#sergeant nutz

[duhragonball]

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.

[rwac96]

DBZ character. Krillin's boss in the police force.

https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Sergeant_Nutz

Thanks for the context.

[mrmethbook]

I'm writing a book this is the first chapter. Enjoy.

l                      An Ohio tail of a Meth family portrait 

           This is NOT a how-to on cooking meth. It's one man’s twisted journey into oblivion and a family’s self~propelled bullet train of a downward spiral.

                              Chapter 1 , The beginning of the end.                                                                                                                                     

I've been thinking where I should start this tale...Let’s get into the dark gritty heart of it....Mr. Later.

  The garage door slides open to one of his buyers, seeing him walking to my truck, I think. Where could this drill sergeant of a man be taking me, I have no idea. Mr. Later with his bald head and long red beard. He opens the passenger door of my purple and black 1984 S10 Chevrolet truck, he slides in beside me.

   "ALWAYS have your truck started as soon as you see me walking toward your truck, UNDERSTAND," Mr. Later tells me flat out.

    Always calm, cool, and collected on his self-profiting mission. Always humming that song,whatever it is.

    There's always someone with him, always a driver, in this case it’s me. Someone he can pay with chicken pebblet's and that will take his orders without hesitation. Someone he can throw away in a whims notice, like all the others, on this brightly lit go around.

    Pulling out of the old apple farm I'm told. "Of course I’ll be introducing you to oblivion first hand, if you so choose Mr. Bones. " He informs me, Why call me Mr. Bone's and whats this oblivion thing. It sounds like a video game.

    The next thing I know he tells me, "Shut the hell up and listen."

    Even though I wasn't saying a fucking thing.

    "You better listen very carefully, because I'm only telling you this one time. " I'm told this while Mr. Later roll's his red and white dice in his hand.

    "This is the only warning you fucks will ever get from me." He continues. "Because the time 

                                                                      

will come when you've felt like you've eaten a shit salad with chopsticks. I'm telling you this just so I'll feel better when the time come's." Even though it seems he is talking more to himself then me.

    Dice in one hand and harmonica in the other, Mr. Later starts in on me with his (Don't think twice) speech with his eyebrows lowered.

    "METH will take everything away, it will take it all away I promise you Bone's. At first, it's all fun and games in the no time zone*.  Before you know it you'll start to lose your mind to oblivion.  You've lost your vehicle, plus all your shit. You've lost your home, you've lost your whole damn family. Did I forget to mention your mind? Oh yeah, oblivion will have you in its pit bull bite, not letting go until it tastes blood. If your not strong-minded it will take everything down to the bone, Mr. Bone's.” He finally finishes with raised eyebrows while he shakes the dice in his hand.

    "So Bone's which is it...life...or obvilion." I hear him ask me.

    What in the hell is so important about this video game bull shit he keeps talking about anyway? I ask myself with a twisted mind, a mouth as dry as the Sahara desert and sweaty palms.

     "You better think it over very carefully boy, which is it life...or oblivion?" He snips at me.

  Driving we sit in silence, he starts humming that song, still shaking the dice in his hand.

    Just roll the damn dice already, I think impatiently. Oblivion must mean the high life...or does it mean life? I pondered.

    "Either one of them doesn't sound bad," I tell Mr. Later.                                                                                                         

    All the sideways meth talk* I've ever heard never makes any sense to me. 

    After several minutes of off-putting uneasiness, I tell him, ”I choose oblivion, either way, they both sound fun."

    Actually, I think oblivion chose me.

    "THIS AIN'T NO FUCKING VIDEO GAME MR. BONE'S, it's as real as it gets out there in the great unknown," Mr. Later fire's back. I'm told in A sing-song voice, "Shit can happen."  A seriousness settled in his gaze that pierces through my very soul. "So that's your final answer?"

    Still shaking those damn dice in his hand, harmonica in the other, he finally rolls the dice in the harmonica case making sure I can't see them.

    I clarify my answer with a node. Not trying to see the dice, it does make me wonder what's up with them. Do the dice have anything to do with this oblivion thing? 

     I feel like the dice just told him everything he needs to know in the world.

    "By choice or chance we have arrived at the conclusion that you've chosen obvilion, fortunately for you I'll be introducing you to your very own personal apocalypse." 

                                                                      2

   Will come when you've felt like you've eaten a shit salad with chopsticks. I'm telling you this just so I'll feel better when the time come's." I'm told, even though he’s talking more to himself.

    Dice in one hand and harmonica in the other, Mr. Later starts in on me with his (Don't think twice) speech with eyebrows lowered.

    "METH will take everything away, it will take it all away I promise you Bone's. At first, it's all fun and games in the (no time zone)*, before you know it you'll start to lose your mind to oblivion.  You've lost your vehicle, plus all your shit. You've lost your home, you've lost your whole damn family. Did I forget to mention your mind? Oh yeah, oblivion will have you in its pit bull bit, not letting go until it tastes blood. If your not strong~minded it will take everything down to the bone, Mr. Bone's.” He finally finishes with raised eyebrows while he shakes the dice in his hand.

    "So Bone's which is it...life...or obvilion." I hear him ask me.

    What in the hell is so important about this video game bull shit he keeps talking about anyway? I ask myself with a twisted mind, a mouth as dry as the Sahara desert and sweaty palms.

     "You better think it over very carefully boy, which is it life...or oblivion?" He snaps at me.

  Driving we sit in silence, he starts humming that song, still shaking the dice in his hand.

    Just roll the damn dice already, I thank impatiently. Oblivion must mean (the high life)...or is it just life? I wonder.

    "Either one of them doesn't sound bad," I tell Mr. Later.                                                                                                         

    All this sideways meth talk I've ever heard never makes any sense to me. 

    After several minutes of off-putting uneasiness, I tell him. ”I choose oblivion, either way, they both sound fun."

    Actually, I think oblivion choose me.

    "THIS AIN'T NO FUCKING VIDEO GAME MR. BONE'S, it's as real as it gets out there in the great unknown." Mr. Later fire's back.

    "Shit can happen." He tells me in a sing-song voice.

    Once again looking me straight in the eye's, "Okay that's your finely answer?" He asks me with the malice between his teeth.

    Still shaking those damn dice in his hand, harmonica in the other, he finally rolls the dice in the harmonica case making sure I can't see them.

    I clarify my answer with a node.

    Not trying to see the dice, it does make me wonder what's up with them.

    Do the dice have anything to do with this oblivion thing? 

    Now he's looking me straight in the eye's again, I'm looking straight back into the expressionless gaze of a man that's all-knowing. I feel like the dice just told him everything he needs to know in the world.

    "By choice or chance we have arrived at the conclusion that you've chosen obvilion, fortunately for you I'll be introducing you to your very own personal apocalypse." He tells me with a bit of panther in his voice.

                                                                           3

Welcome to oblivion

A place where time stands still

Welcome to oblivion

I'll take you there I will

if you tiptoe uPon this (place)

the fun you'll froLic and you'll (play)

shut eye's you'll never see it's (grAce)

fractured spirit you'll become the (preY)

your journey end's timE without a (trace)

with shackled mind an eteRnity you'll (stay)

 With a cloudy mind I hear an ominous tune of Mr Laters' harmonica followed by his haunting raspy voice;                                                                  

Welcome to oblivion

A place where time stands still

Welcome to oblivion

I'll take you there I will

                                                                  

    After what felt like forever, Mr. Later tells me to turn right into White's Trailer Park, also known as the cockroach kingdom.

    Pulling toward the back of the park, I think, Which of these swiss cheese smelling Shoebox twack-shack* is it goingok to be. Exactly at that moment, Mr. Later tells me to park in front of the last trailer on the right.

    Pulling in the place looks like your typical twack-shack, there's unfinished project's everywhere insight, plus there’s glorious tweeker-junk* as far as the eye can see.

    This place looks like my natural environment. 

    After turning off my truck, Mr. Later tells me to get out of the truck, go stand in front of the front door, looking natural. What in the hell is "looking natural" to a tweeker*.  Will you tell me?

   Mr Later's, who's all business,"Whatever in the hell you do, do not let that crazy-eyed fuck, Tweek Nutz, enter this trailer, under no circumstance?" Mr. Later tells me who’s all business.

    "Ya I understand," I tell the peacocking businessman as he enters the trailer.

    I'm standing there all natural-ish, when all of a sudden a heatwave washes over me, then I think I'm standing three feet from the trailer's front door, but in reality, I'm leaning against the trailer. I’m so askew, I misjudge the time it takes to switch shoulders from the right to the left. So I just sit down with one ass check on the front doorstep.

    Standing up I realize If this is being spun* I fucking hate this shit, I tell myself in haze, realizing I can't control my environment.

    While waiting on Mr. Later to come out, I'm praying this lazy eyed person of interest, don't show up to wreak havoc.

                                                                      4

    Low and behold, I see this lot lizard of a creature, he’s wearing cut off daisy duke shorts, cowboy boots, and a toothless rotten black smile.

    As this greasy dark figure grows closer, I come to the realization he's walking right toward me. This must be the lazy-eyed fuck Mr. Later told me about. 

    The Daisy Duke Cowboy is not carrying only one Gatorade bottle in his T-Rex arms, he’s carrying three bottles in his greasy hands and there moving every which way.

    The crusty carnivore keeps coming. At this point I realize I've never dealt with spun out tweaker fucks before. What in the hell keeps repeating in my supersonic side step twacked* out mind.

   The slivering snake is almost to me at this point. I put my hands up in a holdup motion.

   He’s looking at me with his lazy/crazy eye in every which direction but at me, I have no idea which is his good eye. I decided to move with his lazy/crazy eye as it moves.

    Shit, this is off-putting as concentrated catfish grease because I'm slipping and sliding every which way like a fish out of water. This fucking suck's.

    Evidently, I should have chosen the other eye because his bouncy eye is bouncing everywhere like the old Atari game Pong.

    Now I'm still moving up, down, left and right, not knowing what in the hell is going on.

    Then Tweek Nutz start's in on me with "Why in the fuck are you all the way down there when I'm all the way up here." He tells me pointing to his forehead.

     This crazy-eyed douche-bag is looking me straight in my eyes with his one good eye now. Fuck the wrong eye. I realize it’s not his Pong eye.                                                                                                                                                                                                             "Why are you looking at me like a snitch would? Only cop's look at me like that. Are you a fucking cop?" He asks while his voice grew louder.

     "Mr. Later told me under no circumstance is anyone allowed to enter this shitty ass front door.” I tell him.

    By now Tweek Nutz is bobbing and weaving, looking all around. Obviously paranoid to the max probably because I mentioned Mr. Later.

    I ask myself what kind of man is this Mr. Later? After what felt like ten lifetimes I can finally say, Like C3PO, all I can think is thank the maker, thank Darth Vader, because Mr. Later walks out the front door like a fast phantom of delinquency.

    He yells "The truck Bone's! Get in the fucking truck, you chicken headed amateur!"

    Immediately I try to get to the truck before Mr. Later does because the whole always having the truck started thing so on and so forth.

    Before I know it we’re backing out of the driveway. Tweek Nutz then stumbles out in front of my truck, he’s standing there waving his arms all crazy like. I don't know what to think. Do I run him over or drive around? While pulling a small bag of crank* from his pocket Mr. Later tells me “Bones, stop the truck.”

                                                5

     Just then Tweek Nutz looks back at his twak-shack of a trailer. He sees his cum dumpster of a girlfriend walking out the front door.

    He screams "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH MY OLD LADY LATER?" Mr. Later realize. “Fuck I don't know, probably stuff her in a burlap sack, then push her off a tall bridge, what are you doing Later"?

    With the window down, Mr. Later tosses Tweek Nutz the little bag of white*.

    Looking at the baggy in the palm of his hand, Tweek Nutz start's yelling at his girl. "NOT AGAIN YOU LITTLE BATTERY BUNNY*, FROM NOW ON ONLY I'M GONNA FUCK YOU AND NOT YOUR COUSIN'S!"

    Pulling out of the trailer park we leave the twacked out fucks in our wake.

    Driving down the road we leave this collapsing conclusion of a disaster. It’s true relief.

    Not knowing what kind of spun out roller coaster I'm getting myself into is heart-stopping, but at this point, I'd rather have an elephant's foot standing on my nuts, than that last monstrosity.

    Leaving this collapsing conclusion of a disaster I learned when the Ring Master speaks YOU listen and never forget to enjoying the ride.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga Ch. 94-96

We're still reading the Super Hero adaptation! It's not great!

Things continue pretty much like they did in the movie, although it's a little awkward how Chapter 94 opens with Pan waiting to get picked up from school, just like she was in Chapter 91, because Toyotaro wanted to show Piccolo doing a "normal" kindergarten pickup as a prelude to the story. And that might have seemed like a good idea on paper. You know, contrast a routine encounter with the zany scene we got in the movie. The problem is that it undermines the zany scene when we finally get to it. The whole point is that a "normal" version isn't that interesting to see, which is why they didn't show Gohan cooking breakfast or Dr. Hedo brushing his teeth in the movie.

Anyway, you read chapter 91 and it feels like they skipped to the middle of the movie because Pan's waiting at kindergarten. Then you get to Chapter 94 and you see Pan waiting at kindergarten again and think the story is starting over. Or was it preschool? The manga version has a sign over the property that reads "kindergarten", but Pan's only three so I don't know. Piccolo knocked her into a bunch of rocks earlier in the day, and now he's taking her home with a layover at Red Ribbon HQ, so the point of all of this is that nothing is really ever "normal" with Dragon Ball.

Back to the manga, Toyotaro drags out this scene by having a cop take notice of the Red Ribbon aircraft, but he immediately decides it's okay once he finds out it's for Mr. Satan's granddaughter. This might be the same cop who helped Goku find Bulma's house for the first time in the original Red Ribbon Army Saga, but I'm not interested in looking it up.

So once again, Toyotaro seems determined to cram in new material to this story, but it's always designed to be as dull as possible, answering questions no one asked. Why didn't Piccolo get a ticket for the aircraft being parked on the street? For the zero people who were concerned about this, Toyotaro heroically includes a traffic cop whose sole purpose is to remind us that it doesn't actually matter.

Chapter 94 continues up to the first leg of the Gohan/Gamma 1 fight. There's some changes to the fight choreography, but I'm not gonna do a side-by-side analysis or anything. It pretty much has to be different because of the medium involved. I'm pretty sure Gohan firing a Kamehameha is new, as is Gamma 1 shooting at him to counterattack. But I could be wrong.

While Gohan powers up to his Ultimate/Mystic/Elder Kai Unlock form, Krillin's family is just getting out of the movie theater where they watched Cleangod 2. I mentioned this scene before, but now that we're here, this is Teen Marron's only appearance in Dragon Ball Super, and here's the big pitch for the character: She's a huge fan of Cleangod. Just like Goten! And Trunks. And... Dr. Hedo. I'm not impressed.

Krillin senses Gohan fighting, then he gets a call from Police HQ.

For some reason, Krillin runs off and hides while he takes the call? Are people not supposed to know he's a cop? Everyone keeps staring at him the whole time, so if he's trying to keep this a secret, he's doing a lousy job of it. Also, when 18 asks him who he's talking to, she doesn't seem to believe his answer, so she insists on tagging along with him. Does... 18 not know Krillin's a cop? What is going on here?

The dumbest part of all of this is that Nutz is calling Krillin to tell him about the battle at the Red Ribbon Army base. Remember how she had Krillin follow Magenta and Hedo in Chapter 91? Because they knew Magenta had a secret base but they didn't know where it was? And then Krillin lost them before he could find it?

Okay, so apparently the police had suspected that it was in that crater lake, camouflaged by a hologram. In fact, they've suspected this for so long that they've been monitoring the lake with cameras, and when Gohan went ultimate he disrupted the hologram and revealed the base. Now they want Krillin to reconnoiter the area before they send in a bunch of guys.

This is just really dumb. I mean, if the police suspected the base was inside the lake, why didn't they just send Krillin to check it out in the first place? He could have gone there months ago, and if it was just a lake, the worst thing that would have happened is he'd get wet. But if it was a secret mercenary base, he could have just snuck in and out as easily as Piccolo did in this story. It would have been even easier, since Krillin's less conspicuous than Piccolo, and the Red Ribbon wouldn't have had Hedo's androids for support. Hell, Krillin could have taken out the entire base by himself, and all they had to do was send him to the lake that they were already monitoring.

Also, why is it the West City Police Department's job to bust the Red Ribbon Army? Isn't that a job for the Royal Military? None of this makes any sense. I mean, the purpose is to add more Krillin content to the story, but it's so forced that it becomes nonsensical. The movie makes so much more sense without the police involved at all. Again, it's another question that no one asked. "Why didn't the police find the Red Ribbon Army's hidden base?" Because it's a hidden base, that's why not!

Toyotaro seems almost desperate to give these fictional cops a chance to save face. Well they were trying very hard to locate the base, but they just couldn't find it before Piccolo did. Except his depiction of their efforts just makes them look worse. Sergeant Nutz seems to know everything about the Red Ribbon Army. She knew Magenta was secretly rebuilding it, she knew he was planning to contact Dr. Hedo, and when he would do it. She was even pretty sure where the Red Ribbon base was. Yet despite all this inside information, she still couldn't figure out how to respond to it.

All of this makes it look like a set up to explain Krillin showing up at the end of the movie, except, no, that's not what happens. He shows up at the end because Bulma calls him and tells him what's happening. Toyotaro saw the movie and thought: "No! That's not enough! We need three reasons for Krillin to go to the lake!"

1. He senses Gohan's ki from the battle. 2. Sgt. Nutz calls him and tells him to go check out the base. 3. Bulma calls him and tells him Piccolo is at the base.

Is that enough? Does Krillin have sufficient motivation to go yet? I'm not sure, let's throw in some more reasons.

4. Krillin is visited by the ghost of the pirates from that underwater cave. The ghost tells him that the Red Ribbon stole his treasure and hid it in the lake, so he pleads with Krillin to recover it so the pirates can rest in peace. 5. Marron really wants to check out the crater lake, becuase Cleangod 2 had a scene that was filmed there. 6. Vegeta briefly pops in using his manga-only Instant Transmission. He asks Krillin to check on a three-layer cake he ordered from the bakery, but Krillin mishears him and thinks he said "crater lake". 7. The Supreme Kai of Time deputizes Krillin into the Time Patrol and informs him of a temporal anomaly at the crater lake. 8. Krillin was going there anyway because it's on his way home.

Back to the fight, not much is different, although there's a brief moment where Piccolo coaches Gohan before they resume fighting their respective opponents. This is kind of redundant, because they both already understood they were fighting androids, and they're already in their strongest forms (as far as they know), so Piccolo is just stating the obvious here. At least he isn't telepathically summoning Krillin to get his butt over here. Piccolo actually trusts the plot of this movie.

The Gammas aren't quite as powerful in this version, so 2 has to give a little assist to 1, then they consider double-teaming Piccolo to improve their chances. This doesn't last long, though, since it's not like Gohan was just going to stand there and let Piccolo get beat down.

At Capsule Corp, Bulma starts assembling a squad to help Piccolo, and is surprised to learn that Trunks already knows about Dr. Hedo. She asks him why he never mentioned any of this before, and finally, finally, Toyotaro has come up with a question someone might have actually asked. Why didn't Trunks tell Bulma about all of this? Because he would have gotten in trouble for playing superhero, and also because Bulma wouldn't have taken his story seriously even if he had said anything.

So Bulma admits that she goofed, but now she ungrounds Trunks (and Goten, since he just showed up), and she wants them to join Piccolo in battle.

But she immediately regrets it, because Goten and Trunks can't pinpoint Piccolo's location with their ki senses. And this is Big Goten in a nutshell. The boys are eager to get in on the action, but they lack the skill and focus to be effective. They're basically the opposite of what Gohan was in his childhood. Gohan was constantly caught between adventure and study, and he ended up excelling in both things. But Goten and Trunks really don't get pushed hard in either direction. They don't have much motivation to study, and they're not very good at adventure stuff either. Bulma's giving them a chance to be heroes and they're blowing it.

Anyway, she calls Piccolo, and when he doesn't answer, she calls Krillin, which is the canonical reason they all show up together at the end of the story.

Oh, and here's an awesome shot of Cell Max. I can't stress this enough: The art in this thing is tremendous, but the writing is just dull as can be. Everything's either a rerun or a pointless filler scene.

When Cell Max crawls out to fight all the good guys, Goten and Trunks offer to give Piccolo and Gohan a breather, and they switch to their Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 suits. Pan's into it, but everyone else find it dumb. I guess Marron should have come along and maybe she'd enjoy this...

[rwac96]

Should Android 18 be worried about Sergeant Nutz with Krillin, since they are working close together?

Sergeant Nutz?