Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

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Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by 90sDBZ » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:16 pm

I'm currently rewatching it and have just started the stuff with Colonel Silver, and it feels like a drag, especially knowing how long the RRA arc goes on for. Muscle Tower has some decent moments, but it doesn't really pick up until Tao shows up, which is ages away. I enjoyed it when I was watching it for the first time, but now having seen it so many times I'm finding it hard going. It's largely just a whole lot of Goku beating up guys with guns.

It might be one of the main reasons I tend to rewatch Z more often, even though that has its share of slow parts too.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by MasenkoHA » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:27 pm

Nah I love it. The only part that’s a struggle is the pirate cave portion which gets stretched out to like 8 episodes.

I consider Red Ribbon-Saiyan arc to be peak Dragon Ball.


Besides even if we count Baba as part of the Red Ribbon arc it’s only the 4th longest arc in the anime.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by precita » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:01 pm

Well this arc has many parts so if you take it at each individual segment:

- Silver arc drags after Pilaf is out of the picture, and thankfully it's not too long

- Muscle Tower is fun, but some of the earlier eps could have been combined. Goku spends one whole episode on each floor fighting Major Metalitron and the giant pink monster, they could have been the same episode. The last few eps searching for the device to shut off Android 8 too from what I remember

- Blue arc is mostly good, although I kinda wish the Penguin Island stuff wasn't part of it. Some eps with Blue in the cave are a bit longer than should be but overall fune

- Final arc with Goku attacking the Red Ribbon army itself with Black and Red is good.


But even so it's my least favorite part of the original Dragonball. I love the 13 ep Pilaf arc, all 3 tournaments, the King Piccolo arc, and a lot of the training fillers between it all.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by ABED » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:51 pm

I've grown to enjoy it more as the years have gone on.
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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:04 pm

I like it good enough, though it isn't my among top favorite DB arcs which are Piccolo Daimao and 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai.
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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by JulieYBM » Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:15 pm

I love the Colonel Silver episodes so much! They stick in my mind because he is portrayed as so badass and stereotypically masculine. Even pre-bi awakening I was drawn to him. I think the strength of the production cree to make Silver come across as such a genuine, expansive threat really solidified Dragon Ball into a sort of tonal shift at the time. Even today I wish Silver had been allowed to be the final enemy of the storyline.
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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by MyVisionity » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:03 pm

It's Banjō Ginga's voice that really makes Colonel Silver memorable. I also like that episode that starts out with Silver in the boxing ring. Cool atmosphere.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by JulieYBM » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:18 pm

Ginga-san's performance really sells Silver! He is a big part of why I would love to see Silver return later on!
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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by FoolsGil » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:28 pm

I personally find the Red Ribbon Arc these days to be boring. Goku needs characters to bounce off of, and the ones that weren't villains weren't that interesting. Not only this, Goku was barely challenged throughout the arc. And once he was, he got 3 days of training and wasn't challenged again for the rest of the arc

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by Vijay » Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:34 pm

90sDBZ wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:16 pm I'm currently rewatching it and have just started the stuff with Colonel Silver, and it feels like a drag, especially knowing how long the RRA arc goes on for. Muscle Tower has some decent moments, but it doesn't really pick up until Tao shows up, which is ages away. I enjoyed it when I was watching it for the first time, but now having seen it so many times I'm finding it hard going. It's largely just a whole lot of Goku beating up guys with guns.

It might be one of the main reasons I tend to rewatch Z more often, even though that has its share of slow parts too.
Lol. Everything revolving RRA is what makes DB such a hit & peak of DB (well, 21st TB & Daimou Arc were peaks as well)

3-way parallel storyline with Colonel Silver, Goku & Pilaf's attempt on DB's makes for wonderful moments.

Personally not a fan of Muscle Tower & its because Colonel White isn't that interesting. Just generic white guy villain u see in muvies nowadays 😂 (I do like everything about Ninja Murasaki though 😁)

Karin Tower & subsequent climatic battle is simply beyond words for it's time & now.

I've never came across a child protagonist taking on an army/enemies in their home-field after multiple teases single-handedly & emerge victorious ✨👌 Toriyama could've simply finished the series the RRA Arc and it would've still been classic anime/YYH-tier. Now u got...cough...cough..."tatakae" even with powers of 100+ Titan & became literal God unable to finish the job..cough...cough...

And Toriyama made RRA 30 years ago😂 haha. Whatte chad.

Guess it's all abt preference.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by Cipher » Sat Jul 17, 2021 12:05 am

It’s an arc I really enjoy rereading (largely from Blue onward, but there’s some fun stuff beforehand too), but the anime’s languid pacing doesn’t do its snappy adventure-comedy many favors.

Probably one of my bigger disconnects between where I’d put a storyline on a favorites list between the manga and anime. (Not as bad as with Namek, but it might suffer the second most.)

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by sangofe » Sat Jul 17, 2021 12:49 am

Not at all. I like it. Like all of DB when I think about it and especially the Piccolo Daimaoh saga.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by precita » Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:52 am

I think the problem is most of it is a Goku-only story. Outside of the Blue arc where Krillin/Bulma are involved, the series let all the supporting characters be forgotten this series. Goku can't really bounce off the villains here and Android 8 is a very boring character personality wise, so there wasn't much to go on in terms of interactions.

I also get the feeling Toriyama didn't quite know what direction he wanted to take the series in after the first tournament ended. The Red Ribbon army arc feels divorced from the rest of the series, I guess he wanted to show Goku fight an evil human army?

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by Cipher » Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:36 am

precita wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:52 am I also get the feeling Toriyama didn't quite know what direction he wanted to take the series in after the first tournament ended. The Red Ribbon army arc feels divorced from the rest of the series, I guess he wanted to show Goku fight an evil human army?
It’s probably more that he wanted an antagonist who could last through the whole of an adventure arc? An opposing organization is an easier way to do that than a single powerful villain (since you can organize different sections around confrontations with different members, as the Red Ribbon arc does). The first arc had no unifying villain, really, as Yamcha quickly became a reluctant partner and the Pilaf gang only show up at the end.

Once he commits to doing singular, powerful enemies, the arcs largely stop being adventures, and it takes quite a while before they approach the length and scope of the Red Ribbon arc again (not until Namek).

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by 90sDBZ » Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:56 pm

Vijay wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:34 pm Lol. Everything revolving RRA is what makes DB such a hit & peak of DB (well, 21st TB & Daimou Arc were peaks as well)

3-way parallel storyline with Colonel Silver, Goku & Pilaf's attempt on DB's makes for wonderful moments.

Personally not a fan of Muscle Tower & its because Colonel White isn't that interesting. Just generic white guy villain u see in muvies nowadays 😂 (I do like everything about Ninja Murasaki though 😁)

Karin Tower & subsequent climatic battle is simply beyond words for it's time & now.
I'd argue the King Piccolo saga is on a whole other level to RRA, largely because the villains feel more threatening. Multiple major characters die, Goku actually loses twice and only narrowly beats Piccolo in their rematch, Shenron is destroyed, Earth's millitary is overthrown, and all hell breaks loose.

The Tournaments are all great too because we're actually seeing close suspenseful fights between multiple characters.

I agree the stuff with Tao is awesome, but up to that point Goku was damn near unstoppable, and once he trains with Korin there's no longer any doubt that he'll take down the entire RRA. He continues to be unstoppable at Baba's Palace and only loses to Gohan because of his tail.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by WittyUsername » Sat Jul 17, 2021 2:04 pm

I like the RRA arc. It’s extremely unique for Dragon Ball. Outside of the Dragon Balls being used to bring someone back to life, it doesn’t really follow the story beats that would come to define the series from Piccolo onward, and it has a fun sense of adventure to it.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by Kodoshin » Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:47 pm

I actually like this arc a lot, but it's still probably my second least favorite part of original Dragon Ball.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by MasenkoHA » Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:39 pm

precita wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:52 am. Goku can't really bounce off the villains here and Android 8 is a very boring character personality wise, so there wasn't much to go on in terms of interactions.
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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by lancerman » Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:57 pm

No I adore that arc. It's my favorite portion of DragonBall along with the 22nd tournament. It's the most varied arc in terms of villains, it keeps the series namesake as a major focus, it does the most for world building, it sets up the formula with Tao Pai Pai, it finds ways to incorporate most of the characters while introducing new ones, it adds to the mythology.

To me it's the best balance of fighting/adventure/serious/comedy/lore.

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Re: Anyone else find the RRA arc hard to rewatch?

Post by Vijay » Sat Jul 17, 2021 7:48 pm

lancerman wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:57 pm No I adore that arc. It's my favorite portion of DragonBall along with the 22nd tournament. It's the most varied arc in terms of villains, it keeps the series namesake as a major focus, it does the most for world building, it sets up the formula with Tao Pai Pai, it finds ways to incorporate most of the characters while introducing new ones, it adds to the mythology.

To me it's the best balance of fighting/adventure/serious/comedy/lore.
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