#TO SCREW REAL ARTISTS IN ORDER TO SAVE A QUICK BUCK

[toughtink]

i hate ai art i hate ai art I HATE AI ART

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 195

Great Saiyaman Saga!   Well, that’s how Funimation marketed these episodes in 2001.    I remember buying these on home video because I couldn’t wait to see what happened next after the Cell Games Saga ended, so I’d go to Wal-Mart and blow ten bucks on the edited-for-TV version of the dub.   On VHS.   

Mostly, I wondered who the hell “Great Saiyaman” was supposed to be, and what he had to do with Goku hanging out in the afterlife, which is what these next five episodes are actually about.   Strictly speaking, this story arc is about what’s known as the “Otherworld Tournament”, and it’s a quick filler arc before we pick up on Gohan’s adventures in high school starting in Episode 200.   But Funi called 195-209 the Great Saiyaman Saga, and I’m doing it too.  

So when Goku died during the Cell Games, he got to keep his body, which is an honor reserved for great martial artists who do heroic things like saving planets from bug monsters.    Goku would like to meet the other heroes who’ve been afforded the same honor, because they’ve been training in the afterlife for years, and they must be really strong, and he wants to fight ‘em all.   

As King Kai explains it, they’re all on the Grand Kai Planet, which is ruled by the Grand Kai, who is basically King Kai’s boss.  

There’s a cute scene where Goku keeps asking for directions to get to this place, then running down Snake Way before he remembers he needs more directions.   Finally, he remembers that he can just teleport to King Yemma’s place, which is where they’ll need to go to make the trip to the Grand Kai Planet.

There’s a plane at Yemma’s hat takes dead people to Heaven, but there’s a second, smaller plane that carries people to the Grand Kai Planet.    King Kai is embarassed to be seen dead, but Goku’s too busy looking for the plane to care.

So in the DBZ cosmology, Hell is above the living world, an above that is the yellow cloud layer we see around Snake Way and Yemma’s.   Above that is this big planet where Heaven is, and the Grand Kai Planet is a smaller planet nearby.  Don’t ask me about the sun over there.    They’ll probably get into that in Dragon Ball Super-Duper AF, which will air five years after I’m dead.

The cool thing aout this place is that it’s full of all these dead warriors who got the honor of training on this planet.    It’s basically heaven for Goku, since he can spar with these guys all the time, forever.   

It’s also nice for Toei, because they can recycle old character designs for aliens.   These two guys look like the Shamotians from Movie 8, only they’re diffeent colors.   

And this is one of the Kanassans from the Bardock TV Special. 

And I think these guys might be Metamori, becaue the guy on the right looks like he’s wearing the Fusion Dance costume.   That won’t be introduced properly for a while yet, so maybe it’s just a coincidence, but this the planet where Goku learns the technique, so maybe someone at Toei wanted to foreshadow a little.  

This guy appears to be all-new, though.    Kinda looks like Burter, except for the thing on his face.   

As for the Grand Kai himself, he lives in what looks a lot like the White House.  

He also owns a fancy classic car, and I think King Kai wants to have sex with it.   

Then another King Kai shows up, and he notices the halo and mocks our King Kai for being dead.    So the deal here is that there’s four galaxes in the universe, and each one has a King Kai.   “Our” Kai is the North one, and this new guy with the monocle is the West Kai.   

The North and West Kai’s don’t like each other much, and when they start bragging about how strong their pupils are, they want to settle it right here.   

But then the Grand Kai shows up, and it turns out he’s some sort of party dude.    His voice in the Japanese verson is really off-putting.   He has a really high voice, like someone doing an impression of Father Mulcahey from M*A*S*H.   What I like about the Grand Kai is that he’s what we could have had in Master Roshi if he wasn’t a sex criminal.  

Anyway, the Grand Kai summoned the West Kai and his student, Pikkon, so he could send Pikkon on a mission.    There’s some guy name Cell who just got sent to Hell, and he’s begun to stir up trouble.   Pikkons’ the baddest dude on the Grand Kai Planet, so he seems qualified to handle this situation.  

Here’s a flashback of Cell getting sent to hell.   Basically a cartoon hole opens up under him and he falls right in.    I don’t want to read too much into it, but I’m assuming this is the patented Yemma Lock.  

Oh, also Cell has backup from some guy named Frieza, but the Grand Kai isn’t nearly as worried about that dude, since he’s been in hell for a while now, and hasn’t caused any trouble.  Clearly this Cell person is the true threat, and is markedly superior to Frieza in every way.   The Grand Kai only brought Frieza up just to be thorough.  

Upon hearing this, Goku decides to tag along to give Pikkon a hand, since he thinks Pikkon doesn’t know what he’s getting into.   

Pikkon doesn’t really want the help, but he’s got it.   Down in Hell, everything’s all beat up, and Goku finds Goz and Mez cowering in the bushes.  

Meanwhile, Cell is putting the boots to the other ogres who run Hell.    In the dub, he was interrogating this dude to find a way to escape this place.   But in the Japanese version, he’s making this guy his prison bitch.   

Speaking of prison bitches, here’s King Cold, Frieza, and the Entire Ginyu Force Except for Captain Ginyu.    

Yeah, who is the boss of this place?  Speak up, screw.  

What?   No “and Frieza”?   Looks like someone knows how the pecking order works.  

But he forgot to put some respect on Cell’s name, so Cell tosses this dude into the mountain of needles.   

But Goku saves the dude and he glares at his old enemies, disappointed that they’re still assholes, even after getting killed.  

Oh, hey it’s an anime where Frieza fights Goku again and he has henchmen helping him.   Maybe we should do this again like fifty more times.  No, no you don’t need to, because it’s just fine like this.    And in Movie 12.   

Goku powers up to take out the Ginyus, but he doesn’t turn Super Saiyan, even though he sure looks like one.   As it turns out, this was a production mistake.    As this episode was about to go to air, someone decided that they didn’t want Goku to reveal his Super Saiyan form in front of Pikkon until later.   But this scene where he clobbered the Ginyu Force was already made, so they had to go back and recolor Goku’s hair as a last-minute edit.   

Frieza’s all shocked that Goku could beat them so quickly, but that’s about how quickly he beat them the first time around.    Hell, Guldo was dead before Goku got there the first time.    Why did Frieza bother sending these guys after him in the first place? 

Anyway, Cell tells Frieza not to panic, since beating up the Ginyu Force is penny ante stuff.     He’s the one who killed Goku, so he can take care of this.   

That’s Cell-sama, bitch.

So Cell charges after Goku, who looks a bit awkward as a non-Super Saiyan here.    Maybe he’s getting ready to transform, but before he can--

BAM!

PIKKON

THEME

DOT

EM

PEE

THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Goku’s blown away.    I mean, it took him 190 episoes to take care of these guys, and Pikkon’s giving it all away in a few minutes.  

After dumping all of the bad guys into the bloody pond, Pikkon does some sort of tornado thing to suck them back out, and then he sends them flying into the needle mountain...

And they all end up in a jail cell.   Man, how big a dick do you have to be to wind up in Hell’s jail?  

I often wondered about this filler depiction of hell, but now that I see King Cold describe it, it makes some sense.   They get to walk around in their original bodies, but if they step out of line, Pikkon or someone like him will beat the shit out of them, and they just have to take it.    Sounds like hell to me.

Pikkon and Goku seem to get along better after this adventure, and Goku is thrilled to meet someone this strong.  

I fucking love this episode so much.   Let me try to explain why.

Keisuke “Teeth Guy” Masunaga supervising the animation.    Good good stuff.   

Pikkon’s theme in the dub version.    One of the best tracks in the Faulconer score, ironically reserved for what turned out to be a pretty minor character.   

Cell returns!  I honestly never expected them to bring Cell back, so this was a delightful surprise when I first saw it.   

Pikkon clobbers everyone.   This was just amazing.    None of these old villans are shit anymore, and Pikkon puts them all in their place.   Epic beatdown.    Cell’s my favorite character, and this final humiliation he suffers is one of my favorite Cell moments. 

Goku just being chill about everything.   Is Pikkon stronger than Goku?   Well Goku’s happy to meet a guy like that.   Could Cell cause trouble in the afterlife?  No problem.   The only real gripe Goku has in this episode is that he didn’t get to ride the big fancy plane that goes to Heaven.