And now here we are, in our modern era of the 2020s, for better or worse. The catalyst that began the current era of DB fixation was not, in fact, the pandemic, but something I did right before it. I was feeling nostalgic, as one does, and made a piece of art that compiled all known old OCs into one image, similar to something I had done once before over a decade prior. Little did I know this would lead to a DB renaissance for me.
The OC compilation piece from February 2020.
During this time, I was also listening to MasakoX’s “what if” stories on YouTube - pretty much my only consumption of fanfiction outside of mid ‘00s Quizilla. This led to me “what if”-ing my old OC into something newer and more fleshed out, and it mushroomed into a whole fanfic continuity with her own family/friends and their own histories. The result is a deeper fascination with Saiyans as a species and the peculiarities of the canon history on top of all the silly feelings that made me create an OC in the first place more than half my life ago.
The story became something between COVID-era escapist comfort and a discovery of what actually writing fanfic for once is like, particularly with the brain and experiences of a thirty-something, and not a teenager. Turns out it’s fun! It has also been an interesting new vehicle for exploring things within myself and poking at modern worldly problems by getting anti-war and anti-imperialist with a Proud Warrior Race™ as the focus.
The fourth panel of a little sequential thing I drew in the summer of 2020. I had also just switched to Krita as my main 2D art software after painting in Photoshop for about 15 years.
What’s been less fun is trying to find my way back into fandom spaces after so much time had passed. The landscape of the internet isn’t at all like it had been when last I’d interacted with other DB fans online. Forums are a dead concept, and in their place are Discord and social media - things that even now I have no idea how to really spark friendships through the way I could on forums. On top of that, once I had found a chunk of the DB fandom on Twitter (mostly other artists), I felt and still feel a bit dated and out of touch.
For a 40-year-old property, the artistically-inclined fanbase on social media skews heavily toward early 20s (in contrast to the Star Trek fandom, where there seems to be a fairly even spread of fans in various age groups). I am by no means old, but it does feel a bit like the “how do you do fellow kids” meme any time I try interacting with anyone’s social media posts in the fandom or share my OC stuff. For the most part, I feel lucky if I can consider someone a mutual. It doesn’t really make it further than that 99% of the time.
All that said, I did manage to make one genuine fandom friend (and fellow thirty-something) toward the end of 2023 (and a couple of my other online friends dig my DB stuff even if they’re not heavily involved in fandom). That feeling of finding someone who has the same brainrot you do on top of having lots of other unrelated things in common is one of the best things in life, especially during a part of it where making new friends is harder and rarer. Plus, I still have my bestie to gush to (and send Raditz content her way). Part of the point in this shrine, also, is to have a place to dump or express all my DB thoughts and creations without caring if the fandom cares.
The initial sketch for this very shrine. This is generally my process for most Neocities layouts.
Like it (and any other fixation) has in the past, DB has once again driven creative works and projects aside from the aforementioned new frontier of finally writing fanfic. At the time of this writing we’re only halfway into the decade, but there has already been more fanart than there has been since the mid-’00s, and new media like proper animation, both in 2D and in 3D - skills I did not have during the last era where I felt compelled to make DB fanart. In this decade, I feel that a desire to do DB art again was partly responsible for whatever improvements I’ve made to drawing humanoid anatomy (2020 was still very rough and I have a long way yet, but it does feel like I’ve been getting somewhere by now).
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, I learned how to do a crapload of new things since the aughts and am only now applying them to DB art in the 2020s. Pictured here are two kinds of 2D animation (hand drawn and rigged in Spine), an abandoned Unity project featuring Spina's ship (I plan to start it over in Godot instead), and 3D animation.
There is also an ongoing quest also to find an art style I feel fits how I want to interpret the characters while also looking appealing and alive. I follow (or used to when I was active on Twitter - still waiting for a lot of fanartists to move to Bluesky) a lot of DB artists both who lovingly replicate official styles (either Toriyama himself or any of the main animator’s styles) or who have their own unique art style that looks nothing like official art but captures the essence of the characters in their own ways. I love both approaches, but for myself I’m inclined to do the latter and am still figuring out what the hell I’m doing. Eventually I also want to commission a few of these artists as well (both types).
[some examples of waffling through art styles]As for media itself, when the pandemic hit and the job I had at the time shrunk dramatically, I filled some of that extra free time with a bunch of old anime, one of those of course being DBZ. It was a strangely poignant rewatch, too, in part due to the emotional duress of 2020 leaving me both more inclined toward escapism and more sensitive. There was a long pause once I got to just before Vegeta’s death on Namek in which I felt I couldn’t handle it without having a Vegeta of my own to hold so I hunted down and bought one (I’m picky lol). Between this watchthrough, writing my fanfic, and other things that were going on, 2020 was also when I figured out I’m on the ace spectrum (and started headcanoning Saiyans as such because they have that vibe to me compared to the human characters and there’s something comforting in doing so? I’m not sure).
I even sewed a tail for the Vegeta I got (with one of the sample swatches I got for a tail I ended up making for myself). Sewing projects pair very well with DnD!
A doodle I made for Ace Day 2024, featuring my personal headcanons.
During and after that step back into the fandom was where I finally poked at a lot of the official DB stuff that was released (or at least started) in the 2010s - namely Dragon Ball Super, the Xenoverse games, and the DBS: Broly movie. Technically I also bought FighterZ in 2023 but I basically just did the tutorial part of the story. I bought the game to play with my friend but we couldn’t get it to work (Linux crossplay with Windows is a mess), so that’s been it at the time of this writing.
Super sits in a weird place in my mind in that I’ve only seen it once, but saw the entire anime run (subbed, too, unlike older series) - this is more than I can say of GT. And unlike either Z or GT, I got to it in my thirties, not my teens, so my headspace for approaching media is just completely different. Anime has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and I also can’t say I’m a fan of the art direction. I have not read the manga yet, but of course that process also changed with Toyotaro drawing instead. There are some manga-only developments that I’m actually quite curious about, but as of writing this I just haven’t gotten around to any of it. As for the story broadly, DBS is definitely mixed for me. There are things I love and things that I find off-putting and things that seem cool that I wish got explored more and things that simply fell flat.
I also saw the plots of Battle of the Gods and Resurrection F as their DBS saga versions only as I haven't seen the actual movies. The introduction of all the god stuff was neat I guess, Beerus is cool. Whis is fun. Characters who are allowed to sass Bulma get a plus in my book (Piccolo also gets to in DBS: Super Hero). I kinda like Super Saiyan God because it does something different and interesting (before they remove all the interesting with most things past that, or at least the execution of those things left a lot to be desired). More Saiyan lore to work with is also nice when you’re writing Saiyan-centric fanfic that's trying to build on their culture in eras barely touched by canon.
Resurrection F was a complete and utter insult. I’m not one of those Vegeta fans that bellyaches about him not getting wins (he contributes to victories that wouldn’t happen without him, and outcomes of fights are the biggest source of his development - that’s kind of the point and it’s fine by me). But this is the one case where it’s just… the most inconceivable ass-pull to do what they did while adding nothing of value in exchange.
What wasn’t an insult was the new DBS: Broly movie (I say new, it’s from 2018 - but it’s the only Broly film I’ve seen since the others didn’t seem to ever air on CN when I was watching). That film was beautiful, fun, and chock-full of delicious lore. I dunno much about Z Broly but I really enjoyed the characterization of this Broly. Super Hero was also a ton of fun, and though I was uncertain about it going in, the 3D animation wasn’t too distracting or awkward. I appreciate more Piccolo and Gohan focus - they’re basically my favorites after Vegeta, and Pan is just too cute! The new characters were also very fun and fit right in.
At the time of this writing, the new series Dragon Ball Daima is releasing. I don’t know much about it and have been avoiding spoilers, so I don’t have any opinions on it yet as I haven’t seen any of it. I don’t know what to think about what’s going to happen with DB in general since the loss of Toriyama. I don’t know how much of this series is/will be from his actual ideas and additions. It’s a weird feeling and thing to think about, though I’m also a Star Trek fan - and have so far only seen 90s Treks - and that series’ creator passed partway into the show I started with (though TV is more collaborative in general than manga). I’d like to think I will enjoy Daima, from what little I know of its concept and themes, but we shall see.
Pivoting to the video game world, and as previously stated, I got a little more caught up with DB games from years prior only within this decade. The Xenoverse games were a great escape in the first couple of years of the pandemic, but it’s been a while now since I’ve touched them. I’m still bummed that the Create-a-Character Saiyans can’t have tails! Everything in the modern era seems to be trying to erase them. Getting to train and work with Vegeta as some approximation of my OC is hella fun though. It’s also weird to think that these games are old enough that a huge chunk of the fandom’s OCs began in them. Another bit of disconnect where my experience of growing up with the franchise is outside the present-day norm.
A screen capture from the original Xenoverse. I'm still amused at how similar the starter boots look to the pair I gave my OC in 2007.
One really old game I finally played this decade is Buu’s Fury, which by all accounts I should have played in 2004, but didn’t until 2024. Unsurprisingly I loved it as I do the LoG series in general. I played it live on stream and had a blast! I love a more adventure format game over tournament-style fighting games. To that, I’ve also got Kakarot sitting in my Steam library but I haven’t made time to start it yet. I suspect I’ll enjoy it a lot, too.
A still from one of my Buu's Fury playthrough VODs. When I stream a game I tend to make an overlay just for it (I otherwise stream art).
On to DB-ing in non-DB games, the fandom renaissance is blossoming in a new set of games, too - from putting OCs into Minecraft, Terraria, and Valheim, to making bits and bobs for eventually modding young Vegeta into Majora’s Mask (and drawing a prologue comic for context), to making a silly edit for that one fandom friend, who happens to be one of the devs for Trombone Champ.
Various screenshots from the aforementioned games, as well as the Majora's Mask stuff I'm working on.
Speaking of said friend, it cannot be overstated how nice it is to know at least one person who resonates with the thing you like the same way. We’re similar in age and both have an insufferable Vegeta fangirl living inside us since childhood. I can giggle and tell her a song came on at work that we know as one from DBZ Abridged or she can show me things she got and wow I have one of those, too! I make stickers for a living so we’ve sent each other stickers. My very cool coworkers also know of my brainrot and I have put tiny Vegeta stickers around the shop.
Some stickers I made at work. One is a meme and the rest are my own art. The tiny ones are stuck all around the shop.
As this decade and bout of fandom is ongoing, this page is definitely TO BE CONTINUED...