Minute: 3
Kuririn: “Goku and Vegeta aren't here yet? Well, I guess that's all right, we've got Boo, and...Huh? Where's Boo?”
Gohan: “You see... Apparently, once he falls asleep, he won't wake up for some time…Even if you shake, hit, or tickle him, nothing works...”
Significance: This line originally appeared in Toriyama’s script for RF, as printed in Volume “F”, but it was ultimately cut from the movie (the finished film contains no explanation for why Boo didn’t take part in the battle). However, the second chapter of Toyotaro’s manga adaptation of RF retained the line, and now Super has done the same. Super also adds in the explanation that shaking/hitting/tickling Boo doesn’t work, and even includes a brief shot of him sleeping over at Mr. Satan’s house.
This new depiction of Boo’s sleeping habits seems to contradict the main series, where after building his house Boo comically goes to sleep for only a few seconds. On the other hand, it seems like it might tie in with Toriyama’s new version of Boo’s origin, as outlined in his
Twel-Boo Mysteries interview:
Though in the manga Kaiōshin said that Bibidi made him, the truth is that one called “Buu” was not actually created by Bididi, but has existed since time immemorial. He cycled between rampages and long hibernation. During numerous iterations of this cycle, he absorbed the evil elements of mankind, becoming steadily more violent. Bibidi merely knew the means of calling Buu from out of his long slumber. Since the current Buu is a slightly different life-form due to the changes brought about when the evil Buu was expelled, it’s not known whether he’ll still go into long hibernation.
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Minute: 8
Freeza: “The current Freeza Army is no more than a hodgepodge of second-rate soldiers.”
And later, 16 minutes in…
Freeza: “I'm having trouble believing my army has become so weak that it is incapable of disposing of a single fool!”
Significance: “Second-rate” (二級) in the sense of “not very good”. Freeza’s description is very similar to what Toriyama writes in his RF script, as part of his brief description of the big battle:
Despite being called “Freeza Army”, by now it’s been reduced to merely a hodge-podge of second-rate warriors. Strength-wise Earth’s army overwhelmingly has the upper hand, and the enemy force’s numbers steadily drop. However, there are still some strong enemies. The mercenaries are particularly troublesome. Gohan is strongest. And Piccolo’s strong too. Kuririn, Tenshinhan, Kame-sennin, and even Jaco all play a big role.
(While Super has incorporated many elements of Toriyama’s script that were left out of RF, there’s still no sign of these super-strong mercenaries.)
Anyway, taken together these two quotes present Freeza’s army as not what it used to be; apart from Tagoma and Shisami, all their good warriors are long dead. In a pinch, this might serve as an explanation for why Kame-sennin is able to help out in this battle at all. It’s often assumed that every random Freeza goon must be at least as strong as Raditz, but that doesn’t seem to have even been true of all Freeza’s goons on Namek (Gohan and Kuririn with BPs at 1,500 are able to instantly kill two goons). If the goons on Namek and the ones Mecha Freeza brought to Earth were the cream of the crop, then a lot of these goons in the RF arc might be down at Kame-sennin’s level. Although there’s also indication that Kame-sennin is stronger here than back in the main series; Toriyama writes in Volume “F” that Kame-sennin “could have been this strong all along if he had put his mind to it”…whatever that means.
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Minute: 19~20
Freeza: “That shall do for the training on tormenting Son Goku to the brink of death. Well done, Tagoma-san. Thanks to you, I have managed to climb to yet another stage. You are a highly valuable training partner. Now get into the regeneration device and make sure you're healed properly up for tomorrow. Otherwise, I might end up killing you.”
Significance: Freeza describes his training here as 孫悟空を死なないぎりぎりのラインで痛めつける特訓, literally “training on tormenting Son Goku to the line where he’s only just barely not dead”. In other words, hurting him as much as possible without actually killing him. And he’s using Tagoma for practice, so that he’ll be ready to inflict maximum pain on Goku when they meet again. So…why exactly does this make Tagoma stronger? It’s not exactly spelled out, but presumably there was actual sparring involved, and not just Tagoma standing there letting Freeza hurt him (of course, with the huge gap in their powers, it might amount to the same thing). So maybe fighting all-out against Freeza every day was enough to do the trick. But it’s tempting to speculate that perhaps Tagoma’s race has features similar to the Saiyans, and therefor get similar near-death power ups.
While this isn’t necessarily the only training Freeza does, it’s (so far) the only bit of his training we’ve seen, so again…why does this make Freeza way stronger? Well, as outlined above, Freeza is practicing holding back just enough to avoid killing his opponent. And he’s doing this in his so-called “first form”, which is revealed in the series to be one of several transformations he creates purely to restrain his otherwise uncontrollable power. So to get
really speculative, maybe Freeza is focusing on learning new ways to control his power? Especially since this seems to be a big part of Goku and Vegeta’s training under Whis.
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Minute: 21
Sorbet: “I don't believe this! He's surpassed the Ginyu Special Force we once had!”
Tagoma: “Oh, right, those guys...They're nothing but ancient history, though!”
Significance: While not exactly a contradiction, Tagoma is supposed to be on par with Gohan (see below), so Sorbet’s line here is a considerable understatement. It’s probably mostly there just to remind everyone about the existence of Ginyu. Since that’s apparently going to be a big part of the next episode…
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Minute: 22~23
Gohan (narrating the NEP): “This Tagoma person is on a completely different level from the other soldiers. He’s hiding power at least on par with my own! No way... His power rose even higher?! What's that bizarre pose?!”
Significance: While hyping up the next episode, Gohan first describes Tagoma “hiding power at least on par with my own” (僕に勝るとも劣らない力を秘めています) and then goes on to say in shock that Tagoma’s power has gone even higher. It would seem then that this would have to make Tagoma at least a little bit stronger than Gohan. These Next Episode Previews always break the fourth wall, so arguably nothing said in them is “canon”, but this episode Tagoma did manage to fatally wound Gohan (or it would have been fatal, had Piccolo and Kuririn not intervened). It was a sneak attack, and Gohan certainly seems weaker than he used to be (“I can still become Super Saiyan…probably…”) but still, Tagoma definitely seems up there now.
Spoilers! Speaking of Tagoma’s power going even higher and him suddenly starting to do funny poses…well, the spoilers for next episode describe frog!Ginyu as switching bodies with him, resulting in him getting even stronger. Exactly what the heck this means is still unclear, and I guess we won’t know for sure until next episode. But based on this NEP, it seems that Ginyu in Tagoma’s body is even stronger than Tagoma was in his own body. Which seems weird, since the punchline to the Ginyu battle was that Ginyu in Goku’s body was massively weaker than Goku himself. Of course, in that case the power-down was explained in terms of Ginyu being not only less used to Goku’s body but also less skilled overall, unable to perform the Kaio-ken. So maybe Ginyu is less skilled than Goku but more skilled than Tagoma, and therefore will be able to get more millage out of Tagoma’s body than Tagoma himself? Well, we shall see…