Spirit Bomb: Share Your Story With Me
Jun 18, 2026 · 1 hr 7 min · 14 segments
For almost as long as Dragon Ball has been around in North America, Mike LaBrie has been dedicating his life to it. For three decades, he's been archiving, analyzing, and sometimes arguing about Akira…
Mike LaBrieGuestRussHostBesides Goku, who are your favorite characters?
Yeah, I was looking through your, your list of questions here, and [clears throat] I'm not gonna say it's a, a cop-out, but my favorite, favorite in quotes, really changes whether that's a character or an episode, arc, and we'll talk about this, changes depending on, like, what am I working on right now?
Mm.
What am I looking at? What's the most recent thing I was digging into? 'Cause I'll always find some kind of newfound appreciation or depth to whatever it is I'm checking out at that time.
You know, I think a lot about the way that people really idolize or identify with certain characters, and this is like, is there something wrong with me? 'Cause I've never felt that way [laughs] about characters, like, in fiction ever.
Mm.
I have, I've never been [laughs] one to, like, take something away from a character like, "Oh, yeah, I really see myself in, in what they're doing." So when you say favorite character, it, a lot of it just comes down to what, what's, what's just some cool stuff they've done? And you know, I, I kinda just look around the room here, 'cause I'm surrounded by a lot of Dragon Ball [laughs] stuff in this room, and you know, one thing, two things that catch the, the corner of my eye are, uh, a Frieza figure.
My first fan sub, so we talked about getting in through the syndication broadcast.
Um, before Funimation brought things in-house, um, in late '98 going into '99 with Season 3, actual broadcast Season 3, none of this Orange Brick stuff, um-
[laughs]
How do I get this show?" So you start talking to random people in chat rooms, and that's a great idea for a teenager-
[laughs]
Besides Goku, who are your favorite characters?
Yeah, I was looking through your, your list of questions here, and [clears throat] I'm not gonna say it's a, a cop-out, but my favorite, favorite in quotes, really changes whether that's a character or an episode, arc, and we'll talk about this, changes depending on, like, what am I working on right now?
Mm.
What am I looking at? What's the most recent thing I was digging into? 'Cause I'll always find some kind of newfound appreciation or depth to whatever it is I'm checking out at that time.
You know, I think a lot about the way that people really idolize or identify with certain characters, and this is like, is there something wrong with me? 'Cause I've never felt that way [laughs] about characters, like, in fiction ever.
Mm.
I have, I've never been [laughs] one to, like, take something away from a character like, "Oh, yeah, I really see myself in, in what they're doing." So when you say favorite character, it, a lot of it just comes down to what, what's, what's just some cool stuff they've done? And you know, I, I kinda just look around the room here, 'cause I'm surrounded by a lot of Dragon Ball [laughs] stuff in this room, and you know, one thing, two things that catch the, the corner of my eye are, uh, a Frieza figure.
My first fan sub, so we talked about getting in through the syndication broadcast.
Um, before Funimation brought things in-house, um, in late '98 going into '99 with Season 3, actual broadcast Season 3, none of this Orange Brick stuff, um-
[laughs]
How do I get this show?" So you start talking to random people in chat rooms, and that's a great idea for a teenager-
[laughs]
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