Synopsis: While Goku is amazed by something as simple as an escalator and Yamcha frets over what to say to Bulma, Husky and the two thieves continue to watch Goku from a distance. In the theme park, Goku and friends are treated to an extravagant light show at the entrance, only for Bulma to then realize she's misplaced their tickets. As they head inside, Husky easily steals three tickets for her and the two henchmen to allow them inside as well. Husky continues to follow Goku as he enjoys various rides with his friends. As he plays with Oolong and Puar on some giant balls, she throws a walnut hard enough to bounce it back off of the opposite wall of the glass domed ceiling, counting on the loud noise of a nearby roller coaster to mask it's sound as well. Despite this, Goku manages to detect it's approach and snatches it out of the air before it can hit him, causing him to look around in confusion for it's source. When Oolong asks what he's doing, Goku asks if he saw anyone up by the walnut trees, and Oolong says he didn't, prompting Goku to let it go. From the trees, Husky says this might be the first challenging job she's had in a long time. One of the thieves asks her how she'll steal the Dragon Balls, and she says she'll use her head. As Goku and Puar continue to play on various rides, Yamcha and Oolong take a break with some ice cream while Bulma sulks nearby. Bulma still won't say a word to Yamcha and Oolong asks him why he doesn't try harder to make things up to her, and Yamcha says he doesn't know how. Bulma thinks to herself that she won't say a word to him until he apologizes. As Goku comes back and harasses Oolong for some ice cream, the group hears a woman's cry for help coming from nearby. They rush over to find the two thieves trying to kidnap a veiled woman, and when they run off they check out the woman to make sure she's okay. The woman (Husky in disguise) immediately catches the attention of Oolong and a blushing Yamcha with how beautiful she is. The disguised Husky says she was just suddenly attacked out of nowhere, but Goku keeps staring at her like he's onto something. Eventually however, he remarks that she has a booger on her forehead, mistaking the fake mole Husky had applied there for snot. As Bulma wanders around on her own, she spots a large building across from a pond. Inside the building, the disguised Husky tells the group of boys that she's a fortune teller, and she wants to read their fortunes to repay them for saving her. Yamcha encourages Goku to have his fortune read, and Husky uses her inside knowledge to correctly tell Goku about his adventures at Muscle Tower, impressing everyone with her abilities. When Goku asks her for more, she tells him that she can sense two balls on his person. When he confirms he has them and she asks if she can see them, Husky thinks she's about to get her hands on the Dragon Balls, only for Goku to drop his pants and show her his “balls” instead. As the others chastise Goku over his mistake and laugh, Husky wonders if the kid is smarter than he appears. Yamcha tells Goku that it's probably the Dragon Balls she's talking about, and Goku pulls out his knapsack and shows them to her. From behind a curtain, the two thieves end up making a racket trying to quickly turn out the lights so Husky can switch the Dragon Balls with fakes, attracting Goku's attention. Seeing the bad guys again, Goku leaves the Dragon Balls in Yamcha's care and pursues the pair, with Oolong and Puar going with him. Husky thanks her luck as she's sure she'll have an easier time stealing them from Yamcha instead, and begins putting the moves on the bashful young man. Goku chases the thieves down and is able to corner them with the help of Oolong and Puar, while Bulma continues walking alone and realizes how bored she is without anyone around to take her mind off of her fight with Yamcha. She starts to wonder if she should make up with Yamcha after all as he's probably felt bad long enough for punishment. Husky moves closer and closer to Yamcha, even trying to kiss him, causing the young man to freak out and yell loud enough to catch Bulma's attention even over the sound of fireworks. Husky manages to steal the Dragon Balls from Yamcha, but as he stumbles backwards he overturns a pot where she'd shoved the real fortune teller who reveals that Husky is a fake. Husky begins chasing after Yamcha with a sword, and Bulma catches sight of them from behind, mistaking Yamcha holding Husky's arm at bay for the sight of them kissing. Bulma jumps in in a fury and throws a large box at Yamcha, taking him out of commission and allowing a confused but thankful Husky to tie him up and keep the Dragon Balls. Before she leaves however, she tells Yamcha everything, including how she's planted a bomb at the top of the large statue in the middle of the theme park. When asked why, Husky explains she was promised one million zeni to steal the Dragon Balls but an additional one million if she kills Goku, so she's going for the easy money. She uses a remote to set the bomb to explode in six minutes, giving her enough time to escape herself. Goku returns with the two thieves beaten and up and Yamcha tells him that the fortune teller took the Dragon Balls and has a gadget on her hip that Goku needs to get to stop everyone from exploding in six minutes. Wasting no time, Goku chases her down with kinto'un, the chase leading out of a hole in the theme park's domed ceiling. With three minutes to go, Husky starts firing her gun at the pursuing Goku, but nothing seems to shake him even as they fly back through the city. With less than a minute left, Husky tells Goku to give up, but her distraction causes her to crash her plane into a building. She is forced to jump out, only being saved by Goku tossing the nyoibo and catching her. With only seconds to go, Goku catches the remote and is somehow able to break it and prevent the bomb from exploding. As Husky dangles in mid-air and refuses to give him back the Dragon Balls, Goku tickles her until she drops them and he gets them back. Goku, Oolong, and Puar talk about what they've just been through while Yamcha wants to go look for the missing Bulma again. As they come to the front of Capsule Corp. however, Bulma marches out with a bag on her back and coldly stares down Yamcha before slapping him across the face. She tells him she hates him and that she's going to get the Dragon Balls to ask for a much better guy than him, and though even Goku seems to feel a little bad about leaving Yamcha like that, he and Bulma set off on kinto'un once more, this time leaving the city to search for the remaining Dragon Balls. Review: I mentioned in the last review that Husky was an interesting character. Having now re-watched this episode, I guess I should say that she has the makings of an interesting character if the right things are done with her, and...well, through really no fault of her own, I don't think that's really achieved here. At the very least, this episode definitely leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, though your own mileage may vary. There's basically two plot threads at work in this episode, the first being the primary one of Husky's attempts to steal the Dragon Balls, and the second being the continued friction between Yamcha and Bulma. Let's talk about the primary plot first. Husky's plans to try and steal the Dragon Balls from Goku start out in a very intelligent manner. She's clearly not making the same mistake a lot of people have before when confronted with the kid. After hearing what he's done to the Red Ribbon so far, and getting a first-hand account from her own henchmen, it's clear she knows exactly what she's dealing with and that she probably has to be a little careful to pull this heist off. Her ricocheting a walnut at Goku to test his skills is a pretty inspired moment as well, and it's clear from her reaction to the results that she fully realizes how tough he is despite his age. It's from there that she decides she needs to attack him in a different way, and her exact choice of subterfuge makes me wonder if a more specific description of what happened at Muscle Tower was given to her than we even realized. She certainly seems to zero in on his heroic nature pretty quickly. That said, the one thing she hadn't counted on was Goku's naivety and lack of understanding, as both leave her wondering if the boy's not shrewder than he lets on. He's not, but it's funny to see her think that. That said, her plan to kill Goku and take the Dragon Balls does start to fall apart a little bit towards the end. While I guess her wanting to blow up the entire amusement park is mostly to show how far she's willing to go for money as well as how seriously she takes the threat of Goku, it's not really clear exactly how she plans to get away with this. They didn't start this plan until they were following everyone, which means the bomb had to be planted during the timespan of the episode – what, there aren't security cameras in this big, elaborate park? It also doesn't really make sense that Goku is able to stop the bomb from exploding seemingly by breaking the remote, not when it's already set to go off. Then again, there was also a moment earlier in the episode where Bulma had lost the tickets, and then everyone just...strolls right in anyway. You can easily assume she just bought more of them, but it's weird that they make it a point to show the tickets as lost when Husky could have still figured out she needed to take some from other people just by seeing them use the initial tickets to get inside. It's weird inconsistencies like this that bug me, I blame Columbo really. Speaking of the theme park, I think I can speak for everyone when I say I totally want to go to the Mid-Air Amusement park. It looks fun as hell. Someone get to building this thing already! Alright, now let's talk about the lesser portion of the episode's plot, and one that unfortunately spoils the whole episode for me, and that's the continuing drama between Yamcha and Bulma. I mentioned last review how Bulma's attitude towards Yamcha is really undeserved and ill-fitting, and that continues to be the case here. Yamcha is shown to be nothing but worried about how to make things up to her, and the only time we see him with another woman is when Husky is hitting on him to get the Dragon Balls. And how does he react in that situation? The same way he always did in the past, showing that it's really only with Bulma that he's gotten over his fear of girls as totally as he has. Really makes you wonder what that first meeting with her mom was like, doesn't it? Either way, this just further highlights how over-the-top Bulma's reaction to Yamcha's non-crime is. If the character had been written to be shown enjoying the attention of other girls even a little bit, maybe this would all flow a little better – but he wasn't. The guy's practically a boy scout at this point. Even the ending with Bulma thinking she sees him kiss another woman feels undeserved, because while this is a misunderstanding that happens all the time in plenty of other works, here it's tied in solely by her rash attitude towards him in the first place. I like Bulma as a character, I really, really do. She's got enough going for her overall that makes a really fun character to have around. But when it comes to the matter of Yamcha? She's the biggest villain in the franchise, really. Until next time! Favorite Scene: Goku mistaking what kind of balls Husky is talking about is pretty hilarious, beyond that the rest of this episode is pretty bleh. Next Time: We return to the manga just in time for things to almost go in a very, very dark direction. Oof.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories
All
|