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Information

• Member: VegettoEX
• Title: "DragonBall AF" Fake Commercial
• Premiered: 2004-04-01
• Categories:
  • Comedy
  • Parody
  • Fun
  • Trailer
• Song:
  • Hironobu Kageyama CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA
• Anime:
  • DragonBall Z
• Comments: This is somewhat of a music video, somewhat of a commercial, and primarily a parody. For full information on how this originated and such, please visit this page over on my website (Daizenshuu EX). You will be able to find the full back-story on how it came to exist, and how it incorporated into the full scheme of the April Fool's Day 2004 prank (which included a plug on Anime News Network).
  
  For further information on the whole DragonBall AF myth, please view its respective Wikipedia entry, which has been primarily edited by Julian Grybowski (also of Daizenshuu EX).
  
  
  MAKING THE VIDEO:
  The following characters and voices were selected for the commercial:
  
  Masako Nozawa (Goku, DragonBall / Dr. Kureha, One Piece)
  Mayumi Tanaka (Kuririn, DragonBall / Luffy, One Piece)
  Takeshi Kusao (Trunks, DragonBall / Saionji, Utena)
  
  All voice samples were taken from scenes with no background music and little-to-no sound effects. This way, we'd be able to mix them together more effectively and convincingly; if you heard background music from another series while we're trying to play "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" at the same time, it's not going to be very convincing, right? Right!
  
  Putting the commercial together was actually both tough and extremely easy. For one thing, slapping together random "highlight" clips was no problem. If you've seen Japanese commercials, they're generally of similar quality; there's no timing, no real attempt at keeping things clean, etc. That's part of the problem, though! With my background in video editing now coming into play, it was difficult not to time things up to the song, such as title cards, screaming, etc. We think it's a little more convincing this way, though!
  
  The text cards that appeared every so often were created by Julian, using a variety of phrases to stress the fake-ness of the ad. In order from start to finish, they were:
  
  "What the hell is this crap!?" – Akira Toriyama
  DragonBall is over!
  Don't believe it!!
  Julian and Mike are gods!!!!
  Toriyama-sensei is very angry!!
  If you believe this, you're an absolute moron!!
  AF is completely fake!!
  April Fool's!!
  "Don't sue us!!!," and "Please!!!."
  
  And, last but not least, the card after the date and time of the show's airing says, "This commercial is a joke." For the sake of the gag, we let people speculate on what these cards said, saying we'd update with their translations on the next day; well, here they are. :-D
  
  So here's the "script" we came up with for the characters. Some of the things we have them "saying" in our own script is actually pretty close to what's really being said. Many of the more "basic" words in Japanese were matched up, so as to try and fool those who might be on the lookout and hear things specifically in the dialogue that might not match up:
  
  GOKU: "They thought our show was over!"
  TRUNKS: "They did, huh? Hmpf! Shows what they know!"
  GOKU: "What's this...? You're different..."
  TRUNKS: "You all... I can't let you live..."
  KURIRIN: "But you're our friend! You're just kidding around!"
  TRUNKS: "Who are you calling a friend...?!"
  GOKU: "You're not yourself. What do you want?"
  TRUNKS: "You'll never understand..."
  GOKU: "I see..."
  TRUNKS: "What do you know?! I'll never lose to you!"
  GOKU: "Hehehehe... you don't know of my new transformation...!"
  TRUNKS: "TAAAAHHH~!"
  GOKU: "DON'T YOU DARE THINK YOU'RE GOING TO DEFEAT US!!"
  
  Here's what they're actually saying... totally out of context of each other, of course.
  
  DR. KUREHA: "Did you just call me 'Grandma'?"
  SAIONJI: "You saw that? Hmph! We've faced each other hundreds of times in the last 10 years."
  DR. KUREHA: "What's this dirt?"
  SAIONJI: "Why... Why do you always...?"
  LUFFY: "That's why you should be in my group! Being a pirate is fun!"
  SAIONJI: "Who's your 'old friend'?!"
  DR. KUREHA: "You should watch what you say."
  SAIONJI: "I see... it's about me!"
  DR. KUREHA: "I see..."
  SAIONJI: "Shut up! You're the one person I absolutely won't lose to!"
  DR. KUREHA: "Hehehehe... ... is when they've recovered or died. There's no escape."
  SAIONJI: "TAAAAHHH~!"
  DR. KUREHA: "YOU SHOULD WATCH YOUR MOUTH!"
  
  
  CONCLUSION:
  We did a ridiculous amount of traffic that day, including bringing some of our file-hosting mirrors to a complete stand-still. On April 2nd, I also distributed a version of the commercial that used the actual, original scenes from the shows the dialogue was sampled from, rather than the DBZ footage on top. Furthermore, a "subtitled" version (with our "new" script) appears as an extra on the DVD passed out at AWA XI (2005). This subtitled version (along with the "real scenes" version) was also played at my panel at AWA X (2004) to quite an amazing response. In the interest of consistency (and adding insult-to-injury by leaving no identity-trails), this downloadable version of the commercial is exactly as it appeared on our site on April 1st, 2004, with absolutely no credits.