It's update time again baby, Solo Training Arc, awwww yeah!
For this one I'm forced to take a different approach since each episode can be view separate from all the others, there is no continuity between them. I'll just point out stuff instead.
In the first episode we get Ginkaku and Kinkaku terrorizing a small poor village already being plagued by draught, (get it? Terror and Plague?), what a couple of dick wads. Once again a little nod to Journey to the West which is always good to see. I don't really enjoy this episode that much as the characters and story are just not that enjoyable.. Although we get to see the mother fucking Tiger Bandit, shit yes!
Second episode and we are introduced to a proper typical Eastern Asian looking town. I appreciate this very much, I love the art style of the buildings, it you understand what I mean. This episode is mostly about a rivalry between two Martial Arts Schools, the Chin Style Dojo and the Hyoga Style Dojo. Here the characters are much more interesting with the stars being Hyoga Ten Long and Chin Taiken. I like seeing new techniques so I was quite happy with the respective Hyoga Senpukyaku and Chinke Seikyoku Ken(sp?). Ten Long is very strong and fast, but not as much as Goku, he's also kind of a douche but later admits defeat and joins the Chin Style Dojo to relearn and improve his technique. Phew, sure smells like Tenshinhan in here. A mug shot of a character that looks suspiciously like Ten Long is shown on the final eight fighters of the tournament in
Galaxy at Brink.
This next episode starts nice and creepy kind of like an horror movie, but it still could be better, Princess Misa wakes up and hears footsteps, eventually she looks into the mirror and notices her reflection has her back turned to her (how creepy is THAT?), the reflection turns around and grabs her into the mirror. From there she somehow ended up in the Demon Realm. This could have been done much better if it was more creepy and horrifying, but you can't expect that much from a kids show I guess. Although I'm sure much more horrible things have been done in Sailor Moon.
First time seeing the (or an) actual Demon Realm and the guardians are the first Ox-Head and Horse-Face (directly from Chinese mythology) coupling in the franchise, Gora and Mera, years later we would have Goz and Mez in the actual Hell.
The door to the demon realm is held by a
Shichishito, which is an interesting choice. It is said to belong to Shura. I've seen this sword before in other franchises, it's normally a mystical sword.
We see Yamcha training with Kuririn, Kame Style. It's kinda cool albeit just a short glimpse.
Gora and Mera say you need a permit from Enma-Daio and Kami-Sama in order to enter the demon realm, which is pretty funny considering how later on Goku is buddies with both of them. Actually you also need a permit to leave as well, so the demons can't freely go in and out although Shura has been breaking the rules.
Shura is a powerful opponent, and strangely appears to use sonic powers. He stops a Kamehameha by punching it, after being distracted. The only way Goku wins is because the light from the Kamehameha makes him flinch since these demons are susceptible to light. He's also a really good sport as even though he was utterly defeated he smiled about it and went back to partying with Gora and Mera.
The demon army is the same as Lucifer's demon army from
The Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, which would be fine if it was acknowledged in any way a at all, like some mention of Lucifer or anything at all.
Personally I view it this way, after Lucifer was killed and the Devil's Hand and Castle mostly destroyed, the demons moved back to where they came from, the Demon Realm, because they would be safer there from natural light. Then this ass hole Shura took over as main boss man.
Now for this episode we get a little bit of back story behind Kame Sennin and Tsuru Sennin, mainly that they used to be friends and raised Inoshikacho together. Inoshikacho is a huge purple boar with deer antlers and butterfly wings. He is pretty sweet in my opinion. Also Goku meets a girl named Tenmen who's super cute. Tenshinhan and Jiaozi have been conning people by using Inoshikacho to rampage around and then coming in and claiming to get rid of him and collecting money for it. This episode mostly serves to show us how much of a scum bag both Tenshinhan and Chaozu were at this point, although conning for money is very different from their actually personalities. What I don't like about it is that it spoils their actual début in the following arc.
The final episode has Goku trying to get to the tournament grounds in Papaya Island. He runs into Konkichi, a trouble fox pre-teen. The bulk of the episode is about how Konkichi is a trouble magnet and how nobody likes him. Because we should care. It's one of them neutral episodes that belongs in a Saturday Morning type of cartoon.
This whole arc should be called Douche Bag Arc.
Hope you liked this :D
There is only one arc to go but I'm thinking of going through a few filler episodes and stuff if you guys want me to. Although I might discontinue this as a whole in favour of something else I'm planning with
Zykar. Just give me your feedback and I'll see what I'll do.
I think I skipped it when re-watching the series. I just watched the Inoshikacho episode for Tien and Chaoz before going directly to the Tournament. xP Wasn't in mood of filler, I guess.
She/Her