Hello fellow Dragon Ball fans! I have stepped away from covering everything video game related to dive into the new Dragon Ball Super series that is currently airing in Japan. This is going to be a weird bunch of reviews as unless you speak/read Japanese, or wait some weeks for a decent sub, you are going to be missing out on this series here in the states. This is where yours truly comes in to at least fill you in on what’s going down with our favorite Z fighters.
Episode 1 opens with a brief recap of the Majin Buu saga, recapping Goku’s defeat of the baddie with the use of the Super Spirit Bomb. It pulls right from DBZ and ties together this series with Dragon Ball Z from so many, many years ago. Fans will be happy to know that Dragon Ball Super completely erases Dragon Ball GT, although since this series takes place before GT, that series can still be considered canon, I guess. Strangely enough, six months after defeating Majin Buu the Z Fighters use the powers of the Dragon Balls to erase the memories of everyone on earth about the entire thing. God only knows the ramifications to the space-time continuum for nixing six plus moths of memories, but still having people age during that time, but who cares, this is an anime we are talking about. Hell, it’s more plausible than 90% of the anime stories going on out there.
We open with Goku driving a tractor, tilling a large barren field in a Capsule Corp tractor. The animation here is top-notch and it’s a real joy to see a new series after spending so many years and many a late night burning through old real and bootleg VHS tapes. Goten arrives with some lunch and Goku gets re-energized and we see him get a little training done. He explains to Goten that he needed help to defeat Majin Buu, and so he needs to train to be ready for what’s next. This is typical Goku, not the training to get better part, but the always needing help to defeat the enemy. Actually, has Goku every beat a major boss in a clean one-on-one encounter? I’m sure the comments section will ever so kindly inform me on that. It seems that Goku is working because he made a promise to his wife that he’d hold down a real job for at least a six-month period. She of course screams this, because what would Dragon Ball be without ChiChi annoying the shit out of everyone. All in all it’s a nice little scene between Goku and Goten and does a good job of setting up their connection.
We jump to a random planet somewhere in the universe to see the being known as Lord Beerus sitting down to dinner. It seems that he has demanded that the planet bring him the very best dishes it has to offer to him in order to appease him and his appetite. After tasting a Jello like drink, Lord Beerus proclaims to find it delicious, if a bit to greasy for his liking. Being that he only half cared for the meal he decides to only destroy half of the planet. With nothing more than a simple tap on the table with his index finger he causing a devastating explosion that blows apart half of the planet. It’s a major show of power, and one that we have yet to ever seen displayed within the Dragon Ball universe. We clearly have our baddie now, and it would seem that the Z fighters better prepare to up their games!
We jump back to earth at a press conference of the one and only Mr. Satan where is spouting off about how he vowed that earth would never again be threatened by anyone in the universe. Apparently his name alone holds so much weight throughout the galaxy that all evildoers steer clear of the tiny blue planet out of fear of fighting the great Mr. Satan. Just as he is about to reach the apex of his crowd inspiring speech, Buu barges in demanding food because he is starving. It’s all pretty funny, but like always, Satan spins it to say that Buu is his guest that has traveled across the stars to train under him. It’s all pretty cute, and I know Mr. Satan is supposed to come off this way, but he has just never clicked with me. in fact, I think he nearly ruins the later half of Dragon Ball Z, but we do at least get Videl thanks to him, so he’s not a complete waste of space.
Speaking of Videl, we transition to her part in the story where we see that she has purchased a book for Gohan. We get a nice little look into their relationship and can see that Gohan has all but left his fighting days to focus on his studies and become a professional. Forget that he destroyed Cell and is probably capable of becoming the most power Saiyan ever known, but let’s relegate him to the town nerd. Look, I get that this has always been the case thanks to the last chunk of DBZ, but I always felt that there were so many more stories to tell with Gohan. instead they spent the entire series building him up, beating the unbeatable, and then having him throwing up the deuces to everyone and becoming a scholar. Whatever. At least Videl is still cool and we do get to see Piccolo looking down on Gohan, super pissed off after all the time he spent training the ungrateful prick. So far Piccolo only has less than a second of screen-time and he’s already my favorite character here.
We then jump to Goten and Trunks being the cute kids that they are getting into all sort of mischief. They are looking for something to give Gohan and Videl as a wedding present, but since they have no money they spend the next minute or so flying around scaring the crap out of people. They continue their search to find out what women really want, but as these things go they get into all sort of wacky hijinks with the public instead. They quickly find that all girly things cost too much money, so they head to find a hot springs to bottle some of the water to give to Videl. They manage to get water at a very isolated spring, but in doing so rile up a giant snake that looks an awful like the one from The Jungle Book. What follows is like the worlds most dangerous game of keep away as the boys do their best to protect their bottle of spring water while avoiding this massive snake. It’s a fun scene and the first action bit we get within this new series with Trunks laying it down on the snake.
We then jump to late in the evening as Goten and Goku are overlooking a beautiful valley as they talk about the days events. While this episode has been light on action it’s been doing a really nice job developing these characters in small chunks, while showing off how nice this anime really looks. As they talk Mr. Satan pulls up and informs Goku of the big news that the world has honored him with the world peace prize for keeping everyone safe. Needless to say Mr. Satan knows that Goku was the one to save the planet, but the camera only happened to capture Mr. Satan looking like he was the one actually saving the day. The people have awarded him 100 million Zenis for his service, but he knows better and offers the entire sum up to Goku because he was the one to save the planet. This one little scene nearly redeems everything that I hate about Mr. Satan and goes a long way to showing the kind of character he is growing into.
Goku of course rejects the money saying it’s far too much and that there were a lot of people who helped save the planet besides him, Mr. Satan included. We also find that Mr. Satan tried to offer Vegeta the money, but he too declined it outright. Goten then steps in and says that is Goku was to accept the money for saving the world ChiChi would probably let he of the hook for work and let him go train with King Kai. Goku reluctantly takes the money, but only under the condition that he tells nobody of this as Mr. Satan still has a reputation to keep. The pair bring the money back home where ChiChi proceeds to lose her shit. Now that she has all this money she lets Goku go train as long as he pops in from time to time. Goku uses his instant transmission to bail out without saying bye, only for Master Roshi to burst in asking about the money saying, “We could buy MANY “interesting” DVDs” clearly referring to some good old pornography. ChiChi kicks the crap out of Roshi and he scuttles away back to wherever the hell he came from.
We then cut to the planet of the Supreme Kai where he and Old Kai are seen looking into the stars. Supreme Kai says that another planet has disappeared, referring to Lord Beerus from the beginning of the episode and aks, “What’s going to happen next” before the episode ends and he get the new series’ ending credits. All in all it was a nice little episode that set up some of the characters that will have a large role in this initial arc, although we didn’t get to see a lot of our fan favorites. From all the redesigns that we have seen floating around online, I was hoping to get the chance to catch Tien in action. Still, it was a nice episode and next week it looks like we can expect a Vegeta heavy episode.
Final Thoughts:
-This new updated art style looks fantastic
-We tread a lot of old ground here, but that’s to be expected after a 19 year hiatus
-ChiChi is still annoying as ever
-Lord Beerus is a beast, both figuratively and literally
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