Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 12 - DB episodes 51-55

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 12 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.
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.

I'm still a week behind with my personal viewing of this, but looking forward to spending my time stuck in the house the next little while, watching last week's and this week's episodes with the newly-released Japanese broadcast audio.

Previous thread: Week 11 (DB 46-50)
Next thread: Week 13 (DB 56-60)

Anyway, without further ado...

Episode 51 - The Ocean Bottom’s Guardman
Dub title: Beware Of Robot / Rise Of The Robot Pirate
Originally aired 18th of February 1987
Episode director: Kazuhisa Takenouchi
Animation supervisor: Katsumi Aoshima

Goku and Kuririn challenge the skeleton robot to a battle. However, the robot is strong! Goku is buried in rubble, and Bulma and Kuririn are cornered inside a building. Just as the two are in a hopeless situation, Goku emerges from the rubble and saves them! After Bulma and Kuririn run off, Goku performs a dive-bomb attack from the roof!! This makes even the powerful robot explode, and Goku follows after the two. However, Blue alters the sign left by Bulma and Kuririn!!

Anime-only/filler content: The long filler section where Goku runs along a gantry from the pirate robot firing at him, Bulma and Kuririn being chased into the building with the computer.

Episode 52 - Hooray! The Treasure is Discovered
Dub title: The Pirate Treasure / We Found The Treasure!
Originally aired 25th of February 1987
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama

Goku takes the wrong path due to Blue’s trick. The robot’s explosion makes the cave begin to collapse! Bulma and Kuririn arrive at the pirate’s hiding place, but Blue follows them there. An even fight unfolds between Blue and Kuririn! However, Kuririn becomes unable to move when he looks into Blue’s shining eyes. It turns out that Blue has psychic powers!! Goku comes running in as Blue is about to finish Kuririn off!!

Anime-only/filler content: Goku tripping over, the statue and the two extra treasure chests, Goku fighting the octopus (expansion), one of Bulma's attempts to convince Blue not to kill Kuririn.

Episode 53 - Fear the Shining Eyes
Dub title: Blue, Black And Blue / Ominous Grotto!
Originally aired 4th of March 1987
Episode director: Daisuke Nishio
Animation supervisor: Mitsuo Shindo

Goku overwhelmingly dominates in his battle against Blue! Beaten about, Blue uses his psychic powers to paralyze Goku, and pulls out a rifle! Goku is in a pinch!! But Blue is surprised by a mouse that passes by, and his psychic powers are undone! Counterattacking, Goku KO’s Blue!! Bulma and Kuririn try to escape in a pirate submarine, and Goku follows after them once he’s found the Dragon Ball. The cave is about to collapse.

Anime-only/filler content: Bulma trying to distract Blue but distracting Goku instead, the statue again.

Episode 54 - Run Away, Run Away!! The Great Escape
Dub title: Escape From Pirate Cave
Originally aired 11th of March 1987
Episode director: Kazuhisa Takenouchi
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama

Just as the cave is about to collapse, Goku appears at the sea-bottom dock!! He has with him the mouse he owes his life to. Bulma launches the submarine, but it runs out of gas and stops. The sea-bottom canal is collapsing! Goku’s Kamehameha pushes the submarine to safety!! They return to Kame House with a pirate diamond. However, Blue has tenaciously survived, and follows them!! What’s more, Lunch takes the diamond and leaves after changing into her violent form.

Anime-only/filler content: The Red Ribbon Army calling Blue Camp and Goku answering them, the scene with Roshi and his headphones.

Episode 55 - N’cha! Chased to Penguin Village
Dub title: Penguin Village
Originally aired 18th of March 1987
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Tomekichi Takeuchi

Blue uses his psychic powers to manipulate ropes to attack Goku and the others, who are relaxing after having returned from the sea-bottom cave! Everyone is tied up, and Goku has his tail grabbed and cannot put out his full power!! Blue steals the Dragon Balls and plants a bomb, then flees. Goku is saved by Lunch, who returns after reverting to her original personality, and he chases after Blue’s rocket!! After an intense chase, the two of them at last arrive in Penguin Village, home to Arale Norimaki!!

Anime-only/filler content: Padding of the scene with the time bomb.

-

Interesting trivia:

• Goku using the Kamehameha on the Octopus is the first time he does the move without going hungry afterwards, except for his very first attempt (in canon material at least).
• In the original Funimation-dubbed release of these episodes, the robot pirate's voice was pitched-down; as with all other post-production voice effects, this was not retained in the "remastered" releases.
• Some shots of Goku running show him running down a hallway curving counter-clockwise when it should be curving clockwise.
• The scenes with Blue encountering Bulma and Kuririn have some overhauling in the dubs to remove all references to him being gay.
  • For instance, one scene has Bulma hit on Blue, but he doesn't buy it; in Mandelin's subs of the Japanese version, he says "Cease your disgusting erotic show this instant! You crude little girl!", Bulma remembers "Crap! I forgot this guy's gay!", then says "A-Actually, I look like a girl, but I'm really a guy!", to which he shouts "As if any men have breasts like that!"; in the Funimation dub, he says "Do you want to give me nightmares?! That is gross!", Bulma thinks "Uagh! It's not working! Quick, think of something else!", and says "I may be small but I'm a trained sumo wrestler, pal! Heheheeeeh!", to which he shouts "WILL YOU STOP WASTING MY TIME WITH YOUR NONSENSE!!?!"; and in the Blue Water dub, he says "Try and control yourself -- you're really creepin' me out!!", she thinks "What?! Oh, I forgot that you're a shy boy...!" and says "What's wrong? Are you scared of girls; I bet you were quite the loser in high school!", to which he shouts "DON'T EVER MENTION HIGH SCHOOL TO ME AGAIN!!"
    ... I never said Blue Water's dub got it right all the time.
    But, in fairness, as is very often the case, neither dub was actually very close to the original intent here, sadly.
• In Mandelin's subtitles and the Viz manga translation, Goku mis-identifies the giant octopus for a squid; in the Funimation dub, he mis-identifies the octopus as a spider, and in Blue Water, he mis-identifies it as a whale.
• In both the anime and the manga, Blue holds up a boulder intending to smash Krillin with it before Goku tells him to stop. The next chapter/episode begins this way, except Blue is no longer holding the rock!
• Episode 53 is the first episode of the anime to use music from the first movie -- just one cue in this instance; M261, which is used at the episode's end. (This trivia courtesy of Kenisu)
• It is curious that the 3-star Dragon Ball dispersed itself, after the wish in episode 12, to such a specific, obscure location; it went under the ocean, into the pirate cave, through the submarine cave, through various corridors, under the water, into the treasure room, then back underwater again, and lodging itself in the mouth of the skull. Perhaps the Dragon Balls have a certain intelligence to how they scatter.
• In Episode 54, a shot of the collapsing pirate base shows some debris falling onto a pickup track, making it explode. This is a plot hole because Bulma used this truck three episodes prior to kill the pirate robot.
• Also in Episode 54, Krillin has a flashback to the gold wall of pirates. This is a plot hole as the pirate statues were seen by Blue, not Kuririn.
• Krillin sniffing the diamond is not only lewd, but impossible: it was established in his fight with Bacterian that he doesn't have a nose! He even mentions his lack of nose in the very next episode.
• General Blue hides around the same corner of Kame House as Piccolo Jr. will in the manga when Raditz shows up. (In the anime, Piccolo hides above the house)
• The ticking bomb, as you may have guessed, does not count down accurately, and makes several jumps forward, and also stalls when it gets close to expiring.
• Blue and his unit were originally ordered to acquire both the Dragon Balls and Roshi, as they believed he built the radar. However Blue eventually attempts to kill him with the bomb (as well as its actual inventor, Bulma), meaning Blue would have failed half of his assigned mission. He would of course be chastised by Red later for only returning with the Radar and no Dragon Balls, though the larger slip-up was not noted.
• When the first Penguin Village chapter ran in Weekly Shonen Jump, the title page actually appeared after five pages, leaving four pages of pure Dr. Slump antics until Goku and Blue show up. The joke is to trick the reader into thinking they're reading a chapter of Dr. Slump!
  • This Chapter is also one of only two to be fully inked in colour.
• The reason why all the residents of Penguin Village are getting all up into the camera is because they hadn't been seen since Dr. Slump's anime had ended a year and a half earlier and want a piece of the action.
• The Penguin Village episodes all use a heavy amount of music from the Dr. Slump anime, which was also composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi.

Episode summaries, airdates, and titles courtesy of Kanzenshuu's episode guide. Filler breakdowns and Dragon Ball provided, and trivia co-written, by KBABZ.

[MasenkoHA]

I remember the Dr.Slump crossover episodes confusing me as a kid. It really did feel like Goku was in another show all together. Of course I didn’t know Dr.Slump was Toriyama’s previous manga series before Dragon Ball.

The Bulma and Kuririn uhh diamond exchange was one of my favorite lewd gags in Dragon Ball.

[ABED]

I remember the Dr.Slump crossover episodes confusing me as a kid. It really did feel like Goku was in another show all together. Of course I didn’t know Dr.Slump was Toriyama’s previous manga series before Dragon Ball.

The Bulma and Kuririn uhh diamond exchange was one of my favorite lewd gags in Dragon Ball.

Made funnier by again having Kuririn sniff it despite not having a nose.

[MyVisionity]

These episodes continue to be great. There's plenty of action throughout. I like the battle with the skeleton robot and seeing Goku and Kuririn fighting together. The stuff with the octopus and Goku is fun, and I appreciate the fact that Goku eats the octopus in the end.

The battle with General Blue has got nice action and humor as always. Buruma's attempts at seducing Blue are pretty funny. Blue himself is a formidable opponent both strong and cruel. I liked seeing him take on Kuririn and Goku. Unfortunately, there are plenty of gay stereotypes to be found here with Blue's nastiness, his strength and psychic powers, fear of women and mice etc etc. Yet it's all written well enough to keep the viewer entertained, and Furukawa continues to give a good performance. The escape from the caves is well done and exciting, and the arc really comes together nicely at the end.

However, it's the last episode in this group, N'cha, that is probably one of my favorite episodes of the entire series.

Here we see the episode open with the gang relaxing away at Kame House. I like seeing everyone being so casual, just sitting around sipping juice and eating manjuu. And Roshi, longing for Lunch as he stares at her panties hanging on the line. I love the artwork for this particular episode. The characters all look great. And then there's the dialogue.

Bulma to Kuririn:
"You have a split personality disorder, don't you? I never thought of you as being like that..." (EDIT: After listening to this line again I think it's an error by Mandelin. Bulma is likely referring to Lunch here after the events of the previous episode.)

Roshi to Bulma who's looking for a way back to the city:
"Why not become my lover and live here?"

Umigame:"I'll give you a nice, leisurely ride back to land!" Bulma:"Why have things turned out like this?!"

The script and character interactions in this ep are top notch.

Then the plot gets going as we watch General Blue make his moves. The music as the ropes enter the house and sneak up on the gang is great and really enhances things in my view. The absurdity is well played. That one shot of Goku handing Roshi the Dragon Ball as the rope strikes Roshi's hand is wonderful. The gang being attacked and tied up by the ropes is hilarious, and almost like something out of some weird horror movie... (or porno). I like seeing Blue just make his way through Kame House as he pleases with the gang tied up and powerless. It's also cool to see more of the inside of the house with details like the inside of Roshi's closet and the counter by the door. I've always liked Roshi's house.

Hilarity continues to ensue as Lunch returns to the house to find the gang tied up. "They certainly are lively! I wonder if they're having a party?" My favorite bit is when they tell her to get rid of the bomb, and she just casually goes to pick it up and struggles because of its weight. And then, "I'll go put it in the trashcan."

So anyway this episode is really memorable to me. I also enjoyed the art and visual effects as Goku chases Blue in the air. The way I interpret it is that Goku and Blue were both moving so fast that they opened up some kind of a space-time warp that sent them across worlds into Penguin Village. The Slump characters are interesting to watch. I liked seeing the gang sitting around the Coffee Pot and chatting away while Senbei is mugging for the camera in the background with "Peace, Peace!". Overall it just kinda makes me want more of Dr. Slump and its world.

Additionally, I appreciated the bit where Blue turns his rocket engine off only to turn it back on as Goku stops behind it, blasting him away. I also enjoyed watching Blue crash into the mountain.

So yeah, great stuff.

[Robo4900]

Catching up a little...

Episode 51.

I love seeing Goku and Kuririn fight the robot. You don't often get to see Goku and Kuririn fight alongside each-other (which... Seems really weird, thinking on it), so I'm glad we got these scenes.

Also, the sound design on the robot is top-notch. It sounds menacingly clunky and hulking. Its weird monkey scream is horrifying, I love it.

I know it's loaded with filler, but I really do think the robot fight is a great first half to episode 51. It's a really fun action setpiece.
And in the second half, I love the hints at someone being in the computer room. Really fun. And you don't really get time to think much on it, because the robot's not quite as dead as we thought. This is a great episode.

Oh hey, when Bulma and Kuririn are being chased by the robot, and they see the hanging skeleton... This scene reuses the Jaws piece from the 21st Tenkacihi.

As a sidenote... I forgot to mention this in the trivia, but there's the problem with the Dragon Box of episode 52; consistently throughout it, you can see the top of each film frame at the bottom of the last video frame, presumably because the telecine was incorrectly calibrated so it aimed far too low on the image. There's a lesser form of this afflicting several shots in episode 51 too, interestingly.

Anyway, a fun episode.

I touched on this in the last thread, but I think we're now in the beginning of Dragon Ball's golden age. It's finally hit its stride and will be at a pretty consistently high quality from here until pretty much the Cyborgs arc.

[MasenkoHA]

I touched on this in the last thread, but I think we're now in the beginning of Dragon Ball's golden age. It's finally hit its stride and will be at a pretty consistently high quality from here until pretty much the Cyborgs arc.

I'd go as far as saying from when Goku and Kuririn arrive at the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai to the end of the Namek arc is Dragon Ball's golden age for me.

[KBABZ]

I touched on this in the last thread, but I think we're now in the beginning of Dragon Ball's golden age. It's finally hit its stride and will be at a pretty consistently high quality from here until pretty much the Cyborgs arc.

I'd go as far as saying from when Goku and Kuririn arrive at the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai to the end of the Namek arc is Dragon Ball's golden age for me.

21st Training to Saiyan for me. Can't really forgive Namek for the repetitive environment, although it's a heckuva shining silver age. Android/Cell is good too, but Buu is where Toriyama is clearly exhausted creatively and artistically.

[Robo4900]

I touched on this in the last thread, but I think we're now in the beginning of Dragon Ball's golden age. It's finally hit its stride and will be at a pretty consistently high quality from here until pretty much the Cyborgs arc.

I'd go as far as saying from when Goku and Kuririn arrive at the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai to the end of the Namek arc is Dragon Ball's golden age for me.

21st Training to Saiyan for me. Can't really forgive Namek for the repetitive environment, although it's a heckuva shining silver age. Android/Cell is good too, but Buu is where Toriyama is clearly exhausted creatively and artistically.

Fair dues.

Personally, much as I adore the 21st Tenkaichi, I think the Red Ribbon arc gets off to a rather slow start.

As for when the "golden age" ends, I think it's Namek. Namek suffers a lot from the anime padding it out with filler, but it's a damn good story. The problems for me really seep in with Cyborgs/Cell and Boo; the storytelling just becomes an incomprehensible mess of Toriyama changing his mind on what the story is every couple of chapters. It's a schizophrenic mess, IMO.
A very enjoyable schizophrenic mess, but a mess none the less.

[Robo4900]

Found time for another episode tonight.

Episode 52 - We Did It! Treasure Discovered

Ah yes, the infamous misaligned telecine episode. Reason #576 that Toei need to get off their asses and do a proper HD scan of this franchise.
Still, easy enough to set a media player to crop it down slightly as a stopgap solution.

Episode itself is very fun. I love the whole octopus encounter, very funny.

Blue continues to be a fun villain, though the "He's gay? Oh dear!" type dialogue is not exactly okay, let's say.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Going to just get my thoughts for these episodes out of the way.

Episode 51 - The Ocean Bottom’s Guardman

Good action packed episode full of excitement and soft horror. The Pirate Robot is rather formidable and mobile as it manages to shoot at Goku and Kuririn from all directions. Bulma manages to stop the Pirate Robot in its tracks temporarily by driving into it, although Goku demonstrates his wariness speculating they are being watched. The tension escalates when the Pirate Robot strikes back, Bulma is terrified by the corridors of skulls, and herself and Kuririn both get chased. Bulma's attempts to operate the ancient computer to deactivate the Pirate Robot was a great moment as it gave her an important role to play in the midst of all this action, although it was Goku who saved the day with his trusty aerial rock, paper, scissors strike. Unfortunately Goku is separated from Kuririn and Bulma by the end of the episode and both try to find one another whilst going in different directions. Once General Blue chases after Bulma and Kuririn the suspense is compounded and a lot of momentum is created to lead in to the next episode.

Episode 52 - Hooray! The Treasure is Discovered

The suspense and action continues with a bit of comedy on the side. In a wacky fight with an octopus Goku irritates the creature by calling him a 'squid', and fries it with a Kame Hame Ha to later eat. General Blue's confrontation with Bulma and Kuririn is a bit awkward. Bulma's gushing over General Blue who feels embarassed and trying to act like a boy after realizing he was gay was a good moment. Conversely, Bulma's "yikes" reaction to General Blue and Kuririn's assault and labelling him as a "flaming homo" was more disturbing, although this episode was for a different time.

Episode 53 - Fear the Shining Eyes

Like the previous episode we get some action and some humour, and a solid episode to conclude the pirate cave mini arc. Goku and Blue have some good back and fort combat until the former pokes him in the eyes and knocks the latter out. Once we see Goku and Bulma reunited there is some more banter with Goku calling Bulma greedy to her own ire. This perhaps explains Bulma's attempts to exclude Goku when she wanted to leave in the submarine with Kuririn. Tension heightens as Bulma tries to escape with Kuririn withot Goku showing how she values her own life before anyone else, at least at this point in the story.

Episode 54 - Run Away, Run Away!! The Great Escape

Very tense opening to this episode with Goku reaching the submarine just in time before Bulma and Kuririn leave. We also see Goku lend some of his instinctual prowess as Bulma thinks they reach a dead end but you can rely on him to see another tunnel. Goku helps further as they run out of fuel, Bulma despairs over never getting a kiss and he manages to propel them by launching a KameHame Ha. Once they reach the Ocean Goku also helps them by calling upon Kinto Un and being reliable enough for them to ride with him on it. There's
some more wacky humour with Kuririn's disappointment they didn't find the treasure, Bulma pulls it from her pants and Kuririn has to smell it. Interestingly Kuririn seems to still seek some validation from Roshi as he gives him the diamond saying they almost died for it, and Bulma appears surprised at seeing rude Lunch for the first time. Overall, some great mini twists in this episode, but with Lunch's involvement and Blue still lurking in the background it remains some momentum coming out of the pirate cave arc to keep excitement for the remainder of this arc.

Episode 55 - N’cha! Chased to Penguin Village


Although there was a lot of momentum from the previous episode this episode is bogged down a lot by more of Roshi's perverted antics. Bulma is exhausted from the Red Ribbon Army and just wants to go home. Roshi goes from admiring Lunches drying underwear to making a sly request for Bulma to be his lover and live with him. There is some tension with General Blue roping everyone and escaping, leaving a time bomb in the Kame House. Roshi shows that he knows Lunch too well by suspecting she would return, revert to her innocent form and bring them back the diamond.