#dbza ep42

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 42 Review

Originally posted April 1st, 2016

A reflection on my love for this series.

“Fear and Loathing in Ginger Town” is the episode that inspired me to review Dragonball Z: Abridged.

So naturally I think it’s pretty good.

But before I get into why I think it’s the best episode of theirs I’ve reviewed to date, I want to talk about how it inspired me to think critically about this series. Before I saw this episode, I was an invested, but ultimately passive, viewer of the show. I liked the show for two reasons: it was genuinely funny, and it helped me get through an incredibly dark time in my life. I got introduced to Dragonball Z: Abridged by a friend1 when I was coming out of the destruction of my closest friendship (which was entirely my fault), and he showed me The Christmas Tree of Might and sold me on the series.

I was hooked from the get-go (to the point where I didn’t even really notice season 1’s flaws), and DBZA served as one of the few sources of relief I had from the pain I was experiencing. I could watch episodes of the show and get a much needed laugh, all in a show that wasn’t afraid to be funny in the face of death, destruction, and melodrama. To say that the show saved me would be a bit of an overstatement, but it helped me to survive, to cope long enough to work my way into a better place.2

That is the reason that I love this show, but what inspired me to review it was the depth of Piccolo’s confrontation with Kami. It was at this point that the show first impacted me emotionally, as these two Namekians clash and Kami is forced to come to terms with his own mortality. He sees a world on the brink as an old man and questions his place above it, his place as an ineffectual guardian whose only remaining purpose is to surrender his body to his “son” so that he might have a chance at saving the world. When Kami grips his staff and says “I’m done anyway,” he is coming to a dark and somber recognition that the world he’s sworn to protect is better off without him, and that sacrificing his own agency is the only way he can do any good for anyone anymore.

That depth showed me that there was something more to Team Four Star’s storytelling; that this show was not just a series of clever jokes, but an exploration of the themes of heroism and power in its own right. From there, I began thinking about the way this show inverted tropes and did its best to inject good representation of women and members of the queer community, even if it stumbled occasionally (see: Dodoria).

I also began to think about how the show investigated the questions left open by the original, and how it made much more explicit the subtext and relationships between the characters (such as Gohan’s horrible relationship with his father). The depth in their conversation inspired the lines of questioning that have led to every single review in this series,3 and I probably would have never taken up this line of criticism if they hadn’t done such a damn good job with it.

The rest of the episode is naturally excellent as well. Unlike the last two episodes, where everything was essentially character-driven shuffling of characters, this episode actually sees our characters more directly advancing the story. Gohan and Trunks embark on an investigation of an abandoned time machine, and Gohan gets to be an adorably effective detective, solving mysteries and searching for clues.

Krillin spends most of his time at Kame House expounding on his love for Android 18, proving himself to be equally adorable and refreshingly respectful (especially when contrasted with the delightful douchebaggery of Master Roshi). And then there’s the very end of the episode, and its introduction of Cell, who enters singing “Mr. Sandman” and calling Piccolo his friend. His introduction is beautifully sinister, and Takahata101 makes it absolutely clear that this guy is not only the creepiest motherfucker alive, but the most fearsome villain we’ve seen yet in the series.

Rating: 5/5

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Stray Observations

1It’s probably worth noting that the friend who introduced me to DBZA was actually affected by the fallout, and would’ve been within their rights to not spend time with me. They were far more gracious than I deserved, and to this day I’m still really thankful for that.

2The show also helped me through a number of different hard times after that, and it was, for a while, the show I’d binge as a pick-me-up whenever I was feeling particularly down.

3Originally, the idea was to attempt to coalesce all of these ideas about the changes made by Team Four Star into an academic paper that’d critically explore the value of their revisions. But you can’t say “hella” in an academic paper, and reviewing these individually has honestly been much more rewarding in the long run.

“You blonde bimbo, you get back here this instant!” *Car backs up* “Oh no, n-no, n-n-n-no!”

Trunks: “Well, I suppose you take a lot after your father.” Gohan: “In what regard?” Trunks: “You’re the strongest, bravest warrior on the planet.” Gohan: “Okay good.”

Gohan: “Ooh, a mystery! I never get to solve mysteries, like Sherlock Homes or Batman! Usually we’re just fighting people. Like Bruce Lee. Or Batman!”

Gohan: “Whatever shot the canopy, came from the inside!” Trunks: “So what does that tell us?” Gohan: “That the blast came from the inside…”

Bulma: “As the daughter of the world’s leading class scientist with doctorates in both bioengineering and evolutionary biology, I can only deduce that this is a mutant coconut!”

Trunks: “Well at least one of use is having fun with this.” *Bulma makes Pac-Man noises with the egg* Trunks: “Two of us.”

Roshi: “So there’s a hot one now?” Krillin: “Oh yeah, like you wouldn’t believe. Her eyes are this beautiful piercing blue, her confidence is stunning, and she does this adorable little thing with her hair where she brushes it out of the way-“ Roshi: “Fantastic! How’s the rack? What are we talking here, apples, oranges, melons?” Krillin: “Is that really important?” Roshi: “Yes!”

Gohan: “I think I found a clue! Either that or a record setting cicada. I’m okay with both actually.”

Trunks: “Long shot, but you wouldn’t happen to carry hand sanitizer on you, would you?” Gohan: “Do, do you not?”

I swear, that reporter sounds just like Futurama’s Richard Nixon.

“I can’t say for certain how they disappeared, however, recreational marijuana use was recently legalized in the region, so I believe we can all come to the same conclusion.”

Krillin: “Oh hey, Gohan, do you like mysteries?” Gohan: “Do I!?”

Piccolo: “Goku doesn’t even look after his own kid! I look after his kid more than he does!”

Kami: “I’m sure you’re familiar with the technique. Now, lower.” Piccolo: “Yeah, not falling for that.” Kami: “I didn’t think so.”

Korin: “Well I know someone who’s not getting invited to Sunday Brunch. Oh, who am I kidding, we like him.”

“Now the libs are surely gonna shout ‘racism’ over this one, but this is just what happens when you elect a dog as king!”