Synopsis: Goku continues to fly the skies on kinto'un in search of the next Dragon Ball. He checks the radar to make sure he's heading in the right direction, hoping that this time it'll be his grandfather's four-star ball. At Red Ribbon HQ, Black reports to Commander Red that Goku appears to be heading westward, with Red noting that should take him to Colonel Yellow's base. Red asks if Yellow still hasn't gotten the Dragon Ball he'd located, and Black says it appears he still doesn't have it in his hands, causing Red to curse both Yellow and Goku. In a forest known as the Karin Sanctuary, a large Native American looking man holds off a group of Red Ribbon soldiers with his spear. A tiger man (Colonel Yellow) demands that the man hand over the Dragon Ball since he has no use for it, but the man insists that he is a guardian of this sanctuary and cannot allow it's land to be plundered. He tells the men to leave or they'll all be killed, causing Yellow to scoff. Just then, a small child hiding on top of a nearby teepee warns his father that another soldier is sneaking behind him, and the man heeds the warning, throwing his spear and impaling the soldier to a tree behind him. Yellow orders the rest of his men to open fire, but the man takes the bullets with ease, telling them that he already warned them that wouldn't work. He defeats all of the soldiers except for Yellow who promptly escapes back to his plane and flies away. The young boy starts to run to his father's side, but the man says he has to go bury the soldiers. From his plane, Yellow calls back in to Red Ribbon HQ to report the complete decimation of his squad. Black tells him that he has to get the Dragon Balls by any means necessary or face execution himself, but Commander Red interrupts and takes the phone himself. He tells Yellow that he has only one more hour to get the Dragon Balls, and if he fails, Red is calling in Taopaipai. Yellow and Black are both horrified, with Black asking if that's really necessary. Red says at least this way they'll be able to get rid of Goku at the same time, and if Yellow fails, he'll have Taopaipai kill him too. Yellow insists he can ge the job done, and quickly comes up with a plan, remembering that the man that killed his soldier's has a child. As the small boy cooks some fish and says he can't wait to get as strong as his father, Yellow flies his plane low and snatches the child up, taking him hostage. HE flies overhead of the man as he buries the soldiers, and shouts down for him to hand over the Dragon Ball immediately if he wants his son back alive. Still on the phone with HQ, Black and Red overhear this, with Black certain that Yellow has succeeded this time, but Red isn't so sure... Suddenly, their radar shows that Goku is rapidly approaching Yellow's position, and Red curses how fast the boy is. The man shouts up to Yellow that he'll give up the Dragon Ball but he must come down first, but Yellow objects saying he's no fool and orders him to throw the Dragon Ball up to him instead. Before either can happen, Goku sees this going on and flies in for a closer look. Once he recognizes Yellow's plane and thus him as being from the Red Ribbon Army, he lands on it and punches Yellow, sending him flying out of the plane. Goku catches the young boy on kinto'un, much to the confusion and relief of both he and his father. At Red Ribbon HQ, Black confirms that contact with Yellow has been lost, and Red angrily orders him to call Taopaipai. Review: The next storyline in the Red Ribbon Army arc is the penultimate one, and as such, things are going to start getting heavy and hitting hard very, very fast, in direct contrast to the more casual pace of the story up until now, and definitely providing a bit of mood whiplash when coming right off of the Dr. Slump crossover. There's still humor to be had, but definitely don't expect the likes of Supaman here. I could be misremembering, but I think this might be the first time in the manga that Red's assistant has been referred to by name, which unfortunately happens to be Black. This fits the naming scheme of everyone in the Army having a color-based name, but considering Black happens to be, well, black, it's...yeah. Thankfully the character ends up seeing some pretty good usage by the end of the arc, saving him from feeling like as much of an issue as he might otherwise, but there's certainly a reason character designs like his don't pop up very often anymore. We're introduced to a few new characters in this chapter as well, but two of them are a little hard to talk about just yet given that they haven't received names, so I'll hold off on talking about them until the next chapter when I'm pretty sure they get them. The other character though is Colonel Yellow, a member of the Red Ribbon Army so unimpressive that I honestly forget he even exists half the time. The Generals of the Red Ribbon Army might have proven to have a little something to them, or at least Blue did, but the Colonels are just laughably bad. Not only does Yellow get completely upstaged by one of the unnamed new characters, he gets taken out by Goku immediately and what could have been his 'arc' is given to the as-of-yet unseen Taopaipai instead. Poor guy. It's a shame too, it would have been interesting to see Goku have to tangle with an animal guy for a while. I will say that I kind of love how brutal the unnamed guardian of Karin Sanctuary is at this point too. He SPEARS a guy THROUGH a TREE. DAMN MAN. He follows that up with an even further show of strength by not only tanking bullets, but killing every single one of the soldiers who tries to fight him with seemingly only one blow each. And yeah, they're not unconscious, they're dead. Either that or the guy was about to bury them alive, which seems even more cruel. Needless to say, you do not go to Karin Sanctuary to play, because you will fuck around and find out. All of this serves to better build up the threat of this Taopaipai that Red keeps mentioning too, but we'll talk about that once we actually get to those story beats. For now, as said, brace yourselves – things are about to get kinda dark. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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Synopsis: As Senbei works on the dragon radar, Goku asks him if he can really fix it. Midori assures him that her husband is a genius, but Senbei frets as the device is just too complicated for him to fix and he's unsure what to do now that his reputation as a genius is at stake. From over his shoulder, Turbo uses his telekinesis to immediately fix the device, and proudly proclaims that his daddy has already fixed it, much to Senbei's surprise when he hasn't even done anything yet. Blue arrives and gets out of Supaman's car and spots Senbei's airplane, but then spots the group of people around it, including Goku. Goku checks the dragon radar and it really does seem to be fixed, much to Senbei's misplaced delight. To Goku's confusion however, the radar shows that the three Dragon Balls that Blue took are right there, which could only mean... To their surprise, Blue appears out of nowhere and takes Arale hostage at knifepoint, telling everyone to do as he says or he'll kill her. Goku demands that Blue give him back the Dragon Balls, but Blue promptly freezes him in place with his psychic powers. Senbei has no idea what's going on, but Turbo explains that it seems to be telekinesis similar to his own. Midori asks Goku if Blue is his friend and Goku says that he's a bad guy. Blue takes the dragon radar from Goku, with Goku protesting that it's not Blue's, it not even his, causing Senbei to ask if the man is stealing it. Blue then tells everyone not to interfere if they value their lives and that he'll be taking their plane as well. He stores the Dragon Balls in the plane before turning around and saying he now has to kill Goku, striking the boy viciously in the face. Senbei is horrified, especially as Blue cuts down a nearby tree with a swipe of his hand and says he intends to impale Goku with it. Finally realizing that this is no game, Senbei tells Arale that he thinks 'that man' wants to wrestle. Arale is delighted and quickly runs towards Blue, launching a dropkick into his back that sends the man flying into the air at high speeds. Arale chases after him on the ground, eventually catching up to where she'd sent him flying, and leaps into the air to headbutt him in the groin, sending Blue flying far, far into the distance, where he can no longer be seen by Goku or the others. Turbo uses his own telekinesis to free Goku, and Goku asks Arale what happened to Blue. Arale said she sent him flying really, really far away, and Goku is amazed at how strong the girl is. Arale says that the Gatchans are really strong too, as well as another friend of hers named Obotchaman. Goku says that there really are a lot of people out there way stronger than him, which means he needs to train and grow even stronger. He remembers the Dragon Balls are in the plane and goes to get them, but discovers that Blue must have still had the radar in his hands when Arale sent him flying. Seeing that Goku is at a loss as to what to do next, Turbo asks if Goku would like him to make him a new radar. Goku and Senbei ask if he can really do that, and Turbo says it's simple since he got a good look at it before, he just needs to borrow some parts from his father's airplane. Using his telekinesis, Turbo floats pieces of the plane into the air and constructs a new radar, and as soon as Goku checks it, it looks and works just the same as the original one. Goku thanks Turbo while Senbei brags about how smart his boy is. Goku calls down kinto'un, but before leaving he tells Arale that she should enter the Tenkaichi Budokai next time there is one, though Arale doesn't seem to know what that is. As Goku leaves, Senbei asks again who Goku was anyway. Elsewhere, General Blue calls Red Ribbon HQ from a telephone booth and reports that he lost the Dragon Balls he was after, but that he has managed to take the enemy's radar from them. The person on the other end is excited and tells him to return to HQ immediately, but Blue says that it might take him some time, as he appears to be somewhere with a desert and a pyramid... Review: And so, the great Dragon Ball/Dr. Slump crossover comes to an end. Ultimately, it causes the threat of General Blue to end on a rather weak note admittedly, but it's at least a humorous one rather than the wet fart that was the manga end of Purple, and there was really no other way for this crossover to end and still feel natural to a degree, so...it is what it is, really. And hey, this chapter didn't really bring anything new to the table in regards to Slump, so you're all spared another primer this time around. The main gag in this chapter is the repeated references to the fact that Turbo is much smarter than his father, something that I think comes across well enough without knowledge of Slump, but almost definitely comes across even weirder without it. He's such a good boy though that he even lets his dad take credit for the first go-around at least, though it's the second one that's most impressive. How in the heck he was able to put together a new dragon radar from parts in an airplane is beyond me, though I guess we never really do find out what Bulma used to make it either...hmm. Oh yeah, and Turbo's radar? It's the radar you'll see throughout the rest of the franchise whenever it's time to look for Earth's Dragon Balls. They never get Bulma's back, and Goku seemingly never tells them about this little adventure either, so nobody's any the wiser to it either. Just another of one of those odd little factoids that people don't really talk about much in regards to the series. Blue taking Arale hostage is fun in two different ways. On the one hand, it's a gag right out of Dr. Slump, where early on especially people would constantly think Arale was just a little girl that wouldn't prove a threat at all, only for them to get their come-uppance at the end, exactly as Blue did. There's also Senbei's confused reaction to all of the proceedings as well. Dragon Ball is certainly a gag series, it's never not been a gag series on some level even as it grew more serious – but Dr. Slump is an entirely different kind of gag series. Even Dragon Ball at it's very start had a more rigid plot structure than what Dragon Ball did. If Dragon Ball were to be compared to...for lack of a better example, Adventure Time, a seemingly goofy series that still contains a lot of lore and world-building as it's story goes on (so I've been told anyway, I've yet to see it for myself to be honest), then Dr. Slump would be The Simpsons – characters rarely if ever age, things stay fairly constant and only change as needed to further the gags along and often revert to how things were at the start by the end of a story, with only major changes sticking as a way to change up the status quo somewhat. As such, Senbei is completely at a loss when the situation suddenly turns much more dire than anything he's really ever been used to. I also love that Goku invites Arale to the next Tenkaichi Budokai, as this not only brings the idea of another tournament back up for the first time in a while, it prompts the idea of a further crossover. Sadly we don't ever get Arale at the tournament, but to be fair, it wouldn't really work anyway. I mean, she'd have to win, and unfortunately, I don't think you'll ever quite catch up to the sheer, unbeatable power that is gag manga power, Goku. This crossover was short and sweet in the manga, but I want to step away from that slightly to finally talk about a big elephant in the room – yes, let's finally talk about THAT unfortunate filler scene with General Blue. The manga version of this crossover lasted three chapters, and the anime version likewise lasted three episodes. It's very rare for only one manga chapter to make up a whole episode, especially in the case of Dragon Ball, and this crossover is no exception as the anime decided to make this crossover an even bigger deal than it already was and include even more antics from familiar Dr. Slump faces for longtime fans of Toriyama. This includes more scenes of Taro actually doing his job as a member of the Penguin Village police (plus us actually seeing the other members of the police, who are all mainstays of Dr. Slump), more than a token cameo for King Nikochan, and even an extended appearance by Obotchaman. It's...the latter that presents an issue, sadly. It hasn't been that long, so I'm sure everyone recalls the jokes built around the fact that Blue isn't interested in women, and is thus assumed to be gay because of that and his overall posh nature. Well, the anime decided to make things more blatantly clear by actually showing Blue being attracted to a male character. Unfortunately, the male character they chose is Obotchaman, who has the appearance of being a normal little boy. That's right – Toei circa the 1980's decided their best gag at the expense of a seemingly gay character...was to make him also be a pedophile, because of course he is, why not. I...cannot even convey into words how messed up that is. The worst part of this is that, at least here in the west, more fans are familiar with the anime of Dragon Ball than they are the manga, so more people are aware of this version of events than the one without them, so this unfortunately becomes a mark against General Blue as a whole. And I don't really think that's fair – again, as a straight guy, I'm the last person who gets to judge whether or not Blue is an offensive gay stereotype just by his nature, but to also hold an anime-only gag, no matter how poorly done and offensive it is, against him, just feels wrong to me. If the anime version existed first then that would be one thing, but for Dragon Ball, the manga is the original take. I can't say we should pretend the anime version didn't happen, because that would be to ignore it's history, warts and all, but I don't think Blue should be judged entirely by that one scene that didn't even exist in the manga. As always though, I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on this. Dr. Slump, much like Dragon Ball, is a series that definitely shows it's age in the way a lot of it's humor is handled, and it's not always in the most flattering of ways when viewed through a modern lens. If you can deal with the occasional 'OOF' moment though, the series is an absolute gem that more people really need to experience for more than just this crossover, as it hardly gives you anything of what Dr. Slump is really like – and why would it? For Japanese audiences when these chapters first came out, Dr. Slump and it's characters were already well known and didn't need to be explained. If you're curious to experience Dr. Slump for yourself, there's sadly very little of it that's properly available in the US via the anime – outside of this crossover, you can get the first five movies on DVD from Discotek, or you can watch the entire second anime on Tubi (with admittedly very poor subtitles and quality). The entire manga however is available from Viz (physically or digitally), and if you have a Shonen Jump subscription, you don't even have to buy the volumes, you can just read it on their app (or read the first three chapters for free even if you DON'T have a subscription)! This would be my recommendation for the best way to experience the series for yourself. Until next time! N'cha! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: General Blue comes to the realization that the only way he's going to put an end to Goku's meddling for sure is to kill him, a fact that gets verified when he soon sees Goku overhead in the sky, searching for him yet again. As Goku spots the crash site and hopes the Dragon Balls didn't get broken as well, Blue quickly hides himself behind part of the mountain. He decides that, for the time being, the best thing to do would be to get back to Red Ribbon HQ with the Dragon Balls in tow, and runs off to find a way to get back there.
As Goku digs through the wreckage of Blue's rocket, he's disappointed to find no trace of the Dragon Balls. He then realizes that Blue isn't there either, so he must have survived and taken them with him. Before Goku can renew his search, Arale and the Gatchans show up behind him. Goku is amazed and asks Arale if she just ran all the way there, which she confirms, as that means she's almost as fast as kinto'un! Goku asks her where she trained, but Arale is confused and says they didn't come by train. Arale asks Goku what he's playing now and Goku says he isn't playing, he's looking for a bad guy. He calls back down kinto'un and takes to the sky, but no matter where he looks, he doesn't see Blue anywhere. In Penguin Village, Blue comes across a telephone booth but still can't figure out a way to get back to HQ. Just then, he spots a car coming his way, so he walks in front of it to force it to stop. The driver, Kuraaku Kenta, loudly lambasts him for standing in the road, but Blue simply tells him to get out of the car. Realizing that Blue must be a criminal, Kenta laughs and says it's Blue's bad luck that they happen to be near a phone booth. Running into the phone booth, much to Blue's confusion, Kenta steps back out in his true form – Supaman, a superhero from the planet Okakaumeboshi, who now calls Pengin Village his home. He transforms into his true form every time he eats an umeboshi (or sour plum, 'supa' being the Japanese word for 'sour'). Blue is nonplussed however and asks him what umeboshi have to do with anything. Supaman realizes that Blue must be from out of town and that's the only reason he's not terrified at the sight of such a mighty warrior, so he vows to demonstrate his power. His demonstration turns out to be scowling angrily at Blue, who just keeps staring at him. Supaman says since Blue is new in town he'll let him off easy just this once, so if he wants to run, he'd better take this chance. Blue smiles and walks over to the phone booth and, much to Supaman's horror, crushes it between his arms. After seeing this, Supaman laughs and becomes much more polite, asking Blue how he may help him today. Blue asks him if he has any airplane capsules or the like, but Supaman has no idea what a 'capsule' is. Blue realizes he really is in the middle of nowhere, with Supaman confirming that Penguin Village really is quite rural. Blue asks if anyone in the town owns a plane and after thinking on it, Supaman says that Senbei Norimaki should have one and points Blue in the direction of his house. Blue takes Supaman's car, and Supaman gladly sees him off. As soon as Blue is out of earshot however, Supaman becomes smug once more and says that he'll go easy on Blue just this one time. Having landed on the ground again, Goku still can't find Blue anywhere, with Arale wondering if Goku is playing hide-and-seek with someone. Goku suddenly remembers he has the dragon radar and that wherever it shows three Dragon Balls together nearby, that should be Blue. To his disappointment however, the radar appears to be broken again. Goku thinks he has no choice but to go to Bulma to fix it again, only to suddenly realize he has no idea where he is. He asks Arale where they are, and Arale says Penguin Village, which doesn't help Goku very much. Arale asks Goku if his toy is broken, and says that the doctor can fix it for sure. Goku asks Arale to take him to this doctor, and she agrees, provided Goku lets her and the Gatchans ride on kinto'un too. Goku says that kinto'un only lets those pure of heart ride, but Arale and the Gatchans get on no problem, proving to Goku that they must be good people. Arale points towards he home and Goku flies kinto'un in that direction. Once back at the Norimaki residence, Goku and Arale's return catches the attention of Senbei as he works on his plane. Senbei wonders who the new kid is, and his wife Midori says she doesn't think he's from the village. Arale introduces Goku to the Norimakis (including their baby, Turbo, who floats in the air between them) and says that Goku needs Senbei to fix his toy. Senbei asks what it is and Goku explains that it's a dragon radar that shows you where the Dragon Balls are, but Senbei has no idea what any of that means. Turbo says it appears to be a device that picks up a particular sort of energy, which still doesn't mean much to Senbei, but if it's broken all he has to do is fix it. As he opens it up however, he finds that the device is far more complicated than any electronic device he's ever seen. He asks who could have made such a thing, and Goku simply says 'a girl named Bulma'. Senbei is mortified to realize that there might actually be someone smarter than him out there in the world... A short distance away, Blue sees the Norimaki house as he drives Supaman's car, and says that must be where he can get a plane. Review: While this chapter is still full to the brim of Dr. Slump, it actually feels more like a chapter of Dragon Ball that happens to be in Penguin Village this time rather than the opposite like last time. As much fun as Slump gags are, this is probably a good thing, as it allows the story to keep moving even as we have fun with the zaniness of these characters. Linger too long and it could start to feel a little too exploitative, after all. There are a few new characters and concepts from Slump introduced in this chapter that weren't really in the last one though, so let's have another brief Dr. Slump primer before we get further into this. A major part of the Dr. Slump interaction in this chapter comes in the form of Kuraaku Kenta, AKA Supaman. He technically appeared in the last chapter in the background of a panel, but I thought it would be best to wait and talk about him here where he actually got some focus (that and there was already way too much to go over last time). As you might have guessed, Supaman is a thinly veiled parody of DC's Superman, right down to his fake human name – Kuraaku Kenta is just a Japanese reading for Clark Kent, shocking, right? Much like Superman, Supaman was sent to Earth from his home planet, and even takes a job as a reporter just like Clark Kent does. The similarities end there however, as Supaman lacks any real sense of power at all, pretends to fly by rolling around on his stomach via skateboard, and generally has a bad attitude and will actually cause crimes or chaos just to pretend to have people to save from it, and then he'll hit them or throw a grenade or something at them if they're ungrateful for his help. All in all, he's a really terrible guy honestly, which is why he's completely hilarious in my opinion. The second new Slump interaction comes when we meet the rest of the Norimaki family. Senbei's wife Midori was originally known as Midori Yamabuki and was one of Arale's teachers originally. For a good chunk of Dr. Slump, Senbei had an unrequited crush on her, eventually opining from a toilet stall that he wished he could marry her. Cue her hearing that from another stall and agreeing, and they're married by the very next panel. If that doesn't clue you in on the sort of series Dr. Slump is, I don't know what will. It also shows that Toriyama actually got BETTER at writing relationships by the time Dragon Ball got to the point that it needed them. Now that's just scary. Midori has a few character quirks of her own but is largely a happy housewife by this point in time, and that's all we really get of her in this crossover too. Finally, there's Turbo, Senbei and Midori's baby boy. Seeing as how he floats in the air much like the Gatchan, fans unfamiliar with Slump would be forgiven for mistaking him as a third Gatchan of some sort. In the case of Turbo however, he really is a normal human baby – or at least, he was, until an alien spaceship crashed into his crib, and the aliens panicked when realizing they'd just killed a baby, so they quickly used some of their technology to revive him, resulting in the baby gaining powers like teleportation, telekinesis, and flight, as well as making him a super genius that's way smarter than his father. Suddenly Blue doesn't seem so special after all, actually. In-between all of the insanity with these two Toriyama works intermingling, we do get a few humorous jokes at the expense of how this all even works. See, while Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump seem to exist in the same world according to this crossover, that doesn't really work on the surface. From smaller things like Slump using yen while Dragon Ball uses zeni for currency, or the fact that Slump uses a calendar system not unlike our own whereas Dragon Ball will later be revealed to use an Age system, to bigger things like the Dragon Ball world having a normal sun and moon whereas in Dr. Slump, they're uh...alive, seemingly. Or even the fact that the Kami-sama we see in Dr. Slump looks like Roshi and is not at all similar to the Kami-sama we later meet in Dragon Ball. There's really no way to make these two things work together, and Toriyama doesn't really go out of his way to make them do so either, so it's really one of those things that it's best not to overthink and just roll with it. And in a lot of those cases, such as the Age system, that problem didn't yet exist at the time of this chapter's publication. The main example of the former comes when Blue asks Supaman for some capsules and he has no idea what those are. Capsules were an idea that didn't come to Toriyama until Dragon Ball, and the technology in Dr. Slump, while still incredible and fantastic, generally erred on the side of being either more realistic in it's design, or just plain goofy. When Blue surmises that they've never heard of capsules because of how in the sticks Penguin Village is, Supaman doesn't correct him either. Ignoring the clashing world-builds, that actually does work as an explanation on it's own, as Penguin Village is constantly described as being a little town in the middle of nowhere, as Toriyama has never been shy at admitting to being a country bumpkin at heart. Seeing Goku and Arale interact is really fun, as even Goku is taken aback by the young robot's nature, though he's pretty impressed to see someone else who's able to ride kinto'un. Let's see, counting filler, I think that now makes five with him, Chi Chi, good Lunch, Namu, and now Arale? Seven technically I guess, what with the two Gatchan and all. Senbei's horror at someone possibly being smarter than him is a small but fun moment, given how arrogant and sure of himself he constantly is. It makes you wonder just how well he would have gotten along with Bulma if he'd met her at this point. Probably...not well, all things considered. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: A pig with an intercom loudly announces from it's treetop perch that it's afternoon in Penguin Village, as a group of seven kids – two of them being winged babies, and one of them carrying a poop on a stick – walk home from school. Akane Kimidori loudly celebrates that their summer vacation is starting tomorrow, and Peasuke Soramame asks her if she has any plans for the summer. She says she plans to do absolutely nothing. She then asks the rest of them what they're planning to do, with her boyfriend Tsukutsun Tsun saying he plans to train in kung fu; Obotchaman plans to work even more hours to make money for cat food; and Peasuke says he's going to do all of the homework like they're supposed to. Akane scoffs saying all of their goodness makes her want to puke, but she finally notices a strange older man continually appearing behind them and giving a peace sign.
Akane asks Senbei Norimaki what he's doing, and Senbei laughs and shyly says that it's been so long since he appeared in manga, so he got a little too excited. Akane tells him to show some more class and not stick his ugly mug in from the corner of the panels, and Senbei scowls but ends up driving away saying that he's going to appear later on anyway. Just then, Taro Soramame drives up on his motorcycle with his girlfriend Tsururin Tsun (Tsukutsun's sister). Akane calls him out for just “happening” to show up now of all times, and asks him if he's playing hooky from his job as a police officer. Taro says he's on vacation as of today so he and Tsururin are going on a date, and realizing he didn't have anything else to say other than that, he drives off as well. Obatchaman suddenly realizes that Arale Norimaki has never said what she's going to do with her summer vacation, and she says she and the Gatchans (the winged babies) will be playing giant monsters all of the time, a thought that depresses Akane. The group drops Tsukutsun off at his house (where his parents give peace signs as well, with their son chastising them for being embarrassing) before doing the same with Peasuke at his house (he and Taro's dad doing the same and getting the same reaction). Supaman, King Nikochan, and Daigoro Kurigashira all appear and give peace signs as well, with Akane saying that she really has to get out of here at some point. When Arale leaves Akane at her house, Akane warns her sister Aoi not to embarrass her by giving a peace sign, but Aoi has no idea what she's talking about, while Kinoko Sarada drives by and insults them all. As Arale finally waves goodbye to Obotchaman, she notices two shapes moving fast through the air above the village. Goku shouts for General Blue to give him back the Dragon Balls, and Blue scoffs at how persistent the boy is being. He speeds up his jet and leaves Goku behind, and Arale on the ground below notes that both shapes have disappeared now. Goku in turn speeds up kinto'un and chases after Blue, catching up almost immediately. Blue says that's impossible as nobody can keep up with a rocket jet, but Goku says he has something else to show him as well. He brandishes the nyoibo at the ship and just narrowly misses hitting it when Blue makes a sudden U-turn. Blue tries to figure out some way to get away from Goku's pursuit, and cuts his engine suddenly. On the ground, Arale notices the shapes in the sky again just above her house. As Goku comes up behind Blue, Blue fires his jet's engine at full throttle, catching the boy in the stream and knocking him from kinto'un entirely. Blue gloats over his seeming victory over Goku, but turns around just in time to see the mountain in front of him just before his jet collides with it. Goku sees this and laughs as he lands on the ground before Arale and the Gatchans. The trio greet him and Goku says hello back, but he then calls for kinto'un and flies away, hoping that the crash hasn't broken the Dragon Balls as well. Arale thinks this all looks really fun and runs off after Goku, asking to play with him. Senbei meanwhile makes another peace sign from the window. Blue, battered but alive, walks away from his jet's wreckage and says that Goku is starting to get on his nerves. Review: Oh, man. Let's start this thing off right here with me saying that I have been just as excited to cover these next three chapters as I have been terrified to do so. Why is that? Well, I'm excited because I get to talk about Dr. Slump, and Dr. Slump is absolutely amazing. Toriyama's first hit manga series pre-dates Dragon Ball, and ran for a little over four-and-a-half years, from February 4, 1980 to September 10, 1984. It's also sadly a relatively unknown series in the west, with only small offerings from it popping up here and there over the years. Despite that however, it continues to hold a place in the hearts of Toriyama's biggest fans, myself included, based both on it's own merit as well as how important it is to Dragon Ball. Even without this crossover, without Dr. Slump, there is no Dragon Ball, because it's on this previous series that Toriyama cut his teeth on doing a serialized comic, and much of Dragon Ball's wackier beginnings owe a lot to Dr. Slump – though Dragon Ball at it's zaniest doesn't even begin to hold a candle to the sort of antics that Arale and her cohorts get up to. If the series is so amazing and fun, then why am I so scared to talk about Dr. Slump? Precisely because it's Dr. Slump. The series has so many sight-gags and so many jokes that generally only work as a visual medium that I was utterly terrified to try and talk about them in a written format. There's also the fact that again, outside of a rather small but ardent fanbase, Dr. Slump just isn't as well known as it should be to most Dragon Ball fans. So the question then became just how to cover it here. Well, thankfully writing about Dr. Slump's antics, at least the ones presented in Dragon Ball, has proven to be a little easier than I'd predicted, at least so far (watch the rug get pulled out from under me in the next two chapters). And this chapter actually features astonishingly little to talk about on the Goku and Blue front, so instead, I'm going to use this space to do a little primer on Dr. Slump and it's characters that have appeared so far, to better help fans who aren't familiar with the series get the most out of this crossover as they can. So buckle up guys – we're going Slump-ing. Dr. Slump primarily follows the adventures of Arale Norimaki, a cute young girl with purple hair and glasses who also happens to be a super-strong robot. Senbei Norimaki, the titular 'Dr. Slump', created her to win a bet that he could make a robot that was so functionally human that nobody would ever notice that she wasn't human at all. Nothing else on this bet ever comes up to the best of my recollection, but if it had, Senbei would have won because the entire population of Penguin Village is so over-the-top insane that nobody ever does seem to catch on to Arale's true nature, even when she displays such insane strength as breaking the Earth in half with a single punch (don't worry, it's always fine in the next panel), or doing something as weird as happily carrying around poop on a stick (sometimes the poop even has a face, arms, and legs, and can talk – don't ask why, just roll with it). Throughout the course of her story, Arale meets and interacts with a broad range of other characters, a good chunk of which make a cameo appearance in this very chapter. Almost always at Arale's side are the two Gatchan, flying babies with green hair and angel wings. The original Gatchan was found by Arale during a trip into the prehistoric era, but eventually it cocooned itself and emerged as two Gatchan instead. It eventually turns out that Gatchan is an angel originally sent by Kami-sama (not the one you're thinking of) to destroy the corrupt humans, but instead they spend their time eating anything and everything. Literally anything and everything – metal, the very ground, plastics, only rubber seems to be inedible to them. Arale's best friend is Akane Kimidori, a girl with a mischievous streak longer than her hair. She often plays pranks (particularly on Senbei) and is somewhat seen as a bad influence on Arale. By the end of the Dr. Slump series, she's dating Tsukutsun Tsun. Her older sister Aoi works at the local coffee shot, the Coffee Pot, a building literally shaped like a giant coffee pot. Another of Arale's friends, Peasuke Soramame, is even shorter than Arale even though he's the same age roughly as her. He's noted for always wearing his animal ear hat, and is often the voice of reason for the group – at least, as much reason as any of them ever have. His older brother Taro Soramame is also part of the group, but as he's older than any of them, he's graduated school by this point in time and is working as a member of the Penguin Village police, and is dating the younger sister of Akane's boyfriend, Tsururin Tsukutsun. His involvement in this crossover, at least in the manga, is just a cameo. Obotchaman is another robot, but rather than being created by Senbei, Obotchaman was created by the evil Dr. Mashirito, one of Senbei's greatest rivals. Obotchaman was originally created as 'Caramel Man 004' and was made with the goal of gaining revenge on Senbei and Arale for ruining Mashirito's plans and breaking the first three Caramel Men, but Obotchaman turned out to be a good boy instead and eventually turns on his creator, and now lives peacefully in the village where he continues to have a crush on Arale. Dr. Mashirito doesn't appear in this crossover, but his presence is all over Dragon Ball in some ways – he was based on Toriyama's original editor who he had a playfully hateful relationship with. Tsukutsun Tsun is another boy who attends Arale's school, though he and his sister Tsururin are introduced far later into the series. Their father built a rocket ship (that now serves as their house) but it was knocked from the sky by Arale, so now they live next door to the Norimaki's. He eventually begins dating Akane while his sister dates Taro. Though not shown in this crossover, Tsukutsun is an accomplished martial artist himself, and while he usually isn't as strong as Arale, if he becomes enraged he becomes even stronger than her. While his sister has various powers such as telekinesis (not unlike Blue) and teleportation, Tsukutsun is cursed with turning into a tiger whenever a girl touches him and being unable to return to normal until a guy touches him. Think a really weird take on Fruits Basket's zodiac curse mixed with Ranma ½. Senbei Norimaki himself is, as stated, the titular character of Dr. Slump and the creator of Arale. He's a genius through and through and makes some incredible inventions throughout the series, ranging from a time machine to a rice cooker than can create real items from pictures, and even a shrink ray. Unfortunately, he's also really stupid for a genius scientist, and a massive pervert to boot. He inexplicably has the ability to change from a dumpy short man into a handsome gentleman for a few brief moments, for some bizarre (but hilarious) reason. Other characters that appear briefly in this chapter include the Tsun parents, Tsuruten and Tsuntsunodanoteiyugoh (try saying that three times fast...or once, at all, period), a brilliant/perverted scientist and his wife; Taro and Peasuke's dad, Kurikinton, the town's barber; Supaman, a local “super”-hero; King Nikochan, an alien king who's been stranded on Earth for some time now; Daigoro Kurigashira, Arale's teacher with a chestnut shaped head; and Kinoko Sarada, a girl who can always be found riding her tricycle and spouting out insults to others that she deems less cool than her (spoiler: everyone is less cool than her in her mind). Phew. As you can see, there's quite a bit of background to these characters that, while those factoids might not play into Dragon Ball as a whole, flesh out this crossover and make it all the more fun rather than being 'that time Goku ended up in this really, really weird place for some reason' as I'm sure a lot of people view it. I've barely even scratched the surface though, as the only real way to fully get the most out of this crossover is to also be familiar with Dr. Slump. So what're you waiting for? Go read it! You can buy all of the volumes in English physically at various storefronts like RightStuf, or digitally straight from Viz, or if you have a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read it all on that website or app. With that last option, you can even read the first three chapters completely for free, even if you DON'T have a subscription, so what are you waiting for? Get to it! Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Roshi is surprised when Bulma gives him the diamond, especially when she says it's probably worth several billion zeni. He starts to contemplate how long it'd take him to spend that even if he went to a strip club every night, but Kuririn asks him to please not spend it so frivolously considering they almost died to get it back. Roshi insists that it was just a figure of speech, and thanks Bulma and asks if it's really alright for him to have it, because he won't give it back if she asks for it later on. The turtle says it'd be best for him to hold onto it for safekeeping, and when Roshi asks if he's implying that he's untrustworthy, the turtle simply says 'yes'. As Roshi and the turtle bicker, Lunch – still in her blonde from when the Red Ribbon soldiers attacked the island – pulls out a machine gun and tells everyone to stand still if they want to live. She orders Roshi to give her the diamond, and when he does, she takes the Red Ribbon aircraft that Bulma and the others just came back in and flies away. Bulma is at a loss and says she thought Lunch was one of them, but Kuririn says that's only the blue-haired one. When Bulma tells them to go get her, Roshi tells her not to fret, as once Lunch sneezes she'll turn back into a good person and come back on her own, causing Kuririn to have to at last explain to Bulma what the deal with Lunch is. Searching for them from the sky, General Blue finally locates Roshi's island. He grabs some rope and says he's going to be taking their lives as well as the Dragon Balls before leaping from his own aircraft and landing on the sand behind Kame House. He watches as everyone discusses what to do now, with Roshi noticing that Lunch shows no sign of coming back anytime soon after all. Goku says he's going to go look for the next Dragon Ball, and Bulma asks Roshi for another plane, but he says he doesn't have any other vehicles. When Bulma asks how she's supposed to get home, Roshi asks if she wouldn't be happier living with him, a notion she rejects immediately. The turtle offers to swim her home if she's not in a hurry, and Bulma wonders why these things aways happen to her. As Goku asks Roshi to look after the Dragon Balls he already has for a while, much to Kuririn's objection about the army coming back for them and Roshi's assurance that he'll handle them if they do, Blue readies the ropes he brought with him. Tossing them into the air, he then uses his psychic powers to cause them to wrap around Goku, Kuririn, Roshi, Bulma, and even the turtle, tying them all up and rendering them powerless. Blue steps into the open and asks them how they like round two of his powers before letting himself inside Kame House to look for the Dragon Balls. Bulma is cerain they're all about to be killed, and try as he might, Goku can't seem to break free from the rope. Kuririn asks Roshi how he, the invincible old master, could get caught as well, and Roshi says his guard was down. He further reflects that Blue seems like an impressive fighter, as not only did he manage to conceal his presence from him, he somehow tied the ropes in such a way that they can't call upon their strength. Blue steps back out onto the beach with Goku's bag and all three Dragon Balls in his possession. Bulma asks him what the Red Ribbon is scheming with the balls, but Blue says even he doesn't know as nobody has been made privy to the Commander's plans. He thanks them all for taking such good care of him and says he's leaving them a present in return – the Army's most powerful time bomb that he sets to go off in five minutes before setting it next to them. He calls back out his capsule jet and starts to leave, but Bulma pleads for her life, saying she'll even join the Red Ribbon Army. When Blue says the Army has no use for women, Roshi asks if they need an old man instead. Blue flies off in the jet, leaving them all to die. As everyone continues to struggle and try to get free from the ropes, they realize they only have two minutes left when suddenly Lunch – now back in her blue-haired form – comes back. They quickly ask her to get rid of the bomb, but she can barely lift it and suggests putting it into the trash. Goku asks her to get the rope off of him, and though she can't untie it, she eventually manages to cut Goku free with a knife. Goku rushes and grabs the bomb, throwing it into the air just before it explodes. Wasting no more time, Goku calls down kinto'un and chases after Blue despite Roshi's warning for him not to rush off so blindly. As Goku follows after Blue's jet, the scenery beneath them starts to change as they head further inland. Review: As I mentioned in the last chapter, everything going into this one seems like it's setting itself up to be the final stand for General Blue. He's going deep into enemy territory, he's completely outnumbered with no way to call for backup, and after how long we've been dealing with him, it really feels like this is the end for his character. Especially considering how we've already seen him get shown up in terms of strength. As it turns out though, that doesn't seem to be Toriyama's plan at all. Blue's caution in the face of enemies both known and unknown actually gains him the upper hand in this chapter, and he manages to do what nobody else in the Army has done thus far, and that's actually succeed at taking Goku's Dragon Balls away from him. At the end of the day, this is his most impressive showing yet. The rest of the characters, well, they don't fare as well in this one. There's nothing bad with what's done with them per say, it's just very clear that this chapter is Blue's show and they're just guest stars in it. Even Lunch who got possibly the first really good showing in her last appearance is back to the norm here, though it is interesting that Kuririn notes that she's not really part of the team at all when she's in her blonde form. This sort of tense, 'are they on our side for real or not?' feeling is something Toriyama will exploit quite a bit as the series grows a bit more serious and fight oriented, but for now it's just a witty observation based around Lunch's dual personalities. Speaking before about how this was Blue's best showing yet, two moments definitely show that off better than other. First, how in the hell is he able to jump from an aircraft that high in the sky and land on the sand without dying or at least hurting himself – though I guess that's not THAT outlandish at this point, given that we've seen how high Goku and Kuririn can jump into the air. At the same time though, it's pretty impressive that he lands without making enough noise to be caught immediately. Even Roshi is impressed that he was able to hide his presence, which even when the sort of super-sense that will later become ki sensing in it's roughest stages at this point, that's still quite the feat. Not really sure how knowing just how to tie a rope to prevent someone from breaking free is in that same ball park though. Blue had better enjoy this short time where he's at the top of the world though, because for the next three chapters, things get...well...you'll see. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Something Slump this way comes...Hoyoyo! Synopsis: Bulma and Kuririn wait for Goku in the pirate sub, but the quickly collapsing cave has Bulma saying they can't wait any longer. Kuririn insists that they can't abandon Goku, but Bulma says her number one priority in life is herself – a notion Kuririn doesn't really disagree with – and says that, knowing Goku, he'll be just fine. Before they leave however, Kuririn spots Goku running into the room and quickly gets his attention ,getting the young boy (who still has the mouse in his mouth) into the sub. With everyone accounted for, Bulma starts to pilot the ship out of the cave. Goku takes the mouse out and says that they're all safe now, but Bulma says they're not safe until they get back to the open sea. Even more rocks start falling as they realize the entire cavern is collapsing now, and the ship is pelted with boulders. Bulma spots a big side passage that they can probably use to get out to the sea, but even it starts to collapse as they drive through it. Suddenly, the ship comes to a stop, and Kuririn asks Bulma why they're not moving, with Bulma coming to the horrible realization that they're out of fuel. Kuririn laments that he's not ready to die before he's had his first kiss, but Goku simply hands him the mouse and tells him to take care of it. He then warns the both of them to hold their breath, and stands up on the seats before firing a Kamehameha into the water, breaking open the top of the sub but propelling them all out of the cave, into the sea, and ultimately out onto the water's surface. Goku quickly calls to kinto'un, and upon landing on it he catches Kuririn who in turn catches Bulma. They're saved! Elsewhere in the water, the scheming face of General Blue pops out of the sea. As Goku remarks that they cut it really close, Bulma says she's glad Goku is her friend, with Kuririn calling her out for being ready to abandon him before. He then laments that they lost the treasure, but Bulma laughs and pulls a big diamond out from the front of her bikini bottoms. Kuririn is amazed and says he thought it looked like her bottoms were bulging too much, and Bulma says the diamond is probably worth several billion zeni. Goku says he got the Dragon Ball as well, but is disappointed when he checks it to see that it's the three-star ball, not the four-star he was looking for. Bulma asks Goku if he's going to keep looking until he finds the one he wants, and Goku says he will. Bulma tells him to forget her helping him out any further after all of this, and Goku says she was the one who pushed to come along this time, something Bulma says she would never had done if he'd properly explained about the Red Ribbon Army. Kuririn says they should all head back to Roshi's island for now, pointing out an abandoned Red Ribbon aircraft that he and Bulma can take while Goku rides kinto'un. As the three head out, Blue crawls out of the water back onto the island and watches them leave, saying they must be heading for their secret base. Bulma gives the diamond to Kuririn as payment for losing Roshi's sub, telling him to keep the change since she's already rich and all. Kuririn sniffs the diamond, and when Bulma asks him why, he says he wondered if it smelled or something, prompting her to yell at him. Unbeknownst to the trio, Blue has taken to the sky with his own aircraft, and is following behind them. Review: If I didn't already know where the story was heading, I would almost think this chapter was finishing up the General Blue portion of the story arc. In fact, even with his reappearance here, a new reader might still be thinking we're setting Blue up to just get smacked away one last time in the following chapter. After all, we've already seen Kuririn handle him at least adequately well for a little while, we've seen Goku outright beat him save for his psychic abilities, and now he's coming to an island where both them and Roshi – not to mention potentially the blonde form of Lunch – are all hanging out at. It really seems like the odds are against him, and given Toriyama's penchant for doing the opposite of what you might expect, I can't help but wonder if this is all very intentional on his part. Needless to say, we're not quite through with Blue just yet...but again, getting ahead of ourselves. Bulma's cold-hearted willingness to leave behind Goku definitely speaks volumes about her character. She's grown quite a bit since we were first introduced to her, and she'll continue to grow throughout the series, but at the end of the day, this is who she is – someone who, 9 times out of 10, puts herself before others. She's not a complete monster by any means, but she makes no bones about being who she is either, which certainly explains a certain major life choice on her part later on. Even Kuririn though doesn't disagree that he's also the type who puts himself first when it comes down to it, and for as selfless as he himself is, Goku's not exactly a hero of justice either. No, Dragon Ball at it's core is a story about a bunch of misfits of various dubious qualities and how they somehow end up being the protectors of their planet, and it's all the more interesting because of their moral failings honestly. Even amongst all the chaos of the cave, Toriyama has clearly kept the little things in mind throughout this entire section of the story. Goku needs to get the radar fixed, so he goes to Bulma; Bulma forces herself along and shows off her shrinking wristband; Bulma gives that wristband to Roshi for a ship, and Kuririn comes along while talking about a treasure; the ship ends up being lost, but Bulma manages to snag a diamond to pay back their losses. It's a small thread that runs from beginning to end of Bulma's involvement here, linking the end of the Muscle Tower segment of the story to this one, and ultimately it leads the ending of this story to the next one as well. I will never not be impressed by Toriyama's ability to keep all of this in line while also writing by the seat of his pants. Of course, it also wouldn't be Toriyama if there wasn't a dirty joke somewhere in there, and I think Kuririn sniffing the diamond that had just recently been at Bulma's crotch speaks perfectly well for itself. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Velou asks Bonkers to become a Hunter alongside him, and much to Bonkers' shock, Grimm and Porschen both agree as well. Grimm tells Bonkers that he has plenty of strength and guts, and tells him it's a waste to just want to use that to survive day-to-day. She say sthe guild doesn't need all of it's members to be gung-ho about things and hotheaded, as eliminating werewolves is often a slow series of smaller steps forward, so someone like him is more than fit for the job. She further adds that she's not sure where he got that idea, but the guild isn't looking for heroes – it's looking for people of all kinds, strong, fast, smart, hot-headed, level-headed, main character or extra, it doesn't matter so long as their useful, as their job is one that takes all kinds. She tells him he's writing himself off too soon, as he truly belongs in the guild. Bonkers is taken aback and asks if Grimm should really be saying all of this in the middle of a test, and Grimm assures him that she won't be showing any partiality. She then tells him that the battle to save the Jinmottes' town is referred to as the 38th, and that both she and Debonair were there, and she's sorry they weren't able to save the whole town. Bonkers says that's all in the past and there's nothing to be said about it now, but without their involvement the whole town would have been detroyed, so he's grateful. He suddenly realizes that means Grimm must be older than him though, so he starts to ask her how old but she cuts him off by saying it's time to get back to the exam. If they can't beat her when she's not serious about killing them, then the only thing they'll do even if they become Hunters is die, so she challenges them to show her that they can change their lives. Velou tells Bonkers and Porschen they'll have to go with Plan D, and the three of them rush towards Grimm. Grimm surmises that of the trio, Bonkers is their best frontline fighter while Porschen is their best rear guard, while Velou is the one that built that foundation. She thinks the time he's spent training on the Ironworks is what's allowed him to 'till the soil' of his potential and now it's starting to sprout, but she thinks it'll take more than a new sprout to beat her. She leaps behind them as they charge forward, and starts to run at them with handcuffs in hand. Velou turns around first and leaps at her, grabbing her around the waist as well as grabbing a pair of handcuffs and putting them on himself to stick himself to her and thus weigh her down. Unfortunately, it turns out to have no effect on Grimm whatsoever, as she continues to run towards Bonkers and Porschen. Porschen quickly lashes out with a spiked thread, and though it misses landing a blow on Grimm's face, she manages to make it wrap around Velou's leg. Bonkers quickly grabs hold of Porschen and, before Grimm can react, he leaps backwards out a nearby window. Bonkers says there's no way he's going to face Grimm head on, and having already spent his life running, he has no problem doing it again. The weight of Bonkers and Porschen pulling the thread down drags Grimm towards the window, but she stops herself and Velou from going through with her foot, as Bonkers uses the length of string to repel off the outside wall of the Ironworks, and leap through another window with Porschen in hand. Grimm remarks that running is stupid as it only means she's still going to chase them and they'll fail, saying that if they want to run, they'd better run for their lives. She then turns her attention to Velou though, chastising him for sacrificing himself too often for the sake of others. Velou says it's okay as he's sure they'll come back to rescue him, but Grimm says that while that may work in an exam, it's too risky out in the field, as it can easily lead to him throwing his life away. Down on the lower level, Porschen gets up off of Bonkers and Bokners asks if she's hurt. She tells him that she's fine, and tells him he worries about other people a lot. Bonkers says that's just normal, which she agrees with, and tells him to stop trying to force himself to be a bad guy when he's actually a pretty decent person. Bonkers is moved from everyone talking so positive about him today, and Porschen consoles him. On the Ironworks roof, Velou is re-jailed alongside Merrio, Cobbs, and Nulo. The guard named Laurell welcomes them back, and tells Velou that his plan must be working to some degree, as there are fewer and fewer people getting arrested now. Nulo says that's great, and Merrio says there's still another 45 minutes left in the exam so they should rest and recover for the time being. A narration box informs that the number of arrests has indeed gone down, but not just from Velou's plan – it was also a result of Grimm's merciless plan of knocking people out and coming back to handcuff them later on, a many participants were currently unconscious but not actually arrested as a result. In the coal storage room, Debonair has finally tracked down Tylty and Mylty, and praises them for choosing a location where she can't really use much of her powers, though she says that due to swords and guns being disallowed, this just puts them all on the same level. A battered Tylty says it looks like Debonair's having fun, and she says that she is, as even without her heat she can still rely on physical strength which she still has plenty of, and asks if Tylty has a plan for dealing with that as well. Suddenly, Bonkers runs into the room and yells Tylty's name. He leads a charge of a large group of participants towards Debonair, who is pleased to see so many of them coming for her, while Tylty is surprised he managed to bring so many people. Debonair thinks this might get a little rough even for her, so she decides to heat things up to a 'toasty 140 degrees'. The resulting explosion of heat sends Bonkers and multiple other applicants flying, but the crowd decides that while she's too strong, they just need to overwhelm her with numbers. As Bonkers gets back up and walks towards him, Tylty asks him what he's even doing here, and Bonkers says to recruit him to help him rescue Velou. Tylty says he already said no to that, but Bonkers interrupts and says he knows all about what happened to Tylty in the last exam he took. He watched as the crew undermined each other constantly and caused everyone to fail, and he let it happen, turning his back on the others as well, though he can see now that this has left Tylty unable to trust anyone. Bonkers says that trust is a hard and scary thing no matter which side you're on, as the thought of not living up to expectations is scary, as is the idea of getting betrayed. He says Tylty is acting like a standoffish jerk to make sure nobody gets too close to him. Tylty accuses Bonkers of not knowing anything, but Bonkers says he knows because that's exactly what he was doing up until now. Bonkers says that in the end, the one person he trusts least is himself, but even if you don't trust anyone else, there's one person in this exam that still trusts you. Bonkers thinks about Velou and says this must be how he felt when talking to him earlier. Bonkers tells Tylty that if he just stares at the past he'll waste his life just like Bonkers has so far, but there's still time to change and find people who have faith in you. Bonkers once again asks Tylty to help them so they can help him, as their goal is for everyone to pass this exam. Review: I have to admit, the beginning of this chapter caught me a little bit by surprise. The end of last chapter already showed us Velou deciding to fully support Bonkers and try to get him to try and pass with them all, and while she's far less resolute in her own aspirations so far, it's not too surprising to see Porschen back him up as well. No, what caught me completely off guard was how much Grimm is in favor of him joining the guild. Her relationship with Velou seems to be unique with her interest in what was going on in his village and who he really is, but apparently her interest does extend to anyone else that she thinks might be of value in their fight against the werewolves. It doesn't mean that she's going to take it easy on them, but I do think that on some level, Grimm wants as many of them to pass as possible even if it means showing her and Debonair up, because it just means they're going to have that many soldiers in the fight. The dialogue continues to have all of these little hints about stories in regards to people's lives, and plot elements talked about rather brazenly and openly, and I continue to be really curious about all of these very specific dialogue choices. It's clear that the author has something grand in mind for once the series gets further down the line, though as of now, things sadly still seem to be leaning towards us potentially not getting that whole story told. The gag with Bonkers realizing Grimm must be even older than him makes me realize that I don't think any of the other participants has any idea about Grimm's other form, as I can't imagine Velou has mentioned it to them either. Since the test has a firm time limit already, I can't imagine part of his plan is to run out her own clock and cause her to revert, but the series continues to surprise me with how far ahead Velou is thinking, so we might see some form of that come into play before we're through, you never know. Grimm calling out Velou's bad habit of using himself as a sacrifice sort of feels like fore-shadowing as well, as it's really easy to see how a character like Velou, who constantly is putting the needs and well-being of others before his own, could end up in over his head in a hunt if he thought it would help save lives. If we do get to see the story go on for a much longer time, then I think we'll see something like that in the future. The notion of a lot of people passing not due to Velou's plan but due to Grimm's methods is pretty funny, and I could almost see this leading to a happy medium ground where not everyone passes (perhaps Tylty and Mylty fail, but with hope for the next time as they'll now re-learn how to trust, or something?) as Velou hopes, but a great number of them do as a result of something he didn't even come up with. There is one part of the chapter I'm not entirely sold on though, and that's the fight with Debonair in the coal room. Tylty did come up with a somewhat smart plan, though as Debonair points out he doesn't seem to have much in mind to deal with her plain old brute strength, but it seems to come to nothing in the end. The room is full of coal, but Debonair still uses one of her heat attacks anyway? Granted, she did say she couldn't use them 'much', not 'not at all', but if she's still able to crank things up to 140 degrees, then I wouldn't call that much of a handicap at all. It's sor tof hard to tell for sure if the explosion she causes is purely a heat wave or some of the coal igniting, but either way, your plan could not have failed harder, Tylty. Seeing Bonkers and Tylty reconnect is interesting though, as they've effectively switched places entirely from their introduction. It was Tylty who started off this storyline seemingly at Velou's side and primed to be one of his first friends, and Bonkers was the loud oaf who was probably going to be kind of a jerk and, maybe, turn out to be a better person. Well, Bonkers has more than done that by this point as he's turned out to have a heart of gold underneath all of that bluster, while it's Tylty who's a little too rough around the edges. With Bonkers of all people talking about what happened to Tylty last time and trying to get him to join up with the rest of them, it's going to be interesting to see how things play out next. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Chapter 14 Synopsis: Goku, unable to move after being paralyzed by General Blue's telekinesis, finds himself unable to defend himself from Blue's attack as he viciously kicks the boy hard enough to send him flying. The cave continues to collapse and Blue again realizes he has to finish this quickly and get out of there himself. He pulls a capsule from his pants and activates it, turning it back into a rifle. With the barrel pointed at Goku's face, he orders Bulma to tell him where the Dragon Ball is or he'll open fire. Bulma tells him that the radar shows the ball should be somewhere in a pool of water to the right, and Blue thanks her for her cooperation. He says however that the Red Ribbon can't allow anyone to interfere in their business, so he prepares to shoot Goku anyway. Bulma nad Kuririn call him cruel, and Blue relishes in the word. Before Blue can open fire however, a mouse skitters before him on the floor and Blue freaks out, screaming in fear and dropping the gun. The shock also frees Goku from his telekinesis, and the boy asks Blue if he really enjoys cruelty that much as he grins mischievously. Blue curses the mouse and tries to freeze Goku in place once more, but Goku launches towards him declaring a rock Janken fist – only for the boy to use scissors instead, jabbing Blue in both eyes with his fingers. Blue recoils in pain and is left wide open as Goku strikes once more, this time using rock and punching Blue into the ceiling and falling to the floor in a heap. There's no time to celebrate however as the cave continues to collapse, even faster now than before. Goku asks Bulma where the Dragon Ball is and Bulma points to the pool but says there's no time to get it now. Goku tells them to get out of here and he'll join them as soon as he gets the Dragon Ball, before leaping into the water. Left with no choice, Bulma and Kuririn evacuate while Goku searches underwater, eventually finding the Dragon Ball. As Goku resurfaces, he looks for the mouse that saved him. Grabbing it by the tail, he thanks it for it's help and says he'll repay it for saving his life by saving it's life, and puts it in his mouth to keep it safe. Bulma and Kuririn make it back to the pirate port just in time to find the way blocked by falling debris, and Bulma says their only hope now is to try and use one of the smaller pirate subs to escape. Back in the cave where they fought, Blue wakes up and finds that the trio has left the treasure behind. He starts dragging the chest away in the hopes of getting something out of this endeavor at least. Bulma is thrilled to find the pirate's sub starts even after all this time, but now they're left waiting for Goku, who is running quickly down a corridor. Review: And so that's the end of General Blue...or so you'd think. The end of the chapter certainly seems like it's cuing things up for him to meet his demise in this cave, or to just simply never be brought up or seen again as the heroes escape, but don't worry – there's a little bit more Blue left in the story yet. And I for one am both terrified and really excited to cover what's coming in the next handful of chapters down the line. But that's getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Which is only fitting in a way as the opening of this chapter actually rewound things a bit. At the end of the last chapter, Blue had already picked up the rock to use to smash in Goku's skull. In this chapter however, that rock is never picked up, and in it's place we get Blue attacking Goku a bit more before resorting to a never-before-seen-or-mentioned capsule rifle from his pocket. Replaying the end of a previous scene and having things play out a little differently is something the anime will do quite often, especially going from the end of one episodes to the beginning of the next, but scenes like this don't happen very often in the manga. This might even be the first one that I can recall, it's certainly the most blatant one so far. I'd be curious to know what lead to this too. If I had to wager a guess, Toriyama may have found he didn't have quite enough content to hit his page count in this chapter unless he re-worked things a little, since this chapter is pretty light on content overall. Let's just be honestly surprised but thankful that he didn't just resort to Bulma trying to appeal to Blue for a third time in a row. We're instead introduced to another quirk of Blue's, that being an apparent fear of mice. It's probably tied in to his distaste for dirty things period, especially given how he overreacts to things of that nature as we've already seen prior. In the past I've also seen it explained as another dig at Blue's orientation, but I'm not really sure I see that one myself. I've certainly never heard the stereotype that gay men are supposed to be scared of mice at any rate. Unless it's meant to be calling him a woman as a result, since it is a stereotype that women are supposed to be scared of mice...hmm. Again, extremely curious to hear how LGBT people, especially gay men, feel about Blue nowadays. Goku's “cruelty” by attacking with scissors instead of rock is a great moment, and you can tell Goku really enjoys turning the tables on someone who was fighting dirty and winning just moments before. He really can be a cheeky little monkey sometimes. All in all, I think you can tell that the pirate cave has basically worn out it's welcome as a locale for the characters to interact with and fight in, and I think Toriyama realized that as well. This is at least the third chapter in a row where a character has had to reiterate that the whole place is collapsing, and it's been doing that ever since Goku beat the pirate robot a handful of chapters ago. ...Huh. An explosion causing the entire area to start crumbling, while Goku and someone else fight and everyone else tries to get out of there before the whole thing is nothing but dust...why does that...seem so familiar to me... Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Abandon cave! Synopsis: General Blue gloats over the bruised and beaten Kuririn, asking him if this is really the best he can do. Kuririn gets back up and says Blue is gonna regret this, and Bulma cheers him on to keep fighting. Kuririn runs straight at Blue, but leaves an after-image behind as he leaps into the air above him. Blue notices this too late, and Kuririn kicks him hard in the face, knocking Blue to the ground. Bulma cheers happily for Kuririn, but Blue gets back up, enraged when he sees blood from his nose. Outraged that someone has actually hurt him, Blue swears that nobody who has seen this shame can be allowed to live.
As Blue approaches Kuririn once more, his eyes flash with light and Kuririn finds himself frozen in place. Blue asks the boy how he likes his telekinesis before promising to repay him in kind for the lesson in humility he's shown the General. As Blue continues to beat the defenseless Kuririn, Goku is shown to still be swimming through the water heading in their direction. Blue notices that the tunnel is starting to collapse faster and decides that he needs to end Kuririn's life quickly so he can find the Dragon Ball. Realizing that she's the only one left now, Bulma decides to use her greatest power – she starts flaunting her butt at Blue and trying to use her sex appeal on him once again. Like before, Blue tells her to stop that sickening display, and Bulma decides he really has to be gay if he's ignoring her like that. She tries to tell him that she's actually a man, but Blue doesn't buy it. Blue tells her to start praying as he'll deal with her as soon as he's done with Kuririn, and he picks up a large rock to bash in the young boy's skull with. Before he can strike the finishing blow however, Goku leaps from the water next to them and lands before the General. Bulma shouts to Goku that Blue is with the Red Ribbon Army and they need him to beat him up, and Blue commends the boy's resourcefulness in finding a way over to them. Goku asks Blue if he's the one that beat up Kuririn, and Blue says that he is. The two begin to fight, with Goku landing a powerful first blow in Blue's gut. Blue is in pain but doesn't go down, and praises Goku once more for having more strength than he appears to. Blue tries to kick Goku, but Goku leaps out of the way and rebounds off of a wall, landing a powerful knee strike to that back of Blue's head that causes him to fall to the floor. As Goku says that the Army guys are all full of talk, Kuririn watches and surmises that Goku seems even stronger than he was back in the tournament. Getting back up while holding his head, Blue says that they have all well earned their demise now. Goku asks him if he still wants to fight, but before Bulma can warn him not to look at Blue's eyes, Blue uses his telekinesis to freeze Goku in place. With his new opponent as defenseless as the last, Blue picks up the rock again, this time walking towards Goku. Review: As with the last chapter, Toriyama makes really good use of Blue as a measuring stick to show where various characters stand in terms of strength at the moment compared to when we last saw them really cut loose. We've seen Goku fight a few opponents that had him struggling for one reason or another, but it's been hard to say for sure if any of them challenged him quite as much as his own master did. While that's still questionable, how Goku fairs against Blue here is a pretty good indication that he has indeed gotten a lot stronger as Kuririn suggests. Even before using his psychic powers, Blue was doing pretty well against Kuririn. We'll never know for sure if he would have won if he hadn't cheated, but just the fact that he was holding his own puts him roughly in the same ball park as the rest of the main cast we saw compete. At the same time though, he's defenseless against Goku, and Kuririn, the only character who has both trained alongside Goku and watched him fight other people, is the one character uniquely situated to judge if Goku has improved or not. It's all a great way to forecast exactly how the characters are growing and changing without just putting it in an info dump somewhere. Let's not sell Blue too short either of course. While Kuririn managed to land a hit on him, and he's not doing great against Goku without resorting to his powers, he still takes a strong blow to the stomach from Goku and gets right back up. That's almost Goku's main one-hit KO technique at this point, as in this very arc alone we've seen quite a few characters knocked fully to the ground by it, if not taken out of the fight completely. Blue takes that hit and gets right back to fighting, and that's after previously fighting and taking at least one good hit from Kuririn. The man is definitely the strongest character Goku has run into yet since the 21st Budokai. Again, discounting Android 8. You basically have to discount Android 8 from everything strength related moving forward honestly. The repeated gag of Bulma trying to appeal to Blue is hardly Toriyama's best work, and it's also aged extremely poorly with Blue calling her a freak of nature when she tries to pretend she's a man. That's possibly the biggest oof moment for the character in the manga at least, but I'd wager that it doesn't even hold a candle to a certain anime moment...again, all in due time. This chapter does introduce Blue's psychic abilities though, something that honestly comes a little bit out of nowhere. It would have been nice if something before this had kind of hinted at him having an odd ability like that, but it is what it is. At least it gives him some kind of interesting fighting ability to match with his interesting personality. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Goku follows the arrow on the ground that point sto the left, as a watching General Blue sneers at him before running to the right to continue pursuing Bulma and Kuririn. As Kuririn and Bulma continue running down a passageway, the ceiling continues to crumble faster and faster as a result of the pirate robot's explosion. The pair eventually comes to a dead end, but Kuririn notices a small well cut into the ground in front of them. He and Bulma ditch part of their clothing and dive in, eventually finding that the well leads to another passageway underwater. When Blue catches up to them, he's disgusted by the idea of having to get wet, noting that sea water is supposedly bad for your skin. Realizing he doesn't have any other choice however, Blue takes off his shirt as well and dives into the water. As Goku continues to run down the opposite hallway, he suddenly realizes that even though he's running as fast as he can, he still hasn't caught up to Bulma and Kuririn. He soon comes to a dead end, but before he can figure out what's going on, a trap door opens up in the floor and drops him on top of a giant octopus. Goku leaps off of the octopus's head and onto a nearby boulder, and the octopus remarks that Goku is it's first prey in ages. Goku calls the octopus a squid and is angrily corrected before the octopus grabs hold of him in one of it's tentacles and starts to smack him back and forth between two rocks. Goku is dazed, and the creature asks Goku if he's still alive. Goku asks the octopus if it wants Goku to give it something nice, and when the octopus asks what, Goku fires a Kamehameha straight into it's face. Bulma and Kuririn emerge into another area of the cave and find a large wooden chest, and upon opening it are delighted to see it's full of treasure – they've found the lost pirate treasure at last! As they celebrate, Blue emerges from the water behind them and says he'll be taking that treasure in the name of the Red Ribbon Army. Bulma and Kuririn are taken by surprise, but Bulma is even more taken by the handsome Blue. She starts to snuggle up against his arm, but to her shock, Blue becomes disgusted and tells her to get off of him. Bulma scoffs, figuring he must be gay, to which Kuririn remarks he didn't know there were gay bad guys. Blue becomes angry and asks how they could dare call him “that”, but Kuririn boldly tells him to step up if he wants to fight. With the octopus now killed and even cooked by his Kamehameha, Goku begins to eat one of it's tentacles, saying that he'd been getting hungry anyway so this works out nicely. Suddenly he hears screams from nearby, and he wonders if it's Bulma or Kuririn. Back in the other cavern, Blue gloats over a beaten and bruised Kuririn, asking him what happened to all of his confidence. A horrified Bulma comments that Blue's really good, but Kuririn gets back up saying it's time to get serious. Both fighters leap into the air, but Blue knocks Kuririn aside with an elbow strike, causing Bulma to scream once more. Back in the other cave, Goku recognizes Bulma's voice this time and dives into a nearby pull of water, saying he's on his way. Review: Until this point, General Blue has been a rather back-seat sort of opponent for our heroes. He's been more effective at ordering his men what to do than either Silver or White before him, but ultimately he hasn't fared any better than they have either. In his defense, he's been forced to deal with an entire group of people split in two rather than just Goku alone, but that still doesn't change the fact that his forces have rather quickly been reduced to just one person, himself. But see, that's where Blue starts to come into his own. We've seen how cruel he can be with his own men, and we've seen how much more cautious and smart he is compared to the previous two Red Ribbon leaders Goku has encountered, but now it's time for Blue to start showing what he himself can do. And Toriyama introduces us to this more active General Blue rather well, showing that he's still got his crafty and careful side, while also showing us that he is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to fighting as well. He's certainly making pretty quick work of Kuririn after all, and let's not forget that Kuririn was able to go toe-to-toe with his own master back in the tournament. Kuririn is effectively the third strongest character in the series at this point (discounting Android 8 at any rate), so Blue being able to take him on and actually be winning is a great indicator of how strong he is. That said, this is also the chapter where we start to get more of Blue's personality as well, and his personality is probably where he loses some people as fans. And I can certainly see why, even if I myself like the character. As it turns out, some of his previous quirks, as well as many introduced in this chapter itself, could be primarily coming from the fact that he's...well, gay, thus rendering him a bit of a walking, talking stereotype. He's far from the worst stereotype in anime and manga (or even this very series, unfortunately), but he still probably doesn't sit very well with a lot of people. All things told, the manga version of Blue actually makes it out of the stereotype situation fairly unscathed though, at least in my opinion (it should of course be noted that I'm straight, so I'm obviously not the most equipped to make this judgement call at the end of the day though). He doesn't like to get dirty and oh yeah, he doesn't like Bulma, a half naked teenage girl, clinging to his arm, you know, funny, haha...but he still comes across as an actual character despite those things, and he never loses any feeling of being a threat at this point from them either. Again, I'm hardly in the best position to make a final judgment call on Blue though, so I'd be curious to hear what LGBT fans, particularly other gay men, have to say about Blue. Uh, more specifically, about Blue just based on the manga itself, that is. There's at least one scene in the anime that I'll talk about later when we get to it's corresponding chapters in the near future that is uh...definitely NOT good...oof. We'll cross that incredibly unfortunate bridge when we get to it though. Other than everything with Blue, the other main set piece of this chapter is Goku's encounter with the giant octopus. There's not really a whole lot to say about it honestly other than it's nice to see another giant talking animal as it mostly exists to give Goku something to do while everything else is going on. Goku didn't outwardly show any signs of fatigue or hunger prior to this, so it's not like the scene was really required to get him back up to speed. It's innocent enough though and doesn't over-stay it's welcome, so it's inoffensive really. Unless you're an octopus, then it's probably pretty offensive, actually. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The emerging Quirk of General Blue |
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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