Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 1 - DB Episodes 1-5

[KBABZ]

I did always wonder how the electrics and plumbing worked.
I like to think that Dr Brief had other tech miniaturisation in place that allowed pipes and electronics to fit inside the thin walls.

So like, a Capsule inside a capsule??

My personal explanation is that it's what the third "room" is in the building when we see it in the end credits. We see the main dome with the living room and kitchen, and the side room where the bedroom and bathroom are. I feel like the third dome is where the plumbing and electricity go, where the chimney is.

[MyVisionity]

"Old Lady Paozu"
Huh. Is she named after the mountain? (Or was Mt. Paozu a dub invention? I get the sense it came from a Daizenshuu)

Baozi or Pao Tzu is a type of Chinese steamed bun with filling. The mountain has the same name, which is anime-only I believe, and did not appear until the Z-era.

[ABED]

What is the deal with Oolong's communist China uniform?

[Robo4900]

Y'know what, screw it, I'm gonna watch episode 5 too. It's only 20 more minutes... Dangerous thinking, but there is just this one episode left this week. I guess limiting to 5 episodes a week is probably good for my studying for this reason.

I feel like there's a joke to be made about Bulma being impressed by Oolong's transformation ability to an extent that she brings him along on the adventure, and then she ends up married to a guy who can transform into... Three? Four forms?

I love Oolong telling the story of the dangers of Mt. Frypan, Bulma saying "So people get killed?", Oolong's like "Yeah", and Goku says "Sounds neat."
I love Goku's chill. He's just unflappable. If he hadn't grown up in the woods, I wonder if he'd have smoked weed in college.
Man, stoner Goku would be hilarious.

Goku knows what candy is, but he doesn't know what an oar is?...

I forgot how great a trio Goku, Bulma, and Oolong make. And the way they play off Yamucha as a light villain is great.

Yamucha the desert bandit's weakness is that he has severe social anxiety around girls. I love that so much.

And with that, that's the first five episodes. Man, I remember these episodes are joyful, but I forgot how funny they are. Really great stuff.
I know Dragon Ball doesn't really find its identity until the 21st Tenkaichi storyline, but these early episodes are very fun.

So like, a Capsule inside a capsule??

I know it's not canon, but I always strongly headcanon that conversation you can have in Legacy Of Goku 2... There's a disgraced scientist who used to work at Capsule Corp, and he explains he had this idea for a capsule inside a capsule, and it was so disastrous he was fired. So I like to imagine that's not a thing.

My personal explanation is that it's what the third "room" is in the building when we see it in the end credits. We see the main dome with the living room and kitchen, and the side room where the bedroom and bathroom are. I feel like the third dome is where the plumbing and electricity go, where the chimney is.

Yeah. That makes sense. I'd guess there's a generator with some kind of fuel, enough to last her a good long while, and she restocks at towns, and it switches off when she capsulises it.

Baozi or Pao Tzu is a type of Chinese steamed bun with filling. The mountain has the same name, which is anime-only I believe, and did not appear until the Z-era.

I see. Interesting. You'd think Toriyama would be the forgetful one who'd reuse a name like that.

[ABED]

Maybe DB capsule homes' plumbing has a whole Back to the Future Part II Mr. Fusion thing where it can turn the waste into energy.

[KBABZ]

Goku knows what candy is, but he doesn't know what an oar is?...

This one's reasonable actually in my opinion. A big deal is made of Goku arriving at the sea for the first time, so I bet he's quite unfamiliar with boats. Gohan only had so much time to teach Goku stuff.

And with that, that's the first five episodes. Man, I remember these episodes are joyful, but I forgot how funny they are. Really great stuff.
I know Dragon Ball doesn't really find its identity until the 21st Tenkaichi storyline, but these early episodes are very fun.

I feel the anime had the advantage of the story already having gotten up to Muscle Tower by the time it aired (and the conclusion of the 21st TB when first announced), meaning they had a lot of extra future material to know who the characters were a bit more. Goku for some reason feels a bit more fleshed out in the anime than in the manga to me.

So like, a Capsule inside a capsule??

I know it's not canon, but I always strongly headcanon that conversation you can have in Legacy Of Goku 2... There's a disgraced scientist who used to work at Capsule Corp, and he explains he had this idea for a capsule inside a capsule, and it was so disastrous he was fired. So I like to imagine that's not a thing.

Which brings up an interesting idea: does Capsule Corp have any creative/inventor employees outside of Dr. Briefs??

Yeah. That makes sense. I'd guess there's a generator with some kind of fuel, enough to last her a good long while, and she restocks at towns, and it switches off when she capsulises it.

That works fairly well. Although to be fair I don't think energy has EVER been an issue for Dragon Ball technology at any point in time, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Dragon World's Earth has figured out cheap energy that lasts for extremely long periods of time. I mean heck, as we'll later see, the PIRATE CAVE'S electricity still worked!

In the Ocean dub of the first 13 episodes, when Bulma uses her panties as a fishing lure against Oolong, they are painted over as dollars, to which Goku says something about a "fishful of dollars". It's also odd that the dub called it the piggy call, not the pee pee call when Bulma gives Oolong the laxative.

Maybe it was a Futurama reference.

Maybe DB capsule homes' plumbing has a whole Back to the Future Part II Mr. Fusion thing where it can turn the waste into energy.

I mean, it'd be VERY Toriyama if it was revealed that poop could be used as an energy source if needed!

[MasenkoHA]

“Yamucha the strong desert bandit” commentary

*The beginning music is oddly soothing

*Goku just has a fork and knife on his person?

*This is the third time Goku has accused Bulma of being a witch. That should have stayed a running gag. “You had Vegeta’s baby? Witchcraft!”

*But seriously when did Bulma have time to whip up PP candy?

*But no one is aching for the backstory of how Yamucha and Pu-er met in their thirst for expanded lore

*I don’t think Yamucha’s sword made it past this episode.

[Soppa Saia People]

didn't post in the thread because i had back to back panic attacks when i was planning on posting but w/e, watched episode 4 and 5.

love the vibe of episode 4, which i think i've said about every episode this far, but i don't know, i just love the characters walking around in like, a actual village, it's cool. i'm a big fan of Goku's interactions with everyone here, he's such a doofus character i love him lol, and the oolong stuff is great, the transformation stuff is pretty cool and i really love the scene where he tricks out goku. i've always found it interesting that, at least from the dubs i've seen, no dub is really accurate too tatsuta's oolong, most are pretty different performances, which is shame because i've always loved tatsuta in the role.

episode 5, love the dynamic of goku bulma and oolong, goku and bulma were already a solid duo, but oolong really takes a lot of the comedy to the next level, even if the UhOh Poop jokes with the candy has always,,,,kinda grossed me out, lol. they just bounce off of each other really well. the mount Frypan stuff ends up being kinda lame but i do like the build up in this episode, it's kinda unique for dragon ball to build up a specific location, even if the joke isn't very funny in this case. and god, i really like yamucha in this arc, and toru furuya's performance especially has always been one of the better parts of his character to me. pu'erh's really cute. i don't have much to say about him but i think he's adorable! the rogufufuken is also A plus, even if it's really like useful, it's always been one of the coolest attacks too me and the high pitched noises yamucha makes, that i don't think he even makes again after this arc, make me laugh idk why. also lmao at bulma napping.

overall these are still some of my favorites episodes, their just so charming and unique from the rest of the series, they're really near and dear to me.

[KBABZ]

So uh... since it's covered in Episode 5...

...what are our thoughts on Chi-Chi's clothing?

EDIT: IGNORE! That's Episode 7.

[MyVisionity]

That "Yamucha" spelling in the subtitles is really annoying. I wonder what the thought process was behind it. Just to be different from the dub?

*Goku just has a fork and knife on his person?

It's Goku, after all.

*I don’t think Yamucha’s sword made it past this episode.

I think it does reappear in this arc, but not afterwards.

So uh... since it's covered in Episode 5...

...what are our thoughts on Chi-Chi's clothing?

Chichi don't appear until episode 7 so I'm not sure what you mean...

I've always liked Chichi's outfit. Cute and funny at the same time. Works in sort of a post-apocalyptic fantasy/space opera kind of way.

[KBABZ]

Chichi don't appear until episode 7 so I'm not sure what you mean...

Oops, my bad!

[Soppa Saia People]

That "Yamucha" spelling in the subtitles is really annoying. I wonder what the thought process was behind it. Just to be different from the dub?

sorry i just thought it looked better, and it's what I'm used too.

[MasenkoHA]

That "Yamucha" spelling in the subtitles is really annoying. I wonder what the thought process was behind it. Just to be different from the dub?

I think it’s because his name is pronounced Yamucha not Yamcha?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I forgot how great a trio Goku, Bulma, and Oolong make. And the way they play off Yamucha as a light villain is great.

Yeah, it's pretty great. Helps that they all have different backgrounds and are completely different characters from one another.

Yamucha the desert bandit's weakness is that he has severe social anxiety around girls. I love that so much.

Same, there's some real charm in Toriyama's ability to subvert expectations, in this case making a character that on the surface looks tough seem vulnerable.

[Robo4900]

sorry i just thought it looked better, and it's what I'm used too.

Hey, you're not at fault here. You've done nothing wrong; Visionary is just raising a nitpick with the subtitles. You're good.

That "Yamucha" spelling in the subtitles is really annoying. I wonder what the thought process was behind it. Just to be different from the dub?

Don't be silly. Simmons and Mandelin chose it because they considered it a correct rendering of his name. I don't think Simmons or Mandelin ever paid any mind to how the dub did things.

From Herms' name pun roundup:

Yamcha
Comes from Yum Cha, a form of Chinese dining consisting of drinking tea while eating dim sum.
Toriyama Explanation: “This was also taken from a form of Chinese cuisine. Originally the name was just ‘Yum Cha’ itself, but that didn’t go over too well [here Toriyama spells ‘Yamcha’ in kanji with a katakana reading, like the Japanese word for Yum Cha, instead of just in katakana like it’s written in the series]. ” [DBF]
Source Spelling: 飲茶/yamucha
Name Spelling: ヤムチャ/Yamucha

Technically, I think both Yamcha and Yamucha are valid readings, arguably as would be Yumcha, but Simmons and Mandelin thought Yamucha was a better choice; I'm guessing it's because, as noted herea, it's written in katakana, rather than with the Chinese kanji with a katakana reading, so you romanise from the Japanese pronunciation rather than the Chinese root (unlike with Shen Long, or the Dragon Ball proper names like Si Xing Qiu, or indeed the GT evil dragons, like Si Xing Long, where their names are literally just Chinese words -- Shen Long meaning "Dragon God", the balls being [number] Star Ball, and the dragons being [number] Star Dragon), and Yamucha is how it's generally pronounced in Japanese; even though "Yamcha" is technically also correct, because you're hearing "Yamucha", it'd be jarring to render it any other way, and arguably it's better to write it closer to how it's actually said, even if it is technically okay to omit a vowel.

Steve Simmons was and is a big Dragon Ball nerd, so it's generally safe to assume he knew what he was doing when he chose how to render a name in English, and Yamucha was one he was behind the rendering of, so it's safe to assume he was rendering it correctly to the best of his abillity, not simply trying to spite the dub or something else petty like that.
Clyde Mandelin, sub guy for OG DB (I think Simmons was busy; DB was being done at the same time as Z, and I think Simmons was working on other shows at the same time as Z) is also known as a very good translator, so even names Simmons wouldn't have got to first, Mandelin would have had a good reason to do things the way he did.
No reason you can't prefer the other names (personally I refer to Kami as God, and I prefer Pu'er to Pu-erh), but generally the subtitles are the most accurate renderings of the names.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Some more edits i recall from the BLT/Ocean dub of episode 5 was some bits of Yamcha and Goku's battle, as Goku poking Yamcha in the eyes with his Jan-Ken-Pon/Rock-Paper-Scissors attack was cut off at the previous scene of them connecting fists and Goku getting struck repeatedly with the Roga Fu Fu Ken/Wolf Fang Fist removed after the initial kick. A similar cut was also done in the '94/'95 dub of Movie 1 as well, and such edits could be chalked up to censorship in regards to them finding it not ok that a young child is getting pummeled like that.

Were those same edits used in the Toonami broadcast of the 2001 redub of the episode? As it's been so long that i can't recall if it did or not.

[MyVisionity]

That "Yamucha" spelling in the subtitles is really annoying. I wonder what the thought process was behind it. Just to be different from the dub?

sorry i just thought it looked better, and it's what I'm used too.

Sorry, that wasn't directed towards you or anyone else. I was referring to the subs not anyone's preferences or usage. Maybe I should have been clearer.

Don't be silly. Simmons and Mandelin chose it because they considered it a correct rendering of his name. I don't think Simmons or Mandelin ever paid any mind to how the dub did things.

I don't think it's silly to consider that the dub names would affect their work, as I'm sure they had to have some awareness of what Funimation was doing with its dub renderings. I've wondered this many times with other names that you find in the series. They are fans themselves, after all.

Technically, I think both Yamcha and Yamucha are valid readings, arguably as would be Yumcha, but Simmons and Mandelin thought Yamucha was a better choice; I'm guessing it's because, as noted herea, it's written in katakana, rather than with the Chinese kanji with a katakana reading, so you romanise from the Japanese pronunciation rather than the Chinese root (unlike with Shen Long, or the Dragon Ball proper names like Si Xing Qiu, or indeed the GT evil dragons, like Si Xing Long, where their names are literally just Chinese words -- Shen Long meaning "Dragon God", the balls being [number] Star Ball, and the dragons being [number] Star Dragon), and Yamucha is how it's generally pronounced in Japanese; even though "Yamcha" is technically also correct, because you're hearing "Yamucha", it'd be jarring to render it any other way, and arguably it's better to write it closer to how it's actually said, even if it is technically okay to omit a vowel.

I doubt the Kanji or Katakana had anything to do with their decision. If that were the case we would probably have Uuron and Puuaru instead of Oolong and Pu'erh. And no, the pronunciation has nothing to do with this at all, as can be clearly seen throughout the rest of the series with character names. Not to mention how Simmons/Mandelin strive to retain the puns in their translations.

To also quote Herms:

"Yumcha" isn't even any more accurate than "Yamcha", really. "Yamcha" is a compelely valid way of writing the Cantonese word for dimsum, while "yumcha" is actually not standard in the modern system for romanizing Cantonese words, but instead is some sort of holdover from Ye Olden Days that still gets used in everyday English out of habit. That is, if you learn Cantonese in a class today, "yamcha" will be the spelling you're taught, whereas "yumcha" gets used on Wikipedia due to historical precedent or whatever. Wulong vs Oolong is sort of the same deal.

"Yamucha" (with the u) is completely pointless.

Bold emphasis is mine.

No reason you can't prefer the other names (personally I refer to Kami as God, and I prefer Pu'er to Pu-erh), but generally the subtitles are the most accurate renderings of the names.

I don't think anyone should ever make the assumption that the official subtitles are the "most accurate" translations. There is plenty to question and be critical of when it comes to not only DB subs, but official anime subtitles in general.

[PremiumSalt]

Was busy the past few days, doing my best to catch up.

DRAGON BALL
Episode 3: Kame-Sen’nin’s Kinto-Un

-Kōhei Miyauchi is not only the best VA for Kame-Sen’nin but he also just might be my favorite voice actor overall in the Japanese version. His performance is excellent across the board, and he does an excellent job of switching to "venerable old master" to the more comedic aspects of the character, sometimes at a moments notice.

-Evidently Pilaf scared that Alligator so much he left Kame House and never returned.

-Man, Nozawa does the "clueless, naive, and innocent" aspect of Goku so well.


Episode 4: The Kidnapping Demon, Oolong

-Correct me if I'm wrong but this is the only usage of that longer version of the title card theme right? It's a shame, I kinda like it.

-I'm not exactly the most animation minded person on the planet but the art/animation in this episode struck me as rather nice. Very cute and rounded.

-Watching this episode really makes me wish they made better use out of Oolong's shape-shifting abilities in later arcs, it's a pretty neat ability.

-Speaking of Oolong, man he's got a pretty nice place! I wonder what became of it after the events of this episode.

[KBABZ]

-Correct me if I'm wrong but this is the only usage of that longer version of the title card theme right? It's a shame, I kinda like it.

Correct! I considered moving it to Episode 2 in T1C just to give it a significant spot, haha.

-I'm not exactly the most animation minded person on the planet but the art/animation in this episode struck me as rather nice. Very cute and rounded.

Art would be the correct phrasing here. Art would refer to the core drawings, while animation refers to the illusion of movement when you string all the drawings together. You can have great animation and bad art, or vice versa!

[PremiumSalt]

DRAGON BALL
Episode 5: The Strong Villain of the Desert, Yamcha

-Oolong: Explains how horrifying Frypan Mountain is and how everyone who goes there dies.
Goku: Sounds kind of neat.

Never change, Goku.

-Wow, this Yamcha guy sure is tough. I'm sure he'll be a very important, powerful, and relevant character throughout the entire series. (sarcasm)

-The adaptation of the "Yamcha bursts through the panel" gag is a little awkward for me personally. I think they should have either rewritten the bit further.

Art would be the correct phrasing here. Art would refer to the core drawings, while animation refers to the illusion of movement when you string all the drawings together. You can have great animation and bad art, or vice versa!

Ah, okay. That makes sense, good to know.