Synopsis: As the trio looks around the pirate bay, Goku wonders how somewhere so cool looking got inside a cave, while Bulma thinks this explains why nobody was ever able to find it before. Kuririn's sure that the treasure must be hidden somewhere in here as well. After looking at the large submarine before them, Bulma realizes there must be another way out somewhere – back when these pirates were using it, capsule technology didn't exist yet, so another exit big enough for the submarine is the only way they would have gotten the ship in and out of the bay. Watching all of this from afar, Blue decides it'd make more sense to let the kids find the Dragon Ball and treasure for him before he attacks. Goku suddenly get sthe feeling that somebody is nearby, scaring Blue back into hiding. When Kuririn asks if it's the Red Ribbon Army however, Goku says that what he's feeling doesn't feel human. As Bulma starts to worry that there might be pirate ghosts in the cave, a huge pirate robot suddenly jets out towards them, swinging it's massive sword at them. Goku (who grabs Bulma) and Kuririn are barely able to dodge out of the way in time, while Blue watches from afar. Goku and Kuririn continue to dodge the robot's attacks while fighting back, with Kuririn even managing to break the robot's sword. As the two wail on the robot, Blue sees this and realizes at last that he's up against martial artists. As Goku gets hit by the robot, he and Goku agree that the machine is tough and really knows how to fight, which Bulma shouts in that it must've been left here to guard the base from enemy attacks. Goku and Kuririn dodge another rain of bullets from the robot before Goku tells Kuririn to take Bulma and go look for the Dragon Ball while he takes care of the robot. Goku leaps out and kicks the robot into the water, providing his friends a chance to escape, though they are followed by the pursuing Blue. Goku watches for the robot to emerge, but when it doesn't he wonders if it drowned. Suddenly, it's tail snakes up out of the water and wraps around Goku's ankle before dragging him underwater and sending an electric shock into his body. Goku survives this however, and rips the part of the robot's tail wrapped around him off before desperately swimming back to the surface. He calls the robot a jerk as it finally makes him angry, and looks around to find they're now near a large building in the cave. Using an extended nyoibo, Goku gets on top of the building and waits for the robot to come out of the water. When it does and starts looking around for him, Goku leaps from the building and crashes into the top of it's head with a powerful Janken punch, breaking through it's skull-like head and defeating it. With the robot broken, Goku hurries to catch up with his friends. Kuririn hears the explosion from the broken robot and wonders if Goku is okay, only for the ceiling above them to start cracking from the shockwave. Bulma yells that they have to hurry before the whole place collapses, but they soon come to a corridor that goes in two different directions. Bulma tells Kuririn that she thinks the radar indicates the ball should be to the right, so Kuririn uses a rock to mark an arrow to the right on the ground for Goku. As they run in that direction however, Blue comes behind them and erases the arrow, replacing it with one pointing to the left. Shortly after, Goku comes to the path and sees the arrow pointing left, thinking he needs to go that way. Review: Having learned his lesson about proceeding too hastily, Blue opts to follow the kids and let them find the Dragon Ball and the treasure for him rather than fighting them and then looking for both himself. While this is a smart idea, I'm not sure how much credit we can really give him when he basically had that idea already when they first entered the cave, only to discard it as soon as he thought they didn't have any weapons. Come to think of it, he also had that idea right when they first found the cave too – he'd said something about letting them find where the Dragon Ball would be, and as soon as he saw a cave he opened fire. Blue really has a bit of a problem with jumping the gun, really. Speaking entirely for myself, I'd argue that the pirate robot might be one of the coolest designs Toriyama has ever given us for a machine in the entire franchise. It's striking, looks intimidating and effective while also having a certain goofy charm to it – what's not to love? I'd venture a guess it's skull design and perhaps even it's tail were both influenced by the xenomorph alien from Alien as well, especially considering a much later character would also draw inspiration from that design. Seeing Goku and Kuririn fight side by side is something that's really enjoyable even for the short time it's shown off here, and I'm a little sad it took until now for us to get to see that. I guess the story couldn't really have had them fighting together against Roshi for training ala Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura fighting Kakashi in the bell test from Naruto, not considering the tournament was ultimately coming down to both students facing off with Roshi in disguise...but it's still something that would have been entertaining enough to witness in it's own right. I'm no examiner of feats, at least not in a strict sense, but let's all just take a moment to marvel at how impressive it is that Goku managed to survive what was probably meant to be a pretty lethal electric shock, while underwater, thus making it even more potent. The kid just refuses to go down, doesn't he. The simplicity of putting an arrow on the ground only for someone to come from behind and change it is pretty inspired actually. It's something anyone could think of, but it's perfect for the situation the characters are in. Kuririn and Bulma don't exactly have a lot of time to come up with anything better, but even if they did, they need to leave a trail of metaphorical bread crumbs that even Goku would understand just from seeing it. It likewise makes sense that Blue, now knowing what he's up against a little better, would try to divide and conquer – especially when you remember that by this point, he's all alone and completely outnumbered. And finally, Goku is just naïve enough to look at an arrow on the ground and automatically assume it must be something telling him the correct way to go without ever questioning if it could be a trick – though in all fairness, none of them know that any of the Red Ribbon Army are still following them by this point, so he doesn't really have a reason to doubt it either. Sometimes the simplest solutions really are the best. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The emerging quirks of General Blue.
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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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