Synopsis: As Piccolo and his attendant settle in to King's castle, Karin asks Goku if he'd like to drink the Super Holy Water, explaining that it could draw out Goku's hidden strengths. Goku eagerly agrees to try it, and Karin explains his first task then will be finding it. He tells Goku of a labyrinth of ice in the far northern reaches and of a cavern beyond that where the water is said to be. Goku vows to find the water and bring it back, and even tries to get Yajirobe to come with him, but Yajirobe refuses, instead leaving to use the bathroom. On his way back up, Yajirobe spots a jar off on it's own and wonders if Karin has hidden better food there. Upon opening it, he finds that it's very cold inside, and ends up falling inside of it just moments before Goku and Karin enter, with Karin explaining that the entrance to the ice cavern is through the jar. Before Goku leaves, Karin warns Goku to be careful if he comes face to face with the Darkness, an entity that almost seems like it's alive and may be keeping the water away from people. Once Goku is in the cavern, Karin tells him to return to the spot he fell to once he has the water and he'll give him a lift back up. Karin decides to take a nap unil Goku returns, only to discover Yajirobe is nowhere to be found. Goku begins wandering his way through the ice cavern and soon comes upon an annoyed Yajirobe who just wants to leave this place. Goku follows Yajirobe as he tries to get back to the entrance, but the pair soon finds that they're already lost. Yajirobe angrily kicks at an ice block only to discover someone frozen inside, and he realizes that if they don't find a way out of here soon, he and Goku will be next. As the pair tries to leave, the ice beneath their feet begins to crack and spews out a frozen wind that forms a large ice monster before their eyes. The creature tries to freeze and blow away the pair, and Yajirobe tries to stop it by cutting it in half, but the creature's top half reforms in an instant. Goku tries next to knock it down, but his attacks have no effect either. With nothing left to try, Goku blows the creature away with a Kamehameha, prompting the dark, foreboding voice of Darkness to awaken from down below, questioning itself as to why humans have once again tried to seek it's cave. Even Goku's Kamehameha proves unable to stop the ice monster for good, and as Yajirobe flees, he accidentally drops a bunch of senzu beans he'd stolen and hidden in his shirt. As he tries to pick them all up, the ice monster almost catches them, and Goku quickly hops onto Yajirobe and the pair skate down a long ice slide, finally escaping the creature and ending up in the cavern at last. As the Darkness says that it appears they have guests, a familiar looking person steps forth from the shadows – Kame-sennin?! Review: As stated in my last review, a big part of my problem with the Super Holy Water is how cheap of a power-up it is given that Goku effectively doesn't have to go through any sort of training or ordeal to get it, and that it's part of the story is over and done with so quickly that it renders the whole thing feeling even cheaper as a result. Either the staff at Toei felt the same or they just needed to pad things out a little bit further, because in this version of events, Goku doesn't just get handed the Super Holy Water by Karin, he actually has to go on a bit of a quest to get it in the first place. This, in my humble opinion, is a VAST improvement upon this material. Sure, it's still a cheap power-up, but at least here Goku actually has to DO something first to get it. The ice labyrinth and the cavern beyond it are portrayed just as mysterious and spooky as Karin describes them too, with Goku and Yajirobe getting lost almost immediately, and even getting set upon by a mysterious ice creature just because they happen to be there. I can't really say if Yajirobe was really needed for this venture, and things may have been even more interesting if it was just Goku on his own once again – especially given Yajirobe's reluctance to even do anything else at this point anyway – but I can't really blame Toei for wanting to establish the character even further. For all they knew, he was going to be a pretty important character moving forward, so they wanted to get people as endeared to him as much as possible. Either way, I honestly can't remember if the senzu beans he brought with him come into play before this filler story is done or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do – things have only just been changed to be a healing item, and they're already primed to be abused. Before I talk about the end of the episode, I should mention there's a few moments in the episode that I intentionally didn't really mention in the synopsis. There's a scene of Tenshinhan practicing the Mafuba, likely taken from the last chapter of the manga, but there's also a few scenes with King Piccolo, and...Suno from the Muscle Tower story arc? Anyone who's only followed the manga up until this point would be bound to be confused, that's for sure. It's not material I'll really be covering here due to how much of it is scattered about in episodes that are chiefly canon material, so I'll keep it brief – in the anime version of the King Piccolo arc, Toei padded things out a bit by showing us a few more characters involved in things than the manga version did. This ranged from showing more martial artists dying to Tambourine, to a brief check in with Gyu-mao and Chi Chi, and most importantly here, a sub-plot about Suno coming to King's castle as part of a celebration only to be caught up in things when King Piccolo takes over. This ultimately leads to Android 8 coming to save her in events that I also won't really be going over in these reviews either, but suffice to say it's all innocent enough material that doesn't really interfere with the original manga material in any harmful way. In fact, it's nice to see some of these old characters again and see how something like King Piccolo's reign, which is already affecting the whole world, are reacting to things. Again, it's ultimately too married to episodes that are largely covering material from the manga though, so it ends up on the chopping block unfortunately. It's a shame, but it is what it is. The episode itself ends with another cryptic tease of the Darkness that Karin spoke of, as well as the sudden reappearance of Roshi, who we know to be dead currently. Of all the things that had to have gotten fan's brains going at the time, I'm sure this one had to really gotten people wondering what the plan was (especially since the manga would have been much further ahead in the story by this point). Is Roshi using his one day back like Grandpa Gohan did, and if so, why does he seem to be helping this 'Darkness'? Hmm... Until next time! Favorite Scene: The final scene of the Darkness speaking and Kame-sennin stepping out is pretty great and mysterious. Next Time: Roshi is alive? That seems awfully sus...
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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
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