Ah, awesomely awesome manga review of well... yeah.
One thing that the anime covered that you guys didn't mention was how they actually gave more meaning to the bell aside from it meaning that you got Karin's approval to get there. Mr. Popo takes the bell from Goku and does his whole disappear/reappear act and asks Goku if there was something weird he noticed. With Goku not exactly being the brightest bulb in the bunch, Popo eventually tells him that the bells didn't ring at all while he moved. I thought that little bit of info added on by the anime was pretty interesting since it gives a sort of goal to work for aside from just wanting to be quicker than lightning, which is pretty hokey if you think about it.
The filler during that period, while seeming appropriate to give a glimpse of what was going on during everyone's training, did start to get a bit stale after a while. But it's always funny to bring about stuff like the volcano scene and the time travel etc.
I agree with you guys that the tournament sagas are always enjoyable since they don't really deliver this feeling of something dire like the entire world could be destroyed at any time. It's just kinda this fun little arc that gives the main characters a reason to possibly end up fighting each other. Though I guess this tournament is a bit different in that there actually
is a dire situation what with a newly born Piccolo out to get Goku and all.
Unlike the other time skips before this volume, this one was, of course, different in that you actually see a big change with all the characters wearing what I like to call their "Next Gen" clothes. For a series made in the '80s (maybe even early '90s by now), I'm surprised at how awesome everyone's clothes still look. Though I'm sure that's more because the DB series doesn't exactly copy whatever the current style is in the real world. If I weren't introduced to DBZ first, I probably would have thought that Toriyama would have stuck to giving his characters those street clothes throughout the entire series. Then again, I'm sure fighting would be pretty difficult while wearing some of that stuff, so maybe not. One question that probably crossed my mind while going through this the first time around is "Does Toriyama think turbans are the future?" I mean, you've got your main good and bad guys wearing them, so he must have some kind of connection to them.
I really like how you guys brought up how the anime's slightest different with stuff like the balloon and the rock scene. I actually enjoyed both scenes, but agree that it was really out of character for Piccolo to save the kid like that. The awkweird dub line from the kid's mom, telling Piccolo in a sort of British accent "I'm eternally grateful, sir" always sticks out to me when I see that scene. I dunno why
...
As always, awesome episode and I'll be looking forward to the next one.
EDIT: Heh, I like how you basically copy and pasted the vol. 13 description for this episode, but completely forgot to remove the part about the 10th anniversary contest winner.
. It's a good one, too! I'm sure you'll be able to continue to hear the fanboy excitement in my voice as we move on through the 23rd Tenka-ichi Budokai.
