Alt.Fan.DragonBall little mirror

This is a small mirror for Alt.Fan.DragonBall, a usenet newsgroup. I began reading it a few time ago, and I copy here the posts I found interesting, fun or informative.

You can find lots of thing on this newsgroup, trolls, and also episodes summary (or more complete episode descriptions...) of Dragon Ball!

I translated some posts in french. See here

Available threads:

Infos

> From : jgjedi@aol.comrade (Julian Grybowski)
Subject : Re: What does the " SSJ" stand for, please?

>I persume the SS stands for Super Saiyan doesn't it?

Yes. And "SSJ" stands for "Super Saiya-jin."

"Jin" denotes a race of people (when used with the two-stroke
"person" kanji, anyway). Therefore, the true name of the race
from which Vegeta and Goku hail is the Saiya ("saiya" is an
inversion of "yasai," meaning "vegetable"). The English dub
really doesn't explain it all that clearly, deciding to call all of the
people "Saiyans" (and pronouncing it wrong to boot), but that's
the basic idea of it.

My personal preference is as follows:
Singular: Saiyan
Plural individuals: Saiyans
Race/Large numbers, impersonal: Saiya

Hope that helps.

--
Julian.

In Pace Requiescat: James Allen (Jim) Stanfield, 1986-2002

[insert witty truth about life here]

> From : daffyfan15@aol.com (Daffyfan15)
Subject : Re: quick Dragonball question

why is piccolo called ma jr?   who's ma?   i thought he was piccolo
daiomao jr!

Ma is the japanese word for Demon. Just to let you know, Daimao means Great
Demon King. Dai(Great)Ma(Demon)Ou(King). The reason Piccolo is called Ma-Jr or
Demon Jr is because if he used PICCOLO his cover would be blown and would start
a panic. Ma Jr is just used as an allis. He also wears the turban an cape so
people can't see he looks like Piccolo, but in the episode "Junior No More" his
identity is revealed. Wouldn't it been cool if his name was Great Demon PRINCE
Piccolo? Now that's a good title for him!

> From : El Queso (""the_cheese_23\" at (nospam)yahoo.com)
Subject : Re: When dragonball was made was it made after a 60's cartoon
trojanwarrior wrote:
> dragonball I hear is mapped after a 60's porn cartoon is this true
>
>

It is based on the classic of Chinese literature called Journey to the West.


 "Monkey King",or known to the Chinese as "Journey to West",written by
Wu Ch'eng-en(1500?-1582),a scholar-official, is one of the renowned
classical Chinese novels about an allegorical rendition of the journey,
mingled with Chinese fables, fairy tables, legends,superstitions, popuar
beliefs, monster stories as well as whatever the author could find in
the Taoist and Buddhist religions. It was based on a true story of a
famous Chinese monk, Xuan Zang (602-664). After years of trials and
tribulations, he travelled on foot to what is today India, the
birthplace of Buddhism, to seek for the Sutra, the Buddhist holy book.
When he returned to China ,or the Great Tang as was called that time, he
started to translate the sutras into Chinese, thus making a great
contribution to the development of Buddhism in China. Monkey King is an
indeed rebellious extraordinary being, born out of a rock, fertilized by
the grace of Heaven, Being extremely smart and capable, he learned all
the magic tricks and gongfu from a master Taoist,being able to transform
himself into seventy-two different images such as a tree, a bird, a
beast of prey or a bug as small as a mosquito so as to sneak into an
enemy's belly to fight him inside or out. Using clouds as a vehicle he
can travel 180,000 miles a single somersault and a huge iron bar that
supposedly serves as ballast of the seas and can expand or shrink at its
owner's command as his favorite weapon in his later feats. He claims to
be the king in defiance of the only authority over heaven, the seas, the
earth and the subterranean world -- Yu Huang Da Di, or the "Great
Emperor of Jade" in Chinese. That act of high treason, coupled with
complaints from the masters of the four seas and the hell, invites the
relentless scourge of the Heavenly army.After many showdowns,the emperor
had to offer the monkey an official title to appease him. Enraged he
revolted, fighting all his way back earth to resume his own claim as a
king after learning that the position he held was nothing but a stable
keeper.Eventually, the heavenly army subdued him, only after many a
battle, with the help of all the god warriors. However,Having a bronze
head and iron shoulders, all methods of execution failed and the monkey
dulled many a sword inflicted upon him. As a last resort, the emperor
commanded that he be burned in the furnace where his Taoist minister Tai
Shang Lao Jun refines his pills of immortality. Instead of killing him,
the fire and smoke added to the monkey a pair of firy golden crystal
eyes that can see through what people normally can not. He fought his
way down again. Finally, under Buddha's help,the monkey was suppressed
under a great mountain known as the Mount of Five Fingers and he could
not move. Only five hundred years later, there came to his rescuer ,the
Tang Monk, Xuan Zang, whom we mentioned at the beginning of the story.
The Monkey King become the desciple of the monk and escort him with
Buddha's arrange to insure that he could make for the West to get the
sutras, along with two other desciples they later came across, (actually
also arranged by the Buddha). One is the humorous and not uncourageous
pig transgressed from a heavenly general for his crime of assaulting a
fairy, and the other a used-to-be sea monster. There started the four's
stormy journey west which was packed with actions and adventures that
brought into full play the puissance of the monks' disciples, the Monkey
King in particular. The story of Journey to the West is divided into
three parts: (1) an early history of the Monkey spirit; (2)
pseudo-historical account of Tripitaka's family and life before his trip
to fetch the sutras in the Western Heaven; (3)the main story, consisting
of 81 dangers and calamities encountered by Tripitaka and his three
animal spirit disciples - Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy .The average readers
are facsinated with the Monkey King,all prowess and wisdom, while many
critics agree that the protagonist embodies what the author tried to
convey to his readers: a rebellious spirit against the then untouchable
feudal rulers.Anyway,with its attracted story and its special feature of
language,the novel will certainly stay.

Cheers,
Queso