Friday, August 8, 2014

Latest Purchases #73: Birthday Edition

So my birthday was last month and I felt that I should treat myself with something special. At first I wasn't really sure what I should get but then I remembered my love for one of my favorite series ever. And I went on a Dragon Ball binge.



fye had all five seasons of the original Dragon Ball anime series so I snatched them all up. It's been years since I've seen OG Dragon Ball and watching it again is bringing back so many memories. When I was watching it on my days off on Toonami, I was getting home in time to catch uncut episodes on Toonami's Midnight Run. Currently, I'm on season three.



A few weeks ago while I was browsing in Barns & Nobles I saw these Dragon Ball Full Color Saiyan Arc volumes. Released last year in Japan to help hype the new Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods film, these are fully colored versions of the Saiyan Saga manga. Unlike the colored pages of the Viz Big editions, these are not only printed on bigger, higher quality paper, but the colors used in these editions are also much better and brighter. The end result is one of the best manga releases of Dragon Ball manga. Right now, only the Saiyan Arc is available in America. Japan has the entire Z portion of the manga in a total of  what I believe is 20 full color volumes. No doubt Viz will release the remaining arcs for western audiences. Barns & Nobles had a special on manga where you buy two and get the third one free. I found this out after the lady at the register rung me up and I ended up saving a cool $20.



Long before the Goku knew the origins of his otherworldly strength, the world of Dragon Ball was very lighthearted and the other cast members was on a much more even playing field. This was the early stages of Dragon Ball, stages that some fans contend is superior to the later years. Despite owning the Dragon Ball manga in it's entirety, I haven't let this stop me from picking up different versions of the manga that Viz has released. These Dragon Ball 3-in-1 volumes aren't quite like the Viz Big editions. The paper isn't of the same quality and there are no color chapters to speak of. These however, do sport the sweet redrawn covers that were used of the 2003 re-release of the Dragon Ball manga in Japan. I've got a post on Dragon Ball releases that I've been wanting to do for a while now so I'll elaborate on all this later.



Dragon Ball: The Complete Illustrations. This book originally came out in Japan in 1995 after Dragon Ball had ended. It didn't get translated and released in the west until 2008. Inside this book are tons upon tons of full color illustrations of numerous Dragon Ball imagery. Just thumbing through it, I've come across a a few pictures that I've never seen before. Again, this book came out after Dragon Ball had ended so there isn't any artwork from Akira Toiryama from the 2000s and onward. I've seen a lot of the images in this book before, but its great to have so much of it packed away in one hardcover book.



I've had my eye on this DBZ t-shirt for weeks and I've finally made it my own. You've got a good chunk of the heroes, the three big bads and of course, Goku in the center striking a mean pose. This simple looking Batman t-shirt is honestly one of my favorite Bat shirts. Sometimes less truly is more. Much as I like the gold emblem behind the Bat symbol, I think the shirt is worlds better without it. I picked this up as my way of continuing the Batman 75th anniversary celebrations. As per usual, at my fye, buy one t-shirt, get the second for half the price.



Long have I heard of how the Phantom Blot was Mickey's greatest adversary in comics. The fifth volume in Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse comic strip series, I had forgotten this book was due out back in May. I still haven't read the previous four volumes, only thumbing through them and considering this comic strip series spans 45 years, it will probably be a looooooong time before Fantagracphics Books finishes it up. So I should probably start reading what I have on my plate soon. In this volume, Mickey gets pupils! Huzzah!



This Yoshi hat is one I'd seen in fye for some time now. I didn't think it was bad but I thought $17.99 was a lot of bones at the time. Good thing for me I came in when they were slashing prices on a lot of stuff and they had it at a super discount price of $6.49. It is now one of my favorite hats to wear, which isn't saying much since I've only got two of the things. Gotta build that hat collection.



I've been going through different anime series available on Netflix. One such series was Girls Bravo. At only 24 episodes, it seemed like one I could get through rather quickly. I've heard of this anime but hadn't seen it until recently. While I don't know if I'd call it one of my all-time favorites, I liked it enough to the point of making it a part of my anime library. For the uneducated, this is definitely not an all ages anime.

Hello Kitty. Dressed up as M. Bison. Even dressed up as one of the most despicable video game bosses, that is still freaking adorable. I never thought I would any kind of Hello Kitty merch, but then, I saw this for less than $4 at fye. Bargain prices are my weakness.

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