I've Just Finished Ranma 1/2, All 407 Chapters! While I Can't Say It Was The Ending I Wanted, It Was

had a random urge to draw teen gotenks last night, so here we are 😔💙

and bonus because i love fat gotenks and i will defend my chubby little guy proudly 🥲💙💙

My Sparking Zero Roster Prediction

At the time of writing this, we are mere HOURS away from a new gameplay reveal for Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero being released to the public. It’s going to be 13 minutes long, meaning we’ll most likely be seeing a plethora of new characters, so I wanted to share my personal predictions on who the roster will contain and some of my reasoning behind these choices. I started making this roster a while ago but only finished it a couple days ago, I got a little lazy… If they were in a previous game, I likely won’t talk about them, but there are some exceptions to this. That being said, I wanna tackle probably some of the biggest questions first:

That’s a lot of OG characters!

Yep! There’s a lot of space between Piccolo and the Saiyan Saga. and there are not that many characters in the Saiyan Saga, so it makes sense to add some OG rep in between. I’ll be heavily disappointed if they only give us Kid Goku to represent early DB, it’s literally where the franchise started and I hate how little it gets represented in newer games. They seem to be fixing that with Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and Dragon Ball: The Breakers though, so my hopes are high for lots of early DB rep.

No GT/Z Movies?

Yeah, I really don’t think we’ll be getting any of that at launch unfortunately. The roster we got at the end of the rivals trailer seems to be ordered vaguely based on Saga, starting with characters introduced in the kid Goku era like Krillin and Tien in the top left and ending with DBS Broly in the bottom right. With how the already revealed characters are placed, I just can’t see room for them on the base roster.

No Super Hero?

No again, and that’s mostly because the roster seemingly ends at Broly and Bergamo.

With that out of the way, let me give some justification for specific characters being on here, starting with:

Bulma

I know she’s a weird choice, but she’d be a great fit imo. She was making laser guns as a kid so her attacks could be themed around that, she could fly with a jetpack, maybe she could even have a barrier special move. She has a lot of outfits from that era that could be used as costumes as well. There’s just a lot of potential for her in this game and I think it’d be a shame if she wasn’t here, though I’d 100% understand if she wasn’t.

Chi-Chi

I don’t have to justify her much, she was in BT3 after all, but I specifically want the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai version of her character instead of the kid design. Her kid design is just… weird, and I think you could do more interesting things with an older version of the character. Super Dragon Ball Z proved she can fit right into a cast on a fighting game perfectly fine using the Bansho Fan, there’s no reason to not be following that formula in the modern era of DB games. This version of the character also appeared in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and Dragon Ball: The Breakers so it’s not impossible. Her alternate costumes could even be her appearances from different eras of Dragon Ball, just put her in the game!!

DBS Bardock and Gine

I shouldn’t have to justify Bardock much, he appeared in DBS Broly so he could absolutely get in and this would be the perfect time to put his Super variation on a fighting game roster. The character I probably have to justify more is Gine and, if I’m being honest, she’s mostly just to fill space on the roster, BUT Fasha probably won’t be in this game and I think having Gine be her spiritual successor on the roster would be cute. Also, they have Great Ape forms because BT3 gave every tailed saiyan a Great Ape form.

Tarble

Ok he’s absolutely just a slot filler but Vegeta DOES mention having a brother in Super so it’s not impossible??? He also has a Great Ape form for the same reason as Bardock and Gine. You could realistically substitute him with more OG characters though, maybe Launch and Eighter or something. 

Raspberry

Could be literally any Frieza Soldier, I just like him the most. It’s not a Budokai Tenkaichi game without a random Frieza grunt on the roster.

DBS 18 and DBZ 17

“C’mon man, they could totally just be costumes.” True, but this is the Budokai Tenkaichi series we’re talking about here. Not to mention they could absolutely have different movesets from their already existing counterparts on the roster. And it DOES fill out the roster quite nicely.

Anilaza

On top of being one of the more recognizable characters from the T.O.P, he was treated like an absolute menace in the show that, if I recall correctly,  every remaining member of Team U7 had to gang up on to defeat. He’d also be another giant character which we know are returning, and those are fun to have on the roster.

Future Mai

She’s not just a slot filler, she actually did shit in the Future Trunks saga. She helped organize the resistance and even tried to snipe Black with an energy bullet, which would be an awesome ultimate attack. She should ABSOLUTELY be in this game.

Ribrianne/Kakunsa/Roasie and

Basil/Lavendar

I started making my list before Kakunsa was revealed, so go me, but my reasoning is that Ribrianne was absolutely going to make it in with how popular she is. She’s even in Xenoverse, so there’s a precedent for her being in games, and you can’t have her without having her teammates in a game like Sparking Zero. Bergamo is confirmed so Basil and Lavendar are here mostly so the whole Trio can be here. 

Catopesra

He’s one of the goofiest characters in DBS and I think would make a great humor-focused character. I’ve seen people want Monaka in the game as a gag character, but gag characters still have to do something in fights and we’ve never seen him do anything in a fight. The point is that he doesn’t fight, so his inclusion wouldn’t make much sense.

Supreme Kai

He’s gonna have a role in Daima, and you could give him some interesting moves based on his power to create things, so he gets a spot.

Babidi and Dr. Gero

Babidi has a really unique playstyle in BT3 where landing his grab drains your energy and powers up his ultimate attack, and I think that’s cool enough for him to take a slot in the Buu Saga that really wasn’t being used. Dr. Gero is on here for the same reason, as there aren’t any other characters on the roster with android energy absorption bulbs on their hands, unless I’m forgetting something about a DBS character I included.

2 Piccolos?? 2 Bergamos??

Giant forms :) Piccolo’s isn’t totally necessary but Bergamo’s 100% is.

No Cabba?

Yeah I- I forgor. Just completely spaced on his existence. But I didn't wanna redo parts of the roster. Realistically DBS 18, Jaco, and Mai or Anilaza would get dropped for him and his forms. Just ignore it just don't think about it :)

2 Kelfas?

Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2. They don’t really look that visually distinct from each other on my roster though, so I just wanted to point that out.

No Whis?

I’m a strong advocate that Whis shouldn’t be a playable character in fighting games because part of being an angel is that you aren’t allowed to fight in battles. If he’s on the roster then whatever but I do not want to see him on there.

Vegito Blue in the Buu Saga?

I’m operating under the logic that when DBS Goku and Vegeta fuse into Vegito, they’d fuse into the same Vegito from the Buu Saga, and if you use the Buu Arc versions of Goku and Vegeta then Vegito Blue wouldn’t be usable. I was also struggling to fill slots in the Buu Saga and putting him there gave me an extra slot for a Super character.

And that’s really everything I can think to talk about. I’m scrambling to get this out at 2 am right now so I may have forgotten to mention something important, but oh well. It’s been a long time since I’ve been as excited for a game as I have been with Sparking Zero. Everything we’ve seen so far looks absolutely fantastic and is building up to make this the best Dragon Ball fighting game ever made in my opinion.

Goku will forever be my emotion support dad 🐉

Saiyan Duality - A SSG and SS4 Comparison

I don’t think anyone would argue that one of the most recognizable aspects of the Dragon Ball franchise is the transformations the characters tend to undergo. From an old hermit bulking up to an absurd degree to the legendary Super Saiyan, the franchise has its fair share of power ups, but the users of many of these iconic forms usually fall under one category of people - the aforementioned Saiyans.

The Saiyans, across all forms of Dragon Ball media, have over a dozen different transformations, each one becoming more and more powerful than the last. From the simple Great Ape to the lengthily named Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Controlled Berserk (I wish I was making that up), the repertoire of Saiyan forms is immense, but I constantly see two of these forms being compared: Super Saiyan 4 and Super Saiyan God.

Both forms are very iconic, with Super Saiyan 4 being a GT trademark and Super Saiyan God being the first of many new transformations we see in Dragon Ball Super. I’ve seen a multitude of debates online trying to prove that one of these forms is better than the other, so I wanted to throw my hat into the ring and give my take: while I have a personal preference for God, both forms are absolutely incredible at what they attempt to portray in those who use the form, and I’m gonna go a little in depth as to why.

Starting the Super Saiyan 4 section with a little bit of background info, the older of the two forms made its debut in GT during the fight against Baby. To access the form, a Saiyan needs to both have a tail and already be able to transform into a Super Saiyan. They must transform into a Great Ape, turn Super Saiyan on top of that to become a Golden Great Ape, and then control that state to obtain Super Saiyan 4.

Super Saiyan 4 is remarkably different from the previous Super Saiyan forms, sporting no golden hair and instead keeping it back and having it grow far longer and having it cover the user’s shoulders, though it’s worth noting that Super Saiyan 3’s hairstyle is much longer. To make it more visually distinct, the user’s body is also covered in red fur save for parts of their chest, with their tail also turning red and gaining a red trim around their eyes. Curiously, Goku is also turned into an adult when he accesses this transformation, which is explained as a unique property of this form: any user of the transformation has their body reverted (or propelled into) its prime, meaning they will always appear as a young adult. Lastly, different users of SS4 have slightly different looking versions of the form. For instance, Goku’s version of the form has a shade of red fur that has a slight pink hue to it while Vegeta’s fur is crimson, and Goku has yellow eyes while Vegeta has blue eyes.

Now that the backstory and design of SS4 has been talked about, it’s time to talk a little bit about SSG. Super Saiyan God is a legend closely related to the legend of the Super Saiyan that Frieza feared. The legend involves the Saiyan Yamoshi and his five pure hearted allies battling against the evil hearted Saiyans. Yamoshi actually obtains Super Saiyan, but still loses the battle and his life, and now his spirit wanders through Universe 7 trying to find the Super Saiyan God.

There are only a couple ways for a Saiyan to obtain Super Saiyan God. The first method is a ritual, in which five other pure hearted Saiyans give their power to a sixth, transforming the sixth into the Super Saiyan God. As a side note, this ritual only works because of the wandering spirit of Yamoshi, making it a Universe 7 exclusive phenomenon. The other way for a Saiyan to obtain SSG is to train with god ki, which can typically only be done by training with someone who already possesses godly ki, such as Gods of Destruction.

Super Saiyan God, as a transformation, actually looks quite simple compared to other Super Saiyan forms. The user’s hair and eyes turn red, they become slimmer and even look a little younger, and their aura looks like fire. Super Saiyan God, similarly to SS4, also seems to give different users of the forms slightly different shades of red, though it’s not nearly as apparent as it is for SS4.

When putting the two forms next to each other, it can be hard to find similarities between them. Both feature some kind of red hair but outside of that, noticeable similarities are sparse, and I think that’s the point. Both forms have to portray entirely separate ideas: the wild nature of the Saiyans and the calmer demeanor of the Gods, and they portray these ideas incredibly well in my eyes. While I do have more of a preference for SSG like I said earlier, it’s not hard to see why so many fans of Dragon Ball are allured by the primal look of SS4.

Ultimately though, if you ask me, trying to compare the two to try and prove that one is objectively better is just a waste of time. It feels like God was designed to be the other side of the same coin as SS4, the heads to its tails. Both designs have their strengths and their weaknesses, so at the end of the day, whichever form is “superior” will always be up to viewer interpretation and nothing more.

Aight I've thought about it and I'm gonna play through the game's story again and then do a review of the game

I played through Sonic Frontiers by the way, easily an 8 or 9/10, I think it's easily the best Sonic game that's been released in who knows how long, though it has its issues. Thinking of writing a full length review on it but we'll see.

So happy Tumblr is my main platform instead of Twitter because they just make some of the dumbest decisions on managing that website. Genuinely don't think I've ever seen a website go that downhill that fast.

I can explain

I don't check Tumblr for like a month and 20 bots start following me c'mon man

I can make anything about goku

Lately I've been trying to figure out how powerful all of the main current Z Warriors are compared to one another using feats and statements from the manga and it's proving to be an interesting question to figure out, expect a post on it relatively soon!