Change of pace, lunatics. We’ll be taking a break from EUREKA SEVEN and YU YU HAKUSHO for a week or so to catch up with a number of fine, new Funimation titles that have come to my doorstep. Read my thoughts on…
* SENGOKU BASARA: SAMURAI KINGS *** YAMADA'S FIRST TIME
I was actually planning to get to some other shows in the sack before I revisited this one, yet again - - but then this video inspired me to get back in touch with my Saiyan roots.
As I say every time I get anything DBZ-related, it’s simply impossible for me to review this show with a straight face. It’s not just that it’s likely the most sublimely preposterous show ever conceived - - because it is, without a shred of doubt - - it’s also that I literally grew up with this preposterousness. Other heroes of my misspent youth were either in shows that were a little above my level at the time or they subsequently went on to have more “mature audiences” adventures, but Goku? I see him and I immediately think of hyper, adolescent Tommy P and how’d he spaz out with buddies after pizza time in Singapore by “play fighting” epic brawls with Frieza and Cell.
And, of course, picking this episode out of the set reminds me of how I was too young to really understand the story beyond the broad strokes. This one opens after the Z fighters gets their butts whupped by some androids. After they’re revived by Krillin (at his most water-boyish,) they subsequently go their separate ways to figure out to handle this latest set of challengers. Vegeta basically just goes into the wasteland to rage - - achieving Super Saiyan power, at last, because he can’t accept that he’s been defeated by a girl. Piccolo confronts his sort-of Namekian father and threatens a “hostile merger” so they can defeat these androids.
And I don't remember any of this!
Maybe it’s simply because I’m just discovering YU YU HAKUSHO at the moment, but watching this DBZ cut that repeatedly boasts “NO FILLER!” makes me realize that Yusuke’s adventures are more my style, now. Pepsi’s come to taste better than Coke, as it were. The dub, at least, just has a better savy and awareness of its own “preposterone.”
And it doesn’t have an alarming sambo caricature like Mr. Popo. That does help.
Watch this episode, "The Time For Reunification Has Come! Piccolo's Unshakeable Resolve!" here and decide for yourself.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
I thought Vegeta achieved Super Saiyan before that during the time skip. Wasn't that the big surprise when they were fighting Android 19?
Yeah, Vegeta reached Super Saiyan before this episode and fought Android 19. It was a very cool moment.
Unfortunately that cool moment was watered down when Android 18 kicked his arm out of its socket. That was a very sad moment.
I am reluctant to watch entire episodes of DBZ ever again because my memories live in nostalgia. I would rather experience it through random internet clips of the moments I occasionally remember. Especially Vegeta's "planet-destroying" Big bang attack.
@Lurkero: Don't try to watch the original series again, but teamfourstar's series and kai are both great nostalgia trips.
@kashif1: @Lurkero: If you must watch a Z dub these days, Kai is definitely the way to go, yeah. It's more accurate to the original dialogue and follows the manga fairly accurately. For fans of subs (I can't stand the English dubs, sorry), I still prefer the original version of Z in Japanese. Even with all the filler, I felt they went a little too far with cuts in Kai, removing some of the best moments of the Japanese version (and replacing Shunsuke Kikuchi's score, though that's coming back after the recent Kenji Yamamoto scandal). Also, Dragonball and Z were basically one consistent production in Japanese (like the manga), so I'm going to give a shout-out to the awesome first part of the story that gets ignored so often and recommend that in Japanese, too!