Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 82 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.
Here we are! The beginning of the Boo arc. Sort of. Really, this is one of the most fun diversions from any kind of main storyline in all of Dragon Ball, if you ask me. So, sit back and enjoy Son Gohan's Day Off.
Previous thread: Week 81 (DBZ 195-199)
Next thread: Week 83 (DBZ 205-209)
Anyway, without further ado...
Episode 353 - 7 Years Since That Event! Starting Today, I’m a High Schooler (DBZ episode 200)
Dub title: Gohan Goes to High School
Originally aired 8th of September 1993
Kai equivalent: Episode 99 - 7 Years Since That Event! Starting Today, Gohan’s a High Schooler
Written by: Takao Koyama
Episode director: Mitsuo Hashimoto
Animation supervisor: Tadayoshi Yamamuro
The years have passed since the battle with Cell, and Gohan, now a high school student, begins commuting to a high school in the city. But he comes across a bank robbery in the city, and takes care of the robbers after becoming Super Saiyan. His Super Saiyan form becomes known as the “Golden-Haired Warrior” and rumors spread. Attending school, Gohan becomes classmates with Mister Satan’s daughter, Videl. Gohan tries to be inconspicuous in order to hide his true identity, but he stands out in gym class, and instead becomes the center of attention.
Anime-only/filler content: The scene of Mr. Satan at his gym, an extra scene of Chichi talking to Gohan.
Episode 354 - The Champion and Lover of Justice — The Great Saiyaman Appears (DBZ episode 201)
Dub title: I am Saiyaman
Originally aired 15th of September 1993
International Kai equivalent: Episode 99 - 7 Years Since That Event! Starting Today, Gohan’s a High Schooler and episode 100 - A New Hero, Great Saiyaman, is Born!
Japanese Kai equivalent: Episode 99 - 7 Years Since That Event! Starting Today, Gohan’s a High Schooler and episode 100 - Found Out! The New Hero is Son Gohan
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Kazuhito Kikuchi
Animation supervisor: Keisuke Masunaga
Gohan consults Bulma on how to hide his identity. Bulma creates a watch-shaped transformation item to conceal Gohan’s identity. The next day, there is a bus hijacking, and Videl goes into action. Gohan follows her after transforming. Videl splendidly defeats the criminals, but the bus falls off a cliff. However, Gohan saves them in the knick of time. Calling himself the “Great Saiyaman”, Gohan makes a dashing exit.
Anime-only/filler content: Gohan and Videl saving the day (but not them leaving to go save the day, that still happened in the manga, but the scene of them saving the day in the manga was used in another episode).
Episode 355 - Gohan’s Confusing First Date?! (DBZ episode 202)
Dub title: Gohan's First Date
Originally aired 29th of September 1993
International Kai equivalent: Some scenes incorporated into episode 101 - Videl's Crisis? Gohan's Urgent Call-out!
Japanese Kai equivalent: Some scenes incorporated into episode 100 - Found Out! The New Hero is Son Gohan
Written by: Satoru Akahori
Episode director: Daisuke Nishio
Animation supervisor: Yūji Hakamada
As he’s about to be late for class, Gohan goes to school in his Great Saiyaman costume, but runs into a girl called Angela on the rooftop. Thinking that she has seen his identity, Gohan ends up having to go out on a date with her to protect his secret. But a fire breaks out during their date, and Gohan becomes the Great Saiyaman and helps Videl put out the fire. Ultimately, it turned out that what Angela had seen was his baby bear underwear.
Anime-only/filler content: Entirely filler.
Episode 356 - Gohan, Get Moving Quick! Rescue Videl!! (DBZ episode 203)
Dub title: Rescue Videl
Originally aired 20th of October 1993
International Kai equivalent: Episode 101 - Videl's Crisis? Gohan's Urgent Call-out!
Japanese Kai equivalent: None
Written by: Yoshiyuki Suga
Episode director: Mitsuo Hashimoto
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama
In order to learn the Great Saiyaman’s identity, Videl persistently follows after him. During this time, a group of evildoers called the Red Shark Gang rampage through the city. Videl rushes to the scene and confronts their boss, but Gohan can’t sneak out of class. But as Gohan taps his foot in irritation, it causes an earthquake. After using the confusion to sneak away, Gohan captures the Shark Gang, but Videl defeats the boss all on her own.
Anime-only/filler content: The entire episode!
Episode 357 - A Robbery Case!! The Culprit is Saiyaman?! (DBZ episode 204)
Dub title: Blackmail
Originally aired 27th of October 1993
International Kai equivalent: Episode 102 - A Monster is Taken Away! The Culprit is Great Saiyaman?
Japanese Kai equivalent: Some footage incorporated into episode 100 - Found Out! The New Hero is Son Gohan.
Written by: Yoshiyuki Suga
Episode director: Takahiro Imamura
Animation supervisor: Yukio Ebisawa
Chibi, the child of Toto, the dinosaur who lives close to Gohan’s house, is captured by the Circus Gang and put on display. Gohan becomes the Great Saiyaman and rescues Chibi, but is mistaken for a thief, and ends up fighting Videl. However, Chibi’s parents appear, and the city is sent into turmoil at the arrival of these dinosaur. Gohan takes Chibi back with Videl’s help, and the Toto family returns to the mountains. But Videl has finally learned Gohan’s identity.
Anime-only/filler content: The entire episode, except for Videl outing Gohan as the Great Saiyaman, except it happens very differently.
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Interesting trivia:
- At this point in time in the manga, the adult division begins, Shin introduces himself, the fighters draw their numbers, Kuririn wins his fight and Piccolo forfeits his, and Videl begins her match with Spopovic.
- Robo and KBABZ debated for a while whether it should be Spopovic or Spopovitch. Kanzenshuu and Simmons use the latter, but KBABZ prefers the former, and since he writes most of the trivia, Robo decided to leave it as Spopovic. Neither are quite sure what the origin of the character's name is, though.
- The title page for Chapter 421 shows Roshi telling the reader that Dragon Ball isn't over yet. He said the same thing at the end of Chapter 194 at the end of the 23rd Tournament Arc when it seemed like the story was over.
- The Boo Arc marks two notable shifts regarding the title pages.
- First, while the previous 420 Chapters used several logos at once, the Boo Arc had a brand new logo that was used for the entire run. This logo would be used for the DVD cover of the 2008 Jump Special, appropriate as it features the Boo cast two years after that arc had ended.
- Second, while the manga had used story panels on the title page as far back as Chapter 131, the Boo Arc would use it incredibly frequently. Of the 99 title pages in the Boo Arc, 60 would use story panels over bespoke artwork. The Super manga would continue this trend, almost exclusively using story panels for its title pages.
- For the seven year timeskip and protagonist switch at episode 200, Toei rejigged the main themes and visuals for Dragon Ball Z, introducing the We Gotta Power Intro, the We Were Angels outro, new eyecatches, new recap music, and for the first time since the Saiyan arc began in 1989, a new music package composed just for the TV anime, whereas all previous music packages for Z since episode 1 had simply been the music Kikuchi composed for the movies.
- We Gotta Power Trivia:
- The opening shot of Gohan, Goten and Trunks on Shen Long's head is quite prophetic, as it's how Goku's story ends in Dragon Ball GT.
- The shot of Gohan's younger selves reflected in his Saiyaman shades is reminiscent of the title page for Chapter 404, swapping out Saiyan Arc Gohan for Cell Arc Gohan.
- The opening shot is also one of the shots that changed slightly between their debut in Z episode 200 and their slight revision in Z episode 202; the clouds that cover the screen and open out are not present in the episode 200/201 version. Just like Z episode 1 before it, the new OP animation introduced in episode 200 was almost a "beta version", which can sadly only be seen on Japanese TV broadcasts these days; the Dragon Boxes and all other home releases of Z episodes 200 and 201 use the later version.
- The shot of Gohan pedaling the Capsule Corp bike to school is taken from the artwork for Tankobon #34, which covers the Goku and Gohan parts of the Cell Games. In the Tankobon however it's Goku pedalling; for We Gotta Power it was switched to Gohan, and the "Dragon Ball" text on the wheels were removed, presumably to make them easier to animate.
- Chapter 421 marks the first time anyone has ridden Kinto'Un since Goku joined the fray in the Saiyan Arc. Its last occupant is also its latest: Gohan!
- The shot of Gohan and Videl in the Mr. Satan trike car is taken from the artwork of a fold-out poster included in Shonen Jump's 31st issue of 1993. In the original artwork they drove through a residential area, but for We Gotta Power they're driving along a coastal road, to fit the surfing theme and presumably for quicker animation. Famously this calendar art would also inspire the first half of the Boo Arc's eyecatches. As a reference to Videl's family, the car's racing number is 666.
- Despite Trunks' initial lack of respect for Goku, in the group shot of We Gotta Power he uses the Kamehameha poses like Goten does. It's possible this is so that the animators could use the same base animation drawings for Goten and Trunks, since they're the same height and each has a very similar gi.
- The shot of Gohan looking out over a city on top of a spire his with cape flowing in the wind is reminiscent of his idol Piccolo. Gohan of course puts his own... unique spin on it.
- The end art of the intro is the group shot of all the main fighters made for Chapter 430's title page, which is the Chapter when Goku returns to the world of the living. For We Gotta Power it adds Bulma, Chichi, Videl, Erasa and Shapner. This artwork would be used again for the second half of The Final Chapters' eyecatches, which goes back to the original fighter-only cast.
- We Gotta Power is notably both spoileriffic yet quickly out-dated. It spoils that Goku returns from Other World, that Goten exists, and that Gohan gets into a relationship with Videl. At the same time it's very rooted in the Saiyaman era, with a strong focus on Gohan's high school days and his Saiyaman alter-ego (which were still in effect when the anime hit this point: the manga was in the 25th Tournament and had only just introduced the elements that would lead to Boo). Much like Cha-La Head Cha-La, Toriyama's writing would swiftly make Toei's OP and ED out of date.
- Kageyama recorded an English version of We Gotta Power. The lyricist's grasp of English is not very good, and neither is Kageyama's English pronunciation, and it features lines such as "Thing you want that you can't touch, but you know one day you will hold that special feel that make you a man." Between this and The Final Chapters' Fight It Out, the Boo arc has two official English versions of its OP produced in Japan.
- Related to the above entry about We Gotta Power: There is also an English Kageyama version of Cha-La Head Cha-La. This is actually missed trivia, since we didn't mention it in Week 34. As a token of apology for us missing it the first time, here's a far better English version, using the vocals from the Filipino English dub's cover (sung by Gino Padilla) combined with the Japanese instrumental.
- The shot in We Were Angels of Vegeta, Kuririn, Piccolo and Yamucha is a rare instance of Vegeta... smiling.
- And now we get to Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters, possibly the most confusing production in all of Dragon Ball.
- Due to the continued success of the original Dragon Ball Z Kai, international distributors wanted Toei to continue it into the Boo Arc, so Toei made a 69-episode edit of Z's Boo Arc. Sadly, The Final Chapters did not have the same amount of time, care, or budget allotted to it as the original Kai, notably having a poor colour grade, no 4:3 version, cheap, happened-to-be-available synthesiser composer Norihito Sumitomo scoring the series rather than either reusing Kikuchi's music or more carefully selecting a perfectly-fitting composer, and leaving in a very large portion of filler, including many entirely-filler episodes such as the Saiyaman one with the baby dinosaur, or the one where Goku rescues a bird egg after defeating Boo. It also doesn't have any redrawn shots to assist the 16:9 version, which is how the original Kai made that reframing work, even though the quality of the redrawn shots was never quite satisfactory to many fans in either 16:9 or 4:3.
- At some point during or after the production, Fuji TV needed a replacement for the ratings failure Toriko, Toei's attempt at the next big shonen franchise, and Toei settled on using The Final Chapters, coincidentally the continuation of the show that Toriko had replaced. Initially, the intention was that the Japanese Edit of The Final Chapters would air for only a year, so compared to the International Edit, seven episodes were trimmed out, removing several (but not all) of the filler episodes. However the one-year thing was eventually dropped and the only episode cut after the first fifteen was the pure-filler Episode 165, taking the total number of cut episodes up to eight. A few other changes were made for the Japanese Edit, including a completely new OP song (with altered visuals), several new EDs replacing the original single ED, different music use/placements, moving Goku's wish for everyone to forget about Boo one episode backwards, and recolouring Evil Boo's eyes to red. The home video release of the Japanese edition also makes one further change: the addition of an ugly sharpening filter, similar to the one that creates the uniquely awful look of Funimation's Blu-ray releases of Z.
- To make things more confusing, the Japanese Edit of The Final Chapters aired FIRST in June 2014, with the original International Edit airing in Korea around the same time. The Final Chapters wouldn't debut in the US until January 2017, well after Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' (and Super in Japan, which was simulsubbed on Crunchyroll in the US), despite a dub for it being recorded as early as 2014. The reason for this is because NickToons weren't interested like with Kai 1.0: it only happened because Toonami returned and were interested in their flagship anime, but they wanted to start with Kai 1.0 first. Similarly, Super did not air on Toonami until after TFC finished. Despite the existence of the shorter Japanese Edit of TFC however, Funimation either asked for or were specifically given the longer International Edit.
- The opening of The Final Chapters marks two firsts for the franchise. First, since it started out as an international production, its intro song Fight It Out is the first Dragon Ball OP to be written in English first (granted, not very good English), rather than translated from Japanese by the dubbing company.
- Second, while the intro visuals themselves are filled with more spoilers than We Gotta Power, it's the first Dragon Ball anime intro to not become outdated during the story it accompanies! The revised Cha-La Head Cha-La intro from the 2008 Jump Special is the only earlier one.
- In Chapter 421, it's mentioned that Satan City (or "Herculopolis" in the Funi dub and ViZ) was renamed after its most famous resident. It's unknown what name the city had before that.
- As a name, Herculopolis is a bit of an "Ancient Grome" trope, as Hercules is Roman while "-opolis" is Greek.
- ViZ also goes through the bother of renaming Gohan's school to "Hercule High" to fit inside the narrator's text box, but doesn't bother renaming it in the wide shots of the school itself. It would have been a pun if it happened in the previous Chapter, 420.
- Gohan catches all the bullets fired by the crook's machine gun before gently dropping them, a trick not seen in the manga since Roshi did it in front of the Red Ribbon Army when they invaded Kame House. Both opponents have the same reaction, baring their teeth in shock before being knocked out.
- Videl's name follows the same name pun as her father, being an anagram of "devil".
- On a similar note, in 2009 the Super Exciting Guide (a spiritual successor to the Daizenshuu) revealed that Mr. Satan's real first name is "Mark". In Japanese this is rendered as "Maaku", which forms the pun by switching the two kanji for Akuma, which means "devil" / "demon". Akuma is most famously associated with the Street Fighter character.
- Erasa and Shapna's name puns are obvious, being puns on office and school supplies that fit the high school setting they're associated with.
- Gohan's Golden Warrior reputation is established BEFORE Chapter 421, despite this being Gohan's first day of school. As Gohan later muses, these were from the two times he visited the area to register for Orange Star High.
- Both of the wide shots of Orange Star High in Chapters 421, 422 and 424 are the same drawing but with different clouds.
- Apparently Gohan's sports teacher is Freddie Mercury!
- Chapter 423 is the first time Bulma is seen smoking in the Familiar Timeline, something her Future counterpart also picked up in her older years, and of course is a habit her father is known for as well, unless you're watching the censored dubs.
- Bulma's Great Saiyaman costume solution is the second watch-based gadget we've seen her make, after the shrinking watch in the Red Ribbon Army arc. This is made more overt in the anime and Full Colors where the buttons on the side to use to device are red and blue, just like the size-changing watch.
- Gohan's line about speeders is ironic considering he likely violated many air traffic laws flying to school (Chichi notes that Gohan should watch out for airplanes in Chapter 424), and he sped incredibly fast himself just now to get to Satan City.
- Goten's name is made by swapping out the Japanese word for sky (ku) in Goku's name with the Chinese one (ten). It otherwise has no connection to the original "Sun Wukong" name from Journey to the West.
- Goten's connection with his father's younger years is established immediately, since Gohan leaves Kinto'Un to him. Presumably Goten has sat on it before and thus knows he can ride it.
- The name Saiyaman is itself a pun: the jin in "Saiyajin" means "person" (which is where we get Speedy Video's "Saiya-people"), so the name of Gohan's alter-ego simply swaps out the last kanji of his race's name with the English equivalent!
- There is no Greek philosopher named Diarrheus. The word diarrhea is derived from Greek however, specifically the words "Dia" and "rhein", to mean "flow through". Yum.
- Gohan's unfamiliarity with Satan City is shown when he doesn't even know where Route 81 is.
- The Funimation broadcast of Z episode 202 wasn't aired in its originally-planned slot on the 19th of September 2001 due to its depiction of a tall, burning building. It eventually aired two months later.
- The original Funi dub of episode 202 is also the subject of a dubbing oddity: In the flashback to when Goku and Chichi were children, Goku speaks a line voiced by Ceyli Delgadillo (who had voiced kid Goku beginning in DB movie 2), then a line voiced by Stephanie Nadolny (who had replaced Delgadillo starting with the in-house dub of the original Dragon Ball anime). The 2008 redub replaces Delgadillo's line with one recorded by Nadolny.
- At the end of Chapter 424, Gohan says he'll reveal his alter-ego's name "in next week's issue" for the Shonen Jump release. For the Tankobon this was changed to "on the next page", however this isn't actually accurate as the next page has artwork of Saiyaman posing to help maintain the page layout from Shonen Jump. Further, Gohan spends one page building up to the reveal, and a second page making silly poses, meaning he takes three pages to reveal the name! The ViZ translation fixes the issue fully by having Gohan say "in the next chapter".
- As an acknowledgement of the above, at the start of Chapter 425 the crook asks who Saiyaman is a second time, and Saiyaman says he'll reveal it as promised. This was a common tactic to on-board TV viewers when coming back from an ad break.
- Videl logically assumes that since Saiyaman knows her name, he must be Gohan. However she's forgetting that she's a prolific crime-fighter in Satan City, thus it wouldn't be surprising that someone knows her name already.
- Gohan lasts 32 pages and less than 24 hours in-universe until he blows his cover. In the Japanese Edit of The Final Chapters, it's less than two episodes!
- Chapter 425 is never directly adapted in the anime, with all of its scenes being reworked, replaced or cut entirely to make way for filler storylines:
- In the manga, it happens in the "bugjumper" air vehicle after busting the Route 81 crook, and Videl verbally tricks Gohan on the spot into revealing who he is.
- In the anime, Gohan saves a falling bus, goes on a date and helps Videl save a fire, helps Videl defeat the Red Shark Gang, and save a dinosaur from the Circus Gang (with Videl's help); the original Route 81 incident never happens. The bugjumper scene happens at the end of the Circus Gang filler episode, but now occurs in the Orange Star High School locker hallways.
- In Dragon Ball Z, it takes six episodes for the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai to be introduced and redirect the story. In the Japanese Edit of The Final Chapters, it takes two!