Here we are folks. The big one. The anime that the world (kinda) knows about. The conditions are the same as before when I did my run-through of GT and DB (Part 1):
- I will not be taking into consideration any supplementary material. That includes guidebooks, interviews, or power levels given in comics like or WSJ or V-Jump
- I’m going to be assessing the original manga here and there too, alongside the anime, so that I can have a better context of how the story is structed and flows.
- I will not be watching the dub. And it’s for the same reason I didn’t want to partake into the dub of GT and DB when I binged on that show again: I want to view the show with how it was originally intended from a writing and performance perspective.
Let’s not waste any more time with introductions, and let’s dive right into it.
Saiyan:
[spoiler]- The first episode is a mixed bag. I can understand how the show wanted to lay the foundation of how much Goku's character is a polar opposite of Gohan's, but I feel that went on for too long.
- Raditz does make a very imposing debut in the somewhat brief time he has in the first episode, and his imposing nature is magnified even further in the next episode.
- The twist of Goku being alien is handled very well, and I also love the concept of Goku and his greatest rival (Piccolo) teaming up to take on an even greater threat. It really helps in selling the notion that Raditz truly is that big of danger to overcome.
- The actual fight itself between Goku, Piccolo and Raditz is excellently paced and very well animated.
- And of course, Goku dying was made to be a huge deal (as it should be) and Nozawa and Tanaka’s great performances really elevate that scene.
- The aftermath of Goku' death was handled relatively well. But it's never settled with well with how Bulma and Roshi practically pass the buck to Krillin in regards to telling Chi Chi the bad news about not only Goku dying but her only son being kidnapped by one of Goku's greatest and most dangerous rivals.
- I still find the angle of Piccolo (a major antagonist) taking one of the heroes (Gohan) under his wing to train him and manage his potential as one of the unique storylines Dragon Ball hs ever done. It's just so unique and refreshing to see Dragon Ball go down a path like this.
- Daisuke Gōri was exceptional as Enma-daiō. I just can't imagine any other seiyuu providing the voice for that character. I just fit so well in providing the imposing and authoritative figure that Enma-daiō was portrayed in being.
- Gohan's characterization is wonderfully relatable.
- Studio Live strikes again in Episode 6 with the ugliest looking Bulma I think I've ever seen in Dragon Ball. Ebisawa just wasn't as a good Key Animator. Despite that, the direction in Episode 6 was quite good.
- I've always found Goku sleeping on Snake Way to be a bit dumb. I mean, this is the same guy the swam practically half the world and it's kind of weird seeing him getting weird seeing a guy like him getting tired from running so quickly. I don't know. Maybe it's me. Thankfully, this isn’t in the manga.
- Kami’s monologue about how Piccolo is a different person is one of the very rare cases of a character in Dragon Ball getting an in-depth in-universe analysis and perspective of how his character has evolved. I found it very intriguing and it laid down the foundation for Piccolo character development very well.
- Episode 9 and Episode 10, but more-so Episode 9, deserves a very special mention because I feel those episodes are some of Toei's finer Dragon Ball anime filler episodes.
- I find the concept of Yamcha being professional Baseball player, when he isn't a martial artist, to be wonderful and I'm not surprised by this being a concept straight from Toriyama. Bulma's reaction to seeing Yamcha is the most interesting aspect about this. She's not willing to forgive and forget. It's nice to see characterization with the scenario of Yamcha's affairs is at least consistent.
- I feel like Vegeta and Nappa's antics on Arlia were really mishandled and pointless
- Goku's antics on Snake Way were absurdly dragged out. I fucking hated that after all of Goku's hard work, he basically had to start over again and run Snake's Way from the beginning. I also didn't care for Gozu or Mezu either. I found their characters boring and kinda irritable.
- Seeing Upa all grown up was really wonderful to see.
- Shunsuke Kikuchi’s score is just perfect.
- So Pigero has been helping save orphans only to give them up to the authorities in the end? Huh? So what was the point of that episode?
- Seeing Gohan’s trial and tribulations in preparing for the Saiyans were nice, but also feels a little repetitive as the arc has progressed. Scenarios like the moon that was projected from Goku spaceship pod felt pointlessly tacked on. Still greatly appreciate the effort from Toei to expand on Gohan’s characterisation.
- I really enjoy the aspect of Krillin, Tien, Yamcha and the others fighting the illusionary Saiyans. It provided them with the much-needed atmosphere for the kind of battle they will be facing quite soon and gives them more of an incentive to train even harder than before knowing much of challenge they’ll be up against.
- I thought Goku trained in the Room of Spirit and Time for a month when he was kid. So why is he having a tough time on Kaio-sama’s planet when he already been exposed to an environment that has ten times the gravity of Earth?
- Kaio-sama is hilarious. I just love his bad humour. And I love even more how much Goku entertains him with even more bad humour.
- The backstory on the Saiyans was a cool addition. It helped add to the grandeur of the Saiyans and aided in making Vegeta and Nappa appears as greater scope villains by default
- Goku’s training with Kaio-sama is fantastic.
- I love how Oolong proposes to make wish in the vein of taking care of the Saiyans. That’s good pragmatic thinking.
- The Saiyans have finally arrived…
- Despite training for a year with Kami and Mr Popo, when the Saiyans arrive, Tien says this, “Chiaotzu! You stay behind!” Ugh. What the point of Chiaotzu getting ready for the Saiyan if the initial intention made in-universe is for him to stay behind and no fight the opponents he was preparing for?
- As much as Yamcha’s death is a pretty much a meme at this stage, it’s still an unexpected and tragic moment that sets the tone for the arc. And Krillin saddened and enraged reaction to it all, which was really taken to another level by Mayumi Tanaka’s performance, sells Yamcha’s death a truly a big deal. Bulma's tearful reaction and Puar fainting also adds to the solemnity of the death of Yamcha. Too bad Roshi had to kill the mood by rubbing Bulma's ass.
- I’m conflicted about Chiaotzu killing himself. On one hand, it’s a sad moment that sets the tone for the major battle and rises the tension to an unprecedented level. But on the other hand, it’s moment that really feels like it is coming at the cost of the character itself. Chiaotzu did absolutely nothing in this fight other than die extremely prematurely. And this isn’t the first time this happened in the story up until this point either. I just can’t help but feel that Toriyama doesn’t know what to do with this character beyond being incapacitated almost immediately into battle.
- Hirotaka Suzuoki’s performance as Tien, following the death of Chiaotzu, is sensational. You can really hear the anguish and anger in his voice from Tien losing Chiaotzu. Not to mention the desperation in his voice when he tries (in vain) to avenge Chiaotzu’s death by attacking Nappa.
- Tien’s last Kikoho is his best. While it didn’t matter, it was still emotional.
- Nappa has one hell of a presence. So much so that it frightens Gohan into attacking him. This building up of Nappa as a major wall for the cast to overcome, not only makes Goku’s later curb-stomp of him all the more satisfying, but also services in selling how much Goku’s training with Kaio-sama made such a difference and makes Vegeta an even more intimidating obstacle.
- Krillin: “Goku! Get here soon!” Yeah, the situation truly is that dire.
- Nappa and Vegeta have really good chemistry.
- Nappa trying to kill time, while waiting three hours for Goku was kinda boring.
- Studio Live strikes with one dog-ugly episode (Episode 27)
- The artwork in the manga, for this portion of the story, is fucking incredible.
- Piccolo’s sacrifice is one of the high points in story. It’s an incredibly emotional moment that had a good amount of build up to it. Furukawa and Nozawa’s performances for that scene are just amazing.
- Goku arriving to save Gohan from Nappa and aiding him and Krillin is one of the greatest calm-before-the-storm moments I’ve ever witnessed. Goku witnessing the corpses of his fallen comrades while casually avoiding Nappa’s assault just gives me goosebumps.
- Goku’s battle against Nappa is Tranquil Fury Incarnate. It’s one of the best laid out one-sided fights I’ve seen in any story. It’s so well done because during this arc the story makes Nappa out to be such a big deal in combat, as well as an absolute scumbag and has the deaths of the characters (at his hands) carry so much weight to them, that when Goku dedicates every blow he lands on Nappa to every fallen comrade of his, it just makes the beatdown even more satisfying and cathartic to watch. I love every second of it.
- Shōzō Īzuka’s performance as Nappa is memorising.
- Goku providing a glimpse of the Kaioken while kicking Nappa’s ass was just… just.. amazing.
- Vegeta callously and casually killing Nappa is a wonderful way of establishing how much of a greater threat Vegeta is compared to Nappa
- Those martial arts stances from Goku and Vegeta before they duke it out will forever be engrained in Dragon Ball history as an iconic image.
- How the battle between Goku and Vegeta escalates is simply a joy to watch.
- The artwork in the manga is on a completely different level with Goku and Vegeta’s fight. The fight between Goku and Vegeta in the anime is just as visually impressive.
- Horikawa brings a wonderful blend of youthful arrogance and prideful, while also somewhat deranged, exuberance when shit goes south for Vegeta.
- That Goku and Vegeta beam clash is fucking spectacular and a grand representation of what makes Dragon Ball such a spectacle.
- Nozawa fucking KILLS IT with the “Kaioken Times Four” moment. Great stuff from her.
- Episode 31 of Dragon Ball Z is a franchise highpoint. It epitomizes everything people love about Dragon Ball Z. Great animation, great battles, great voice acting (from the Japanese cast), raw tension, and it leaves you with the notion that the battle is far from over and there is still so much more to come. Awesome, awesome, awesome stuff right here.
- It’s nice to see the supporting cast actually make a notable shift in the setting of the battle against the major antagonist.
- Oozaru Vegeta is the second and last “giant boss” type of battle Dragon Ball’s original story would get. What a pity. Fights like this can be so damn entertaining as shown in this arc.
- Cutting off Oozaru Vegeta’s tail, and preventing him from crushing Goku to death, would be the most useful Yajirobe would be in all of Dragon Ball.
- Episode 33 looks ugly and stiff as hell in motion. Probably the worst looking episode in the entire arc so far. Bleh.
- I love Gohan in this arc. He’s so damn brave and noble.
- When and how did Goku learn how to speak to people telepathically? And why doesn’t he do that more often? That’s a pretty good ability to have there. Oh well.
- Vegeta: Destructo Disk! Krillin: The Fuck!?
- Vegeta really is one of the toughest bastards I’ve ever seen.
- Goku letting Vegeta live represents the best and worst of his character. The worst being his incredibly reckless and pretty selfish desires related to combat. But at the same time, this displays why Goku is always ahead of the curve. He creates scenarios where he has to push himself beyond his limits, and as such, he discovers new ways of becoming stronger that he didn’t think existed before.
- Chi Chi is a bitch of the highest order. Not only does she not give a shit that her husband was beaten half to death and is crippled, but she then proceeds to blame for how Gohan got involved in fighting the Saiyans… as if Goku had choice. Goddamn you, Chi Chi. I can certainly see why a lot of fans majorly soured on her after this arc and still don’t like her to some degree.
- And now we're off to space! SPAAAAAAAAAACCEEE!!![/spoiler]
Got a quite a bit I wanna say about this arc...
POSITIVES
Gohan:
[spoiler]This arc is without a doubt the best Gohan is ever handled in all of Dragon Ball.
The development and characterisation of Gohan is brilliant. It just feels so down-to-earth. He's naturally portrayed a very scared young little boy in a scenario that is so far out of his depth and has to quickly adjust so that he can be ready for a threat much great than the one he was unwillingly placed in initially. His reactions his hidden power and how it changes his landscape and surrounding are such a joy to watch. You can see he's having a hard time still grasping what's going on. But as the days go by, he becomes more accustomed to what he is and what he can do. It's fantastic character growth.
Then him deciding to go back to help his father, even when know he realistically know he can’t do much, is such a wonderful moment for his character and story. It sells how much the stakes are unbelievably high for the battle between Goku and Vegeta for Gohan to consider making this decision, but also displays how much Gohan’s character has matured and grown. He feels a great deal of duty to help his father, even if it goes against his father wishes and his better judgement.
Although I felt seeing Gohan’s personal self-explorations in preparation felt a little repetitive as the arc has progressed with scenarios like the moon that was projected from Goku spaceship pod being pointlessly tacked on, and the episode with the orphans feeling pointless, I still greatly appreciate the effort from Toei to expand on Gohan’s characterisation.[/spoiler]
The Antagonists:
[spoiler]Raditz, Nappa and Vegeta are great antagonists. They’re well characterised, don’t overstay their welcome, their deaths carry meaning and suite the purposes of advancing the narrative perfectly and the fights they’re involved in are extremely entertaining to watch.[/spoiler]
The Battle Against Vegeta:
[spoiler]The battle against Vegeta is an all-out war and I loved every second of it. The escalation of the battle was just great to witness. With how Vegeta started off in control, then Goku coming back with the Kaioken, then Vegeta responding by becoming an Oozaru and then it finally degrading into a just a slug fest with every combatant that wasn’t dead playing an important part in Vegeta’s demise. And how broken and beaten the survivors are really sells the tenacity and brutality of the battle that took place. The battle against Vegeta remains the best battle in all of Dragon Ball. It’s grand, wonderfully paced, extremely well animated mostly throughout and makes wonderful use of the remaining supporting cast at the time. I can’t praise this battle enough. It’s breath-taking.[/spoiler]
The Additional Material (Most of it):
[spoiler]If there was ever an arc in Dragon Ball were the filler material that was not only good but was so well entwined that it genuinely felt integral to the story, the Saiyan arc is the greatest example of this in all of Dragon Ball. Episode 9 and 10 really need a special mention for how great those episodes are. As not only are they good episodes on its own regard but manages to do what some of the filler episodes in the first Dragon Ball anime did and fill in the blanks, as in providing more content during a period that the manga left vague in terms of progressions characters or world building. The episode (Episode 9) which had Gohan surviving in the wild, helping those who need assistance and bringing himself to acknowledge that he can't save everyone, but he will try he best to do so was all such brilliant character development. I can see why Nozawa thought Episode 9 was her favourite episode while voicing Gohan, it's fantastic, as is Episode 10. Episodes like that may seem like fluff, but they bring so much to the table in terms of content that they really deserve more recognition than they get.[/spoiler]
The Artwork Of The Manga:
[spoiler]The Saiyan arc for me marked the period where Toriyama peaked an as artist. The artwork in the manga is stunning from start to end. And it gets especially great when Goku fights Vegeta.[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
The Additional Material (The other parts):
[spoiler]While most of the additional material was quite well done and added to the story in tangible manner, other part of Toei own additions to the story felt quite haphazard in execution. The most egregious case of this was Vegeta and Nappa’s stop off at Planet Arlia. I think it was pointless to try and portray the larger threat, compared to Raditz, looming on Earth, as characters who have somewhat heroic traits. Vegeta and Nappa shouldn't have entertained any of the creatures on Planet Arlia in the way they did, like defeating the evil rule. They should have just arrived on that planet and instantly nuked it. That would have made for one hell of a more effective and efficient impression of those characters. We really didn't need a full episode focused on those two from the get-go. And if you wanted your main antagonist(s) to have an episode’s worth of screen-time to themselves in the debut episode, make sure the content fits in with their much more supposedly meaning and dangerous demeanour(s). On positive note, I found the animation of Vegeta and Nappa's rampage on Arlia to be very good.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
I’ve always seen the Saiyan arc as the magnum opus of storytelling in the Dragon Ball franchise… and it remains that way. This arc has aged like fine wine. It is a fantastic arc from start to finish. From Gohan’s wonderful character development (especially in the anime), the fantastic integration of teamwork to takedown a common enemy, and the extremely satisfying battles for a visceral and storytelling sense and the wonderful antagonists… this arc is just perfect. This is an amalgamation of Dragon Ball greatest attributes. I can really understand why a lot fans view this arc as when the story peaked. It’s got everything going for it (in the manga) and so much more (in the anime). - 10/10
(Continued in the next post...)
Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
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Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Last edited by Lord Beerus on Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Spoiler:
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Freeza:
[spoiler]- Good detective work from Krillin to devise they go to Namek in the hope of bring back to life their fallen comrades.
- Great exposition about the backstory Kami and the Namekians, that doesn’t feel out of place, dragged out, makes use of the supporting cast and really lays down the foundation for the Namek arc very well. Great worldbuilding overall.
- I loved Gohan standing up to Chi Chi. It served as a key character moment for him show how much he’s developed. Despite his young age, Gohan feels that he has duty to bring back to the people that aided him in battle (Piccolo).
- I love how we get a perspective of just how much of dominant and domineering figure with how many planets Freeza has conquered at minimum (79).
- The gang make their way to Namek… only get attacked by another spaceship during their journey. Bleh.
- And so, the filler begins…
- Wait, so the children on the spaceship think that Krillin, Gohan and Bulma, work for Freeza? Um… you guys would know they kind of outfits and armour that Freeza’s underlings wear, right? Gohan, Krillin and Bulma look like the most unassuming people you can imagine that would be working for galactic overlord.
- I’m so not invested in these children or how their home world was destroyed, but I do like how they give a small sampling of how much of an imposing and greater scope figure Freeza is.
- They’ve found Namek already? *checks manga* No, they haven’t. This is more filler nonsense.
- The Fake Namek episodes are among the worst I’ve watched in the all of Dragon Ball. Terrible.
- Toei really know how to make Chi Chi unlikable.
- I sat through five episodes of back-to-back garbage (Episode 39-44), but we’re finally getting to the real meat of the story. Enter Freeza…
- Vegeta make Cui explode much like he did to that Saibaman in the Saiyan arc. We’re off to a good start with this arc.
- Plot convenience allows Goku to get to Namek in a fraction of the time it took Bulma, Gohan and Krillin, and also train in 100 times Earth’s gravity during the journey.
- Nice hype about Freeza’s strength from Gohan and Krillin.
- Gohan and Krillin wiping the deck with Freeza’s mooks was nice to see.
- Episode 47 has some sensational animation and direction with the battle between the Namekians and Freeza’s mooks. A hidden gem of an episode.
- Episode 48 is fucking brutal. Namekians having their necks snapped, being impaled and their children being killed. Nasty stuff. I don’t think the series really get any more vicious than this.
- So the more Saiyans battle, the stronger they become. Hmm. Guess that explains Goku Black in the Dragon Ball Super anime. But I find that tidbit incredibly convenient given that we don’t really see Raditz, Nappa, Goku or Gohan spontaneously becoming stronger while they were fighting.
- When and how did Vegeta learn to sense ki? I guess this sells the idea of Vegeta being a seasoned combatant, but damn if this didn’t feel incredibly convenient. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Turn out Vegeta knew that Planet Vegeta wasn’t destroyed by a meteor and that Freeza destroyed it out of fear by how powerful the Saiyans could get. But it turns out that Vegeta doesn’t give a shit about his planet, his fellow Saiyans or even his parents. Hmm. Well, Vegeta is an evil bastard…
- Goku blasting a Kamehameha into the sun… Ah. So that’s where DBZ Movie 5 and GT got that from.
- Everything is the fucking same on this fucking planet. As far as settings go, Namek has to rank as the worst. It’s just so bland and boring.
- Episode 51 give us the ugliest looking Vegeta in all of Dragon Ball. And one of the ugliest episode of the Dragon Ball anime franchise in general. Yuck.
- Tien, Yamcha, Piccolo and Chiaotzu training is such a fantastic scenario that I’m sure will keep all of them relevant in the plot in the future…
- More hype from Freeza, and this time, from Kaio-sama himself. I’m loving this teasing of what Freeza can do.
- I really love this three-way rat race between Krillin and Gohan, Vegeta, Freeza (and his army) for the Namkian Dragon Balls. It really makes such a good use of the vast cast being introduced in the arc, as well as keeping the narrative open to any kind of twist and turns that may occur. You never know what is going to happen, and that’s a major hook for this arc.
- Vegeta’s fight with Zarbon was a nice tug-of-war kind of battle.
- This is the most cunning Vegeta has been in the show (and really, ever will be). He fools Freeza and Zarbon into think he blasted his way out of Freeza’s ship, snuck his way into finding where Freeza hid the remaining Namekian Dragon Balls, lure Freeza and Zarbon into thinking he still on the ship, blast the ship to disguise his exit and makes off with the five Namekian Dragon Balls while Freeza and Zarbon are still confused as to whether he’s still on Freeza’s ship. This is fantastic writing for Vegeta. This is the sort of unique pragmatic villainy that is quite rare in Dragon Ball and it’s not better displayed than on Namek than with Vegeta.
- Bulma find Zarbon attractive and handsome. Of course, she does…
- The episodes being handled by Studio Live are really not doing some these episodes justice. Any episode being handled by them just don’t look good at all. And this has been an issue since back in the Saiyan arc as well.
- I legit forgot Bulma was on Namek, too. She feels like such an inconsequential character in this arc. All she does is complain about being left behind.
- Throwing sand into the eyes of his enemy. Pragmatic Vegeta is the best Vegeta.
- Episode 59 and 60 were fucking atrocious episodes and rank among the worst in all of Dragon Ball. Bulma fighting giant crabs was the fucking pits. Terrible episodes on it own and the placement of it is even more horrendous. It just epitomizes how Bulma has no direction at all in this arc.
- I could watch Goku train for days. Him just getting stronger seems like the most fun in the world.
- Manga line – Bulma: “Little Son Goku. Who'd've thought he'd become the ultimate power?...And me, always fighting with Yamcha who's supposed to be my boyfriend...Did I blow it?" Remember folks, it turns out that Yamcha is the unfaithful on in his and Bulma’s relationship…
- The grand entrance of the Ginyu Force is one of the highlights of the arc. I love it.
- The Ginyu Force are charming as a group, but individually, they are very one note in personality.
- Gurd’s death in the anime far less graphic compare to how it happens in the manga.
- Man, Toriyama does not know what to do with characters that have physic abilities. Gurd felt really wasted for a character that Vegeta said was to have been stronger than him. I guess that’s what happen when you’re caught off guard.
- Manga line – Jheese: “Yo! Yo! Yo! Gurd was defeated!!“ That made me chuckle.
- Episode 64 is one of best animated episodes of the series and has on the best fights in all of Dragon Ball. Vegeta vs Reecom is a joy to watch.
- I really love Gohan’s dogged attitude against Recoom. Even though he’s getting his butt kicked and he knows he doesn’t stand a chance, he still won’t give up and proudly establishes himself as the son of Goku.
- Goku can apparently read mins now by just placing his hand over people’s head. How? When? And why doesn’t he do that more often? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Goku knocking out Reecoom with one elbow to gut will never get old.
- Goku punching Jheese in the middle of his dialogue cracked me up.
- So much for Butta being the fastest in the universe. Goku schools him and knock him out with two hits. Total fodder material.
- Jheese has really got nothing going for him.
- I love how politely evil Freeza is. He is such a charismatic villain.
- Nail’s fight with Freeza, albeit very boring, served its purpose in the story as a good distraction.
- It was about time a villain got the upper hand on Goku. Nice going with that body change, Ginyu.
- Goku (Ginyu) performing poses will never not make me grin.
- Vegeta killed Jheese like he was nothing. So much for that guy.
- Episode 74 has one of the best looking beatdowns ever animated in Dragon Ball. Vegeta clobbering Ginyu (Goku) was wonderful to watch.
- And this is where Vegeta loses his cunning and pragmatism. He charges right at the guy who has the ability to switch bodies at will. Fucking idiot.
- That poor frog.
- The Ginyu Force, and especially more so with Butta and Jheese, rank among the most unremarkable villains in all of Dragon Ball. As a parody, the joke doesn’t work. They all really felt like padding when all is said and done. Which is incredibly disappointing when you take into consideration much Vegeta hyped them up before they arrived. Not to mention they lack any distinguishable characteristics between them. They all blend in together as one.
- And right after a visually good episode Studio Live steps in for Episode 75 to remind me how ugly and stiff Dragon Ball (Z) episodes could be.
- Unhinged Freeza bring out the best of Ryūsei Nakao.
- Why the fuck would Piccolo wish to want to go to Namek? It’s an insanely stupid idea considering it invalidates the initial wish of bringing Piccolo back to life to restore the Earth Dragon Ball (by virtue of Kami being resurrected as well) as he’s needlessly putting himself in harm’s way by taking himself to a planet that so happens to have an insanely powerful galactic planet conqueror who at this stage holds a deep hatred for all Namekians. And it completely goes against Kaio-sama’s advice to stay away from Freeza. What was he thinking?
- Now that the Namekian Dragon Balls are gone because of Guru’s death, the story loses that interesting dynamic of several parties clashing together for their own goal. It’s now just gonna be fights. Let’s hope they’re interesting.
- How Freeza transitions from soft spoken sadist to unhinged, bloodthirsty lunatic after his plans (for immortality) are dashed is just breath-taking. It’s moments like this that remind me why many fans, and Akira Toriyama himself, love Freeza so much. He’s a spectacularly well-rounded villain.
- Piccolo fusing with Nail is cool. Hope it leads to something for him…
- Freeza transformed and skewers Krillin. Savage. Too bad Krillin survived making it mean nothing.
- Piccolo arrives and fights Freeza in his new form… and accomplishes nothing.
- Freeza transforms again gives Piccolo a world of hurt, making Piccolo’s power up by fusing Nail worthless and just further solidifies that Piccolo going to Namek was a stupid and pointless idea. Ugh.
- So Freeza has two more transformation? With that statement, the fight between Freeza, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan officially becomes pointless. If Freeza knew he had two more powerful form, then why did bother transforming into the first one. Why didn’t Freeza just power up into his most powerful form from the start and just kill everyone? It’s all fake tension. None of these fights really matter. They just serve as pointless padding until Goku arrives to save the day again.
- Vegeta states that he can’t get the near death powerup (Zenkai) unless someone else enforces the damage. Umm… that’s not true. Goku was blasting himself with Kamehameha’s on his spaceship while travelling to Namek and got stronger from that. Vegeta is full of shit.
- Final Form Freeza remain one of Toriyama greatest achieves from an artistic standpoint. It’s a simple, yet sleek and unique design.
- Krillin, Gohan and Piccolo fighting Final Form Freeza looks ugly as fuck in the anime.
- Vegeta puts up more of a fight against Final Form Freeza in the anime. In the manga, Vegeta gives up immediately after just two attacks.
- Ryō Horikawa gives his greatest performance in one of the most sombre moments in Dragon Ball with Vegeta’s death at Freeza’s hand.
- Good start to the fight between Goku and Freeza with good animation and fight choreography. And I like how they are basically warming up and feeling each other out.
- Now the fight is starting to drag… after the second episode of it. Oh, and the episode itself (Episode 89) is fucking horrendous. Terrible art, stiff animation and the main fight feels like more of sideshow because we (apparently) really needed to find out what was happening on Earth and needed to see Bulma messing around with frogs. All around awful.
- Who the fuck cares about Bulma and a frog?
- The artwork of this Goku/Freeza fight in the manga is excellent.
- Masaki Sato’s gorgeous artwork and animation bring us back on track in Episode 90… but it’s then bogged down by the absurd and unnaturally placed subplot of Ginyu Frog switching bodies with Bulma.
- The fact that three episodes spent time on time on that bullshit Frog Ginyu/Bulma subplot is disgraceful. It was all terrible and placed horribly in a fight of this magnitude. What an unnecessary distraction.
- Nozawa kills it during the Kaioken times 20 scene.
- The daydream that Goku has with (naked) Vegeta, Kid Vegeta, King Vegeta and Bardock was completely unnecessary. Goku already knows what he’s fighting for and what’s at stake. And how would Goku even relate to King Vegeta or Badock? He’s never met those people and doesn’t know who they are! This was just bullshit fluff material from Toei.
- The Ginyu Force are on Kaio-sama’s Planet… How? Why? And more importantly, who gives a shit?
- Toei…stop injecting the fight with Goku and Freeza with the nonsensical B-plot. Who gives a flying fuck about Ginyu Force at this stage? I understand wanting to find something for Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu to do, but this is the wrong way to go about it. In fact, The Ginyu Force somehow manging to keep their bodies and find Kaio-sama’s planet retrospectively shits on Goku’s, Tien’s, Yamcha’s, Piccolo’s and Chiaotzu’s hard work in travelling Snake Way, as well as lessening the importance of keeping your body in the afterlife as very special privilege. The Ginyu Force are dead. Let them stay dead. I guess if you’re desperate for Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu to do something productive, this will tickle you bones, but this does nothing for me.
- Oh God, the pacing of the Goku/Freeza fight is fucking atrocious (in the anime).
- So how does the Genki Dama work? Originally, isn’t was even a ball of energy to begin with. It was just basically energy around Goku’s hand. Then it suddenly became a ball of energy when it was completed in the Saiyan arc. And now you can form a Genki Dama in outer space. And unlike in the Saiyan arc, where Goku lost some of the energy of the Genki Dama after Oozaru Vegeta attacked him, here Freeza attacks him while he’s charging it and nothing happens. Plot convenience? Oh, yeah. Big time. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Freeza seems to kill Piccolo. Further cementing that Piccolo coming to Namek beyond stupid, a waste of time and nearly invalidates the whole reason for this arc even happening.
- Episode 95 has THE moment of the Dragon Ball story. What the franchise is remembered and revered for… Goku dying his hair blonde after Freeza made Krillin explode. Real talk though, this is amazing moment.
- And Episode 96 is an even better follow up with some of the best voice acting from Masako Nozawa and Ryūsei Nakao. But that speech… “I am the Saiyan who came from Earth to defeat you. Despite my calm and quite heart, I am the legendary warrior awakened by intense anger. I am the Super Saiyan, Son Goku!!” Now while delivery of this is great in the anime, I can’t help but feel it’s out of character for Goku to make a speech like that.
- And with Episode 97, “Five Minutes” begins. We’re in for the long haul now…
- Wait a minute… Goku is willing to let Freeza power up to 100% even though in the previous episode he stated he wouldn’t let Freeza reach his maximum power? What made him change his mind?
- Gohan saves a bewildered and confused Bulma from falling debris. A tragic representation of how little she meant while on Namek. At least the good animation of 100% Final Form Freeza battering SSJ Goku helped softened that blow.
- Studio Live return once more to stink up the joint again in Episode 99, with their trademark stiff animation and ugly art during some parts of 100% Final Form Freeza and SSJ Goku’s battle.
- The artwork of the 100% Final Form Freeza and SSJ Goku battle in the manga is exceptional
- Gohan fighting Final Form Freeza in the anime was absurd. It’s the kind of filler that detracts from the story. This is a fight between Goku and Freeza, let it stay that way. Trying to throw Gohan back into the mix can’t work since the story has already made it clear that he’s far out of his depth by listening to Goku’s order to leave the battlefield.
- Guru’s back. Yay.
- Dende’s back. Yay.
- Vegeta’s back. Boo. He should have stayed dead. He had the perfect send out. Oh well.
- Anime: “You mean Krillin!?” Manga: “Are you talking about Krillin?!!!!” Both renditions of that scene are phenomenal.
- This fight is still going on…
- Some great battle animation in Episode 103 somewhat distracts me from the fact that Planet Namek still hasn’t exploded for some reason.
- Goku quitting and leaving a battle is such uncharacteristic thing for him to do. Especially against a guy that Goku swore he would defeat.
- Goku is trying to get Freeza cut in half by his own attack… and then tells Freeza to get out of the way of getting hit by his own attack. Make up your fucking mind Goku! Do you want to kill Freeza or not?
- Freeza is hoist by his own disc shaped petard. And Ryūsei Nakao’s sensational performance greatly aides in elevating the scene of Freeza’s desperate plea for Goku to help him.
- Since when could sharing Ki save people from dying? That’s never happened before. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Goku: “YOU FOOL!!” Gets me every time. What a great scene.
- The anime kind of fucked up with Goku’s reaction to (supposedly) killing Freeza. In the anime, Goku displays a look of anger on his, while the manga gave him a more solemn and saddened look on his face after doing the deed. I find the manga’s version of Goku’s facial expression to be more appropriate.
- Episodes 106 and 107 has quite a lot of bullshit in it. Vegeta’s being a contradictory asshole for the sake of it, the mechanic of death and resurrection being ignored and Goku managing to operate a spaceship he’s never seen before.
- So the controls of the Freeza’s giant spaceship are the practically identical to that of the spaceship Goku used to travel to Namek? Fucking how? That’s ridiculous.
- Namek is finally destroyed and good riddance. What a boring ass planet.
- Bulma is even hitting on Vegeta… Remember, Yamcha is the cheater…
- Looks like Goku is dead…
- Nope. He’s not dead. Well, there better be a good explanation for this.
- All of the deceased Z-Warriors are brought back life, the Namekians have a new home, and that’s the last of the Freeza… for now.[/spoiler]
Okay. I have a lot to say about with this arc.
POSITIVES
The Three-way Dance:
[spoiler]All the episodes before the cast arrive on Namek, excluding the brief glimpses of Vegeta recovering on Freeza Planet 79, are pure trash. But once the story arrives on Namek, the plot up until the Goku arriving on Namek is excellent. The stakes feel so high and narrative is always open to any natural changes when you have three different parties (Gohan/Krillin, Freeza’s Army and Vegeta) all vying for the same MacGuffin (Namekian Dragon Balls) for varying personal objectives (revive dead friends and gaining immortality). You have Good vs Evil, Evil vs Evil and Good and Evil teaming up to take on another Evil.[/spoiler]
Vegeta:
[spoiler]I believe the best part of this arc was Vegeta. His character was fantastic. He was strategic, cunning, manipulative, pragmatic and always seemed to find a way out of scenario that was far out of depth. Then come to the point where, after abusing his Saiyan biology to cheat death and become more powerful, he fights Final Form Freeza, he fails miserably. And the sudden realisation that everything he went through to kill Freeza meant nothing he begins to cry, and is beaten savagely by Freeza and then killed by him. When Vegeta came across Goku on Namek for the first time he is shocked and frustrated with the idea that Goku may have become a Super Saiyan and deals with his agitation over this concept by constantly stating that he is the one who will become a Super Saiyan as Goku is too gentle and soft to become one. But then in his dying breath to Goku, he pleas to him that Freeza must die by the hands of Saiyan.
A character like Vegeta, historically being known for (at that point) working alone and disposing and/or abandoning any allies very quickly once he figures that he has no more use for them. And then on death’s doorstep, he’s forced to rely on Goku, his major rival and most likely the very last person in the universe he wold want to rely on for anything he would personally want to get done, to achieve his goal of killing Freeza, even if the victory that Vegeta is seeking will very much indirect. It’s all such a wonderfully dramatic and ironic twist that I have to applaud Toriyama’s writing for managing bring such a satisfying conclusion to Vegeta’s character during the arc. Much like Piccolo death in the Saiyan arc, Vegeta’s death feels the fitting end for his journey as a character and really added that emotional weight to Freeza fighting the main cast that was severely lacking prior to that point in the story.
Freeza:
[spoiler]Freeza is a magnificent villain. He’s incredibly ranged antagonist in personality with how narcissistic and vicious while also formal and polite he can be when he’s engaged with any personal tasks or interacting with any character. He’s a wonderfully balanced antagonist whose mood swings from being calm and reserved when everything goes his way to his child-like temper tantrums to when he’s backed into a corner, serve to make the arc much more of a thrill ride. Also, Ryūsei Nakao unbelievably elevates Freeza’s character to completely different level in the anime, and I really can’t imagine anyone else who could have play that role as well as he did.[/spoiler]
Super Saiyan:
[spoiler]The Super Saiyan form itself has a great payoff and managed to live it to incredible amount of hype and intrigue created by it in-universe. And the build up to it during the fight with Freeza managed to give a legitimate personal reason for Goku to fight Freeza, with Krillin being cause being the trigger to what would lead Goku becoming a Super Saiyan. The transformation scene itself of Goku becoming a Super Saiyan was great in both mediums. The manga treats Goku becoming a Super Saiyan are most of spontaneous moment of pure anger, while the anime makes this more of a calm-before-the-storm moment with some grunting and an awesome climatic scream from Nozowa. The best kind of win-win scenario.[/spoiler]
Animation:
[spoiler]Episodes 47, 64, 74, 87, 88, 90, 98 and 103 were the stand out episodes of this arc from a visual perspective. Great artwork and animation is all of those episodes. Episodes 64 and 74 in particular deserve specifically special praise as those episodes, in my opinion, reached the level of Episode 31, which I view as one of the best animated episodes in the entire franchise.[/spoiler]
Manga specifics:
[spoiler]The artwork in the manga is also consistently great and the story of the arc is much better paced in the manga.[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
The Ginyu Force:
[spoiler]The Ginyu Force haven’t aged well. At all. The more I think about, the more I realised why some fans don’t care for the Ginyu Force. And it’s quite simple: as a parody, they don’t work in a story like Dragon Ball, and especially at this point in the narrative. The Ginyu Force’s main hook is that they are a parody. They are a group of fighters who pose a lot, call out big flashy names for big flashy attacks, and create eccentric looking and memorable poses when they unleash these attacks. The Ginyu Force act this way in a story that has fighters who call out big flashy names for big flashy attacks, and create eccentric looking and memorable poses when they unleash these attacks. See the problem? The Ginyu Force only feels only marginally different to what Dragon Ball is already accustomed to. And because of their lack of any real differentiation to the nature of Dragon Ball, the joke(s) fals flat, if the intention is to be making fun of Dragon Ball. The Ginyu Force, as a concept, just don’t work because there is not enough of a contrast to what they are and what Dragon Ball already is. They’re a paper thin “parody”, if you even want to call it that. If the goal was to make the Ginyu Force stand out, the story failed spectacularly at that.
I think the worst aspect of The Ginyu Force is that ultimately feel like filler in the main story. It doesn’t help they don’t really have much in the character department and they don’t have any distinguishing personalities between them. They all just blend together as one. The only significance they bring to the story as a collective whole is giving Goku and Vegeta yet another power-up, which really didn’t need to happen in the first place. I think characters like them would have better fitted in the 21st or 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi arc or even perhaps in the Red Ribbon Army arc. At least in those arcs, given their tone and setting at the time, they would have felt more in suitable and serviceable to the plot. But in the Freeza arc, they just feel like padding.[/spoiler]
Freeza’s Pointless Fighting:
[spoiler]The main fight (and very prolonged) with Freeza is a really mixed bag. I enjoy that the story is trying to make use of characters like Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan, who are obviously far out their depth at that stage. But looking at the arc as a whole, their battles against Freeza really doesn’t serve any purpose and it all comes down to one problem created in the story: Freeza stating that he could transform at will after clashing with Piccolo. That was huge mistake from a narrative point of view because then you realise the main cast never stood a chance to begin with against Freeza, even when the likes of Gohan, Piccolo and Vegeta got power-ups. You’re basically watching a filler fight. A fight with no real stakes because the villain could have/should have won the battle right from the start. Freeza fighting Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin is fake tension incarnate. I will somewhat give the fight the benefit of the doubt and as watching the fight through the lens of a continuous story is quite a gripping experience. But when you look at the fight as a complete story, it’s extremely redundant.[/spoiler]
Piccolo and Bulma:
[spoiler]And speaking of redundant, there are no other characters that fit that word better than Piccolo and Bulma.
Let’s start off with Piccolo. Long story short… he achieved nothing on Namek. He fuses with Nail, who did initially serve a purpose to the plot, which you would think would lead to something, but it doesn’t. There’s no payoff to Piccolo assimilating with Nail and his power growing. Piccolo just beats up Freeza in his second form for one episode (one chapter) only for Freeza to reveal he has two more powerful transformations, making Piccolo’s power-up pointless almost immediately. And before people say, “Oh well, Piccolo needed to be on Namek he could distract Freeza long enough for Goku to fully heal and then so that could Goku could charge his Genki Dama.” Those arguments make no goddamn because a) Toriyama could have had Goku emerge for the healing chamber at any point in the story and b) The job of districting Freeza long enough for Goku to fully heal and to later charge the Genki Dama could have given to Gohan and Krillin. And it really should have been given to Gohan and Krillin, as the Freeza arc has been mostly their story, along with Vegeta’s. You really have to ask yourself why did Piccolo come to Namek? Because if he wanted revenge against the person who slaughtered his people, then he should have gone after Vegeta as well. Hell, Vegeta kills more Namekians by his own hand than Freeza does (for the same reason and goal as Freeza, mind you), so the justification of Piccolo going to Namek to avenge his people becomes very shallow going by thought process. When is all said and done, Piccolo serves no purpose to the plot in the arc. I’d even go far as to say that he doesn’t even really feel like a character, but more like a power up among other power ups in this arc. Piccolo in the Freeza arc feels like a character thrown into a situation where he doesn’t really belong and that’s what really rubs me up the wrong way.
And Bulma… holy shit. Toriyama dropped the ball with her so goddamned hard in this arc. Her major appearances in the arc don’t bring anything of importance to the plot. And any additional material created by Toei was terrible in content and horribly placed into the story. The worst case of this being during the Goku/Freeza fight with the bullshit subplot with Ginyu-Frog. I did find it hilarious how Bulma contemplated whether she made the right choice in having Yamcha as her boyfriend Bulma should have stayed on Earth.
The fight between Goku and Freeza in the anime, and in some parts of the manga, have aged not so well.[/spoiler]
The Pacing In The Anime:
[spoiler]I find the Goku/Freeza battle to be terribly paced in the anime. You have some episodes where the narrative would suddenly decide to switch to a completely irrelevant and inconsequential side plot. When you’re in the midst of the biggest fight in the series (at that point), slowing down the plot in that kind of manner is reductive to creating any kind of scenario, whether its building tension or establishing some of dynamic relationship between the protagonist and the antagonist. An episode of Dragon Ball Z set during a major fight, where 50% of the episode doesn’t focus on that fight, to me, is the absolute anthesis for what Dragon Ball represents: a show centred around fighting and martial arts. I don’t care if you have to have repeated frames or recycle animation for the whole episode, don’t have episodes based around the one major fight where we don’t see much of the main characters actually fighting each other.
The insertion of the Ginyu Frog/Bulma and supporting cast trying to find a way to Namek subplots epitomizes how badly directed this fight was in the anime. If you’re looking to waste time during the major fight, that is the fucking worst avenue to take. It breaks up the plot in the most annoyingly distracting way and robs the main fight of some its gravitas by making it appear that, even though the fight between Goku and Freeza is a big deal, it can be put on the backburner to focus on something as irreverent and haphazardly injected into the plot as Bulma getting mixed up with frog.
And no, I’m not giving Toei a pass under the whole “They need to stall for the manga to get ahead more” excuse. The first Dragon Ball anime had to deal with this and handled it infinitely better 90% of the time, so the Dragon Ball Z (anime) has no excuse. “Five minutes” shouldn’t last 10 fucking episodes. That’s absurd. Imagine trying to digest that on a once a week basis like the Japanese audience did back in the early 90s. The pacing of the fight in the manga is far more tolerable, but even then, the whole “Five minutes” scenario still feels a little dragged out there.[/spoiler]
Goku vs Freeza Is Initially Hollow:
[spoiler]Now from a story perspective, and I REALLY hate to say this, but Goku and Freeza fighting hasn’t got much of a foundation to begin with. And the biggest factor in all of this is that there really is no connection between Goku and Freeza. And before people bring up Bardock, and saying that Freeza killing him means that Goku and Freeza have a personal connection, let me set the record straight…Freeza killing Bardock means nothing. And allow me to elaborate on why. The reference of Bardock in the manga have no bearing on the narrative because you could remove all traces of Bardock from the manga and nothing would change because him being brought has no effect or consequences on the story. None of the characters in the story ever make the distinction that Bardock is Goku’s father. When Freeza thinks of Bardock, he doesn’t make the point that Goku could be somehow related to that one Saiyan who stood against before he killed him and everyone else on Planet Vegeta. Goku doesn’t know that Freeza is thinking of his father. It’s only the narration that makes that point.
And even if the connection was made in-universe that the Saiyan that stood against Freeza was Goku’s father, what does it matter from Goku’s perspective? Goku has no memory or any personal connection to his father. So even if the connection was made in-universe that the Saiyan that stood against Freeza was Goku’s father, it would be a very weak connection to make to justify any kind of catharsis for Goku being the representation of the Saiyan race making Freeza pay for what he did their planet and people. The shout out to Bardock, and the TV special he debuted in, is nothing more than superficial fluff material added in with the hope of bringing some dramatic irony to Freeza’s downfall at the hands of Goku. But it just doesn’t work. Thankfully, Freeza killing Krillin provides the personal link between Goku and Freeza. It’s such a shame that it happens halfway into the fight, though.[/spoiler]
Goku Is A Plot Device:
[spoiler]Another major issue is with this arc is how Goku is handled in this arc. To be brutally honest, Goku is handled terribly in this arc.
Some of the characteristics that Goku displays in this arc also appear inconsistently. A prime example being how Goku goes from wanting to prevent Freeza to reaching his maximum power to allowing Freeza to power-up so he could beat him at his best in the space of one episode/one chapter. And despite Goku’s hunger for battle, he tries to walk away from his fight with Freeza… twice. What happened with regards to that big speech about him swearing he’ll defeat Freeza? Did it never happen? It’s like if in the Saiyan arc after Goku realising that the gap in power between himself and Nappa was large enough to make Nappa a non-threat to him and that Nappa is fighting a losing battle, he decides instead out breaking out Kaioken to finish the fight, he just stopping fighting him and the focuses his attention on Vegeta instead. I just found it incredibly out of character for Goku to act like that. Then his attitude flip-flops again from trying to get Freeza killed from his own attack to trying to prevent Freeza from getting cut from his own attack.
I also found it strange that Goku suddenly becomes this weird beacon of morality the moment he touches down on Namek. I mean, it kinda works in a thematic sense, but how it's used in the Freeza fight is very haphazard. It is rather odd that he suddenly becomes so unwilling to kill, and it’s even more unusual considering he's doesn’t really act like that afterwards. Goku’s characterisation in this arc is just all over the place and only seems to fit the needs of the plot.
I’d also say that Goku is less of a character and more of a plot device in this arc. Goku’s only role in the arc to be side-lined before conveniently before inserting himself back into the plot and saving the day. Now this has happened before, in both the King Piccolo arc and Saiyan arc. But there is significant difference how it played in those arcs and in the Freeza arc. In those arcs, the narrative still majorly focuses on Goku’s journey in a meaningful fashion and the plot threads of those arcs originate from Goku. There’s no unique spin on this in the Freeza arc. In this arc, it’s played painfully straight:
1. Goku comes back stronger
2. Cleans up everyone else’s mess
3. Gets conveniently benched
4. Go back to step one and repeat.
That happens twice. And it’s a bit insulting to the supporting cast as it demonstrates that the main role for them is basically fail and then have to rely on Goku to save them. Goku is so far removed from the plot of the arc, that him being thrown into the mix (again) so late into the game against the major antagonist of the arc feels arbitrary to me.[/spoiler]
The Ending:
[spoiler]The content of the climax of the arc in both mediums is not good at all.
I find the idea that donating Ki can save people from the brink of death from mortal wounds as incredibly contrived, ridiculous and just fucking stupid. It’s never hinted anywhere that you can do something like this in the series. If sharing Ki can save people from dying, why do Senzu and healing chambers even need to exist? You can’t even handwave this with the excuse of “Freeza has alien biology, so injuries are different for him”, because if Freeza being cut in half wasn’t a big deal, then why did ask for Goku’s help to begin with? What did Goku giving Freeza Ki do for him? This is just as bad as when Goku brought himself back from the dead in the King Piccolo arc. And what’s even more jarring is that we never see something like this again. And for it to serve as an important factor in the conclusion of this battle, make this even more unforgivable.
Now it’s the anime’s turn. In Episode 106, Vegeta appears happy about the fact that Goku and Freeza are dead, taunts Gohan about it, fights and beats Gohan and flies away. But in the very next episode, he’s still among Bulma, Gohan and the rest of Namekians and wants to see Goku’s strength as a Super Saiyan. It’s like nothing happened in the previous episode happened. This the usual Toei nonsense thrown into the pad out Episode 106, so I guess you can excuse it. But it’s still absolute nonsense.
But what can’t be excused is what happens next in both mediums when Vegeta suggests that Gohan and Bulma use the Namekian Dragon Balls to transport the souls of Krillin and Goku to Earth before they bring them back to life. That makes no sense and completely goes against how death and resurrection work in the Dragon Ball universe. When someone normally dies in Dragon Ball, their soul is transported to the afterlife and their body basically becomes a shell. And if they are brought back to life, the soul travels back to where the body was from when they died or where the remains of their body are. So even if they were to transport the souls of Goku and Krillin to Earth, the wish to bring them back to life would still result in their souls travelling to Namek because that was where their bodies and other remains are when they died. And in that case, they would still die in space after making that wish, regardless of whether their souls would be transported to Earth or not. So Krillin being brought back to life and having his body on Earth makes no sense. It shouldn’t have happened that way. He should have been brought back to life where Namek formally was. It’s a plot hole. And a big one as well. Or at the very least, a major continuity error.
And ironically, despite the manga have much better pacing the anime, the ending of the arc in the manga is incredibly rushed. You have Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu being brought back to life (off-panel too, because fuck them, right?), the Namekians being transported to their new planet, a two-year time-skip and then (Mecha) Freeza reappearing with King Cold… all in one chapter. It’s just so abrupt in the manga how it goes from one arc ending to the very next.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This is an arc that people hold in high regard, and I can understand why. It has some really great moments scattered across the story, Freeza and Vegeta are fantastic antagonists, and this arc has arguably the highpoint of all of Dragon Ball, as well one of the most iconic moments in all of anime and manga happen with Goku becoming a Super Saiyan. But judging this arc as a whole is very difficult because there are so many elements to take into consideration. The ugly looking episodes (for which there are several), the great animation in some cases, the terrific voicing acting, the magnificent score from Shunsuke Kikuchi, the horrible pacing in both the anime and the manga and the terrible filler inserted by the Toei.
Let me put it like this: The first 1/3 of this arc is (mostly) fantastic (I say “mostly” because the first third of the arc in the anime has Bulma fighting giant crabs and Fake Namek. But in the manga, all of the 1/3 of the story is fantastic) and has some of the best writing that Dragon Ball has ever had. The 2/3 of the arc feels a lot like padding. It’s entreating at face value, but reek of time-wasting and stalling for Goku to arrive and save the day (again). And while the final third of the story has some iconic moments for Dragon Ball, in the anime, it’s severely bogged down by terrible pacing, poorly integrated filler and uneven animation. And in the case of both mediums (anime and manga), the ending just comes off the tracks.
All in all, this is an arc that started off very strong, but unfortunately, it doesn’t really keep up that quality as the story progresses outside of few instances. If I were judge the arc solely based on the manga, it would be a 7/10. If I were to judge the arc solely based on the anime, it would be a 4/10. So let’s split the difference and call it even then. – 5.5/10
Garlic Jr (Filler):
[spoiler]- Krillin has a new girlfriend that looks like Bulma… and I already don’t like her.
- Get a brief reintroduction of Garlic Jr, which is very nice and helps with getting acquainted with a character most of the audience wouldn’t know much of.
- It’s at this point where Roshi is nothing more than the stock characters of, “Hey, look at the old guy doing pervy things!” Bleh
- It’s The Mist 2: Garlic Boogaloo
- Demon Clansman Yamcha, Bulma and Chi Chi attack Piccolo and bite him like a vampire. Never thought I would type that sentence.
- Meanwhile… Vegeta looks for Goku in space. Stay tuned for updates…
- Piccolo is demon… again… apparently. I thought he was a Namekian. You know, AN ALIEN. When did that change? And God is trapped in a bottle. And yes, Vegeta is still looking for Goku is space and has no results.
- Gohan and Krillin getting their butts handed to them by Demon Piccolo and the Demon Clansman is getting repetitive and tedious
- Piccolo is longer a Demon… again. And fights with a beefed-up Garlic Jr while Kami and Popo run around in desert(?) for a while.
- Hooray. Gohan is doing something… too bad I’m already so fucking bored with this arc.
- The Purge has ended.
- Kami is dead… oh wait, he’s okay.
- A shameless revision of the ending of the 1st DBZ movie, with Garlic Jr being trapped in the Dead Zone again, and this arc is over.
- Krillin leaves Maron because he feels like he’s not good enough for her, only for Maron to reveal she wouldn’t have minded being Krillin’s bride. Aw man. Don’t worry Krillin, I’ve been there, too. Hang on tight, buddy. You’re going to find the woman of your dreams eventually.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This was filler in every sense of the word. And not good filler either. The sad thing is that this arc could have been so much more than it was, but it seemed like Toei just ran out of ideas halfway into the arc. But at least Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo had something constructive to do. – 2/10
(Continued in the next post...)
[spoiler]- Good detective work from Krillin to devise they go to Namek in the hope of bring back to life their fallen comrades.
- Great exposition about the backstory Kami and the Namekians, that doesn’t feel out of place, dragged out, makes use of the supporting cast and really lays down the foundation for the Namek arc very well. Great worldbuilding overall.
- I loved Gohan standing up to Chi Chi. It served as a key character moment for him show how much he’s developed. Despite his young age, Gohan feels that he has duty to bring back to the people that aided him in battle (Piccolo).
- I love how we get a perspective of just how much of dominant and domineering figure with how many planets Freeza has conquered at minimum (79).
- The gang make their way to Namek… only get attacked by another spaceship during their journey. Bleh.
- And so, the filler begins…
- Wait, so the children on the spaceship think that Krillin, Gohan and Bulma, work for Freeza? Um… you guys would know they kind of outfits and armour that Freeza’s underlings wear, right? Gohan, Krillin and Bulma look like the most unassuming people you can imagine that would be working for galactic overlord.
- I’m so not invested in these children or how their home world was destroyed, but I do like how they give a small sampling of how much of an imposing and greater scope figure Freeza is.
- They’ve found Namek already? *checks manga* No, they haven’t. This is more filler nonsense.
- The Fake Namek episodes are among the worst I’ve watched in the all of Dragon Ball. Terrible.
- Toei really know how to make Chi Chi unlikable.
- I sat through five episodes of back-to-back garbage (Episode 39-44), but we’re finally getting to the real meat of the story. Enter Freeza…
- Vegeta make Cui explode much like he did to that Saibaman in the Saiyan arc. We’re off to a good start with this arc.
- Plot convenience allows Goku to get to Namek in a fraction of the time it took Bulma, Gohan and Krillin, and also train in 100 times Earth’s gravity during the journey.
- Nice hype about Freeza’s strength from Gohan and Krillin.
- Gohan and Krillin wiping the deck with Freeza’s mooks was nice to see.
- Episode 47 has some sensational animation and direction with the battle between the Namekians and Freeza’s mooks. A hidden gem of an episode.
- Episode 48 is fucking brutal. Namekians having their necks snapped, being impaled and their children being killed. Nasty stuff. I don’t think the series really get any more vicious than this.
- So the more Saiyans battle, the stronger they become. Hmm. Guess that explains Goku Black in the Dragon Ball Super anime. But I find that tidbit incredibly convenient given that we don’t really see Raditz, Nappa, Goku or Gohan spontaneously becoming stronger while they were fighting.
- When and how did Vegeta learn to sense ki? I guess this sells the idea of Vegeta being a seasoned combatant, but damn if this didn’t feel incredibly convenient. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Turn out Vegeta knew that Planet Vegeta wasn’t destroyed by a meteor and that Freeza destroyed it out of fear by how powerful the Saiyans could get. But it turns out that Vegeta doesn’t give a shit about his planet, his fellow Saiyans or even his parents. Hmm. Well, Vegeta is an evil bastard…
- Goku blasting a Kamehameha into the sun… Ah. So that’s where DBZ Movie 5 and GT got that from.
- Everything is the fucking same on this fucking planet. As far as settings go, Namek has to rank as the worst. It’s just so bland and boring.
- Episode 51 give us the ugliest looking Vegeta in all of Dragon Ball. And one of the ugliest episode of the Dragon Ball anime franchise in general. Yuck.
- Tien, Yamcha, Piccolo and Chiaotzu training is such a fantastic scenario that I’m sure will keep all of them relevant in the plot in the future…
- More hype from Freeza, and this time, from Kaio-sama himself. I’m loving this teasing of what Freeza can do.
- I really love this three-way rat race between Krillin and Gohan, Vegeta, Freeza (and his army) for the Namkian Dragon Balls. It really makes such a good use of the vast cast being introduced in the arc, as well as keeping the narrative open to any kind of twist and turns that may occur. You never know what is going to happen, and that’s a major hook for this arc.
- Vegeta’s fight with Zarbon was a nice tug-of-war kind of battle.
- This is the most cunning Vegeta has been in the show (and really, ever will be). He fools Freeza and Zarbon into think he blasted his way out of Freeza’s ship, snuck his way into finding where Freeza hid the remaining Namekian Dragon Balls, lure Freeza and Zarbon into thinking he still on the ship, blast the ship to disguise his exit and makes off with the five Namekian Dragon Balls while Freeza and Zarbon are still confused as to whether he’s still on Freeza’s ship. This is fantastic writing for Vegeta. This is the sort of unique pragmatic villainy that is quite rare in Dragon Ball and it’s not better displayed than on Namek than with Vegeta.
- Bulma find Zarbon attractive and handsome. Of course, she does…
- The episodes being handled by Studio Live are really not doing some these episodes justice. Any episode being handled by them just don’t look good at all. And this has been an issue since back in the Saiyan arc as well.
- I legit forgot Bulma was on Namek, too. She feels like such an inconsequential character in this arc. All she does is complain about being left behind.
- Throwing sand into the eyes of his enemy. Pragmatic Vegeta is the best Vegeta.
- Episode 59 and 60 were fucking atrocious episodes and rank among the worst in all of Dragon Ball. Bulma fighting giant crabs was the fucking pits. Terrible episodes on it own and the placement of it is even more horrendous. It just epitomizes how Bulma has no direction at all in this arc.
- I could watch Goku train for days. Him just getting stronger seems like the most fun in the world.
- Manga line – Bulma: “Little Son Goku. Who'd've thought he'd become the ultimate power?...And me, always fighting with Yamcha who's supposed to be my boyfriend...Did I blow it?" Remember folks, it turns out that Yamcha is the unfaithful on in his and Bulma’s relationship…
- The grand entrance of the Ginyu Force is one of the highlights of the arc. I love it.
- The Ginyu Force are charming as a group, but individually, they are very one note in personality.
- Gurd’s death in the anime far less graphic compare to how it happens in the manga.
- Man, Toriyama does not know what to do with characters that have physic abilities. Gurd felt really wasted for a character that Vegeta said was to have been stronger than him. I guess that’s what happen when you’re caught off guard.
- Manga line – Jheese: “Yo! Yo! Yo! Gurd was defeated!!“ That made me chuckle.
- Episode 64 is one of best animated episodes of the series and has on the best fights in all of Dragon Ball. Vegeta vs Reecom is a joy to watch.
- I really love Gohan’s dogged attitude against Recoom. Even though he’s getting his butt kicked and he knows he doesn’t stand a chance, he still won’t give up and proudly establishes himself as the son of Goku.
- Goku can apparently read mins now by just placing his hand over people’s head. How? When? And why doesn’t he do that more often? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Goku knocking out Reecoom with one elbow to gut will never get old.
- Goku punching Jheese in the middle of his dialogue cracked me up.
- So much for Butta being the fastest in the universe. Goku schools him and knock him out with two hits. Total fodder material.
- Jheese has really got nothing going for him.
- I love how politely evil Freeza is. He is such a charismatic villain.
- Nail’s fight with Freeza, albeit very boring, served its purpose in the story as a good distraction.
- It was about time a villain got the upper hand on Goku. Nice going with that body change, Ginyu.
- Goku (Ginyu) performing poses will never not make me grin.
- Vegeta killed Jheese like he was nothing. So much for that guy.
- Episode 74 has one of the best looking beatdowns ever animated in Dragon Ball. Vegeta clobbering Ginyu (Goku) was wonderful to watch.
- And this is where Vegeta loses his cunning and pragmatism. He charges right at the guy who has the ability to switch bodies at will. Fucking idiot.
- That poor frog.
- The Ginyu Force, and especially more so with Butta and Jheese, rank among the most unremarkable villains in all of Dragon Ball. As a parody, the joke doesn’t work. They all really felt like padding when all is said and done. Which is incredibly disappointing when you take into consideration much Vegeta hyped them up before they arrived. Not to mention they lack any distinguishable characteristics between them. They all blend in together as one.
- And right after a visually good episode Studio Live steps in for Episode 75 to remind me how ugly and stiff Dragon Ball (Z) episodes could be.
- Unhinged Freeza bring out the best of Ryūsei Nakao.
- Why the fuck would Piccolo wish to want to go to Namek? It’s an insanely stupid idea considering it invalidates the initial wish of bringing Piccolo back to life to restore the Earth Dragon Ball (by virtue of Kami being resurrected as well) as he’s needlessly putting himself in harm’s way by taking himself to a planet that so happens to have an insanely powerful galactic planet conqueror who at this stage holds a deep hatred for all Namekians. And it completely goes against Kaio-sama’s advice to stay away from Freeza. What was he thinking?
- Now that the Namekian Dragon Balls are gone because of Guru’s death, the story loses that interesting dynamic of several parties clashing together for their own goal. It’s now just gonna be fights. Let’s hope they’re interesting.
- How Freeza transitions from soft spoken sadist to unhinged, bloodthirsty lunatic after his plans (for immortality) are dashed is just breath-taking. It’s moments like this that remind me why many fans, and Akira Toriyama himself, love Freeza so much. He’s a spectacularly well-rounded villain.
- Piccolo fusing with Nail is cool. Hope it leads to something for him…
- Freeza transformed and skewers Krillin. Savage. Too bad Krillin survived making it mean nothing.
- Piccolo arrives and fights Freeza in his new form… and accomplishes nothing.
- Freeza transforms again gives Piccolo a world of hurt, making Piccolo’s power up by fusing Nail worthless and just further solidifies that Piccolo going to Namek was a stupid and pointless idea. Ugh.
- So Freeza has two more transformation? With that statement, the fight between Freeza, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan officially becomes pointless. If Freeza knew he had two more powerful form, then why did bother transforming into the first one. Why didn’t Freeza just power up into his most powerful form from the start and just kill everyone? It’s all fake tension. None of these fights really matter. They just serve as pointless padding until Goku arrives to save the day again.
- Vegeta states that he can’t get the near death powerup (Zenkai) unless someone else enforces the damage. Umm… that’s not true. Goku was blasting himself with Kamehameha’s on his spaceship while travelling to Namek and got stronger from that. Vegeta is full of shit.
- Final Form Freeza remain one of Toriyama greatest achieves from an artistic standpoint. It’s a simple, yet sleek and unique design.
- Krillin, Gohan and Piccolo fighting Final Form Freeza looks ugly as fuck in the anime.
- Vegeta puts up more of a fight against Final Form Freeza in the anime. In the manga, Vegeta gives up immediately after just two attacks.
- Ryō Horikawa gives his greatest performance in one of the most sombre moments in Dragon Ball with Vegeta’s death at Freeza’s hand.
- Good start to the fight between Goku and Freeza with good animation and fight choreography. And I like how they are basically warming up and feeling each other out.
- Now the fight is starting to drag… after the second episode of it. Oh, and the episode itself (Episode 89) is fucking horrendous. Terrible art, stiff animation and the main fight feels like more of sideshow because we (apparently) really needed to find out what was happening on Earth and needed to see Bulma messing around with frogs. All around awful.
- Who the fuck cares about Bulma and a frog?
- The artwork of this Goku/Freeza fight in the manga is excellent.
- Masaki Sato’s gorgeous artwork and animation bring us back on track in Episode 90… but it’s then bogged down by the absurd and unnaturally placed subplot of Ginyu Frog switching bodies with Bulma.
- The fact that three episodes spent time on time on that bullshit Frog Ginyu/Bulma subplot is disgraceful. It was all terrible and placed horribly in a fight of this magnitude. What an unnecessary distraction.
- Nozawa kills it during the Kaioken times 20 scene.
- The daydream that Goku has with (naked) Vegeta, Kid Vegeta, King Vegeta and Bardock was completely unnecessary. Goku already knows what he’s fighting for and what’s at stake. And how would Goku even relate to King Vegeta or Badock? He’s never met those people and doesn’t know who they are! This was just bullshit fluff material from Toei.
- The Ginyu Force are on Kaio-sama’s Planet… How? Why? And more importantly, who gives a shit?
- Toei…stop injecting the fight with Goku and Freeza with the nonsensical B-plot. Who gives a flying fuck about Ginyu Force at this stage? I understand wanting to find something for Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu to do, but this is the wrong way to go about it. In fact, The Ginyu Force somehow manging to keep their bodies and find Kaio-sama’s planet retrospectively shits on Goku’s, Tien’s, Yamcha’s, Piccolo’s and Chiaotzu’s hard work in travelling Snake Way, as well as lessening the importance of keeping your body in the afterlife as very special privilege. The Ginyu Force are dead. Let them stay dead. I guess if you’re desperate for Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu to do something productive, this will tickle you bones, but this does nothing for me.
- Oh God, the pacing of the Goku/Freeza fight is fucking atrocious (in the anime).
- So how does the Genki Dama work? Originally, isn’t was even a ball of energy to begin with. It was just basically energy around Goku’s hand. Then it suddenly became a ball of energy when it was completed in the Saiyan arc. And now you can form a Genki Dama in outer space. And unlike in the Saiyan arc, where Goku lost some of the energy of the Genki Dama after Oozaru Vegeta attacked him, here Freeza attacks him while he’s charging it and nothing happens. Plot convenience? Oh, yeah. Big time. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Freeza seems to kill Piccolo. Further cementing that Piccolo coming to Namek beyond stupid, a waste of time and nearly invalidates the whole reason for this arc even happening.
- Episode 95 has THE moment of the Dragon Ball story. What the franchise is remembered and revered for… Goku dying his hair blonde after Freeza made Krillin explode. Real talk though, this is amazing moment.
- And Episode 96 is an even better follow up with some of the best voice acting from Masako Nozawa and Ryūsei Nakao. But that speech… “I am the Saiyan who came from Earth to defeat you. Despite my calm and quite heart, I am the legendary warrior awakened by intense anger. I am the Super Saiyan, Son Goku!!” Now while delivery of this is great in the anime, I can’t help but feel it’s out of character for Goku to make a speech like that.
- And with Episode 97, “Five Minutes” begins. We’re in for the long haul now…
- Wait a minute… Goku is willing to let Freeza power up to 100% even though in the previous episode he stated he wouldn’t let Freeza reach his maximum power? What made him change his mind?
- Gohan saves a bewildered and confused Bulma from falling debris. A tragic representation of how little she meant while on Namek. At least the good animation of 100% Final Form Freeza battering SSJ Goku helped softened that blow.
- Studio Live return once more to stink up the joint again in Episode 99, with their trademark stiff animation and ugly art during some parts of 100% Final Form Freeza and SSJ Goku’s battle.
- The artwork of the 100% Final Form Freeza and SSJ Goku battle in the manga is exceptional
- Gohan fighting Final Form Freeza in the anime was absurd. It’s the kind of filler that detracts from the story. This is a fight between Goku and Freeza, let it stay that way. Trying to throw Gohan back into the mix can’t work since the story has already made it clear that he’s far out of his depth by listening to Goku’s order to leave the battlefield.
- Guru’s back. Yay.
- Dende’s back. Yay.
- Vegeta’s back. Boo. He should have stayed dead. He had the perfect send out. Oh well.
- Anime: “You mean Krillin!?” Manga: “Are you talking about Krillin?!!!!” Both renditions of that scene are phenomenal.
- This fight is still going on…
- Some great battle animation in Episode 103 somewhat distracts me from the fact that Planet Namek still hasn’t exploded for some reason.
- Goku quitting and leaving a battle is such uncharacteristic thing for him to do. Especially against a guy that Goku swore he would defeat.
- Goku is trying to get Freeza cut in half by his own attack… and then tells Freeza to get out of the way of getting hit by his own attack. Make up your fucking mind Goku! Do you want to kill Freeza or not?
- Freeza is hoist by his own disc shaped petard. And Ryūsei Nakao’s sensational performance greatly aides in elevating the scene of Freeza’s desperate plea for Goku to help him.
- Since when could sharing Ki save people from dying? That’s never happened before. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Goku: “YOU FOOL!!” Gets me every time. What a great scene.
- The anime kind of fucked up with Goku’s reaction to (supposedly) killing Freeza. In the anime, Goku displays a look of anger on his, while the manga gave him a more solemn and saddened look on his face after doing the deed. I find the manga’s version of Goku’s facial expression to be more appropriate.
- Episodes 106 and 107 has quite a lot of bullshit in it. Vegeta’s being a contradictory asshole for the sake of it, the mechanic of death and resurrection being ignored and Goku managing to operate a spaceship he’s never seen before.
- So the controls of the Freeza’s giant spaceship are the practically identical to that of the spaceship Goku used to travel to Namek? Fucking how? That’s ridiculous.
- Namek is finally destroyed and good riddance. What a boring ass planet.
- Bulma is even hitting on Vegeta… Remember, Yamcha is the cheater…
- Looks like Goku is dead…
- Nope. He’s not dead. Well, there better be a good explanation for this.
- All of the deceased Z-Warriors are brought back life, the Namekians have a new home, and that’s the last of the Freeza… for now.[/spoiler]
Okay. I have a lot to say about with this arc.
POSITIVES
The Three-way Dance:
[spoiler]All the episodes before the cast arrive on Namek, excluding the brief glimpses of Vegeta recovering on Freeza Planet 79, are pure trash. But once the story arrives on Namek, the plot up until the Goku arriving on Namek is excellent. The stakes feel so high and narrative is always open to any natural changes when you have three different parties (Gohan/Krillin, Freeza’s Army and Vegeta) all vying for the same MacGuffin (Namekian Dragon Balls) for varying personal objectives (revive dead friends and gaining immortality). You have Good vs Evil, Evil vs Evil and Good and Evil teaming up to take on another Evil.[/spoiler]
Vegeta:
[spoiler]I believe the best part of this arc was Vegeta. His character was fantastic. He was strategic, cunning, manipulative, pragmatic and always seemed to find a way out of scenario that was far out of depth. Then come to the point where, after abusing his Saiyan biology to cheat death and become more powerful, he fights Final Form Freeza, he fails miserably. And the sudden realisation that everything he went through to kill Freeza meant nothing he begins to cry, and is beaten savagely by Freeza and then killed by him. When Vegeta came across Goku on Namek for the first time he is shocked and frustrated with the idea that Goku may have become a Super Saiyan and deals with his agitation over this concept by constantly stating that he is the one who will become a Super Saiyan as Goku is too gentle and soft to become one. But then in his dying breath to Goku, he pleas to him that Freeza must die by the hands of Saiyan.
A character like Vegeta, historically being known for (at that point) working alone and disposing and/or abandoning any allies very quickly once he figures that he has no more use for them. And then on death’s doorstep, he’s forced to rely on Goku, his major rival and most likely the very last person in the universe he wold want to rely on for anything he would personally want to get done, to achieve his goal of killing Freeza, even if the victory that Vegeta is seeking will very much indirect. It’s all such a wonderfully dramatic and ironic twist that I have to applaud Toriyama’s writing for managing bring such a satisfying conclusion to Vegeta’s character during the arc. Much like Piccolo death in the Saiyan arc, Vegeta’s death feels the fitting end for his journey as a character and really added that emotional weight to Freeza fighting the main cast that was severely lacking prior to that point in the story.
Freeza:
[spoiler]Freeza is a magnificent villain. He’s incredibly ranged antagonist in personality with how narcissistic and vicious while also formal and polite he can be when he’s engaged with any personal tasks or interacting with any character. He’s a wonderfully balanced antagonist whose mood swings from being calm and reserved when everything goes his way to his child-like temper tantrums to when he’s backed into a corner, serve to make the arc much more of a thrill ride. Also, Ryūsei Nakao unbelievably elevates Freeza’s character to completely different level in the anime, and I really can’t imagine anyone else who could have play that role as well as he did.[/spoiler]
Super Saiyan:
[spoiler]The Super Saiyan form itself has a great payoff and managed to live it to incredible amount of hype and intrigue created by it in-universe. And the build up to it during the fight with Freeza managed to give a legitimate personal reason for Goku to fight Freeza, with Krillin being cause being the trigger to what would lead Goku becoming a Super Saiyan. The transformation scene itself of Goku becoming a Super Saiyan was great in both mediums. The manga treats Goku becoming a Super Saiyan are most of spontaneous moment of pure anger, while the anime makes this more of a calm-before-the-storm moment with some grunting and an awesome climatic scream from Nozowa. The best kind of win-win scenario.[/spoiler]
Animation:
[spoiler]Episodes 47, 64, 74, 87, 88, 90, 98 and 103 were the stand out episodes of this arc from a visual perspective. Great artwork and animation is all of those episodes. Episodes 64 and 74 in particular deserve specifically special praise as those episodes, in my opinion, reached the level of Episode 31, which I view as one of the best animated episodes in the entire franchise.[/spoiler]
Manga specifics:
[spoiler]The artwork in the manga is also consistently great and the story of the arc is much better paced in the manga.[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
The Ginyu Force:
[spoiler]The Ginyu Force haven’t aged well. At all. The more I think about, the more I realised why some fans don’t care for the Ginyu Force. And it’s quite simple: as a parody, they don’t work in a story like Dragon Ball, and especially at this point in the narrative. The Ginyu Force’s main hook is that they are a parody. They are a group of fighters who pose a lot, call out big flashy names for big flashy attacks, and create eccentric looking and memorable poses when they unleash these attacks. The Ginyu Force act this way in a story that has fighters who call out big flashy names for big flashy attacks, and create eccentric looking and memorable poses when they unleash these attacks. See the problem? The Ginyu Force only feels only marginally different to what Dragon Ball is already accustomed to. And because of their lack of any real differentiation to the nature of Dragon Ball, the joke(s) fals flat, if the intention is to be making fun of Dragon Ball. The Ginyu Force, as a concept, just don’t work because there is not enough of a contrast to what they are and what Dragon Ball already is. They’re a paper thin “parody”, if you even want to call it that. If the goal was to make the Ginyu Force stand out, the story failed spectacularly at that.
I think the worst aspect of The Ginyu Force is that ultimately feel like filler in the main story. It doesn’t help they don’t really have much in the character department and they don’t have any distinguishing personalities between them. They all just blend together as one. The only significance they bring to the story as a collective whole is giving Goku and Vegeta yet another power-up, which really didn’t need to happen in the first place. I think characters like them would have better fitted in the 21st or 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi arc or even perhaps in the Red Ribbon Army arc. At least in those arcs, given their tone and setting at the time, they would have felt more in suitable and serviceable to the plot. But in the Freeza arc, they just feel like padding.[/spoiler]
Freeza’s Pointless Fighting:
[spoiler]The main fight (and very prolonged) with Freeza is a really mixed bag. I enjoy that the story is trying to make use of characters like Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan, who are obviously far out their depth at that stage. But looking at the arc as a whole, their battles against Freeza really doesn’t serve any purpose and it all comes down to one problem created in the story: Freeza stating that he could transform at will after clashing with Piccolo. That was huge mistake from a narrative point of view because then you realise the main cast never stood a chance to begin with against Freeza, even when the likes of Gohan, Piccolo and Vegeta got power-ups. You’re basically watching a filler fight. A fight with no real stakes because the villain could have/should have won the battle right from the start. Freeza fighting Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin is fake tension incarnate. I will somewhat give the fight the benefit of the doubt and as watching the fight through the lens of a continuous story is quite a gripping experience. But when you look at the fight as a complete story, it’s extremely redundant.[/spoiler]
Piccolo and Bulma:
[spoiler]And speaking of redundant, there are no other characters that fit that word better than Piccolo and Bulma.
Let’s start off with Piccolo. Long story short… he achieved nothing on Namek. He fuses with Nail, who did initially serve a purpose to the plot, which you would think would lead to something, but it doesn’t. There’s no payoff to Piccolo assimilating with Nail and his power growing. Piccolo just beats up Freeza in his second form for one episode (one chapter) only for Freeza to reveal he has two more powerful transformations, making Piccolo’s power-up pointless almost immediately. And before people say, “Oh well, Piccolo needed to be on Namek he could distract Freeza long enough for Goku to fully heal and then so that could Goku could charge his Genki Dama.” Those arguments make no goddamn because a) Toriyama could have had Goku emerge for the healing chamber at any point in the story and b) The job of districting Freeza long enough for Goku to fully heal and to later charge the Genki Dama could have given to Gohan and Krillin. And it really should have been given to Gohan and Krillin, as the Freeza arc has been mostly their story, along with Vegeta’s. You really have to ask yourself why did Piccolo come to Namek? Because if he wanted revenge against the person who slaughtered his people, then he should have gone after Vegeta as well. Hell, Vegeta kills more Namekians by his own hand than Freeza does (for the same reason and goal as Freeza, mind you), so the justification of Piccolo going to Namek to avenge his people becomes very shallow going by thought process. When is all said and done, Piccolo serves no purpose to the plot in the arc. I’d even go far as to say that he doesn’t even really feel like a character, but more like a power up among other power ups in this arc. Piccolo in the Freeza arc feels like a character thrown into a situation where he doesn’t really belong and that’s what really rubs me up the wrong way.
And Bulma… holy shit. Toriyama dropped the ball with her so goddamned hard in this arc. Her major appearances in the arc don’t bring anything of importance to the plot. And any additional material created by Toei was terrible in content and horribly placed into the story. The worst case of this being during the Goku/Freeza fight with the bullshit subplot with Ginyu-Frog. I did find it hilarious how Bulma contemplated whether she made the right choice in having Yamcha as her boyfriend Bulma should have stayed on Earth.
The fight between Goku and Freeza in the anime, and in some parts of the manga, have aged not so well.[/spoiler]
The Pacing In The Anime:
[spoiler]I find the Goku/Freeza battle to be terribly paced in the anime. You have some episodes where the narrative would suddenly decide to switch to a completely irrelevant and inconsequential side plot. When you’re in the midst of the biggest fight in the series (at that point), slowing down the plot in that kind of manner is reductive to creating any kind of scenario, whether its building tension or establishing some of dynamic relationship between the protagonist and the antagonist. An episode of Dragon Ball Z set during a major fight, where 50% of the episode doesn’t focus on that fight, to me, is the absolute anthesis for what Dragon Ball represents: a show centred around fighting and martial arts. I don’t care if you have to have repeated frames or recycle animation for the whole episode, don’t have episodes based around the one major fight where we don’t see much of the main characters actually fighting each other.
The insertion of the Ginyu Frog/Bulma and supporting cast trying to find a way to Namek subplots epitomizes how badly directed this fight was in the anime. If you’re looking to waste time during the major fight, that is the fucking worst avenue to take. It breaks up the plot in the most annoyingly distracting way and robs the main fight of some its gravitas by making it appear that, even though the fight between Goku and Freeza is a big deal, it can be put on the backburner to focus on something as irreverent and haphazardly injected into the plot as Bulma getting mixed up with frog.
And no, I’m not giving Toei a pass under the whole “They need to stall for the manga to get ahead more” excuse. The first Dragon Ball anime had to deal with this and handled it infinitely better 90% of the time, so the Dragon Ball Z (anime) has no excuse. “Five minutes” shouldn’t last 10 fucking episodes. That’s absurd. Imagine trying to digest that on a once a week basis like the Japanese audience did back in the early 90s. The pacing of the fight in the manga is far more tolerable, but even then, the whole “Five minutes” scenario still feels a little dragged out there.[/spoiler]
Goku vs Freeza Is Initially Hollow:
[spoiler]Now from a story perspective, and I REALLY hate to say this, but Goku and Freeza fighting hasn’t got much of a foundation to begin with. And the biggest factor in all of this is that there really is no connection between Goku and Freeza. And before people bring up Bardock, and saying that Freeza killing him means that Goku and Freeza have a personal connection, let me set the record straight…Freeza killing Bardock means nothing. And allow me to elaborate on why. The reference of Bardock in the manga have no bearing on the narrative because you could remove all traces of Bardock from the manga and nothing would change because him being brought has no effect or consequences on the story. None of the characters in the story ever make the distinction that Bardock is Goku’s father. When Freeza thinks of Bardock, he doesn’t make the point that Goku could be somehow related to that one Saiyan who stood against before he killed him and everyone else on Planet Vegeta. Goku doesn’t know that Freeza is thinking of his father. It’s only the narration that makes that point.
And even if the connection was made in-universe that the Saiyan that stood against Freeza was Goku’s father, what does it matter from Goku’s perspective? Goku has no memory or any personal connection to his father. So even if the connection was made in-universe that the Saiyan that stood against Freeza was Goku’s father, it would be a very weak connection to make to justify any kind of catharsis for Goku being the representation of the Saiyan race making Freeza pay for what he did their planet and people. The shout out to Bardock, and the TV special he debuted in, is nothing more than superficial fluff material added in with the hope of bringing some dramatic irony to Freeza’s downfall at the hands of Goku. But it just doesn’t work. Thankfully, Freeza killing Krillin provides the personal link between Goku and Freeza. It’s such a shame that it happens halfway into the fight, though.[/spoiler]
Goku Is A Plot Device:
[spoiler]Another major issue is with this arc is how Goku is handled in this arc. To be brutally honest, Goku is handled terribly in this arc.
Some of the characteristics that Goku displays in this arc also appear inconsistently. A prime example being how Goku goes from wanting to prevent Freeza to reaching his maximum power to allowing Freeza to power-up so he could beat him at his best in the space of one episode/one chapter. And despite Goku’s hunger for battle, he tries to walk away from his fight with Freeza… twice. What happened with regards to that big speech about him swearing he’ll defeat Freeza? Did it never happen? It’s like if in the Saiyan arc after Goku realising that the gap in power between himself and Nappa was large enough to make Nappa a non-threat to him and that Nappa is fighting a losing battle, he decides instead out breaking out Kaioken to finish the fight, he just stopping fighting him and the focuses his attention on Vegeta instead. I just found it incredibly out of character for Goku to act like that. Then his attitude flip-flops again from trying to get Freeza killed from his own attack to trying to prevent Freeza from getting cut from his own attack.
I also found it strange that Goku suddenly becomes this weird beacon of morality the moment he touches down on Namek. I mean, it kinda works in a thematic sense, but how it's used in the Freeza fight is very haphazard. It is rather odd that he suddenly becomes so unwilling to kill, and it’s even more unusual considering he's doesn’t really act like that afterwards. Goku’s characterisation in this arc is just all over the place and only seems to fit the needs of the plot.
I’d also say that Goku is less of a character and more of a plot device in this arc. Goku’s only role in the arc to be side-lined before conveniently before inserting himself back into the plot and saving the day. Now this has happened before, in both the King Piccolo arc and Saiyan arc. But there is significant difference how it played in those arcs and in the Freeza arc. In those arcs, the narrative still majorly focuses on Goku’s journey in a meaningful fashion and the plot threads of those arcs originate from Goku. There’s no unique spin on this in the Freeza arc. In this arc, it’s played painfully straight:
1. Goku comes back stronger
2. Cleans up everyone else’s mess
3. Gets conveniently benched
4. Go back to step one and repeat.
That happens twice. And it’s a bit insulting to the supporting cast as it demonstrates that the main role for them is basically fail and then have to rely on Goku to save them. Goku is so far removed from the plot of the arc, that him being thrown into the mix (again) so late into the game against the major antagonist of the arc feels arbitrary to me.[/spoiler]
The Ending:
[spoiler]The content of the climax of the arc in both mediums is not good at all.
I find the idea that donating Ki can save people from the brink of death from mortal wounds as incredibly contrived, ridiculous and just fucking stupid. It’s never hinted anywhere that you can do something like this in the series. If sharing Ki can save people from dying, why do Senzu and healing chambers even need to exist? You can’t even handwave this with the excuse of “Freeza has alien biology, so injuries are different for him”, because if Freeza being cut in half wasn’t a big deal, then why did ask for Goku’s help to begin with? What did Goku giving Freeza Ki do for him? This is just as bad as when Goku brought himself back from the dead in the King Piccolo arc. And what’s even more jarring is that we never see something like this again. And for it to serve as an important factor in the conclusion of this battle, make this even more unforgivable.
Now it’s the anime’s turn. In Episode 106, Vegeta appears happy about the fact that Goku and Freeza are dead, taunts Gohan about it, fights and beats Gohan and flies away. But in the very next episode, he’s still among Bulma, Gohan and the rest of Namekians and wants to see Goku’s strength as a Super Saiyan. It’s like nothing happened in the previous episode happened. This the usual Toei nonsense thrown into the pad out Episode 106, so I guess you can excuse it. But it’s still absolute nonsense.
But what can’t be excused is what happens next in both mediums when Vegeta suggests that Gohan and Bulma use the Namekian Dragon Balls to transport the souls of Krillin and Goku to Earth before they bring them back to life. That makes no sense and completely goes against how death and resurrection work in the Dragon Ball universe. When someone normally dies in Dragon Ball, their soul is transported to the afterlife and their body basically becomes a shell. And if they are brought back to life, the soul travels back to where the body was from when they died or where the remains of their body are. So even if they were to transport the souls of Goku and Krillin to Earth, the wish to bring them back to life would still result in their souls travelling to Namek because that was where their bodies and other remains are when they died. And in that case, they would still die in space after making that wish, regardless of whether their souls would be transported to Earth or not. So Krillin being brought back to life and having his body on Earth makes no sense. It shouldn’t have happened that way. He should have been brought back to life where Namek formally was. It’s a plot hole. And a big one as well. Or at the very least, a major continuity error.
And ironically, despite the manga have much better pacing the anime, the ending of the arc in the manga is incredibly rushed. You have Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu being brought back to life (off-panel too, because fuck them, right?), the Namekians being transported to their new planet, a two-year time-skip and then (Mecha) Freeza reappearing with King Cold… all in one chapter. It’s just so abrupt in the manga how it goes from one arc ending to the very next.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This is an arc that people hold in high regard, and I can understand why. It has some really great moments scattered across the story, Freeza and Vegeta are fantastic antagonists, and this arc has arguably the highpoint of all of Dragon Ball, as well one of the most iconic moments in all of anime and manga happen with Goku becoming a Super Saiyan. But judging this arc as a whole is very difficult because there are so many elements to take into consideration. The ugly looking episodes (for which there are several), the great animation in some cases, the terrific voicing acting, the magnificent score from Shunsuke Kikuchi, the horrible pacing in both the anime and the manga and the terrible filler inserted by the Toei.
Let me put it like this: The first 1/3 of this arc is (mostly) fantastic (I say “mostly” because the first third of the arc in the anime has Bulma fighting giant crabs and Fake Namek. But in the manga, all of the 1/3 of the story is fantastic) and has some of the best writing that Dragon Ball has ever had. The 2/3 of the arc feels a lot like padding. It’s entreating at face value, but reek of time-wasting and stalling for Goku to arrive and save the day (again). And while the final third of the story has some iconic moments for Dragon Ball, in the anime, it’s severely bogged down by terrible pacing, poorly integrated filler and uneven animation. And in the case of both mediums (anime and manga), the ending just comes off the tracks.
All in all, this is an arc that started off very strong, but unfortunately, it doesn’t really keep up that quality as the story progresses outside of few instances. If I were judge the arc solely based on the manga, it would be a 7/10. If I were to judge the arc solely based on the anime, it would be a 4/10. So let’s split the difference and call it even then. – 5.5/10
Garlic Jr (Filler):
[spoiler]- Krillin has a new girlfriend that looks like Bulma… and I already don’t like her.
- Get a brief reintroduction of Garlic Jr, which is very nice and helps with getting acquainted with a character most of the audience wouldn’t know much of.
- It’s at this point where Roshi is nothing more than the stock characters of, “Hey, look at the old guy doing pervy things!” Bleh
- It’s The Mist 2: Garlic Boogaloo
- Demon Clansman Yamcha, Bulma and Chi Chi attack Piccolo and bite him like a vampire. Never thought I would type that sentence.
- Meanwhile… Vegeta looks for Goku in space. Stay tuned for updates…
- Piccolo is demon… again… apparently. I thought he was a Namekian. You know, AN ALIEN. When did that change? And God is trapped in a bottle. And yes, Vegeta is still looking for Goku is space and has no results.
- Gohan and Krillin getting their butts handed to them by Demon Piccolo and the Demon Clansman is getting repetitive and tedious
- Piccolo is longer a Demon… again. And fights with a beefed-up Garlic Jr while Kami and Popo run around in desert(?) for a while.
- Hooray. Gohan is doing something… too bad I’m already so fucking bored with this arc.
- The Purge has ended.
- Kami is dead… oh wait, he’s okay.
- A shameless revision of the ending of the 1st DBZ movie, with Garlic Jr being trapped in the Dead Zone again, and this arc is over.
- Krillin leaves Maron because he feels like he’s not good enough for her, only for Maron to reveal she wouldn’t have minded being Krillin’s bride. Aw man. Don’t worry Krillin, I’ve been there, too. Hang on tight, buddy. You’re going to find the woman of your dreams eventually.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This was filler in every sense of the word. And not good filler either. The sad thing is that this arc could have been so much more than it was, but it seemed like Toei just ran out of ideas halfway into the arc. But at least Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo had something constructive to do. – 2/10
(Continued in the next post...)
Spoiler:
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Cell:
[spoiler]- The bollocks with Gohan’s private tutor was terrible. Every. Second. Of it.
- Freeza’s back and he’s brought his dad with him. Hmm
- Wait, Freeza has a clan?
- (Mecha) Freeza is about to cause a ruckus but appears this purple haired youth.
- ‘The Mysterious Youth’ cleans house and easily kills all of Freeza’s goons. Cool.
- ‘The Mysterious Youth’ transforms into a Super Saiyan and slices Freeza in half. Holy. Shit. That’s a franchise highlight moment. Takeshi Kusao’s awesome battle cry when ‘The Mysterious Youth’ powered up, the fantastic insert song ‘Battle Point Unlimited’ (Which was unfortunately plagiarised. Damn you, Kenji Yamamoto) and the awesome animation. Everything about Episode 120 was amazing.
- The follow up episode has some atrocious animation in the beginning.
- King Cold is dead. And I have to question why he even needed to exist. His appearance really does make you question Freeza's standing in his own empire and in the greater scale of the universe. But that doesn’t matter because Goku is back!
- ‘The Mysterious Youth’ is named Trunks and his mother is Bulma and his father is… Vegeta. Why Vegeta? Yamcha was fooling with other women, Bulma got sick of it, and hooked up with Vegeta after seeing how alone he was. Okay, I know this story needs Trunks to be a Saiyan for it to work, but, c’mon, that excuse is bullshit. If you know about Yamcha and Bulma’s character from when the story began, there’s no fucking way you can buy this.
- Goku can sense that Trunks has no malice in him and knew he wouldn’t attack him? So… Goku is Jedi now?
- Goku using his one finger to block Trunks sword attacks is visually stunning.
- Okay, just to clarify, in the anime Trunks is very vague in describing what the threat that will arrive in three years is. He doesn’t provide any description of what they looked, what the name of the threats are or even what their gender is. He just states they’re Artificial Humans. In the manga, Trunks flat out states its Artificial Humans named Cyborg 19 and 20 and that the both of them are male (“Mechanical Men”). So it’s nice to know that the anime got the heads up on this plot hole in the manga and smartly covered their tracks and play up the mystery of the threat. But the anime also (unintentionally) makes Trunks looks like a fool for not giving an kind of indication of what the threat that brings about the end of the world as we know it in three years look like.
- Great exposition for Trunks that really sets the stage for the rest of the arc.
- So according to Goku, Freeza spotted the spaceship he was in and knew would he would get to Earth. Why didn’t Freeza blow Goku’s spaceship out of the air? Plot convenience? Hell yeah. Plus, I guess there needed to be a plot.
- The explanation for how Goku survived Namek is contrived as hell and insanely convenient.
- Goku showing off his new ability (to teleport) is funny and cool
- Bulma suggesting that they should wish to use the Dragon Balls to wish to find Dr Gero’s lab location and attack him so he won’t activate the Androids is the most rational and sensibly through-out idea I’ve come across in Dragon Ball. So naturally, that idea is turned by the Vegeta.
- Okay, I can somewhat understand that Goku declines Bulma’s idea because it’s already established that Goku is character that will go to great length for a battle, but what I don’t understand is the logic that they don’t attack him because he hasn’t created the Androids yet and that it wouldn’t be nice to beat him up. That logic is fucking asinine. Dr Gero worked for the same organisation that planned to take over the world. Dr Gero is no saint to begin with. Plus, Trunks flat out stated that Gero WILL unleash the Cyborgs onto the world in three years. Nothing has changed about that. Goku can have some really twisted and fucked logic sometimes.
- I love how Krillin talked about how great Bulma’s idea was but then decided it best for to the Cyborg fiasco happen so that they have common enemy to fight. I wouldn’t mind this point being brought up… if it wasn’t from a person that qualifies under the quota of “Die again, and you can’t be brought back to life” that Bulma specifically mentioned. Seriously, Krillin is the last person who should making a point like this.
- Vegeta: “Kakarot… Don’t think you don’t need us to become a Super Saiyan… I will beat you sooner or later… I will prove again that I’m the strongest of the Saiyans…” Goku: “Whatever…” Vegeta: Flies off into the distance. Perfect summarisation of Goku and Vegeta’s rivalry.
- Goku telling Bulma to take care of her baby before leaving to train is the most “Goku” thing I’ve seen. Hysterical.
- Goku smacking Chi Chi out of the house by accident is a gag I will always laugh at.
- I’m glad the anime tried to make Vegeta’s and Bulma halfway reasonable. I still don’t buy it at all, but points for effort.
- The famous episode is not as funny as I remember. It does have some chuckles in it. But it isn’t the gut-busting, laugh riot that a lot of the fandom seem to think it is.
- Yamcha commenting on how he Bulma broke up a long time ago just make his previous comments about he and Bulma were going to married and create family seem even more stupid and doltish.
- Why does Bulma insist on seeing the Cyborgs? As Goku correctly pointed out, she needs to get safety since she brought a baby with her.
- Yajirobe arrives to give the main cast senzu and then leaves. *sigh* Yajirobe has been reduced to a glorified pizza delivery guy.
- Man, that death of the motorist telling Dr Gero to get out of the way is brutal in the manga.
- And Yamcha is the first to bite the dust again, and this time, it’s courtesy of a hand through the chest from Gero. Poor guy can’t catch a break.
- Hang a on second, a hole though chest killed Goku nearly instantly in the Saiyan arc, but a hole through chest can now be instantly repaired with a senzu? Plot convivence? You bet.
- Gero just flattened half a city his eye lasers when Goku requested they fight in a deserted area. Cool.
- Gero built Cyborgs stronger than Super Saiyans despite having no idea what a Super Saiyan is. Plot. Fucking. Convenience.
- Goku’s battle with #19 is really good
- Oh, now the heart virus kicks in. How convenient.
- Vegeta arrives to save Goku’s ass. Nice twist on the usual “Goku saves the day” schtick.
- Vegeta revealing himself to be a Super Saiyan is really cool…
- …but it’s also really fucking contrived as it flies right in the face of everything concerning with how Goku became a Super Saiyan on Namek while Vegeta couldn’t. I admire the anime for going in more visual detail than the manga did in that aspect.
- BIG BANG ATTACK! Fucking stellar.
- Wow. Gero went from major to total nobody quickly. Although, the writing was on the wall with how Piccolo took an attack from him and just got up like nothing happened.
- Vegeta throws a Ki blast at a Cyborg (Dr Gero) that he knows can absorb energy. Fucking moron. Was he not paying attention to what happened a few moments ago with #19? Moments like this really make me hate this arc’s incarnation of the character.
- I really enjoy this hide-and-seek kind of game that Gero is playing with the cast. Reminds me a lot of the better days of Namek where the characters were on the run and trying to find the most pragmatic ways of staying alive and achieving their personal goal.
- So in three years Piccolo went being on par with Second Form Freeza to as strong as the Super Saiyans. What a huge jump in power.
- So even though, according to Bulma, Vegeta and her don’t live together, Vegeta still knows that his is named Trunks. What a fucked-up relationship, if you even want to call it that.
- Yajirobe makes a good point. Why is Bulma going right to where the danger is when there are Cyborgs around? And especially as Yajirobe’s ship got shot down a few minutes ago?
- And would you believe it, Bulma and Yajirobe get blown out of their ship by Gero.
- Vegeta not giving a damn if his infant son or the mother of his infant son were to die after the plane was shot out of the air is a stark reminder of how much of a heartless cunt Vegeta used to be.
- Yajirobe: “Hey…D-Doesn’t anybody care about me…?!” No.
- Trunks finally give the detail of what the Cyborgs actually look like. The cast certainly could have used that information much earlier, ya know.
- How does Dr Gero know who Bulma is?
- Future Bulma saying that Vegeta is in hell is brutal honesty as its finest.
- #17 and #18 (the REAL threats) are here…
- Yeah, sure, Gero. Bring out the Emergency shut down switch for the Androids to see. It’s not like they can just take it from you…
- Oh, so #16 is the real threat.
- And Gero bites the dust. What a worthless villain he was. Thanks for doing us a favour #17.
- Man, Vegeta is so full of himself. He literally thinks the whole world revolves around him. He’s in need of a good ass-kicking to bring him back down to Earth…
- We can now add murdering an innocent civilian to the long list of the incredibly scummy shit Vegeta has down since he’s come to Earth.
- And #18’s major highlight in the story happens with her breaking Vegeta’s arm. God, that was satisfying. Vegeta has been acting like such an unrepentant dickhead that he really needed that. Horikawa’s scream of agony makes the moment even ten times better in the anime. Conversely, some of the horrid art style of Studio Live made the SSJ Vegeta/#18 unappealing to look at sometimes.
- Vegeta’s lays on the floor, beaten, unconscious and with two broken arms. Serves him right.
- I like #17’s cool, confident and laid-back demeanour, even if it completely counterproductive to the plot.
- #16 seems to like birds. Yep. That’s as much characterisation as he’s going to get in this story.
- I like that Krillin is trying to stand up for Goku and convince the cyborgs not to kill Goku. And hey, he got a kiss from #18 for his troubles. His luck with women is turning around.
- What the fuck is up with Piccolo giving the whole “I’m a demon and I will take over the world!” spiel? Did Piccolo not get over this after the Saiyan arc? Is he suddenly forgetting that when he died he received the special privilege of being able to keep his body and train with a God in Heaven? Doesn’t he also know that his race is inherently peaceful? And how can Tien believe any of that shit for a second when he trained with Piccolo in Heaven? Thank God Krillin is competent enough to see through that nonsense.
- Looks like Piccolo will get another power-up. Let’s hope this leads to something.
- Meanwhile, Vegeta’s angsts over getting his ass handed to him by #18.
- #16, #17 and #18 casually hijacking a van is pretty funny.
- Oh, Gohan’s here. Completely forgot about that guy.
- So, Trunks proposes that he goes further back in time to destroy the Cyborgs before they’re activated, but there are two issue with that (one of them which actually addressed): 1. Future Trunks tried to destroy #16 before he got activated and that didn’t pan out well at all and 2. Future Trunks knows that going back in time won’t solve the problem with HIS timeline.
- Episode 139 provides the debut of one of Dragon Ball’s greatest songs (Mind Power…Ki), along with one of Dragon Ball’s greatest flashbacks. Amazing stuff.
- Holy shit… Bulma’s mom opened her eyes!!
- The foreshadowing from Kami about Cell is really good.
- I’m really liking how the plot is taking time to create suspense and intrigue about a possible new threat
- Farewell Kami. We hardly knew ye.
- Piccolo has fused with another Namekian and has become monstrously powerful. Please don’t be like on Namek… Please don’t be like on Namek… Please don’t be like on Namek… Please don’t be like on Namek…
- Here’s Cell…
- Episode 142 has some fantastic animation in the skirmish between Piccolo and Cell.
- Yes!! Getting Piccolo getting a power-up actually matters… kind of.
- Piccolo tactic is smart, but Cell is an absolute moron. Despite having Piccolo’s DNA and knowing he’s a Namekian, he seems to not know idea Namekian’s can regenerate lost limbs. He should have known that Piccolo having the life drained from his arm wouldn’t kill him.
- So Cell thinks he could perform a Genki Dama if he felt like it. Yeah… I call bullshit on that.
- Why is Vegeta shocked that Piccolo, after merging with another Namekian, has become very powerful? The same thing happened literally one arc ago. Now I’m convinced Vegeta has short term memory.
- And the game of cat and mouse resumes…
- Vegeta says he will transcend the Super Saiyan. Can’t keep a good vegetable down.
- Krillin destroying Gero’ secret lab with Trunks is the last real progressive act towards the plot he was have in the original story. It’s downhill from here. And Trunks case, at least in the main timeline, this is his second to last major moment in the arc.
- I love how Cell is absorbing people to get himself more powerful and then disappears without a trace, leaving the main cast wondering where is or who he will strike next. This is the kind of cat-and-mouse/hide-and-seek kind of narrative that Dragon Ball should do more often, because it can be so thrilling…
- …but the anime kind ruins the mystique of this by having Krillin confront Cell in filler. Cell should have stayed hidden until he confronted #17 and #18. But at least Krillin got to do something.
- Goku has awoken from his (not-so) eternal slumber. About time.
- How did Goku know what people were saying in his dreams? How the fuck does that even work? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Now Goku says he’s going to transcend the Super Saiyan. These vegetables, man…
- Goku mentions using the Room of Spirit and Time to get stronger. Why was the Room of Spirit and Time never mentioned in the three years leading up to Cyborgs being activated? Super Duper Plot Convenience.
- I love how Vegeta mentions that his eventual goal is to transcend Super Saiyan and eventually kill Goku, and yet, after he got his ass handed to by #18, he spent three days standing on the edge of a cliff brooding.
- The cyborgs hit a dead end at Goku’s house and head off to Roshi’s island…
- Here we go. Piccolo and #17 are about to duke it out…
- Piccolo’s Hellzone Grenade. That is all.
- Episode 148 of the Z anime is without a doubt the best that a Studio Live episode has looked. Which isn’t much praise because it still looks quite ugly.
- Norio Wakamoto as Cell is simply a masterclass. The man is a legend.
- I’m happy that the story managed to make Bulma resourceful by having her create an emergency off switch that would destroy #17 and #18. This is a far cry to how useless she was portrayed to being while on Namek.
- Piccolo’s fight with #17 just didn’t click me. It felt boring. Like a transitional fight.
- Cell’s arrival to #17 and Piccolo are fighting is amazing in the anime. Norio kills it when he powers up as Cell.
- (Imperfect) Cell is just mesmerising to watch as he confidently lays out #17 and Piccolo. How he rises from the water after taking Piccolo’s Light Grenade (he doesn’t name the attack in the anime or manga) is a brilliant visual.
- And with one swift punch to the face and a blast to chest, Piccolo’s relevance a combatant is over. Son of a bitch. It’s almost like Namek all over again. Piccolo’s power up only served to be a beacon for Cell to know where the artificial humans were. This is Piccolo last major one-on-one fight in the story. What an anticlimactic way to end it.
- #16 tearing off Cell tells and Cell reminding him that he has Piccolo’s DNA in him, which allows him to regenerate easily, just makes how he believed that Piccolo would die from getting the life drained out of his arm all the more stupid and contrived.
- Rocket Punch from the Rocket Man. Glorious.
- HELL’S FLASH!!! AWESOME!!!
- #17 really thinks he can fight and defeat Cell after getting his shit pushed in by him a few moments ago?
- How Cell emerged from the hole in the ground to surprisingly absorb #17 was chilling. Like something out of a horror movie.
- Cell’s new form looks ugly as fuck. Terrible design.
- Cell speaking with #17’s voice is super eerie.
- Tien’s last great Kikiho is actually pretty damn good. The moment itself doesn’t add up all that well from a power scaling perspective, but, whatever, let Tien have his moment. I just hope it leads to something…
- So Vegeta broke through he Super Saiyan barrier in just two months of training? Damn. Makes you realise that him becoming as strong as he did while training with Whis in Resurrection F was more of an understatement of his tenacity to grow stronger, more than anything.
- #16 still likes birds…
- Cell bellowing out from the skies for #18 to show herself is wonderfully chilling. It’s even more awesome in the anime thanks to Norio Wakamoto’s performance.
- How can Cell know for a fact that the islands that’s he blowing up don’t having #16 and #18 on them? He can’t sense their energy, so he wouldn’t be able to tell if they’re on the island he blew up or not.
- Also, why haven’t #18 and #16 travelled farther away from where Cell is?
- For fucks sake #18, FLY AWAY!!! Why are you staying on that island?! Cell can’t sense your energy, remember? You could literally be on the opposite side of the world and he would never know. God, this character frustrates me.
- Ryō Horikawa delivers the good yet again with Vegeta powering up beyond Super Saiyan.
- That punch to Cell’s gut from SSJ Vegeta is just pure magic.
- Vegeta: “I… am Super Vegeta!” With a doubt Vegeta’s second most memorable line.
- Super Vegeta kicking Cell in stomach is a great moment… that only happens in the manga and doesn’t happen in the anime. For some reason.
- Cell appealing to Vegeta’s ego, in regards to becoming “perfect” and assisting him to do so, so that he can be a challenge for Vegeta, is the kind of manipulative plan that Batman himself would be proud of.
- Because of one kiss Krillin, decided not to deactivate #18 and dooms the world. I’m so conflicted. On one hand, it’s one of the more “human” moments of the story. But on the other hand, it’s quite uncharacteristic for Kirllin to act like this because he’s endangering the life of his friend for his own selfish desires. I know the main can be selfish and unreasonably honourable people at time, but this is a moment that puts billions at lives stake.
- And Cell finally spots #18. Goddammit. WHY THE FUCK DID SHE STAY ON THAT ISLAND!? This make Tien’s life threatening Kikoho moment pointless.
- Krillin calling the Vegeta stupid for attacking Trunks while he was trying to prevent Cell from absorbing #18 and becoming perfect is one of the most outrageously hypocritical moments I’ve ever seen in a story. FUCK you, Krillin. You endangered the Earth over your one-side affection for a cyborg.
- And there goes #18. Swallowed by Cell. We hardly knew ye.
- Trunks… this is a battle shonen story. You should know by now that attacking that villain while he/she is power-up is impossible. But points for effort and idea.
- Gohan finally became a SSJ. This just makes the cast not using the Room Of Spirit and Time in the three years waiting period all the more infuriating. Seriously, why was this never brought until Goku mentioned it after he woke up?
- Perfect Cell has arrived and with the best design of any character in Dragon Ball ever, too.
- I love how Cell just stands there seemingly unaware of Krillin attacks him until he decides to give him notice.
- Episode 161 is absolutely hideous. One of the worst animated episodes in the series. Made even worse by how gorgeous the fight looks in the manga. Not to mention it’s horribly paced.
- I don’t know why Trunks is so concerned with hurting Vegeta’s pride by going to help him and displaying how powerful he is. Trunks has already shown that he doesn’t give a flying fuck about Vegeta given that he’s aware how much of a bad person Vegeta is and how he’s even stated that he’d kill him if it meant saving the world.
- And Episode 162 show just how much the anime can take a moment in the manga and elevate it tenfold. Vegeta’s Final Flash is much more grander and seems like more of a spectacle animated. That’s not to say the manga version of the isn’t bad at all.
- How can Vegeta think the fight is over? He was told that Cell had the DNA of Piccolo in him by Piccolo himself. He can easily regenerate from this. Is Vegeta that delusional or he just a fucking idiot? Or is it both?
- Man, that elbow to Super Vegeta’s back from Cell is really rough looking.
- And now Trunks gets even more roided up…
- Studio Live strikes again. Episode 163 had terrible animation, awful art, bad pacing and even worse, it made a bland battle in the manga (Trunks vs Cell) even more forgettable than it originally was.
- Episode 164 was a better-looking episode than the previous entry, but the pacing was infinitely worse. Like Goku/Freeza level bad. If not worse. We get Trunks powering up, a pointless flashback to Trunks future that takes up nearly the first half of the episode and another pointless flashback to Cell’s timeline that takes up nearly the second half of the episode. Skip this episode. You won’t miss anything.
- I really enjoy how the narrative switches from Goku shows the weaknesses of the ascended Super Saiyan form while Trunks, in his ascended Super Saiyan form, can’t do jackshit to Cell. It’s clever storytelling…
- …but it’s another instance of a character having a power-up that goes nowhere for them personally or changing the shift of the narrative. Trunks could have fought Cell in the SSJ form he had before he powered up again, and it would have been the same kind of fight.
- How the hell does Cell know that a martial arts tournament takes place?
- So… Cell wants to have a tournament to just so that he can jerk himself with how powerful he is? For him, fun is spreading as much fear as possible, while showing off how strong he is? What a vain piece of shit. That decisions reeks looking for an excuse to stretch out the plot more than it should, but I find that angle kind of fun. He’s like an evil version of Goku. But… yeah, I can’t shake the feeling that this is all just padding.
- So Krillin decides it would be best to keep #16 around because they need more allies… That makes no fucking sense for two major reasons: 1) #16 can’t do jack shit to Cell so having him as ally would be dead weight and 2) #16 is still programmed to kill Goku, so if Cell is defeated and #16 is still around, they would still have to destroy #16 because his next focus would be to kill Goku.
- Awesome fight scene between SSJ Goku and Gohan while training in the Room of Spirit and Time in Episode 166.
- How Cell announcing the Cell Games on national TV is so wonderfully arrogant and conceited when doing so. And also, generically evil.
- Now Piccolo, Trunks and Vegeta take turns going into the Room of Spirit and Time… again.
- Dammit, why did Goku have to say he has no chance of beating Cell? Yeah, it elevates Cell as a threat, but now I have no interest in seeing Goku and Cell fight because I already know the result.
- Tao Pai Pai returns for a filler episode… but it’s very boring.
- More filler antic as the Son family reminisces about Gohan and celebrate his birthday. This was one of the better filler episodes in the show.
- Now we get even more confirmation from Korin that Cell is stronger than Goku. Now I REALLY have no interest in that fight.
- Vegeta continues to bitch and moan about Goku being stronger than him and how he’ll make Goku pay for it one day. I really don’t like Cell arc Vegeta.
- We get one of the rare moments of downtime in the original story with Goku, Gohan and Chi Chi having a picnic. It may have been basically filler (It happens in the manga, too), but the story really needed a moment to breath.
- And speaking of filler, we have the army trying to fight Cell… pointless. Utterly pointless. This is padding if I’ve ever seen it. And it makes even less sense for this scene to happen considering how (according to the narration) the world had no faith in the army or police. So why do they think fighting Cell is optional?
- Piccolo emerges from the Room of Spirit and Time… and he may as well have not gone inside in the first place as he even acknowledges that he still has no chance against Cell. Goku’s flippant response to Piccolo enquiry about his growth in power compared to Cell is the icing on the cake.
- Why did the Dragon Balls disappear when Kami and Piccolo fused? Kami isn’t dead. He just lives in another body.
- Nice to see the King Of The World again. And it even cooler to know he hasn’t forgotten about Goku actions as child against King Piccolo.
- Goku: “Blah Blah Blah…” Kaio-sama: “Uh-huh… Uh-huh…” I shit you not, that kind of conversation happens in the manga. Thank you, Viz.
- Goku: “Whoa… all these Piccolos…” Goku, you are a national treasure.
- And Dende has become the new Kami. He apparently grew attached to Earth while he was there after Namek blew up, so win-win, I guess?
- Mr Satan makes his grand debut. To think he was such a big deal initially…
- More filler in the anime as Tao Pai Pai returns (again) and Goku goes Dragon Ball hunting. It’s… inoffensive.
- #16 is back in action and then reminds Goku that he was created to kill him. *sigh*
- Vegeta still thinks he can defeat Cell. Have I mentioned how much I don’t like Cell arc Vegeta?
- SPECIAL NOTE: It’s at this point that I took a break from the anime to take the time to watch the Trunks TV special. It’s great. It has great animation, Takeshi Kusao produces a stellar performance as Trunks, and the overall story is quite grim, but fitting given the backstory for the character it’s providing. Great stuff, overall. Highly recommended.
- Did we really need to see Mr Satan’s pupils fight Cell in the anime? No. We didn’t.
- Mr Satan getting smacked into a mountain is a gag that still retains its charm.
- And it’s Goku vs Cell first. I wonder who going to win this fight?
- The first two episodes of Goku and Cell duking it out in the anime are really nothing special. I mean, the art style is fine, but the movement is quite stiff.
- Studio Cockpit steps in for Episode 179, and holy fucking shit, the fight between Goku and Cell just got a major art style animation bump. That episode has some of best looking fight choreography this franchise has ever had. You owe it to yourself to watch this episode.
- That Teleportation Kamehameha to Cell at point blank range is a moment that no Dragon Ball fan should ever forget and/or shouldn’t se. Too bad it would lead to a major plothole later on…
- So now after witnessing Goku fight Cell, Vegeta admits that he could never beat Goku and says that he’s brilliant. Hmm.
- Mr Satan stomach hurts and he can’t fight. Hahaha. Fuck this guy.
- Goku throws in the towel and… GOHAN IS UP NEXT!
- Manga line - “’Gohan’… That means rice!” “What?! Astounding… They’re taking a lunch break! How can they be so casual?!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Goku gives Cell a senzu because Cell is tired and it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Is Goku THAT fucking bored?
- After a single Kiai from Cell that sends Gohan flying into a mountain everyone assumes he dead and Piccolo bitches at Goku saying he killed Gohan. Dude, you can sense Ki, can’t you? And does anyone really think after an attack like that Gohan would die?
- Gohan now doesn’t want to fight or kill Cell. This backpaddles on all of the character development Gohan went through from the Saiyan arc up until this point.
- Gohan fighting Cell is really boring. Not because it looks bad, but because the build up to the fight was non-existent.
- Goku says that Gohan’s rage is the key to beating Cell. You’re going to need elaborate on the plan a bit more than that, Goku.
- Okay, Piccolo has the right bitch out Goku for not telling him about his plan to defeat Cell, but he has no fucking right to talk about how Gohan is feeling. How would he know how Gohan is feeling?
- And #16 is destroyed again…
- So now Gohan does want to be Cell. And all it took was seeing his family and friends getting beaten to death to come to that conclusion.
- In a moment that I feel creates the foundation for Mr Satan’s later character development, he obliges to #16 request of throwing his head near Gohan.
- #16’s speech to Gohan is fine in principal but he basically repeating things Gohan should already know…
- …That being said… how the anime handles Gohan’s transformation into a SSJ2 I spectacular from a visceral standpoint. The glorious insert song, Nozawa chilling scream as Gohan explodes in anger, and the sensationally detailed art from Studio Cockpit make Episode 184 a breath-taking and unforgettable entry into the franchise.
- How SSJ2 Gohan slaughters the Cell Jrs is far more gratifying in the manga. Not with just how much more violent it is, but with how more sudden Gohan’s onslaught is. That’s not say how the anime handles it is bad, it just drags a bit too much and effect of the Cell Jrs being destroy feels somewhat neutered.
- Episode 186 has the ugliest looking SSJ2 Gohan I’ve ever seen. And how the fight in general in that episode is handled, compared to the material it’s adapting in the manga, is quite underwhelming.
- Episode 187 is Norio Wakamoto finest half-hour as Cell EVER. That episode also has the third best Kamehameha that Nozawa has ever produced. And it gave a much better context for how Goku realised that Gohan was much powerful than him while training with him in the Room of Spirit and Time. Great all-around episode.
- Goku wants Gohan to finish off Cell before he gets desperate, while wants to make Cell suffer more. Fuck the both of them. Fuck Goku for now suddenly shifting his priorities when he was originally more cornered with there being a fair fight between Gohan and Cell. And fuck Gohan for just being inconsistent character for now wanting to make Cell suffer.
- Hey, look, #18 is back! And it took was… one kick to the head from Gohan. Huh.
- Cell balloons himself up and states he’s going to self-destruct. Wait a second, since when could Cell do this? And why doesn’t he just absorb #18 again? She’s right there, unconscious and available to be eaten. But instead Cell decides to kill himself?
- In another instance where the anime makes a scene more gratifying than the manga, Goku sacrifices himself and teleports Cell away from Earth. Why he chose Kaio-sama’s planet when there were many other planets with life on them in the universe, I’ll never understand.
- And Goku’s sacrifice becomes nullified as Cell returns to life with the biggest bullshit explanation you could possibly imagine.
- And the first thing Cell does after he returns even stronger is kill Trunks. Can’t say I didn’t this see coming. Also, I find Trunks sudden death to be wonderful summarisation of much of an afterthought he became once he was introduced in the story.
- Yeah… um… I don’t give a fuck about Vegeta attacking Cell after Trunks had been killed by Cell because Vegeta has shown zero affection to Trunks since Trunks integrated into the main cast. I mean, Vegeta didn’t give a fuck that his infant son and mother of said infant were going to die earlier in the arc, so this moment of Vegeta angrily attacking Cell just comes off as poorly built up.
- Studio Live are here in Episode 189, and low and behold, the episode looks ugly.
- Wow. Vegeta apologized to Gohan for being a liability in battle. Finally, some genuine progress for his character.
- Cell says he has enough Ki to blow away the Solar System. Yeah..
- The whole pep talk that Goku gives Gohan from the dead, followed by Goku’s spirit aiding Gohan in his Kamehameha beam struggle against Cell is an amazing storytelling sequence. It’s even better in the anime with how Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien try to attack Cell and give personal retrospectives of why they’re fighting. Not to mention Studio Cockpit (yet again) made the episode (Episode 191) visually stunning.
- And Vegeta makes the difference by firing a ki blast with distracts Cell long enough for Gohan to go all out and kill Cell (for real this time). Given Vegeta is responsible for Perfect Cell, it works quite well in a narrative sense.
- The battle is over. Peace is restored. But for how long? Well… just give it seven years.
- Vegeta: “I’ll never… fight again…” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No.
- Man, the people of Earth really are fucking idiots to buy Mr Satan’s bullshit about defeating Cell.
- #18 give off the weirdest signals ever. She kisses Krillin for now reason. And then she acts like the most ungrateful bitch in the world when it’s revealed Krillin took care of her after Cell spat her out and even when Krillin wishes to remove the bomb from inside her. And somehow Krillin and #18 would still end up together.
- Yamcha has girlfriend!? Since when!?
- So Goku decides to stay dead because he feels he’s a magnet for trouble and attracts bad people. I can’t help but feel that decision rings quite hollow. There just not enough build up to Goku deciding to act like this. Especially since Goku has shown he’s more than willing to come back from the dead when his friends and family need him. He’s not an (un)intentional danger to Earth just because of who he is, he’s an unintentional danger to Earth because of how he acts.
- Krillin requesting Shenron remove the bombs inside of #17 and #18 was nice of him. Too bad still acts like a total bitch. And, yes, I must remind you, they end up a couple.
- Everyone goes their separate ways in one of the more melancholic moments in Dragon Ball.
- Trunks went back in time again after three years to tell everyone that he had killed the artificial humans. But wouldn’t he be travelling back to another timeline?
- Trunks easily killing #17, #18 and Cell is one of the most cathartic moments in all of Dragon Ball.
- AND WE’RE DONE. ARC OVER.[/spoiler]
Once again, I have much more to say about this arc then I originally intended to...
(Continued in the next post...)
[spoiler]- The bollocks with Gohan’s private tutor was terrible. Every. Second. Of it.
- Freeza’s back and he’s brought his dad with him. Hmm
- Wait, Freeza has a clan?
- (Mecha) Freeza is about to cause a ruckus but appears this purple haired youth.
- ‘The Mysterious Youth’ cleans house and easily kills all of Freeza’s goons. Cool.
- ‘The Mysterious Youth’ transforms into a Super Saiyan and slices Freeza in half. Holy. Shit. That’s a franchise highlight moment. Takeshi Kusao’s awesome battle cry when ‘The Mysterious Youth’ powered up, the fantastic insert song ‘Battle Point Unlimited’ (Which was unfortunately plagiarised. Damn you, Kenji Yamamoto) and the awesome animation. Everything about Episode 120 was amazing.
- The follow up episode has some atrocious animation in the beginning.
- King Cold is dead. And I have to question why he even needed to exist. His appearance really does make you question Freeza's standing in his own empire and in the greater scale of the universe. But that doesn’t matter because Goku is back!
- ‘The Mysterious Youth’ is named Trunks and his mother is Bulma and his father is… Vegeta. Why Vegeta? Yamcha was fooling with other women, Bulma got sick of it, and hooked up with Vegeta after seeing how alone he was. Okay, I know this story needs Trunks to be a Saiyan for it to work, but, c’mon, that excuse is bullshit. If you know about Yamcha and Bulma’s character from when the story began, there’s no fucking way you can buy this.
- Goku can sense that Trunks has no malice in him and knew he wouldn’t attack him? So… Goku is Jedi now?
- Goku using his one finger to block Trunks sword attacks is visually stunning.
- Okay, just to clarify, in the anime Trunks is very vague in describing what the threat that will arrive in three years is. He doesn’t provide any description of what they looked, what the name of the threats are or even what their gender is. He just states they’re Artificial Humans. In the manga, Trunks flat out states its Artificial Humans named Cyborg 19 and 20 and that the both of them are male (“Mechanical Men”). So it’s nice to know that the anime got the heads up on this plot hole in the manga and smartly covered their tracks and play up the mystery of the threat. But the anime also (unintentionally) makes Trunks looks like a fool for not giving an kind of indication of what the threat that brings about the end of the world as we know it in three years look like.
- Great exposition for Trunks that really sets the stage for the rest of the arc.
- So according to Goku, Freeza spotted the spaceship he was in and knew would he would get to Earth. Why didn’t Freeza blow Goku’s spaceship out of the air? Plot convenience? Hell yeah. Plus, I guess there needed to be a plot.
- The explanation for how Goku survived Namek is contrived as hell and insanely convenient.
- Goku showing off his new ability (to teleport) is funny and cool
- Bulma suggesting that they should wish to use the Dragon Balls to wish to find Dr Gero’s lab location and attack him so he won’t activate the Androids is the most rational and sensibly through-out idea I’ve come across in Dragon Ball. So naturally, that idea is turned by the Vegeta.
- Okay, I can somewhat understand that Goku declines Bulma’s idea because it’s already established that Goku is character that will go to great length for a battle, but what I don’t understand is the logic that they don’t attack him because he hasn’t created the Androids yet and that it wouldn’t be nice to beat him up. That logic is fucking asinine. Dr Gero worked for the same organisation that planned to take over the world. Dr Gero is no saint to begin with. Plus, Trunks flat out stated that Gero WILL unleash the Cyborgs onto the world in three years. Nothing has changed about that. Goku can have some really twisted and fucked logic sometimes.
- I love how Krillin talked about how great Bulma’s idea was but then decided it best for to the Cyborg fiasco happen so that they have common enemy to fight. I wouldn’t mind this point being brought up… if it wasn’t from a person that qualifies under the quota of “Die again, and you can’t be brought back to life” that Bulma specifically mentioned. Seriously, Krillin is the last person who should making a point like this.
- Vegeta: “Kakarot… Don’t think you don’t need us to become a Super Saiyan… I will beat you sooner or later… I will prove again that I’m the strongest of the Saiyans…” Goku: “Whatever…” Vegeta: Flies off into the distance. Perfect summarisation of Goku and Vegeta’s rivalry.
- Goku telling Bulma to take care of her baby before leaving to train is the most “Goku” thing I’ve seen. Hysterical.
- Goku smacking Chi Chi out of the house by accident is a gag I will always laugh at.
- I’m glad the anime tried to make Vegeta’s and Bulma halfway reasonable. I still don’t buy it at all, but points for effort.
- The famous episode is not as funny as I remember. It does have some chuckles in it. But it isn’t the gut-busting, laugh riot that a lot of the fandom seem to think it is.
- Yamcha commenting on how he Bulma broke up a long time ago just make his previous comments about he and Bulma were going to married and create family seem even more stupid and doltish.
- Why does Bulma insist on seeing the Cyborgs? As Goku correctly pointed out, she needs to get safety since she brought a baby with her.
- Yajirobe arrives to give the main cast senzu and then leaves. *sigh* Yajirobe has been reduced to a glorified pizza delivery guy.
- Man, that death of the motorist telling Dr Gero to get out of the way is brutal in the manga.
- And Yamcha is the first to bite the dust again, and this time, it’s courtesy of a hand through the chest from Gero. Poor guy can’t catch a break.
- Hang a on second, a hole though chest killed Goku nearly instantly in the Saiyan arc, but a hole through chest can now be instantly repaired with a senzu? Plot convivence? You bet.
- Gero just flattened half a city his eye lasers when Goku requested they fight in a deserted area. Cool.
- Gero built Cyborgs stronger than Super Saiyans despite having no idea what a Super Saiyan is. Plot. Fucking. Convenience.
- Goku’s battle with #19 is really good
- Oh, now the heart virus kicks in. How convenient.
- Vegeta arrives to save Goku’s ass. Nice twist on the usual “Goku saves the day” schtick.
- Vegeta revealing himself to be a Super Saiyan is really cool…
- …but it’s also really fucking contrived as it flies right in the face of everything concerning with how Goku became a Super Saiyan on Namek while Vegeta couldn’t. I admire the anime for going in more visual detail than the manga did in that aspect.
- BIG BANG ATTACK! Fucking stellar.
- Wow. Gero went from major to total nobody quickly. Although, the writing was on the wall with how Piccolo took an attack from him and just got up like nothing happened.
- Vegeta throws a Ki blast at a Cyborg (Dr Gero) that he knows can absorb energy. Fucking moron. Was he not paying attention to what happened a few moments ago with #19? Moments like this really make me hate this arc’s incarnation of the character.
- I really enjoy this hide-and-seek kind of game that Gero is playing with the cast. Reminds me a lot of the better days of Namek where the characters were on the run and trying to find the most pragmatic ways of staying alive and achieving their personal goal.
- So in three years Piccolo went being on par with Second Form Freeza to as strong as the Super Saiyans. What a huge jump in power.
- So even though, according to Bulma, Vegeta and her don’t live together, Vegeta still knows that his is named Trunks. What a fucked-up relationship, if you even want to call it that.
- Yajirobe makes a good point. Why is Bulma going right to where the danger is when there are Cyborgs around? And especially as Yajirobe’s ship got shot down a few minutes ago?
- And would you believe it, Bulma and Yajirobe get blown out of their ship by Gero.
- Vegeta not giving a damn if his infant son or the mother of his infant son were to die after the plane was shot out of the air is a stark reminder of how much of a heartless cunt Vegeta used to be.
- Yajirobe: “Hey…D-Doesn’t anybody care about me…?!” No.
- Trunks finally give the detail of what the Cyborgs actually look like. The cast certainly could have used that information much earlier, ya know.
- How does Dr Gero know who Bulma is?
- Future Bulma saying that Vegeta is in hell is brutal honesty as its finest.
- #17 and #18 (the REAL threats) are here…
- Yeah, sure, Gero. Bring out the Emergency shut down switch for the Androids to see. It’s not like they can just take it from you…
- Oh, so #16 is the real threat.
- And Gero bites the dust. What a worthless villain he was. Thanks for doing us a favour #17.
- Man, Vegeta is so full of himself. He literally thinks the whole world revolves around him. He’s in need of a good ass-kicking to bring him back down to Earth…
- We can now add murdering an innocent civilian to the long list of the incredibly scummy shit Vegeta has down since he’s come to Earth.
- And #18’s major highlight in the story happens with her breaking Vegeta’s arm. God, that was satisfying. Vegeta has been acting like such an unrepentant dickhead that he really needed that. Horikawa’s scream of agony makes the moment even ten times better in the anime. Conversely, some of the horrid art style of Studio Live made the SSJ Vegeta/#18 unappealing to look at sometimes.
- Vegeta’s lays on the floor, beaten, unconscious and with two broken arms. Serves him right.
- I like #17’s cool, confident and laid-back demeanour, even if it completely counterproductive to the plot.
- #16 seems to like birds. Yep. That’s as much characterisation as he’s going to get in this story.
- I like that Krillin is trying to stand up for Goku and convince the cyborgs not to kill Goku. And hey, he got a kiss from #18 for his troubles. His luck with women is turning around.
- What the fuck is up with Piccolo giving the whole “I’m a demon and I will take over the world!” spiel? Did Piccolo not get over this after the Saiyan arc? Is he suddenly forgetting that when he died he received the special privilege of being able to keep his body and train with a God in Heaven? Doesn’t he also know that his race is inherently peaceful? And how can Tien believe any of that shit for a second when he trained with Piccolo in Heaven? Thank God Krillin is competent enough to see through that nonsense.
- Looks like Piccolo will get another power-up. Let’s hope this leads to something.
- Meanwhile, Vegeta’s angsts over getting his ass handed to him by #18.
- #16, #17 and #18 casually hijacking a van is pretty funny.
- Oh, Gohan’s here. Completely forgot about that guy.
- So, Trunks proposes that he goes further back in time to destroy the Cyborgs before they’re activated, but there are two issue with that (one of them which actually addressed): 1. Future Trunks tried to destroy #16 before he got activated and that didn’t pan out well at all and 2. Future Trunks knows that going back in time won’t solve the problem with HIS timeline.
- Episode 139 provides the debut of one of Dragon Ball’s greatest songs (Mind Power…Ki), along with one of Dragon Ball’s greatest flashbacks. Amazing stuff.
- Holy shit… Bulma’s mom opened her eyes!!
- The foreshadowing from Kami about Cell is really good.
- I’m really liking how the plot is taking time to create suspense and intrigue about a possible new threat
- Farewell Kami. We hardly knew ye.
- Piccolo has fused with another Namekian and has become monstrously powerful. Please don’t be like on Namek… Please don’t be like on Namek… Please don’t be like on Namek… Please don’t be like on Namek…
- Here’s Cell…
- Episode 142 has some fantastic animation in the skirmish between Piccolo and Cell.
- Yes!! Getting Piccolo getting a power-up actually matters… kind of.
- Piccolo tactic is smart, but Cell is an absolute moron. Despite having Piccolo’s DNA and knowing he’s a Namekian, he seems to not know idea Namekian’s can regenerate lost limbs. He should have known that Piccolo having the life drained from his arm wouldn’t kill him.
- So Cell thinks he could perform a Genki Dama if he felt like it. Yeah… I call bullshit on that.
- Why is Vegeta shocked that Piccolo, after merging with another Namekian, has become very powerful? The same thing happened literally one arc ago. Now I’m convinced Vegeta has short term memory.
- And the game of cat and mouse resumes…
- Vegeta says he will transcend the Super Saiyan. Can’t keep a good vegetable down.
- Krillin destroying Gero’ secret lab with Trunks is the last real progressive act towards the plot he was have in the original story. It’s downhill from here. And Trunks case, at least in the main timeline, this is his second to last major moment in the arc.
- I love how Cell is absorbing people to get himself more powerful and then disappears without a trace, leaving the main cast wondering where is or who he will strike next. This is the kind of cat-and-mouse/hide-and-seek kind of narrative that Dragon Ball should do more often, because it can be so thrilling…
- …but the anime kind ruins the mystique of this by having Krillin confront Cell in filler. Cell should have stayed hidden until he confronted #17 and #18. But at least Krillin got to do something.
- Goku has awoken from his (not-so) eternal slumber. About time.
- How did Goku know what people were saying in his dreams? How the fuck does that even work? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Now Goku says he’s going to transcend the Super Saiyan. These vegetables, man…
- Goku mentions using the Room of Spirit and Time to get stronger. Why was the Room of Spirit and Time never mentioned in the three years leading up to Cyborgs being activated? Super Duper Plot Convenience.
- I love how Vegeta mentions that his eventual goal is to transcend Super Saiyan and eventually kill Goku, and yet, after he got his ass handed to by #18, he spent three days standing on the edge of a cliff brooding.
- The cyborgs hit a dead end at Goku’s house and head off to Roshi’s island…
- Here we go. Piccolo and #17 are about to duke it out…
- Piccolo’s Hellzone Grenade. That is all.
- Episode 148 of the Z anime is without a doubt the best that a Studio Live episode has looked. Which isn’t much praise because it still looks quite ugly.
- Norio Wakamoto as Cell is simply a masterclass. The man is a legend.
- I’m happy that the story managed to make Bulma resourceful by having her create an emergency off switch that would destroy #17 and #18. This is a far cry to how useless she was portrayed to being while on Namek.
- Piccolo’s fight with #17 just didn’t click me. It felt boring. Like a transitional fight.
- Cell’s arrival to #17 and Piccolo are fighting is amazing in the anime. Norio kills it when he powers up as Cell.
- (Imperfect) Cell is just mesmerising to watch as he confidently lays out #17 and Piccolo. How he rises from the water after taking Piccolo’s Light Grenade (he doesn’t name the attack in the anime or manga) is a brilliant visual.
- And with one swift punch to the face and a blast to chest, Piccolo’s relevance a combatant is over. Son of a bitch. It’s almost like Namek all over again. Piccolo’s power up only served to be a beacon for Cell to know where the artificial humans were. This is Piccolo last major one-on-one fight in the story. What an anticlimactic way to end it.
- #16 tearing off Cell tells and Cell reminding him that he has Piccolo’s DNA in him, which allows him to regenerate easily, just makes how he believed that Piccolo would die from getting the life drained out of his arm all the more stupid and contrived.
- Rocket Punch from the Rocket Man. Glorious.
- HELL’S FLASH!!! AWESOME!!!
- #17 really thinks he can fight and defeat Cell after getting his shit pushed in by him a few moments ago?
- How Cell emerged from the hole in the ground to surprisingly absorb #17 was chilling. Like something out of a horror movie.
- Cell’s new form looks ugly as fuck. Terrible design.
- Cell speaking with #17’s voice is super eerie.
- Tien’s last great Kikiho is actually pretty damn good. The moment itself doesn’t add up all that well from a power scaling perspective, but, whatever, let Tien have his moment. I just hope it leads to something…
- So Vegeta broke through he Super Saiyan barrier in just two months of training? Damn. Makes you realise that him becoming as strong as he did while training with Whis in Resurrection F was more of an understatement of his tenacity to grow stronger, more than anything.
- #16 still likes birds…
- Cell bellowing out from the skies for #18 to show herself is wonderfully chilling. It’s even more awesome in the anime thanks to Norio Wakamoto’s performance.
- How can Cell know for a fact that the islands that’s he blowing up don’t having #16 and #18 on them? He can’t sense their energy, so he wouldn’t be able to tell if they’re on the island he blew up or not.
- Also, why haven’t #18 and #16 travelled farther away from where Cell is?
- For fucks sake #18, FLY AWAY!!! Why are you staying on that island?! Cell can’t sense your energy, remember? You could literally be on the opposite side of the world and he would never know. God, this character frustrates me.
- Ryō Horikawa delivers the good yet again with Vegeta powering up beyond Super Saiyan.
- That punch to Cell’s gut from SSJ Vegeta is just pure magic.
- Vegeta: “I… am Super Vegeta!” With a doubt Vegeta’s second most memorable line.
- Super Vegeta kicking Cell in stomach is a great moment… that only happens in the manga and doesn’t happen in the anime. For some reason.
- Cell appealing to Vegeta’s ego, in regards to becoming “perfect” and assisting him to do so, so that he can be a challenge for Vegeta, is the kind of manipulative plan that Batman himself would be proud of.
- Because of one kiss Krillin, decided not to deactivate #18 and dooms the world. I’m so conflicted. On one hand, it’s one of the more “human” moments of the story. But on the other hand, it’s quite uncharacteristic for Kirllin to act like this because he’s endangering the life of his friend for his own selfish desires. I know the main can be selfish and unreasonably honourable people at time, but this is a moment that puts billions at lives stake.
- And Cell finally spots #18. Goddammit. WHY THE FUCK DID SHE STAY ON THAT ISLAND!? This make Tien’s life threatening Kikoho moment pointless.
- Krillin calling the Vegeta stupid for attacking Trunks while he was trying to prevent Cell from absorbing #18 and becoming perfect is one of the most outrageously hypocritical moments I’ve ever seen in a story. FUCK you, Krillin. You endangered the Earth over your one-side affection for a cyborg.
- And there goes #18. Swallowed by Cell. We hardly knew ye.
- Trunks… this is a battle shonen story. You should know by now that attacking that villain while he/she is power-up is impossible. But points for effort and idea.
- Gohan finally became a SSJ. This just makes the cast not using the Room Of Spirit and Time in the three years waiting period all the more infuriating. Seriously, why was this never brought until Goku mentioned it after he woke up?
- Perfect Cell has arrived and with the best design of any character in Dragon Ball ever, too.
- I love how Cell just stands there seemingly unaware of Krillin attacks him until he decides to give him notice.
- Episode 161 is absolutely hideous. One of the worst animated episodes in the series. Made even worse by how gorgeous the fight looks in the manga. Not to mention it’s horribly paced.
- I don’t know why Trunks is so concerned with hurting Vegeta’s pride by going to help him and displaying how powerful he is. Trunks has already shown that he doesn’t give a flying fuck about Vegeta given that he’s aware how much of a bad person Vegeta is and how he’s even stated that he’d kill him if it meant saving the world.
- And Episode 162 show just how much the anime can take a moment in the manga and elevate it tenfold. Vegeta’s Final Flash is much more grander and seems like more of a spectacle animated. That’s not to say the manga version of the isn’t bad at all.
- How can Vegeta think the fight is over? He was told that Cell had the DNA of Piccolo in him by Piccolo himself. He can easily regenerate from this. Is Vegeta that delusional or he just a fucking idiot? Or is it both?
- Man, that elbow to Super Vegeta’s back from Cell is really rough looking.
- And now Trunks gets even more roided up…
- Studio Live strikes again. Episode 163 had terrible animation, awful art, bad pacing and even worse, it made a bland battle in the manga (Trunks vs Cell) even more forgettable than it originally was.
- Episode 164 was a better-looking episode than the previous entry, but the pacing was infinitely worse. Like Goku/Freeza level bad. If not worse. We get Trunks powering up, a pointless flashback to Trunks future that takes up nearly the first half of the episode and another pointless flashback to Cell’s timeline that takes up nearly the second half of the episode. Skip this episode. You won’t miss anything.
- I really enjoy how the narrative switches from Goku shows the weaknesses of the ascended Super Saiyan form while Trunks, in his ascended Super Saiyan form, can’t do jackshit to Cell. It’s clever storytelling…
- …but it’s another instance of a character having a power-up that goes nowhere for them personally or changing the shift of the narrative. Trunks could have fought Cell in the SSJ form he had before he powered up again, and it would have been the same kind of fight.
- How the hell does Cell know that a martial arts tournament takes place?
- So… Cell wants to have a tournament to just so that he can jerk himself with how powerful he is? For him, fun is spreading as much fear as possible, while showing off how strong he is? What a vain piece of shit. That decisions reeks looking for an excuse to stretch out the plot more than it should, but I find that angle kind of fun. He’s like an evil version of Goku. But… yeah, I can’t shake the feeling that this is all just padding.
- So Krillin decides it would be best to keep #16 around because they need more allies… That makes no fucking sense for two major reasons: 1) #16 can’t do jack shit to Cell so having him as ally would be dead weight and 2) #16 is still programmed to kill Goku, so if Cell is defeated and #16 is still around, they would still have to destroy #16 because his next focus would be to kill Goku.
- Awesome fight scene between SSJ Goku and Gohan while training in the Room of Spirit and Time in Episode 166.
- How Cell announcing the Cell Games on national TV is so wonderfully arrogant and conceited when doing so. And also, generically evil.
- Now Piccolo, Trunks and Vegeta take turns going into the Room of Spirit and Time… again.
- Dammit, why did Goku have to say he has no chance of beating Cell? Yeah, it elevates Cell as a threat, but now I have no interest in seeing Goku and Cell fight because I already know the result.
- Tao Pai Pai returns for a filler episode… but it’s very boring.
- More filler antic as the Son family reminisces about Gohan and celebrate his birthday. This was one of the better filler episodes in the show.
- Now we get even more confirmation from Korin that Cell is stronger than Goku. Now I REALLY have no interest in that fight.
- Vegeta continues to bitch and moan about Goku being stronger than him and how he’ll make Goku pay for it one day. I really don’t like Cell arc Vegeta.
- We get one of the rare moments of downtime in the original story with Goku, Gohan and Chi Chi having a picnic. It may have been basically filler (It happens in the manga, too), but the story really needed a moment to breath.
- And speaking of filler, we have the army trying to fight Cell… pointless. Utterly pointless. This is padding if I’ve ever seen it. And it makes even less sense for this scene to happen considering how (according to the narration) the world had no faith in the army or police. So why do they think fighting Cell is optional?
- Piccolo emerges from the Room of Spirit and Time… and he may as well have not gone inside in the first place as he even acknowledges that he still has no chance against Cell. Goku’s flippant response to Piccolo enquiry about his growth in power compared to Cell is the icing on the cake.
- Why did the Dragon Balls disappear when Kami and Piccolo fused? Kami isn’t dead. He just lives in another body.
- Nice to see the King Of The World again. And it even cooler to know he hasn’t forgotten about Goku actions as child against King Piccolo.
- Goku: “Blah Blah Blah…” Kaio-sama: “Uh-huh… Uh-huh…” I shit you not, that kind of conversation happens in the manga. Thank you, Viz.
- Goku: “Whoa… all these Piccolos…” Goku, you are a national treasure.
- And Dende has become the new Kami. He apparently grew attached to Earth while he was there after Namek blew up, so win-win, I guess?
- Mr Satan makes his grand debut. To think he was such a big deal initially…
- More filler in the anime as Tao Pai Pai returns (again) and Goku goes Dragon Ball hunting. It’s… inoffensive.
- #16 is back in action and then reminds Goku that he was created to kill him. *sigh*
- Vegeta still thinks he can defeat Cell. Have I mentioned how much I don’t like Cell arc Vegeta?
- SPECIAL NOTE: It’s at this point that I took a break from the anime to take the time to watch the Trunks TV special. It’s great. It has great animation, Takeshi Kusao produces a stellar performance as Trunks, and the overall story is quite grim, but fitting given the backstory for the character it’s providing. Great stuff, overall. Highly recommended.
- Did we really need to see Mr Satan’s pupils fight Cell in the anime? No. We didn’t.
- Mr Satan getting smacked into a mountain is a gag that still retains its charm.
- And it’s Goku vs Cell first. I wonder who going to win this fight?
- The first two episodes of Goku and Cell duking it out in the anime are really nothing special. I mean, the art style is fine, but the movement is quite stiff.
- Studio Cockpit steps in for Episode 179, and holy fucking shit, the fight between Goku and Cell just got a major art style animation bump. That episode has some of best looking fight choreography this franchise has ever had. You owe it to yourself to watch this episode.
- That Teleportation Kamehameha to Cell at point blank range is a moment that no Dragon Ball fan should ever forget and/or shouldn’t se. Too bad it would lead to a major plothole later on…
- So now after witnessing Goku fight Cell, Vegeta admits that he could never beat Goku and says that he’s brilliant. Hmm.
- Mr Satan stomach hurts and he can’t fight. Hahaha. Fuck this guy.
- Goku throws in the towel and… GOHAN IS UP NEXT!
- Manga line - “’Gohan’… That means rice!” “What?! Astounding… They’re taking a lunch break! How can they be so casual?!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Goku gives Cell a senzu because Cell is tired and it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Is Goku THAT fucking bored?
- After a single Kiai from Cell that sends Gohan flying into a mountain everyone assumes he dead and Piccolo bitches at Goku saying he killed Gohan. Dude, you can sense Ki, can’t you? And does anyone really think after an attack like that Gohan would die?
- Gohan now doesn’t want to fight or kill Cell. This backpaddles on all of the character development Gohan went through from the Saiyan arc up until this point.
- Gohan fighting Cell is really boring. Not because it looks bad, but because the build up to the fight was non-existent.
- Goku says that Gohan’s rage is the key to beating Cell. You’re going to need elaborate on the plan a bit more than that, Goku.
- Okay, Piccolo has the right bitch out Goku for not telling him about his plan to defeat Cell, but he has no fucking right to talk about how Gohan is feeling. How would he know how Gohan is feeling?
- And #16 is destroyed again…
- So now Gohan does want to be Cell. And all it took was seeing his family and friends getting beaten to death to come to that conclusion.
- In a moment that I feel creates the foundation for Mr Satan’s later character development, he obliges to #16 request of throwing his head near Gohan.
- #16’s speech to Gohan is fine in principal but he basically repeating things Gohan should already know…
- …That being said… how the anime handles Gohan’s transformation into a SSJ2 I spectacular from a visceral standpoint. The glorious insert song, Nozawa chilling scream as Gohan explodes in anger, and the sensationally detailed art from Studio Cockpit make Episode 184 a breath-taking and unforgettable entry into the franchise.
- How SSJ2 Gohan slaughters the Cell Jrs is far more gratifying in the manga. Not with just how much more violent it is, but with how more sudden Gohan’s onslaught is. That’s not say how the anime handles it is bad, it just drags a bit too much and effect of the Cell Jrs being destroy feels somewhat neutered.
- Episode 186 has the ugliest looking SSJ2 Gohan I’ve ever seen. And how the fight in general in that episode is handled, compared to the material it’s adapting in the manga, is quite underwhelming.
- Episode 187 is Norio Wakamoto finest half-hour as Cell EVER. That episode also has the third best Kamehameha that Nozawa has ever produced. And it gave a much better context for how Goku realised that Gohan was much powerful than him while training with him in the Room of Spirit and Time. Great all-around episode.
- Goku wants Gohan to finish off Cell before he gets desperate, while wants to make Cell suffer more. Fuck the both of them. Fuck Goku for now suddenly shifting his priorities when he was originally more cornered with there being a fair fight between Gohan and Cell. And fuck Gohan for just being inconsistent character for now wanting to make Cell suffer.
- Hey, look, #18 is back! And it took was… one kick to the head from Gohan. Huh.
- Cell balloons himself up and states he’s going to self-destruct. Wait a second, since when could Cell do this? And why doesn’t he just absorb #18 again? She’s right there, unconscious and available to be eaten. But instead Cell decides to kill himself?
- In another instance where the anime makes a scene more gratifying than the manga, Goku sacrifices himself and teleports Cell away from Earth. Why he chose Kaio-sama’s planet when there were many other planets with life on them in the universe, I’ll never understand.
- And Goku’s sacrifice becomes nullified as Cell returns to life with the biggest bullshit explanation you could possibly imagine.
- And the first thing Cell does after he returns even stronger is kill Trunks. Can’t say I didn’t this see coming. Also, I find Trunks sudden death to be wonderful summarisation of much of an afterthought he became once he was introduced in the story.
- Yeah… um… I don’t give a fuck about Vegeta attacking Cell after Trunks had been killed by Cell because Vegeta has shown zero affection to Trunks since Trunks integrated into the main cast. I mean, Vegeta didn’t give a fuck that his infant son and mother of said infant were going to die earlier in the arc, so this moment of Vegeta angrily attacking Cell just comes off as poorly built up.
- Studio Live are here in Episode 189, and low and behold, the episode looks ugly.
- Wow. Vegeta apologized to Gohan for being a liability in battle. Finally, some genuine progress for his character.
- Cell says he has enough Ki to blow away the Solar System. Yeah..
- The whole pep talk that Goku gives Gohan from the dead, followed by Goku’s spirit aiding Gohan in his Kamehameha beam struggle against Cell is an amazing storytelling sequence. It’s even better in the anime with how Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tien try to attack Cell and give personal retrospectives of why they’re fighting. Not to mention Studio Cockpit (yet again) made the episode (Episode 191) visually stunning.
- And Vegeta makes the difference by firing a ki blast with distracts Cell long enough for Gohan to go all out and kill Cell (for real this time). Given Vegeta is responsible for Perfect Cell, it works quite well in a narrative sense.
- The battle is over. Peace is restored. But for how long? Well… just give it seven years.
- Vegeta: “I’ll never… fight again…” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No.
- Man, the people of Earth really are fucking idiots to buy Mr Satan’s bullshit about defeating Cell.
- #18 give off the weirdest signals ever. She kisses Krillin for now reason. And then she acts like the most ungrateful bitch in the world when it’s revealed Krillin took care of her after Cell spat her out and even when Krillin wishes to remove the bomb from inside her. And somehow Krillin and #18 would still end up together.
- Yamcha has girlfriend!? Since when!?
- So Goku decides to stay dead because he feels he’s a magnet for trouble and attracts bad people. I can’t help but feel that decision rings quite hollow. There just not enough build up to Goku deciding to act like this. Especially since Goku has shown he’s more than willing to come back from the dead when his friends and family need him. He’s not an (un)intentional danger to Earth just because of who he is, he’s an unintentional danger to Earth because of how he acts.
- Krillin requesting Shenron remove the bombs inside of #17 and #18 was nice of him. Too bad still acts like a total bitch. And, yes, I must remind you, they end up a couple.
- Everyone goes their separate ways in one of the more melancholic moments in Dragon Ball.
- Trunks went back in time again after three years to tell everyone that he had killed the artificial humans. But wouldn’t he be travelling back to another timeline?
- Trunks easily killing #17, #18 and Cell is one of the most cathartic moments in all of Dragon Ball.
- AND WE’RE DONE. ARC OVER.[/spoiler]
Once again, I have much more to say about this arc then I originally intended to...
(Continued in the next post...)
Spoiler:
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
POSITIVES
The Set-Up (Most of it):
[spoiler]I love the debut of (Future) Trunks in both mediums. It’s grand, effective and caries that wonderful feeling mystery and intrigue that Dragon Ball doesn’t have most of the time. (Future) Trunks killing Freeza was something I previously had an issue with because I always felt it diminished Freeza’s characters as he was brought back to life just to be killed off again. But unlike that happening in Resurrection F, Freeza’s death actually adds weight to the plot because of the later reveal of (Future) Trunks warning of threat coming to Earth that’s even greater than he is. Freeza’s hasty demise actually works quite well in elevating the stakes of the narrative in fashion that feels constructive to adding drama, suspense and establishing (Future) Trunks as a character not to be looked over.[/spoiler]
Cell:
[spoiler]Cell is a really good villain. And while I bemoan the inconsistency of his abilities, I can’t deny that he is very entertaining antagonist to watch. He initial incarnation feels like something straight out of a horror film. One moment he’s inflicting terror to thousands of people simultaneously and then when the cast tries to get the jump on him, he suddenly vanishes without a trace, as if he was never there to begin with. And he does this all the while getting stronger to ensure that he is successful with achieving his goal of “perfection”. And how he uses cunning and underhanded tactics to get one-up n the cast when he’s backed into a corner is so much fun to watch. It’s the kind of cat-and-mouse style of narrative that the early portions of the Freeza arc thrive on and I was so glad to see on back on full display in the early portions of the Cell arc.
I also greatly enjoy Cell’s evolution from an aesthetic and personality standpoint. How he turns from this hideous big/cicada like creature, to more toned down but still monster-ish looking being when he absorbs #17, to the finally more humanoid and presentable appearance he attains from absorbing #18. The dynamic of his characterisations changing along with physical appearance make Cell all the more unique of a villain. Going from the very cautious, sneaky, and calculating creature who as pragmatic in his approach to ensuring he had the easiest time in achieving his main goal of perfection, to the more thuggish, arrogant and exploitive character after he absorbs #17, to the more vain, sadistic, laid-back and battle hungry persona that dominated his mindset following the absorption of #18, and reaching the endpoint with him becoming completely deranged and egotistical after coming back to life with a huge influx of power, Cell displayed a wide variety of characteristics and that really helped sell the idea that he was truly a being composed of many of the central cast and other antagonists.
Cell was extremely ranged villain in every aspect, and this arc was so much better for it. It also helps that Norio Wakamoto was (and still is) fantastic as Cell.[/spoiler]
Trunks:
[spoiler]I really enjoyed this character. And as much as I lament how he falls into the background after fighting #18, he remains relevant enough in the plot to not feel like disposable commodity. I loved his straight laced, no-nonsense, call-a-spade-a-spade, pragmatic way of thinking. I found his backstory to be the best Dragon Ball has ever produced for any character. And I take great enjoyment in knowing that he managed to get his happy ending, with him saving his world in his timeline by killing #17, #18 and Cell, because it was definitely earned.[/spoiler]
Studio Cockpit:
[spoiler]I really can’t sing their praises enough. Any episode that is handled by them is spectacular in art-style and animation. Even episodes that may be lacking in content they can manage to bring to life through their stunning visuals. Episode 179 has one of the best looking fights the franchise has ever produced because of their hard work.[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
Bulma and Vegeta Having Trunks:
[spoiler]I don’t like the revelation of Bulma and Vegeta were Trunks’ parents. On one hand, it’s one hell of an effective plot twist. But on the other, the justification for Bulma hooking with Vegeta is just absurd. As someone who has watched the story from the beginning, there is no setup, indication or implication of Yamcha being promiscuous. You can buy the idea of Bulma being the "cheater" because there are way more hints of Bulma being more of a wanderer when it comes to partners than Yamcha is up until that point in the story. Bulma flirts or is shown to be attracted to many other guys that aren’t Yamcha in the story.
I can understand characters changing as they get older, but Yamcha being a cheater is such a jarring and out-of-context change in character that it can be really seen as character assassination for the sake of the plot happening and moving forward. It was like Toriyama knew that Bulma shacking up with Vegeta would absolutely ridiculous, but he knew he needed another Super Saiyan so he had to find some way for Bulma to dump Yamcha and get knocked up by Vegeta and not seem like a terrible person for doing such a thing. But Yamcha being the one unfaithful in his relationship with Bulma? No. I can’t buy that for a second. It just feels wrong.[/spoiler]
How Goku Escaped Namek:
[spoiler]I don’t like the explanation on how got off Namek before it exploded. Funny enough, when the anime tries to add some rationale to this, it creates more issues. In the anime version of events, after Goku not being able to operate Freeza’s spaceship, one of the Ginyu Forces space-pods was just conveniently falling down into the planet’s core to be swallowed up by the magma along with Freeza’s spaceship and Goku quickly jumped into, pressed some random buttons and escaped the planet. Now there’s just one problem with all of this… IT NEVER FUCKING HAPPENED.
Remember Freeza’s ship? Yeah, after Goku realised he couldn’t get that to function during the climax of the Freeza arc, he abandoned it and that thing fell right into the core of Planet Namek and was swallowed up by magma. That ship was destroyed. And right after that, the last thing we see before Namek is explodes is Goku yelling in fury over the fact he couldn’t escape Namek before it explodes. Are you telling me that after Goku screamed in anger from not being able to escape Namek, he saw one of the space pods that the Ginyu Force used, managed to operate it and escaped from Namek just before it was destroyed, all in the space of less than a few seconds? Yeah… no. I don’t buy any of that.
Goku surviving Namek must go down as one of the biggest narrative fumbles in all of Dragon Ball. It’s terrible from storytelling perspective as it just makes Goku desperate situation of trying not get find a way of escaping Namek before it blew up seem far less of a serious matter and more of a minor inconvenience for him. And it’s also a major oversight as it effectively rewrote the ending of the Freeza arc.[/spoiler]
Time Travel:
[spoiler]Now let’s talk about time travel. Long story short… this arc butchers this plot device…. horribly.
Let’s break it down.
(Future) Trunks warns that cyborgs #19 and #20 (yes, he says this in the manga) will be unleashed onto the world in three years and bring about the apocalypse. Fast forward three years, and that’s what happens in story. No problems so far. But shit gets confusing when (Future) Trunks travels back to three years after he first travelled back in time and after seeing the dismembered head of #19, he wonders what kind of cyborgs the cast are fighting as he doesn’t recognise the face of #19. Despite him being one of the very cyborgs (Future) Trunks previously mentioned were going to killing everyone and destroy the world. (Future) Trunks then hypothesizes that perhaps going back in time more than once changed history. And that makes no damn sense. Why? Because the story later states that when (Future) Trunks went back in time, he didn’t go back in time in his own timeline. He went back in time to a completely different timeline where any actions he has, regardless of how many times he goes back the past, has no effect on what happens to the future of his timeline. And yet (Future) Trunks’ future changes when it shouldn’t. And now instead of #19 and #20 causing the mayhem in his future, it’s #17 and #18. Hell, (Future) Trunks even provides a very detailed and accurate description of what cyborgs #17 and #18 look like. So (Future) Trunks timeline has his history radically altered when it shouldn’t have been changed in the slightest.
And then in comes Cell… who somehow manages to make the time travelling shenanigans even more confusing. He states he’s from a timeline when #17 and #18 don’t exist and were mostly like destroyed by (Future) Trunks, and that he killed the Trunks in his timeline, stole his time machine (which was already set to travel back to three years in the past) and went back to the past. None this make any sense for several reasons. How did the Trunks of that timeline mange to take care of the cyborgs of Cell’s timeline? But more importantly, as Piccolo hypothesised, why was Trunks in Cell’s timeline planning to go back to three years to the past and tell the main cast that he had destroyed the cyborgs in that timeline? It wouldn’t matter. Trunks would be travelling back to a completely different timeline. Anything he changes in Cell’s timeline wouldn’t have any effect on the timeline he travels back to the past to. The Cyborgs would still exist in that timeline. At least according the story’s own logic that what happens in one timeline wouldn’t affect what occurs in another timeline.
But then things get really fucked up with Cell expositional backstory in conjunction with what happens in the main story. Krillin and Trunks (in the main timeline) find Dr Gero’s secret basement, destroy his supercomputer which is creating Cell and kill Cell in his infant stage of growth. So what happened in the timeline that Cell comes from (who killed Trunks and stole time machine), where Trunks and Krillin destroy Dr Gero’s supercomputer and kill Cell while he’s still growing? How did that event not still happen in Cell’s timeline? Did history get altered again from Trunks travelling back in time on the second occasion? Well… that wouldn’t make much because the action of just traveling back in time, in Cell’s scenario, changes nothing as he still dies while he is growing in Gero’s secret basement in the main timeline. Why didn’t history get altered when Cell travelled back in time? Does changing the flow of events only happen when Trunks uses the time machine? But this begs an even larger and more important question… how does Cell exist? He came back in time one year before Trunks did in the first occasion Trunks travelled back in time because Cell needed the extra three years to stay beneath the Earth to evolve from an egg into his fully-grown bio-android. So what event(s) lead to Cell’s timeline being created?
This is why a lot of stories don’t like having their foundations based on time travel because it’s a plot device that is incredibly easy to fuck up. And if you fuck it up, it can lead to the structure of the narrative crumbling. Inconsistencies can emerge, plot holes can be created, and continuity errors could unintentionally wreck your story. And unfortunately, this isn’t something that can be swept under the run as in the Cell arc, the concept of time travel is the driving force of the narrative. Because without time travel being implemented, the story can’t work. But the implementation of time travel is so inconsistent. The rules constantly change. History is altered when it shouldn’t be altered. Information passed on that turns out to false when it should be true. We’re presented with a scenario where just travelling back in time can alter not only the history on the original timeline but can create a branching timeline where that history is altered in the same way in some part as the original timeline. And yet this rule is trampled on immediately when it’s later discovered that changing the past in one timeline wouldn’t alter the history of another timeline despite the fact that apparently all of the timelines ARE connected. Or do the timelines become separate entities after a while? The story falls apart instantly if you spend more than 60 seconds thinking about how time travel is incorporated in the Cell arc.
Am I making this whole situation more confusing than it appears to be at face value? Or it this just already really confusing, and my dissection of this is making me even more confused about it? Either way, it’s a clusterfuck. I have no fucking idea how time travel works in an arc where the initial centre piece for the narrative evolving is based solely on time travel. And that’s a big fucking problem. Look, I love what Akira Toriyama has mostly done for Dragon Ball. But his writing is not infallible. In my opinion, his handling of time travel, in narrative sense, was horrific.[/spoiler]
Vegeta:
[spoiler]I hated Vegeta in this arc. Hated him, hated him, hated him. He was insufferable in this arc. Throughout this arc, Vegeta was constantly angsting about Goku. He always seemed to be moaning and complaining about how strong Goku was compared to him, and it just became intolerable. It doesn’t help that his rivalry with Goku is one-sided. But it wasn’t just Goku, anytime that any other character was stronger than him, he would throw a bitch fit and start brooding over it. Best exemplified when stood on the edge of cliff for three fucking after he got his ass handed to him by #18.
His attitude in this arc is when I didn’t care his angry outburst and attack against Cell when he killed Trunks. Most of the story spent so much time hammering into your head that Vegeta is a self and unrepentant bastard to everyone, that him suddenly want to avenge Trunks is so jarring. There’s no build up to moment. Vegeta had displayed his resentment towards Trunks anytime they interact that I can’t get invested into any arbitrary 180 of Vegeta’s personal perspective towards Trunks.
From throwing ki blasts at a cyborg that he knows can absorb energy, to constantly having delusions into thinking he can beat Cell, to allowing Cell to play him like a fiddle, to acting like spoil child whenever someone else was more powerful than him… Vegeta just drags down the arc so much when he gets significant screentime. The only time Vegeta became tolerable to me was at the very end of the arc when apologizes to Gohan for being a liability in battle.
I know Vegeta is colossal asshole. That’s his gimmick and character. But he doesn’t need to be irritating. Remember the Freeza arc? Yeah, Vegeta was an asshole in that arc, but he also was a more well-rounded character. The mark of good antagonist is someone you don’t like, but you ultimately want to see more of them. I didn’t like Vegeta’ actions on Namek but his character was so much better handled that I was eager to see what Vegeta would do next. In the Cell arc, Vegeta I hated what Vegeta was doing but I also despised his character to the point where I didn’t want to see him again. And no, it wasn’t in the “love to hate” kind of way. It was in the “get off my screen, I don’t want to see again” kind of way. Vegeta in the this arc had, what wrestling fans would call, “Go away heat”.[/spoiler]
Gohan:
[spoiler]What the fuck was going on with this guy in this arc? He just fades away from the plot after the #19 and #20 arrive. Then gets suddenly thrusted into the main spotlight in the cumulative battle against Cell, and we’re supposed to believe this is going to be his passing of the torch moment. Yeah, I’m sorry, but fuck that noise. If this is the arc that marks the period in which that Gohan is meant to assume the role as central character, you have to have him featured more predominately in the arc in a significant sense when the cyborgs arrive, or at the very least, give him more screen time. You can’t have somebody who you want to have as the main character sit out 90% of the arc that supposed to act as the starting point for them becoming the main character. It’s just bad storytelling.
Then when it comes to him actually fighting Cell, his characterisation is just so off. He states he doesn’t want to kill Cell and thinks his fight against him is pointless. I’m sorry, but… what? Gohan is a character that has shown on so many occasions that he’s been more than willing to thrust himself into battle and fight to kill should the opportunity call for it. He put himself in harms ways against Vegeta, Nappa, Freeza’s soldiers, the Ginyu Force and Freeza himself because he knew what the stakes were and what needed to be done. He even personally insisted on going to Namek, even when he knew of the possible dangers and threats. Hell, him training with Goku in the Room of Spirit and Time and was centred around him preparing for the opportunity in fighting Cell.
There was no indication prior to him fighting Cell that he had any qualms about killing if it was absolutely necessary. What lead to him suddenly having this pacifism when confronting Cell? For Gohan to go through this kind of major character development, especially in story that is centred around fights that sometimes go to the death, you have to provide the context of when, how and why Gohan went through this kind of change in personality. It’s the same deal with how Gohan acts like a sadist when he’s a SSJ2. Give the reader the proper build-up. Or else you create the idea that Gohan is acting out of character. And unfortunately, that’s the only conclusion I can come to regarding Gohan’s attitude during the Cell Games. He goes right back to stating he want to beat Cell when the Cell Jrs start attacking Goku and the rest of the cast, it’s obvious that characteristic was thrown in for the sake of the plot. Gohan’s mentality shifting to not wanting to kill Cell had no bearing on his character because Gohan goes right back to wanting to defeat Cell.[/spoiler]
The Cyborgs:
[spoiler]Conceptually speaking, I hate what the cyborgs represent. They’re inserted into the plot because they’re monstrously strong, which is fine, but then you find out that there were created under the pretences of character who had no idea about what Super Saiyan is. And #16, #17 and #18 are far stronger than Super Saiyans. This has always been personal pet peeve of mine because this absolutely murders any kind of mystique Freeza's character had. Freeza was by no means this unbelievable force of nature that should be reckoned with in the universe. He was ultimately just a big fish in a small pond. As an old, very intelligent, mad scientist in a cave with a box of scraps, with no idea of how strong Freeza is, can somehow create cyborgs that are far stronger than Freeza ever wished he could have been. It makes Freeza look like the luckiest character ever. Because if Dr Gero had decided to carry out his plan sooner and on a scale as large as Freeza, Freeza and his army would have been no match for him.
And in terms of personality, most of the cyborgs are very flat and one note in characterisation. Gero/#20 is a generically evil as they come, #19 has no character, #18 displays a little personality before turning into the stock tsundere, and #16 is the most haphazardly written of the lot. His character is that he like bird and nature, which would be good but doesn’t lead to anything for him development wise as he still provides the strong implication that once Cell is take care off, he’s going to kill Goku, as he was programmed to do. I don’t why the writing for #16 is so indecisive. If it wanted to portray him in a more positive light to make his death more tragic then it should’ve spent some time giving the context for why he suddenly grew accustomed to birds and nature in general but still had the capacity to retain his original purpose of killing Goku. I think It would have served as better character development for him to come to love life on Earth and then somehow override his programming to become capable of abandoning his original purpose of killing Goku. I mean, if you’re not going to give some backstory on the affinity that #16 has with nature, at least utilise it fully to properly develop #16. As it stands, #16 just feel like a really half-arsed character. #17 is without a doubt the most interesting out of all the cyborgs. He has more of a personality out of being just stoic and acting cool. He’s prideful in battle, acts leisurely in his goals and has a degree of honour for his opponents.[/spoiler]
The Final Battle Against Cell:
[spoiler]Oh boy, what a clusterfuck the home stretch of the battle against Cell is.
Let’s start off with the idea of Gohan fighting Cell. From a narrative standpoint, this fight doesn’t work… at all. Gohan doesn’t even know what Cell looks like, let alone have an idea of what he can do in combat. So what am I supposed to get out Gohan beating up Cell? What relationship does Gohan have with Cell that supposed to make the feeling of Cell being brought down a peg by him feel so cathartic or satisfying? And this lead to another issue regarding Gohan’s battle with Cell: what served as Gohan rage breaking point.
Now don’t get me wrong, the moment itself where Gohan becomes a SSJ2 is visually spectacular. But it’s incredibly narratively shallow. Remember Gohan's reaction after Piccolo died saving his life in the Saiyan arc? That was emotional because Gohan at least got the chance to build a relationship with Piccolo to make the moment he died feel more relatable, genuine and powerful. Remember when Goku became SSJ for the first time? That was a powerful moment because you knew prior to that moment just how much Goku's friendship with Krillin meant to him because of how close they were depicted to be and how they reacted to each other deaths the first-time round. Gohan was watching his family and friends he trained and grew up with getting beaten to death at the Cell Games by the Cell Jrs and it doesn't affect him other than making him grit his teeth harder. Yet a random cyborg that Gohan that doesn't know on any other level, other than he cares for all living beings on life, a viewpoint all of the Z-Fighters, excluding Vegeta, at that time also shared, dies in front of him and suddenly that makes Gohan snap and go over the edge? I just can’t buy into that.
I feel that a proper relationship needed to be built between the two characters to justify Gohan reacting the way he did when #16 was killed. It just helps the moment feel more raw and believable. To me, it just felt like Toriyama needed an excuse for Gohan to become a SSJ2 and he threw in that speech from #16 just so that the moment could happen. All we knew about #16 prior to him giving the speech to Gohan is that kinda liked birds. That's it. #16 even reminds Goku that he was built to kill told him not to forget that. So that whole "#16 cares about all living things" characteristic kinda feel even more contrived. If Toriyama spent more time developing #16's character and building a more believable relationship between Gohan and #16, the moment Gohan became a SSJ2 for the first time would have been perfect. So while the fact that Cell crushed #16’s head after his speech served as an avenue for him tapping into true power is a great moment on it’s surface level, there is no foundation to it. That moment from a storytelling perspective means nothing because Gohan barely know who the fuck Android 16 was beyond the fact he was built to kill Goku and that loved birds, trees and animals. He of all people shouldn't be the trigger for Gohan's SSJ2 moment because there is no emotional connection between the two of them.
But what follows Gohan becoming a SSJ2 is even worse. Cell regurgitates #18… because why not? Then Cell reveals he can blow himself up… because why not? Then in moment of sacrifice Goku teleports Cell just he’s about to explode to Kaio-sama’s planet and saves the Earth. In perfect world, the Cell arc ends right there. But for reason, the story must continue. And Cell manages to combe back to life through a major narrative fuck up. Turns out the core in his head survived the explosion and Cell was able to regenerate from it. But there only one tiny problem… Cell’s core was already destroyed! Remember when Goku blasted Cell at point blank range with that Teleportation Kamehameha? That destroyed the top half of his body, which coincidently, destroyed his core. Which just raises the further question of how Cell manged to regenerate from that attack from Goku.
What really rubs the up the wrong way about this is whole contrived affair is how it blatantly artificially extends the plot. Cell didn’t need to come back to life. Goku’s sacrifice didn’t have to become meaningless, and Future Trunks didn’t need to die as a result of Cell’s resurrection. You have the arc just end with Goku, Cell and Kaio-sama, Bubbles dying and that would have been a perfectly suitable ending. Yes, we wouldn’t have had the Gohan/Ghost Dad and Cell Kamehameha beam clash, but you know what, I could have certainly lived without it. Nothing was gained from Cell arbitrarily returning to the plot. Because he just ends up being killed in literally the next episode/chapter. It’s a pointless and haphazard that retroactively raises more question surrounding the plot while also unnecessarily stretching out a story that was already barren with content. Nothing about Cell coming back to life feels like a natural sequence of events. It just feels like something that had to happen… because why not? And honestly, that’s just bad storytelling. The whole sequence itself really feels like padding when you look back it.[/spoiler]
Character Moments With No Purpose:
[spoiler]You know, it’s one thing if character has a moment in the story that a had little build up but didn’t lead to anything. That’s always disappointing. But what even worse is when a character has a moment in a story which has no build up, leads to nothing a and can conflict with their established character. The Cell arc has so moments like this.
Goku giving a senzu is the fucking nadir of a character moment with no purpose. Look, I get it, Goku likes a good fight. And he’s willing to spare or give assistance to his rivals when he know there’s not a threat. But he’s never gone to the extent where he willingly aids his opponent in restoring their full strength. Especially before a fight that determines the fate of the planet, and even more so against an opponent that he has no idea of how strong he is. It just seems like such a gross over exaggeration of Goku’s character in regard to how much he would put a good fight over everything and anything else. Thank God Piccolo calls him out on this, but it was a still a horrible moment for Goku’s character. But more than it being stupid, it was unnecessary for the plot. If Cell was still feeling tired, as Goku claims he was, when he goes on fight Gohan would that have made difference to how their fight would have transpired? It’s highly unlikely. Especially since Cell wasn’t even using all of strength to fight Goku in the first place. So Goku giving Cell a senzu served no narrative purpose and painted Goku in a horrible light. It’s the most unlikable has been portrayed in Dragon Ball, in my opinion. And it didn’t need to be this way.
Speaking of painting characters in a bad light… let’s talk about Krillin. Now I understand that Krillin is most “human” character of the cast. His reactions, his personal goals and his perspective of events, in my opinion, the most relatable. But one of his most admirable traits is his pragmatism. His acknowledgement of what needs to be done, when there are many lives at stake. That’s why Krillin not shutting down #18 just comes across as really jarring. As I’ve stated, Krillin know to be very pragmatic and actually quite good in his decision making during critical times. Remember when he was about to kill Vegeta when he was weak and couldn't defend himself in the Saiyan arc and prevent him from coming back to harm Earth? The exact polar opposite happened in Cell arc with him not shutting down #18 when he knew very well what the stakes were and would happen if Cell absorbed #18. He literally put the world in grave danger for one woman he affection. Did it not cross his mind that once #18 is gone, they could simply bring her back to life? The icing on the cake is how cold and abrasive #18 acts towards Krillin when it’s revealed to her Krillin took care of her after Cell spat her out and even when Krillin wishes to remove the bomb from inside her. Yes, I know they end up together, but taking this moment in regards with the self-contained aspect of the Cell arc, it’s moment that has no payoff and purpose. Hell, how they end up together is never elaborated on. And like Goku giving Cell a senzu, it puts Krillin’s character in a more unflattering perspective given how he tried to persuade the cyborgs to leave Goku alone, but then turn around and acts in a fashion that not only puts Goku’s life risk, but the lives of billions of people. And then, after witnessing Vegeta attacking Trunks while he was trying to prevent Cell from absorbing #18 and becoming perfect, Krillin has the goddamned nerve calling the Vegeta stupid. It’s an absurdly hypocritical statement to make given that Krillin just endangered the Earth over his one-side affection for a cyborg. Where does Krillin think he has the high moral ground to call out other people for putting their selfish requests above the consideration of billions of lives? You might as well have not had this side plot of deactivating #18 because it has no consequences on the plot as #18 is absorbed anyway. If you’re going to have side character who can’t do much physically in the plot and you want them to contribute in other ways, that perfectly fine. Just have it mean something.
Two more case of character moments that serve no purpose include Tien and Trunks. Tien’s Kikoho to Cell looked pretty good, but again, it severed not purpose because #18 doesn’t follow Tien’s advice of getting away as far as possible and Cell still very shortly after that moment absorbs #18. So why was Tien thrown into the plot if his actions would no effect on the plot? It’s the same deal with Trunks abandoning his conviction of offending Vegeta’s pride and showing how much stronger he is and fighting Cell with an even more buffed SSJ form. Trunks could have fought Cell in the SSJ form he had before he powered up again, and it would have been the same kind of fight. On top of this, why Trunks is so concerned with hurting Vegeta’s pride by showing how much stronger he’s gotten? Trunks has already shown that he willing to discard his paternal links given that he’s aware how much of a bad person Vegeta is and how he’s even stated that he’d kill him if it meant saving the world. If the character moment doesn’t lead to anything in the story arc it happens in, don’t bother having it. It’s just a fluff. And not even constructive fluff like Goku searching for a new God of Earth.
Piccolo’s scenario with fusing with Kami is probably the most tragic of all in the entire arc. The story gave the impression that him fusing with Kami was a huge moment for his placing in the power hierarchy and how this would affect his character. Which is why I presume that whole “When do you think I became your friend? I’m a demon!! I’m merely using you to take over the world!!” bullshit happened. After Piccolo fuses with Kami, he skirmishes with Cell and only ‘loses’ because Cell get the slip on him with some trickery, and even “outsmarts” Cell to get some information out of him. Then Piccolo faces #17 and it’s downhill from there. His fight with #17 is boring and ending quickly in an stalemate that doesn’t get a proper conclusion as Cell strolls back into the plot breaks Piccolo’s neck with one punch and nearly kills him with a blast to the chest at point blank range. All that build-up of Piccolo fusing with Kami and nothing fundamentally changes about Piccolo and his immense power-up is quickly swept under the rug. And just to twist the knife a little, the moment that lead to Piccolo getting curb stomped in battle, was all down to a moment of uncharacteristic foolishness, with Piccolo pointlessly powering up before he fight’s #17 even though he didn’t need to, knew that Cell can sense energy and knew that Cell was looking to absorb the artificial humans to become much stronger. But then again, Piccolo is stranger to doing stupid shit for the sake of it, like when he wished to go to Namek. And if wasn’t enough, just to piss on Piccolo a little more because why not, after recovers from nearly being killed by Cell, Piccolo trains for a day (a year) in the Room of Spirit and Time, and he gains nothing from it. He might as well have not gone inside in the first place as he even acknowledges that he still has no chance against Cell. Goku’s flippant response to Piccolo enquiry about his growth in power compared to Cell is the icing on the cake.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This arc… is terrible. And the sad thing is that really it didn’t need to be. The set-up is outstanding (for the most part). But from the angle with regards to consistent storytelling, the arc falls apart once time travel becomes the backbone of the narrative. Cell’s initial appearances help rejuvenate some intrigue into the arc, but even he eventually devolves somewhat into the stock generic doomsday villain. Some of the character writing is dreadful, with Gohan and Vegeta being the worst effected with bad characterisation. There is also an overabundance of power-ups and character moments that serve no purpose and lead to nowhere. And while SSJ2 is a great moment from a presentation standpoint, it’s horrendous from a narrative perspective with how Gohan is handled in the arc. And I’ve said my piece on how time travel is beyond convoluted in the story, so I’m not going into that rabbit hole again.
This arc was the most apparent case in all of Dragon Ball of an arc that was looking for any reason to keep the story going. Nothing about the events of the Cell arc after Future Trunks leaves feels organic. Yes, I know that there was some meddling from the part of Toriyama’s editor at the time that influenced how the story changed, but it still could have been handled much better than it was. When all is said and done, I view this arc as an arc made of “moments” that either had no build-up, bad build-up and no proper payoff. This is the most disappointing arc that Toriyama has ever personally scripted. I’ve never come across a major arc in Dragon Ball before (with Toriyama behind the wheel) that had such a great setup only to just to absolutely implode right after that set-up. At least the art style in the manga looked good.
When I get down to it, this is how I ultimately feel about the Cell arc:
The Cell arc is the Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice of Dragon Ball arcs… it’s an arc that focuses so much on taking itself so seriously and establishing a more high stakes narrative that it forgets to be consistent, coherent, and have those much need moments of levity and character development. – 3/10
Afterlife Tournament arc (Filler):
[spoiler]- Even though the content itself in Episode 195 is total nonsense from a lore and power-scaling perspective, Studio Cockpit’s great animation makes it worthwhile. Piccolo-lite (Paikuhan) is pretty cool.
- The expansion of the lore of the Dragon Ball cosmos is immensely intriguing and entertaining. The introduction of the East and West Kaio make for some great banter and scenes with Kaio-sama and North Kaio.
- Dai Kaiō looks like a past member of ZZ Top…I love this guy already.
- So instead of finding the strongest under the heavens, we’re going to be finding the strongest in the heavens. That’s a really unique idea that Dragon Ball should do more often.
- Caterpi taking 1,200 to become a pupa and Goku winning by default because of that cracks me up.
- Epsiode 197 has the funniest fight I’ve ever seen in Dragon Ball with Tapica and Tolbee. It’s hysterical.
- These fights are ending a bit too quick for my liking. That’s not to say they’re bad fights, but they could little longer than 1 minute on average.
- Episode 198 has some ugly fight animation and terrible art. Guess who was responsible for this episode? Yeah, Studio Live.
- Episode 199 has the best filler fight in the show so far with SSJ Goku vs Paikuhan but ends on a really sour note with some bullshit double disqualification so we no really between the two of them. Oh well. We got the beauty of Super Kaioken so it’s not all bad.
- Up next, Gohan goes to high school.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
For what was a five-episode filler arc, this was quite fun. The expansion on the lore of the cosmos of Dragon Ball was good and the fights themselves in Afterlife tournament was good for what they were. The arc could have been a little bit longer, but I was satisfied with what I got. All around good fluff material. - 7/10
(Continued in the next post...)
The Set-Up (Most of it):
[spoiler]I love the debut of (Future) Trunks in both mediums. It’s grand, effective and caries that wonderful feeling mystery and intrigue that Dragon Ball doesn’t have most of the time. (Future) Trunks killing Freeza was something I previously had an issue with because I always felt it diminished Freeza’s characters as he was brought back to life just to be killed off again. But unlike that happening in Resurrection F, Freeza’s death actually adds weight to the plot because of the later reveal of (Future) Trunks warning of threat coming to Earth that’s even greater than he is. Freeza’s hasty demise actually works quite well in elevating the stakes of the narrative in fashion that feels constructive to adding drama, suspense and establishing (Future) Trunks as a character not to be looked over.[/spoiler]
Cell:
[spoiler]Cell is a really good villain. And while I bemoan the inconsistency of his abilities, I can’t deny that he is very entertaining antagonist to watch. He initial incarnation feels like something straight out of a horror film. One moment he’s inflicting terror to thousands of people simultaneously and then when the cast tries to get the jump on him, he suddenly vanishes without a trace, as if he was never there to begin with. And he does this all the while getting stronger to ensure that he is successful with achieving his goal of “perfection”. And how he uses cunning and underhanded tactics to get one-up n the cast when he’s backed into a corner is so much fun to watch. It’s the kind of cat-and-mouse style of narrative that the early portions of the Freeza arc thrive on and I was so glad to see on back on full display in the early portions of the Cell arc.
I also greatly enjoy Cell’s evolution from an aesthetic and personality standpoint. How he turns from this hideous big/cicada like creature, to more toned down but still monster-ish looking being when he absorbs #17, to the finally more humanoid and presentable appearance he attains from absorbing #18. The dynamic of his characterisations changing along with physical appearance make Cell all the more unique of a villain. Going from the very cautious, sneaky, and calculating creature who as pragmatic in his approach to ensuring he had the easiest time in achieving his main goal of perfection, to the more thuggish, arrogant and exploitive character after he absorbs #17, to the more vain, sadistic, laid-back and battle hungry persona that dominated his mindset following the absorption of #18, and reaching the endpoint with him becoming completely deranged and egotistical after coming back to life with a huge influx of power, Cell displayed a wide variety of characteristics and that really helped sell the idea that he was truly a being composed of many of the central cast and other antagonists.
Cell was extremely ranged villain in every aspect, and this arc was so much better for it. It also helps that Norio Wakamoto was (and still is) fantastic as Cell.[/spoiler]
Trunks:
[spoiler]I really enjoyed this character. And as much as I lament how he falls into the background after fighting #18, he remains relevant enough in the plot to not feel like disposable commodity. I loved his straight laced, no-nonsense, call-a-spade-a-spade, pragmatic way of thinking. I found his backstory to be the best Dragon Ball has ever produced for any character. And I take great enjoyment in knowing that he managed to get his happy ending, with him saving his world in his timeline by killing #17, #18 and Cell, because it was definitely earned.[/spoiler]
Studio Cockpit:
[spoiler]I really can’t sing their praises enough. Any episode that is handled by them is spectacular in art-style and animation. Even episodes that may be lacking in content they can manage to bring to life through their stunning visuals. Episode 179 has one of the best looking fights the franchise has ever produced because of their hard work.[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
Bulma and Vegeta Having Trunks:
[spoiler]I don’t like the revelation of Bulma and Vegeta were Trunks’ parents. On one hand, it’s one hell of an effective plot twist. But on the other, the justification for Bulma hooking with Vegeta is just absurd. As someone who has watched the story from the beginning, there is no setup, indication or implication of Yamcha being promiscuous. You can buy the idea of Bulma being the "cheater" because there are way more hints of Bulma being more of a wanderer when it comes to partners than Yamcha is up until that point in the story. Bulma flirts or is shown to be attracted to many other guys that aren’t Yamcha in the story.
I can understand characters changing as they get older, but Yamcha being a cheater is such a jarring and out-of-context change in character that it can be really seen as character assassination for the sake of the plot happening and moving forward. It was like Toriyama knew that Bulma shacking up with Vegeta would absolutely ridiculous, but he knew he needed another Super Saiyan so he had to find some way for Bulma to dump Yamcha and get knocked up by Vegeta and not seem like a terrible person for doing such a thing. But Yamcha being the one unfaithful in his relationship with Bulma? No. I can’t buy that for a second. It just feels wrong.[/spoiler]
How Goku Escaped Namek:
[spoiler]I don’t like the explanation on how got off Namek before it exploded. Funny enough, when the anime tries to add some rationale to this, it creates more issues. In the anime version of events, after Goku not being able to operate Freeza’s spaceship, one of the Ginyu Forces space-pods was just conveniently falling down into the planet’s core to be swallowed up by the magma along with Freeza’s spaceship and Goku quickly jumped into, pressed some random buttons and escaped the planet. Now there’s just one problem with all of this… IT NEVER FUCKING HAPPENED.
Remember Freeza’s ship? Yeah, after Goku realised he couldn’t get that to function during the climax of the Freeza arc, he abandoned it and that thing fell right into the core of Planet Namek and was swallowed up by magma. That ship was destroyed. And right after that, the last thing we see before Namek is explodes is Goku yelling in fury over the fact he couldn’t escape Namek before it explodes. Are you telling me that after Goku screamed in anger from not being able to escape Namek, he saw one of the space pods that the Ginyu Force used, managed to operate it and escaped from Namek just before it was destroyed, all in the space of less than a few seconds? Yeah… no. I don’t buy any of that.
Goku surviving Namek must go down as one of the biggest narrative fumbles in all of Dragon Ball. It’s terrible from storytelling perspective as it just makes Goku desperate situation of trying not get find a way of escaping Namek before it blew up seem far less of a serious matter and more of a minor inconvenience for him. And it’s also a major oversight as it effectively rewrote the ending of the Freeza arc.[/spoiler]
Time Travel:
[spoiler]Now let’s talk about time travel. Long story short… this arc butchers this plot device…. horribly.
Let’s break it down.
(Future) Trunks warns that cyborgs #19 and #20 (yes, he says this in the manga) will be unleashed onto the world in three years and bring about the apocalypse. Fast forward three years, and that’s what happens in story. No problems so far. But shit gets confusing when (Future) Trunks travels back to three years after he first travelled back in time and after seeing the dismembered head of #19, he wonders what kind of cyborgs the cast are fighting as he doesn’t recognise the face of #19. Despite him being one of the very cyborgs (Future) Trunks previously mentioned were going to killing everyone and destroy the world. (Future) Trunks then hypothesizes that perhaps going back in time more than once changed history. And that makes no damn sense. Why? Because the story later states that when (Future) Trunks went back in time, he didn’t go back in time in his own timeline. He went back in time to a completely different timeline where any actions he has, regardless of how many times he goes back the past, has no effect on what happens to the future of his timeline. And yet (Future) Trunks’ future changes when it shouldn’t. And now instead of #19 and #20 causing the mayhem in his future, it’s #17 and #18. Hell, (Future) Trunks even provides a very detailed and accurate description of what cyborgs #17 and #18 look like. So (Future) Trunks timeline has his history radically altered when it shouldn’t have been changed in the slightest.
And then in comes Cell… who somehow manages to make the time travelling shenanigans even more confusing. He states he’s from a timeline when #17 and #18 don’t exist and were mostly like destroyed by (Future) Trunks, and that he killed the Trunks in his timeline, stole his time machine (which was already set to travel back to three years in the past) and went back to the past. None this make any sense for several reasons. How did the Trunks of that timeline mange to take care of the cyborgs of Cell’s timeline? But more importantly, as Piccolo hypothesised, why was Trunks in Cell’s timeline planning to go back to three years to the past and tell the main cast that he had destroyed the cyborgs in that timeline? It wouldn’t matter. Trunks would be travelling back to a completely different timeline. Anything he changes in Cell’s timeline wouldn’t have any effect on the timeline he travels back to the past to. The Cyborgs would still exist in that timeline. At least according the story’s own logic that what happens in one timeline wouldn’t affect what occurs in another timeline.
But then things get really fucked up with Cell expositional backstory in conjunction with what happens in the main story. Krillin and Trunks (in the main timeline) find Dr Gero’s secret basement, destroy his supercomputer which is creating Cell and kill Cell in his infant stage of growth. So what happened in the timeline that Cell comes from (who killed Trunks and stole time machine), where Trunks and Krillin destroy Dr Gero’s supercomputer and kill Cell while he’s still growing? How did that event not still happen in Cell’s timeline? Did history get altered again from Trunks travelling back in time on the second occasion? Well… that wouldn’t make much because the action of just traveling back in time, in Cell’s scenario, changes nothing as he still dies while he is growing in Gero’s secret basement in the main timeline. Why didn’t history get altered when Cell travelled back in time? Does changing the flow of events only happen when Trunks uses the time machine? But this begs an even larger and more important question… how does Cell exist? He came back in time one year before Trunks did in the first occasion Trunks travelled back in time because Cell needed the extra three years to stay beneath the Earth to evolve from an egg into his fully-grown bio-android. So what event(s) lead to Cell’s timeline being created?
This is why a lot of stories don’t like having their foundations based on time travel because it’s a plot device that is incredibly easy to fuck up. And if you fuck it up, it can lead to the structure of the narrative crumbling. Inconsistencies can emerge, plot holes can be created, and continuity errors could unintentionally wreck your story. And unfortunately, this isn’t something that can be swept under the run as in the Cell arc, the concept of time travel is the driving force of the narrative. Because without time travel being implemented, the story can’t work. But the implementation of time travel is so inconsistent. The rules constantly change. History is altered when it shouldn’t be altered. Information passed on that turns out to false when it should be true. We’re presented with a scenario where just travelling back in time can alter not only the history on the original timeline but can create a branching timeline where that history is altered in the same way in some part as the original timeline. And yet this rule is trampled on immediately when it’s later discovered that changing the past in one timeline wouldn’t alter the history of another timeline despite the fact that apparently all of the timelines ARE connected. Or do the timelines become separate entities after a while? The story falls apart instantly if you spend more than 60 seconds thinking about how time travel is incorporated in the Cell arc.
Am I making this whole situation more confusing than it appears to be at face value? Or it this just already really confusing, and my dissection of this is making me even more confused about it? Either way, it’s a clusterfuck. I have no fucking idea how time travel works in an arc where the initial centre piece for the narrative evolving is based solely on time travel. And that’s a big fucking problem. Look, I love what Akira Toriyama has mostly done for Dragon Ball. But his writing is not infallible. In my opinion, his handling of time travel, in narrative sense, was horrific.[/spoiler]
Vegeta:
[spoiler]I hated Vegeta in this arc. Hated him, hated him, hated him. He was insufferable in this arc. Throughout this arc, Vegeta was constantly angsting about Goku. He always seemed to be moaning and complaining about how strong Goku was compared to him, and it just became intolerable. It doesn’t help that his rivalry with Goku is one-sided. But it wasn’t just Goku, anytime that any other character was stronger than him, he would throw a bitch fit and start brooding over it. Best exemplified when stood on the edge of cliff for three fucking after he got his ass handed to him by #18.
His attitude in this arc is when I didn’t care his angry outburst and attack against Cell when he killed Trunks. Most of the story spent so much time hammering into your head that Vegeta is a self and unrepentant bastard to everyone, that him suddenly want to avenge Trunks is so jarring. There’s no build up to moment. Vegeta had displayed his resentment towards Trunks anytime they interact that I can’t get invested into any arbitrary 180 of Vegeta’s personal perspective towards Trunks.
From throwing ki blasts at a cyborg that he knows can absorb energy, to constantly having delusions into thinking he can beat Cell, to allowing Cell to play him like a fiddle, to acting like spoil child whenever someone else was more powerful than him… Vegeta just drags down the arc so much when he gets significant screentime. The only time Vegeta became tolerable to me was at the very end of the arc when apologizes to Gohan for being a liability in battle.
I know Vegeta is colossal asshole. That’s his gimmick and character. But he doesn’t need to be irritating. Remember the Freeza arc? Yeah, Vegeta was an asshole in that arc, but he also was a more well-rounded character. The mark of good antagonist is someone you don’t like, but you ultimately want to see more of them. I didn’t like Vegeta’ actions on Namek but his character was so much better handled that I was eager to see what Vegeta would do next. In the Cell arc, Vegeta I hated what Vegeta was doing but I also despised his character to the point where I didn’t want to see him again. And no, it wasn’t in the “love to hate” kind of way. It was in the “get off my screen, I don’t want to see again” kind of way. Vegeta in the this arc had, what wrestling fans would call, “Go away heat”.[/spoiler]
Gohan:
[spoiler]What the fuck was going on with this guy in this arc? He just fades away from the plot after the #19 and #20 arrive. Then gets suddenly thrusted into the main spotlight in the cumulative battle against Cell, and we’re supposed to believe this is going to be his passing of the torch moment. Yeah, I’m sorry, but fuck that noise. If this is the arc that marks the period in which that Gohan is meant to assume the role as central character, you have to have him featured more predominately in the arc in a significant sense when the cyborgs arrive, or at the very least, give him more screen time. You can’t have somebody who you want to have as the main character sit out 90% of the arc that supposed to act as the starting point for them becoming the main character. It’s just bad storytelling.
Then when it comes to him actually fighting Cell, his characterisation is just so off. He states he doesn’t want to kill Cell and thinks his fight against him is pointless. I’m sorry, but… what? Gohan is a character that has shown on so many occasions that he’s been more than willing to thrust himself into battle and fight to kill should the opportunity call for it. He put himself in harms ways against Vegeta, Nappa, Freeza’s soldiers, the Ginyu Force and Freeza himself because he knew what the stakes were and what needed to be done. He even personally insisted on going to Namek, even when he knew of the possible dangers and threats. Hell, him training with Goku in the Room of Spirit and Time and was centred around him preparing for the opportunity in fighting Cell.
There was no indication prior to him fighting Cell that he had any qualms about killing if it was absolutely necessary. What lead to him suddenly having this pacifism when confronting Cell? For Gohan to go through this kind of major character development, especially in story that is centred around fights that sometimes go to the death, you have to provide the context of when, how and why Gohan went through this kind of change in personality. It’s the same deal with how Gohan acts like a sadist when he’s a SSJ2. Give the reader the proper build-up. Or else you create the idea that Gohan is acting out of character. And unfortunately, that’s the only conclusion I can come to regarding Gohan’s attitude during the Cell Games. He goes right back to stating he want to beat Cell when the Cell Jrs start attacking Goku and the rest of the cast, it’s obvious that characteristic was thrown in for the sake of the plot. Gohan’s mentality shifting to not wanting to kill Cell had no bearing on his character because Gohan goes right back to wanting to defeat Cell.[/spoiler]
The Cyborgs:
[spoiler]Conceptually speaking, I hate what the cyborgs represent. They’re inserted into the plot because they’re monstrously strong, which is fine, but then you find out that there were created under the pretences of character who had no idea about what Super Saiyan is. And #16, #17 and #18 are far stronger than Super Saiyans. This has always been personal pet peeve of mine because this absolutely murders any kind of mystique Freeza's character had. Freeza was by no means this unbelievable force of nature that should be reckoned with in the universe. He was ultimately just a big fish in a small pond. As an old, very intelligent, mad scientist in a cave with a box of scraps, with no idea of how strong Freeza is, can somehow create cyborgs that are far stronger than Freeza ever wished he could have been. It makes Freeza look like the luckiest character ever. Because if Dr Gero had decided to carry out his plan sooner and on a scale as large as Freeza, Freeza and his army would have been no match for him.
And in terms of personality, most of the cyborgs are very flat and one note in characterisation. Gero/#20 is a generically evil as they come, #19 has no character, #18 displays a little personality before turning into the stock tsundere, and #16 is the most haphazardly written of the lot. His character is that he like bird and nature, which would be good but doesn’t lead to anything for him development wise as he still provides the strong implication that once Cell is take care off, he’s going to kill Goku, as he was programmed to do. I don’t why the writing for #16 is so indecisive. If it wanted to portray him in a more positive light to make his death more tragic then it should’ve spent some time giving the context for why he suddenly grew accustomed to birds and nature in general but still had the capacity to retain his original purpose of killing Goku. I think It would have served as better character development for him to come to love life on Earth and then somehow override his programming to become capable of abandoning his original purpose of killing Goku. I mean, if you’re not going to give some backstory on the affinity that #16 has with nature, at least utilise it fully to properly develop #16. As it stands, #16 just feel like a really half-arsed character. #17 is without a doubt the most interesting out of all the cyborgs. He has more of a personality out of being just stoic and acting cool. He’s prideful in battle, acts leisurely in his goals and has a degree of honour for his opponents.[/spoiler]
The Final Battle Against Cell:
[spoiler]Oh boy, what a clusterfuck the home stretch of the battle against Cell is.
Let’s start off with the idea of Gohan fighting Cell. From a narrative standpoint, this fight doesn’t work… at all. Gohan doesn’t even know what Cell looks like, let alone have an idea of what he can do in combat. So what am I supposed to get out Gohan beating up Cell? What relationship does Gohan have with Cell that supposed to make the feeling of Cell being brought down a peg by him feel so cathartic or satisfying? And this lead to another issue regarding Gohan’s battle with Cell: what served as Gohan rage breaking point.
Now don’t get me wrong, the moment itself where Gohan becomes a SSJ2 is visually spectacular. But it’s incredibly narratively shallow. Remember Gohan's reaction after Piccolo died saving his life in the Saiyan arc? That was emotional because Gohan at least got the chance to build a relationship with Piccolo to make the moment he died feel more relatable, genuine and powerful. Remember when Goku became SSJ for the first time? That was a powerful moment because you knew prior to that moment just how much Goku's friendship with Krillin meant to him because of how close they were depicted to be and how they reacted to each other deaths the first-time round. Gohan was watching his family and friends he trained and grew up with getting beaten to death at the Cell Games by the Cell Jrs and it doesn't affect him other than making him grit his teeth harder. Yet a random cyborg that Gohan that doesn't know on any other level, other than he cares for all living beings on life, a viewpoint all of the Z-Fighters, excluding Vegeta, at that time also shared, dies in front of him and suddenly that makes Gohan snap and go over the edge? I just can’t buy into that.
I feel that a proper relationship needed to be built between the two characters to justify Gohan reacting the way he did when #16 was killed. It just helps the moment feel more raw and believable. To me, it just felt like Toriyama needed an excuse for Gohan to become a SSJ2 and he threw in that speech from #16 just so that the moment could happen. All we knew about #16 prior to him giving the speech to Gohan is that kinda liked birds. That's it. #16 even reminds Goku that he was built to kill told him not to forget that. So that whole "#16 cares about all living things" characteristic kinda feel even more contrived. If Toriyama spent more time developing #16's character and building a more believable relationship between Gohan and #16, the moment Gohan became a SSJ2 for the first time would have been perfect. So while the fact that Cell crushed #16’s head after his speech served as an avenue for him tapping into true power is a great moment on it’s surface level, there is no foundation to it. That moment from a storytelling perspective means nothing because Gohan barely know who the fuck Android 16 was beyond the fact he was built to kill Goku and that loved birds, trees and animals. He of all people shouldn't be the trigger for Gohan's SSJ2 moment because there is no emotional connection between the two of them.
But what follows Gohan becoming a SSJ2 is even worse. Cell regurgitates #18… because why not? Then Cell reveals he can blow himself up… because why not? Then in moment of sacrifice Goku teleports Cell just he’s about to explode to Kaio-sama’s planet and saves the Earth. In perfect world, the Cell arc ends right there. But for reason, the story must continue. And Cell manages to combe back to life through a major narrative fuck up. Turns out the core in his head survived the explosion and Cell was able to regenerate from it. But there only one tiny problem… Cell’s core was already destroyed! Remember when Goku blasted Cell at point blank range with that Teleportation Kamehameha? That destroyed the top half of his body, which coincidently, destroyed his core. Which just raises the further question of how Cell manged to regenerate from that attack from Goku.
What really rubs the up the wrong way about this is whole contrived affair is how it blatantly artificially extends the plot. Cell didn’t need to come back to life. Goku’s sacrifice didn’t have to become meaningless, and Future Trunks didn’t need to die as a result of Cell’s resurrection. You have the arc just end with Goku, Cell and Kaio-sama, Bubbles dying and that would have been a perfectly suitable ending. Yes, we wouldn’t have had the Gohan/Ghost Dad and Cell Kamehameha beam clash, but you know what, I could have certainly lived without it. Nothing was gained from Cell arbitrarily returning to the plot. Because he just ends up being killed in literally the next episode/chapter. It’s a pointless and haphazard that retroactively raises more question surrounding the plot while also unnecessarily stretching out a story that was already barren with content. Nothing about Cell coming back to life feels like a natural sequence of events. It just feels like something that had to happen… because why not? And honestly, that’s just bad storytelling. The whole sequence itself really feels like padding when you look back it.[/spoiler]
Character Moments With No Purpose:
[spoiler]You know, it’s one thing if character has a moment in the story that a had little build up but didn’t lead to anything. That’s always disappointing. But what even worse is when a character has a moment in a story which has no build up, leads to nothing a and can conflict with their established character. The Cell arc has so moments like this.
Goku giving a senzu is the fucking nadir of a character moment with no purpose. Look, I get it, Goku likes a good fight. And he’s willing to spare or give assistance to his rivals when he know there’s not a threat. But he’s never gone to the extent where he willingly aids his opponent in restoring their full strength. Especially before a fight that determines the fate of the planet, and even more so against an opponent that he has no idea of how strong he is. It just seems like such a gross over exaggeration of Goku’s character in regard to how much he would put a good fight over everything and anything else. Thank God Piccolo calls him out on this, but it was a still a horrible moment for Goku’s character. But more than it being stupid, it was unnecessary for the plot. If Cell was still feeling tired, as Goku claims he was, when he goes on fight Gohan would that have made difference to how their fight would have transpired? It’s highly unlikely. Especially since Cell wasn’t even using all of strength to fight Goku in the first place. So Goku giving Cell a senzu served no narrative purpose and painted Goku in a horrible light. It’s the most unlikable has been portrayed in Dragon Ball, in my opinion. And it didn’t need to be this way.
Speaking of painting characters in a bad light… let’s talk about Krillin. Now I understand that Krillin is most “human” character of the cast. His reactions, his personal goals and his perspective of events, in my opinion, the most relatable. But one of his most admirable traits is his pragmatism. His acknowledgement of what needs to be done, when there are many lives at stake. That’s why Krillin not shutting down #18 just comes across as really jarring. As I’ve stated, Krillin know to be very pragmatic and actually quite good in his decision making during critical times. Remember when he was about to kill Vegeta when he was weak and couldn't defend himself in the Saiyan arc and prevent him from coming back to harm Earth? The exact polar opposite happened in Cell arc with him not shutting down #18 when he knew very well what the stakes were and would happen if Cell absorbed #18. He literally put the world in grave danger for one woman he affection. Did it not cross his mind that once #18 is gone, they could simply bring her back to life? The icing on the cake is how cold and abrasive #18 acts towards Krillin when it’s revealed to her Krillin took care of her after Cell spat her out and even when Krillin wishes to remove the bomb from inside her. Yes, I know they end up together, but taking this moment in regards with the self-contained aspect of the Cell arc, it’s moment that has no payoff and purpose. Hell, how they end up together is never elaborated on. And like Goku giving Cell a senzu, it puts Krillin’s character in a more unflattering perspective given how he tried to persuade the cyborgs to leave Goku alone, but then turn around and acts in a fashion that not only puts Goku’s life risk, but the lives of billions of people. And then, after witnessing Vegeta attacking Trunks while he was trying to prevent Cell from absorbing #18 and becoming perfect, Krillin has the goddamned nerve calling the Vegeta stupid. It’s an absurdly hypocritical statement to make given that Krillin just endangered the Earth over his one-side affection for a cyborg. Where does Krillin think he has the high moral ground to call out other people for putting their selfish requests above the consideration of billions of lives? You might as well have not had this side plot of deactivating #18 because it has no consequences on the plot as #18 is absorbed anyway. If you’re going to have side character who can’t do much physically in the plot and you want them to contribute in other ways, that perfectly fine. Just have it mean something.
Two more case of character moments that serve no purpose include Tien and Trunks. Tien’s Kikoho to Cell looked pretty good, but again, it severed not purpose because #18 doesn’t follow Tien’s advice of getting away as far as possible and Cell still very shortly after that moment absorbs #18. So why was Tien thrown into the plot if his actions would no effect on the plot? It’s the same deal with Trunks abandoning his conviction of offending Vegeta’s pride and showing how much stronger he is and fighting Cell with an even more buffed SSJ form. Trunks could have fought Cell in the SSJ form he had before he powered up again, and it would have been the same kind of fight. On top of this, why Trunks is so concerned with hurting Vegeta’s pride by showing how much stronger he’s gotten? Trunks has already shown that he willing to discard his paternal links given that he’s aware how much of a bad person Vegeta is and how he’s even stated that he’d kill him if it meant saving the world. If the character moment doesn’t lead to anything in the story arc it happens in, don’t bother having it. It’s just a fluff. And not even constructive fluff like Goku searching for a new God of Earth.
Piccolo’s scenario with fusing with Kami is probably the most tragic of all in the entire arc. The story gave the impression that him fusing with Kami was a huge moment for his placing in the power hierarchy and how this would affect his character. Which is why I presume that whole “When do you think I became your friend? I’m a demon!! I’m merely using you to take over the world!!” bullshit happened. After Piccolo fuses with Kami, he skirmishes with Cell and only ‘loses’ because Cell get the slip on him with some trickery, and even “outsmarts” Cell to get some information out of him. Then Piccolo faces #17 and it’s downhill from there. His fight with #17 is boring and ending quickly in an stalemate that doesn’t get a proper conclusion as Cell strolls back into the plot breaks Piccolo’s neck with one punch and nearly kills him with a blast to the chest at point blank range. All that build-up of Piccolo fusing with Kami and nothing fundamentally changes about Piccolo and his immense power-up is quickly swept under the rug. And just to twist the knife a little, the moment that lead to Piccolo getting curb stomped in battle, was all down to a moment of uncharacteristic foolishness, with Piccolo pointlessly powering up before he fight’s #17 even though he didn’t need to, knew that Cell can sense energy and knew that Cell was looking to absorb the artificial humans to become much stronger. But then again, Piccolo is stranger to doing stupid shit for the sake of it, like when he wished to go to Namek. And if wasn’t enough, just to piss on Piccolo a little more because why not, after recovers from nearly being killed by Cell, Piccolo trains for a day (a year) in the Room of Spirit and Time, and he gains nothing from it. He might as well have not gone inside in the first place as he even acknowledges that he still has no chance against Cell. Goku’s flippant response to Piccolo enquiry about his growth in power compared to Cell is the icing on the cake.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This arc… is terrible. And the sad thing is that really it didn’t need to be. The set-up is outstanding (for the most part). But from the angle with regards to consistent storytelling, the arc falls apart once time travel becomes the backbone of the narrative. Cell’s initial appearances help rejuvenate some intrigue into the arc, but even he eventually devolves somewhat into the stock generic doomsday villain. Some of the character writing is dreadful, with Gohan and Vegeta being the worst effected with bad characterisation. There is also an overabundance of power-ups and character moments that serve no purpose and lead to nowhere. And while SSJ2 is a great moment from a presentation standpoint, it’s horrendous from a narrative perspective with how Gohan is handled in the arc. And I’ve said my piece on how time travel is beyond convoluted in the story, so I’m not going into that rabbit hole again.
This arc was the most apparent case in all of Dragon Ball of an arc that was looking for any reason to keep the story going. Nothing about the events of the Cell arc after Future Trunks leaves feels organic. Yes, I know that there was some meddling from the part of Toriyama’s editor at the time that influenced how the story changed, but it still could have been handled much better than it was. When all is said and done, I view this arc as an arc made of “moments” that either had no build-up, bad build-up and no proper payoff. This is the most disappointing arc that Toriyama has ever personally scripted. I’ve never come across a major arc in Dragon Ball before (with Toriyama behind the wheel) that had such a great setup only to just to absolutely implode right after that set-up. At least the art style in the manga looked good.
When I get down to it, this is how I ultimately feel about the Cell arc:
The Cell arc is the Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice of Dragon Ball arcs… it’s an arc that focuses so much on taking itself so seriously and establishing a more high stakes narrative that it forgets to be consistent, coherent, and have those much need moments of levity and character development. – 3/10
Afterlife Tournament arc (Filler):
[spoiler]- Even though the content itself in Episode 195 is total nonsense from a lore and power-scaling perspective, Studio Cockpit’s great animation makes it worthwhile. Piccolo-lite (Paikuhan) is pretty cool.
- The expansion of the lore of the Dragon Ball cosmos is immensely intriguing and entertaining. The introduction of the East and West Kaio make for some great banter and scenes with Kaio-sama and North Kaio.
- Dai Kaiō looks like a past member of ZZ Top…I love this guy already.
- So instead of finding the strongest under the heavens, we’re going to be finding the strongest in the heavens. That’s a really unique idea that Dragon Ball should do more often.
- Caterpi taking 1,200 to become a pupa and Goku winning by default because of that cracks me up.
- Epsiode 197 has the funniest fight I’ve ever seen in Dragon Ball with Tapica and Tolbee. It’s hysterical.
- These fights are ending a bit too quick for my liking. That’s not to say they’re bad fights, but they could little longer than 1 minute on average.
- Episode 198 has some ugly fight animation and terrible art. Guess who was responsible for this episode? Yeah, Studio Live.
- Episode 199 has the best filler fight in the show so far with SSJ Goku vs Paikuhan but ends on a really sour note with some bullshit double disqualification so we no really between the two of them. Oh well. We got the beauty of Super Kaioken so it’s not all bad.
- Up next, Gohan goes to high school.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
For what was a five-episode filler arc, this was quite fun. The expansion on the lore of the cosmos of Dragon Ball was good and the fights themselves in Afterlife tournament was good for what they were. The arc could have been a little bit longer, but I was satisfied with what I got. All around good fluff material. - 7/10
(Continued in the next post...)
Spoiler:
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Majin Boo:
[spoiler]- The police in the Dragon Ball world suck ass.
- Damn Erasa, you move quick. She’s already placing her marker on Gohan after just seeing him for a few seconds.
- Gohan playing baseball is wonderfully charming and hilarious.
- You know, a filler episode where Gohan goes on date should be boring. But it really isn’t. It’s actually very cute and endearing.
- I love Gohan’s Great Saiyaman persona. Even when featured that in filler episodes that don’t have great content, he still has such an aura of charisma, whimsy and charm that is just overriding.
- Even when Goku is dead, he lives on in Goten.
- I love Videl’s crimefighting persona in the manga as the “Champion Of Justice”. The chapter where this reveal happens also has the best fourth wall breaking joke in Dragon Ball. It’s such a shame the chapter where all of this happened was reworked into a filler and never properly adapted as it was into a full or half episode.
- I much prefer the manga’s versions of events with Videl finding out that Gohan is the Great Saiyaman. It’s just way funnier.
- Manga line - Gohan: “What do you think, Trunks? Do I look cool?” Trunks: “No comment.” HAHAHAHAHA.
- Another manga line – Gohan: “How’ve you been?!” Goku: “Pretty good, pretty good. Still dead, though…” Goku, you are a national treasure.
- This is the most likable Chi Chi has ever been. Supporting his some taking time for school to train for martial art tournaments, training Goten and just being far more mellow and relaxed in general.
- Goten is adorable.
- Goten became a SSJ and doesn’t even remember when it happens. And he pulled it off before he learned how to fly. If the mystique of Super Saiyan wasn’t killed with the concept of the cyborgs, this moment sure as make the period where lost all its meaning.
- The whole sequence of Videl learning to fly is fantastic. Form Videl’s bemusement to discovering that a concept like Ki even exist, to the hysterical lunch session that Videl, Gohan, Chi-Chi and Goten had, to exploration of the deep concepts of Ki control and management. It also helps that episode it happens in has wonderful animation produced by Studio Cockpit.
- North Kaio-sama is quite funny.
- Videl is so tsundere but she’s also a surprisingly well-rounded character. She likes martial arts, has a strong sense of justice, she’s extremely sociable but also retains her feminine charms with her crush on Gohan. Without a doubt best female character Toriyama has made since Bulma.
- And Trunks is a Super Saiyan too. Because fuck you, that’s why. Vegeta sums it up perfectly, “…It’s a bargain sale on Super Saiyans.”
- Wha-? Videl’s bae pigtails… they’re gone!? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
- Gohan’s reaction to de-pigtailed Videl: “Girls… I don’t understand….” Goten’s reaction to de-pigtailed Videl: “Gohan, who’s that?” Couldn’t have summed it up any better.
- Vegeta is still a huge asshole. And after finding out Goku will be coming back he now wants to fight against despite saying he never would after the Cell Games.
- Goku coming back from the dead and meeting all of his friends and family, is handled so much better in the anime. We actually see Goten and Goku interact with each other in the anime.
- I love that the Budokai Tenakichi announcer know the real deal that Goku and company were the REAL heroes and not Mr Satan.
- The Punch Machine portion of the preliminaries of the tournament is a major hoot
- The Cell Game Re-enactment will never not be funny.
- Mr Satan is actually pretty funny.
- Goten vs Trunks was a really good fight in both the anime and manga. Thumbs up.
- Okay, Mr Satan is REALLY funny.
- Everything about Trunks punching Mr Satan had me belly laughing.
- Kibito and Shin’s introduction are wonderfully mysterious.
- Krillin smacking around Puntar was fun
- I really like how they are playing up the vague and unknown nature of Shin.
- Shin being the Lord of the Lords is quite a great reveal. Too bad they really wouldn’t do anything with it. But I did find it funny that when he saw Piccolo shocked reaction to Shin revealing that tidbit of information to him, he assumed that Shin was talking trash to him and offered to put him in his place. Don’t worry Goku. You’ll get that opportunity later…
- Videl’s fight with Spopovich is still a little hard watch. Especially in the manga.
- Korin and Goku have another bad feeling…
- Korin only had 3 senzu at his disposal? What a terrible farmer. Or perhaps Yajirobe is eating them all.
- Gohan’s transformation into a Super Saiyan 2 is much better in the anime.
- Vegeta has such hard one for defeating Goku in a one-on-one fight despite the fact he’s already done that and they’re a much bigger issue to be concerned with. Like, GOHAN HAVING HIS ENERGY DRAINED BY TWO MYSTERIOUS PEOPLE!!
- Manga line – Vegeta: “Jerk…How does he always get under my skin?” Are you kidding me Vegeta?” Seriously Vegeta, get over yourself.
- Mr Satan’s reaction to seeing Videl fly is great.
- Manga line – Mr Satan: “My little girl’s has flown the coop!!” Budokai Tenkaichi Assistant: “That’s truly an awful pun, sir…” HAHAHAHAHAHA
- The backstory provided by Majin Boo is really good. And immediately sell Majin Boo as a great threat.
- If Shin could read minds, why couldn’t he read the minds of Yamu and Spopovich to find out where Bobbidi’s hideout was?
- I really like how down to Earth Videl is written. I really took this character for granted and I can see some fans are up with her current characterisation.
- I don’t know why, but I found the random image of the butchered remains of the family that lived near Bobbidi’s underground ship as hilarious.
- Dabra has such an awesome design.
- A Realm of Evil? The Demon Plane? Dabra being the King of the Demons? This also sound like such fantastic lore… it’s just a shame it’s never explored. Under a better writer, you could get so much mileage out of that.
- As soon as Kibito told everyone that Bobbidi can manipulate the evil and greed already lurking in anyone soul and make them their minion, they should have told Vegeta to hit the bricks.
- Bobbidi is the worst boss ever.
- Spopovich’s death is incredibly gruesome.
- How did Dabra know the Goku and company were hiding when they already supressed their Ki?
- Dabra makes one hell of an impression killing Kibito and turning Piccolo and Krillin to stone. It’s downhill from here.
- The art-style is quite rough in the manga.
- The Saiyans are really not taking fighting Bobbidi’s minions seriously. Esepcially since one of killed Kibito and turned Krillin and Piccolo into statues.
- Pocus is gone. Meh.
- Yakon is up.
- Last House have really take a turn for the worst since Shida left. Their episodes look much uglier.
- Goku’s strategy of defeating Yakon was actually pretty clever.
- Why is Vegeta shocked that Goku surpassed Super Saiyan? He already did that after training in the Room of Spirit and Time and was even there to witness how much stronger Goku (and Gohan) had gotten.
- Now instead of Gohan fighting Dabra, we get something completely different and go back to the events of the Budokai Tenkaichi. Why? I have no idea.
- Look, Mr Satan antics are really funny and #18 is kinda cool, but why did the plot need to detour from the main and important plot to focus on something meaningless like the Budokai Tenkaichi?
- The artstyle in the manga is REALLY rough.
- Dabra’s fight with Gohan was way too short. It’s even more difficult to handle knowing how awesome Dabra’s abilities are.
- Vegeta is really starting to get on my nerves again.
- At least the story is self-aware of how much of an evil prick Vegeta still is.
- Oh my God! Vegeta has become evil..er.
- And Vegeta just callously murders 200 people and then kills at least couple hundred to fight Goku. Yep.
- Vegeta stating that if he hadn’t let Bobbidi take possess him he wouldn’t have been able to fight Goku is absolute nonsense. All that was left to take care of was Dabra and Gohan would have been able to finish the job. Vegeta was just an impatient bastard and couldn’t wait a few minutes.
- Goddammit… Vegeta’s reasoning for selling out to Bobbidi and wanting to fight Goku fucking infuriate me. It’s full of character backpedalling and hypocrisy. I hate Vegeta again, and not in the good way. This is “go away heat”.
- Shin has lost all of his mystique and intrigue. He went from mysterious and insightful character to passive and inept deity.
- Goku give Gohan that same God-awful advice of to just “get angry” so he ca defeat Dabra. That shit isn’t spontaneous, Goku.
- The anime really steps up their game with SSJ2 Goku fighting SSJ2 Majin Vegeta.
- Majin Boo has awoken… and is quite the gag character.
- Bibidi Bobiddi Boo… Oh, now I get it!
- Dabra… the guy with a cool looking design, unique abilities, great lore behind him… and his ultimate fate is to be turned into a cookie and eaten. What a waste.
- There’s something some wonderfully uncanny about Majin Boo that I just can’t put my finger on. I know the tone of the story is quite serious but seeing how comical Majin Boo somehow doesn’t detract for the nature of the narrative.
- Oh hey, Goten and Trunks are here!
- Trunks knocking over Piccolo’s statue and then looking at horror at the mangled and torn apart body of Piccolo when he’s not a statue anymore is pretty hilarious.
- How does Vegeta know Gohan is dead?
- Vegeta blasting a hole in Majin Boo is pretty cool visual in both the anime and manga.
- Majin Boo abilities are pretty cool. Even if regeneration is overplayed.
- Piccolo cutting Bobiddi in half felt pointless.
- Vegeta killing himself in an attempt to kill Majin Boo is a very poignant moment. Made even much better in the anime with the spectacular animation, great direction, Shunsuke Kikuchi’s stunning score and Ryō Horikawa’s performance. It’s a shame that he’s character to regress to get this character development.
- Why does Vegeta turn into stone after blowing himself up?
- And in one fell swoop, Piccolo killing Bobiddi and Vegeta killing himself become pointless. UGH.
- So Goku states he and Vegeta have the same power and that he doesn’t have a chance against Majin Boo. Bollocks.
- Goku proposes Fusion. And Popo chimes in and suggest Goten and Trunks fuse as they have the same power. I’m sure this will lead to something…
- Majin Boo’s antics with Bobiddi are quite entertaining.
- I got a major kick out of the King Arthur reference with the Zeta Sword.
- I know everyone is sad for Gohan and Vegeta’s death, but they can be brought back to life with the Namekian and/or Earth Dragon Balls, can’t they?
- I can understand Bobiddi wanting revenge against Piccolo, and perhaps even Trunks, but what does Goten have to do with this?
- The death of the Budokai Tenkaichi assistant is quite gruesome in the manga.
- I’m happy Goku is putting his foot down and telling like it is with Goten and Trunks. There really is no time to grieve.
- I really like how Kibito tries to play off this cool and reserved character but comically loses his composure quite quickly. It’s great.
- Look, I know that Goten and Trunks are upset about the death of Gohan and Vegeta, but them bitching out Goku was unnecessary.
- Another city bites the dust, curtesy of Majin Boo. He also like chocolate.
- I really like the twist of it being Idasa’s mother who revealed where Trunk’s and his family lived. Fills in the blank of who gave Bobiddi that bit of information in the manga very nicely.
- Why can’t Goku use teleportation and go to Trunks and Bulma’s house and get the special radar and then come back? It would literally take a few seconds. Goku doesn’t need to stall Bobiddi and Majin Boo and Trunks doesn’t need to go on his own. Hell, Goku can teleport Bulma with him to her house and find the radar instantly.
- I’m so conflicted about the reveal of Super Saiyan 3. On one hand, it being so out-of-nowhere in it’s nature works a great shock. But on the other hand, it makes EVERYTHING about Goku and Vegeta’s fight meaningless. I will say that the anime handled the transformation scene so much better than the manga. The anime has damn good animation in it, and conversely, the manga’s art is very rough around the edges.
- Majin Boo is a riot. And his fight with SSJ3 Goku is delightful.
- Majin Boo sure does learn fast.
- Yeah, sure Goku. Majin Boo will stop killing for two days just so that he can fight someone strong. Goku, I love you, but you can be a fucking idiot sometimes.
- The story really built up well how Majin Boo could turn on Bobiddi and the payoff for it was great. Brutal, but great.
- Majin Boo changing his face into that of a male model he saw in magazine to get a kiss of woman had me in stitches.
- Goku intentions for the next generation taking over sound nice on paper, but rings quite hollow considering Goku already passed the torch to Gohan after the Cell arc. They wouldn’t even need to be in the situation they are in if Goku used SSJ3 against Majin Vegeta.
- Goku and Piccolo demonstrating the fusion dance is so funny.
- I never took Majin Boo as an architect. Needless to say, his methods of construction are eerie yet charming.
- Goku shows off SSJ3 again, with some repeated animation.
- Manga line – Goku: “Bye everybody!! Se you again when you die!!” Goku, you are national treasure. Even in a sincere moment you can stop being so flippantly cheerful.
- Majin Boo healing the blindness of a child while still carrying out his acts of destructions is the perfect kind of balancing act with his character. He has no capacity for social skills but still manage to unintentionally be a good person, and he retains his innate nature of wanting to kill everything and everyone just because he feels compelled. He is the character that Cyborg 16 should have been.
- Shin thought that using the hardest metal in the metal universe would be good testing material for the Zeta Sword. Dumbass. And all that training with the Zeta Sword is now pointless.
- Goku is a fucking idiot. The first thing he does when the Lord of the Lords from the broken sword emerges is throw a Ki blast at him. What ever happened to simply asking someone about their strength or mystical powers?
- Goku is not just an idiot but an asshole, too. When his attempts at pimping out Videl get rightly rebuffed by an angry Gohan, he tries to pimp out Bulma?! What the fuck!? Gohan has every right call what Goku is proposing sexual harassment BECAUSE IT IS!
- Geez, even the previous Lord of the Lords is giving Shin a verbal dressing down.
- The ritual method for Gohan having his latent power unlocked (again) is funny.
- The series of failed fusions for Goten and Trunks are hysterical. It’s even more funny I the manga where we get an awesome fourth wall shattering moment Krillin calling out Toriyama for photocopying pages and Tori-bot saying his editor doesn’t have to pay him for the photocopied page.
- Gotenks coming back battered, bloodied and bruised after fighting Majin Boo is a great gag in the manga.
- In just one day 80% of humanity has been destroyed by Majin Boo. And Goku expected him to kill no-one for two days…
- I know I’m going to sound like a broken record, but Mr Satan is so fucking FUNNY!
- Mr Satan and Majin Boo have instant great chemistry.
- I couldn’t stop laughing at Mr Satan’s attempts to kill Majin Boo and then befriending him. In both the manga (Chapter 481) and anime (Episode 252), it’s a riot to watch.
- The random gunmen mowing under the pretence of “It’s the end of the world, and Majin Boo will be blamed for it anyway” really emphasizes that while Majin Boo may be wiping out humanity, humanity itself is still capable of being just as senselessly evil.
- So SSJ Gotenks fighting Majin Boo ends with… nothing but a gag. Hmm.
- Wonderfully subtle character development with Majin Boo finding an injured dog after being read story about a dog, healing it, befriending it and feeling nice because the dog likes him for healing him
- Even better character development follows with Mr Satan not choosing to kill Majin Boo because he looks so happy with the puppy he saved, and he doesn’t want to also hurt the puppy.
- Mr Satan convincing Majin Boo not kill anymore may seem basic and bland in presentation, but it works so well because of how simple-minded and easily swayed Majin Boo is. He really doesn’t know any better.
- Mr Satan beating up the gunman who went shot Majin Boo’s puppy is one of the most surprisingly cathartic beatdowns in the story.
- Majin Boo’s anger at his puppy and Mr Satan being, not to mention the joy he expressed at saving the life of the puppy that was shot, really sell how much Majin Boo has grown attached to the both of them and how his character has evolved.
- The death of the gunman from the djinn that materialised from Majin Boo’s anger was overkill, but I loved it.
- Majin Boo is hoist by his own candy beam petard. What a wonderfully ironic way for him to face his demise. It’s one of Dragon Ball’s better plot twist.
- The small moment of the new evil Super Boo not attacking Mr Satan is great little detail to the extent of how Super Boo’s friendship with Mr Satan is genuine, as well as showing how much influence he has despite being eaten.
- Okay, I know Piccolo was in rough position with Super Boo arriving when they weren’t ready, but if Piccolo needed extra time for Goten and Trunks to be ready to fight Super Boo, couldn’t he have just first made the suggestion of bringing out the giant hourglass and saying that Mr Satan’s daughter told her to make him wait, instead of throwing 99.9% of what was remaining of humanity under the bus? I mean, yeah, death in Dragon Ball bears little meaning now, but was that moment necessary given how it has no consequences on the plot at all?
- The visual of Super Boo wiping out nearly all of humanity is quite spectacular. It’s even better in the anime with the added detail of how Super Boo blasts deliberately evade Mr Satan. It’s those little details that really add so much more to the story.
- Manga line – Goku: “Wow… So he wasn’t just a stupid old man…” Goku is such an asshole. And not the innocently insincere kind either.
- Chi Chi is brave but stupid. Her being turned into an egg and crushed by Super Boo was quite unnerving.
- I love how pragmatic Super Boo is. From refusing to wait for the “hour”glass to finish, to figuring out that Piccolo was trying to stall for time and then attacking Goten and Trunks before they could fuse.
- Gotenks initial name based physical attacks against Super Boo against Super Boo isn’t funny for the same reason the Ginyu Force aren’t funny.
- So Gotenks can produce exploding ghost like beings. How… in the fucking hell can he do this? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- I love how Super Boo is no selling Gotenks’ bullshit antic with his exploding ghosts.
- Super Boo is a very quick learner.
- Okay, the moment where two of Gotenks’ ghosts explode from shaking hands is pretty funny.
- Goku is such an asshole to Shin. It’s even more aggravating since Goku contributed to the mess they’re currently in and Shin tried his hardest to prevent Majin Boo from being relased
- Super Boo can regenerate from smoke? So OP.
- I don’t like Gotenks. He doesn’t have the proper balance of charm and humour that manages to mask over any other undesirable traits. He’s more annoying and over-the-top than actually fun to watch.
- Super Boo just tore a hole through dimensions, by accident, from yelling in anger. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Bulma is such a cunt (in the anime). She bitches out at the rest of the Z-Fighters for leaving the fate of the world up to Goten and Trunks, even though they were the only guys strong enough to fight Super Boo at the time, and even calls the rest of cast cowards for letting it happen. Yeah, Bulma, let’s have Krillin, Yamcha and Ox King try to take on Super Boo, I’m sure that will end well. I mean… fucking hell. What a goddamn outrageous thing to say.
- Hmm. I guess screaming really does solve all your problems. It leads to Gotenks becoming a SSJ3 and him managing to tear a hole through dimensions. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Piccolo taking part in Gotenks Ultra Boo Boo Volleyball gimmick technique is pretty funny, but Gotenks’ antics are really wearing thin on my patience.
- Now the art of the manga is just getting outright bad.
- And SSJ3 times out just before Gotenks could get in the finishing blow. What a shock. I mean… what an anti-climax.
- The ritual for the Gohan’s latent power being unlocked was finished five minutes ago and the elder Lord of the Lords didn’t tell Gohan this to make the scenario more dramatic? Is every major character in this arc an asshole, or something?
- Gohan has had his hidden power unlocked… for the third time. Let hope this at least goes somewhere for him.
- Manga line – Elder Lord of the Lords: “Little ingrate… can’t he say ‘Bye, Lord of Lords’?” Seriously… FUCK this guy. I hate him.
- Super Boo: “Are you really gonna fight me?” Gohan: “No. I’m gonna kill you.” That exchange still gives me chills to this day.
- Gohan’s one-sided ass kicking of Super Boo is so much better handled in the anime. It’s better paced, and it has better fight choreography and is just visually more appealing. The fight is WAY too short in the manga and it looks quite ugly at times.
- Super Boo is one cunning bastard. But his motives are as generic as they could possibly be. It’s basically a carbon copy of Cell’s motivation for wanting to be the strongest and have something to test his power with.
- The anime implies, at least initially into their fight, that Gohan and Super Boo (with Gotenks and Piccolo absorbed) on level pegging. It’s bullshit. In the manga, it’s a one-sided stomp in Super Boo’s favour.
- Wait… why was Vegeta’s spirit kept intact by Enma-daiō? And more importantly, why was Vegeta given a body? Isn’t that the treatment reserved for the especially good souls of the universe? Since when did Vegeta qualify for that? Didn’t Piccolo state that Vegeta would be, and I’m paraphrasing here, going straight to Hell?
- And Elder Lord of the Lords transfers his life to Goku, making everything about Goku speech of the new generation taking over meaningless. Wonderful…
- Shin doesn’t know about the Potara earrings, and item that has been treasured among his race for generations? Does this guy know ANYTHING?
- Shouldn’t Gohan have gotten that near-death power-up after getting healed by Dende? And don’t tell me that the cast can’t them anymore because they’ve grown much stronger, because Cell was able to get one.
- Shin and Kibito have fused with the Potara earrings… and they may not have bothered to do so I the first place as they’re still far too weak to fight Super Boo. Like, what was the point of that?
- Oh. Tien’s here…
- Goku wondering if he’ll have to High School if he fuses with Gohan is just hilarious.
- Mr Satan hesitating to “kill” Super Boo is a great little moment for me. He really does care for that pink bastard.
- …And Tien’s down with a single kick. What was point of him re-appearing? It’s just like Piccolo coming to Namek, it felt so forced and unnecessary.
- Elder Lord of the Lords backstory to how be appeared old is hysterical, but raises one question… does he have female or male genitalia, considering he fused with a female witch? Or does he have both?
- Okay, there’s a small but significant difference in how they handle the Gohan/Goku/Potara incident. In the manga throws the Potara earring at Gohan so suddenly that Gohan can’t react quick enough to grab it and doesn’t throw it near enough Gohan. In the anime, Gohan throws the Potara earing at right at Gohan, but Gohan acts clumsily and Gohan just simply can’t catch it. Long story short, manga = Goku’s fault and anime = Gohan’s fault.
- Oh, look at that, another instance where a transformation times out right before the deadly attack was going to be made. This kind of plot convenience is really getting on my nerves in this arc.
- In the anime SSJ3 Goku appears to hold his own in fight against Super Boo (with Gotenks and Piccolo absorbed). And yes, this doesn’t happen in the manga.
- And Gohan is absorbed. So much for that power-up. But once again, Super Boo is a delightfully cunning bastard.
- Everything poignant and symbolic behind Vegeta killing himself just got trampled on with Vegeta getting on Goku case for holding out SS3 in their battle. Like… that’s just fucking absurd. But Goku doesn’t get off scot-free either. If he had SSJ3 in his back pocket, he should certain used it when he fought Majin Vegeta. His excuse for saving that form for later is bullshit. Unless he WANTED Majin Boo to be released. Which just makes him an insanely reckless and selfish asshole.
- More anime nonsense as SSJ Goku and Vegeta decide it would better to fight individually and defeat Majin Boo.
- Vegerot, I mean, Vegetto is in the house!
- I love Vegetto’s one-sided beatdown of Super Boo… in the manga. It’s ridiculously dragged out in the anime.
- SSJ Vegetto is turned into candy but can still move and talk… FUCKING HOW!? Regardless of that bullshit, Candy Vegetto is immensely entertaining.
- Umm… the Lord of the Lords can read minds, right? Surely, would they use that ability and then tell that Vegetto getting “absorbed” is part of his plan instead of freaking out and acting like the fight is lost, no?
- Vegetto, a character created from an ancient treasure that is supposed to make those who combine stay fused forever, just defused. What… the actual fuck is that all about? Goku hypothesizes it may be Majin Boo’s nasty air that spilt apart Vegetto, and I call bullshit on that because if that were the case, why didn’t Gotenks defuse when he absorbed him? In fact, isn’t Piccolo technically a fused character as well? Shouldn’t Kami and Nail have separated from Piccolo’s body too when Majin Boo absorbed him?
- WHY DID VEGETA CRUSH THE POTARA EARRING!? THEY STILL HAVE TO FIGHT MAJIN BOO!! GODDAMMIT VEGETA!!
- The filler episodes with Goku and Vegeta inside Majin Boo are the fucking pits. Low points of the entire arc. Awful episodes. Skip them.
- Wait, so the Majin Boo in the same pod that Goten, Trunks and Piccolo are from when they were absorbed? Well, if that’s the case, where are all the other billions of pods of people that Majin Boo turned into chocolate and ate, just like what happened to him?
- And Vegeta, despite Super Boo pleading with not to, removes the pod that Fat Majin Boo is in. This is Cell arc Vegeta all over again. Making things more difficult for everyone.
- And now we have a small version of Super Boo. Um… what? What happened to skinny Kid Boo? How does removing Fat Majin Boo inside of Super Boo lead to a child like version of Majin Boo? Where the fuck did this come from? This is a major plothole.
- The backstory of the how Majin Boo battled the five Lord of the Lord is much better handled in the anime.
- The first thing Kid Boo tries to do is blow up the planet. If only other villains had his pragmatic way of thinking.
- Episode 278 looks ugly (as all episode managed by Post Shida Last House) and has some bullshit filler in where Kid Boo manages to find the Heavenly realm where Goku was training (manga) and fought in the Afterlife Tournament (anime). Stick to the manga version of events. Although I did like Kid Boo planet nuking spree in the anime. Really seel him as being a literal force of destruction before Beerus hashtagged that tole.
- My God, does Mr Satan doe Mr Satan know how to defuse a serious situation, or what? He delusion of thinking everything that has happened is just a dream is fucking hysterical. Mr Satan has been the shinning beacon of this arc.
- Shin doesn’t know what Dragon Balls are?! That’s inexcusable!
- Elder Lord of the Lord prattles on about how using the Dragon Ball hurls the cosmic order into chaos? But… how? What evidence do we have of that? The Namekian Dragon Ball affecting the fate of other planets have had zero effect on the cosmic order of the universe so I don’t know what the fuck he’s going on about.
- Fuck’s sake Goku… Even now he is still trying to pimp out Bulma even when doesn’t need to… and in front of Vegeta! This gag wasn’t charming or funny the first time around and it’s less funny now. And just to top it all off, he then calls Chi Chi flat-chested. Is anyone else getting tired of this asshole?
- Goku turns down using the Potara earring despite being so gung-ho on using it against Super Boo and bitching out Vegeta for breaking his Potara? I fucking hate Goku in this arc.
- And Goku reveals he could have defeated Majin Boo when he first became a SSJ3 against him. So not only is Goku a hypocrite, he’s also a liar. I REALLY fucking hate Goku in this arc.
- Sure… there’s all the time in the world for Goku and Vegeta to play Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who fight first against an ancient, evil, volatile djinn that a few moments ago destroyed your planet and killed all you family and friends. Am I supposed to roots for these guys?
- Episode 279 is Studio Cockpits final episode for Dragon Ball and they end on a high. Stunning animation with SSJ2 Goku fighting Kid Boo. This is the best-looking episode from them. Great stuff. It’s ultimately fluff material, but it looks so damn good.
- This is the second time that Goku transformed into a SSJ3 in literally an instant. Makes you wonder what all the extended screaming and trying to power-up was all about the first time he did it against Majin Boo.
- Vegeta’s speech about Goku being Number #1 (anime)/The Champion (manga) is very well intended but feels so out of place with how Vegeta has been written in this arc. It’s an epiphany that should have been handled much more carefully to have really meaning.
- And Goku can’t the job done as a SSJ3 and regrets not using the Potara because he tried to act cool about it. Could Goku’s character be any more inconsistent?
- Vegeta steps into give Goku the extra minute he needs to recharge his Ki and get clobbered by Kid Boo. I can’t lie… I enjoyed seeing that happen.
- Mr Satan, the REAL champion, steps in the save Vegeta dying and challenges Majin Boo. And he still thinks this is all a dream. I love this man.
- Studio Live returns to stink up the place in Episode 282. Yuck.
- Kid Boo just spat out Fat Majin Boo. How does that work?
- Mr Satan taking a punch from Kid Boo may ruffle the feathers of power level enthusiasts and reek of plot armour… but it’s such a wonderful character moment for Mr Satan that I’m gonna let it pass.
- Fat Majin Boo steps into to help Mr Satan because their best friends and then when Fat Majin Boo is getting beaten up Mr Satan tries to fight Kid Boo and… *sigh*… can we give these guys a spin-off already? They’re fantastic characters.
- How did the Namekians know what was going on with Kid Boo?
- Good thinking from Vegeta in regard to the wishes they should ask for from Porunga.
- So Vegeta’s grand plan is for Goku to use the Genki Dama… but to use more than bit of energy from every person on Earth.
- Nice to see Upa again. Same with #17, but he never interacted with Goku so how does he know what Goku sounds like?
- Also, Cyborg 8 was brought back to life… fucking how?! I thought you couldn’t bring artificial beings back to life? This seriously puts a major damper on poignancy of #16 being killed by Cell.
- The anime gives Lunch a cameo with her giving energy to the Genki Dama. That was nice of them.
- Some people may be annoyed with how the Earthlings refusing to give Goku their energy, but I have no issue with it because it drives home how that the people of Earth are idiots, Goku is nobody in the grand scheme of Earth, and with what’s happened in the last few days, I can’t blame them for being so sceptical.
- Mr Satan once again proves his worth by convincing the people on Earth to give their energy to Goku for his Genki Dama. Just goes to show you don’t need insanely strong to make a big difference in a battle.
- The anime throws in Fat Majin Boo attacking Kid Boo when Kid Boo realises that Goku won’t throw the Genki Dama with Vegeta near Kid Boo. I really like that addition to the story. Makes it even more of a team effort in defeating Kid Boo.
- In one of the more surprisingly solemn moments of the story, Goku wishes that Kid Boo comes as a good guy to that he fights him on better terms in a one-on-one battle before finishing him with the Genki Dama. Despite the problems I have with this arc, it’s a wonderful moment.
- Wait, why does Fat Majin Boo need to hide for six months? I thought the Earth Dragon Balls would reactivate after four months because they made only one wish (which technically was two) with them.
- Elder Lord of the Lord continues to complain that the cast are misusing the Dragon Balls. I hate this guy.
- Despite risking his life to defeat Kid Boo, Vegeta still wants to kill Majin Boo on the off chance he ends up creating another Kid Boo like creature. I don’t get this. Fat Boo expelled all of the evil inside of him. There’s nothing like Kid Boo remaining inside him. And considering how Vegeta got a second chance from committing one genuinely good and selfless act for the first time in his life, why is he now espousing his high moral ground
- I love how the anime spends time to properly give the emotional resonance from the fallout of defeating Kid Boo. We get to see Goku, Vegeta and Mr Satan reunite with their family, make the wish to wiped the memories of Majin Boo from the people of Earth, Majin Boo getting accustomed to society, and Gohan and Videl fighting crime. The manga speeds through this with nothing but a few pages of the character with no dialogue.
- I actually liked the episode of Bulma having a party and Goku shenanigans with a dinosaur egg.
- Fast forward ten years…
- Pan is so cute.
- And just to hammer home that Goten and Trunks wouldn’t have be suitable choices for the next generation to take care of the Earth in Goku’s steed, we have Goten being forced to take part in the Budokai Tenkaichi and being upset that he couldn’t go a date because of it and Vegeta threating to cut Trunks allowance as a way of forcing him to enter.
- Man, the universe really does bend over to give Goku what he wants. He asks for Kid Boo to be reincarnated as good person and he gets it. There’s doing favours and then there’s playing favourites.
- I loved the gag with Vegeta casually knocking out his opponent at the tournament.
- Goku trying to insult Oob to loosen him and up and enable him to tap into his raw strength was hilarious.
- Goku being so excited at the prospect of training and eventually fighting Oob wonderfully sums up the character: He’s always looking forward to the next challenge and opponent...
- …That’s being said, the way Goku handles saying goodbye to his friends and family to live and train with Oob couldn’t have been anymore flippant in the manga. It’s handled infinitely better in the anime with Goku comforting Pan, telling Goten and Trunks not skip out on their training, and personally saying farewell to Vegeta.
- We get a lovely montage of what the cast get up to at the Budokai Tenkaichi after Goku departs with Oob.
- Goku and Oob fly off into the sunset… and the adventure continues... in GT…[/spoiler]
Phew, it’s over. Now let’s get to the good and bad.
(Continued in the next post...)
[spoiler]- The police in the Dragon Ball world suck ass.
- Damn Erasa, you move quick. She’s already placing her marker on Gohan after just seeing him for a few seconds.
- Gohan playing baseball is wonderfully charming and hilarious.
- You know, a filler episode where Gohan goes on date should be boring. But it really isn’t. It’s actually very cute and endearing.
- I love Gohan’s Great Saiyaman persona. Even when featured that in filler episodes that don’t have great content, he still has such an aura of charisma, whimsy and charm that is just overriding.
- Even when Goku is dead, he lives on in Goten.
- I love Videl’s crimefighting persona in the manga as the “Champion Of Justice”. The chapter where this reveal happens also has the best fourth wall breaking joke in Dragon Ball. It’s such a shame the chapter where all of this happened was reworked into a filler and never properly adapted as it was into a full or half episode.
- I much prefer the manga’s versions of events with Videl finding out that Gohan is the Great Saiyaman. It’s just way funnier.
- Manga line - Gohan: “What do you think, Trunks? Do I look cool?” Trunks: “No comment.” HAHAHAHAHA.
- Another manga line – Gohan: “How’ve you been?!” Goku: “Pretty good, pretty good. Still dead, though…” Goku, you are a national treasure.
- This is the most likable Chi Chi has ever been. Supporting his some taking time for school to train for martial art tournaments, training Goten and just being far more mellow and relaxed in general.
- Goten is adorable.
- Goten became a SSJ and doesn’t even remember when it happens. And he pulled it off before he learned how to fly. If the mystique of Super Saiyan wasn’t killed with the concept of the cyborgs, this moment sure as make the period where lost all its meaning.
- The whole sequence of Videl learning to fly is fantastic. Form Videl’s bemusement to discovering that a concept like Ki even exist, to the hysterical lunch session that Videl, Gohan, Chi-Chi and Goten had, to exploration of the deep concepts of Ki control and management. It also helps that episode it happens in has wonderful animation produced by Studio Cockpit.
- North Kaio-sama is quite funny.
- Videl is so tsundere but she’s also a surprisingly well-rounded character. She likes martial arts, has a strong sense of justice, she’s extremely sociable but also retains her feminine charms with her crush on Gohan. Without a doubt best female character Toriyama has made since Bulma.
- And Trunks is a Super Saiyan too. Because fuck you, that’s why. Vegeta sums it up perfectly, “…It’s a bargain sale on Super Saiyans.”
- Wha-? Videl’s bae pigtails… they’re gone!? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
- Gohan’s reaction to de-pigtailed Videl: “Girls… I don’t understand….” Goten’s reaction to de-pigtailed Videl: “Gohan, who’s that?” Couldn’t have summed it up any better.
- Vegeta is still a huge asshole. And after finding out Goku will be coming back he now wants to fight against despite saying he never would after the Cell Games.
- Goku coming back from the dead and meeting all of his friends and family, is handled so much better in the anime. We actually see Goten and Goku interact with each other in the anime.
- I love that the Budokai Tenakichi announcer know the real deal that Goku and company were the REAL heroes and not Mr Satan.
- The Punch Machine portion of the preliminaries of the tournament is a major hoot
- The Cell Game Re-enactment will never not be funny.
- Mr Satan is actually pretty funny.
- Goten vs Trunks was a really good fight in both the anime and manga. Thumbs up.
- Okay, Mr Satan is REALLY funny.
- Everything about Trunks punching Mr Satan had me belly laughing.
- Kibito and Shin’s introduction are wonderfully mysterious.
- Krillin smacking around Puntar was fun
- I really like how they are playing up the vague and unknown nature of Shin.
- Shin being the Lord of the Lords is quite a great reveal. Too bad they really wouldn’t do anything with it. But I did find it funny that when he saw Piccolo shocked reaction to Shin revealing that tidbit of information to him, he assumed that Shin was talking trash to him and offered to put him in his place. Don’t worry Goku. You’ll get that opportunity later…
- Videl’s fight with Spopovich is still a little hard watch. Especially in the manga.
- Korin and Goku have another bad feeling…
- Korin only had 3 senzu at his disposal? What a terrible farmer. Or perhaps Yajirobe is eating them all.
- Gohan’s transformation into a Super Saiyan 2 is much better in the anime.
- Vegeta has such hard one for defeating Goku in a one-on-one fight despite the fact he’s already done that and they’re a much bigger issue to be concerned with. Like, GOHAN HAVING HIS ENERGY DRAINED BY TWO MYSTERIOUS PEOPLE!!
- Manga line – Vegeta: “Jerk…How does he always get under my skin?” Are you kidding me Vegeta?” Seriously Vegeta, get over yourself.
- Mr Satan’s reaction to seeing Videl fly is great.
- Manga line – Mr Satan: “My little girl’s has flown the coop!!” Budokai Tenkaichi Assistant: “That’s truly an awful pun, sir…” HAHAHAHAHAHA
- The backstory provided by Majin Boo is really good. And immediately sell Majin Boo as a great threat.
- If Shin could read minds, why couldn’t he read the minds of Yamu and Spopovich to find out where Bobbidi’s hideout was?
- I really like how down to Earth Videl is written. I really took this character for granted and I can see some fans are up with her current characterisation.
- I don’t know why, but I found the random image of the butchered remains of the family that lived near Bobbidi’s underground ship as hilarious.
- Dabra has such an awesome design.
- A Realm of Evil? The Demon Plane? Dabra being the King of the Demons? This also sound like such fantastic lore… it’s just a shame it’s never explored. Under a better writer, you could get so much mileage out of that.
- As soon as Kibito told everyone that Bobbidi can manipulate the evil and greed already lurking in anyone soul and make them their minion, they should have told Vegeta to hit the bricks.
- Bobbidi is the worst boss ever.
- Spopovich’s death is incredibly gruesome.
- How did Dabra know the Goku and company were hiding when they already supressed their Ki?
- Dabra makes one hell of an impression killing Kibito and turning Piccolo and Krillin to stone. It’s downhill from here.
- The art-style is quite rough in the manga.
- The Saiyans are really not taking fighting Bobbidi’s minions seriously. Esepcially since one of killed Kibito and turned Krillin and Piccolo into statues.
- Pocus is gone. Meh.
- Yakon is up.
- Last House have really take a turn for the worst since Shida left. Their episodes look much uglier.
- Goku’s strategy of defeating Yakon was actually pretty clever.
- Why is Vegeta shocked that Goku surpassed Super Saiyan? He already did that after training in the Room of Spirit and Time and was even there to witness how much stronger Goku (and Gohan) had gotten.
- Now instead of Gohan fighting Dabra, we get something completely different and go back to the events of the Budokai Tenkaichi. Why? I have no idea.
- Look, Mr Satan antics are really funny and #18 is kinda cool, but why did the plot need to detour from the main and important plot to focus on something meaningless like the Budokai Tenkaichi?
- The artstyle in the manga is REALLY rough.
- Dabra’s fight with Gohan was way too short. It’s even more difficult to handle knowing how awesome Dabra’s abilities are.
- Vegeta is really starting to get on my nerves again.
- At least the story is self-aware of how much of an evil prick Vegeta still is.
- Oh my God! Vegeta has become evil..er.
- And Vegeta just callously murders 200 people and then kills at least couple hundred to fight Goku. Yep.
- Vegeta stating that if he hadn’t let Bobbidi take possess him he wouldn’t have been able to fight Goku is absolute nonsense. All that was left to take care of was Dabra and Gohan would have been able to finish the job. Vegeta was just an impatient bastard and couldn’t wait a few minutes.
- Goddammit… Vegeta’s reasoning for selling out to Bobbidi and wanting to fight Goku fucking infuriate me. It’s full of character backpedalling and hypocrisy. I hate Vegeta again, and not in the good way. This is “go away heat”.
- Shin has lost all of his mystique and intrigue. He went from mysterious and insightful character to passive and inept deity.
- Goku give Gohan that same God-awful advice of to just “get angry” so he ca defeat Dabra. That shit isn’t spontaneous, Goku.
- The anime really steps up their game with SSJ2 Goku fighting SSJ2 Majin Vegeta.
- Majin Boo has awoken… and is quite the gag character.
- Bibidi Bobiddi Boo… Oh, now I get it!
- Dabra… the guy with a cool looking design, unique abilities, great lore behind him… and his ultimate fate is to be turned into a cookie and eaten. What a waste.
- There’s something some wonderfully uncanny about Majin Boo that I just can’t put my finger on. I know the tone of the story is quite serious but seeing how comical Majin Boo somehow doesn’t detract for the nature of the narrative.
- Oh hey, Goten and Trunks are here!
- Trunks knocking over Piccolo’s statue and then looking at horror at the mangled and torn apart body of Piccolo when he’s not a statue anymore is pretty hilarious.
- How does Vegeta know Gohan is dead?
- Vegeta blasting a hole in Majin Boo is pretty cool visual in both the anime and manga.
- Majin Boo abilities are pretty cool. Even if regeneration is overplayed.
- Piccolo cutting Bobiddi in half felt pointless.
- Vegeta killing himself in an attempt to kill Majin Boo is a very poignant moment. Made even much better in the anime with the spectacular animation, great direction, Shunsuke Kikuchi’s stunning score and Ryō Horikawa’s performance. It’s a shame that he’s character to regress to get this character development.
- Why does Vegeta turn into stone after blowing himself up?
- And in one fell swoop, Piccolo killing Bobiddi and Vegeta killing himself become pointless. UGH.
- So Goku states he and Vegeta have the same power and that he doesn’t have a chance against Majin Boo. Bollocks.
- Goku proposes Fusion. And Popo chimes in and suggest Goten and Trunks fuse as they have the same power. I’m sure this will lead to something…
- Majin Boo’s antics with Bobiddi are quite entertaining.
- I got a major kick out of the King Arthur reference with the Zeta Sword.
- I know everyone is sad for Gohan and Vegeta’s death, but they can be brought back to life with the Namekian and/or Earth Dragon Balls, can’t they?
- I can understand Bobiddi wanting revenge against Piccolo, and perhaps even Trunks, but what does Goten have to do with this?
- The death of the Budokai Tenkaichi assistant is quite gruesome in the manga.
- I’m happy Goku is putting his foot down and telling like it is with Goten and Trunks. There really is no time to grieve.
- I really like how Kibito tries to play off this cool and reserved character but comically loses his composure quite quickly. It’s great.
- Look, I know that Goten and Trunks are upset about the death of Gohan and Vegeta, but them bitching out Goku was unnecessary.
- Another city bites the dust, curtesy of Majin Boo. He also like chocolate.
- I really like the twist of it being Idasa’s mother who revealed where Trunk’s and his family lived. Fills in the blank of who gave Bobiddi that bit of information in the manga very nicely.
- Why can’t Goku use teleportation and go to Trunks and Bulma’s house and get the special radar and then come back? It would literally take a few seconds. Goku doesn’t need to stall Bobiddi and Majin Boo and Trunks doesn’t need to go on his own. Hell, Goku can teleport Bulma with him to her house and find the radar instantly.
- I’m so conflicted about the reveal of Super Saiyan 3. On one hand, it being so out-of-nowhere in it’s nature works a great shock. But on the other hand, it makes EVERYTHING about Goku and Vegeta’s fight meaningless. I will say that the anime handled the transformation scene so much better than the manga. The anime has damn good animation in it, and conversely, the manga’s art is very rough around the edges.
- Majin Boo is a riot. And his fight with SSJ3 Goku is delightful.
- Majin Boo sure does learn fast.
- Yeah, sure Goku. Majin Boo will stop killing for two days just so that he can fight someone strong. Goku, I love you, but you can be a fucking idiot sometimes.
- The story really built up well how Majin Boo could turn on Bobiddi and the payoff for it was great. Brutal, but great.
- Majin Boo changing his face into that of a male model he saw in magazine to get a kiss of woman had me in stitches.
- Goku intentions for the next generation taking over sound nice on paper, but rings quite hollow considering Goku already passed the torch to Gohan after the Cell arc. They wouldn’t even need to be in the situation they are in if Goku used SSJ3 against Majin Vegeta.
- Goku and Piccolo demonstrating the fusion dance is so funny.
- I never took Majin Boo as an architect. Needless to say, his methods of construction are eerie yet charming.
- Goku shows off SSJ3 again, with some repeated animation.
- Manga line – Goku: “Bye everybody!! Se you again when you die!!” Goku, you are national treasure. Even in a sincere moment you can stop being so flippantly cheerful.
- Majin Boo healing the blindness of a child while still carrying out his acts of destructions is the perfect kind of balancing act with his character. He has no capacity for social skills but still manage to unintentionally be a good person, and he retains his innate nature of wanting to kill everything and everyone just because he feels compelled. He is the character that Cyborg 16 should have been.
- Shin thought that using the hardest metal in the metal universe would be good testing material for the Zeta Sword. Dumbass. And all that training with the Zeta Sword is now pointless.
- Goku is a fucking idiot. The first thing he does when the Lord of the Lords from the broken sword emerges is throw a Ki blast at him. What ever happened to simply asking someone about their strength or mystical powers?
- Goku is not just an idiot but an asshole, too. When his attempts at pimping out Videl get rightly rebuffed by an angry Gohan, he tries to pimp out Bulma?! What the fuck!? Gohan has every right call what Goku is proposing sexual harassment BECAUSE IT IS!
- Geez, even the previous Lord of the Lords is giving Shin a verbal dressing down.
- The ritual method for Gohan having his latent power unlocked (again) is funny.
- The series of failed fusions for Goten and Trunks are hysterical. It’s even more funny I the manga where we get an awesome fourth wall shattering moment Krillin calling out Toriyama for photocopying pages and Tori-bot saying his editor doesn’t have to pay him for the photocopied page.
- Gotenks coming back battered, bloodied and bruised after fighting Majin Boo is a great gag in the manga.
- In just one day 80% of humanity has been destroyed by Majin Boo. And Goku expected him to kill no-one for two days…
- I know I’m going to sound like a broken record, but Mr Satan is so fucking FUNNY!
- Mr Satan and Majin Boo have instant great chemistry.
- I couldn’t stop laughing at Mr Satan’s attempts to kill Majin Boo and then befriending him. In both the manga (Chapter 481) and anime (Episode 252), it’s a riot to watch.
- The random gunmen mowing under the pretence of “It’s the end of the world, and Majin Boo will be blamed for it anyway” really emphasizes that while Majin Boo may be wiping out humanity, humanity itself is still capable of being just as senselessly evil.
- So SSJ Gotenks fighting Majin Boo ends with… nothing but a gag. Hmm.
- Wonderfully subtle character development with Majin Boo finding an injured dog after being read story about a dog, healing it, befriending it and feeling nice because the dog likes him for healing him
- Even better character development follows with Mr Satan not choosing to kill Majin Boo because he looks so happy with the puppy he saved, and he doesn’t want to also hurt the puppy.
- Mr Satan convincing Majin Boo not kill anymore may seem basic and bland in presentation, but it works so well because of how simple-minded and easily swayed Majin Boo is. He really doesn’t know any better.
- Mr Satan beating up the gunman who went shot Majin Boo’s puppy is one of the most surprisingly cathartic beatdowns in the story.
- Majin Boo’s anger at his puppy and Mr Satan being, not to mention the joy he expressed at saving the life of the puppy that was shot, really sell how much Majin Boo has grown attached to the both of them and how his character has evolved.
- The death of the gunman from the djinn that materialised from Majin Boo’s anger was overkill, but I loved it.
- Majin Boo is hoist by his own candy beam petard. What a wonderfully ironic way for him to face his demise. It’s one of Dragon Ball’s better plot twist.
- The small moment of the new evil Super Boo not attacking Mr Satan is great little detail to the extent of how Super Boo’s friendship with Mr Satan is genuine, as well as showing how much influence he has despite being eaten.
- Okay, I know Piccolo was in rough position with Super Boo arriving when they weren’t ready, but if Piccolo needed extra time for Goten and Trunks to be ready to fight Super Boo, couldn’t he have just first made the suggestion of bringing out the giant hourglass and saying that Mr Satan’s daughter told her to make him wait, instead of throwing 99.9% of what was remaining of humanity under the bus? I mean, yeah, death in Dragon Ball bears little meaning now, but was that moment necessary given how it has no consequences on the plot at all?
- The visual of Super Boo wiping out nearly all of humanity is quite spectacular. It’s even better in the anime with the added detail of how Super Boo blasts deliberately evade Mr Satan. It’s those little details that really add so much more to the story.
- Manga line – Goku: “Wow… So he wasn’t just a stupid old man…” Goku is such an asshole. And not the innocently insincere kind either.
- Chi Chi is brave but stupid. Her being turned into an egg and crushed by Super Boo was quite unnerving.
- I love how pragmatic Super Boo is. From refusing to wait for the “hour”glass to finish, to figuring out that Piccolo was trying to stall for time and then attacking Goten and Trunks before they could fuse.
- Gotenks initial name based physical attacks against Super Boo against Super Boo isn’t funny for the same reason the Ginyu Force aren’t funny.
- So Gotenks can produce exploding ghost like beings. How… in the fucking hell can he do this? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- I love how Super Boo is no selling Gotenks’ bullshit antic with his exploding ghosts.
- Super Boo is a very quick learner.
- Okay, the moment where two of Gotenks’ ghosts explode from shaking hands is pretty funny.
- Goku is such an asshole to Shin. It’s even more aggravating since Goku contributed to the mess they’re currently in and Shin tried his hardest to prevent Majin Boo from being relased
- Super Boo can regenerate from smoke? So OP.
- I don’t like Gotenks. He doesn’t have the proper balance of charm and humour that manages to mask over any other undesirable traits. He’s more annoying and over-the-top than actually fun to watch.
- Super Boo just tore a hole through dimensions, by accident, from yelling in anger. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Bulma is such a cunt (in the anime). She bitches out at the rest of the Z-Fighters for leaving the fate of the world up to Goten and Trunks, even though they were the only guys strong enough to fight Super Boo at the time, and even calls the rest of cast cowards for letting it happen. Yeah, Bulma, let’s have Krillin, Yamcha and Ox King try to take on Super Boo, I’m sure that will end well. I mean… fucking hell. What a goddamn outrageous thing to say.
- Hmm. I guess screaming really does solve all your problems. It leads to Gotenks becoming a SSJ3 and him managing to tear a hole through dimensions. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Piccolo taking part in Gotenks Ultra Boo Boo Volleyball gimmick technique is pretty funny, but Gotenks’ antics are really wearing thin on my patience.
- Now the art of the manga is just getting outright bad.
- And SSJ3 times out just before Gotenks could get in the finishing blow. What a shock. I mean… what an anti-climax.
- The ritual for the Gohan’s latent power being unlocked was finished five minutes ago and the elder Lord of the Lords didn’t tell Gohan this to make the scenario more dramatic? Is every major character in this arc an asshole, or something?
- Gohan has had his hidden power unlocked… for the third time. Let hope this at least goes somewhere for him.
- Manga line – Elder Lord of the Lords: “Little ingrate… can’t he say ‘Bye, Lord of Lords’?” Seriously… FUCK this guy. I hate him.
- Super Boo: “Are you really gonna fight me?” Gohan: “No. I’m gonna kill you.” That exchange still gives me chills to this day.
- Gohan’s one-sided ass kicking of Super Boo is so much better handled in the anime. It’s better paced, and it has better fight choreography and is just visually more appealing. The fight is WAY too short in the manga and it looks quite ugly at times.
- Super Boo is one cunning bastard. But his motives are as generic as they could possibly be. It’s basically a carbon copy of Cell’s motivation for wanting to be the strongest and have something to test his power with.
- The anime implies, at least initially into their fight, that Gohan and Super Boo (with Gotenks and Piccolo absorbed) on level pegging. It’s bullshit. In the manga, it’s a one-sided stomp in Super Boo’s favour.
- Wait… why was Vegeta’s spirit kept intact by Enma-daiō? And more importantly, why was Vegeta given a body? Isn’t that the treatment reserved for the especially good souls of the universe? Since when did Vegeta qualify for that? Didn’t Piccolo state that Vegeta would be, and I’m paraphrasing here, going straight to Hell?
- And Elder Lord of the Lords transfers his life to Goku, making everything about Goku speech of the new generation taking over meaningless. Wonderful…
- Shin doesn’t know about the Potara earrings, and item that has been treasured among his race for generations? Does this guy know ANYTHING?
- Shouldn’t Gohan have gotten that near-death power-up after getting healed by Dende? And don’t tell me that the cast can’t them anymore because they’ve grown much stronger, because Cell was able to get one.
- Shin and Kibito have fused with the Potara earrings… and they may not have bothered to do so I the first place as they’re still far too weak to fight Super Boo. Like, what was the point of that?
- Oh. Tien’s here…
- Goku wondering if he’ll have to High School if he fuses with Gohan is just hilarious.
- Mr Satan hesitating to “kill” Super Boo is a great little moment for me. He really does care for that pink bastard.
- …And Tien’s down with a single kick. What was point of him re-appearing? It’s just like Piccolo coming to Namek, it felt so forced and unnecessary.
- Elder Lord of the Lords backstory to how be appeared old is hysterical, but raises one question… does he have female or male genitalia, considering he fused with a female witch? Or does he have both?
- Okay, there’s a small but significant difference in how they handle the Gohan/Goku/Potara incident. In the manga throws the Potara earring at Gohan so suddenly that Gohan can’t react quick enough to grab it and doesn’t throw it near enough Gohan. In the anime, Gohan throws the Potara earing at right at Gohan, but Gohan acts clumsily and Gohan just simply can’t catch it. Long story short, manga = Goku’s fault and anime = Gohan’s fault.
- Oh, look at that, another instance where a transformation times out right before the deadly attack was going to be made. This kind of plot convenience is really getting on my nerves in this arc.
- In the anime SSJ3 Goku appears to hold his own in fight against Super Boo (with Gotenks and Piccolo absorbed). And yes, this doesn’t happen in the manga.
- And Gohan is absorbed. So much for that power-up. But once again, Super Boo is a delightfully cunning bastard.
- Everything poignant and symbolic behind Vegeta killing himself just got trampled on with Vegeta getting on Goku case for holding out SS3 in their battle. Like… that’s just fucking absurd. But Goku doesn’t get off scot-free either. If he had SSJ3 in his back pocket, he should certain used it when he fought Majin Vegeta. His excuse for saving that form for later is bullshit. Unless he WANTED Majin Boo to be released. Which just makes him an insanely reckless and selfish asshole.
- More anime nonsense as SSJ Goku and Vegeta decide it would better to fight individually and defeat Majin Boo.
- Vegerot, I mean, Vegetto is in the house!
- I love Vegetto’s one-sided beatdown of Super Boo… in the manga. It’s ridiculously dragged out in the anime.
- SSJ Vegetto is turned into candy but can still move and talk… FUCKING HOW!? Regardless of that bullshit, Candy Vegetto is immensely entertaining.
- Umm… the Lord of the Lords can read minds, right? Surely, would they use that ability and then tell that Vegetto getting “absorbed” is part of his plan instead of freaking out and acting like the fight is lost, no?
- Vegetto, a character created from an ancient treasure that is supposed to make those who combine stay fused forever, just defused. What… the actual fuck is that all about? Goku hypothesizes it may be Majin Boo’s nasty air that spilt apart Vegetto, and I call bullshit on that because if that were the case, why didn’t Gotenks defuse when he absorbed him? In fact, isn’t Piccolo technically a fused character as well? Shouldn’t Kami and Nail have separated from Piccolo’s body too when Majin Boo absorbed him?
- WHY DID VEGETA CRUSH THE POTARA EARRING!? THEY STILL HAVE TO FIGHT MAJIN BOO!! GODDAMMIT VEGETA!!
- The filler episodes with Goku and Vegeta inside Majin Boo are the fucking pits. Low points of the entire arc. Awful episodes. Skip them.
- Wait, so the Majin Boo in the same pod that Goten, Trunks and Piccolo are from when they were absorbed? Well, if that’s the case, where are all the other billions of pods of people that Majin Boo turned into chocolate and ate, just like what happened to him?
- And Vegeta, despite Super Boo pleading with not to, removes the pod that Fat Majin Boo is in. This is Cell arc Vegeta all over again. Making things more difficult for everyone.
- And now we have a small version of Super Boo. Um… what? What happened to skinny Kid Boo? How does removing Fat Majin Boo inside of Super Boo lead to a child like version of Majin Boo? Where the fuck did this come from? This is a major plothole.
- The backstory of the how Majin Boo battled the five Lord of the Lord is much better handled in the anime.
- The first thing Kid Boo tries to do is blow up the planet. If only other villains had his pragmatic way of thinking.
- Episode 278 looks ugly (as all episode managed by Post Shida Last House) and has some bullshit filler in where Kid Boo manages to find the Heavenly realm where Goku was training (manga) and fought in the Afterlife Tournament (anime). Stick to the manga version of events. Although I did like Kid Boo planet nuking spree in the anime. Really seel him as being a literal force of destruction before Beerus hashtagged that tole.
- My God, does Mr Satan doe Mr Satan know how to defuse a serious situation, or what? He delusion of thinking everything that has happened is just a dream is fucking hysterical. Mr Satan has been the shinning beacon of this arc.
- Shin doesn’t know what Dragon Balls are?! That’s inexcusable!
- Elder Lord of the Lord prattles on about how using the Dragon Ball hurls the cosmic order into chaos? But… how? What evidence do we have of that? The Namekian Dragon Ball affecting the fate of other planets have had zero effect on the cosmic order of the universe so I don’t know what the fuck he’s going on about.
- Fuck’s sake Goku… Even now he is still trying to pimp out Bulma even when doesn’t need to… and in front of Vegeta! This gag wasn’t charming or funny the first time around and it’s less funny now. And just to top it all off, he then calls Chi Chi flat-chested. Is anyone else getting tired of this asshole?
- Goku turns down using the Potara earring despite being so gung-ho on using it against Super Boo and bitching out Vegeta for breaking his Potara? I fucking hate Goku in this arc.
- And Goku reveals he could have defeated Majin Boo when he first became a SSJ3 against him. So not only is Goku a hypocrite, he’s also a liar. I REALLY fucking hate Goku in this arc.
- Sure… there’s all the time in the world for Goku and Vegeta to play Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who fight first against an ancient, evil, volatile djinn that a few moments ago destroyed your planet and killed all you family and friends. Am I supposed to roots for these guys?
- Episode 279 is Studio Cockpits final episode for Dragon Ball and they end on a high. Stunning animation with SSJ2 Goku fighting Kid Boo. This is the best-looking episode from them. Great stuff. It’s ultimately fluff material, but it looks so damn good.
- This is the second time that Goku transformed into a SSJ3 in literally an instant. Makes you wonder what all the extended screaming and trying to power-up was all about the first time he did it against Majin Boo.
- Vegeta’s speech about Goku being Number #1 (anime)/The Champion (manga) is very well intended but feels so out of place with how Vegeta has been written in this arc. It’s an epiphany that should have been handled much more carefully to have really meaning.
- And Goku can’t the job done as a SSJ3 and regrets not using the Potara because he tried to act cool about it. Could Goku’s character be any more inconsistent?
- Vegeta steps into give Goku the extra minute he needs to recharge his Ki and get clobbered by Kid Boo. I can’t lie… I enjoyed seeing that happen.
- Mr Satan, the REAL champion, steps in the save Vegeta dying and challenges Majin Boo. And he still thinks this is all a dream. I love this man.
- Studio Live returns to stink up the place in Episode 282. Yuck.
- Kid Boo just spat out Fat Majin Boo. How does that work?
- Mr Satan taking a punch from Kid Boo may ruffle the feathers of power level enthusiasts and reek of plot armour… but it’s such a wonderful character moment for Mr Satan that I’m gonna let it pass.
- Fat Majin Boo steps into to help Mr Satan because their best friends and then when Fat Majin Boo is getting beaten up Mr Satan tries to fight Kid Boo and… *sigh*… can we give these guys a spin-off already? They’re fantastic characters.
- How did the Namekians know what was going on with Kid Boo?
- Good thinking from Vegeta in regard to the wishes they should ask for from Porunga.
- So Vegeta’s grand plan is for Goku to use the Genki Dama… but to use more than bit of energy from every person on Earth.
- Nice to see Upa again. Same with #17, but he never interacted with Goku so how does he know what Goku sounds like?
- Also, Cyborg 8 was brought back to life… fucking how?! I thought you couldn’t bring artificial beings back to life? This seriously puts a major damper on poignancy of #16 being killed by Cell.
- The anime gives Lunch a cameo with her giving energy to the Genki Dama. That was nice of them.
- Some people may be annoyed with how the Earthlings refusing to give Goku their energy, but I have no issue with it because it drives home how that the people of Earth are idiots, Goku is nobody in the grand scheme of Earth, and with what’s happened in the last few days, I can’t blame them for being so sceptical.
- Mr Satan once again proves his worth by convincing the people on Earth to give their energy to Goku for his Genki Dama. Just goes to show you don’t need insanely strong to make a big difference in a battle.
- The anime throws in Fat Majin Boo attacking Kid Boo when Kid Boo realises that Goku won’t throw the Genki Dama with Vegeta near Kid Boo. I really like that addition to the story. Makes it even more of a team effort in defeating Kid Boo.
- In one of the more surprisingly solemn moments of the story, Goku wishes that Kid Boo comes as a good guy to that he fights him on better terms in a one-on-one battle before finishing him with the Genki Dama. Despite the problems I have with this arc, it’s a wonderful moment.
- Wait, why does Fat Majin Boo need to hide for six months? I thought the Earth Dragon Balls would reactivate after four months because they made only one wish (which technically was two) with them.
- Elder Lord of the Lord continues to complain that the cast are misusing the Dragon Balls. I hate this guy.
- Despite risking his life to defeat Kid Boo, Vegeta still wants to kill Majin Boo on the off chance he ends up creating another Kid Boo like creature. I don’t get this. Fat Boo expelled all of the evil inside of him. There’s nothing like Kid Boo remaining inside him. And considering how Vegeta got a second chance from committing one genuinely good and selfless act for the first time in his life, why is he now espousing his high moral ground
- I love how the anime spends time to properly give the emotional resonance from the fallout of defeating Kid Boo. We get to see Goku, Vegeta and Mr Satan reunite with their family, make the wish to wiped the memories of Majin Boo from the people of Earth, Majin Boo getting accustomed to society, and Gohan and Videl fighting crime. The manga speeds through this with nothing but a few pages of the character with no dialogue.
- I actually liked the episode of Bulma having a party and Goku shenanigans with a dinosaur egg.
- Fast forward ten years…
- Pan is so cute.
- And just to hammer home that Goten and Trunks wouldn’t have be suitable choices for the next generation to take care of the Earth in Goku’s steed, we have Goten being forced to take part in the Budokai Tenkaichi and being upset that he couldn’t go a date because of it and Vegeta threating to cut Trunks allowance as a way of forcing him to enter.
- Man, the universe really does bend over to give Goku what he wants. He asks for Kid Boo to be reincarnated as good person and he gets it. There’s doing favours and then there’s playing favourites.
- I loved the gag with Vegeta casually knocking out his opponent at the tournament.
- Goku trying to insult Oob to loosen him and up and enable him to tap into his raw strength was hilarious.
- Goku being so excited at the prospect of training and eventually fighting Oob wonderfully sums up the character: He’s always looking forward to the next challenge and opponent...
- …That’s being said, the way Goku handles saying goodbye to his friends and family to live and train with Oob couldn’t have been anymore flippant in the manga. It’s handled infinitely better in the anime with Goku comforting Pan, telling Goten and Trunks not skip out on their training, and personally saying farewell to Vegeta.
- We get a lovely montage of what the cast get up to at the Budokai Tenkaichi after Goku departs with Oob.
- Goku and Oob fly off into the sunset… and the adventure continues... in GT…[/spoiler]
Phew, it’s over. Now let’s get to the good and bad.
(Continued in the next post...)
Spoiler:
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
POSITIVES
Gohan’s Everyday Life:
[spoiler]I love the fish-out-of-water beginning portion of this arc with Gohan. Seeing how socially awkward he was, and how Gohan tried to express himself with his Great Saiyaman persona was all so hysterical, whimsical and charming. It’s the kind light-hearted and down to Earth approach to a story that Dragon Ball should do more often.[/spoiler]
Mr Satan:
[spoiler]I love this character. He’s the most well written character in this arc by a longshot. He brings such a wonderful down-to-earth level of humanity that I’ve never really seen before in Dragon Ball. How he interacts to his surrounding feel so genuine and even somewhat relatable. I could realistically see myself acting like Mr Satan, if I was in the situations that he was. But what I love about him the most is he evolves naturally as a character AND he retains his charm of being the comic relief for the arc. It’s so hard to get that balance of being a gag character but also being fleshed out in personality but Toriyama manages to do that spectacularly with this guy. Even in scenarios where the tension is high, and tone is very serious, he comical antics don’t break up the flow of the narrative or feel distinctly out of place. His gags seamlessly blend into the story and add the level of comedy which doesn’t defuse the tension or stakes. The comedy from Mr Satan doesn’t feel undercooked or overcooked, it just feels right.
Mr Satan starts off as this incredibly annoying showman, who thought that the world was his oyster, but developed into becoming a kind-hearted, considerate and immensely brave person. He befriends a monster that he tried to “defeat”, decides cut down on being a fake hero and in process becomes a real one with saving Vegeta’s life in a battle he had no right to be involved, but still chose to because he realised the severity of the situation, and in a wonderful twist, use his celebrity famed to significantly contribute to the demise of Kid Boo. That’s development. That’s a character arc. That’s taking traits that the character is known for and using it in positive and productive manner to the plot that feel consistent. This wasn’t the 50/50 booking, half baked, stop, go back and start again nonsense that was Vegeta’s character arc. Everything about Mr Satan’s evolution was well thought out and handled with tact and care.
You know, I remember reading an interview including Toriyama where he stated that if he was going to do a spin-off of Dragon Ball he would have Mr Satan as the main character. And more power to him for that because I think that be a wonderful story and I’d argue Mr Satan is Toriyama’s best written character in the manga.[/spoiler]
Majin Boo (Every form of him):
[spoiler]What a wonderful antagonist he is. Both in design and in how his personality changes to his surroundings.
His initially give off the vibe of character who’s nothing more than a gag and bit of blank slate, but he displayed a suspiring amount of intuition. In a moment that was really well built up, Majin Boo became his own character by killing Bobiddi. And how he casually still goes about his business of killing people, because that was what he was instructed to do, drives home that even when he’s no longer “on a leash” he still has the destructive capability needed to retain the stakes and tension of the story.
The turning point for me in his character was when Majin Boo healed the vision of a blind child to because his lack of vision was preventing him from being terrified by Majin Boo. It’s such a surreal moment in terms of characterisation, especially for an antagonist as it feels quite meta in its representation. Majin Boo seem himself as the “villain” with how much chaos and anarchy he’s created so he feels that any being who comes across should automatically be terrified of him. And when they aren’t, it’s almost as if he malfunctions mentally and his line of thinking is thrown way off, and he needs to create the scenario where he vilified as the monster he’s known to be. But in the process of trying to make that happen he unintentionally performs a noble deed. In the case with blind child, it was restoring his vision and giving him milk that he needed (by turning another human into a milk carton, but still, the thought was there). And then with the puppy that he found that couldn’t run away from him, and healed his leg, allowing him to walk and run again. And in both occasions, he’s praised for his actions and he feel satisfied by doing something good. And in the case with puppy, there’s a fundamental shift in his character with the positive influence and guidance of Mr Satan (another great character in this arc) as he promises to never to kill again. And Majin Boo’s credit, he doesn’t kill again… at least in regard to Mr Satan. Speaking of Mr Satan, I love Majin Boo’s relationship with him. It’s basic in premise, but just so sincere, comical and productive to the plot that really feels like something that is more integral to the grand narrative of Dragon Ball than it had any right to be.
Super Boo is very intriguing character as well. He carries of this thuggish demeanour but is very pragmatic and surprisingly strategic in battle. Much like Cell with how his personality shifts with every person he absorbs, the dynamic of how Super Boo approaches his battle depending on who he makes part of his body as entertaining to watch. His delightful mix of wanting to make the most beating up Gohan that coming with absorbing a character that pride himself in showmanship and pride like Gotenks does, while also taking into consideration his limits and wanting to end this fight before it’s too late, pragmatic traits that come with Piccolo, and his utter desperation and irrational thinking when the fight is going against him, characteristics that Gohan is known for, aid in making the narrative not feel too stale by provide each fight he takes part with its own unique flavour.
Kid Boo is the most disappointing incarnation of the character. He’s as generic as a generic doomsday villain can get. Speak gibberish, acts like an animal and just destroys planets on a whim. But given his nature of the being the most stripped-down version of Majin Boo, being the purest form of evil, it works well enough.[/spoiler]
The Anime Adaption:
[spoiler]I must give the anime adaption of the arc a lot of credit. Not just for being the most consistently well animated arc in the series, but for taking the time to expand on the plot in scenarios where Toriyama didn’t seem interested in taking a moment to allow to. The extra details like making the reunion with Goku his family more emotionally resonant, revealing who told Bobiddi about where Trunks lives, giving more time to Goku and Vegeta’s fight and making it look so much better than in the manga, giving more detail on the backstory of Majin Boo and the much better handled farewell Goku gave his family and friend when he left with Oob, make the arc a much more structured and well told story. The anime really took a story arc that felt barebones and very rushed in some portions in the manga and gave it more time to breath and made it more visually appealing and I can give nothing but praise for that. Apart for the filler episodes with Goku and Vegeta inside of Super Boo, all the other additions made by the anime staff were good in content.
Studio Cockpit deserve a really special mention, again. If people wonder why the Majin Boo has the best animation of all arcs in Dragon Ball, it’s because of these guys. They are responsible for many episodes in this arc, and even when the episode itself doesn’t have great content, such as the episodes where Goku and Vegeta are fooling around in Super Boo’s innards, their visuals make even episodes like them tolerable. Great fight animation and stunning art-style.[/spoiler]
Vegeta’s Endgame As A Character:
[spoiler]From an isolated standpoint, I love Vegeta’s epiphany. It’s one of Dragon Ball’s best character moments, if not, THE best character moment in Dragon Ball. The realisation from Vegeta about why Goku always seemed to be one step ahead of him, not only served a great way for Vegeta to put the rest any demons that he had, but also served a real reflection of the Goku’s actions and what Dragon Ball, at its core, is fundamentally representative of: pushing yourself beyond your limits.
That being said…[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
Vegeta’s Character Arc Leading Into His Endgame:
[spoiler]…the development of Vegeta’s character leading into his endgame is something that really wished would have been as good as I remembered, but it isn’t.
Coming off the Cell arc, I was hoping that Vegeta would have mellowed out. And it kinda looks like that may have been the case. But when the Budokai Tenkaichi happens, his hard-on for beating Goku, something he’s already done, becomes a literal tumour to the plot. Then the narrative tries to paint the picture that Vegeta has pulled a face/heel turn with him unnervingly killing hundreds of people just goad Goku into fighting him. But here’s the issue… the story has already made it clear that Vegeta is still an inherently evil person. I mean, when sparring with Trunks, with the promise of taking him to the amusement park, he’s still shown to be a callous, pompous and self-righteous asshole. Even just from seeing Goten and Trunks fight each other Vegeta shows he’s still not above being vindictive and spiteful. Hell, Bobbidi even outright states that Vegeta’s heart is dripping with evil. So Vegeta has made no real significant progress in terms of his character since the Cell arc and it’s clear to see, so what am I supposed to get out Vegeta “aligning” himself with Bobiddi? Am I supposed to feel sad? Am I supposed to feel angry? Because I don’t get anything out of Vegeta committing the evil acts that he does because I just see Vegeta acting like himself. How Vegeta acts up until him allowing Bobiddi take over his soul for the sake of power-up doesn’t give the impression that he’s any better that the snide, bitter, angry, conceited person he was for 99.9% of the time. He may have that ‘M’ on his forehead and have a few veins bulging out of his body, but him murdering hundreds of people for the sake of a fight with Goku is all on him. It has nothing to do with Bobiddi and his magic awakening his evil again. He chose to kill those people in attendance at the Budokai Tenkaichi because he had the power to do so, and probably would have done it Bobiddi didn’t take over his soul and grant him more power. So, if Vegeta appears any more evil that he was before, it just him acting normally.
But what I can’t stand the most is Vegeta’s reasoning reason for letting Bobiddi “control him”. It was literally a case of him not being patient enough. Taking care of Dabra would take no more than 10 minutes and Vegeta throws a bitch fit that his fight with Goku is getting delayed despite the fact they still have a whole day for the fight to happen. Then Vegeta delves deeper into his reason for allowing Bobiddi get a mental hold of him and starts talking about how he hates that Goku saved his life. What is this nonsense? That reasoning completely tramples over the one bit of character development he got at the end of the Cell arc where he apologized to Gohan for breaking his arm in saving to save his life from Cell as a consequence of him acknowledging that he himself had become a liability in battle. Then he further states that Goku surpassed him the fact he accepted that he could never defeat Goku despite the fact that while he saw Goku fight Cell he flat out states that he could never beat Goku and even calls his brilliant for finding a way of perfecting the Super Saiyan form. So Vegeta’s character literally regresses to have this nonsensically founded, inorganic, contradictory conflict with Goku. There are some ways you can create a conflict from genuine resentment, anger or hostility that characters have towards one another, and this is not the way to do it. It feels incredibly forced, negates character development and makes Vegeta incredibly unlikable.
Then comes Vegeta’s big moment with his killing himself to stop Majin Boo. This is moment that Vegeta realises the circumstances of the scenario he’s in and his character changes for the better with him setting aside his pride and doing what absolutely needs to be done to take of the threat which put the lives of him family (and Goku) at risk. This is where Vegeta’s major character development is supposed to kick in… and it really doesn’t. First off, him killing himself lead to nothing in terms of the plot as Majin Boo survives anyway. Which just makes Vegeta’s acts look more senseless than actually noble. Then, the whitewashing of his evil deeds. Despite the fact he was told by Piccolo that his soul would be cleansed and, reincarnated and that he would go to a different plane of existence in the afterlife than Goku (basically he was going to Hell), Enma-daiō not only kept his spirit aside, but also gave him a body because… I have no fucking idea. This is worst kind of plot convenience because not only does it seem so arbitrary, but it paints Vegeta character is much more heroic and specially reserved light than it deserves to be. One good deed doesn’t wipe away all the evil shit he’s unconditionally done over the years or even in this arc. Piccolo outright states this before Vegeta’s grand suicide attack. Then when he’s brought back the realm of the living as Goku needed someone fuse with, he still acts like an abrasive, bitter, spiteful, angry asshole despite Goku giving him wanted he wanted, which was a battle with him. His initial reasoning for Goku not fusing with him just drive me up the wall. All Vegeta wanted was from Goku was a fight, but then he gets his knickers in a twist over the fact he didn’t use SSJ3 against him. Then just makes things even worse, he spitefully crushes his Potara earring despite the fact he and Goku still have to fight Majin Boo, and the fact he set aside his pride to fuse with Goku knowing it the best thing to so in their situation. And THEN, he’s goes full Cell arc Vegeta, and makes the situation more difficult than it needs to be with him cutting Majin Boo from Super Boo’s body, resulting in the original Majin Boo being created and him destroying the world and killing his and Goku’s remaining family and allies. And FUCKING THEN, he has the goddamn nerve to bitch at Goku for letting their son’s die even though it was HIS FAULT this version of Majin Boo was created, and he made no attempt to save his OWN son. It’s at that point where I throw my hands up in the air with Vegeta’s character arc because there’s no consistency to it. He’s meant to have grown beyond his pride, bitterness and hostile attitude towards Goku, but he doesn’t. He’s no better than the person we see at the beginning of the arc. His personality regresses and his characterisation arc resets TWICE in this arc. This is why, despite how much enjoy the epiphany that Vegeta has when in the climax of the arc, I don’t feel much emotional resonance with Vegeta’s whole “Goku is Number #1/The True Champion” speech or when the wish is made to bring back life all the good people of Earth that Vegeta is included in this wish, because it doesn’t feel earned. Sure, Vegea’s put his existence on the line to fight Kid Boo, but Vegeta’s character writing is so all over the place that the when logical conclusion happens for his character arc you feel like the build up to very haphazard. Vegeta endgame as far as characterisation goes, with the speech he makes about Goku when Kid Boo is fighting him, is certainly be wonderfully wholesome, but everything that precedes it is terribly inconsistent writing.[/spoiler]
Plot Devices With No Resonance:
[spoiler]Oh man. This is probably the biggest misdemeanour of this arc. There several plot devices to lead to nothing or just anti-climax in the worst way.
First, we get Super Saiyan 3 which is touted off as this transformation so powerful that can’t even be maintained in the realm of the living. And its grand use in the story is stalling for time so that Trunks can get the Dragon Ball radar, something that didn’t even need to happen in the first place. As that could have been resolved in a matter of seconds.
Then the Fusion Dance is introduced. Story devotes a good amount of time with Goten and Trunks being show and then taught the Fusion technique. And it leads to nothing. They don’t defeat Majin Boo, the end getting absorbed, which even in Majin Boo’s case doesn’t lead to anything for him as he doesn’t kill Gohan (which was the whole point of Majin Boo absorbing Gotenks) and after Goten and Trunks are freed they end up dying making all of their efforts in training in the Room of Spirit and Time and mastering the fusion dance null and void. And just the twist even further, when Shin and Kibito fuse, they’re still fodder and no match for Super Boo. So why did they even need to fuse? What purpose did it serve?
In come the Potara next (Yet another fusion based ability/technique). While I will admit that the origins and it introduction of them are cleverly woven into the plot, their significance comes down to saving Goten, Trunks, Piccolo and Gohan… which ends up being completely negated as when they’re rescued, Kid Boo emerges (And his existence itself is nonsense) just blows up the Earth and kills the very people they fused to rescue. Vegetto’s fight with Super Boo was fun to watch but know it lead to nothing. Even worse, the supposed permanent fusion of Goku and Vegeta ends up defusing inside because of… nasty air? What the hell does that even MEAN? So, in the end, we got a plot device where its special capabilities are retconned, it creates more issues than solutions to the plot and the whole reason for it being introduced into the narrative ends up being nullified. Why couldn’t have Toriyama have just saved us the trouble of this all the bullshit and anti-climaxes that would incur and just have Goku and Vegeta do the Fusion Dance?
Gohan is the most insulting case of this. We find out he has more hidden potential, because that is his gimmick, as he gets side-lined from the plot when Majin Boo takes him out, and given his own training with the Zeta sword, which is supposed to act as way of him tapping into his hidden power. But then we get swerved as the Zeta sword breaks, making all that training with it meaningless. But it ironically leads to something even “better” as an Elder Lord of Lords emerges from the broken sword and performs a ritual to awaken all of Gohan’s hidden power. This is all sound so great, doesn’t it? Then the moment of truth arrives, Gohan fights Super Boo and things seems to be going great for him as he’s laying the smackdown on Super Boo’s candy’s ass. Then after blowing himself up and stalling for an hour, and some manipulation on Super Boo’s part, he’s able get Goten and Trunks to fuse so that he can absorbs Gotenks and Piccolo. And proceed to beat the crap out of Gohan. So Gohan goes from the strongest character in the universe to a punching bag in just a few episodes/chapters. And it gets even worse. Goku and Gohan fusing is teased but doesn’t happen as Gohan himself ends up get absorbed, which that itself leads to nothing as Goku and Vegeta fuse to become Vegetto and dominate Super Boo (who has Gohan within in). Completely negating the whole reason Gohan got absorbed almost instantly. And just like Goten, Trunks and Piccolo, he ends up being killed. So, what did Gohan gain out the whole “ritual to unlock all your hidden power” plot device? Did Gohan’s character change in a positive manner? No. Because he commits the same mistakes he does against Cell in getting arrogant after getting a power-up and doesn’t get the job done. Does he even provide Super Boo with some kind of payoff when Super Boo absorbs him? No. Because the creation of Vegetto makes Super Boo’s power-up via Gohan’s absorption pointless.[/spoiler]
Goku’s Characterisation:
[spoiler]What the hell was going with Goku’s character in this arc? He just feels… off sometimes.
He first fights Vegeta and states that he’s going to use full power and then pulls Super Saiyan 3 from nowhere. Which in turn makes his battle with SSJ2 Majin Vegeta a fight that shouldn’t have escalated in the fashion that it did. But what really grinds my gears is when Goku tries to give the reasoning that he was saving Super Saiyan 3, hence him not using it when he fought Vegeta. That’s make no fucking sense. Unless you want to believe that wanted Majin Boo to resurrected, which him even more unlikable as a character, there was no reason him to save Super Saiyan 3, when the time to use that form was right then and there when he was fighting Vegeta. He turns SSJ3, then end the fight instantly and Majin Boo is not resurrected. But he chooses not to, and it snowballs into billions of people dying. I understand the concept of Goku being a bad judge of character, and perhaps you could hypothesis that he didn’t use the form to spare Vegeta’s pride, but that in itself is absurd because when has Goku ever held back in a battle to spare someone’s emotions? Hell, Vegeta call him out on this later on so it makes the justification of not using Super Saiyan even more contrived.
Fast forward to the climactic battle with the new Kid Boo, and the perspective of Goku’s character shifts into the intolerable. We get the major reveal from Goku himself that he could defeated Majin Boo when he first became a Super Saiyan 3 in front of him. If there was ever a moment that pulled the rug under the notion of the new generation taking over, this was it. It’s like the complete opposite of what happened in the Cell arc. In the Cell arc, Goku had no chance of defeating Cell and he knew that even before fighting him in the Cell Games. Even though it was still a gamble to through Gohan into the lion’s den, he at least had the justification of knowing that Gohan was much stronger than him that it was worth the risk. In the Majin Boo arc, he's warned multiple times of what a threat Majin Boo is and how they should prevent him from being resurrected. But he still contributes his resurrection, and when he has the opportunity the kill him he doesn't do it. He could have prevented billions of peoples dying and chose not to under the pretence of "the kids should handle this as I won’t be around".
I can understand the intention Goku was going for in the Cell arc, even if the way he did about it was pointlessly reckless and dumb what he did was. But the Majin Boo arc was not the same scenario at all. If you want to build up for the new generation that taking up the mantle, that's fine. Gohan's case in the Cell arc is acceptable because he was truly the only option they had at that time. But don't create multiple scenarios, where the threat could have been dealt even before it even began, without even the notion of the new generation having the lifting a finger was contemplated, like was the case in the Majin Boo arc. It would be one thing if Goku played no significant part in resurrecting Majin Boo and wasn't strong enough to kill him, but neither of scenarios were the case. He just wanted to let the kids (Goten and Trunks) fight Majin Boo. It makes his intentions of wanting the new generation to take care of themselves seem hollow.
The thing that aggravates me the most about me the most about that reveal is that is makes Goku into a liar about his strength and the strength of his opponents. This may not seem like a big to other, but Goku being straightforward and honest about his assessment of the strength of himself and the opponents he faces or talks about in proxy is a characteristic that has always been consistent. Goku constantly reasserts to himself and to others that has no chance against Majin Boo. And that even as a Super Saiyan 3, he couldn’t defeat him. Then he turns around and casually remarks that he could have killed Majin Boo but just wanted to have the new generation to have chance to defend themselves. That reasoning annoys me to now end as it just makes Goku wanting the new generation take care of themselves come across as less sincere and genuine and more of a glorified case of passing the buck and having someone else clean up the shitstorm he contributed to. The new generation wouldn’t even need to deal with Majin Boo if Goku just used Super Saiyan 3 against Majin Vegeta. Goku’s actions in that case were out of character. He didn’t need to lie about how strong he was when facing Majin Boo as a Super Saiyan 3. Why did that reveal needed to be thrown in? Was to serve as a plot twist? Because if so, that is the worst plot twist I’ve ever seen in Dragon Ball. Because it severs no purpose to the overall narrative other than to drive home that Goku is a reckless asshole who willingly endanger the lives of billions of people on a wing and prayer, something that he should have learned after the Cell arc is not a wise thing to do considering he died from that fashion of thinking. This reveal that proves that the new generation could really have relied on dead guy to win their battles for them and that it will always be up the old guard to save the day. It’s like a complete inverse of what happened in the Cell arc.
Now let’s talk about hypocritical Goku, who is as equally infuriating. Once the Vegetto defuses inside of Super Boo for reasons unknown, Goku quickly states to Vegeta that they must fuse, as they wouldn’t have a chance of fighting Super Boo unless the combine their power. Vegeta then crushes his Potara earring prevent himself and Goku from fusing again and Goku then chews out Vegeta repeatedly for doing such a thing. Fast forward to when they fight the “real” Majin Boo (Kid Boo) and Goku all of sudden decides against fusing. The very same that Goku was getting on Vegeta’s case for, Goku does it against a version of Majin Boo who has just destroyed the world and kill their remaining family and friends. I don’t like this flip-flopping of Goku’s mentality in battle without context as to why its’s happening, especially considering how vital these sudden decisions are. It’s just makes Goku seem less of character defined by his trait and more defined by what the plot demands from him.
Then there are moments of flat-out douchebaggery that make me question whether I should root for this guy. Moments like blasting Elder Lord of Lords in the face to see how powerful he is, trying to pimp out his son’s girlfriend and then his rival’s wife (twice!) to a deity, despite being told its sexual harassment and wanting Gohan to deal with it, and the several snide remarks he makes about others like Shin, Elder Lord of Lords and the out-of-nowhere a backhanded remark of his own wife. Goku’s somewhat jerkass like behaviour in the past always had some sincerity about it. He didn’t know any better. Goku is an asshole sometimes in this arc, and he’s appears to be fully aware it. That ruins the charm of Goku’s insensitivity. It’s not innocent. He acts like a jerkass in this arc just because he can. Goku was an asshole on occasion in this arc, and at times it was cranked up to 11 .[/spoiler]
Plot Holes, Continuity Errors & Plot Convenience:
[spoiler]Toriyama prides himself by writing by the seat of his pants and sometimes is works wonderfully. And other occasions, it doesn’t. With regards to the Majin Boo arc, I can’t but feel on several occasions that when the plot advances, it doesn’t feel natural with the events that preceded it. The worst offender of this is with Majin Boo himself.
I love Majin Boo’s character, but how his anatomy works is beyond fucked up and confusing. Majin Boo turns people into candy and eats them. That’s all fine and dandy, but then when the tables are turned on Majin Boo and he turned into candy, we later find out that Fat Majin Boo was kept in a pod. So where are the billions of other pods of all the other people and creatures that were turned into candy and eaten by Majin Boo? Things get even more confusing with introduction of introduction of a smaller and even more evil version of Majin Boo. A dark and skinny version from Majin Boo is formed from Fat Majin Boo getting angry and expelling his evil and he turns Fat Majin Boo into candy and changes in appearance into Super Boo. Then when Fat Majin Boo is removed from him, and instead of getting skinny and dark Majin Boo, we get a completely different form of Majin Boo that was never alluded to. And if the evil that Fat Majin Boo expelled was meant to be the original pure Majin Boo, then why didn’t he take the appearance of Kid Boo? Why did he take the appearance of some thinner, darker skinned version of Boo that wore identical clothing to Fat Majin Boo? And since the original Majin Boo (Kid Boo) absorbed two of the Kaioshin’s, where are their pods inside of Majin Boo? And why does Super Boo regress to form that resembles Some people will sweep this under rug with the mentality of “It’s magic. You can do whatever you want”, and I HATE this argument. Yeah, you can technically do whatever you want with a plot device like magic, but the audience deserve to know that the world of the story they’re reading has some kind of consistency, especially with how much a concept like magic is so crucial to the plot of the arc. If you create a world where anything can happen, regardless of how nonsensical it may be, the audience will begin to question whether they should get invested in the story or not. I mean, if the author can can’t to tell a well structure story, why should they care about the author not caring?
What’s the deal with the Potara Earrings as well? They’re touted off as a method of fusing that remains permanent… and then the Vegetto defuses. If the plan was to have the subversion that the Potara earrings, despite being such a commodity and treasure, wouldn’t be the solution to defeating Majin Boo, that fine. But handle the subversion with care. Don’t bother hyping up that plot device as this be-all-end-all with no weakness answer to defeating the big bad, and then you end up ignoring the very specific flaw it didn’t have for discernible reason, just to move the plot forward. It’s not only slopping storytelling, but completely misses the point of subverting a plot device.
Then you have the many moment of extremely egregious plot convivence like Enma-daiō keeping Vegeta’s spirit aside and giving him body when he should be in Hell, Super Boo manging to tear a hole through dimensions on accident, Gotenks bullshitting his way into becoming a Super Saiyan 3 despite an explanation into attaining the form is never given, the entire existence of the Potara earrings and the Namekians somehow knowing what was going on with Majin Boo.[/spoiler]
The New Generation:
[spoiler]This was the most conflicting thing to take into consideration with this arc. But unfortunately, when I get down to it, the positives outweigh the negatives. I enjoyed Gohan’s (albeit very brief) role as the lead character and how he was trying to get accustomed to living a normal in school, while trying to blend into society. But all this did was provide the stark realisation that Gohan wouldn’t thrive the greatest as the lead character in the confines of a battle manga like Dragon Ball. This is further compounded with the reveal that Gohan hasn’t been keeping up with his training at all after seven years and has gotten weaker since the end of the last arc… where he was the strongest in the universe. This is something that really comes down on Toriyama’s writing. It’s inexcusable for Gohan to be written as a character who isn’t keen on training without the motivation to do so in a story that where the central theme is strength and power. It’s even more inexcusable when you think about from an in-universe perspective because of much faith Goku put in Gohan to protect the world and keep it safe on the basis of how strong Gohan had become by the end of the conflict with Cell. Imagine what would have happened if Majin Boo was released and Goku wasn’t around? What would have Gohan done without someone telling him what to do? It doesn’t help then when he gets his potential unlocked, for the THIRD TIME, he still manages to fuck up by repeating the same mistakes he committed when he was fighting Cell.
Goten and Trunks are uninteresting characters. Goten is the most obvious case of trying to keep Goku in the plot without actually using Goku I’ve ever seen in Dragon Ball. He lacks any distinguishable characteristics beyond looking exactly like Goku. Trunks appears to have a kind of “spoiled child” streak to him but he’s fails to really have any kind of presence. I’m also not very keen on the concept that Goten and Trunks, but more-so in Goten case, could achieve Super Saiyan so easily. Kinda makes all that hard work that Goku, Gohan, Trunks and Vegeta went through to become Super Saiyans seem like and pointlessly exhausting exercise. It’s only really when Goten and Trunks fuse and become Gotenks that we get to see any kind of discernible personality from them. Unfortunately, the result fusion also brings out the worst of the characters as Gotenks quickly becomes an insufferable character. Much the like Ginyu Force were intended to be a parody of quirky and over-the-top character you would see in Super Sentai and by extension Dragon Ball, Gotenks is intended to be a parody of hot blooded and arrogant characters you would in battle manga and by extension. And much like the Ginyu Force, the parody doesn’t work for the exact same reason: the parody only feels only marginally different to what Dragon Ball is already accustomed to, so the gags don’t work. It also doesn’t help that Gotenks battle with Super Boo feel tonally imbalanced and scattered. It’s like the fight wants to serious and comical at the same time but it can handle both of those aspects properly. This doesn’t mean that the fight didn’t have funny or dramatic moments, but it just seem like the sometimes there would be moments where the tone wouldn’t be right for a certain scene.
At the end of the day, Goten, Trunks and Gohan being left to die on Earth, and not even being considered to taking part in the battle with Kid Boo, when they could have made huge difference and they could have easily taken part in that battle really summarise how the new generation were handled. We’re give this idea that new generation are something special and can step up to save day when Goku’s not around, but it doesn’t happen. It’s a plot thread that went nowhere because they ultimately have to rely on the dead in winning their battles. It’s such a shame when you think about it. The idea of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Gotenks all fighting together against Kid Boo sounds like such an awesome idea of a final battle. The old and the new teaming up to take down a common enemy. Just like how the Z-Fighters teamed up to face Vegeta and Nappa. And it could have been just as awesome…but Toriyama just wasn’t interested at the end of the day. C’est la vie.[/spoiler]
Artwork Of The Manga:
[spoiler]This is the saddest aspect of the Majin Boo arc when taking into how both mediums handle this arc. I always relied on Toriyama eye for detail in his art style if his story isn’t up to scratch. And unfortunately, for the majority of the time, Toriyama’s artwork in the manga is messy, rushed and flat out undetailed. I got the feeling while reading the manga most of the time that Toriyama was really going through the motions with how lackadaisical some of artwork was at times.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
You know, I came across an article once that had an interview from Toriyama where he stated that he was getting burned out on battle manga during the Majin Boo arc, and it really shows. How rushed and just ugly the art appears most of the time in the manga, how scatter-brained the plot is when the main cast fight Bobiddi’s minions, and how contrived the narrative can get at times once Majin Boo arrives. This arc is the most in-your-face-example of Toriyama writing by the seat of his pants with the countless transformations, power-ups and plot devices that are cavalierly thrown into the plot with no meaning beyond “this story MUST continue”.
Despite all the problems I have with this arc, the arc is incredibly charming, quite funny and has some hidden gems of characters in them. You can tell Toriyama had a lot more leniency with how he wanted to craft this arc because there is a greater abundance of gags and comedy, even in times when it seems like it may clash with the tone. The battle between Gotenks and Super Boo epitomizes this. Also, the staff at Toei really stepped up their game when it came to adapting the Majin Boo arc from the manga. And while the anime still suffers for the same problems as the manga does with continuity errors, plot holes, inconsistent and/or bad characterisations, and a generally haphazard plot once Super Boo starts fighting Gotenks, I commend the anime adaption for
Just like the Freeza arc, this is an arc where the mileage of your enjoyment in this arc will vary widely with what medium you choose to experience the arc with. If I were judge the arc solely based on the manga, it would be a 5.5/10. If I were to judge the arc solely based on the anime, it would be an 8.5/10. So once again, like with my rating with the Freeza arc, let’s split the difference and call it even. – 7/10
Final thought(s):
To say it was journey to complete the re-watching of this anime and the manga chapter counterparts would be an understatement. I poured so many fucking hours into this. And I experienced a few brief moments of burnout, especially when I started to the Majin Boo arc, but I persevered and finished the show. Was it worth it?
…
…
…
Yes.
Dragon Ball Z is such unique and wonderful entertainment. It's the special kind of story that you love to love, hate to hate, love to hate and hate to love with what it provides. There are several highs and so many lows. There parts of the story I loved before, that I unfortunately I look back on with contempt now. And there are conversely parts of the story that I didn’t really care for but grew to appreciate when I took the time to watch it again. As much as people will disagree and depste me for saying this, but the more I think about, the more I get reminded of Dragon Ball Super when I watch Dragon Ball Z. Both are stories that pride themselves on being more about entertainment and charm than anything else and it works as huge positive and as a detriment to the narrative with how the execute what they want to do. I look back at Dragon Ball Z and I think to myself, “Man, I had fun watching that, but my head hurt quite a bit in doing so sometimes.”
I rated this show a 9/10 the last time I watched it. Some parts of the story have not only aged well, but become better upon a revisit of them. But at the same time, there are some aspects that haven’t aged well. So, in accordance with that, I’m bumping down the rating a little to an 8/10. Which given my current rankings of Dragon Ball animes, puts it on par with… Dragon Ball Super. Uh… yeah. I know I’m going to get a lot shit for this, but fuck it, it’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.
Gohan’s Everyday Life:
[spoiler]I love the fish-out-of-water beginning portion of this arc with Gohan. Seeing how socially awkward he was, and how Gohan tried to express himself with his Great Saiyaman persona was all so hysterical, whimsical and charming. It’s the kind light-hearted and down to Earth approach to a story that Dragon Ball should do more often.[/spoiler]
Mr Satan:
[spoiler]I love this character. He’s the most well written character in this arc by a longshot. He brings such a wonderful down-to-earth level of humanity that I’ve never really seen before in Dragon Ball. How he interacts to his surrounding feel so genuine and even somewhat relatable. I could realistically see myself acting like Mr Satan, if I was in the situations that he was. But what I love about him the most is he evolves naturally as a character AND he retains his charm of being the comic relief for the arc. It’s so hard to get that balance of being a gag character but also being fleshed out in personality but Toriyama manages to do that spectacularly with this guy. Even in scenarios where the tension is high, and tone is very serious, he comical antics don’t break up the flow of the narrative or feel distinctly out of place. His gags seamlessly blend into the story and add the level of comedy which doesn’t defuse the tension or stakes. The comedy from Mr Satan doesn’t feel undercooked or overcooked, it just feels right.
Mr Satan starts off as this incredibly annoying showman, who thought that the world was his oyster, but developed into becoming a kind-hearted, considerate and immensely brave person. He befriends a monster that he tried to “defeat”, decides cut down on being a fake hero and in process becomes a real one with saving Vegeta’s life in a battle he had no right to be involved, but still chose to because he realised the severity of the situation, and in a wonderful twist, use his celebrity famed to significantly contribute to the demise of Kid Boo. That’s development. That’s a character arc. That’s taking traits that the character is known for and using it in positive and productive manner to the plot that feel consistent. This wasn’t the 50/50 booking, half baked, stop, go back and start again nonsense that was Vegeta’s character arc. Everything about Mr Satan’s evolution was well thought out and handled with tact and care.
You know, I remember reading an interview including Toriyama where he stated that if he was going to do a spin-off of Dragon Ball he would have Mr Satan as the main character. And more power to him for that because I think that be a wonderful story and I’d argue Mr Satan is Toriyama’s best written character in the manga.[/spoiler]
Majin Boo (Every form of him):
[spoiler]What a wonderful antagonist he is. Both in design and in how his personality changes to his surroundings.
His initially give off the vibe of character who’s nothing more than a gag and bit of blank slate, but he displayed a suspiring amount of intuition. In a moment that was really well built up, Majin Boo became his own character by killing Bobiddi. And how he casually still goes about his business of killing people, because that was what he was instructed to do, drives home that even when he’s no longer “on a leash” he still has the destructive capability needed to retain the stakes and tension of the story.
The turning point for me in his character was when Majin Boo healed the vision of a blind child to because his lack of vision was preventing him from being terrified by Majin Boo. It’s such a surreal moment in terms of characterisation, especially for an antagonist as it feels quite meta in its representation. Majin Boo seem himself as the “villain” with how much chaos and anarchy he’s created so he feels that any being who comes across should automatically be terrified of him. And when they aren’t, it’s almost as if he malfunctions mentally and his line of thinking is thrown way off, and he needs to create the scenario where he vilified as the monster he’s known to be. But in the process of trying to make that happen he unintentionally performs a noble deed. In the case with blind child, it was restoring his vision and giving him milk that he needed (by turning another human into a milk carton, but still, the thought was there). And then with the puppy that he found that couldn’t run away from him, and healed his leg, allowing him to walk and run again. And in both occasions, he’s praised for his actions and he feel satisfied by doing something good. And in the case with puppy, there’s a fundamental shift in his character with the positive influence and guidance of Mr Satan (another great character in this arc) as he promises to never to kill again. And Majin Boo’s credit, he doesn’t kill again… at least in regard to Mr Satan. Speaking of Mr Satan, I love Majin Boo’s relationship with him. It’s basic in premise, but just so sincere, comical and productive to the plot that really feels like something that is more integral to the grand narrative of Dragon Ball than it had any right to be.
Super Boo is very intriguing character as well. He carries of this thuggish demeanour but is very pragmatic and surprisingly strategic in battle. Much like Cell with how his personality shifts with every person he absorbs, the dynamic of how Super Boo approaches his battle depending on who he makes part of his body as entertaining to watch. His delightful mix of wanting to make the most beating up Gohan that coming with absorbing a character that pride himself in showmanship and pride like Gotenks does, while also taking into consideration his limits and wanting to end this fight before it’s too late, pragmatic traits that come with Piccolo, and his utter desperation and irrational thinking when the fight is going against him, characteristics that Gohan is known for, aid in making the narrative not feel too stale by provide each fight he takes part with its own unique flavour.
Kid Boo is the most disappointing incarnation of the character. He’s as generic as a generic doomsday villain can get. Speak gibberish, acts like an animal and just destroys planets on a whim. But given his nature of the being the most stripped-down version of Majin Boo, being the purest form of evil, it works well enough.[/spoiler]
The Anime Adaption:
[spoiler]I must give the anime adaption of the arc a lot of credit. Not just for being the most consistently well animated arc in the series, but for taking the time to expand on the plot in scenarios where Toriyama didn’t seem interested in taking a moment to allow to. The extra details like making the reunion with Goku his family more emotionally resonant, revealing who told Bobiddi about where Trunks lives, giving more time to Goku and Vegeta’s fight and making it look so much better than in the manga, giving more detail on the backstory of Majin Boo and the much better handled farewell Goku gave his family and friend when he left with Oob, make the arc a much more structured and well told story. The anime really took a story arc that felt barebones and very rushed in some portions in the manga and gave it more time to breath and made it more visually appealing and I can give nothing but praise for that. Apart for the filler episodes with Goku and Vegeta inside of Super Boo, all the other additions made by the anime staff were good in content.
Studio Cockpit deserve a really special mention, again. If people wonder why the Majin Boo has the best animation of all arcs in Dragon Ball, it’s because of these guys. They are responsible for many episodes in this arc, and even when the episode itself doesn’t have great content, such as the episodes where Goku and Vegeta are fooling around in Super Boo’s innards, their visuals make even episodes like them tolerable. Great fight animation and stunning art-style.[/spoiler]
Vegeta’s Endgame As A Character:
[spoiler]From an isolated standpoint, I love Vegeta’s epiphany. It’s one of Dragon Ball’s best character moments, if not, THE best character moment in Dragon Ball. The realisation from Vegeta about why Goku always seemed to be one step ahead of him, not only served a great way for Vegeta to put the rest any demons that he had, but also served a real reflection of the Goku’s actions and what Dragon Ball, at its core, is fundamentally representative of: pushing yourself beyond your limits.
That being said…[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
Vegeta’s Character Arc Leading Into His Endgame:
[spoiler]…the development of Vegeta’s character leading into his endgame is something that really wished would have been as good as I remembered, but it isn’t.
Coming off the Cell arc, I was hoping that Vegeta would have mellowed out. And it kinda looks like that may have been the case. But when the Budokai Tenkaichi happens, his hard-on for beating Goku, something he’s already done, becomes a literal tumour to the plot. Then the narrative tries to paint the picture that Vegeta has pulled a face/heel turn with him unnervingly killing hundreds of people just goad Goku into fighting him. But here’s the issue… the story has already made it clear that Vegeta is still an inherently evil person. I mean, when sparring with Trunks, with the promise of taking him to the amusement park, he’s still shown to be a callous, pompous and self-righteous asshole. Even just from seeing Goten and Trunks fight each other Vegeta shows he’s still not above being vindictive and spiteful. Hell, Bobbidi even outright states that Vegeta’s heart is dripping with evil. So Vegeta has made no real significant progress in terms of his character since the Cell arc and it’s clear to see, so what am I supposed to get out Vegeta “aligning” himself with Bobiddi? Am I supposed to feel sad? Am I supposed to feel angry? Because I don’t get anything out of Vegeta committing the evil acts that he does because I just see Vegeta acting like himself. How Vegeta acts up until him allowing Bobiddi take over his soul for the sake of power-up doesn’t give the impression that he’s any better that the snide, bitter, angry, conceited person he was for 99.9% of the time. He may have that ‘M’ on his forehead and have a few veins bulging out of his body, but him murdering hundreds of people for the sake of a fight with Goku is all on him. It has nothing to do with Bobiddi and his magic awakening his evil again. He chose to kill those people in attendance at the Budokai Tenkaichi because he had the power to do so, and probably would have done it Bobiddi didn’t take over his soul and grant him more power. So, if Vegeta appears any more evil that he was before, it just him acting normally.
But what I can’t stand the most is Vegeta’s reasoning reason for letting Bobiddi “control him”. It was literally a case of him not being patient enough. Taking care of Dabra would take no more than 10 minutes and Vegeta throws a bitch fit that his fight with Goku is getting delayed despite the fact they still have a whole day for the fight to happen. Then Vegeta delves deeper into his reason for allowing Bobiddi get a mental hold of him and starts talking about how he hates that Goku saved his life. What is this nonsense? That reasoning completely tramples over the one bit of character development he got at the end of the Cell arc where he apologized to Gohan for breaking his arm in saving to save his life from Cell as a consequence of him acknowledging that he himself had become a liability in battle. Then he further states that Goku surpassed him the fact he accepted that he could never defeat Goku despite the fact that while he saw Goku fight Cell he flat out states that he could never beat Goku and even calls his brilliant for finding a way of perfecting the Super Saiyan form. So Vegeta’s character literally regresses to have this nonsensically founded, inorganic, contradictory conflict with Goku. There are some ways you can create a conflict from genuine resentment, anger or hostility that characters have towards one another, and this is not the way to do it. It feels incredibly forced, negates character development and makes Vegeta incredibly unlikable.
Then comes Vegeta’s big moment with his killing himself to stop Majin Boo. This is moment that Vegeta realises the circumstances of the scenario he’s in and his character changes for the better with him setting aside his pride and doing what absolutely needs to be done to take of the threat which put the lives of him family (and Goku) at risk. This is where Vegeta’s major character development is supposed to kick in… and it really doesn’t. First off, him killing himself lead to nothing in terms of the plot as Majin Boo survives anyway. Which just makes Vegeta’s acts look more senseless than actually noble. Then, the whitewashing of his evil deeds. Despite the fact he was told by Piccolo that his soul would be cleansed and, reincarnated and that he would go to a different plane of existence in the afterlife than Goku (basically he was going to Hell), Enma-daiō not only kept his spirit aside, but also gave him a body because… I have no fucking idea. This is worst kind of plot convenience because not only does it seem so arbitrary, but it paints Vegeta character is much more heroic and specially reserved light than it deserves to be. One good deed doesn’t wipe away all the evil shit he’s unconditionally done over the years or even in this arc. Piccolo outright states this before Vegeta’s grand suicide attack. Then when he’s brought back the realm of the living as Goku needed someone fuse with, he still acts like an abrasive, bitter, spiteful, angry asshole despite Goku giving him wanted he wanted, which was a battle with him. His initial reasoning for Goku not fusing with him just drive me up the wall. All Vegeta wanted was from Goku was a fight, but then he gets his knickers in a twist over the fact he didn’t use SSJ3 against him. Then just makes things even worse, he spitefully crushes his Potara earring despite the fact he and Goku still have to fight Majin Boo, and the fact he set aside his pride to fuse with Goku knowing it the best thing to so in their situation. And THEN, he’s goes full Cell arc Vegeta, and makes the situation more difficult than it needs to be with him cutting Majin Boo from Super Boo’s body, resulting in the original Majin Boo being created and him destroying the world and killing his and Goku’s remaining family and allies. And FUCKING THEN, he has the goddamn nerve to bitch at Goku for letting their son’s die even though it was HIS FAULT this version of Majin Boo was created, and he made no attempt to save his OWN son. It’s at that point where I throw my hands up in the air with Vegeta’s character arc because there’s no consistency to it. He’s meant to have grown beyond his pride, bitterness and hostile attitude towards Goku, but he doesn’t. He’s no better than the person we see at the beginning of the arc. His personality regresses and his characterisation arc resets TWICE in this arc. This is why, despite how much enjoy the epiphany that Vegeta has when in the climax of the arc, I don’t feel much emotional resonance with Vegeta’s whole “Goku is Number #1/The True Champion” speech or when the wish is made to bring back life all the good people of Earth that Vegeta is included in this wish, because it doesn’t feel earned. Sure, Vegea’s put his existence on the line to fight Kid Boo, but Vegeta’s character writing is so all over the place that the when logical conclusion happens for his character arc you feel like the build up to very haphazard. Vegeta endgame as far as characterisation goes, with the speech he makes about Goku when Kid Boo is fighting him, is certainly be wonderfully wholesome, but everything that precedes it is terribly inconsistent writing.[/spoiler]
Plot Devices With No Resonance:
[spoiler]Oh man. This is probably the biggest misdemeanour of this arc. There several plot devices to lead to nothing or just anti-climax in the worst way.
First, we get Super Saiyan 3 which is touted off as this transformation so powerful that can’t even be maintained in the realm of the living. And its grand use in the story is stalling for time so that Trunks can get the Dragon Ball radar, something that didn’t even need to happen in the first place. As that could have been resolved in a matter of seconds.
Then the Fusion Dance is introduced. Story devotes a good amount of time with Goten and Trunks being show and then taught the Fusion technique. And it leads to nothing. They don’t defeat Majin Boo, the end getting absorbed, which even in Majin Boo’s case doesn’t lead to anything for him as he doesn’t kill Gohan (which was the whole point of Majin Boo absorbing Gotenks) and after Goten and Trunks are freed they end up dying making all of their efforts in training in the Room of Spirit and Time and mastering the fusion dance null and void. And just the twist even further, when Shin and Kibito fuse, they’re still fodder and no match for Super Boo. So why did they even need to fuse? What purpose did it serve?
In come the Potara next (Yet another fusion based ability/technique). While I will admit that the origins and it introduction of them are cleverly woven into the plot, their significance comes down to saving Goten, Trunks, Piccolo and Gohan… which ends up being completely negated as when they’re rescued, Kid Boo emerges (And his existence itself is nonsense) just blows up the Earth and kills the very people they fused to rescue. Vegetto’s fight with Super Boo was fun to watch but know it lead to nothing. Even worse, the supposed permanent fusion of Goku and Vegeta ends up defusing inside because of… nasty air? What the hell does that even MEAN? So, in the end, we got a plot device where its special capabilities are retconned, it creates more issues than solutions to the plot and the whole reason for it being introduced into the narrative ends up being nullified. Why couldn’t have Toriyama have just saved us the trouble of this all the bullshit and anti-climaxes that would incur and just have Goku and Vegeta do the Fusion Dance?
Gohan is the most insulting case of this. We find out he has more hidden potential, because that is his gimmick, as he gets side-lined from the plot when Majin Boo takes him out, and given his own training with the Zeta sword, which is supposed to act as way of him tapping into his hidden power. But then we get swerved as the Zeta sword breaks, making all that training with it meaningless. But it ironically leads to something even “better” as an Elder Lord of Lords emerges from the broken sword and performs a ritual to awaken all of Gohan’s hidden power. This is all sound so great, doesn’t it? Then the moment of truth arrives, Gohan fights Super Boo and things seems to be going great for him as he’s laying the smackdown on Super Boo’s candy’s ass. Then after blowing himself up and stalling for an hour, and some manipulation on Super Boo’s part, he’s able get Goten and Trunks to fuse so that he can absorbs Gotenks and Piccolo. And proceed to beat the crap out of Gohan. So Gohan goes from the strongest character in the universe to a punching bag in just a few episodes/chapters. And it gets even worse. Goku and Gohan fusing is teased but doesn’t happen as Gohan himself ends up get absorbed, which that itself leads to nothing as Goku and Vegeta fuse to become Vegetto and dominate Super Boo (who has Gohan within in). Completely negating the whole reason Gohan got absorbed almost instantly. And just like Goten, Trunks and Piccolo, he ends up being killed. So, what did Gohan gain out the whole “ritual to unlock all your hidden power” plot device? Did Gohan’s character change in a positive manner? No. Because he commits the same mistakes he does against Cell in getting arrogant after getting a power-up and doesn’t get the job done. Does he even provide Super Boo with some kind of payoff when Super Boo absorbs him? No. Because the creation of Vegetto makes Super Boo’s power-up via Gohan’s absorption pointless.[/spoiler]
Goku’s Characterisation:
[spoiler]What the hell was going with Goku’s character in this arc? He just feels… off sometimes.
He first fights Vegeta and states that he’s going to use full power and then pulls Super Saiyan 3 from nowhere. Which in turn makes his battle with SSJ2 Majin Vegeta a fight that shouldn’t have escalated in the fashion that it did. But what really grinds my gears is when Goku tries to give the reasoning that he was saving Super Saiyan 3, hence him not using it when he fought Vegeta. That’s make no fucking sense. Unless you want to believe that wanted Majin Boo to resurrected, which him even more unlikable as a character, there was no reason him to save Super Saiyan 3, when the time to use that form was right then and there when he was fighting Vegeta. He turns SSJ3, then end the fight instantly and Majin Boo is not resurrected. But he chooses not to, and it snowballs into billions of people dying. I understand the concept of Goku being a bad judge of character, and perhaps you could hypothesis that he didn’t use the form to spare Vegeta’s pride, but that in itself is absurd because when has Goku ever held back in a battle to spare someone’s emotions? Hell, Vegeta call him out on this later on so it makes the justification of not using Super Saiyan even more contrived.
Fast forward to the climactic battle with the new Kid Boo, and the perspective of Goku’s character shifts into the intolerable. We get the major reveal from Goku himself that he could defeated Majin Boo when he first became a Super Saiyan 3 in front of him. If there was ever a moment that pulled the rug under the notion of the new generation taking over, this was it. It’s like the complete opposite of what happened in the Cell arc. In the Cell arc, Goku had no chance of defeating Cell and he knew that even before fighting him in the Cell Games. Even though it was still a gamble to through Gohan into the lion’s den, he at least had the justification of knowing that Gohan was much stronger than him that it was worth the risk. In the Majin Boo arc, he's warned multiple times of what a threat Majin Boo is and how they should prevent him from being resurrected. But he still contributes his resurrection, and when he has the opportunity the kill him he doesn't do it. He could have prevented billions of peoples dying and chose not to under the pretence of "the kids should handle this as I won’t be around".
I can understand the intention Goku was going for in the Cell arc, even if the way he did about it was pointlessly reckless and dumb what he did was. But the Majin Boo arc was not the same scenario at all. If you want to build up for the new generation that taking up the mantle, that's fine. Gohan's case in the Cell arc is acceptable because he was truly the only option they had at that time. But don't create multiple scenarios, where the threat could have been dealt even before it even began, without even the notion of the new generation having the lifting a finger was contemplated, like was the case in the Majin Boo arc. It would be one thing if Goku played no significant part in resurrecting Majin Boo and wasn't strong enough to kill him, but neither of scenarios were the case. He just wanted to let the kids (Goten and Trunks) fight Majin Boo. It makes his intentions of wanting the new generation to take care of themselves seem hollow.
The thing that aggravates me the most about me the most about that reveal is that is makes Goku into a liar about his strength and the strength of his opponents. This may not seem like a big to other, but Goku being straightforward and honest about his assessment of the strength of himself and the opponents he faces or talks about in proxy is a characteristic that has always been consistent. Goku constantly reasserts to himself and to others that has no chance against Majin Boo. And that even as a Super Saiyan 3, he couldn’t defeat him. Then he turns around and casually remarks that he could have killed Majin Boo but just wanted to have the new generation to have chance to defend themselves. That reasoning annoys me to now end as it just makes Goku wanting the new generation take care of themselves come across as less sincere and genuine and more of a glorified case of passing the buck and having someone else clean up the shitstorm he contributed to. The new generation wouldn’t even need to deal with Majin Boo if Goku just used Super Saiyan 3 against Majin Vegeta. Goku’s actions in that case were out of character. He didn’t need to lie about how strong he was when facing Majin Boo as a Super Saiyan 3. Why did that reveal needed to be thrown in? Was to serve as a plot twist? Because if so, that is the worst plot twist I’ve ever seen in Dragon Ball. Because it severs no purpose to the overall narrative other than to drive home that Goku is a reckless asshole who willingly endanger the lives of billions of people on a wing and prayer, something that he should have learned after the Cell arc is not a wise thing to do considering he died from that fashion of thinking. This reveal that proves that the new generation could really have relied on dead guy to win their battles for them and that it will always be up the old guard to save the day. It’s like a complete inverse of what happened in the Cell arc.
Now let’s talk about hypocritical Goku, who is as equally infuriating. Once the Vegetto defuses inside of Super Boo for reasons unknown, Goku quickly states to Vegeta that they must fuse, as they wouldn’t have a chance of fighting Super Boo unless the combine their power. Vegeta then crushes his Potara earring prevent himself and Goku from fusing again and Goku then chews out Vegeta repeatedly for doing such a thing. Fast forward to when they fight the “real” Majin Boo (Kid Boo) and Goku all of sudden decides against fusing. The very same that Goku was getting on Vegeta’s case for, Goku does it against a version of Majin Boo who has just destroyed the world and kill their remaining family and friends. I don’t like this flip-flopping of Goku’s mentality in battle without context as to why its’s happening, especially considering how vital these sudden decisions are. It’s just makes Goku seem less of character defined by his trait and more defined by what the plot demands from him.
Then there are moments of flat-out douchebaggery that make me question whether I should root for this guy. Moments like blasting Elder Lord of Lords in the face to see how powerful he is, trying to pimp out his son’s girlfriend and then his rival’s wife (twice!) to a deity, despite being told its sexual harassment and wanting Gohan to deal with it, and the several snide remarks he makes about others like Shin, Elder Lord of Lords and the out-of-nowhere a backhanded remark of his own wife. Goku’s somewhat jerkass like behaviour in the past always had some sincerity about it. He didn’t know any better. Goku is an asshole sometimes in this arc, and he’s appears to be fully aware it. That ruins the charm of Goku’s insensitivity. It’s not innocent. He acts like a jerkass in this arc just because he can. Goku was an asshole on occasion in this arc, and at times it was cranked up to 11 .[/spoiler]
Plot Holes, Continuity Errors & Plot Convenience:
[spoiler]Toriyama prides himself by writing by the seat of his pants and sometimes is works wonderfully. And other occasions, it doesn’t. With regards to the Majin Boo arc, I can’t but feel on several occasions that when the plot advances, it doesn’t feel natural with the events that preceded it. The worst offender of this is with Majin Boo himself.
I love Majin Boo’s character, but how his anatomy works is beyond fucked up and confusing. Majin Boo turns people into candy and eats them. That’s all fine and dandy, but then when the tables are turned on Majin Boo and he turned into candy, we later find out that Fat Majin Boo was kept in a pod. So where are the billions of other pods of all the other people and creatures that were turned into candy and eaten by Majin Boo? Things get even more confusing with introduction of introduction of a smaller and even more evil version of Majin Boo. A dark and skinny version from Majin Boo is formed from Fat Majin Boo getting angry and expelling his evil and he turns Fat Majin Boo into candy and changes in appearance into Super Boo. Then when Fat Majin Boo is removed from him, and instead of getting skinny and dark Majin Boo, we get a completely different form of Majin Boo that was never alluded to. And if the evil that Fat Majin Boo expelled was meant to be the original pure Majin Boo, then why didn’t he take the appearance of Kid Boo? Why did he take the appearance of some thinner, darker skinned version of Boo that wore identical clothing to Fat Majin Boo? And since the original Majin Boo (Kid Boo) absorbed two of the Kaioshin’s, where are their pods inside of Majin Boo? And why does Super Boo regress to form that resembles Some people will sweep this under rug with the mentality of “It’s magic. You can do whatever you want”, and I HATE this argument. Yeah, you can technically do whatever you want with a plot device like magic, but the audience deserve to know that the world of the story they’re reading has some kind of consistency, especially with how much a concept like magic is so crucial to the plot of the arc. If you create a world where anything can happen, regardless of how nonsensical it may be, the audience will begin to question whether they should get invested in the story or not. I mean, if the author can can’t to tell a well structure story, why should they care about the author not caring?
What’s the deal with the Potara Earrings as well? They’re touted off as a method of fusing that remains permanent… and then the Vegetto defuses. If the plan was to have the subversion that the Potara earrings, despite being such a commodity and treasure, wouldn’t be the solution to defeating Majin Boo, that fine. But handle the subversion with care. Don’t bother hyping up that plot device as this be-all-end-all with no weakness answer to defeating the big bad, and then you end up ignoring the very specific flaw it didn’t have for discernible reason, just to move the plot forward. It’s not only slopping storytelling, but completely misses the point of subverting a plot device.
Then you have the many moment of extremely egregious plot convivence like Enma-daiō keeping Vegeta’s spirit aside and giving him body when he should be in Hell, Super Boo manging to tear a hole through dimensions on accident, Gotenks bullshitting his way into becoming a Super Saiyan 3 despite an explanation into attaining the form is never given, the entire existence of the Potara earrings and the Namekians somehow knowing what was going on with Majin Boo.[/spoiler]
The New Generation:
[spoiler]This was the most conflicting thing to take into consideration with this arc. But unfortunately, when I get down to it, the positives outweigh the negatives. I enjoyed Gohan’s (albeit very brief) role as the lead character and how he was trying to get accustomed to living a normal in school, while trying to blend into society. But all this did was provide the stark realisation that Gohan wouldn’t thrive the greatest as the lead character in the confines of a battle manga like Dragon Ball. This is further compounded with the reveal that Gohan hasn’t been keeping up with his training at all after seven years and has gotten weaker since the end of the last arc… where he was the strongest in the universe. This is something that really comes down on Toriyama’s writing. It’s inexcusable for Gohan to be written as a character who isn’t keen on training without the motivation to do so in a story that where the central theme is strength and power. It’s even more inexcusable when you think about from an in-universe perspective because of much faith Goku put in Gohan to protect the world and keep it safe on the basis of how strong Gohan had become by the end of the conflict with Cell. Imagine what would have happened if Majin Boo was released and Goku wasn’t around? What would have Gohan done without someone telling him what to do? It doesn’t help then when he gets his potential unlocked, for the THIRD TIME, he still manages to fuck up by repeating the same mistakes he committed when he was fighting Cell.
Goten and Trunks are uninteresting characters. Goten is the most obvious case of trying to keep Goku in the plot without actually using Goku I’ve ever seen in Dragon Ball. He lacks any distinguishable characteristics beyond looking exactly like Goku. Trunks appears to have a kind of “spoiled child” streak to him but he’s fails to really have any kind of presence. I’m also not very keen on the concept that Goten and Trunks, but more-so in Goten case, could achieve Super Saiyan so easily. Kinda makes all that hard work that Goku, Gohan, Trunks and Vegeta went through to become Super Saiyans seem like and pointlessly exhausting exercise. It’s only really when Goten and Trunks fuse and become Gotenks that we get to see any kind of discernible personality from them. Unfortunately, the result fusion also brings out the worst of the characters as Gotenks quickly becomes an insufferable character. Much the like Ginyu Force were intended to be a parody of quirky and over-the-top character you would see in Super Sentai and by extension Dragon Ball, Gotenks is intended to be a parody of hot blooded and arrogant characters you would in battle manga and by extension. And much like the Ginyu Force, the parody doesn’t work for the exact same reason: the parody only feels only marginally different to what Dragon Ball is already accustomed to, so the gags don’t work. It also doesn’t help that Gotenks battle with Super Boo feel tonally imbalanced and scattered. It’s like the fight wants to serious and comical at the same time but it can handle both of those aspects properly. This doesn’t mean that the fight didn’t have funny or dramatic moments, but it just seem like the sometimes there would be moments where the tone wouldn’t be right for a certain scene.
At the end of the day, Goten, Trunks and Gohan being left to die on Earth, and not even being considered to taking part in the battle with Kid Boo, when they could have made huge difference and they could have easily taken part in that battle really summarise how the new generation were handled. We’re give this idea that new generation are something special and can step up to save day when Goku’s not around, but it doesn’t happen. It’s a plot thread that went nowhere because they ultimately have to rely on the dead in winning their battles. It’s such a shame when you think about it. The idea of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Gotenks all fighting together against Kid Boo sounds like such an awesome idea of a final battle. The old and the new teaming up to take down a common enemy. Just like how the Z-Fighters teamed up to face Vegeta and Nappa. And it could have been just as awesome…but Toriyama just wasn’t interested at the end of the day. C’est la vie.[/spoiler]
Artwork Of The Manga:
[spoiler]This is the saddest aspect of the Majin Boo arc when taking into how both mediums handle this arc. I always relied on Toriyama eye for detail in his art style if his story isn’t up to scratch. And unfortunately, for the majority of the time, Toriyama’s artwork in the manga is messy, rushed and flat out undetailed. I got the feeling while reading the manga most of the time that Toriyama was really going through the motions with how lackadaisical some of artwork was at times.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
You know, I came across an article once that had an interview from Toriyama where he stated that he was getting burned out on battle manga during the Majin Boo arc, and it really shows. How rushed and just ugly the art appears most of the time in the manga, how scatter-brained the plot is when the main cast fight Bobiddi’s minions, and how contrived the narrative can get at times once Majin Boo arrives. This arc is the most in-your-face-example of Toriyama writing by the seat of his pants with the countless transformations, power-ups and plot devices that are cavalierly thrown into the plot with no meaning beyond “this story MUST continue”.
Despite all the problems I have with this arc, the arc is incredibly charming, quite funny and has some hidden gems of characters in them. You can tell Toriyama had a lot more leniency with how he wanted to craft this arc because there is a greater abundance of gags and comedy, even in times when it seems like it may clash with the tone. The battle between Gotenks and Super Boo epitomizes this. Also, the staff at Toei really stepped up their game when it came to adapting the Majin Boo arc from the manga. And while the anime still suffers for the same problems as the manga does with continuity errors, plot holes, inconsistent and/or bad characterisations, and a generally haphazard plot once Super Boo starts fighting Gotenks, I commend the anime adaption for
Just like the Freeza arc, this is an arc where the mileage of your enjoyment in this arc will vary widely with what medium you choose to experience the arc with. If I were judge the arc solely based on the manga, it would be a 5.5/10. If I were to judge the arc solely based on the anime, it would be an 8.5/10. So once again, like with my rating with the Freeza arc, let’s split the difference and call it even. – 7/10
Final thought(s):
To say it was journey to complete the re-watching of this anime and the manga chapter counterparts would be an understatement. I poured so many fucking hours into this. And I experienced a few brief moments of burnout, especially when I started to the Majin Boo arc, but I persevered and finished the show. Was it worth it?
…
…
…
Yes.
Dragon Ball Z is such unique and wonderful entertainment. It's the special kind of story that you love to love, hate to hate, love to hate and hate to love with what it provides. There are several highs and so many lows. There parts of the story I loved before, that I unfortunately I look back on with contempt now. And there are conversely parts of the story that I didn’t really care for but grew to appreciate when I took the time to watch it again. As much as people will disagree and depste me for saying this, but the more I think about, the more I get reminded of Dragon Ball Super when I watch Dragon Ball Z. Both are stories that pride themselves on being more about entertainment and charm than anything else and it works as huge positive and as a detriment to the narrative with how the execute what they want to do. I look back at Dragon Ball Z and I think to myself, “Man, I had fun watching that, but my head hurt quite a bit in doing so sometimes.”
I rated this show a 9/10 the last time I watched it. Some parts of the story have not only aged well, but become better upon a revisit of them. But at the same time, there are some aspects that haven’t aged well. So, in accordance with that, I’m bumping down the rating a little to an 8/10. Which given my current rankings of Dragon Ball animes, puts it on par with… Dragon Ball Super. Uh… yeah. I know I’m going to get a lot shit for this, but fuck it, it’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.
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ABED
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
The Majin Buu arc has this weird almost dichotomy of being both too long and too fast.
The biggest truths aren't original. The truth is ketchup. It's Jim Belushi. Its job isn't to blow our minds. It's to be within reach.
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Wayne Gretzky" - Michael Scott
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
I know right! It's so weird. The pacing of the arc seems to be way too quick, but weirdly at the same time, it drags like a crazy.ABED wrote:The Majin Buu arc has this weird almost dichotomy of being both too long and too fast.
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Quick correction:
In the "New Generation" section of the "Negative" column of the Majin Boo arc I meant to say "the positives are outweighed by the negatives."
I also noticed a few typos in a few other sections, but what can you do at this stage? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the "New Generation" section of the "Negative" column of the Majin Boo arc I meant to say "the positives are outweighed by the negatives."
I also noticed a few typos in a few other sections, but what can you do at this stage? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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ShadowBardock89
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Will there be Dragon Ball: The Movies: A Personal Assessment?
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=40715&start=20#p1439892
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BlazingFiddlesticks
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
It and Freeza are likely the starkest examples of comparing storylines with extended fighting on paper versus real time. On paper, a fight starts and ends, and thus the second half of these stories are a few bullet points. But when you're watching/reading the thing?Lord Beerus wrote:I know right! It's so weird. The pacing of the arc seems to be way too quick, but weirdly at the same time, it drags like a crazy.ABED wrote:The Majin Buu arc has this weird almost dichotomy of being both too long and too fast.
JulieYBM wrote:Just like Dragon Ball since Chapter #4.Pannaliciour wrote:Reading all the comments and interviews, my conclusion is: nobody knows what the hell is going on.
son veku wrote:CanadaMetalwario64 wrote:Where is that located?BlazingFiddlesticks wrote:Kingdom Piccolo
Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
I still dont buy the idea that Yamcha cheated for a second. It's OOC as hell and frankly character assassination.
But you mentioned that quite a few times so I guess you're adamant on that point of view so I cant change your mind.
But you mentioned that quite a few times so I guess you're adamant on that point of view so I cant change your mind.
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Yes.ShadowBardock89 wrote:Will there be Dragon Ball: The Movies: A Personal Assessment?
Someday...
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ShadowBardock89
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
How about as a countdown to the release of the new movie?Lord Beerus wrote:Yes.ShadowBardock89 wrote:Will there be Dragon Ball: The Movies: A Personal Assessment?
Someday...
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=40715&start=20#p1439892
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
....ShadowBardock89 wrote:How about as a countdown to the release of the new movie?Lord Beerus wrote:Yes.ShadowBardock89 wrote:Will there be Dragon Ball: The Movies: A Personal Assessment?
Someday...
....
....
...Time to buy and watch some Dragon Ball movies!
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Yamcha cheating on Bulma is a reveal that only works if you have some kind of context of the relationship they had prior to the Saiyan arc. If you jumped straight into Z, and the story revealed that Yamcha was fooling around with other girls, then perhaps you could buy the idea that Yamcha cheated on Bulma. But if you had a full grasp of the kind of characters Yamcha and Bulma were in the early arcs of Dragon Ball, you wouldn't buy it for a second.Dbzfan94 wrote:I still dont buy the idea that Yamcha cheated for a second. It's OOC as hell and frankly character assassination.
But you mentioned that quite a few times so I guess you're adamant on that point of view so I cant change your mind.
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Exactly. To me it was just something Bulma said, as we know she's one to exaggerate and blow things out of proportion. I still think she told herself that to justify her thirst for VegetaLord Beerus wrote:Yamcha cheating on Bulma is a reveal that only works if you have some kind of context of the relationship they had prior to the Saiyan arc. If you jumped straight into Z, and the story revealed that Yamcha was fooling around with other girls, then perhaps you could buy the idea that Yamcha cheated on Bulma. But if you had a full grasp of the kind of characters Yamcha and Bulma were in the early arcs of Dragon Ball, you wouldn't buy it for a second.Dbzfan94 wrote:I still dont buy the idea that Yamcha cheated for a second. It's OOC as hell and frankly character assassination.
But you mentioned that quite a few times so I guess you're adamant on that point of view so I cant change your mind.
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Lord Beerus wrote:Freeza:
[spoiler]- Good detective work from Krillin to devise they go to Namek in the hope of bring back to life their fallen comrades.
- Great exposition about the backstory Kami and the Namekians, that doesn’t feel out of place, dragged out, makes use of the supporting cast and really lays down the foundation for the Namek arc very well. Great worldbuilding overall.
- I loved Gohan standing up to Chi Chi. It served as a key character moment for him show how much he’s developed. Despite his young age, Gohan feels that he has duty to bring back to the people that aided him in battle (Piccolo).
- I love how we get a perspective of just how much of dominant and domineering figure with how many planets Freeza has conquered at minimum (79).
- The gang make their way to Namek… only get attacked by another spaceship during their journey. Bleh.
- And so, the filler begins…
- Wait, so the children on the spaceship think that Krillin, Gohan and Bulma, work for Freeza? Um… you guys would know they kind of outfits and armour that Freeza’s underlings wear, right? Gohan, Krillin and Bulma look like the most unassuming people you can imagine that would be working for galactic overlord.
- I’m so not invested in these children or how their home world was destroyed, but I do like how they give a small sampling of how much of an imposing and greater scope figure Freeza is.
- They’ve found Namek already? *checks manga* No, they haven’t. This is more filler nonsense.
- The Fake Namek episodes are among the worst I’ve watched in the all of Dragon Ball. Terrible.
- Toei really know how to make Chi Chi unlikable.
- I sat through five episodes of back-to-back garbage (Episode 39-44), but we’re finally getting to the real meat of the story. Enter Freeza…
- Vegeta make Cui explode much like he did to that Saibaman in the Saiyan arc. We’re off to a good start with this arc.
- Plot convenience allows Goku to get to Namek in a fraction of the time it took Bulma, Gohan and Krillin, and also train in 100 times Earth’s gravity during the journey.
- Nice hype about Freeza’s strength from Gohan and Krillin.
- Gohan and Krillin wiping the deck with Freeza’s mooks was nice to see.
- Episode 47 has some sensational animation and direction with the battle between the Namekians and Freeza’s mooks. A hidden gem of an episode.
- Episode 48 is fucking brutal. Namekians having their necks snapped, being impaled and their children being killed. Nasty stuff. I don’t think the series really get any more vicious than this.
- So the more Saiyans battle, the stronger they become. Hmm. Guess that explains Goku Black in the Dragon Ball Super anime. But I find that tidbit incredibly convenient given that we don’t really see Raditz, Nappa, Goku or Gohan spontaneously becoming stronger while they were fighting.
- When and how did Vegeta learn to sense ki? I guess this sells the idea of Vegeta being a seasoned combatant, but damn if this didn’t feel incredibly convenient. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Turn out Vegeta knew that Planet Vegeta wasn’t destroyed by a meteor and that Freeza destroyed it out of fear by how powerful the Saiyans could get. But it turns out that Vegeta doesn’t give a shit about his planet, his fellow Saiyans or even his parents. Hmm. Well, Vegeta is an evil bastard…
- Goku blasting a Kamehameha into the sun… Ah. So that’s where DBZ Movie 5 and GT got that from.
- Everything is the fucking same on this fucking planet. As far as settings go, Namek has to rank as the worst. It’s just so bland and boring.
- Episode 51 give us the ugliest looking Vegeta in all of Dragon Ball. And one of the ugliest episode of the Dragon Ball anime franchise in general. Yuck.
- Tien, Yamcha, Piccolo and Chiaotzu training is such a fantastic scenario that I’m sure will keep all of them relevant in the plot in the future…
- More hype from Freeza, and this time, from Kaio-sama himself. I’m loving this teasing of what Freeza can do.
- I really love this three-way rat race between Krillin and Gohan, Vegeta, Freeza (and his army) for the Namkian Dragon Balls. It really makes such a good use of the vast cast being introduced in the arc, as well as keeping the narrative open to any kind of twist and turns that may occur. You never know what is going to happen, and that’s a major hook for this arc.
- Vegeta’s fight with Zarbon was a nice tug-of-war kind of battle.
- This is the most cunning Vegeta has been in the show (and really, ever will be). He fools Freeza and Zarbon into think he blasted his way out of Freeza’s ship, snuck his way into finding where Freeza hid the remaining Namekian Dragon Balls, lure Freeza and Zarbon into thinking he still on the ship, blast the ship to disguise his exit and makes off with the five Namekian Dragon Balls while Freeza and Zarbon are still confused as to whether he’s still on Freeza’s ship. This is fantastic writing for Vegeta. This is the sort of unique pragmatic villainy that is quite rare in Dragon Ball and it’s not better displayed than on Namek than with Vegeta.
- Bulma find Zarbon attractive and handsome. Of course, she does…
- The episodes being handled by Studio Live are really not doing some these episodes justice. Any episode being handled by them just don’t look good at all. And this has been an issue since back in the Saiyan arc as well.
- I legit forgot Bulma was on Namek, too. She feels like such an inconsequential character in this arc. All she does is complain about being left behind.
- Throwing sand into the eyes of his enemy. Pragmatic Vegeta is the best Vegeta.
- Episode 59 and 60 were fucking atrocious episodes and rank among the worst in all of Dragon Ball. Bulma fighting giant crabs was the fucking pits. Terrible episodes on it own and the placement of it is even more horrendous. It just epitomizes how Bulma has no direction at all in this arc.
- I could watch Goku train for days. Him just getting stronger seems like the most fun in the world.
- Manga line – Bulma: “Little Son Goku. Who'd've thought he'd become the ultimate power?...And me, always fighting with Yamcha who's supposed to be my boyfriend...Did I blow it?" Remember folks, it turns out that Yamcha is the unfaithful on in his and Bulma’s relationship…
- The grand entrance of the Ginyu Force is one of the highlights of the arc. I love it.
- The Ginyu Force are charming as a group, but individually, they are very one note in personality.
- Gurd’s death in the anime far less graphic compare to how it happens in the manga.
- Man, Toriyama does not know what to do with characters that have physic abilities. Gurd felt really wasted for a character that Vegeta said was to have been stronger than him. I guess that’s what happen when you’re caught off guard.
- Manga line – Jheese: “Yo! Yo! Yo! Gurd was defeated!!“ That made me chuckle.
- Episode 64 is one of best animated episodes of the series and has on the best fights in all of Dragon Ball. Vegeta vs Reecom is a joy to watch.
- I really love Gohan’s dogged attitude against Recoom. Even though he’s getting his butt kicked and he knows he doesn’t stand a chance, he still won’t give up and proudly establishes himself as the son of Goku.
- Goku can apparently read mins now by just placing his hand over people’s head. How? When? And why doesn’t he do that more often? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Goku knocking out Reecoom with one elbow to gut will never get old.
- Goku punching Jheese in the middle of his dialogue cracked me up.
- So much for Butta being the fastest in the universe. Goku schools him and knock him out with two hits. Total fodder material.
- Jheese has really got nothing going for him.
- I love how politely evil Freeza is. He is such a charismatic villain.
- Nail’s fight with Freeza, albeit very boring, served its purpose in the story as a good distraction.
- It was about time a villain got the upper hand on Goku. Nice going with that body change, Ginyu.
- Goku (Ginyu) performing poses will never not make me grin.
- Vegeta killed Jheese like he was nothing. So much for that guy.
- Episode 74 has one of the best looking beatdowns ever animated in Dragon Ball. Vegeta clobbering Ginyu (Goku) was wonderful to watch.
- And this is where Vegeta loses his cunning and pragmatism. He charges right at the guy who has the ability to switch bodies at will. Fucking idiot.
- That poor frog.
- The Ginyu Force, and especially more so with Butta and Jheese, rank among the most unremarkable villains in all of Dragon Ball. As a parody, the joke doesn’t work. They all really felt like padding when all is said and done. Which is incredibly disappointing when you take into consideration much Vegeta hyped them up before they arrived. Not to mention they lack any distinguishable characteristics between them. They all blend in together as one.
- And right after a visually good episode Studio Live steps in for Episode 75 to remind me how ugly and stiff Dragon Ball (Z) episodes could be.
- Unhinged Freeza bring out the best of Ryūsei Nakao.
- Why the fuck would Piccolo wish to want to go to Namek? It’s an insanely stupid idea considering it invalidates the initial wish of bringing Piccolo back to life to restore the Earth Dragon Ball (by virtue of Kami being resurrected as well) as he’s needlessly putting himself in harm’s way by taking himself to a planet that so happens to have an insanely powerful galactic planet conqueror who at this stage holds a deep hatred for all Namekians. And it completely goes against Kaio-sama’s advice to stay away from Freeza. What was he thinking?
- Now that the Namekian Dragon Balls are gone because of Guru’s death, the story loses that interesting dynamic of several parties clashing together for their own goal. It’s now just gonna be fights. Let’s hope they’re interesting.
- How Freeza transitions from soft spoken sadist to unhinged, bloodthirsty lunatic after his plans (for immortality) are dashed is just breath-taking. It’s moments like this that remind me why many fans, and Akira Toriyama himself, love Freeza so much. He’s a spectacularly well-rounded villain.
- Piccolo fusing with Nail is cool. Hope it leads to something for him…
- Freeza transformed and skewers Krillin. Savage. Too bad Krillin survived making it mean nothing.
- Piccolo arrives and fights Freeza in his new form… and accomplishes nothing.
- Freeza transforms again gives Piccolo a world of hurt, making Piccolo’s power up by fusing Nail worthless and just further solidifies that Piccolo going to Namek was a stupid and pointless idea. Ugh.
- So Freeza has two more transformation? With that statement, the fight between Freeza, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan officially becomes pointless. If Freeza knew he had two more powerful form, then why did bother transforming into the first one. Why didn’t Freeza just power up into his most powerful form from the start and just kill everyone? It’s all fake tension. None of these fights really matter. They just serve as pointless padding until Goku arrives to save the day again.
- Vegeta states that he can’t get the near death powerup (Zenkai) unless someone else enforces the damage. Umm… that’s not true. Goku was blasting himself with Kamehameha’s on his spaceship while travelling to Namek and got stronger from that. Vegeta is full of shit.
- Final Form Freeza remain one of Toriyama greatest achieves from an artistic standpoint. It’s a simple, yet sleek and unique design.
- Krillin, Gohan and Piccolo fighting Final Form Freeza looks ugly as fuck in the anime.
- Vegeta puts up more of a fight against Final Form Freeza in the anime. In the manga, Vegeta gives up immediately after just two attacks.
- Ryō Horikawa gives his greatest performance in one of the most sombre moments in Dragon Ball with Vegeta’s death at Freeza’s hand.
- Good start to the fight between Goku and Freeza with good animation and fight choreography. And I like how they are basically warming up and feeling each other out.
- Now the fight is starting to drag… after the second episode of it. Oh, and the episode itself (Episode 89) is fucking horrendous. Terrible art, stiff animation and the main fight feels like more of sideshow because we (apparently) really needed to find out what was happening on Earth and needed to see Bulma messing around with frogs. All around awful.
- Who the fuck cares about Bulma and a frog?
- The artwork of this Goku/Freeza fight in the manga is excellent.
- Masaki Sato’s gorgeous artwork and animation bring us back on track in Episode 90… but it’s then bogged down by the absurd and unnaturally placed subplot of Ginyu Frog switching bodies with Bulma.
- The fact that three episodes spent time on time on that bullshit Frog Ginyu/Bulma subplot is disgraceful. It was all terrible and placed horribly in a fight of this magnitude. What an unnecessary distraction.
- Nozawa kills it during the Kaioken times 20 scene.
- The daydream that Goku has with (naked) Vegeta, Kid Vegeta, King Vegeta and Bardock was completely unnecessary. Goku already knows what he’s fighting for and what’s at stake. And how would Goku even relate to King Vegeta or Badock? He’s never met those people and doesn’t know who they are! This was just bullshit fluff material from Toei.
- The Ginyu Force are on Kaio-sama’s Planet… How? Why? And more importantly, who gives a shit?
- Toei…stop injecting the fight with Goku and Freeza with the nonsensical B-plot. Who gives a flying fuck about Ginyu Force at this stage? I understand wanting to find something for Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu to do, but this is the wrong way to go about it. In fact, The Ginyu Force somehow manging to keep their bodies and find Kaio-sama’s planet retrospectively shits on Goku’s, Tien’s, Yamcha’s, Piccolo’s and Chiaotzu’s hard work in travelling Snake Way, as well as lessening the importance of keeping your body in the afterlife as very special privilege. The Ginyu Force are dead. Let them stay dead. I guess if you’re desperate for Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu to do something productive, this will tickle you bones, but this does nothing for me.
- Oh God, the pacing of the Goku/Freeza fight is fucking atrocious (in the anime).
- So how does the Genki Dama work? Originally, isn’t was even a ball of energy to begin with. It was just basically energy around Goku’s hand. Then it suddenly became a ball of energy when it was completed in the Saiyan arc. And now you can form a Genki Dama in outer space. And unlike in the Saiyan arc, where Goku lost some of the energy of the Genki Dama after Oozaru Vegeta attacked him, here Freeza attacks him while he’s charging it and nothing happens. Plot convenience? Oh, yeah. Big time. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Freeza seems to kill Piccolo. Further cementing that Piccolo coming to Namek beyond stupid, a waste of time and nearly invalidates the whole reason for this arc even happening.
- Episode 95 has THE moment of the Dragon Ball story. What the franchise is remembered and revered for… Goku dying his hair blonde after Freeza made Krillin explode. Real talk though, this is amazing moment.
- And Episode 96 is an even better follow up with some of the best voice acting from Masako Nozawa and Ryūsei Nakao. But that speech… “I am the Saiyan who came from Earth to defeat you. Despite my calm and quite heart, I am the legendary warrior awakened by intense anger. I am the Super Saiyan, Son Goku!!” Now while delivery of this is great in the anime, I can’t help but feel it’s out of character for Goku to make a speech like that.
- And with Episode 97, “Five Minutes” begins. We’re in for the long haul now…
- Wait a minute… Goku is willing to let Freeza power up to 100% even though in the previous episode he stated he wouldn’t let Freeza reach his maximum power? What made him change his mind?
- Gohan saves a bewildered and confused Bulma from falling debris. A tragic representation of how little she meant while on Namek. At least the good animation of 100% Final Form Freeza battering SSJ Goku helped softened that blow.
- Studio Live return once more to stink up the joint again in Episode 99, with their trademark stiff animation and ugly art during some parts of 100% Final Form Freeza and SSJ Goku’s battle.
- The artwork of the 100% Final Form Freeza and SSJ Goku battle in the manga is exceptional
- Gohan fighting Final Form Freeza in the anime was absurd. It’s the kind of filler that detracts from the story. This is a fight between Goku and Freeza, let it stay that way. Trying to throw Gohan back into the mix can’t work since the story has already made it clear that he’s far out of his depth by listening to Goku’s order to leave the battlefield.
- Guru’s back. Yay.
- Dende’s back. Yay.
- Vegeta’s back. Boo. He should have stayed dead. He had the perfect send out. Oh well.
- Anime: “You mean Krillin!?” Manga: “Are you talking about Krillin?!!!!” Both renditions of that scene are phenomenal.
- This fight is still going on…
- Some great battle animation in Episode 103 somewhat distracts me from the fact that Planet Namek still hasn’t exploded for some reason.
- Goku quitting and leaving a battle is such uncharacteristic thing for him to do. Especially against a guy that Goku swore he would defeat.
- Goku is trying to get Freeza cut in half by his own attack… and then tells Freeza to get out of the way of getting hit by his own attack. Make up your fucking mind Goku! Do you want to kill Freeza or not?
- Freeza is hoist by his own disc shaped petard. And Ryūsei Nakao’s sensational performance greatly aides in elevating the scene of Freeza’s desperate plea for Goku to help him.
- Since when could sharing Ki save people from dying? That’s never happened before. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Goku: “YOU FOOL!!” Gets me every time. What a great scene.
- The anime kind of fucked up with Goku’s reaction to (supposedly) killing Freeza. In the anime, Goku displays a look of anger on his, while the manga gave him a more solemn and saddened look on his face after doing the deed. I find the manga’s version of Goku’s facial expression to be more appropriate.
- Episodes 106 and 107 has quite a lot of bullshit in it. Vegeta’s being a contradictory asshole for the sake of it, the mechanic of death and resurrection being ignored and Goku managing to operate a spaceship he’s never seen before.
- So the controls of the Freeza’s giant spaceship are the practically identical to that of the spaceship Goku used to travel to Namek? Fucking how? That’s ridiculous.
- Namek is finally destroyed and good riddance. What a boring ass planet.
- Bulma is even hitting on Vegeta… Remember, Yamcha is the cheater…
- Looks like Goku is dead…
- Nope. He’s not dead. Well, there better be a good explanation for this.
- All of the deceased Z-Warriors are brought back life, the Namekians have a new home, and that’s the last of the Freeza… for now.[/spoiler]
Okay. I have a lot to say about with this arc.
POSITIVES
The Three-way Dance:
[spoiler]All the episodes before the cast arrive on Namek, excluding the brief glimpses of Vegeta recovering on Freeza Planet 79, are pure trash. But once the story arrives on Namek, the plot up until the Goku arriving on Namek is excellent. The stakes feel so high and narrative is always open to any natural changes when you have three different parties (Gohan/Krillin, Freeza’s Army and Vegeta) all vying for the same MacGuffin (Namekian Dragon Balls) for varying personal objectives (revive dead friends and gaining immortality). You have Good vs Evil, Evil vs Evil and Good and Evil teaming up to take on another Evil.[/spoiler]
Vegeta:
[spoiler]I believe the best part of this arc was Vegeta. His character was fantastic. He was strategic, cunning, manipulative, pragmatic and always seemed to find a way out of scenario that was far out of depth. Then come to the point where, after abusing his Saiyan biology to cheat death and become more powerful, he fights Final Form Freeza, he fails miserably. And the sudden realisation that everything he went through to kill Freeza meant nothing he begins to cry, and is beaten savagely by Freeza and then killed by him. When Vegeta came across Goku on Namek for the first time he is shocked and frustrated with the idea that Goku may have become a Super Saiyan and deals with his agitation over this concept by constantly stating that he is the one who will become a Super Saiyan as Goku is too gentle and soft to become one. But then in his dying breath to Goku, he pleas to him that Freeza must die by the hands of Saiyan.
A character like Vegeta, historically being known for (at that point) working alone and disposing and/or abandoning any allies very quickly once he figures that he has no more use for them. And then on death’s doorstep, he’s forced to rely on Goku, his major rival and most likely the very last person in the universe he wold want to rely on for anything he would personally want to get done, to achieve his goal of killing Freeza, even if the victory that Vegeta is seeking will very much indirect. It’s all such a wonderfully dramatic and ironic twist that I have to applaud Toriyama’s writing for managing bring such a satisfying conclusion to Vegeta’s character during the arc. Much like Piccolo death in the Saiyan arc, Vegeta’s death feels the fitting end for his journey as a character and really added that emotional weight to Freeza fighting the main cast that was severely lacking prior to that point in the story.[/spoiler]
Freeza:
[spoiler]Freeza is a magnificent villain. He’s incredibly ranged antagonist in personality with how narcissistic and vicious while also formal and polite he can be when he’s engaged with any personal tasks or interacting with any character. He’s a wonderfully balanced antagonist whose mood swings from being calm and reserved when everything goes his way to his child-like temper tantrums to when he’s backed into a corner, serve to make the arc much more of a thrill ride. Also, Ryūsei Nakao unbelievably elevates Freeza’s character to completely different level in the anime, and I really can’t imagine anyone else who could have play that role as well as he did.[/spoiler]
Super Saiyan:
[spoiler]The Super Saiyan form itself has a great payoff and managed to live it to incredible amount of hype and intrigue created by it in-universe. And the build up to it during the fight with Freeza managed to give a legitimate personal reason for Goku to fight Freeza, with Krillin being cause being the trigger to what would lead Goku becoming a Super Saiyan. The transformation scene itself of Goku becoming a Super Saiyan was great in both mediums. The manga treats Goku becoming a Super Saiyan are most of spontaneous moment of pure anger, while the anime makes this more of a calm-before-the-storm moment with some grunting and an awesome climatic scream from Nozowa. The best kind of win-win scenario.[/spoiler]
Animation:
[spoiler]Episodes 47, 64, 74, 87, 88, 90, 98 and 103 were the stand out episodes of this arc from a visual perspective. Great artwork and animation is all of those episodes. Episodes 64 and 74 in particular deserve specifically special praise as those episodes, in my opinion, reached the level of Episode 31, which I view as one of the best animated episodes in the entire franchise.[/spoiler]
Manga specifics:
[spoiler]The artwork in the manga is also consistently great and the story of the arc is much better paced in the manga.[/spoiler]
NEGATIVES
The Ginyu Force:
[spoiler]The Ginyu Force haven’t aged well. At all. The more I think about, the more I realised why some fans don’t care for the Ginyu Force. And it’s quite simple: as a parody, they don’t work in a story like Dragon Ball, and especially at this point in the narrative. The Ginyu Force’s main hook is that they are a parody. They are a group of fighters who pose a lot, call out big flashy names for big flashy attacks, and create eccentric looking and memorable poses when they unleash these attacks. The Ginyu Force act this way in a story that has fighters who call out big flashy names for big flashy attacks, and create eccentric looking and memorable poses when they unleash these attacks. See the problem? The Ginyu Force only feels only marginally different to what Dragon Ball is already accustomed to. And because of their lack of any real differentiation to the nature of Dragon Ball, the joke(s) fals flat, if the intention is to be making fun of Dragon Ball. The Ginyu Force, as a concept, just don’t work because there is not enough of a contrast to what they are and what Dragon Ball already is. They’re a paper thin “parody”, if you even want to call it that. If the goal was to make the Ginyu Force stand out, the story failed spectacularly at that.
I think the worst aspect of The Ginyu Force is that ultimately feel like filler in the main story. It doesn’t help they don’t really have much in the character department and they don’t have any distinguishing personalities between them. They all just blend together as one. The only significance they bring to the story as a collective whole is giving Goku and Vegeta yet another power-up, which really didn’t need to happen in the first place. I think characters like them would have better fitted in the 21st or 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi arc or even perhaps in the Red Ribbon Army arc. At least in those arcs, given their tone and setting at the time, they would have felt more in suitable and serviceable to the plot. But in the Freeza arc, they just feel like padding.[/spoiler]
Freeza’s Pointless Fighting:
[spoiler]The main fight (and very prolonged) with Freeza is a really mixed bag. I enjoy that the story is trying to make use of characters like Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan, who are obviously far out their depth at that stage. But looking at the arc as a whole, their battles against Freeza really doesn’t serve any purpose and it all comes down to one problem created in the story: Freeza stating that he could transform at will after clashing with Piccolo. That was huge mistake from a narrative point of view because then you realise the main cast never stood a chance to begin with against Freeza, even when the likes of Gohan, Piccolo and Vegeta got power-ups. You’re basically watching a filler fight. A fight with no real stakes because the villain could have/should have won the battle right from the start. Freeza fighting Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin is fake tension incarnate. I will somewhat give the fight the benefit of the doubt and as watching the fight through the lens of a continuous story is quite a gripping experience. But when you look at the fight as a complete story, it’s extremely redundant.[/spoiler]
Piccolo and Bulma:
[spoiler]And speaking of redundant, there are no other characters that fit that word better than Piccolo and Bulma.
Let’s start off with Piccolo. Long story short… he achieved nothing on Namek. He fuses with Nail, who did initially serve a purpose to the plot, which you would think would lead to something, but it doesn’t. There’s no payoff to Piccolo assimilating with Nail and his power growing. Piccolo just beats up Freeza in his second form for one episode (one chapter) only for Freeza to reveal he has two more powerful transformations, making Piccolo’s power-up pointless almost immediately. And before people say, “Oh well, Piccolo needed to be on Namek he could distract Freeza long enough for Goku to fully heal and then so that could Goku could charge his Genki Dama.” Those arguments make no goddamn because a) Toriyama could have had Goku emerge for the healing chamber at any point in the story and b) The job of districting Freeza long enough for Goku to fully heal and to later charge the Genki Dama could have given to Gohan and Krillin. And it really should have been given to Gohan and Krillin, as the Freeza arc has been mostly their story, along with Vegeta’s. You really have to ask yourself why did Piccolo come to Namek? Because if he wanted revenge against the person who slaughtered his people, then he should have gone after Vegeta as well. Hell, Vegeta kills more Namekians by his own hand than Freeza does (for the same reason and goal as Freeza, mind you), so the justification of Piccolo going to Namek to avenge his people becomes very shallow going by thought process. When is all said and done, Piccolo serves no purpose to the plot in the arc. I’d even go far as to say that he doesn’t even really feel like a character, but more like a power up among other power ups in this arc. Piccolo in the Freeza arc feels like a character thrown into a situation where he doesn’t really belong and that’s what really rubs me up the wrong way.
And Bulma… holy shit. Toriyama dropped the ball with her so goddamned hard in this arc. Her major appearances in the arc don’t bring anything of importance to the plot. And any additional material created by Toei was terrible in content and horribly placed into the story. The worst case of this being during the Goku/Freeza fight with the bullshit subplot with Ginyu-Frog. I did find it hilarious how Bulma contemplated whether she made the right choice in having Yamcha as her boyfriend Bulma should have stayed on Earth.
The fight between Goku and Freeza in the anime, and in some parts of the manga, have aged not so well.[/spoiler]
The Pacing In The Anime:
[spoiler]I find the Goku/Freeza battle to be terribly paced in the anime. You have some episodes where the narrative would suddenly decide to switch to a completely irrelevant and inconsequential side plot. When you’re in the midst of the biggest fight in the series (at that point), slowing down the plot in that kind of manner is reductive to creating any kind of scenario, whether its building tension or establishing some of dynamic relationship between the protagonist and the antagonist. An episode of Dragon Ball Z set during a major fight, where 50% of the episode doesn’t focus on that fight, to me, is the absolute anthesis for what Dragon Ball represents: a show centred around fighting and martial arts. I don’t care if you have to have repeated frames or recycle animation for the whole episode, don’t have episodes based around the one major fight where we don’t see much of the main characters actually fighting each other.
The insertion of the Ginyu Frog/Bulma and supporting cast trying to find a way to Namek subplots epitomizes how badly directed this fight was in the anime. If you’re looking to waste time during the major fight, that is the fucking worst avenue to take. It breaks up the plot in the most annoyingly distracting way and robs the main fight of some its gravitas by making it appear that, even though the fight between Goku and Freeza is a big deal, it can be put on the backburner to focus on something as irreverent and haphazardly injected into the plot as Bulma getting mixed up with frog.
And no, I’m not giving Toei a pass under the whole “They need to stall for the manga to get ahead more” excuse. The first Dragon Ball anime had to deal with this and handled it infinitely better 90% of the time, so the Dragon Ball Z (anime) has no excuse. “Five minutes” shouldn’t last 10 fucking episodes. That’s absurd. Imagine trying to digest that on a once a week basis like the Japanese audience did back in the early 90s. The pacing of the fight in the manga is far more tolerable, but even then, the whole “Five minutes” scenario still feels a little dragged out there.[/spoiler]
Goku vs Freeza Is Initially Hollow:
[spoiler]Now from a story perspective, and I REALLY hate to say this, but Goku and Freeza fighting hasn’t got much of a foundation to begin with. And the biggest factor in all of this is that there really is no connection between Goku and Freeza. And before people bring up Bardock, and saying that Freeza killing him means that Goku and Freeza have a personal connection, let me set the record straight…Freeza killing Bardock means nothing. And allow me to elaborate on why. The reference of Bardock in the manga have no bearing on the narrative because you could remove all traces of Bardock from the manga and nothing would change because him being brought has no effect or consequences on the story. None of the characters in the story ever make the distinction that Bardock is Goku’s father. When Freeza thinks of Bardock, he doesn’t make the point that Goku could be somehow related to that one Saiyan who stood against before he killed him and everyone else on Planet Vegeta. Goku doesn’t know that Freeza is thinking of his father. It’s only the narration that makes that point.
And even if the connection was made in-universe that the Saiyan that stood against Freeza was Goku’s father, what does it matter from Goku’s perspective? Goku has no memory or any personal connection to his father. So even if the connection was made in-universe that the Saiyan that stood against Freeza was Goku’s father, it would be a very weak connection to make to justify any kind of catharsis for Goku being the representation of the Saiyan race making Freeza pay for what he did their planet and people. The shout out to Bardock, and the TV special he debuted in, is nothing more than superficial fluff material added in with the hope of bringing some dramatic irony to Freeza’s downfall at the hands of Goku. But it just doesn’t work. Thankfully, Freeza killing Krillin provides the personal link between Goku and Freeza. It’s such a shame that it happens halfway into the fight, though.[/spoiler]
Goku Is A Plot Device:
[spoiler]Another major issue is with this arc is how Goku is handled in this arc. To be brutally honest, Goku is handled terribly in this arc.
Some of the characteristics that Goku displays in this arc also appear inconsistently. A prime example being how Goku goes from wanting to prevent Freeza to reaching his maximum power to allowing Freeza to power-up so he could beat him at his best in the space of one episode/one chapter. And despite Goku’s hunger for battle, he tries to walk away from his fight with Freeza… twice. What happened with regards to that big speech about him swearing he’ll defeat Freeza? Did it never happen? It’s like if in the Saiyan arc after Goku realising that the gap in power between himself and Nappa was large enough to make Nappa a non-threat to him and that Nappa is fighting a losing battle, he decides instead out breaking out Kaioken to finish the fight, he just stopping fighting him and the focuses his attention on Vegeta instead. I just found it incredibly out of character for Goku to act like that. Then his attitude flip-flops again from trying to get Freeza killed from his own attack to trying to prevent Freeza from getting cut from his own attack.
I also found it strange that Goku suddenly becomes this weird beacon of morality the moment he touches down on Namek. I mean, it kinda works in a thematic sense, but how it's used in the Freeza fight is very haphazard. It is rather odd that he suddenly becomes so unwilling to kill, and it’s even more unusual considering he's doesn’t really act like that afterwards. Goku’s characterisation in this arc is just all over the place and only seems to fit the needs of the plot.
I’d also say that Goku is less of a character and more of a plot device in this arc. Goku’s only role in the arc to be side-lined before conveniently before inserting himself back into the plot and saving the day. Now this has happened before, in both the King Piccolo arc and Saiyan arc. But there is significant difference how it played in those arcs and in the Freeza arc. In those arcs, the narrative still majorly focuses on Goku’s journey in a meaningful fashion and the plot threads of those arcs originate from Goku. There’s no unique spin on this in the Freeza arc. In this arc, it’s played painfully straight:
1. Goku comes back stronger
2. Cleans up everyone else’s mess
3. Gets conveniently benched
4. Go back to step one and repeat.
That happens twice. And it’s a bit insulting to the supporting cast as it demonstrates that the main role for them is basically fail and then have to rely on Goku to save them. Goku is so far removed from the plot of the arc, that him being thrown into the mix (again) so late into the game against the major antagonist of the arc feels arbitrary to me.[/spoiler]
The Ending:
[spoiler]The content of the climax of the arc in both mediums is not good at all.
I find the idea that donating Ki can save people from the brink of death from mortal wounds as incredibly contrived, ridiculous and just fucking stupid. It’s never hinted anywhere that you can do something like this in the series. If sharing Ki can save people from dying, why do Senzu and healing chambers even need to exist? You can’t even handwave this with the excuse of “Freeza has alien biology, so injuries are different for him”, because if Freeza being cut in half wasn’t a big deal, then why did ask for Goku’s help to begin with? What did Goku giving Freeza Ki do for him? This is just as bad as when Goku brought himself back from the dead in the King Piccolo arc. And what’s even more jarring is that we never see something like this again. And for it to serve as an important factor in the conclusion of this battle, make this even more unforgivable.
Now it’s the anime’s turn. In Episode 106, Vegeta appears happy about the fact that Goku and Freeza are dead, taunts Gohan about it, fights and beats Gohan and flies away. But in the very next episode, he’s still among Bulma, Gohan and the rest of Namekians and wants to see Goku’s strength as a Super Saiyan. It’s like nothing happened in the previous episode happened. This the usual Toei nonsense thrown into the pad out Episode 106, so I guess you can excuse it. But it’s still absolute nonsense.
But what can’t be excused is what happens next in both mediums when Vegeta suggests that Gohan and Bulma use the Namekian Dragon Balls to transport the souls of Krillin and Goku to Earth before they bring them back to life. That makes no sense and completely goes against how death and resurrection work in the Dragon Ball universe. When someone normally dies in Dragon Ball, their soul is transported to the afterlife and their body basically becomes a shell. And if they are brought back to life, the soul travels back to where the body was from when they died or where the remains of their body are. So even if they were to transport the souls of Goku and Krillin to Earth, the wish to bring them back to life would still result in their souls travelling to Namek because that was where their bodies and other remains are when they died. And in that case, they would still die in space after making that wish, regardless of whether their souls would be transported to Earth or not. So Krillin being brought back to life and having his body on Earth makes no sense. It shouldn’t have happened that way. He should have been brought back to life where Namek formally was. It’s a plot hole. And a big one as well. Or at the very least, a major continuity error.
And ironically, despite the manga have much better pacing the anime, the ending of the arc in the manga is incredibly rushed. You have Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu being brought back to life (off-panel too, because fuck them, right?), the Namekians being transported to their new planet, a two-year time-skip and then (Mecha) Freeza reappearing with King Cold… all in one chapter. It’s just so abrupt in the manga how it goes from one arc ending to the very next.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This is an arc that people hold in high regard, and I can understand why. It has some really great moments scattered across the story, Freeza and Vegeta are fantastic antagonists, and this arc has arguably the highpoint of all of Dragon Ball, as well one of the most iconic moments in all of anime and manga happen with Goku becoming a Super Saiyan. But judging this arc as a whole is very difficult because there are so many elements to take into consideration. The ugly looking episodes (for which there are several), the great animation in some cases, the terrific voicing acting, the magnificent score from Shunsuke Kikuchi, the horrible pacing in both the anime and the manga and the terrible filler inserted by the Toei.
Let me put it like this: The first 1/3 of this arc is (mostly) fantastic (I say “mostly” because the first third of the arc in the anime has Bulma fighting giant crabs and Fake Namek. But in the manga, all of the 1/3 of the story is fantastic) and has some of the best writing that Dragon Ball has ever had. The 2/3 of the arc feels a lot like padding. It’s entreating at face value, but reek of time-wasting and stalling for Goku to arrive and save the day (again). And while the final third of the story has some iconic moments for Dragon Ball, in the anime, it’s severely bogged down by terrible pacing, poorly integrated filler and uneven animation. And in the case of both mediums (anime and manga), the ending just comes off the tracks.
All in all, this is an arc that started off very strong, but unfortunately, it doesn’t really keep up that quality as the story progresses outside of few instances. If I were judge the arc solely based on the manga, it would be a 7/10. If I were to judge the arc solely based on the anime, it would be a 4/10. So let’s split the difference and call it even then. – 5.5/10
Garlic Jr (Filler):
[spoiler]- Krillin has a new girlfriend that looks like Bulma… and I already don’t like her.
- Get a brief reintroduction of Garlic Jr, which is very nice and helps with getting acquainted with a character most of the audience wouldn’t know much of.
- It’s at this point where Roshi is nothing more than the stock characters of, “Hey, look at the old guy doing pervy things!” Bleh
- It’s The Mist 2: Garlic Boogaloo
- Demon Clansman Yamcha, Bulma and Chi Chi attack Piccolo and bite him like a vampire. Never thought I would type that sentence.
- Meanwhile… Vegeta looks for Goku in space. Stay tuned for updates…
- Piccolo is demon… again… apparently. I thought he was a Namekian. You know, AN ALIEN. When did that change? And God is trapped in a bottle. And yes, Vegeta is still looking for Goku is space and has no results.
- Gohan and Krillin getting their butts handed to them by Demon Piccolo and the Demon Clansman is getting repetitive and tedious
- Piccolo is longer a Demon… again. And fights with a beefed-up Garlic Jr while Kami and Popo run around in desert(?) for a while.
- Hooray. Gohan is doing something… too bad I’m already so fucking bored with this arc.
- The Purge has ended.
- Kami is dead… oh wait, he’s okay.
- A shameless revision of the ending of the 1st DBZ movie, with Garlic Jr being trapped in the Dead Zone again, and this arc is over.
- Krillin leaves Maron because he feels like he’s not good enough for her, only for Maron to reveal she wouldn’t have minded being Krillin’s bride. Aw man. Don’t worry Krillin, I’ve been there, too. Hang on tight, buddy. You’re going to find the woman of your dreams eventually.[/spoiler]
Thoughts on the arc:
This was filler in every sense of the word. And not good filler either. The sad thing is that this arc could have been so much more than it was, but it seemed like Toei just ran out of ideas halfway into the arc. But at least Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo had something constructive to do. – 2/10
Spoiler:
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ABED
- Namekian Warrior
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Hollow would not be the word I would choose. When they first start fighting. Freeza has already tried to kill Goku's son and his friends several times. Aside from that, having some long standing history or grudge doesn't make things inherently better. Plenty of shitty stories give the villain and hero some backstory for their hatred. Backstory isn't a shortcut to good storytelling. Hans Gruber and John McClane have no history before Hans takes over Nakatomi Plaza.
And Goku isn't a plot device. He wants to fight Freeza because he's strong. Freeza hurting his friends provides extra incentive, but Goku is driven by his desire for a challenge. When Freeza no longer provides that, he loses interest. In the heat of the moment, there are times where revenge is his goal, but when the tide turns completely in his favor, Goku has settled down by that point. And I wish people would stop using "plot device" like a pejorative.
Freeza's trying to drag out the fight. He lost the wish so he wants the peons who took his wish away to suffer.
And Goku isn't a plot device. He wants to fight Freeza because he's strong. Freeza hurting his friends provides extra incentive, but Goku is driven by his desire for a challenge. When Freeza no longer provides that, he loses interest. In the heat of the moment, there are times where revenge is his goal, but when the tide turns completely in his favor, Goku has settled down by that point. And I wish people would stop using "plot device" like a pejorative.
Freeza's trying to drag out the fight. He lost the wish so he wants the peons who took his wish away to suffer.
The biggest truths aren't original. The truth is ketchup. It's Jim Belushi. Its job isn't to blow our minds. It's to be within reach.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Wayne Gretzky" - Michael Scott
Happiness is climate, not weather.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Wayne Gretzky" - Michael Scott
Happiness is climate, not weather.
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Lord Beerus
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Re: Dragon Ball Z (Anime & Manga): A Personal Assessment
Lord Beerus wrote:Majin Boo:
[spoiler]- The police in the Dragon Ball world suck ass.
- Damn Erasa, you move quick. She’s already placing her marker on Gohan after just seeing him for a few seconds.
- Gohan playing baseball is wonderfully charming and hilarious.
- You know, a filler episode where Gohan goes on date should be boring. But it really isn’t. It’s actually very cute and endearing.
- I love Gohan’s Great Saiyaman persona. Even when featured that in filler episodes that don’t have great content, he still has such an aura of charisma, whimsy and charm that is just overriding.
- Even when Goku is dead, he lives on in Goten.
- I love Videl’s crimefighting persona in the manga as the “Champion Of Justice”. The chapter where this reveal happens also has the best fourth wall breaking joke in Dragon Ball. It’s such a shame the chapter where all of this happened was reworked into a filler and never properly adapted as it was into a full or half episode.
- I much prefer the manga’s versions of events with Videl finding out that Gohan is the Great Saiyaman. It’s just way funnier.
- Manga line - Gohan: “What do you think, Trunks? Do I look cool?” Trunks: “No comment.” HAHAHAHAHA.
- Another manga line – Gohan: “How’ve you been?!” Goku: “Pretty good, pretty good. Still dead, though…” Goku, you are a national treasure.
- This is the most likable Chi Chi has ever been. Supporting his some taking time for school to train for martial art tournaments, training Goten and just being far more mellow and relaxed in general.
- Goten is adorable.
- Goten became a SSJ and doesn’t even remember when it happens. And he pulled it off before he learned how to fly. If the mystique of Super Saiyan wasn’t killed with the concept of the cyborgs, this moment sure as make the period where lost all its meaning.
- The whole sequence of Videl learning to fly is fantastic. Form Videl’s bemusement to discovering that a concept like Ki even exist, to the hysterical lunch session that Videl, Gohan, Chi-Chi and Goten had, to exploration of the deep concepts of Ki control and management. It also helps that episode it happens in has wonderful animation produced by Studio Cockpit.
- North Kaio-sama is quite funny.
- Videl is so tsundere but she’s also a surprisingly well-rounded character. She likes martial arts, has a strong sense of justice, she’s extremely sociable but also retains her feminine charms with her crush on Gohan. Without a doubt best female character Toriyama has made since Bulma.
- And Trunks is a Super Saiyan too. Because fuck you, that’s why. Vegeta sums it up perfectly, “…It’s a bargain sale on Super Saiyans.”
- Wha-? Videl’s bae pigtails… they’re gone!? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
- Gohan’s reaction to de-pigtailed Videl: “Girls… I don’t understand….” Goten’s reaction to de-pigtailed Videl: “Gohan, who’s that?” Couldn’t have summed it up any better.
- Vegeta is still a huge asshole. And after finding out Goku will be coming back he now wants to fight against despite saying he never would after the Cell Games.
- Goku coming back from the dead and meeting all of his friends and family, is handled so much better in the anime. We actually see Goten and Goku interact with each other in the anime.
- I love that the Budokai Tenakichi announcer know the real deal that Goku and company were the REAL heroes and not Mr Satan.
- The Punch Machine portion of the preliminaries of the tournament is a major hoot
- The Cell Game Re-enactment will never not be funny.
- Mr Satan is actually pretty funny.
- Goten vs Trunks was a really good fight in both the anime and manga. Thumbs up.
- Okay, Mr Satan is REALLY funny.
- Everything about Trunks punching Mr Satan had me belly laughing.
- Kibito and Shin’s introduction are wonderfully mysterious.
- Krillin smacking around Puntar was fun
- I really like how they are playing up the vague and unknown nature of Shin.
- Shin being the Lord of the Lords is quite a great reveal. Too bad they really wouldn’t do anything with it. But I did find it funny that when he saw Piccolo shocked reaction to Shin revealing that tidbit of information to him, he assumed that Shin was talking trash to him and offered to put him in his place. Don’t worry Goku. You’ll get that opportunity later…
- Videl’s fight with Spopovich is still a little hard watch. Especially in the manga.
- Korin and Goku have another bad feeling…
- Korin only had 3 senzu at his disposal? What a terrible farmer. Or perhaps Yajirobe is eating them all.
- Gohan’s transformation into a Super Saiyan 2 is much better in the anime.
- Vegeta has such hard one for defeating Goku in a one-on-one fight despite the fact he’s already done that and they’re a much bigger issue to be concerned with. Like, GOHAN HAVING HIS ENERGY DRAINED BY TWO MYSTERIOUS PEOPLE!!
- Manga line – Vegeta: “Jerk…How does he always get under my skin?” Are you kidding me Vegeta?” Seriously Vegeta, get over yourself.
- Mr Satan’s reaction to seeing Videl fly is great.
- Manga line – Mr Satan: “My little girl’s has flown the coop!!” Budokai Tenkaichi Assistant: “That’s truly an awful pun, sir…” HAHAHAHAHAHA
- The backstory provided by Majin Boo is really good. And immediately sell Majin Boo as a great threat.
- If Shin could read minds, why couldn’t he read the minds of Yamu and Spopovich to find out where Bobbidi’s hideout was?
- I really like how down to Earth Videl is written. I really took this character for granted and I can see some fans are up with her current characterisation.
- I don’t know why, but I found the random image of the butchered remains of the family that lived near Bobbidi’s underground ship as hilarious.
- Dabra has such an awesome design.
- A Realm of Evil? The Demon Plane? Dabra being the King of the Demons? This also sound like such fantastic lore… it’s just a shame it’s never explored. Under a better writer, you could get so much mileage out of that.
- As soon as Kibito told everyone that Bobbidi can manipulate the evil and greed already lurking in anyone soul and make them their minion, they should have told Vegeta to hit the bricks.
- Bobbidi is the worst boss ever.
- Spopovich’s death is incredibly gruesome.
- How did Dabra know the Goku and company were hiding when they already supressed their Ki?
- Dabra makes one hell of an impression killing Kibito and turning Piccolo and Krillin to stone. It’s downhill from here.
- The art-style is quite rough in the manga.
- The Saiyans are really not taking fighting Bobbidi’s minions seriously. Esepcially since one of killed Kibito and turned Krillin and Piccolo into statues.
- Pocus is gone. Meh.
- Yakon is up.
- Last House have really take a turn for the worst since Shida left. Their episodes look much uglier.
- Goku’s strategy of defeating Yakon was actually pretty clever.
- Why is Vegeta shocked that Goku surpassed Super Saiyan? He already did that after training in the Room of Spirit and Time and was even there to witness how much stronger Goku (and Gohan) had gotten.
- Now instead of Gohan fighting Dabra, we get something completely different and go back to the events of the Budokai Tenkaichi. Why? I have no idea.
- Look, Mr Satan antics are really funny and #18 is kinda cool, but why did the plot need to detour from the main and important plot to focus on something meaningless like the Budokai Tenkaichi?
- The artstyle in the manga is REALLY rough.
- Dabra’s fight with Gohan was way too short. It’s even more difficult to handle knowing how awesome Dabra’s abilities are.
- Vegeta is really starting to get on my nerves again.
- At least the story is self-aware of how much of an evil prick Vegeta still is.
- Oh my God! Vegeta has become evil..er.
- And Vegeta just callously murders 200 people and then kills at least couple hundred to fight Goku. Yep.
- Vegeta stating that if he hadn’t let Bobbidi take possess him he wouldn’t have been able to fight Goku is absolute nonsense. All that was left to take care of was Dabra and Gohan would have been able to finish the job. Vegeta was just an impatient bastard and couldn’t wait a few minutes.
- Goddammit… Vegeta’s reasoning for selling out to Bobbidi and wanting to fight Goku fucking infuriate me. It’s full of character backpedalling and hypocrisy. I hate Vegeta again, and not in the good way. This is “go away heat”.
- Shin has lost all of his mystique and intrigue. He went from mysterious and insightful character to passive and inept deity.
- Goku give Gohan that same God-awful advice of to just “get angry” so he ca defeat Dabra. That shit isn’t spontaneous, Goku.
- The anime really steps up their game with SSJ2 Goku fighting SSJ2 Majin Vegeta.
- Majin Boo has awoken… and is quite the gag character.
- Bibidi Bobiddi Boo… Oh, now I get it!
- Dabra… the guy with a cool looking design, unique abilities, great lore behind him… and his ultimate fate is to be turned into a cookie and eaten. What a waste.
- There’s something some wonderfully uncanny about Majin Boo that I just can’t put my finger on. I know the tone of the story is quite serious but seeing how comical Majin Boo somehow doesn’t detract for the nature of the narrative.
- Oh hey, Goten and Trunks are here!
- Trunks knocking over Piccolo’s statue and then looking at horror at the mangled and torn apart body of Piccolo when he’s not a statue anymore is pretty hilarious.
- How does Vegeta know Gohan is dead?
- Vegeta blasting a hole in Majin Boo is pretty cool visual in both the anime and manga.
- Majin Boo abilities are pretty cool. Even if regeneration is overplayed.
- Piccolo cutting Bobiddi in half felt pointless.
- Vegeta killing himself in an attempt to kill Majin Boo is a very poignant moment. Made even much better in the anime with the spectacular animation, great direction, Shunsuke Kikuchi’s stunning score and Ryō Horikawa’s performance. It’s a shame that he’s character to regress to get this character development.
- Why does Vegeta turn into stone after blowing himself up?
- And in one fell swoop, Piccolo killing Bobiddi and Vegeta killing himself become pointless. UGH.
- So Goku states he and Vegeta have the same power and that he doesn’t have a chance against Majin Boo. Bollocks.
- Goku proposes Fusion. And Popo chimes in and suggest Goten and Trunks fuse as they have the same power. I’m sure this will lead to something…
- Majin Boo’s antics with Bobiddi are quite entertaining.
- I got a major kick out of the King Arthur reference with the Zeta Sword.
- I know everyone is sad for Gohan and Vegeta’s death, but they can be brought back to life with the Namekian and/or Earth Dragon Balls, can’t they?
- I can understand Bobiddi wanting revenge against Piccolo, and perhaps even Trunks, but what does Goten have to do with this?
- The death of the Budokai Tenkaichi assistant is quite gruesome in the manga.
- I’m happy Goku is putting his foot down and telling like it is with Goten and Trunks. There really is no time to grieve.
- I really like how Kibito tries to play off this cool and reserved character but comically loses his composure quite quickly. It’s great.
- Look, I know that Goten and Trunks are upset about the death of Gohan and Vegeta, but them bitching out Goku was unnecessary.
- Another city bites the dust, curtesy of Majin Boo. He also like chocolate.
- I really like the twist of it being Idasa’s mother who revealed where Trunk’s and his family lived. Fills in the blank of who gave Bobiddi that bit of information in the manga very nicely.
- Why can’t Goku use teleportation and go to Trunks and Bulma’s house and get the special radar and then come back? It would literally take a few seconds. Goku doesn’t need to stall Bobiddi and Majin Boo and Trunks doesn’t need to go on his own. Hell, Goku can teleport Bulma with him to her house and find the radar instantly.
- I’m so conflicted about the reveal of Super Saiyan 3. On one hand, it being so out-of-nowhere in it’s nature works a great shock. But on the other hand, it makes EVERYTHING about Goku and Vegeta’s fight meaningless. I will say that the anime handled the transformation scene so much better than the manga. The anime has damn good animation in it, and conversely, the manga’s art is very rough around the edges.
- Majin Boo is a riot. And his fight with SSJ3 Goku is delightful.
- Majin Boo sure does learn fast.
- Yeah, sure Goku. Majin Boo will stop killing for two days just so that he can fight someone strong. Goku, I love you, but you can be a fucking idiot sometimes.
- The story really built up well how Majin Boo could turn on Bobiddi and the payoff for it was great. Brutal, but great.
- Majin Boo changing his face into that of a male model he saw in magazine to get a kiss of woman had me in stitches.
- Goku intentions for the next generation taking over sound nice on paper, but rings quite hollow considering Goku already passed the torch to Gohan after the Cell arc. They wouldn’t even need to be in the situation they are in if Goku used SSJ3 against Majin Vegeta.
- Goku and Piccolo demonstrating the fusion dance is so funny.
- I never took Majin Boo as an architect. Needless to say, his methods of construction are eerie yet charming.
- Goku shows off SSJ3 again, with some repeated animation.
- Manga line – Goku: “Bye everybody!! Se you again when you die!!” Goku, you are national treasure. Even in a sincere moment you can stop being so flippantly cheerful.
- Majin Boo healing the blindness of a child while still carrying out his acts of destructions is the perfect kind of balancing act with his character. He has no capacity for social skills but still manage to unintentionally be a good person, and he retains his innate nature of wanting to kill everything and everyone just because he feels compelled. He is the character that Cyborg 16 should have been.
- Shin thought that using the hardest metal in the metal universe would be good testing material for the Zeta Sword. Dumbass. And all that training with the Zeta Sword is now pointless.
- Goku is a fucking idiot. The first thing he does when the Lord of the Lords from the broken sword emerges is throw a Ki blast at him. What ever happened to simply asking someone about their strength or mystical powers?
- Goku is not just an idiot but an asshole, too. When his attempts at pimping out Videl get rightly rebuffed by an angry Gohan, he tries to pimp out Bulma?! What the fuck!? Gohan has every right call what Goku is proposing sexual harassment BECAUSE IT IS!
- Geez, even the previous Lord of the Lords is giving Shin a verbal dressing down.
- The ritual method for Gohan having his latent power unlocked (again) is funny.
- The series of failed fusions for Goten and Trunks are hysterical. It’s even more funny I the manga where we get an awesome fourth wall shattering moment Krillin calling out Toriyama for photocopying pages and Tori-bot saying his editor doesn’t have to pay him for the photocopied page.
- Gotenks coming back battered, bloodied and bruised after fighting Majin Boo is a great gag in the manga.
- In just one day 80% of humanity has been destroyed by Majin Boo. And Goku expected him to kill no-one for two days…
- I know I’m going to sound like a broken record, but Mr Satan is so fucking FUNNY!
- Mr Satan and Majin Boo have instant great chemistry.
- I couldn’t stop laughing at Mr Satan’s attempts to kill Majin Boo and then befriending him. In both the manga (Chapter 481) and anime (Episode 252), it’s a riot to watch.
- The random gunmen mowing under the pretence of “It’s the end of the world, and Majin Boo will be blamed for it anyway” really emphasizes that while Majin Boo may be wiping out humanity, humanity itself is still capable of being just as senselessly evil.
- So SSJ Gotenks fighting Majin Boo ends with… nothing but a gag. Hmm.
- Wonderfully subtle character development with Majin Boo finding an injured dog after being read story about a dog, healing it, befriending it and feeling nice because the dog likes him for healing him
- Even better character development follows with Mr Satan not choosing to kill Majin Boo because he looks so happy with the puppy he saved, and he doesn’t want to also hurt the puppy.
- Mr Satan convincing Majin Boo not kill anymore may seem basic and bland in presentation, but it works so well because of how simple-minded and easily swayed Majin Boo is. He really doesn’t know any better.
- Mr Satan beating up the gunman who went shot Majin Boo’s puppy is one of the most surprisingly cathartic beatdowns in the story.
- Majin Boo’s anger at his puppy and Mr Satan being, not to mention the joy he expressed at saving the life of the puppy that was shot, really sell how much Majin Boo has grown attached to the both of them and how his character has evolved.
- The death of the gunman from the djinn that materialised from Majin Boo’s anger was overkill, but I loved it.
- Majin Boo is hoist by his own candy beam petard. What a wonderfully ironic way for him to face his demise. It’s one of Dragon Ball’s better plot twist.
- The small moment of the new evil Super Boo not attacking Mr Satan is great little detail to the extent of how Super Boo’s friendship with Mr Satan is genuine, as well as showing how much influence he has despite being eaten.
- Okay, I know Piccolo was in rough position with Super Boo arriving when they weren’t ready, but if Piccolo needed extra time for Goten and Trunks to be ready to fight Super Boo, couldn’t he have just first made the suggestion of bringing out the giant hourglass and saying that Mr Satan’s daughter told her to make him wait, instead of throwing 99.9% of what was remaining of humanity under the bus? I mean, yeah, death in Dragon Ball bears little meaning now, but was that moment necessary given how it has no consequences on the plot at all?
- The visual of Super Boo wiping out nearly all of humanity is quite spectacular. It’s even better in the anime with the added detail of how Super Boo blasts deliberately evade Mr Satan. It’s those little details that really add so much more to the story.
- Manga line – Goku: “Wow… So he wasn’t just a stupid old man…” Goku is such an asshole. And not the innocently insincere kind either.
- Chi Chi is brave but stupid. Her being turned into an egg and crushed by Super Boo was quite unnerving.
- I love how pragmatic Super Boo is. From refusing to wait for the “hour”glass to finish, to figuring out that Piccolo was trying to stall for time and then attacking Goten and Trunks before they could fuse.
- Gotenks initial name based physical attacks against Super Boo against Super Boo isn’t funny for the same reason the Ginyu Force aren’t funny.
- So Gotenks can produce exploding ghost like beings. How… in the fucking hell can he do this? That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- I love how Super Boo is no selling Gotenks’ bullshit antic with his exploding ghosts.
- Super Boo is a very quick learner.
- Okay, the moment where two of Gotenks’ ghosts explode from shaking hands is pretty funny.
- Goku is such an asshole to Shin. It’s even more aggravating since Goku contributed to the mess they’re currently in and Shin tried his hardest to prevent Majin Boo from being relased
- Super Boo can regenerate from smoke? So OP.
- I don’t like Gotenks. He doesn’t have the proper balance of charm and humour that manages to mask over any other undesirable traits. He’s more annoying and over-the-top than actually fun to watch.
- Super Boo just tore a hole through dimensions, by accident, from yelling in anger. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Bulma is such a cunt (in the anime). She bitches out at the rest of the Z-Fighters for leaving the fate of the world up to Goten and Trunks, even though they were the only guys strong enough to fight Super Boo at the time, and even calls the rest of cast cowards for letting it happen. Yeah, Bulma, let’s have Krillin, Yamcha and Ox King try to take on Super Boo, I’m sure that will end well. I mean… fucking hell. What a goddamn outrageous thing to say.
- Hmm. I guess screaming really does solve all your problems. It leads to Gotenks becoming a SSJ3 and him managing to tear a hole through dimensions. That’s just Dragon Ball, for better or for worse, being Dragon Ball.
- Piccolo taking part in Gotenks Ultra Boo Boo Volleyball gimmick technique is pretty funny, but Gotenks’ antics are really wearing thin on my patience.
- Now the art of the manga is just getting outright bad.
- And SSJ3 times out just before Gotenks could get in the finishing blow. What a shock. I mean… what an anti-climax.
- The ritual for the Gohan’s latent power being unlocked was finished five minutes ago and the elder Lord of the Lords didn’t tell Gohan this to make the scenario more dramatic? Is every major character in this arc an asshole, or something?
- Gohan has had his hidden power unlocked… for the third time. Let hope this at least goes somewhere for him.
- Manga line – Elder Lord of the Lords: “Little ingrate… can’t he say ‘Bye, Lord of Lords’?” Seriously… FUCK this guy. I hate him.
- Super Boo: “Are you really gonna fight me?” Gohan: “No. I’m gonna kill you.” That exchange still gives me chills to this day.
- Gohan’s one-sided ass kicking of Super Boo is so much better handled in the anime. It’s better paced, and it has better fight choreography and is just visually more appealing. The fight is WAY too short in the manga and it looks quite ugly at times.
- Super Boo is one cunning bastard. But his motives are as generic as they could possibly be. It’s basically a carbon copy of Cell’s motivation for wanting to be the strongest and have something to test his power with.
- The anime implies, at least initially into their fight, that Gohan and Super Boo (with Gotenks and Piccolo absorbed) on level pegging. It’s bullshit. In the manga, it’s a one-sided stomp in Super Boo’s favour.
- Wait… why was Vegeta’s spirit kept intact by Enma-daiō? And more importantly, why was Vegeta given a body? Isn’t that the treatment reserved for the especially good souls of the universe? Since when did Vegeta qualify for that? Didn’t Piccolo state that Vegeta would be, and I’m paraphrasing here, going straight to Hell?
- And Elder Lord of the Lords transfers his life to Goku, making everything about Goku speech of the new generation taking over meaningless. Wonderful…
- Shin doesn’t know about the Potara earrings, and item that has been treasured among his race for generations? Does this guy know ANYTHING?
- Shouldn’t Gohan have gotten that near-death power-up after getting healed by Dende? And don’t tell me that the cast can’t them anymore because they’ve grown much stronger, because Cell was able to get one.
- Shin and Kibito have fused with the Potara earrings… and they may not have bothered to do so I the first place as they’re still far too weak to fight Super Boo. Like, what was the point of that?
- Oh. Tien’s here…
- Goku wondering if he’ll have to High School if he fuses with Gohan is just hilarious.
- Mr Satan hesitating to “kill” Super Boo is a great little moment for me. He really does care for that pink bastard.
- …And Tien’s down with a single kick. What was point of him re-appearing? It’s just like Piccolo coming to Namek, it felt so forced and unnecessary.
- Elder Lord of the Lords backstory to how be appeared old is hysterical, but raises one question… does he have female or male genitalia, considering he fused with a female witch? Or does he have both?
- Okay, there’s a small but significant difference in how they handle the Gohan/Goku/Potara incident. In the manga, Goku throws the Potara earring at Gohan so suddenly that Gohan can’t react quick enough to grab it and doesn’t throw it near enough to Gohan. In the anime, Goku throws the Potara earing at right at Gohan, but Gohan acts clumsily and Gohan just simply can’t catch it. Long story short, manga = Goku’s fault and anime = Gohan’s fault.
- Oh, look at that, another instance where a transformation times out right before the deadly attack was going to be made. This kind of plot convenience is really getting on my nerves in this arc.
- In the anime, SSJ3 Goku appears to hold his own in fight against Super Boo (with Gotenks and Piccolo absorbed). And yes, this doesn’t happen in the manga.
- And Gohan is absorbed. So much for that power-up. But once again, Super Boo is a delightfully cunning bastard.
- Everything poignant and symbolic behind Vegeta killing himself just got trampled on with Vegeta getting on Goku's case for holding out SS3 in their battle. Like… that’s just fucking absurd. But Goku doesn’t get off scot-free either. If he had SSJ3 in his back pocket, he should certain used it when he fought Majin Vegeta. His excuse for saving that form for later is bullshit. Unless he WANTED Majin Boo to be released. Which just makes him an insanely reckless and selfish asshole.
- More anime nonsense as SSJ Goku and Vegeta decide it would better to fight individually and defeat Majin Boo.
- Vegerot, I mean, Vegetto is in the house!
- I love Vegetto’s one-sided beatdown of Super Boo… in the manga. It’s ridiculously dragged out in the anime.
- SSJ Vegetto is turned into candy but can still move and talk… FUCKING HOW!? Regardless of that bullshit, Candy Vegetto is immensely entertaining.
- Umm… the Lord of the Lords can read minds, right? Surely, would they use that ability and then tell that Vegetto getting “absorbed” is part of his plan instead of freaking out and acting like the fight is lost, no?
- Vegetto, a character created from an ancient treasure that is supposed to make those who combine stay fused forever, just defused. What… the actual fuck is that all about? Goku hypothesizes it may be Majin Boo’s nasty air that spilt apart Vegetto, and I call bullshit on that because if that were the case, why didn’t Gotenks defuse when he absorbed him? In fact, isn’t Piccolo technically a fused character as well? Shouldn’t Kami and Nail have separated from Piccolo’s body too when Majin Boo absorbed him?
- WHY DID VEGETA CRUSH THE POTARA EARRING!? THEY STILL HAVE TO FIGHT MAJIN BOO!! GODDAMMIT VEGETA!!
- The filler episodes with Goku and Vegeta inside Majin Boo are the fucking pits. Low points of the entire arc. Awful episodes. Skip them.
- Wait, so the Majin Boo in the same pod that Goten, Trunks and Piccolo are from when they were absorbed? Well, if that’s the case, where are all the other billions of pods of people that Majin Boo turned into chocolate and ate, just like what happened to him?
- And Vegeta, despite Super Boo pleading with not to, removes the pod that Fat Majin Boo is in. This is Cell arc Vegeta all over again. Making things more difficult for everyone.
- And now we have a small version of Super Boo. Um… what? What happened to skinny Kid Boo? How does removing Fat Majin Boo inside of Super Boo lead to a child like version of Majin Boo? Where the fuck did this come from? This is a major plothole.
- The backstory of the how Majin Boo battled the five Lord of the Lord is much better handled in the anime.
- The first thing Kid Boo tries to do is blow up the planet. If only other villains had his pragmatic way of thinking.
- Episode 278 looks ugly (as all episode managed by Post Shida Last House) and has some bullshit filler in where Kid Boo manages to find the Heavenly realm where Goku was training (manga) and fought in the Afterlife Tournament (anime). Stick to the manga version of events. Although I did like Kid Boo planet nuking spree in the anime. Really seel him as being a literal force of destruction before Beerus hashtagged that tole.
- My God, does Mr Satan doe Mr Satan know how to defuse a serious situation, or what? He delusion of thinking everything that has happened is just a dream is fucking hysterical. Mr Satan has been the shinning beacon of this arc.
- Shin doesn’t know what Dragon Balls are?! That’s inexcusable!
- Elder Lord of the Lord prattles on about how using the Dragon Ball hurls the cosmic order into chaos? But… how? What evidence do we have of that? The Namekian Dragon Ball affecting the fate of other planets have had zero effect on the cosmic order of the universe so I don’t know what the fuck he’s going on about.
- Fuck’s sake Goku… Even now he is still trying to pimp out Bulma even when doesn’t need to… and in front of Vegeta! This gag wasn’t charming or funny the first time around and it’s less funny now. And just to top it all off, he then calls Chi Chi flat-chested. Is anyone else getting tired of this asshole?
- Goku turns down using the Potara earring despite being so gung-ho on using it against Super Boo and bitching out Vegeta for breaking his Potara? I fucking hate Goku in this arc.
- And Goku reveals he could have defeated Majin Boo when he first became a SSJ3 against him. So not only is Goku a hypocrite, he’s also a liar. I REALLY fucking hate Goku in this arc.
- Sure… there’s all the time in the world for Goku and Vegeta to play Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who fight first against an ancient, evil, volatile djinn that a few moments ago destroyed your planet and killed all you family and friends. Am I supposed to roots for these guys?
- Episode 279 is Studio Cockpits final episode for Dragon Ball and they end on a high. Stunning animation with SSJ2 Goku fighting Kid Boo. This is the best-looking episode from them. Great stuff. It’s ultimately fluff material, but it looks so damn good.
- This is the second time that Goku transformed into a SSJ3 in literally an instant. Makes you wonder what all the extended screaming and trying to power-up was all about the first time he did it against Majin Boo.
- Vegeta’s speech about Goku being Number #1 (anime)/The Champion (manga) is very well intended but feels so out of place with how Vegeta has been written in this arc. It’s an epiphany that should have been handled much more carefully to have really meaning.
- And Goku can’t the job done as a SSJ3 and regrets not using the Potara because he tried to act cool about it. Could Goku’s character be any more inconsistent?
- Vegeta steps into give Goku the extra minute he needs to recharge his Ki and get clobbered by Kid Boo. I can’t lie… I enjoyed seeing that happen.
- Mr Satan, the REAL champion, steps in the save Vegeta dying and challenges Majin Boo. And he still thinks this is all a dream. I love this man.
- Studio Live returns to stink up the place in Episode 282. Yuck.
- Kid Boo just spat out Fat Majin Boo. How does that work?
- Mr Satan taking a punch from Kid Boo may ruffle the feathers of power level enthusiasts and reek of plot armour… but it’s such a wonderful character moment for Mr Satan that I’m gonna let it pass.
- Fat Majin Boo steps into to help Mr Satan because their best friends and then when Fat Majin Boo is getting beaten up Mr Satan tries to fight Kid Boo and… *sigh*… can we give these guys a spin-off already? They’re fantastic characters.
- How did the Namekians know what was going on with Kid Boo?
- Good thinking from Vegeta in regard to the wishes they should ask for from Porunga.
- So Vegeta’s grand plan is for Goku to use the Genki Dama… but to use more than bit of energy from every person on Earth.
- Nice to see Upa again. Same with #17, but he never interacted with Goku so how does he know what Goku sounds like?
- Also, Cyborg 8 was brought back to life… fucking how?! I thought you couldn’t bring artificial beings back to life? This seriously puts a major damper on poignancy of #16 being killed by Cell.
- The anime gives Lunch a cameo with her giving energy to the Genki Dama. That was nice of them.
- Some people may be annoyed with how the Earthlings refusing to give Goku their energy, but I have no issue with it because it drives home how that the people of Earth are idiots, Goku is nobody in the grand scheme of Earth, and with what’s happened in the last few days, I can’t blame them for being so sceptical.
- Mr Satan once again proves his worth by convincing the people on Earth to give their energy to Goku for his Genki Dama. Just goes to show you don’t need insanely strong to make a big difference in a battle.
- The anime throws in Fat Majin Boo attacking Kid Boo when Kid Boo realises that Goku won’t throw the Genki Dama with Vegeta near Kid Boo. I really like that addition to the story. Makes it even more of a team effort in defeating Kid Boo.
- In one of the more surprisingly solemn moments of the story, Goku wishes that Kid Boo comes as a good guy to that he fights him on better terms in a one-on-one battle before finishing him with the Genki Dama. Despite the problems I have with this arc, it’s a wonderful moment.
- Wait, why does Fat Majin Boo need to hide for six months? I thought the Earth Dragon Balls would reactivate after four months because they made only one wish (which technically was two) with them.
- Elder Lord of the Lord continues to complain that the cast are misusing the Dragon Balls. I hate this guy.
- Despite risking his life to defeat Kid Boo, Vegeta still wants to kill Majin Boo on the off chance he ends up creating another Kid Boo like creature. I don’t get this. Fat Boo expelled all of the evil inside of him. There’s nothing like Kid Boo remaining inside him. And considering how Vegeta got a second chance from committing one genuinely good and selfless act for the first time in his life, why is he now espousing his high moral ground
- I love how the anime spends time to properly give the emotional resonance from the fallout of defeating Kid Boo. We get to see Goku, Vegeta and Mr Satan reunite with their family, make the wish to wiped the memories of Majin Boo from the people of Earth, Majin Boo getting accustomed to society, and Gohan and Videl fighting crime. The manga speeds through this with nothing but a few pages of the character with no dialogue.
- I actually liked the episode of Bulma having a party and Goku shenanigans with a dinosaur egg.
- Fast forward ten years…
- Pan is so cute.
- And just to hammer home that Goten and Trunks wouldn’t have be suitable choices for the next generation to take care of the Earth in Goku’s steed, we have Goten being forced to take part in the Budokai Tenkaichi and being upset that he couldn’t go a date because of it and Vegeta threating to cut Trunks allowance as a way of forcing him to enter.
- Man, the universe really does bend over to give Goku what he wants. He asks for Kid Boo to be reincarnated as good person and he gets it. There’s doing favours and then there’s playing favourites.
- I loved the gag with Vegeta casually knocking out his opponent at the tournament.
- Goku trying to insult Oob to loosen him and up and enable him to tap into his raw strength was hilarious.
- Goku being so excited at the prospect of training and eventually fighting Oob wonderfully sums up the character: He’s always looking forward to the next challenge and opponent...
- …That’s being said, the way Goku handles saying goodbye to his friends and family to live and train with Oob couldn’t have been anymore flippant in the manga. It’s handled infinitely better in the anime with Goku comforting Pan, telling Goten and Trunks not skip out on their training, and personally saying farewell to Vegeta.
- We get a lovely montage of what the cast get up to at the Budokai Tenkaichi after Goku departs with Oob.
- Goku and Oob fly off into the sunset… and the adventure continues... in GT…[/spoiler]
Phew, it’s over. Now let’s get to the good and bad.
(Continued in the next post...)
Spoiler: