Dragon Ball Dissection: The Introduction

I am ringing in the new year with a new series: an arc by arc review and analysis of Dragon Ball. Which arc is the best? The worst? Well, you'll just have to tune in to find out!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• dragon ball
• manga
• review
• analysis
• dissection
• mistare fusion
• toriyama akira
• son goku

[grimmrevelationn]

Is it true that only DB material that is from the manga is cannon in the anime?

[MistareFusion]

@grimmrevelationn Well, material has to be "canon" to something. There is no big book or official declaration of canon in regards to Dragon Ball. Rather, think of Dragon Ball as separate continuities: the manga continuity and the television continuity. Under that guideline, it is logical to say that the manga is canon to the Dragon Ball that Toriyama drew, but Garlic Jr. is canon to the Dragon Ball that Toei Animation wrote.

[blowshimselfupdude]

I always put the saiyan and freeze arcs together.So I break the "Z era" down into Freeza arc, Cell arc, Buu arc. I'm curious why you break them up?

[MistareFusion]

@blowshimselfupdude In the Freeza arc, it's a new quest: to bring back those who died by going to Namek. It's set up by the previous arc, but it's a new location, a new villain, a new motive, a focus on different characters, and a totally different role for Vegeta. Sure, not all the threads from the Saiyan arc come to a close until the end of Freeza, but in terms of dramatic arc, the end of the fight with Vegeta feels like the end of falling action followed by resolution.

[MistareFusion]

@blowshimselfupdude Then Kuririn's idea to go to Namek likewise feels like a brand new plot setup, especially given the atmosphere of safety at a hospital and just a "regroup, start over, world now at peace" mentality. So, yeah, that's it in a nutshell. Good to hear from you. I miss you over at WRTR. I hope I'm living up to your legacy!

[blowshimselfupdude]

@MistareFusion Well that all makes perfect sense when you put it like that.

You're doing a great job on wrtr. Really hoping to have stable internet soon and be around for next season.

[UltraComet]

The way you divided the arcs PERFECTLY. I feel 100 percent the way about how they divide the sagas.

[Drayenball]

I love this! Great job you're doing.

[MistareFusion]

@grimmrevelationn Well, that depends. There are guidebooks with input from Toriyama that are written exclusively as companions to the manga, so that would be canon to it. Then you have designs and ideas that the television staff asked for Toriyama's input. For example, Toriyama came up with the cricket Gregory, but he only exists in the TV series, so you can't really say that it's canon to the manga, even though Toriyama created him because he created him for Toei's DB, not his.