Synopsis: Continuing their quest to find the last remaining Dragon Ball, Goku, Bulma, and Oolong soon run out of gas and have to stop in a strange town none of them have ever been to before to re-fuel. As soon as they arrive, they all notice how scared the villagers act, especially towards Bulma who's still wearing the bunny girl outfit Oolong gave her. They're so scared in fact that they get the car re-filled for free, and Bulma even gets a bunch of expensive capsules for free as well. Deciding to press her luck, Bulma goes clothes shopping as well, while Yamcha watches Goku and Oolong from afar to await for her return. Elsewhere in the town, a pair of armed men wearing bunny ears have also arrived, lamenting that the town seems as dead as it always is when they visit it. Bulma changes into an Arabian-looking get-up, and as soon as she has her bunny ears off, the shopkeeper gets angry at her for making such a cruel joke and runs her out, making Bulma wonder if it was the ears that had them scared of her all along. Once she arrives back at the car with their supplies, the pair of bunny-eared men start a ruckus nearby, accosting the villagers for all sorts of petty 'crimes', such as having poor apples and for walking in front of them. The pair then spots Bulma, and come over to chat her up, but Bulma's not interested in them in the slightest. The men continue trying to pick her up to no avail, until one of them finally pulls a gun on her and says she must not know the 'Rabbit Mob'. Nonplussed, Bulma tells Goku the pair are clearly 'bad guys' and asks him to beat them up, which he gladly does. Goku is happy to get to fight again for the first time in a while, and even Yamcha is amused watching from afar, but the pair isn't finished with them just yet. Getting up slowly, one of the men radios their master and says they need help dealing with someone really strong. The villagers begin to flee in terror and blame Bulma and the others for bringing doom upon them all. Review: After a rather lengthy (at least by early Dragon Ball standards) storyline, it's time for a bit of breathing room with the next two chapters. The downside to this? Nobody who's only watched the anime would be at all to blame if they'd long assumed this story to be filler, because it definitely feels a lot like it. I'll touch a bit more on that in the next chapter. The village and it's villagers here definitely have a bit of an Arabian sort of design motif to them, and seeing as that's a motif Toriyama would visit often enough in the future (Majin Boo being one of the most prominent examples), one can't help but wonder if he has a bit of fondness for the look. Beyond that though, the villagers really don't amount to much of anything really, and it's a little sad. Even the villagers that Oolong was tormenting had some personality even if they never had names, but these guys? They're the very definition of background. It's here though that the punchline of Bulma being forced to wear a bunny girl costume finally comes to fruition. Because of her get-up, the villagers assume she must be another member of the Rabbit Mob that they've yet to meet, and one that they don't want to cross no matter how nice she might be acting. Likewise, they assume Goku and Oolong must be in with the Rabbits as well because they're traveling with her. It's the same sort of misunderstanding that the villagers in Oolong's village had in regards to our group, but here it feels less utilized honestly. Again, the villagers here are as paper thin as paper can be, and there's never really a moment where they collectively realize their mistake and make good on it by asking the team for help. Instead they just run and gasp from one thing to the next. They're just so underwhelming narratively. For the Rabbit Gang itself, the idea behind them is amusing enough I suppose. A group of people who are terrifying enough to scare whatever they want out of villagers, but their whole theme is that they're wearing bunny ears? It's just the right amount of stupid to be enjoyable. In regards to their designs though, or at least one of their designs, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk at least a little bit about the elephant in the room, especially as it's an elephant that will come back again later with more prominent characters. If you're reading this manga in it's official English language release by Viz, you might notice how weird the mouth looks on the chubbier, black member of the Rabbit duo, almost like it's a white void or like they whited out something. If you guessed the latter, you'd be right, because what they whited out were his lips. The reasoning? They were rather...sambo-like. I'm not the right person to get into this really – I'm white, and I don't have the breadth of knowledge on the subject of old-timey racist depictions as they popped up in both domestic productions and anime and manga from Japan. All I can really say is that they are a relic from a far less enlightened age, and there's a reason you don't generally see designs like that popping up anymore. It's unfortunate that a series as generally inoffensive and fun as Dragon Ball has them in them, but it is what it is, and it's something the series has had to grapple with when it comes to being released in the US. For what little it's worth (again, white guy here), I'm willing to give Toriyama the benefit of the doubt overall though, and say he likely absorbed such design aesthetics from it appearing in other, older works than his own, and likely never meant any harm from them. Maybe one day I'll be proven wrong, but let's hope not – I think we've all had enough of our heroes let us down in recent years, and again, the subject of racist depictions in anime/manga, where it all comes from, and all of that, is a fascinating subject, but it's not one that I'm well-equipped enough to talk about myself. Well. That certainly brought the mood down quite a bit. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time (on Death Battle): Son Goku V.S. Bugs Bunny!
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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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