Dragon Ball Rewatch Random Thoughts

[ABED]

Inspired by Herms' mini-reviews, I've decided to do something similar. Instead of writing out reviews, I think this will be more fun, especially since I'm a terrible writer. That's not fair to myself. I'm an okay writer who doesn't rewrite and edit that much.

So, here are my thoughts on episodes 14-20:
- Lunch is sweet and quirky, but doesn't serve much purpose to the story.
- The filler with her in the saloon is boring.
- There were a bunch of clever reversals when Goku and Kuririn went hunting for the rock
- Goku and Kuririn's going from rivals to friends is well done
- Roshi's training is some of my favorite material in the entire show
- In the manga, the tournament contestants arrive and fight on the same day. I suppose some of them could've arrived earlier, but I like that in the anime, the contestants got a night to rest up.
- Kuririn getting payback on his bully was sweet revenge and Goku giving him permission to not hold back was the icing on the cake.

DB episodes 21-28
- Goku's sharp sense of smell is an element that's dropped pretty early on and it's a shame. It's great fodder for humor.
- Kuririn smelling Bacterian's BO makes no logical sense but works in the context of Toriyama's bizarre world.
- I love the atmosphere around the 21st-23rd Tenkaichi Budokais which makes the garishness and size of later tournaments sad to me. It went from a contest where only the strongest enter and win to a celebrity showcase. It's like San Diego Comic Con.
- Kuririn and Jackie Chun demonstrating their lightning fast exchange for the sake of the audience is brilliant. I've never seen that anywhere else before, nor do I recall having seen it since.
- If Toriyama had gone the clichéd route, I think Namu would've won, since he's the one with the sob story, but I'm glad he didn't. His story comes to a satisfactory conclusion.
- Kuririn screaming "Goku!" when he thinks his best friend is dead is heart wrenching.

[sintzu]

I've also been re-watching it and just finished the 22nd Tenkaichi arc.

I haven't watched it in a while so one thing I noticed is how underrated the red ribbon army arc is, it has diverse locations, a lot of characters & plenty of great moments.

Roshi is such a great character and I wish he had more of a role in Z, sure he's still a funny pervert but under that is a wise and caring man, something I think was lost in Z.

Although this is mainly Goku's show, it doesn't push everyone into the back and make them irrelevant so this is a great example of how to use secondary characters while keeping the focus on the main one.

Goku's goal from day 1 was to become the strongest fighter in the world and at the end of DB he succeeds which is why I think Toriyama decided to put him in the back during Z's part of the story cause he had fulfilled his dream and his overall character arc was complete so in order to continue the story without repeating what came before, Toriyama decided to shift the focus onto new characters which isn't normal for Shonen manga and probably isn't easy but somehow he pulled it off.

[ABED]

Toriyama decided to shift the focus onto new characters which isn't normal for Shonen manga and probably isn't easy but somehow he pulled it off.

It's not, but he pulled it off to varying degrees and I don't think he should've tried to put the focus on Gohan as the hero. He certainly needs focus in order to get the audience to care about him, but I've never been a big fan of changing the lead character of a story after a long time. Even if the new character is good, I don't think I've ever seen it where the new character is just as interesting, much less better, than the original.

Other random though, I like how the Tenkaichi Budokai logo animation in the episode title card changes with every tournament.

[sintzu]

I don't think he should've tried to put the focus on Gohan as the hero.

The focus was spread across 4 characters, Gohan was being developed to take over from Goku, Vegeta & Piccolo went from being villains who only cared about themselves to heroes who gave up their lives to save the planet and their loved ones & Trunks went through hell to save his timeline and become its hero.

However I think Gohan should've gotten more major moments during the Namek and Android arcs before fighting Cell cause the last major thing he did was fall on Vegeta and even that wasn't all his doing but overall I think Gohan was handled well in Z.

[ABED]

I don't think he should've tried to put the focus on Gohan as the hero.

The focus was spread across 4 characters, Gohan was being developed to take over from Goku, Vegeta & Piccolo went from being villains who only cared about themselves to heroes who gave up their lives to save the planet and their loved ones & Trunks went through hell to save his timeline and become its hero.

However I think Gohan should've gotten more major moments during the Namek and Android arcs before fighting Cell cause the last major thing he did was fall on Vegeta and even that wasn't all his doing but overall I think Gohan was handled well in Z.

He didn't need to have beaten a guy to do something major. Saving Dende and help get the Dragon Balls. What I liked about the Vegeta fight is that everyone contributed. My biggest problem with Gohan is that no matter how many times his potential is fully brought out, he always has more. Goku's story of becoming the best might have been accomplished in Dragon Ball, but as DBZ shows us and as Muten Roshi says fairly early on, there's always a bigger fish. I find it odd that so many love the idea of Gohan taking over. It's not like Goku and his generation taking over from Muten Roshi. Goku was still in his prime and Gohan was a child.

- Back to the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, I really love the fight between Goku and Jackie Chun. It's my second favorite after Goku vs. Piccolo. The thing that taints Goku vs. Tenshinhan's first fight is the deus ex machina ending
- Does anyone know what Tenku Pekejiken stand for? I wish the subtitles had translated the attack name..

[Nejishiki]

Herms translated it as, "Heavenly X-Mark Attack".

[ABED]

Herms translated it as, "Heavenly X-Mark Attack".

Thank, man.

For anyone that knows Japanese, could you compare and contrast Clyde Mandolin's translations to Steven Simmons'?

[Ajay]

For anyone that knows Japanese, could you compare and contrast Clyde Mandolin's translations to Steven Simmons'?

Though I don't speak it, I do distinctly remember Herms saying that they're both very accurate, but have different abilities/preferences when it comes to rendering sentences in English. Simmons can often be a little unwieldy or unnatural, sometimes translating Japanese idioms literally in the worst of cases. This stiffness was particularly prevalent in his Yu Yu Hakusho subs, which were unnatural to the point of distraction. Fortunately, this issue of his appears to have only really been at his worst in his early days of translating. Comparing the quality between his Z and Kai subs are like night and day. Here's the same example from Z in Kai.

Mandelin was better at retaining accuracy while producing natural dialogue. He also opted to convert measurements. I'm not sure if he simply had more experience than Simmons back in the day, but his work definitely reads a lot more smoothed over than Simmons' equivalent stuff back then.

[Kuririn Fan]

Why did you skip the first arc? Anyway, I'm 108 chapters and 76 episodes in the reread/rewatch so far, and i fucking love it! 4 episodes worth of chapters and then i watch those episodes. Its the first time i did something like that and its amazing. I am legend...

[sintzu]

Why did you skip the first arc? Anyway, I'm 108 chapters and 76 episodes in the reread/rewatch so far, and i fucking love it! 4 episodes worth of chapters and then i watch those episodes. Its the first time i did something like that and its amazing. I am legend...

If they were to do a Kai version, how much could they cut out without messing up the pacing ? there are 20 complete filler episodes so I'm not talking about them cause they can be cut out without hurting anything.

[Kuririn Fan]

Why did you skip the first arc? Anyway, I'm 108 chapters and 76 episodes in the reread/rewatch so far, and i fucking love it! 4 episodes worth of chapters and then i watch those episodes. Its the first time i did something like that and its amazing. I am legend...

If they were to do a Kai version, how much could they cut out without messing up the pacing ? there are 20 complete filler episodes so I'm not talking about them cause they can be cut out without hurting anything.

I wasnt watching it with Kai in mind, but if it was anything like Kai 1.0, it could have been easily 90 episodes max, which is crazy. First two arcs are almost perfect, 2 chapters per episode is great in my opinion, its the Red Ribbon Army arc where things got crazy. But then again, i like most of the filler, so i wasnt bothered by it in the least.

[ABED]

I didn't skip the first arc. I created a previous thread where I was planning on writing longer reviews, but it petered out. But if you want them, here they are in a nutshell

DB Episodes 1-13:
- Bulma and Goku bounce so well off of each other that it's a shame their relationship gets lost in the shuffle further down the line.
- The story starts off like a straightforward tale, but quickly changes gears.
- The episodes are more episodic than they eventually become.
- Oolong's plan to drug and fondle Bulma at night is friggin creepy.
- In the manga, Pilaf is introduced as an antagonist at the very end, but I prefer him and his cohorts being there from the beginning.
- Toriyama is great at turning expectations and conventions on their head. All the talk about Dragon Balls and wishes and world domination and what is the very first wish? A pair of panties
- When it's revealed that Goku survived the Jackie Chun's Kamehameha, Oolong's reaction is " That ass!"
- The battle of Muten Roshi against his students could easily have not happened, but it was smart of Toriyama to write it, and it didn't disappoint. We aren't merely told he's a master of the martial arts, we see it.

DB Movie 1 does a good job of condensing the first arc, but it feels like DB meshed with something from Studio Ghibli. The nature message isn't very Dragon Ball at all. Did it have to be so on the nose? Seriously, the king's hunger can't be satiated by even the best food, but a simple apple does the trick. Oy with the poodle already.
DB Movie 2 condenses 3 episodes into a movie, this time it feels like a mesh up of Dragon Ball and a horror movie. Regarding the dub, wow, is it rough! The quality of the recording itself is terrible. Lucifer is very bland.

[ABED]

And now I arrive at the Red Ribbon Army arc and the 2nd hunt for the Dragon Balls arc.
- Interesting that the first scene is a little different from the manga. In the manga, Goku leaves at night time. Not a big deal, just an observation.
- The wandering lake episode is boring. Why would they waste an insert song on this?
- Wow, they are experiencing a water shortage and Namu's first act is to open the valve and just let that precious water pour out? It's like in Mad Max: Fury Road when seemingly everyone was just wasting water.
- Pilaf is always welcome.
- The guy selling the fake Dragon Balls is an interesting idea.
- Gyumao's relationship with Chichi is sweet, but good lord is she vapid.

[HybridSaiyan]

Looking back, the entire Buu Saga could have been prevented If Supreme Kai never restrained SSJ2 Gohan. It would have been cool seeing SSJ2 Adult Gohan kick Spopovich and Yamu's ass. Especially since the torture Spopovich put Videl through.

[Lord Beerus]

Looking back, the entire Buu Saga could have been prevented If Supreme Kai never restrained SSJ2 Gohan. It would have been cool seeing SSJ2 Adult Gohan kick Spopovich and Yamu's ass. Especially since the torture Spopovich put Videl through.

And entire Android/Cell arc would have never happened if the Z-Fighters listened to Bulma. Hindsight is 20/20.

[ABED]

Looking back, the entire Buu Saga could have been prevented If Supreme Kai never restrained SSJ2 Gohan. It would have been cool seeing SSJ2 Adult Gohan kick Spopovich and Yamu's ass. Especially since the torture Spopovich put Videl through.

And entire Android/Cell arc would have never happened if the Z-Fighters listened to Bulma. Hindsight is 20/20.

It's not so much hindsight as it is their purpose was never to stop it from happening.