragon Ball.
The thing about that is thatthat that sparked a passion.
So for so many things.
Again, you know that anime madeanime popular all Over the
(08:00):
United States and then, oncethat came out, then you got the
big three with bleach, not a toeand one piece, and just to say
that Dragon Ball was the takeofffor anime in the US and and
that was just amazing to me.
That was just one of the thingsthat Made me who I am.
(08:20):
And now I Always wondered likehow much life lessons or
anything that I learned fromDragon Ball?
It was just, you know, always,you know, being humble.
That's the one thing I learned.
I, at least what I picked upwas from Goku that he was always
humble and anxious to helppeople and all that stuff.
So you know, I I'm verythankful for a Kirito Yama and
(08:47):
his creation of Dragon Ball, andit doesn't go there like one of
the things that Stands out tome when we, when we talk about
Dragon Ball and everything, wasthe movies, man, I used to watch
.
I used to watch the moviesconstantly.
Before the Super Saiyan stuffhappened.
It was dead zone, tree of mightand the world's strongest dead
(09:10):
zone Tree of might, worldstrongest.
I used to watch those thingsreligiously Ocean dub, mind you,
ocean dub, ocean dub, theoriginal og and everything I
love, smoking.
I used to watch thoseReligiously and it's like, like
it's so, it's, it's just so.
(09:31):
It was so fun for me to watchthis movies.
I get everything in One onesetting.
You know I don't have to waittill next time on Dragon Ball Z.
I get everything.
Then in there, boom, boom, bang, bang and I'm up.
You know that's it.
And I could watch it again andagain and again.
Just analyze, do all that stuff.
I used to be so knowledgeable ofDragon Ball.
(09:55):
I used to like when peoplewould talk about things like the
power levels listen do.
Power levels are trash, don'tgo by power levels.
That was still that's still oneof the Most debatable things
and with the Dragon Ballcommunity, power levels are
trash.
And I used to go on aboutthings and hype and theories and
all that stuff.
And Another thing about DragonBall that I'm always
(10:17):
appreciative of is that IBranched off and, you know,
decided.
When I started writing, Istarted writing my own Dragon
Ball story and when I used towrite, I used to write like you
know, different things,different aspects and all that,
and I was like wait a minute.
I started seeing people likewho can draw Dragon Ball?
(10:39):
You know draw, you know docommissions and all stuff, and
that started back in, you know,mid 2000s and all that stuff,
2014, whatever and that led meto meet another Dragon Ball fans
, or at least artists that doDragon Ball.
All that because of a KiraToyama's vision.
That Vision led to me writingmore and making my own
(11:00):
characters, creating my ownideas and Eventually writing my
own version of the manga.
Now, you know, and in doing allthese commissions so all that
Goes back to a Kira Toyama, youknow, like because of his vision
, I was able to write my ownthings and meet new people, who,
who do commissions and stuff,and I'm so eternally thankful
(11:26):
for that.
You know, if it wasn't forDragon Ball, I would never have
met some of the artists thatI've had, like, numerous
conversations with, like EricBabs, one of the guys who did my
commissions for a while.
Ishii 1694, the guy Iconstantly work out, james D
Frosty all these people thatI've met that love Dragon Ball
(11:46):
that has a connection to AkiraToyama, king Kino Arts.
I cannot forget him.
That's one of my favoriteartists too.
All these people I've metbecause of Dragon.
Ball and they've done wondersfor me, as far as you know,
taking my ideas and giving themlife.
(12:07):
I've always, always, always,always appreciated all the
artists that do commissions forme, and it's all because of
Akira Toyama.
So the question now is what inthe world is going to happen
with Dragon Ball?
One of the most popular IPs inJapan.
(12:28):
Worldwide has lost its creator.
I see that you know, thecreator of Yu-Gi-Oh passed away
recently.
Me personally, I haven't seenanything since then.
Now, mind you, I'm not thebiggest Yu-Gi-Oh fan, like I was
in the early 2000s and stuff,but when you lose a creator,
(12:49):
where do you go from this?
Now I wonder if Torotaro, theguy who's doing the manga now,
what's he going to do?
Are we still going to getDragon Ball Super?
Or about Dragon Ball Diamond,which is supposed to come out in
2024?
I'm pretty sure it's already inproduction and everything.
(13:09):
But where are the ideas?
Is it doomed?
Is Dragon Ball doomed to goaway?
And I also wonder what's theonline community going to do as
soon as something that we don'tlike or something that doesn't
fit the idea of Dragon Ball, orwhat are we going to say?
(13:31):
Well, if Akira Toyama was stillhere, it wouldn't be this way.
So it's a weird situation we'rein as a Dragon Ball fan in the
community as well, and it goesto show.
And one of the things that Ismirk about is because I just
started talking about DragonBall on the podcast.
(13:53):
I think I did last two episodeswith Dragon Ball podcast.
Now this one's going to beanother episode of Dragon Ball
and as a little episode I don'teven want to put out there.
I don't want to put thisepisode out there because it's
near and dear to me, like dudethis is.
It's rough, man.
It's rough when you lose thepeople that inspire you, that
(14:14):
make you happy, and it's just ajoy to be here on this earth and
everything.
And now that he's gone, it'slike it's the biggest downer
ever.
Like I said, my studio has twoposters.
I got Sinsu beans, two energydrinks that are all Dragon Ball
related that, mind you, I'mnever open those energy drinks,
(14:35):
but this is like I got all thisinfluence and now the creators
gone.
It's just such a big mentalblow to me that this has
happened and I'm hoping that youknow, like you always want your
, your favorite things to keepgoing on forever and this is the
(14:55):
greatest showing thateverything lasts forever and you
have to take time to enjoy themoments you have on earth.
So I'm just out of lost words,man, I'm.
I'm mentally trying to get likeagain.
I took off work Friday and Ihad to weekend off, kind of had
crystal classic this weekend,but like I'm trying to wrap my
(15:18):
head around moving on and itsounds weird that I'm saying
that, like you know, moving onfrom this situation, but you
have to, you know what I meanLike I know he's gone and I feel
like, even even though he'sgone and everything like the IP
is in good hands I'm hoping, I'mhaving faith in that, because
I've had no problem with DragonBall Super other than retelling
(15:38):
the stories over and over andover and over again, telling us
a superhero which has alreadybeen a movie or that stuff.
So I'm hoping that the propertyis in good hands and that it
continues to prosper, or thatstuff, so what?
So I'm very I'm anxious to seewhat happens for the rest of
(16:00):
this year as far as Dragon Ballcontent and all that stuff.
And I don't want to soundgreedy or anything like that,
but it's like Do you want thisto continue?
I mean me personally.
Yes, of course I do want DragonBall to continue, but at what
point?
Like, what do you?
What do you do in thissituation when the creator dies
(16:22):
and I'm pretty sure he hasmemoirs and everything like that
, like of what, what he wasdoing, what he's writing.
I'm pretty sure there's stuffout there or on his desk or in
his person, but I wonder, what's, what's next?
Do you just even, do you juststart over?
Do you just say, hey, westarted a new direction, go to,
I mean, I think In the, in thelooking, looking forward.
(16:45):
Do you just build your ownDragon Ball?
You know, we've been in what?
The North Hemisphere, theseventh, the seventh universe.
What do we do somethingdifferent with the fans?
We vote.
I mean, like, I don't meanpersonally, but I was taken over
, taking over a character Yama'swork and doing Dragon Ball.
I don't know if I feelcomfortable continuing to write
(17:05):
Dragon Ball as is.
Do you put a in cap on the storywe got with Goku and Vegeta,
gohan and all that stuff?
Do we put in cap, say, look,look, let's tell the story for a
year and then create a newstory, a new universe, new
characters and all that stuff.
Would that be a way of honoringa character, yama?
That's a good question in mybook.
(17:25):
What would?
What would, what would you doin that situation?
I mean, if we continue DragonBall but tell a different aspect
of it, because you can't matchwhat a character Yama has done?
You know, the thing with thething with Dragon Ball was that
there is some humor in DragonBall.
Prime example, goku, one of thestrongest warriors in the whole
(17:49):
series, is afraid of needles.
You know, majin Buu will fallasleep in the middle of battle
because he's bored of takingbeating your tail in.
Those are things that are, thatare a character Yama's type.
Funnies that remain, I get nomore.
So it may be good to honor himby doing a different direction.
(18:10):
But then we get close to thatblack panther thing, which is
which is a whole another story,for a whole another time.
So it's a question of what isthe right thing to do.
Going forward, I'm hoping.
I'm hoping that he may be leftWell, I mean, I'm pretty sure he
didn't know he was going to dieeither.
(18:30):
So it's like he was only 68.
Can you imagine passing away at68 years old?
You know, we all aim to live aslong as we can, but 68, man,
that's, that's young man.
And the thing is like how hedied.
He died from a blow to the headand I think it was like a blood
clot.
(18:50):
I haven't read it because Idon't want to read it.
I don't, I don't want to readhow One of the most influential
people in my life passed away.
So I don't know, it's just justa very bitter pill to swallow,
just sucks.
It just sucks to lose somebodythat has brought so much joy to
(19:13):
the world and everything.
So yeah, so one of my favoritethings of Dragon Ball has always
been the characters, the sidecharacters.
Man, I mean, we all love Gokuand all that stuff, but man,
I've always loved Krillin.
The thing I love about Krillinwas that, like he's this one,
(19:36):
well one, he's one of theshortest people on Dragon Ball,
and that speaks to me.
And the man was bald too,because I used to rock the ball
too, but bald.
And one thing about Krillinlike he was willing to fight,
you know, he was willing to getdown and fight, like hey, I may
be short, I may be from Earth, Iain't no stinkin saying, but I
am going to fight, and that wassomething I always thought was
(19:59):
cool Krillin.
And then, on top of that, on topof that, my boy got one of the
baddest women in Dragon Ballwith the Android 18.
So then, a boo boo, I got thegirl and all that stuff.
That was one of the things Iloved about Dragon Ball.
One of the things I absolutelyhated about Dragon Ball will
always be sell.
(20:20):
I freaking hate it so so much.
I mean, the thing about sell isthat One.
He was a punk, picking on allthe humans and taking their
energy, and then then, when hegot to a point where you know
his old thing was to be perfectand be the perfect Android, just
that and the other you startwhining.
(20:41):
I hated that.
There's one part where he wasgetting his butt handed by
Vegeta and he was up therescreaming it's not fair, I gotta
do.
What are you talking about?
You've been eating all thesehumans this whole time.
Now you want to whine.
It's not fair, because Vegetais putting his hands on you.
I haven't hated that about so,and then, on top of that, he
(21:02):
manipulated it.
Yeah, well, you, let me do it,and you're 17.
You'll get to match you One.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I said.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But she's like, really, what's going on?
What are you talking about?
Beat him and go home and fightKakarot or something.
You know, I just couldn't standthat the thing about sell.
He just manipulated people andhe was perfect.
What do you do?
He mopped the hell out of thecheetah.
He had a lot of cheetah, servedhim right, and then he beat
(21:31):
trunks.
And then he's sitting there and, oh man, I could go on and on
about how much I hate sell.
He made a tournament that yougot 10 days and then sat there
just chilling and then you wantto go around terrorizing people.
I couldn't stand.
So I hate sell to this day,even post super and I'm not
talking about GT, I think sellsthe worst enemy, worst villain
(21:56):
of all time.
I cannot stand sell At all Atall.
So yeah, now, now in the episode.
So, um, you know, thank you,kirito Yama.
Thank you for so much man, Imean dude, I wonder what my life
(22:18):
would be without Dragon Ball.
Seriously, there are so manypeople, so many artists, so many
commissions that I've doneinspired by Dragon Ball, and now
that he's, now that he's gone,it's, it's um, I wonder, I
wonder what the future holds forDragon Ball.
So, that being said, yeah, um,so you know, it's just still a
(22:50):
bitter pill to swallow.
It's just the sucks.
Uh, man, thinking about itright now just not cool.
Um, thank you for tuning in, asalways, to the WDYM Show.
Quite, seasons finally over, soI get back to doing my thing
(23:13):
Because, man, it's required.
It takes a lot of boy.
You never thought of singingand dancing.
It takes so much out of you,but it does.
Uh, I'm your host of the WDYM,michael Gillespie.
Thank you, as always, fortuning in.
Make sure you love each other,man, because you never know when
time is up.
Peace out girl scout, boy scout, peace.
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