Manga/Dragon Ball

I heard that "shunkan'idou" is simply the normal word for "teleportation". If that's true, I wonder why everyone translates it literally to "instantaneous movement".

And technically, the Kaioshin teleportation move is called Kai Kai.

Ya know what, and I cannot stress this enough, Goku and Vegeta not being the focus all of the time is a good thing. Because we're at a point where almost everything about their characters has been explored. I Ts rather noticeable the biggest things they do nowadays is just get new transformations.

Having new characters to focus on gives the story some breathing room. But the creators still feel the need to force Goku and Vegeta into every conflict, so the entire arc just feels extremely awkward. Like I'd imagine this entire arc would flow much better if Granolah and the Heeters were just the main focus from the start, and Goku and Vegeta are just there.

Dragon Ball itself did this after the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai when it started to focus on the secondary characters when Goku was MIA, and while I won't say it was "good", it was certainly fresher than what we're getting now with everything revolving around Goku and Vegeta :V

Wait who did Goku hone in on when he kidnapped Dende from New Namek?

When he arrived on Old Namek, all the Namekians were dead. Then they were alive again for like a minute while Goku was busy. And then when the Namekians were on earth Goku wasn’t.

The Goku Black arc arguably had a similar problem. If you cut Goku, Vegeta, and the second Zamasu from the arc, you could make a more compact arc that's simply about Trunks defending his world from an omnicidal Kaioshin wearing Goku's skin without having to try and tie it into the Beerus/Whis stuff or scale everyone up to Super Saiyan Blue.

Having to make the story about Goku and Vegeta even though they were basically guest stars brought in for contractual purposes muddied the whole thing.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 21st 2022 at 10:13:50 AM

Hell, just having Vegeta spin off into his own arc away from Goku would be fresh.

The fight-centricity of Super is more than just in having plots that are about beating people up, it's in having storylines that are nothing but big, singular battles at all.

Most arcs in literally just single fights stretched out into an entire arc, happening in as short an in-universe time as possible, with little deviation. The laconic Super arc is "tough guy happens, Goku and Vegeta go to fight them for twenty or so episodes." Granolah, for instance, ia "Goku & Vegeta arrive at this place and fight this super strong dude, but then halfway through the fight an even stronger dude interrupts the fight and they all fight him."

Like, imagine if - to cut down on plot time - Gero had activated 17 and 18 while Goku was fighting 19, and then Perfect Cell arrived in the middle of that subsequent fight, so Goku rushes through recovering from the heart attack and quickly coaches Gohan into becoming SSJ 2 while the fight is still happening. That's how Super handles its stories. Or if, say, Gohan and Krillin had started fighting Freeza the moment they landed on Namek.

Even Zamasu works this way. It's very much a fight in "rounds," where Goku, Vegeta and sometimes Trunks fight the guy, get tired, take a break, then go back into the same fight an episode or two later. The slice of life in between gives the illusion that the fight is changing, but because it's just the same steps every time it instead just makes it all even more repetitive.

It would be interesting to see them fully commit to not Goku around for an arc (barring anime filler arcs like the Garlic Jr. Saga).

Sure, we've had stuff in the Saiyan, Namek and Android/Cell arcs, but Goku is still important there, in that those arcs are building to his arrival (though the last one obviously plays with it a lot), with everyone else getting their asses kicked/flat out murdered in order to show how awesome he is when he then destroys those dudes who were so easily stomping his friends.

And of course, the Buu Arc seemed like it would be Gohan's time, and we all know how that went.

So seeing an arc that goes all in on no Goku even to the point where he never appears at all, would be interesting.

Hell, we could have a story going on while Goku and Vegeta are dealing with this stuff in this arc if they wanted.

Seems to be the case for Super Hero so far, but we'll have to wait and see.

Considering how DB is now set to be kind of a perpetually eternal running story like Western comics they really got to figure out a good beat with Goku.

I'm telling you guys. Goku and Frieza as inexplicably jovial Saturday Morning Cartoon archenemies, all while Vegeta's in the background pulling his hair out in aggravation. It shouldn't be the focus of every arc but there's a lot of mileage that could be mined from that setup.

Including a killer Cooler movie.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 21st 2022 at 10:32:33 AM

He wasn't able to sense them directly from Earth, so he went to King Kai's planet to have him point him in the right direction. After that it was a matter of sensing the guys who felt kinda like Piccolo.

It kind of runs face first into contradicting what was initially established about Freeza.

But then Dragon Ball has fully committed to just milking him dry for as long as possible.,

Just chiming into agree that Goku and Vegeta’s rivalry in Super is stale. There’s not much left to do with them IMHO and the series would be better served putting them into different contexts or focusing on other characters.

They could even use Goku and Frieza to frame smaller conflicts. Like, do that thing where the two god-beings, one good and one evil, are wagering on the conflict. Krillin's fighting this remorseless space bounty hunter and if Goku jumps in, Frieza will too. That kind of escalation's no good for anyone. So they're sitting there taking each other off the board, arguing about whether Krillin's up to this.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 21st 2022 at 10:42:05 AM

A kind of Cold War

“Leave my dead dad out of this!”

Holy shit, you guys. The Jinzoningen are here. They're fucking here. Already.

I can't believe there were only two filler episodes between Trunks's warning and the Androids arriving. We spent 14 episodes training for the Saiyans. Here, we got two. Despite the fact that we have a bold new set of circumstances.

Vegeta is on Earth. He's living at Capsule Corporation while doing intense training to surpass Goku, while also integrating into the social dynamic and developing a blossoming relationship with Bulma. Speaking of whom, it's the end of an era: At long last, Bulma and Yamcha's relationship reaches its endpoint.

Meanwhile, Goku and Gohan are training together, and Goku and Piccolo are having to learn how to get along as people who aren't bitter rivals while they and Chi-Chi raise this kid. We have literally never seen Goku train Gohan before, nor what Piccolo's like as a mentor when he's not an abusive monster; It's a bold new dynamic.

Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu are off on their own. Maybe still being chased by Lunch. Who knows?

So much happens in these three years that would be fascinating to explore. Toriyama swept it all under the rug to get to the next plot points, as he does. But what's bizarre is that Toei also swept it under the rug. This is prime material for Toei to elaborate on, but they're in nearly as much of a hurry to get to the Jinzoningen as Toriyama is!

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 21st 2022 at 11:54:46 AM

Toei did a Vegebul Hurt/Comfort fic and a driving school crackfic about Goku and Piccolo and then moved the fuck on.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jan 21st 2022 at 1:00:05 PM

Well that would explain why they did that filler arc...

I think the Android arc has most of it's filler in the back half, so any original stuff will be episode by episode until Cell appears.

Toei did much of the legwork in the Vegebul dynamic, which is hilarious.

Meanwhile they later have two separate filler episodes featuring Tao.

I know Maron makes an appearance so that Roshi can have someone to recap the events of Goku's conflict with the Red Ribbon Army to.

Kinda useful for the dub, though.

They don't use the 3 year time skip for filler material...like before.

But they use the 9 day lead up to the Cell Games because why not?

It is an odd choice when you think about it.

3 years in universe would have provided the opportunity for a lot of filler, but they skipped over all of it.

Why?

And make multiple trips into space if you count the movies. Should be fine, Cell won't blow up the Earth while we're gone

Hey that reminds me, we're gonna get Return of Cooler spoiling Dende's kami-ship pretty soon, huh? Toei's original Denjiro. (One Piece fans understood that reference)

Edited by diddyknux on Jan 21st 2022 at 12:29:22 PM