Synopsis: At Pilaf's request, the mighty dragon Shenlong is summoned from the Dragon Balls at last! The size and intimidating appearance of Shenlong takes the Pilaf crew by surprise, while our heroes worry from their cell that it's too late now to stop Pilaf from making his wish, though Goku's mostly just happy to get to see the dragon at last. While Oolong and Puar fret over what to do next, a crazy thought occurs to Oolong. What if all he has to do is run in there and say a wish before Pilaf is able to say his? With nothing else left to lose, Oolong gives it a try, and interrupts Pilaf's request for world domination with one of his own - ...panties?! Much to the surprise of the Pilaf gang, the wish is granted as a pair of panties float down from the sky, landing on Oolong's face. Shenlong then bids everyone farewell as the Dragon Balls shoot up into the sky before launching off in seven different directions, Pilaf's plans put to a stop for certain now. While Yamcha and Bulma are happy to see Pilaf stopped, Goku frets about his grandfather's ball flying away, prompting Bulma to finally reveal that she knew all along that that was going to happen. Enraged, Pilaf has Shu and Mai capture Oolong and Puar, and has the whole gang moved to a cell constructed of steel with tempered glass for a roof. Goku tries to break the glass but his efforts prove to be ineffective. Yamcha is annoyed that this means they won't be able to hunt for the Dragon Balls again anytime soon, but Bulma says that would be the case even if they do find a way out – from what she gathered when she researched the Dragon Balls, they turn into stone for roughly a years time before they're usable, or even trackable, ever again. Yamcha worries that this means he's stuck with his fear of women for at least another whole year, but Oolong's more concerned for what this means for the comic itself. Just as things seem at their lowest, Pilaf's voice echoes into the room via an intercom on the wall. As punishment for ruining his plans, Pilaf plans to leave them in the cell clear into the next day, at which time the sun's light shining through the glass ceiling will cook them all alive. The gang agonizes for different reasons, and there seems to be no way out for our heroes. Review: This chapter is a little bit on the shorter side, but in no way is it uneventful, though it may be a little smaller than new fans may have expected it to be. There's something extremely low-key in how the manga portrays this first wish being granted, something that the anime consistently plays up as a huge event almost every time, even once the act of gathering the balls has become almost pedestrian. Here though? Most of the impressive nature of what's happening comes from the characters themselves responding to it rather than it really coming off that impressive in-of-itself. That's not to say this first summoning isn't entertaining though, because it is – it's just all about the payoff of the storyline by joke, rather than Shenlong himself wow-ing us really. There was a lot riding on how this first wish was going to turn out, I'd imagine. Was Bulma going to get her wish? Yamcha? Pilaf? Heck, or would it be Goku himself somehow? The chances were about equal between all of them as the story got going, but in the end, the wish goes to the one person who's never really shown that much interest in getting one in the first place, and it goes to the most stupid of all possible requests for a wish-granting being to be used for. It's hilarious in it's unpredictability when you try to see this through the eyes of a fan who witnesses it for the first time, and I freaking love it. Before we move on, I just want everyone to picture with me briefly, Kami-sama that we'll meet much later on, looking down from his lookout and seeing how his creations were just used. Wonderful. With the wish and the Dragon Balls themselves out of the way, the story begins to wrap up some loose threads before heading towards it's resolution. We as the readers have known since chapter one that the Dragon Balls were going to fly away once the wish was made, because we were treated to Bulma's internal dialogue about that fact. She never saw fit to let Goku in on that fact, probably thinking that he'd abandon the quest and stop helping her if she did so. Now that it's come out though, she does look a little bit regretful, showing that even as selfish as she still is, she's at least grown quite fond of Goku through their travels together. In another revelation, Bulma also reveals that the Dragon Balls will turn to stone and be unusable and untraceable for a whole year before they can be used again. I forget how much of this information was mentioned in chapter one, but either way it's still pretty astounding that she was able to find out so much extremely specific information from old texts talking about the balls. It also highlights the need for some sort of change in the status quo of the series in the near future, a fact Oolong lampshades: if the search for the Dragon Balls is something that can't happen again immediately, then where is the story bearing that same title going to go? More on that once the story truly does start diverging. On a minor final note, I'd like to once again point out the hilarious inanity of Pilaf, a man who finds blowing kisses to be way too forward and poop and pee jokes to be horribly offensive, has no problem cooking people alive by the power of the sun. He's a villain, but he's a villain with standards, gosh darn it. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Damned dirty ape!
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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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