#and Gohan is stuck at home doing homework and wondering when they’re coming back

[chaoflaka]

This is the most underrated shot in any filler.

I mean….why are we arguing on who’s Gohan’s “real” dad when its obvious he has two?

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 174

This is the one where Goku solves ring puzzles, but it starts with Trunks turning Super Saiyan and kicking at the air for a minute while he waits for Vegeta to come out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.    Not sure why they put this in.   I’m also not sure why Trunks has been on the Lookout for the past two days straight.    I understood Vegeta waiting right here at the door, because he’s that kind of guy, but Trunks knows he can crash at Capsule Corp., and he also knows exactly when his turn will be, so why hang around?  

Meanwhile, Gohan and Krillin are hanging out with Dende, and they both whip out their homework.    They’re like “You have homework on Namek?” and he’s all like “Yeah lol.”   Then Krillin feels left out because he doesn’t have any homework.  Wait, did Krillin ever go to school?    He was pretty smart as a kid, but he also was a 14-year-old who just ran over to Roshi’s island one day and never came back.    And before that he was some sort of Shaolin monk?   Maybe those guys taught him how to read?  

Never mind that shit, here comes JIMMY FIRECRACKER.    I’m pretty sure the name was given to him by Funimation when they dubbed this episode back in 2000.  In researching this, I ran across some bitter sub purists who despised this, but come on.   If he had an original name and Funi changed it, I could see cause for concern, but he didn’t have a name, so Funimation gave him one, and it was awesome.    This guy rocks.    He’s got such an excited and apoplectic voice and he’s a total mark for the WORLD CHAMPION OF MARTIAL ARTS, MISTER SATAN.    I’m pleased to see his Japanese voice actor is just as energized.    Not sure what happened to him in Dragon Ball Kai, though.   He sounds much more subdued there.  

So this is some sort of rally for Mr. Satan before the Cell Games.   With Jimmy hosting the thing, I have a hard time telling if he’s a legitimate reporter or just some guy in Satan’s entourage.    Anyway, Satan comes out pulling FOUR BUSES!   Holy shit!

Aw, this is that good animation.   When you see those big teeth, you know you’re in for a good time.    So the animation supervisor here is Keisuke Masunaga of Studio Cockpit.    This is his first episode, which kind of feels like a waste, because it’s all filler.   It’s a shame they didn’t get this guy on board earlier than they did, but hey, this is a beautiful filler episode.  

Speaking of that, the previous episode looked pretty good too, even though all that happened was Dende turning the Dragon Balls back on, but hot damn did that look good.    I wanted to make a gif of the energy bolts shooting out to one of the Dragon Balls, but it was just too many frames, which tells you something.   I looked him up and he’s Tadayoshi Yamamuro, who’s also the guy they got to supervise the latter half of the movies.  I think it’s fair to say these two guys are among the best DBZ animators.

But back to this episode, Keisuke Masunaga rocks.   He goes “off-model”, exaggerating the character’s features, but in a really dynamic and expressive way.   Look at this shot of Mr. Satan holding a stack of West City phone books.   This could have easily been the dullest shot of this series, but it looks friggin’ epic.  

Did Mr. Satan have a bunch of phone calls to make?    Is he so popular that fans will cheer for him even if he reads the phone book?   Hell no, Mr. Satan brought these phone books so he could RIP THEM IN HALF.    YEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH.

And this right here is Keisuke Masunaga’s signature.   This clenched teeth, gums-exposed expression.   You see this expression and you know the character is putting in work.    I don’t think Masunaga has a nickname in the fandom, the way Yukio Ebisawa is not-so-affectionately called “Triangle Guy.”    I’m kind of thinking he needs one though.    I’m thinking of calling him “Teeth Guy”, because that’s how I recognize his stuff.  

Anyway, fuck all those phone books!   Seriously, I wish they’d stop making these things, no one needs them anymore. 

Then a girl in a swimsuit just walks up and hands him a microphone.  I don’t quite get that, but okay.   This is one of those moments when I’m reminded that this show is Japanese.    Same thing happens whenever I notice a mountain in the background of an outdoor shot.     That shouldn’t surprise me, but I live in the Midwest, so I never expect to see one, and then I do and I’m like “Oh, yeah, they have a lot more mountains in Japan.    They’re used to having them in the background everywhere.”   So Swimsuit Microphone Girl seems out of place to me, but I feel like I’ve seen this sort of thing somewhere before, maybe from a clip of a NJPW show.   I may be thinking of the girls who hand out flower bouqets to the wrestlers sometimes, although I think they wear sexy dresses instead.   

Anyway, Satan takes the mike and cuts a scathing promo about how he’s gonna do to Cell what he’s about to do to this bus he’s standing next to.   What, is he going to drag Cell around by a chain?    Is he going to blow off having Cell’s tires rotated?

THEN HE PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE BUS.    RIP BUS YOU SHALL BE MISSED.    This is what I’m talking about.    The joke is that Mr. Satan is a weakling compared to the main characters, and that he has no idea what he’s getting into, but he’s still jacked as hell.    Yeah, he can’t beat Cell, and he probably can’t beat Master Roshi, but could he kick Batman’s ass?   You bet.   How many buses has Batman beat up?  

Then again, I guess Batman could lure him into punching a bus and then Mr. Satan would have his arm stuck, leaving him vulnerable to some Batarangs.   Tough call.  

This is an example of why the dub rules.   In Japanese, these guys are watching Mr. Satan’s show on TV, and Chi-Chi just deadpan goes “There sure are some interesting people out there.”    Not a terrible line, but not quite funny enough to pay off this setup.   In the dub, Roshi remarks that Satan’s performance is “just sad”, and Chi-Chi goes “It sure is.   Somebody could have used that bus.”   And it’s beautiful, because it’s not only funnier, but it’s just such a Chi-Chi thing to say.

Also, what the hell is up with Roshi’s legs in this shot?   Everyone dumps on Triangle Guy and praises Teeth Guy, but this is a Teeth Guy episode and someone really blew off drawing Roshi’s legs.    They didn’t even move in this shot, so how hard could it have been?

Hey, Vegeta’s done with the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.    Piccolo notes that he’s a lot stronger, but not enough to do any good.    Also he’s got a lazy eye thing going on.   

Meanwhile, Tao Pai Pai is back, and he’s found another criminal to work for.  This time it’s a guy named Vodka. and Tao is selling him Dragon Balls.    Vodka has some sort of fortess of his own, and I think his plan is to ride out Cell, wait for the dust to settle, and use the Dragon Balls to wish for... well, I’m not sure exactly, but presumably, he’d rebuild society with himself at the top of the pecking order.  

I never thought about this before, but it really doesn’t make sense for Tao to have these Dragon Balls, since they were ordinary stones until Dende reactivated them only a short time ago.    Also, it’s not like Tao has been off the radar for a long time.    He just appeared in another filler episode set only a few days earlier.   So it’s not like we can say that he’s been hunting Dragon Balls for years and that’s how he has two of them.   

But the episode at least attempts to acknowledge this by having him think about how he found these two Balls by pure chance.   Even that seems kind of odd, but maybe he found them during the past year, before Kami and Piccolo merged, and he hung onto them, then they turned to stone, and now they’re active again.   And he just got home from his gig with Bourbon, and he noticed they were active again, and he figured he could score some quick cash by selling them.   

Honestly, I’m not sure what Tao’s game is here.   Is he just after money?    I never understood why he needed money in the first place, and he sure doesn’t need it now.    The whole world has become a looter’s paradise, and he’s strong enough to take what he wants.    Besides, a stack of bills won’t mean squat if Cell kills everyone.   

Is he just looking for a place to ride out the Cell crisis?   Bourbon and Vodka both have shelters of some sort, so maybe Tao wants to get in with one of them when things go bad.    Only they don’t need anyone assassinated at the moment, so he’s had to find other ways to make himself useful.   

Or maybe Tao is just living his life right up to the end, like the old store-owner in Episode 170 said.    The difference is that that guy was just minding his store, while Tao’s business is shady crap like what he’s doing now.    But in the back of his mind, he’s wondering if this will all just end in the blink of an eye.   

But Goku is looking for the Dragon Balls, and he has a Dragon Radar, so it doesn’t take long for him to show up.   Tao notices that Goku has brought Dragon Balls of his own, so he remarks that a pigeon has come to their doorstep, and they can just go ahead and pluck it.    The gag here is that Vodka doesn’t get the metaphor and thinks there’s a literal pigeon somewhere.  

So they just let Goku in, thinking the booby traps will kill him, but then he makes it into Vodka’s office, and Goku recognizes Tao and tells him who he is.    That takes the fight out of Tao real quick.  

Goku feels kind of bad about all of this, because he has to take the Dragon Balls they have, and he has nothing to offer in exchange.   What a nice guy.   

This gives Tao an idea, so he spits three ring puzzles out of his left robot arm.    Since they can’t trade the Dragon Balls for anything, Tao offers Goku a wager instead: If Goku can solve all three puzzles by daybreak, he’ll win Vodka’s two balls.   If not, Vodka will win Goku’s four.   

Goku accepts and gets started, while Tao and the others excuse themselves and take all six balls with them.    This is so Goku won’t be distracted, you see. 

The they just pile in the car and drive very far away.   

My favorite part of this episode is that they left a guy behind, and he gets so wrapped up in what Goku’s doing that he tries to help him, but Goku’s all “shush, I’m doing this on my own.”   The thing is, I don’t see how that guy wouldn’t be screwed if Goku got mad over the others ditching them.    They just sort of abandoned this goon.    Maybe they would call him later?

But it’s all good, because Goku finally solves the last puzzle, and the goon applauds.    You know, I was about to say he needs a name, but I distinctly remember Tao addressing him as “Henchman A”.  Fair enough.

For some reason, Vodka and Tao pull over to wash their feet in a stream, and Goku just teleports over to them to collect his winnings.    And they’re like “Yeah, okay, take ‘em.”   I mean, what else can they do?    He solved the ring puzzles, he found them, it’s awesome.  

Meanwhile, Bulma and Dr. Brief seem to have 16 fully repaired.   You know, that is pretty impressive, considering how they didn’t even have the right plans when they started on the guy. 

And Goku just found the seventh Dragon Ball, so we’re all set there.    So what’s left to cover?   

I guess nothing.   We flash forward to “M 17th”, the date of the Cell Games.   I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be May 17, but that makes no sense, because the android battle was supposed to be on May 12, right?   I’m gonna look this up.

Yeah, I think someone caught the error at some point, because Daizenshuu 7 established the Cell Games to be announced on May 17, then taking place on May 26.    At least, that’s what the Dragon Ball Wiki shows. 

Shoot, I may as well lay out that part of the chronology for reference.    All dates are Age 767.

May 12: Episodes 126-145  (Androids Saga to the destruction of Gero’s sub-basement.)

May 13-14: Episode 146 (Piccolo hunts for Cell)

May 15: Episodes 146-147 (Goku wakes up and shows Vegeta the Time Chamber)

May 16: Episodes 148-166 (Cell absorbs the androids and defeats Piccolo, 16, Tien, Krillin, Vegeta, and Trunks)

May 17: Episodes 167-169 (Cell announces Cell Games, Goku and Gohan exit the Hyperbolic Time Chamber)

May 18: Episodes 170-171 (The episode with Lime and Tao, and Gohan’s 11th Birthday party)

May 19: Episode s 172-174 (Goku installs Dende as Kami and gathers the Dragon Balls.   Vegeta and Trunks use the Time Chamber again)

May 20-25: Not actually shown, but referenced in Episode 174

May 26: Episodes 175-193 (Cell Games)

But right now, there’s only one hour left until the Cell Games begins.   Jimmy Firecracker and his cameraman are the only civilians in attendance, and they’re still waiting to see who shows up to fight.  Ooooh, this gonna be gooood.