Newfound love for the King Piccolo saga

[frozie]

I like to think of the appearance of Piccolo, and basically the 22nd championship, as the true beginning of DBZ, or at least because the Piccolo arc is more similar to DBZ than to the earlier DB stories.

For the first time, it seems that when Goku's fighting, its going to be literally the end of the world if he loses. The stakes all of a sudden are much higher than they've ever been. From then on to the end of the manga, there's always an ultra powerful enemy on the horizon that threatens to destroy the world/galaxy

After the battle against Piccolo, another Piccolo appears. And when that one gets taken care of, a few pages later the Saiyans appear. And just as they get beaten, you hear of Freezer and his army. As soon as Freezer gets beaten, you hear of the Androids. There's no more respite, unless you count Dragon Ball GT where there's no big identifiable enemy until a bit later but even then there's the threat of the planet exploding

Until Piccolo, the stakes of the battles are much lower, and sometimes nonexistent at all except pride and fun and getting Bulma a boyfriend. Even the Red Ribbon army wasn't all that threatening until Goku messed with them and they wouldn't have changed much had they achieved their goal.

[Majin Buu]

Oh, filler.

Unlike most filler, I thought the filler in this arc added to the arc overall. For instance, in the manga we only see Tamborine kill Giran before being sent to kill Goku while in the anime we see him travel around and kill more Budokai participants, which I think further emphasizes that Piccolo is indeed a global threat. Also, when Piccolo announces his world takeover we actually see how society reacts to it in the anime filler, getting a glimpse of what the world will be like under his rule, while that goes unseen in the manga.

[frozie]

Oh, filler.

Unlike most filler, I thought the filler in this arc added to the arc overall. For instance, in the manga we only see Tamborine kill Giran before being sent to kill Goku while in the anime we see him travel around and kill more Budokai participants, which I think further emphasizes that Piccolo is indeed a global threat. Also, when Piccolo announces his world takeover we actually see how society reacts to it in the anime filler, getting a glimpse of what the world will be like under his rule, while that goes unseen in the manga.

About Giran... am I the only one who has the impression that Giran was actually friends with the villagers in the manga (I'm assuming because they look scared to see him getting beaten up)? In the anime they added some scenes to make him look like part of some bad guy group

Also, in the resurrection scene in the manga, he's waking up in a casket, as if the villagers had buried him

[jjgp1112]

Yeah, I was kinda confused by that part, because after Goku broke the miracle-go-round gum at the waterfall in Giran's village or whatever, he seemed to become friendly.

[Herms]

About Giran... am I the only one who has the impression that Giran was actually friends with the villagers in the manga (I'm assuming because they look scared to see him getting beaten up)?

I think that's just you. In the manga the villagers call him a bully as he's being beaten by Tambourine.

After the battle against Piccolo, another Piccolo appears. And when that one gets taken care of, a few pages later the Saiyans appear. And just as they get beaten, you hear of Freezer and his army. As soon as Freezer gets beaten, you hear of the Androids. There's no more respite, unless you count Dragon Ball GT where there's no big identifiable enemy until a bit later but even then there's the threat of the planet exploding

There's the start of the Boo arc too, where there's no real powerful enemy for quite a while.

[Senzu_Bean]

It is undoubtedly true that the 22nd, 23th Tenkaichi Budokai and Piccolo Daimao arc is Dragonball at its best.

The story, the tension, the characters, the originality, everything was at its peak in this period of time.

Now watching DBKai I realize how it absolutely sucks Roshi, Karin, Kami, Tenshinhan, Krillin and Yamcha are no more the main characters in the later part of the story and are mainly replaced by the much more uninteresting character that Vegeta is. Seriously, the guy doesn't do anything since he turned Super Saiyan besides screaming he is better than Goku.

[frozie]

About Giran... am I the only one who has the impression that Giran was actually friends with the villagers in the manga (I'm assuming because they look scared to see him getting beaten up)?

I think that's just you. In the manga the villagers call him a bully as he's being beaten by Tambourine.

Funny, I just checked. In the french translation, the first panda only says "Guilan's getting beaten up!" But in the Japanese manga they call him "abaremono no giran"... in the online dictionary, that gets translated as "roughneck" and a google image search for あばれもの gives me a bunch of pictures of Marlon Brando
Well, in any case its not clear. I'd need to know the context in which "abaremono" is normally used in Japanese

After the battle against Piccolo, another Piccolo appears. And when that one gets taken care of, a few pages later the Saiyans appear. And just as they get beaten, you hear of Freezer and his army. As soon as Freezer gets beaten, you hear of the Androids. There's no more respite, unless you count Dragon Ball GT where there's no big identifiable enemy until a bit later but even then there's the threat of the planet exploding

There's the start of the Boo arc too, where there's no real powerful enemy for quite a while.

That's true, but its only because he's there and they're not aware of it, but yeah from Gohan starting school to the tournament starting its probably the only time in the entire Dragon Ball saga aside from before the Piccolo saga that there's no immediately identified world-wrecking enemy in sight

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

You know, every time I watch it, I really want to like it. But I find it the most consistently boring portion of the series besides the latter half of the Cell arc.

Ditto for the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, actually. And I know how much fans seem to dig that portion. Everything beforehand is hilarious and entertaining, and everything from the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai on seems to have settled into action, but something about those arcs trying to find their footing just makes them yawners for me.

I would suggest checking out the manga version of that story arc. Granted, I am somewhat of a manga fanboy, but I think Toriyama generally makes Dragon Ball a heck of a lot more interesting/exciting than Toei.

[Undercooked Sausage]

Kururin dying is when shit just get's real. All of a sudden it's like a completely different show.

Piccolo on to the Saiyan Saga is just the best Dragonball ever was.

[jjgp1112]

Kururin dying is when shit just get's real. All of a sudden it's like a completely different show.

Piccolo on to the Saiyan Saga is just the best Dragonball ever was.

I'd actually say that 22nd Tournament was when shit first starting getting serious. I mean, T­ien and Chiaotzu were trained to be cold blooded assassins and Master Roshi was trying to sway him to his side, plus the fact that the torunament actually focused specifically on the fights, rather than the spectacle of the tournament itself.

[Kunzait_83]

b

[Undercooked Sausage]

While I would agree that the 22nd budokai is when the story/pacing becomes more like the "Z" era. Kuririn getting got I've always felt was the definitive moment that makes you realize that this is NOT the same show about panties and toilet humor it was 100 episodes ago.

Everything before then feels like a much more gradual shift to serious storytelling, where the death of a main character is just a massive slap in the face, and this was waaaaay back when death meant a WHOLE lot more in Dragonball then say, the Majin Buu arc where literally pretty much any major situation dealing with loss/irreparable damage to the earth was quickly followed with "We can always fix it with the Dragonballs guys."

Not to mention the way they handled it is one of those moments that the anime inarguably handled it better. the subtle foreshadowing throughout the entire episode, starting from the moment Goku regains conciousness and we get that great shot of Kuririn standing over him with that big smile on his face is just superbly handled and expertly directed. It really does a great job setting up that these guys are best friends and really mean a lot to each other.

Undeniably my favorite episode of the Dragonball section of the series and probably my second favorite handled death(top one going to Future Gohan, natch.)

[Master Sword]

Same here! I got the set a few months ago and have marathoned it twice! It's insanely AWESOME!

[jjgp1112]

While I would agree that the 22nd budokai is when the story/pacing becomes more like the "Z" era. Kuririn getting got I've always felt was the definitive moment that makes you realize that this is NOT the same show about panties and toilet humor it was 100 episodes ago.

Everything before then feels like a much more gradual shift to serious storytelling, where the death of a main character is just a massive slap in the face, and this was waaaaay back when death meant a WHOLE lot more in Dragonball then say, the Majin Buu arc where literally pretty much any major situation dealing with loss/irreparable damage to the earth was quickly followed with "We can always fix it with the Dragonballs guys."

Not to mention the way they handled it is one of those moments that the anime inarguably handled it better. the subtle foreshadowing throughout the entire episode, starting from the moment Goku regains conciousness and we get that great shot of Kuririn standing over him with that big smile on his face is just superbly handled and expertly directed. It really does a great job setting up that these guys are best friends and really mean a lot to each other.

Undeniably my favorite episode of the Dragonball section of the series and probably my second favorite handled death(top one going to Future Gohan, natch.)

Even back when I was a kid, I always thought it was odd how all throughout that episode, they were putting emphasis on Goku and Krillin's friendship and how Goku kept acting all weird when Krillin was about to leave.

[Innagadadavida]

I like how when Goku got really angry with Tamborine for talking shit, his tail hairs ruffled up. It was almost like when a cat gets territorial. It's his animalistic, Saiyan nature. You can just tell he is burning with rage.

The same thing happens to Vegeta in the anime. After he lost the Galick Gun vs Kamehameha duel. He screams and his tail feathers stand up. Good attention to detail.

[Kid Buu]

The saga that debuted Yajirobe, that alone makes it awesome.

[Blue]

I like how when Goku got really angry with Tamborine for talking shit, his tail hairs ruffled up. It was almost like when a cat gets territorial. It's his animalistic, Saiyan nature. You can just tell he is burning with rage.

The same thing happens to Vegeta in the anime. After he lost the Galick Gun vs Kamehameha duel. He screams and his tail feathers stand up. Good attention to detail.

Aw cool, I always took that as Vegeta's tail getting disheveled from the battle.