Synopsis: Yamcha and Puar arrive and introduce themselves as desert bandits, with the former demanding that Goku and Oolong hand over anything of value if they want to get out of the desert alive. Oolong however recognizes Puar as a crybaby classmate from the shapeshifting kindergarten he used to attend, and Puar likewise remembers Oolong as a bully who got kicked out for stealing the teacher's underwear. Oolong reckons that Goku can take Yamcha though, and tells him to leave if he doesn't want to get hurt. Not one to back down from such a challenge, Yamcha draws his sword and attacks Goku, but is quickly knocked back when Goku uses the nyoibo's extending powers. Yamcha immediately recognizes such a legendary weapon however, and asks Goku where he got it. When Goku explains it was a gift from his grandfather, Yamcha correctly deduces that his grandpa was Gohan, a martial artist of such renown that even Oolong has heard of him. This is the first Yamcha's heard of Gohan having a grandson, but he now knows that he can't take Goku lightly. Yamcha attacks Goku viciously with his Rogafufuken (or Wolf Fang Fist), and Goku, already in a weakened state from hunger, is sent flying. Oolong tries to escape, but is knocked back by Puar, and left with no choice but to hand over his valuables, including his emergency capsule set. Goku gets back up in the nick of time however, and clashes with Yamcha once more, only this time it's Yamcha that gets sent flying by a Janken fist attack. With the score between them now tied, an enraged Yamcha rushes to attack Goku again, but is stopped in his tracks by the sight of an awakened Bulma. Upon seeing her, Yamcha falls over and makes a quick retreat, leaving behind his ill-gotten goods from Oolong. Bulma immediately wants to know who that 'hunk' she just missed was, while back at his lair, Yamcha grouches that he wished he'd known there'd be a girl there, as he has a crippling fear of girls. Review: Poor Yamcha. Few characters are introduced as promisingly as him, only to end up as their respective fandoms punching bags for decades. While some of Yamcha's “legacy” is earned, much of it is unfortunately thrust upon him by the demands of the plot – demands that, frankly, could have been often enough avoided with slight changes to the plot – and the somewhat over-the-top demands from the fandom for every character to be a “badass” to be cool. Which honestly makes Yamcha's introduction here all the more disappointing in retrospect, because honestly he's the series' very first badass. Or at least, he's the closest thing we're going to have to one for a while now. There's even a distinct difference to how Toriyama draws his face prior to Goku knocking him around at the en dof the chapter. He's calm, cool, collected. He's sure of himself and his ability to handle anything and everything that comes his way. Sadly what comes his way is the main character of the series, so, you know. Them's the breaks. What helps Yamcha stand out amongst all the other characters in the franchise is his attitude towards women, and I don't mean his being scared of them at this point in his development. Even with that weakness, it's made pretty clear that Yamcha likes women, he just doesn't know what to say or how to act around them. He's a little boy's first interest in girls (or boys) after the 'cooties' stage given human form basically. Compare that to basically any other male character in the series, even some of them that have kids, and you'll find that they either seemingly have no interest in romance whatsoever, like Goku, Vegeta, Tenshinhan, etc. ...or they're raging perverts like Muten Roshi and Oolong. Even Kuririn, who's one of the more level-headed male characters, still has some pretty pervy moments. He's also an incredibly level-headed guy, who's more than willing to put his own needs and wants on the backburner as needed if it'll help the greater good. In a cast full of characters that are honestly kind of assholes if we hold them to real world standards, Yamcha's one of the only ones that's really just a pretty chill guy. So of course the story and the fandom sees fit to shit all over him, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. For right now, Yamcha's just a desert bandit who gets his ass handed to him by Goku. For what it's worth though, he is Goku's first real opponent of note in the entire franchise, and all things told he puts up a pretty good fight, even if it is only because Goku's starving. He also shows a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge on martial artists with his inside knowledge on Gohan, an aspect that he'll continue to show later on. It's interesting to think that Gohan was apparently well known enough that even someone like Oolong has heard of him, but apparently unknown enough that nobody heard about him taking in some kid he found in the woods? The information network seems a little shoddy, but this is pre-internet in the real world, so...fair. We get a tidbit dropped about where Oolong and Puar both came from, and it's a crime against humanity that we've never gotten a Transformation Kindergarten spinoff starring them. The money's right there on the table, Toriyama. Interestingly enough, that's more back-story for 'where they came from' than much of the human cast gets in-series. Even Yamcha, our premiere desert bandit, gets absolutely nothing said about how he ended up living the life of a rogue in such a remote location. He just is. Because reasons. Moving on. Oh yeah, Puar. Puar is...Puar. I'm sorry, there's really just not a lot one can extrapolate from his character. He's extremely devoted to his master and that's about it really. About the most interesting factoid about Puar I can think of is the fact that, despite what his voice would tend to make you think, he is male. Riveting. And of course, we find out that Oolong had his own set of capsules all along, meaning that all of this happening due to them walking through the desert never had to happen if he'd come clean about having them to Goku and Bulma in the first place. In his defense, he HAD just been drugged earlier, so I don't really think they deserved that information either. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Bow-chicka-wow-WOW.
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Synopsis: Oolong and Goku ask Bulma if they're getting any closer to where they're going, but Bulma says it'll be a while before they reach Fry-Pan Mountain. Oolong freaks out, having heard of all of the terrible stories about Gyu-mao, the Ox King, that's supposed to live there. Wanting no part of any of that, Oolong turns into a fish and tries to escape. Luckily, Bulma's already got a pretty good sense of what makes the pig tick, and uses a pair of her own panties to fish him back into the boat. Oolong complains, saying that the least they could do if they're making him go someplace so dangerous is let him keep the panties, but Bulma instead gives him a piece of candy.
Shortly afterwards, the boat suddenly runs out of gas, and once ashore Bulma makes a horrifying discovery – she's lost her capsules case! Without capsules, the group has no housing, no vehicles, and no gas. Goku suggests they just walk then, and while he and Bulma argue, Oolong tries to escape again. Bulma notices that he's missing after Goku suggests having him turn into a bike, but thankfully Bulma planned ahead just in case he tried this again. She begins to make piggy calls, suddenly sending the nearby but hiding Oolong into the bushes with a severe case of diarrhea. As it turns out, the candy was a special candy that would cause anyone that hears the call to have the runs! Dejected, Oolong returns to the group and turns into a scooter, but proves too weak to carry Bulma. With no other choices left, the group begins walking towards Fry-Pan Mountain. The trio soon ends up in a desert, where Bulma demands that they take a break. Unbeknownst to the group, a small cat is watching them from a short distance away, and informs it's master, Yamcha, that they've got some prey at last. Yamcha doesn't think it looks like the group has very much, but beggars can't be choosers, so he plans to rob them. Back at the resting spot, Goku is preparing to go look for something to eat, when he and Oolong spot Yamcha and Puar racing towards them on a vehicle. Review: I never really noticed it before, but Toriyama has a real tendency to introduce characters in one chapter only for them to not really get fleshed out until the following chapter. Once again, I'll be postponing most of my character talk, this time for Yamcha and Puar, until next chapter. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave an awful lot for me to comment on for THIS chapter honestly. The chapter's not bad, but it definitely feels like one that's only reason for existence is to get us to the real meat of this storyline with the next chapter. Heck, the whole gag with Bulma drugging Oolong doesn't ever really come up after this other than maybe a vague threat, so it really feels like it was added after the fact when Toriyama realized there was too much material to do all of Yamcha's setup in one chapter, but not enough to do two, so he had to improvise. Improvisation or not though, the gag is pretty hilarious, albeit very cruel. Baiting him with panties is one thing, but drugging him with an induced diarrhea pill? JESUS CHRIST, Bulma. That's supervillain territory. A couple of interesting points do get raised about Oolong's powers in this chapter. Firstly, he can't turn into something like gas. I'm assuming the idea here is that since he'd just turn back in five minutes anyway, he'd just turn back into himself inside the engine, which...oww. It's also revealed that no matter what he turns into, he keeps the same level of strength that he himself possesses, which explains basically everything about his level of cowardice even while transformed into all kinds of monsters. That about does it. As I said, this chapter really just feels like setup for the next one, so I'll have more to comment on there probably. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Oolong, still in the form of a gigantic bull, is prepared to take Goku down when he notices the clock and realizes he's just about out of time. He hightails it to just outside of the village, transforming back into his true form – a small pig person – just before Goku follows along in hot pursuit. Oolong tells him that 'Oolong' went the other way, and his powers are explained at last: Oolong can change form as quickly and often as he wants to, but any transformation lasts for only five minutes, after which time he has to revert back to normal and rest for a full minute before he can transform again.
Goku comes back and tells the villagers that Oolong ran away, and Oolong realizes this could ruin the sweet deal he has going here. He decides to up the ante to really scare Goku, and turns into a giant robot holding a bowl of soup, threatening to eat Goku like ramen. Goku's unimpressed however, and in his bluster Oolong burns his thumb in the soup. One of the village's children chooses then to fight back and slingshots a rock into the back of Oolong's head, hurting him enough to prompt chastisement from both Oolong and the boy's mother. All of this causes Goku to ask if Oolong is actually a weakling, a fact that Oolong fervently denies. He asks if Goku is tough himself, to which Goku says his grandpa taught him martial arts. Oolong pulls out three bricks and asks Goku if he's strong enough to break them with his bare hands, and Goku says he can do it with just one finger before proceeding to do just that. Faced with an opponent he can't just scare away...Oolong turns into a bat and flees himself. Goku calls down kinto'un and chases after Oolong as the villagers realize they'd been duped all along. Realizing he's about to be caught, Oolong turns into a rocket in an effort to get away, but he runs out of time and reverts to his true form, having to be saved in mid-air by Goku. Captured and with no other choice, Oolong leads everyone back to his hiding place where he's kept the kidnapped girls. As it turns out however, all the money he'd extorted has proven to make for quite the elegant lifestyle for the girls, which is why Oolong was going for a more 'shy' type of girl this time. Now with five Dragon Balls to their name, Goku and Bulma set out onto the road once again, this time by boat. Joining them in their journey now is Oolong, whom Bulma has forced to come with them, thinking his transformation powers could come in handy. Review: I love Oolong. He's such a fun little asshole of a character to have around, and while some of the things he does at this point in time are far more questionable overall, his overall perverseness is less awkwardly handled than Kame-sennin's is at times, making him somewhat less abrasive of a character. It also helps that Naoki Tatsuta, his Japanese voice actor, is absolutely phenomenal, and wildly underrated by fans. I mentioned before that Oolong's dub voices have often opted for a more chain-smoker, middle-aged guy kind of sound, but in Japanese it's a much squeakier kind of voice befitting of his character design. At any rate, while Goku and Oolong never really come to blows as it were, this fight still marks the first time that Goku faces an opponent with any sort of special move. Oolong's transformations are usually quite cleverly designed, with some remnant of his face to let you know it's him, while also showing that he's not really the greatest at it. Honestly though, having the limitation of five minutes makes his power more interesting than if he had it fully at is beck and call in my opinion. It certainly provides more room for gags. It's a bit of a shame that Oolong's bravado doesn't really stick around after this chapter. I guess it'd be hard for him to act all high and mighty when everyone else in the cast knows what he's really like, but his banter here when he's trying to act tough is hilarious. We don't really get anything quite on this level until Mr. Satan, and that's a long, long time from now. It's also pretty funny to see the village's disbelief that they were ever scared of Oolong at all. What, did none of them ever even try even once to fight him off? Guess his bravado's easier to buy into when there's not a main character around or something. It does sort of make you wonder if this is the first village Oolong has done this to as well, or if there have been other villages that he's terrorized for a while before moving on to the next. The reveal that the girls Oolong kidnapped are the ones who have, in the end, taken advantage of him in a way is the perfect payoff to make what could have been a really uncomfortable resolution funny instead. It also allows Oolong to just be extra pitiful rather than monstrous, making his inclusion in the group easier to stomach. A shame that inclusion won't be easier on HIS stomach, ultimately...Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Goku and Bulma investigate the seemingly abandoned village, and when Goku lets himself in to one of the houses, he's suddenly attacked by a man with an axe! Luckily, Goku's skull is hard enough that the axe just breaks over his head. Afterwards, the rest of the village comes out of hiding, and the man explains that he was trying to protect his daughter from a monster called Oolong. The monster, he explains, is a vile shapeshifter who has continuously kidnapped away the young daughters of the village, and now has his sights set on the man's daughter.
Sensing an opportunity, Bulma shows one of their Dragon Balls to the villagers, and an old lady says she has one just like it. Bulma strikes a deal with them – if they (and by they she means Goku) can stop this Oolong monster, they get the Dragon Ball. The old lady agrees, though doubts that the pair can actually pull this off. Bulma quickly comes up with a plan and dresses Goku up in some of the little girl's clothing. She sends him outside once Oolong, in the form of a giant ogre, arrives, intending for Goku to trick him and get taken away so they can find where Oolong's hideout is. At first, the trick appears to work, but when Goku starts to tremble with the need to pee, Oolong mistakes this for fear. He transforms into a debonair man that might be more to 'her' liking, which draws out Bulma instead. Now torn between the girl he came for and this new arrival, Oolong is distraught, but not as much so as when he catches Goku peeing and figures out that he's been deceived. Enraged, Oolong transforms into a gigantic bull, ruining any interest Bulma had in him, and prepares to kill Goku for tricking him. Goku's equally eager to fight, and Bulma yells for him to just make sure he doesn't kill Oolong so they can make him take them to the girls. Review: Another chapter where, while a character is technically introduced here, it feels more appropriate to talk about them in their follow-up chapter. So for now, I'll hold back my thoughts on Oolong for the most part. Instead, let's talk about the setup for the story here and for Goku and Bulma to add another Dragon Ball to their collection. It feels very vide-game like, doesn't it? Go to this random village where what they need just so happens to be, defeat this side-boss to claim it – it very much feels like it'd be right at home in something like Dragon Quest. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, mind you – it's certainly more entertaining than them just finding the ball in the wild like they will seem to often enough later in the series. What makes this hunt so different than the other ones is that, for this first time and really just this first time alone, the Dragon Balls aren't just a means to an end. Finding them isn't just something they need to do to further the story, it IS the story. Ergo, they need interesting things to do and interesting characters to encounter to make the hunt for them fun to follow along with. So looking at it from that perspective, this storyline already has more going for it than their last Dragon Ball gain. Sure, meeting Kame-sennin becomes greatly important afterwards, and he's a fun character to have around, but I can't really deny them getting a Dragon Ball from that encounter feels a little wasteful after the fact. And yes, I hear what you're thinking. 'But Gyt, this village just so happens to have a Dragon Ball too, how's that any different?' Well, in this case they went to this village specifically BECAUSE Bulma's radar said there was a Dragon Ball there. A Dragon Ball being their reward for whatever it is they get mixed up in there was always a card that was on the table. Taking the turtle back to the sea though? That never had any promise of a Dragon Ball by the end of it, they just lucked out severely and got one by fate. I guess you could argue that it's a reward to showcase why helping people (like Goku wanted to do) rather than not (like Bulma didn't want to) is a good thing and you'll be rewarded in the end...but I don't really think that's the sort of story Toriyama likes to tell. Even if it was, Goku already gets the kinto'un there, so it's a moot point really. Speaking of dubious lessons, as of this chapter Goku has matured enough to tell girls and boys apart! And by that I mean he's realized he can pat people's crotch to feel what sort of junk they have or don't have and can figure it out from that. Yes, the one gag from a few chapters back makes it's glorious return here, and I love it so. Is it stupid? Is it something that's entirely unacceptable in real life? Of course it's both of those things, but here I can't help but find it hilarious. I said I wanted to save most of my talk about Oolong for next chapter, but there is one thing that I want to note here that tends to get overlooked sometimes I feel, and that's his age. Probably due in no small part to most of his English dub voices sounding like chain-smokers, a lot of people seem to think of Oolong as another pervy old man, not so different from Kame-sennin. In truth though, he's roughly the same age as Goku. He says as much himself when Bulma tells him she's 16 and he starts fantasizing about her, 'she's 16, older than me...'. So while Oolong's perverse nature is still pretty outrageous, I guess you can at least blame some of it on the inquisitiveness of youth? ...Okay, he's still kidnapping girls, so maybe not so much. Speaking of Bulma, this chapter does a fine job of reiterating just exactly HOW vain she really is too. We've already seen multiple times that she considers herself to be pretty much perfect, and we know she wants to use the Dragon Balls to wish for a perfect boyfriend. When she's bathing Goku though, we learn that she doesn't know much about boys overall though, so she's more inexperienced than she might otherwise let on. Here with the “handsome” Oolong though, she's throwing herself at him as hard as she possibly can, even proudly declaring her bust size! I don't think I need to go into why that's uh...really, really not the smartest thing in the world to do at her age, but again, Bulma's genius is only matched by her vanity, and apparently her lust too. Man, Goku's the only character at this point in the series that's NOT horny on main, isn't he. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: The old man the turtle brought introduces himself to Goku and Bulma as Kamesennin, aka the 'Turtle Hermit'. He asks if both of them helped his friend, but the turtle says that only Goku did, so Kamesennin wants to reward him greatly. He first tries to call down an immortal phoenix to grant Goku immortality, but when it doesn't arrive, the turtle has to remind him of the legendary bird's demise. So the old timer is forced to settle with a second choice, and calls down the kinto'un, a magical flying cloud that only those pure of heart can ride – a feat he tries to prove himself by jumping onto it, only to promptly fall through it onto his butt. Goku fares better however, and is soon zooming around the sky, getting used to his new plaything.
Impressed with the cloud, Bulma insists that she should get a reward as well, something the turtle isn't necessary, but Bulma reminds him of the salt water she gave him earlier. For his part, Kamesennin says he could give her something, but first she'd have to show him her panties. The turtle chastises him, saying this must be why the cloud rejected him, but while the two argue, Bulma has already made up her mind. She quickly lifts her shirt and unwittingly shows the old man far more than she'd intended (ie she's naked down there, a result of Goku removing her underwear back in chapter 2). The old man is more than pleased with this showing, and is trying to come up with an appropriate gift to give her when Bulma notices the orb on the necklace around his neck. Quickly calling Goku back down, they're both thrilled to discover that they've found the three-star Dragon Ball! It seems Kamesennin had fished it out of the water over a hundred years ago, but had no idea of it's true value. Now that it seemed to be worth something, he wasn't sure about giving it to them. By flashing him a few more times, Bulma is able to convince him to part with his necklace. With the old man and turtle leaving back whence they came, Goku and Bulma prepare to set out on the road once again. First though, Bulma wants to finally change out of her pajamas, leaving Goku outside on kinto'un while she makes a horrifying discovery. As she realizes she was naked when she flashed the old man, Goku mistakes her terror for fear of dying without 'those parts', inadvertently revealing his part in her misfortune. Enraged, Bulma shoots him. Repeatedly. Later that day, Goku and Bulma set out once more, with Bulma on her bike and Goku on his kinto'un. Three days later, they're getting close to a village that Bulma is sure must be the location of the next Dragon Ball. Once they arrive however, the whole place seems to be deserted, but Goku's sure he can sense the presence of someone... Review: Alright. Let's talk about Kamesennin. If you've been into anime for any amount of time, you've probably run across at least one perverted old man character. There's even a good chance that the character happened to be a mentor figure for the main character. Well, the Turtle Hermit is the forefather of them all (though I can't say with absolute certainty that he himself wasn't pre-dated by another similar character). I've said before that if pervy humor isn't your cup of tea, then early Dragon Ball might be a bit of a challenge, and if that's the case, few characters will challenge you as much as this one. Thankfully though, as the series goes on, we'll see that he's far from one-note. No, despite being one of the more polarizing characters in one way, he also manages to be one of the most fleshed out, human characters of the cast in other ways. I'll talk more about those shades of Kamesennin as we get to them though. For now, let's focus on his dirty side. I've mentioned previously that I'm a fan of pervy humor. I can't help it, I just am. I do recognize that there is both a good way and a bad way to go about it though, and...frankly, Kamesennin will prove to be a mixed bag in terms of that as time goes on. He's certainly the sort of character that, no matter how funny he is on paper, would be completely unforgivable if he were a real person, and that's just thinking of some of his more tame antics. There are definitely times where the character is going to push the envelope of what's tasteful and what's not, and that's just within the pages of the original manga itself. So yeah, he's a complicated old coot. It is somewhat ironic however that he was technically introduced last chapter only to get really revealed in this one, when even this first appearance still doesn't reveal all there is to know about him. The gag with Kamesennin trying to call down an immortal phoenix that has already dead is a great one. I guess it's just a bird that grants immortality rather than being immortal itself. Still seems a little bit like a ripoff, really. I haven't talked a lot about Dragon Ball's Journey to the West influences, and that's mostly because 1) there are other places like Kanzenshuu and MistareFusion's Dragon Ball Dissection that cover it far better than I ever could, and 2) I don't know a lot more than the basics about it myself, but it is worth noting that like his extending staff the nyoibo, Goku's new kinto'un cloud is right out of that story as well. Again, for more info on that kind of thing, hit up Kanzenshuu. Now that said, I think the part about the cloud only letting people who are pure of heart ride it is Toriyama original. It's hard to imagine the mischievous Monkey King Son Wukong counting as pure of heart. How someone might feel about perverted humor aside, especially perverted humor that involves a sixteen-year-old girl showing an old man and a turtle her vagina, this gag is actually pure genius, and a perfect showing of the sort of thing Toriyama excels at. I mean, think about it – it was back at the end of chapter 2 that Goku took off Bulma's underwear. It wasn't brought up at all in chapter 3. Now in chapter 4, it's suddenly both an important plot point and a further pay off for a joke that you might have thought was already finished. It's. Freakin'. Amazing. Also, shout out to anyone else for whom Bulma's butt was one of your very first sightings of anime nudity. Ah, youth. And so, that about sums up this one as well. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Goku, growing impatient with how long it's taking Bulma to get ready after waking up, decides to head outside and break rocks for exercise. The second boulder he picks up turns out to be no rock at all however – it's a giant sea turtle! The turtle explains that he's been lost and trying to find his way back to the sea for some time now, and Goku offers to help take him back to the sea. Bulma objects and at first lets Goku leave, but quickly realizes this leaves her in a lurch with one less Dragon Ball and a lot of danger left to face all alone, so she hurries after them. On the road to the sea, the trio is soon stopped by a gigantic bear-like bandit, who wants to take the turtle from them and eat it. Bulma's okay with this idea, but Goku isn't, and faces off with the bandit in a fight, making short work of it much to the surprise of Bulma and the turtle. With that roadblock taken care of, the trio heads back onto the road toward the sea. They eventually reach the water's edge, and the turtle is so grateful that he asks if they could please wait by the water for a little while as he plans to return with a reward for their help. They agree and wait, eventually spotting the returning turtle on the horizon, who brings them...an old man wearing sunglasses and a turtle shell? Review: If last chapter was a pitstop designed mostly to get some more gags out of the way, then this chapter definitely gets the ball rolling again in terms of story progression. Somehow though, it does end up feeling a little bit light somehow. Not bad, just light. Goku stepping outside to keep up his exercises even while he's on the road is a nice little touch that shows how seriously Goku takes his training, and it's something that definitely becomes a staple of the character as the story continues progressing. It also serves as a nice reminder of Goku's strength before we get to the fight later in the chapter. I know what you're thinking: “It's only chapter 3, how could anyone forget how strong he is?” Which, in of itself, is a fair point. It's important to remember the target demographic of the series in it's original run in Japan was very young boys however, and that the series was brand new and still catching on. After having no feats of strength to speak of in the last chapter really, it makes sense to have a little reminder of it at the start of this one, especially since it's going to get kicked up a notch in just a few pages. It's a little funny to think about the turtle being introduced this early into the story considering he's going to effectively get shoved into the background harder than any other early series character after this. I mean, we never even get a proper name for the guy, but he's still the third character introduced that's actually part of the gang somewhat, how crazy is that? It's easy to see why he gets ditched so hard though, honestly. Outside of serving as a way to introduce the much more useful character of Kamesennin, he doesn't really have much else to offer the story going forward either. Poor guy gave everything he had to offer too early. On the other hand though, the bear bandit actually achieves a little bit of world building with his brief entry into the story. Not only does he allow us to see Goku's current special move, the Janken (or Rock-Paper-Scissors) Fist, for the very firs time, he's also our first encounter with an animal person. In the first chapter we had the pterodactyl that talked, and now we have turtle, but both are very much animals. They speak, but beyond that, they're not anthropomorphized at all. The bear bandit is another case entirely however. Not only can he speak, he wears clothing, he wields a sword, and he has hands with fingers rather than a paw like you'd expect a bear to have. We'll get plenty more animal people in the background throughout the course of the story, but this might be one of the few times one of them actually had minimal plot relevancy for even a few seconds, which is probably one of the reasons this minor character is so well remembered by fans. All things told though, the bear bandit is gone about as quickly as he appeared, but even that serves it's purpose well. We'd already seen that Goku was abnormally strong in non-combat ways, but this is the first time we've really gotten to see him fight. Beating such a large opponent with such ease shows that he's more than just strong, he's insanely strong, enough to shock even Bulma and she's seen him take down a pterodactyl. One of the few jokes to speak of in the chapter is Goku asking turtle if he really does taste good, and the turtle assuring him that it was all lies, placating Goku's curiosity and saving turtle's life from his would-be savior. It's a small moment, but a great one. That about does it for this chapter. You-know-who technically makes their first appearance in this chapter, but the next chapter is really their debut, so I'll save my commentary on them until then. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Goku thinks that with Bulma's motorcycle and only four more balls to go, they'll have them all in a snap, but Bulma knows better and decides they should stop and set up camp for the night. She surprises Goku by making an entire house appear with one of her capsules, and he's even further surprised once he sees electricity for the first time.
Telling Goku that he stinks, Bulma insists that he takes a bath, but the boy has no idea what that is either. Bulma reluctantly helps him out, discovering that the tail she thought was some weird accessory was actually real all along. Goku guesses that since she doesn't have one it must be only boys that have them, an idea that Bulma, for all her smarts, can't really rebuke...until Goku mentions his grandpa didn't have one either, but grandpa was weird, so what can you do? Bulma then decides to take a bath herself, and is horrified when Goku waltzes right in, angrily driving him back out once he reveals he's only a few years younger than her. She threatens him afterwards, but Goku just says he's hungry. Disappointed with her food offerings, Goku again horrifies Bulma by going out hunting and returning with a wolf and some centipedes. After his 'dinner', Goku and Bulma talk for a while before going to bed, Bulma forcing him to sleep on the floor rather than sharing a bed despite Goku's insistence that he always used to use his grandpa as a pillow. The next morning however, Goku wakes up first and decides to hop into the bed to try out Bulma's crotch as a pillow. Something seems off however, and he removes her underwear to discover...'No balls!' His loud scream wakes Bulma up, who mistakenly thinks he was talking about the Dragon Balls. Once she sees that the balls are safe however, she tells Goku to stop having nightmares. Outside, a strange shadow approaches the house. Review: This chapter was a lot shorter than the first one, but also a lot heavier on the comedy. Like I said before, if you're not much for perverted humor, than early Dragon Ball definitely might be a bit more of a challenge for you to sit through, and it's definitely the crux of at least half of the jokes in this chapter. It's not all gags though. Right from the chapter's opening, Toriyama is already expanding what the technology of this world can do. We'd previously seen Bulma's capsules turn into a car and a motorcycle, so based on it alone you'd be safe assuming that it was only vehicles, but now we get a house out of one of them as well. I've always been curious exactly how these things are made. Like, were the items made from the ground up to be able to condense into a capsule, or were they pre-existing items that were then capsule-ized somehow? The series never really deigns to delve into it that much, so there's not really a good answer. I'd assume it was the former, but that's using real world logic – for all we really know, there's some sort of ray they zap things with, and BOOM, they can be capsules now. It really wouldn't be that out of left field for Dragon Ball. Goku not knowing what bathing is might be one of the most bizarre things about his early childhood. Not knowing what a tub is, sure, but bathing itself? Did Gohan never take him down to a river or a pond to wash up? Did Gohan HIMSELF not ever bathe? Questions that desperately need explained that you know what, never mind, I don't want to know, all at the same time. Bulma's discovery that Goku's tail is real is funny, but a little weird from a storytelling perspective. Sure, there's a chance that Bulma never saw it move herself earlier, but we as the audience have already seen Goku do all sorts of things with it, from using it a fish bait to untying a rope with it. We need no such assurances that the tail's legit, so it's a little weird that such a big deal is made out of proving that it's not. It does also drive home the point that even as worldly as Bulma is, she's still a young girl herself and doesn't know everything, so I guess it serves a purpose that way too. This chapter also reveals the ages of our protagonists, though one of those are going to get retconned in the near future. For right now though, Goku is stated to be 14, and Bulma says that's two years younger than her, making her 16. Really makes you think twice about enjoying some of that fan service, doesn't it? Amidst all of the gags though, we get a rather insightful conversation between Goku and Bulma that reveals more about their backgrounds as we'll learn about them later than I think Toriyama had anywhere near actually planned out – especially in the case of Goku. When Bulma asks Goku about his parents, Goku nonchalantly says that they must've abandoned him in the mountains which is where his grandpa found him. We learn much later of course the real truth about Goku being found in the mountains, but for now this is the only mention ever made about Goku's parentage or origins, even when questions about what he really is get raised by the end of this arc. It almost makes you wonder if Toriyama had something in mind for Goku's origins already, even if it wasn't what we ultimately got later on. But, again, given Toriyama's writing style of living-by-the-seat-of-his-pants, I sort of doubt it. In Bulma's case, she mentions only having 30 days left of summer vacation before she has to go back to school. This is shockingly mundane and normal, and really shows what a different world she really comes from compared to the country bumpkin that is Goku. And as we'll see when we finally see her home, her world really is quite normal – at least, by Dragon Ball world standards. And switching gears entirely to close out this review, we have Goku's infamous pat pat test and his horrified discovery that Bulma has, and I quote, 'No balls!'. Again, this is the sort of gag that you just will not find in Shonen Jump nowadays, standards have changed way too much in the 30 odd years since Dragon Ball came into this world. In a lot of ways, that's for the best, but I'd be lying if I said this gag didn't make me laugh every single time. What's less laugh-worthy though is the fact that Goku was also using Gohan's crotch as a pillow. Between that and the no bathing thing...there's some questions that we really, really don't need answers to. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Living in the woods all alone, a young monkey-tailed boy named Son Goku spends his days all alone eating and training. His life is suddenly changed forever by the arrival of a teenage girl named Bulma. At first, the two don't hit it off, but Bulma manages to win over the young boy by revealing that she's a girl – something the boy is too naïve to tell on his own – thus reminding him of his grandfather's lesson to always be nice to girls. When the two go back to Goku's place, Goku introduces Bulma to his 'grandfather', which turns out to be a memento of the old man's – a small orange orb with four stars inside of it. Bulma reveals to him that the object is actually called a Dragon Ball. There are seven in total, and in addition to the two she already has, Goku's makes three. When all seven balls are brought together, a Dragon god by the name of Shenlong is summoned and will grant the user any one wish they desire. Already having a wish in mind, Bulma tries to convince Goku to give her his Dragon Ball, but he refuses. Eventually though, she manages to convince him to come along with her to find the remaining balls so that she can borrow his at the end to make a wish (Bulma keeping to herself the secret that the balls will fly away once a wish is granted). The pair set off on a spare capsule motorcycle Bulma had due to Goku wrecking her car earlier, but soon have to make a pitstop for Bulma to use the bathroom. Hearing Bulma's screams, Goku runs in to find her captured by a giant pterodactyl that flys away with the girl in tow. Using both the motorcycle and his nyoibo staff, Goku defeats the pterodactyl, saves Bulma, and all's well that ends well! Save for the fact that Bulma's now peed her panties, that is. Review: While it certainly sets the pace and formula with which a lot of Shonen Jump manga follow suit with their own opening chapters, Dragon Ball still stands tall with the very best of them, even outdoing them in a lot of cases. It's astounding how little 'early story awkwardness' there is in this first chapter in comparison to those that will follow. By and large, the world we're presented with here right at the start feels like the same world we'll still be in by the end of the series, though certain elements will rise while others will falter over time. I mean, let's set aside Goku and Bulma themselves for a moment. You've still got a world with dinosaurs and futuristic technology like the capsules, sitting comfortably right beside talking animals and orbs that can grant wishes. That's the sort of world Dragon Ball is, and it was that way from it's absolute beginning. There wasn't a world here to build, only one to expand, because it's already all right here at the start. You'd almost think Toriyama was a genius mastermind to have crafted all of that right from the very beginning, but in truth? It's likely just the sort of thing he likes, and allows him to tell whatever kind of joke or story comes to his mind, no matter what sort of whim strikes him. And yet, somehow, it just works. That's the beauty of Toriyama's creation. But enough gushing about the world for now. One element of the franchise that does show it's infancy here is the fighting, which you'll notice right away is playing second fiddle to the story and the comedy both. While this only truly lasts for the first arc – starting with the second, fighting will almost always be pretty equally at the forefront along with the story – it is often cited as a reason that a lot of fans discount the earlier half of the story and instead focus solely on the 'Dragon Ball Z' era of the story. In fact, some fans even recommend the series in that manner to new fans in the same vein, “Oh you can just skip Dragon Ball, start with DBZ.” While this is a standpoint that I can't disagree with more (and one that owes something to the out-of-order nature the series was brought over to the US in the first place, but that's a whole other discussion), as skipping out on the original series deprives you of a lot of world building and just plain fun material, I'd be remiss if I wasn't honest. Yes, the earlier portions of this series are decidedly less action-packed than basically everything else in it. That said though, if all you come to Dragon Ball for is JUST the action? You're missing out, honestly. Now let's bring back in those characters that I set aside earlier, Goku and Bulma. There's not as much to say about them right now as what I'll have to say as the series goes on, but there is a few things I want to note with them, as the story presents them at this point in their lives. In this opening act, Goku is at his most reserved. We see that he has a lot of strength and even more naivety about the world around him, but that's about all there is to him at this point. He lacks the sort of drive to better himself and to fight strong opponents that are hallmarks of his character, sometimes to a detriment, later on. There's every possibility that if Bulma hadn't happened across him in the woods, he would have lived out his entire life on that mountain top, just doing basic exercises and hunting for food, never venturing out any further than he needed to, and never seeing the big wide world – much less the universe and beyond – around him. He's almost unrecognizable when you stop and think about it. And part of that is how the story itself functions at this point, but I'll touch on that later on. In the case of Bulma however, she's already very much in line with how her character will be for much of the rest of the series. She's more selfish than she'll grow to be later on, but she's already a genius far beyond her years, and she's already developed an extremely high opinion of herself. Even when she's using her body to try to get what she wants, it almost comes across less as 'you're a guy, of course you're perverted' and more 'I'm such a babe, how could you NOT want this'. Speaking of Bulma's body – I swear there's a point here – the level of nudity and sexual humor already present in just this first chapter alone merits a brief mention as well. Another aspect that sets this early part of the series apart from it's later portions is the level of raunchy material within it's pages. We'll see more of it as we go on, and a lot of it is definitely dated, and the sort of thing you couldn't get away with as easily in the pages of Jump nowadays. Whether that sort of thing is your cup of tea or not will definitely increase or decrease your enjoyment of these earlier chapters, so be forewarned. For myself? I love me some pervy humor when it's done well, and Toriyama's certainly a master of it. I've spoken quite a bit about elements that will come into play later because this chapter sets it all up, but let's talk a little more about this chapter itself for a moment, as there are a few interesting things that are in it's pages alone. Firstly, while a lot of people remember that Bulma's the first girl Goku ever meets, a lot of people seem to gloss over entirely his statement that she's the first human PERIOD that he's ever met, not counting his late grandfather. Am I the only one that finds that just a little bit weird? Gohan must leave the mountain to go shopping for things they can't get otherwise on some occasions surely, so why did he never take Goku with him? Then again, Gohan doesn't own a car since Goku's never seen one of those either, so maybe Gohan's lifestyle really is even more hermit-like than I imagine. It's also interesting to note that Bulma mentions having to do research about the Dragon Balls to even figure out what they were, but we never get any details on exactly what that research entailed. I'd assume it was looking through a bunch of old books until she found one that detailed the legend, but she even knows about them splitting up once the wish is granted – that's one heck of a first-hand account she stumbled across. Phew. There was quite a bit more to say on this first chapter than I thought, even if most of it is stuff I can only say by virtue of already being intimately familiar with the series. Following reviews may be a good deal shorter except for chapters with big events in them, but we'll cross those bridges when we get to them. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: *singing* Gotta find those MISSING BALLS! To the surprise of practically nobody that knows me, I've decided to make my first review series a look into Akira Toriyama's classic itself – Dragon Ball! Beginning serialization in 1984, Dragon Ball followed hot on the heels of Toriyama's previous work, Dr. Slump (another series likely to go under the magnifying glass here at some point in the future). You wouldn't guess it from the series nearly non-existent standing here in the US, but Dr. Slump was a massive success back in Japan, and set up Toriyama as one of the biggest names in Weekly Shonen Jump, if not manga itself, very quickly. As you can imagine, a lot was riding on his second major series, and as evidenced by the manga running until 1995, and the longevity of it's popularity world-wide nearly 40 years later, Toriyama delivered in spades. With anime, manga, video games, movies, toys, and even a float in the St. Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone even outside the anime fandom who hasn't at least HEARD of Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball also feels like a very natural starting point for this blog as well. You see, back in the earlier 2000's (and you have no idea how much it pains me to realize how long ago that now is), Dragon Ball was the very first anime I got into. Well, technically I was into Pokemon first, but that was more-so the game. I also had no idea what anime was at the time. But once I got into Dragon Ball, I got into anime itself, and I've been a huge fan ever since. Dragon Ball also shares the distinction of being my very first manga as well – until I saw a volume of it on shelves at a store, I didn't even realize manga was being released in the US! Ah, the innocence of youth. So, Dragon Ball definitely felt like the right choice to tackle first here. The question then becomes 'how' to tackle it exactly. Even before the 2013 revival of the brand with a new, feature length film, the franchise already boasted an enormous amount of material to cover. At the same time however, a bunch of the material is the same story told twice over – the manga came first, and the anime thus adapted it's story to the screen. With my main focus being on covering the story primarily, covering both seemed a bit redundant. At the same time however, there's a lot of great material that only exists outside of the pages of the manga, as well as some lesser-known but still interesting pieces of story that I'd love to talk about as well. So the question now became just how exactly best to go about this. The answer to that question, as I see it, is a little bit unconventional, so stick with me for a moment. Here's the plan of action moving forward:
I think that should just about cover it. I'm still unsure of exactly how often or many posts there will be per day once things get going, or if it even will be daily at all, but very soon we'll be starting things off with the very first chapter of the manga. I hope everyone's looking as forward to it as I am. Hello everyone! Yes, that includes you in the back. How could I forget my favorite chirping crickets?
Ahem. I'll keep this as brief as can be since it's just an introductory post. Welcome to my new anime/manga review blog! It is indeed new, in that 1) I'm just now starting it, and 2) I've tried this blogging thing a few different times before and just never been able to make it stick with me. So here's hoping the bajillionth time's the charm, eh? As to what you can expect to find here - well, anime and manga reviews! Chiefly manga reviews, at least for the time being, with anime and related properties sprinkled in as time goes on. The purpose, or rather the style, of these reviews will vary from title to title, but in general my focus will be on the storytelling mechanics of a series, how I feel about the plot, and so on and so forth. In general, you'll find in a given review post 1) the title page or title card (if available), 2) a brief synopsis of the content of the chapter and/or episode, 3) a longer section detailing my thoughts on the particular chapter and/or episode, and finally 4) a brief tease of the next review to come. I'll primarily be focusing on doing one series at a time, and my first series is one that's both near and dear to my heart...and one that's going to take me a long, long, LONG time to get through, even just by focusing primarily on it's manga. As such, I'm not sure how many posts a day you can expect - at the very least one a day once I get going (which may be a few days to a week from now), but real life may occasionally intrude. Some days there may be no posts, other days there may be many, and there'll never be a truly set time to expect them up. So with that all aside, look forward to my series review announcement post soon! *CRUNCH* Aw crap. There goes one of my crickets. |
About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
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