Synopsis: After successfully catching Bubbles the monkey, Goku asks Kaio-sama what he should do for his training next. After Kaio-sama makes a few jokes that go over Goku's head, Goku questions if the god is really that strong at all, prompting a voice to come out of nowhere and chastise him for saying such a thing. An orb of light flies up and knocks Goku over before revealing itself to be a small cricket like being, which introduces itself as Gregory and continues to chastise Goku for speaking ill of the highest god in the universe. As Gregory tries to make his point, Kaio-sama continues to laugh at a pun he just made, and decides that Gregory will give Goku his next training session. Goku is disappointed as he really wanted to train with Kaio-sama directly next, but Gregory is looking forward to putting Goku in his place. Kaio-sama summons a large mallet out of thin air and tosses it to Goku who is surprised to find out how much it weighs. Kaio-sama tasks Goku with chasing Gregory and hitting him with the hammer, saying that once he's achieved that, then Goku will get the direct training he wants. Gregory thinks Goku will never be able to catch him and flies up into the air before flying back and forth towards Goku, faster than Goku can react, knocking him down with small blasts of energy each time. Seeing that this is going to take some time, Kaio-sama decides to take a break with Bubbles. Goku continues chasing Gregory down, knocking many holes in the ground of Kaio-sama's planet and wrecking Kaio-sama's car with the hammer, but just can't seem to catch the cricket. Back on Earth, Gohan continues his training with Piccolo, proving able to dodge some of Piccolo's blows now but still getting caught off guard when Piccolo chastises him for getting cocky. Piccolo knocks Gohan down from a large cliff face, and though Gohan survives the fall, he can't get back up the mountain on his own. To irritate Piccolo into at least talking to him, Gohan begins a word game where he calls out the names of various animals, asking Piccolo for the next one, but Piccolo ignores him. At Kami's sanctuary, Yamcha and Tenshinhan and Kuririn and Yajirobe all spar while Chaozu watches from the sidelines with Kami and Popo. Back on Kaio-sama's planet, Goku still can't catch Gregory, and Kaio-sama finally calls for a time out for dinner. As he eats, Goku says he can't believe how fast Gregory is, and Kaio-sama tells him that while he may have gotten used to the gravity here now, he still needs to get much faster to stand a chance against the Saiyans. Goku asks Kaio-sama if he knows anything about the Saiyans, and Kaio-sama then remembers that Goku said he himself was a Saiyan. Goku admits that despite that, he doesn't really know much about the race as he came to Earth as a baby. Kaio-sama decides to give Goku a quick rundown of Saiyan history as he knows it. On Planet Vegeta, there existed two races – the Saiyans and the Tsufruians. The Tsufruians were much smaller than the Saiyans, only being about half the height of them or humans, but they possessed a high level of civilization and technology. The Saiyans in comparison where a much smaller race, but their bodies were bigger, and they were both stronger and more aggressive, with their tails being one of their most noteworthy features. One night, the Saiyans attacked the Tsufruians, and although the Tsufruians fought back with their weapons, they were eventually stomped out by the much stronger Saiyans, especially once they utilized the full moon to transform into even more powerful and monstrous Oozarus. Once they had conquered the planet, the Saiyans took Tsufruian technology for their own and set off into space looking for more fights, eventually joining forces with richer races that paid them with money and more technology to go conquer other planets for their own, thus allowing the Saiyan race to prosper as well as to find more of the fighting they so craved. Eventually, this led to the process of sending out babies, like Goku, to weaker planets to conquer and return home one day. Planet Vegeta it seemed had it's own Kami, much like Earth, however, and he too was disgusted with the Saiyans' behavior, eventually using his powers to summon a mass of asteroids to collide with Planet Vegeta, causing it to explode and putting an end to most of the Saiyan race. Goku is outraged by the behavior of the Saiyan race and says he isn't anything like them, and Kaio-sama calms him down, reminding him that with the death of his brother, only two more Saiyans remain other than Goku himself. Goku is more determined than ever to protect the Earth and defeat those Saiyans, and eagerly asks Gregory to get back to training with him. Kaio-sama works on fixing the damage done to his car as Goku finally figures out a way to hit Gregory – he tosses the mallet as hard as he can in one direction and runs to grab it, catching the cricket off guard and managing to lightly bop him on the head. Gregory praises Goku for figuring out how to get him but claims to be unharmed (a claim rebuked by the large bump on his head), and Kaio-sama gets excited, thinking that Goku might finally be the one to master the Kaio-ken technique that he created. As Goku's real training begins at last, all of his friends on Earth's training continues, as the Saiyans grow ever closer. Review: As the Saiyan arc prepares to reach the beginning of it's final act, there was one more bit of filler that seemed worth covering, for a couple of different reasons. It also once again sets us a bit back again as far as progression goes in some cases (the episode shows the conclusion of the Earthling heroes at Kami's, as well as Goku beginning his training under Kaio-sama properly), but in this case that's definitely a small price to say. With most of the previous filler, they're stories that are easily forgettable as they're never referenced again, and they generally are pretty easy to tell that they're filler, even if you don't already know that those episodes are. With one major exception – the Hell episode – they also don't change anything for the anime moving forward either. This episode however features two elements that change the future incarnation of the anime for some time, and the first, smaller part of it is often forgotten to be filler, even by me. And that first element is the character of Gregory the cricket. Yeah, for anyone out there who's only familiar with the anime version of the Dragon Ball franchise, it might come as a surprise that Gregory doesn't appear in the manga at all – Kaio-sama's only friend (or attendant...are they supposed to be kind of like Popo, actually?) in the manga is Bubbles, and likewise, that's the only test Goku has to take before actually training with Kaio-sama. Gregory goes on from this initial appearance to show up in most appearances of Kaio-sama moving forward however, basically making him feel like a natural part of the cast. This lead to his presence being kept in the re-cute Dragon Ball Z Kai years later, and I believe he's even spotted once or twice in Dragon Ball Super as well – he may as well BE canon at this point, truth be told. This is something I'm fine with too, honestly. I like the lil' guy, and he's certainly more of a character than Bubbles is, so I'm fine with his continued inclusion, but maybe that's just me. That said, I also honestly forgot that this was the episode that Gregory made his first appearance in. The real reason I wanted to cover this episode was because of Goku's Saiyan history lesson courtesy of Kaio-sama. A lot of this material has been somewhat replaced or become less important over time, but for a big part of the original run of the anime side of Dragon Ball, this explanation became the basis of what we knew about Saiyan history. Hell, the Tsufruian part of the backstory becomes the main story idea for not one but TWO future installments in the franchise – you could even say it inspired the now current Granolah the Survivor arc in Dragon Ball Super's manga. That said, some of this material is going to get amended or thrown out very quickly as well. While Kaio-sama's story gives the Saiyans the starring role in their own villainy, the very next story arc in this series is going to be taking some of that away – while still leaving the Saiyans as evil bastards, mind you – and giving it to a different character, a character who will also be replacing the 'Kami of Planet Vegeta' as well. Real world wise, the answer for these discrepancies is easy – Toriyama hadn't made up his own take on the story yet and told it in the pages of the manga, and Toei came up with something of their own to fill the span of an episode. In universe wise though, it does raise the question of why Kaio-sama told a partially false story to Goku. Did he lie to him to keep him away from part of the truth? Given what we get with him later in the next arc, that's definitely possible. It's also possible however that he was just mistaken and isn't 100% aware of certain elements of the story he's telling either, given that another storyline as well will also reveal that he's not always paying the most attention to planet's in his...jurisdiction, we'll say (though a bunch of that's also jumping forward quite a bit, and I'm not entirely sure Planet Vegeta was in his jurisdiction to begin with). It could be a little bit of both as well. When Goku hears this story, this also gives us another look at an important element for Goku's character moving forward, and that's his displeasure with what he's hearing about his own ancestry and people. The Saiyans seem to represent the absolute worst kinds of people that Goku has come up against in his life, only taken to an 11 out of 10, and he definitely wants no part of anything to do with them. Unfortunately however, fate's not leaving it up to him, and he's going to have to confront the remaining Saiyans very soon, as well as his own feelings on being a Saiyan in the future as well. Until next time! Favorite Scene: I'm tempted to choose the Saiyan history lesson, but honestly? I laughed at Yajirobe biting Kuririn's ass during training. Next Time: I feel for Roshi here. All my important phone calls seem to come in when I'm in the bathroom too.
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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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