Deep Thoughts: The General Blue Saga

[ABED]

And so we come to part two, the so called General Blue Saga. I'll have a little more to say about the concept of arcs/sagas later in this post, but unlike even the "Captain Ginyu Saga", there is no sense of completion. General Blue gets killed two episodes into the next "saga". As for the episodes themselves, they're fun. I enjoy the Pirate Cave arc (yes, it's an arc), but not as much as Muscle Tower. Goku is a great protagonist, but it was a brilliant move to bring along Bulma and Kuririn. The way all three bounce off each other is what makes these episodes so enjoyable. I find it particularly amusing whenever Kuririn calls Bulma out on her vanity. Goku points it out too, but he's generally more confused, whereas Kuririn calls her out on it. I'm not sure how to explain it other than he looks at her with his eyes squinting and his delivery is very dry and suspicious, for lack of a better way to say it. Character interactions and chemistry are a big part of what makes stories like this so good. The two standout moments of those episodes is the booby trap where you can't touch the floor or a spear will shoot out of the wall. The other is the guard robot. There's a genuine creepiness to him and the anime does a great job with the mood and building suspense. The crossover with Dr. Slump is a lot of fun. I'm almost always up for a crossover. I don't know the characters but the humor (minus the very obvious bit, you know the one) lands by and large.

Speaking of which, I'm going to brush past the issue of General Blue's sexuality as there are others better suited to discuss the issue. What I do like about Blue is two quirks he has – killing people for minor transgressions (e.g., picking one's nose), and he's super strong but mice scare him.

Random Thoughts:
Goku feeling indebted to the mouse for saving his life enough to risk his to rescue him from the collapsing cave is very sweet. It's not very prudent, but it's sweet.
The sound effect used for the skeleton pirate robot sounds like a coffee maker, or something that creates steam.
Goku traveling around the world and visiting places like the snowy North, the big city, the amusement park, and an underwater pirate layer, ironically makes the world feel bigger than traversing the galaxy. Going to Namek makes the universe feel smaller.
I like moments where Goku is mischievous like when he shows Bulma the skull to scare her and laughs when she falls down.
The Red Ribbon Army also having radar, but a less precise one was a nice idea.

Dub:
Don't have much to say other than when I did my last rewatch of the dub, the scripts around the Red Ribbon Army arc ranged from not so good to pretty accurate.

Sagas/Arc:
I wonder what the through process was for the saga breakdown. The best I figure is General Blue is the primary antagonist of this long stretch of episodes. He's not the big bad, but he is the one our heroes are constantly fighting against However, he is killed 2 episodes into the next "saga", so it's not even an arc. I don't dislike FUNi's breakdown as much as some, so this one doesn't bother me, but the next "saga" will.

46. Goku and Bulma find an uninhabited island; Goku can't reach the DB underwater; two RRA soldiers chase Bulma; Goku beats them up; he and Bulma leave
47. Goku and Bulma arrive at Kame House; Bulma gives Roshi her micro band; Roshi attempts to see her naked; Goku, Bulma, and Kuririn leave; RRA soldiers find Kame House
48. Goku, Bulma, and Kuririn search for the Dragon Ball in a min-sub; find the Pirate Cave; the Red Ribbon soldiers follow them in and attack with torpedoes
49. Roshi and Lunch fend off a group of Red Ribbon soldiers; Goku, Kuririn, and Bulma enter the Pirate Cave; General Blue and his team follow closely behind
50. Goku, Kuririn, and Bulma passes the spear trap; the trap kills Blue's troops; Goku and his friends survive the lava trap; a robot guard attacks them in the port
51. Goku destroys the guard; Bulma and Kuririn head for the exit; Blue follows them; tricks Goku into going the opposite direction; the cave starts to collapse
52. Goku falls through a trap door; kills then eats a giant octopus; Kuririn and Bulma uncover the treasure; Blue beats up Kuririn; Goku arrives just in time
53. Goku fights Blue; Blue paralyzes him with his psychic ability; gets scared by a mouse; Goku breaks free; beats him up; gets the Dragon Ball; saves the mouse
54. Goku, Kuririn, and Bulma flee the collapsing cave using a sub in the port; Blue swims to shore; Goku and friends return to Kame House; Blue arrives at Kame House
55. Blue ties up Goku and his friends; leaves them with a bomb; Lunch saves her friends; Goku chases Blue; Blue crashes in Penguin Village; Goku meets Arale
56. Goku searches for Blue; Blue runs away; he and Goku meet various Penguin Villagers; Arale takes Goku to Senbei Norimaki's to get his dragon radar fixed
57. Turbo fixes Goku's radar; Blue arrives at Senbei's house; paralyzes Goku and steals the radar; Arale beats him up; Goku leaves with a new radar and the DBs

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The Pirate Cave episodes are brilliant, some of the best episodes in all of original Dragon Ball, I love a good threesome who have great banter and chemistry, Goku, Kuririn and Bulma fit that bill.

I don't think the references to General Blue being gay have aged well, he was the only character in the series with that sexual orientation back during original Dragon Ball's run, and the fact he's an antagonist doesn't help as it only seems to reinforce the notion that attraction to people of the same sex was bad. I wonder if Funimation and Ocean were conscious of this, hence the fact both the inhouse and Blue Water dubs respectively are quite reluctant to acknowledge Blue being gay outright.

For those interested, in the Blue Water dub General Blue says "Try and control yourself - you're really creepin' me out!!", which has the implication but doesn't blame it on something to do with sexuality, whereas Mandelin's subs that read "Cease your disgusting erotic show this instant! You crude little girl!" suggest that was the case. In the Blue Water dub General Blue is also described as a "shy boy", whereas Mandelin's subs for the same line acknowledge he is gay. Funimation's dub for both lines imply Bulma's behaviour has the risk of giving Blue nightmares and that they need to think of something else, which is quite vague.

Both the Funimation and Blue Water dubs take liberties with the line Mandelin renders as "A-Actually, I look like a girl, but I'm really a guy!" though. The former states General Blue was a trained sumo wrestler and the latter says he was probably a loser in high school. I also don't blame either dub for not presenting the line Mandelin rendered as "As if any men have breasts like that!" faithfully though, as it gives the wrong message about gay men being intimidated by women rather than merely not finding them attractive. Again, here Funimation's dub was vague on the issue as General Blue screams asking for Bulma to stop her nonsense, and Blue Water has him demand for high school not to be mentioned again, but overall neither dub's lines are ideal.

I will give both English dubs credit for censoring Blue's attraction to Obotchaman though, because he was a minor, and rendering it faithfully would only promote another harmful stereotype about gay people.

I really hope one day the two lost English dubs of original Dragon Ball from Creative Product Corp and Animax will be found, it will be really interesting to see how they handled these episodes particularly.

[MasenkoHA]

You know what's wild is you would think the trio of Goku, Kuririn, and Bulma would happen a lot more often than it actually did. Goku with his best friend and the first friend he ever made. Yet, pirate cave is the one and only time we get this set up. Obviously a lot of that has to do with Toriyama moving completely away from adventure after Penguin Village into a fighting series which makes it harder to justify Bulma being front and center but still unfortunate. The next time Toriyama gets a chance to do this he has to sub Gohan in for Goku because by that point of the story Goku needs to be kept out of the action to allow tension to even exist.

While I have my own issues with the pirate cave story (namely that it kind of slogs) like you said Goku, Kuririn, and Bulma play off each other so well. I don't think there are any two characters that Goku has more chemistry with than Bulma and Kuririn. Bulma and Kuririn also get some great interactions together here. It's sort of reminiscent of Bulma and Oolong's dynamic (the vain angry teen girl and the short snarky perv) in the first arc but 20x better because Kuririn is actually likable. He's a pervert, but he's not a sexual predator. Kuririn being unable to resist taking a peak at Bulma's panties when he accidently pulls her shorts down trying to hang on for dear life and she beats the shit out of him with her feet and then the sniffing the diamond gag are some of the best lewd jokes in Dragon Ball.

The Penguin Village three parter is enjoyable enough but its really hard to have a proper opinion on it without having seen or grown up on Dr.Slump. I've seen reviewers on YouTube dog on this crossover and the one in Super and it's like.... yeah because it wasn't made for you it was made for an audience who watched and read Dr.Slump. I almost wish Funimation had used this crossover as an excuse to license Dr.Slump. Dr.Slump airing on Toonami wouldn't have been anymore out of place than Hamtaro.

[JulieYBM]

Both the Funimation and Blue Water dubs take liberties with the line Mandelin renders as "A-Actually, I look like a girl, but I'm really a guy!" though. The former states General Blue was a trained sumo wrestler and the latter says he was probably a loser in high school. I also don't blame either dub for not presenting the line Mandelin rendered as "As if any men have breasts like that!" faithfully though, as it gives the wrong message about gay men being intimidated by women rather than merely not finding them attractive.

I forgot about this part since it's been a while since I watched the 1986 cartoon or read the 1984 comic. The thinly veiled transphobia in the plot sure is yikes.

[Koitsukai]

I love the pirate cave story, filled with bones and a chest. Goku with a mice in his mouth. Everybody falling for Blue's psychic powers. The cave collapsing. That pirate ship docked.

Like so many people, many parts of the crossover goes over my head, but it is still funny and sweet.

[ABED]

That's my dividing line. Characters can be pervy, but predatorial crosses a line.

[supersaiyamangod]

That's my dividing line. Characters can be pervy, but predatorial crosses a line.

You can blame that all on the anime staff because if you watch mistare fusion dragon ball dissection on general blue section he doesn’t hate the manga version of him as a villain he thought he was an great villain for goku in the manga despite minor issues with him. the anime dr slump crossover was not the old bad new change to his character hence why his manga counterpart is better still flawed but not unwatchable flawed like the anime version.

[Gaffer Tape]

You can blame that all on the anime staff because if you watch mistare fusion dragon ball dissection on general blue section he doesn’t hate the manga version of him as a villain he thought he was an great villain for goku in the manga despite minor issues with him. the anime dr slump crossover was not the old bad new change to his character hence why his manga counterpart is better still flawed but not unwatchable flawed like the anime version.

I certainly appreciate the shout out, but, to clarify, I am not the ultimate arbiter as to whether any character is worthy or not worthy of criticism. Yes, I am of the mind that I find General Blue in the manga to be an entertaining character who also happens to conform to certain stereotypes, but that makes me neither the beginning nor the end of that conversation. It just makes it my opinion.

[JulieYBM]

It's weird how Inoue Toshiki made General Blue into a pedophile in his Dragon Ball Episode #56 (1987.03.25) when just a few years earlier he had written a half-way decently sympathetic trans women in Dirty Pair Episode #7 (1985.08.26; the phrasing of the dialogue is still really bad, though).

This is further componded by how nearly all of the men he writes in his modern Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Series television series and movies are super-fucking-attracted to one another. Hell, Tarou and Sonoi from Avataro Sentai DonBrothers are so clearly meant to be a romantic couple that they're given their own duet music video with that song later being repurposed in the series twice!

The General Blue thing is just so fucking weird and out of place both within Dragon Ball but also Inoue Toshiki's career as a writer, I have to wonder if it was forced in by Series Director Okazaki Minoru or Nishio Daisuke (or even Producer Shichijou Keizou). Hell, bring back Inoue and let him write modern Dragon Ball, he'll lather it up with so much gay the fujoshi, fudanshi and fujin will be screaming until the cows come home.

[supersaiyamangod]

It's weird how Inoue Toshiki made General Blue into a pedophile in his Dragon Ball Episode #56 (1987.03.25) when just a few years earlier he had written a half-way decently sympathetic trans women in Dirty Pair Episode #7 (1985.08.26; the phrasing of the dialogue is still really bad, though).

This is further componded by how nearly all of the men he writes in his modern Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Series television series and movies are super-fucking-attracted to one another. Hell, Tarou and Sonoi from Avataro Sentai DonBrothers are so clearly meant to be a romantic couple that they're given their own duet music video with that song later being repurposed in the series twice!

The General Blue thing is just so fucking weird and out of place both within Dragon Ball but also Inoue Toshiki's career as a writer, I have to wonder if it was forced in by Series Director Okazaki Minoru or Nishio Daisuke (or even Producer Shichijou Keizou). Hell, bring back Inoue and let him write modern Dragon Ball, he'll lather it up with so much gay the fujoshi, fudanshi and fujin will be screaming until the cows come home.

Not only is this a part of the anime I change but I change all of the red ribbon arc back to it manga counterpart but tweak the android 8 part to somehow still line up with trunks stuff because I like the manga version of general blue despite obvious issues maybe I’d update to modern standards and I like the manga version of the dr slump crossover more not sure not because it doesn’t have that awful scene I hate but it might be more interesting other wise not sure if the manga version is more interesting overall.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Does anyone know why the VHS release with episodes 52-54 was excluded from Funimation's run of original Dragon Ball? The two tapes with the episodes before and after were released on the same day but these were omitted, so it can't be because sales declined to the point it was not viable to continue. Funimation also continued releasing the series on VHS until episode 86.

[ABED]

Does anyone know why the VHS release with episodes 52-54 was excluded from Funimation's run of original Dragon Ball? The two tapes with the episodes before and after were released on the same day but these were omitted, so it can't be because sales declined to the point it was not viable to continue. Funimation also continued releasing the series on VHS until episode 86.

No idea, but apparently it was set to be called "General Blue - Hidden Treasure".