Synopsis: As the trio looks around the pirate bay, Goku wonders how somewhere so cool looking got inside a cave, while Bulma thinks this explains why nobody was ever able to find it before. Kuririn's sure that the treasure must be hidden somewhere in here as well. After looking at the large submarine before them, Bulma realizes there must be another way out somewhere – back when these pirates were using it, capsule technology didn't exist yet, so another exit big enough for the submarine is the only way they would have gotten the ship in and out of the bay. Watching all of this from afar, Blue decides it'd make more sense to let the kids find the Dragon Ball and treasure for him before he attacks. Goku suddenly get sthe feeling that somebody is nearby, scaring Blue back into hiding. When Kuririn asks if it's the Red Ribbon Army however, Goku says that what he's feeling doesn't feel human. As Bulma starts to worry that there might be pirate ghosts in the cave, a huge pirate robot suddenly jets out towards them, swinging it's massive sword at them. Goku (who grabs Bulma) and Kuririn are barely able to dodge out of the way in time, while Blue watches from afar. Goku and Kuririn continue to dodge the robot's attacks while fighting back, with Kuririn even managing to break the robot's sword. As the two wail on the robot, Blue sees this and realizes at last that he's up against martial artists. As Goku gets hit by the robot, he and Goku agree that the machine is tough and really knows how to fight, which Bulma shouts in that it must've been left here to guard the base from enemy attacks. Goku and Kuririn dodge another rain of bullets from the robot before Goku tells Kuririn to take Bulma and go look for the Dragon Ball while he takes care of the robot. Goku leaps out and kicks the robot into the water, providing his friends a chance to escape, though they are followed by the pursuing Blue. Goku watches for the robot to emerge, but when it doesn't he wonders if it drowned. Suddenly, it's tail snakes up out of the water and wraps around Goku's ankle before dragging him underwater and sending an electric shock into his body. Goku survives this however, and rips the part of the robot's tail wrapped around him off before desperately swimming back to the surface. He calls the robot a jerk as it finally makes him angry, and looks around to find they're now near a large building in the cave. Using an extended nyoibo, Goku gets on top of the building and waits for the robot to come out of the water. When it does and starts looking around for him, Goku leaps from the building and crashes into the top of it's head with a powerful Janken punch, breaking through it's skull-like head and defeating it. With the robot broken, Goku hurries to catch up with his friends. Kuririn hears the explosion from the broken robot and wonders if Goku is okay, only for the ceiling above them to start cracking from the shockwave. Bulma yells that they have to hurry before the whole place collapses, but they soon come to a corridor that goes in two different directions. Bulma tells Kuririn that she thinks the radar indicates the ball should be to the right, so Kuririn uses a rock to mark an arrow to the right on the ground for Goku. As they run in that direction however, Blue comes behind them and erases the arrow, replacing it with one pointing to the left. Shortly after, Goku comes to the path and sees the arrow pointing left, thinking he needs to go that way. Review: Having learned his lesson about proceeding too hastily, Blue opts to follow the kids and let them find the Dragon Ball and the treasure for him rather than fighting them and then looking for both himself. While this is a smart idea, I'm not sure how much credit we can really give him when he basically had that idea already when they first entered the cave, only to discard it as soon as he thought they didn't have any weapons. Come to think of it, he also had that idea right when they first found the cave too – he'd said something about letting them find where the Dragon Ball would be, and as soon as he saw a cave he opened fire. Blue really has a bit of a problem with jumping the gun, really. Speaking entirely for myself, I'd argue that the pirate robot might be one of the coolest designs Toriyama has ever given us for a machine in the entire franchise. It's striking, looks intimidating and effective while also having a certain goofy charm to it – what's not to love? I'd venture a guess it's skull design and perhaps even it's tail were both influenced by the xenomorph alien from Alien as well, especially considering a much later character would also draw inspiration from that design. Seeing Goku and Kuririn fight side by side is something that's really enjoyable even for the short time it's shown off here, and I'm a little sad it took until now for us to get to see that. I guess the story couldn't really have had them fighting together against Roshi for training ala Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura fighting Kakashi in the bell test from Naruto, not considering the tournament was ultimately coming down to both students facing off with Roshi in disguise...but it's still something that would have been entertaining enough to witness in it's own right. I'm no examiner of feats, at least not in a strict sense, but let's all just take a moment to marvel at how impressive it is that Goku managed to survive what was probably meant to be a pretty lethal electric shock, while underwater, thus making it even more potent. The kid just refuses to go down, doesn't he. The simplicity of putting an arrow on the ground only for someone to come from behind and change it is pretty inspired actually. It's something anyone could think of, but it's perfect for the situation the characters are in. Kuririn and Bulma don't exactly have a lot of time to come up with anything better, but even if they did, they need to leave a trail of metaphorical bread crumbs that even Goku would understand just from seeing it. It likewise makes sense that Blue, now knowing what he's up against a little better, would try to divide and conquer – especially when you remember that by this point, he's all alone and completely outnumbered. And finally, Goku is just naïve enough to look at an arrow on the ground and automatically assume it must be something telling him the correct way to go without ever questioning if it could be a trick – though in all fairness, none of them know that any of the Red Ribbon Army are still following them by this point, so he doesn't really have a reason to doubt it either. Sometimes the simplest solutions really are the best. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The emerging quirks of General Blue.
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Synopsis: As Goku, Bulma, and Kuririn make their way deeper into the cave, Goku wonders if they'll really find the Dragon Ball down here. Bulma thinks so, so long as they don't get killed by the Red Ribbon Army first anyway. Kuririn says he can't hear anyone following them, so maybe the Army gave up? As Goku comments that it's getting so dark that he can't see anything ahead of him, he finds a button and presses it, turning on lights hanging from the ceiling much to everyone's surprise. Bulma wonders why there would be lights in a place like this and she and Kuririn realize that they must not be the first people to ever find this cave before. General Blue and his men are also surprised by the lights, and Blue reasons that if this place has power, it must be some sort of secret base...but whose? As Bulma tries to puzzle out who may have ran electricity here, Goku gets her attention and scares her when she turns around to find him wearing a skull on his head. Blue hears her yell and sends one of his men to check things out discreetly. As Goku laughs, Bulma chews him out for pulling something like that at a time like this, but Kuririn wants to know where he found the skull. Goku points out a dead pirate sitting in a corner, and Kuririn figures it out – this cave must be an old pirate hideout, and is probably where the lost pirate treasure is as well! As Bulma and Kuririn marvel at this discovery, the soldier reports back to a very pleased Blue, who thinks that Commander Red will almost be as pleased with the treasure as he will be with the Dragon Balls. As the trio continue deeper into the cave, they eventually come to a long passageway where the floor is smoother, but the walls and ceilings are filled with holes. Bulma thinks this looks suspicious, but Kuririn thinks it's nothing and steps into the hallway – immediately stepping on a button that sends a spear hurtling into the opposite wall just above his head. Bulma points out the buttons all over the floor and says it must be a trap to keep anyone from getting to the treasure, and Goku remarks that the only reason Kuririn is okay is because of how short he is. Bulma frets about what they're supposed to do now with this in front of them and the Red Ribbon Army pursuing them from behind, but Goku reasons that they'll be fine so long as they don't step on any of the buttons. Bulma says that's impossible with how close together they are, but Goku simply takes a running leap and makes it to the other side. Kuririn praises him for coming up with such a great idea and makes the leap himself, but misjudges it and jumps too high, hitting his head on the ceiling and then his head on some buttons, sending more spears flying just above his face. Goku helps Kuririn back up and out of the way and then tells Bulma to jump as well, but she says she can't, she wasn't trained by some old master like they were. As Blue catches back up to the soldier he sent to scout, the soldier tells him the enemy appears to be just ahead and from what he can tell, they don't have any weapons on them. Blue thinks they must have forgotten their weapons in their ship when they ran away from them earlier, surely rendering these kids as just that – kids. He laughs at how easy this has just become. Meanwhile, Goku extends the nyoibo to help Bulma across the trapped floor, and once she's back with him and Kuririn, they resume their trek into the cave. Blue tells his men there's no need to hold back now and orders them to charge ahead, following along behind them at a leisurely pace. As he gloats about getting both the Dragon Balls and the treasure, he hears cries of pain from his men and hurries along only to find them all impaled by spears in the trapped hallway. Blue realizes they've walked into a pirate trap, and one of his downed soldiers unhelpfully reports no survivors. Blue wonders how the kids got through this trap, and reasons that the pirates must have had a way through it too. He searches and finds a button on the wall that opens a hidden door in the wall, opening to an alternate path further into the cave. He takes it and swears to show the kids what General Blue is truly made of. Meanwhile, Goku, Bulma, and Kuririn step into a large open space, filled to the brim with a large weaponized ship, other vehicles, a small building, and various other contraptions, and Bulma says this must be the pirate's secret port. Review: I think it's easy to see that as of this chapter, Blue's plans are not holding up as readily as he would have liked. Sure, he's a cautious and fairly smart character, but there's one thing that he didn't take into account – he's in a gag manga. Yes, Dragon Ball has started to branch into somewhat more serious territory by this point, but it's still firmly in the realm of a gag manga that happens to have some pretty good action sequences in it at this point. It never truly leaves that realm despite what some fans would tell you, but there is definitely a point where the story starts taking itself very much more seriously than it does at this point, but unfortunately for Blue, that's a long way off yet. The idea of a pirate treasure was first brought up a few chapters ago by Kuririn, and at the time it seemed almost like throwaway dialogue. A word to the wise? Never assume any line Toriyama gives one of his characters as being throwaway, because more often than not, he's setting up something to use later on, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. In this instance I'd call it pretty successful – we get an interesting new local that we've not yet explored in the series in the form of an underwater cave filled with all kinds of traps, I love it. There's also a great dark gag with Goku just putting on a skull that he pulled off of a nearby skeleton. Nobody talks about the time Goku just shoved a human skull on as a hat. His ancestors would be so proud of him, actually... The trap with the spears in the wall and buttons feels like something straight out of Indiana Jones. In fact, it might actually BE from Indiana Jones, I can't honestly remember. Either way, it's a fun set piece that makes for some fun gags between both groups of characters. Everyone keeps giving poor Kuririn hell for being short in this chapter (and from Bulma, even one joke at his bald head's expense), but it ends up saving him from his own overconfidence here. He's lucky Roshi wasn't there to see this performance or I'm sure he'd get an earful. Goku and Kuririn demonstrating how far they can jump and Goku expecting Bulma to do the same thing is pretty funny as well, and it also demonstrates the way Goku seems to think even far later into the series. He knows when he's gotten stronger than his friends, but at the same time, there's often times where he seems to think that if he can do something, they all should be able to as well. It's hard to say if this is because of his extreme confidence and trust in them, or if it's also because a good number of them were actually stronger than him at certain points in time. The ultimate payoff for both Blue's hubris in his own intelligence and the pirate trap both comes when Blue orders his men to charge after having held them back for so long, only for them all to get slaughtered immediately. This is the first scene of mass death in the series, but of course it's not exactly traumatic by any means, as Toriyama is sure to give all of the dead soldiers goofy expressions on their faces, as well as drawing the spear points as if they've barely poked into their bodies. Oh, and of course the soldier that seemingly comes back to life just to report in to Blue that everyone, including that soldier himself, just died. Classic. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Roshi asks who the surrounding soldiers are, and the lead soldier tells him they already know who he is – the genius who made that amazing radar. Roshi is naturally confused by this, but the man insists that they've done their homework. When he confesses that they're from the Red Ribbon Army, Roshi says he's heard of them and all that they've done. Just then, another soldier escorts Lunch out of the house at gunpoint. Roshi asks the lead soldier what they want from him, and the man tells him they want the Dragon Balls and for him to make another one of those impressive radars. Lunch confirms that Bulma and Goku left their bag, so the two assume the Dragon Balls must be inside. Roshi asks the soldier what their plan for the Dragon Balls is once they've found them all, but the soldier tells him that's none of his business. Roshi asks what they'll do if he resists, and the man laughs and says kill him of course. Roshi nonchalantly says he'll resist then, before knocking the wind from the man with a really hard punch to the stomach. Roshi then proceeds to take out most of the other soldiers with various attacks, even catching all the bullets fired at him by one using a machine gun. A large soldier takes Lunch hostage and tells Roshi to hand over the Dragon Balls if he doesn't want him to shoot her. While Roshi concedes, the turtle sneaks a fern towards Lunch's face and Lunch, catching on to his plan, uses it to make herself sneeze. The soldier lambasts her for being stupid enough to sneeze in a situation like this, and the now blonde Lunch takes him out quickly and angrily for the insult. Roshi has to call her off before she kills the man, and the turtle wonders if she might not actually be worse than the Army. A remaining soldier tries to sneak away back to one of their planes, but Roshi catches sight of him and tells him to take the beaten soldiers and the other planes back with him as well as they're all in the way. Back in the sea, Bulma catches sight of the mini-subs that General Blue and his men are still using to follow them. A soldier asks Blue if he should fire more torpedoes, but Blue says it's too risky as they could cause the cave to collapse upon themselves as well, so he orders him to just follow for now. The trio soon hits an open-air area of the cave, and Goku, Bulma, and Kuririn all hop out into the open air to make a run for it. The soldiers surface as well and wonder where in the world they've followed the three to. Blue orders his men to pursue the three kids at first, but stops them when he receives a distressing radio call telling him that his other men have all been taken out. As Goku wonders why they have to run away when they could just beat them up, Kuririn tells him he's nuts as they've all got guns, but Goku says that's not a problem so long as you dodge the bullets. Blue holds his men back from attacking however, and tells them that the enemy appears to be many times more fearsome than they'd first imagined, and are probably counting on them to run in guns blazing without thinking first. One of his soldiers objects saying that they're just three kids, and Blue reminds him that just one of those kids managed to wipe out both Silver and White's platoons, while the old man and girl on the island took out their fellow soldiers as well. Goku wonders why nobody is coming after them anymore, and the trio takes the opportunity to go further into the cave, with Bulma wondering why such terrible things always happen to her. Blue meanwhile says that he'll take down all five of their troublesome opponents himself. Review: The main meat of this chapter is centered around Roshi and the soldiers on his island, so you might be expecting it to feel like it's stalling for time when the story should be proceeding further into the cave instead. In a way, you'd be right, as the main part of this section of the story is centered around the cave. That said, the scenes on Roshi's island are so enjoyable and pure Toriyama ethos that it's really hard to be angry at it for taking it's time here. It's just way too enjoyable. Even the back and forth dialogue before the fighting starts is really fun. Roshi doesn't really care one way or the other who these guys are other than they're on his island. Once he realizes who they are, he knows he wants nothing to do with them, but he keeps them talking just to find out as much about what they're up to as he can. This is an interesting tactic that we'll see other fighters use later on in the series as well, but in those instances it's usually used as a way to buy time – either until the fighter can figure out a way to turn the fight around in their favor, or to hold off an opponent until someone else stronger arrives so that even if they inevitably lose in the interim, they might have some useful information to give them. Here though? Here Roshi's just screwing with them. Roshi is more than strong enough to deal with them all on his own and he knows it, so he's just having some fun at their expense. You'd almost feel bad for them if they weren't soldiers in a tyrannical army bent on world domination. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed by Toriyama finding a way to actually make Lunch's gimmick both useful and funny, possibly for the first time since it was introduced – hell, arguably the only time since it was introduced. I especially love the blue haired Lunch picking up on what the turtle has in mind and causing herself to transform on purpose. She's ditzy, but stupid. All of this does serve a purpose as we get back to the main plot in the cave as well. When we last left them, Blue and his men were right on top of Goku and the others, and it seemed inevitable that they were about to throw down right then and there. This would have resulted in the fight likely being settled one way or another immediately. This way however, not only does the drama get heightened and the story gets to play in this playground a little more first, it also gets to show off how much more shrewd and intelligent Blue is in comparison to those who have come before him. We don't even know for sure how strong he is yet, but he definitely seems wary about taking on the likes of Goku and his friends without checking things out first, making him quite a bit more effective than either Silver or White were. He's really the first member of the Army that we've met that actually feels like he earned his position in it. Will that be enough to help him out once the fighting begins though? Hmm... Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Son Goku and the Raiders of the Lost Pirate Cave Synopsis: Locating the spot where the radar says the Dragon Ball is once more, Bulma has Kuririn take their ship underwater. The trio is unaware that General Blue is watching from nearby. One of Blue's soldiers alerts the General to the fact that their own radar shows the boy left his previous two Dragon Balls on the small island they discovered before, seemingly proving to Blue that his theory about that being their home base is correct. Blue splits his men into two teams, with himself leading squad A to pursue the ship into the water, and squad B, lead by a soldier Blue picks out, heads to destroy the enemy base and retrieve the Dragon Balls left there.
Underwater, Bulma finds where the radar says the ball is but Goku says he can't see it anywhere. Bulma says it has to be there somewhere though, so she sends Goku, now equipped with scuba gear, back into the water. Goku still can't see the Dragon Ball anywhere, but finds a deep looking gully in the seabed. As he investigates it, Bulma has Kuririn take the ship to the other side of a trench to check things out from that end as well. Bulma confirms the trench is deep, but unfortunately it seems too narrow for Goku to fit inside. Bulma expands the radar's range and discovers that the end Goku is at is too narrow, but another entrance a little further away would allow them to enter the cave system and get the Dragon Ball with little difficulty. As Blue's squad B approaches Roshi's island, one of the soldiers asks the one in charge what kind of opposition they'll face, with the leader saying it'll be easy as it's just one old man and a girl. In a submarine, Blue has his men hang back rather than attack, as he wants to have Goku and friends pinpoint the exact location of the Dragon Ball for them first. As they see the boy's ship about to enter a large cave, Blue orders his men to attack at last, and their torpedoes narrowly miss hitting their ship. As Blue orders his men to attack again, Kuririn and Bulma are horrified to find themselves being fired at. Goku however ays it must be those Red Ribbon guys again, further horrifying the pair – he didn't say anything to them about being chased by the Red Ribbon Army! Kuririn quickly maneuvers their ship into the cave and seems to get everyone to safety as the passageway becomes too narrow for the larger submarine to follow, but Blue quickly orders his men to prepare the mini-subs and says that he'll be taking one of them to deal with the children personally. Back on Roshi's island, the turtle notices something flying towards the island. As Roshi wonders what it could be, he finds himself surrounded at gunpoint by soldiers as soon as the planes land. Review: Poor Bulma and Kuririn. I think this might be the first instance where Goku's laid-back nature gets them in over their heads in a dangerous fashion rather than just being for a gag. This also marks the first time in the series so far that we've actually had someone who hasn't already encountered the army personally know who they are. Goku not knowing who they are makes sense, but when even the people in the snowy region of Muscle Tower chiefly only seem familiar with them since their arrival there, it sort of makes you wonder how long this army has really been around or how wide-spread they really are. I guess that village must have been in the middle of nowhere as well, because going by this, they're pretty well known. Not only Bulma, but even Kuririn, who as far as we know lived in a temple somewhere and then Roshi's island and nowhere else, has heard of them. While this could come a little out of nowhere, it's a nice addition in my opinion. It really helps build up just how big and powerful the Army really is. We've certainly come a long way in a relatively short time since the lackluster introduction of Colonel Silver, that's for sure. We also continue to have Blue built up as a strict perfectionist, who kills anyone and everyone that fails him in some way, whether that's protocol or having his orders carried out successfully. It's a bit ironic considering...well, we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit there. Where the Dragon Ball has landed itself here is something that I'm surprised doesn't happen more often. Normally in the series, the Dragon Balls seem to just end up in easier to get to locations, oftentimes ending up in the care of someone else who has already found it. Here though, it's managed to find itself down in a deep, underwater cave that isn't even accessible from the side the ball itself must have came through. In earlier eras of the Dragon Ball world, this likely would have been the end of the Dragon Balls, as it's incredibly unlikely that someone would ever think to look for it down here. Normally I'd also say it'd probably have been inaccessible in previous eras as well, but as we'll soon find out, people were still able to get down here at some point somehow, so... This chapter was a bit light on substance overall, but it's getting the gears turning for the real meat of the General Blue section of the story, so things are only going to get more exciting from here on out. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: As Goku flies them towards Roshi's island with kinto'un, Bulma once again remarks that she really doesn't like asking that old pervert for help, but agrees that they don't really have a lot of other options right now. Goku lands on the island and greets the sea turtle who has returned from his trip at last, and then greets his master as Roshi comes out of the house. Roshi assumes that Goku being there must mean he found his grandpa's Dragon Ball, but Goku says they need help looking for the next one actually. He asks Bulma to explain, and Bulma hops out of Goku's shirt and returns to her original size, astounding the old man. When he asks for an explanation, she shows off her wrist-watch before explaining to him that they need to borrow an underwater vehicle for a while. Now understanding the situation, Roshi readily agrees to loan them one, but Bulma suspects it'll come at a price. Much to her surprise however, the only thing Roshi asks for in return is her size changing wrist-watch. Bulma gives him the watch and asks for the vehicle in return, but Roshi says right now Kuririn and Lunch have it for grocery shopping, but tells her not to worry as they should be back any time now. At Red Ribbon HQ, Red can't figure out why the radar shows Goku going to the Dragon Ball's location and then leaving without retrieving it to go to another location on the map. His assistant confesses that something has been bothering him for a while now – he thinks the boy must have accomplices, as that's the only way he could have gotten a radar more sophisticated than the army's own, likely a brilliant scientist they're unaware of. Red agrees that that makes sense, so this location on the map could well be their base of operations. He orders his men to contact General Blue and have him search the area for the enemy camp. Blue agrees to have his men scout the area immediately. As everyone waits for Kuririn and Lunch to return from shopping, Bulma asks if she can use the bathroom. As the turtle gives her directions to it, Roshi thinks his chance has come at last. Saying that he's bored and is going to watch some TV, he goes back inside and uses his new wrist-watch to shrink down in size, and heads straight for the bathroom. He gets inside just in time to see Bulma's panty-covered butt as her shorts are lowered and thinks he's hit the motherlode at last as he crawls on top of the toilet. He's disappointed however when he realizes Bulma is in the process of pulling her shorts back up, not down, and in his outrage he falls into the toilet bowl just in time for Bulma to flush it. Bulma thinks she hears something when Roshi lets out a scream, but doesn't seem too concerned. As she steps back outside to see if the vehicle's come back yet, Roshi crawls out of a nearby sewer and jumps into the ocean to wash himself off, confusing everyone when he returns in only his shorts and sopping wet. Goku points out something in the sky, and a flying car soon touches down on the beach before Kuririn and Lunch step outside of it. Everyone greets each other and re-introduces themselves, and Kuririn explains that the only reason it took so long was because Lunch sneezed and transformed in town. He asks Goku what brings him back here already anyway, as the scene changes briefly back to Blue's base. Blue asks a soldier in a plane if they've found the enemy base yet, but the soldier says he hasn't yet, though thinks it shouldn't take much longer as there aren't too many islands in this area. Kuririn is told the situation and can now see why they need an underwater vehicle, and suggests that as long as they're down there, Goku and Bulma may as well look for the lost pirate treasure as well. Legends say that pirates roamed the seas of this area a long time ago, and that somewhere in the ocean they hid a great treasure. Bulma thinks that sounds like a great idea, and Kuririn asks for permission to come along as well, thinking it sounds exciting. As the trio set off in the flying car, Goku remarks that he thought they needed an underwater vehicle, but Bulma tells him flying isn't the only thing this car can do. Suddenly, she freaks out and remembers that she left the two Dragon Balls Goku has so far back at Roshi's, but Kuririn tells her they couldn't be safer with their master watching over them. As the car flies away, it's spotted by Blue's soldier, who flies his plane in the direction the car was coming from, soon spotting Roshi's island as a result. He radios in and Blue tells him to zoom in and take stock of the personnel on the island, but all the soldier can see down there is an old man, a woman, and a turtle. As Roshi asks Lunch if she needs to go to the bathroom, Blue thinks he's figured it out – the old man must be the genius that made the sophisticated Dragon Radar. Review: So, as it turns out, we weren't entirely out of fetish town just yet after all. As gross as Roshi's attempt to peek at Bulma going to the bathroom is however, at least it's more or less a return to the kind of perverted antics we expect from this series, as opposed to last chapter's near rape. It's a low bar, but hey, it's something. This chapter continues the somewhat slow, casual pace this part of the story is taking in it's opening, but I think that's because there's a fair bit of setup going on here that Toriyama has to spread out rather than dumping on us all at once, hence the return of gags we haven't seen the type of in some time, as well as the re-introduction of characters we haven't seen in a while. In fact, this is the first time the sea turtle has been seen in the manga since his original chapters I believe. So, you know. Neat. I find myself unable to really complain about antics with the characters we already know taking full focus though, as they're always enjoyable to watch play off of each other – it just doesn't always give me as much to talk about is all. Bulma's wrist-watch, much like her father's capsule case, turns out to really only exist to further move the story along. If they hadn't had the wrong capsules, they wouldn't have needed to get a ship another way, and if Bulma hadn't made the wrist-watch, there's no telling what Roshi would have asked for in return for his. It's almost like a video game fetch quest really. There is a bit of a nice moment though with Red's assistant Black telling him his own thoughts on what it means that Goku keeps finding the Dragon Balls so easily and that he's gone away from one this time. It's a very curious juxtaposition that he's thinking about all of these things and puzzling them out – and really, while his guess isn't entirely on the money, it is well thought out and not too far off in the grand scheme of things – while Red is just angrily ordering people around and thinking Goku must just be stupid to leave the ball behind. For being the leader, Red doesn't seem to be the brains of the operation at all. Hmm. Food for thought. As mentioned before, seeing the characters meet up again is great, especially in the case of people like Kuririn and Lunch meeting Bulma, as they've only met each other in passing before. Actually, this is the first time Bulma has met Lunch at all, as cued in by her not understanding the comments about her sneezing causing a ruckus. It's kind of fun how all of these characters are connected through Goku and sort of know each other, but aren't really on a friendship level yet with each other. The introduction of the pirate treasure brings us fully into the first act of the General Blue based storyline, as well as introducing a fun new side-quest for the characters to be on, and one that leads them into a new, interesting area to show fights off in that we haven't seen before. All around wins right here if you ask me. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: An hour into the exam, Debonair continues to round up and 'arrest' the Hunter candidates that she comes across. Suddenly, she hears a call from behind her and finds herself ambushed by a larger group of candidates who are aiming to take the handcuffs from her. Debonair laughs, but realizes the hallway is too narrow for her to fight back without killing someone, so she uses her powers to melt hand-holds into the wall and climb away. One of the guards asks Migael what they're doing, and Migael proudly says they're hunting. As she climbs away, Debonair remarks how annoying the strategy they've come up with is. They continue to ambush her with more people than she has handcuffs for, and they interrupt her ability to get more of them. She also realizes they put more people on her because it's harder for her to fight without killing people so she can't help but hold back, a fact they seem to have realized and are taking full advantage of. As annoying as the strategy is however, she can't help but love how brilliant it is on their part. As Migael uses the fact that they were able to drive Debonair away to recruit more people to their plan, Debonair crawls back inside via another window, thinking to herself that getting away clean is a fine answer to the question the test posed, but using hunting to save others is an even better answer. On the third floor, in the supply storage area, Velou, Porschen, and Bonkers have come face to face with Grimm, who has just taken out a number of their team, including Cobbs and Merrio. Grimm claims that as long as someone comes at them with a level head, they aren't so hard to deal with at all, and asks them what they'll try next. Velou thinks to himself that he knew that dealing with Grimm head-on was too dangerous, and that's why he put most of their number on Debonair instead. Back when they were planning after breaking out of the holding cell, Velou warned everyone that while Debonair wants to test them, Grimm lacks empathy and will only focus on arresting them, even if that means she has to break some bones to do it, so they have to be very careful when dealing with her. Grimm says that if their plan is to disrupt the handcuff supply chain, then all she has to do is knock everyone out long enough for her to go get more, saying that she'll even break some of their bones to do it, confirming Velou's summation of her. Out of nowhere, Bonkers tells them to leave this to him before picking up Velou and Porschen and putting them in the nearby cargo elevator, sending it down and telling them to join up with everyone after Debonair. While Porschen rages that this wasn't part of the plan, Velou says he wondered if this might not happen, as if his suspicions about Bonkers are correct... Grimm asks Bonkers if he really wants to pass at all, causing Bonkers to scoff, especially as Velou and Porschen get back out of the elevator. Velou says he suspected as much himself, but asks Bonkers why he doesn't really want to pass. Grimm pulls out their records on Bonkers, and says that Bikjoe is just a fake name – his real name is KelenkenBonkers, and he was born into the well-known and wealthy Jinmottes family. She stops in surprise for a moment when reading that he's 23, with both Velou and Porschen having assumed he was older than that. Grimm says all of this information is from a background check the guild did on him after they became suspicious with him participating in five consecutive training periods and failing at the last minute every single time – he's failing on purpose, she says. Bonkers says he's just not the type and tells her to hurry up and 'arrest' him, going on to say that guys like him don't deserve to be Hunters. Bonkers explains that back when he was around Velou's age, his hometown was in the path of a giant. Half of the town was reduced to rubble, but thanks to the efforts of some Hunters, the giant was driven back and the town was largely saved. At the time, he thought Hunters were really cool and wanted to join them someday. Late one night when it was raining, a pair of homeless villagers asked if they could shelter inside the family mansion for the night. They had already put up a large number of people, but Bonkers thought turning people away would make them look like villains, so he offered up his own room. Later that night he found himself unable to sleep due to his father's snoring, and came across his room with a light still coming out of it. Peering inside, he found the two villagers looting items out of his room, saying that it was a lot easier to go after rich folk late at night than to dig through rubble in the rain. When one of them asks the other what to do if they're found out, the first thief says they can just kill whoever finds them and be gone by morning. Before they can escape, Bonkers accosted them. The first thief pulled a knife and tried to attack Bonkers, but Bonkers swung his lantern at him, and as it broke it caught both of their clothes on fire. The burning thief rushed out the window to get to the rain to put him out, forgetting that they were on the third floor, and fell to his death. As the sound of the ruckus woke people up, Bonkers dumped water from a vase over his head to put his own fire out, but soon finds his throat too scorched to speak. The other villagers ran out and found the burned thief, as the other thief shouted that Bonkers pushed him from the window and is going to kill him next. Seeing a gold pocket watch in the burned thief's hand, the villagers assume that Bonkers caught him stealing it and Bonkers burned him alive and threw him from the third floor as punishment. The young Bonkers realized none of this would have happened if he'd never invited them inside, and says the family was quickly labeled a house of murderers, though he fled soon after and has no idea what happened after that. He says his story is the same thing that happens to a lot of kids after something like that, and he wound up taking whatever job he could find, eventually falling in with the shadier parts of society. He eventually found himself on the Ironworks, and realized that if he could just keep up with the training and fail at the end, he'd have half a year of free room and board, and the debt collectors after him wouldn't chase him this far either. Porschen asks him if he wants to become a Hunter at all then, and Bonkers says no. He's happy if he can just survive the day, and having confidence in his own strength is more than enough for him. Now that the cat's out of the bag, he figures he'll be kicked out, but that maybe he can use all of the training he got to become a mercenary. He calmly says that if a person's life is a story, then at best he's a random extra, and has no business becoming a hero. Velou tells Bonkers that that's not true at all. Bonkers asks him why he's crying, and Velou says he's not a jerk, before thinking back on how Bonkers had acted until now. He concedes that Bonkers can be a jerk at times, but says his life isn't over yet. Velou struggles with how to put his thoughts into words, ultimately saying that if Bonkers is going to call life a story, then all he has to do is write a new chapter and let his actions make him the hero. He grabs Bonkers hand and stands by him, saying he refuses to stand by while someone lets themselves fall into darkness, and urges Bonkers to fight to become a Hunter alongside him. Review: In a series that still manages to wow me (and bewilder me that it's extremely likely to get axed soon), this chapter might stand alongside a few others as one of the best in the series thus far. We don't get any action per say in this one, but the chapter more than makes up for it with the new character information brought front and center, and it's all about Bonkers of all people. But let's talk about the few other things this chapter also brings up first. The finer points of Velou's plan for them to continue stealing the cuffs has already been laid out in previous chapters, so what we get to see of that plan in action now is fairly straight forward at this point. All things told though, it shows how much Velou has been paying attention to their teachers for him to formulate the best plan of action for how to deal with them. He knows that Debonair's power is an unwieldy one, and he also knows she's expressed more care and concern for the applicants than Grimm has, so using both of those things against her is a stroke of genius. He also knows exactly what sort of person his mentor Grimm is, even if it's not the most complimentary thing in the world. He knows she's going to be a far tougher nut to crack, but he's at least willing to be on the team that faces her directly. Or rather, he might think that's the only way to deal with her at all is for him to be there. We'll find out soon enough if I had to guess. Then we get the big reveal of who Bonkers really is, as well as his age, and I have to say – I'm still not used to being introduced to adult characters in anime/manga, only to realize I'm older than they are. Oof. We get a tease that Porschen is older than him though, something I definitely would never have guessed – I'd pegged her for older than Velou but younger than Merrio. Just goes to show that, when it comes to character ages, you can never really tell for sure until something concrete is said. The reveal of Bonkers past is one hell of a doozy. For the guy who made his big introduction to the series by lambasting Tylty for failing the exam before, I certainly never would have guessed that he was himself failing on purpose. In fact, this revelation brings how Bonkers has been acting the past few chapters into a whole new light. There's been quite a few panels where he's seen unsure of the plan, and at the time I chalked it up to him not really being sure he trusted Velou. Now though, it looks more like he was starting to get more and more uncomfortable with dragging down everyone who was going above and beyond to pass the test when he himself never intended to in the first place. Given that the younger him was greatly impressed by Hunters, I'd wager there's still a part inside of him that respects the effort that Velou and the others are putting forth to make their dreams come true, particularly when he's given up on his own. The backstory presented also makes a further case for this series really being about questioning who and what makes a monster a monster. The thieves are presented as if they were already like this for a while now, and not just after half of the town was destroyed. Heck, nothing is ever said for sure, but it's even possible they weren't villagers at all and have merely shown up to try and pick the town clean after it's tragedy. Either way, it's made pretty clear that they're both pretty awful people, and their villainy only gets worse when one of them quickly shifts the blame for his partner in crime's death onto a young child, the very child that is the only reason they were allowed in in the first place no less. One might feel inclined to blame the other villagers for so quickly blaming Bonkers and his family as well, but Bonkers himself points out that this was just one more tragedy on top of all that they'd been through so far, effectively making it the straw that broke the camel's back as it were. They're not wrong to think that being set on fire and shoved out a window is way too harsh a crime for a petty theft, they're just mistaken in whom to cast blame upon. It's unfortunate, but that's life. And speaking of life, maybe it's just me, but I continue to really like this meta subtext that the author puts into certain dialogue, acknowledging the way stories work and how characters function within them, even while using their own characters to verbalize these points. It's high-minded without being too deep, and I'm really curious to see how that plays into the over-arching narrative. Assuming we get to see that over-arching narrative, anyway... Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Chapter 13 Synopsis: As Goku and Bulma fly along on kinto'un, they soon come once again to the ocean, with Goku hoping that this next Dragon Ball turns out to be the one his grandfather left to him.
Back at Red Ribbon HQ, Red follows Goku's path on their radar, with his assistant remarking that it looks like the boy's heading for the ball that General Blue is searching for. Red reminds a nearby soldier to make sure that Blue knows he want this kid killed as soon as he's spotted, and the scene changes to General Blue being annoyed with his men that they still haven't found the Dragon Ball. One of his men assures Blue that they're searching as hard as they can, but considering the ball seems to be on the ocean floor, it's really hard to search for. Blue doesn't want to hear any excuses, but his attention soon turns to another soldier that he spotted picking his nose. He denounces it as a filthy habit and orders his other men to execute the nosepicker immediately. As Blue enjoys the sound of the man being shot, another soldier says they've received word from HQ that the boy seems to be heading their way. A soldier asks Blue if this isn't the same kid that took out Silver and White companies, and Blue says he is but doesn't seem worried. Rather, he thinks this is all turning out to be very exciting. Goku complains about the heat of the sun as they fly over the ocean, and Bulma finally yells for him to stop, the radar showing the Dragon Ball somewhere right below them. It's ocean as far as the eye can see, so Bulma says it must have sunk to the ocean floor. She tells Goku to land on a nearby island she sees that's fairly empty save for a few boats. Once they land, Goku says he'll dive into the water to get the ball, but Bulma laughs him off and says she's here to make that job much easier. She pulls out her capsule case, intending to use an aquamobile, but is shocked when she finds only one capsule in the case. She realizes she grabbed her father's case instead, and though Goku thinks it could still have something useful inside of it, Bulma has her doubts. Her suspicions are confirmed when the capsule contains nothing but dirty magazines that she rips up in a fury. Left with no other choice, Goku strips down and dives into the water to search for the ball, but soon finds that the ocean floor is too deep for him to reach. He flies back with kinto'un to tell Bulma he can't hold his breath that long, but is surprised to find the spot on the beach where he'd left her empty. Having decided that there should be at least some people living here if there's boats, Bulma decided to go walking to fin da place to buy capsules. She sees a pair of planes approaching her and waves them down, but they open fire on her instead. As they corner her, one of the pilots recognizes that it's a young girl they're firing at rather than their intended target. The pair land and apologize to her, but Bulma doesn't want to hear it. She asks them where she can find capsules to buy, and they tell her the island is uninhabited. One of the two soldiers tells her she's pretty, flattering Bulma momentarily before she gets the creeps from the second soldier asking if she wants to have some fun with them. She asks if it's the sort of fun you can't really talk about in a kid's comic, and they confirm, leading the two Red Ribbon soldiers to chase her down in their planes once more as she runs for it. Hearing the ruckus, Goku flies in on kinto'un and asks Bulma if the men chasing her are bad guys. She says of course they are, and the soldiers open fire on Goku as soon as they recognize him as the target. Goku recognizes them as Red Ribbon soldiers as well and goes into a flying dropkick through the first soldier's windshield before taking out the second by extending the nyoibo and smashing through his engine. With the soldiers defeated, Bulma wonders if that wasn't all a bit much just for chasing her around for a while, but Goku says he just had a great idea – they're not too far from Roshi's place, and he probably has something they can use to dive underwater. Bulma isn't thrilled at the idea of asking that dirty old man for help again, but as they don't really have a lot of other options... Review: As usual, this chapter is mainly focusing on setting up the new status quo for the next storyline of the Red Ribbon arc, and as such it takes things a little bit slow to get things going. We are introduced to the next antagonist in the form of Blue however, and in his few brief scenes, he shows himself to be quite different from Silver and White before him. A pretty boy by design, Blue comes off rather pompous and smarmy, but still cruel and vindictive enough to order one of his own men's death simply because he caught them picking their nose. Now THAT'S an over the top punishment in this chapter. We'll get quite a bit more with Blue as we get into further chapters, so I'll save some further commentary on him until later on. For now, I'll say he's probably one of my other favorite villains in the earlier run of Dragon Ball, though obviously he's not without certain...issues. Again, more on that later. The setup for the gag with Bulma having her father's capsule is paid off here, and while it's not really the funniest joke ever or anything we haven't already seen here before, I'll forgive it for two reasons – 1) it's really more about setting up for the next chapter rather than the gag itself really, and 2) Goku's reaction to seeing the dirty magazines is pretty great. While Goku is discovering that the ocean is in fact too deep to swim to the bottom of that easily, Bulma is...*ahem* Okay, I know I harped on Bulma pretty hard in the last couple of reviews, but I must reiterate that I do like her as a character overall. And even if I didn't? It doesn't mean she deserves what almost happens in this chapter, at all. While it's played entirely for gags, there's really no way around it – Bulma almost got raped in this chapter. Yes, we've seen her in plenty of questionable situations before in the pages of this manga, some of them were even a result of her own actions. But while all of them were also played for laughs, this one might be the most uncomfortable of them all, even outdoing that time that Oolong almost went and felt her up in her sleep. This scene is just a little too realistic in some ways for it to really be as humorous as I think Toriyama meant it to be. At the end of the day it's stopped of course, and Bulma even lampshades the moment by commenting that what they're trying to do is the sort of thing you can't even really talk about in kid's manga, but still. It's an uncomfortable moment, and one that there's a pretty good reason doesn't get brought up a lot when the series is talked about. So, with that out of the way, I'm sure the next chapter is going to be completely problem free and squeaky clean, at least by Dragon Ball standards, right? ...Why's everyone so quiet? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: While Goku is amazed by something as simple as an escalator and Yamcha frets over what to say to Bulma, Husky and the two thieves continue to watch Goku from a distance. In the theme park, Goku and friends are treated to an extravagant light show at the entrance, only for Bulma to then realize she's misplaced their tickets. As they head inside, Husky easily steals three tickets for her and the two henchmen to allow them inside as well. Husky continues to follow Goku as he enjoys various rides with his friends. As he plays with Oolong and Puar on some giant balls, she throws a walnut hard enough to bounce it back off of the opposite wall of the glass domed ceiling, counting on the loud noise of a nearby roller coaster to mask it's sound as well. Despite this, Goku manages to detect it's approach and snatches it out of the air before it can hit him, causing him to look around in confusion for it's source. When Oolong asks what he's doing, Goku asks if he saw anyone up by the walnut trees, and Oolong says he didn't, prompting Goku to let it go. From the trees, Husky says this might be the first challenging job she's had in a long time. One of the thieves asks her how she'll steal the Dragon Balls, and she says she'll use her head. As Goku and Puar continue to play on various rides, Yamcha and Oolong take a break with some ice cream while Bulma sulks nearby. Bulma still won't say a word to Yamcha and Oolong asks him why he doesn't try harder to make things up to her, and Yamcha says he doesn't know how. Bulma thinks to herself that she won't say a word to him until he apologizes. As Goku comes back and harasses Oolong for some ice cream, the group hears a woman's cry for help coming from nearby. They rush over to find the two thieves trying to kidnap a veiled woman, and when they run off they check out the woman to make sure she's okay. The woman (Husky in disguise) immediately catches the attention of Oolong and a blushing Yamcha with how beautiful she is. The disguised Husky says she was just suddenly attacked out of nowhere, but Goku keeps staring at her like he's onto something. Eventually however, he remarks that she has a booger on her forehead, mistaking the fake mole Husky had applied there for snot. As Bulma wanders around on her own, she spots a large building across from a pond. Inside the building, the disguised Husky tells the group of boys that she's a fortune teller, and she wants to read their fortunes to repay them for saving her. Yamcha encourages Goku to have his fortune read, and Husky uses her inside knowledge to correctly tell Goku about his adventures at Muscle Tower, impressing everyone with her abilities. When Goku asks her for more, she tells him that she can sense two balls on his person. When he confirms he has them and she asks if she can see them, Husky thinks she's about to get her hands on the Dragon Balls, only for Goku to drop his pants and show her his “balls” instead. As the others chastise Goku over his mistake and laugh, Husky wonders if the kid is smarter than he appears. Yamcha tells Goku that it's probably the Dragon Balls she's talking about, and Goku pulls out his knapsack and shows them to her. From behind a curtain, the two thieves end up making a racket trying to quickly turn out the lights so Husky can switch the Dragon Balls with fakes, attracting Goku's attention. Seeing the bad guys again, Goku leaves the Dragon Balls in Yamcha's care and pursues the pair, with Oolong and Puar going with him. Husky thanks her luck as she's sure she'll have an easier time stealing them from Yamcha instead, and begins putting the moves on the bashful young man. Goku chases the thieves down and is able to corner them with the help of Oolong and Puar, while Bulma continues walking alone and realizes how bored she is without anyone around to take her mind off of her fight with Yamcha. She starts to wonder if she should make up with Yamcha after all as he's probably felt bad long enough for punishment. Husky moves closer and closer to Yamcha, even trying to kiss him, causing the young man to freak out and yell loud enough to catch Bulma's attention even over the sound of fireworks. Husky manages to steal the Dragon Balls from Yamcha, but as he stumbles backwards he overturns a pot where she'd shoved the real fortune teller who reveals that Husky is a fake. Husky begins chasing after Yamcha with a sword, and Bulma catches sight of them from behind, mistaking Yamcha holding Husky's arm at bay for the sight of them kissing. Bulma jumps in in a fury and throws a large box at Yamcha, taking him out of commission and allowing a confused but thankful Husky to tie him up and keep the Dragon Balls. Before she leaves however, she tells Yamcha everything, including how she's planted a bomb at the top of the large statue in the middle of the theme park. When asked why, Husky explains she was promised one million zeni to steal the Dragon Balls but an additional one million if she kills Goku, so she's going for the easy money. She uses a remote to set the bomb to explode in six minutes, giving her enough time to escape herself. Goku returns with the two thieves beaten and up and Yamcha tells him that the fortune teller took the Dragon Balls and has a gadget on her hip that Goku needs to get to stop everyone from exploding in six minutes. Wasting no time, Goku chases her down with kinto'un, the chase leading out of a hole in the theme park's domed ceiling. With three minutes to go, Husky starts firing her gun at the pursuing Goku, but nothing seems to shake him even as they fly back through the city. With less than a minute left, Husky tells Goku to give up, but her distraction causes her to crash her plane into a building. She is forced to jump out, only being saved by Goku tossing the nyoibo and catching her. With only seconds to go, Goku catches the remote and is somehow able to break it and prevent the bomb from exploding. As Husky dangles in mid-air and refuses to give him back the Dragon Balls, Goku tickles her until she drops them and he gets them back. Goku, Oolong, and Puar talk about what they've just been through while Yamcha wants to go look for the missing Bulma again. As they come to the front of Capsule Corp. however, Bulma marches out with a bag on her back and coldly stares down Yamcha before slapping him across the face. She tells him she hates him and that she's going to get the Dragon Balls to ask for a much better guy than him, and though even Goku seems to feel a little bad about leaving Yamcha like that, he and Bulma set off on kinto'un once more, this time leaving the city to search for the remaining Dragon Balls. Review: I mentioned in the last review that Husky was an interesting character. Having now re-watched this episode, I guess I should say that she has the makings of an interesting character if the right things are done with her, and...well, through really no fault of her own, I don't think that's really achieved here. At the very least, this episode definitely leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, though your own mileage may vary. There's basically two plot threads at work in this episode, the first being the primary one of Husky's attempts to steal the Dragon Balls, and the second being the continued friction between Yamcha and Bulma. Let's talk about the primary plot first. Husky's plans to try and steal the Dragon Balls from Goku start out in a very intelligent manner. She's clearly not making the same mistake a lot of people have before when confronted with the kid. After hearing what he's done to the Red Ribbon so far, and getting a first-hand account from her own henchmen, it's clear she knows exactly what she's dealing with and that she probably has to be a little careful to pull this heist off. Her ricocheting a walnut at Goku to test his skills is a pretty inspired moment as well, and it's clear from her reaction to the results that she fully realizes how tough he is despite his age. It's from there that she decides she needs to attack him in a different way, and her exact choice of subterfuge makes me wonder if a more specific description of what happened at Muscle Tower was given to her than we even realized. She certainly seems to zero in on his heroic nature pretty quickly. That said, the one thing she hadn't counted on was Goku's naivety and lack of understanding, as both leave her wondering if the boy's not shrewder than he lets on. He's not, but it's funny to see her think that. That said, her plan to kill Goku and take the Dragon Balls does start to fall apart a little bit towards the end. While I guess her wanting to blow up the entire amusement park is mostly to show how far she's willing to go for money as well as how seriously she takes the threat of Goku, it's not really clear exactly how she plans to get away with this. They didn't start this plan until they were following everyone, which means the bomb had to be planted during the timespan of the episode – what, there aren't security cameras in this big, elaborate park? It also doesn't really make sense that Goku is able to stop the bomb from exploding seemingly by breaking the remote, not when it's already set to go off. Then again, there was also a moment earlier in the episode where Bulma had lost the tickets, and then everyone just...strolls right in anyway. You can easily assume she just bought more of them, but it's weird that they make it a point to show the tickets as lost when Husky could have still figured out she needed to take some from other people just by seeing them use the initial tickets to get inside. It's weird inconsistencies like this that bug me, I blame Columbo really. Speaking of the theme park, I think I can speak for everyone when I say I totally want to go to the Mid-Air Amusement park. It looks fun as hell. Someone get to building this thing already! Alright, now let's talk about the lesser portion of the episode's plot, and one that unfortunately spoils the whole episode for me, and that's the continuing drama between Yamcha and Bulma. I mentioned last review how Bulma's attitude towards Yamcha is really undeserved and ill-fitting, and that continues to be the case here. Yamcha is shown to be nothing but worried about how to make things up to her, and the only time we see him with another woman is when Husky is hitting on him to get the Dragon Balls. And how does he react in that situation? The same way he always did in the past, showing that it's really only with Bulma that he's gotten over his fear of girls as totally as he has. Really makes you wonder what that first meeting with her mom was like, doesn't it? Either way, this just further highlights how over-the-top Bulma's reaction to Yamcha's non-crime is. If the character had been written to be shown enjoying the attention of other girls even a little bit, maybe this would all flow a little better – but he wasn't. The guy's practically a boy scout at this point. Even the ending with Bulma thinking she sees him kiss another woman feels undeserved, because while this is a misunderstanding that happens all the time in plenty of other works, here it's tied in solely by her rash attitude towards him in the first place. I like Bulma as a character, I really, really do. She's got enough going for her overall that makes a really fun character to have around. But when it comes to the matter of Yamcha? She's the biggest villain in the franchise, really. Until next time! Favorite Scene: Goku mistaking what kind of balls Husky is talking about is pretty hilarious, beyond that the rest of this episode is pretty bleh. Next Time: We return to the manga just in time for things to almost go in a very, very dark direction. Oof. Synopsis: Goku has made his way to West City and has gotten into all kinds of antics in the city, including almost getting robbed by two thieves in an alleyway. He was successful in defeating the thieves however and meeting a kindly policeman who has taken him to Bulma's house at last. The policeman doesn't want to leave Goku alone at Capsule Corp., but thankfully Bulma's quick arrival grants Goku the entrance he needed, so the trio head inside of Capsule Corp. to talk. Once inside they meet Dr. Brief, and Bulma takes Goku upstairs where she fixes the dragon radar and shows off her shrinking wrist-watch, leading to the introduction of Bulma's mother. At Red Ribbon HQ, when Red realizes that Goku has headed to West City, he laughs and says he's just jumped into the den of a master thief – with a payment of one million zeni, the army commissions the help of Husky, a lady thief so renowned that they say there's nothing she cannot steal. The master thief herself is soon seen returning to her hideout just as two of her minions return as well – the two thieves that tried to rob Goku, who they're still griping to each other about. Husky greets them by firing a gun at them and says she wants their help in finding a kid before showing them a picture of the very kid that they were beaten by. As Bulma's mother tells Goku about Yamcha and Bulma's fight, a crowd of girls can be overheard screaming Yamcha's name from outside. They seem to be his self-professed fan club who have brought gifts for him, and when Goku shouts down to them that Yamcha's not there right now, they're non-plussed and continue to shout for him. Bulma, growing angrier and angrier, shouts down to them that he's not there and then tells Goku she'll show him around town, as Bulma's mother explains that Yamcha's good looks have made him quite popular with all of the girls in town, a fact that drives Bulma mad. The teasing by Bulma's father and the officer seeing kinto'un and Bulma shrinking still takes place before the officer rides off on his suped-up scooter, with the only change being that now Bulma and Goku are still in the city rather than leaving it right away. Bulma points Goku down to the busiest street in the city to show off the sights, and the duo ends up being seen by the two thieves from before, albeit briefly. As Goku flies kinto'un further over the city, he spots something towering above the city that catches his eye. Bulma explains that the large domed area is the Mid-Air Amusement Park that apparently just opened the other day. Bulma tells them they should go there, but Goku spots Yamcha first and zooms down to meet up with him, Oolong, and Puar. Oolong asks if Goku has met Bulma yet, but Bulma hides in Goku's shirt and makes him hide that she's there. Oolong tells Goku about Yamcha and Bulma's fight, and Goku says Bulma even said a little while ago that she hates Yamcha, terrifying the fighter and annoying Bulma that he told him. Oolong and Puar try to cheer Yamcha up by telling him he's better off and calling Bulma a spoiled brat, and Yamcha agrees that she can be hard to deal with. As he starts to say something else however, Bulma hops out of Goku's shirt and returns to normal size to chew them all out. She tells Goku to hurry and follow her to the amusement park, and Yamcha lies and says they were just on their way there too so that they all tag along, much to Bulma's annoyance. Watching from afar, the two thieves and Husky follow behind the group with the intention to take the Dragon Balls from Goku. Husky thinks that the job will be easy due to Goku's age, even if he does seem insanely skilled and perceptive for his age. Review: This first episode of a two-part filler storyline composes itself in a rather interesting way. Like the more drawn out introduction to Colonel Silver and the Red Ribbon Army as a whole, this episode weaves itself into existing manga material in a way that makes it seem like this story has to happen for the anime to keep proceeding. At the same time though, it tells a more stand-alone story, not unlike the Namu and Giran filler. As this episode is mostly dealing with the setup of the story however and such a large part of it is covering material that was in the manga, this will probably be a really brief episode to cover in comparison to the second. We don't get much of Husky's character in this episode, but she's a really interesting character from the start none-the-less. She's not a member of the Red Ribbon at all and is merely hired on to try and deal with Goku, which puts her much more in line with the likes of a character we'll be meeting later on, with the only major difference being that she's a thief rather than an assassin. I don't recall if this episode aired before the manga was at that point in the story or not (I'd assume not, but you never know), but it's entirely possible the existence of one influenced the other. Either way, it further shows how far reaching the Red Ribbon's connections are when they're able to pony up quite a bit of cash to hire the best of the best from the criminal underworld. A further interesting choice is having Husky tie in with the two thieves that tried to rob Goku. In the manga, those two are a one and done occurrence, there's nothing more important to them than that one moment. Having them tie back in to this filler somehow makes it all feel more organic, so kudos to the writer's for thinking of it. The rest of the episode and it's further setup for the following one is all about Bulma and Yamcha's rocky relationship. In the manga, we never see Yamcha at this point, so all we really get to go on is her point of view. But let's be honest – everything we see here in regards to Yamcha makes a lot of sense for his character and is probably true in the manga as well. It might be a little surprising that Yamcha is a hit with the girls, but let's not forget that Bulma thought he was handsome as could be when she first met him, so it's not that crazy to think that other girls would too. And from what we get to see here, he doesn't exactly seem to be relishing in the attention by any means. In fact, it seems like the only thing on his mind is trying to make things right with Bulma, because even though she can be rather loud and, frankly, abusive towards him, he still seems to care for her deeply. Bulma meanwhile...well, she pretty much fits everything her mother is saying about her in both the manga and anime version's of the scene. She's outrageously jealous of Yamcha even being looked at by other girls, and automatically seems to assume he's being unfaithful or is going to be unfaithful because of it. This is a long, long burning background thing that will end up resulting in a rather big and important plot twist way later down the line. Even with that in mind though, I loathe this aspect of the story. It completely devalues and demeans Yamcha for no reason at all. It's not enough the poor guy ends up having to be the story's literal punching bag, he has to be it's emotional one too? Poor guy. We get a brief look from the outside at the Mid-Air Amusement Park that I'm sure I'll have at least a little bit to say about, but that'll have to wait until we actually get to see the inside of the thing. Until next time! Favorite Scene: It's technically in the manga too, but I really enjoy Dr. Brief's garden in the anime, as it's even been upgraded to include a Toribot hanging from a tree and even the kaiju Baragon. Next Time: I think every time we see Goku at a theme park something goes wrong. |
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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