After the whirlwind of action and drama that was “Gohan’s Rage,” this is the perfect kind of episode to let everybody catch their breath and get caught up with the consequences. However, this is also probably one of the few episodes I’m going to actually praise as worthwhile until Nappa and Vegeta land on Earth, because dear God, does the filler problem ever come up in this part of the Saiyan arc.
We open with Piccolo and the Kame House gang (nice band name
btw) discussing what they’re going to do for the next year until the new and
improved Saiyans arrive. Bulma taps Raditz’s scouter with a screwdriver and
declares that not only can she fix it, she can make it display numbers in our
language! That’s some Dexter’s Laboratory-level genius right there. But the mood
is quickly soured when Piccolo screams, regenerating his arm and freaking out
the rest of the group. Then, of course, we get to see him levitate Gohan out of
Bulma’s arms, declaring that he’ll be taking the boy for some special training.
In my favorite comedic bit of the episode, Krillin accuses Piccolo of just
wanting to take Gohan away so he can “gobble him up,” and Piccolo flips the fuck
out. He gets legitimately offended by that statement, which is amazing.
It’s going to be a treat to see how Piccolo sort of evolves
over the course of the coming year. He never becomes a “nice” guy, per se, but
he does move to the side of justice with what I remember to be minimal real
pushing in that direction. I seem to remember there was something Goku said at
the end of the original Dragonball, where he pointed out that Piccolo Jr.
didn’t seem to be as intensely evil as his father.
On the point of Piccolo not being very nice, we have his
first of many interactions with Gohan. Piccolo wakes up Gohan by tossing him in the water, screams at him to
stop crying, then tells him his dad is dead. So, y’know, not winning any awards
for Guidance Counselor of the Year. At least he doesn’t discourage Gohan’s
“dream” of being an orthopedist, he just has to help kill a couple of
super-powered space men first.
After Piccolo tosses Gohan at a mountain, forcing him to use
his latent powers to destroy it and carve a chunk out of the ground in the
process, Piccolo muses on the irony of his situation, noting that he has to
teach his worst enemy’s son how to harness a power that could be used against
him one day. See, he’s not the only one who recognizes the good writing at this
stage of the game. Not only that, he’s smart enough—unlike many of the more
villainous characters that will be introduced over the course of the show—to
recognize when an opponent is truly dangerous. Gohan may not be his opponent
now, but in a future scenario that might change, and Piccolo realizes the
danger that might put him in. But right now, with a more immediate threat on
the horizon, he knows he has no choice but to give Gohan the tools he needs to
become one of Earth’s most powerful fighters.
Someone who ISN’T going to be on board with that plan is
Chi-Chi, who is getting increasingly pissy about how long Goku and Gohan have
been gone. If she’s this mad about them being gone for most of a day, when she
finds out about the whole year thing, she’s really going to be steamed, boy
howdy. I guess these frequent cuts to Chi-Chi and Ox King are supposed to
increase our sympathy for Chi-Chi, being that she doesn’t know about the
terrible stuff that’s happened, but all it really does for me is make me
irritated at her as a character. Gohan’s like four years old, lady, he can miss
a day of homework. Where the hell is she even getting worksheets and textbooks
for him? Maybe she’s writing them. She’d better be qualified in her own
right, or by the time Gohan starts going to Orange Star, he’s going to be screwed, and I'm not even talking about Videl.
But of course, the most important thing here is what happened
to Goku. At the end of the last episode, Goku’s lifeless body was disappeared
by none other than Kami. Here, it's revealed that the Earth's guardian had taken him to Other World for
some good old training. King Yemma, a massive Satan-looking clerk in the
Other World office strong enough to overpower Raditz, grants
Goku permission to travel down the infamous Snake Way to meet up with King Kai himself! I put in my notes that Snake Way is basically Filler Hell,
and I completely stand by that. The most frustrating part of this arc, by a
longshot, is Goku’s tedious trip down Snake Way, replete with frequent stops
and chock-full of Goku complaining about being hungry, or tired, or the road
being too goddamn long. I don’t know if Snake Way was in the manga, or how
prominent it was, but I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if it turned out to
be a complete invention of the anime, so they could have an excuse to make it
take for-fucking-ever for Goku to make it to King Kai’s.
Not that there isn’t some worthwhile stuff in these 15
some-odd episodes before we get to Nappa and Vegeta’s landing on Earth. We get
to see Gohan’s adventures in his first months of training, we get reunited with
some characters from Dragonball we haven’t seen yet, and even Goku’s Snake Way
trip has a few moments of entertainment. Hell, Nappa and Vegeta have their own
little subplots while they travel through space. But after the very eventful
first five episodes, the show is definitely going to settle into some doldrums
that make us collectively crave something substantive. It’s like going from
five steak dinners to fifteen straight days of ramen noodles. Yeah, you’re
getting by, but… that’s mostly it.
(3/5)
A Few Final Thoughts:
-Krillin has the all-important task of telling Chi-Chi what
happened with her husband and son. Spoiler Alert: he doesn’t do well.
-I can’t help but think about the TFS version every time I
see the scene where Piccolo throws Gohan.
-“I’m just a kid, I can’t fight with grown-ups!” Tell that
shit to Goten and Trunks.
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