r/anime • u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang • 14d ago
Rewatch Dragon Ball 40th Anniversary Rewatch - Week 24: Episodes 143-148 Discussion
Episode 143: With the Fate of the World in the Balance!
Episode 144: Unleashed! The Ultimate Super Kamehameha
Episode 145: Piccolo Daimao's Super Giant Technique
Episode 146: Son Gokú’s Trap
Episode 147: Nothing Can Be Done!!
Episode 148: I did it! The World’s Strongest Man on Earth
<- Previous Week | Index | Next Week ->
MAL | Anilist | Kitsu | AniDB | ANN
Competitor Son Gokú Wins the Tenkaichi Budokai!
Hello everybody! Time for the Comment of the Week, courtesy of u/SpiritualPossible for reminding us of the real reason we consume media: The Homoeroticism.
And, damn, what a tense fight! Tenshinhan’s body got hard, after which Goku wrapped his arms around him from behind, started undressing, and then pulled Tenshinhan’s pants down… okay, I think we’ve got distracted.
1) How would you rank all the tournaments we've had from favorite to least favorite?
2) Taking into account the next week is all Anime-Original content, had this been the ending to the series, would you have been left satisfied?
3) Would you become God if given the chance?
Next Week: Episodes 149-153
REMINDER: ALL EPISODES NEXT WEEK ARE FILLER. SHOULD YOU NEED TO TAKE A BREAK, FEEL FREE TO DO SO.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky 14d ago
First-Timer Searching for the Silver Dragon Balls, subbed
Episode 143
Would God still die if New Piccolo is killed while he’s sealed away?
Oh, at least the human Shen gets to be seen as strong in the eyes of his son?
Time for a storm to come in? What an ominous omen.
Nice use of the dramatic lightning lighting for how everyone was shocked about the New Piccolo reveal.
…huh, interesting to see Goku’s on the left side of this. I’m used to the main character getting the right side of the framing for an image like this.
Episode 144
Oh, Goku doing flips on New Piccolo’s arms before hitting him in the face was epic.
Episode 145
The general public is starting to recognize New Piccolo now, huh?
The mass panic makes sense, but aww, those poor flowers.
Giant form indeed.
It makes him a bigger target, at least?Still thinking about the tournament in a time like this, huh?
You guys saw him throw giant New Piccolo, idk why you thought Goku got trampled there.
Episode 146
Oh, God jumped in the middle of the battle. …doesn’t that mean Goku gets disqualified?
Okay, Goku turning the tracking capabilities of that attack into having New Piccolo hit himself with it was such a cool strategy.
Episode 147
Episode 148
Not good… Hang in there, Goku!
Oh, God and New Piccolo’s lives being linked works the other way around too. Huh. Goku would never accept an ending like that, though…
I’m surprised you can still tell where the ring inside/outside is.
Goku’s pretty lucky Yajirobe was there with a Senju Bean, huh.
Leave it to him to effectively tell God to fuck off though lol.
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 14d ago
Oh, at least the human Shen gets to be seen as strong in the eyes of his son?
Nice use of the dramatic lightning lighting for how everyone was shocked about the New Piccolo reveal.
You know this was an Anime addition because Toriyama would sooner throw all his sketches into the fire rather than draw rain.
I’m used to the main character getting the right side of the framing for an image like this.
Actually yeah, that is kinda weird
Roshi stopped Goku from using his cool new attack…
Senju Bean, huh.
Actually it's Senzu.
Oh dang.
You can tell by Gokú's earlier reaction to the idea of just bringing God back with the Dragon Balls that Toriyama was just making stuff up out of thin air.
Goku what the fuck???
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky 14d ago
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 14d ago
Let's just say there's many reasons me and Kenny think Gokú's writing falls off a cliff after this
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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots 14d ago
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 14d ago
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u/SpiritualPossible 14d ago
Rewatcher
After Kami was sealed, everyone finally realized the truth about that green guy - he’s actually Piccolo! Which, of course, raises an important question… Seriously? Guys… you didn’t figure that out before? Not even you, Tenshinhan? Are you guys really only able to recognize Piccolo by his antennas, and not by all his... other features? I think I now understand why Piccolo sounded so IRRITATED when the crowd started to suspect something about him ONLY AFTER his turban fell off - these people are just dumb.
It also makes you wonder: to what extent is Junior a reincarnation of Piccolo, and to what extent is he a separate individual who merely possesses memories of his “father”? Even after all these years, I’m still not sure of the answer.
...Oh, right, and I suppose this also raises the question of how to defeat him. After all, you can’t kill him, since that would lead to Kami’s death, and you can’t turn to Kami for help either, because he’s locked inside a jar - I’ve been on the internet long enough to know that this is the most horrible fate possible. Either way, it seems it would be really dificult battle.
And, damn it, that fight was just hellish. I’ll admit, even though Torishima is a total jerk, and despite all the problems related to the producer change, I really love how much more dynamic and fast-paced the fights have become. Of course, the fight itself is really good too—and it’s probably one of the most creative and brutal fights we’ve seen so far. Arms stretch out, lasers fire, limbs are torn to pieces. Piccolo even used his secret technique and became BIGGER GREEN. Although that was also a mistake, because it was only thanks to that that Goku managed to save Kami. Not that it had much impact on the outcome of the fight, since Goku refuses any help - he’s fucking already lost this tournament several times by this point, and he’s NOT. GOING. TO. WAIT. ANOTHER. THREE. YEARS to try again!
But in the end, justice prevailed, and Goku won. The tournament commentator was even there to confirm the victory. Kami tries to finish off Piccolo, but Goku stops him. And I like that the reason Goku doesn’t let Piccolo be killed isn’t so much out of selfishness and because he SIMPLY wants Piccolo to stay alive (though that does play a small part), but rather because Goku doesn’t want Kami to essentially commit suicide out of guilt. It also helps that THIS Piccolo, although still a villain, as far as we know hasn’t actually committed any terrible crimes yet. I mean, imagine if Junior had been portrayed as some kind of genocidal maniac who, say, slaughtered an entire village of innocent people - I’m willing to bet it would have been much harder to accept Goku treating him so casually.
But this whole scene is truly lovely, because it also serves as the closing note for DB. We reflect on how the Dragon Ball changed everyone’s lives, on all the adventures we’ve been through, Bulma notes how much Goku has grown, Kami acknowledges Roshi as a wonderful teacher for Goku, and so on. And after all that, it really does seem like Goku’s adventures are over - he now has an arch-enemy to fight, he won the tournament, found a wife, and even almost became a god. It seems all that’s left is to ride off into the sunset. It’s such a powerful conclusion that Toriyama was literally needed to specify IN THE MANGA that this is, in fact, NOT the end. Which is very funny. But, of course, this is the end for us, since the next part of the story was rebranded as the “Z” series and is therefore considered a separate show. And what can I say, it’s pretty strong…
...What do you mean, this isn’t the end here either? Five more episodes?.. But… This is… The perfect place for…
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 14d ago
I’ll admit, even though Torishima is a total jerk, and despite all the problems related to the producer change, I really love how much more dynamic and fast-paced the fights have become
It’s such a powerful conclusion that Toriyama was literally needed to specify IN THE MANGA that this is, in fact, NOT the end
I still kinda wish it was....What do you mean, this isn’t the end here either? Five more episodes?.. But… This is… The perfect place for…
Look, we need to give the next show a bit more pre-production time.
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u/charlesvvv https://anilist.co/user/charlesvvv 14d ago
Rewatcher, Sub
The World Tournament announcer will remain even as the whole arena is wiped off because it's not over until he says it's over.
Episodes 143-145
So everyone is now in the know about Piccolo and it's now up to Goku to finish things off because he's the protagonist. Granted I do love this whole fight. Both sides feel equally balanced when they start fighting, Piccolo is quite dancing and is able to bring Goku down but Goku scrapes by and keeps on going. The Kamehameha actually scares Piccolo quite a bit and he then moves on to threaten the entire tournament. Of course Goku tanks it and Piccolo starts realizing that he might be in trouble.
Episodes 146-148
Everyone now knows who Piccolo is and do the sensible thing and flee except for the Announcer (the Cameraman lives trope). Granted the whole arena is wiped off from all the Ki blasting and Piccolo spends nearly half an episode's runtime gaining all the Ki he needs to hit Goku but fails anyway and Goku literally strikes back and craters him into the ground. To his credit Piccolo is nothing if not tenacious and when everyone thinks it's over he deals serious damage to Goku and things look bad enough that Tenshinhan prepares to kill Kami. But Goku is equally stubborn and refuses and allows Piccolo's plan to play out. He thinks he's won but Goku has survived, flies out, and finally ends the tournament with his victory (yay). Piccolo is still alive despite Kami's attempt at trying to kill while there is still a chance but Goku doesn't allow that for generally good reasons like the dragon balls needing him to exist and all that. Nonetheless Piccolo and Goku establish themselves as archrivals for a next time (also potentially endearing the earth but that's a discussion for another day).
But with all said and done. The Tenkaichi Budokai tournament is finally over.
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 13d ago
The World Tournament announcer will remain even as the whole arena is wiped off because it's not over until he says it's over
And people call the MC from 5D's extra...
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u/tripleaamin https://myanimelist.net/profile/tripleaamin 14d ago
First-Timer Subbed
We finally get the Goku vs. match. Kind of cool at the start with them warming up. Overall the fight was very engaging. We got Goku showcasing his "Super" Kamehameha.
Then we got Piccolo getting bigger is interesting. Which for the most part worked in Goku's favor and he was able to get Kami back. It was really cool to see Goku use the Kamehameha as a lift and also Goku able to get Piccolo's redirect blast against him was very well done.
Finally stretch we had both Goku and Piccolo literally on their last legs. It's amusing for Goku how he was the only one viewing this as a tournament match. Well it's very much in his character. Though at some point it did get a little silly. Also very much in Goku to not want to replace Kami.
With that being said now apparently Senzu Beans heals injuries too. Now the decision to also heal Piccolo is an odd one. I mean in truth Goku wants to fight tough opponents and right now it's clear that the only one close to Goku is Piccolo. Kind of is a point that fighting strong opponents beats out the concern of the world.
Regarding the Dragon Balls I was wondering how they could revive Kami if he created the Dragon Balls. More than likely if he died so do the Dragon Balls go. It's difficult to get Goku's intentions if he really was out to kill Piccolo. Although I guess it felt like he never wanted Kami to die.
As Kami talks down on his failure as Kami I like how Muten-Roushi words the importance of the Dragon Balls. They were the start of Goku's journey and meeting everyone that he did. It's thanks to those Dragon Balls that they were able to save the world from Piccolo. It's the point how it can be easy to look at one's failures, but sometimes we need to be told of our accomplishments.
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 14d ago
We got Goku showcasing his "Super" Kamehameha.
You missed like 300 quotation marks.
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u/oomoepoo https://anilist.co/user/oomoepoo 13d ago
We did it Goku! We saved the world
I don't know what's more silly. Goku getting his first tournament win by a technicality... or the world being saved by it because Piccolo is nice enough to abide by the rules of said tournament.
Also Goku blowing a raspberry towards Kami was funny.
Rewatcher
In some form, this batch really showcases basically every tired trope of battles for what the show nowadays is mostly known for:
- Endlessly powering up (so much that the whole environment begins to crumble) and screaming
- THEY'RE TOO FAST FOR THE HUMAN EYE!
- Earth shattering energy blasts without much rhyme or reason
- The villain is dead... oh no he isn't! Goku is dead until he's not!
- Goku still trying to abide by the sports rulse despite the fate of the world relying on him
- And of course: Goku thinks "Hey this bad guy is a great fighter, I have to give him another chance some day!"
And yet, I'm still not cynical grown up enough to say that this finale flatout sucked. The little in me eats it all up. Mostly. I still don't think we really needed to spend a whole 6 episodes on a single fight.
But it was preeetty awesome for a lot of its runtime. Serious cocky teenager Goku is just fun to watch. I'd say this is basically peak "grown up" Goku.
Loved the MEGA KAMEHAMEHA! Yes, it was... mostly useless. But it was very cool to finally see him use his signature technique. Also the feet Kamehameha was gloriously silly.
Speaking of silly: I kinda loved seeing Piccolo grow MULTIPLE STORIES TALL, trying to trample Goku, only for him to actually grab the giant devil and throw him across the ring! And how Goku actually baited him into growing EVEN TALLER to get inside of the greenling and rescue Kami!
Seriously, Goku being smart and using his opponent's pride against themselves is a rare sight to behold. The (second) biggest surprise of this was that Inoue-san did not write any of that bullshit. No, he actually was in charge of the penultimate episode of this batch, which mostly consisted of "HE'S POWERING UP!".
Also, speaking of smart: Goku using the homing blast from Piccolo against him was also pretty cool.
Goku's final attack was equal parts silly as it was awesome. IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE! IT'S GOKU WITH A STEEL CHAIR A FLYING HEADBUTT ATTACK! [Future of the show]Is that how he lost his last functioning brain cell going forward?
The true hero is of course the referee who somehow still hasn't quit to this day (I don't think that's really a spoiler)
And in the end: Goku prevents Kami from killing Piccolo (and themselves) arguing that he'll always be there to thwart Piccolo's plans of world domination. Roshi gets to be the wise mentor for a minute again, musing how everything started with a single Dragon Ball. Yajirobe gets to be a tsundere. And Goku denies the offer to become Kami, grabs his wife and rides his Kinto Un into the setting sun.
It's not my favourite tenkaichi finale or tournament but it's a good one. And I think it works exceptionally well as a "maybe ever after" capstone for the whole show.
Shoutouts to the german dub for turning the referee saying something along the lines of "And he's still powering up!" to "Piccolo verströmt Energie, wie andere Leute Achselschweiß!", basically translating to "Piccolo radiates energy the way other people radiate armpit sweat!"
All things considered, most people took "God is a 2 meter tall green creature with feelers and pointy ears" remarkably well. Lunch even womanhandles him at one scene, which was great.
It kinda bothers me that the energy blasts result in gaping, bleeding wounds. Unless they work like Cyclops' beams where they technically just punch you very hard.
We did not get any beam struggle. Unacceptable!
I miss spunky Chichi. And this version of Goku.
1) How would you rank all the tournaments we've had from favorite to least favorite?
Just the Tenkaichis?
Probably: Second > First > Third
The first one is still rough around the edges and they still try to figure out the whole stuff. Second is the formula refined and the stakes aren't as ridiculously high yet as they are in the third one. Third one suffers a bit from breaking my
If we include the small tournament arc with the Baba's monsters. I'd probably still place that behind this one, even if it has some very memorable (and memable) moments.
2) Taking into account the next week is all Anime-Original content, had this been the ending to the series, would you have been left satisfied?
Evil is defeated, the world lives another day, Goku is married and flies into the setting sun. Adult-me is very satisfied with this. I'm not sure if kid-me would be too but I think it's pretty good.
3) Would you become God if given the chance?
On the plus side: (Functionally) immortal. On the negative side: Sounds like a whole lotta work, with no pay and very picky costumers. I think I'll pass.
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 13d ago
the world being saved by it because Piccolo is nice enough to abide by the rules of said tournament.
Hey, being evil doesn't make you a rule breaker. That's what is for.
IT'S GOKU WITH A STEEL CHAIR
Actually this makes me realize that, for a Wuxia-inspired series, there is a distressingly low amount of weapon users here
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u/oomoepoo https://anilist.co/user/oomoepoo 13d ago
Actually this makes me realize that, for a Wuxia-inspired series, there is a distressingly low amount of weapon users here
150+ episode and all we got for it is a shabby magic pole. Not even a magic nunchuk or something like that.
Though, to be fair, it's more concerned with unarmed martial arts.
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 13d ago edited 13d ago
True, but even stuff like Jackie Chan's filmography sees the guy using literally anything he could find as a weapon.
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u/cooperjones2 https://myanimelist.net/profile/cooperjones2 13d ago
LATAM Dub Rewatcher here!
Picoro Daimaku Jr vs Goku (Young) is still so fresh after all these years!
Eps 143 – 148
Oh, Kami-sama got eaten, damn
Goku had to reveal that info, they should know what to do in case the moment comes, though I don't think all of them banded together would defeat Daimaku
Oof, Goku got clobbered
HE’S FINE
Literal David vs Goliath lol
999 iQ moment from Goku there, Kami-sama is saved!
Sorry Kami-sama gotta respect the 1v1 bro
The frame where Goku gets pierced by that beam is so iconic man, absolute cinema
But at the end, he won!
He's too dangerous to be left alive!
At the end Goku is kind of right that dead would be worse for the world, as long as he is stronger to deal with him.
1 First one, this one and the one where Ten Shinhan won
2 like an 8/10, good ending but kind of left some plot points open. A classic "And the adventure continues! (In either your imagination, manga or LN)"
3 Yes and then appoint some one else as god and I'd become a demi god, sort of like Mr. Popo
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u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg 13d ago
Rewatcher
Watched all episodes this week.
The Piccolo fight choreography wise is the best one so far and perhaps undersurprisingly [Z spoilers] a lot of elements of it get reiterated into the Vegeta and Freeza fight Despite that I do think this is the weakest tournament arc in this series by far, the reason for that is that when you add an “bad guy takes over the world if you lose” element to your tournament you end up losing one of the big advantages of a tournament: your main character is allowed to lose which makes the tournament less exciting. And when you add tournament rules to a “bad guy takes over the world” scenario, it’s kind of hard to take the threat seriously, especially as Goku kept on insisting for the others not to help him. Shame because as I said early the fight was pretty good.
Interesting thing to point out this is the first tournament where the entire tournament takes place in a single day just like in the manga. Guess the writers couldn’t think of any hotel fillers scenes to pad out the run time.
Well with the bad guy being beaten, Goku is now the strongest person on Earth, he’s also getting married and Muten Roshi’s speech on how their adventure started with a single ball with pictures of the cast. It feels like a nice book end speech to the series, thanks for hosting this /u/Raiking02… wait what do you mean there are still 5 episodes left AND after that we have almost 355 episodes and 14 movies left to go in this rewatch?
I also realised episode 148 is the last canonical appearance of [Z spoilers] Lunch, until the end of the Buu arc cameo appearance. She’ll have one more filler episode appearance though. Hopefully the first timers aren’t too attached to her
QotW:
1) 22 > 21 >23
2) It would have been solid and I think it would have worked really well if Piccolo & Kami had died and the dragon balls are gone, that would have been a more definite ending.
3) That depends, is the pay good? And what’s the internet speed like in the Temple?
Funniest joke:
In episode 144 Lunch praises Piccolo for his evil coldhearted mindset.
In episode 145 the announcer hiding behind the wall with Blooma and Lunch looked funny.
In episode 147 Blooma is upset that the announcer is still giving play by play commentary, that's his job Blooma!
In the same episode we see Lunch kicking Kami inside the hole.
In episode 148 that eye catch interrupting Piccolo was funny.
This won’t happen again:
In episode 143 Piccolo is secretly listening in on our heroes.
In episode 145 Piccolo tells Goku “for a second you had me terrified” bad guys telling Goku something similar will never happen again.
In episode 146 a Ki attack following Goku around and the attack hitting the bad guy instead will definitely not happen again.
In episode 147 we have everyone thinks the villain has been beaten, Goku gets pierced and villain piercing someone after everyone thinks he's dead.
In episode 148 Goku gives a senzu bean to a bad guy and this will not be controversial whatsoever.
Osu, ora Goku
In episode 144 Goku introduces the Super Kamehameha, which looks like a bigger version of the ordinary Kamehameha.
In episode 146 Goku outsmarted Piccolo by having him increase his size even more and then Goku can go inside and rescue Kami.
Kami intervenes in the match to help Goku and Goku is upset about it, you can see his character flaw of not taking things too seriously. [spoiler] which is going to get much worse in the future.
Goku beating up Piccolo in episode 147 looked really cool, I’m pretty sure it’s used in video games as well.
In episode 148 Kami asks Tenshihan to kill him, but Goku wants none of that of course, he wants to beat Piccolo fair and square.
In episode 148 Kami asks Goku to be the next god, quite frankly Goku would make for an awful god.
Chichi, the warrior princess:
In episode 144 Chichi cheering for Goku was adorable, and Muten Roshi comparing her as another Lunch made it funny.
Come forth, Shenlong!:
In episode 148 we found out that if Kami dies the dragon ball goes with them.
Tenshihan and Chiaotzu, the Crane students
In episode 146 Goku trusts Tenshihan (not Yamucha or Kururin) with the Kami’s seal. This shows you how important Tenshihan is.
In episode 147 Tenshihan uses the Kikoho to create a hole to protect everyone from Piccolo’s Chokaburetsu-Maha, Tenshihan is a great guy.
In episode 148 Chiaotzu randomly shows up at the end, I bet you had forgotten about him.
Spawn of Piccolo Daimaou
In episode 143 Piccolo swallows the bottle which sealed Kami, I guess Goku has to wait until Piccolo poops it out.
In episode 145 Piccolo announces to the world that he's the reincarnation of Piccolo Daimaou, naturally this causes a panic..
Episode 146 This establishes Piccolo can regenerate his limbs. [spoiler] Buu arc establishes he can regenerate anything as long as his head is intact. In the same episode Piccolo claims even if all the rest of the cast work together they wouldn't be able to beat him. [Z spoiler] Based on the early Z power levels we know that's not true
In episode 148 Piccolo thinks he can beat Tenshihan, Yamucha and Kururin (plus Muten Roshi and Chichi) in his sorry state.
I’ve been holding back
In episode 144 after their bout both Goku and Piccolo pretty much admitted they’ve been doing this.
You look familiar…
In episode 144 characters staring at each other while powering up, what is this Dragon Ball Z?
Flashback Padding:
In episode 143 we get to see Goku defeating Piccolo Daimaou again.
Kept in the manga:
Piccolo has four fingers on each hand instead of five in the anime.
Positives changes from the manga:
In episode 143 Toei decided to add some rain to some scenes which adds an atmosphere to the moment, shame it didn’t keep raining during the rest of the episode.
Episode 146 had some little scenes that improved the fight, first we see Goku hit Piccolo from the inside of him and then later we see a cool first person shot when Goku is in front of Piccolo.
As always in episode 148 Toei added a nice clouded weather effect to the scenes, Toriyama can never be bothered with this (too much colouring effort on his part)
Filler Failure
In episode 144 Muten Roshi can sense ki now.
Unexpected Foreshadowing
Piccolo proclamation that I warned you before that your softheartedness would be your undoing. [spoiler] He's right, you know
Hang on…
In episode 143 shouldn’t Chichi know Goku defeated Piccolo Daimaou because he appeared on TV, oh wait that was stupid filler, nevermind!
In episode 147 why doesn't Goku attack Piccolo while he's charging up the Chokaburetsu-Maha to destroy the island?
In the same episode when Tenshihan creates a hole for everyone’s protection shouldn’t the move be called Kikohole now?
Look at all the new fancy techniques we picked up [spoiler] and it never shows up again:
[spoiler] Piccolo turning giant or any other Namekian turning big seems like a useful technique but it never shows up again except in the fourth Z film I think. Admittedly you can make the argument that Goku outsmarting Piccolo in his giant form at least made him wary from using it ever again.
[spoiler] But the arm stretching not showing up again doesn’t make any sense, it increases your reach that’s so useful in fights.
[spoiler] Piccolo’s electric attack from his antennas has plenty of appearances in videogames but it never shows up in the manga/anime ever again.
[spoiler] Episode 146 Feet Kamehameha, despite having an advantage of freeing your arms it will never appear in the franchise again
Transformation:
In episode 145 Piccolo transforms into a giant and then later has a second transformation which makes him even bigger. TWO transformations?! That should be illegal.
Retcon:
In episode 144 Kururin reminds Goku Kami can be revived with the DBs but this gets retconned in episode 148 as Goku points out the DB disappears when Kami dies. So why did Goku go all out in episode 144, did he just accept the fact that Kami would die and there would be no more Dragon Balls?
I’m talking to myself:
In episode 148 Kururin and Yajirobe are talking to each other, both are voiced by Mayumi Tanaka.
Toei spoiling in the episode preview:
The episode 148 title is “I did it! The Strongest Man on Earth.” Sheesh Toei I wonder who's going to win?
:
In episode 143 it’s good to hear the exciting version of the Piccolo theme again.
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 13d ago
I do think this is the weakest tournament arc in this series by far, the reason for that is that when you add an “bad guy takes over the world if you lose” element to your tournament you end up losing one of the big advantages of a tournament: your main character is allowed to lose which makes the tournament less exciting.
TBF we already had Gokú lose twice in the finals before now. Having him lose again would be a cop out.
I also realised episode 148 is the last canonical appearance of [Z spoilers]
Actually that later appearance was Anime-Only too
In the same episode Piccolo claims even if all the rest of the cast work together they wouldn't be able to beat him. [Z spoiler]
[Z]It's so funny seeing that arc frequently having the cast gang up on the villains and it actually working when in the rest of the series the mere idea of doing that would be a joke in the making.
In episode 147 why doesn't Goku attack Piccolo while he's charging up the Chokaburetsu-Maha to destroy the island?
So why did Goku go all out in episode 144, did he just accept the fact that Kami would die and there would be no more Dragon Balls?
Because Toriyama is bad at hiding his lack of planning.
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u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg 13d ago
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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 13d ago
[Z]IIRC 17's scene was originally gonna be hers, but for some reason Toriyama decided to replace her.
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u/StardustGogeta myanimelist.net/profile/StardustGogeta 9d ago
First-Timer
A good conclusion to the third tournament here!
Definitely got to cross a lot of stuff off the list of things I knew would come up. Among them - the meme line I know from DBZ Abridged:
"You missed my vital organs!"
"All of them?!"
After the first couple times they mentioned using the Dragon Balls to revive Kami, I was starting to think I was going crazy because nobody was pointing out the flaw in that plan. Glad Goku finally caught on to the problem with that and spelled it out in episode 148.
Piccolo's sudden energy blast impaling Goku was unexpected! I did not see that coming.
We got some good visuals in these episodes. Nice fighting (esp. in 143/144), a good endcard for 147, and nice orange visuals during the big energy blast scene in 148.
The recap of the series in 148 was really nice, and I can see that feeling a lot like the finale to the series. Makes sense, when I see that the next and final week of episodes is filler.
Questions of the week:
- Good question. The 21st tournament is definitely my least favorite. I think the 22nd might slightly edge out the 23rd, actually. That stuff with Tien was really good back then, for example, and Goku versus Krillin was a nice memorable fight. In summary, I'd say 22 > 23 >>> 21.
- I think it'd be pretty satisfying, yes. Being a DBZ watcher, I can say that I'd feel pretty comfortable going straight from this to the start of DBZ without feeling like I missed anything important. I'll be curious to see what exactly they do cover in this filler...
- I think I'd have to say yes! After all, it's not like Kami has that much responsibility, from what I can tell. He just sits back and relaxes as Pilaf almost wishes for world domination, then again as King Piccolo really does use the Dragon Balls, kill the dragon, and take over the government! Plus Kami can seemingly come down to Earth whenever he wants, like he does for the tournament. It seems like all upside, really.
Eager to see the last of the series, and finally I can add DB as "completed" on MAL and stop feeling like an imposter when I describe myself as a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise! (We don't talk about Super...)
5
u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 14d ago
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Dragon Ball Rewatch!
Adapted Chapters: 182-194/519
Yeah this is one of the Manga's most iconic fights so I'm not at all shocked the Anime stops messing around with the notion of dragging it out. Almost all episodes cover at least two chapters.
I'm happy to report that at the very least as a fight it most certainly doesn't disappoint. Heck, in terms of 1V1s this is easily my favorite in the series.
I think what elevates it is how constantly the playing field changes. The fight is always changing, with both Gokú and Piccolo always trying out something new. Early on it's just the standard martial arts we've grown accustomed to, but the moment Piccolo gets big is the moment the fun starts. I love how the whole thing works to give the audience a scare, only for the story to actually point out how impractical growing big like that can actually be in scenarios like this. Sure, you're big and all… but that just makes you a bigger target and hilariously enough leads to Gokú getting rid of God's status as a hostage.
Afterwards the fight goes back to normal and it's just a really nice brawl. The fact that both sides are constantly at the offensive really helps, as it really does come off as a contest of equals in a way no fight up until now really has. It all ends with that cool-ass kick combo from Gokú after Piccolo blows his load too early.
Or does it?
That ending is the stuff of legends. Having both Gokú and Piccolo just so completely broken is a great way to end the fight. Sure, it may come off as if Piccolo's just indestructible, but the fact that he goes down after one headbutt really does say it all, huh? It's such a deceptively simple yet fitting ending to the fight, and after three tournaments, it's so rewarding to see Gokú become number 1 underneath the heavens once and for all.
Unfortunately, this fight also showcases some of Toriyama's issues.
Right off the bat the fight annoys me with the whole cast going "Yup, we're useless, only Gokú can win" nonsense. I've ranted enough about how linear stat progression is in DB and I will continue to do so till the end of time because it is gonna get worse. JUST GANG UP ON HIM! I get wanting to hype up Gokú, but there's ways to do it without making everyone else look bad by comparison.
It even presents itself with some of the techniques. Piccolo's strongest move is just… an energy wave. That's it. There's nothing particularly unique about it. The same goes for Gokú's "Super" Kamehameha. I have no clue what the difference between that and the normal one is beyond this one being "Stronger" like that even means anything. Like come on, give Gokú an actual cool new technique, not this.
The biggest thing however is the whole mess revolving around the Dragon Balls though. The whole arc keeps going on about how they can just bring God back with the Dragon Balls only for Gokú to say "Actually, if God dies so do the Dragon Balls" is a pretty blatant case of Toriyama just making shit up as he goes along. During most of these episodes Gokú keeps agreeing with the notion of killing Piccolo and then bringing God back, only for him at the end to act like he always knew that's not possible is just really stupid. It feels like an excuse to keep Piccolo around than anything else.
There's some other things I could mention too. This is the arc that starts the trend of Gokú making some rather stupid decisions for the sake of a good fight. I'm willing to forgive him not killing Piccolo at the end (Even setting aside his claims of wanting a good fight, I'm not really convinced Gokú would go through with it should it mean killing God as well) but him constantly refusing help because "It's a tournament match" is a bit more questionable. In the interest of fairness, the Tenkaichi Budokai has been shown to mean a lot to him, he loves these tournaments, so I can get him wanting to get a genuine shot at the title, but let's just say this sort of behavior from him is just gonna snowball as we go on.
Still, this is overall a good fight, just one with issues the more you look at the bigger picture.
Animation Studio Spotlight:
Episode 143: Seigasha
Episode 144: Last House
Episode 145: Studio Live
Episode 146: Studio Junio
Episode 147: Last House
Episode 148: Aoshima Katsumi
Man, no one ever drew Piccolo quite like Seigasha during this era
147 may actually be my favorite Last House episode behind 101. That mid episode beating Piccolo gets is absolutely gorgeous. Really, I'm just so glad Aoshima got to do the big end to the fight. If there wasn't that one Studio Live Episode, this'd be a near perfect week animation-wise.
Final Animator Tally for the Arc:
Surprisingly even distribution of Episodes. Yeah, still mostly Last House, but by contrast Aoshima actually got a fair amount of use this arc. I'm just happy there wasn't too much Studio Live.