Synopsis: Surrounded by children with guns, Gohan, Kuririn, and a captured Bulma are unsure what to do. A young man soon approaches Gohan and Kuririn while holding a gun on them. Gohan tries to explain that they mean them no harm and tell them where they're from, but the boy fires his gun at Gohan's feet to silence him, telling them that they don't care what invaders like them have to say. Kuririn likewise tries to explain that they're not invaders, and as the kids don't seem to want to listen, he tells Gohan they have no choice but to fight. As Kuririn and Gohan channel raise their power, the kids back off, except for one little girl who walks up and kicks Kuririn in the shin. The seeming leader of the group tells Kuririn he will shoot to kill next time, and his name is revealed to be Zeshin as another young man urges him to go ahead and kill the intruders as they have to be some of 'Freeza's men'. Zeshin struggles to bring himself to kill them however, and the situation is soon interrupted as alarms go off overhead and another child runs in to tell Zeshin that they've entered a meteor swarm. The ship continues to rock as meteors slam into it, and Bulma yells for Kuririn and Gohan to use this opportunity to set her free. Back on Earth, Goku freaks out as the doctor and nurses come back to give him a shot as he hates needles, and Chi Chi chastises him for getting upset over something so small, especially after all that he caused their son to go through. Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn try to use the chaos to escape the ship, but Kuririn and Gohan can't leave the kids behind, despite Bulma's protesting that everyone on the ship is doomed and they need to leave before they die too. As a large piece of metal falls from the ceiling and almost crushes some of the kids, Gohan and Kuririn rush in and catch it and toss it aside, saving the kids. Seeing this, Zeshin and the other older boy wonder who they really are, especially as the pair rushes in to help as something explodes in another part of the ship. As Gohan and Kuririn try to help put out fires, Bulma rushes to the front of the ship to take over piloting the ship to try to save them all. Bulma successfully navigates the ship through many of the remaining meteors, but once they're back to safety, the kids once again turn their guns on Bulma and say that they can never trust the people who destroyed their planet. Bulma objects to this treatment, and one of the children once again accuses them of being in league with 'Freeza'. As Gohan and Kuririn rush back to help, the guns are turned on them as well, as one of the children says they know they have to be Freeza's men due to how strong they are. Zeshin speaks up however and tells everyone to lower their guns, saying that if these were some of Freeza's men, they would have already started trying to kill them. A little girl that Gohan saved speaks up as well, reminding the others of how the people in league with Freeza for real had acted, how they turned up without warning and killed all of their parents immediately. As the children are reminded of what they've lost, the other young man specifically remembers narrowly escaping an alien (Cui) who killed his own parents when he sees a look of concern in Gohan's eyes that convince him the 'intruders' aren't like that at all. Bulma thanks the children for believing them, and Kuririn asks them if the people that attacked their homes had tails. When they deny this, Kuririn thinks that they must not have been Saiyans after all, and wonders who else out there in space could possibly be so brutal. Gohan asks them what happened to their planet, and Zeshin explains that it was perfectly peaceful until the day the invaders arrived. Multiple aliens landed and attacked without warning, killing everyone they could find and saying those who survive should be grateful that their planet would be given to 'Lord Freeza'. As the adults realized what was happening, they rushed all of the children into spaceships and helped them escape, but all of the other spaceships were shot down, leaving only this mirror-clad ship to escape into space. Kuririn asks Zeshin if the kids have any plans now that they're alone in space, and Zeshin explains that they're headed for a planet that their fathers used to travel to for business in the hopes that they'll be taken in there. Bulma asks them if it's far, and Zeshin assures them that they'll get there no matter how many years it takes. The kids see Bulma, Kuririn, and Gohan back to their ship, and Bulma urges the latter two to hurry up so they don't lose more time getting to Namek. Hearing that name, the children tell them that they passed Planet Namek about two weeks prior and give the trio a shortcut to get there and save themselves some time. Bulma is surprised by this information and thanks them before dragging Gohan and Kuririn on board, and they leave before Zeshin can tell them something else about the shortcut. Once again in space, Bulma resets their coordinates while Kuririn worries about those other bad guys the children told them about. Kuririn wonders if they might be allies of the Saiyans, but Bulma says it's nothing for them to worry about either way, and she goes off to sleep. Elsewhere in space however, Kuririn's worries are proven correct, as Vegeta's pod lands on an alien planet at last, and the various Saiyan armor clad aliens there receive him and take him to a healing chamber when they discover his rough state inside of his pod. As Vegeta receives treatment, our heroes ship begins to quake as they pass through a storm in space. Bulma misunderstands the situation and accuses Kuririn of trying something perverted with her when she wakes up on his lap, but the tense situation is soon forgotten – they've arrived at Planet Namek ahead of schedule thanks to the shortcut the children told them about...or have they? A bizarre warning begins to flash on the ship's main console as they go in for a landing. Review: As said last time, the story presented in this episode really probably could've been contained in the last one with some cuts and less cutting away to other things, and I still stand by that sentiment. While there's plenty to like in this episode, it doesn't really do enough to stand out on it's own I feel, and in the end it's just used as a prelude for the next batch of filler coming up – a batch of filler I always remember not liking that much – so...yeah. Kinda ends up leaving a bad taste in my mouth either way. There really is some stuff to like here too though. Seeing our heroes try to figure out what's going on and ultimately deciding to help their would-be captors is a nice enough diversion, as well as setting up some early knowledge of the coming threat for our heroes. I particularly like that Cui is one of the aliens shown to have attacked the kids' home planet, as it really ups his despicable factor far more than 'Vegeta doesn't like him' ever could, let's be honest. I'm not really sure our heroes really need to know what's coming in the long run though – the discussion of what Vegeta could be up to and the idea that there's other bad people out there in space already sets everything up nicely enough without this added information, so I can't really say any of this is of great help in the grand scheme of things narratively. And again, it all only really exists to set up the NEXT filler storyline, so even the main plot of these two episodes is essentially filler for the filler, and that's never a great sign. If there's one thing this episode adds to the characters though that I absolutely love, it's surprisingly with the bedridden Goku. The idea that someone strong enough to fight off people trying to blow up a planet would be scared of a simple shot is hilarious to me (and completely understandable – I HATE needles, and I don't know that I want to meet someone who LIKES them, honestly). It's a great bit of levity – not that this episode is particularly dark though – and a great addition to his character, and I'm glad to say that it sticks around for future moments of filler (though I don't know how many, if any at all, will end up getting covered here). Until next time! Favorite Scene: Goku being scared of needles is absolutely hilarious and considering I empathize with him 100% on that front, how can I not love that scene? Next Time: It says right in the title that they're 'kind-hearted', so I'm sure there's absolutely no deception going on here whatsoever.
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
|