Synopsis: Captured by the Pilaf crew, Goku and the others can't seem to find any way out of their holding cell. Pilaf meanwhile is getting excited at the prospect of making his wish to the dragon at long last, but Mai and Shu return empty-handed after searching the gang's car for the final Dragon Ball. Pilaf muses that one of them must have it on them, but there doesn't appear to be any sign of it from what he can see. When Mai suggests perhaps between Yamcha's legs, Pilaf scolds her for making such a vulgar joke, even breaking the fourth wall by referencing both Dr. Slump and Toriyama himself directly.
Back in the cell, Yamcha is getting grief from everyone over a dumb pun he made to try and lighten the mood when a TV screen on the wall turns on and Pilaf introduces himself to everyone. He demands to know where the last remaining Dragon Ball is, but Bulma refuses to tell him anything. Pilaf tells her that if she wants to do things that way, he'll just have to get “nasty”. Suddenly, a robot arm pops out of the ceiling and grabs Bulma, taking her to the control room with Pilaf and crew. Yamcha is worried about what something “nasty” could be, while Oolong is a little excited at the idea. In the control room, Pilaf gives Bulma one last chance to tell him what he wants to know, but she flips him off, forcing him to go to extreme measures to humiliate her...by blowing her a kiss? Pilaf and his crew are horrified at what just happened, but Bulma laughs it off, thinking that they were going to do something much worse. When she names off some euphemisms for such things, Pilaf is so disgusted that he immediately tosses her back in with the others and worries that they might be dealing with foes far worse than any of them could possibly have imagined. Mai suggests to Pilaf that they simply knock everyone out with sleeping gas and search them for the Dragon Ball, a plan that Pilaf readily agrees to. With our heroes knocked unconscious, Pilaf and crew enter the room to search them but all the work is left to Shu and Mai as Pilaf falls unconscious as well due to forgetting his gas mask. In almost no time at all, Mai finds Goku's hidden four-star Dragon Ball! Time passes, and that night Pilaf has finally awakened and is ready at last to make his wish! In the cell, Yamcha and Goku try everything they can muster to break through the brick wall, but nothing seem sto work. Suddenly, Yamcha remembers that Goku pulled off a Kamehameha before and suggests that he try that, and Goku agrees though questions how Yamcha even knows about that. Goku succeeds in putting a small hole in the wall, and Yamcha looks through it to see that they're running out of time before Pilaf summons the dragon. He has Puar transform into a bat to go steal at least one of the Dragon Balls, and Bulma forces Oolong to do the same under threat of more diarrhea. They'll have to hurry to pull it off though, as Pilaf calls forth the eternal dragon out of the Dragon Balls! Review: The Pilaf gang may have come across a little flavor-less in their first outing, but almost immediately in this one they make their comedic talents known, and I'm all for it. So far, Dragon Ball has taken itself fairly seriously in terms of it's world, at least compared to the likes of Toriyama's previous series Dr. Slump. Here though, Pilaf directly calls out all the gross-out humor that Toriyama loves so much, and there's something refreshing in how stupid it all is. Pilaf even references the audience's love of such things and refuses to let the series go to such lengths to attract more attention for itself, only for Yamcha to sell him up the river by making a snot joke. Perfection. There might be a real world reason for all of this absurdity too though. Like many authors before him who already had a hit series, Toriyama was very likely struggling to make Dragon Ball stand out and do as well as Dr. Slump before it had. For a more modern example, look at the fate of Masashi Kishimoto's poor Samurai 8 manga following off of the heels of Naruto. It's not pretty. The fact that Dragon Ball would go on to practically eclipse Dr. Slump's popularity the world over is a testament to not only how gifted of a storyteller Toriyama is, but how much hard work he put in. Also, luck. Lots and lots of luck. Whatever the reason, Toriyama is definitely having fun at his own expense with the character of Pilaf, especially once his idea of something humiliating is completely blown out of the water by the sorts of things Bulma suggests. I can't help but be curious too – we've already seen pat-pats and puff-puffs, and it's pretty easy to imagine what a grope-grope is, but what exactly is a slurp-slurp? Good little boys and girls should definitely NOT Google it to find out. Nor should I. Probably. *hastily closes a Google tab* Don't you judge me. There's also something hilarious in of itself that Pilaf finds crude jokes of all kinds to be in poor taste, but he's perfectly fine with kidnapping people and gassing them so that he can steal things from them. Bit of a mixed up set of standards if you ask me, but hey, that's life. It's a nice touch too that Goku questions how Yamcha even knows about the Kamehameha or that he can perform it. It's easy to forget that while we as the audience are aware that Yamcha's been tailing them ever since his desert, the main trio of characters we'd been following have only seen him twice more prior to Pilaf's castle and have no real idea that he's been after them. Yamcha seems reluctant to let them in on it too, odd that. Things are finally coming to a head, as the dragon finally makes his grand entrance. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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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
September 2022
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