Here is where we are properly introduced to the great King Kai, who turns out to be a rotund blue bug-like creature with no nose who looks like Krillin ate the Everlasting Gobstopper from Willy Wonka and got turned into a blueberry. It’s actually harder for Goku to believe that the actual King Kai is King Kai, as opposed to the monkey, which he just accepted without much questioning. Hell, he thought Princess Snake was King Kai at first, even though she isn’t even the right gender to be a king. Somehow, I feel like I offended somebody with that sentence. I’m sorry, in advance, if I did.
Most of this episode
is Goku getting started on King Kai’s training. It turns out King Kai is a
respected teacher in the martial arts, but his true calling—the thing that
gives him the greatest joy—is comedy, and there is no damn way King Kai is
going to train Goku until the uppity Saiyan proves that he has a funny bone and
he’s not afraid to use it. At first, Goku has a struggle—given the fact that
he’s dead and so too will his friends and family be if he doesn’t defeat the
Saiyans, it’s no wonder he isn’t sure how to deal with the ultimatum of the
legendary King Kai.
But is our hero
deterred? No way! He proceeds, with King Kai’s help in terms of showing what
kind of sense of humor he has, to tell some of the worst jokes imaginable! It’s
shit like “one sells watches, the other watches sells!” and “you can tune a
piano, but you can’t tunaFISH!” Actually, I think that last one was either from
the Ocean dub or from later in the Funimation version. Point is, terrible puns
are King Kai’s mileau. Honestly, that’s so much more wholesome than Master
Roshi, who would have probably demanded that Goku bring him a deaf-mute
attractive girl that he can finger against her will without her telling the
proper authorities. Somehow, I feel like I offended somebody with that
sentence. I’m sorry, in advance, if I did.
The real first task
Goku faces is, he has to catch the monkey. This monkey, which has gotten used
to the 10x gravity on King Kai’s planet—which, he points out, is the same as
Planet Vegeta’s gravity—is going to evade Goku easily for the very near future,
even after Goku tries the task without weighted clothing, which King Kai does
not let him repeat after Goku has a meal. King Kai figures Goku will get even
more out of the training if he uses the weighted clothes. It’s that sort of
ruthless dedication to making everything as painfully difficult as possible
that turns a Saiyan like Goku into a real warrior, instead of a crumpled heap
of broken bones and “oops” like we would become if we tried to wear, what, 500
pounds worth of weighted training clothes.
The stuff with Goku
trying to keep up with Bubbles is the most entertaining aspect of this episode,
and that’s good because it takes up quite a bit of it. The only other thing we
see in this episode is another little scene of Gohan and Piccolo training.
Gohan is starting to get even with Piccolo power-wise, and instead of being
proud or at least cocky that his training paid off well, he now increasingly
seems to treat Gohan as a potential rival that needs to be shut down. At least,
that’s how he acts in the heat of battle, and a lot of that could just be his
own battle instincts. When you stop to think about it, Piccolo is actually not
that much older than Gohan, maybe about 5 years.
Of course, Gohan
himself sees Piccolo as his “big green uncle,” a phrase that causes Piccolo to
go all tsundere and demand that Gohan go to sleep. This is probably around the
point in the show where Piccolo started to feel legitimate affection for the
kid, because he really vehemently denies so by scoffing at Gohan’s little
nickname for him. I don’t think Piccolo ever realized that friendship and peace
was an option, sort of like the Saiyans, which we’ll get to later. It’s one
thing for an individual to be born into a neutral or even good society and then
become evil by choice, but Piccolo was a product of his father, he barely had a
chance. Only because of the unconditional love of a peaceful, happy kid like
Gohan could he even gain access to those emotions, never mind choose to feel
them.
I consider this the
beginning of the end for the whole training arc. Goku’s at his destination,
Gohan and Piccolo are training together, and the dragon balls have been
collected. Things are finally starting to come together, and as the Saiyans
enter the Solar System, the old shades of excitement from the brief but
powerful Raditz arc are returning. I envy the people who are watching this for
the first time, if such a group of people even exists, and have no idea who is
going to be strong enough to take on the Saiyans when they finally hit Earth.
If, indeed, there is anyone strong enough. In the meantime, all we can do is
watch a Namekian get closer to his enemy’s child and a Saiyan get closer to a
monkey.
(3/5)
A Few Final Thoughts:
--King Kai didn’t even know Goku was a Saiyan! I guess since
Goku is anathema to the characteristics of most other Saiyans who ever lived,
one wouldn’t assume. That, plus the whole “Planet Vegeta being destroyed”
thing.
--Man, am I happy Goku was able to catch the monkey at the
end of this episode. That would have been painful if they drug it out like,
well, Snake Way.
--I guess Goku’s hunger really does transcend life itself,
because even dead the dude just can’t stop eating.
--King Kai states Nappa and Vegeta rank among the greatest
fighters in the universe. Speaking as somebody who has seen this show before:
bullshit.
--“SOMEBODY STOP ME!”
No comments:
Post a Comment