#CleanGod

[kipke-art]

Why is nobody talking about CleanGod's dirty dancing?! Also, you are welcome ;)

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.88-90

The 2023 Dragon Ball Apocrypa Liveblog concludes with the DBS manga's adaptation of the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero motion picture.

First up, we have this three-chapter prologue/prequel thing starring Goten and Trunks in their lankey teen bodies. It's well-made, but I'm not impressed. Find out the reason why... inside!

Okay, as the image above shows, this is all about the boys' playing superheroes while they're in high school... just like Gohan did way back in Dragon Ball Z. The main difference seems to be that there's two of them doing it this time, and their motives are a little more frivolous. Gohan came up with Great Saiayaman because he just couldn't help but foil crimes, and the costume allowed him to save the day without giving away his identity. Goten and Trunks also want to keep a low profile, but they mostly seem to be doing this shtick because they're on a superhero kick lately. They call themselves "Saiyaman X1 and X2", but their act mainly imitates their hero, Cleangod, who has a franchise of movies, video games, and so forth.

The added wrinkle is that they're also trying to keep this thing a secret from their families, as Bulma and Chi-Chi wouldn't approve of the boys screwing around like this when they should be studying. I guess it was okay when Gohan did it, but times have changed, and Trunks in particular isn't doing so hot on his report cards.

That does keep things mildly interesting. For example, you'd expect the boys to use costume changing watches like Great Saiyaman had, except they don't want Bulma to find out. So Trunks asks Pilaf to make them instead, and Pilaf can't make them as quickly, so Trunks doesn't get his until chapter 88 is half-over, and Goten's isn't ready until chapter 89. And you know, it probably would make things a lot simpler for Goten and Trunks to avoid the Saiyaman stuff altogether if they don't want their moms to find out, since they've seen this trick before. But they're doing it anyway, I guess because they're just that deep into the Cleangod fandom.

However, this still feels like a retread of a storyline we've already seen. Reading this, I feel like I've gotten too old for Dragon Ball. I know that isn't true. I'm looking forward to whatever happens in Chapter 101 onward, and Daima seems promising, even if it wasn't what I had in mind. There's always something interesting around the corner... but I see stories like this one that are more interested in rehashing older material, and it just feels tired and stale. Younger fans may not mind at all, but I see this and wonder if all we have left is just rehashing ideas we've already seen before.

Besides all of that, I'm not a big fan of high school stories, and there's a healthy dose of Trumai... and let's just get this out of the way before we go any further: I'm not that interested in the whole "next generation" thing.

I know there's a lot of fans who really dig the whole idea of exploring what happens to Goten, Trunks, Marron, Uub, Bulla, and Pan. I respect that, but I've never been very invested in any of them. I liked what we got out of them in DBZ, but that's about it. Let me kind of single out Goten so I can discuss this more easily. For the sake of argument, let's just call the "next generation" concept "Big Goten", since it features the teenage or adult version of the character, as opposed to the little guy in the Buu Saga and most of Super. Trunks, Marron, and the rest can be lumped into this, but it's easier to just refer to one character.

Basically, this 3-chapter arc is probably the best "Big Goten" story by default. Your other options are the End of Z episodes which barely do anything with him, or that one GT episode where he fights Baby and gets possessed. Or the Super Hero movie, where he's barely in it.

And yet, we have this 3-chapter arc, and Goten's basically playing sidekick to Trunks. That's not a huge problem in itself. You'd expect these two to be side-by-side, but it's mainly a Trunks story. He's trying to get Mai to go out with him, but she's part of the Pilaf gang living at Capsule Corp, and they have to be useful or Bulma will kick them out. So she's too busy repairing these "helper robots" that malfunctioned recently. Trunks thinks he can investigate the case as Saiyaman X-1 and get Mai the weekend off so she can date him. Goten's just sort of along for the ride. He enjoys the superhero bit, and he likes goofing off with Trunks, so it's all good.

And honestly, you could probably switch these two around and have Goten be the one trying to solve crimes to go on a date, while Trunks is the supportive wingman. But that's the problem. We have this one story, and they both kind of have to share it, and it really doesn't matter which one of them gets the lead.

Like, in this arc, we learn a little more about Teen Trunks. He's not doing well scholastically, he lacks Bulma's talent with computers or science, and... he's still carrying a torch for Mai for some reason. Oh, and he's afraid of ghosts now. It's not much to go on, but at least he gets something. All we find out about Goten in this thing is that he likes Cleangod, just like Trunks. Oh, and Teen Marron has a brief appearance where it turns out she really likes Cleangod too. Also several of Goten and Trunks' classmates enjoy Cleangod. And Dr. Hedo likes Cleangod. You know, that's how you develop your characters, right? You make them all like the same thing.

The point I'm getting at is that for years I've heard that Big Goten is this untapped well of great story ideas and this arc finally gets around to that and... it's pretty underwhelming. That's the big idea? Superheroes? Again? It worked for Gohan because it was a fresh idea when he did it. And it worked for Dr. Hedo because it helped set him apart from Dr. Gero. But all it does for Goten and Trunks is give them another set of clothes. Trunks is still pining for Mai and Goten is still just happy to be here. It's not enough. It's not nearly enough.

So let's move on. The boys head into town one night to investigate the Helper Robots that are mysteriously disappearing. Turns out they've been hijacked by Dr. Hedo's Alpha series androids. Strictly speaking, the Alphas are just corpses stolen from a morgue, reanimated with cybernetics. Remember those goons working at the convenience store in the beginning of Super Hero? Well this is the same group of guys. Hedo's problem is that he's fare more brilliant than Gero ever was, but he lacks the resources and funding to make the kinds of androids that he wants to make. The Alphas are functional, but only just. Their brains are defective, and you can probably only steal so many bodies from the morgue before the cops get wise to you. So Hedo's big idea is to hijack the Helper Robots and use them to manufacture sushi packages for profit. He could build something more efficient for this, but this will have to do until he gets the cash.

Oh, I forgot to talk about how Pilaf built the Helper bots. I'm not clear on what they do, but there's a lot of them in the city, and apparently Pilaf pitched the idea to Bulma and she okayed it. At first I was surprised to read this, but then I remembered that Pilaf had his own Dragon Radar way back in the day. It wasn't as sophisticated as Bulma's, but it goes to show that Pilaf knows his way around technology. This isn't some new thing they slapped onto his character, like Trunks suddenly being afraid of ghosts.

For a second, it looks like Goten and Trunks are discovered by the Alphas, but it turns out Trunks' pals from school have snuck into the production floor, and they're the ones who get discovered, so Trunks has to go in and save them. Except his superhero wristwatch malfunctions, so Goten has to take out the lights to cover for him.

Trunks cleans house, even defeating Alpha 12, who was the strongest guy on Hedo's team. When Hedo himself arrives to find his base wrecked, his only clue is that it was trashed by someone who goes to "Blue Hal" High School. It's a major setback for Hedo, but what really upsets him is that Trunks took an important disc from his safe. Hedo wants to recover it above all else. Ironically, Trunks isn't even that concerned about the disc, since all he really cares about is disrupting whatever Hedo was doing to the Helper Robots. That way he can get his date with Mai, except it won't. Even more ironically, Mai still has to work on Saturday night, because she and the Pilaf Gang have to repair all the Helper Robots Trunks smashed in Hedo's base. Whoops!

Later, Trunks tries to use Bulma's computer to access the data on the disc he took from Hedo's sushi packaging shop. He briefly sees information related to Cell, but he doesn't recognize its significance, probably because he only knows Cell from hearing about it through his family. Anyway, the disc gives the computer a virus, which Bulla removes because that's her big character defining moment in this story. She's basically a carbon copy of Kid Bulma from the Jaco manga, but at least she's not another Cleangod fan.

Anyway, Bulma had decided to start sending Mai to school along with Trunks. Apparently she realized it might be awkward if anyone noticed Mai working for Capsule Corp. and not going to school. This just now came up? I mean, the Pilaf Gang have been here for a few years at least. If anything, it would have been more awkward when Mai was younger, right? I mean, I get it, this is just a way to get Mai involved in the story, but still...

There's also another new student in Trunks' class: Baytah. Trunks' friend Rulah takes an immediate liking to him, but this is pretty clearly a new android created by Dr. Hedo. The Alpha series was no match for Saiyaman X-1, so he created a new Beta class to infiltrate Blue Hal High School and find out who X-1 really is. Beta begins to suspect Trunks, since he displays some above-average performance on the basketball court, but he can't find a way to prove it without giving himself away.

So here we have this weird scene where they're getting soup for lunch, and Trunks is sad that he can't get extra. Then Beta pretends to trip or something, and throws his soup into the air. I guess the idea was that Trunks would have to use super powers to dodge it, or he'd get it all over his nice school clothes. But instead Trunks just sort of shifts to one side and the soup miraculously lands in his bowl. And he's happy because he gets extra soup? How does it all fit in one bowl, though? Is the lunch lady only filling them up halfway? This whole bit is really contrived, is what I'm trying to say.

Somewhere along the way, Mai figures it out and explains it to Trunks, so they know Beta is looking for Saiyaman X-1. So he knows to be careful about showing off his powers, but Goten just picks up a truck during recess to get a tennis ball back for his classmates. See, Trunks, this is how you get the ladies. Mai is like 55 years old. She doesn't care, but if you pick up a truck or two, all these teenage girls will go wild. Right now, these two girls are thinking about how much they wish they were trucks, being held in Goten's mightly-yet-gentle hand.

Anyway, now Beta is convinced that Goten is the one he's after, and Hedo tells him to attack and get the disc.

So Beta reveals he has a goofy superhero suit of his own, but Goten can't fight seriously because he doesn't have a transformation watch yet. Fortunately, Trunks does, so he shows up as X-1 and quickly slips Goten the new watch Pilaf must have made last night.

I'm not thrilled with Beta's design, but I like the concept. Faced with both Saiyamen, he deploys Beta 2, which is a robotic exosuit that can separate and fight in two modules. The Betas are here for the disc, but neither Goten or Trunks has it. Mai does, because Trunks gave her his bag while he ran off to pee or whatever excuse he had to switch costumes.

So Trunks has to save Mai from the Betas, and as he catches her, she briefly mistakes him for Future Trunks, the only version of Trunks Mai seems to have any interest in. The Saiyamen clean house, and the day is saved. Trunks very nearly tells Mai that he was X-1 all along, but Goten stops him before he can spill the beans in front of the whole school.

Okay, but what's the point? I mean, Goten just lifted a truck with one hand a minute ago? More importantly, Great Saiyaman was revealed to be Goten about ten years earlier. Not that I expect these students to remember that, but that's my point: Gohan was worried about everyone finding out he had super powers, and in the end no one cared.

I mean, there's still the matter of not wanting Bulma and Chi-Chi to find out what they're up to, but that sort of doesn't matter? I mean, the moms just want their kids to study more and screw around less. It doesn't really matter if they're playing superhero or going fishing. Their moms know they aren't studying, because they've got the report cards to prove it.

Back at Hedo's (other) base, he realizes he underestimated the Saiyamen, and realizes that he'll have to build even better androids to defeat them. And he's taken a liking to the Saiyamen's costumes, particularly their capes, so the implication here is that the Gammas' designs were inspired by Goten and Trunks' antics in this story.

Later, we finally get to that convenience store we saw briefly in Super Hero. Hedo still needs money, especially if he plans to build something to defeat the Saiyamen, so he puts three of his Alphas to work at the "Mammal Mart". It's Krillin who makes the bust, and for some reason Mai is there too.

Despite his lofty plans for better androids, the best Hedo can manage is to send more Beta series androids after Goten and Trunks. Beta 7 looks like an Elvis impersonator, and he intercepts Goten's school bus, but Goten changes into X-2 and beats him. Apparently this sort of thing has been going on for a while now.

Mai takes Goten aside and reveals to him that they're being watched by a tiny spy-robot. After the Beta-1 incident at school, Mai investigated and learned that Dr. Hedo is a famous scientist in the area, and she believes he's behind all of this. Apparently he's already figured out Goten and Trunks are the Saiyamen, since he's been sending Beta androids to harass them.

Mai's plan is to defeat Hedo by using the school dance to lure him into a trap. The organizers have arranged for a live appearance by Cleangod at the dance, which... seems kind of odd for a high school dance, but nothing about this super-hero business really makes any sense to me.

Like, okay... I've been a comic book fan for over thirty years. I just read a bunch of Golden Age Captain Americas a few months ago. I think I know the genre pretty well, and nothing Dragon Ball Super does with the concept really rings true to me.

In the first place, the Dragon Ball characters are already superheroes. I went from Batman to Superman to Marvel to Dragon Ball Z, and it was a pretty smooth transition. I never stopped liking the other stuff that came before, so it's not like my tastes changed all that much. I just see DBZ as a natural extension of the same stuff I liked in Marvel and DC.

It made sense when Gohan became Great Saiyaman because the only trope he hadn't done yet was the secret identity thing, and the only reason it had never come up before was that he'd never needed one before then. Once he got into high school, he suddenly had friends he wanted to keep secrets from, so he did the same thing Clark Kent did in 1938.

But then you have Goten and Trunks doing it because they think it's neat, and they're fans of Cleangod, who is a fictional character to them. And this is probably because Hedo was doing the same bit in the movie, where he would wear a costume and do the poses because he was imitating other fictional superheroes. So the idea seems to be less about the superhero genre as I know it, and more of this ironic "Let's be comic book nerds and do cosplay, and also we have super powers so we can do more than just pose in the suits."

Which... fine, I guess. The thing is, I don't understand the fascination with Cleangod. I mean, it makes sense for Hedo to be an enormous fanboy, because he's a nerdy scientist. I'm a nerdy scientist, so I can relate. He wants Cleangod's autograph, and I'm running an anime blog in my late 40's.

But Goten and Trunks are not nerds. Neither, it seems, are most of their classmates. They all seem like fairly normal teens, mostly interested in dates and school stuff and snooping around abandoned factories or whatever. But this high school dance is going to feature a live appearance by a man in a superhero costume. That's the sort of thing a circus would do to get small children to show up.

Is this an ironic thing? Like, did Goten and Trunks start out thinking Cleangod was cringy kidstuff, and they just kept getting deeper into the fandom until they started liking it for real? Is that what's happening?

Sorry, I was explaining Mai's plan. Okay, so Cleangod will be doing a meet-and-greet at a high school dance party. Okay. Dr. Hedo is a huge mark for Cleangod, so Mai is certain he will crash the party just to meet Cleangod and get his autograph. And she plans to be there when he does, so she can shut him down once and for all.

And she gets to go to this dance, because she's attending with...

...Trunks. He wanted to ask her to this thing, but she asked him instead, so he's all a-flutter over this, never realizing that she's just using him to get at Hedo. Except.... she's attending this school now. She doesn't need a date to get in. Hedo is the one who has to find some way to get access to the building, because he's not a student.

I like Mai's armor in this scene, although it really never comes into play. Also, Trunks brought Hedo's disc with him, because.... I have no idea. Maybe he doesn't want to risk losing it?

As expected, Hedo does show up for this thing, and I guess it's because Beta-1 is still registered as a student? I'm more confused about this signing event in the middle of a dance floor. This just feels like a hot mess. Trunks and Hedo bond over their mutual love of Cleangod... wait, I thought Trunks was excited about getting to go on a date with Mai? Priorities, Trunks!

Anyway, Hedo confides to Trunks that he had a Cleangod autograph before, but it was stolen, so he's here to get another one. Hold on, doesn't Hedo know Trunks is X-1? I mean, he was sending androids after Goten, so he must know he's X-2, right?

Mai tries to get Hedo, but then Beta shows up, and Rulah explains that he got back into the school, so she asked him to the dance. I really like Rulah. She doesn't know what's going on, but there's a new boy in town and she's gonna make time with him. She's like an Archie character.

Then the cops show up. Yeah, just draw your guns in a big crowd of children, Krillin, that makes a ton of sense.

Hedo uses a smokebomb to escape and everyone chases after him. By the time Cleangod comes out to make his big appearance, everyone is gone except Mai, who isn't impressed. That's the thing I can't square with all of this. The running gag seems to be that superheroes are both cool and uncool at the same time. People were lining up to see this guy, but the punchline is that he totally sucks? I guess? Characters will praise Goten and Trunks' costumes and then later characters will call them corny.

Like, which is it? That's the thing about superhero comics, at least from my perspective. In the real world, you either think Batman's awesome or he's a giant dork in a fursuit. Fine. But in the Batman mythos, just about everyone takes him seriously because he's a mysterious badass. I get it, Cleangod's basically Adam West working car-shows in the 1970's, but Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 are the real thing. They fought robots in the middle of the football field in front of everyone. I mean, no one called Goten corny when he lifted that truck.

Oh, by the way, Dr. Hedo's jalopy is awesome.

Krillin (reluctantly) brings Goten and Trunks along to chase down Hedo, and he fills them in on the situation. The cops have been after Hedo because they think the Red Ribbon Army is trying to stage a comback and they want to contact him. That.... doesn't quite square with the movie, but we'll talk about that later.

Anyway, they get to Hedo's (third?) base and he's got a dinosaur android to stop them. This is the biggest, strongest one he's made so far, but it's still not very sophisticated, simply because Hedo lacks the resources to build anything better.

It gives the Bio-Broly Buster Crew a little trouble, but Krillin disables it with a kienzan, and then Goten and Trunks take it out with a double-team move. And Hedo's going to jail.

So what about that disc? Turns out it never mattered. Hedo memorized all the information on it a long time ago, so the disc itself had no value to him. What he wanted was the case, which contained, in addition to the disc, his prized Cleangod autograph. Remember? The one he told Trunks got stolen? They didn't know it at the time, but Trunks was the one who stole it in Chapter 88.

And that's really dumb, because Trunks did try to investigate the disc in Chapter 89. He didn't get very far, but he still had to open the case it was in, so you'd think he would have noticed the Cleangod autograph inside. I mean, another character might not have paid any attention to it, but Trunks is a huge fan of Cleangod himself.

And if Hedo truly had no use for the disc, why didn't he throw it away a long time ago? In this scene, he says he discarded it, but he must have only done that in the last few minutes, before Krillin showed up to arrest him, since Trunks had the disc before the dance. This whole thing is supposed to be clever, but it's kind of dumb.

Anyway, this whole caper explains how Hedo got sentenced to prison at the beginning of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. He could have been given a longer sentence, but according to this story, he agreed to return some of the Alphas back to the families of the corpses he built them out of. This is supposed to be funny, but it's just kind of bizarre. Like, are we saying Hedo resurrected the corpses? I thought the idea was he just used a dead body to build Alpha 12. But this seems to suggest Alpha 12 remembers his former existence. That's kind of fucked up.

Like I said at the beginning, there's a lot that is well done here. Toyotaro's art is on-point as usual, and there's some great action scene with Goten and Trunks. I think the big highlight of the arc were all of the side characters we see at their school, like Rulah and the others. Trunks' math teacher looked pretty cool. The problem is that they were never going to be the focus of this or any other story. It's taken years for Toei or Shueisha to do anything with Goten or Trunks, so their pals may never see the light of day again.

And that's what disappoints me about this arc, because it may have been the one chance of getting a good teen Goten and Trunks arc, and they blew it on this. Did we really need a backstory on Hedo's prison sentence? Did anyone leave the theater not understanding why he was in jail? Was anyone confused as to how he came up with the designs for Gamma 1 and 2's costumes? No. We didn't need this.

One of these days, there will be an official Big Goten story that gets it right. But this ain't it, chief.

[shannonsketches]

I constantly think about that page in the special chapter where Trunks is asked if there’s anyone important to him and Goten is the first person on his mind and comes before his family and the big lub-dub moment that’s supposed to be romantic fully reads like an afterthought

[sxs-a2]

@likeadragcn asked

"Come on slow poke , we're never gonna make it to see the previews on time..no thanks to you and your stupid make up." Spoke the rowdy one in a rather teasing manner before sticking his tongue out and began rushing forward towards the ticket booth in order to get to their movie.

"Don't worry, I don't think he meant that." It was really something of a big loop comparing the two Trunks' with one another but he does know that the words spoken from his childhood friend came from a place of love..well a type of sibling love considering Gohan used to have his days as well when it came to teasing him. "Come on, we'll go together." With a smile Goten extends a hand forward.

🌸 → ❝ I am NOT going to to scuff my heels for you, Blueberry! ❞

The zombies destroyed the bots, which left Mai and Capsule Corp to work all weekend. She knew Trunks would be in a bad mood, but his frustration gained her a date with her crush Goten. Nezukos does not like Cleangod, but this was a chance to spend time with him, even if Trunks will be in the middle.

She took Goten's hand and changed her attitude.

❝ Thank you for inviting me. You didn't have to, y'know. ❞

[dballzposting]

I don’t even know what I’m trying to say. BUT IS THIS REALLY REAL? ARE WE ALL SEEING THIS?

- Dragon ball wont fucking die so they have to keep coming up with new shit and they were like OK. Let’s do a Goten & Trunks thing. It’s untapped potential. 

- Becasue of that, becasue of them needing a story to tell, they indirectly confirmed many things that many of us already assumed but could never be said. Things like: Goten & Trunks still hang out even when they get a little older (although to be fair in the Super anime we saw them together constantly, but still, the gap between that and EOZ was unspoken for); they play video games; goten & trunks are still on the same wavelength; THEY ATTEND THE SAME SCHOOL, etc etc.

- THIS IS HUGE ! CANON GOTEN & TRUNKS MANGA! THIS ISNT FUCKING FANART! THIS IS REAL SHIT!!!!!

Im only like um 10 pages in but commenting on what I’ve seen: ARE YOU SEEING THIS SHIT ???

THIS IS SO FUNNY ...

- “we need to do a story with goten and trunks.” “What should they be doing?” “Um, the franchise is doing a SUPERHERO theme right now, so they should be SUPERHEROS, Like The Great Saiyaman!” “AWESOME! But why? They thought that the Saiyaman stuff was a little lame, no doubt..?” “Well. They’re dragon ball characters so they just have a natural affinity for saving people and being helpful, first of all. Second of all, Goten & Trunks are certified teens now so aesthetic and style is important to them, they absolutely would not go for that saiyaman shit. So clearly they have a DIFFERENT source of inspiration.” “What you mean like a video game character or something...?” “...YES.”

- “Okay so WHAT sort of video game hero is he like.. what’s his SCHTICK?” “Um. IDK. He cleans shit. Mr. Clean.” “We’ll call him...CLEANGOD. It’s stupid enough that it’s in-line for Goten & Trunks.”

AND GOTEN & TRUNKS ARE REALLY STICKING TO THAT CLEAN SCHTICK !!!! AND IT’S SO STUPID BECASUE THEY LITERALLY .. 

HAVE TO COMMIT TO THIS BIT! GAH!!

LIKE THEY MADE CLEANING COOL!! Gotta Take Out The Trash . . . 

and it’s dragon ball and it won’t fucking die so now they play video games and everyone has a CELL PHONE. Fuck it. Chichi on FaceTime

^ GOTEN YANKING OFF HIS PANTYHOSE ??

And “Our Transformation Sequences Aren’t Heroic At All.” That’s what he calls it. That’s what he says. That’s how he thinks.

HERE’S A SCENE THAT’S GOING TO MAKE ME THROW UP:

WHAT DOES THAT FUCKING MEAN !!!

in this manga, Trunks has to ask Pilaf to make him a watch like The Great Saiyaman’s so that he can change outfits instantaneously. Like, he doesnt know how to make one himself. Like .. MAYBE GOTEN ISNT BEING SHITTY but HE REALLY MEANS IT ?! Guys this is a canon manga. Toriyama worked on this shit. We can’t take this lightly. DOES TRUNKS NOT KNOW HOW TO DO SHIT?

Trunks says that and then Goten is like “Clearly you don’t know how to suicidebait people online.” IS THIS REAL?

Does Trunks sit down at the computer like Vegeta and cross his arms and squint really hard and like ... NOT REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT’S GOING ON OR HOW IT WORKS? Like. Maybe he can do mechanical stuff. He can build a BMX bike and he can help his mom make blueprints. He can fix shit. But computers, are, like, it all happens behind the scenes, man. Those motherboards are tiny. Maybe he just doesnt fair well with what he cant SEE. Who knows...

UP NEXT: SON GOTEN PANTY SHOT ?!

HIS PHONE IS IN THERE VIBRATING. YES HE HAS A PHONE. EVERYBODY HAS A PHONE NOW. 

BUT... WHERE’S THE POCKET EXACTLY ...?

THE COMPOSITION OF THIS SHOT .. THEY HAD TO DRAW HIS CAPE LIGHTLY WAVING OUT OF THE WAY ... SO WE CAN ALL SEE HIS ASS VIBRATE ..

WAIT. GIVE ME LIKE 5 MINUTES. 

Speaking of Son Goten’s outfit. Look at his jeans and belt:

Typical enough in dragon ball but like... I’m jealous. Who bought him that nice ass belt.

Anyway this is just so stupid look at this.

Goten on his damn phone. Trunks is like “I just wanna FIGHT SOME MIGHTY EVIL and do it with swagg :/”

Honestly I feel for the kid. In blood and upbringing, he just wants to do good, kick ass, and pop off. Hang in there little dude...!

KINTO-UN CAMEO ! Also THEY GO TO THE SAME SCHOOL?!!1>?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?

I should save the rant about their superhero outfits for a different post but IDK when that’ll be. Theyre just so stupid. They’re skintight yet bulky at the worst points. Theyre ugly colors. GOTEN HAS A LONG, LUXURIOUS CAPE while Trunks has a TINY BABY BITCH CAPE and I KNOW they pick on each other for that stuff.

Goten is like “Atleast my cape isnt a napkin. Atleast when we’re in the air everybody can see my cape and know I’m a superhero.” And then when he goes to the bathroom and comes back there is pee and toilet paper stuck on his cape and it gets caught on all the door handles.

Trunks is like “Goten. You don’t live in Capsule Corp so I dont blame you for not knowing this, but when you design any new product, you have to learn how to marry STYLE with USE. My cape has attitude, it’s short and advant-garde, it’s recognizable, and it’s PRACTICAL. Your cape is gonna have you getting tangled up in yourself while trying to catch bullets.”

Goten is like “It is YOU who doesnt know anything about style. Watch my cape frame every pose I pull, silhouetting me against the backdrop of carnage that we have arrived to fix; watch my cape dance behind me like a loyal shadow; watch my large, classy, strong cape bring comfort to these towns on SIGHT, while your tiny baby bitch cape distinguishes you only as a feckless fool, an EMBARRASSMENT to heroes everywhere, and the forces of evil will point and laugh when you threaten them!”

and then when goten walks away Trunks just picks up goten’s cape and puts it on some piece of metal infrastructure protruding from the building theyre arguing behind, and he watches as it just completely tears off as Goten stubbornly maintains his pace walking away.

[c-beta]

Si Cleangod es un personaje ficticio, ¿qué carajo con esta gente?

[umbrakudo]

scarlxtleaves​:

It’s been awhile since he’s been back home after moving in with Videl. Hopefully his younger brother would be home, ever since Videl’s pregnancy Gohan’s life had been so much more hectic that homework itself was no comparison. “Hey Goten, are you home?” Spoke the young man as he gently opened the door. Their mother didn’t come to the door once he opened it which meant she was probably out shopping.

liked for a starter / @tanteichi​

“yeah! take that, evildoers! taste my CLEANSER STRIKE!” goten yelled at the tv, fingers rapidly smashing buttons on his controller. he was playing the new cleangod game that trunks had leant him for the weekend, which entertained him for most of the day while his mother was out shopping and his father was. . .somewhere. 

he only looked up when he heard a familiar voice, one he hadn’t heard in a couple of weeks. “. . .gohan!” quickly pressing pause on the game, he pushes himself to his feet and rushed over to greet his older brother, expression bright and delighted. “hey, it’s been ages! did you and videl get that present mom sent over?” the teenager had helped his mother pick out some stuff for pan. of course, even now, she was happy to be a grandmother if it meant she could spoil another youngster.

[kingmallmurda]

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#Uptopsettingz may 4th 2019 braff wi a braff 😎😎🍾🍾💵💵💰💰 #lockthedate #cleancrew #cleangods #Boston #bostonnightlife #vibez #fashion #style #likeforlike #like4like @markclean @juniorcleangraham @ryanclean @djscottja https://www.instagram.com/p/BtW4j2-H7ze/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1b7a98e9hmowp

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga Ch. 94-96

We're still reading the Super Hero adaptation! It's not great!

Things continue pretty much like they did in the movie, although it's a little awkward how Chapter 94 opens with Pan waiting to get picked up from school, just like she was in Chapter 91, because Toyotaro wanted to show Piccolo doing a "normal" kindergarten pickup as a prelude to the story. And that might have seemed like a good idea on paper. You know, contrast a routine encounter with the zany scene we got in the movie. The problem is that it undermines the zany scene when we finally get to it. The whole point is that a "normal" version isn't that interesting to see, which is why they didn't show Gohan cooking breakfast or Dr. Hedo brushing his teeth in the movie.

Anyway, you read chapter 91 and it feels like they skipped to the middle of the movie because Pan's waiting at kindergarten. Then you get to Chapter 94 and you see Pan waiting at kindergarten again and think the story is starting over. Or was it preschool? The manga version has a sign over the property that reads "kindergarten", but Pan's only three so I don't know. Piccolo knocked her into a bunch of rocks earlier in the day, and now he's taking her home with a layover at Red Ribbon HQ, so the point of all of this is that nothing is really ever "normal" with Dragon Ball.

Back to the manga, Toyotaro drags out this scene by having a cop take notice of the Red Ribbon aircraft, but he immediately decides it's okay once he finds out it's for Mr. Satan's granddaughter. This might be the same cop who helped Goku find Bulma's house for the first time in the original Red Ribbon Army Saga, but I'm not interested in looking it up.

So once again, Toyotaro seems determined to cram in new material to this story, but it's always designed to be as dull as possible, answering questions no one asked. Why didn't Piccolo get a ticket for the aircraft being parked on the street? For the zero people who were concerned about this, Toyotaro heroically includes a traffic cop whose sole purpose is to remind us that it doesn't actually matter.

Chapter 94 continues up to the first leg of the Gohan/Gamma 1 fight. There's some changes to the fight choreography, but I'm not gonna do a side-by-side analysis or anything. It pretty much has to be different because of the medium involved. I'm pretty sure Gohan firing a Kamehameha is new, as is Gamma 1 shooting at him to counterattack. But I could be wrong.

While Gohan powers up to his Ultimate/Mystic/Elder Kai Unlock form, Krillin's family is just getting out of the movie theater where they watched Cleangod 2. I mentioned this scene before, but now that we're here, this is Teen Marron's only appearance in Dragon Ball Super, and here's the big pitch for the character: She's a huge fan of Cleangod. Just like Goten! And Trunks. And... Dr. Hedo. I'm not impressed.

Krillin senses Gohan fighting, then he gets a call from Police HQ.

For some reason, Krillin runs off and hides while he takes the call? Are people not supposed to know he's a cop? Everyone keeps staring at him the whole time, so if he's trying to keep this a secret, he's doing a lousy job of it. Also, when 18 asks him who he's talking to, she doesn't seem to believe his answer, so she insists on tagging along with him. Does... 18 not know Krillin's a cop? What is going on here?

The dumbest part of all of this is that Nutz is calling Krillin to tell him about the battle at the Red Ribbon Army base. Remember how she had Krillin follow Magenta and Hedo in Chapter 91? Because they knew Magenta had a secret base but they didn't know where it was? And then Krillin lost them before he could find it?

Okay, so apparently the police had suspected that it was in that crater lake, camouflaged by a hologram. In fact, they've suspected this for so long that they've been monitoring the lake with cameras, and when Gohan went ultimate he disrupted the hologram and revealed the base. Now they want Krillin to reconnoiter the area before they send in a bunch of guys.

This is just really dumb. I mean, if the police suspected the base was inside the lake, why didn't they just send Krillin to check it out in the first place? He could have gone there months ago, and if it was just a lake, the worst thing that would have happened is he'd get wet. But if it was a secret mercenary base, he could have just snuck in and out as easily as Piccolo did in this story. It would have been even easier, since Krillin's less conspicuous than Piccolo, and the Red Ribbon wouldn't have had Hedo's androids for support. Hell, Krillin could have taken out the entire base by himself, and all they had to do was send him to the lake that they were already monitoring.

Also, why is it the West City Police Department's job to bust the Red Ribbon Army? Isn't that a job for the Royal Military? None of this makes any sense. I mean, the purpose is to add more Krillin content to the story, but it's so forced that it becomes nonsensical. The movie makes so much more sense without the police involved at all. Again, it's another question that no one asked. "Why didn't the police find the Red Ribbon Army's hidden base?" Because it's a hidden base, that's why not!

Toyotaro seems almost desperate to give these fictional cops a chance to save face. Well they were trying very hard to locate the base, but they just couldn't find it before Piccolo did. Except his depiction of their efforts just makes them look worse. Sergeant Nutz seems to know everything about the Red Ribbon Army. She knew Magenta was secretly rebuilding it, she knew he was planning to contact Dr. Hedo, and when he would do it. She was even pretty sure where the Red Ribbon base was. Yet despite all this inside information, she still couldn't figure out how to respond to it.

All of this makes it look like a set up to explain Krillin showing up at the end of the movie, except, no, that's not what happens. He shows up at the end because Bulma calls him and tells him what's happening. Toyotaro saw the movie and thought: "No! That's not enough! We need three reasons for Krillin to go to the lake!"

1. He senses Gohan's ki from the battle. 2. Sgt. Nutz calls him and tells him to go check out the base. 3. Bulma calls him and tells him Piccolo is at the base.

Is that enough? Does Krillin have sufficient motivation to go yet? I'm not sure, let's throw in some more reasons.

4. Krillin is visited by the ghost of the pirates from that underwater cave. The ghost tells him that the Red Ribbon stole his treasure and hid it in the lake, so he pleads with Krillin to recover it so the pirates can rest in peace. 5. Marron really wants to check out the crater lake, becuase Cleangod 2 had a scene that was filmed there. 6. Vegeta briefly pops in using his manga-only Instant Transmission. He asks Krillin to check on a three-layer cake he ordered from the bakery, but Krillin mishears him and thinks he said "crater lake". 7. The Supreme Kai of Time deputizes Krillin into the Time Patrol and informs him of a temporal anomaly at the crater lake. 8. Krillin was going there anyway because it's on his way home.

Back to the fight, not much is different, although there's a brief moment where Piccolo coaches Gohan before they resume fighting their respective opponents. This is kind of redundant, because they both already understood they were fighting androids, and they're already in their strongest forms (as far as they know), so Piccolo is just stating the obvious here. At least he isn't telepathically summoning Krillin to get his butt over here. Piccolo actually trusts the plot of this movie.

The Gammas aren't quite as powerful in this version, so 2 has to give a little assist to 1, then they consider double-teaming Piccolo to improve their chances. This doesn't last long, though, since it's not like Gohan was just going to stand there and let Piccolo get beat down.

At Capsule Corp, Bulma starts assembling a squad to help Piccolo, and is surprised to learn that Trunks already knows about Dr. Hedo. She asks him why he never mentioned any of this before, and finally, finally, Toyotaro has come up with a question someone might have actually asked. Why didn't Trunks tell Bulma about all of this? Because he would have gotten in trouble for playing superhero, and also because Bulma wouldn't have taken his story seriously even if he had said anything.

So Bulma admits that she goofed, but now she ungrounds Trunks (and Goten, since he just showed up), and she wants them to join Piccolo in battle.

But she immediately regrets it, because Goten and Trunks can't pinpoint Piccolo's location with their ki senses. And this is Big Goten in a nutshell. The boys are eager to get in on the action, but they lack the skill and focus to be effective. They're basically the opposite of what Gohan was in his childhood. Gohan was constantly caught between adventure and study, and he ended up excelling in both things. But Goten and Trunks really don't get pushed hard in either direction. They don't have much motivation to study, and they're not very good at adventure stuff either. Bulma's giving them a chance to be heroes and they're blowing it.

Anyway, she calls Piccolo, and when he doesn't answer, she calls Krillin, which is the canonical reason they all show up together at the end of the story.

Oh, and here's an awesome shot of Cell Max. I can't stress this enough: The art in this thing is tremendous, but the writing is just dull as can be. Everything's either a rerun or a pointless filler scene.

When Cell Max crawls out to fight all the good guys, Goten and Trunks offer to give Piccolo and Gohan a breather, and they switch to their Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 suits. Pan's into it, but everyone else find it dumb. I guess Marron should have come along and maybe she'd enjoy this...

[duhragonball]

I know this is probably the bare minimum to ask for, but one thing I kind of wish the 3-chapter prequel mini-story gave to Goten was to have him be far more successful with the ladies compared to Trunks. It would have served as a bit of interesting irony (to me, at least). Trunks, a member of the wealthy Briefs family, having issues getting a date while Goten, a farm boy from the mountains, could pick up dates like it's second-nature to him.

I mean, that's a nice gag, I suppose, but the Mai business would get in the way. It's impossible to tell how much game Trunks has with the ladies while he's constantly pining for Mai (and Cleangod, apparently). Goten kind of has him beat by default, simply because he isn't wasting his time on someone who clearly has no interest in him.

The thing is, I feel like there's too much focus on Big Goten as a romantic deal. All I ever hear of is who he's dating or who he should be dating. In Z he's got a date on the day of the tournament. In GT he's dating Palace and he teaches her how to eat. In fanworks it's always a question of which ship he's plugged into. He's with Marron, he's with Bulla, he's with Trunks, he's with Palace, etc. etc.

And that's fine, but I think it sidesteps the matter of who Teen/Adult Goten is as a character. Take away the love interests. Take away Trunks, take away Goku and Gohan. What have you got left? What's the hook? Why do we care about a grown-up version of Goten? What's the draw?

I'm not saying there isn't one, or that there can't be one, but the official material has never really cracked that nut. Toriyama could do it, because he did it with Goku and Gohan. He just hasn't had any motivation to give Goten the same treatment. I'll even go as far as to say Toyotaro could do it, but he hasn't done it yet. His big idea for Goten was to have him go to high school and be a super hero, which is just a Xerox of his older brother's exploits. Maybe Goten can go into entomology too...

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, let's use Launch as an example. She's a sorely underutilized character, and the fanbase has always wanted to see more done with her, just like Goten. The difference is that Launch has this core concept that's really easy to latch onto. She changes personality when she sneezes. Sometimes she's a violent criminal, and other times she's mild and unassuming.

And it's not a lot compared to major characters like Goku and Bulma, but it's still enough to figure out how to write a standalone Launch story. You can have her date Tien or Raditz or anyone else you want, but you can also just do Launch all by herself, living her life and dealing with her dual personalities.

You can get some mileage out of Goten being a ladies' man, but it needs a little more. Yamcha was a hopeless romantic, but he was terrified of women, and when he finally got over his fear, he still struggled to figure out how to balance relationships with martial arts. Bulma's always been boy-crazy, but instead of just picking out a boyfriend she invented a radar to track down a magic dragon to get an ideal boyfriend. That says a lot about the character, regardless of whether she actually gets a love interest or not.

To be fair, I imagine this is something Goten fic authors contend with all the time. Each of them probably has their own approach to the character, some working better than others. But when DBS Chapter 88 came out, all I saw were people going "Oh boy, he can date Chok and Fayra now!" and that sounds like it's just sidestepping the fundamental problem with the character.

[duhragonball]

I think the gammas are supposed to look like the old 1966 Ultraman super hero. That's who they reminded me of when I watched the movie. Ultraman was HUGE in Japan for a long time so I think Japanese fans of Dragon Ball would have recognized the resemblance.

You're probably right, but the issue I have with the "superhero" theme didn't really come into focus for me until I read the manga version. It's not so much a matter of the Gammas resembling superheroes properly, but the way superheroes are inconsistently regarded in-universe.

By that I mean that the characters in DBS:SH have wildly different perceptions of the same concept.

First, Hedo is a fan of fictional Sentai characters, so he's depicted as a stereotypical geek, and his creations reflect the fantasy world he enjoys so much. Fair enough.

Second, you have other characters who look down on fanboys like Hedo. Magenta in particular finds the whole thing silly, and Piccolo doesn't understand the point, even though he seems to recognize the aesthetic.

And that's all well and good. Those attitudes reflect real-world attitudes towards pop fantasy characters. Except in Dragon World, those kinds of pop fantasy characters really do exist. Great Saiyaman is real. Piccolo is real. The Gammas are real. Mr. Satan isn't quite what he claims to be, but the public perception is that he's a real guy who can defeat anyone.

So it gets kind of awkward when you have characters like Hedo, Goten, and Trunks who are fans of superheroes as well as superheroes themselves. Hedo's actually bulletproof, and while it makes sense that people would make fun of his costume, you'd think that would quiet down once everyone realized just how formidable he really is.

This gets really confusing in the manga, when people would admire Goten and Trunks' powers but goof on their costumes. Why does anyone even care about Cleangod when there are living superheroes running around in broad daylight? It just seems strange for bystanders to mock the idea one minute and take it seriously the next.

And I think the movie sort of manages to lanpshade this by having the fanboy stuff confined to just Hedo. The Gammas play heroes but Piccolo and Gohan mostly take them at face value. They're more concerned with what they do rather than how they dress. Still, it gets weird in places. You'd think Hedo would be more interested in Piccolo and Gohan, since those are the two guys on Dragon Team who made public appearances in the past. But maybe he's only interested in fictional heroes...