MistareFusion's Dragon Ball Dissection! (Updated 4/1/24!)

[Mewzard]

Part 10, because even when breaking down the story, this arc is still eternal.

It's a fun ride, but damn, does it drag in places. The original anime is definitely the worst at that aspect, but even the manga and Kai could have used a bit more streamlining for the sake of a healthy pace.

I can't wait until you get to Freeza's "Five Minutes"...Five Freeza minutes are not a short period of time.

Let's hope the Tournament of Power isn't 48 Freeza minutes. >_>

[coola]

Reading Freeza saga and watching F arc/movie, i really hope Freeza wlil "redeem" himself as character in current Super arc, in movie, he didn't learn anything since Namek, get much stronger in very short time, rush out to Earth right after getting new form without mastering it, with of course lead to his demise. As for "Freeza become less interesting and stupid when he fought" similar thing happened to Cell, he went from cunning bastard to boring Vegeta clone when he become Perfect.

[The gr]

Reading Freeza saga and watching F arc/movie, i really hope Freeza wlil "redeem" himself as character in current Super arc, in movie, he didn't learn anything since Namek, get much stronger in very short time, rush out to Earth right after getting new form without mastering it, with of course lead to his demise. As for "Freeza become less interesting and stupid when he fought" similar thing happened to Cell, he went from cunning bastard to boring Vegeta clone when he become Perfect.

Why frieza needs to redeem himself, he's fine as the bad guy and under the circumstances is unlikely he will be revived

Part 10, because even when breaking down the story, this arc is still eternal.

It's a fun ride, but damn, does it drag in places. The original anime is definitely the worst at that aspect, but even the manga and Kai could have used a bit more streamlining for the sake of a healthy pace.

I can't wait until you get to Freeza's "Five Minutes"...Five Freeza minutes are not a short period of time.

Let's hope the Tournament of Power isn't 48 Freeza minutes. >_>

Is gonna be the longest 48 minute in history,I don't mind it as long is entertaining,I predict it will only be 5 or 6 episode at Best,it would be slap in the face if it was only 2 episode long

[Rubens]

In retrospective, I think Freeza's second and third forms shouldn't have been there altogether. Toriyama could have still make a Nappa out of Freeza's first form and dominate Vegeta, Gohan and Krillin - and Dende's healing could keep powering up the characters and increase Freeza's difficulty to keep control until Piccolo's arrival which could, then, trigger the final form. Alghouth I'm not sure if it would've been more interesting. It's possibly just like you said, the author needed to drag the story and just came up the "transformations/power-ups tennis" as it went on.

[coola]

Reading Freeza saga and watching F arc/movie, i really hope Freeza wlil "redeem" himself as character in current Super arc, in movie, he didn't learn anything since Namek, get much stronger in very short time, rush out to Earth right after getting new form without mastering it, with of course lead to his demise. As for "Freeza become less interesting and stupid when he fought" similar thing happened to Cell, he went from cunning bastard to boring Vegeta clone when he become Perfect.

Why frieza needs to redeem himself, he's fine as the bad guy and under the circumstances is unlikely he will be revived

Part 10, because even when breaking down the story, this arc is still eternal.

It's a fun ride, but damn, does it drag in places. The original anime is definitely the worst at that aspect, but even the manga and Kai could have used a bit more streamlining for the sake of a healthy pace.

I can't wait until you get to Freeza's "Five Minutes"...Five Freeza minutes are not a short period of time.

Let's hope the Tournament of Power isn't 48 Freeza minutes. >_>

Is gonna be the longest 48 minute in history,I don't mind it as long is entertaining,I predict it will only be 5 or 6 episode at Best,it would be slap in the face if it was only 2 episode long

By "redeem" i didnt mean to become good guy, but become more smart, not use 100% if his body cant handle it, or toy with his opponent, if he will be revived, i also want him to stay bad guy/rival to our heroes.

[matt0044]

Eh, at best the third form is a bit more superfluous.

[RandomGuy96]

If you're going to do the transformation gimmick at all, I think you need the third form. That way the fourth form is a subversion of expectations, as the second form was more monstrous than the first and the third form was more monstrous than the second. If had just went small ---> big ---> small, there'd be no subversion as it hadn't been established concretely that we're expecting him to get more intimidating, unlike small ---> big ---> bigger ---> small.

[Cipher]

I know this portion of the arc doesn't exactly hold up outside of serialization, and this is the first of two Piccolo character "arcs" to never receive pay-off, but fuck me if I don't enjoy the whole thing and find satisfaction in Piccolo's limply justified connection to his home world regardless.

Under any kind of scrutiny, the structure of the last third or so of the Namek arc leaves lots to be desired, and I think it takes the prize over the more often-cited Cell and Boo arcs as the portion of the series in which Toriyama's by-the-seat-of-his-pants process most shows its seams. That said, someway or another it manages to sell its tone of constant climax, and I'm completely along for the ride.

Shoutouts to the backgrounds in this portion of the arc, clouds and islands though they may be. They're extra-dynamically drawn.

Looking forward to your commentary on the whole Goku vs. Freeza fight and whether it successfully sells a sense of visual isolation. (For my money, it does, and it's the last fight in the series to do so.)

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

After Hunter x Hunter, I've been convinced that fights against overwhelmingly powerful opponents can be just as interesting as even bouts. And I felt the "I can transform again at any time" thing is necessary to fulfill the hype; to show he's a bigger threat than Vegeta and Nappa were; they could only probably kill them at any time. You can't do it with pure "feats" anymore, all the explosions look the same. And since this is the last time power level ballooning can have an impact on the reader, you might as well go all out, right?

And actually, each individual character only get one-up'd by Freeza one or two times. Vegeta when Freeza goes 2nd and 4th, Gokuu when Freeza goes full power and survives the spirit bomb, and Piccolo when Freeza goes 3rd. They're only beat down continuously as a collective, which I feel gives it at least as much tension and felling of hopelessness as the saiyan arc.

[matt0044]

I'm will the last two above. Also I think watching the arc on DBZ Kai, which kept the Saiyan and Freeza arcs to 54 episodes, helped make it enjoyable even when I know of its shortcomings. I guess seeing the action in motion rather than as sequential art appeals to me more.

[Cipher]

I'm past the editing window, but I stupidly wrote "visual isolation" at the end of my last post when I meant "visual escalation." Was under-coffee'd.

I also can't really stand by either anime version of this arc, though Kai's is a little more bearable (while sacrificing Z's few high highs). It's one of my favorite portions of the manga.

[RandomGuy96]

By the way, I pretty much 100% agree with you Gaffer that this fight really drags on. There's just zero point to any of it, as we're outright told that Freeza is only using a fraction of his power at the very beginning. You can't even use the "but they had to distract Freeza!", in or out of universe; because how strong they are is pretty much totally irrelevant since the fight was always going to end when Freeza wanted it to end.

[Fizzer]

Story-wise, there was no need for Freeza's middle two forms, because he never does anything with his first or third in the fight. The story could have been exactly the same if he'd stomped Krillin, Gohan and Vegeta, and fought Piccolo, in his first form, then transformed into his final form.

[jcogginsa]

I think a good way to play it would be to have Frieza bulk up to his 2nd form, Dominate the fight a la Nappa, then after defeating Piccolo, he reveals that he never actually transformed, he just bulked up. Then he transforms into his final form, and that's the one with the 1 Million Power Level

[ekrolo2]

This is the fight where a LOT of the series problems are firmly cemented and never go. The Fuck. Away!

[Gaffer Tape]

Goku Doesn't Belong Here - Dragon Ball Dissection: The Freeza Arc Part 11!

Now that I've made it back to a steady release schedule, it gave me more time to polish up the editing a bit and add a little more pizzazz than I usually get a chance to. Hopefully you enjoy it, and hopefully it doesn't distract from the content. Definitely some big stuff in this part: the death of Vegeta and Goku entering the fray.

[Kid Buu]

Goku Doesn't Belong Here - Dragon Ball Dissection: The Freeza Arc Part 11!

Now that I've made it back to a steady release schedule, it gave me more time to polish up the editing a bit and add a little more pizzazz than I usually get a chance to. Hopefully you enjoy it, and hopefully it doesn't distract from the content. Definitely some big stuff in this part: the death of Vegeta and Goku entering the fray.

Would you prefer if Vegeta defeated Freeza and the arc ended with a Saiyan Saga rematch?

(Although I guess in this scenario the character would have to stay dead after Namek).

[DanielSSJ]

Would you prefer if Vegeta defeated Freeza and the arc ended with a Saiyan Saga rematch?

(Although I guess in this scenario the character would have to stay dead after Namek).

I think it would've been preferable if Goku arrived earlier, interacted with people, and actually had a stake in the plot. That or Vegeta dies, and Gohan ends up beating Freeza.

[Kid Buu]

But Gohan doesn't have much of a connection to Freeza either, so for me that would just feel out of place too.

[Gray Riders]

Great video!

The issue with the last half of Namek with Goku taking center stage after having zero real connection is an interesting issue.
I can't help but wonder how it would have went over if Goku took the role Bulma and the others took in the Saiyan arc--he shows up after Freeza is defeated and just takes everyone home.

Hmm...that could be fun as a thought experiment; a version of the Namek arc where Goku arrives too late to fight anyone.