Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 1 - DB Episodes 1-5

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 1 of the first Dragon Ball rewatch of the decade.
We're doing five episodes a week, and we'll be watching every single episode of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. All 508 episodes. Plus the TV specials and the movies (more on that later, when we actually get there).
I encourage you all to watch in Japanese with subtitles, especially if you have never done so before, but watch along in whichever way brings you the most joy.

Previous thread: Introduction
Next thread: Week 2 (DB 6-10)

So, let's get underway...

Episode 1 - Bulma and Son Goku
Dub title: The Secret Of The Dragon Balls
Originally aired 26th of February 1986

In West City, Bulma learns from a book in her home of the existence of the Dragon Balls, said to grant any single wish if all seven are gathered. She builds a Dragon Radar that picks up the electric waves emitted by the Dragon Balls, and sets out on a journey to find them. Midway through her journey, she meets the peculiar tailed boy Son Goku! Bulma recognizes that Goku’s keepsake from his adoptive grandfather is the Four-Star Ball, one of the Dragon Balls. She invites him on her journey to collect the Dragon Balls, and the two set out for an adventure!!

Anime-only/filler content: Goku eats an apple and engages in some Looney Tunes shenanigans with a sabre tooth cat; the Pilaf crew find their first Dragon Ball and Mai explains the Dragon Balls.

Episode 2 - Ararara–! No Balls!
Dub title: The Emperor's Quest
Originally aired 5th of March 1986

Goku and Bulma continue their search, looking for the fourth Dragon Ball. Bulma brings a house out from a Hoi Poi capsule, and they spend the night in there. But Goku, who has always lived in the mountains, mistakes Bulma for a sorceress. As Goku is surprised at the interior lighting and television, Bulma remarks that he’s a hick! The next morning, a lost sea turtle appears before the pair!! At the turtle’s request, the two set out to carry him to the sea, but…?!

Anime-only/filler content: Shu and Mai are dispatched to a Dragon Ball sighting, where they meet Goku, and he fights a bunch of wolves.

Episode 3 - Kame-Sen’nin’s Kinto-Un
Dub title: The Nimbus Cloud Of Roshi / Roshi's Nimbus Cloud
Originally aired 12th of March 1986

The party safely reaches the sea. In thanks, the turtle brings back an old man from the far side of the ocean who calls himself “Kame-Sen’nin”! In gratitude for saving his turtle, Kame-Sen’nin presents Goku with the Kinto-Un, which can fly as one wills it. Only the owner of a pure heart can ride on Kinto-Un, but the simple Goku manages to ride it! Meanwhile Bulma manages to obtain the Three-Star Ball that Kame-Sen’nin had by promising to show him her panties!!

Anime-only/filler content: Shu and Mai return from the woods, and the Pilaf Gang go to Kame House to try to get Kame-Sen'nin's Dragon Ball.

Episode 4 - The Kidnapping Demon, Oolong
Dub title: Oolong The Terrible
Originally aired 19th of March 1986

Goku and Bulma arrive at a certain village, where the fifth Dragon Ball is located. Goku is mistaken for the freely shape-shifting monster Oolong, who raids the village, and is hit by a sudden attack from one of the villagers! Bulma makes a promise with the villagers that “We’ll take care of Oolong in exchange for the Six-Star Ball that’s in this village”. Goku disguises himself as one of the village girls, and the captured monster’s true identity turns out to be a piglet, of all things!! Bulma and Goku obtain the Six-Star Ball. Taking in Oolong as their ally, they continue their adventure to find the remaining Dragon Balls!!

No significant anime-only/filler content.

Episode 5 - The Strong Villain of the Desert, Yamcha
Dub title: Yamcha The Desert Bandit
Originally aired 26th of March 1986

Goku and the others aim for Mt. Frypan. Because Bulma dropped her capsules into a river, they end up having to cross a desert on foot! Completely exhausted, Bulma rests there. At this point, the desert bandit Yamcha appears, and tries to seize Oolong’s capsules. Goku battles Yamcha, but he has no power on account of his empty stomach. At the critical moment, Bulma wakes up and Yamcha, who can’t bear to be around women, runs away with a few sharp parting remarks.

No significant anime-only/filler content.

-

Interesting trivia:

• Large portions of this initial plot were worked out far in advance of even the manga's debut in November 1984; June 1983's Dragon Boy, along with its second half in September, serves for some very interesting background reading, as it is a clear prototype for the early portions of Dragon Ball, though the female lead was arguably a lot meaner to the male lead than Bulma would end up being to Goku. In November the same year, there was the second prototype, The Adventures Of Tongpoo, which essentially reads like a bizarro melding of the first Dragon Ball storyline and parts of the Namek arc, except that the male lead is a robot. Both of these prototypes were published before the end of Dr. Slump.
• Episode 1 of Dragon Ball aired precisely one week after the final episode of Dr. Slump. The two further instalments of Dragon Ball would follow a similar pattern, Dragon Ball Z's first episode airing precisely one week after Dragon Ball's final, and Dragon Ball GT's first airing one week after Dragon Ball Z's final, and then GT's final episode would be followed by the first episode of the second Doctor Slump series.
• At this point, the anime was two years behind the manga, so technically it may not be correct to refer to anime-only material at this time as filler; they weren't necessarily seeking to pad out runtimes, and one could argue certain anime-only scenes like Pilaf's explanation of the Dragon Balls made the story tie up in a slightly more cohesive way, introducing the villains of the first arc at the beginning.
• Pilaf's henchman Shu would go by the name Soba for most of the manga run, because after the initial appearance, Toriyama seems to have forgotten his name, which the anime staff did not. By a similar note, Bulma's hair is blue in the anime, as it is in the first couple of chapters of the manga, however Toriyama either forgot or changed his mind by the next colour chapter, and her hair would be purple for the rest of the manga's run. (This is also why Trunks's hair is inexplicably purple while Bulma's is blue. This is also why Trunks's hair was changed to match Bulma's in the Super anime)
• These first few episodes of the Dragon Ball anime use a different jingle for the next episode preview than the rest of the series would. It seems that the preview jingle the majority of the run would use wasn't recorded yet, so the first ~7 episodes just use a shortened, instrumental mix of the opening song, Makafushigi Adventure. By a similar note, in the first episode, the two jingles used for the eyecatch are swapped around, compared to how they would be in every other episode.
• In the manga, Bulma's car hit Goku's fish. In the anime, she hit him. This change would persist into the 1986 movie retelling, though it would be corrected for the 10th anniversary movie in 1997.
• Toriyama made a mistake drawing the first chapter, which the anime staff never fixed, in which "Bloomer" was rendered as "Bulma" on the female lead's shirt. The English translations, from the manga, to the subtitles, to the dubs, have followed the "Bulma" rendering of her name, likely due to this mistake.
• This material has been dubbed into English a lot of times. An LA cast dubbed it for the 1989 "Harmony Gold dub", the Vancouver cast dubbed it for the 1995 "BLT dub", the Texas cast dubbed it for the 2001 Funimation dub, and the Calgary cast dubbed it for the 2003 "Blue Water dub".

Episode summaries, airdates, and titles courtesy of Kanzenshuu's episode guide. Filler breakdowns and Dragon Ball logo courtesy of KBABZ. (I'll be aiming to use a different one of the logos he's posted in his manga logo catalogue every week)
Not all differences between the anime and manga are noted in the anime-only/filler content listings, only the significant changes. The anime in general tended to expand on basically every beat and moment from the manga storyline.

[ABED]

I don't have much to add beyond enjoying the episodic nature of the first arc. TV shows in general should do this more. Each episode plays into the larger story but tells a complete story. Goku and Bulma have such an interesting dynamic right off the bat and wish it hadn't been practically absent later in the manga.

[Robo4900]

Yeah. I do like a storyline that runs across a season of TV, but I do wish we had more shows like Stargate or early Dragon Ball, where it is essentially just the characters going on a new adventure every week. That's one reason I missed Doctor Who so much this past year, I think. Fun characters going on individual, fun adventures.

And y'know, Goku and Bulma hanging out is inherently entertaining, so you can put them in any situation, and it'll be very enjoyable. And that only gets better as we meet the other characters like Oolong, Yamucha, Pu-erh, Kame-Sen'nin, and Kuririn... So it's kind of got a perfect setup for these individual stories, which it does take full advantage of for quite a while. Even though the 21st Tenkaichi and Red Ribbon arcs would go on to have more cohesive overall stories, both were essentially a revolving door of individual stories, even though the 21st Tenkaichi's generally took place over a couple of episodes, and the Red Ribbon arc's usually took place over five or six (even eight or ten sometimes, I think).

I just finished the first episode, and I've gotta say -- I love the joke of the dinosaur tying him up, and him just instantly untying himself with his tail; it's not even vaguely an issue.

[MasenkoHA]

I just watched the first episode.


Bulma and Son Goku Commentary

*Not sure why Goku is carrying that large saw he doesn’t appear to need it

*Can Goku survive bullets being shot at him because he isn’t human or because he’s a trained martial artist (Roshi and Kuririn can survive bullets too) you decide!


*Goku calls Bulma a yokai which apparently means spirit, spectre, demon, any kind of supernatural monster. The sub translates this as “goblin” which I guess isn’t incorrect but I think the dub translating it as him calling her a monster is more accurate.


*Goku gaves Bulma his full name, Bulma doesn’t feel the need to be on a full name basis with Goku and just omits her family name


*Not really fond of Bulma getting ready to tell Goku about the Dragon Balls and then it cuts to the Pilaf gang and Mai ends up explaining it to Pilaf and the audience. Would have preferred just letting Bulma explain it, as in the manga, and save the Pilaf gang for episode 2. Oh well.


*Shu doesn’t say a single word in the episode. I believe the Funi dub at least, in its inability to shut the hell up, gives him a line or two.

*Bulma clearly thinks Goku is like 7 or 8. And she’s going to let him grope her ass over her panties for his dragon ball. Just saying


*Is it that hard for a wealthy high school girl who isn’t lacking in confidence with her looks to get a boyfriend? Should have stuck with the unlimited strawberries wish

*The crossdressing bit in the ending credits should have confirmed that Pu-erh is indeed a boy since he’s a in a dress with Goku, Yamucha, and Oolong instead of in a tux like Bulma. Guess the English dubbers never got that memo.

[Robo4900]

*Goku gaves Bulma his full name, Bulma doesn’t feel the need to be on a full name basis with Goku and just omits her family name

Well, you say that. I'm pretty sure it eventually ended up the case that Dragon Ball characters just don't have family names, a lot of the time. IIRC Videl even mentions this as how she found out Gohan's related to Goku; she investigates the odd case that this weird dude at her school has a family name, and finds out its history.

Plus, I'm pretty sure in Japanese culture, usually people on a more casual basis tend to use the family name plus an honourific (thus Bulma calling Goku Son-kun), so unless I've got the complete wrong end of the stick here (which is entirely possible; I'm no expert) if she does have a family name, the expectation would be that she'd introduce herself with just that name, rather than her given name, right?

*Not really fond of Bulma getting ready to tell Goku about the Dragon Balls and then it cuts to the Pilaf gang and Mai ends up explaining it to Pilaf and the audience. Would have preferred just letting Bulma explain it, as in the manga, and save the Pilaf gang for episode 2. Oh well.

Fair. I was always quite fond of this approach, honestly. The manga's way is okay, though it seems a bit rushed, and of course, in the manga, the Pilaf Gang ultimately sort of come out of no-where in the last third of the storyline. This, and their other appearances, sort of set them up a bit better.

*Is it that hard for a wealthy high school girl who isn’t lacking in confidence with her looks to get a boyfriend? Should have stuck with the unlimited strawberries wish

My pet theory is that she's an edgy teenager who's ended up coming to the conclusion that normal people aren't worthy of her (she is 16, after all. And we find out she is quite spoiled), so she's looking to wish for someone who'll be better than anyone she thinks she could find in her hometown.

Let's be honest though, unlimited strawberries would be a far better use of a wish than we ever actually see in the series.
The wish for panties amounted to about ten minutes of Oolong wearing them on his head, Piccolo's immortality was followed by his death after only a few days (possibly only a few hours?), and the rest were generally revivals/damage control.

[MasenkoHA]

Plus, I'm pretty sure in Japanese culture, usually people on a more casual basis tend to use the family name plus an honourific (thus Bulma calling Goku Son-kun), so unless I've got the complete wrong end of the stick here (which is entirely possible; I'm no expert) if she does have a family name, the expectation would be that she'd introduce herself with just that name, rather than her given name, right?

From my understanding it’s family name plus suffix unless you’re casual with each other.

The fact Bulma later insist Goku calls her Bulma-san and not you (omae) instead of asking to be addressed by a surname suggest she doesn’t have a family name though so you’re probably right about that.

My pet theory is that she's an edgy teenager who's ended up coming to the conclusion that normal people aren't worthy of her (she is 16, after all. And we find out she is quite spoiled), so she's looking to wish for someone who'll be better than anyone she thinks she could find in her hometown.

If she didn’t fall for a cute guy every five seconds I’d be inclined to agree. Someone who totally forgets the handsome dude in a trenchcoat was a ogre five seconds ago and is a known shape shifting monster can’t be that picky.

The wish for panties amounted to about ten minutes of Oolong wearing them on his head

I assume he kept it as part of his collection or maybe he’s wearing them under his trousers every time we see him after.

Piccolo's immortality was followed by his death after only a few days (possibly only a few hours?), and the rest were generally revivals/damage control.

Didn’t he wish for eternal youth? Semantics I guess but eternal youth would suggest he’s still mortal (since he was killed anyways) he just can’t get old and die of age. If he was immortal Goku couldn’t have killed him. Guess when you can rebirth yourself mortality isn’t an issue.

[Multi-Man]

Just watched the first episode. Don't really have much to say except that I cannot wait to see the adventures Goku and Bulma get into.

[PremiumSalt]

DRAGON BALL
Episode 1: Bulma and Son Goku

-I think I've watched these early episodes about a million times by now, and it always strikes me how humble and small scale the series started compared to where it would be by the end of the original run (let alone the newer stuff).

-I have to say, and this of course applies to this entire arc, but I'll say it here, I definitely prefer the anime's approach of having the Pilaf Gang make appearances throughout the entire arc, as opposed to the manga having them only show up at the end. Having an overarching threat makes the whole arc seem a bit more cohesive and connected, as opposed to being highly episodic. While the episodic format is fun, having the cohesion makes the story stronger in my opinion.

-Speaking of adaptation from manga to anime, this episode adapts only 1 chapter's worth of material, and yet the pacing feels perfectly fine, and not at all padded out, at least in my opinion. This is in stark contrast to parts of Z, where episodes would adapt roughly a chapter's worth and feel obscenely slow as a result. Mind you that may be because there's a lot more actual plot to adapt here, as opposed to the instances in Z, where it's mostly just, ya know, fighting.

-Random Observation: Goku doesn't seem terribly bothered when he thinks he "didn't save [Bulma] after all"...

[MyVisionity]

*Goku calls Bulma a yokai which apparently means spirit, spectre, demon, any kind of supernatural monster. The sub translates this as “goblin” which I guess isn’t incorrect but I think the dub translating it as him calling her a monster is more accurate.


*Goku gaves Bulma his full name, Bulma doesn’t feel the need to be on a full name basis with Goku and just omits her family name


*Not really fond of Bulma getting ready to tell Goku about the Dragon Balls and then it cuts to the Pilaf gang and Mai ends up explaining it to Pilaf and the audience. Would have preferred just letting Bulma explain it, as in the manga, and save the Pilaf gang for episode 2. Oh well.

I like the cut to Pilaf and the gang with Mai's explanation of the Dragon Balls, as it not only establishes the villains of the arc, but also creates a sense of foreboding and mystery surrounding the plot. It's a smart storytelling device.

As mentioned earlier Dragon Ball characters don't have family names. The only reason Goku gets one is because he's based off of Sun Wukong.

"Goblin" isn't really all that less accurate than "monster" for youkai, however I think that it sounds a bit more awkward in English than "monster". This reminds me that the official translator for these episodes is Clyde Mandelin, whose style of translating differs a bit from Steve Simmons of DBZ etc. I have problems with both of them.

(It should also be noted that while Mandelin does the subtitles for this arc and most of the DB series, the exception is episodes 14 to 28, which are subbed by Simmons.)

[KBABZ]

I'd say it's something the writers knew they'd have to do if Dragon Ball would be a long-runner (which of course it did). Looking at my old graph, while they did have proper filler arcs, I think they weren't needed like they were in Z until the Wedding Dress arc. At the start though they already knew a great deal of the story ahead of them, but I also feel that the more episodic nature of the first arc helps a lot, where each episode is a self-contained story. For the most part the manga does this as well, you have an encounter in a village for two or three Chapters and then move on.

21st got back into this regarding the anime where a fight would last an entire episode (even if they needed to throw in a rain delay to make it work), but it wasn't until the Red Ribbon arc that you had longer storylines that could be mini-arcs, specifically Colonel Silver, Muscle Tower, Pirate Cave, Land of Korin, RRA HQ and of course the Baba arc that's so long it's officially recognized as its own arc. But as another example of how "Z-like" the latter parts of the anime are, the Piccolo arc doesn't have such defined mini-arcs and feel more like the "22 minutes of the next part of the on-going story" feel that Z has.

*Can Goku survive bullets being shot at him because he isn’t human or because he’s a trained martial artist (Roshi and Kuririn can survive bullets too) you decide!

In terms of Goku being able to non-comedically survive bullets like Roshi and Krillin do later, I always felt this played into the "just what IS this kid?!" nature of Kid Goku, that would later be explained away as him being a Saiyan much, MUCH later on. This factor becomes a bit more emphasized at the end of this arc, but is much more present in the 21st TB and especially whenever Goku encounters the Red Ribbon Army later. This would then become important in putting Goku as the only person capable of taking on Piccolo (both times), and while this special facet of Goku would turn out to not be so important after all (SAIYANS!), Goku being the only person capable of taking down the current villain would remain. For... some reason.

Speaking of which, I'm not sure you could do a twist like that to such a long-running facet of a major character in Dragon Ball these days. I think most people would consider it to be a needless retcon of a core character facet.

*Bulma clearly thinks Goku is like 7 or 8. And she’s going to let him grope her ass over her panties for his dragon ball. Just saying

Amazing what a difference two years makes when it comes to butt-patting!

[Soppa Saia People]

yeah like everyone else is saying, i love these first couple dozen or so episodes for just what a small story there are, like it's just the adventures of this boy and girl, it's just a really good vibe, and speaking of that, bulma and goku are such a good pair together. well i get why some people can be a bit annoyed by her uptight-ness, bulma is such a entertaining character in this arc, and she's probably the highlight of it all for me. and i know this is an anime rewatch but the pairing of these two resulted in some of my favorite toriyama artwork, i love the ending theme for showing those chapter pages off, their so great.

on some more minor stuff, goku's laugh when bulma says her name has always cracked me up, kid goku is honestly so cute lol, and on things that crack me up, shigeru chiba's pilaf is such a funny performance to me, i love them showing up eariler and more often.

also yeah the pacing of these episodes are almost shocking to go back to, given the reputation of the series, but yeah it's almost like, monster of the week type stuff ? it's so refreshing honestly lol.

[anubisj]

Damn, I thought it was the following wednesday, haven't yet watched the eps

[Dbzfan94]

I guess this is the best time to say this, I always wondered why Ep 4 has a different variation of the title card theme that never plays again.

[PremiumSalt]

DRAGON BALL
Episode 2: Ararara–! No Balls!

-Once again, the Pilaf filler is a welcome and organic feeling part of the story.

-I do have to question why exactly Mai feels the need to enter through the ceiling of all places. There's an entrance right there!

-I know I'm not remotely the first fan to make this observation, but, Grandpa Gohan having Goku sleep with his head on his crotch is, uh...questionable.

-Considering how far ahead the anime was from the manga at this point in time, I've always found it a bit odd that Toei chose to keep in Goku stating he's 14, which is somewhat sloppily retconned later.

[ABED]

You can easily argue it's not a retcon, much less a sloppy one. Goku is naïve about a great many things, including math, and he's been alone for years so it's not a surprising revelation that Goku thought he was a different age than he actually was. Though, I do wonder why Toriyama felt the need to change Goku's age at all.

Shigeru Chiba has played Pilaf, Kuwabara, and Raditz. Talk about range.

[KBABZ]

I consider it a retcon that's been executed so well because it's fairly early on in the story, and there's more than enough justified characterization behind it to make it work. It's easily the smoothest adjustment of/addition to a character's backstory in the franchise.

The Pilaf Gang filler I consider interesting because it's divisive as to whether it's a good inclusion or not. I like that they come up at the very end as the Final Boss and I find them to be VERY distracting early on as they're practically the main characters themselves in certain episodes, yet there's plenty of folks who like them showing up early to promote them as proper arc villains.

[ABED]

The term was ill defined but it came about to describe a situation where a HUGE and very noticeable change in continuity was made and information was overwritten as if it had always been the case. While Goku being 12 MIGHT fit some definition of retcon, it's such an insignificant change to a bit of information that was never important to begin with so I don't know why anyone would consider it a retcon at all. Goku being 12/14 never played a significant role in DB at all.

What did you find distracting about them?

I much prefer Toriyama's round art style to his more angular style later in the manga, but I understand why he would change things up so as to keep himself interested.

[MasenkoHA]

“What the...? No Balls “ commentary
*That owl has a hat. That is all

*I always loved the way Bulma said “baka” when Goku asked if she was a witch


*Goku doesn’t know what a bath is but we’ll later see Grandpa Gohan try to give him one in the first episode of Z. Just sayin’

*Shouldn’t Goku be in a lot more pain from Bulma trying to pull his tail off? He seemed more irritated at worse

*I do like the writers managed to make a whole scene out of something that occurred off-panel in the manga (Goku going out to get food)

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I consider it a retcon that's been executed so well because it's fairly early on in the story, and there's more than enough justified characterization behind it to make it work. It's easily the smoothest adjustment of/addition to a character's backstory in the franchise.

The Pilaf Gang filler I consider interesting because it's divisive as to whether it's a good inclusion or not. I like that they come up at the very end as the Final Boss and I find them to be VERY distracting early on as they're practically the main characters themselves in certain episodes, yet there's plenty of folks who like them showing up early to promote them as proper arc villains.

I found it interesting that Pilaf, Mai and Shu were inserted so soon and mixed in with Bulma revealing the Dragon Balls' secret to Goku after initially meeting, but most likely it was that Toei wanted to introduce the threesome and have them put in appearances before crossing paths with the main characters rather than wait until much later in the arc to do so like the manga had done over a year earlier.

[ABED]

*Goku doesn’t know what a bath is but we’ll later see Grandpa Gohan try to give him one in the first episode of Z. Just sayin’

*I do like the writers managed to make a whole scene out of something that occurred off-panel in the manga (Goku going out to get food)

I like that scene you mention in your last sentence. The one thing I have to add is how well that all integrates. It doesn't feel like filler. If you didn't know the manga, it doesn't stand out as a complete time waster.

Perhaps Grandpa Gohan stopped giving Goku baths even after he bumped his head.