Two Years!

That's right, the cupcake has earned TWO candles now! Will it earn three? Well, I never expected DBZ Uncensored to last even THIS long, so the chances are pretty good. Anyway, just thought I'd do this again, since I did it last year. I really shouldn't be spending time on the site when I'm in the midst of the final crunch before school gets out, but I felt that it was important to at least mark the occasion somehow. This editorial will be a lot more brief than last year's however, I just wanted to quickly let you all know where I'm at and where I'm headed with the site. Well, it seems that the (rather hasty) prediction I made last year of Season 3, and ultimately Americanized DBZ, falling flat on its face has itself fallen flat on its face. The very opposite has occurred, and now it is more popular than I ever imagined it would be. As I write this, the third season has just ended with the show being the highest-rated program on Cartoon Network, a collectible card game has just been released, DBZ videotapes are selling out across the country, bilingual DVD's are on the way, and I am even now staring at the two figures I've collected from the Burger King promotional tie-in. Yes, a fast food tie-in. A freaking Dragon Ball Z fast food tie-in! A Goku figure in every BK Big Kids meal?? That is insanity! I know I've said stuff like this far too many times, but when I think back to over six years ago, watching grainy Cell saga episodes and wondering whether Dragon Ball would ever even make it to America, I would have never dared entertain the thought of ANY of the above actually happening. But not only is it all happening, this just may be the beginning. So what does all of this have to do with the site? Everything, really. With success comes more episodes, and more episodes means that my work is not done. FUNimation has stated that not only will DBZ be back for another season (of 77 episodes, if you can believe it), but two more following. There are even some well-substantiated rumors floating around that some, if not all, of the Ocean Studios cast may be returning. Who can say what will happen next? All I know is that we've got three more years of the Dub to deal with. And as long as FUNimation continues to feel the need to alter the show, I have every intention of being around until I have scrutinized, analyzed and voiced my opinion on their treatment of all 291 episodes. In any case, summer is almost here, which means that I'm going to be really concentrating on the site from now until school starts in the fall. I've done extraordinarily little in the past year as compared to the first, but I plan to make up for it in a big way over the next few months. The lack of updating has been due to the rather chaotic life I've been living for the past year, and is not a result of waning interest as many of you seem to have concluded. Things have finally settled down now, so I'm eager to get back to work. I am willing to make the guarantee right now that the comparisons for the remaining nearly 40 episodes of Season 3 will be completed before the 4th begins airing on Cartoon Network this fall. I also have my work cut out for me in just about every other area of the site, including an enormous backlog of additions and corrections that I need to make to the comparisons that are already up. And opinion essays? I've got well over 200 of those to wade through, and the section very desperately needs to be updated. There's also gobs of material that I've been wanting to add to the Miscellaneous section, so that's going to be filled out some more. And oh yes, I'm just aching to do some editorials. Finally, I have some good news for the fans of "The Stuff They Didn't Show You." I didn't want to say anything prematurely, but I can now announce with certainty that in the near future this section will be continued from right where I left off. I won't set a date at this point, but it will be soon. Anyway, that's about it for now! It's been a great time so far, and I hope that I'll be writing (and you'll be reading) another one of these next year.