RandomGuy96 wrote:Do you mean that hte whole stretch of story from the very beginning to Piccolo Jr's defeat is your favorite part of the series, or was it something more specific?
Well, the Piccolo/23rd TB stuff is pretty much my favorite portion of the entire franchise overall, but I'm pretty fond of everything before it as well.
Anyway, here's episodes 7-8:
Episode 7
Gyuumao of Mt. Frypan
--Far and away the most important thing about the next three episodes is the number of times the animators forget to draw on Bulma's fishnet stockings.
--The opening narration says that it’s “two days into their drive” when the group reaches Mt. Frypan. Since last episode said it had been a week since Goku left home, that puts this episode as Day 9 of his trip.
--This episode (and equivalent chapter) reveal that Mt. Frypan’s original name back before it caught fire was 涼景山/
Ryoukei-zan, the “Mountain of Refreshing Scenery”. The Funi subtitles call it “Chilly Mountain”. I guess “chilly” and “refreshing” are in the same ballpark, but the former has a fairly negative connotation while the later has a positive one. The whole idea is that the mountain used to be a nice place to live before it got all hot, so in that sense I don’t think “Chilly Mountain” quite works.
--Anyway, we’re told here that the place caught fire after a “Fire Spirit fell from the heavens”. You might assume the fact that there are “Fire Spirits” who can sometimes fall down to Earth would be the sort of thing to eventually be followed up on or factor into later worldbuilding in some way, but that of course would be silly.
--Although on that note, in about 140 episodes we’re going to be told that Mt. Frypan’s fire is actually due to there being a hole in the mystic furnace on the opposite side of the planet.
--Goku looks oddly happy when he shouts that Oolong is running away again.
--The Pilaf filler for this episode shows Shu and Mai arriving back at Pilaf’s castle on foot, being in none too fine a state after last week’s time bomb. The thing is, next episode we learn that Pilaf’s castle (the location of the final dragon ball) is far to the west of Mt. Frypan. And Mt. Frypan is supposed to be far to the west of the desert where Bulma and co. met Yamcha. In other words, Shu and Mai have apparently travelled much further these last two days on foot half-dead than Bulma and co. have driving their car.
--You may notice, based on the above, that Bulma and co. pretty much spend this entire story arc traveling west. That’s not a coincidence, given DB’s source material.
--In the manga Gyuumao notices Goku’s Nyoibo right away and starts chatting with him about Gohan, so we never get to see them fight. The anime though adds in a brief fight scene before Gyuumao spots the staff. And it goes remarkably poorly for Goku, with Gyuumao outclassing him without even seeming to realize he’s in a fight. Goku’s punches just make Gyuumao itch, and he cries “can’t I hurt this guy?” in exasperation. He does make some headway by zipping around Gyuumao on Kinto’un to make him dizzy, but even that’s not too effective.
--And after that, the two bond over their mutual connection to Gohan, and…that’s it. In the long run Goku doesn’t seem all that phased to meet somehow vastly stronger than him. There’s no “I’m gonna surpass that guy!” or excitement over finding a powerful opponent. Maybe seeing Kame-sennin’s Kamehameha so soon afterward pushes Gyuumao from Goku’s mind, but it still feels a bit weird in light of Goku’s attitude throughout the rest of the series. This is also probably the only point in the series where Goku can flat-out lose a fight and the story just goes on like nothing happened. It’s not treated as a dramatic moment or anything.
Episode 8
Kame-sennin’s Kamehameha
--There’s a great fansubs-style moment with the Funi subtitles, where Kame-sennin says that he got Kinto’un “from Kami-sama” and a note below explains “[Kami-sama=God]”.
--Speaking of which, obviously we eventually learn that Kame-sennin received his Kinto-un from Karin, who has a big one that people can just break chunks off of. Karin’s called a “god of the martial arts” and is supposed to be a kind of intermediary between the God of Earth and regular people (meaning he’s basically the one who has to do all the work), so I guess this isn’t too big of an inconsistency. But it is classic Toriyama for a character to offhandedly state that they received something from God and then not have this statement explained or followed up on in any way for over a hundred chapters.
--We don’t get to see much of Kame-sennin’s driver’s license in the manga, but the anime gives us a big close-up. Kame-sennin’s birthday? “It’s always my birthday”.
--Gamera is really neat. Gamera is filled with meat. We all love you, Gamera.
--The Funi dub of this episode contains the clear highlight of their entire dub, namely Kame-sennin’s rendition of “Buffalo Gal”.
--In the manga Kame-sennin vomits from dizziness once he gets off Baby Gamera, but in the anime he simply falls over.
--Here (and in the equivalent manga chapter) Oolong predicts that Bulma won’t have a pleasant death. He’s completely right, unless you consider getting eaten by Majin Boo to be pleasant. This is his first bit of remarkable insight this story arc.
--As the episode ends, it’s shown to be sunset. This is a departure from the manga, where we don’t see any nighttime or sunrises/sunsets anywhere between the morning after Yamcha’s nighttime attack and the night when Pilaf summons Shenlong. We’re told in both versions that after their encounter with Yamcha it takes the group two days to reach Mt. Frypan, but after that there’s no solid indication of how much time is passing, apart from this anime sunset. Daizenshuu 7 places the Mt. Frypan, Rabbit Gang, and Pilaf stuff all on the same day, which seems a bit cramped but is perfectly consistent with the manga version (and God knows there are more jam-packed days in the Z era). For the anime though it’s got to be at least two days because of this sunset, bringing the grand total up to a minimum of 10 days.
(boy, good, and filler, is usually an oxymoron when put together!)