Synopsis: At Kame House, Roshi, Kuririn, and the turtle greet Bulma as she drops in for a visit. Roshi tells her that it's been a long time, chastising her for only showing up when invited, but Bulma says that she's here now and has even brought some cakes for them all to enjoy. Roshi says she didn't have to do anything like that as he'd have been happy just with a kiss, but Bulma hits him on the head, prompting him to say she still has no sense of humor, and her to say he's still as ornery as ever. As Goku is shown flying towards the house on kinto'un, Kuririn asks Bulma where Yamcha is, and she says that she doesn't care about that jerk after what he did, and that she didn't even tell him about today, saying that they're all better off without him. Bulma likewise asks where Lunch is, and Kuririn explains that she went chasing after Tenshinhan five years ago and that they haven't seen her since. Goku points out to someone on kinto'un with him that this is his old master's house, as the intruder from the previous chapter uses the device on his face to track Goku's movements. As Goku steps off kinto'un and calls out to his friends, the intruder can tell he's stopped moving now and that he'll catch up to him soon. Goku's friends all come out to greet him, but are surprised to see a small child in his arms. They ask Goku if he's started babysitting, but Goku shocks them all by introducing his son, Son Gohan. Roshi is pleased to hear that they've named the boy after Goku's late grandfather, but they're all still taken aback by the notion of Goku having a kid. Bulma asks Gohan how old he is, and he timidly replies four, surprising Bulma with how polite he is. Bulma is then surprised to see that Gohan has a tail, and they all ask Goku if Gohan is occasionally 'odd', like say, during the full moon – Goku says they all go to bed pretty early, and is confused as to why they ask, and they quickly change the subject. Kuririn asks Goku if Gohan is strong like he is, and Goku frowns, saying that he knows Gohan has it in him, but Chi Chi won't let him train him, saying that since the world is peaceful now, nobody realy needs martial arts. Instead, she's been homeschooling Gohan and focusing on his studies. Bulma notices the Dragon Ball on Gohan's hat as well, and Goku points out that it's the four-star ball that his grandfather gave him, saying that the three-star and six-star balls are back home as well. Everyone's reminiscing is soon interrupted as Goku suddenly feels a powerful presence approaching. Roshi and Kuririn can't see anything in the direction Goku's looking, and Bulma scowls saying that it better not be Yamcha, but Goku says it's more powerful than anything he's ever felt before. Suddenly, the intruder drops from the sky and lands before them. The intruder says that 'Kakarot' has grown up and looks just like his father, confusing Goku and Kuririn who have no idea who he's talking about. The man asks 'Kakarot' if something on this planet has distracted him, as he was supposed to exterminate all life on it. Thinking that the man is clearly drunk, Kuririn walks over to tell him to scram, and before Goku can shout for him not to get any closer, the man suddenly hits Kuririn, sending him flying into the wall of Kame house. As Goku yells in fury, he and everyone else is shocked as they turn back to look at the intruder, to discover that he didn't kick Kuririn away – he hit him with his tail. Review: I promise that I'll eventually stop harping on about what a disservice to the franchise it was to start with this part of the series when bringing it to the US, but it really does seem worth talking about again, as this re-introduction to a few characters basically takes away a lot from who they are if you don't have the material prior to it. Lunch and Bulma are really the only characters to get away unscathed by this re-introduction, and in Lunch's case that's mostly due to her absence. Yeah, that last time we saw Lunch kicking Kami into a hole? That was the last time you'll ever see her again in the pages of the manga (save for maybe a chapter title page somewhere), as she's being pretty much unceremoniously dropped from the cast. Toriyama has said in interviews that he didn't really plan to not bring her back and simply forgot to do so, which...honestly, I do believe. Toriyama is well known for his forgetful nature (in a different interview alongside One Piece's Eiichiro Oda, Toriyama had even forgotten who Taopaipai was), but I also think there's more to it than that. He probably didn't actually plan on ditching Lunch, but some part of his brain probably let it happen because she'd pretty much been entirely spent as a character by this point. You might recall me complaining quite a bit at her first appearance that not only was her gag one of the most one-note out of everything Toriyama ever created, it also had an incredibly botched introduction to the audience. His use of her character improved greatly as the series went on and he figured out how to utilize her better, but overall, she was still probably one of the weakest part of the background cast. It's a little sad to see her go, but at the same time, I can't lie and say we're really missing that much in the long run. For the characters that are re-introduced here though, like I said, Bulma's pretty much the same as she was before, and nothing here really colors her as something that she's not. She's always been quick to anger (though really, with Roshi it's easy to get angry sometimes) as well as showcasing a rather petty side as well. This chapter doesn't do anything to show her brilliance, but that will get brought back in later, so no harm done really. Kuririn and Roshi suffer a little bit here though. Roshi's pretty firmly retired from fighting at this point after bowing out of participating in the previous tournament, but outside of a line referencing him as Goku's old master, there's nothing here to indicate that he's a martial artist at all. Again, for fans following from the very beginning, there's no problem here, but for fans being introduced to the character for the very first time? He's shown as nothing more than an old pervert. Granted, that's basically going to be his lot in life moving forward, so I guess that's not really the most damaging to his perception for the rest of the series, but it's still sad given his position in material prior to this. Kuririn's poor showing is about the same, although his doesn't come in until the end of the chapter. I don't have a problem with neither he nor Roshi picking up on the intruder's incoming arrival, nor do I really mind them not getting the same feeling of danger from him that Goku does. I also don't really have a problem in-of-itself with him getting slapped away by his tail, as this is a new character that's already been shown as capable of laughing off an attack from Piccolo. That said, when you don't have that prior material to show how strong Piccolo really is, you also don't have the prior material to show how strong Kuririn is, like the fact that he was able to at least hold his own against Piccolo and even impress him. Without that knowledge, Kuririn just comes off like a short bald guy who gets immediately tossed to the scrap heap. Maybe it's just the big fanboy in me, but I don't like that, not one little bit. In a complete inversion of Lunch faring best by her absence, Yamcha likewise fairs the worst by his. Yes, although this chapter doesn't entirely spell it out (at least not in Viz's translation), this is the beginning of Toriyama's new mindset of Yamcha being a cheater. As if his poor showings in every single tournament prior to this wasn't bad enough, now he's going to slowly be deprived of having a girlfriend as well. This is something that has never set well with me with Toriyama's writing, and it bothers me the more I go over it. It's almost like Yamcha came to life and peed in Toriyama's cereal or something, because the man just does not miss a chance to make the poor guy's life even worse at every opportunity. This one doesn't even feel natural or necessary by any means either, as it completely flies in the face of what we know about him prior to this. When first introduced, Yamcha couldn't even look at a girl without freezing up. Once he got with Bulma, he did lighten up on that quite a bit, and there was some indication that he started to get popular with girls in general, but no actual indication that he actually did anything skeevy like cheating – it was always entirely based around Bulma's viewpoint, and we know exactly what she can be like sometimes. So we're suddenly asked to believe, based on the material that the series gives us, that he's suddenly turned into a womanizer this late in life? It just doesn't feel natural. There are, just off the top of my head, three more noteworthy 'Kick Yamcha' moments left in the series, one in this very arc and two in a future one, but I'd say this recharacterization of him might be the worst one of all (it's even directly related to 'Kick Yamcha' moment #2 in the future). What's worse is that modern material continues to feed off of both this general new perception of him, as well as getting a TON of mileage out of 'Kick Yamcha' moment #1 that we're not too far away from, so for anyone that liked Yamcha in the previous material, especially anyone that feels about him the way I do about Kuririn? All I can say is I'm sorry, and buckle up. There's one more character re-introduced in their absence, and they're arguably just as ruined as Yamcha is, but their reinvention is also directly tied to the first introduction of a brand new character, Goku's son Son Gohan. The very notion of Goku having a kid is crazy enough already (something else that's a bit lost when you jump into the story at this point), but what makes this idea even more surprising is how unlike his father he already seems. The character might only get one line of dialogue in this chapter, but it coupled with everything else we learn about him paints quite the picture. While Goku was (and is) impetuous, eager, and quick to try and find the fun in a given situation, Gohan comes off very quiet, reserved, and shy. He's also seemingly as polite as his father can be impolite to boot, something that's made even more shocking by the reveal that he's four years old (quite a bit younger than his father was on his first introduction). The main source of these differences comes from his mother, Chi Chi. Chi Chi has long been a divisive character for a lot of people, and it's chiefly down how her character is written in this portion of the story as opposed to anything we saw of her before. There are even many who like the earlier versions of Chi Chi that don't like this version – I'm part of that latter group, to an extent at least. There's going to be numerous chances to talk about her in the future, particularly where the writing of her has gone wrong but also why the fanbase is far too harsh on her at the same time, so I'll hold off on the deep dive into her character for another time. One thing that Gohan does have in common with his father in his youth quickly turns out to be something they both have in common with this new intruder as well – their tails. If everything about this new character wasn't already mysterious enough, this would definitely be more than enough to peak the interest of readers coming to this material for the first time. In every part of Dragon Ball prior to this, Goku's tail was treated as a trait specific to him, something that nobody knew why he had it, or where he or it even came from. Now however we learn that it can be hereditary, passed on from father to son, but even bigger than that, we're introduced to a completely unknown character who also shares this feature. Who exactly IS this guy anyway, and what does his arrival mean for Goku? Until next time! Favorite Panel:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories
All
|