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duhragonball · 9 months

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Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.91-93

Last time, we covered the "prequel" story of Goten and Trunks adopting superhero identities and capturing Dr. Hedo. Now we get into the events of the DBS: Super Hero movie itself. I already liveblogged the movie extensively in September (here, here, here, here, and here), so for the manga adaptation I'll be focusing mainly on whatever changes Toyotaro made to the story.

First off, Chapter 91 opens with Piccolo picking up Pan from school, and when she talks about wanting to be a superhero like Goten and Trunks have been doing recently, Piccolo offers to train her just like he trained Gohan in Dragon Ball Z.

Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing we can expect from this adaptation. It's mostly a straight retelling of the movie, and the little extras that get added in don't really add much to the story. I mean, the movie established that Piccolo has picked up Pan from school in the past, but there was no need to show it. Also, the movie didn't really explain why Piccolo started training Pan, probably because it didn't need to. I think the manga pretty much proves my point, because it attempts to tackle the question, but only comes up with a fairly pat answer. She wanted to fly and shoot hand energy like Goten and Trunks, and so Piccolo offered to teach her and she said yes.

Then we get to this scene, where Krillin's boss in the West City P.D. holds a briefing on the Red Ribbon Army and their plans to recruit Dr. Hedo. This takes the place of the flashback montage that opened the movie, and it sucks.

That montage was awesome, and Toyotaro could have drawn his own version of it here, but instead he did this. We could be looking a Goku punching Tao Pai Pai, or 17 killing Dr. Gero, or Cell smirking like a boss, but instead we're in a boring conference room reading walls of text.

Look at this fucking page! It's awful! A lot of this one serves as a stand-in for Carmine's report to Magenta about Dr. Hedo. I get it, this is a lot of information to go through, and Toyotaro probably wanted to move on as quickly as possible, but part of what I loved about the movie was the way they showcased the characters and visuals during the infodumping. Carmine's report is pretty dry in the movie, but Magenta's office is interesting to look at, and Carmine and Magenta themselves are visually compelling characters. While they talk about Hedo, Carmine shows off his video editing skills and Magenta keeps screwing up his snacks

This police briefing, however, sucks all the fun out of it. This place looks like a hotel conference room with hardwood floors. All of the cops look exactly the same, and why the hell are they wearing helmets and sunglasses indoors, anyway? Krillin's boss, Sergeant Nutz, has some potential, but she has nothing to do with this story, so featuring her so prominently here is just a waste of time.

What really irks me is that the next scene shows Carmine and Magenta talking about Dr. Hedo, just like in the movie, except there's not much for them to say because Krillin and Nutz already covered it all! That's really dumb! We have two scenes designed to set up the plot of the movie, and one of them was in the movie, and actually features the main antagonists. But Toyotaro chose to emphasize the other scene instead.

So the idea here is that the police are already aware of Magenta's scheme to revive the Red Ribbon Army, and they know he plans to recruit Dr. Hedo once he gets out of prison. They also know that Hedo had that disc containing data on Dr. Gero's bioweapon, although I don't see how they could know that, since Trunks couldn't access the data on the disc and it was destroyed before anyone else could try. Hedo told Krillin in Chapter 90 that he memorized the contents of the disc, but he never said what it was that he memorized. This also goes against the storyline in the movie. In the film, Magenta had Gero's data on Cell, and the reason he wanted Hedo was because his own scientists couldn't do anything with it.

Anyway, the police seem to know everything about the Red Ribbon Army already. The only thing they don't know is where the Red Ribbon base is, so they send Krillin to follow Magenta's limo and spy on him. So we get the limo scene from the movie, except Krillin's clinging to the side of the car the whole trip, and then Hedo spots him and sends his cyborg bee, Hatchimaru, to attack him.

The gag here is that Magenta and Carmine don't even know Krillin is out there, and Hedo doesn't particularly care. The scene plays out almost exactly like it does in the movie, but with Krillin spliced in like Jabba the Hut in the Star Wars Special Edition.

Of course, Krillin gets shaken off so the base's location remains a secret, so this whole bit is completely pointless. It's just so dumb. I assume Toyotaro needed to pad out the story for one reason or another, or maybe he just wanted to add some new details so he wouldn't get bored retelling a movie like this. But if this is the best he can come up with, why bother? So far, this manga keeps "expanding" on the movie by answering questions nobody asked, like "Why did Piccolo start training Pan?" or "Why didn't the authorities stop the Red Ribbon Army?" or "Why is Gamma 1's cape red?"

From here, it's a pretty faithful retelling of the movie, which kind of makes the "filler" scenes even more conspicuous. It's refreshing to see the actual story move along without all these pointless diversions. On the other hand, it's kind of dull, because I already covered the movie and there's nothing else to talk about here.

There is some extra stuff in the Gamma 2 vs. Piccolo fight. Piccolo loses an arm, but then he grows a new one and makes it all long to catch Gamma 2 off guard. It doesn't slow him down much, but it's something we didn't get in the movie. I do find it a bit strange how Gamma 2 notes Piccolo's regeneration ability like it's this new data to add to his files. Shouldn't the Red Ribbon Army have all of this intel programmed into Gamma 2 by now?

Moving on, when Piccolo infiltrates the Red Ribbon base, he gets stopped by his superiors, who remind "94" that he isn't assigned to this area, but another soldier offers to switch assignments so "94" can gain some valuable experience watching Hedo eat cookies.

Again, what is the point of this? We're just derailing the story so Toyotaro can waste a page explaining how Piccolo managed to get this far into the base. In the movie, nobody notices or cares that "94" is in the command center instead of the hangar. That's because they're all faceless, interchangeable henchmen. They wear masks and refer to each other by numbers, for crying out loud! This is why Piccolo disguised himself in the first place! If Toyotaro wrote Star Wars, he'd do a whole scene where Luke Skywalker has to rewrite the Death Star's duty roster just so "TK-421" can get reassigned to prison detail. Nobody cares!

Okay now this is more like it. We get to the part where no one can reach Goku and Vegeta because they're training on Beerus' planet, and so Toyotaro gives us a little more of the sparring match Goku and Broly had in the movie. It's not a lot, but this is the sort of thing filler is good for. Toyo also does a whole montage recap of the DBS: Broly film, which is perfectly serviceable, but it annoys me because it demonstrates that he could have done the same thing with the Red Ribbon Army flashback in Chapter 91, but instead he did the briefing scene with Sgt. Nutz. Ugh.

We see the same scene where Vegeta explains the importance of mental training, although when he talks about all of their recent opponents, he adds manga-only characters like Moro, Gas, and Black Frieza. And that's fine, although it's strange when he talks about Jiren and Black Frieza in the same breath like this. In the manga, Vegeta has gotten pretty good at "Ultra Ego", his answer to Goku's Ultra Instinct. And Goku's learned to tap into UI at will. So I'm pretty sure Jiren and Moro aren't really an issue for either of them anymore. I mean, the only reason Goku couldn't defeat Jiren by himself at the Tournament of Power was because he lacked experience using UI, and now he's much better at it.

The point I'm getting at is that in the manga, Vegeta doesn't need to do "mental training" to defeat Jiren because he's already surpassed him. And he might need it to surpass Broly and Black Frieza, but he speaks as though that's their secret, and he needs to learn how to do it himself. I'm pretty sure Broly isn't "relaxed" between attacks when he's using his full power. He was kind of freaking the fuck out back then. Black Frieza might have been doing something like that, but he only hit Vegeta once, so I'm not sure how he could be certain.

So then we move on to the part where Piccolo wishes for a power-up from Shenron, and we just skip the part where Dende upgrades Shenron to do that. The implication here is that DBS-manga Shenron always had the ability to make Orange Piccolo, and no one bothered to ask before. Kind of annoying.

Anyway, while Piccolo and Bulma are getting their...ahem... enhancements, Trunks sees them and calls Goten. They make plans to sneak out and play superheroes again, even though Goten's grounded and he really doesn't need to run up a bigger bill with his mom. I guess this is the throughline for Goten and Trunks in Dragon Ball Super. No matter what happens, Dragon Team tries to keep the boys out of it. It's not just Chi-Chi wanting Goten to study. Back in Resurrection F, Bulma tells the others that she doesn't want them fucking around during the battle with Frieza. And Vegeta ices them out of the tournaments with the other universes because he doesn't want them turning into Gotenks and being dorks the whole time. The Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 caper probably didn't do much to convince anyone that Goten and Trunks have matured.

But they still crave the excitement of being in the thick of things. They know the adults are trying to keep them out of it, and that just makes it more exciting. I suppose this is the legacy of the Buu Saga, where they had to get involved because there was no other choice, and they've had the bug for DBZ mayhem ever since, but their parents said no.

And maybe that's why Goku and Vegeta were so determined to train the boys in the End of Z episodes. Sometime after Super Hero, they came back home, heard about the Saiyamen costumes and the battle with Cell Max, and decided that they needed to be toughened up. Like, okay, you want to go fight bad guys like we do? Stop doing the poses and quit relying on fusion and learn how to do it right. And if the sparring sessions are too hard for you, you can always go back to doing your homework like your mom wanted."

That's why Goten's so frustrated in DBZ 289. He just wants to go on dates or screw around, but his only options are a) homework and b) fight for-ev-er *clap clap clap-clap-clap*.

And now that I think about it, this is where GT dropped the ball with Goten, because he doesn't really seem to have gained anything from that. Hitting the books and getting hit by Goku should have made him a bit more serious about his life, but instead he's just constantly talking to girls on the phone, because that was the only thing GT's writers seemed to think of for him to do.

I mean, they kind of got it right with Trunks, who went into GT with a lot of responsibility and skills. He didn't enjoy his position, but you could tell he'd grown a lot as a person since the end of DBZ.

So yeah, maybe I'm beginning to appreciate Big Goten more than I did before, but this newfound perspective still doesn't do much for this part of the manga. There's just a lot of nothing happening here, and throwing more Krillin, Goten, and Trunks at it doesn't help matters.

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sundove88 · 2 months

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DBZ: Waves of Freedom Chapter 3: Making Waves

After work that very day, Vegeta made his way down to the water and immediately perched on the rocky outcrop where he and Goku often had their conversations. As soon as he set foot on the smooth stones that dotted this little part of the beach, a few other merpeople besides the citrus tailed merman where beside him. “Wha- Where did you come from?!”, Vegeta shouted, unable to contain his surprise. “Vegeta, I’d like you to meet some of my family and friends.”, replied Goku as he perched on the rock next to his best buddy. “Well, if you hadn’t noticed, by know, I’m Chi Chi, Goku’s wife, to be exact!”, replied the arowana tailed mermaid as Gohan and Goten surfaced alongside her. As the others came forward and perched on the rocks in their own ways, Vegeta saw how diverse the world of merpeople could be- from Krillin’s weedy seadragon traits to help him hide within the kelp, Yamcha’s octopus tentacles to help him reach into tight spaces, Tien’s koi fins to help him slice through the water, Android 17’s dolphin instincts to help him find lost sailors, Android 18’s lion fish spines to protect her family, and so on, so forth.

It was then that he noticed Bulma and blushed at the sight- her blue hair that matched the seawater to an uncanny extent, and her blue tang inspired tail that sparkled with a radiant pearly finish. But the most beautiful thing about her wasn’t her tail, or her shiny turquoise circuit inspired top, or her aquamarine colored eyes. It was her heart that refused to waver in the face of adversity, and to care for her young son Trunks, who she had brought home from an orphanage under her metaphorical wing. “I see you now realize you feel right at home with us, eh?”, Bulma said as she let her son flick his Siamese fighting fish tail playfully at Vegeta’s face, seawater splashing onto his skin. But that made Vegeta remember something very important- and it wasn’t good. “Now, I don’t want you all to be angry at me, but… I have to attend a work banquet tonight.”, he said as everyone’s jaws dropped in shock. “WHAT?!”, they said in unison.

“Yeah… and it’s apparently to raise funds for the company’s efforts into quote unquote ‘Protecting the Environment’, which Empire Drilling does anything BUT.”, Vegeta replied with a sigh. “But I promise to swim with Kakarot tonight, and even if it takes sneaking out of the work banquet, I’d do anything to get out of that blasted company.”, the young employee said, taking out something from his shirt pocket. In his hands was a lifelike water Lily hairpin, from the petals to the leaves, all elements of it were handcrafted to replicate the look of a beautiful blossom on the water. “Kakarot, this belonged to my mother- I want you to have this. That way you can always think of me even when I’m at work.”, Vegeta said as he placed the hairpin into the merman’s hands. “Aww, Vegeta! You shouldn’t have! And I’ve got something for you as well!”, Goku replied, nudging Chi Chi as she presented a bracelet made from part of an old fishing net, decorated with pearls, shells, and pieces of coral from beneath the waves. “A bracelet like this one is something that merpeople give to show their friendship, kinda like you land dwellers.”, Gohan said as Vegeta placed the bracelet on his wrist, feeling the rough texture of the net and the smoothness of the pearls and shells. He smiled, genuinely touched by the gesture. “Thanks, Kakarot. I’ve gotta get ready for the work banquet, but I promise that I’ll swim with you!”, Vegeta replied as he hurried back to his apartment, smiling.

That night, the work banquet was in full swing as the chatter of work patrons filled the air, and talk of work and the newest opportunities for the company’s newest employees stifled the stuffy atmosphere even more. Vegeta stood at the edge of the hall where the banquet was being held, his black and white suit feeling like a restriction from the freedom that was right in front of his face- the ocean. “What’s wrong, Vegeta? Cat got yer tongue?”, replied Jeice as he passed by the melancholy young man in his red tuxedo, staring bitterly at the water in front of him. “Nevermind what I want.”, replied Vegeta as he gazed out to sea. Guldo, Recoome, Burter, and Ginyu tried to get through to him and strike up a conversation, but there was no trying to sway him. He remembered his promise to Goku, and he was determined to keep it. I’d better sneak away now, while everyone else is busy chatting like there’s no tomorrow., he thought to himself. As soon as he got the chance he dashed away from the hall the party was being held and ran towards his apartment building. And immediately after changing into his much more comfortable swim trunks (Which he hadn’t worn in a while), he raced down to the ocean and saw Goku on the rocks, as if he were waiting for him.

“Ready to go, Best buddy?”, Goku replied, his tail flicking droplets of water into the evening air. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Kakarot.”, Vegeta replied as he waded into the cool ocean water, lapping up against his skin and sending shivers up his spine. “It’s ok. Just let the water embrace you, and you’ll be fine.”, Goku replied as he helped Vegeta into the water. Before he knew it, they both dove into the water, the cool waters enveloping them. Vegeta felt an immediate sense of freedom as he swam beside Goku. The water was alive with color, illuminated by the moonlight that filtered down from the surface. It took a while for Vegeta to catch up with his fishy companion, but when he finally did, he was treated to something he had never before experienced. With his own eyes, he experienced a sensory overload- the good kind, as he looked down at the corals that made up the reefs and the fish that dwelled within their crevices and the various species that called this part of the ocean home. “Look over there, Vegeta! That’s a school of convict tangs. And those are angelfish. Aren’t they beautiful?” Goku explained as he pointed out some of the species on the reef. Vegeta’s eyes widened in awe as a sea turtle gracefully swam by, its chocolate colored shell glinting in the light. He reached out, his fingers brushing against the turtle’s smooth surface. A flame angelfish tagged along, its vibrant red scales glimmering in the moonlit water as he gave kisses to the land dweller before swimming away, while a mandarin dragonet swam by and tickled one of his legs. Even a school of Pajama Cardinalfish thought he was a local merman, even going as far as to make themselves at home in his vicinity.

As they continued deeper into the reef, the marine life began to approach the young land dweller and sense the kindness within him. A clownfish swam through Vegeta’s spiky dark hair, mistaking it for an anemone of sorts. “Hehe! He just wants to say hi.”, Goku replied, allowing the small clownfish to swim towards his anemone home. As they continued their swim, Vegeta could see that the marine life were friendly towards him, even though he didn’t have a fishtail. A small seahorse drifted towards him and latched onto his finger for a bit, a normally timid octopus worked up the courage to emerge from its den and perch on his shoulder, and even a pod of dolphins swam around him, sensing his kind and caring nature. “They can sense your compassion.”, Goku explained as the baby bottlenose nudged Vegeta, making him smile even more. And alongside the colorful marine life and the beautiful coral reefs, the duo also came across ancient ruins with secrets untold, forests of kelp that seemed to reach the sky, and shipwrecks that held treasures from times of old. After quite a bit of swimming, the two boys headed back towards the land, exhausted yet happy after their journey through the coral reef. “You know, Kakarot? I’ve got something to say to you.”, Vegeta replied as they neared the shore. “What would that be?”, asked Goku, always open and thoughtful. “I wanna stay with you- I wanna be part of this world from now on.” Vegeta said as he climbed up onto the sand, the feeling of a natural sugar scrub beneath his feet. “I like that a lot, Vegeta.”, the orange tailed merman said as he perched next to his land bound companion. “And I have a… request for you.”, said Vegeta as he dried himself off. “What would that be? Just get it off your chest if you can.”, Goku replied. Vegeta took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the decision but also the excitement of a new beginning.

“Can you… turn me into… a merman?”

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