Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 78 - DBZ 183-187

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 78 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.

KBABZ has time to work on trivia once again, but he's decided he will first catch up on all the trivia he's missed these past few weeks. So, watch out for his post coming to a rewatch thread near you, in which he catches us all up! (But don't hold your breath for it, it'll be a few weeks)

Previous thread: Week 77 (DBZ 178-182)
Next thread: Week 79 (DBZ 188-192)

Anyway, without further ado...

Episode 336 - Miniature Threats!! The Cell Juniors Attack (DBZ episode 183)
Dub title: Android Explosion
Originally aired 28th of April 1993
Kai equivalent: Episode 91 - Get Angry, Gohan! Unleash Your Hidden Power and Episode 92 - The Tears that Disappeared into the Sky! Gohan’s Angry Super Awakening
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Hiroki Shibata
Animation supervisor: Yukio Ebisawa

Cell catches Gohan and tightens his arms around him! Piccolo is unable to control himself and tries to go help Gohan, but Cell releases Gohan and steals the senzu from Kuririn. No. 16 then pinions Cell and tries to self-destruct! But it turns out that his self-destruction device was removed when he was being repaired! Cell destroys the startled No. 16, and gives birth to seven Cell Juniors, sending them to attack Goku and the others.

Anime-only/filler content: More scenes of the Mr. Satan gang and cutaways to people watching the fight, Piccolo trying to intercept Cell on the way to Kuririn.

Episode 337 - The Tragedy of No. 16!! Super Gohan’s Anger Explodes (DBZ episode 184)
Dub title: Children of Cell Attack (original version) Cell Juniors Attack! (Remastered)
Originally aired 5th of May 1993
Kai equivalent: Episode 92 - The Tears that Disappeared into the Sky! Gohan’s Angry Super Awakening
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Mitsuo Hashimoto
Animation supervisor: Keisuke Masunaga

Goku and the others have a difficult fight against the Cell Juniors, but are gradually pushed back and finally knocked around! Seeing this, Gohan’s heart quakes from anger and sadness. Even Satan trembles at this scene, but at the request of No. 16’s head, he takes the head and throws it in front of Gohan, shaking the whole time. As No. 16 appeals to Gohan to unleash his anger, he is squashed by Cell. At that instant, his anger having reached its peak, Gohan emits a ki that shakes the earth!!

Anime-only/filler content: More scenes of the Mr. Satan gang, and extensions to the fighting.

Episode 338 - Anger Exploding Into Power!! The Cell Juniors are Destroyed (DBZ episode 185)
Dub title: Awakening
Originally aired 12th of May 1993
Kai equivalent: Episode 93 - Fighting Spirit Free from Hesitation! Gohan Pulverizes the Cell Juniors
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Tadayoshi Yamamuro

Gohan’s power continues to rise! Cell laughs, having achieved his goal, but the angry Gohan somehow takes back the senzu from Cell, and heads to where Kuririn and the others are being tormented by the Cell Juniors. He then easily pulverizes the Cell Juniors one after the other!! Vegeta and the rest are all speechless at Gohan’s strength, and Goku watches on in satisfaction. Gohan chases after the frightened Cell Juniors, and finally wipes out all seven of them. Cell shows an angry face.

Anime-only/filler content: More scenes of the Mr. Satan gang and cutaways to people watching the fight, general padding around Gohan transforming, and the transformation itself is significantly extended.

Episode 339 - Cell is Knocked Out!! Taken Down With Two Super Punches (DBZ episode 186)
Dub title: The Unstoppable Gohan
Originally aired 19th of May 1993
Kai equivalent: Episode 93 - Fighting Spirit Free from Hesitation! Gohan Pulverizes the Cell Juniors and 94 - The Perfect Form Breaks Down! The Super Iron Fists of Rage Explode
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Daisuke Nishio
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama

Kuririn and co. recuperate by eating the senzu. With their battle recommencing, the super-powered Gohan reads through Cell’s movements, and easily dodges his attacks. Cell goes pale as he is unable to keep up with Gohan’s speed. Saying that he will show his true power, he emits a tremendous ki, but Gohan in unperturbed. Gohan furthermore endures Cell’s full-power punch, and reciprocates with his own punch! Cell is on his knees after just two punches. Cell is stupefied in amazement, as are Kuririn and the others.

Anime-only/filler content: More scenes of the Mr. Satan gang and cutaways to people watching the fight, additional bouts in the Gohan vs Cell fight.

Episode 340 - Cell’s Disaster!! The Destruction of His Perfect Body (DBZ episode 187)
Dub title: Cell's Mighty Breakdown (original version) / Cell's Break Down (Remastered)
Originally aired 26th of May 1993
Kai equivalent: Episode 94 - The Perfect Form Breaks Down! The Super Iron Fists of Rage Explode
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Kazuhito Kikuchi
Animation supervisor: Masahiro Shimanuki

Gohan fights the frantically angry Cell, and overwhelms him! Cell fires a Kienzan and a Makankōsappō, but they have no effect against Gohan. Finally giving in to fear, Cell shoots a full-power Kamehameha from up in the air! But on the ground, Gohan fires a Kamehameha, knocking it back and blowing away Cell’s arms and legs!! After the frenzied Cell has regenerated his body, Gohan hits him even harder. But as he does, he induces a change in Cell’s body, and Cell spits No. 18 out of his mouth!

Anime-only/filler content: More scenes of the Mr. Satan gang, Cell's Kienzan and Makankosappo, a flashback to Gohan's training with Goku.

-

Interesting trivia:

• At this point in time in the manga, Future Trunks kills Future Cell and his future is finally at peace (provided you rightfully ignore Super), and Gohan attends high school, meets Videl, and begins saving the day as Great Saiyaman.
• As noted last week, Z episode 183 marked the return of the Ocean cast to Canadian TV airings, despite the UK and a few other European territories having already had this dub for about 50 episodes by this point.
• Starting from Kai episode 92, Fuji TV publicist Tomoko Kumagai's name was misspelled in the credits as 熊谷直子 instead of 熊谷知子. A note of apology appears on the relevant Japanese home video release packaging, but to this day the error has never been corrected.
• Android 16's head survives despite his body being destroyed. Clearly this is a design methodology Dr. Gero abandoned at some point between 16 and 19.
• Z episode 184 features another insert song, Unmei no Hi –Tamashī tai Tamashī– (Day of Destiny –Spirit vs Spirit–). As usual, this was removed in Funimation's version. In their original dub, they had the typical Faulconer score running over it, and Gohan extensively monologues over the originally-dialogue-free scene. The remastered dub with the Kikuchi score simply has his narration, with no music at all.
• Gohan destroys the Cell Juniors so hard that he manages to kill eight out of the seven of them.
• There are 22 redrawn shots in Kai episode 91, 17 in episode 92, and 28 in episode 93.

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

[MasenkoHA]

When you think “most iconic moments in Dragon Ball” Goku going Super Saiyan for the first time is probably number one but Gohan reaching Super Saiyan 2 is definitely somewhere in the top 10. Hell, if you started with Dragon Ball Z this feels like the moment the whole series was leading up to. The manifestation of Gohan’s hidden power hinted from episode 1.

I prefer the vocal insert songs in the original Dragon Ball but I’d be damn if Day of Destiny doesn’t slap. I veer back and forth if FUNimation not having the song available to them for the Japanese M&E track was a good thing or bad thing. There’s just something awkward about the lack of music but had it remained intact Nadolny and Hebert’s monologuing would have killed the vibe.


Also I’m sure there are copyright reasons or something for the song not being reused in Kikuchi Kai but what I find inexcusable is they don’t use Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2 theme from Galaxy at the Brink either. Just another reminder of how half assed Kai’s editing was.

[Robo4900]

Also I’m sure there are copyright reasons or something for the song not being reused in Kikuchi Kai but what I find inexcusable is they don’t use Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2 theme from Galaxy at the Brink either. Just another reminder of how half assed Kai’s editing was.

It's not a copyright thing, Kai was just, as you say, half-assed, particularly in the post-Yamamoto music department, where they basically had to just throw together a score as quickly and cheaply as possible, which meant they couldn't call up new transfers of any music they didn't immediately and easily have to hand, nor remix mono music into stereo, and I suspect there was an order from above that all the music had to be stereo (for some reason).

I think the solution they eventually chose was to just to look at each Yamamoto cue and find an equivalent-enough Kikuchi cue to replace it in all instances that it appears. So, rather than having a proper score assembled for the show, they basically had haphazard tracks dropped in for having a passing similarity to the Yamamoto tracks. No sense of themes or mood really entering into it at any point.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Also I’m sure there are copyright reasons or something for the song not being reused in Kikuchi Kai but what I find inexcusable is they don’t use Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2 theme from Galaxy at the Brink either. Just another reminder of how half assed Kai’s editing was.

It's not a copyright thing, Kai was just, as you say, half-assed, particularly in the post-Yamamoto music department, where they basically had to just throw together a score as quickly and cheaply as possible, which meant they couldn't call up new transfers of any music they didn't immediately and easily have to hand, nor remix mono music into stereo, and I suspect there was an order from above that all the music had to be stereo (for some reason).

I think the solution they eventually chose was to just to look at each Yamamoto cue and find an equivalent-enough Kikuchi cue to replace it in all instances that it appears. So, rather than having a proper score assembled for the show, they basically had haphazard tracks dropped in for having a passing similarity to the Yamamoto tracks. No sense of themes or mood really entering into it at any point.

That's why the replacement score post Yamamoto was so consistently repetitive, they put little to no thought or effort on what tracks would fit and just slapped whatever Z music onto the scenes which sounded enough like the former's to pass. There's only like a handful (ripped from the CD albums, again whatever they immediately had lying around) and it just feels so half baked and not well thought out. Toei was just scrambling to move on from the scandal and did so as cheaply as humanly possible.

I know Yamamoto's score wasn't the greatest and it's not in the same league as Kikuchi's OG DBZ score, but at least it fit the product that Kai was. The replacement OTOH is just such a shoddy pieced together thing that is underwhelming in every way, and having so little meant the same cues would play ad nauseum with nothing new since they only used what was taken off those music collection CD's.

[ABED]

I think people overstate how repetitive it is. I'd like to see some numbers on that. Like how many times each piece was played in Z vs. Kai.

[omaro34]

Piccolo fared well in the anime against the cell juniors

[Robo4900]

I think people overstate how repetitive it is. I'd like to see some numbers on that. Like how many times each piece was played in Z vs. Kai.

I think the repetitive thing is just by the nature of Yamamoto reusing the same theme rather than Kikuchi's approach of having a trillion different arrangements of each theme, so when you put the Kikuchi score on top, you get a far less interesting use of Kikuchi's compositions.

Really though, the issue with the Kikuchi score in Kai is just that so much of it is unfitting.

[ABED]

I think people overstate how repetitive it is. I'd like to see some numbers on that. Like how many times each piece was played in Z vs. Kai.

I think the repetitive thing is just by the nature of Yamamoto reusing the same theme rather than Kikuchi's approach of having a trillion different arrangements of each theme, so when you put the Kikuchi score on top, you get a far less interesting use of Kikuchi's compositions.

Really though, the issue with the Kikuchi score in Kai is just that so much of it is unfitting.

Fair enough. That makes a lot of sense. I'd have to see it in context, but nothing I can recall off the top of my head as awful.

[MasenkoHA]

Wasn’t the majority of Kikuchi Kai just stuff from movies 6-9 or something? With Kikuchi Z there was a lot more variety even though you can tell the editor had certain themes he really liked to use. Like the Dead Zone cue plays a lot in the late Saiyan arc and Namek for Z. Z had way more music at its disposal

I just don’t think Kai used it very well. I remember being off put by the switch from Yamamoto to Kikuchi on Nicktoons back in 2011 before actually properly watching Z

[KBABZ]

Wasn’t the majority of Kikuchi Kai just stuff from movies 6-9 or something? With Kikuchi Z there was a lot more variety even though you can tell the editor had certain themes he really liked to use. Like the Dead Zone cue plays a lot in the late Saiyan arc and Namek for Z. Z had way more music at its disposal

I just don’t think Kai used it very well. I remember being off put by the switch from Yamamoto to Kikuchi on Nicktoons back in 2011 before actually properly watching Z

The issue I find with Kai's score is that the pool of music it has to use is very small; I remember reading the music archive and the author noted that once you get to the fight with Frieza after Porunga dies, no new music is introduced until the Android Arc. It's more bearable when watching a few a week, but if you watch multiple episodes a day (which isn't unreasonable even when Kai first came out) you tire of the music very quickly.

The classic stuff had this problem too, the Daimao and 23rd TB arcs in particular used Piccolo's three tracks A LOT, but once you get to Z the music stops composing new music per arc and starts to build a stock of many tracks. That's the difference: by doing a simple swap-and-replace job on Yamamoto's tracks, Kai has repetitive music no matter which composer is being used. TFC also has this because Super hadn't built up a lot of music by that point either.