Synopsis: As Gohan and Kuririn marvel at how pretty Planet Namek looks from space, Bulma warns them to buckle up as they're about to go in for a landing. The ship lands in an open area, with odd-colored trees and grass surrounding them. Bulma starts checking readings with the ship's console and mentions that she brought oxygen masks and tanks for them all just in case the air outside isn't fit for them to breathe, but much to her surprise, Gohan and Kuririn have already stepped outside. Gohan notes that the surrounding area looks a bit like where Piccolo trained him, and Kuririn recognizes it as similar to the area where they first fought the Saiyans. He wonders if maybe Piccolo felt more at ease in a place similar to his homeland? Bulma comes out of the ship and chews them both out for leaving before they knew for sure it was safe, and Gohan and Kuririn wonder why she's so upset. Bulma checks the Dragon Ball radar and sure enough, there are Dragon Balls on this planet. Bulma and Kuririn celebrate, but Gohan has noticed something odd – he can feel a lot of strong power levels in the distance. Kuririn wonders what could be going on, but Bulma isn't worried and says that it's probably just the Namekians, saying that Kami and Piccolo were both incredibly strong after all. Gohan and Kuririn aren't so sure however as the energy they sense feels evil somehow. Bulma still doesn't think there's anything to worry about however, and points out that the radar shows four Dragon Balls already gathered together in the direction they're looking in, so it has to be the Namekians. Kuririn tries to laugh and look on the bright side, but suddenly a familiar looking ship flies down out of the sky and crash lands in the distance – it's the Saiyan's space pod! The trio starts to freak out, and Kuririn tells Gohan to surpress his power lest Vegeta pick them up on his scouter, and they try to figure out what to do. Bulma thinks they need to head back to Earth immediately, but Kuririn thinks they can't let Vegeta get the Dragon Balls. He suggests that Bulma goes back to Earth on her own while he and Gohan remain behind with the radar and try to gather the Dragon Balls first. Bulma says she'll just call Roshi back on Earth first to give them a warning, and says she'll be back in about two months time with Goku to help them out. Kuririn and Gohan worry about if they'll be able to survive out here that long. A short distance away, Vegeta curses Freeza and states that the Dragon Balls are his and his alone. As he puts back on his scouter, he realizes Freeza must know about his betrayal, and while he doesn't fear anyone else, Freeza is another matter entirely – he has no choice but to get the Dragon Balls first and wish for immortality. Using the scouter, Vegeta picks up a reading for Freeza and his men and flies in that direction, saying that he must have brought Dodoria and Zarbon with him as well. On Earth, Roshi receives Bulma's call, as Bulma tells him to let everyone else know (well, everyone except for Chi Chi that is). As she finishes up her call, Gohan and Kuririn see something else in the sky – a second Saiyan space pod coming in for a landing! In a nearby Namekian village, an elderly Namekian lays dead on the ground as a group of aliens wearing Saiyan armor ransack his home. One of them steps out carrying a Dragon Ball – larger than the Earth's Dragon Balls – and shows it to Lord Freeza, a small alien with horns and a tail that floats in a chair flanked by two bigger, stronger looking subordinates. Freeza thanks his soldier and says they only have three Dragon Balls left to collect now. Freeza tells the soldier to give the Dragon Ball to Dodoria (the spiky pink alien on his right), and tells Dodoria to guard it carefully as he believes Vegeta is after them as well. The other subordinate with long hair, Zarbon, informs Freeza that Cui has just arrived on the planet in pursuit of Vegeta. There's also the matter of the two large power readings from earlier that appeared and suddenly disappeared and have yet to return. Zarbon says they're investigating the area where the powers disappeared and with any luck they'll soon know what's going on. Freeza casually accepts this and doesn't seem worried, saying that Vegeta is their main priority at this time. Zarbon thinks Cui will take care of Vegeta in short order, as the two have long hated each other and are roughly the same in power – if nothing else, Cui will keep Vegeta too busy to get in their way. Having stepped out of his pod that landed next to Vegeta's, Cui uses his scouter and says that Vegeta won't be able to hide from him. Review: At long last, our heroes have landed on Planet Namek, and the real Planet Namek at that! Unfortunately for them however, so have a host of various threats that are going to make their lives really hard for the foreseeable future. Them's the breaks sometimes, I'm afraid. As soon as they land, Bulma is hit with another round of exasperation at the hands of the much less critically thinking Gohan and Kuririn. Honestly, this time the joke lands at least, as she raises a valid point this time – they can't really know for sure that the air outside is going to be breathable for humans such as themselves, so they probably should have let her check things out first with the ship. That said, since Namekians such as Kami and Piccolo could breath on Earth just fine, it's...probably a pretty safe bet that the air on both planets are similar? I'm not a scientist though, so what do I know. There's also an interesting comment about how the terrain of Namek looks similar to the wastelands that Piccolo trained Gohan in and that perhaps being some inherent feeling of home he had when being in such a place. While not impossible, I'm not entirely sure how much I buy into this theory honestly, though to be fair that's mostly because I know the real world reasoning behind it – big open space backgrounds are a lot easier to draw, especially when their backgrounds are fairly repetitive, as opposed to more detail oriented locations such as cities or, you know, tournaments full of people. And if you haven't figured it out by now, that's one thing Toriyama absolutely excels at is trying to find the easiest way to get the job done. Let's be completely fair here though – by this point in time, he'd already been drawing a weekly manga for a long, long time, especially when you count all of Dr. Slump prior to Dragon Ball. It's pretty understandable that he'd want to try to find a way to make his job easier. That said, I hope you like the look of Namek, because you're gonna be looking at it for a long, long time. While I acknowledge and empathize with Toriyama's reasoning for these locales being where most of the fighting ends up happening, this might be the one time that Toriyama pushes that excuse a little too far for my books. It's not just where our heroes have landed that look like this – it's the entire planet. Every single bit of Namek looks like this. Every. Single. Bit. It doesn't take long for this backdrop to get old to stare at, especially in the anime which makes the arc even longer. Needless to say, while I'm a pretty big fan of this arc from a story perspective, it might be one of my absolute least favorite locations in the entire franchise as a result of how drab and repetitive it all is to look at. Gohan and Kuririn immediately pick up on some ki signatures not too far away from where they landed, and despite Bulma's assurances that it's probably just the Namekians, the two of them both feel like what they're sensing feels evil. It's not the first time we've had evil ki described as feeling different from the calmer kind, so it's probably a pretty safe bet that they're right. This fact gets proven correct pretty quickly as, once Vegeta arrives, it's not long after that we're introduced to our new big bads of this arc. Before getting to them though, you might have noticed that Vegeta has his scouter again here. In the last manga chapter, he left the scouter behind with the alien that looked over his healing, but the anime added a scene of him grabbing the scouter again on his way off of the planet. This was a pretty clever short fix since, as you can see, here he has his scouter again like he never left it behind at all. It's a small error, but one easily accounted for by just assuming the same thing happened in the manga that happened in the anime and we just weren't shown it. It's always nice when the anime can fix small details like this though. As we're introduced to Freeza and his forces, it's made immediately clear that they are extremely bad news. They've killed an elderly Namekian, they're gathering the Dragon Balls for their own purposes – and already have four of them to boot – and Freeza himself is someone that even Vegeta is seemingly scared of. Freeza might not appear like he's much to worry about at first glance however. He seems far shorter than the rest of his forces, he's just casually floating around in a floating chair (seriously, where do I buy one of those?), and he's even polite to his foot soldiers. Don't let any of that fool you though – this guy is absolutely bad news. Case in point, Vegeta is scared of him as I already said. Remember how strong Vegeta was? Now think about how powerful Freeza can already be assumed to be if Vegeta doesn't think he can take him on without wishing for immortality first. There's also the fact that Cui is said to be just as strong as Vegeta is. Neither of them are kept at Freeza's side the same way Dodoria and Zarbon seem to be here, so it's also a safe assumption that those two are likely far stronger than Vegeta and Cui too, and they're also still listening to Freeza's orders. We've only just been introduced to the character, and things are already pointing in a very definite direction – Freeza's power is nightmarish. As the story goes along too, we're going to see just how accurate that first assumption is. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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Synopsis: Gohan and Kuririn struggle to free themselves from the grasp of the squids holding them, and Lychee and Zarkuro laugh at them, telling them to just wait until evening if they want to be freed without a fight. Bulma wakes up and asks if this really isn't Planet Namek after all, and Zarkuro explains that this planet doesn't have anything resembling a race living on it – even the pair of 'fake Namekians' are only on it due to their ship crash landing on it years prior. The two aliens decided to steal their ship and use it to escape the desolate planet, but were soon forced to wait as they realized the cosmic storm that forced our heroes to crash land was still active in the atmosphere above them. They took this opportunity to read Bulma's mind and found out everything about the Earth, the Dragon Balls, and our heroes' search for Planet Namek. Using this information, they crafted deception after deception to keep them on the planet long enough for the storm to wane, and themselves to be able to leave the planet. Bulma calls them horrible for tricking them, but Lychee says that they let them all have a nice dream instead of killing them. The aliens explain that the fog surrounding them all is an indicator that a rare opening in the cosmic storm has appeared, meaning it's time for them to take the ship and escape. Lychee steals the Dragon Ball radar from Bulma first however, stating their intentions to go gather the Dragon Balls on the real Planet Namek themselves now that they know they exist, and they flee the scene. Kuririn shouts for Bulma to follow and stop them, but she doesn't she how she'd be able to do something like that. Arriving back at the ship, Zarkuro asks Lychee if he knows how to fly it, and Lychee says it's simple since it's operated by voice command. Unfortunately for the aliens however, it appears they didn't find out about the word 'Piccolo' being needed to open the door. Gohan and Kuririn struggle to free themselves from the tentacles of the giant squids, and both find themselves pulled underwater. When some of the tentacles let go of one of his arms, Gohan takes the opportunity to fire a ki beam at the squids holding him, and once both arms are freed, he causes them to crash into the squids holding Kuririn. While both are still held down, both sets of hands are freed, and the pair succeed in knocking away the squids by firing repeated ki beams. Back at the ship, Lychee and Zarkuro are frustrated to discover that they really can't get into the ship. Lychee says all they have to do is take the girl with them however, and the pair leap back up out of the ship's crater to discover that Bulma has followed them after all. They try to force her to open the ship's door before the storm starts up in space again, and when she tries to convince them to just come with them, they say it would take fifty years to reach their home planet, a notion that Bulma blanches at. Bulma opens the ship, and the two aliens try to leave Bulma and the others behind, but as the door starts to close, a now freed Gohan shouts out the door's password again to bring it back down. Gohan and Kuririn quickly take down the aliens, who point out they never claimed to be fighters like them, and Bulma hurries Gohan and Kuririn into the ship so they can leave. Bulma thanks the aliens for telling them about how to escape, but they ultimately leave the aliens behind on the planet as Bulma carefully threads the needle to get them out of the planet's atmosphere and back into space. Now with lost time to make up for, our heroes fly off into space, leaving Lychee and Zarkuro to wonder when another ship will land and if they'll ever get to escape the desolate planet themselves. Back on Earth, Goku has been taken back to his hospital room, and it's revealed that a month has passed already as Chi Chi wonders how Gohan is doing. Goku attempts to escape his room again to continue training, but the doctor and nurse catch him in the act this time. Out in space, Gohan, Bulma, and Kuririn's ship finally reaches the real Planet Namek. Review: Alright, so right up front, a full disclosure – this episode review purposefully only covers roughly the first half of the episode before the eye-catch sequence, and a few minutes beyond it. The reason? Much of the latter half of this episode adapts material that I'm going to be getting to as we shift back to the manga once again, and not just minor material either. Major, story relevant material, that I'd rather cover with the manga itself than the anime. So rather than walk quickly through said material as I've done for a few reviews in the past that had a similar issue, or cover the anime version of those events, I've instead elected to just...not cover it. It'll get covered in the next manga review chapter, where those story beats originated from anyway. So with that out of the way, let's dive into the Fake Namek material for the very last time, and you have no idea how good it feels to say that. I don't think it's much of a secret that I'm not a fan of this material, and most of that comes down to the fact that it just takes way too long, and is very much just spinning wheels in an attempt to take even longer. Further evidence of that fact I think comes from the fact that this, the very last (half) episode covering it, is easily the best part of the entire storyline, and not just because it's over. The idea of our heroes crash-landing somewhere that's not actually Namek, and a pair of aliens deceiving them into thinking it is and that they're making really good time in gathering the Dragon Balls is, in of itself, a pretty novel idea. It's something we haven't seen before, and it's a much more cerebral threat than it is a physical one (at least, up until the end). It's a welcome addition to the series as a whole, especially at the point that things are almost exclusively being handled by fighting nowadays – but it's only welcome if it can be done in an entertaining, engaging way, and these episodes just did not do that, at all. Lychee and Zarkuro are boring antagonists, even once their true forms are revealed, and their gambit is just too obvious once the pieces fall together. About the only thing that's surprising is their stated intention to go to the real Namek and take the real Dragon Balls for themselves now, and that's mostly because all of that was a surprise to them as well – they had no idea wish granting orbs were even a thing prior to meeting our heroes. And in the end, the two fake Namekians are completely taken down by their own plot's incompetence. In what is a fittingly Toriyama twist, the pair somehow read Bulma's mind about how to operate the ship...but somehow missed the fact that they still need a particular Namekian word to raise and lower the door. Now THAT'S funny. It might almost seem a little cold of our heroes to leave them behind, but after everything that they've done to them, it's really not that surprising, especially not coming from Bulma. I think the tidbit about it taking fifty years to reach their planet was definitely added to the script to make it more acceptable though – keep in mind, these are aliens who are no doubt used to alien technology, so when they mean it might take fifty years to get to their home planet, they probably mean it would even with an alien spaceship rather than like how long it would've taken to reach Namek with an Earthling-made ship. Gohan, Bulma, and Kuririn simply just don't have that kind of time to waste, so it's goodbye to Lychee and Zarkuro. And I for one am fine with that. With everyone reaching Namek, the REAL Namek, at last, and Vegeta hightailing it there in short order as well, it looks like this story arc is finally back on track to be exciting again. Unfortunately for our Earthling trio though, they're probably going to miss when it looked like they could get two Dragon Balls an episode, because...well... Until next time! Favorite Scene: Lychee and Zarkuro's stupidity. How in the heck did they manage to read Bulma's mind deeply enough to know the ship is voice operated but NOT know about the password to open the damn thing? Next Time: FREEZA, FREEZA, FREEZA, FREE-ZA! Synopsis: On Planet Namek, Gohan and Kuririn work on freeing a Dragon Ball from a block of ice it's been frozen inside by slowly heating it with their ki, much to Bulma's chagrin as she shivers behind them. Bulma complains that this cold can't be good for her skin and turns to Zarkuro to try to get him to hurry them up as well, but is surprised when he's not there. The trio celebrates finding their sixth Dragon Ball, but the ice cave's sudden collapse forces them to quickly escape the cavern. A monitor is shown where two shadowy figures watch and laugh at the trio's plight, as they land on a piece of ice and use it to sled down an escape both the collapsing cave and a massive snowball. Meanwhile, on Planet Freeza No. 79, Vegeta is given new Saiyan armor to change into and leaves behind his unneeded scouter, while on Earth, Goku continues his training by using his ki to lift a pyramid, throwing it back at himself to break through. Goku ends up wrecking his body again however, and falls to the ground in pain. Back on Namek, Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn finally escape the ice cave after almost going over the side of a cliff on their ice sled. With only one Dragon Ball left to find, the trio starts heading back to the Namekians' home, though Kuririn can't help but notice how strangely easy this has all been. Elsewhere, the two shadowy figures continue watching and think that it's almost time... The trio soon approaches the final Dragon Ball, and Kuririn notices footprints on the ground that seem to be from the dinosaur they saw before, except now they're smaller and instead of a swamp, they soon find a sparkling lake before them. Bulma says the Dragon Ball must be inside a fountain in the middle of the lake, and Gohan thinks it'd be even easier if Lychee and Zarkuro were with them. Bulma thinks this should be easy enough for just the three of them to do on their own, but as Gohan tries to walk to the fountain, he suddenly finds himself paralyzed and lifted into the air by some invisible force. Kuririn tries to rush to help Gohan, but Bulma is soon captured by a reappearing Lychee and Zarkuro. On Earth, Chi Chi and Roshi finally locate Goku collapsed in the wilderness, and Roshi curses his student's reckless nature for trying to train in his condition. On Freeza Planet No. 79, Vegeta considers his next options and is stopped by Cui, ultimately finding out that Freeza has already set out for Planet Namek as well. Fearing falling behind Freeza, Vegeta hops into a space pod (grabbing his scouter along the way) and heads for Namek. On “Namek”, Lychee and Zarkuro reveal their true natures, transforming into the bizarre creatures seen on the temple from before. Kuririn says they aren't Namekians at all, and the pair laugh at our heroes for only just now figuring it out. As the ground begins to shake, various structures around them all begin to transform and reveal their true natures as well, as Kuririn realizes that everything they've done, including gathering the Dragon Balls, has been faked this entire time – rather than landing on Planet Namek as they had thought, they have landed on a desolate asteroid. The invisible force holding on to Gohan is revealed to be a giant squid ready to eat him, and Kuririn is forced to choose between trying to help him or protecting Bulma. Kuririn tries to rush to Gohan's aid, but ends up being caught by one of the squids. All seems lost for our heroes, as Goku is rushed back to the hospital on Earth and Vegeta rushes to the real Namek ahead of them, to say nothing of the mysterious 'Freeza'. Review: So if I haven't made myself clear enough already, by Kami am I ready for this filler arc to end. It's just a dull, dull set of episodes no matter how I slice it, with the most interesting material in it generally coming from stuff that I've already covered from the last manga chapter, or material building off of that rather than the adventures of Gohan and crew. Considering the whole purpose of this filler is giving Gohan and crew said adventures, that's...not good. That's not good at all. Finally however, this episode does start to have some movement in the plot at long last, and it confirms what “eagle-eyed” fans (AKA those still awake at this point) have probably already long since guessed – Gohan, Bulma, and Kuririn haven't landed on Namek at all. They've landed on some place far more desolate, and those friendly old fart Namekians that have been “helping” them, aren't Namekians at all, nor have they been really helping them. I'd say there was at least some interesting reveals as to their nature here, but alas – Toei either needed to let the manga get that much further ahead again, or they were bizarrely really committed to this particular filler arc, as there's still another episode to go before the reveal of what Lychee and Zarkuro are actually up to, as well as before this entire side story is wrapped up. And that's...that's really all there is to comment on. With any luck, I'll have more to say in the next review as this story arc FINALLY comes to an end, but if nothing else, I'll just be glad to see the light at the other side of this tunnel. Until next time! Favorite Scene: I legitimately don't know that I have one. Do the closing credits count, because I was pretty excited to see those at last. ...*sigh* Okay, um...I guess in a similar fashion to the plant birds, the giant squids are kinda neat. But nowhere near as much as the plant birds from last episode. Next Time: The secret is out, so can interesting things FINALLY start happening now, please? Synopsis: On Planet Freeza No. 79, Vegeta continues dreaming about his loss on Earth. Back on the Earth itself, night has fallen and Goku sneaks out of his hospital room – leaving behind a sleeping Chi Chi – to get out of the hospital. On Planet Namek, Bulma leads the way with Gohan, Kuririn, and Zarkuro behind her to find the next Dragon Ball. Kuririn asks Zarkuro why Lychee didn't come with them again today, and Zarkuro says he stayed behind because there was work he needed to do. Bulma notices that the next Dragon Ball appears to be heading towards them, and the group soon spots a twister coming right at them. Bulma thinks the Dragon Ball must be inside of it and urges Kuririn to go get it, but he wants to wait until it disperses – a good idea in theory, but according to Zarkuro, Namekian tornadoes wander the desert endlessly. With no other choice, Bulma and Zarkuro take shelter while Kuririn and Gohan prepare to throw energy at the twister. Bulma stops them, saying they'll destroy the Dragon Ball, and she and Zarkuro are forced to run as the twister keeps heading in their direction. With no other option, Gohan leaps inside of the tornado and retrieves the Dragon Ball before destroying the twister with a Masenko. Back on Earth, Goku has flown himself to where he fought Vegeta and takes off his bandages to change back into his gi, intending to start training again, but as he flies, pain shoots through his body and he begins to fall. On Namek, Bulma's radar has picked up the location of the next Dragon Ball, and it leads them into a dark, overgrown forest. Loud animal noises ring out all around them, and the group soon finds themselves on the back of a large, plant-like bird, one of many that flock upwards to a nearby mountain top. On top of the mountain, they see a large castle, but as the birds notice them at last, the one they're on tries to shake them off while the others peck at them. With no other choice, the group leaps off of the bird and to the ground below. Meanwhile, Goku tries to renew his training again after falling to the ground, but finds that his body really is too shredded to train with yet. Now on the ground, Bulma, Gohan, Kuririn, and Zarkuro approach the large castle, only to find a giant sleeping inside in a bed with his pet snake. The other three leave Bulma to watch as a lookout as they search the giant's room for the Dragon Ball, but no matter where they look, they can't seem to find it. When the giant turns it's head in it's sleep, Bulma spots the Dragon Ball stuck on it's earring. The other three try to pull the Dragon Ball free from the earring and succeed, but wake up the giant in the process. Back on Earth, Roshi, Gyu-mao, and Chi Chi have discovered Goku's empty bed and wonder where he's gotten off to. Bulma and the others hop into a toy plane the giant had and Bulma tries to fly it away, but the giant catches up to them while she's figuring it out and Gohan and Kuririn are forced to try to fight the giant off, without much success. Bulma finally gets the plane to fly just as Gohan and Kuiririn succeed in damaging the giant, only to find that the damage to his body doesn't affect him, and his 'wounds' appear more like parts of a broken statue. They all manage to escape with the plane and with the Dragon Ball in tow, they're one step closer to reviving everyone. As Kuririn glances back at the mountain however, he briefly sees no castle there at all – when he looks again however, it reappears. Kuririn is confused, and Zarkuro seems to notice this. Back on the mountaintop, the giant snake is shown crawling over a broken statue that resembles the giant they just dealt with... Meanwhile, on Earth, Goku has continued trying to train, while on Planet Freeza No. 79, Vegeta is healed at last. Review: Star Date, 08-2022. While in the manga, our heroes have landed on Namek and the story is about to proceed forward for real, I and a facsimile of our heroes are still trapped on 'Namek(?)' and, while at first things seem to be moving very quickly in regards to gathering the Dragon Balls, there is almost nothing of interest happening and it's all just so, so dull. Please send help. I'm being extremely snarky of course, but you'll have to bear with me on that front, because this stretch of episodes really is the worst as far as being engaging goes. I don't know what it is about the pacing of them, but somehow Toei has managed to take situations that should be interesting and relatively thrilling and make them as borderline sleep inducing as they possibly can. A superpowered five year old diving into the heart of a tornado, and our heroes having to fight a seemingly indestructible giant, should not be this boring! EVER! And yet, somehow, I just can't find myself getting that invested in what's on the screen. Maybe part of it is my long-held knowledge of where this all goes, but I'm having a hard time imagining many first time fans falling for what this filler is selling them, even if they didn't know it was filler at all – I'd be sincerely curious to know if any young Japanese fans fell for any of this even if they didn't read the manga, because I'm willing to put money down that they didn't. There are a few hints here and there that finally start to tease the obvious even more for our heroes though, chiefly that their Namekian “friends” have swapped out for no discernible reason, but the most telling is the fact that the castle they were just in seems to disappear for a moment when Kuririn looks back at it and then reappears when he looks again. A rather knowing look from Zarkuro coupled with the downed statue back on top of the mountain clues in any audience member who may have been sleeping – and really, who can blame them? - as to the fact that there's something sinister going on here. Other than that, there's a couple of scenes with Vegeta basically taken from the last manga chapter reviewed, and there's some continued coverage of Goku's ill-advised training attempts, but beyond that, this episode is about like watching paint dry. Until next time! Favorite Scene: The gigantic plant bird things are really fun as a concept, shame they weren't featured in something less coma inducing. Next Time: *snores* ...Huh? Oh, we're...we're still here, aren't we... 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. 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. Synopsis: As Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn all travel to Namek on Kami's ship, Bulma lazes around the ship and interrupts Gohan and Kuririn's mental training to tell them to clean up the ship. Kuririn points out that it's her mess, but she claims to be too busy to clean. Back on Earth, a nurse catches Goku out of bed and trying to train despite still being in a body cast, and Roshi uses the opportunity to harass the nurse. Goku's doctor catches Goku out of bed as well and tells him that if he keeps this up he's never going to get any better, and the doctor puts Roshi to work helping the nurse get Goku back into bed. When the doctor asks where Chi Chi is, Roshi tells him she's up on the roof, as Chi Chi stares at the sky and wonders how Gohan is doing. Back in space, Bulma and Kuririn talk about where Vegeta may be after leaving Earth, as elsewhere in space, Vegeta's ship is shown flying through the stars. Suddenly, all three of them notice something flash in front of the ship. Gohan wonders if they've reached Namek already, but Bulma says it's far too soon for that to be the case. Using the ship's computer, she's able to see that something is quickly approaching them, although Gohan and Kuririn don't see anything outside the window at first. A fleet of smaller ships soon appear however and open fire on their ship, forcing Bulma to open fire in return. As the ships fly around them however, another ship that looks just like theirs appears in front of them, and although they do their best to avoid collision, the ship turns at the same time as them. As all appears lost however, rather than crashing into an identical ship, their ship is taken inside a larger camouflaged balloon-like ship. Finding themselves and their ship inside of another ship now, the trio steps out of their ship to investigate, with Bulma realizing that she forgot to put on pants first. As they explore, they go down a hallway where multiple guns poke out of the wall, which all start firing at them. Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma (with Gohan's help) all manage to survive the attack, with Kuririn telling them both to be careful as they have no idea what other kinds of booby traps might be waiting for them. Shortly afterwards, a wall slides closed behind them, trapping them in a room. Kuririn tries at first to blast the wall away, but acid soon begins pouring into the room, forcing Gohan to grab hold of Bulma to save her from being dissolved. Kuririn blasts the wall away and the trio escape by flying over to the other side. Gohan asks if this could be a Saiyan spaceship, and Bulma admits that she has no idea. They wonder if Vegeta could suddenly appear around the corner and attack them or if he's still recovering somewhere else, as the Saiyan is shown to be doing exactly that as his pod continues to fly through space. After walking further, Kuririn starts to notice that it feels like they're going in a circle, and they haven't seen another door in ages. What appears to be a door appears on the ceiling, but as Kuririn tries to pull it open, another door slides open on a nearby wall. The trio walks through it, but a pit on the floor suddenly opens up and tries to drop them out into space. Kuririn and Gohan rescue Bulma again, and fire ki blasts to push them all back up onto the ship. Gohan and Kuririn are starting to get hungry now, and they all soon smell food in another nearby room. They rush over to indulge their appetites, but Bulma warns them that this could all be a trap. As she carefully tries grabbing a fork and a knife, another knife hurtles past her and sticks into the wall. At first Bulma gloats about not falling for such an obvious trap, but the knife in the wall has pushed in a panel that soon causes the whole ship to shake as pillars are pulled away, trapping Bulma underneath a large dome alone after Kuririn and Gohan were quick enough to dodge out of the way. As Gohan and Kuririn prepare to free Bulma, the dome disappears and a robotic arm grabs Bulma and hands her up from the ceiling. Before any of them can react, guns surround Bulma and soldiers come out of compartments that raise out of the floor to surround Gohan and Kuririn as well. The group seems to be captured, but Gohan notices something strange about their attackers – they're all children. Kuririn asks if there's any adults they can talk to, and Bulma shouts for them to forget about her and 'give those kids a spanking', but as the kids around Gohan and Kuririn react in fear when Kuririn starts to move, the kids surrounding Bulma point even more guns, prompting Bulma to change her tune. Review: A new arc means new chances for filler to expand upon things that didn't exist in the original manga, and what period does Dragon Ball Z choose to expand upon first? The trip to Namek itself! That's...actually not a bad idea in-of-itself if I'm being honest. While the last manga chapter we had blazed through the trip in the span of a chapter, it did so by also giving us all of the intel on what's going on in space that our characters are about to run into once they land on the planet. Here however, Toei has chosen to severely chop up the Vegeta plot dump, and string it out through original material following our heroes during their trip into space. It's really the only realistic way to do this, because if we'd gotten the Vegeta plot dump all at once as we had in the manga, everything would feel far more like it was stalling for time (which, it is), rather than standing any chance of feeling like a naturally occurring story. That's not to say the filler itself isn't also making use of filler of it's own to pad the runtime however. The story of this episode probably could have been resolved in one episode rather than two with some severe cuts to it's own ancillary material as well as material to come in the next episode. To get it to take two episodes however, the entirety of our heroes' material from the previous chapter is adapted into this episode, as are a few cutaways to what Vegeta's doing (spoilers: trying not to die in his space pod). There's also a cutaway to Goku's antics on the Earth and a worried Chi Chi that don't really add a lot either, but admittedly I'm a bit fonder of this bit. Goku just laying in a hospital bed really does feel unlike him, so the idea that he's sneaking out of bed to try to train makes sense. It also makes sense that Roshi would come visit him, both out of love for his student and also to sexually harass some nurses, because of course he'd do both of those things. At least this time he gets some comeuppance though, and unlike the usual payback, it's not due to him getting smacked or shot – it's the doctor and the nurse making it clear they have no time to deal with his shit. As for our heroes, they quickly run into issues of their own as they fly through space, and their trip is put on the back burner for a bit as they end up captured by a ship that camouflages and reflects everything out in space. While I'm not a huge fan of this episode overall, there are some really neat set pieces that I really enjoy with this ship, from it being essentially invisible and reflecting their own ship back at them, to all of it's various traps like the acid room and the drop pit back into space. The gun wall's pretty neat too I guess. By the time you get to the final trap however, it's extremely obvious that they shouldn't trust anything that they see around them, so you just know something is coming when they find food. I think the writers knew how obvious this all was by this point though, as they highlight it themselves with Bulma, and make her fall for the trap out of sheer arrogance rather than anything else. With all of these assaults upon them though, you really are lead to wonder just what exactly is going on on this ship, but seeing our characters get surrounded by people with guns at this point in the story really doesn't feel like much of a threat...usually. This is where they throw us a curveball though – it's less that this is a threat, and more that our characters don't know how to handle the situation they've found themselves in, because they're completely surrounded by kids wearing body armor and pointing guns at them. There's seemingly no adults around, so right away this is the most violent mob of orphans I've ever seen, that's for sure. That said, once we know it's kids piloting this ship, an uh...interesting quandary comes up. See, earlier in the episode before our heroes' ship gets captures, Bulma opens fire on some little ships that probably came from this bigger ship they're now on. She successfully guns down a good handful of them too. So that leaves the question of...were...those ships running on auto-pilot, or did Bulma just...o-ohh... … Until next time! Favorite Scene: All of the traps the ship employs against our heroes are pretty neat, but if I had to pick a personal favorite, it'd definitely be the acid room. Next Time: So, are there no like...space orphanages, or... Synopsis: As their ship travels through space headed for Planet Namek, Bulma has succumbed to boredom and lazing around the ship in her underwear. As she wonders if she should have made some sort of stasis pods so they could just sleep the whole way there, she watches Gohan and Kuririn meditating and training in their minds. Kuririn snaps out of it first, panting and praising Gohan for how strong he is, while Gohan praises Kuririn for surprising him with how many moves he has. Bulma says training is all well and good, but says the ship has started to get kind of messy and tells them they should clean it up – there's a lady present, after all. Kuririn points out that it's her mess, and Bulma retorts that she's busy thinking while all they do is sit around, and walks away claiming to be busy. Kuririn comments that if she's such a 'lady', he really wishes she wouldn't walk around half naked. From a seat at the front of the ship, Bulma asks Kuririn about something she's been wondering – when Vegeta left Earth, where did he go exactly, pointing out that the Saiyan home world is long gone according to Goku's brother Raditz. Kuririn remembers that as well, and says that with how injured Vegeta was, he must have went somewhere with civilization so he could be treated. Bulma remembers Raditz also saying something about the Saiyans selling planets to other races, so she wonders if maybe it was one of those races he went to. Kuririn thinks it'd be nice if that planet was really far away so they have more time before he comes back to the Earth, and Bulma remarks that their home has really gotten targeted by someone unbelievable. Elsewhere in space, Vegeta's pod flies towards 'Planet Freeza No. 79', and a pair of aliens wearing the same type of armor as the Saiyans get a reading that a ship is approaching. They wonder if it's Lord Freeza, but think that it can't be as he just left. They recognize the signal upon further inspection as Vegeta, which also surprises him as they hadn't heard he'd be coming, and immediately move to have a welcoming party to receive him. As Vegeta's pod lands, a welcoming group of aliens all wearing the same armor notice that there's only one ship, prompting them to wonder where Nappa is. When Vegeta doesn't get out of his pod, they quickly notice that he's on life support inside of it, and hurry him to a medical bay on the planet. Vegeta is shown floating in a vat of liquid with wires attached to him while being watched over by another alien. The alien eventually hits a button, causing the vat to drain and Vegeta to awaken and step out of the tank, naked. The alien tells Vegeta that while he should be completely healed now, his tail couldn't be regenerated, but Vegeta says that's fine as it'll grow back on it's own again. The alien comments that Vegeta must have been through a hard time for his armor to be as damaged as it is, and as Vegeta changes into a new set of armor, he asks if Lord Freeza is there. The alien says Freeza has left, and Vegeta scoffs, saying he must already be bored of this planet as well. The alien informs Vegeta that Cui is waiting to talk to him, but Vegeta laughs and tells him to tell Cui he has nothing to say to him and starts to leave. The alien tells Vegeta that he's forgotten his scouter, but Vegeta tells him that he doesn't need it anymore. As Vegeta walks through a hallway, he thinks to himself that he'll head back to Earth first thing the next morning and destroy them this time, but then decides that he should head to Planet Namek first instead. His thoughts are interrupted when he runs into Cui, who mocks him for having gotten beaten as well as the deaths of Raditz and Nappa. Vegeta tries to walk past Cui, telling him he has no time to listen to his blathering, but Cui grabs his shoulder and stops him, telling him that Lord Freeza is angry with him for going somewhere without his permission. Vegeta says that Freeza can't complain since he's not there, and Cui tells Vegeta that Freeza is generous however and is probably going to forgive Vegeta since the Saiyan “discovered something wonderful”. Vegeta asks Cui what he's talking about, and Cui says Freeza was quite pleased to learn he might be able to become immortal by going to Planet Namek. Hearing this, Vegeta realizes that Freeza must have heard everything through their Scouters, and also realizes that he'll be stuck serving Freeza for the rest of his life if Freeza gets his wish first. Cui tells Vegeta to give up on the Dragon Balls as Freeza is sure to kill the Namekians after getting his own wish granted, but Vegeta races out to his pod, leaping in it and heading as fast as he can for Planet Namek. Thirty-four days after leaving the Earth, Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma finally reach Planet Namek in Kami's spaceship! Review: Another chapter where I'm not entirely sure there's much to comment on in the grand scheme of things, but there is a few things worth talking about as the chapter finishes up the prelude to Namek (at least in the manga), and sets the stage for what we can expect our heroes to run into once there. The chapter starts off focused on our heroes, with Bulma being bored (and also providing a little bit of fan-service in her down time by walking around in her underwear...in...front of a five-year-old...). Kuririn and Gohan are meanwhile doing a bit of image training together, which is really weird and inexplicable. Seriously, they're channeling images of each other mentally apparently and actually fighting each other that way, so their minds are connected somehow or another. I guess Goku's not the only one capable of spontaneously developing psychic powers when needed. I guess it's the only way they'd really be able to do any kind of training together while in the confines of the ship though, so Toriyama was kind of stuck as far as that goes. The topic among our heroes soon changes to talking about Vegeta though, with Bulma and Kuririn both wondering where he went when he left Earth while also revisiting some information mentioned by Raditz when he came to Earth. They remember that the Saiyan home world is long gone, as well as the fact that the Saiyans supposedly sold planets to other races looking for homes, so they wonder if it could be one of those planets that Vegeta is going to. If there were more Saiyans than only the three initially (not counting Goku and Gohan of course), you'd think they'd wonder if they didn't have a planet of their own they operated out of though, even if it wasn't their original home world. As things turn out though, it's that guess based on them working for other races that turns out to be right, as Vegeta lands on 'Freeza Planet No. 79'. Hmm, that name sounds curiously familiar thanks to us visiting DBZ movie 3 first... Putting that aside for the moment, it's interesting to see the architecture of the alien buildings on this planet, as well as seeing all sorts of aliens – some more humanoid looking and others more bizarre – all wearing the same uniform as the Saiyans we've seen up until now wearing, the same armor and scouter combo as far as the eye can see. Things quickly move in a direction that seem to show not everything was quite as we assumed it to be out in space based on what the Saiyans told us, as while Vegeta is referred to as a 'Lord' on this planet, so is another alien named Cui, and so is Freeza. That already puts Vegeta on an equal footing with some of these other aliens, but there's only one of the three that has a planet named after them currently, and that's Freeza. Couple that with 'No. 79' indicating this is only one of several planets bearing his name, and...yeah, I think it's pretty clear Vegeta just got a huge downgrade in terms of importance. That said though, that actually serves to big up a lot of these other aliens right out of the gate. Look at how Cui talks to Vegeta when they meet, almost like they're equals or as if Cui is above him (not that Vegeta has much time for such an attitude). Then look at the way he talks about Freeza. Now couple that with the fact that 79 planets are named after Freeza, and the fact that Vegeta is almost petrified at the idea of Freeza gaining immortality and thus making Vegeta serve him for the rest of his life. Now take all of that information, keep it in mind...and remember how strong Vegeta was. That it took all of Earth's best efforts to beat him to a DRAW essentially. Oh yeah, I think it's safe to say our heroes are really about to be in far greater danger unlike any they've ever seen before, and they have absolutely no idea what they're getting themselves into. They're going to find out soon enough however, as Freeza and Vegeta are both on their way to the same place as they are. Planet Namek is about to become the biggest hotspot in the universe. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Upon returning to the hospital with Mr. Popo, Bulma tells everyone about the spaceship they found, saying that it needs a little bit of work, but they'll be able to leave in five days and make it to Planet Namek in a month. Everyone is overjoyed at this news, but when Bulma tells Mr. Popo they'll leave the trip to Namek to him, he objects and says he can't leave Kami's sanctuary unattended for two months. Bulma says he has to go because he's the only one that can speak Namekian, but Popo offers to teach her the language. Kuririn also points out that Bulma's the only one who knows mechanics so she has to go in case the ship has any problems, and Bulma ultimately concedes and agrees to go while noting a bunch of luxuries she'll have to add to the ship in that case. Bulma says she doesn't want to go alone however, and when she asks for someone to come with her, Yajirobe turns her down while Roshi eagerly agrees. Bulma says that would only make the trip even more dangerous, so since Goku's in no shape, she asks Kuririn to go with her. Kuririn agrees reluctantly as he wanted to train, while Goku says he wishes he could go as he wanted to see what Planet Namek's dragon looks like. Gohan speaks up and says he wants to go, an idea that surprises everyone and causes Chi Chi to tell him not to joke around like that. Gohan says that he's serious and wants to help bring Piccolo back to life with his own hands, and while Goku praises his son for the idea, Chi Chi flips out. Chi Chi says he's a kid and needs to start acting like one, that she's already had to worry about him for a whole year and now he's being selfish by wanting to leave for another two months, and that he's only going to end up even further behind in his studies at this rate. She finally crosses the line by saying 'who cares about Piccolo', causing Gohan to scream at her to be quiet. Everyone is stunned into silence and Chi Chi laments that her son has become a true delinquent. Gohan tells his mom that everyone who died fought together to try to save the Earth, and that since he can fight too, he has to do what he can to help bring them back to life. Gyu-mao tells his daughter that she's lost this one and to let Gohan go into space with her blessing. As Goku thinks of how proud he is of how strong Gohan has become, Bulma promises Chi Chi that it'll be fine as she's sure it'll be safe enough, and says that it'll take about ten days for her to re-program the ship and for her to learn Namekian, so they'll all meet up at Kame House in ten days. As Bulma and her father work on the Namekian spaceship, Dr. Brief marvels at how advanced it is and acknowledges that there are even smarter geniuses out there than himself. Ten days pass quickly, and the ship is ready to depart from Kame House, with Kuririn looking up at it in awe. Bulma, wearing an astronaut suit, accuses Kuririn of underestimating space due to his casual attire, before asking where Gohan is. Kuririn says he wanted to go see his father in the hospital before coming, and he soon arrives, sporting a short new haircut that and wearing a suit that Chi Chi picked out for him. Bulma feels exhausted from being the only one taking this trip seriously in her view, and says they should get going. Roshi wishes Kuririn well, and Chi Chi tells Gohan to write to her every day as they all depart into the ship. Once inside, Kuririn asks Bulma where they should put their bags, and Bulma angrily tells him to hurry up and sit down, causing Kuririn to wonder why she's in such a bad mood. Bulma launches the ship into space before they have a chance to buckle up, and the trio are in space within seconds, surprising the crowd left behind at Kame House. Bulma tells them they're free to move now that they're out of the atmosphere, surprising Kuririn and disappointing Gohan who had wanted to see the Earth from space. Kuririn asks Bulma where she's going as she starts to leave the room, and she angrily retorts that she's changing, with Kuririn wondering if it's into her pajamas. Kuririn realizes he forgot his own pajamas, and asks Gohan if he brought his or if he's staying in those 'Sunday school' clothes his mother put him in. Gohan says he brought his pajamas, but for now he changes into clothing that he made in secret from his mother, and changes into an outfit that looks similar to Piccolo's gi and the one he wore while fighting the Saiyans. Kuririn says he must really respect Piccolo, and Gohan says he respects him about the same as he does his dad. As Bulma walks back out in her new clothes, Kuririn and Gohan both think they look strange for pajamas, causing Bulma to angrily retort that they're not for sleeping. She says she changed out of her space suit because she started to feel silly for being the only one preparing so seriously for space travel, causing Gohan and Kuririn to wonder if they did something wrong. As the ship flies through space, the trio head for Planet Namek, with no idea of what awaits them there. Review: With a ship that can take them to Namek in far shorter order than four thousand years, it seems like our heroes have everything they need to make this trip happen and wish everyone back in short order. Bulma gets a rude awakening though when she thinks she can just leave all the hard work to Mr. Popo, who straight up says he isn't going. Admittedly, it's a little suspect that he can't go – there's not really anything to suggest he takes care of Kami's God duties while he's dead, so he's probably just tending to the plants and such – but at this point I don't think there's a lot that would be gained narratively from him going in the first place. The time has passed for him to really be more than a background character that helped them all get stronger, and all things told, he's not really a strong enough personality for most to want to watch a storyline following him either. That raises the question then of who will go to Namek? Kuririn quickly points out to Bulma that her going feels like it'd mandatory given she's the only one who'd have any hope of fixing the ship if they ran into any problems with it – an especially fair concern given the ship has just been sitting there for hundreds of years – and while she's reluctant to agree, I'm glad she does. After all, as I said previously, Bulma hasn't really had a lot to do in the past few arcs, so surely having her come along as one of the travelers to Namek will finally give her some plot relevancy again, right? ...We'll come back to that. When Yajirobe rejects the idea of going (not that Bulma was particularly hoping for him in the first place probably) and Roshi jumps at the chance (a notion Bulma very wisely shoots down immediately...), she nominates Kuririn to come along with her. This makes a lot of sense as well, and I'm not just saying that because he's my favorite character. With Goku bedridden and most of the rest of their friends dead, he's really the only active fighter left, and Bulma already knows him at least fairly well. After rising to prominence in the last arc, it makes sense to give Kuririn more to do in the story now to boot. The real standout moment of this chapter however comes with the third member of their party speaking up. Gohan wants to bring Piccolo back to life by his own hands, and given that his teacher died to save him, it makes perfect sense that Gohan would feel this way. There's just one problem though – his mother. Chi Chi's concerns are completely valid as well. She's not wrong to worry when, as she's quick to point out, she's already had to do just that for a whole year while Gohan was away from her. This is also a potentially dangerous trip into unknown territory and he's still a child, why should the fate of people's lives continue to rest on his small shoulders after all? As right as Chi Chi is in her own way though, I can't help but side with Gohan on this one, especially once she makes the mistake of disregarding Piccolo entirely, a comment that even Goku looks furious about upon hearing it. Despite what Piccolo was like before, he DID just die to save her only son, so you'd think that would make her feelings change on him at least slightly. I can't imagine Gohan hasn't told her about that part of what happened anyway, though I suppose it's possible she just didn't listen – as much as I defend her, that would certainly fit her character, all things considered. At the end of the day though, Gohan is the one in the right on this, and his mother is forced to concede that her little boy is going to space after all. It sure uh...sure would be a shame if Bulma's comments about it being safe enough turned out to be all wrong though, wouldn't it... Once the ship is ready to go and everyone gathers at Kame House, we're treated to a few character design changes. Kuririn just gets a new casual fit, complete with a hat with a rather hilarious attempt at spelling his name in English by Toriyama. Badly spelled or not, I'd kill to get a 'Kulilin' hat. Bulma also cuts her hair, and NOOOOOOOOOOO- okay, I'm done. It's not that I don't like her new hair, but it's definitely nowhere near as great looking on her as her previous hairdo, at least in my opinion. The real loser of the new look department however has to be poor Gohan, as Chi Chi apparently put a bowl on his head, cut all the hair that showed out from under it, and then shoved him in a suit and brought him out looking like a shorter Moe from The Three Stooges, the poor kid. The real oddity in this section of the chapter though is Bulma's attitude during it. Bulma's always been a somewhat tempestuous character personality wise, but usually her angry reactions are done in one way (such as her reaction to Mr. Popo refusing to go or Roshi volunteering to go), whereas the way she acts in this chapter is offputtingly different. It seems like the idea is she's exasperated or even embarrassed by how much thought she put into her look going into space compared to the rest of them, but as a joke, that just doesn't really land. Especially when it lasts through the entire rest of the chapter and ends on her spelling it out as such to Gohan and Kuririn. It's just...weird. At least Gohan changes into an outfit more fit for fighting though, and while I'm not a big fan of his hair in this arc, his outfit at least is pretty fitting for him, and with him choosing to don it again rather than Piccolo putting him into it, it really shows how much he respects his fallen master. With everyone off into space now and due on Namek in short order, things are finally looking up for our heroes. Surely there'll be absolutely no trouble as Bulma says, and no danger like Chi Chi worried about, and this arc will be over before we know it. ...Well... Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: So about that nice, safe trip to Namek... Synopsis: Kuririn is shocked by Mr. Popo's claim and asks him if there really is another spaceship, and Popo admits that he's not 100% sure, so he'll need someone to come with him to check it out and confirm it or not. Everyone immediately suggest Bulma go with him, as she's the only one among them who can probably tell if something is a spaceship or not. Bulma is reluctant to go along with Popo, who she deems to be 'shifty looking', but ultimately agrees. After Bulma climbs onto the carpet, Popo instantly teleports them away, leaving Kuririn to wonder whose spaceship it is he's seemingly found. Mr. Popo and Bulma reappear in the Yunzabit Highlands, a cold and windy mountain range far away from the hospital they were just at. Bulma is suspicious of Popo and accuses him of just taking her someplace where people won't be able to see what he does to her, but he ignores that and instead shows her a large, bizarre looking structure that he suspects might be a spaceship. Bulma begins investigating it and soon discovers that it's not made out of metal, and she can't really tell what it is made out of. She asks Popo what he knows about it, and Popo tells her about the one and only time Kami spoke to him about his past. Kami told him that he lived in Yunzabit as a child, which confused Popo as it was a wasteland. He asked Kami what a child would be doing there, and Kami had been confused as well, almost as if he couldn't remember how he came to be there. Popo had asked him about his parents, and Kami said that he didn't have any, only a note that read 'we will come for you later, wait for us'. Kami did as the note asked and waited for many, many years, but it quickly became hard to find food, and after twenty or thirty years of waiting, he left his 'house' behind. He would occasionally check in to see if any sign of someone looking for him could be found, but nothing ever changed at that spot. It was only after seeing other houses that Kami would come to realize how odd his own 'house' had been, in that it stood on four legs, had no door, and opened with a spoken word. Mr. Popo speaks the same word Kami told him, 'Piccolo', and the bottom of the strange structure drops down. Bulma and Popo climb on top of it and Popo repeats the word, causing it to raise up and bring them inside of the structure. As Bulma looks over the interior, Popo asks her again if this might be a spaceship, and it finally clicks in Bulma's head – Kami was an alien too, so this must be a spaceship, the same spaceship he came to Earth on himself centuries before! Mr. Popo explains that he heard Kaio-sama speaking as well and upon remembering the story Kami told him, Popo had thought it was worth seeking out the 'house' from it. Bulma starts looking around further and tries to figure out how to operate the ship, but soon finds that the controls don't seem to have any buttons. She soon realizes it must be voice operated, just as the entrance had been, so she tries to tell the ship to fly, but it doesn't recognize her voice. Slumping into the control seat in defeat, Bulma laments that it must only recognize the Namekian language, a language she's pretty sure she remembers hearing Kami and Piccolo speaking to each other in at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. Popo says that if that's Namekian than he can speak it as well, saying that it makes sense actually as 'Piccolo' means 'Different World' in that language. Bulma tells Popo to ask the ship to fly them to Jupiter as a test run, and Popo does so. The ship responds, flying them into space and hovering above Jupiter in a matter of seconds. Bulma is overjoyed, as is Mr. Popo – with this ship, they might just be able to go to Namek and revive Kami after all! Review: All things told, there's not a lot that happens in this chapter. It mostly builds off of what's happened in the past few chapters, but it does have a few moments worth talking about, as well as finally confirming the direction this new story arc is going to take the series in. With Mr. Popo's appearance in front of everyone, it's worth pointing out that for much of the extended cast, this is really their first time stepping into the 'Godly Realm' side of their world as it were. Sure, Roshi already knew Karin, but as he points out, he never met Popo before now, nor has the rest of the non-main fighting cast (who also would never have met Karin prior to now either). It's an interesting change compared to how these characters and their locales were treated prior to now – the Heavenly Realm was treated as a place that only those worthy would get to visit or really even know much about, but now that things have gotten so dire, it's becoming basically common knowledge for our heroes at the very least. While it makes sense as a bit of escalation and given the circumstances, it does kind of de-mystify everything about Kami and the sanctuary, but honestly, we're now at the point that God is an alien and has already been replaced by a more Godly God, so...eh. And speaking of Kami, it's made clear pretty quickly once Bulma and Popo get to the ship that not only is it a ship, but it's the ship Kami must have come here in as a child to boot. Basically, you could say everything about this arc is already shaping up to be about Namek – it's where the characters are wanting to go, and it's only thanks to the first Namekian to come to Earth that they're going to have the ability to do so as well. There's some neat tying together here as well, with the Namekian language revealed to be the same bizarre language we saw Kami and Piccolo speaking to each other in back at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, further cementing this twist as being one of the few things Toriyama has gone on record about having been pre-planned to some degree. It likewise feels like Toriyama has gone back to the origins of the species' design via King Piccolo to flesh out the Namekian heritage on display as well, as the ship looks like something we could have seen the late Great Demon King chilling in. Hell, the control chair in the ship looks a lot like Piccolo's throne actually, just without a skull motif to go along with it. The ship's capability is also proven quickly, as even a Namekian ship that's more than a few centuries old at the very least is already far more capable than any kind of engine that Bulma and her father could make with modern Earthling technology. This sort of 'space tech is more advanced than Earth tech' thing is pretty common in fiction (and really, it only makes sense if you're going to do a story with aliens traveling wherever they wish in space while we're still pretty limited in that regard ourselves), but it's made all the more hilarious when you stop and think about how ludicrously advanced the technology in Dragon Ball already is at times. Dragon Ball's Earthling scientists figured out a way to shove any kind of item you might want into a small capsule and then bring it back to full size with no problem, but interstellar travel was STILL a daunting task. With the end of the chapter, the direction of the new story arc is clear at last, as the idea of going to Namek is no longer an idea – it's what our character are going to do. After an entire story arc where space was bringing problems to Earth, it's our characters turn to take the initiative and head out into space themselves! I'm sure they won't run into any problems out there in the stars whatsoever. ...*cough* Until next time! Favorite Panel: |
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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