Manga/Dragon Ball

@angry troper. I liked the Moro arc.

“The instructor tells Goku to "cut the steering handle". I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but Goku takes it to mean he should break off the steering wheel. ”

I think that means a hard turn where you yank the wheel all the way in one direction

....I totally forgot that Chi-chi has been shown driving.

Like, the Kintoun thing was always obvious, but considering how hard Chi-chi pushes the we must be a normal family thing, of course she'd reject using it. We don't even know if she can still ride it. There's no reason to assume she couldn't, but Toriyama has more or less abandoned Kintoun, and doesn't care about Chi-chi so it makes sense he wouldn't bother with clarifying if she can even use it.

But yeah. For years, I've remembered seeing her roll up in hover car in the Saiyan Arc, but somehow never made the connection.

....Damn. I liked this episode too. Now it's ruined. I knew this would happen.

I blame you Tobias.

So, you're telling me that TFS used the best parts of the car driving episode in their version of episode 34 (at 10:58 and 14:17)?

I would mostly agree with that, yes. The only good part they're missing is Piccolo's instructor driving like an absolute psychopath, howling like a monster the whole time.

This one scene was the only time in the whole episode where she was anything more than a support character to smile and nod to whatever Goku's bland-as-dirt teacher said, and it was fantastic.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 20th 2022 at 7:19:51 AM

Kakarot also had some gameplay out of it. And Piccolo in a t-shirt is hilarious.

Buuut yeah, Toeiism.

O.K, I just found the funniest bloody joke on Reddit about the new Dragon Ball: Super chapter! XD (But not on a Dragon Ball sub, oddly enough.)

Comment: "We really need a 'Vegeta Owned Count'"

Reply: "That's called a calendar."

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 20th 2022 at 8:07:03 AM

Someone really made it their life mission to dick on Vegeta.

It also starting to look like Only the Author Can Save Them Now. And it's worse than usual.

I'm gonna guess the trick to this is shooting the really conspicuous horns.

I was guessing it would be the whole lifespan but that's also not beneath them either.

@The Latest Chapter.

Man, all that stuff about Gas' hidden power and the Heeters having power limiters and whatever would be so interesting if this story had any fucking arc to it whatsoever.

It's like " oh, if you take that headband off, Heeters let loose their full power, but they don't like doing it because it turns them in to mindless Oozaru monsters" and the only real possible response to it is "oh, that might as well be a thing that can happen" since there's no real context for these guys. It feels like the story has forgotten the Heeters were just introduced and thinks we already know what it's talking about.

So. Um. Cool. The fight's definitely going through all the Dragonball things now. Very Dragonball. I feel the same way about Granolah having all the powers now - he pulls out the body doubles and I think "yeah, I guess it makes sense he has that as well" without really feeling anything. That said, the body-double -> point blank shot move was really cool, because it segues into something we do have context for with Granolah.

And yes, Vegeta randomly getting Rider Kicked was very funny. Take that. I swear I heard him yell "whyyyyyy" in my mind.

Watching a lot of modern anime and following the reviews, plus thinking about modern Dragon Ball, I've been thinking a lot about how Dragon Ball Super's specific focuses actually makes it kind of backwards in some ways to a lot of modern shounen, in an uncomfortable way.

A lot of shounen today is ensemble based even if there is a clear and most important protag, while Super is intensely focusing strictly on the two characters and is only just now struggling to open up its cast, but keep stepping back whenever it gets close. There's a lot more female presence with less stigma in shounen nowadays - while female characters definitely do still get far more vulnerability and victimization than male characters (and fanservice hasn't gone anywhere), most shounen these days have at least one female character in the main cast who is as strong as everyone else (minus the protag) and gets plot presence without the story being abashed about doing so - and yeet Super still struggles to introduce female characters, and infamously gave its previous female fighters the classic "I really shouldn't be a fighter, I should be supporting the men in my life" treatment.

The most interesting flip is that most shounen today is very arc-centric, focusing stories that don't tell you everything all at once and eke out character beats on a slower basis, while Super's stories have even less of an arc than Dragon Ball used to. It's really shocking to compare - like - the multi-stage story of the Freeza arc to, like, Granolah. I think the most arc we've gotten in a story is with Moro. And again, this just feels odd because in the past was a very arc conscious writer, even if he was writing by the seat of his pants. Nearly all of his stories had multiple stages.

Like, Toriyama is a grandpa, so that makes sense. But it feels like everyone else in a creative role around him is also a grandpa (and we know Toyotaro is intentionally thinking like a grandpa to boot), which feels weird.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 20th 2022 at 10:47:42 AM

... Considering the Oozaru comparison, does that mean Gas is SS 4 now?

Yeah, it's weird to go from the older arcs where multiple things were going on to an arc that's just "Let's get these guys to fight so we can eventually bump off Frieza. And if they find out that we're evil, then we'll get Gas to fight them", with a little bit of backstory shenanigans for flavor.

I agree with all of that, and would add that Super (the anime at least) tried to do this weird thing where it wanted to make Goku look like the archetypal Shonen protag of today - an archetype he himself inspired - while missing that what makes these characters resonate with people is that the Goku-inspired mold is the STARTING point but they develop quirks, morals, and strengths all their own... Which Goku HAD done, so all they needed to do was keep Goku's character where it was by the end of the original story.

Its interesting how Goku now comes across as more of a parody of himself.

I remember when they first met Zamasu and he kept badgering Zamasu to fight him exactly like a child would.

I feel the same way about Granolah having all the powers now - he pulls out the body doubles and I think "yeah, I guess it makes sense he has that as well" without really feeling anything.

Granolah did that move earlier. He created a clone with a weaker Power Level to fight Goku, then revealed at the end of Goku's fight that he was fighting a weaker clone the whole time, and the real Granolah appeared to stab UI Goku's solar plexus, knocking him out.

And yeah, they really should have set up the "If Heeters have the tooth jewelry removed they go berserk and get a power-up" thing earlier in the arc. Have Macki or Oil go berserk during their fight with Granolah, that would have been a good place to set it up.

Yeah, I agree that jewelry-based power suppression used to keep them from turning into Oozaru mindless monsters is a cool idea. It's a shame the story hasn't done anything with it.

Unless it is a Gas-only issue. This arc will be more enjoyable when binged I'm sure.

I hope it won't be like a Bojack Unbound situation, where the villain group has a racial transformation but only 2/5 use it. Even if it's just for a bit, I want to see what berserk Macki, Oil, and Elec look like.

They all have the tooth jewelry, so I assume it's a universal thing.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jan 21st 2022 at 7:25:33 AM

I also agree with the criticism that Super is so fight-centric that it forgets to even have a story at all. Dragon Ball had all kinds of story beats around its fights, because many of the stories had overarching plots other than "Defeat the Bad Guy" even if that would wind up being the ultimate solution nonetheless.

Remember this gem from Namek?

• Frieza: Ohohohohoho! At long last, I have collected all seven Dragon Balls! Immortality is mine!
• Ginyu: Congratulations, Lord Frieza!
• Frieza: ...
• Ginyu: Is something the matter?
• Frieza: (turns white as a sheet, checks To Do List)
• Ginyu: Lord Frieza?
• Frieza: (slowly reveals list to Ginyu)
  • 1 - Go to Namek
  • 2 - Collect Dragon Balls
  • 3 - ...
  • 4 - Immortality!
• Frieza: I ran into the elipsis.

Super has few moments like that where the story turns based on the plot, and not just on who unveiled his new power-up and came up with a clever new secret technique on the spot.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 21st 2022 at 7:01:16 AM

...Actually, now I'm curious: how often has the plot not revolved around "beat this dude" in comparison to plots that do revolve around it?

Namek was the last time; the Android arc was mostly "beat those guys up" until Cell showed up and then it became."stop the bad guy from absorbing the other bad guys"...ans then it devolves to "beat the bad guy".

Dragon Ball isn't a very imaginative series as you can see.

And yes, it very much feels like a parody of itself at times.

Technically, the first arc and the Red Ribbon Army arc.

Though the latter did kinda become a beat these guys arc when Goku decided to actively seek their destruction.

Granolah pulling techniques out of his ass, because he potentially could've learned them so he now has them is hilarious.

You know when the arc started, the Fish made it's prophecy about "the strongest in the universe" and Whis gently chided Goku and Vegeta for not considering that it might be someone else instead, I though they were trying to make this story some kind of lesson of never getting complacent, because someone might come and surpass you so you always need to keep working hard and improving.

But instead the lesson turned out to be that hard work is for suckers, because any asshat can just leapfrog the decades of training with a wish.

Nah, Goku already disregarded using the Dragon Balls for that back in the android saga. And him needing to borrow power to get God being something he distasted was a plot point in Bo G.