Synopsis: Kuririn tells Bulma to hide in the cave quickly, as he's pretty sure the energies Gohan and he feel heading towards them are friends of the guys they just beat up. Bulma wonders how they can possibly tell stuff like that, and as the trio hides in the cave, Freeza and his forces fly by. Bulma is relieved as this must mean they weren't looking for them after all, but Gohan and Kuririn are both petrified with fear. Kuririn asks Bulma to confirm something with her Dragon Ball radar, and when Bulma checks it, the four Dragon Balls they saw before have moved past them, confirming Kuririn's fears – the Dragon Balls have already been found by the group that just flew past them. Making matters worse, Kuririn asks if Gohan saw the one second from the front (Freeza), and Gohan confirms that he saw him...as well as felt his power, a power that Kuririn says may actually be a lot stronger than Vegeta's. Bulma wonders who they could possibly be if they're stronger than Vegeta, and Kuririn thinks they must be people Vegeta works with since they're all wearing the same armor. He curses their luck and wonders how they're supposed to get the Dragon Balls back from people like that. Checking her radar again, Bulma says the four Dragon Balls are now closing in on a fifth, and when Bulma points out which direction it's in, it turns out to be in the same direction Gohan and Kuririn felt possible Namekians in earlier. With no other choice, Gohan and Kuririn decide to go check things out, telling Bulma that it's safer to stay back in the cave. She says she'll set up a capsule house inside of it and call Roshi again, and Kuririn tells Gohan they'll need to hurry as fast as they can while keeping their power levels low, and the two run and leap quickly from island to island. Back on Earth, Goku is trying to do sit-ups in his hospital room. His doctor and nurse come back to check in on him and chastise him for continuing to do things that will make his recovery take longer. The doctor says he still doesn't believe Goku's claim that he got hurt fighting aliens, but reminds Goku that he is severely injured. When the doctor asks Goku where his wife is, Goku says she got bored so she went shopping. Roshi arrives and (as well as harassing the nurse) tells Goku what Bulma just informed him of, namely that Vegeta is on Namek now and that he's not alone – he has 'friends' there as well, and one of them seems to have a power even greater than Vegeta's. Goku is at first horrified by this news, but Yajirobe soon interrupts, bringing with him a bag with seven senzu beans, all that Karin could grow in this amount of time. He gives Goku one despite the doctor's complaint, and after eating it Goku grins and breaks out of his casts. Changing out of the hospital gown and into another gi that Kaio-sama sent him, Goku takes the other senzu from Yajirobe and says he'll be heading to Namek. Roshi questions how he's going to do that, and Goku explains that when Bulma's dad came to visit him before, he asked him to make a space ship for him as well, just in case. Roshi asks if it's the same sort of ship as Kami's, but Goku says that one was made of material they couldn't figure out how to make. Instead, Goku had remembered that there had been two other Saiyan pods to come to the Earth before Nappa and Vegeta's arrival – his brother Raditz's (which Gohan broke), and his own from when he was a kid. Dr. Brief was able to find it and has been repurposing it into a ship that can take Goku to Namek in only six days time. With that, Goku calls kinto'un from his hospital room window and leaps out onto it, saying that he's off to save everyone now, terrifying the watching doctor and nurse as he heads for Bulma's house. Yajirobe asks Roshi who he's off to save, and Roshi says his son and his two oldest friends. Yajirobe is shocked that Goku would look so excited when something horrible is clearly happening, and Roshi can only think it's because of his Saiyan blood. He knows Goku truly cares for his friends and family, but there will always be a part of him that loves going up against strong opponents. Yajirobe says he doesn't know whether to pity or admire him, as Goku proves Roshi right as he flies through the sky, excitedly thinking about people even stronger than Vegeta. Review: If Gohan and Kuririn thought for a moment that maybe things were going to be easy because they took out those two aliens with ease, and all they have to do is hide from Vegeta...well, I think it's pretty clear that they no longer labor under any such delusion. The energies they feel flying past them as they hide are all really impressive, but worse than that, they now know about Freeza. They don't know his name, they don't know who he is other than what they've gathered based on everyone wearing Saiyan armor, but they absolutely know he's not someone they want to mess with if they can avoid it. I know I'm harping a lot on how imposing the story is making Freeza, but that's because it's very much the main event happening in these early chapters. In a similar fashion to Nappa and Vegeta being built up as impressive by Raditz being considered a “weakling” in comparison to them, Freeza is likewise being built up to be even more impressive by being described as way stronger than the likes of Vegeta, as well as the amount of really powerful people following him. The Saiyans were a motley crew of three; Freeza's army, even just the small collection of people we're seeing around him right now, are much more numerous and incredibly powerful. Even without seeing him fight, Freeza is being cast as the worst thing that any of our heroes could possibly come up against, and it's an element that Toriyama is going to continue to work moving forward. Making matters worse of course is the fact that Freeza's group already has the majority of the Dragon Balls and they're on their way to grab another one. Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma are all having to play catch-up, and given what's at stake, that's not a good position for them to be in. As Gohan and Kuririn leave Bulma behind in the cave too, you may as well say goodbye to Bulma's involvement in this story arc as well. Sadly, her job was pretty much done the minute she got them all to Namek. It's sad because this is just the sort of adventure that she previously had a part to play in back in Dragon Ball, but now with the powers inflated to the degree there are, Toriyama doesn't seem to be able to figure out a way to include her in all the fun. It's a really big waste, and I can't help but think Toriyama must have thought so as well because (jumping WAY ahead for a moment), she'll end up having much more of a part to play in the arc after this one...even if part of that inclusion is, well...kind of sexist. We'll touch on that when we get to it though, and there is at least a little bit of anime original filler that gives Bulma something to do on Namek, so it's not all bad. The chapter then switches focus back to Earth, where we see Goku still being an absolute nuisance to the hospital staff watching over him. I'd wager this is likely where the anime staff were inspired to do some of the filler they did in previous episodes, as it's definitely where the designs for Goku's doctor and nurse come from, as well as some similar banter between them, Goku, and Roshi. Roshi gives Goku the bad news from Namek, but a stroke of good news follows immediately when Yajirobe shows up with senzu – this is basically going to be his job moving forward, but given he likely wants absolutely no part of fighting ever again after his run in with Vegeta, I don't think he's complaining really. Now fully healed, Goku is quick to suit up and head off to Namek, but there's a handful of curiosities in this scene as he leaves. First, Goku has a new gi straight from Kaio-sama. It looks the same as his previous gi, right down to having the Kaio kanji symbol on the back and the Kame symbol on the front. Like his previous one, Goku says this one was sent to him by Kaio-sama. The question though is, uh...how? I'm assuming given that Kaio-sama is shown to have telepathic communication powers, and he is a god and all, that he simply teleports them to Goku at some point during his hospital stay, but that's really all I can can give is an assumption, as the story doesn't really go into how this was done. The fact that it doesn't isn't a problem really, it's not a big deal, but it's still something that caught my eye. Secondly, when Roshi questions how Goku is going to get to Namek, Goku reveals that he's been having Dr. Brief work on a space ship for him based on what was left of his own space ship, the one that he was sent to Earth in as a child. This is a brilliant use of information previously revealed to us that didn't seem like it would ever come back up again, and it's really impressive to me that Toriyama thought of it. It makes perfect sense as a way to get a second space ship far more capable than any Earth can make right now as well, and it works great as a way to get Goku to Namek in far shorter time than his friends did (something that, given the danger they're all in, is important). Kami's ship is a few hundred years old, and what we've been told about the Namekians is that they're mostly peaceful. Goku's space pod however is only a couple decades old probably, and it was used by the Saiyans to get from planet to planet for the purposes of conquering them. With how fast these ships can go though, and especially one as old as Goku's, it also brings to light that Nappa and Vegeta must have been really, REALLY far away from Earth if it took them roughly a year to get there with their presumably newer ships. And third and finally, there's Goku's curious reaction once he's back on his feet and heading to Bulma's house so he can hop on his nice shiny new spaceship and head out into space. While he was injured, Goku was worried about his friends and son, but as soon as he's healed, Goku's reaction changes completely. He's now eager to get to Namek, seemingly not only to save them, but also to see what people way stronger than Vegeta are like. This is a purely Goku reaction, it's the sort of thing we've seen from him time and again, which is why his fearful reaction when Raditz arrives stuck out so much in comparison. Here however, it's finally being noted as something his friends and master have observed about his nature as well, and Roshi gives a probable reason for Goku being this way: his Saiyan heritage. I'm a bit mixed on this 'retcon' as it were, honestly. On the one hand, it's a completely fitting trait to give a race like the Saiyans, who we've already seen crave battle above all else. At the same time though, taking a trait that was Goku's and just going 'Oh, well it's because of his genetics' can come across a little bit like it's taking away from who Goku is and instead just coloring him the same as the Saiyans in some ways. This is going to be a big sticking point for Goku's character arc in this storyline, so I'm fine with it in this particular instance, but there'll be more times that we'll see a feature of Goku's taken and applied to the Saiyans as a whole, and I'm not really happy that this first moment sets that slippery slope precedent. Oh, and as another aside – did anyone else notice that Roshi refers to Kuririn and Bulma as Goku's oldest friends? I'm sure he meant that in a general sense, but he's known Yamcha longer and they were still close as well. And even with Yamcha being dead, he's also known Oolong longer too. Speaking of Oolong and Puar, where the heck ARE they anyway? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Goku heads into space!
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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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