Synopsis: Goku wakes up aboard kinto'un, still flying through the sky in search of the four-star Dragon Ball. Seeing that the sun has risen already, he stops to take a drink from a river before checking the Dragon Radar to see if he's gotten closer to the signal it picked up. It detects that he has just a little bit further to go, so he happily hops back onto the cloud and continues his travel. A short distance away, a soldier wakes up as well and exits the house he was sleeping in. His commander, Colonel Silver, accosts him for sleeping in so late, saying there's no time to waste. The scared soldier apologizes and gets into his truck, while Silver explains that Commander Red has been urging them to find what they're looking for as fast as possible: it seems another group of soldiers, Brown squad, has already found theirs. As the soldier drives away with another soldier, a dog man, in tow, Colonel Silver says what it is they're looking for: Dragon Balls! Shortly after, the two soldiers are poking around in the wilderness trying to find where the Dragon Ball could be. They don't have much hope as they've already been searching for twenty days without finding it, but they don't have much choice but to keep trying. Their search is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Goku, who hops off kinto'un and checks his radar again. The Dragon Ball is close! As he starts to poke around as well, the soldiers threaten him but stop once Goku almost effortlessly finds the six-star Dragon Ball that's eluded them for close to a month. Goku is surprised the two guys know about the Dragon Balls, and the human soldier demands that Goku hand it over if he wants to live. Goku sticks his tongue out at the man, who promptly grabs hold of him only for Goku to kick him and send him flying away. The dog soldier fires his gun, but Goku is able to dodge the bullets with ease, landing before the soldier and punching him hard in the gut, before sending him flying with a kick as well. Goku is disappointed that the Dragon Ball he found wasn't the one he was looking for, but figures he may as well keep it for now. The human soldier gets back up and quickly radios Silver, telling him what happened. Rushing out of the house from before, Silver spots Goku overhead and fires a rocket at him, destroying kinto'un. Goku is angry at the loss of his gift from Roshi, but Silver demands that the boy tell him why he's gathering the Dragon Balls and how he was able to find one so quickly – even the Red Ribbon Army's radar is only able to locate an approximate location. Goku says he has nothing to tell the guy who destroyed kinto'un, but Silver smirks and takes off his coat, telling Goku not to underestimate a Colonel of the Red Ribbon Army. Review: At long last, we're entering one of my favorite, and one of the most important, story arcs in the Dragon Ball franchise – the Red Ribbon Army is here. You might think I'm exaggerating, but while this arc isn't perfect, I do really enjoy it quite a lot. It's a longer arc, and for some it might outstay it's welcome, but after the relatively straight forward arc's before it, I feel like this really was the best direction for the story to go next. It sees us through multiple locales, utilizes characters both new and old in various ways (though admittedly, the pre-existing cast may be a little too underutilized here), and it gives us a bunch of really great fights. It even gives us a crossover with Toriyama's previous manga series, Dr. Slump – now THAT'S gonna be fun to talk about once I get there. I also stand by this being one of the most important story arcs in the series as well, because it's the only one that directly causes a later story arc to happen. Most of the story arcs in Dragon Ball are fairly stand-alone, with really only the two Piccolo arcs and the Saiyan to Freeza arcs being directly related to one another. Usually, an arc's connection to a previous arc is superficial at best, mainly reliant on characters appearing that we've seen before or something being mentioned that happened in the previous story. This arc however ends up setting up an arc that won't happen for a long, long time afterwards, and while it was definitely not on Toriyama's mind at the time of writing this particular story arc, it can't be denied that without the Red Ribbon Army storyline, there is no Androids/Cell storyline. There is no Gohan coming into his own as a fighter (at least not as we get to see it), and considering how popular that particular story beat is, it's a shame that this story that is a direct predecessor to it is so slept on. But that's the fate of original Dragon Ball, sadly. But enough about what's still ahead, let's talk about this chapter in particular. As much as I go on about loving this arc, this opening chapter itself doesn't really give much to talk about, as it's mainly just setting up the new conflict of someone other than Goku looking for the Dragon Balls. Even with this bare-bones setup however, we do get somewhat of an inkling that this won't be like the previous Dragon Ball hunt. Last time, the gang didn't run into someone else who wanted them until the very end of the journey (Yamcha doesn't really count because he only started to pursue the Dragon Balls after his run-in with them), and the various mentions of the Red Ribbon Army certainly bring to mind a more formidable force than Pilaf and his two cronies. It also makes a huge difference that, at least for now, Goku is going to be all alone in this fight, he won't have anyone else's smarts to help cover up for his own weaknesses. Luckily for Goku however, he's gained a lot of strength since the last Dragon Ball hunt, and certainly since the last time he was on his own. While Goku kicking away mooks with ease isn't anything we haven't seen before, him dodging bullets fired from extremely close range is a whole other league from him taking them head-on and surviving due to it being for gag purposes. You could almost say Goku is too overpowered already actually, and I think Toriyama may have realized this, hence his decision to take kinto'un out of the equation, even if only temporarily. Goku might be strong, but he's not infallible, and it's going to be really hard to get around to the other Dragon Balls if he has to go the whole way on foot. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Colonel Silver, Goku's next “great” challenge!
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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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