Synopsis: After the fall of Muscle Tower, Goku eats dinner with Suno's family plus the mayor and Android 8. After 8 reveals he had the Dragon Ball all along and hid it to protect the villagers, the mayor invites him to live with him. Android 8 is overjoyed at the offer but turns it down, stating that he can't live with the villagers because of the bomb hidden inside of his body, prompting Goku to remember the details of how he met 8 in the first place. The mayor says all hope isn't lsot however, as he's sure Professor Frappe can help them somehow. The family and mayor explain to Goku and 8 that Frappe is a resident of the village and a brilliant scientist, though he's somewhat anti-social and built his lab in the mountain recesses of the village where he lives all by himself. The father says that Frappe's nature won't have him agreeing to help just anyone, but Suno says that she'll go with them and ask as Frappe has always been fond of her. The trio of Goku, 8, and Suno decide to set out in the morning to meet Frappe. Meanwhile, in the rubble of Muscle Tower, Purple awakens at last, cursing his fate. As Goku, 8, and Suno prepare for bed, Goku discovers that his radar appears to be broken, so he resolves to ask Frappe to look at it for him as well. The trio set out on foot to visit Frappe. Suno points to the spot in the mountains where Frappe lives, and when Goku asks her what sorts of things the professor does, she says he works on really complicated things she doesn't understand, but is always willing to fix things for people in the village. Purple, who has begun to tail the trio, hides in front of a tree courtesy of his tree curtain, only for Goku to stop suddenly and pee on the tree. Now with wet pants, Purple vows that he won't let the boy get away with this and continues to tail them. The trio soon come to a frozen pond where Goku is amazed by being able to walk on water, and they play around on the ice for a bit, with 8 jumping onto the ice after them and cracking it a bit. As Purple tries to follow, remarking that only an idiot doesn't know what ice is, he lands where 8 did and falls through the cracked ice into the freezing water. The trio hear him and turn back to look, forcing Purple to hide under the water. They eventually decide they must be hearing things and leave, leaving Purple to search desperately for the open spot in the ice before he drowns. As the trio continues trekking through the snow, Purple dons a bear suit so that it won't be as much of a problem if they spot him. As they come to a hill, Suno points out Frappe's house. Purple slips and ends up enveloped in snow and barreling past them, crashing into a tree and again curses his fate. Suno knocks on Frappe's door and gets no answer, only for the professor to turn up behind them on a snowmobile instead. Once inside his house, the trio tells Frappe everything that's happened, and he says it's nice that peace has now returned to the village. Suno asks him if the Red Ribbon bullied him as well, and Frappe objects saying that they never bothered to check for anyone this deep into the mountains. Suno asks Frappe if he'll please remove the bomb inside of 8, and the doctor agrees. During the talk, Goku has fallen asleep on the couch, and when Frappe leaves to get him a blanket, he is accosted by Purple who says it's been a while. Purple threatens Frappe and tells him the only reason Muscle Tower fell was because of Android 8 being defective, and he chastises the scientist for making such an inferior product for them – Dr. Frappe, it seems, is the creator of Android 8! Purple tells Frappe to get the Dragon Balls from Goku so that the Red Ribbon can bounce back from this trouble, and if he refuses, he'll kill him. Suno walks in on this due to how long it was taking Frappe to get a blanket and ends up being taken hostage, forcing Frappe to do as Purple says. Frappe returns to the room to find both 8 and Goku have fallen asleep now, but 8 wakes up as Frappe is taking the Dragon Balls from Goku. Frappe runs and gives the Dragon Balls to Purple, but when Suno screams, it brings 8 running. Purple escapes through a window with Goku's knapsack, and Goku runs after him in hot pursuit when the ninja attempts to escape on Frappe's snowmobile. In the end, Goku is unable to catch up with Purple, so instead he launches a Kamehameha, barely missing the ninja but instead causing an avalanche of snow that ends up burying the man. From the snowfall, Goku finds his knapsack and is happy to find that his lunch, a pair of riceballs, is safe. Back at Suno's house, her parents and mayor still aren't sure how to feel about Goku leaving the Dragon Balls in their care even for a short while... Now free from distraction and further indebted to Goku and 8, Frappe performs the operation to remove the bomb from 8's chest successfully, overjoying Goku and Suno. When Frappe almost drops the bomb by accident, Goku catches the tiny device in his hand. The trio thank Frappe for his help, but Frappe returns Goku's radar to him, saying that it's too complicated for him to fix. Goku decides there really is nothing to do but go to Bulma's and have her fix it. As he's putting the radar away, he finds the bomb still in his pocket, and tosses it far away into the distance. As the trio leaves, Frappe thinks to himself that the only reason he built 8 and put the bomb in him at all was because the army said they'd kill all the villagers otherwise, and mentally asks for forgiveness from 8. In the mountains, Purple emerges from the snow and vows that he won't let himself be beaten like this. Before he can finish getting up however, the bomb lands on his face and explodes. Review: In all honesty, this might be my favorite episode of the filler material the anime version has given us so far, which I suppose is ironic in that it's the first bit of filler that absolutely cannot fit within the overall narrative of Dragon Ball, no matter how hard you'd try to make it fit. I may as well address the super obvious elephant in the room right at the start here. As any longtime fan will already be able to tell you, this is the only time Frappe is ever mentioned, and going by what we later learn, he is not the creator of Android 8 because as we later learn, all of the Red Ribbon's weaponry and the ensuing Androids years later are the result of Dr. Gero. As of the time this episode was created though, none of that was known or even planned yet – hell, Goku's origins weren't even a twinkle in Toriyama's eye at the time of this episode's creation. So while this episode unfortunately creates a bit of a plot hole in the anime overall, the staff at Toei can hardly be blamed for creating it when it seemed like the perfect narrative to base a stand-alone episode on. It even picks up on a story thread left dangling in the original manga, that being the bomb that's inside of Android 8. Just because the controller was destroyed doesn't mean the thing isn't still dangerous and could eventually get set off somehow or another, so fact that it's never addressed any further in the manga and thus can be assumed to still be inside of 8, even after all of this time, is more than a little concerning. I said before that the episode doesn't fit in the franchise's overall narrative no matter what you do, and it is definitely even more of an outlier than the previous filler. The manga doesn't have Goku running into Namu and Giran again, but nothing really prevents him from doing so at the start of this new adventure. It likewise doesn't have him running into Pilaf and crew or Gyu-mao and Chi Chi again at this time – the former doesn't really create any issues, but the latter does kind of futz a little with later events. It doesn't break with them entirely however, and the narrative is still able to be set back onto it's original course, albeit in a replaced way (the anime's version of events would have to overwrite the manga's, rather than both versions happening). The inclusion of Frappe just doesn't work at all unless you apply some head-canon that also overwrites the actual story given to us – you could assume Frappe was Gero's assistant, for example, or that Gero actually created 8 but Frappe was the one who added the bomb into him, or anything of that sort – but it's up to each individual fan if that sort of thing is their cup of tea or not. The other major element of this episode is the return of Purple, and he is back in excellent form after his let-down at the end of the manga's use for him. I think the writers must have realized the character works best when he's a complete goof rather than someone meant to be taken as a serious threat, and as such he's back to his regular antics here thankfully. They still manage to keep him as a villain, what with his threatening Frappe and taking Suno hostage, but it doesn't last long. The episode almost seems to be cueing him up to be a new ongoing threat for Goku throughout at least the rest of the arc to, what with his continual unexpected survival and vow to not let Goku get away with this – that is until he gets hit in the face with the bomb and explodes while happy music plays over a snowy backdrop with Goku, 8, and Suno walking home. Dying and the soundtrack is happy? Brutal. Until next time! Favorite Scene: It's really hard to pick between all of Purple's antics here, but I'd have to say it's his death that gets the biggest laugh out of me. Poor guy. Next Time: Big City Monkey
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