Synopsis: As people in the city try to figure out what just happened, a crowd gathers around the two crashed Saiyan pods. As the pods open and the Saiyans step out, Piccolo and Gohan, Yamcha, Kuririn, Yajirobe, and Tenshinhan and Chaozu all sense their menacing power and realize that the Saiyans have arrived earlier than expected. The crowd in the city gathers around the Saiyans as the shorter one (Vegeta) remarks that this 'Earth' seems promising after all, and the taller one (Nappa) suggests they give the Earthlings a little 'greeting'.
Without further ado, Nappa raises two fingers into the air and causes a large explosion of energy, one large enough to be seen from space and powerful enough that it incinerates the whole city instantly, as well as sending shockwaves that can be felt from far away by our heroes. Nappa wonders if perhaps his greeting was a little too warm after all, and Vegeta tells him to leave it at that – if he blows up much more than that, he may damage the resale value of the planet. Nappa agrees to that and remarks that they have to find the Dragon Balls and get their wish granted first anyway, something Vegeta remarks could be lost if one of them was in the city that he just blew up. Realizing his mistake, Nappa apologizes, but Vegeta thinks they should just find the one that killed Raditz and find out about the balls from them. The pair check their scouters, and Nappa is surprised to find so many readings over 1,000. Vegeta soon finds the two strongest readings right next to each other however and says that's likely to be Raditz's killer and perhaps Kakarot's son as well, so the two head there, with Nappa noting that the gravity is so low that he feels like he's weightless. As everyone senses the Saiyans on the move, Yamcha, Kuririn, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu all start heading towards Piccolo and Gohan as well, though Tenshinhan tries to convince Chaozu to stay behind. At Kame House, Bulma, Roshi, Oolong, Puar, and the turtle all watch the news which is reporting the Saiyans arrival as a presumed earthquake, noting that all cities in that area are currently unable to be reached for more information. Realizing that the Saiyans have arrived at last, Bulma grabs her rebuilt scouter to find out where they are, with Oolong objecting that there's nothing they can do even if they know where they are. Roshi dejectedly agrees, saying that the Saiyans' powers are far beyond anything they can deal with. Bulma prays for Goku to get there quickly, as Goku is shown to still be coming down the Serpent Road as fast as he can. A short time later, birds and other animals flee the area Gohan and Piccolo are in, as if sensing the impending fight. Piccolo tells Gohan not to be afraid as they've grown far stronger in the last year, but Piccolo himself begins to worry when he senses multiple other strong power levels approaching them from various directions. As Kuririn arrives, Piccolo laughs and asks if he's come to watch the real fighters, but Kuririn says he's been training for this past year as well. Piccolo acknowledges that he does seem a little better at least, and asks if the others are coming as well, which Kuririn confirms. Gohan recognizes Kuririn as someone he saw at Kame House before, and Kuririn congratulates him as looking way tougher and more like his dad did as a kid than when they first met. Gohan knows that Kuririn must be strong as well as his dad always described him as 'small but tough', causing Kuririn to grumble. As Kuririn asks Gohan how training with Piccolo was, Gohan starts to say that Piccolo isn't near as bad as everyone says, but Piccolo interrupts their talk to point out that they're no longer alone. As all three look up at the sky above them, they see the Saiyans floating above them. As Kuririn shudders over how evil their energy feels, Nappa remarks that they headed towards two powers but now there's three people, prompting Vegeta to ask Piccolo if they were preparing for them after they land. Review: Well, those city folk are dead. And the hilarious irony that I'm going to be jumping ahead to now because I'm liable to forget if I don't is that they uh...they're gonna be staying dead. Yeah, the heroes kind of forget that this happened moving forward as far as we're able to tell (and it's likely that Toriyama did as well). Oops... Right now of course, our heroes have bigger fish to fry, and Nappa certainly wastes no time illustrating just how big of a fish he is, and by proxy, how big of a fish Vegeta is as well. We saw how overwhelmingly powerful Raditz was, but now we just saw a guy blow up a whole city at once. Wait, you might be saying, we've already seen a feat like that before. Didn't King Piccolo also casually blow up a city? Well, you'd be right, he did. I don't know for a fact that Toriyama remembered that moment, but I'm almost inclined to think that he did, because he makes some efforts here to make this feel more impressive still. Whereas Piccolo fired a large blast from his whole hand, Nappa just casually lifts two fingers. Whereas Piccolo blew up a significant portion of a city, Nappa eradicates the whole thing completely, razing it to the ground so that only their space pods are left untouched. The biggest difference however comes in a panel where we don't even see any characters – just the explosion itself being clearly visible from space. While we don't get a comparable shot of Piccolo's attack, this is more than effective enough to show just how powerful Nappa is. And here's the kicker – the big brute is clearly taking orders from the smaller Saiyan, Vegeta. If Nappa is strong enough to destroy an entire city with the flick of a few fingers, and he's not even the one in charge? That's bad. That's really, really bad, for our heroes. Right away, Toriyama makes it clear that the Saiyans aren't infallible however, or at the very least that Nappa isn't. His blowing up the city is terrifying in scope, but it shows that he doesn't think things through when that could have damaged the planet enough to hurt it's value on the planet market (Vegeta's all about business, as we all know, clearly), but it could also have destroyed one of the Dragon Balls that they need to wish for immortality. We've never seen what it would take to actually destroy one of the balls, but we do know that Shen Long himself can be killed, so...that's actually a realistic concern, now that I think about it. Another small moment that spells how bad this could be for our heroes is Nappa remarking that the gravity here is so low. Yeah, that's something I don't think the manga ever brought up before now – while Goku was able to use higher gravity to train and get stronger, this lower gravity just means much more ease of movement and less stress on these Saiyans while they're on Earth. It's like the opposite of a home team advantage, the visiting team is starting off with practically everything in their favor. Once we get to a shot of our heroes preparing to go towards Gohan and Piccolo's location as the fight is about to get started, you might notice a curious omission. When the Saiyans arrive, we see Kuririn, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, and Yajirobe all react. When we see them heading to the fight, we see Kuririn, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu. Huh, that's weird. Yajirobe's missing... It's also a little sad to see Roshi lamenting on the sidelines that there's nothing he or any of the other non-fighting characters can do to help at this point. I realize Roshi retired from actually competing and fighting often after the King Piccolo arc, but it's always been a little odd to me that he didn't get the invitation to train for the arrival of the Saiyans as well. Yes, he's old, and it's possible his gains wouldn't be near as much as the other, younger characters, but c'mon – this is a guy who's still blown up a moon before. You'd think any improvements he could make would certainly be worth trying to go for, and he's already trained at Karin's before too, so just take him along with you to train with God! But alas – that's not what we got. After a brief but fun interaction with Gohan and Kuririn, the Saiyans show up on the scene as well, and the first two to exchange words with each other are, of all people, Piccolo and Vegeta. People who know these characters' history with each other will find this funny; people who know that they're voiced by the same actor in the English dub by FUNimation probably find it even funnier. 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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