Dragonball Z Episode 31 Review – “Saiyan Sized Secret”

   You know, this show has a reputation for slowness, and it is not undeserved. Very rarely do you come across any show where they remade it years later, but with the primary purpose of shortening it because it’s just too goddamned bogged down with filler. Any hater of DBZ will cite either the absurd power creep or the crushing length of some arcs as the reason why this is, in fact, an inferior anime. As much as I love DBZ, I can’t defend the horrible length of it, at least not today. Sure, back when it was being made, it was basically being made at the same time the manga was being released, so the two of them were in something of a horse-race, but honestly, that’s kind of a piss-poor excuse, isn’t it? Maybe not for back then, but nowadays, there’s just no reason, at least not for some people.

  I write that preface so I can just express how shocked I am that Goku and Vegeta’s battle is settled so quickly. It’s a little ridiculous how Vegeta deals with having his attack repelled by Goku near the end of this episode, because from where I’m standing, Goku is deeply, deeply fucked. Goku has burned so much of his energy, he can’t even take a friendly back-slap from Yajirobe without screaming in complete agony. Meanwhile, Vegeta comes back down from being blasted into the atmosphere by Goku’s Kamehameha + Kaioken x4, and the only thing he has to show for it is some singed hair and broken armor. The dude is practically in the same shape he was when he started the fight, Goku is standing there unable to even move, and yet Vegeta acts like he needs to make a desperation move.

  But that’s not a flaw in the show, that’s a flaw in Vegeta’s character. Vegeta is the kind of person who will not ever accept that somebody overcame him, even just temporarily. You’ll see this in later parts of the show, his utter humiliation and pride-damage at being bested by an opponent. As much as both Goku and Vegeta have that Saiyan love for a challenge, it’s only Goku that can deal with losing the challenge, provided life isn’t on the line. But for Vegeta, his life and his pride are the same damn thing, and he will not tolerate an attempt on his life/pride. I think that’s what Trunks and his mother saw in him, and it’s what I see too.

  Hell, even before Vegeta went ballistic and decided to turn into a giant ape to kill Goku, he went ballistic and decided he was going to BLOW UP THE ENTIRE PLANET. This is while his space pod is still on the planet, and he has absolutely no other methods of escape, and as far as he knows the Earthlings do not have any kind of space-travel technology. So, put two-and-two together, and you realize that Vegeta is a fucking psychotic madman. It’s incredibly endemic of how Akira Toriyama did not at all intend for this character to make it very much farther in the series. He had no idea just how popular Vegeta would be, and it’s hard to blame him when you see early Vegeta basically acting as the most cruel villain yet in the series. I guess people saw that star quality in him.

  The beam war that happens in the second half of this episode is one of the most iconic moments in this entire franchise, and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. As far as I can remember, nothing like this happened in the original DB. Goku struggles to get his Kamehameha to push back Vegeta’s powerful Galick Gun until he is forced to use Kaioken x4, something King Kai again protests loudly and insistently. It’s such a crazy-powerful beam struggle, Baba’s crystal ball emits enough energy to destroy pieces of Kame House, much to the chagrin of Roshi.

  But what led us to this beam struggle, anyway? Well, when we last left off, Goku had just activated Kaioken x3—again, to the protestations of King Kai, who fears Goku destroying his own body during the attack—and launched after Vegeta. It looks as if Goku’s body is going to melt as he powers up his mighty attack, but instead the rock pillar beneath Vegeta’s feet gives way as Goku rockets toward him fist-first and just punches the ever-living shit out of the Saiyan prince. Vegeta is batted around like a cat toy for a little while until Goku’s power wears off, and Vegeta looks like he’s about to vomit at a certain point as he rolls around on the ground and clutches his stomach for dear life, eyes bloodshot with pain and rage.

  So you can see why Vegeta, the Saiyan who values pride above all else, might feel like he lost the fight right then and there, even though he definitely outlasted Goku in this confrontation. Vegeta is not used to the idea of losing. Other than Frieza, nothing at this point in his life has been even a threat to him, as far as we viewers are aware. It’s more than just anger that Goku just will not die quietly, it’s fear that Vegeta is still nowhere near where he needs to be to free himself from the living hell he’s been in ever since the death of his father. I’ve been weird about spoilers in this review series thus far, but I’m just going to come out and say it: Vegeta likely thinks that if he can’t beat “Kakarot,” then he most certainly is no chance against Frieza, nor will he be for a long, long time. Not without his wish from the dragon balls, a wish that is looking less and less likely the more he struggles against this low-class wretch.

  In a weird way, it reminds me of Yugi and Kaiba’s second duel in the original Yu-Gi-Oh series. Goku doesn’t realize the stakes at which Vegeta is playing, trying to extricate himself from the shadow of this monster who has held him in bondage his entire life. Beneath all of Vegeta’s arrogance and bloodlust is a terrified survivor, one of the very last of his species, on a journey of vengeance against a monster he has been in servitude to for all of his adult life. Similarly, Yugi doesn’t realize just how bad Kaiba’s situation is until he’s already entered the Duelist Kingdom castle after the fact and seen that Pegasus has stolen Mokuba’s soul and placed it in a Duel Monsters card. It’s the same frustrating situation where the antagonist is harboring a good reason to fight for what they’re fighting for, but because of pride and anger they will not make themselves vulnerable enough to reveal the extent of their situation.

  Key difference, of course, is that Vegeta is still an evil little motherfucker here, whereas Kaiba was more of a neutral anti-hero at that point in the series. Vegeta would absolutely do some terrible things after killing Frieza if he were allowed to have eternal life.

  I mentioned Yajirobe earlier in this review, so I guess I’d better get to him now. Giving you a little sneak preview into my thought process during the writing of these reviews. Yajirobe just shows up next to Goku in an attempt to form some camaraderie with him, even though Goku is just wondering what the fuck he’s even doing at the battlefield. A question that is not unwarranted, considering Yajirobe was useless from almost the moment he showed up in the original series. Yet… you should also take into account the fact that Yajirobe is even there. He doesn’t have to be on the battlefield. At this point, those journalists and cops he had fooled into thinking he was some special ops warrior there to battle the Saiyans have long since abandoned him, seeing him as the fame-seeking fail-boy that he is. Yet, instead of easily finding a place where he won’t be missed at all, he stands with Goku on the battlefield, Vegeta still being incapacitated from Goku’s full-power blast. Of course, once Goku informs him that Vegeta is definitely not dead, nor even close to it, Yajirobe high-tails it to the nearest good hiding spot and leaves his friend in the shit, but again, he doesn’t even need to be there. So, one wonders what this pudgy, gravelly-voiced fighter might be capable of when the chips are down.

  But, overall, I’d say what makes this episode the most compelling is the last five minutes, where it is revealed that Vegeta has the ability to become the Great Oozaru whenever he wants with the use of a fake moon. In the Ocean Dub, Vegeta feeds Goku this line of bullshit about how his father wasn’t a very good fighter (Goku’s father, that is), but was a brilliant scientist, teaching other Saiyans how to create their very own moons with which they could transform on command. And if you think that’s crazy, just wait until you see how Vegeta’s Great Ape form operates on the next exciting episode!

(5/5)

A Few Final Thoughts:

--Even Goku finds himself impressed at Vegeta’s stamina.

--But Vegeta also wonders how Goku could be so strong.

--Yajirobe to Goku: “You should pace yourself!” You dumb fuck.

--Goku is already prepared to start charging up a Spirit Bomb at the end of the episode.

Dragonball Z Episode 30 Review – “Goku vs. Vegeta”

  And what could be a more perfect name for this episode? The damn thing might as well just be called “Good vs. Evil.” I don’t know how familiar younger viewers are with early DBZ as opposed to the later stuff/Super, but take it from me, readers: this is probably the most iconic fight in the entire series. At the very least, it’s in the running for top 3. The show references back to it all the time, it drives much of Vegeta’s future characterization, it’s the first truly even fight in the series up to this point, it’s just an amazing fucking fight.

  You really get an idea of who Vegeta is over the course of these next few episodes. Up until this point, no matter what dub you watch—hell, even the TFS version—Vegeta is basically Nappa’s babysitter, the straight man to that character’s idiocy, to different extents depending on what you’re watching. As different as Nappa himself is in the TFS version of the show, the fundamental relationship between himself and Vegeta during the former’s time on the show stays the same. Nappa’s the bumbling idiot, Vegeta’s the guy who tries to reel him in. Now, for the first time in the series, we get to see Vegeta unfiltered and unhindered.

  Before the fight even begins, Vegeta offers Goku a proposition he’s heard before and will hear again: won’t you join me, and together we can rule the universe? Goku refuses, and he has every good reason to, and the best reason is this one: he is a man of peace. But also, there’s the niggling little fact that job security working with Vegeta isn’t all that great. The man’s idea of a health insurance program is he will ensure that you will die if your health does not meet his standards. The dude fails every OSHA inspection by murdering the people who are sent to do said inspection. Hell, who knows how sincere Vegeta was being with his offer? It’s just as likely that he was waiting for a chance to lull Goku into a false sense of security.

  Speaking of false sense of security, this is the last DBZ episode—indeed, the last instance across the entire canon—where Launch shows up. I, for one, am perfectly fine with seeing the character go. Akira Toriyama never seemed to know what the fuck to do with her, even from the very beginning where she was introduced. She always struck me as a comic relief character in a point in this series where there was already plenty of comedy to go around. Sure, her gimmick was interesting at the start, vacillating between her violent thug side and her sweet-natured side, but it quickly became tiresome when all of the sneeze situations became so contrived they were impossible to take seriously. Now, being unable to take a character seriously in early Dragon Ball isn’t such a big deal, but by the time King Piccolo shows up, it just isn’t welcome anymore.

  Back to Vegeta. The reason Launch shows up to begin with is she’s drinking in a bar when suddenly the entire planet seems to quake at the power-up of Vegeta. Birds fly terrified from the scene of the battle as Vegeta charges up an energy level of around 18,000, a number that would have been absurd at the end of the original series, but here is only symptomatic of a power creep that goes on to become out of control by the time things wrap up. As I noted while I was watching this episode, from what I remember, this is the first time we things being destroyed just from somebody’s ki rising. I doubt this is the case, I’d imagine Piccolo was able to do that, yet this is the first instance in Z, and it doesn’t make you feel too good for Goku’s future health.

  We can feel right away that Goku’s going to need the Kaioken, and not just to outspeed Vegeta. All of that training at King Kai’s didn’t give him nearly the baseline power necessary to compete with the Saiyan prince, as even at Kaioken x1, Vegeta is able to maintain the upper hand, laughing off Goku’s attack as just like something he had encountered before. What makes Vegeta such a dangerous fighter throughout the entire series is his sheer battle experience. Not just any kind of battle experience—Goku has battle experience, too, but he’s a fighter. Vegeta is a motherfucking killer. He will beat you and blast you until you cease to exist. Goku will only do that to someone he has to do it to, and even then, reluctantly. It’s this willingness on Vegeta’s behalf to straight murder the fuck out of whoever he fights that makes him scary to hero and villain alike. Even as a heroic character, Vegeta does not hesitate to go for the kill shot.

  However, what Vegeta lacks and will lack for a very long time is the advantage Goku has over him: the fact that he fights for people he cares about, not just for the sport, or for revenge. When the fate of the world rests on Goku’s shoulders, it doesn’t weigh him down—it makes him stronger. It’s what makes him exceedingly dangerous to somebody like Vegeta, even more dangerous than Vegeta is to him, because Vegeta’s consequence for losing is himself dying, and that’s the worst case scenario. Goku’s only scenario in this fight, if he loses, is that himself and everyone he cares about will die. Goku’s motivation clashes with Vegeta’s bloodthirstiness in a way that makes for one of the most compelling fights in all of Dragonball.

  In all of the excitement, Yajirobe shows up. Now, this is usually the point where I would make a joke about what a useless piece of shit he is, trying to take all the credit for himself even as he sits at the sidelines and eats pork buns or whatever the fuck. But to be honest, here, he reminds me of my favorite character in all of Dragonball Z, and I’m not sure about getting too far ahead of myself here, but let’s just say Yajirobe is here for a little more than just comic relief. Some of the most awesome moments in all of Dragonball Z come from characters finding bravery in themselves who normally don’t go to the battlefield. Under layers of their greed, their selfishness, their cowardice, lies the capacity for greatness, and sometimes even the shittiest characters in the entire show will be placed in situations where they have to start digging for the best of themselves.

  Eventually, Goku has to push his Kaioken attack to x3, even more than he was trained to handle, an act that triggers the first of many of King Kai’s remote temper tantrums as he watches his star pupil do something he explicitly asked him not to do and succeeding at it anyway. And it is during this particular attack that one of the great new characters of DBZ is killed: the scouter. Yes, Raditz’s leftover scouter is ironically enough destroyed by his own brother’s power-up, making it all the way to 21,000 before blowing up right on Bulma’s face. You remember all the way back at Gohan’s Rage where I talked all about how Shakespearian that episode was? Seems like it’s continuing to pay some dividends, eh? Ehhhh? Probably not.

  The episode ends right at Goku’s attack, so of course we have a great cliffhanger to work with here. Is Goku’s Kaioken x3 going to be the thing that takes down Vegeta, or is Vegeta still able to overcome even the more advanced techniques of the great King Kai? The answer may surprise you, if you’re somebody from the 1990s who has just started watching this show for the very first time and didn’t happen to catch any episode from the Namek saga while channel surfing to find that Vegeta is very much still alive in that arc. Of course, to be fair, for all you know that could be from earlier in the series, so maybe I’m just being an asshole again. That’s pretty much what I do.

  So, rating? This warrants another 5 out of 5, and it doesn’t have so much to do with the quality of the episode—which is high, don’t misunderstand me on that—as it does with the importance of the episode. We finally get to see Vegeta operating by himself, something we’re going to get the delight of seeing more throughout the series, and it’s damned entertaining. The guy knows how to be a villain and then an anti-hero with some style. That smirk, that confidence, most of all, that sheer ruthlessness. You know every time Vegeta is in an encounter with another fighter, that other fighter is fucked unless they are way stronger than him, because mercy is a trait Vegeta doesn’t share with Goku or the other Z fighters, even when he’s basically a member of the crew. It really whets my appetite and makes me look forward to more shenanigans from this crafty little bastard.

(5/5)

A Few Final Thoughts:

-- I need to read a Vegeta/Launch fanfic. Now there’s a man who could tame Blonde Launch, and horrify the total hell out of Blue Launch. I bet Vegeta would vastly prefer the Blue model.

-- Vegeta remembers that Goku has lost his tail. If they still had a home planet, Goku would be a laughing stock.

-- Vegeta: “This staring contest is starting to irritate me.” Yeah, welcome to DBZ.

--Even though Vegeta and Goku are so different in their priorities, they’re both Saiyans. Even when he feels completely outmatched, Goku notes that the challenge is exciting to him rather than frightening.

Dragonball Z Episode 29 Review – “Lesson Number One”

  For the first time since the death of Raditz all the way back in the fifth episode, our heroes finally draw blood. And the ironic thing is, they do it with the assistance of that very villain’s boss.

  Nappa was always at odds with Vegeta. You don’t need to be an avid watcher of TFS to see that there’s a lot of tension between them, pretty much all of it being generated from Vegeta’s end. Say what you will about Nappa, he knows where his bread is buttered, and he is not going to defy Vegeta for nothing or nobody. Yet, when Vegeta tosses his beaten and broken body into the sky and fires a single beam strong enough to turn him into nothing but particles, one wonders whether he wishes he had taken on a different duty besides being Vegeta’s babysitter back when the monster was a boy.

  Even though Vegeta is the one who definitely killed Nappa once and for all, Goku was the one who did all the hard work. Goku continually makes a fool of Nappa throughout the run-time of this show, surviving attack after attack, dodging punch after punch. Interesting thing, though, is that once Nappa briefly suppresses his anger on Vegeta’s command and starts fighting Goku with the best of his moves, Goku notes that Nappa might be harder to deal with than he thought. That’s what I like about Goku, and what separates him from the idiot antagonists (and occasionally protagonists) that populate this show. He's willing to admit to and accept the fact that he’s outmatched, or just matched, or not as strong as he thought he was. Goku prides himself on training and dealing with the worst bastards the universe has to offer, but he has no blinders on. He is well aware of his capabilities, and where the limits of those capabilities are.

  The reason I’m going to give this episode five out of five is because it essentially begins the long-fought rivalry between Goku and Vegeta, a theme that comes up again and again for the rest of the series. No relationship between two characters has been as consequential as the enemy-mine chemistry between these two full-blooded Saiyans—indeed, the last two to still be alive after Vegeta murders Nappa. It’s mostly a rivalry on Vegeta’s part because he can’t stand the idea of being the second strongest Saiyan when he’s the one who is descended from royal blood. Goku just wants to be the strongest in general, and he’s more than willing to learn from someone who might be stronger than him. He cares more about learning from them than simply surpassing them. That’s the difference between Goku and Vegeta.

  The reason Goku had to give Nappa a good, old-fashioned bone-breaking in the first place is because Nappa decided he would use his newfounded spare time to murder Goku’s friends, an act that he should have expected to have dire consequences, y’know? I guess it’s that classic Saiyan sociopathy that makes Nappa not realize that Goku cares about the well-being of his friends, not just as comrades in battle, but as beloved parts of his life. As much as Nappa respects and obeys Vegeta, I don’t think there’s an ounce of love or even legitimate friendship on either side of their partnership. Vegeta sure as shit didn’t step in to help Nappa against Goku at any point, instead telling him to back down when the fight was clearly not going their way.

  This poor decision, to attack Krillin and Gohan after being brought back to reality by Vegeta, is what gets him killed. Goku effectively renders him useless as a warrior, for at least the foreseeable future, though it’s implied that the injuries could be permanent. That would make Vegeta’s decision to take out Nappa a little more sensible, it can be thought of as a cruel sort of mercy killing. Then again, Vegeta’s pretty gleeful when he kills his old traveling buddy. It’s probable that Vegeta split ways with the concept of mercy a long time ago, if indeed he was ever familiar with it. But it’s like he says, what use is a Saiyan who can’t fight? What is he going to do, sit around in a Frieza-style hover-chair, pick up sewing, start a YouTube gaming channel?

  Goku and his friends are naturally disturbed by the ease with which Vegeta murders Nappa, both because it demonstrates just how obscenely strong Vegeta is and because it’s such a ruthless act. This isn’t a new level of evil in the Dragon Ball franchise; Commander Red in the Red Ribbon Army saga made a consistent habit of murdering his men for failure, even if they brought back something valuable like the Dragon Radar and they were in perfect shape, not a scratch on them. Hell, think of Colonel Silver and General Blue, those guys were loyal and strong soldiers in the Red Ribbon Army, but because they fucked up a couple of times, Red had them sentenced to death. And don’t even get me started on the shitheaded-ness that is Frieza any time he has any kind of underlings working for him.

  The end of this episode has a bit of emotional resonance for later in the series. That’s not to say that it isn’t a pretty tear-jerking moment now, but it carries forward and continues to pay off in much later sagas where the villains are much stronger and quite a bit more frightening. Krillin extends a hand to Goku and makes him promise that they’ll grow old together just like they grew up together. Goku readily accepts Krillin’s hand, and I’ll be goddamned if it’s not one of the most touching moments in this saga, perhaps the entire series, again because of its resonance in so many other sagas. It especially works because Goku has told Krillin and Gohan to go back to Kame House, he needs to fight this battle alone, and given the fact that he had to exhaust a Kaioken attack to protect both of his friends from Nappa, it makes sense that he would see them as a liability at that moment.

  Looking through the start of this review, I can see I haven’t talked about the Kaioken attack, so I’m glad I reminded myself just now. Kaioken is basically early DBZ’s version of Super Saiyan, and I don’t even have to bother worrying about spoiling that aspect of this anime, because I’m sure even homeless feral children raised by wolves have heard the phrase “Super Saiyan” at some point in their lives. Kaioken is a temporary increase in strength, speed and senses, allowing Goku to essentially boost himself past an opponent who is otherwise stronger than him in terms of raw ability. It’s basically a Super Star from any Mario game you can think of, Goku can just ram his way through any old bullshit with this.

  The only problem is, while Nappa could be described as “any old bullshit,” it remains to be seen if Vegeta is the same way. Goku is already impressed enough with the power he demonstrated killing Nappa, stating that he wished he could have Vegeta as a sparring partner instead of a mortal enemy. At the risk of sounding like some yaoi stan for Goku/Vegeta, I can see that the two have an immediate connection with each other. Not just because of their heritage, but because the both of them love a good challenge, and both of them fight to the bitter fucking end. If it had been Vegeta who got crippled the way Nappa was, no way he would ever beg help from anyone else. We’re going to see more examples of that as the series progresses, but one thing Vegeta never does is beg, and Goku only begs for the people he cares about, never for himself. In a strange way, I think the two already respect each other.

  We mentioned Kame House earlier, I guess I might as well talk about what’s going on over at that drama hellhole. Well, Baba’s trying to transmit the fight to the rest of them via her crystal ball, but because Bulma is a fucking idiot, she takes one look at Nappa smiling as he calms down early in the episode and smacks the ball because she hates the sight of his smug prick face. Now, she has every right to hate the face of Nappa, and I think people generally do (although I don’t have a scientific poll handy to prove this), but come on, Bulma. Baba is over here giving you a free screening to the fight for the fate of the planet and your stupid ass can’t resist your rage long enough to keep from smacking the lens you’re looking through? It’s just so much stupidity, and it makes me sort of glad that Bulma’s role becomes increasingly diminished over the course of the series, the same way it was in the original show.

(5/5)

A Few Final Thoughts:

--“This one is for Yamcha!” Okay, but a Saibaman killed Yamcha.

--“I hate you!” “You hate losing! You’re not used to fighting someone stronger than you!”

--“I think you’ve embarrassed us long enough!”

--“This other guy seems to know what he’s doing.” Oh, Krillin, Vegeta knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. All the time.

--“I can’t move my legs!”