Synopsis: Goku gets to Capsule Corp. in short order, and quickly hops down off of kinto'un to start looking for Dr. Brief and the spaceship. He runs into Bulma's mother first, and she happily greets him and seems glad to see him doing so well. Goku asks her if Dr. Brief is done re-building the spaceship, and she says she's pretty sure he's still puttering around with it out back. Taking Goku's arm with hers, Bulma's mom leads the way to the back yard, praising Goku for growing up to be so handsome and to invite him out drinking some time, as well as to thank him for saving the Earth so she could end up finding this great little pastry shop. They soon arrive at the ship, and Goku is surprised to see how big it is. Goku asks if it really isn't finished yet, and Dr. Brief says it's almost done. He invites Goku inside to take a look around, as his wife leaves to get them something to drink as well as to tell Oolong and Puar that Goku's here. As Goku steps inside the ship, Dr. Brief explains that he had to practically re-build the entire thing, but as a result Goku should be able to train all he wants inside of it. Goku asks him if the artificial gravity generator works, and Dr. Brief says it does, explaining that it can handle up to 100x Earth's gravity. He warns Goku that trying to survive that would be insane though as even Goku would probably die as a result, and Goku says that if he'd never managed to get used to higher levels of gravity, he would never have been able to fight Vegeta. Goku then asks if the ship is able to fly yet, and Dr. Brief says it can and should get him to Namek in six days. As Dr. Brief further tells Goku where the bathroom, kitchen, and bedrooms are, Goku asks him what isn't finished yet, and Dr. Brief says he just hasn't figured out the best place to put the stereo system yet. Goku asks if that's really all that isn't done, and Dr. Brief starts to lecture him about proper stereo placement, but Goku tells him about everyone being in danger on Namek, something that even Dr. Brief agrees sounds pretty urgent. Goku has Dr. Brief show him how to fly the ship, and Goku leaves almost immediately after, launching into space just as Bulma's mom returns with drinks and Oolong and Puar in tow. Oolong and Puar ask if Goku already left, and Oolong scoffs saying that Goku could have at least said hi first, though Puar thinks something must have happened if he left in such a hurry. As the ship flies through space, Goku marvels at how dark it is, but decides to get down to training, as six days isn't a lot of time to get ready to fight Vegeta again. Going to the gravity machine, Goku remembers that Kaio-sama's planet was about ten times that of Earth's gravity, so Goku decides to try out twenty times first. The effect is immediate, and Goku struggles to move, but says he'll have to get used to it if he ever wants to be able to withstand higher levels of Kaio-ken. On Namek, Gohan and Kuririn rush in the direction of the Namekian energy they felt earlier, trailing behind Freeza and his men. Kuririn tells him that they're getting close so he cautions Gohan to lower his energy, and as they reach a cliff, they stop running and move slowly to peek over the edge. They see a small village full of buildings that look a lot like their ship, and soon notice Freeza, Dodoria, and Zarbon, with Kuririn singling them (especially Freeza) out as the scariest people there. Kuririn then notices the Dragon Balls beneath Dodoria and Zarbon's arm, and is surprised by how large they are. Dodoria seems to hear something and glances up in their direction, prompting them both to hide quickly. Freeza asks Dodoria what's the matter, and Dodoria says his scouter picked up a small power level on that cliff for a moment but it disappeared immediately, so he writes it off as an animal. From inside one of the Namekian buildings, one of Freeza's men says they've only found five people as the rest just left apparently, and they drag the ones left behind out by force. As an elderly man and two small children are brought out, Kuririn recognizes them as Namekians due to them looking like Kami and Piccolo. Review: It might not amount to much for them, hell for two of them it's little more than a cameo, but this chapter actually makes a grand return in the manga for four characters that we haven't seen in it's pages for a long, long time. Bulma's parents weren't introduced until the Red Ribbon Army arc, and if I'm being honest, I...I think this might be the only time we've seen them SINCE then, at least as far as the manga goes. Oolong and Puar fare a little better as we saw them at least fleetingly in the Saiyan arc. It's still pretty crazy to think about how much their roles have shrunken since the old days though, but if Toriyama is struggling to come up with a way to include Bulma in the proceedings, then it's probably for the best that he didn't try to force Oolong or Puar's characters in any further as well. That said, their limited appearances make it pretty hard to figure out where the heck they live nowadays too. Puar we can assume lives with Yamcha, so presumably at Bulma's, but where the heck does Oolong stay? Seeing Bulma's parents again is great though, because the aloof nature of their characters has always cracked me up. Now that Goku's an adult, Bulma's mother pretty much seems to be flirting with him too, and while that happens before they reach her husband, given their nature I don't think Dr. Brief would have really minded that much either...hmm. At any rate, Goku's ship is completely unrecognizable as previously having been a Saiyan pod now that Dr. Brief has worked on it, with the only real similarity left being the spherical shape they share. This thing's way more spacious than even Kami's ship though, and it has it all. It's got a bedroom, it's got a bathroom, it's got a kitchen, it even has...an artificial gravity device? More on that in a second. The one thing the ship doesn't have apparently though is a stereo, and the fact that Dr. Brief considers that to be an absolutely crucial working of the ship will never not be hilarious to me. Even when he finds out his daughter's in danger, he basically goes 'Oh, well that's not good. ...You sure you don't want a stereo though, I'm pretty sure I can get one installed in, like, an hour.'. I love it, so, so much. Once Goku leaps into space, he starts his training with the artificial gravity machine as soon as he can. The device does pretty much exactly what it sounds like it does, somehow creating a field inside the ship that simulates gravity while also having the ability to increase said gravity many times over what Earth naturally has. As a result, Goku is able to continue his weight based training that he's been doing ever since the turtle shells Roshi gave him and Kuririn, but now taken to the most absolutely ludicrous degree possible – hey, if the gimmick isn't broke, why fix it? Kaio-sama's planet had a gravity ten times that of Earth, so to start getting stronger almost immediately, Goku decides to start things off at twice that, a whopping twenty times Earth's gravity. It's noted that the machine itself can handle up to a hundred times Earth's gravity, though Dr. Brief thinks anything remotely close to that would kill Goku. Hmm, does anyone else smell foreshadowing, or is it just me? As the scene switches back to Namek, we see Gohan and Kuririn still having to play things safe on their approach towards the Namekians, and they still almost manage to get caught – these Scouters are definitely a pain in their butts. That said, this does all create an interesting dynamic to tie our characters down now that they've all gotten so strong and have such amazing abilities. During the Saiyan arc, the only time the Scouters were an issue were when Goku and Piccolo knew it meant Raditz would know they were coming. After that, they were pretty much a liability for the Saiyans who used them, existing purely to give them misleading numbers from our heroes. Now though, Gohan and Kuririn are surrounded by people far stronger than them that they really don't want to find them, and they're forced to keep their powers as restrained as possible, to the point that they can't even freely fly around. This is a much more satisfying use of the Scouters in my opinion, as rather than just giving us math for no reason other than 'this number looks impressive, right?', they're actually hindering what our characters can do and forcing them to get creative. There's two other small things I wanted to touch on real quick that I realized I forgot to mention before. Firstly, the Namekian Dragon Balls are way, WAY bigger than the Earth ones. It's a small touch, but I like it as a way to differentiate them in appearance, since without that they'd look exactly the same, and that's just boring. Secondly, Freeza's level of politeness is so extreme that he even refers to his direct underlings with manners, referring to Dodoria as 'Mr. Dodoria' on occasion. His face makes it clear that this is all just the calm before what could be a storm however, and this polite facade he has going on actually serves to make him even creepier, because you just know that when that facade goes away... Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The cruelty of Freeza...
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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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