Final Forum: A Dragon Ball Podcast

What happens when a creator from a racially homogenous society tackles the intricacies of indigenous peoples in North America? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episode 58, "The Land of Korin." We continue discussing the Red Ribbon Army, and get into how Indigenous People are portrayed in Dragon Ball and why they are po...

Toriyama's manga continues! But does it retain its panache? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 56 and 57, "Strange Visitor, " and "Arale vs. Blue." We continue discussing the Red Ribbon Army, the walking contradiction that is General Blue, continue talking about Dr. Slump, and do our usual end-of-arc manga compa...

What happens when Akira Toriyama partakes in the time-honored tradition of the franchise crossover? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 and 55, "The Trap is Sprung," "Beware of Robot," "The Pirate Treasure," "Blue Black and Blue," "Escape from Pirate Cave" and "Penguin Village." We continue dis...

Can a mangaka with traditional values from a country as historically conservative as Japan create a good quality LGBTQ character? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 46, 47, 48 and 49, "Bulma's Bad Day," "Kame House - Found!" "Deep Blue Sea," and "Roshi Surprise." We continue discussing the Red Ribbon Army, the w...

Jelli and Bekinney continue their break from breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon, and pivot away from tearing into the manga and anime that are the most crucial parts of the Dragon Ball franchise to have a little themed fun! In this episode: It's TOURNAMENT SEASON! Kick off your shoes, relax, and listen as we break down 32 of Dragon Ball's most popular (?) character...

Jelli and Bekinney take a break from breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon, and pivot away from tearing into the manga and anime that are the most crucial parts of the Dragon Ball franchise to have a little themed fun! In this episode: It's TOURNAMENT SEASON! Kick off your shoes, relax, and listen as we break down 64 of Dragon Ball's most popular (?) characters and di...

What happens when Toriyama inverts Dragon Ball's entire fish-out-of-water dynamic? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 44 and 45, "Master Thief, Hasky," and "Danger in the Air." We continue discussing the Red Ribbon Army,  break down some trivia on a few filler episodes, and have a discussion about how society is...

Can a shameless board game tie-in still be a fun time? Jelli and Bekinney have no time to continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime Dragon Ball. In this episode: Jelli and Bekinney are MISSING! Audio from when your heroic hosts first met one another and played Dragon Ball Z Clue We discuss the pieces inside the Clue box, and talk about the classic whodunit game. Join us and...

Jelli and Bekinney have no time to continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime Dragon Ball. In this episode: The climactic battle! Join us and find out if we will ever continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise. https://www.facebook.com/FinalForumPodcast https://twitter.com/finalforumpod...

Will the Dragon Ball manga continue to impress? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 42 and 43, "The Secret of Dr. Flappe," and "A Trip to the City." We dig further into the Red Ribbon Army,  break down some trivia on a few filler episodes, and compare the Muscle Tower manga chapters to the episodes of the anime....

What does EVERYONE get wrong when discussing Androids in Dragon Ball? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 39, 40 and 41, "Mysterious Android No. 8," "Horrifying Buyon," and "The Fall of Muscle Tower." We dig further into the Red Ribbon Army and Goku's challenges as he continues along, the Frankenstein-like Androi...

Can early-era video games hold the attention of people with more modern sensibilities and demands of their games? Jelli and Bekinney take a break from Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon (because we don't do enough of that, right?) by breaking down some early video games. We're talking about Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō, aka Secret of the Dragon from the Super Casette Vision; Dra...

Is it racially inappropriate if a Japanese creator makes every ninja joke under the sun? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 37 and 38, "Ninja Murasaki is Coming," and "The Five Murasakis" and we dig further into the Red Ribbon Army and Goku's challenge on floor 4: a deadly ninja assassin In this episode: INVASIO...

It's the last episode of Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular! Can we connect an Osamu Tezuka manga to the world of Dragon Ball? Listen NOW! In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney break down Osamu Tezuka's manga and anime Don Dracula. It's part of our October/Halloween Festivities where we're taking a break from breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon and delving i...

Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular! In this special Bekinney-only mini-sode we take a complete break from format, and from breaking down Akira Toriyama's manga and anime smash success to continue our October/Halloween Festivities and on this episode, it's all about looks, because looks are similar to costumes and costumes are a big part of Halloween. AND we've already establis...

Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular! What does Godzilla have to do with Dragon Ball? Listen to FIND OUT! In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney are joined by Kyle Byrd and Matt Parmley of the Kaiju Transmissions Podcast for a fun break from format and into the world of Godzilla films. It's part of our October/Halloween Festivities where we're taking a break from breaking down Akir...

Welcome to Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular! In this special Jelli-only mini-sode we take a complete break from format, and from breaking down Akira Toriyama's manga and anime smash success to begin our October/Halloween Festivities and on this episode, it's all about looks, because looks are similar to costumes and costumes are a big part of Halloween. That makes sense right? Right? S...

Is the Red Ribbon Army a placeholder for the communist armies of Soviet Russia and Communist China? How did the dire state of the Japanese film industries in the 1970s impact Akira Toriyama? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episodes 35 and 36 of the show, "Cold Reception," and "Major Metallitron" and we dig further int...

New movie! New animation style! New discussions! Jelli and Bekinney take a break from Akira Toriyama's manga/anime once again to discuss a NEW MOVIE!  In this episode: Jelli and Bekinney discuss Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero but FIRST We have some news items to discuss We talk about the collaboration between Swatch and Dragon Ball Z and discuss the watches for Goku, Vegeta, Master Roshi, Frieza, C...

What happens when Toriyama begins earnestly incorporating Western references into his Eastern mythology-based manga? Do we have the wherewithal to do some psychological analysis? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by breaking down episode 34 of the show, "Cruel Commander Red" and we dig into the Red Ribbon Army In this episode: Jelli and...

Which episodes of Dragon Ball had to be edited due to the September 11th World Trade Center attack? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by jumping back into the show, and delving into how filler is important when creating an anime based on a manga. We discuss the episodes "The Roaming Lake", "Pilaf and the Mystery Force", "Wedding Plans?"...

What's the origin of Dragon Ball? Did Toriyama ever workshop this idea or did he just plow forward? Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by remaining off the show itself, and delving into some background information on Dragon Ball, specifically, by tackling the genesis of Dragon Ball, and its prototypes via some of Akira Toriyama's one-off...

It's a COMMENTARY TRACK! Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by ...jumping off the manga and onto a feature film commentary for the first time ever! In this episode: Jelli and Bekinney find themselves adrift in space We sync up our audio commentary for the listeners We discuss some of the production facts about the film Dragon Ball Curse...

Jelli and Bekinney continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by comparing the manga for the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai tournament to the anime episodes. We'll be recapping the storyline and expounding on the similarities and differences. In this episode: Jelli and Bekinney find themselves attempting to leave the planet where they've been stuck Brief plot synopsis of...

Can you pull cultural references from seemingly mindless punch fights? Was Toriyama a secret thematic mastermind? Jelli and Bekinney return to format and continue breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon by tackling episodes 24-28 of the anime. "Krillin's Frantic Attack," "Danger from Above," "The Grand Finals," "Number One Under the Moon?" and "The Final Blow". We'll be...