Adamant watches Dragonball GT

[Adamant]

Hey, all the other cool kids are doing it.

So yeah, I started watching Dragonball GT for the first time ever a while back, having picked up the GT Dragonbox. I had never seen the series before, only having a general idea of what went on in it though rading what others had said.

Following each episode, I wrote my impressions of it over in the #daizenshuu IRC channel. Having seen other do similar threads on their "watchthrough" of the various series on the forum(none of which tend to get more than a couple episodes in before getting abandoned), however, I figured that hey, I got these impressions written up already, might as well post them rather than leaving them abandoned deep in some IRC log files on a handful of computers.

Note that these impressions are stitched together from messages posted on an IRC channel, which creates somewhat of a jumpy style. I tried editing the sentences to read somewhat better, though I didn't want to do a complete rewrite either, figuring that would ruin the "first-time-impression" pureness.
So, apologies for the kinda shitty and unfocused writing in these, I guess.

Episode 1:
There's episode 1 finished. Cute enough, though the plot itself is even dumber when explained in the episode itself than by just reading a quick overview of the series. None of the elements make any sense. At all. Fun to see Pilaf again, though.

Though since they're not adapting anything, they could've shortened down on both the Goku-Uub stuff at the beginning and the Goku-Pan stuff in the city. Not quite sure how much I like Pan yet, either. And we didn't get to see Vegeta, nor Trunks, nor Piccolo. Boo. If the first episode was intended to win people over, it didn't really succeed.

I really can't understand how, when creating an all-new story with no basis in any manga or anything, that can be paced as they wish, Toei fills the first episode with so much pointless crap. Did that bank robber scene really need to last 10 minutes? This is the same Toei who, not long after this, made the 10th Anniversary Dragonball movie, which crammed way too much stuff into way too little time.



Episode 2:
Episode 2... um... it was funny, but felt really aimless. The series is building up to Goku/Trunks/Pan In Space, and this episode was pretty much just wasting time in that regard - at the beginning they plan to go into space, at the end the ship takes off, and in-between we get a whole lot of filler that doesn't have much to do with anything. On the other hand, they got all these new "versions" of the characters, introduce them okay enough, and then just toss them aside by moving the plot elsewhere. If the series is going to be about Goku and friends in space, why waste all this time on nothing? And if it's going to give us "updated" characters, why toss them aside right after barely introducing them? It makes no sense. Argh.

Oh yeah, and Pan is definitely not growing on me yet. She was even more annoying here.

I can't see Trunks being the best choice for a third guy to send to space either, really. They should've gone with Goten, Piccolo or Vegeta. Kuririn could be fun, too. Trunks seems like such an odd choice.


Episode 3:
Hm, episode 3... uh, it was okay I guess, though the plot itself feels terribly un-Dragonbally up to the end. And Pan is still annoying and not growing on me at all.

Where did they get the local currency from, anyway? They just randomly have a lot of it with no explanation given.

The two previous episodes felt like plots you could've seen in early Dragonball filler. Hell, "Goku gets kidnapped and doesn't understand he's been" was the plot of the filler insert of the Panputto episode.
...and the plot of TWO Dr. Slump stories, but never mind that.

Episode 4:
Wee, Dragonball GT episode 4! ...are these people aware they're writing for Dragonball? I can't think of a whole lot of reasons why Goku and friends have to solid snake around the castle like that.

Not to mention having to duck bullets. The villains speed off with their spaceship, and you're telling me they CAN'T catch up to them easily? They also seem to forget they can fly, for some reason.

Also, the "explanation" for why Goku's teleportation doesn't work is nonsense. Especially with him going SSJ in the next episode preview. Plus the teleportation works by locking on to people's ki anyway, so there's no way they could teleport to the spaceship in the first place. Why not just say that?

...and I know it was a joke, but Pan can headbutt bullets, why would she even FEEL an empty can landing on her head?

Now that they've fought the army anyway, I can't see any real reason why they're not just forcing someone to give them the spaceship parts they need and blasting off, either. Clearly they're not going to get any more popular on this planet. They were told last episode that the ruler is an asshole tyrant anyway, so why play nice with him? According to the preview, they end up fighting the royal guard anyway, making it all even more pointless.

...so, does it get better soon?

Episode 5:
Wee, Dragonball GT episode 5!

...this plot doesn't even make sense. If Don Kia controls the planet to this extent, what's the point in hoarding money? Can't he just enslave the entire population? Doesn't he own the printing press anyway? And what's the point in building such a fancy hotel? Just to trick aliens? Why would aliens have the local currency? Can't he just steal their spaceship (which he does anyway) and enslave them too?

I also like how all the characters just randomly forget they can fly ...and how they spend 2 entire episodes solid snaking around trying to play nice with Don Kia AFTER they've been told he's an evil bastard who has "enslaved" the rest of the population ...then they randomly decide to go beat him up after being told so again. Did they not listen the first time?

Their main problem was that the ship was broken and they needed parts. Getting it back took half an episode. Had Vegeta been there, he'd just have walked into the city, grabbed some random guy and told him to give them parts instead of trying to find someone who would sell it for a reasonably low amount of the local currency the writers magically made them have. (they even make a point of calling the currency by some name I forgot that's NOT zeni. Where did they GET this money?)

We never do see Regic again, do we? I guess they WERE going to bring him back, but forgot about it or something. They make a point of having him want a rematch, he knows what a Saiyan is but nothing ever comes out of it. He only seemed to know Goku was one. And he seemingly didn't know what a Super Saiyan was. They might've been planning to involve him in the Baby plotline, but forgot.

Episode 6:
Hm, I quite liked DBGT episode 6, actually. And it felt like Dragonball, too. Wee.
...well, an early Dragonball filler episode, but hey, massive improvement over that Don Kia arc.

Pan was far less annoying here, too, though she could try being a bit less bitchy towards Giru.

Episode 7:
Episode 7 was sort of amusing, though it was more or less a much lesser version of the original Oolong story. Zuhnamar was more annoying than anything. Trunks crossdressing was hilarious, though.

Episode 8 looked decent and non-Oolong-ripoffish from the preview, though still very early-dragonball-fillerish. And the series does a pretty shitty job explaining why they have to pussyfoot around so much when dealing with Zuhnamar when even Pan could probably toss him to another planet without much effort. These kind of stories worked back in Dragonball before the characters got capable of sneezing away solar systems.