Synopsis: Three days pass, and Roshi awakens at 4:30 in the morning next to a tired Kuririn who complains about the early day. Roshi makes his way upstairs next, scoffing himself at not being able to sleep with Lunch due to the violent disposition of her other half. Only Goku is able to sleep with her due to his indifference towards the opposite sex. When Roshi gets upstairs, he plans to check out a sleeping Lunch before waking up Goku, but is terrified to discover she transformed at some point in the night. Roshi tries to quietly wake up only Goku by prodding him with a broomstick, but the waking boy speaks too loudly and she's woken up as well. Lunch fires her gun at Goku for trying to cozy up to her, but he knocks her out with a swift kick to the face. Roshi is surprised to see that Goku doesn't hold back even against girls. He tries to use the situation to his advantage to cop a feel of the sleeping Lunch, but is reminded by Goku of his original task. It's time to train! Before they can really get started, Roshi lays out a few ground rules for his new students. He says that pursuing the martial arts shouldn't be about looking cool or impressing girls, but rather to improve oneself and to stay healthy. At the same time however, if they ever come across someone who's misusing their power, then it's their duty to use their own power to stop them and protect others. They then begin their training with some light jogging, which leads Kuririn to think that maybe this training won't be as hard as he'd heard. Eventually however, they come to a milkman's house just as he's preparing to make his deliveries. Roshi had spoken with him over the phone the day before and arranged for he and his students to make the deliveries themselves. Instead of using the milkman's helicopter to cover the large delivery area however, they'll be doing it on foot. As if that wasn't difficult enough of a task, Roshi has them skip the entire way to the first house. Once that delivery is done, he has them zig-zag back and forth between trees along the path to the next house. Once there, he has them take a long mountain path's stairway. At the top, Roshi takes a break and waits for his students to catch up, as even Goku is beginning to tire from all that they're doing. When Goku asks why he can't deliver the milk with kinto'un, Roshi chastises him and says it wouldn't be training if he took the easy way out. Besides, his grandpa and Gyu-mao used to do this kind of training all the time. Hearing that, Goku is rejuvenated, and once Kuririn finally catches up, they deliver the milk to a house on top of the mountain. A monk comes out to thank them and talks with Roshi, the pair apparently having known each other for a long time. The monk asks how his new students' training is coming along, and Roshi says that while they've only just started, he thinks they have great potential within them. Goku and Kuririn are thrilled to hear this, but Roshi tops this by saying that if they keep it up, they should be able to enter the tournament 8 months from now. Kuririn recognizes the tournament as the Tenkaichi Budokai, or 'Strongest Under the Heavens', a tournament that martial artists from all over the world gather to compete in to decide who's the strongest of them all. Roshi cautions them that if they do enter, their goal isn't to win, only to test their skills, but he does see benefit in them having a goal to reach towards even this early in their training. With the thought of entering the tournament to help them continue on, Roshi takes the boys onward with more milk to deliver, leading them across a fallen tree, through a desert and a river, and even being chased by a hungry dinosaur. By the time the milk delivery is done, Goku and Kuririn are both exhausted, but Roshi says they'll be doing this same routine every day for the next 8 months. That's only for their early morning training too, now it's time to start their morning training! Review: At long last, the true story of this particular arc starts to take form. The Tenkaichi Budokai (or World Martial Arts Tournament in the English dub of the anime) is one of the most easily recognizable locations in the entire franchise, right up there with the likes of Roshi's house, Kami's lookout, and even Planet Namek. The stories told and fights shown off during the tournaments are some of the best the franchise has to offer to boot. Needless to say, it's an event that completely lives up to it's premise, even if at this point in the story it's being treated more as a means to an end. Before we get to the tournament itself though, there's still training to do, or in our case, training to talk about. I mentioned before that the Kame style is less an actual style and more of just a strength building regiment, and while that is true for the physicality side of things, it does have it's own code to live by. And live by it Goku does, despite him seeming not to get it at first. I mean, training to improve yourself, just living a good life, but always striving to protect people if you see someone misusing their power? That pretty much sums up the character of Goku to a T right there. There'll be plenty of times where that 'protecting' thing gets a little hazy, but we'll cover those instances as we come to them. The idea of doing something like milk delivery as training for martial arts seems pretty silly at first glance, but that's exactly what it's intended to do. It IS silly, but assuming someone was able to deliver it by foot in a fast enough manner across multiple different types of terrain, such as what we're shown here? It's still silly, but it's also just impressive enough to buy as something that would build up a person's strength, if they were strong enough in the first place to do it and keep doing it, of course. That said, I'm pretty sure at least some of those people at the end of the delivery probably got pretty spoiled milk. I still won't be able to touch fully on it until a certain other pair of characters make their appearance, but it's worth noticing that once their training proper starts, Kuririn acts much less antagonistically towards Goku. Rather, he's shown to be rather fretful when they're doing dangerous things, and to respond to good news jubilantly alongside his fellow pupil. It's almost like Goku beating him started to change him or something. Weird. Probably not something we'll ever see again either, I'm sure. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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Synopsis: As the sun continues to set, Roshi says he has one more test in mind for the boys before their real training starts the next day. Goku asks if it's another race, but Roshi says no though running will be involved. Picking up a rock off the ground, Roshi scribbles the kanji for 'Turtle' on it before throwing it off a nearby cliff and into a jungle. He instructs the boys to find the stone and bring it back to him, to prove they have good constitution and stamina. The one who brings back the stone is the winner, and the winner is the only one who will get to eat dinner. As Roshi further adds the stipulation that if nobody brings it back in thirty minutes, neither of them will get to eat, Goku and Kuririn are horrified.
The boys rush to the edge of the cliff, and as Kuririn tries to figure out a way down, Goku launches down, catching a limb to slow his fall. It breaks, stunning him for a moment, but he's quickly back up and running after the stone. Kuririn realizes he's falling behind and starts to look for another way down when a sneaky idea occurs to him. He reasons that nobody could ever find one rock in a jungle that big in under thirty minutes, so instead he finds a similar looking rock and, borrowing a marker from a nearby household, makes his own 'Turtle' rock. While Goku continues searching for the real one by following Roshi's scent, Kuririn returns to the old master with his fake, pretending to be out of breath from a hard search. Upon observing it however, Roshi can tell it's a fake due to the different hand-writing, and throws it in Kuririn's face, ordering the little sneak to get back to looking for the real one. Now in the thick of the jungle, Kuririn barely manages to stave off an attack from a hungry sabertooth, just before seeing a Triceratops wander by, prompting him to wonder just what kind of jungle this is. He hears Goku loudly proclaim to have found the rock nearby, so he hurries over and finds that he really has. Kuririn takes the rock from him with the promise of checking it out, but runs off with it instead, causing Goku to chase after him. Kuririn tries everything he can think of to lose Goku, even cutting down a bridge he's just crossed, but it's no good – the other boy remains in hot pursuit. Eventually Kuririn is left with no choice but to stand and fight, but is quickly overwhelmed by the stronger Goku. Rather than returning the rock however, Kuririn throws it far away again, and Goku chases after it. Unbeknownst to him however, the rock Kuririn threw was his fake from before, and Kuririn returns to Roshi with the real rock this time. Later that night, Roshi and Kuririn enjoy a home-cooked meal from Lunch while Goku is forced to watch from the corner. The last laugh is on Kuririn however, as they all get food poisoning from poorly prepared puffer fish, delaying their training by a further three days. Review: The past few chapters have made for an excellent example of how the passage of time in this series basically moves at exactly the speed Toriyama needs it to. Sometimes, a solitary chapter will take care of one day in the character's lives, but other times multiple chapters, sometimes ones that you'd swear would have taken more time than that, all take place on a single day. This is nowhere near as extreme as it will later prove to be, not by a LONG shot, but it does bear mentioning now as this chapter concludes the first day of training under Roshi for Goku and Kuririn. Of course, even then this is only a prelude to their real training, which we'll start to see next chapter. Hunting for a rock is a peculiar training method to be sure, but once again, it's nothing compared to what Roshi really has in store for them. Despite Roshi's explanation for what it's meant to show off though, we don't really get much in the way of actually showing it off. Kuririn tries trickery while Goku hunts down the rock with his nose – neither one of these really shows off their constitution or their stamina. I guess it could be argued that the fact they still had enough energy to fight even after running all over a jungle is a pretty good indicator of stamina, but beyond that? Really, I think this was just Toriyama giving us one more 'adventure' style chapter before the training really begins, and we move squarely into fighting territory for a while. And hey, the fight does show definitively that Goku is indeed stronger than Kuririn, so it's not like it served no purpose whatsoever. I mentioned before that as much as I like the character Kuririn grows to be, I still enjoy his devious little shit routine as well, and that character quirk of his is on full display in this chapter. It's pretty foolish of him to think he can actually pull one over on Roshi of all people – I do love that his downfall comes from something as simple as different handwriting as well – but that's what's so funny about his attitude here. It's especially interesting to note how differently he comes off when his demeanor is broken somehow, but we'll talk more about that in a few more chapters, because I think the answer is fairly evident. Kuririn now makes the second character after Bulma to seem surprised by the likes of dinosaurs out in the wild. While Bulma's shock doesn't really make as much sense with information we later get about her background, it's telling that it seems to present the dinosaurs as something surprising. We never do get an answer for them either. Did they just never die off? Were they brought back to life somehow in some sort of Jurassic Park-esque way? Is it something else entirely? The world may never know. While Kuririn wins the fight, it's ultimately Goku that wins the war when his missing out on dinner is the only reason he doesn't get food poisoning. I'm kind of surprised the good-hearted Lunch didn't sneak him a little food though. It almost seems out of character for her to leave him hungry like that. Regardless, the puffer fish induced malady is another case of these characters being more than human for comedy purposes, given that this meal could prove quite a bit more fatal in reality from what I understand. This isn't the sort of series that would give us dead kids though, right? ...Surely not. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: With the sun already hanging low in the sky, Roshi decides that his island is really too small for him to give the boys proper training on, so he decides to return his house to it's capsule state and move them all to a nearby larger island first. On the way there, he asks Lunch to please refrain from sneezing if she can help it, all things considered.
Once they arrive, Roshi suggests that they get in at least a little bit of training before dinner, but Goku is surprised to see that there are other houses already on the island. Roshi says he shouldn't be, as about 300 people or so live on this island already. After that, Goku is eager to begin training, but Lunch asks if she should join them after all. Roshi says that she can do whatever she'd like, and she starts to say she'll cook everyone dinner but her words are cut off by an incoming sneeze. Goku, Kuririn, and Roshi all hide behind a rock, but it turns out to be a yawn instead. Lunch says she's really tired, and heads inside, leaving Goku and Kuririn relieved, but Roshi chastises them for being so easily scared despite being scared himself. Before they start training, Roshi asks Kuririn if he already has some experience with the martial arts or not. Kuririn reveals that he trained for 8 years at the Orin temple, and Roshi is pleased to hear that they both have a grasp of the basics at least. He asks the boys how long he thinks it would take them to run from where they are now to a tree that's one hundred meters away – speed doesn't necessarily make for a good martial artist in of itself, he says, but having strong legs is never a bad thing. Kuririn boasts that he could qualify for the Olympics if he really wanted to, and goes first, crossing the distance in an impressive 10.4 seconds. Goku goes second, and crosses it extremely fast as well, but only clocks in at 11 seconds. Kuririn offers Goku a back-handed compliment, but Goku asks if he can run it again with new shoes, showing off how busted his are. When he runs it a second time, Goku clocks in at 8.5 seconds, impressing both Roshi and Kuririn. While Kuririn asks Goku exactly what kind of training he's had, Roshi compliments them both for already being as good as they are. He cautions them however that they're both still within normal human limits, and that in order to become truly great martial artist, they'll have to surpass those limits. Taking off his shell, he hands Kuririn his stopwatch and runs the distance himself, clocking in at 5.6 seconds, a time he considers pretty good considering his age. He tells them both that with proper training, given their age? They should be able to hit speeds close to that as well. Feeling a bit parched after his run, Roshi asks Goku to go get him a beer, but Goku doesn't know what beer is. Kuririn offers instead, and Roshi comments that he'll have to try to teach Goku some actual knowledge as well as martial arts. Inside the house, Kuririn asks Lunch for a beer, and she gives him one before sneezing, prompting her to chase after him with a butcher's knife for trying to take one of her beers. Watching from behind a rock again with Goku, Roshi comments that Kuririn's reaching human limits as he runs. Review: At last, the actual training under Muten Roshi begins! One couldn't be blamed for thinking the bit of training we get here is a little unorthodox, but as we'll see moving forward, everything about the Kame style is pretty unorthodox. Honestly, it's less a fighting style and more a training regiment really, one that pays amazing dividends. I complained a lot last chapter about how horrible Toriyama's introduction of the Lunch sneezing gag was, and while all of that still holds true and works against it, he does at least try to utilize it a little differently in this chapter. This time, we get a reminder about it right at the start, followed by a moment where it looks like it's going to of course happen again, only for it to be a fake-out instead. It might not seem that important to note that the island they're on has 300 people, but this is actually a first for Goku. So far in the story, he's only been around a small select amount of people at any given time. The most crowded areas he's been in has been the village Oolong was terrorizing, and the town Master Carrot was terrorizing. Neither of those places were lingered in for very long, and while this island's natives also won't play too big of a part in the story, it does help serve to flesh out this world better and make it feel more inhabited. A test of speed might seem like a weird way to show off Kuririn for the first time, but really it works for the best because it allows Toriyama to keep his actual fighting prowess in his back pocket for now to use later. It also serves as a non-combat method to show exactly where Kuririn likely stands with everyone else right now, oddly enough in a way that power levels will briefly do the same thing much later in the story. Considering we haven't seen him actually do anything until now, it was a good time to finally show that he's up to snuff - his running time shows that he's not as good as Goku and certainly not as good as Roshi, but he's still roughly in the same ballpark enough to keep up. Likewise, Kuririn's attitude towards Goku is continuing to evolve and change. He's still antagonistic towards him, not that Goku really notices half the time, but he's being forced to realize that his fellow student isn't just weird. He already saw Goku take out two armed men without any problem, now he's forced to witness that he's faster than him too. This makes Goku a wall for him to try to overcome whether Kuririn likes it or not. As we'll see, this likewise gives Goku someone to measure himself against and someone he doesn't want to fall behind, showing how much mileage a good rivalry can give your training. Goku takes this lesson to heart, perhaps a little TOO well...but more on that way, way later. Roshi's run shows just how far ahead of the boys he is in experience, setting him up as the master he's clearly built up to be. We already saw that once before with his first Kamehameha, but that's been long enough that it makes sense for Toriyama to re-emphasize it again now (don't forget these chapters came out once a week originally in Japan), and Kuririn wasn't there to witness that either. And again, with the numerical system of their running speeds in place, it shows just how far ahead of them he really is...which is actually not that far at all, really. It's something I'll talk about at length at some point further on as well, but it's no secret that this series has a severe problem with strength progression, and how quickly overall Roshi, the invincible old master, is going to be overtaken in skill is a sign of how quickly that's going to become a problem really. And remember that fake-out with Lunch yawning instead of sneezing? It all comes right back around at the end where she sneezes at last and chases Kuririn around with a knife. Hilarious! ...Okay, maybe not quite hilarious, but it can only do so much after how badly the gag was damaged in introduction. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Goku and Kuririn return to Roshi's island with the mysterious girl they rescued in tow. When they arrive however, the old man is nowhere to be found. Kuririn suggests that maybe he's “indisposed”, which Goku loudly figures out must mean he's taking a poop before going off to get him. Kuririn apologizes for Goku's rude behavior, but the girl really just wants to know what they've brought her here for. Kuririn says that it's just three guys here so they really just want some female company while they train, and the girl says that should work out fine as she needed somewhere to hide from the people after her anyway. Kuririn asks what that was all about anyway, the deal with the fake police, but the girl insists that they were real police.
In the house, Goku loudly asks Roshi if he's done pooping yet, angering the old man. He tells Goku that whoever they brought this time better be the real deal, and Goku assures him that Kuririn seems to like her so she should be fine. Back outside, Kuririn asks the girl whey the police would be chasing her, and she says judging by all the money in her bag, she must have robbed a bank or something again. Kuririn is doubtful, thinking she must be pulling his leg, but she insists that it's really true. While Roshi peers at her from inside the house, she quickly explains that whenever she sneezes, she changes personalities. The discussion is interrupted by Roshi's joyous yell, as he quickly runs outside to join Kuririn and the girl. He officially accepts both boys as his pupils for succeeding in bringing him the kind of girl he likes, and welcomes the girl, who introduces herself as Lunch, to his home. Lunch explains that she was saved by Roshi's grandchildren, and Roshi is proud but tries to claim they're his little brothers, an assertion he immediately has to pretend was a joke when nobody buys it. Roshi tells Lunch exactly who he is and what he'll be teaching the boys, and she gets excited to know why they're already so strong, though Goku says they haven't been taught anything yet. Roshi offers for Lunch to stay with them and even join them in training on occasion, at least enough to stay fit. Lunch isn't sure at first, but at Kuririn's encouragement about how great the master is and how rarely he makes such an offer, she agrees. Roshi praises Kuririn as his kind of student, and gives Lunch a box with a “uniform” in it. When she starts to change right there in front of them, Kuririn excitedly comments on it, prompting her to realize she really should go inside to change, and Roshi to take back the accolades he'd just given the boy. Lunch soon returns outside, now wearing frilly lingerie, to question if Roshi perhaps go the boxes mixed up, but Roshi assures her that it's the traditional uniform of the Kame school – if it wasn't, why else would he and the boys now be wearing frilly lingerie as well? Roshi is eager to get the training underway now, but a fly begins zooming around his face and annoying him. He waves it away, and it flies by Lunch's nose, causing her to sneeze – to everyone's surprise, her hair turns blonde and her face becomes much more stern. She questions where she is and figures out that they must have brought her there, so she pulls out a machine gun and begins firing on all three of them. Luckily, Lunch sneezes again almost immediately and returns to her former self. Seeing the gun in her hand, she apologizes but says she did warn them about her sneezes after all. She hopes she didn't do anything too bad, and Roshi assures her it's fine, even while he and the boys have bullet holes in them. Review: Something I neglected to mention last chapter that you may have noticed, is that Lunch is able to ride the kinto'un without any problems. It's believable enough for her darker-haired, kind form, but it does raise a whole lot of questions about the true nature of her other form...speaking of, let's talk about Lunch now. Lunch is, frankly, the closest Dragon Ball comes to having a character that exists purely as window dressing. She's here to be cute, she's here to provide her one gag, and that's really about it. That's all she'll do over the course of this story arc, and that's all she'll continue to do over the course of the series, right up until she mysteriously just stops showing up at all. Toriyama does make some attempt to liven her up as a character I think, but I'll save talk about that for when it happens, and it really doesn't matter in the long run anyway as it clearly doesn't work in the end. Another part of the problem is how her introduction and the introduction of her sneezes is handled. In the last chapter, we started off following the light-haired Lunch being chased by cops only for her to end up sneezing and changing to her other form. As a result, the gag's already spoiled. I'd be willing to bet even little kids when this first came out already figured out what happened there, though I suppose there's a chance they dismissed it as being too silly to be what really happened. Let's give it that benefit of the doubt for a moment. Even with that, moving into this chapter, we have Lunch flat out state what sneezing does to her...and nothing. Nobody reacts. Kuririn objected to her saying she'd stolen the money, but due to Roshi's interruption, there is no reaction to her explanation about her sneezes. That's the second time now that we've had the punchline spoiled for us without us really getting any pay off from it. So by the time we get to the third time, where we see for sure that what she's saying is true, it already feels tired. This character and her gimmick have already been tired out in their very first chapters, purely because of how they're introduced. And it's a shame, because with some slight changes, this could have been so much better. If we hadn't seen her sneeze in the previous chapter, if we'd only seen the cops chasing a light-haired woman only to cut back to them catching a dark-haired woman in the same clothes, that would have preserved some element of surprise. That alone would have alleviated most of the damage, but if we wanted to go even further, just have her explanation about sneezing get cut off by Roshi's jubilation so that we don't actually hear the whole explanation. Anything to reserve some of the surprise for the moment it's actually needed. That's not to say Lunch isn't fun when she's first introduced, but...well, actually, I guess it sort of is. Her sneezing gimmick is funny, and it's certainly unique, but when that's all that can really be said for it, that's not much. It's little wonder that she eventually fades into relative obscurity in the franchise. For now though, she does bring two things to the table at this exact moment in the story if nothing else. Firstly, her gimmick is at least something different from the usual pee and sex jokes that we've already got plenty of. Secondly, she manages to make Roshi's perversions at least a little bit more palatable, at least in my opinion. I've spoken before about being a fan of pervy humor and how there's also a right way and a wrong way to do it. For me, doing it the right way can come in two varieties. Either the female character in question has to be given some agency in the fan-service, whether that's her intentionally showing off for some reason, or it being fan-service that feels logical to it's location and timing rather than something forced, so long as the woman retains some measure of control of the situation, it's less objectionable in my eyes. So far, most of what we've had in regards to fan-service in this series has been a mixed bag on that front. The introduction of Lunch brings with it the second way perverted comedy can work – make the pervert the butt of the joke. Make it extremely obvious that, when their perversions go way, way too far, it's a bad thing, and they receive some sort of punishment, verbally or physically, to show that. In this case, Roshi tricks Lunch into wearing lingerie after leering at her already, but ends up getting shot repeatedly by a machine gun for his lechery. That's funnier to me than the sorts of gags we had before, and it keeps the character of Roshi from being quite as abrasive as he was before and could have been moving forward. Toriyama may have had this same line of thought, because it becomes increasingly frequent moving forward for Roshi to get smacked around as a result of his perversion. This is all just my own personal opinion though, and as a straight man, I may not be the best positioned to accurately judge how this sort of fan-service and perverted humor might affect others. All I can say is that for me, this makes a world of difference. Phew. For not really offering a lot to the series overall, Lunch actually did give me a lot more to talk about for the time being than I thought. That's a good thing because beyond that really, there's not a lot else to talk about with this chapter other than how it finally transitions Goku and Kuririn to full students of Muten Roshi's, so that the training can finally get started for real...next chapter. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Goku and Kuririn fly around, looking for a girl that Muten Roshi might like enough for them to receive some real training at last. Kuririn, who can't sit on the cloud and instead is hanging onto Goku, complains that Goku is flying too high and too fast and he's going to fall off, but Goku tells him he wouldn't have to worry if he'd stop thinking bad thoughts. Goku then spots someone down below and asks if Roshi might like her. When Kuririn look and sees that the person is a male farmer, Kuririn criticizes Goku for not being able to tell the difference. Goku meanwhile is impressed that Kuririn can tell just by looking, he usually has to pat someone's crotch to tell. Kuririn decides that this is a good time to tell Goku that he's a boy. Some distance away on the ground, two cop cars are chasing a light-haired woman on a one-wheeled motorcycle. They warn her that if she doesn't stop they'll have to shoot, though one cop note that they're already firing on her. Undeterred, the lady pulls the pin out of a grenade with her teeth and tosses it back at them. She continues to evade them by using the terrain to her advantage, and eventually pulls a gun out to return fire. Before she can however, a strand of her own hair tickles her nose, causing her to sneeze and fall off her bike. Back in the air, Goku and Kuririn are about ready to give up for now, as they're not finding anybody else out in the wilderness. The cops have now cornered a dark-haired woman who looks very similar to the light-haired one from before, right down to her wearing the same clothes and everything. The girl seems scared and has no idea what the police want with her, but the cops aren't buying it – they know it was her, so they have to arrest her. She screams for help, catching the attention of Goku and Kuririn up above. Goku asks if they should help her, but Kuririn says it's too risky, they haven't even trained yet and those guys have guns. Goku decides to help anyway, leaping off of kinto'un with Kuririn still on his back and landing behind the cops. He says they're here to rescue her, but Kuririn hides behind some rocks and says he's not a part of any of this. One cop threatens to arrest Goku too if he gets in the way, but Goku takes both him and his partner out in the blink of an eye before they can even really react. Kuririn is shocked to see that Goku actually does have some skill, and the girl eagerly thanks her savior. Kuririn comes out to take some credit as well, and Goku asks him if the old-timer might like her. Looking her over as they get her back on kinto'un, Kuririn has a feeling she'll do just fine. Review: Toriyama continues to get good gag usage out of Goku's inability to tell men from women, even without actually using the pat-pat test itself. It's also pretty clever how he continues to use it here to show Kuririn's contrasting personality in comparison to Goku's. We're introduced to a brand new character with a new interesting gimmick as well, and a bit of a complicated history within the franchise, but as we're not given her name or fully told about the gimmick in this chapter, I'll hold off on talking about her at length until the next chapter. That said, it's really not too big of a surprise once it's revealed since we pretty much DO see it here, so really this feels like another case where what was plot for one story ended up becoming two different chapters out of necessity of pages. That, or Toriyama wanted to get two weeks out of this one idea before he really had to come up with something else for the story. Either one's possible really. That unfortunately leaves me without a lot to talk about in this chapter itself, but I do want to take a brief moment to highlight Toriyama's incredible vehicle designs. Whether it's a real vehicle or a fantasy one, he always seems to put a lot of effort into designing and drawing them, to the point that even the fantasy ones feel like something that could actually exist in the real world some day. The one-wheeled motorcycle looks so unique that it actually manages to catch the eye more than the cop cars that are literally floating rather than driving across the ground. And that's pretty much all there is to say for this one. Even if I talked about our new character now, it still feels like this chapter doesn't have a lot going for it really. It's enjoyable, but we're starting to run into the same rut that we did in the Yamcha introductory chapters, in that we're basically going through the same gag and story each chapter until Toriyama finally decides it's time to move forward at last. Thankfully, we'll be moving forward at light speed soon enough. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Roshi is appalled at Goku's poor judgment of beauty, so he presents Goku with a test by holding up a picture of two different women, one attractive and one not. When Goku can't really see any difference between the two, Roshi insists that Goku bring him one that looks like the attractive one, and sends the boy off to try again.
Roshi doesn't really have a good feeling about his odds of Goku succeeding, so he decides to hide at the back of his house to scope out the situation first when Goku gets back. To his surprise and pleasure, the girl Goku returns this time looks like just his type! He calls Goku back to congratulate the boy, and when Goku excitedly asks if this means they can start training, Roshi agrees. For his very first lesson, Roshi tasks Goku with asking the girl for her panties. Goku isn't really sure what those are, but he goes to ask, only to return empty handed – apparently the girl doesn't have any panties, only the shirt on her back. Roshi is extremely excited by this turn of events, and decides that he should go talk to the girl himself. He psyches himself up, thinking that his sunglasses will give him the perfect opportunity to oggle her lower body with her none the wiser, but to his disappointment when he steps out, her lower half is that of a fish – it seems Goku has brought him a mermaid. Roshi's disappointment fades away quickly however, as her top portion still looks good enough to him. He boldly asks her if he could ee her boobs, only to get punched in the face before the mermaid naturally leaves. Goku thinks he's got it figured out now, 'panties' must be another word for 'punch'! Roshi lies and agrees, telling Goku that the first lesson is about being able to take a punch. For the second lesson, Roshi tasks Goku with bringing him a girl once again, one who looks like the mermaid but without a fish bottom half. He doesn't know how long he's going to have the island mostly to himself with the turtle on vacation again, but he can't let such a good opportunity for fun pass him by. Roshi's plans are soon interrupted however when Goku notices a small boat approaching them, with a small stranger aboard it. The tiny bald stranger stops the boat a few feet away from the shore before leaping through the air, doing some flips, clearly planning to land on the beach looking really cool – unfortunately, he lands headfirst and ends up buried in the sand. Roshi has Goku pull him free, and the boy introduces himself as Kuririn. He says he's come here from the far east and wants to train under Roshi as well. Roshi at first turns him away saying he doesn't take students very often, but Kuririn intrigues the master by offering him a dirty magazine. Kuririn notices Goku at last and asks him if he's one of Roshi's students as well. Goku confirms this, but Kuririn doesn't think he has the stomach for it, an idea that Goku responds to by saying he has plenty of stomach. Kuririn asks if that's an attempt to be witty, but Goku replies that Kuririn's bald head looks funny. Kuririn angrily retorts that anyone serious about the martial arts shaves their head, just look at Roshi, but Roshi throws him under the bus by saying he's just bald. Roshi says he'll accept Kuririn as his student if he can help Goku with his own final task, bringing back a girl. He's sure Kuririn at least knows just the type he'd like, so he orders him to get onto kinto'un and bring one back. Kuririn tries but falls right through the cloud, making Roshi realize this new prospective student must have come here for impure reasons. Kuririn insists that it's nothing of the sort, he only wants to get training so he'll be more popular with girls, which Roshi says is pretty impure really... Review: While we're in the story arc that's going to change Dragon Ball forever by bringing more focus into the fighting elements, we're not quite to the point in it where that really kicks in. For this earlier portion of the story, gags are still the special of the day, and thankfully they're just as funny, if somewhat inappropriate at times, as ever. Roshi attempting to teach Goku how to tell a pretty girl apart from a regular one, as sexist as it might be, actually is kind of a lesson when you think about it. I see you grabbing those pitchforks, let me explain. As we've seen countless times since the beginning of the series, Goku is about as naïve as they come. He has absolutely no understanding of the world around him, at least not when it comes to technology or social graces and the like. Despite this, Bulma never really saw fit to try to teach him at all. She seemed pretty content to leave the boy exactly as she found him really, which is a bit of a shame because she certainly would have been a better teacher for some things for Goku than Roshi would. But because she didn't, now it's Roshi who's beginning to try and teach Goku things, even if it's the wrong things. See what you get for subpar education? Though she's mostly there for fan-service and as a gag, the mermaid actually brings two small but interesting things to the table. Firstly, there's no way around it this time, she's definitely riding kinto'un. Looks like Goku's a good judge of character if not one for appearances. Secondly, she's the first of a good handful of characters we'll meet who don't readily fit into either the 'human', 'monster', or 'animal person' type of Earthlings. I guess you could put her into either the monster or animal categories well enough, but she certainly doesn't seem to fit either of those the same way as more definitive examples do. At the end of the day though, Toriyama just does whatever seems best at the time and you just have to roll with it. And last but certainly not least, let's talk about Kuririn, since he actually does get a pretty good introduction to show what makes him tick here rather than us having to wait another chapter like was often the case in the previous story arc. This will again come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that's known me for any length of time, but I LOVE Kuririn. He's hands down my favorite character in the entire franchise, and with good reason. He's the most human and relatable character, he manages to remain on the front lines almost all the way through the original series even though he's pretty well outclassed by the stronger members of the cast at every turn, and he's got an extremely striking design. While the spiky hair of the Saiyans are probably Dragon Ball's most recognizable aesthetic as far as character designs go, I'd dare say you won't find anyone who won't instantly know who Kuririn is if you show them a bald forehead with six dots or mention a character that doesn't have a nose (more on that latter feature in a handful of chapters). He's basically the best friend a main shonen protagonist, or his eventual first born son, could ever have. But that's all far, far later in the timeline. For right now, Kuririn is a snarky little shit, and honestly I love this early version of the character as well. He's sort of a new foil for Goku in the same way that Bulma was, in that he'll say something and expect Goku to either be angry or respond properly, only for Goku to completely ruin it somehow and they in turn get angry at him. For Bulma, this usually happened as a result of Goku having absolutely no real 'manners' to speak of. In Kuririn's case however, it's down to him trying to act cool and expecting to rile up the other boy, only for Goku to not even see what Kuririn's doing at all. Kuririn also becomes Goku's first real rival as well, serving as a great foil to him in that way as well. Yes, Yamcha was there first, but try as he might, he was basically always at a disadvantage against Goku no matter what he tried. Kuririn though will end up being shown as just close enough in strength for Goku to have to try harder to not fall behind, and that coupled with the lesson he'll learn by the end of this arc is a very integral part of Goku's evolving character. The biggest question left for now though is how exactly Kuririn knew to bring dirty magazines to win Roshi over. Kuririn is a growing boy and thus a bit pervy himself, but still – did he just assume that any old man living on an island by himself was probably lonely, or has Roshi's reputation started to precede him? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: With Dodou held at gunpoint, Velou thinks back to the earlier conversation he had with Grimm. She forewarned him that the two werewolves they're now hunting would be younger and nastier than the old one they already hunted – these werewolves still have all their teeth, as shown by the marks left on the mayor's bones. She suspects that at least one of them will try to slip in amongst the villagers who will hide in the meeting house, so they'll use them as bait. Velou is outraged at such a risky plan and declares that he won't let anyone else get eaten. Grimm agrees, reminding him that she's currently under contract to keep the villagers safe, but says only Velou will be able to pick out who the werewolf is due to his familiarity with the villagers. She loans him one of her own guns, despite Velou's arguing that he already has one, as hers will actually kill a werewolf. She warns him to be careful though as it has a mean kick. In the present, Dodou admits that Velou found him, but so what? He'll just make a temporary retreat and come back later – since he's a werewolf, it's easy for him to kill people whenever he wants. As Dodou reveals his true form, Velou shouts for everyone to leave, and Dodou says he'll start by killing him. Velou tries to fire the gun but fails, and Dodou knocks him through a wall. Velou's takes some damage but is glad to have the werewolf's full attention, but Dodou just taunts him. A sudden noise catches both of their attentions, as a greatly injured Naraoia is suddenly dropped on the ground between them. Grimm appears, and Velou is horrified to see that she used the steeple bell to fight the other werewolf. Naraoia warns Dodou that Grimm is crazy, but Dodou rips out one of his brother's fangs rather than consoling him, chastising him for failing at his job. As Velou watches, horrified, Dodou continues to chastise Naraoia, saying that he never liked him and if he's going to be this useless, he may as well be dead. As he tries to hit his brother with a boulder off the ground, Velou tries again to fire the gun but is stopped by Grimm. Dodou simply laughs, saying that bullets don't work on werewolves anyway. He decides to inform Velou about what makes werewolves so strong and superior to humans: the true nature of their ability to transform back and forth from human form to werewolf. He explains that it's more than a way to hide in plain sight, transforming involves their muscles changing shape entirely and regenerating each time they tear, which is how they heal their wounds so fast as well. To demonstrate, Dodou cuts himself all over his body with his claws, and explains that every time a muscle tears and is healed, it's made bigger and stronger than it was before. He proves this by becoming a much larger wolf after healing all of his wounds. He concedes that werewolves do have one true weakness though, the heart, a fact he demonstrates by ripping out Naraoia's and crushing it into pulp in front of him. As Naraoia dies, Velou is enraged. Dodou merely laughs, remarking how he's seen that look on plenty of human's faces right before he ate them. Grimm tries to get Velou to calm down, but he demands to know why she didn't let him shoot. She explains that it would have been pointless, as one of them killing the other just makes their job that much easier. Velou declares that he can't forgive Dodou for what he's just done, and that killing your own family is despicable, but Grimm counters this by saying they were going to kill both of them themselves anyway. Dodou grumbles that he's getting hungry and prepares to attack, but Grimm clouds the air with some gas shells and escapes onto a nearby roof with Velou. Velou is still enraged, but Grimm forces him to stop and listen. She's going to allow him to kill the werewolf all by himself, and reminds him that he was the one who said he'd protect the hamlet once she was gone. He has to come up with a plan, and she'll assist as needed, but it's going to be his job to get it done. She cautions him to give up on anger and thoughts of justice, saying there's no point to such things. A hunt is merely a battle of wits between the hunter and their prey. Now is the moment for him to become a true Hunter. Review: This chapter had a lot more action than the last one, bringing it way closer to being as entertaining as the first chapter. It's clear that the author is building upon what the previous chapter brought in to really make this one that much stronger, so I'm really excited to see what they'll bring to the table next time, which I'm betting is likely the conclusion of this particular storyline. With continued flashbacks to the conversation Grimm and Velou had in-between chapters 1 and 2, it's clear that Kawaguchi is going to heavily favor this sort of non-linear storytelling for this series. While it's easy enough to follow now, I can't help but worry a little bit that it could get a little out of hand as the series progresses. We've seen countless times how this sort of thing can be done wrong in manga, so let's just hope this doesn't become another case study for that down the road. It's amazing the sorts of things you might miss when you first read a chapter of something, at least if you're me. For starters, I didn't even catch that the old lady werewolf in chapter 1 didn't have any teeth, I was too distracted by how bizarre looking her monster form was in the first place. Secondly, and to rectify a mistake I made in the last review, I didn't even realize that the gun Velou was holding Dodou at gunpoint with wasn't the musket he had before. How I failed to notice this is beyond me considering the two look absolutely nothing alike, but hey, I'm not a gun guy. That's gonna be my excuse and I'll have to run with it. I will try to be more careful about that sort of thing in the future though. Speaking of guns though, it's interesting that their ability to kill werewolves is broached from two different angles in this chapter. Grimm asserts that her gun can kill a werewolf whereas Velou's musket can't, but Dodou later claims that guns flat-out can't kill werewolves. I'm still placing money on this all leading up to a reveal of a werewolf's truest weakness being silver, as that would allow both of these statements to be true in that it's the special kind of bullet that kills them, not the guns themselves. It would also help loop around back to the mayor's axe and why it's so special too. I said last chapter that Dodou came off way less intelligent than he thought himself to be, especially in comparison to the mayor's wife who managed to hide in plain sight for an undetermined amount of time. While that's still true, he also proves himself to be more than that this time around: he's a total and complete bastard. We had hints of how he was only using his brother as a means to an end last time, but it's nothing compared to the cruelty and lack of compassion he shows him this time around. The build-up to his ultimate betrayal is very well done as well. At first, it could be taken as an exceedingly cruel way to demonstrate his explanation at how werewolf regeneration works, but in the end, he's just enjoying cutting up his brother before ultimately killing him in an extremely cruel fashion. Needless to say, it's going to be very good catharsis to see him get his presumably next chapter. Velou's horror at this act of fratricide is another way we're shown how much his world view clashes with that of Grimm's. While Velou's outlook is somewhat treated as that of a child's, one who hasn't killed before and doesn't know how warped the world outside his little hamlet likely is, I can't help but feel myself drawn a little more to his way of thinking than I am Grimm's. What Dodou did is fundamentally cruel, regardless of if they were planning on killing both werewolves themselves or not. That said, Grimm does make some good points herself, such as needing to focus rather than let anger take control of you when in a battle situation such as the one they're now in. I'm hoping that, as the Velou character grows, he manages to take some of those aspects of her methodology into himself, but hopefully without losing what makes him him. We get a brief explanation as to how the gas shells Grimm uses work, and I think the author might just be a fan of Usopp's plant-based weaponry post-timeskip in One Piece. It's going to be interesting to see what other kinds of tools the Red Hood guild has at their disposal. Now with all of the weight of the fight placed squarely on Velou's shoulders, I'm looking forward to seeing exactly what sort of plan he has in mind to take Dodou down. Grimm does offer her help for him to pull off whatever plan he has, but I wonder if he won't take her up on it, at least initially, so as to prove a point about protecting the village all on his own. Guess I'll find out soon enough. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Chapter 4 Synopsis: As Goku flies over the mountains, he spots his old house from above and decides that he should drop in real quick and grab some of his things since he'll be staying at the Turtle Hermit's place for now. Once his small amount of packing is done, he finishes flying to the island with kinto'un, hoping that Roshi has some food for him.
At first, it doesn't seem like anybody is home, but Goku soon locates Roshi watching an aerobics program on TV and drooling. When he finally manages to get Roshi's attention, Roshi ignores him and tells Goku to help himself to something in the fridge. He learns what a big mistake this was, when his program finishes and he enters the kitchen to find Goku's eaten everything in the fridge. Roshi asks Goku what he's come here for anyway, and Goku says the hunt for the Dragon Balls is over now and reminds the old man of his promise to train him. Roshi it seems had either forgotten that promise or didn't think Goku would be coming to collect so soon...or alone. He asks Goku where Bulma is, and Goku tells him she went back to the city. Roshi scoffs, and warns Goku that his training is extremely tough, which only makes Goku even more eager. He says he wants to get even stronger than the old man himself is. Roshi likes his spirit and accepts, but tells Goku his lessons aren't free – if he wants to get training, he'll have to bring Roshi a 'hotty'. After much confusion, during which Roshi tries to explain to Goku just what a hotty actually is, Goku prepares to leave and bring back a girl for the master. Roshi notices that Goku's tail is missing, and Goku says he doesn't know what happened to it, before leaving like it's no big deal. Roshi comments what a strange kid his new student is. He quickly rushes back into the house afterwards to prepare for his 'date'. He changes into a nice suit, chills some wine, gets some music playing, and even tries to figure out which shell is the best one to wear. A short time later, Roshi hears Goku yelling that he's found one, and runs outside excited to meet his new 'hotty'. He's less than thrilled when Goku shows off his find, a tall and large woman holding a barbell. Review: It's a very brief moment, but you'd better enjoy seeing Goku's childhood home one last time, because as far as the manga goes, you won't be seeing it ever again. It's sad really, the little place is a very iconic location for the series, but it's basically served it's purpose by now. A small but interesting little factoid that I've never seen anyone else point out is that Goku is able to place his futon and belongings on kinto'un and it with no problem whatsoever. The only real rule we got for it is that riding requires a pure heart, so either inanimate objects are fine because they have no heart to be impure in the first place, or the cloud is cutting Goku a break as it's master. I'm more inclined to believe it's the former, because if it was the latter, it wouldn't have as much problem letting people that Goku likes ride it you wouldn't think. More on that later this chapter, actually. It's not really made extremely clear why Roshi is so surprised to see Goku outside of being absorbed in his aerobics program at first. He might not have expected them to find the other Dragon Balls so quickly, but given Goku's eagerness towards getting training, you'd have thought he'd be expecting him sooner rather than later. His biggest issue though is definitely that he was expecting Goku to show up with Bulma in tow for some reason. Considering what Roshi has already gotten from Bulma – even if it was actually Oolong the second time – it's...a little scary to think about what he might have had in mind here...let's move on. Roshi's warning about his training being tough is kept vague for the time being, but even the mention of it is pretty exciting. We haven't really seen Goku do any training at all up until now. Early on, we saw him splitting firewood and breaking rocks, but even those sorts of scenes faded to the background pretty quickly as the story got moving, but now we'll actually get to see Goku strut his stuff at last. The highlight of the chapter, at least for me, has to be Roshi trying to get Goku to understand what exactly a 'hotty' is. It's pretty sexist on some levels, but it's Roshi, were you really expecting anything less? Honestly it's just really funny to see Roshi, who might just be one of the horniest characters ever drawn, clash against the naïve to the point of not even knowing how to tell girls and boys apart Goku. There's also perfect comedic timing to Roshi commenting that Goku's weird. Yes, the perfect judge of normalcy is he who has a closet full of turtle shells to choose from for various occasions. The chapter ends with Goku bringing a girl to Roshi's island, and remember how I said there was still something to talk about in regards to the kinto'un? Think back to how when Goku and Chi Chi rode the cloud together. There was no problem there, because Chi Chi apparently is also pure of heart. Jumping ahead of ourselves a bit, we'll soon be seeing that if someone who isn't pure of heart tries to ride it with Goku, they have to hold onto Goku's back or waist lest they fall off. Between the relatively small size of kinto'un and how large the lady Goku brings back is, there's practically no way she could have been hanging on to him like that. This presents only one logical outcome that I can see...the big exercising gal is pure of heart. Good for her. It's also pretty funny that while Goku misses the mark of what Roshi wanted, I think it could be argued that he did put some thought into it in a way. What, you think it's just a coincidence he saw the aerobics program Roshi was watching and then comes back with a girl in a leotard? Please. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenlong (Movie 1) Synopsis: The story opens on a small village being bulldozed and destroyed right in front of the villager's eyes. A small girl named Pansy tries to fight back the soldiers, ending up having to be rescued by her father, but the soldiers call in their boss, Bongo, who explains why the king has ordered their ground to be dug up: He wants the precious rubies, Rich Stones, pulled out of the ground. The father insists that the soldiers leave, and Bongo says they will if they can beat him, before promptly beating up Pansy's father with a series of cheap shots. With the villagers dealt with, Bongo returns to a car with a driver and another female soldier and leaves. While Pansy's mother attends to her husband, Pansy herself swears that the evil soldiers won't get away with this. In the king's castle, the shadowy, monstrous figure of King Gurumes is distraught as none of his food tastes good to him anymore. Bongo and the female soldier, Pasta, arrive and report that they've located a Dragon Ball, much to Gurumes' delight: he must have the Dragon Balls so that he can use the wish to sate his hunger, and if the soldiers will help him gather them all, he'll give them anything they want. In another corner of the world, Son Goku and Bulma end up meeting for the first time much as they did in the main series. This time however, their meeting is interrupted by Bongo and Pasta who have come to take the four-star Dragon Ball from Goku's home. They take the ball and leave behind a Gurumes coin as 'payment', but Bulma and Goku chase after them in a plane of their own. Bongo questions if they should really give something as valuable as the Dragon Balls to Gurumes, but Pasta says that for them the Rich Stones are far more valuable. When Bongo asks where Gurumes has hidden the balls they've already gathered, Pasta remarks that they'll find out when all of them have been gathered. When Bulma and Goku catch up to the plane, demanding Goku's Dragon Ball back, the two planes end up in a shoot-out, during which Bulma is able to destroy the soldiers' in-plane Dragon Radar. Pasta is eventually able to blow Bulma and Goku out of the sky however, forcing Goku to use his nyoibo to save Bulma from falling. Goku and Bulma continue their pursuit through the night and into the next morning, where they come across Pansy who has become lost in the woods and is being harassed by the transforming Oolong. Goku is able to scare Oolong into running and has to chase after him while Bulma remains behind with Pansy. Once Goku catches Oolong, Oolong realizes they've come to the hideout of the notorious bandit, Yamcha, who reveals himself by opening fire on them from above. Oolong cons Goku into fighting Yamcha, and the two throw down before, ultimately, Goku is the victor of the fight and Yamcha is forced to flee when Bulma arrives due to his fear of girls. That night, Oolong joins the group as Pansy explains why she was in the woods: she'd gotten lost on her way to an island far to the south, where she wanted to meet Muten Roshi. Bulma says they're heading in the same direction, and Pansy begs them to let her travel with them so she can ask Roshi to save her village. She explains that the soldiers are bullying the townsfolk while destroying their land to dig up Rich Stones, which Bulma explains are the most valuable jewels in the whole world. Once the Rich Stones were discovered in their area, their once kind King Gurumes began to change into a monster who could only eat fancier and fancier things, thus needing more and more Rich Stones to be able to afford even fancier things, leading to an endless loop of gluttony for both food and Rich Stones. As such, he's had the soldiers destroying all the land to find more of the Stones, including the villager's homes. The king's army is strong however, and the villagers are powerless to stop him. Pansy has even heard that the king is now looking for the Dragon Balls to have a wish granted, which catches Bulma's attention immediately – it must have been some of the king's soldiers that attacked them and took Goku's Dragon Ball! Yamcha overhears this by lurking outside, and decides to head to Roshi's first to convince him to take out Goku for them, and then they can steal the Dragon Balls for their own wish. Back in his castle, King Gurumes regurgitates the five Dragon Balls he already has back out of his stomach and comments that he only needs two more, then he can finally wish for a food so good that it will forever sate his hunger. Goku and Bulma take Pansy to Roshi's island, where the old man mistrusts them immediately, accusing Goku of being out to kill him and make a name for himself. Pansy insists that's not why they're there and that Goku even saved her life. Roshi calls out to Yamcha, who's hiding behind his house, that this group doesn't seem that bad at all, but Yamcha insists that they're just trying to fool him. Yamcha is scared back into hiding by Bulma's attentions however, and Roshi decides there's an easy way to see whose story is true. He calls down kinto'un, and Goku proves himself as trustworthy by being able to ride it. With his plan ruined, Yamcha flees. It's then that Bulma notices the Dragon Ball around Roshi's neck and begs him for it, with the old man only agreeing if he gets to touch her chest. Like before, Bulma makes Oolong do the deed for her. Things are looking up again as the gang now has two Dragon Balls, but Roshi's island is suddenly attacked by Bongo and Pasta, who manage to steal one of the Dragon Ball. Enraged at the destruction of his house, Roshi bulks up and fires a Kamehameha, destroying the villains' submarine and forcing them to quickly escape by plane. Goku picks up the Kamehameha just by seeing it, resulting in Roshi telling Pansy that she doesn't need his help at all, she already has a fine hero by her side. With that, Goku and the others head towards Gurumes' castle with Pansy to save her village and get the Dragon Balls back. When Bongo and Pasta tell Gurumes that the last Dragon Ball seems to be heading towards them, he's overjoyed, and Pasta says they'll claim it for him in no time. As soon as Bulma's plane enters the castle's airspace, the army goes on the assault, led by Bongo himself. Goku fights Bongo who has a flying device of his own, while Pasta and other soldiers shoot down Bulma's plane. In his throne room, Gurumes grows ever more impatient. Goku is able to destroy Bongo's vehicle, but the villain uses a chain to drag Goku down with him. Just at things are looking bad, Yamcha suddenly appears and begins attacking the soldiers as well, finding his way into the castle (and even stealing an armful of Rich Stones while he's at it). Infiltrating the castle, Bulma has Oolong turn into a gigantic monster to scare away the soldiers, eventually running into Yamcha who was using the same tactic with Puar. The group is suddenly attacked and Yamcha is shot down by Pasta, but his life is saved by all of the Rich Stones in his shirt. Yamcha attacks Pasta, but becomes frozen in place when he realizes she's a woman, allowing her to defeat him easily. The group runs from her as she tosses explosives at them, with Yamcha saving Bulma's life as they flee. Goku continues his fight with Bongo back on the ground, eventually crashing through the wall to join Pansy and the others as they come to Gurumes' throne room. Driven insane and more monstrous than ever before by his hunger, Gurumes crushes Bongo beneath his feet and attacks Goku, who is hungry and weakened by his fight with Bongo. Goku fights back Gurumes as best as he can, even launching a Kamehameha at him, but the king is unfazed. A glow from his stomach causes Bulma to realize the other Dragon Balls are in Gurumes' stomach, so she tosses the last one into his mouth when he roars and calls forth the dragon. Shenlong appears above the destroyed castle, and Bulma and Yamcha both vie for their wish, but Pansy speaks up first and asks Shenlong to get rid of the Rich Stones and return her home to how it once was. Shenlong grants her wish, and all of the Rich Stones in the ground begin to float up out of the Earth, and as Shenlong leaves and the Dragon Balls scatter, the land is shown to be green and healthy once again. Gurumes crawls out of the rubble of his castle, returned to his original human form but still starving. Pansy hands him an apple that fell from a tree, and he eats it only to find that it's delicious. Pansy's father comes over and tells the king that such things are what he almost destroyed, and the king seems horrified. Goku walks over and gives back the golden Gurumes coin to Pasta, before calling down the kinto'un to leave and look for the Dragon Ball, while leaving behind his friends and the now peaceful village he helped to save. Review: Right away, you may have noticed I sort of breezed through the stuff that was already covered in the manga in the synopsis. That's because, well, we've already covered that, so there's not really much else to talk about in regards to it. The same will be true here in the review, I'll mainly be focusing on the new material as presented to us in this film. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the movie's story itself though, seeing as this is the first piece of the Dragon Ball anime I'll be covering, I wanted to talk very briefly about the anime, as well as why I've chosen to review this movie here, after the first arc, rather than further down the line when it would have originally come out. The anime for Dragon Ball is definitely a mixed bag in terms of animation quality, that's no secret for long time fans. What is not a mixed bag however is it's overall enjoyability. When the animation is good, it's great, but even when it's bad, you've still got the AMAZING orchestral score by the late Shunsuke Kikuchi to bless your ears, just as you've got an amazing cast (while I do enjoy the English dub cast for the most part, I'm speaking of the original Japanese cast here). Masako Nozawa and the late Hiromi Tsuru are at their absolute prime here, and it's so wonderful to hear them bring these characters to life with such flourish. There's also the amazing opening theme, 'Makafushigi Adventure' by Hiroki Takahashi, which for my money is the best opening theme Dragon Ball has ever had. It perfectly encapsulates not only the era for which it was used, but also the world of Dragon Ball itself, and it's an absolute joy every time I get to hear it. As for why I'm reviewing this movie now rather than later, there is a reason for it. Something else that longtime fans will already be very familiar with is how the Dragon Ball movies don't really fit in with the overall story from the manga. That's hardly a unique situation for Shonen Jump properties or even anime films in general. While most of the DB movies can be placed somewhere that they could maybe happen, there's always one issue or another to prevent them really fitting there. In the case of the four original Dragon Ball movies, that's even more-so the case, since they all use plot from the manga itself rather than ideas or themes from it. So that left me with a couple of options: I could review the movies where they roughly seemed to take place, which is how I often watch them, but that seemed off for review purposes. I could review them roughly where they came out in regards to the manga, but that seemed counter-intuitive in it's own way, and besides, that's already how MistareFusion does his videos for the most part. So instead, I've elected to review them where they seem to fit thematically in some way, in places where everything we'd really need to know for the movie is already in place. In this film's case, we only really needed to know the original core cast and how a Dragon Ball hunt ends (ie, a wish is granted, the Dragon Balls scatter, etc.). So looking at it from that point of view, the best place to cover the movie was right after the end of the very first arc of the manga. Hopefully that makes sense to more than just me. Before we move to the story of the film proper, I do want to make at least one comment on the material pulled right from the manga for this movie – re-used here as it is, most of it just isn't very enjoyable, sadly, at least not in comparison to it's original version. It's still entertaining, but less so as so much of it is forced into such a short run time that none of it really gets to shine the same way it did originally. A perfect example of this is both Oolong and Yamcha's introductory scenes. We've just come off of Goku and Bulma's first meeting, which to it's credit did include a good bit of movie original material. From there though, we're barely re-introduced to Pansy before we get a super shortened version of Goku's “fight” with Oolong, the chase, meeting Yamcha, Goku V.S. Yamcha, Yamcha's fear of girls revealed, and then Yamcha fleeing. I didn't exactly pull out a clock and time it, but this all happens over the course of five minutes or less I'd swear, and it's just far too much crammed into far too little an amount of time. It's just not enjoyable in it's own right, not when you have both the original manga and the original anime to enjoy these scenes much more properly with. It's not all bad though, as at least the opening scenes with Goku meeting Bulma, and everyone going to Roshi's, both have enough new things added to them to at least keep your attention a little better. If all of the re-told material had that same level of care put into it, I don't think I'd have as much issue with it, but it is what it is. Let's finally talk about the new characters and story though, as they're the real reason I wanted to re-watch and review the movie. Character-wise, most of the characters don't really have much going on for them admittedly. Pansy is mostly just there to give us plot as needed, and both Bongo and Pasta don't really do much more than get the job done in terms of giving our heroes someone to go up against. Gurumes himself though? For the short amount of time he's onscreen overall, he's definitely an interesting figure. There's not a lot said, but it seems like he was a good king until they started to find the Rich Stones. It was only at the point that he seemed to acquire a taste for fancier foods, leading to his ultimate downfall here. It's not really made clear why this greed and gluttony turned him into an actual, literal monster, but one's not really needed either – it's all about the message here about how those are bad things, especially in excess. It's not the most original idea for a villain or a story, but it serves well enough as a way to spice up a story that otherwise was just the first arc of Dragon Ball told once again. The idea of having a king the one after the Dragon Balls this time around does make some sense too. Partially it's a rip-off of Pilaf, who wants to be a king, but the backstory of the Dragon Balls does include a bit saying the last person to gather them used them to become a king. So sure, why not, have a greedy king be the one that's after them this time around. Having an obsession with wealth as a factor as well basically shows off the other 'expected' wish you'd see come up in a story that involves wish-granting. The theme of wealth and the pursuit of it runs throughout as well, with Yamcha even trying to steal a bunch of Rich Stones despite himself claiming not to have much interest in such things. It comes full circle when Goku makes it a point to return the coin that was left to him at the film's start – like Pansy, he has no interest in wealth, not when there are things much more important and fun to pursue in the world. Once again though, the wish at the end is taken by someone who was never truly after one at all. Compared to Oolong's panties though, Pansy's wish is much more pure. She's too good for our group of heroes really, no wonder we never hear from her again. That about wraps up all there really is to say about the original Dragon Ball movie. As the film series goes on, it begins to incorporate more and more new ideas, even the remaining DB films that largely pull wholesale from the manga, so there will no doubt be more for me to talk about with each of them. Until next time! Favorite Scene: The whole opening sequence describing the legend of the Dragon Balls is absolutely beautifully animated, arguably more so than anything else the franchise has ever received. The movie peaked early, what can I say? Next Time: Goku's going off on his own storyline, so THERE! Synopsis: The next morning, Bulma and the others wait outside in the desert for Goku to finally wake up so they can figure out what to do next. Oolong can't believe everything the kid put them through, but Yamcha finds a silver lining in that if it weren't for him, they'd never have been able to break free from the holding cell. Bulma figures it's probably for the best that they don't tell Goku it was him that killed his grandpa, and Oolong ponders just what the heck Goku is anyway. Yamcha supposes that at least there shouldn't be any danger of Goku ever transforming like that again now that his tail's been cut off.
Goku wakes up at last with a big yawn, and immediately wonders why he's naked, showing that he has absolutely no memory of the night before. Bulma tries to get Oolong to give Goku the panties on his head, but Oolong refuses since he got them from the dragon, instead opting to give Goku his own pants instead. Goku finds that he has trouble standing up, and Yamcha remarks that it'll probably take him some time to get used to walking without a tail. It's only then that Goku notices his tail is gone, but immediately gets over it, being more worried about his missing nyoibo. Yamcha points out that it must be in the castle's rubble, and Goku hurries over to look for it, tripping again along the way. As Yamcha wakes Puar up, Oolong questions Bulma if they should all just go their separate ways since the Dragon Balls are off the table for a whole other year. Bulma wonders that herself, and wishes that she'd been able to get her wish, and have her perfect boyfriend...standing right beside her... Yamcha likewise is saddened to realize that he didn't get to wish away his fear of girls so that he could one day get married and have a girl...standing right beside him... Having found his nyoibo, Goku rushes back over (managing to trip yet again on the way), to find Oolong disgusted by the sight of Yamcha and Bulma happily dancing together. Bulma reveals that Yamcha's decided to go back to the city with her along with Puar, and invites Goku to join them. Goku however says that he's going to go to Kame-sennin's place so that he can train and get even stronger than he is now. Bulma then extends the same offer to Oolong, who accepts primarily because he doesn't really have any other options at the moment. Goku says that in another year they can all hunt the Dragon Balls again, but Bulma and Yamcha coyly laugh that they don't need them anymore, confusing Goku and once again disgusting Oolong. Goku wonders how he'll ever find his grandpa's ball again in that case, so Bulma gives him the Dragon Radar and explains how to use it a year from now. With everything settled, Yamcha pulls out a capsule for a plane and shakes hands with Goku, telling him that he hopes the boy is able to become just as strong as Kame-sennin himself. Bulma promises that they'll come see him at some point too. Goku calls down the kinto'un, and with that the party breaks up, each heading in their own direction. As Goku flies off, he realizes that there's a lot of really nice people out there in the world, and thinks that this new adventure might prove to be even more fun than the last. Review: This chapter finally moves the story back out of the night and into the daylight, which serves as a rather clean break from the action of the previous chapter. It makes a lot of sense to do so, but it does sort of leave the question of how exactly they got Bulma out from under the broken cathedral...but that's not really important at the end of the day. Instead, this chapter focuses entirely on figuring out where exactly the characters are going to go next, and how to bring at least a little bit of resolution to their storylines up until now. The easiest way for me to go about this is to do it by character, so let's start with Bulma. For Bulma, who started this Dragon Ball hunt as one of the most selfish characters in the series, losing her chance at a wish is something that you would have thought would have thrown her into a ranting frenzy. And chances are, earlier in the series it probably would have. Here though, we see that she's already matured quite a bit from how she was when we first met her. Even faced with a whole other year before she could try to get her wish again, she's calm and kind of just shrugs it all off. In the case of Yamcha, he too realizes that this journey's end has left him without any sort of prize. He's lost his chance at the Dragon Balls as well, he's far away from where he was when we first met him, and he's now more-or-less befriended the gang so he can't exactly turn around and rob them now. And worst of all, he's still stuck with his fear of girls. It's at this point that both Bulma and Yamcha's changes come to a head and basically become one and the same. One character wanted a guy, the other wanted a girl; Bulma has always found Yamcha attractive, and Yamcha likewise has thought she was cute even if he couldn't do anything about it. Bulma realizes that a 'perfect' guy is right next to her, and Yamcha realizes he's not freaking out with Bulma right next to him anymore. So of COURSE they should be a couple! ...This is going to end in a very ugly way one day, isn't it? Joking aside, they do make for a very cute couple, and it's nice to see the characters get what they wanted all along, even if it wasn't in the way that they thought. We'll just uh...check back in on this way, way down the line though. In Oolong's case, he never really had any cards to play in the resolution of this arc anyway, which is why he was the perfect person to actually get to make a wish. He never had any plans to do so, he likewise has no gains to make here, so just toss him the wish – problem solved, his purpose in the plot has been secured! Unfortunately, this leaves him with not really anywhere natural to go next, so Toriyama has him just sort of tag along with Bulma, Yamcha, and Puar, because sure, why not? Honestly, as much as I enjoy the character, this probably would have been the most natural place to have him leave the cast and not be subjected to being background fodder for the rest of his existence. It's not like there won't be plenty of characters to provide commentary later on anyway, and we'll still have a token pervert with Kame-sennin to fill that role, so it really probably would have been for the best. ...Other than, now that I think about it, what he may have gotten up to out in the world on his own again. Hmm. Maybe it's best they kept him around to keep an eye on him after all. Regardless, he does get a pretty great observation about how Goku might be an alien. That's clearly too stupid to be true though, let's move on. Likewise, Yamcha's theory about Goku being safe now that his tail is gone? Yup, that tracks too, I'm sure that won't ever be an issue ever again either, let's move on. And last, let's talk about Goku. Despite being the face of the franchise and it's main character, Goku honestly was barely the latter in this opening arc. There wasn't a single thing that Goku himself did that moved the story further in any direction, it was all a story that was happening around him and he was just along for the ride. Even the additional lore we get surrounding his grandpa Gohan and his legacy, and Gyu-mao and Kame-sennin's relationship to him, is all part of a narrative that plays out because of the hunt for the Dragon Balls. That's always been the main focus to the story up until now, finding the Dragon Balls. Now that those are gone though, now what? Goku is, and always was, the main character though, so Toriyama definitely seems to have looked to him to figure out where to take the story next. What do we know that Goku? We know he loves to eat (though even that gag isn't as pronounced as it's going to become), and we know that he loves to train and fight. Couple that latter part of his character with the earlier offer by Muten Roshi for Goku to come to him for training, and the course seems clear: Goku will go to him and train to get even stronger! This begins a narrative shift that will continue to grow and change over the series' run, with the story giving way to a greater emphasis on fighting and a lesser one on adventure (though the adventure never truly leaves), and it's all out of necessity to figure out where exactly to take the story next. There will be more on that when we get to the next chapter and thus the next storyline, but for now, it's nice to see the story start to happen because of Goku rather than Goku just happening to be there for it. It aids us in wanting to follow along with his story, and it ends up adding a great many layers to his character, but we'll get to that when it's appropriate. Until next time! Favorite Panel: |
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
September 2022
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