#just have roshi give him the prize money toriyama

[kurozu501]

To be honest with my reread being fresh i'd say dragon ball doesnt even really get good until after the first tournament arc. Like yeah goku vs "jackie" is a good fight but the rest of the tournament is stuff like "the one woman in the tournament is a deceptive seductress who cant actually fight, just flirts and strips her way to victory because women, amiright," "racist sterotype character whose problem is solved in a really dumb way" "stinky gross man," etc.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 290

I’m going to skip around a bit, because much of this episode is just the bracket being filled out while the fighters all stand around chatting.  It’s supposed to be a random draw, but Goku asks Buu to cheat for him, much the same way Chiaotzu once rigged the 22nd World Tournament.

Also, 18 calls Krillin a chicken for not entering the tournament himself, and I have to assume this is some sort of weird foreplay they do in public.

Marron’s a teenager at this point, although you can’t really tell by looking here.   I have no idea how old Bulla is supposed to be, but I can’t help but think Dragon Ball Super got it wrong.   Master Roshi has different sunglasses in this future world, but if I were Krillin and Bulma, I wouldn’t let him anywhere near my daughters.  

ANyway, the whole reason Goku wanted to enter this tournament was so he could face this Earthling who’s supposed to be incredibly strong.   Vegeta tagged along to see what he was talking about, but he still doesn’t get it.    Goku is using Buu to fix it so he can fight his dream opponent in the first round, but who is he?

Turns out it’s this kid.

Here’s the deal: When Goku killed Kid Buu, he wished for him to be reincarnated as a good guy, so they could fight again some day.    Goku thinks King Yemma must have decided to give Goku what he wanted, so he arranged for Kid Buu to be reincarnated as a human.    And that’s why this part of the story is set ten years after the Kid Buu fight.    It was the only way for Kid Buu’s reincarnation to grow up to an age where he could fight Goku.  Also, this works out nicely, as the boy is about the same height and build as Kid Buu was. 

Goku isn’t sure how he knows this kid is Kid Buu reborn, but he just does.   Also, the boy’s name is “Uub”, which is “Buu” backwards.  That’s bullshit, but I believe it!

Up in the VIP room, Piccolo and Dende overhear this with their Namekian super-hearing, and Dende seems surprised.    Pretty sure there was a scene in Dragon Ball Super where he already knew about Uub before this, but okay.

As for Uub himself, he’s starting to question his decision to enter this tournament.   Like Nam in the 21st tournament, he entered to use the prize money to support his village, but he’s starting to realize that there’s a lot of strong people here, and maybe he’s not good enough to win this thing.

As for the tournament, there’s only thirteen participants.   Twelve of them fight in brackets, and the winner goes on to face Mr. Satan in the final round.    I don’t know if that means Satan is in the tournament with a lot of byes, or what.  The matchups are as follows:

Pan vs. Mo Kekko aka Wild Tiger!

Son Goku vs. Uub!

Captain Chicken vs. Nareg aka Kirano!

Majin Buu vs. Goten!

Trunks vs. Otokosuki!

Vegeta vs. Knock!

Yeah, this lineup sucks.    Let me work through the small fry real quick.

Wild Tiger is this big dude who resents being pitted against a four-year-old.   His job is to recreate that match Krillin had with the big fat guy at the 25th Budokai.

Otokosuki is a leatherboy and probably another sign that this cartoon hasn’t aged well in places.   I want to say Otokosuki is an offensive stereotype, but I don’t know enough about him to say for sure.   I’m pretty sure Toriyama didn’t draw him this strip to add diversity to the cast.  Anyway, he really wants to fuck Trunks. 

Knock sucks, so Vegeta hits him once and he has to be stretchered out of the ring before the matches start.    

Nareg is a pretty boy, and I keep thinking he’s Jewel from the 25th Budokai, but he’s a whole other blonde pretty-boy type.  We learn absolutely nothing about him, so let’s just make up a backstory for him.   Uh, he entered the tournament to take revenge on Mr. Satan for murdering his sister, but it was actually King Choppa wearing a Mr. Satan costume.

“Goten”, sometimes referred to as “Son Goten”, was actually a minor character in the Buu Saga, but he got killed off-screen when Buu destroyed the earth.   He’s only in this tournament because his dad made him enter.

Anyway, Bulla really liked the part where her dad killed Knock.  Good for her, because he won’t be doing anything else for the rest of this show.

All right, let’s get on with this.  I’m glad the World Tournament Announcer is still enjoying these things, but this tournament’s a joke and the matches are all rigged.   

I dig this girl on the left.   That’s a cool look.   Is her boyfriend wearing a Potara earring?    The Knock merch looks better on him than it does on Knock.  

Anyway, Pan obliterates Wild Tiger, so that takes care of the only match in this thing that goes to a finish.  

EVEN CAPTAIN CHICKEN IS AFRAID!

Next, it’s Goku vs. Uub, the match Goku’s been waiting for all these years.   But Uub’s got stage fright, so Goku has to use HEEL HEAT to get him in a fighting mood.   

#HEELGOKU

Goku runs down Uub’s favorite sports teams and tells him his hometown sucks.  

Then he threatens to kill Uub, which is kind of going too far, buddy.   Just tell him your shoes are worth more than his house. 

I don’t know what’s dumber, that Goku is using all this nonsense, or that it actually gets a rise out of the kid.

Then Goku just flat out says Uub’s parents are made out of shit.   Insert Vic Mignogna Defmation Suit Joke here.

Then he kicks him in the face.   #HEELGOKU taking no prisoners.

HE’S UUBING UP!

Uub’s out of control!  He’s had all he can stands, and he can’t stands no more!   He’s ready to beat the crap out of Goku...!

...Next time!  

[tigerlover16-uk]

Thoughts on DBS Chapter 32

Oh, this is going to be fun to talk about. And by fun, I mean UUUUGGGGHHHHH!

* I liked the introductory scene we got of Caulifla, but apart from that I don’t really like how Toyotaro handled her. We get this set up that she’s some strong and intimidating gang leader that controls her own territory on Planet Sadla, and that the military can’t handle her. Which, alright, that’s good. It was curious that her followers mostly seem to be a small group of hooded women in this version, rather than a bunch of muscular male thugs like in the anime. And apparently there are children living in her settlement? That leaves me with a lot of questions I wouldn’t mind seeing answered.

However, I really don’t feel like Toyotaro sold her as a fighter. She beats up some random soldiers, and we get a transition shot of her kicking Cabba into a mountain, but then Cabba just goes Super Saiyan and kicks her butt, and it ends in Caulifla cowering against a wall as he stops short of punching her.

Like... I get the intention was to make her want to transform to get her to fight in the tournament, but the anime did that just fine by having Cabba just blast away that one guy by powering up. We don’t even get to see Caulifla powering up, we’re just told she did that off-screen with ease.

It honestly makes her competence as a fighter come off as an informed attribute. I mean, excluding Note from Dragon Ball Heroes (Which is as supplementary and far from canon as you can get, so I don’t count it), Caulifla is the first super saiyan woman in the franchise. Why did Toyotaro feel the need to trivialize the significance of that so much?

(Then again given how he wrote Bulma and Future Mai last saga, and Chichi and Videl’s practical nonexistence in this manga, I’m starting to wonder if maybe Toyotaro just has a problem with women in general... I’m terrified to see how he handles the Kamikaze Fireballs)

* I don’t know how to feel about Kale in this version. We didn’t see her transform before the tournament, which I guess isn’t necessary so whatever. She seems more brooding and her meekness is toned down a lot, and apparently she’s really fast in her base form. I guess some people might find this more appealing, but it leaves me wondering what exactly Toyotaro’s going to do with her.

Also, I don’t like how it’s Cabba who wanted to bring her to the tournament in this version. Here Caulifla seems less confident in her abilities and saying while she has promise she’s “Not quite there yet”. For the problems the anime had with Kale’s handling, her relationship with Caulifla was something I really did like, so this has me a bit worried.

Also, I feel like it was a waste that we still don’t really know anything about Kale’s backstory so far. That was the main issue with her portrayal in the anime, where we didn’t have enough set up as to why she’s such a depressed person and building up her and Caulifla’s relationship to properly sell why she would have such a meltdown when she thought Caulifla was abandoning her. Everything else would have been fine the way it was if it was built up better, but I guess I shouldn’t have expected Toyotaro to catch on to that.

* I see everything from episode 89 was cut. Which, I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I’m glad to see the stuff with Yurin and Master Roshi’s antics go. That was just uncomfortable on too many levels and not needed at all, so good riddance.

But I miss the detail of Tien having his own Dojo now. While the anime gratuitously undersold him as a fighter, Tien opening up a dojo and training his own students was the most significant character progression he’d gotten since the end of the original Dragon Ball, and honestly I feel it left him in a much better place than the Buu Saga did, where he and Chiaotzu had just apparently become wandering hermits who never see any of the other characters anymore, which I always thought was just unsatisfying.

In the manga, he just kind of shows up, with Roshi even commenting that he never expected the two of them would ever be needed for anything ever again (Hey, Toyotaro? Trying to be meta isn’t always a good thing, especially if it effectively advertises that they supposedly don’t really matter in this story)

I appreciate we didn’t see Tien get slapped around so much at least, but if his contributions to the tournament end up being as minimal as they were in the anime, then he’ll effectively be left with nothing in this version.

* On a similar note, Master Roshi doesn’t get any build up either. We don’t have any indication that he’s gotten stronger, we don’t see him training to overcome his perverted instincts, and we don’t get that nice moment with him and Korrin. Which is just disappointing.

I mean, the bit with him and Puar was uncomfortable yes and I’m not completely sad to see it go, but unlike the Yurin nonsense it at least served to show characters actually preparing for the tournament, that the minor characters have their own part to play, and overcoming his perverted nature counts as a bit of development for Roshi to show just how big a deal his role in the story was to his character.

Here he’s gotten nothing so far, we only know he wants prize money to renovate Kame House. I’m really nervous Toyotaro’s going to screw up his big moment in the tournament now.

* We also barely see anything with Frieza, and all the cool moments with Frieza selling him as having gotten smarter and a lot more cunning and effectively selling him as being back better than ever are cut out in favour of a joke about his and Goku’s negotiations “Not going well” and them showing up looking beat up. Also Frieza is the one who doesn’t want to hold hands in this version. It’s just... so unsatisfying and the way it’s set up makes his inclusion feel obligatory because it’s in the story outline.

I mean... it’s not even clear that the image training he did allowed him to overcome his stamina problem as golden Frieza, it’s just said he got stronger. What the heck? Isn’t Toyotaro the guy who just loves adding little details to things the anime glosses over?

* Either Toyotaro forgot to include Goten’s name when 17 said it, or Trunks is the only one guarding Android 17′s island in this version. Marron is nowhere in sight.

I mean, okay I get leaving her out, but why Goten too? Toyotaro just loves excluding and marginalizing the Son family, doesn’t he? On that note...

* We don’t see ANY of Gohan’s training with Piccolo. He just shows up (Wearing Piccolo’s purple gi instead of Goku’s. Because of course, gotta pander to the “Piccolo is his real dad” people I guess), says he’s excited to be fighting with Vegeta again (Notice how there’s no interaction between him and Goku in this version so far?) and it’s commented he looks like he’s improved.

Just... wow. I know we make fun of how fast and how much he seemed to improve in the anime, but at least the anime TRIED to give Gohan an arc and make him feel like a significant character. The writers actually TRIED giving him some good development and natural character progression that was really interesting. Here, Gohan just feels like as much of an afterthought as everyone else so far not named Goku, Vegeta and to a lesser extend Android 17. And I’m pretty sure that’s only because Toriyama specified that his scenes had to happen in a certain way to properly re-introduce him.

* What the heck!?!? We didn’t get ANY set up for the fighters from the other universes except Toppo, Jiren, Caulifla, Kale and somewhat for Dyspo I guess? Even the other Pride Troopers were just background fodder in their one scene, including Kahseral. This is just straight up admitting that every other new character in this tournament is just scenery who just exist to pad out time. What the heck!

* Also, instead of wanting Krillin to be in the tournament because he’s a good tactical fighter, here Goku just says he should join because he’s small and good at running away (Viz tried to soften it by having Goku say he runs fast, but the intent is still clear). Way to bow down to the memes and make a joke out of one of the series most important characters while not giving him any character development or having him get stronger and becoming a full time martial artist again, Toyotaro! Are you sure you’ve actually read Dragon Ball, and you’re not just a TFS fanboy!?

Okay, look, I can go on. I mean, I really can, because there’s a lot of stupid and lazy stuff here. This legitimately feels like one of the chapters out of the manga’s Battle of God’s saga, where Toyotaro was just abridging the story as much as he could to get to the Champa saga.

In conjunction with the other two “Build up” chapters before the tournament, everything feels so slap dashed and phoned in, like Toyotaro didn’t put any effort into making the story interesting or fun, or even trying to make it feel like any of the characters except Goku, Vegeta, Jiren, Toppo and the Saiyan girls had anything going for them in this story. 

I honestly never want to hear any more complaints about the pacing of the anime version after reading this, because this was insultingly lazy! It barely feels like there’s an actual story going on, there’s no tension or dramatic weight to ANYTHING in this chapter. Everything here feels like it was just ticking off boxes of stuff Toriyama said to include in the outline so Toyotaro can just get to the tournament ASAP. It’s that pathetically lazy.

I refuse to put up with anyone telling me that the manga version of this arc is so much better than the anime rendition, because literally ALL of the best parts were in the anime and weren’t included here. The only thing that feels slightly more fleshed out is Jiren, which great that he has more personality, but that’s NOT ENOUGH to make up for everything else that wasn’t included!

This was by far the worst, laziest chapter of the manga I’ve read in a while. All it’s missing was another one of Toyotaro’s nonsense comments about how Goku doesn’t know where babies come from.

Dear God, this blows. I really didn’t expect to get this angry writing my thoughts on this, but I have just had it with Toyotaro. THIS is the man Toriyama supposedly picked as his successor, people. GOD help us all!

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball 028

For some reason the World Tournament Announcer tries to declare Jackie Chun the winner even after he seems to have killed Goku.   That’s bullshit, because killing your opponent is illegal in the tournament rules, so Chun would have to be disqualified and Goku declared champion posthumously.    Goku’s friends are more pissed about the part where Goku is dead, but Jackie Chun explains that he wasn’t even aiming at Goku, he fired his Kamehameha at the moon. 

So a couple things.   First, Monster Carrot is D-E-A-D.   The moon got restored later on, but I’m pretty sure no one bothered to bring him or his goons back to life.   Of course, he never should have survived the trip to the moon in the first place, but whatever.   Second, the World Tournament Announcer flips his shit over the moon’s destruction because OF COURSE HE WOULD, ANYONE WOULD.   THAT GUY BLEW UP THE MOON.

But Jackie’s too practical for those issues, and he demands a 10-count, because Goku’s lying naked and unconscious on the tournament stage.   Maybe if the announcer had been quicker on the draw, the match would have ended right there, but Goku manages to get back on his feet, giving everyone a free look at his junk.

There are girls in the crowd who have never seen a naked boy before, so the announcer suspends the match long enough for Goku to get dressed.   This is kind of dumb, since Goku already flashed the audience earlier today, when he pulled down his pants to prove that his tail was real.  Maybe these girls were at the concession stand during that. 

Chun tries to finish Goku off with a Kamehameha, but he’s out of gas after that last moon-destroying attack.   Goku still has one more in him, which he uses to knock Roshi out of the ring... wait a minute....

Okay, yeah, I didn’t pick up on this the first time, but Goku actually suckered Roshi with the same ring-out trick that he used on Goku at the start of the match.   Goku fired a Kamhameha at him, and when Roshi jumped to avoid it, Goku kicked him out of the ring.   Toriyama, you magnificent bastard!  This fight is amazing.

Goku thinks he’s won, because Jackie doesn’t have enough power to save himself from a ring-out like he did before, but Jackie manages to kick the side of the stage hard enough to catch himself just inches from the ground, so he’s still in this.  

Both fighters are nearly spent, so there’s nothing left for them but to punch and kick each other until one of them drops.  Here, the anime includes an insert song, “Mezase Tenkaichi”,  which didn’t make it into the Funimation dub because they didn’t have the rights to it.   I’ve never understood how that works, since the song still plays on the other audio track of the same DVD, but whatever.  Take a listen.

Jackie’s final strategy is a flying kick, which Goku readily matches.    They end up knocking each other out, and when the Announcer counts to ten, neither of them make it to their feet.  

So it’s a draw, right?   Wrong!  There’s no draw in the Tenkaichi Budokai finals.    In the event of a double-KO, the first fighter to stand up and declare himself to be the winner is... uh, declared the winner.   So everyone just sort of waits to see who gets up, and for a hot minute it looks like it’s Goku!   

He makes it to his feet first, but before he can say the words, he collapses again, this time for good.   Jackie rises next, and he manages to declare victory.   The tournament is over.

The finish seems like random chance, but it turns out that Jackie’s superior experience won the day.   He knew that if he and Goku kicked each other, his kick would hit harder, because his legs were longer than Goku’s.   That slight advantage allowed Roshi to take advantage of the tie-breaker rule.   Brilliant.

Goku’s not too bummed out about that.   He was just happy to fight someone as formidable as Jackie Chun, and he looks forward to facing him again some day, once he’s trained enough to win a rematch.   Master Roshi takes off his disguise and rejoins the others, and treats them all to dinner because Goku and Krillin did such a great job in the Tournament.   The only catch: Goku eats so much food that Roshi has to use most of his prize money to pay the check.   Who’s the real winner of the tournament, I ask you?

And that’s the World Tournament arc.   Pretty awesome stuff.