Episode 0

So question one, how did you get into Dragon Ball? My earliest memory of Dragon Ball, uh, I was home from school with the chicken pox in kindergarten, coloring on my coloring book, and on TV was Frieza beating the crap out of Vegeta.

[inhales] That image stuck in my, uh, brain, obviously.

And I did have a Frieza toy as a kid.

It was a first-form Frieza from Irwin Toys, and it was ridiculous 'cause it had a big giant mouth, and you shot a blast out of its mouth, even though Frieza, to my knowledge, has never shot a beam out of his mouth.

But, um, after that, it went dormant for a while, and revitalized it, reintroduced myself to it, thanks to some friends, Daryl and Dustin, in the fourth grade.

Uh, they, um, kind of...

You know, when kids are talking about it on the playground, you're like, "Oh, I know something about that." But so much had happened since I was in it, so, you know, I had to, I had to learn.

And one of the best ways that I did that was through Dragon Ball Z: Budokai on the PS2, which, you know, is a pretty faithful, condensed version of the story up through the Cell saga.

And for a long time, other than, you know, VHS tapes or seeing reruns on TV, that is how I consumed Dragon Ball, was the games.

That's how I got the story.

It wouldn't be until the year of our Lord, the year of our Dende, some would say, 2026, where I finally read the manga in its full entirety.

I had read chunks over the years, and of course I had seen the show, but I read from, from Pilaf to Boo, and it was, it was awesome.

I was very proud of myself.

And, uh, now I, I, I feel like I understand Dragon Ball even more than I thought I did.

[inhales] So yeah, I've, I've been a fr- a fan ever since, and it's one of the biggest parts of my life, and I've met so many amazing people because of it, and I hope to, with this podcast, meet even more.