#also regarding my comments on three act structure in shounen

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 48 Review

Originally posted June 3rd, 2016

Guys, the climax is supposed to be at the end.

I should probably be in love with “Advanced Geometry.” Semi-Perfect Cell is an absolute delight, Tien gets to swoop in and kick some serious ass, and Goku performs one of his funniest Deus ex Machina in the entire series. And on a purely visceral level, I do love this episode, but that doesn’t mean that “Geometry” is not without a rather glaring flaw: Tien draining himself and being nearly killed by Cell is the climax of the episode, and there is still one third of the episode that follows it.

Now, I’m not one for strict adherence to the “three-act structure,”1 but even within the that broken paradigm, there is an incredible wisdom to only having a relatively small portion of the story to follow the climax. It certainly would’ve been unsatisfying to end this episode with Tien on the ground before Cell with no knowledge of what would happen to him, but ending immediately after Goku rescues him? That would’ve been completely satisfying, as that Is where the story of this episode ends.

Continuing after Tien’s rescue also does a thematic disservice to the sacrifice he made in fighting Cell as effectively as he did. Beyond the Senzu bean recovery removing any narrative consequence to the sacrifice (thanks Toriyama), it’s also very disappointing to see the narrative focus on the return of two Super Saiyans not two minutes after we’ve been shown that true heroism is telling Cell, Super Saiyans, and power levels to fuck themselves and giving everything you have to holding the evil back, even if your efforts are ultimately futile.

Despite Cell’s insults towards humanity, Tien (and Krillin before him) has proven that it doesn’t take fulfilling an ancient alien prophecy to do some modicum of good, and having to listen to Vegeta rant about his power increase after that is incredibly dissonant with the stated themes of the first two thirds of this episode.

Rating: 3.5/5

If you enjoyed this review, consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

1One of the things I love most about anime as a genre is how it consistently flies against the ideas propagated by Western storytellers about how stories should work, especially in regards to the three-act structure. Now, this isn’t true for all anime, but a lot of shows in the shonen genre actively avoid structuring individual episodes with three separate acts, instead choosing to showcase a fight over multiple episodes with each “act” of the fight given an entire episode, and while that can and does cause pacing issues, it also makes each encounter more dynamic, giving it room to breathe and develop far more naturalistically than it might with a three act structure.

By the way, I define “act” in this context as the section of a story wherein a character makes a specific and irreversible choice, and it is entirely possible for individual fights to have multiple acts inside of it.

Krillin Owned: 32, because he didn’t think to stop flying towards a moving plane.

“Booby-bomb!”

Chiaotzu: “Died? Yes. Jesus, we’ve literally all done it.” Chi Chi: “I haven’t.” Chiaotzu: “Give it some time, you’re hanging with the right crowd.”

“Ki-ko-fuck yourself.”

Does… does Goku see the world like it’s a Wes Anderson film? Because that sounds amazing.

Vegeta: “I am finally stronger than you!” Goku: “Neat!” Vegeta: “Fuck you!”