Synopsis: Goku has made his way to West City and has gotten into all kinds of antics in the city, including almost getting robbed by two thieves in an alleyway. He was successful in defeating the thieves however and meeting a kindly policeman who has taken him to Bulma's house at last. The policeman doesn't want to leave Goku alone at Capsule Corp., but thankfully Bulma's quick arrival grants Goku the entrance he needed, so the trio head inside of Capsule Corp. to talk. Once inside they meet Dr. Brief, and Bulma takes Goku upstairs where she fixes the dragon radar and shows off her shrinking wrist-watch, leading to the introduction of Bulma's mother. At Red Ribbon HQ, when Red realizes that Goku has headed to West City, he laughs and says he's just jumped into the den of a master thief – with a payment of one million zeni, the army commissions the help of Husky, a lady thief so renowned that they say there's nothing she cannot steal. The master thief herself is soon seen returning to her hideout just as two of her minions return as well – the two thieves that tried to rob Goku, who they're still griping to each other about. Husky greets them by firing a gun at them and says she wants their help in finding a kid before showing them a picture of the very kid that they were beaten by. As Bulma's mother tells Goku about Yamcha and Bulma's fight, a crowd of girls can be overheard screaming Yamcha's name from outside. They seem to be his self-professed fan club who have brought gifts for him, and when Goku shouts down to them that Yamcha's not there right now, they're non-plussed and continue to shout for him. Bulma, growing angrier and angrier, shouts down to them that he's not there and then tells Goku she'll show him around town, as Bulma's mother explains that Yamcha's good looks have made him quite popular with all of the girls in town, a fact that drives Bulma mad. The teasing by Bulma's father and the officer seeing kinto'un and Bulma shrinking still takes place before the officer rides off on his suped-up scooter, with the only change being that now Bulma and Goku are still in the city rather than leaving it right away. Bulma points Goku down to the busiest street in the city to show off the sights, and the duo ends up being seen by the two thieves from before, albeit briefly. As Goku flies kinto'un further over the city, he spots something towering above the city that catches his eye. Bulma explains that the large domed area is the Mid-Air Amusement Park that apparently just opened the other day. Bulma tells them they should go there, but Goku spots Yamcha first and zooms down to meet up with him, Oolong, and Puar. Oolong asks if Goku has met Bulma yet, but Bulma hides in Goku's shirt and makes him hide that she's there. Oolong tells Goku about Yamcha and Bulma's fight, and Goku says Bulma even said a little while ago that she hates Yamcha, terrifying the fighter and annoying Bulma that he told him. Oolong and Puar try to cheer Yamcha up by telling him he's better off and calling Bulma a spoiled brat, and Yamcha agrees that she can be hard to deal with. As he starts to say something else however, Bulma hops out of Goku's shirt and returns to normal size to chew them all out. She tells Goku to hurry and follow her to the amusement park, and Yamcha lies and says they were just on their way there too so that they all tag along, much to Bulma's annoyance. Watching from afar, the two thieves and Husky follow behind the group with the intention to take the Dragon Balls from Goku. Husky thinks that the job will be easy due to Goku's age, even if he does seem insanely skilled and perceptive for his age. Review: This first episode of a two-part filler storyline composes itself in a rather interesting way. Like the more drawn out introduction to Colonel Silver and the Red Ribbon Army as a whole, this episode weaves itself into existing manga material in a way that makes it seem like this story has to happen for the anime to keep proceeding. At the same time though, it tells a more stand-alone story, not unlike the Namu and Giran filler. As this episode is mostly dealing with the setup of the story however and such a large part of it is covering material that was in the manga, this will probably be a really brief episode to cover in comparison to the second. We don't get much of Husky's character in this episode, but she's a really interesting character from the start none-the-less. She's not a member of the Red Ribbon at all and is merely hired on to try and deal with Goku, which puts her much more in line with the likes of a character we'll be meeting later on, with the only major difference being that she's a thief rather than an assassin. I don't recall if this episode aired before the manga was at that point in the story or not (I'd assume not, but you never know), but it's entirely possible the existence of one influenced the other. Either way, it further shows how far reaching the Red Ribbon's connections are when they're able to pony up quite a bit of cash to hire the best of the best from the criminal underworld. A further interesting choice is having Husky tie in with the two thieves that tried to rob Goku. In the manga, those two are a one and done occurrence, there's nothing more important to them than that one moment. Having them tie back in to this filler somehow makes it all feel more organic, so kudos to the writer's for thinking of it. The rest of the episode and it's further setup for the following one is all about Bulma and Yamcha's rocky relationship. In the manga, we never see Yamcha at this point, so all we really get to go on is her point of view. But let's be honest – everything we see here in regards to Yamcha makes a lot of sense for his character and is probably true in the manga as well. It might be a little surprising that Yamcha is a hit with the girls, but let's not forget that Bulma thought he was handsome as could be when she first met him, so it's not that crazy to think that other girls would too. And from what we get to see here, he doesn't exactly seem to be relishing in the attention by any means. In fact, it seems like the only thing on his mind is trying to make things right with Bulma, because even though she can be rather loud and, frankly, abusive towards him, he still seems to care for her deeply. Bulma meanwhile...well, she pretty much fits everything her mother is saying about her in both the manga and anime version's of the scene. She's outrageously jealous of Yamcha even being looked at by other girls, and automatically seems to assume he's being unfaithful or is going to be unfaithful because of it. This is a long, long burning background thing that will end up resulting in a rather big and important plot twist way later down the line. Even with that in mind though, I loathe this aspect of the story. It completely devalues and demeans Yamcha for no reason at all. It's not enough the poor guy ends up having to be the story's literal punching bag, he has to be it's emotional one too? Poor guy. We get a brief look from the outside at the Mid-Air Amusement Park that I'm sure I'll have at least a little bit to say about, but that'll have to wait until we actually get to see the inside of the thing. Until next time! Favorite Scene: It's technically in the manga too, but I really enjoy Dr. Brief's garden in the anime, as it's even been upgraded to include a Toribot hanging from a tree and even the kaiju Baragon. Next Time: I think every time we see Goku at a theme park something goes wrong.
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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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