tigerlover16-analysis

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episodes 9 and 10 Double Review

Okay, so excuse time again. I tried to get around to writing the episode 9 review the other week, but... honestly, i just kept drawing a blank. Like, i knew what I generally wanted to say about the episode, but it was both hard to put into words and in general I really didn't feel like I had much at all to talk about. So, long story short, I decided to do a double feature this week reviewing both episode 9 and 10 in unison. I might do this again if other episodes call for it, but I won't say anything for sure until it comes to that.

I also wanted to have it out earlier this week, but... well, I don't feel like oversharing stuff about my personal life with strangers or casual friends on the internet, but basically... life stinks. It really stinks, and things haven't been going well at all for me lately and it's sucked away most of my motivation to do anything whenever I'm not wrapped up in something.

I'm probably going to be taking a break from this site as a result, so don't except another review this week I'm afraid. I'm going to try not to let this become a recurring thing, but... honestly, I just don't feel up to it right now. I SHOULD have gotten this review done sooner though, I should have done better than letting it stall like this, and I apologize for that.

So, without further ado, let's talk about epiosde 9 first.

So, this episode opens directly where the last episode left off, with Goku using the Dragon Balls to summon Shenron to finally get an answer about the mysterious super saiyan God. After Shenron explains that such a form can be attained via a ritual involving five good hearted saiyans transferring their energy into another saiyan, everyone decides to try it out with Goku in a last effort to combat Lord Beerus. Following an initial failed attempt where the group realizes that they're one saiyan short of pulling off the ritual, we get a convenient revelation that Videl is pregnant with her and Gohan's child, and through pure plot convenience magic Videl is able to channel the unborn baby's energy to complete the ritual. And thus, the episode ends with Goku assending to Godhood.

Yeah, basically this is an entire episode built around a transformation. I'd make a joke about that, but honestly it's not as bad as it sounds. If anything, this episode is probably the most average of the whole arc... and also one of the most scant in terms of content worth talking about.

Writing wise it's mostly just... meh. There's not a lot bad here, but I feel like a lot of the dialogue is a downgrade from the movie. A lot of the jokes aren't as good, the Pilaf Gang get another pointless moment. I like Gohan and everyone's reaction to Videl's pregnancy a little better here, animation aside, though I also have to complain that it comes across a lot more contrived and out of nowhere compared to the movie where we did have a moment setting her pregnancy up at an earlier point.

I could go into detail about things, but... honestly it would really just feel like I'm nitpicking. The writing in of itself is perfectly serviceable for the most part and it's an alright experience to watch, and it's paced decently enough as part of the wider story. As a single episode of a weekly series though the rather slim amount of story content might be a bit frustrating to a lot of people.

Really, there's not a lot to talk about in regards to story content... it's more the technical side of things and the ritual itself that are worth talking about, including the Super Saiyan God form itself. 

Now in the movie, the super saiyan God ritual was pretty brief and as far as transformations go, not all that grand or impressive. Here in Super though? I gotta give them credit, they really didn't skimp out on making this feel like the birth of a God.

As the ritual begins to take effect and the other saiyans energy is transferred into Goku (With some nice shiny auras that I really like the look of personally), we get a lot of cool effects work. The sea turning gold and whirlpools forming. Shimmering golden clouds forming in the sky and swirling around to form a circular wall around the cruiser, the weather rapidly cycling between rain and hail. Reality feels like it's warping all over the place, with the sun and moon rapidly flying across the sky as though days are going by in a matter of seconds.

It's ridiculously over the top in a way that feels really cool and grand, and really sells the idea that we're seeing the birth of a God. Goku being enveloped in a glorious red light for a while afterwards is a really nice touch too, it adds a nice little bit of suspense and anticipation.

And topping it off, all of this is accompanied by some of the best music tracks in the whole series, two songs called Compromise and Birth of a God playing one after the other. I can't sell enough how perfectly fitting they are for this scene, the instumentals sound so much like a heavenly choir. In conjunction with the visuals, these tracks imbue this whole sequence with a sense of majesty that I really can't do justice with mere words, if by any chance you haven't watched the show yet i really suggest you watch this scene yourself. It's just such a pleasant experience.

The Super Saiyan God form has been built up for almost the entire arc until now, and I'm happy to say the transformation sequence was worth the wait in this version. While most of the episode I feel was a bit of a step down from the movie in terms of writing, the God ritual itself was VASTLY better in Super and I'll give Toei props for that.

I just really wish the rest of the episode held up in terms of visuals. Because even if the effects work was pretty nice for the most part in the ritual scene during the second half, the art for most of the episode otherwise was... mediocre at best with a few iffy shots, and the movement was pretty limited. There's also this one sequence where Gohan is reacting to Videl's pregnancy announcement I mentioned earlier... his movements as he's jumping are really awkward, as is Mr Satan cutting in to punch him aside. And Videl's lack of reaction as he does this, while kind of unintentionally hilarious, is blatant corner cutting.

I could go on. It's clear most of the animators time and focus was on the ritual, because otherwise this is one of the least interestingly animated episodes of the arc outside of that. The direction is pretty mediocre too.

So, yeah... it's a real mixed bag. Again, I wouldn't say there was anything exceptionally awful about this episode, but it's a very mediocre one on the whole where the good and bad just about balance each other out. I do wish more attention was given to smaller moments like Videl's announcement, but as an episode built around a transformation... it could be a lot better, but it could be worse too. At the very least, it sets us up for the big climactic fight just fine, and that's all it really needed to accomplish, so it's mostly okay.

I guess I should talk about the Super Saiyan God form itself aswell. It's a form that's gotten... rather mixed reactions from fans, being mostly just Goku looking like his regular self, but with red hair and eyes, a slimmer build, and a fiery aura when he powers up. Some people like it for how it fits into Toriyama's tendecy for simplistic transformations for the saiyan characters, while others deride the form for said simplicity making it look rather basic and unimpressive, especially when you compare it to the fan favourite super saiyan 4 transformation (Which, even as someone who notoriously can't stand GT, that's my favourite SSJ form too I'll admit), which had a much more unique and more detailed look to it that stood out from the other forms.

And... yeah, i get people feeling that way... but personally I'm in the former camp. I can't fully describe why, but there's just something oddly charming about the red hair colour that really works on Goku. I always like how Toriyama goes for making characters or transformations that are really powerful and intimidating look unassumingly non-threatening or simplistic, and the God form fits so well into that trend.

And yeah, that aura... we don't see it here, it's something that comes up more in the next few episodes and in the forms future appearances, but the God forms aura is my favourite aura effect in the franchise next to the one for Ultra Instinct (More on that in later reviews). It looks like a living flame burning around Goku's body, and that's an interesting choice that both conveys a sense of power and just looks really cool and adds a bit of mystique to the form.

It may not look like much at first glance and seem a bit too plain for a proclaimed godly transformation, but personally I really enjoy it. It's probably up there as one of my favourite super saiyan forms.

Maybe not everyone is going to appreciate it and I can see why, but I can't complain.

Well okay, I can complain about how the show really skimped out on explaining the lore about the form and it's connection to an ancient super saiyan who started a rebellion against the corrupt saiyan regime. Here Shenron just explains that the instructions on how to transform a saiyan into a super saiyan God were written into something called the Namekian book of legends.

I have no idea why the show glossed over these details. Maybe Toriyama thought he might go into more detail in the story behind it at a later point (Like the upcoming movie, maybe?) so the writer didn't want to go into it too much in this version, but really it just felt like a lazy choice to me.

If you want to know my thoughts on Yamoshi himself and the lore behind the super saiyan god... meh. It's as decent an explanation as any, I guess.

Honestly I have no strong feelings about the whole mythos behind it either way. Maybe you could do an interesting side story about it somewhere.

But anyway, yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say. It's a mediocre episode that doesn't have anything much to offer aside from a pretty decent transformation scene and a serviceable new form, and it mostly just serves to move the plot along and get us all ready to enter the arc's climactic battle. And in that regard it's... somewhat serviceable, though could be a LOT better. But that said, it's not a painful experience if you're binge watching.

I'll give it a C- to be generous, definitely no higher than that.

If it feels like I'm skimping over a lot here and this portion of the review is structured poorly... well, then you see why I held off on talking about this episode. I just had no idea how to put my thoughts into words here and structure it into a review.  And I had even more trouble with the next part for episode 10.

Oh yeah, let's talk about episode 10 then. the first episode of the big Goku vs Beerus fight! It's all been leading to this. Dragon Ball's biggest draw for years has been it's epic action and fights, and as the climax of the first arc of the new series, this may very well be one of the most crucial battles in the series to nail. God vs God, the most iconic hero in anime against the most powerful being in the known universe. And how does this great battle start out?!

... It's alright.

Yeah, honestly if the previous episode was sparse for content, then THIS episode definitely has the least amount of content really worth talking about out of the entire arc. Everything about it can basically be summed up as "Eh, it's okay for what it is". We get a few moments of very basic action between Goku and Beerus, punctuated throughout with other characters reactions to the situation and a few exchanges between Goku and Beerus as the former tries to get used to his newfound God powers.

If you were hoping for the first phase of the big fight with a bang... you'll probably be mildly disappointed. It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but it's mostly just serviceable. 

The animation is pretty decent, we're still a long way above episode 5 at least, though while the initial scuffle between Goku and Beerus nearing the end of the first half was pretty nice a lot of the coreography does feel basic and a bit stiff in a few places. Though hey, at least the hits feel like they have impact, a lot of the fights in this series feel like they struggle to convey weight to attacks.

I suppose the kamehameha and the water effects look pretty good too (Although I have to ask... why is it in this arc that the kamehameha often looks like Goku firing off a ball of energy rather than a beam? That's not a complaint, it's just an odd choice that only seems to happen a few times early on in Super, and I don't get it).

Overall though, there isn't actually a ton of action here, with the episode featuring a lot of cut away moments with the other characters or Goku and Beerus stopping to banter between hits... so, basically it's a Dragon Ball fight :P

Okay, jokes aside it's not really that bad for a warm up episode. The pacing is a bit slow and the action that is here isn't mind blowing, but the point of the episode was mostly Goku slowly getting a grip on his Godly power and showing he is now capable of holding his own against Beerus (Or at least he's getting there). It's not really meant to be anything mind blowing at this point, that's more the other episodes job. And for the most part nothing really feels pointless here other than maybe the Pilaf Gang scenes, par the course for this arc, though I do find it a bit sweet that Whis was sharing food with them.

The last scene of the episode in particular I really liked where Goku managed to hold Beerus in place to flick him on the forehead and karate chop his neck, like Beerus had done to him in their first fight. Apart from just being really amusing (Especially in the dub), it's a good way to highlight how Goku is now no longer at the mercy of Beerus's seemingly overwhelming power and might actually pose a genuine threat to the destroyer now. It's a good note to end the episode on I feel.

And... that's pretty much it. This really isn't one of those episodes where a lot actually happens, and one's enjoyment of it is probably going to depend largely on how tempered their expectations for this portion of the fight are. Part of me wants to call it out for how scant it is for actual action and story content... but honestly I can think of a number of episodes from DBZ like this, if not more padded with pointless exchanges in some cases, so for this particular franchise it just feels a bit par for the course.

At the very least it serves as a serviceable lead in to a more exciting episode, so while it might not offer much if you're watching the show on a weekly basis, in context of the arc as a whole... it's fine. I would have wanted more from it, but considering Super's production at this point I'm just grateful we didn't see another full on meltdown (No, they waited next arc for that).

I'll give this one a C

I think you can see why I decided to review these episodes together though, they're kind of hard to talk about as episodes unto themselves, particularly episode 10, since they're mostly designed to function in unison with each other, which is something to be expected now and then with serialized shows of this nature.

I apologize for the delay regardless though, and to be honest I'll probably be late with the next one since I think I'll be taking a break from social media for a few days. I feel bad about all of this inconvenience (Though it hardly feels like anyone cares about these reviews anyway), but like I said earlier this isn't a particularly good time for me and I'd rather get my personal life and mental state sorted out so that I can actually feel enthusiastic about this analysis blog again. Everyone have a good day.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Fun Pokémon Anime trivia. Here in Wales, the Pokémon anime took something of a break after the episode “Charizard Chills”, during which every episode of the series prior was rerun at least twice over before new episodes started airing again.

And honestly while it was a bit annoying having to wait so long for new content, I really can’t think of a better note to leave off on, because re-watching it now it’s still one of the best episodes of the series.

Everything about this episode just works extremely well. The writing, the music, the emotional beats and even the action are all handled perfectly.

Seeing Ash and Charizard finally start to reconnect after having a strained relationship for such a long time is heartwarming enough, but in a way the episode also highlights Ash’s growth as a character.

Charizard refusing to listen to Ash and Ash’s inability to get through to it had long been treated as a sign of Ash being an inexperienced trainer, with even the episode itself bringing up that parallel, so seeing Ash managing to win back Charizard’s trust and friendship through his kindness and undying loyalty, even in light of Charizard always acting like a stubborn jerk towards him, really goes a long way to highlight Ash’s virtues and what ultimately makes him a good trainer, even in spite of all his setbacks.

And keep in mind, it was Charizard’s stubborn refusal to listen to Ash that caused him to lose to Richie at the Indigo League (Well, that and Team Rocket), so it’s no coincidence that the build up to the Orange League, which Ash ends up winning, featured him and Charizard finally reconnecting as one of the major ongoing plot points.

Stuff like that is why I really love the Orange Islands arc and was never on board with the perception that it was “Just filler”. As much as it’ll always sting that Ash ended up being made to lose at the Pokémon League, and how the series keeps repeating that as part of it’s formula despite NOBODY being on board with it, the Orange Islands season does it’s best to make up for that by having Ash be forced to pick himself up and keep growing as both a trainer and a person, and his efforts are eventually rewarded with a hard earned victory against Drake towards the end of the series.

Honestly, both the Orange League and Battle Frontier arcs of the anime go a long way to make up for the general shortcoming of Ash being constantly put in a position where he ends up losing at the Pokémon Leagues for the various regions he visits, since they give him a chance to actually succeed at something and prove that while the road to him becoming a Pokémon Master might be a long and arduous one filled with setbacks, Ash IS making progress and taking steps towards reaching that goal.

It’s actually disappointing to me that later seasons of the show have forgone the idea of having an arc with Ash competing in a league not from the games or at least a similar trial. Especially considering Sinnoh HAD it’s own Battle Frontier and we had TWO arcs in Black and White following the League Tournament, the second of which was pretty much a rehash of the orange islands set up but without a League or any other kind of goal other than “Get back to Kanto eventually”.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 8 Mini-Review

Okay once again I'm sorry about the review coming out late. This time it was because my computer started having some issues while i was in the middle of writing it and I only just got that sorted.

So, this episode picks up immediately where the episode left off, starting off with a bang as a powered up Vegeta throws down with Lord Beerus... and then the episode spends half of it's running time on a game of rock paper scissors between Beerus and Oolong for the fate of the earth before Goku shows up.

No, I am not kidding.

Yeah, this is another episode that's kind of a mixed bag and like the last review I struggled with finding stuff to actually talk about here, so it's going to be an even briefer review this time because I don't believe in dragging things out when I just need to get my points across.

The stuff that works about this episode is pretty fun, but it also feels a bit padded out to make sure the super saiyan god ritual scene from the movie could be featured as it's own episode. To be honest while having so much time dedicated to a game of rock paper scissors might sound silly on paper, it's actually somewhat entertaining, but I'll get into that in a minute.

Easily the best part of the episode is the opening fight, which is pretty well storyboarded. Admittedly it starts out with a bit of awkward looking punches from Vegeta, but immediately kicks into high gear with an awesome rotation as Vegeta is sent spinning around like a pinwheel by Beerus before correcting himself to attack Beerus right back.

As much as I made fun of how over the top the "MY BULMA!" moment was in the previous episode, I do like the decision to extend the brief fight between Vegeta and Beerus from the movie. It's still pretty short and ends the same way, but it feels all the more satisfying and is probably the best animated action sequence we've gotten since the first episode. Or at least, it's a good step up from episode 5's disastrous effort, so I can't complain about anything.

The animation in general is actually pretty good throughout the episode, with some interesting framing that helps to elevate a few scenes that could have turned out rather dull. Special mention to the storyboarding on that front. There's a moment or two of slightly awkward movement here or there, but nothing all that noticeable.

From there though things are a bit more mixed. In particular, the Pilaf Gang's scene just feels annoying and cuts a hole into the tension a little. I already went into detail about what went wrong with the Gang's usage in this arc in a previous review so I won't repeat myself, but their scene trying to flee the scene on a row boat just feels like blatant padding and less amusing than their scenes from the movie.

The actual aforementioned game of rock paper scissors though... I'll be honest, while I think it was an odd decision to take such a brief moment for the movie and drag it out that much, I think the writer made it work as best they could, since it actually feels somewhat tense at points. Plus, there's something charming in a classic Dragon Ball kind of way in a villain deciding to put the fate of the world down to such a simple game.

I'm not particularly a fan of Oolong admittedly, I think he's annoying and was pretty unlikeable in the original Dragon Ball, but I'll give the show a point for at least giving the minor characters some actual screentime and a shot at being the hero, even if things don't work out for them.

I'll also be fair and say that outside of the Pilaf gang's scene, the episode actually feels well paced in of itself. But while I understand why they did it, I feel like either this or the next episode is where the arcs pacing starts to slow down a bit too much. More so in the following episodes, but... well, this episode is half-dedicated to an ultimately pointless game while you theoretically could have cut that part out and just had the super saiyan god ritual take place in this episode.

It's not a fatal flaw since I generally do enjoy watching the episode (It's still hardly a favourite from this arc though), but it's worth pointing out, because it’s a good example of how awkward it can be to adapt a rather quick paced movie into a more serialised format.

And, uh... I don't know. Like I mentioned in the last review, a lot of episodes at this point in the series are pretty sparse on actual story content, and unless I took a lot of time to analyse everything minute by minute, there's not really a lot that's worth commenting on. There's some funny moments here or there, some parts feel like they drag a bit. Animation is pretty decent, characterisation is largely good, opening fight was fun and the rock paper scissors scene was fun even if it didn't need to be there and extended that much. The music used mostly feels appropriate, and at the very least the plot is starting to edge into the endgame.

It's a fine episode. Nothing special, but it's plenty enjoyable and a bit more fun than the last one.

I'll give it a C+, maybe a low B-

Boy, does this feel more like a mini-review than usual. I don't know what I'm going to do talking about the next episode where there's probably even less to talk about.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 7 Review

Welp, here we are at episode 7. The moment where the fun slice of life fluff stops, and things start to get more serious (In theory. Whis seems determined to keep things from getting too serious).

Following immediately on from the last episode, the episode starts with Vegeta making a desperate attempt to reason with Beerus following his little scuffle with Majin Buu. Unfortunately, Beerus isn't having it and decides he might as well blow up the earth, to which the various Z fighters make several attempts to stop him, all in vain as one by one earth's champions crumble under his awesome might.

And I just made the episode sound more epic than it is, didn't I?

Yeah, to be honest this is another fairly lightweight episode in terms of plot.

Which probably comes from the fact that it's basically extending what was hardly five minutes of the movie. Not that it's bad, but honestly it's not particularly great either, it's mostly just showing off more of Beerus's strength and building up tension for Goku's inevitable arrival and the main confrontation down the line. In terms of the story content, there's not a ton to specifically comment on, but it's mostly alright.

Characterisations are largely on point, and the episode mostly flows okay though drags a little in the middle. The moments with Whis enjoying some of the Chef's dishes in particular feel like they try a bit too hard to ease the tension and just make things feel slightly tonally inconsistent for example, though it's not too overdone.

There's some entertaining moments and a few good tidbits of characterisation. Yamcha chiming in and promising to protect Marron so that Krillin could get involved in the action was a nice little detail, and Beerus continues to be suitably intimidating. And I like how Buu just keeps getting back up and trying to fight Beerus several times throughout the episode despite how much Beerus slaps him around. Just wish this wasn't the characters biggest contribution until probably the last arc... sigh. More on that another day.

In general it's mostly just fine. There's nothing especially bad, not a lot that's great, it's mostly just competent despite a few issues. But there are a few of them that I feel are the things most worth talking about.

For starters, while for the most part I think the writing was mostly competent and did the best it could with such little content to adapt, there's a few moments that do feel needlessly dragged out. I already brought up the moments with Whis, but the bit with Gotenks trying to fight Beerus, while it is short, compared to the movie it feels less funny and effective. In the movie when Gotenks got all cocky and challenged Beerus, he just quickly got grabbed from behind and spanked by the guy, being beaten in seconds.

That was funny and, as someone who's in the camp that finds Gotenks kind of annoying, it was pretty cathartic I won't lie. In this episode though, after his bragging we instead get a few seconds of looped punches before Beerus grabs hold of Gotenks' finger, we get a bit of an argument and Beerus instead slaps his arm until it starts bulging red. It's... less amusing, honestly, and the shouting gets a little more annoying than amusing (Though Beerus's shifting expressions as he's speculating on how Pudding might taste are priceless).

Thankfully most of the other characters involvement in the scuffle with Beerus made the transition more smoothly, more limited animation aside. For example, while I miss the more creative and better animated ways Beerus struck out Piccolo, Android 18 and Tien in the movie, I do like how he basically ends up just pushing them back and knocking the wind out of them all just by releasing a small portion of his Ki. In a way that and his effortlessly dodging their rapid fire attacks is even more effective at selling just how much of a threat Beerus is.

Which shows that corner cutting needn't always be a bad thing, I guess.

On that note though, the production values are a mixed bag. Natoshi Shida's storyboarding to start off with is pretty fantastic and he does a decent job framing much of the episode, though the actual animation involved is mediocre and limited at best. A few moments do look a little awkward too, Beerus smacking Gohan with Buu's unconscious body for example lacks any real impact.

To be fair though, this is only two episodes apart from episode 5, and while there is action here it's not a particularly important episode either, being mostly just more set up. So I feel it's kind of excusable that the episodes visuals are largely unremarkable. At the very least it doesn't look as blatantly unfinished and awkward as episode 5 did.

The episodes direction apart from the storyboards felt lacking though. The music placement in particular was hit or miss. I think the track that played over the opening of the episode served the tension the scene required alright for example, but there wasn't a lot to comment on other than how it's kind of ironic that a theme titled "Omen of Victory" played over the part where Goten and Trunks fuse into Gotenks, and almost immediately he starts losing to Beerus.

Really, the most notable scene worth talking about comes at the very end. You know the one, it's probably one of the most remembered and talked about scenes from the movie, specifically among Vegebul shippers. The famous "My Bulma" moment adapted into Super, as Bulma angrily confronts Beerus for ruining her party, only to have the petty God slap her away. The sight of seeing his beloved wife assaulted strikes a nerve within the saiyan prince, as in his rage Vegeta draws out every last ounce of power he has and prepares to strike back at Lord Beerus...

... And dear LORD, was it hilarious in the subs.

Seriously, this scene is actually a contender for funniest moment in the last few episodes due to just how over the top it was, especially compared to the film. In the Battle of Gods movie, Beerus slapping her happened very fast, and Vegeta's rage burst and him attacking Beerus only took a few seconds. But here?

Everything from Bulma trotting over to slap Beerus in the face and chew him out, to Vegeta powering up and threatening the villain is dragged out to somewhere between one and two minutes, complete with a drawn out moment where Beerus pulls back his arm and Vegeta begs Beerus not to do it, and a goofily over-animated freak out by Vegeta in response. To be fair it is decent animation, but in conjunction with everything else it just looks really silly.

Like, it's the opposite of the flashback from the previous episode with Beerus and King Vegeta. Whereas extending that out a little actually helped better flesh out Vegeta's reactions to Beerus in the present, the "My Bulma" moment getting similar treatment just makes it feel less effective compared to the movie and looking like the writers were trying too hard to give the fangirls more of what they wanted.

There is an upside, though. Because once again it's Funimation to the rescue, as Chris Sabat's performance as Vegeta during the scene... actually kind of salvages it. Seriously, the desperation and raw emotion in his voice as he's begging Beerus not to hurt Bulma actually does help add a bit of tension to the build up to the slap, and makes that moment feel a lot more effective. Vegeta's overblown reaction is still a bit silly, but honestly I think the scene in the dub does a much better job of selling what I think the writer and animators were originally going for.

It's still not as well handled as in the movie of course, but I can almost take it seriously now. And hey, if you're someone that's really into protective hubby Vegeta, then the scene is pretty likely to make you smile regardless. Even if part of that is over how over the top it was.

And, um... yeah. I suppose that's pretty much it. I dunno, the problem with a lot of this arc is that in many episodes, the actual story content doesn't offer a lot to talk about. Individual episodes are often pretty bare bones, looking forward there's a lot more episodes next saga and in the later ones especially that have a lot more content and characterisation that's worth discussing in detail. But in these early episodes, a lot of the time I just feel like I'm going to be saying "This is functionally okay, but not as good as how the movie did it... except for this part, which is done better for X reasons"

That's not to say there's nothing here to enjoy, actually watching the episode it flows pretty fine and can be mildly entertaining, but at this point and for the next few episodes really it's just going to be feeling like a more dragged out version of the movie's events, and a bit less entertaining as a result. There's good stuff coming up don't get me wrong, but I have a hard time talking about a lot of it. I'm honestly kind of looking forward to when the slice of life episodes start up again for that reason.

So, on that note then, this was a serviceable though mediocre episode that accomplishes what it needs to, but doesn't have a lot of lasting value on it's own, just as a functioning part of the larger story.

C- at best.

A bit of a half-hearted review and I’m sorry, but then again the episode isn’t really trying any harder than I am

[tigerlover16-analysis]

So, I’m onto the Orange Islands episodes in my Pokémon re-watch. Fun detail I noticed in episode 83. In order to entice a starving Butterfree to eat the food Professor Ivy and her assistants had prepared for it, Brock goes looking for berries to grind up into a powder to sprinkle over it.

He comments that he’d figured out that Butterfree love sweet foods “From Experience”. And that just makes me smile because now I’m imagining him testing out a bunch of different recipes for Pokémon food for Ash’s Butterfree to try. Neat little detail there.

Wish Brock’s send off was handled as well though.

Like... his reason for staying with Professor Ivy is alright. Ivy’s research is pretty much focused on Pokémon breeding and exploring how Pokémon adapt and change in different environments, and given Brock’s goal is to be a great Pokémon Breeder (Which at least involves taking care of and learning a lot about Pokémon via raising them as the anime depicts it. It never brings up the idea of actually breeding Pokémon because... you know, kids show), so it’s understandable for him to be interested in staying there a while.

And of course Brock is notoriously girl crazy, so Professor Ivy being an attractive woman would just be a bonus on top of that.

At the same time though it still feels like a bit of a rushed way to write him out of the show.

I mean, it’s understandable that it would turn out that way given that his brief departure was a rushed decision because the writers were worried that Western Audiences would find Brock an uncomfortable caricature because of his eyes, but what gets me is how Ash and Misty barely react to it and Brock doesn’t come off like he put a lot of thought into his decision.

Brock didn’t even tell Ash and Misty he’d decided to stay at Ivy’s lab. They only found out through Ivy and her assistants when they were about to leave and they saw Brock doing chores for her. They were shocked for a moment, but Ash immediately accepts Brock’s decision and is all like “Alright then, see you later pal!” and Misty has even less of a reaction.

And honestly, considering how long Brock had been travelling with Ash and Misty, and that Ash was the one that had inspired him to pursue his dreams, you’d think there should at least be a brief moment where Brock stops to consider his options and wonders whether he should pass up the opportunity to stay and learn from Professor Ivy, or stay with his friends. It seems unrealistic that he would so readily leave Ash and Misty at what feels like the drop of a hat without at least some hard thinking, which we don’t get to see.

I mean, he ended up coming back next season, so it’s not too bad since we still get to see him again. So that keeps it from being frustrating in hindsight since it wasn’t the last we saw of the character.

But personally I feel that if you’re going to write out a main character for an extended period of time, especially if it was meant to be permanent, then it needs to be handled with a little more significance and preferably some emotional weight to it.

Here though, Brock deciding to depart from the group almost ends up feeling like an afterthought on his part. Makes me kind of wish they’d left the last two minutes with team Rocket and the blimp out and just spent a bit more time with the characters reminiscing on their time together, or at least do a montage. Just... give us something.

A lot of later companion departures were treated as much bigger deals than this. Heck, the anime had done a better job with them before this. Bye Bye Butterfree is still remembered as one of the earliest tearjerker scenes in the anime, after all. So to have such a halfhearted goodbye to one of the show’s most important characters just feels all the more odd in hindsight.

Like I said, it’s kind of fixed with how Brock comes back later, since the show pretty much seemed to address and poke fun at how such a rushed decision didn’t work out well for him. But it’s still eyebrow raising in the moment.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 6 Review

Okay, so I was unexpectedly busy again and failed to get this one out on time. Sorry about that, but at least it wasn't as bad as the last delay, right?

Anyway, Episode 5 of Dragon Ball Super was a disaster. It was the point where the show's production began to struggle not to fall completely apart, and it brought on an astronomical amount of bad press among the fandom, at a time where many people were already decrying the idea of the show adapting the recent movies instead of just cutting straight to original material.

Frankly, after such a huge misstep, the show only had really two options in the immediate aftermath: Either fall to pieces entirely, or power on and try to make a mostly serviceable arc even in spite of those underlying production problems.

Thankfully, the latter mostly proved to be the case.

The episode's main focus is on Beerus and Whis arriving on earth and attending Bulma's birthday party on the cruiser after failing to get any information about the Super Saiyan God from Vegeta, who has to spend the episode trying not to have a nervous breakdown while trying to keep Beerus calm. Which works until Majin Buu decides to hog all the pudding Beerus wanted to try and a fight breaks out.

Yeah, it's another episode focused on shenanigans over significant plot developments and action. But this one does have a little more plot progression than previous examples.

In terms of what works about the episode, I'll start with the direction. It's pretty great. In contrast with the fight in the previous episode, which just felt bland even ignoring it's lackluster art, this episode has really great storyboarding and music placement that really heightens tension in just the right places.

One good example is early on in the episode. Following some shenanigans with the supporting cast, we cut seamlessly from a shot of Bulma's hand moving to slap Master Roshi, to Vegeta's fist smashing into a wall out of frustration at another area of the cruiser.

We get some nice shots like a close up Vegeta's face and a first person view of his trembling hand (Nice shading at this point, by the way) as he tries to recall where he might have heard Beerus's name before.

We then get a quick shot of Beerus and Whis's shadows on the floor for a brief second while Beerus calls out to Vegeta. Vegeta looks around for a bit, unable to see Beerus anywhere for a few seconds, though we do get a quick look at him behind Vegeta and vanishing when Vegeta turns his head. The camera mostly focusing on Vegeta's upper body and not showing us his head as he looks around for the source of the voice, once we do get a shot of his face again we see Beerus casually standing behind him.

We get a close up of Beerus's hand slowly approaching the back of Vegeta's head (His claw shining just for effect) and then suddenly we have a wider shot with the two characters in frame as Beerus goes "Boo", making Vegeta stumble forward in fright.

Every little detail of how this moment is framed is designed to heighten the tension and create a sense of anticipation. And while it's a short scene, it's all pretty effective.

The episode is full of cool little animation techniques like this, and I could go on for most of the review describing them all. But, this is an episode review and not an animation roundup, I'll mostly leave that stuff up to Animeajay.

But I still feel it deserves mention, because while the episode isn't perfect (There's a bit of mediocre art in places, some minor corner cutting), it's a HUGE step up from what we were offered last week. The storyboarding and music placement all work to help enhance a lot of scenes and help make the episode an enjoyable experience to watch.

I wouldn't say the episode is anything particularly special, but coming off the heels of a production disaster like episode 5, it's a reassuring sign to see the animation mostly back up to scratch so soon.

Apart from that, the writing is... mostly solid, though from an adaption standpoint there are one or two issues I have with it.

The episode is full of fun little moments and jokes, like the takoyaki scene, and it's very well paced. Vegeta's growing sense of panic and frustration in trying to keep Beerus pacified is pretty amusing to watch, and while I personally miss the "Bingo" scene (Though I get why some have issue with it), the whole bit with him pulling an octopus out of the ocean and then trying to cook it into takoyaki was a pretty good replacement.

Though on that note,  here's one thing that didn't work so well in adaptation: The Pilaf gang.

In the movie we got a scene around the same point of the characters trying to ditch Bulma's party, dropping a dragon ball in the process and causing a minor incident with Gohan as the Great Saiyaman that almost sets Beerus off before Vegeta defuses the situation (Only to have Buu set him off anyway. That part is mostly the same with the exception that Mr Satan tries to play peacemaker between the two to no avail).

In the anime though, this is changed to Goten and Trunks just accidentally splashing water on Beerus during a water gun fight.

This was a pretty poor decision, because it makes the Pilaf Gang's whole inclusion in this version of the story feel... well, blatantly pointless.

And okay, they were just thrown into the movie as fanservice for longtime fans and didn't actually do much there. But the movie at least TRIED to integrate them into the actual plot.

Here we just have a short moment of them hanging around after stuffing themselves with food. And all they do in the episodes following this is try to flee on a raft, only to come back to the cruiser after seeing Shenron. They don't actually do anything worthwhile until early into the next saga.

Like, I could kind of forgive this if the characters at least did something funny, but they don't really get up to any antics here due to the dragon balls being locked behind a defense system that keeps them from being tracked by radar. So they just hang around doing nothing. Heck, they don't even show any signs of recognizing Bulma, or recognize Goten's similar appearance to Goku in this version. Which is... really odd, especially when in episode 43 they did suddenly remember who Goku is with Pilaf plotting to take him down.

Honestly, after a pretty decent set up in episode 4, the characters presentation here and in the rest of the arc feels pretty phoned in, which sadly would reflect a lot of their usage in later storylines.

Moving onto stuff that was more mixed, I do feel like it's time to talk about something I've been sort of holding off on for a few episodes now: Beerus. Specifically how his portrayal differs from the movie.

A lot of fans have commented in the past about how Beerus in Super's version of the Battle of Gods story is... kind of a bigger jerk compared to his movie self.

And that's pretty accurate.

In the movie, while Beerus did have his grouchy and jerky moments, there was a lot more focus on the more likeable and dorky side of his personality. And despite his fearsome reputation and role as a destroyer deity who goes around blowing up planets, we never actually see him doing that. He threatens to blow up the earth multiple times, but he never follows through and his general demeanor is pretty laid back and casual until he gets angry.

In Super though... we see a lot more of his negative qualities highlighted. Apart from us getting to see him actually doing his job and blow up a few planets in the first two episodes, Beerus also acts a lot more antagonistic and generally aggressive in a lot of his appearances.

There's a really good example of that in this episode, where immediately after that scene with him arriving to confront Vegeta I highlighted earlier, we get a flashback sequence showing Beerus on Planet Vegeta during Vegeta's youth.

In the movie this flashback was a few seconds long, and showed Beerus using King Vegeta's head as a foot stool while he sat at a table enjoying a feast the saiyans had prepared for him, while the younger Vegeta looks on from behind some rocks in shock and frustration.

In Super though, the scene is longer and... more brutal. Here it starts with Beerus standing with one foot on King Vegeta's head, and then apparently beating on him off screen as punishment for a trick where King Vegeta didn't live up to a promise to get Beerus the most comfortable pillow in the universe. It's framed in a manner to make Beerus look a lot more frightening, and we even see kid Vegeta charging at Beerus in anger only to be struck down when Beerus paralyses him with a simple glare.

There's a lot of debate about whether or not these changes weakened Beerus's presentation of the character. I'm of two thoughts about it.

On the one hand, yeah, I'll kind of agree he's somewhat less endearing and entertaining in this version as a result of this, and it takes a bit longer to start liking his character. He's still good and fun to watch, but some of the charm is lacking.

At the same time though, I wouldn't call the changes necessarily bad. Mostly because, it does actually result in the character getting some more development as the series goes on after Goku eventually starts to gain Beerus's respect. Sure, you could say that basically involves amping up his negative qualities and then having him start act more in line with his movie self after the development has already happened, but I still think it ties in well to the point that the movie was trying to make: Goku, and by extension the earth and it's people, have the uncanny ability to bring out the best in people.

It's a major, somewhat subtle theme throughout the entire Dragon Ball series, and continues right on through to the end of Super.

And the series highlighting Beerus's negative side a lot more and have him more gradually lighten up and become more friendly with the Z fighters plays into that pretty well in a way, since in the movie you don't really get the feeling that Beerus actually changes that much, just that Goku kind of earned his respect and he likes the earths food too much to destroy it.

So really, I don't mind that Beerus is more overtly antagonistic here too much. It wasn't exactly a perfect trade off, he's still a bit less endearing as far as this arc goes, but his character gets back on track soon after and it worked better on a thematic level.

And also, his more menacing though still comedic portrayal here actually does give him an intimidating presence, which is on full display here with how well his scenes are directed. There really is a sense of threat and that the character is a ticking time bomb, so it's easy to invest in Vegeta's attempts to keep anything from setting him off. If nothing else, Beerus here does feel like a considerable threat.

The changes to the flashback also help to sell Vegeta's own fear of the character. Between seeing his father so thoroughly humiliated by the guy and being at the mercy of his great power as a child, you completely understand why Vegeta is intimidated by Beerus and so careful to keep things from escalating. It works a lot better than, say, his extreme reaction to Broly's legendary super saiyan form, which comes off as odd when he previously hadn't shown as much fear of Frieza previously and Vegeta's own pride in his own super saiyan power.

So, really while I can see people having a preference for how Beerus was portrayed in the movie, I think the changes worked out pretty decently for what the show was trying to accomplish.

I mean after all, there probably wasn't much certainty over whether there would be more Dragon Ball movies featuring the character when Battle of Gods came out, so if you're adapting the story into an ongoing narrative it's not a bad idea to want to have Beerus start out more villainous and then grow into a better person over time.

And, well, I guess that's every major point I wanted to cover. Anything else I could go into detail about would mostly just me breaking down the animation and storyboarding in more scenes or just recapping the episode, and I don't see the need for that when I think I've already made my points clear.

So overall, this was a pretty good episode. At the very least, it's a good step up from the last one and mostly accomplishes what it needed to. It suffers in some areas as an adaptation and while that does hurt the story a little, it's not to a large scale, and what we have here is all still pretty entertaining and serviceable.

Not perfect, but it moves the plot along at a decent pace and is fun to watch. Which is what it really needed to be.

I'd give it a B-

Hopefully I'll see you all next Sunday with the review of episode 7. Though on that note I'm an episode shy of finishing the original series of Pokemon, so I'll also be working on a review for the first Pokemon movie sometime soon.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 5 Review

Ok, so, yeah. I'm pretty late with this one and I'm sorry about that. I don't want to get into it too much, but basically things have been kind of hectic since last week, especially the last few days with my dog having a rough time after giving birth. I did have most of this review written for a bit, but then due to a computer screw up most of it got deleted so my enthusiasm to write took a bit of a hit there. I'll start writing the episode 6 review straight away and that should be up on Sunday as scheduled barring any extraneous circumstances.

Anyway, enough wasting time, I've done enough of that. Let's talk about episode 5 of Dragon Ball Super.

The episode picks up where the previous one left off, with Beerus arriving on King Kai's world to meet with Goku. After King Kai's attempts to keep Goku hidden fail, Beerus questions Goku about the identity of the Super Saiyan God. When Goku is unable to give him an answer, Beerus decides to go to Earth to question Vegeta instead, which King Kai worries might lead to Beerus blowing the planet up out of annoyance. But before Beerus can take off, Goku suddenly challenges him to a sparring match.

Episode 5 is a pretty important episode in terms of the Battle of Gods saga and Super as a whole. Though previous episodes had featured brief action scenes, this was the first episode to feature a significant fight between two characters. For a franchise famous for it's action scenes, this makes it a pretty big deal.

Which makes it all the more tragic that they kind of screwed the pooch on it.

Brief history lesson, Dragon Ball Super was announced close to the release of the Resurrection F movie, and was intended to capitalize on the movies hype and serve as a replacement series for Dragon Ball Kai.

And unfortunately, while the series has a more than capable team of animators, writers and other production staff, Toei really rushed the show's pre-production to get it out straight after Kai ended. Some estimate that it only had about two months of pre-production, a far cry from the roughly six months that many ongoing battle Shonen series usually require.

The result was that only the first 3 or 4 episodes were finished before Super started airing properly, and the animators were rushing to get episode 5 and everything after it out on time. Which lead to the fighting portion of episode 5 featuring weak direction, some moments of awkward movement, and a lot of laughably rough art in places.

Yeah... this isn’t even the worst of it.

Naturally this lead to wide-scale mockery across the internet, with many declaring the show a disgrace and the episode to have the worst animation in all of Dragon Ball. Which, I'll discuss that bit in a minute, but needless to say it was truly concerning and did a lot to dampen people's excitement for a new Dragon Ball series. 

Not unfairly, of course. Dragon Ball is one of the biggest and most popular anime franchises of all time and a cornerstone of pop culture. It really deserved a lot better from it's production and visuals than what we were given here.

Especially since, as I've said, the show's animators are more than capable of producing good stuff. A good number of them are veterans from Z, including this episodes supervisor, Naoki Tate, who is probably one of the most talented animators working at Toei (Oh, and side note, I'd like to redact my statement that he was the animation supervisor on episode 2. He worked on the episode, but episode 2 was supervised by Osamu Ishikawa. My bad, I don't know how i screwed that one up).

It's made even more tragic by how Tate got thrown under the bus by a large portion of the fandom, when really it was none of the animators fault how this episode turned out. They only had a few weeks to produce it, and under such pressure the production just fell apart, and yet Tate was lambasted as a hack by much of the fandom for two years thanks to this episode, and things only really started to look up for him after episode 110.

There's not a lot I can say about the animation itself. We have a lot of rough art, with several still shots of characters looking blatantly unfinished. Some of the movement is repetitive and the framing of the fight isn't very exciting.

There's moments of decent animation, I like the way the grass on King Kai's planet is blown clean off by the force of SS3 Goku's punches being blocked by Beerus, and there's a nice bit of fluid movement at one point where Beerus flips over Goku as he tried to land several consecutive hits on him right before Goku blasts a decently rendered kamehameha through King Kai's planet... fluid movement which is unfortunately obscured by a poor post-processed aura effect, which is a recurring issue all throughout Super.

But the decent bits of movement and the consistent art outside of the fighting segment don't really save the bulk of the action from being a let down. I could go a lot more into detail, but I'm not a genius when it comes to talking about the animation process, I prefer talking about writing.

That being said, was this really the worst looking episode in all of Dragon Ball?

... No. No, not at all. There's been worse animated products in Dragon Ball before, and there are worse looking episodes of Super later on (And God, is that depressing to say...). This was a bad looking episode and there's certainly some stuff that's laughable coming from a modern series for one of the most famous and lucrative anime franchises in the world, there's no denying that.

But between the memes and bad press, and the in-betweens people float around as examples of how horrid it looks when anyone who actually understands animation knows that's not how it works, I think people have overblown it's supposed abysmal quality out of proportion a bit.

Now that's not me defending the episodes animation, it is rough and blatantly unfinished in a lot of places, it deserves criticism even if I think it's only fair to be mindful of the conditions the animators themselves were in.

We can certainly be critical of whatever stupid higher ups at Toei decided it was a-okay to rush the series into production so suddenly, especially since it had a horrible ripple effect that left Super with a troubled production right into it's final saga, even though things did improve greatly over time.

But at the same time, I don't think it's really fair to lambast this episode as one of the worst things to ever happen to Dragon Ball as some people did early on, because, honestly outside of those animation issues... the episode is perfectly fine.

Seriously, writing wise this episode was well put together. The interaction between all of the characters at the beginning was perfectly fine, no one was really written badly, and there were a few good jokes. Especially in the dub which improves the dialogue a bit. King Kai's Japanese voice still sounds off, but again, dub fixes that and it's not the end of the world.

And for what the episode was intended to be, it was well constructed writing wise. Having the first encounter and fight between Goku and Beerus extended to a full episode rather than the less than ten minutes scene from the movie was a good move, since we needed a lengthier action scene at this point.

And the way the fight was written was perfectly fine, with Goku trying to fight Beerus as both a super saiyan and then super saiyan 2. The animation and overall bland direction undermines the tension unfortunately, but on paper this wasn't a bad way to go at all. And it does still sell the point of what this encounter was meant to do: Establish that Beerus is so far beyond Goku at even the peak of his current level of power that he can slap him around without anything close to real effort, and thus raise concern for what's going to happen to the earth.

On that note, big props to Sean's voice acting as Goku towards the end there. He really sells Goku's desperation and concern for everyone. With all the complaints about Goku in Super supposedly being a lot less mature and more reckless than before, moments like this show that Goku can in fact take things seriously when he needs to.

Heck, considering he challenged Beerus straight after the God said he might destroy the earth if he was annoyed and he was immediately thinking of ways to beat Beerus after being knocked down, it seems likely that his challenge to fight him was actually an attempt by Goku to keep him from doing any damage and it just looked like him just being careless to King Kai and Gregory. That's how I interpret it anyway.

From a storytelling POV, there's honestly nothing offensive about episode 5, it mostly did what it needed to. Sure, it's mostly just the same stuff we saw in the movie but extended... but hey, it's an adaptation, that's kinda what we should expect. And again, not everyone saw the movie so this isn't as huge an issue as a lot of people think.

If this episode had been graced with better animation, I'd honestly call it good. Maybe not great unless said animation was REALLY good, but really I can't think of anything worth complaining about and it's paced well enough.

It's just that... well, the animation IS a big issue. When your episode is centered around a fight, then that fight needs to be handled well or the whole thing ends up kind of a flop. In an episode that's mostly building up the plot and dialogue heavy, bad or inconsistent animation can be easily ignored so long as the writing is up to par, in my opinion.

Heck, episodes with fights that aren't exceptionally well animated can still be good or even great if the writing and story content is good enough. It helps if both elements are good and working in harmony, but good writing in a story trumps all other aspects.

But this episode? The content we got was alright, but there wasn't really anything exceptional here that particularly makes up for the animation issues, unless you're someone that really, REALLY loves Beerus and enjoys seeing him slap Goku around.

The end result of how this episode turned out is that it's just kind of dull. It has a few good moments, but it kind of drags in the middle because of the subpar animation, and while there's nothing about it outside of the animation that's especially awful (Though if you're an animation student you're likely to be balling your eyes out by the end) it's also not that memorable, at least not for good reasons.

If I'm being fair, I can actually enjoy this episode if I'm in the right mindset, I found it mostly fine AS I was watching it on DVD multiple times in preparation for this review. So I think if you go into it with low expectations, it's somewhat harmless and easy to get through while you're waiting for the next episode, which has more worthwhile content.

That's not a ringing endorsement of course, but for an episode like this it's the best praise I think anyone could give it, really.

I should mention that the Japanese Blu-ray collection for Super did include some handy clean ups for the episode. It doesn't fix most of the movement, the storyboaring or such, but it does clean up a lot of the iffy art so that it looks...

... better. Still not great, and there's plenty of shots that still look off and some that look like they weren't fixed, but the episode is a bit less of an eyesore now so that probably helped my enjoyment a little since it's the Blu-Ray versions the dub airings and DVD collections use. It's more of a quick patchwork job than fixing the issues though, I wish they'd done a bit more, but whatever. Too late to complain now.

Episode 5 is not a good episode. It is a testament to how poorly managed Dragon Ball Super's production was at the beginning, and would unfortunately result in further troubles for the series over the course of it's lifespan, both in animation and writing. The episode could have been pretty good, but ends up as a missed opportunity and is a bit of a red flag for anyone just getting into the show.

I cannot defend Toei's management for rushing the show's production, that was careless and I'm glad there seems to be a restructuring going on right now and that Toei overall seems to be taking better care with future Dragon Ball products, like the upcoming movie. All signs seem to be pointing that we'll be seeing better productions for future Dragon Ball series to come.

That does not make what happened here excusable though. People have a right to complain about the animation and production issues Super faced at this point and further on in the series, and while I don't feel negatively of the show overall, I still feel that things should have turned out better than they did. Episode 5 will always serve as a constant reminder of how things can go wrong behind the scenes of a popular series.

But that said, just because mistakes like this happen doesn't mean it's the end of the world. For all the issues it still faced, Super would still see huge leaps made in improving it's animation and storytelling later on, which would include many of the best looking episodes in the entire Dragon Ball canon. It was, and still is, possible for Toei to learn from the mistakes they made with the series at this point and do better going forward.

And I hope that by the time the next Dragon Ball series rolls around, we'll see a positive result from that. In the end, I suppose failure can have it's benefits as a learning experience.

And by the same token, for all the issues it has with it's visuals, this episode in of itself was far from the worst thing ever and I do not believe it sabotaged the first arc as a whole. It was nothing special and a real mess, but I can look past it in the long run. Though I appreciate if it's flaws are just too great for some people to look past, I can't hate it as a whole package.

My final grade for the original version of the episode in Japanese would be a D. For the somewhat corrected version with the dub, I'll be as generous as I possibly can and give it a C-

Boy, that was a trip. I'm not sure if I feel completely comfortable with how this review came out, but honestly I should have gotten this out a while ago and I just want to be done with it, so I hope you can all forgive me if I didn't get my point across very well or if I just spent too much time badgering on about stupid platitudes. I might come back and edit it in the future after I've gotten the next review done and I've had some more time to clear my thoughts on this one. But for now, hope I gave you something to think about.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 4 Review

So now we come to the fourth episode of the series. As has been the standard with this series so far, it's a fairly low key episode that does set up a few ongoing plot points, but mostly focuses on comedic antics. At this point I'm starting to think that people who preferred early Dragon Ball are really pleased with themselves while fans of Z are getting grumpy that there hasn't been any extreme violence yet.

Anyway, while the beginning and end of the episode do focus on Beerus and Whis's impending arrival on King Kai's planet and setting up the main conflict of the arc, most of the episode in between that is dedicated to the reintroduction of the first villains of Dragon Ball, the Pilaf Gang.

Having been turned into kids due to a wish on the Dragon Balls gone astray, the Pilaf gang have fallen on pretty hard times since we last saw them back in the King Piccolo Saga. Stranded and starving on an island in the middle of the ocean due to a failed treasure hunting expedition, Pilaf, Mai and Shu end up hitching a ride on Bulma's passing cruise ship after Pilaf notices through his personal dragon radar that Bulma has brought the seven dragon balls together as the grand prize for a bingo game.

Once again, episode 4 isn't really a plot heavy episode, but there is still a fair bit to unpack with this episodes content. Specifically, the idea of bringing the Pilaf gang back for Super, which like in the Battle of Gods movie is largely a matter of fanservice for long time DB fans.

There's been a fair bit of debate about this decision over the course of Super's run, particularly during the Future Trunks saga. And, there is quite a lot to discuss about their overall use in the show, and I'll certainly go into more detail on that in reviews of later episodes, particularly the Future Trunks saga.

In concept though... I am largely in favour of the idea of bringing them back as minor recurring characters. I'm not a huge fan of the characters, but I do like the Pilaf gang and find them amusing, and I like the idea of Dragon Ball having recurring comedic villains (Probably helps that I'm a huge Team Rocket fan).

And it did always feel a bit weird to me that they just disappeared after the King Piccolo saga without any kind of closure (Although anime filler did give them a sort of send-off),  so it's nice to see them make a comeback.

I also like the idea of the Pilaf Gang ending up being friends with Goten and Trunks. It gives the two of them some more people their own age to interact with besides each other (Or... so it appears. Though the Pilaf gang were all practically kids in adult bodies before now anyway), and there's something amusing in the idea of the characters ending up forming a sense of comradery with the children of their two longtime enemies.

It's an unexpected shake up and something that has the potential for some interesting interactions... if future series would do more with all five characters, at least. Oh well, at least this arc cut out the stupid sub-plot with Trunks having a crush on Mai from the movie... that's the Future Trunks saga's problem, but more on that another day.

I mean, hey, there's no way for the Pilaf Gang to reasonably pose any kind of a legitimate threat to Goku and the Z Fighters any more given the power creep that's gone on since the original Dragon Ball, so if you're going to bring the characters back then you need to explore new territory with them.

So, on the topic of how they're used in this episode? Well... it's not a bad re-introduction to them on paper.

Compared to the movie there's a better explanation for how they found out about the Dragon Balls, since in the movie they just knew they were at Capsule Corp, but they apparently didn't realize Bulma lived there (Or at least that she was the girl they knew who was friends with Goku). And there are some amusing moments with them, I really like Mai's grumpy reaction to Pilaf ordering her to start digging for treasure again after their argument about Pilaf's terrible planning.

Not all of the jokes land, some of Pilaf's shouting can be a little annoying, but the comedy is serviceable enough. And the last moment with Goten and Trunks offering them food was pretty sweet, and shows that Pilaf does care about Mai and Shu even if he has a funny way of showing it when he orders them to show some initiative by disobeying him once in a while when they initially refused to eat anything because he didn't want to look like a beggar. It's a small moment, but it adds a bit of depth to their relationship and kind of gives an idea of why Mai and Shu are still loyal to Pilaf despite his bad boss tendencies.

But of course, the execution has a few issues. Chief among them... we don't get any explanation in Super for why the Pilaf Gang are suddenly children!

No, seriously. In the movie we had a brief explanation when they first appeared that Pilaf had wished for youth on the Dragon Balls on the basis of "No point ruling the world if you're too old to enjoy it" or something along those lines. It was pretty amusing to me how Pilaf managed to shoot himself in the foot so badly as soon as he finally got his hands on the Dragon Balls (Though one does have to question how that whole thing went down, considering Shenron is supposed to grant 3 wishes since the Cell saga... when DID they make that wish if they're about Trunks' age now?)

But in this episode, and indeed all of Super, we don't get that explanation. They just appear at random stranded on an island as children. It's... kind of jarring and a careless oversight.

Like... despite the complaints from the hardcore fandom about Super retelling Battle of Gods and Resurrection F for wasting time "Re-telling stories we already saw" ... truth is, not everyone saw the movies. Far from it, really.

A good chunk of casuals (And several more hardcore fans for various reasons) never saw them in theatres or picked up the DVD's before Super came out. I know one person at work who said that they would have watched the movies, but they didn't see much point to it now that Super was coming out and re-telling them back when the show was still just starting, and I've seen plenty of testimony from people who only watched Kai as kids that they only started watching Super when it was dubbed and being confused about a lot of stuff because they never saw the Buu Saga.

So, frankly, leaving out that explanation is a serious issue, since it's just going to cause a ton of confusion for a lot of people going into Super. I mean... I know why they're children, because I saw the movie. And it's fairly easy to google an answer for it for anyone that's confused.

But that's no excuse, as an adaption and an ongoing series that's meant to supplant the movies as the canon continuation of the Dragon Ball story, throwing in a drastic and obvious status quo change without proper explanation is inexcusably sloppy.

The lack of proper explanation for the characters de-aging severely harms the Pilaf Gang's presentation in this saga. The fact that they end up feeling like they don't have much of a point as far as this saga goes and only become actually plot relevant for an episode in the next saga doesn't help either, but that's a retroactive issue with the later episodes of the arc rather than this one specifically, so I can't hold it against this episode at least too much.

I don't think it ruins this episode completely, since it's still amusing enough to watch and there's nothing else that's really WRONG with it, other than just being kind of uneventful.

I'd complain about it slowing down the plot, but really everything here is plot relevant to some degree. We get set up for the Dragon Balls for their use later in the story. The Pilaf Gang do end up having a plot-crucial role in the Resurrection F saga, so while they don't have much to do in this arc, their re-introduction isn't really padding.

Goku learns of Beerus, and we get a bit more insight into Beerus's role in the cosmic scheme of things, in that his role in governing destruction in the universe isn't just mindless carnage, but necessarily for maintaining a universal balance. Which, has some ties into Eastern Philosophy and religious beliefs I believe, but I'm not well read enough on the topics to discuss that here. Maybe in another review once I get around to doing more research on that.

And outside of the Pilaf Gang's scenes there's some good jokes. King Kai's whole "I'm strange" dance cracks me up (In the dub at least, there's still the issue with the character's monotone voice in the Japanese version sadly), we get a few cute moments with the characters at Bulma's party, and I do like the interaction between Goku and King Kai.

The animation is also pretty decent this episode. It does have a recurring gimmick where the outlines for the characters are randomly a lot thicker in certain close ups, which... is a little distracting until you get used to it admittedly.

I not a bad stylistic choice really, but this is the only episode I can think of where it’s prominent throughout, so it does stand out as a bit weird. Though even then the animation is otherwise competent. A corner cutting moment here or there maybe, but nothing that most viewers would notice or take much issue with... that's next episode. The music is pretty decent too.

Overall this episode is... kind of meh. It's mostly serviceable to me personally, though it's one flaw is a pretty drastic one in the grand scheme of the story. It's not the worst case of unexplained plot points, since there IS a reasonable explanation out there that most of the fandom is aware of, but it's the start of an unfortunate trend in Super where there are either flimsy explanations for certain later plot points, or in some cases no adequate explanation at all. So that's a very bad sign.

Apart from that, it's another episode that mostly depends on it's comedic value. If you don't like the Pilaf Gang or just don't find them amusing here, you're likely to be kind of bored by this episode and left just wanting the main plot to get rolling already. Though to be fair things flow pretty quickly, so you're not going to be waiting too long for that anyway.

So from a critical perspective, this is easily the weakest episode of the show so far. Again, speaking personally I don't think it's bad overall and it's amusing enough to tide me over until the important first meeting between Goku and Beerus. It screws up big time on the exposition, but it's entertaining enough that most people probably won't get too worked up about that past their first viewing.

I'd give it a C-. Maybe a low C if I'm being generous.

Nothing special, has issues and is let down a little by it's follow up, but generally it's serviceable if you just want something mildly amusing, though there's not a lot of substance here aside from that. And if you're a big fan of the Pilaf gang, you'll probably appreciate having them back, even if them being kids might be a weird change to get used to.

I have a lot more I could say on the subject of the Pilaf gang, but I think for the most part that's best saved for future episodes right now.

Maybe I'm being a bit generous to the episode, but honestly even with it's drastic plot hole I can't find much to honestly be angry about.

Then again, maybe it's just me being forgiving because next week I have to review episode 5. Probably the most controversial episode of the whole show... oh boy. That's going to be a hard one to talk about for a variety of reasons.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

So, after a bit of delay due to just being busy and distracted I’m back to binging Pokémon and I’m at episode 59, Volcanic Panic.

You think Junki Takegami (The writer for the episode) ever looks back at this episode and wonders “Wow, this looks a little awkward with what happens later in the games”.

I mean... half of the plot is basically stopping a volcano from erupting and destroying Cinnabar island... which is something that actually happened at some point by Pokémon Gold and Silver.

I’d really like to know some of the anime writers reactions to some of the things they wrote and how weird they look in light of stuff the games end up doing. 

Also side note, I really love how Ash just assumes Blaine’s just going to hand him over the badge after helping stop the volcano, but then Blaine’s all like “What-no way, fight me!”. Feels like the writers are getting self-aware of some of their tropes at this point.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 3 Review

So, after two episodes of easing viewers into the status quo, this is the episode that officially gets the plot rolling and where the series really starts retelling the events of the Battle of Gods movie.

Honestly, it's a bit of a difficult episode to talk about since I feel like I'd largely just be recapping the plot and dialogue scene by scene if I tried going into detail. I feel like I really misspoke saying I might have more to talk about at the end of the last review. So I'm probably going to be a bit more brief with my thoughts.

The episode is mostly set up. It provides us some more information on who Beerus actually is, specifically that he is a God of Destruction opposite to the kais, and a rather chaotic one at that who goes around blowing stuff up every once in a while, and that he had ordered Frieza to destroy the saiyan homeworld planet Vegeta. We get a few scenes set in Beerus's planet, introducing us to a minor recurring character in the Oracle fish, and Beerus learns of Goku's existence and defeat of Frieza, leading him to set off to King Kai's planet to question Goku about the Super Saiyan God at the end of the episode.

Meanwhile, Bulma's birthday party that had been mentioned in the previous episode gets underway as the rest of the Z fighters and their families gather on a cruise ship.

Doesn't sound like a lot happens when you break it down, does it? And really, it's not, though it's still paced mostly fine and does it's job as a set-up episode. It has some nice jokes, gets us a little more familiar with our villain, and the animation is... well, there's nothing much impressive, but it's still okay. Bit of an odd technique where King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory are chasing Goku around for not reviving them at some point and there's one moment where Videl's leggings disappear and then reappear randomly, but otherwise nothing major to complain about... still two episodes before that happens.

Honestly, it's a lot of the little details that are more interesting to talk about. Like for one example, I really like that in this version of the story we get an explanation that Beerus was the one who trapped Old Kai in the Z Sword. It's a neat detail that makes this story feel even more like a natural continuation of the Buu Saga and tying up a loose end that I never expected to come up again.

Now if only the retcon that Beerus wiped out the dinosaurs worked half as well. I don't know why they kept that joke from the movie, it's blatantly nonsensical when we know from previous series that dinosaurs still exist in the Dragon Ball world. Heck, we SEE dinosaurs later on in Super!

I like to speculate that Beerus DID mostly wipe out the dinosaurs, but didn't finish the job, so they did continue to survive but have become less common and aren't the primary inhabitants of earth now. Only explanation that makes sense to me, because otherwise it's a weird and nagging inconsistency, which sadly Super would go on to have plenty more of.

I also question the choice to have Beerus instruct Frieza to destroy the Saiyan Homeworld. Part of me thinks that idea takes away some autonomy from Frieza's character, but honestly when I think about it Frieza probably could still have been considering it out of his own concern for the saiyans rebelling and Beerus just pushed him to go ahead with the idea. I know it's mostly there from a writing perspective so Whis can give Beerus a slideshow of Goku going super saiyan the first time and thus give Beerus incentive to meet with him, and it is a convenient way to handle that.

And I guess in hindsight it also served as a convenient way to have the two characters be familiar with each other already when Frieza comes back later, and to help explain why Beerus didn't just kill Frieza himself when all we know about a God of Destruction's duties from Toriyama suggest it should be his job to get rid of people like him. He was too lazy to destroy either Frieza or planet Vegeta himself, so he turned one against the other. So, I guess it’s an okay retcon.

There's a few nice character interactions scattered around too. My favourite moment is probably the moment at the start as Whis is flying through space with Beerus, and when Beerus questions his speed Whis immediately stops and curtly tells him that he's the fastest person in the universe. It's a small moment, but it really does a good job of demonstrating that Whis is more than just some diligent, snarky servant and that he's not one to be messed with, even where someone like Beerus is concerned.

Also, the bit with Krillin, 18 and Marron stuck in traffic and then just deciding to capsulize their car and fly to Bulma's party instead was just the most perfect thing ever.

The episode also establishes a running gag throughout the show about King Kai being annoyed with Goku not bringing him back to life with the Dragon Balls after the whole Cell explosion thing, and him wanting to be revived... it's mildly amusing and luckily wasn't overplayed too much, so not much more to comment on.

And... I really don't know what else to comment on.

Episode 3 is pretty lightweight, even compared to the last two episodes. The content we get is entertaining enough, but it mostly just exists to set up the actual plot of the saga. And if you've watched the movie, you're not really going to get much of anything new out of it other than a few amusing moments.

It's far from a carbon copy of the films events, there's different dialogue in places and additional jokes and short interactions between some of the supporting cast (Gotta love Chiaotzu making a silly face for Marron), the setting of the party is different, but there's not a lot that's significantly different about this set up.

It's not bad at all, despite that one stupid joke, but it's not an episode I'd watch over and over on it's own either. Still worth watching though, but it's best enjoyed while binge watching I think.

I'd give it a B-, good enough for what it is, but nothing exceptional. Perfectly average.

And I mean it this time when I say I should have some more interesting things to talk about in the next two episodes.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 2 Review

Okay, sorry about this one coming late, i was a bit distracted around here and i haven't had much access to my computer the last few days. But, here i am now.

So, episode 2. In contrast to the first episode, which was focused around the members of the Son Family and setting up Goku's role in the story, this episode focuses more on Vegeta, who will be the secondary protagonist for much of Dragon Ball Super, while also giving us a more substantial introduction to the main villain for the first arc (And a few funny scenes with Goku on King Kai's world to help move the plot along some more). Gotta say, it was a pretty smart move and a good way to steadily reintroduce us to the characters for the new show/introduce them proper for new viewers.

This episode also isn't particularly plot heavy, rather another episode focused on character interaction and comedy, but like last time what we get is pretty good.

The episode opens with a fun little scene of Goku arriving on King Kai's planet to train, and accidentally causing King Kai to crash his car into his house and destroying it (Man, the poor guy can't catch a break, can he?), and then transitions to Vegeta, Bulma and Trunks going on a family trip to a Hawaiian themed resort.

Not a lot to comment on the actual plot here outside of how it relates to Vegeta, but needless to say there's a lot of good jokes and back and forth between the characters. Whether it be King Kai's poor attempts at making puns, Bulma flying her airship underwater and through a forest like a crazy person to give Vegeta some "Training" as he stands on top, there's a lot of good stuff here. My favourite joke is probably the scene at the diner that ends in Vegeta digging in to an enormous cooked octopus that inexplicably squirts him with ink. If you're a fan of the briefs family, a Vegebul shipper in particular, then the first half of the episode is practically tailor made for you, since it's pretty much dedicated to having cute moments of Vegeta, Bulma and Trunks hanging out on vacation.

Naturally, Vegeta is silent and aloof through most of the ordeal, only putting up with spending time at the resort to try and be a decent family man for once, and out of obligation for the time he'd promised to take Trunks to an amusement park. Which, yeah, it's pretty sweet, even if Vegeta has to be a sourpuss about the whole thing. Still, as Bulma points out, the guy did stick around a lot longer than either her or Trunks would have expected.

This episode establishes Vegeta as the secondary protagonist of Super, replacing Gohan in that role from Z. A decision that would... have very mixed results, and I can't say it was necessarily for the best overall, but future episodes will provide much better context to discuss that.

As far as this episode goes though, his portrayal is mostly fine. It at least shows he's trying to make an effort to be a better father to Trunks. At the same time though, it also establishes that even after everything that went down in the Buu Saga, Vegeta still has a chip on his shoulder in regards to his rivalry with Goku, and his desire to surpass him is still present.

I know a lot of people were torn about this at the time, and still are considering the end of the Buu Saga had Vegeta conceding that Goku was the superior fighter and seemingly putting his obsession to an end, with arguments about whether this was a regression of his character. Personally, at least as far as the first half of the show goes, I don't have much of an issue with it.

Mostly because it's made clear through the rest of the saga that his overall character progression has still stuck in spite of his obsession with being the strongest still being present. And it's brought up by the time of the Champa saga that Vegeta by that point has moved past the point of having a self-destructive inferiority complex, and his rivalry with Goku by then is mostly a more healthy motivation for self improvement.

And let's face it, fundamentally changing who you are as a person takes a lot of time and effort. Self-realization of your faults and a desire to change for the better are only the first steps to self-improvement. And a deep-seated inferiority complex like what Vegeta has isn't going to go away after a few moving speeches, it seems natural to me that he would have some trouble letting his urge to surpass Goku and be the strongest go, even after some time had passed from the Buu Saga. He's had plenty of instances where he started to regress on any progress he's made before, at least in this saga the worst it amounts to is him being grumpy and storming off to train after being caught in a large crowd and losing his temper.

Vegeta and Goku's rivalry is very iconic, and you kind of have to keep it alive if you're going to have a series where they're the two most prominent characters. Vegeta is still a better person than he once was, and the later episodes of this saga would demonstrate that clearly, so i think that's what really counts. And hey, Vegeta still wanting to surpass Goku is consistent with the updated final chapter of the manga Toriyama put out in the 2004 Kanzenban, so they kinda had to do it this way.

So yeah, for me personally I'm okay with this. But then again, maybe I'm just not inclined to take issue with it right now since we also got to see Vegeta riding a choo-choo train with Trunks and Bulma. That was adorable.

The second half of the episode is a bit more action packed and plot relavent, as it gives us a more extended introduction to Lord Beerus and Whis.

It starts off with Whis being sent to an alien planet to bring back dinosaur meat that Beerus is interested in because it might help him remember the details of a prophetic dream he couldn't fully recall. After Whis fails to negotiate with some locals to give up their kill in time, Beerus shows up and gets into a fight with what i assume is the tribe leader. Who Beerus dispatches quite easily, and then decides to just blow up the planet out of annoyance. The resulting explosion ending up being what jogs his memory, ending the episode with foreshadowing of some mysterious figure called Super Saiyan God.

It's a pretty fun scene overall. The banter between Beerus and Whis is spot on and their dialogue gives us a good impression of their personalities, with Beerus in particular being presented as somewhat comedic but still threatening and someone to take seriously. I really like the designs of the aliens, especially the powered up form of the one who fights Beerus, makes it a bit of a shame their world got blown up. The action itself is very short, but it's pretty decent, Naoki Tate's effects work is always fun to see in the alien's energy blast.

Admittedly we still don't know much of anything about who the characters actually are, just the idea that Beerus is seeking a fight with a Super Saiyan God, what exactly that is being a mystery for several episodes, though Old Kai clearly knows what's going on with him. Thankfully we do get a more substantial explanation for who Beerus is next episode, so the show doesn't drag it's heels too long with that, and this episode does a good job of hyping him up and raising interest.

I do question how the heck Beerus got to the alien world so fast from his palace, considering he's not nearly as fast as Whis and seems to rely on him for transportation as next episode establishes, so that's a bit of an oddity. I'm just going to put it down to cartoon logic.

So, yeah, the episode is overall pretty light on actual story, but at this point in the series I don't think that's a big issue, especially as the plot does start to get rolling over the next few episodes. I do wish the parts focused on the Briefs Family vacation had gone on a bit longer though, it felt like the episode really breezed past that.

Also, I do feel like I need to bring up King Kai's voice in the Japanese version. Jōji Yanami, his original voice actor for many years, is well into his 80's and apparently wasn't in the best of health when Super started... and it really shows with his voice acting. All of King Kai's dialogue in the episodes he voices him in, starting with this one, are spoken in a weird monotone that's... kind of distracting. Especially in places where he's supposed to be shouting or expressing emotion.

It makes some of the scenes with the character in the first saga seem a bit off putting. I feel really bad for Yanami, and I'm glad that he took a leave of absense and seems to have retired by the 12th episode. I don't know exactly how he's doing right now, but I hope he's in the best health he can be.

Thankfully this also isn't a problem for Sean Schemmel's performance of the character in the dub, which is on point. Honestly, the dub for the episode and most of the saga is pretty stellar and makes the episode even more fun to watch with it's slightly wittier dialogue, though I do feel Chris Sabbat's tone as Vegeta sounds a bit harsher in places compared to Ryo Horikawa's portrayal... though, i can't understand a word of Japanese or really make sense of the inflections in the Japanese casts line reading a lot of the time, so maybe that's just me.

The animation and art direction is also strong in this episode. I love the animation of Bulma's aircraft spinning around, and the effects work on display as it dives underwater. And there's a lot of beautiful shots throughout the episode, the scenes on the beach during the evening with all the people on it draped in silhouette look gorgeous, and the explosion created from the planet that Beerus blows up in the last scene is just mesmerising. I mean, it's horrible that an entire planet and all it's inhabitants just got annihilated, but I can really see why Beerus finds the results beautiful. The music and direction are pretty effective, too.

This episode was the first to be supervised by Naoki Tate, one of my favourite animators working on the show and probably one of the most well known. And while he obviously didn't animate everything himself (See animeajay's videos for the low-down on that), as a supervisor this was a great first impression to make... pity then what he was forced to immediately follow it up with.

Oh boy, that episode is going to be "Fun" to talk about.

So, yeah, I don't think there's a lot else i can say without just recapping every moment from the episode and going "I like this" or "Wish this was a bit longer" or whatever. The character interactions were fun and mostly on point, the production values were good, and overall the episode was pretty enjoyable despite a few flaws. Admittedly though there wasn't a lot of substance to it, and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first episode. Still, I don't have any major complaints about it either, and for what it is it works fine.

I'd give it a B+, maybe a high B.

Not really the best episode in the series, or even this saga, but it was a lot of fun and gives us some necessary set up that gradually eases the viewers into the overarching story. I'm happy to come back to it, anyway.

I think the next episode should give me a bit more to talk about compared to the first two episodes, so look forward to that. Hopefully i get that one up by Sunday this time. Sorry if this review feels rushed or that i could have done better or gone into more detail in places, but I kind of was rushing. Any specific questions about stuff you might have in the episode though, just leave them in an ask.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Fun little tidbit I just noticed. Near the end of Ditto’s mysterious mansion, when Duplica’s Ditto transforms into Pikachu, Ash mentions that he can’t tell which is his Pikachu anymore and Duplica tells him “Well, I guess you need to keep training, Ashy boy” (She’d mentioned that she’d be a pretty poor trainer if she couldn’t tell her ditto apart from meowth when Team Rocket tried to pull a switcheroo with them).

Well, in the movie Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, when Hoopa summons dozens of Pikachu and has them surround Ash and Hoopa asks him which is his, Ash instantly picks his up. Admittedly, it might have been because Pikachu had run right up to his side just before Hoopa asked, but still, you could always view that as an example of how much Ash and Pikachu’s bond with each other has grown over the years and how much time they’ve spent together that Ash can now instinctively tell Pikachu apart from others of it’s species.

Or maybe I’m just looking too far into it. It probably wasn’t even intended as a call back or anything, I just thought it was amusing and felt like commenting on it.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

One thing that’s really weird to me whenever I re-watch the Indigo League season is just how little Gary actually appears. He has a short scene at the start of the first episode that’s a pretty fitting introduction, he has a brief, kinda pointless cameo in Here comes the Squirtle Squad, and then doesn’t appear in a notable role until Beauty and the Beach.

An episode which was banned in the West initially, so us folks who grew up on the dub didn’t get to see Gary again for real until Dig those Diglett!, which becomes the 30th episode in dub order. It took TWENTY NINE EPISODES for us to really see Gary again. And even there it’s just for one scene really, he doesn’t exactly do anything important.

He appears a bit more frequently in the second half of the season, but he's still barely in the show. He’s mentioned frequently, but never actually developed much beyond being an obnoxious jerk who’s also an ace trainer. It’s only in the Johto seasons his character starts to get more depth, and even then it feels like he developed a largely different character off-screen.

Don’t get me wrong, Gary makes a lasting impression whenever he does show up, but for the main rival character in the early parts of the series you’d think Gary should have a bigger role. I know, it’s probably trying to keep true to the spirit of the original games, where the rival character just showed up randomly now and again to challenge the player, but other characters from the game were given the benefit of being more fleshed out, so I don’t see why the anime couldn’t have fleshed out Ash and Gary’s dynamic and the latter’s character some more early on.

I dunno, I just feel like there’s a lot of wasted opportunity there. I’m not even saying he’s a bad character, when he does get around to really doing noteworthy stuff it’s usually pretty cool, and his interactions with Ash later on in Johto, especially during the league episodes were always some of my favourite moments. It just would have been nice to see that earlier on, give him more of a point other than giving Ash an inferiority complex

[tigerlover16-analysis]

I wonder if you noticed an obscure character arc about Gohan introduced in this ep. His feelings of inadequacy about how much (or to his doubts, how little) he's giving Videl the happiness she is giving him. Hints of this will be shown later in the Barry-Saiyaman Arc.

I noticed, but I wasn’t sure if I had anything to say about it yet. It also plays in to Gohan’s overall motivations in Super aswell, where he starts to feel he’s not doing enough to help protect everyone when the earth is in danger.

A lot of people accuse the writers of not knowing what they’re doing with some characters, but it’s clear early on and seeing how things played out later that they did have plans and a clear idea of what they wanted to do with the characters. They just didn’t always get as much time as would have been preferable to explore them

I’ll definitely bring it up when I review episodes 73-74 though.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Dragon Ball Super: Episode 1 Review

A first episode is often going to be the most important of any series. This is the episode that's intended to sell the majority of a show's intended viewers on whether or not it's something worth getting invested in.

For a series like Dragon ball Super though, a continuation of a beloved nostalgic series that millions of people love and has been a massive influence on their lives, the first episode has to make it clear to those people that the show will not only be enjoyable to watch, but that it will respect the series it's following on from. That's a lot of pressure, and while subsequent episodes can always drop the ball (And unfortunately, that did kinda happen in a few episodes), the first impression is the most crucial.

Dragon Ball Super is a long running show that had many ups, and it had it's downs. But did it succeed at that oh so important first impression? Well my friends, today that is what we’re here to discuss.

The series opens with a recap of the ending of the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z, and then cuts ahead an unspecified number of months afterwards. The story proper begins with series protagonist Son Goku having largely settled down to becoming a farmer after returning to life at the end of the previous series. A job that he's not exactly enthusiastic about, as he'd rather be training to get stronger in the event that the earth should be threatened by a new evil force in the near future, but he keeps at it for the time being in an effort to provide for his family like a responsible family man.

The focus of the episode shifts between the various members of the Son family, as well as new in-law Mr Satan, and while it does set up the direction the arc will be taking, outside of one scene early on and the ending it's pretty self-contained. It's difficult to talk about this particular episode without just recapping most of it's scenes as a result, so while I'll go into more detail in some future reviews I'll keep this one brief and focus on the important aspects.

The episode is well paced and for the most part, each segment flows neatly into each other. Everyone who appears is in-character and the episode does a good job of re-familiarising old fans with the characters and what they've been up to since last we saw them, while also giving potential newcomers tuning in a good enough first impression of who these people are and whether they might like them (Though newcomers might in turn be surprised at how small a role Goten and Trunks end up playing for the rest of the series, considering their subplot gets the most focus)

The tone of the episode is mostly light hearted, and has a nice slice of life feel throughout much of it with a focus on comedy and character writing, though also introducing us to the villain of the first arc, the mysterious cat-like being called Lord Beerus, and letting us know that things will eventually get serious.

It's a pretty pleasant experience overall. Almost all of the jokes land, in particular the scene with Goten and Trunks casually floating around the jewellery store and unknowingly freaking people out while looking for a wedding gift for Videl always manages to get a good chuckle out of me no matter how many times I watch the episode, and when the episode isn't being funny it's still full of cute moments. I don't think there's a single moment that doesn't offer up either a good joke or something to make viewers smile.

What helps with this greatly is the animation. I'm not an expert on talking about art styles and I can understand the overall look of Super not appealing to certain fans of the previous series, but the animation of the episode is pretty well crafted, and the nice colouring helps to enhance the pleasant feeling of a lot of scenes. In particular the scene near the end of the episode with Goku and Goten looking out into the sunset before Mr Satan stops by to offer Goku money for his heroic actions in the Buu saga features some very beautiful backdrops, with the orange and purple skies especially being a real treat for the eyes.

For a franchise well known and regarded for it's action scenes though, the episode only features a short minute long fight scene, and one that's pretty small scale since it just features Goten and Trunks being attacked by a giant snake (Which sounds like it would be dramatic in any other series, but considering Goten and Trunks can both destroy the entire planet by firing a lazer into the ground, it's really more of a minor inconvenience since the snake almost breaks a jar they needed to gather water). And while it's nothing too fancy, it's still pretty fun to watch and well animated.

Makes it a bit sad that the show's production would experience some major pitfalls a few episodes later, and we'll cover that later on, but needless to say the animators and director for this episode at least deserve credit for making the first episode very visually appealing.

While I don't have any major criticisms of the episode, I do have to comment that the scene introducing Beerus does end up feeling almost out of place. It's a good moment don't get me wrong, it gives a good first impression of the character and establishes him as someone who seems incredibly dangerous, but it has no bearing on anything else that happens in the episode other than the last few seconds before the credits, which just has the supreme kai and Old Kai looking out into space and noting that something bad is going on.

I get setting up the plot, and it does leave some intrigue to encourage viewers to keep watching. But with the scene taking place so early in the episode and then nothing coming of it, it feels almost like an afterthought. Needless to say the next two episodes would do a much better job both in establishing the characters personality and presence, and what his actual deal is.

Again, not a bad scene, but it feels weird in how quickly it's brushed aside.

Probably my favourite part of the episode though is the aforementioned scene with Mr Satan offering Goku the reward money for saving the earth. For one thing it's just such a delightful demonstration of how much Mr Satan has grown as a person as a result of his development in the Buu Saga. His character arc was always one of my favourite parts of Dragon Ball Z as a kid, and it's really nice to see the fruits of it here. He's still a somewhat arrogant showboat, but outside of showboating for the public Mr Satan here is a much more humble and considerate man than who he was back in the Cell saga, and seeing him being so insistent on offering Goku such a large sum of money that he could have easily just kept for himself as the person officially labeled as earth's saviour really makes me proud of the guy.

But apart from that, I really just love Goku's response to the whole thing. Outside of his over the top shock at the whole offer being amusing, I just love how humble Goku is shown to be here, only finally accepting the offer because it would go a long way to provide for Chichi and Goten, and give him the chance to train harder so he can be strong enough to protect everyone and not have a repeat of Raditz. It really says a lot about what kind of a person Goku is, and why he's the hero of this story.

So, yeah, all in all this was a pretty great first episode. It does a good job re-introducing us to Goku and his family, with the next few episodes gradually re-introducing the rest of the supporting cast, and it succeeds at being an entertaining, fluffy experience. If you were hoping for the show to hit the ground running with it's plot and for there to be more of a sense of looming dread, like how Z started out, then you'll probably be a bit taken aback by how nonchalant and wholesome the episode is. But personally I loved the approach the writers took with this episode, and early Super in general. It feels like a natural follow up to the events of the Buu Saga, while also being it's own thing, and I think the episode should give you a good idea about whether you're going to enjoy the first arc of the show.

All in all, I think I'll give the episode an A-

Not entirely perfect, but it's a charming, very enjoyable first outing for the series, and something I for one always enjoy coming back to.

Next episode, Vegeta enters the scene as he, Trunks and Bulma take a family vacation, and we get a better look at who our villains are going to be. Should be a lot of fun to talk about, hopefully I'll have a bit more to say, I feel like I kind of phoned this review in since I didn't know how to write out my thoughts in more detail.

[tigerlover16-analysis]

Okay, so, here we are. I’ve been thinking about making a secondary blog to do reviews and general analysis posts of the media I enjoy as a fun exercise, since while I’m not an argumental person who enjoys discourse, I do love to ramble.

With Dragon Ball Super recently ending, I thought now would be a good time to make a start as a way to keep myself occupied until we get an announcement for the next Dragon Ball series.

I have vague plans for other shows/movies/comics, etc I would like to talk about, but for the foreseeable future the primary focus of this blog will be to post weekly reviews for every episode of Dragon Ball Super, while also writing down some general thoughts and analysis on the Pokémon anime, which I will be marathoning the entirety of. A lot of this will probably just be short posts of thoughts and tidbits about things I find interesting, but I’ll be giving more elaborate thoughts on each season as a whole as I finish them as well as reviewing all of the movies. Also, expect short first impression posts of every theatrical movie I go to watch this year.

This is mostly something I’ll be doing for fun, but I hope I’ll at least be able to interest a few people with some of my thoughts.

I’ll start writing my review for the first episode of Dragon Ball Super soon, if I don’t have that up by tonight expect it in the morning, after that I’ll start the Pokémon marathon, and you can expect a DBS review at least once a week, maybe twice on occasion.