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Information

• Member: Castor Troy
• Title: Naruto Ball Z - A battle of epic proportions
• Premiered: 2005-10-24
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Comedy
  • Fun
• Song:
  • m.c.AT feat DA PUMP Bomb a head! Returns!
• Anime:
  • DragonBall Z
  • Naruto
• Participation:
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 11, Anime Weekend Atlanta 11 (2005-09-23)
  • A-Kon 17, A-Kon 17 Experts Anime Music Video Contest (2006-06-09)
  • Anime Expo 2006, Anime Expo 2006 (2006-07-01)
  • Otakon, Otakon AMV Contest (2006-08-04)
• Comments: Video #65
  
  NOTE: This video has been stolen quite a bit on youtube and alot of people have even went as far to remove the credits to claim it as their own. Don't believe those posers. Get the video from the source right here. Only I have the actual master files of the video.
  
  Quite possibly my biggest project to date... and the one of the only videos I have done due to peer pressure :P
  
  I didn't want to make this video at first but around 2004, people on the .org forums began making jokes saying "So Castor, when's your Naruto vs DBZ crossover coming out?". At the time I had only seen 15 episodes of Naruto and while I enjoyed the series, I wasn't that big of a fan. After the debacle known as The Haunted Ship, I considered myself DONE with crossovers. It wasn't until my RDS (now AMV) Radio interview in 2005 that I was asked the question again... this time on the air... Afterwards the temptation began to bite at me and I made possibly the biggest mistake evar...
  
  I actually decided to make it... -_-;;
  
  However, this is NOT the first version of a Naruto vs. DBZ video that was made. The first to my knowledge was 007 Vegita's 007 vs. Naruto which showed a stand off between one DBZ and one Naruto character (I won't name them to keep the surprise). Sadly I never saw it finished and after talking to 007 Vegita a very long time ago, I realize why he couldn't finish it since he has a pretty difficult job with very little spare time. I did borrow an idea from this however...
  
  The 2nd incarnation was a more full grown video from Nightwing24 called Dragon Ball Z vs. Naruto which was a hiliariously done version of it. While not technically up to par, I found it very enjoyable to an extent and I do owe Nightwing24 for making this since I borrowed quite a few ideas from it... especially the song.
  
  The song choice was very difficult to come up with. I actually even considered Kageyama Hironobu's The Biggest Fight from DBGT Final Bout but it sounded far too serious and I wanted something a little wackier. So I decided to rip off Nightwing24's song (The Tenjou Tenge op) but only using the full version this time. Luckily teknoboy was able to hook me up with a full version of the song which I know is hard to find!
  
  I went through alot of different ideas for the video. My original idea was to have the Naruto and DBZ crew search for the Dragonballs in the forest of death instead of the makimonos but there was barely any good footage to get off of that. I was trying to think of some wacky creative ideas from Dragon Bebop Z but there was one thing I had to consider... While Naruto and DBZ are very different anime, at the core, they are VERY similar (which is why you keep hearing the constant Naruto vs. DBZ debates). So it was very difficult to come up with some kind of original concept other than fighting. Unlike Dragon Bebop Z which 99.9% of the planet thought was comedy while I intended for it to be action/fun. Naruto Ball Z is an action video with emphasis on ACTION with some tiny comedy bits thrown in.... I couldn't exactly think of anything else for a title so I decided to just call it "Naruto Ball Z". :P
  
  The basic plot is the Chuunin exam is taking place and some unexpected visitors arrive... the Z warriors. The leaf village and the Z warriors enter a tournament to see who will be the superior group. The first group to win 3 matches out of 5 will be declared the winner. The 2 biggest fighting animes come together in an all out brawl to determine who will be the strongest. The strongest warriors from each side go head to head and many twists will happen that will affect the outcome of their battles.... Which side will win? The outcome will definitely surprise you!
  
  Tidbits
  
  - All of the Naruto footage came off the Region 2 dvds. My computer sucks ass so I couldn't use raws but the R2's are vastly SUPERIOR in quality which made them a joy to edit with. I rented the majority of them from my Japanese video rental, Video Japan. There were 2 dvds with important episodes I needed that Video Japan didn't have so I had to order them off CD Japan for an insane amount of money.... AtomX also provided a vob of one of the episodes I needed (even though it was a very small part). All of the DBZ footage was off the Region 1's and one tiny scene off... ummm... an HK (one of Master Roshi's scenes... at the time of this writing, it was not released on dvd yet) x_x
  
  - I decided to use alot of japanese text to give the video the feel of the Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen gamecube games. I haven't studied japanese in years and barely remember any of it so I had to re-learn some of it and even resorted to Babelfish of all places for some help... Another VERY useful source was the Japanese = English dictionary. I got most of the japanese names off DBZ Daizenshuu #2 and my Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen 2 game manual. All of the japanese was typed in NJ Star Japanese Word processor and fixed with Adobe Photoshop.
  
  - I know it's innaccurate to use Kanji in the monitor parts where they show the names since they are in hiragana/katakana in the actual series, but I've ALWAYS been used to certain DBZ characters only being in Kanji. So I decided to leave in the Kanji of any Naruto character that had it. I couldn't find a japanese font that would match the one actually used in the real monitors in the series so I had to go with a more basic one, sorry!
  
  - A list of transliterations/translations of the japanese text can be found here.
  
  - I actually finished the video ALOT quicker than I imagined. While it took longer than Dragon Bebop Z, it was finished alot faster than The Haunted Ship. I had an absolute blast making this and I loved seeing it come together. I was far more experienced with the programs used and was more determined to get this done than the past 2 crossovers. The speed of After Effects masking made it far more convenient.
  
  - I had to edit quite a few character's arms, limbs, fists, etc.... due to lots of things getting the way in the actual footage. Thank god After Effects had a built in clone stamp :)
  
  - I used the following programs to make the video - Adobe Premiere 6.5 (Basic timing, motion), Adobe After Effects 6.5 (Masking, scrolling images larger than 720 x 480), Adobe Photoshop 9 CS2 (Stills, some masking, editing the japanese text), Adobe Illustrator 9 (recreating the Leaf Village logo) and NJ Star Japanese Word Processor (Japanese Text).
  
  - Some of the beginning (The characters hopping out) is based on the actual Tenjou Tenge op. I originally had the manga scans they jump out of but they looked like crap so I took them out.
  
  - Kunais = NIGHTMARE TO MASK! Out of everything I had to mask, I HATED masking these!
  
  - I know alot of the fights are very short but it was difficult cramming all of those fights into a 4 minute and 15 seconds song. If you're going to complain who wins, then too bad since that's the way I wanted to make it, nyah! :P I actually kept things very true to both shows regarding who can actually beat who and such. There are quite a few fights in both shows that end with one character not getting any hits and some getting one hit to end it all. Deal with it. Most of the matchups were borrowed from Nightwing24's and 007 Vegita's videos except 2 of them. This video was meant to cater and not cater to both fandoms :P
  
  - Castor Troy's rule of DBZ crossover making #1: Piccolo needs to kick ass. Just DEW IT.
  
  - Castor Troy's rule of DBZ crossover making #2: You must ALWAYS put in a Krillin joke. NEVER give the poor bald guy a break >=)
  
  - Castor Troy's rule of DBZ crossover making #3: You must ALWAYS turn someone Super Saiyan at the end, most preferrably a female. It should be pretty easy to guess who turns SSJ this time.
  
  - The actual end of the song was VERY weak so I put in the extra "explosive" scene to make up for it.
  
  - The ending had to be made the way it was because I did not want to cater to one crowd specifically. While I consider myself more of a DBZ fan, I wanted to make sure that the video was left open ended. It's actually up to you to decide who is the victor... but here's the best answer: Batman. :)
  
  - I know alot of people wanted to do this idea and by all means, please don't hesitate to make your own version! :) There are seriously ALOT of ways a DBZ vs. Naruto video can be done and I wasn't able to put alot of the ideas that I wanted into this one. I highly doubt I'll be doing a sequel but I do have alot ideas I can contribute if anyone wants to do so.
  
  This will most likely be the video people will associate with me from now on. I'm glad I took the risk and had an absolute blast making this video. At the time of this writing, out of the 3 crossovers I've done, this is my favorite one. I also learned alot more about both series on how similar they really are and why the fandom of both is the way it is. I hope both sides of fandom of these 2 series enjoy this video as much as I had making it. ;)
  
  Big thanks to..
  007 Vegita: For making the first version of this idea which I borrowed from.
  Nightwing24: For making the first full video version which I borrowed a few ideas from.
  teknoboy: For providing a full version of the song.
  AtomX: For some of the footage.
  
  ...mostly to everyone on amv.org and RDS/AMV radio who dared me to make the idea...
  
  Remind me to never listen to any of you again :P
  
  Con Participation, Awards and nominations
  
  AWA 11 2005
  - Premiered as my panel exclusive video
  
  AMV.org 2006 Viewer's Choice Awards
  Nominated for..
  - Best Action
  - Best Comedy
  - Best Fun
  - Best use of visual effects
  - Most original video
  
  Akon 17: Experts Music Video Contest
  - Honorable Mention (Action/Horror)
  
  Anime Expo 2006
  - Best Action
  - Fan Favorite
  - Finalist for Best of Show
  
  Otakon 2006
  - Best Action