Synopsis: Gohan, Bulma, and Kuririn wonder what they should do now that a second Saiyan space pod has landed on Namek when, as far as they knew, there shouldn't be any more Saiyans to worry about other than Vegeta. A short distance away, Cui uses his scouter to contact Vegeta, telling him that he finally has the orders he's always wanted from Freeza – orders to kill the Saiyan. Vegeta laughs at Cui for thinking he can actually carry out those orders, and tells him he'll wait for him. Cui laughs in return, telling Vegeta to check his own scouter as Cui is far stronger than Vegeta now. Vegeta merely smirks at the thought. Bulma nervously tells Gohan and Kuririn that she'll be back in about two months, but Kuririn tells her to wait. Clearly scared now himself, Kuririn suggests to Gohan that they go back with her, trying to pass his fear off as concern for Gohan. Gohan thinks if they leave that Vegeta will get the Dragon Balls, but Kuririn thinks that's fine – they'll just come back afterwards and get the Dragon Balls another time! Bulma points out the flaw in this plan being that Vegeta could just destroy the dragon like King Piccolo once did, and Kuririn doesn't have a retort for that. The conversation is interrupted as Gohan senses energy approaching them. Bulma worries that it could be Vegeta, but Kuririn says that whatever it is feels way weaker than that. A short distance away, a pair of soldiers wearing Saiyan armor say that somewhere around here should be where those power levels from before disappeared, with one suggesting that it was probably just more Namekians. Kuririn likewise suggests to Gohan that what they're sensing might just be some Namekians. As the two groups meet eyes however, both sides quickly realize that they're all wrong. The two alien soldiers wonder who Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma are, but ultimately decide that it doesn't really matter – their orders are to kill everyone on the planet anyway. Gohan and Kuririn recognize the clothes the aliens are wearing as Saiyan armor but can tell that neither of them are Saiyans, and even Bulma can tell they don't look very friendly. Kuririn reminds Gohan to keep his energy in check, and when one of the aliens checks their scouter, Gohan and Kuririn register as weaklings. This only encourages the aliens to toy with them however, as they blast a hole in their ship first, damaging it enough to render it inoperable. Angry now, Kuririn tells Gohan to release his energy, and although the two alien soldiers scoff at first, their scouters soon pick up on the increasing power levels. As they realize they may be in over their heads, the aliens fail to respond in time before Gohan and Kuririn leap above them and take them out with a single punch and kick each. The two soldiers collide in the air before falling into a nearby pond. Gohan and Kuririn give each other thumbs ups, but Bulma thinks they're missing the point here. Back at the destroyed Namekian village, Zarbon's scouter beeps and he informs Freeza that their scouts were just taken out by quickly raising power levels that once again disappeared afterwards. Freeza thinks that's odd as that doesn't sound like Vegeta at all, and Zarbon concurs, saying that the power levels registered were high – 1,500 – but not at all like Vegeta's. Freeza thinks he'd like to know more about these mysterious people able to raise and lower their power levels at will, but decides that it's not really worth the time and effort, and tells his men to kill them if they appear again. Back at the ship, Bulma weeps as with their ship damaged, they'll never be able to go back home now. Kuririn tries to get her up and moving as they need to hide somewhere before stronger people come to look for the ones they took out, and Gohan says that based on how they acted and what they were wearing, all of this evil ki they're feeling are probably Vegeta's cohorts. The pair try to comfort Bulma with the idea that the Namekians will probably be able to fix their ship, but Bulma doesn't seem quite as optimistic. A short distance away, Cui has finally found Vegeta. Cui says it's time for them to settle their score, and accuses Vegeta of slacking off due to his lower power level. Vegeta however says that he learned something very interesting while on Planet Earth. Cui asks him if he learned a better way to run and hide, but Vegeta smiles as he reveals the real lesson he learned – how to hide his true power. Review: Things on Namek are quickly going from bad to worse, seemingly in favor of Freeza and his men – Cui is on his way to deal with Vegeta, something that Zarbon and Freeza seem to think he'll be capable of, and our heroes' presence has already been noticed by them as well. Before Bulma can go through with their plan to have her go back to Earth and the others lay low for a while, they're found by two of Freeza's men sent to check things out – things couldn't possibly get any worse! Except, you know – they do. The alien fighters, stupid as they may come off in other ways, are at least swift enough to take out any means of escape for the trio as they damage the space ship almost immediately. There was really only one way this could have been avoided frankly, and that would've been Gohan and Kuririn powering up immediately and taking them out rather than trying to surpress their powers first. I assume Kuririn's hope was that the villains would think they weren't worth the time and just leave, but...that was a pretty naive thought honestly, and it quickly bit them in the ass. The point has been made clear however – nobody's leaving Namek until this story arc is good and done. Of course, that was the only real threat these two soldiers posed, so as soon as they've achieved that narrative goal, they're quickly done away with. I don't know that Gohan and Kuririn's attacks actually killed them, but we never see them re-surface from the water either, so...Gohan may have just taken his first life at five years old. Before moving away from the topic of those two soldiers though, I do want to praise Toriyama's character designing abilities, especially now that we're reaching aliens that don't look as human as the Saiyans do. We've previously seen what Toriyama was capable of with the likes of the animal people, and even Piccolo and his King Piccolo born brethren, but the aliens we're getting to now are something else entirely. They're humanoid enough to be easily able to be shown fighting, but they're also very clearly not human in the least. It's a nice varied level of alien motifs that we're going to see repeated throughout the arc, and some of the most fun designs are sadly the mooks that we're not going to see get to do much either. As far as their outfit designs go, those are pretty basic in that they're all wearing some form of the armor that we've already seen the Saiyans wear since Raditz's arrival. That said, there are a few neat changes here and there as well. I particularly like the kind of energy gun that one of the soldiers is wearing and using. I'm not sure if anything is ever said about them in a guidebook anywhere or not, but I've always assumed it's essentially a device that helps focus energy for the soldiers that can't quite do it very well themselves – basically the most inept of Freeza's recruits. They can probably fire ki blasts on their own, but these devices make it easier and probably make the attacks stronger as well – again, that's all just my assumption on them though. With his soldiers taken out, you would think that Freeza would be more interested in what's going down on Namek that he's unaware of, but he takes it in a cool, unworried stride that goes a long way towards showing how in control he feels. He doesn't have the first clue what's going on, but it's of no concern to him – the only thing he is concerned about is getting the Dragon Balls, and as far as he knows, the only bug with even the most remote chance of getting in the way of that goal is Vegeta. And speaking of Vegeta, Cui seems pretty confident he can best the Saiyan too. The pair were previously considered to be about the same level of power, but as far as Cui's scouter can tell, Vegeta's been slipping and is weaker than Cui now. Unfortunately for the alien however, Vegeta didn't come away from the Earth with nothing but a loss, because he picked up a few tricks – namely the ability to hide how strong he really is, just as Gohan and Kuririn were doing earlier. I'm...not entirely sure HOW Vegeta picked up this trick, given it's never properly explained to him how it works, nor does he really get that much time to figure it out, but I assume it's just meant to show how quick of a learner Vegeta is as a fighter. Either way, if he's not just boasting, Cui could be about to be in for a bad, bad time. 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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