Synopsis: With their ship landing on Namek at last, Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn wonder what sort of planet Namek is, though Kuririn still wonders if this really is Namek at all since they reached it so much quicker than expected. Gohan suggests they check the Dragon Ball radar to be sure, but before Bulma can do so, the ship falls off the edge of a cliff with them still inside of it. A short time later, the three Earthlings have been apparently found and taken inside a building with a familiar looking aesthetic. As Bulma opens her eyes, she is greeted by the sight of two elderly Namekians who introduce themselves as Lychee and Zarkuro and claim to have been by each others sides for over 300 years. After an unusual greeting involving grabbing the other's nose, Lychee tells Bulma that they're lucky they found them when they did, as all three of them probably would have died soon without aid. Bulma wakes the other two up, and they all exchange the greeting. The pair makes food for the group, and Lychee says he hopes they can find the Dragon Balls easily, surprising the trio. Zarkuro explains that they know everything about them. Bulma asks where their ship is, and the two Namekians take them to where they've stored the greatly damaged spaceship. Bulma is sure it's still flight-worthy though, and the trio once again thank the pair for helping them out so much already. Bulma pulls out the Dragon Ball radar and immediately gets readings for multiple Dragon Balls, including three in a group nearby. Bulma brings out a capsule car for them to go get the balls, but Lychee warns them that they'll be a quick meal for the monsters in that area in such a thing. Lychee offers to let them use their 'Goku', which turns out to be a noisy ship the Namekians themselves have. The group approaches one of the three Dragon Balls in short order, but as they work to retrieve it, Zarkuro is shown back at the house, commenting that with a ship such as their visitors... Gohan, Kuririn, and Lychee all dive underwater to search for the Dragon Ball. To the trio's surprise, Lychee disappears, but soon emerges out of the water holding the Dragon Ball. On the Freeza outpost that Vegeta has landed on, the injured Saiyan is watched over by a group of other soldiers as he heals, with one of them noting that he's regaining consciousness. In Vegeta's mind, the outcome of his fight with everyone on Earth replays in his mind, with him wondering how he ever lost to Kakarot when his power is much higher. On Earth, Goku scares Chi Chi when he suddenly punches the air above him out of boredom, causing his wife to lambast him for interrupting her sewing a sweater for Gohan. Lychee takes Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn to an ancient temple next, where they deduce that the Dragon Ball they need must be deep inside of it. As they walk down, Gohan notes some carvings on the wall that he takes to be ancient Namekians, with Kuririn noticing that they look nothing like the Namekians they know. The radar indicates a Dragon Ball must be inside a coffin in the room above, and as Bulma opens the coffin, she is horrified to discover it's inside the mouth of a skeleton. With a second Dragon Ball collected however, Lychee thinks they can get a third before the day is out. Gohan thinks the Namekians are being really helpful, but Bulma almost doesn't trust them as a result, and warns Gohan to watch out in case the two Namekians try to steal the wish from them once they've gathered the seven balls. The third Dragon Ball is located, and as Lychee lands his ship, the Dragon Ball that was stuck in a tree is knocked loose and picked up by a large clawed hand. The group follows the radar, eventually leading them to a large dinosaur which promptly eats the Dragon Ball before leaving them behind. Bulma chases after the dinosaur and the rest chase after her, but Lychee soon stops them, saying that if they go any further, their lives will be in danger. Bulma accuses the Namekian of being up to something since he's being far too nice, but they all soon hear the pained screams of the dinosaur. Lychee takes them back to the ship and they fly over, soon finding a large poisonous green swamp that bubbles as the dinosaur's massive skeleton floats in it. Lychee warns them that even the fumes of the swamp are deadly, and Bulma apologizes for her accusations. The group wonders how they're going to get the Dragon Ball, and Lychee says that he has a suit that could withstand the swamp but probably only for ten seconds. Gohan offers to give it a try, and Lychee suggests they tie a rope around him so they can pull him back out before ten seconds pass as well. Now clad in the protective suit, Gohan dives in after his friends say they'll pull him back out after seven seconds pass. When Lychee pulls the rope however, they find that the swamp's acidic water has already eaten through the rope. In the water, Gohan gets the Dragon Ball just in time to discover the broken rope, and desperately swims for the surface. With time running out, he fires a Masenko backwards and propels himself back out of the swamp. After arriving on Namek, it seems our heroes are already doing well, with three Dragon Balls collected thus far. Review: Anyone unfamiliar with the franchise might be wondering why I'm still covering the anime here. After all, I'm only covering filler and not generally talking much about the anime version of events that happen in the manga, and since Namek is where they want to be, this surely must all be further events in the manga, right? Well...not really. Unfortunately, we're still stuck in a bit of a detour from the source material, and it's a detour that I don't think many fans look back upon too fondly nowadays. You might already be able to tell why too. This episode, and from what I can remember the following ones, are honestly pretty dull. It's sort of like watching paint dry, especially when you know that what you're watching doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. There's some effort made to make things interesting by stringing along a few hints here and there that things aren't quite what they seem – such as the 'ancient Namekians' depicted on a temple wall that look nothing like the Namekians we're used to, or more importantly, the fact that Bulma's radar initially picks up way more than seven balls (something that not even she notices) – but in the end, it's not really enough to make any of this interesting. Lychee and Zarkuro's kindly old man schtick doesn't really give us much to work with either. After a cute bit where they hold everyone's noses in greeting – something that's particularly hilarious to see them do to the seemingly nose less Kuririn – it just gets old really quickly. Somehow even the dangerous situation our heroes find themselves in by the end somehow just feels really tepid rather than thrilling, and that's quite a feat to pull off when the story has essentially put a five year old in danger of dying. It should be impossible to make something like that dull, but by Kami, they found a way. The one bit of the episode that actually is kind of interesting is the very brief glimpse we get inside Vegeta's mind, where he's still thinking about the fight that he lost on Earth. Already you can see him focusing on his loss towards Goku in particular, even as it's Gohan beating him as an Oozaru that he's remembering. This is going to be a continually weird thing with his character moving forward – he seemingly looks down on Goku specifically for defeating him, when by all counts, Vegeta BEAT Goku. Vegeta only lost due to a long, varied set of circumstances, and it took the combined efforts of Goku, Gohan, Kuririn, Yajirobe of all people, and even Vegeta's own earlier strategy of making a fake moon, to take him down for the count. If anything he should still be considering himself way out of their league, but his obsessive personality just can't cope with his loss. Why the focus on Goku though? Honestly, if I had to venture a guess, it's down to Vegeta's outlook on life in general. He can't really get away with not acknowledging his loss here, much as he'd like to, but what he can do is try to fit it into his narrow worldview such as we know it. Kakarot might be a low-class Saiyan, but he is a pure-blooded one, and easily the strongest person on the Earth. If Vegeta has to deal with the fact that he lost, he'd rather rationalize it being at the hands of another Saiyan – no matter how “unworthy” they are – rather than admit that it came at the hands of a halfling and a lesser species, all of which should be like bugs to him. Basically, it's his ego's only way of moving on at this point...but as we'll see soon enough, moving on is not exactly something Vegeta's good at either. Until next time! Favorite Scene: The gag with the Namekian greeting of holding noses is cute. There, I praised something. Can I go now? Next Time: I'm gonna take a nap. *yawn* Wake me up when they get to the giant.
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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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