At some point in the early 2000s, someone looked at the Dragon Ball Z manga and anime, a story full of screaming men who power up for entire episodes, hair that defies physics, and villains who monologue long enough for the protagonist to reach a new power level, and said, “Yes. This. But make it a fighting game. On two, and only two, consoles.” And thus, Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 arrived on PS2 and GameCube, ready to let you spend an unreasonable amount of time unlocking characters and pretending you know what a Fusion Dance is supposed to look like in real life.

This episode, we’re going Super Saiyan on the whole thing. The game, the manga, the anime, the drama, the capsules, the questionable story mode decisions. All of it. And joining us to power up the conversation is Russell Moran from Kaiju ComiCast, who brings exactly the kind of kaiju-sized enthusiasm this franchise demands.

So take a deep breath, squeeze out every last drop of ki you’ve got, and let’s get into it. Your hair may or may not turn gold by the end. No promises.

Learn such things as:

What’s worse than taking a risk and totally failing?
What’s keeping us from getting the epic Toriyama Universe fighting crossover event that we all want to badly?
Can you really say that the roster has 50 different characters when 10 of them are different versions of the same dude?
And so much more!

You can find Russell on BlueSky @kaijucomiccast, Instagram @kaijucomiccast, and of course at his podcast Kaiju ComiCast.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

The next episode is going to be Justice League Heroes The Flash, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to “Fun” and Games and Anime Field Guide for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who only does things at levels of 9000.

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