The loss of Toriyama-Sensei hit me hard. I cried the evening I heard the news, like losing a family member, even though I never had the honor in meeting him.
Like every other artist, his influence is astronomical. DBZ was the highlight of my day as I got back from school and dropped in front of the TV to watch the next episode with hype, to then talk about it at school with my friends. We would scream our lungs out with the power levels and try to do the Fusion dance, which was hard to do btw. Being a girl liking DBZ wasn’t weird, even by that time, although I was the only girl at school who loved anime. 😂
I remember watching Rebirth of Fusion over and over as a friend gave me a VHS copy (since that was hard to get anime stuff back in the 90’s unlike today). I watched it so much I didn’t need to read the wonky yellow subtitles and I could tell the movie word by word in Japanese. I would NEVER imagine watching Dragon Ball on the big screen, that movie was Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
I grew up with DBZ in Spanish, English and Japanese. I know the songs in three languages. It’s insane to me the amount of figures that I own of Dragon Ball. Mainly Vegita and Broly. I gotta get me a SSG Gojita now.
I haven’t drawn DBZ style since junior-high. I hope I made you proud Sensei! 🙏🏼
Toriyama-Sensei, thank you.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything and I hope you have fun with Kentaro-Sensei and Kazuki-Sensei in the afterlife. 💙
Kazuhiro Nakagawa has directed a new Godzilla short, although you'll have to travel to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to see it properly, as it's projected on the surface of the building! Failing that, here's the best-looking video I could find on YouTube. Godzilla: Attack on Tokyo runs about seven minutes and pits Godzilla (Naoya Matsumoto) against an upgraded Super X2.
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Chibi Minilla has made her (yes, her) debut in Chibi Godzilla Raids Again. It's an interesting situation where the character isn't specifically gendered in Japanese but is definitely female in the English translation; Wikizilla has the details. Also, the episode itself has serious Godzilland vibes.
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I forgot to mention that Godziban (which is still releasing specials; unknown when they'll get to Season 5) introduced Gojita and Zillala, based on the Final Wars Godzilla and Zilla, respectively. 2024 is truly the year of pink Godzillas. This week's episode brought Varan to the fore.
IDW solicitations included the 14th Godzilla Rivals issue, Godzilla vs. Manda. Nice to see a C-lister like Manda in the spotlight, as Rivals has mostly stuck to higher-profile creatures. Jake Lawrence is writing and illustrating. The logline:
Late into the night, the crew of a small fishing trawler off the coast of Australia is keeping busy by telling stories of the sea. Little do they know, they’re moments away from happening upon a mysterious shipwreck… and the fearsome sea dragon Manda going toe to toe with Godzilla in the middle of the most brutal ocean brawl any sailor has ever seen. Can this small crew make it back to shore safely in the midst of this all-out kaiju battle? Join Jake Lawrence (Teen Dog, A Nice Long Walk) on a thrilling adventure on the high seas to find out!