"Dragon Ball! Gotta find that Dragon Ball!"
I've wanted to write this one up for some time, but first I wanted to dwell on things and see if I had everything together. Rewatching old home movies from around the time I did certain things helped a bit in getting things pieced together to the best of my memories. But because the Dragon Ball I made up in my head and the Dragon Ball I later discovered when the show began to air on Toonami in 1998 are two totally different things, so in order to create a proper timeline for each, I'm separating the two:
The Dragon Ball I invented in my head as an eight-year-old and the actual series were vastly different.
The former is the Dragon Ball that existed as a set of figurines and a single listing in a TV Guide on a channel our cable provider did not carry.
The reason I am taking this route is that the "Dragon Ball" I discovered, alongside Secret of Mana, played a pivotal role in the eventual birth of Secret of Memoria, and so to better understand the existence of characters and locations, even storylines, in Secret of Memoria, knowing how they came to be is a must.
So without further ado...
In the beginning, way back in the distant year of 1996. Anime was practically non-existent on American television. Sure there were the likes of Samurai Pizza Cats that aired at ungodly hours during the week, but beyond that, you didn't see as many anime airing regularly, and as an eight-year-old in the mid-1990s, you didn't have any real opportunities to learn about them either.
And to be perfectly honest, even if I did know there was some significant difference between Western and Eastern animation, I probably wouldn't have cared. I'd have sat down to watch an episode of Exo-Squad just as fast as I would have Samurai Pizza Cats or Dragon Ball. But what I would have noticed would be the style of animation, more particularly, the character designs.
I played a lot of RPGs as a kid, with Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger being my favorites. Both were highly impactful on me during my formative years and would shape my gaming interests significantly. I took notice of the fact that both games seemingly featured kids as their main characters, something that was funny enough a rare sight in American media outside of shows that aired on Nick Jr as we children of the 90s(and 80s) were subjected to teens and adults with attitude, usually exceptionally muscled and "manly"(No I am not forgetting Mighty Max).
So here is where the tale begins: It was early 1996, sometime in either mid-January or February. It'd had to have been as we kids had our monthly ten-dollar allowance from our grandmother, to which we all went on a shopping spree each month—Which was totally possible back in 1996 with just $10. It was a cold weeknight as I recall, and we were heading out to Walmart for some shopping after dinner. It was dark out seeing as how it was still winter. We entered via the garden center on the far right side of the building, passed the registers, and right into the fun area of the building. I remember thinking of it that because you were taken right through seasonal, which was particularly fun during the holidays, and right to the toys.
And right there, hanging on an end cap from a plastic strip was an assortment of figures that were unlike anything else available on the market at the time:
Bandai at the time was big on putting out figures of this size, between their awesome Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Masked Rider, and eventually a Mega Man line based on the Ruby-Spears cartoon. And for me as a kid, being a giant monster fanatic as well as having a little brother that loved vehicles of all kinds, having figures small enough to fit inside of the driver's seats was a treat and made playtime a whole lot more exciting.
Going back to what I said about the character designs in Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana standing out so much to me, can you see looking at some of these designs why these figures jumped out to me like they did? Goku had spiky hair just like Crono and Randi, and Bulma had a ponytail like Marle and Purim. Then you had Ox-King who to me at the time looked like the villain; Almost Ganon-like with his bulky figure, creepy helmet, and menacing ax. And no I am not going to point out the fact that Chrono Trigger had Akira Toriyama behind its character designs simply because.
What I saw when I looked at the figures was Secret of Mana. Breath of Fire II. Chrono Trigger. I saw RPG characters in toy form and I was absolutely all about that. As a boy growing up in the 90s, you had large action figures always thrown at you, never miniatures like this. Figures of this nature were more commonly seen in the girl toy aisles and were always dolls. To see something so neutral in presentation while offering a nice assortment of character designs, including animal friends, well, it was outright surprising.
I bought Goku, Krillen, Puar, Ox King, and Emperor Pilaf right then and there. But having no idea who these characters were, whether they originated from a video game or cartoon, and how to pronounce their names, I was left to my own devices and my imagination to conjure up something for them.
And that is how Dragon Ball Village came to be.
Dragon Ball Village was the "show" that I played with these figures. They all lived together (shocking!) in a village (I bet you can see where this is going) called "Dragon Ball". They traveled in parties of three, with each "episode" starring Goku and two others from the eventual complete cast of characters, like most RPGs I had played. Sometimes they fought in turn-based battles, but mostly it was just over-the-top action combat.
And before I delve into detailing who each character became in my version of Dragon Ball, I wanna plug my ongoing e-novel 'Secret of Memoria', which exists now because of that fateful evening in 1996.
And now, onto the characters of "Dragon Ball" as presented by eight-year-old Me:
"Goku" pronounced "Go-Ku-You" was the main character obviously. He was the figure into which I projected myself the most when roleplaying and also who would go on to have his name fill in the blanks of any RPG that would allow me to change the main character's name.
Goku lived in a house on the northwest side of the village with his cat, Puar.
He would eventually become Remy Niscent in Secret of Memoria.
Puar, aka "Purr", the talking cat. Goku's housemate, inspired by Crono and his cat in Chrono Trigger.
Puar would become Purr, Remy's talking but otherwise normal-looking grey and white cat in Secret of Memoria.
Krillen was one of the few things I guessed correctly and had cast him as Goku's best friend and second main character.
Krillen would become Beauregard "Bo" Pielaugh, best human friend of Remy's and one of two children sired by the self-proclaimed mayor of Memoria.
Bulma was the designated spell-caster, thanks to her similarities to Marle and Purim. She would also go on to become one of the main characters.
Bulma would become Holly, daughter of Dom and Dixie Sprigg; A pair of transplants to Memoria from the neighboring kingdom of Vandole.
Master Roshi became the village's sole teacher as his clothing gave young me the impression that he was some sort of educator. The alphabet on his shirt helped a lot with that impression.
Master Roshi became Teecher "Teech" Bingsly in Secret of Memoria, an ex-knight of Vandole and one of the few educators in the village.
Launch was another magic wielder, though I don't remember what element I had attributed to her as Bulma was given ice.
The character of Launch had become part of the character Mimillian "Mimi" Pielaugh, Bo's older sister.
Emperor Pilaf, which I pronounced "Pie-laugh", was the village elder and good friends with Master Roshi.
The character of Emperor "Pielaugh" would be divided between two separate characters for 'Secret of Memoria'. One is the self-proclaimed mayor of the village Edgar Pielaugh, and the other is the shopkeep: A blue-grey imp named Chaitee.
Oolong was one of the fun animal companions that also lived in the village. He primarily kept to Roshi and Pilaf but would accompany Goku and the gang out on adventures from time to time.
At some point, I had left Oolong in the yard one day when my father was out mowing. The next thing I knew, I was getting yelled at for leaving my toys in the grass where they could get run over, then was presented with Oolong missing half a face!
Oolong has yet (as of the time of this post) been rolled into 'Secret of Memoria', though Chaitee's name is a nod to Oolong being named after a type of tea.
Chi-Chi was a physical fighter like Goku. One of her primary attacks was similar to Crono's Falcon Strike tech where she is tossed into the air and flies head-first to the enemy, impaling them with the blade on her helmet.
Chi-Chi was the second figure out of the initial group that I bought myself that I remember asking for. I had done some chores around the house
Chi-Chi's Secret of Memoria counterpart is Sigil Winslit, a knight from Vandole.
I honestly don't remember owning Yamcha for too long despite having two figures at one point. He never appeared at least to the better points of my memory, in any Dragon Ball Village story.
The only real memory I have of owning the figure beyond actually buying it was my playing with it in my room one night and tossing it up into the air, then it seemingly vanishes after that.
Ox-King was the bad guy. There was no doubt in my mind at the time. He clearly looked the part with his cape, horned helmet, and huge ax. So he took on the role of the main villain that would occasionally attack the village, be it by sending a monster or going at it himself.
As of the time of this post, Ox-King has yet to receive a counterpart in Secret of Memoria.
Okay, that takes care of who each character was in my head, so back to recollecting.
For the past year, my parents had been working on enclosing the carport and turning it into another room of the house. It had been completed before Christmas '95, though there was no proper ceiling just yet, and so a lot of heat escaped. It was otherwise really well insulated as we celebrated the prior holiday in it. But when tax refund season rolled around for my parents, they set to putting up the drop ceiling. It still hangs here to this very day, right above my head.
Why this is particularly noteworthy is really only due to my standing on the back of the couch and playing with my Goku and Ox-King figure and having them fight along the bridge-like lip that ran from corner to corner that was part of the initial carport.
Aaaaand I think that's going to do it for this part. Dragon Ball Village was pretty encompassing of my entire toy collection and lasted a good couple of years, so there is plenty more memories to recollect, and since this one has already become lengthy and full of huge photos, it's probably a good idea to cut it in half.
Until next time,
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