Tonight, I’m finishing up the fourth season DVD box set for Dragon Ball Z. We started with a story arc with Garlic Jr. By watching these episodes, we came to realize that… oops, we missed seeing a Dragon Ball Z movie (Dead Zone). I’ve put a hold on a videocassette of that movie through our local library system. Luckily, this story arc didn’t last too long.
We were also introduced to Maron, Kurinin’s girlfriend who is a complete airhead. Her primary purpose in the show was to provide T&A (and later, as a vehicle to include a flashback sequence of Dragon Ball to explain something going on)… other than that, she really served no real purpose. I totally do not like Maron.
We see another character return… Freeza. After supposedly being defeated by Goku in Season Three, he makes a comeback. It turns out Freeza pulled a Desslok. In Star Blazers, after Desslok was supposedly killed, he was found floating in space by the Comet Empire and is nursed back to health. Here, Freeza’s daddy (named Cooler) finds him, and has the physicians provide a lot of metallic parts to make up for what was missing. Freeza and Cooler come to Earth to exact their revenge on Goku, but Goku isn’t back yet.
One of the most striking things to me during this point of the season was Bulma’s hair. For whatever reason, she was animated with this big poofy hairdo that made me look like a poodle. This section of the season also has a myterious boy who appears from the future. He handily defeats Freeza and Cooler, and predicts that Goku will be arriving shortly. The boy’s prediction turns out to be accurate, and the boy pulls Goku aside to talk to him privately.
It turns the mysterious boy from the future is named Trunks, and is the son of Bulma and… Vegeta. Yes, Vegeta. Goku’s expression was priceless when he found out that Bulma and Vegeta ended up together instead of Bulma and Yamucha. Oh, and speaking of Yamucha… what was up with his hairstyles this season? During the Freeza segment, he has this really short hairstyle that makes him look like a dork. And then, in the next section, his hair is styled an awful lot like Vegeta’s.
Anyway, Trunks tells Goku that he will be born in two years, and that artificial humans will attack in three years. He also shares that Goku will die from a viral heart infection, and gives Goku some medicine to take when he experiences the first symptoms of the virus. Trunks also shares that most of Goku’s friends will die in the upcoming battle. Trunks asks Goku not to share who he is or who his parents are, and then leaves in his time machine. Goku passes on what he can to the others. They spend most of the next three years training. The final episode before skipping ahead into the future is a “time kill” episode, where ChiChi insists that Goku and Piccolo try to get their driver’s licenses… that was such a waste of an episode.
I can’t forget to mention the tutor ChiChi hired to work with Gohan. This tutor is an absolute jerk. He hurls insults at Gohan and hits him with a whip. He even called Goku a deadbeat dad, which really ticks Gohan off. Once ChiChi realizes that this tutor is abusing her baby, she goes ballistic and chases him away.
So now we’re three years in the future. Baby Trunks is around, Bulma’s hair looks decent again, and the battle with the artificial humans begins. Bulma, although she’s a whiz with science, isn’t quite so smart when it comes to staying out of the battle zone… and bringing her baby with her. There were times I just wanted to yell at her to get out of there, to get herself and Trunks to safety. Bulma didn’t HAVE to see what the artificial humans looked like! Goku’s viral heart infection hits at a bad time… very early on in the battle! Yamucha rushes him back home to give him the medicine, with help from ChiChi.
During the battle, we learn that Vegeta has finally figured out how to become a Super Saiyan, and Trunks returns. However, the battle isn’t quite happening how it had been relayed to him. Trunks figures that his coming earlier may have caused a slight shift in the events that happen. Trunks realizes the two artificial humans the group has been fighting are NOT the two he had been told about. It turns out one of the artificial humans is Dr. Gero, an enemy from the first Dragon Ball series, and he needs to activate the two who are the artificial humans that Trunks knows about.
At this point, Trunks’ identity is revealed, which is a shock to everyone. Especially Bulma, who is holding Trunks as a baby. Trunks tries to stop his overly proud father from trying to go fight with the artificial humans (he supports Piccolo’s idea of shutting them down), but Vegeta won’t hear of it. Oh yeah, I can’t forget that when Bulma’s ship is shot down, it is adult Trunks who saves her, Baby Trunks, and Yanjirobe… not Vegeta. This also ticks Trunks off. Trunks, are you sure you really want to try to save Vegeta’s life after he’s acted like such a jerk to you?
Like I said, I finish this set tonight, so I’ll see where it goes. Admittedly, I’m not much of a Dragon Ball Z fan. I’m primarily watching this so I can review the DVD sets for BellaOnline, and I also need to watch it once, because it’s such a classic anime show.
No comments:
Post a Comment