Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 65 - DBZ 126-130

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 65 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.

Almost no trivia for now. KBABZ and I were both super busy. More to be added soon! KBABZ said "Tomorrow", so watch this space.

Previous thread: Week 64 (DBZ 123-125)
Next thread: Week 66 (DBZ 131-135)

Anyway, without further ado...

Episode 279 - Murderers Who Leave No Trace — Which Ones Are the Artificial Humans?! (DBZ episode 126)
Dub title: The Androids Appear
Originally aired 5th of February 1992
Kai equivalent: Episode -
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Mitsuo Hashimoto
Animation supervisor: Yukio Ebisawa

Goku and the others gather on the island where Trunks said the artificial humans would appear. When the announced time passes by, Yajirobe’s air car explodes as he is on his way back to Karin Tower after delivering senzu. At that time, Goku and the others couldn’t sense any signs of their enemies. The reason is that as artificial humans they have no ki. The two artificial humans descend to the city and begin to slaughter people. Yamcha discovers the fairly difficult to find artificial humans, but with one jab No. 20 pierces through his chest…

Anime-only/filler content: Dr. Brief giving Trunks a toy that looks like his future counterpart's time machine, the truck crash causing a fire which attracts everyone to Yamucha's position.

Episode 280 - The Cold-Blooded No. 20’s Hideous Atrocities!! Goku’s Super Transformation of Anger (DBZ episode 127)
Dub title: A Handy Trick
Originally aired 12th of February 1992
Kai equivalent: Episode -
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Jun’ichi Fujise
Animation supervisor: Tadayoshi Yamamuro

Goku and the others are startled by No. 20 after he quickly defeats Yamcha. What’s more, No. 20 knows all about Goku and the others. Goku tries to avoid a battle in the city, but No. 20 says there’s no need for that, and begins destroying the city. Enraged, Goku restrains No. 20 and demands that they move somewhere else. Meanwhile, having had his life saved with a senzu, Yamcha realizes the secret of the artificial humans’ power absorption. Having moved to a different location, Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan and faces the artificial humans.

Anime-only/filler content: Roshi, Oolong, and Chaozu watching a news broadcast about the events of the episode.

Episode 281 - Goku’s Double-Shock!! Caught Between Illness and Adversary (DBZ episode 128)
Dub title: Double Trouble for Goku
Originally aired 19th of February 1992
Kai equivalent: Episode -
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama

Goku and No. 19’s battle has begun. Having become a Super Saiyan, Goku’s punches and kicks blow No. 19 away. But Piccolo senses a problem with Goku’s power, because he knows his Super Saiyan power should be even higher. Goku tries to settle the match all at once, and fires a Kamehameha. But No. 19 absorbs the Kamehameha and adds it to his own power. His stamina having fallen, Goku grabs his chest in pain. His contagious disease has suddenly progressed.

Anime-only/filler content: Maron visiting Kame House looking for Kuririn, and Roshi subsequently infodumping a recap of the Red Ribbon arc to her.

Episode 282 - The Might of Vegeta!! The Blood of a Super Saiyan Awakens (DBZ episode 129)
Dub title: Upgrade to Super Saiyan
Originally aired 26th of February 1992
Kai equivalent: Episode -
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Takeo Ide

Goku eats a senzu, but it doesn’t restore his stamina. It’s the contagious disease after all. Faint of breath, Goku is one-sidedly attacked by No. 19, and finally returns to his normal form from Super Saiyan. His energy is then absorbed by No. 19, but Vegeta comes in to rescue him. Vegeta then turns into a Super Saiyan! Through his anger at himself for losing to Goku, Vegeta has awakened into a Super Saiyan.

Anime-only/filler content: Bulma using Yajirobe's scarf to make Trunks a diaper, a flashback to Vegeta going Super Saiyan (instead of him just explaining how he did it), 19 firing several energy blasts at Vegeta which don't even hit him.

Episode 283 - No. 20’s Defiant Smile… The Secret of Doctor Gero (DBZ episode 130)
Dub title: The Secret of Dr. Gero
Originally aired 4th of March 1992
Kai equivalent: Episode -
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Kazuhito Kikuchi
Animation supervisor: Kazuya Hisada

No. 19’s attacks don’t even budge Super Saiyan Vegeta. Instead, No. 19 is overwhelmed by Vegeta’s power, which is on another level. Vegeta then destroys the fleeing No. 19 with his new special technique, the Big Bang Attack. Before Vegeta’s overwhelming strength, No. 20 (Doctor Gero) makes a run for it and tries to return to his laboratory. But wanting to defeat Vegeta himself, he thinks that if he absorbs Piccolo and the others’ energy and makes it his own, then he’ll be able to defeat Vegeta.

Anime-only/filler content: A brief scene of Yamucha and Goku mid-flight, a scene of Yajirobe and Bulma in the air car arguing.

-

Interesting trivia:

• Android 20's murder of a guy in a car was far more graphic in the manga, his head flying off as a result of how hard he squeezed his neck; in the anime, the man simply suffocates.
• The English dubs never reconciled the fact that the Androids' scanner readouts use different English approximations of the characters' names; "Yamucha" and his "Rouga Whowhoken" technique.
• In Funimation's "Remastered" dub, some alternate takes in Z episode 126 were used, including a line for Goku reused from Z episode 125, and baby Trunks's voice wasn't pitched up anymore. A line from Gohan was added when the guys are cheering Goku on (even though he shouldn't be in the scene).
• Funimation did a terrible job of recapping the Red Ribbon arc in Z episode 127. Roshi says Goku was looking for Dragon Balls as a training exercise to sharpen his skills (he was in fact just looking for his grandpa's four-star ball; he was travelling the world to sharpen his skills, yes, but the Dragon Balls beame a goal later on), Tao Pai-Pai is referred to as General Tao and described as being the "mastermind behind all of the Red Ribbon Army millitary operations", which is a holdover from Funimation only having dubbed DB 1-13 (and only acquired those and 14-26) and the three movies, where Tao was a general, and he and his brother the Crane Hermit were behind everything; for similar reasons, Tao was stated to have died at the fight under Karin tower (which he in fact survived, and later he reappeared as a cyborg in the 23rd tournament), Commander Red is not mentioned and instead the few shots of him are implied to be Dr. Gero. Additionally, Roshi explains to Maron that Dr. Gero had been studying Goku for some time, but there's no way for him to have known this, since Android 20 had only just explained this.
• Funimation also added a reference to Dune, with Vegeta saying "The sleeper has awakened; I am the prince of all Saiyans once again!" when hyping up his transformation to Super Saiyan. The Westwood/Ocean dub used a slightly different line, IMO a better one, if slightly redundant; "The royal prince has awakened; I am the greatest of all Saiyans once again!" (It also helps that at this stage, Chris Sabat was still doing a really terrible, forced Brian Drummond impression, so Drummond's version really trounces him. Sabat does far better in Kai when he was more comfortable in the role, doing his own distinct performance)
• Z episode 130's title refers to a secret of Dr. Gero, but no secret is revealed in this episode; it mainly just features Vegeta fighting Android 19 and being an utter badass.
• On a personal note, I think Brian Drummond really nailed these episodes, so if you like his Vegeta, go seek these episodes out; he's amazing. The way he says lines like "I guess it's true after all; Androids do experience fear" is just goddamn chilling.

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

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The "General" Tao thing (and the whole aforementioned recapping of the Red Ribbon Army arc in general) is one of the more glaring errors that FUNi made back in the day, and seeing as it was at the time of the Androids episodes airing on Toonami still almost a full year before the original Dragon Ball series would receive the dub treatment start to finish. Even then, they still never went back and corrected this so the exact same erroneous information remained even after all of DB was completely dubbed and it took all the way up until Kai for them to finally get it right. I mean, they did eventually fix Tao's name which reflects his true function but the old wrong info still didn't get changed to account for that.

It's basically the same as the whole "Dr. Gero is the mastermind of the Red Ribbon Army" screwup because of OG DB not being dubbed past episode 13 at the time so they didn't have the knowledge that it was actually Commander Red who was in charge and Gero was just a scientist who invented things for them (but was not really a member of the organization itself) much like how Tao Pai Pai was just an assassin who the army hired to eliminate Goku and get the Dragon Balls.

[MasenkoHA]

• Android 20's murder of a guy in a car was far more graphic in the manga, his head flying off as a result of how hard he squeezed his neck; in the anime, the man simply suffocates.

God, if Toei could get away with that in 1992 there’s no way Kai would have.

.
[*]Funimation did a terrible job of recapping the Red Ribbon arc in Z episode 127. Roshi says Goku was looking for Dragon Balls as a training exercise to sharpen his skills (he was in fact just looking for his grandpa's four-star ball; he was travelling the world to sharpen his skills, yes, but the Dragon Balls beame a goal later on)

I hate what Funimation did to that flashback and it’s kind of a microcosm of Funimation’s issues at the time (skipping most of the original Dragon Ball biting them in the ass, adding a bunch of additional and incorrect dialog because they can’t shut the fuck up, liberally adapting the Japanese dialog that they either remove some nuance or add bullshit that wasn’t intended) buut even the Japanese version has Roshi saying Goku was after all the dragon balls not just his grandpa’s. At least Simmons subtitles do.

“Goku had gone on a journey to both train himself and search for the dragon balls”

I mean, it’s technically not wrong since he did collect all the dragon balls anyways so I could almost see where Funimation would make a mistake.....except they in typical Funi fashion they added some bullshit about it “being a test to sharpen his mind” because just sticking to what the Japanese version said would have been too hard.

, Tao Pai-Pai is referred to as General Tao and described as being the "mastermind behind all of the Red Ribbon Army millitary operations", which is a holdover from Funimation only having dubbed DB 1-13 (and only acquired those and 14-26) and the three movies, where Tao was a general, and he and his brother the Crane Hermit were behind everything; for similar reasons, Tao was stated to have died at the fight under Karin tower (which he in fact survived, and later he reappeared as a cyborg in the 23rd tournament

The worst part is there was literally no dialog in the Japanese footage in the Tao portion. But Funimation had to run in shoes they can’t even walk in.

That makes it even worse that the remastered version didn’t just mute the dialog. Cheaper and easier than getting Mcfarland to redub his lines.

(Or even insert the Dragon Ball dub audio where appropriate)



On a tangent using “The Goku and Chi chi to the rescue”
bgm during the flashback was a brilliant choice by Z’s music editor since that track played so often during the Red Ribbon arc it was pretty much the unofficial theme.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

• Android 20's murder of a guy in a car was far more graphic in the manga, his head flying off as a result of how hard he squeezed his neck; in the anime, the man simply suffocates.

God, if Toei could get away with that in 1992 there’s no way Kai would have.

.
[*]Funimation did a terrible job of recapping the Red Ribbon arc in Z episode 127. Roshi says Goku was looking for Dragon Balls as a training exercise to sharpen his skills (he was in fact just looking for his grandpa's four-star ball; he was travelling the world to sharpen his skills, yes, but the Dragon Balls beame a goal later on)

God I hate what Funimation did to that flashback and it’s kind of a microcosm of Funimation’s issues at the time (skipping most of the original Dragon Ball biting them in the ass, adding a bunch of additional and incorrect dialog because they can’t shut the fuck up, liberally adapting the Japanese dialog that they either remove some nuance or add bullshit that wasn’t intended) buut even the Japanese version has Roshi saying Goku was after all the dragon balls not just his grandpa’s. At least Simmons subtitles do.

“Goku had gone on a journey to both train himself and search for the dragon balls”

I mean, it’s technically not wrong since he did collect all the dragon balls anyways so I could almost see where Funimation would make a mistake.....except they in typical Funi fashion they added some bullshit about it “being a test to sharpen his mind” because just sticking to what the Japanese version said would have been too hard.

, Tao Pai-Pai is referred to as General Tao and described as being the "mastermind behind all of the Red Ribbon Army millitary operations", which is a holdover from Funimation only having dubbed DB 1-13 (and only acquired those and 14-26) and the three movies, where Tao was a general, and he and his brother the Crane Hermit were behind everything; for similar reasons, Tao was stated to have died at the fight under Karin tower (which he in fact survived, and later he reappeared as a cyborg in the 23rd tournament

The worst part is there was literally no dialog in the Japanese footage in the Tao portion. But Funimation had to run in shoes they can’t even walk in.

That makes it even worse that the remastered version didn’t just mute the dialog. Cheaper and easier than getting Mcfarland to redub his lines.

(Or even insert the Dragon Ball dub audio where appropriate)



On a tangent using “The Goku and Chi chi to the rescue”
bgm during the flashback was a brilliant choice by Z’s music editor since that track played so often during the Red Ribbon arc it was pretty much the unofficial theme.

Oh undeniably, their utter foul up on the flashback in ep 127 back then is one prime example of why skipping over the other 140 episodes of Dragon Ball for five or six years was so bad and detrimental because FUNi didn't have the correct info there and just made up and added in crap that wasn't true and completely contradicted by the time they finally got around to it. Seriously, the fact that they didn't correct this after doing the DB dub blows my mind and makes no sense to me whatsoever.

[MasenkoHA]

The "General" Tao thing (and the whole aforementioned recapping of the Red Ribbon Army arc in general) is one of the more glaring errors that FUNi made back in the day, and seeing as it was at the time of the Androids episodes airing on Toonami still almost a full year before the original Dragon Ball series would receive the dub treatment start to finish. Even then, they still never went back and corrected this so the exact same erroneous information remained even after all of DB was completely dubbed and it took all the way up until Kai for them to finally get it right.

Kai still had dialog implying Goku knew who Gero was. They just didn’t have that whole Goku deliberately spared Gero bit.

And this flashback wasn’t in Kai anyways.

I mean, they did eventually fix Tao's name which reflects his true function but the old wrong info still didn't get changed to account for that.

They called him Mercenary Tao in the Dragon Ball dub but never fix it for Z.

God as far as the dub goes it really does feel like the Dragon Ball dub and UUE redub portion of Z exist in an entirely different universe than the in-house Funi dub of Ginyu Assault-Goku’s Next Journey.

It's basically the same as the whole "Dr. Gero is the mastermind of the Red Ribbon Army" screwup because of OG DB not being dubbed past episode 13 at the time so they didn't have the knowledge that it was actually Commander Red who was in charge and Gero was just a scientist who invented things for them (but was not really a member of the organization itself) much like how Tao Pai Pai was just an assassin who the army hired to eliminate Goku and get the Dragon Balls.

Commander Red is mentioned by name in the Japanese version and I feel like they had Simmons translations on hand at this point. He and Gero look nothing alike and Bulma identifies Gero on sight. There is no excuse for that mega fuck up.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The "General" Tao thing (and the whole aforementioned recapping of the Red Ribbon Army arc in general) is one of the more glaring errors that FUNi made back in the day, and seeing as it was at the time of the Androids episodes airing on Toonami still almost a full year before the original Dragon Ball series would receive the dub treatment start to finish. Even then, they still never went back and corrected this so the exact same erroneous information remained even after all of DB was completely dubbed and it took all the way up until Kai for them to finally get it right.

Kai still had dialog implying Goku knew who Gero was. They just didn’t have that whole Goku deliberately spared Gero bit.

And this flashback wasn’t in Kai anyways.

I mean, they did eventually fix Tao's name which reflects his true function but the old wrong info still didn't get changed to account for that.

They called him Mercenary Tao in the Dragon Ball dub but never fix it for Z.

God as far as the dub goes it really does feel like the Dragon Ball dub and UUE redub portion of Z exist in an entirely different universe than the in-house Funi dub of Ginyu Assault-Goku’s Next Journey.

It's basically the same as the whole "Dr. Gero is the mastermind of the Red Ribbon Army" screwup because of OG DB not being dubbed past episode 13 at the time so they didn't have the knowledge that it was actually Commander Red who was in charge and Gero was just a scientist who invented things for them (but was not really a member of the organization itself) much like how Tao Pai Pai was just an assassin who the army hired to eliminate Goku and get the Dragon Balls.

Commander Red is mentioned by name in the Japanese version and I feel like they had Simmons translations on hand at this point. He and Gero look nothing alike and Bulma identifies Gero on sight. There is no excuse for that mega fuck up.

Ah, that's true i forgot the RRA flashback was in Z only. Still though they could have at least taken the time to go back in and fix these things after dubbing Dragon Ball but no instead they were left in untouched for some unfathomable reason and it just makes things even more stupid. I really wish FUNi had done it because then these massive inconsistencies after the fact wouldn't be an issue. Also IIRC "General Tao" comes from DB movie 3 where he served in that capacity alongside Tsuru Senin/Crane Hermit in the Miphan Empire and they used that name for some reason even though it was a non canon thing not related to the series itself, and something of which was carried over from the Harmony Gold dub as many other names and terms (Master Roshi, Flying Nimbus, Power Pole.etc) were. If you watch the original series, it makes these mistakes look even worse in hindsight.

Skipping over the majority of OG DB to DBZ as they did back in 1995/1996 was such a huge mistake, and boy this really made for serious reprecussions down the line.

[Cure Dragon 255]

A NEW WATCH THREAD! On my birthday no less!

[MyVisionity]

I think that Funi having skipped over most of the first series is a pretty lame excuse for not knowing what the hell happened and making shit up.

Like there wasn't any other way to find out the details? As a professional dubbing company? It's just sad.

[MasenkoHA]

I think that Funi having skipped over most of the first series is a pretty lame excuse for not knowing what the hell happened and making shit up.

Like there wasn't any other way to find out the details? As a professional dubbing company? It's just sad.

You right. They could have just stuck to what was said in the Japanese version instead of putting their own spin on the translation and adding a bunch of talking to fill in a mostly music only flashback.


Also I would imagine they had the entirety of Dragon Ball on hand

[KBABZ]

Time for catch-up trivia!! I'll start with the movie trivia first, then the anime/manga.

Cooler's Revenge Trivia

• The opening logo uses a "ba-dung!" sound effect for when the logo stops; this was previously used for the 23rd Tournament title card when the Tournament's logo did the same thing.
• In the opening shot of New Namek, the Big Gete Star appears and partially covers the local sun in a single frame.
• One of the Namekian farmers in the opening sequence is wearing an outfit identical to Gohan's.
• The sound effect of the Big Gete Star beginning to absorb itself around New Namek was previously used for when Goku threw the Genki-Dama at Frieza. Both of these events are seen from space.
• Dende being God in this movie is a VERY fascinating aspect of this movie, because at this point in the time manga hadn't even introduced Cell yet. In the anime, much was made about Gohan having to say goodbye to Dende at the end of the Namek Arc, and no implication is made that the current God (Kami) was going to be replaced, nor that Dende would be a candidate. It's very likely that Toei learned about this story idea from Toriyama long before he had written it into the manga, similarly to how Lord Slug introduced the Super Saiyan form before it appeared in print.
• The Big Gete Star is an example of translation complications: Japan doesn't have distinct words for planet and star, so the Big Gete Star is referred to as that rather than as a planet (something the Makyo Star also had in the Garlic Jr. Arc). Both would be more accurately described as planets, although they sound Cooler as stars.
• The Return of Cooler is the first Dragon Ball Z movie to use the third Head Cha-La opening that was made for the Android Arc. This is therefore the first movie that Trunks makes an appearance in, albeit only in the final shot of the intro rather than in the story itself.
• The Capsule ship that the core cast use to travel to New Namek is almost identical to Goku's Spaceship, which was destroyed when the original Namek exploded. This is therefore likely a new model built from scratch by Dr. Briefs based on the original, albeit presumably modified to support 7 occupants rather than just one.
• On that subject, it's never actually mentioned exactly WHERE New Namek is. It's implied that it's a different place than the original Namek given that Goku says he doesn't know where it is when scouting for Dende. On that note, the movie doesn't explain why Goku doesn't use Instant Transmission to go to New Namek (its limitations haven't been explored yet, and exactly HOW Dende became God hasn't been told yet either).
• This is the first Dragon Ball movie to show its subtitle over an existing shot, rather than using a bespoke title card shot.
• This movie is the final time the orange spacesuits appear, after previously being shown when Goku repaired his ship on the way to Namek and when Chi-Chi and co. planned to go to Namek themselves. These are based on artwork Toriyama made for Shonen Jump's 47th issue in 1989, to celebrate the characters going to space for the first time. Of those in the piece, only Bulma and Turtle haven't been shown wearing them in animated material, while Chi-Chi, Oolong and Puar were added to the roster. Goku, Roshi, Gohan and Krillin were in the original piece.
• Similarly to Bulma way back at the start of the story, Goku's spacesuit has his name spelt as "Goku", a fair amount of time before his name would be written in English in any major capacity.
• It's very fitting for Roshi to be the one handling the rice cooker, given his history with Piccolo Daimao and knowledge of the Mafu-ba technique. Maybe that's why Piccolo isn't in the room.
• Goku makes the claim that Piccolo doesn't need to eat. Indeed, he has never been seen eating at any point in the franchise.
• As noted by Robo last week, this movie debuts a more yellow-toned orange for Goku's gi in the movies, which is normally reserved for the lighting that appears when he goes Super Saiyan. Krillin meanwhile retains the standard orange tone.
  • A practical reason for this may be to help identify them in the movie. This is something Dragon Ball FighterZ does: Goku, Yamcha and Krillin all use different tones of orange in that game to help tell them apart during the frantic gameplay.
• This is also the movie debut of Goku and Krillin's revised outfits, which we'll get into more in the anime trivia.
• The Return of Cooler is also the debut of Piccolo's red sash. The anime typically gives it a cyan colour, however the manga coloured it red throughout its run (which was reflected in the Full Colour issues).
• In the flashback to Cooler's defeat in the previous movie, Goku now verbally shouts Kamehameha as he pushes back Cooler's attack. In the original movie, Goku didn't say anything.
• It isn't ever explained exactly how Cooler survived being vaporized at the end of the previous movie and absorbed into the Big Gete Star. Presumably his brain was flung out into space, or something.
• Cooler expresses surprise that Piccolo is alive when he first sees him. This is because in the middle of the previous movie, Cooler shot him through the chest, and didn't re-appear until after Cooler was defeated to defend Goku and co. from Sauzer. Thus Cooler didn't find out until now that Piccolo had survived.
• Revenge of Cooler is the first sequel to a movie story who doesn't have a replacement "miniboss squad", or have one at all (the Garlic Jr. Arc give Garlic some new henchmen).
• Piccolo's advice to Gohan and Krillin, to concentrate their ki to the max at the point of their strike, is exactly the technique Goku used against the Ginyu Force after arriving on Namek.
• You know, I KEEP getting surprised at how often the movies use Piccolo's stretchy arms! He only used those once in the manga!
• The shot of Goku and Cooler trading blows as they rise up towards the camera is copied directly from a shot in the anime where Goku and Frieza do the same thing (this shot is featured in Funimation's second DBZ intro).
• It isn't actually explained how or where Cooler learnt Instant Transmission. To date he is the only movie villain able to use it, and stands among Cell and Pure Buu as one of the few villains to ever learn the technique (Goku Black can also use it, but this is only because Goku himself learnt it first). Android 21 also learns it in Dragon Ball FighterZ.
• The shot of Cooler slamming Goku into the top of the cliff by the leg is interesting because the debris has a much higher amount of detailed colouring compared to typical animated destruction.
• Despite being unable to counter or block Cooler's attacks, Goku is able to catch his knee before turning Super Saiyan.
• Cooler states that when he's restored by the Big Gete Star, he has even more power than before, similar to the "Zenkai" effect from the Namek arc.
• Were it not for the fact that Vegeta is featured on promotional posters and pamphlets, his sudden appearance in the middle of this movie would be considered a big reveal, as it isn't hinted that he's even in the movie prior to him showing up.
• Vegeta's introduction in this film is practically identical to his introduction in the Android Arc after the three year timeskip: Goku is overwhelmed by the villain pinning him to the ground by his head, until Vegeta flies in out of nowhere and kicks them across the battlefield before claiming that he is the one to defeat Goku.
• Cooler doesn't appear to recognize Vegeta, despite him being the prince of the Saiyan race that his brother lorded over for many years.
• The little Gete Star robot orders everyone to be quiet, despite nobody actually speaking.
• The plan to crush all the civilian's bodies so that the Big Gete Star can absorb their ki is very similar to how organics are turned into Reapers in the Mass Effect series.
• The huge central chamber that Piccolo finds himself in inside the Big Gete Star bears a striking resemblance to the core of the Death Star II from Return of the Jedi.
• Piccolo appears to recognize the second Cooler in the hallway, despite only getting the briefest look at the original in the previous movie before getting shot out of the sky.
• Despite the title claiming there are 10 billion of them, at most we only see about 200 Metal Coolers at the top of the cliff. They also quickly vanish from importance in the movie.
• It isn't until the end of the movie that we learn how Vegeta even made it to New Namek in the first place: he was using a Saiyan pod. When exactly he got it is unclear, however it's possible he recovered the Ginyu pod used by Goku at the start of the Android Arc.
• Return of Cooler's music provides much of the music used in Kai's Kikuchi replacement score.

Week 64 Manga/Anime Trivia

• While the manga goes out of its way to explain why Goku was taken to Yardrat specifically, in Funi's dub of Kai this detail is left unmentioned.
• When Goku first demonstrates his use of Instant Transmission to zip to Kame House and back, Yamcha states that they're at least 10,000 kilometers from it, at least in the ViZ translation. According to the Daizenshuu Map, Frieza's Landing Site and Kame House are on opposite sides of the globe. That means that the Dragon World Earth is a quarter the size of our one, which is 40,000 km in diameter, which makes sense as Dragon World Earth only has land masses equivalent to China, Indonesia and India, at least on the Daizenshuu map.
• Vegeta and Goku refusing to take care of the Androids is the earliest example of the Saiyan warrior stubborness that the Android Arc is somewhat infamous for, as the story could be resolved at multiple points if a Saiyan decided to defeat the villain then and there rather than let them get stronger so as to challenge their skills. The main example is when Vegeta lets Semi-Perfect Cell absorb 18 in order to achieve his Perfect Form.
• After Goku resolves to defeat the Androids when they show up in three years time, he declares that they will bring "Peace to the future!". This will be the name given to the epilogue where Trunks defeats the Androids and Imperfect Cell in his future, both in the manga and in Kai.
• When Krillin meets up with Master Roshi, he claims that Goku's ghost came and stole his glasses, since he didn't know Goku had returned to Earth yet.
• When arguing with Goku upon his return to his home, Chi-Chi chastises him for never having had a job and not earning a penny since they've gotten married. While the latter may be true, Goku did technically earn some money helping the construction workers while training with Krillin under Master Roshi.
• Chi-Chi also tells Gohan that he must quit martial arts after defeating the Androids, which will of course come true to a certain extent.
• The boar that chases after Chi-Chi at the start of the Driving Episode bears a strong resemblance to Inoshikacho. Similar to the saber-toothed cat, it's defeated by falling off a cliff, Wile E. Coyote style.
• OH MY GOD IT'S THAT F***ING FISH AGAIN.
• Chi-Chi uses not feeding Goku or Piccolo as leverage to force them to go to driving school. This is despite Gohan claiming in the then-upcoming Cooler sequel movie that Piccolo doesn't need to eat.
• This is only the third outfit that Piccolo Jr. is seen wearing, after his childhood clothes and his more iconic white cape look. Counting Daimao, they've together only worn four outfits in the story thus-far.
• Piccolo is wearing a hat labeled "Gokuu", with two u's. In the then-upcoming Cooler sequel, Goku's name badge is spelt with one U.
• The female driving instructor uses the same character model as the hospital staff that Roshi gropes, and she also bears a resemblance to the air hostess on the flight to the 21st Tournament (who Roshi also gropes).
• Goku and Piccolo don't appear to require taking a written test as part of their course. They also drive sports cars as in the manga title page inspiration, which is highly inadvisable as their higher acceleration means their power can often get away from inexperienced drivers and cause accidents (as Goku fruitfully demonstrates multiple times). The cars also appear to lack airbags, as evidenced by the steering wheel.
• The badge on the car is emblazoned with "BS". It may be a play on BL for British-Leyland, however they never used a badge like what's shown on the aircars in this episode.
• When the old man attempts to enter his car, the 1 on the door is backwards.
• Appropriately, Goku and Piccolo drive an Orange 1 and Red 2 car. The ony difference is that they were wheeled cars on the title page, while in the anime they're aircars, presumably so that they're easier to animate.
• In the manga, it's never specified where exactly Dr. Briefs built the gravity room for Vegeta. The Driving Episode makes it clear that it's inside a rebuilt spaceship, however it's possible Toriyama intended it for it to be inside the Capsule Corp. building, considering such a room appears in the early Buu Arc.
• While Vegeta trains inside it, the Gravity Room increases from 410G to 450G off-screen.
• In the scene where Gohan hides his study book drawing from Chi-Chi, his drawing is of Goku and Piccolo in an aircar, an almost perfect match for the title pages that inspired this episode.
• The Driving Episode would be the final appearance of Hire Dragon in any medium.
• The male driving instructor telling Goku he'll take three years to learn how to drive is of course a joke on the length of time Goku has to train for the Androids.
• In the shot of Goku creeping up on Piccolo's car, Goku's car fades away and vanishes at the start of the shot, presumably so that he can appear suddenly directly behind Piccolo's car.
• Both Piccolo and Goku appear to struggle somewhat in holding up the bus of schoolchildren, even though by this point they should be able to hold it up entirely on one finger without issue.
• Despite the vast amount of storyline potential there is in a three-year period with Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Piccolo present (and Toei's desperate need to let the manga forge ahead), the pre-Android filler is only made up of two episodes before skipping past the rest of the three-year training period.
• In the manga, during the final panels leading up to the timeskip, Vegeta says he'll find a level beyond Super Saiyan. This is the earliest allusion of what will later be known as Super Saiyan 2.
• The Android Arc marks the point of four new costume changes:
  • First, Krillin has now gained a blue undershirt just like Goku wears, although it's not shown to be weighted like it was for Goku at the 23rd Tournament. He has also replaced his shoes with boots in a similar style to Goku's.
  • Second, Vegeta now appears in his most iconic armour, the Saiyan Armour in "singlet" style, based on the armour Bardock wore in the Bardock special, and continuing the trend of Vegeta gradually shedding his armour over time. This is also the armour Toei selected him to wear in Super.
  • Third, Goku undergoes his final Kame School gi revision in manga material: both the front and back symbols are gone, and his belt is now replaced with a sash. Presumably Toriyama made these changes to make him quicker to draw, which Toei would have appreciated as well given the effort needed to render the symbols correctly (in many episodes, the front symbol would often look like it was drawn on with a ballpoint pen). The final change is the shirt itself, which is much more open at the front compared to earlier arcs. Like with Vegeta, this is the gi Toei selected for Goku in Dragon Ball Super.
  • Lastly, Yamcha has gained the Kaio symbol, however it appears on his front rather than on the back as with Goku in the Saiyan Arc.

Week 65 Manga/Anime Trivia

• The double-spread title page of Chapter 337 provides the cast lineup for the final shot of Head Cha-La's third revision, which would famously make their way into Funimation's intros. However everyone except Goku, Gohan and Vegeta would have their positions changed. Trunks is most notable, as not only is he directly across from Vegeta, but he's now looking towards him, alluding to their familial connection.
• As Goku, Gohan and Piccolo approach the island, Piccolo states he has a feeling of doom. This same feeling is what God feels shortly before the reveal of Cell.
• This is the third hairstyle Yamcha has gained, after his long wild hair and the "Bulma bowl cut". The current "short spikes" hairstyle used for the Android Arc would be given to Gohan and Goten in Dragon Ball GT, which makes them somewhat tricky to tell apart.
• When Bulma points out that Goku even got Trunks' name right, Goku quickly suggests that he must be psychic. He did indeed demonstrate that he could read minds and memories on Namek, which he used on Krillin to quickly catch up on the situation so Toriyama wouldn't have to do a whole scene where they talk about it (presumably, KBABZ is just guessing on that one).
• Goku suggests that Bulma should leave the island, especially considering she has her baby with her. It's possible that Goku was also thinking about Future Trunks and potentially causing him to cease to exist if baby Trunks is killed, although as we later learn the causalities of time travel don't work that way in Dragon Ball.
• At the start of the second half of the clifftop scene, Krillin wonders if Bulma cut off Trunks' tail when he was born, which is likely given that Bulma has seen what happens to a Saiyan if it were kept, twice. Tails have never been a concern for Trunks like it has been for Goku and Gohan, similarly to Trunks' future best friend Goten.
• As Yajirobe approaches the clifftop, Piccolo says he senses no malice. One could argue that Yajirobe in fact has a lot of malice given how grumpy he is to anyone looking at him.
• In the Contents banner for Tankobon #29, Toriyama notes that fan letters informed him that Yajirobe appeared twice on the spine art banner, first on Tankobons 17-19, and again on Tankobon 25-27. He apologizes after explaining that he hardly ever looks at the graphic novels, which means he made up the spine banner art as each new Tankobon volume was released.
• The ViZ title for Chapter 338 is "Slaughter in South City". While South City is indeed on an island , on the Daizenshuu map at least, the chapter title is inaccurate because the Androids attack an island 9km south of South City.
• The panel of Goku charging towards Android 20 as he destroys the city is the earliest point he has a sweat drop on his head, a sign that he is succuming to the Heart Virus.
• In a comedic touch, Trunks is able to sleep right through Bulma ripping the hell out of Yajirobe for not joining the others. Maybe he's used to it!
• Dr. Gero states that he used insect-like drones to spy on Goku's battles, starting with the 22nd Tournament. Interestingly, in the anime no footage from the 23rd Tournament is shown, instead skipping from the fight with Daimao to that with the Saiyans.
• Presumably the reason why Goku is able to initially compete with Android 19 is because he's using the same technique on Namek where he only raises his Battle Power at the exact moment of striking, which makes him appear less capable than he actually is.
• Starting with Chapter 342, Toriyama moves the hole in Yamcha's chest to the exact spot where the Kaio symbol would be. As speculated by Kanzenshuu, this may have been done deliberately so that he didn't have to draw it anymore.
• Some parallels can be drawn to the real world regarding Goku's poor handling of the virus ("I don't have it, I don't need medicine!") and Piccolo's ("It's probably contagious, so you should take some medicine too Yamcha").
• Because Vegeta's hair is already quite vertical, there's almost no change to it when he goes Super Saiyan (only his stray hairs disappear). This is in contrast to his son Trunks, whose non-Saiyan hair flows downwards naturally and thus changes quite dramatically when lifted by the Super Saiyan form.
• In the panel where Android 19 flees from Vegeta, he has a pose very similar to that of Arale and Kid Goku when they run.

---

I think that Funi having skipped over most of the first series is a pretty lame excuse for not knowing what the hell happened and making shit up.

Making shit up? Sure. But remember at the time the only stuff they had to hand was the first thirteen episodes (which didn't have the RRA in it, as you recall) and Movies 1 and 3 thanks to Harmony Gold. To the inexperienced, those two movies could pass off as A version of the anime (the opening to Movie 1 is certainly very comparable to the manga), so I absolutely understand why Funimation would take the information in Movie 3 at face value here. They also lacked the internet, so they couldn't exactly download a torrent from kyaa, and it would have been stupid to hit up Toei to deliver some Red Ribbon Army tapes to them for what is ultimately a VERY inconsequential scene.

Also I would imagine they had the entirety of Dragon Ball on hand

lol entirely in Japanese?

[MasenkoHA]

Time for catch-up trivia!! I'll start with the movie trivia first, then the anime/manga.

Once again your dedication is always appreciated!

[*]Dende being God in this movie is a VERY fascinating aspect of this movie, because at this point in the time manga hadn't even introduced Cell yet. In the anime, much was made about Gohan having to say goodbye to Dende at the end of the Namek Arc, and no implication is made that the current God (Kami) was going to be replaced, nor that Dende would be a candidate. It's very likely that Toei learned about this story idea from Toriyama long before he had written it into the manga, similarly to how Lord Slug introduced the Super Saiyan form before it appeared in print.

I like that this implies that Toei was trying to place this after the unfinished Cell arc in the manga. Piccolo and Kami hadn’t even merged in the anime yet so Toei getting info from Toriyama that Dende was going to be the new Kami-sama makes it seem like they deliberately were trying to set this after all that.

Of course that didn’t work out for them, did it?

Both would be more accurately described as planets, although they sound Cooler as stars.

I see what you did there.

[*]Goku makes the claim that Piccolo doesn't need to eat. Indeed, he has never been seen eating at any point in the franchise.

Well, Piccolo Daimao did and they are functionally the same being.

It’s kind of like Piccolo having red blood and then later purple. Just something you kind of had to ignore.

[*]When arguing with Goku upon his return to his home, Chi-Chi chastises him for never having had a job and not earning a penny since they've gotten married. While the latter may be true, Goku did technically earn some money helping the construction workers while training with Krillin under Master Roshi.

Also the prize money he would have won for winning the 23rd Tenkaichi Tournament

[*]OH MY GOD IT'S THAT F***ING FISH AGAIN.

That fish has been revived more times than Kuririn and Chaozu combined!

[*]Chi-Chi uses not feeding Goku or Piccolo as leverage to force them to go to driving school. This is despite Gohan claiming in the then-upcoming Cooler sequel movie that Piccolo doesn't need to eat.

Even if you don’t need to eat would you pass up Chi Chi’s cooking? Gohan sure seems to think its good.

. He did indeed demonstrate that he could read minds and memories on Namek, which he used on Krillin to quickly catch up on the situation so Toriyama wouldn't have to do a whole scene where they talk about it (presumably, KBABZ is just guessing on that one).

I’m sure the convenience is a big part of it but they did establish Roshi could read minds in the 21st Budokai arc so there’s a precedent.

Wouldn’t surprise me it’s some wuxia trope, but since my actual experience with that genre is limited to a single film, I have no idea and that’s not my forte.

Making shit up? Sure. But remember at the time the only stuff they had to hand was the first thirteen episodes (which didn't have the RRA in it, as you recall) and Movies 1 and 3 thanks to Harmony Gold. To the inexperienced, those two movies could pass off as A version of the anime (the opening to Movie 1 is certainly very comparable to the manga), so I absolutely understand why Funimation would take the information in Movie 3 at face value here.

They also had dub all 3 Dragon Ball films at this point. The 95 Curse of the Blood Rubies dub was even the first thing they dubbed. And you would think they would pick up on that movie and the first arc tell the same basic story and maybe just maybe the movies exist in a separate continuity?

They also tried to pass Sleeping Princess off as a follow up to the first 13 episodes by acting like Goku has gone ape before even though he lost his tail at the end of that saga and still had his tail intact at the beginning of the movie ala the ending of movie 1.

I just think Funimation especially back then just weren’t terribly bright?

How else do we explain “Ah yes Vegeta killed my grandfather even though it was already established that I accidentally did and he’s never been to earth before.”

They also lacked the internet, so they couldn't exactly download a torrent from kyaa, and it would have been stupid to hit up Toei to deliver some Red Ribbon Army tapes to them for what is ultimately a VERY inconsequential scene.

I think the main thing is they would have avoided this if they had A. Dubbed all of Dragon Ball first like they should have to begin with B. Stick to the Japanese translation when it involved stuff they had no business putting their own spin on.


And yeah, it’s understandable where they got their assumptions from based on what little they had worked with regarding Dragon Ball but it’s still inexcusable.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The thing with Dende being God/Kami in Movie 6/Return of Cooler even though the manga or anime hadn't even gotten to that point yet is fascinating in a hilarious way. I can only picture what fans in Japan who saw this in theaters back in early 1992 thought, given this was many months before Piccolo and Kami actually merged or Cell's introduction before any of that had even been conceived by Toriyama. It wouldn't surprise me if Toei thus worked this in even though it directly conflicted with where both the manga and anime were at the time the movie came out so it was a sort of spoiler if he had already cooked up this idea at the time of the movie's production.

[Xeogran]

[*]This movie is the final time the orange spacesuits appear, after previously being shown when Goku repaired his ship on the way to Namek and when Chi-Chi and co. planned to go to Namek themselves.

Or so you think! GT also had the main trio wear the iconic spacesuits.

Spoiler:

[KBABZ]

[*]This movie is the final time the orange spacesuits appear, after previously being shown when Goku repaired his ship on the way to Namek and when Chi-Chi and co. planned to go to Namek themselves.

Or so you think! GT also had the main trio wear the iconic spacesuits.

Spoiler:

GDI I FORGOT YES SATAN IN THE INTRO