#dbza ep27

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 27 Review

Originally posted December 4th, 2015

The chaos before the storm.

This is a very good episode of Dragonball Z: Abridged, but I’m beginning to question how much of the credit for that should be given to Team Four Star versus how much should be given to the strength of the source material. Having never watched that much of the original show, I’m curious how much better the story tends to get once it approaches the final fight of the arc, because it’s definitely been the case that Dragonball Z: Abridged gets significantly better when they get to that point in the story.

Last episode, of course, clearly benefited from the hand of Team Four Star, since it sped through material that I imagine the show took multiple episodes to get through, but in regards to earlier reviews, I may have criticized Team Four Star too much for their pacing when the blame lay on Toriyama for dragging out the story for far too long.1

Of course, Team Four Star’s hand is pretty clearly present in the acting and writing of this episode, both of which are at the best they’ve been in the series so far. “The Saiyan Formerly Known as Prince” is on par with “A Lovely Bunch of Dragonballs” in both camps.

The standout performances here are obviously LittleKuriboh and Lanipator as Freeza and Vegeta, with Freeza being more fun and brutal than we’ve seen him yet and Vegeta’s arrogance pushing him into uncharted realms of stupidity.

The writing also works incredibly well, swiftly establishing the power of Freeza’s final form (and simultaneously how much fun it’s gonna be to see him get his ass kicked). The rest of the episode is then spent tormenting Vegeta as Freeza slowly pushes him to his emotional edge.

It is only when Vegeta has been knocked down a peg that we get the arrival of (Deus ex) Goku, who naturally shows up to taunt Freeza by simply being himself. And then, because it wouldn’t be an episode during the final fight without it, we see Vegeta die, properly setting the stage for Goku’s fight and thrusting us into the second act of the fight.

Rating: 5/5

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Stray Observations

1I’m probably gonna watch all of Dragonball Z: Kai over the break so I can get a better sense of Toriyama’s pacing (that or read through the Freeza, Cell, and Buu sagas).

Goku: “Oh come on, King Kai, I’m sure they’re doing just fine!” Vegeta: “Healer’s down!” Krillin: “Need a res!” Gohan: “Out of mana!” All: “AAAHHH!!!”

Vegeta: “You know, all of you better duck, because I’m about to turn left, and I don’t want to smack you with my dick.” Never change, Vegeta. Never change.

Krillin, I too am confused as to how “Old Space Yeller” is a thing.

Goku: “So, are you that freezer guy?” Freeza: “I am Lord Freeza, yes.” Goku: “Awesome. Imma deck you in the schnoz!”

Goku: “I’m Goku! I’m insane! From Earth!”

Freeza: “Between you and the Namekian, I think I’ve lost my touch at genocide.”