#yo! son goku and his friends return!

[duhragonball]

Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return! (2008)

2008 marked the fortieth anniversary of the manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump.  To commemorate the occasion, Toei produced two anime shorts, which would be presented during the Jump Super Anime Tour.  One of these was One Piece: Romance Dawn Story, and the other was Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return.

With respect to One Piece, I think the Dragon Ball special was a much bigger deal, as this was the first new anime from the franchise since Dragon Ball GT signed off in 1997.  Today, it’s kind of easy to overlook, because we have four new movies, 131 episodes of Dragon Ball Super, and however many chapters of the DBS manga.  But in 2008, it was pretty much understood that Dragon Ball had ended and would not return.  So even a one-off special like this was pretty historic. 

In the fall of 2008, Shonen Jump put the special on their website, and I remember having to install a special browser to watch it.  I thought I had downloaded the episode as well, but this afternoon I went looking through my files and apparently I only got the browser.  I guess that might still work after all this time, except they took down the OAV in 2009. The only official release was in 2013, when it was included as a bonus feature of a limited edition of the Battle of Gods DVD.  So it’s on track to become another “lost movie”, like “Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans”. 

You can track down Return on YouTube, but I couldn’t find a very good upload of the video.  A lot of fans tried to dub it themselves, probably  because there was never a proper English localization.  The only version I found with English subtitles was a “remastered” version, and from what I can tell, they just slapped their shitty watermark in the corner and did a horizontal flip of the footage to avoid a copyright strike.   So when I started this liveblog, I assumed this OAV was already in my collection, but it turned out to be the hardest one to arrange. 

There was also a 2009 manga adaptation of this anime, so maybe that version is easier to find than this special, but I sure hope they just put all this stuff out there where people can buy it.  Anyway, let’s take a look at what we’ve got.

So, in case you’re not familiar with this OAV, this is the one with Tarble, Vegeta’s brother.  I’m pretty sure he hasn’t appeared anywhere else since, unless you count his inclusion in the roster of Raging Blast 2, and some other video games.  He was also mentioned during Battle of Gods and the recent Broly film, but mostly this was done just to remind the audience that they didn’t forget about him.  In Battle of Gods, Vegeta says that he has no idea how to find or contact Tarble, and I suspect this means that we may never see him again.  Then again, I never expected Dragon Ball to return before 2008, and here we are.

This OAV also set the stage for a lot of what was done with the characters in Super.  Goku’s got the same farmer’s outfit here that we see him wear in Super, and he mentions that Mr. Satan recently gave him some money, which is depiced in DBS Episode 1. 

Continuity-wise, this takes place two years after the defeat of Kid Buu.  As I recall, Battle of Gods was supposed to be set four years after the defeat of Kid Buu, to give you an idea. 

So during that two-year peacetime, Chi-Chi has gotten Goku to start a radish farm, while Mr. Satan has built a new hotel.  The grand opening will take place soon, but he wants to hold a private party there the day before, and invite everyone from the Buu Saga to celebrate their victory. 

This greatly embarrasses Videl, so she calls Gohan to tell him about it.  Mr. Satan got all the credit for defeating Buu, but that isn’t true at all.  So she thinks his ego has gotten out of control. 

Also, there’s this cute sequence in the background as Satan and Buu give their dog a bath.  First they shove him down the hall, then Buu carries him back the other way, with suds all over him. 

That night, Gohan tells the rest of the family that they’ve been invited.  Goku and Chi-Chi aren’t interested, but Gohan casually brings up how it’s all-you-can-eat, and suddenly Goku’s on board.  The weird thing is that Gohan seems extremely relieved about this, and even thinks “Now Videl won’t yell at me.”  I don’t understand where he would have gotten that idea.  Videl just seemed frustrated about her dad’s extravagance.  I never got the sense that she wanted or needed Goku to come to this party, or that she would have been upset with Gohan if he couldn’t convince his dad to attend. 

Anyway, I just really like this shot of the four of them sitting at the table.  We never got to see this sort of thing in DBZ, but now we can.  It’s nice.

The next day, Videl arrives to pick them up, and Roshi immediately gawks at Chi-Chi’s boobs, so she hits him in the face with a frying pan. 

They get to the hotel, and Goku greets Buu’s pet dog.  He’s called “Bay” in the subtitles, and the name “Bee” seems to be official, as it gets used throughout the dub, but the weird thing I discovered in 2019 was that the dog never gets named throughout the entire Japanese script for the anime.  So I’m not sure when the name was finally introduced.  Maybe it was in the manga, but if that’s the case, you’d think it would have been used in the anime as well.  Or maybe it was one of those things they put in the guidebooks or whatever.

I just always liked this interaction with the two of them, where Goku greets Bee like a fellow veteran of the Kid Buu Saga, even though Bee was just a frightened puppy on the Sacred World of the Kais.  But he fought as hard as the others.  He borked and borked and then Kid Buu finally dropped dead, so I call that a win.

So one really weird thing about this special is how Mr. Satan somehow got Kibitoshin and the Elder Supreme Kai to show up for this.  Also King Kai, Bubbles, and Gregory are in attendance, they’re all dead.  I’m pretty sure this is the first and only time we ever see King Kai in the mortal plane.  Maybe this was why Gohan thought it was so important to get Goku to come to this thing.  Goku’s the only one who could get in touch with some of these characters, so without his help, Mr. Satan’s party would have been a very small affair.

Then the press shows up, despite Mr. Satan’s best efforts to keep this private.  They just want to know the name of the hotel, and it soon gets revealed as “The Mr. Satan World-Saving Defeat of Majin Buu Super Gorgeous Hotel.”  Try saying that three times fast. 

Satan seems mortified to have the name revealed, like he’s ashamed of it or something, but they were going to reveal this tomorrow anyway, so I don’t understand his reaction.  Then the media seem really pleased with the name, and he embraces it.  I don’t understand this whole plotline.

So, first of all, no one in the general public should even remember the name “Majin Buu”.  That’s because Goku used the Dragon Balls to wipe their memories of Majin Buu, so that Fat Buu could live among them without causing a panic.  They remember the Buu crisis, and that a terrible monster killed them all, but they don’t remember what the monster’s name was, or that it looked exactly like the big pink dude Mr. Satan hangs out with all the time. 

So I get Videl’s embarrassment, because it resembles her feelings in DBZ Episode 289.  As she put it, everyone believes her father saved the world from something, but no one knows what it was.   Also, it was during the Buu Saga that she learned her dad never beat Cell either, so I think she’s still coping with the fact that her dad’s business empire is all based on lies. 

However, Dragon Team takes the whole thing in stride, because they’ve known the truth all along, and they never resented Satan about it before.  Now, they like the guy, because he really did help them out with Majin Buu.  And now that he knows the truth about them, he’s been extremely humble around them, albeit privately.  I mean, the fact that he’s throwing this party in their honor kind of sums it up, doesn’t it?  He’s opening a hotel that commemorates “his” victory over Buu, but the day before, he invites the gang over to celebrate the true heroes of that struggle. 

And it’s kind of an awkward balance for Mr. Satan, made even more awkward when the press unexpectedly show up and he has to play both roles at once, but I don’t get how the hotel is an example of Satan’s ego getting out of control. 

Also, why a hotel?  This sounds like a museum or a monument would make more sense, but maybe hotels have a different significance in Japanese culture?  It’s also kind of weird how this is like Mr. Satan’s project.  You’d think that someone else would build the hotel and he would simply get royalties for attaching his name and likeness to it. 

Anyway, just before the gang can start eating, a pair of Saiyan Attack Balls land on Earth, and everyone senses a powerful ki.  It’s someone new, and that someone heads straight for the party, and Vegeta recognizes him as Tarble, his younger brother. 

Why have we never heard of this guy before?  Because Tarble had the same origin story as Goku.  During the rule of the Vegeta dynasty, Saiyan babies were tested for battle potential, and those determined to be unfit were launched into space to defenseless planets, where they could grow up and conquer in relative safety.  And say what you will about King Vegeta III, but he was no hypocrite, as he followed that policy with his own son, sending Tarble to some other planet because his test scores weren’t up to snuff. 

And this always illustrated the nonsense behind the Saiyans’ attempts to breed better warriors.  The whole idea was to remove the weakest specimens from their own population, and devote the best training and resources to the strongest, so that they could produce even stronger generations in the future.   Except Goku had extremely low test scores, and yet he wound up becoming the Legendary Super Saiyan.  Meanwhile, Vegeta and Tarble are brothers, yet one of them tested well and the other one didn’t, which sort of exposes the notion of Saiyan power is hereditary.

Anyway, Tarble grew up on some remote world, and apparently he became its defender instead of conquering it.  Then some new threat appeared, and it was too much for him.  So he went looking for help, and a Namekian once told him that Vegeta went to Earth after Frieza’s downfall.  So he’s here to ask Vegeta to save his adopted world. 

Vegeta finds it unseemly for Tarble to ask others to handle his problems, but he’s in the mood for a fight, so he’s down to clown.  But several other guests at the party want to fight, and Goku points out that they can’t all just gang up on the enemy, so he proposes a lottery.   They all teleport back to his house, where they can pull radishes out of his farm.  The one with the longest radish gets to fight.

Goten seems to have the game won, but then Trunks’ radish turns out to be like 100 feet long, so he gets the nod.

At this point, Tarble’s companion wishes Trunks good luck, and Vegeta finally asks who that is.  Turns out, it’s Tarble’s wife, Gure. 

Roshi makes some dumb remark about Saiyans always choosing strange wives, so Chi-Chi and Bulma beat the shit out of him with cookware. 

So they go back to the hotel just in time to meet Tarble’s enemies, who have followed him here.  Vegeta recognizes them as Frieza’s men, Abo and Cado, who were once on par with the Ginyu Force.  Tarble says they were away during Frieza’s downfall, and since that time they have gone into business for themselves, and they’ve become as powerful as Frieza himself. 

So you have to assume that Tarble must be pretty strong himself by now, if these guys came to his planet and he managed to put up any sort of resistance, right?  I mean, he didn’t know about Super Saiyans, but if Abo and Cado are as strong as Frieza, then Tarble must be at least as strong as Vegeta was on Namek, right? 

Anyway, since there are two bad guys, Goku finagles Goten into this contest to even things up. 

Also, Oolong is dressed up like a sexy maid, and serving coffee and sandwiches to the spectators.  That seems like a long way to go for a bit, but Oolong’s a shapeshifter, so maybe he can just will himself to have different outfits on. 

Oh, I didn’t notice Puar’s doing the same bit.  So why wouldn’t they both use their shape shifting powers to look like actual maids?  I mean, if that’s what they’re going for, right?

The four combatants fight evenly at first, but we know Trunks and Goten aren’t even trying that hard because they’re still in base form.  This is just the beginning.  And see, this all makes sense, because none of the main cast is sweating Abo and Cado for a second.  Tarble is afraid of these guys, but everyone else knows they’re just jobbers, fit only for a little practice with the boys. 

Then Abo and Cado use some sort of multiform technique to turn the tables.  Goten and Trunks are stymied...

... until Gohan offers to coach them.   He tells Trunks which way to hit, and tells Gohan to use his ki senses to figure out which one of the multiforms is real.

Wait... I just figured that out.  It seemed strange to me that Gohan would give each one different advice, but maybe that’s the idea.  So it looks like Abo and Cado are doing the multiform technique just like Krillin and Piccolo did against Nappa back in the day.  However, that technique produces three copies of a fighter’s body.  There is no “real” one because they’re all real. 

However, the advice about closing your eyes and using ki senses sounds very reasonable for countering the Afterimage technique which produces illusions.  So what if Abo and Cado are actually using both tricks at the same time, switching back and forth to confuse their opponents?  Pretty tricky.  Well, not really, since Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo all seem to see through it very easily, but it’s tricky enough to confuse Goten and Trunks.

Then Abo and Cado combine into a single, purple alien.  This form is known as “Abocado” although Goten and Trunks are the only ones who call him that, so maybe they made it up on the spot.  I think we all know what’s coming next...

Fusion!  Wait, they fucked it up.  Well, they haven’t had to do this in a while.

There we go.  I think this OAV is the first indication that characters can de-fuse and re-fuse quickly like this.  In the Buu Saga, Gotenks didn’t know how to separate, other than just waiting for the thirty-minute time limit to expire.  But maybe Goku showed him how.  And maybe it’s possible for Goten and Trunks to re-fuse without the rest period.  Originally, there was a cooldown period for the Fusion Dance, but that seems to have gone out the window in later works, such as this one.

So Gotenks uses the Wolf Fang Fist on Abocado, then follows up with the Volleyball Fist, which was Tien’s signature move in the 22nd Budokai.  This is kind of special, because Tien’s not even in this OAV.  His voice actor, Hirotaka Suzoki, had died of lung cancer in 2006, and so Tien wasn’t included in this production, to honor his memory.  And so the Volleyball Fist is kind of the only reference to Tien we get in this thing. 

And then Gotenks turns Super Saiyan to finish with the Dynamite Rolling Thunder Punch, which is one from his own personal moveset.  See, he started as base Goten and Trunks, then they fused, then Super Saiyan.   The fight escalated as it went on, and the different forms followed that progression.  That alone makes this little side-story better than every episode of GT.

But Abocado doesn’t go down so easily, and he starts shooting his big finishing blast.  Gotenks blocks it, but it wrecks the hotel, and the other Z-Fighters have to bust out their own signature moves to protect the civilians.  Goku and Vegeta finally step in, but Goku distracts Vegeta and teleports ahead...

Where he delivers a Kamehameha and big punch to put Abocado down for the count.  Not sure why he’s blue here. 

When it’s over, Vegeta complains about Goku distracting him in order to steal the win.  Goku’s like “Yeah, that was kind of inconsiderate of me, Vegeta.  Remember that time you broke every bone in my body and beat up my son?”

So the battle’s over, but Mr. Satan’s new hotel is destroyed.  Videl tells him he should take this as a lesson in humility, which seems to sink in, until Goku suggests that he use the Dragon Balls to ask Shenron to restore the place.  Videl scolds him again and that seem to talk him out of it. 

Also, Launch has been here the whole time, but she never says or does anything.  Just stating that for the record.

So they go back to eating, because I guess the food wasn’t damaged in the battle.  Gure is shocked-- shocked I say-- to see Saiyans eating lots of food.  Does Tarble just never eat in front of her?  That seems kind of like a strange way to live. 

Maybe Gure is finally realizing that this was what happened to her prize racehorse, Marmalade Thunder.  She didn’t escape from the stable that night after all.  It was Tarble.   It was Tarble all along. 

“This is a good spread, Kakarot, but you know what would make it even better?”

“I dunno, a racehorse?”

“Hell yeah.”

Also Abo and Cado have turned good and are joining the party.  I guess they just love radishes so they’re gonna eat all of those. 

Then Goku eats Vegeta’s sushi, and he takes some of Goku’s pork in retaliation, so they both turn Super Saiyan and look like they’re about to throw down.  But that’ll have to wait for some other anniversary special, I guess.

This special is about “an evil menace that failed to register in public memory.”  As the narrator points out, Abo and Cado might have been a big honkin’ deal, if they had shown up years earlier.   But they didn’t, and so they turned out to be a one-shot affair. 

And that’s it.  I’ll close out by noting that the opening credits for this OAV feature all new animation with Goten and Trunks worked into the classic DBZ opening. 

And the end credits feature a new song, “Orange Hero”, which features scenes of various characters just chilling out.  I like this one of the Son Family with Satan and Videl. 

So that’s it.  The special wasn’t too big a deal in terms of its plot.  The whole point was to introduce a threat that would only be dangerous enough to justify a lot of fun callbacks. Still, it added some new lore to the franchise, and it set the tone for everything that came after. 

[evilkitten3]

There’s 2 types of goku fans

The dudebros who only care about power scaling and who goku can beat

Autistic bitches

[varilien]

well anyways happy goku day to all who celebrate

[fabuloustrash05]

I love the idea of Goku being Vegebul’s #1 shipper

Based on this scene from Brooklyn 99

[laladbzland]

[kattailjump]

When I decided to finally watch Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! last night, I did not expect thirst trap Goku:

This man needs to be wearing this dark gray tank top ALL THE TIME.

[shannonsketches]

lays on the floor i am once again thinking about the goku geets foil in terms of their experience and perspective and parenting

tl;dr: Goku sees letting his child do serious battle as a gift, and Vegeta sees it as a failure.

a lot of the 'goku's a bad father' discourse comes from how he trains/puts Gohan into fights and either doesn't know or doesn't realize that Gohan wants to be a scholar and not a warrior; the reason Gohan keeps joining the fray is because he doesn't want to see people he loves get hurt, right, because that's been his entire experience since Raditz showed up (and remains so until Cell dies).

The discourse re: The Cell Games is interesting though, examining the 'how could Goku not know/how could Goku volunteer his child so blithely' etc and his similar attitude toward the kids fighting in Super('s manga), and it's part of why I say/write/read Goku as deeply inconsiderate but never malicious (and this does tie into the foil with Geets lemme just); Goku's experience with serious combat is fun, and exciting.

Goku volunteering Gohan to fight Cell was something Goku considered a gift to Gohan, to be able to flex his power and go all out on an enemy that could handle it/required it -- that's something Goku wishes he had the power to do, especially at Gohan's age! That's super exciting to Goku. It's not pageant mom forcing her kid to do what she wanted energy, it's Goku being sweet and pure and sharing something he thinks he has in common with his kid. Vegeta says Saiyans live to fight! Goku's entire life has been spent bonding with competitive martial artists! It never occurred to him that someone so naturally powerful and talented wouldn't enjoy fighting.

And Goku does not read subtext, that's not a skill he has, so by the time Piccolo spells it out for him, he's genuinely sorry to have put Gohan in that position.

But in Super('s manga), the larger picture of Don't Put Children in Traumatic Situations still doesn't really occur to Goku, because he doesn't consider battle traumatic, no matter how emotionally intense it gets. Goku doesn't hold onto things. Goku lives and lets live, as long as he doesn't have to kill you. That's his super power. It's why he can be friends with all of these people who have done him and his loved ones and his planet so much harm. He consistently ends earth-shattering battles with, 'that was fun, let's do it again sometime'

Vegeta, on the other hand (see I told you I'd get here, I promised), has had the complete opposite experience. Vegeta considers others heavily, it's what made him very good at being malicious. Vegeta does this for survival. Vegeta's climb to the top is for the vantage point, not the view. He's not looking to the stars dreaming about what else it out there. He's squinting at the dark trying to kill whatever it is before it kills him and his home and his family. again.

Vegeta is a child soldier, who has distinct recollection of his culture being built on the rearing of child soldiers. By the times the cell games come around he is experiencing having a child for the first time, and after seeing (a future version of) that child die in battle, he seems to take on a much different opinion on letting kids fight.

Vegeta comes from a culture in which you send your child off-world to conquer a planet, alone, once they're old enough to walk. The stronger kids go into war zones. Vegeta was giving strategic orders to fellow elites by the time he was five. He was treating Gohan like a soldier when he was five.

But, by the Buu saga, Bulma tells Gohan that Vegeta says Trunks is old enough now to start proper training -- when Trunks is eight years old. Even then, Vegeta's telling Trunks not to push himself too hard in the gravity room, to stop and leave when it's too much for him to handle. Vegeta kills himself trying to prevent Trunks and Goten having to fight Buu. He jumps in to protect the kids when the fight gets too intense in Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return. He begs the kids not to fight Beerus in Battle of the Gods when he's barely conscious. He snaps at Goku any time he suggests them for intense battle in Super('s manga).

Vegeta sees it as not being strong enough to handle a problem, Which totally definitely doesn't have anything to do with some kind of deep-rooted trauma about placing the responsibility of making up for your weakness on your children that Vegeta's had to deal with since becoming a father and he for sure doesn't take it personally when a parent volunteers children to solve problems they had nothing to do with. He's fine! It's fine.

He does not want Trunks or Goten anywhere near a real battlefield (Bulma and/or the other adults seem to be helping to enforce this; in Res F, Trunks and Goten are not invited to go to the Freeza fight, and in the Moro arc both of them were asked to go be rangers in 17's absence again, complaining that nobody told them there was a fight happening at all), because it's got nothing to do with them. They shouldn't have to fight for their -- or anyone else's -- lives. That's the adults' job. That's his job.

Because to Vegeta, it is a job. Soldier, guardian, prince, lord, whatever. It's a role he has to fulfill, and his pride (and a whole lot of trauma-informed necessity) drives him to be the best at it, period, the end. It's an obligation that he must fulfill, because he's decided he's personally responsible for [gestures to the earth] all of this and its survival. It's where he keeps all his stuff!

For Goku, it's a game. He just wants to fight the strongest guys, and it's his understanding that everyone else wants that too. If he's not the best, GREAT! That's more to look forward to. A whole new rabbit to chase to who knows where. It's adventure! It's exciting! So of course the kids would want to get in on it! He LOVED doing this kind of stuff when he was a kid.

Goku has two hands! ...for former villains Vegeta and Piccolo to try to wrestle away from all the other, much worse villains who do not want to play with him.

[mikyapixie]

Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku & His Friends Return!! was released 16 years ago today!!

RIP Akira Toriyama

[tobiasdrake]

What are your thoughts on Tarble and Gure, as well as the 2008 OVA "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!" more generally?

I like the idea of Tarble. Vegeta having a long-lost little brother who's never been counted on the Surviving Saiyan census because he's legit so puny and weak that Vegeta's simply never acknowledged his existence before? That's amazing. And hilarious.

Tarble is like the anti-Broly. That's great. I love it.

But it's hard to form much opinion on him and Gure one way or another because they only have like a minute of screentime in the one and only piece of Dragon Ball material they've ever shown up in.

The OVA itself is... honestly pretty mediocre in my opinion? It's definitely much more Toei Dragon Ball than Toriyama Dragon Ball. It hits a lot of the common Anime Filler checklist items. We've got:

A couple of Toei's favorite endlessly reused jokes in there.

Some fanservicey Playing the Hits callbacks that make little sense in context but DO YOU REMEMBER DO YOU REMEMBER.

Characters forgetting how their own powers work and needing to be told things that are honestly pretty basic at this point.

A dragged out fight where the protagonists softball the fight and let themselves get shitstomped for no reason, because Toei thinks it's more dramatic for them to be on the backfoot and desperately struggling against dire stakes even if they could just stop losing any time they want.

All the stuff that sours me on a lot of Anime Dragon Ball.

So, overall, I think the concept is pretty sound but the execution leaves much to be desired.

[secretsofdbz]

So I got my filthy hands on the two small "volumes" of the original Manga that contains Yo Son Goku and Friends Return (by Ooishi Naho, you know, the DBSD person, who was a doujin artist prior).

Cuteness alert!

She’s holding onto his tail!!

I repeat!

Gure is hiding behind Tarble and holding onto his taaaaailll!

[sweetescapeartist]

Hello there! Those are good in-depth character and ability examinations and explanations! I'm very happy to get to look into them!

I have a question regarding the Wolf Fang Fist. It's been a while since I've looked back to see it, but you said it functions similarly to the Kaio-ken technique, in that it increases Yamcha's strength, reaction time, and senses. Is there a particular source you're using for reference on this info, or is it an observation you made? I tried looking at the Dragon Ball Wiki, but I can't find anything about that bit of info.

Hey! And thank you!

To answer your question... There is no particular source that states what I claim. The similarity between the Wolf Fang Fist & Kaio-Ken is just an observation I made. However, what's said and shown in the manga is what lead me to the conclusion that the two techniques are similar.

A similar example is Instant Transmission. The Yardrats created the Instant Transmission technique that Goku knows, while the Supreme Kai have a similar teleportation technique that is far more advanced & doesn't rely on pinpointing the energy of someone you know.

Another instance is from the DBS manga continuity where Vegeta learns Forced Spirit Fission which is a technique similar to the Genki Dama/Spirit Bomb. There are other techniques that are similar to each other despite being developed separately & at different times. The Wolf Fang Fist & Kaio-Ken appear to be one of many instances of techniques being similar.

Both the Wolf Fang Fist & Kaio-Ken are techniques where the user enhances their battle power and physical abilities without becoming super buff like Roshi's Full Power form or SSJ Grade 3 & losing speed. The Kaio-Ken & Wolf Fang Fist share a similar principle to that, but they are techniques that not only increase strength but also speed.

WOLF FANG FIST:

The Wolf Fang Fist technique is shown in Dragon Ball chapter 8 & 37. The Neo Wolf Fang Fist is in 117. Yamcha channels a wolf spirit and his physical abilities are enhanced. We have never seen him use the technique combined with a ki blast. Yamcha becomes faster and stronger & reacts quicker. But as for how great of an increas this is? That is unknown.

KAI-O-KEN:

Similarly, the Kaio-Ken technique enhances the physical abilities, but also energy attacks. It is performed by controlling the ki in the body for a burst of energy.

The regular Kaio-Ken is like an advanced version of Wolf Fang Fist that can be multiplied. This is why I at times call the Wolf Fang Fist the "mortal Kaio-Ken." Same principles, but the technique King Kai taught is much more advanced.

I think it would've been cool to see Yamcha create a Wolf Fang Fist with multipliers after he trained under King Kai. Less stress on the body than the Kaio-Ken, but still gives an increase in power. But since enemies became so strong, not even techniques like the Kaio-Ken would have been much help for any character. Is it really worth it to damage yourself while fighting an enemy who is far stronger than Super Saiyans? The risk is way higher than the reward.

EXTRA:

Could Yamcha have possibly used a his Wolf Fang Fist technique or a twist on it after the Freeza Saga? Yes. Because most techniques don't have to be said in order to activate them. So, it is possible that Yamcha used an advanced version of the Wolf Fang Fist technique on the Cell Jr. he fought. But the Cell Jrs. can defeat Super Saiyans so... Using it against an opponent that strong doesnt add up to much.

The next time Yamcha used something like the Wolf Fang Fist was in "Yo! Son Goku & His Friends Return!" where a wolf spirit appeared behind him when he used the Spirit Ball technique to save Bulma, Puar, & Oolong. So lukely a mixture of the Wolf Fang Fist & Spirit Ball. Sadly, Yamcha doesn't fight in DBS even though he has regained his fighting spirit was shown in the OVA "Yo! Son Goku & His Friends Return!" & in the Tournament of Power Saga of the DBS anime (which was frustratingly played up for mediocre comedy). But we do get a scene in DBS EP 70 when Yamcha uses the "Wolf Fang Pitch."

I hope we see him use the Wolf Fang Fist again in the main series and that he has advanced it by learning how to multiply it or something.

[gokustits]

I was looking at yo son goku and his friends return and

Why did I just notice goku eats a lizard…I thought it was a noodle

You can take monkey boy outta the woods but you can’t take the woods outta the monkey body

[duhragonball]

Episode of Bardock (2011)

In 2011, Naho Oishi published a three-chapter manga entitled Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock.  Later that same year, it was adapted into an anime short which was premiered at the Jump Festa convention.  A year later, it was released as a bonus feature in the video game Dragon Ball Z: For Kinect.  But I’m pretty sure everyone just watched it on YouTube instead, because that game sucked. 

As I recall, the purpose of Episode of Bardock was to help promote a toy line that included, among other things, a Super Saiyan Bardock figure.  Between 1997 and 2013, there wasn’t a lot of new Dragon Ball content to be found, and even though 2008 saw the premiere of Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!, it was generally understood that this was just a nostalgia one-shot, and not a comeback for the franchise.  So around 2007-2012, there seemed to be a lot more indulgence for “what if” content.  Vegeta and Broly got Super Saiyan 3 forms in the Raging Blast games. The Dragon Ball Heroes CCG game started up around this time, and it played with a lot of what-if scenarios and forms.  And Dragon Ball Online introduced a ton of new lore set 200 years after the end of DBZ, including Trunks’ service in the Time Patrol.

So an official Super Saiyan Bardock toy probably wasn’t a big surprise at the time, although it would have been pretty surreal to see in, say, 2004.  Fans would make what-if art like that all the time, but now Toei was doing it.  That may be why they wanted an official manga and anime story to tie into the product, so that fans wouldn’t assume this was some sort of bootleg thing. 

The trick is, how do you make Super Saiyan Bardock a thing?  Everyone remembers him from his classic TV Special, but he dies at the end of it.  He certainly couldn’t have turned Super Saiyan before that, or otherwise he would have changed the course of history.  So what do you do?  Naho Oishi’s answer was simple: Time Travel.

The special opens with the climactic scene from Father of Goku.  Bardock’s confronting Frieza in the upper atmosphere of Planet Vegeta, and Frieza explains that he’s begun to find the Saiyans too bothersome to keep around, so he’s going to wipe them all out.  Oh, and also, he wouldn’t want to have to deal with that pesky Super Saiyan legend. 

So the planet explodes, and Bardock dies in the blast... and then he wakes up in bed?!  What the hell? 

Bardock is confused, but his benefactors have no answers for him.  Ipana (left) is the village healer, and he uses a secret ointment to heal Bardock’s injuries.  His son, Berry (right) was the one who found Bardock at the edge of the woods, and brought him back to the village for treatment.  According to Ipana, they’re on the Planet Plant.

So Bardock quickly deduces that he somehow went back in time.  He’s never seen these aliens before, but he knows that Planet Vegeta used to be called “Plant” before the Saiyans conquered it from the Tuffles.  And the scenery looks just like Planet Vegeta.  On top of that, Ipana’s “secret” ointment is identical to the fluid used in the Medical Machines by Frieza’s organization.  As impossible as it sounds, Bardock has been flung into the distant past, before the Medical Machines, before the Saiyans came to this planet, before even the Tuffles arrived on this planet.

This raises several important questions, which never get answered.

1) How did Bardock go back in time? It’s implied that Frieza’s blast did it somehow, except that’s ridiculous.  Frieza destroyed all sorts of things, including everyone else on Planet Vegeta that day.  Are we saying they all went back in time too?

2) What happened to the Plantians?  Bardock has never even heard of them before, indicating that they were long gone by the time the Saiyans settled on this planet.  I always liked this little detail, because it implies that the Tuffles wiped out the Plantians at some point, much as the Saiyans destroyed the Tuffles later on.  This neatly wraps up the moral ambiguity that surrounds Tuffle lore.  Sometimes the Tuffles are presented as innocent victims of the Saiyans, and other times they’re shown to be remorseless conquerors.  Episode of Bardock suggests that there’s an uncomfortable truth somewhere in the middle.

3) Who repaired Bardock’s uniform?  It was all shredded at the start of this short.  And then it completely disintegrated as Frieza’s attack hit him. 

But now it’s fine.  The Plantians might have fixed it, but how would they have even managed to find all the pieces?  I’m imagining Berry combing the area with a tweezers.

4) What happened to Bardock’s psychic powers?  These are never mentioned or referenced in this short, but it’s obviously a sequel to Father of Goku, where Bardock had psychic powers.

Now, I’m not necessarily complaining about any of these things.  There’s simply no way for Bardock to investigate any of these questions.  No one, past or present, knows how this happened to Bardock, so there’s no one to ask.  I have a lot of questions about the history that played out between this era and the destruction of Planer Vegeta, but Episode of Bardock isn’t long enough to answer them.  This is just A Thing That Happened, and Bardock has to deal with it.  And part of dealing with it means he has to accept that he may never understand it.  Life’s like that sometimes.

The loss of his psychic powers is kind of annoying, but then again, the way he got the psychic powers never made a lot of sense in the first place, so losing them without explanation isn’t exactly unusual here.  You can make up a bunch of timey-wimey nonsense to rationalize it.  For example, every flashback Bardock has to the events of Father of Goku is chronologically in the future, so technically he’s still having visions of things yet to come, even if they’re just his own memories now.  So maybe he still has the psychic foresight, but it’s no longer relevant.  But that’s just me spouting fan theories.  The source material is silent about this, so I’m just going to assume that Naho Oishi quietly dropped the psychic powers because he didn’t need them for his story and he didn’t think anyone would mind. 

Besides, Bardock doesn’t have time to investigate his predicament, because suddenly a pair of aliens show up in a spaceship that resembles Frieza’s.  They attack the village, claiming the entire planet for their leader, Chilled, the Space Pirate. 

Bardock kills them both with ease.  The Plantians hail him as their savior, but Bardock refuses their gratitude, telling them that he doesn’t care if they live or die.  Then he buggers off and takes shelter in a cave. 

But Berry tracks him down and brings him a basket of food.  Bardock gets angry over it, but he hasn’t eaten in like, negative 3000 years, so he’s too hungry to turn down free grub.

Over the next few days, Berry brings more food to Bardock, and gradually, Bardock warms up to the kid, eventually letting him get close enough to sit beside him, and Bardock even shares some of his food with him.  He even tells Berry his name, something Berry had asked about the day he woke up.

Meanwhile, Chilled hasn’t heard from his henchmen for ten days, so he decides to go to Planet Plant to investigate in person.

He and his crew arrive posing as the Space Police, and ask about two “evil men” that might have come to this planet.  The villagers explain that Bardock killed them already, so Chilled is very interested in “thanking” him.

But Berry suspects their intentions, and he goes to Bardock to warn him, and to ask him to save the villagers. 

Bardock tries to insist that this doesn’t concern him, but then he has flashbacks (flash-forwards?) to the time when he went to Planet Meat and found his whole crew dead at the hands of Dodoria.  And that seems to motivate him to get involved.

Sure enough, Berry was right, and Chilled starts attacking the village.  You’d think he would have waited until he found out where Bardock was, but I get the sense that Chilled is a lot more impulsive than Frieza.

So Bardock shows up to clean house, but when he sees Chilled he flips his shit and starts shouting “Frieza!” at him, because they basically look alike.  Chilled overpowers him, and says he has no idea what he’s babbling about.

And while Bardock is realizing that Chilled must be one of Frieza’s ancestors, Berry runs up to try to help, only for Chilled to blow him away with some big ki attack. 

And that’s the last straw.  It takes a full minute, but Bardock gets so frustrated over his failure to stop Frieza or Chilled, and his failure to save the Saiyans or Berry, that he flips his shit and turns Super Saiyan.

Meanwhile, Chilled has never seen or heard of this before, so he doesn’t think it means anything.  But I think we all know where this is going.

One major criticism of this special is that it just repeats the same old formula.  And to that I would respond: What did you expect?  There was a joke about “a Super Saiyan bargain sale” back in 1993.  In Dragon Ball Z.  Seriously, thirty years ago, Vegeta was griping that there were getting to be too many Super Saiyans in this show.  I mean, this is like watching an episode of Naruto and saying “They’d better not have any adolescent ninjas in this one, I’m so sick of that.”   Or turning on Spongebob and seriously getting annoyed to see the Chum Bucket.

Seriously, if you’re burned out on Super Saiyans, you need to find something else to watch.  I’ve seen too many embittered fans who think that any minute now this franchise is going to ditch the Saiyan characters and focus on Launch or Yamcha or whoever.  And I’d be up for that, honestly, but it’s not going to happen. 

I’ve also seen Bardock fans complain that this special (along with every other presentation of the character) somehow changes or diminishes Bardock.  In their eyes, the Father of Goku special got it right, and everything that folowed-- the dub of Father of Goku, Episode of Bardock, Dragon Ball Minus, and the Broly movie-- all of that made Bardock a little different, and therefore bad. 

Here’s the thing: That happens to every character who appears in more than one story.  I remember reading a fan-comic that spoofed Bardock by having all the different versions of him appear in the same space and talk to one another.  So you’d have Funimation dub Bardock talking about redemption and Minus Bardock being a loving father, etc.  And honestly, I had trouble keeping them all straight, because they’re more alike than different.  If someone made a comic like that about Batman, how many different versions of Batman do you think there would be?  Wait, I forgot, they already did one of those:

Superman: The Man of Steel #37 had tons and tons of different Batmen in it, each one based on the stylings of different writers and artists from the past.  And this comic came out in 1994.  There’s been at least seven or eight new variations of Batman since then.

And the same thing is happening with Bardock.  You don’t have to like every new Bardock story, but I think it’s kind of silly to clutch your pearls whenever they add new lore like “He loves his wife” or “He doesn’t hate everything.”

Where was I?  Oh, right.  So this special isn’t exactly doing anything novel, but I think it does make for a nice demonstration of what Super Saiyans are really all about.  The Saiyans define themselves as a warrior race, but without compassion for other, weaker beings, their pursuit of battle is hollow.  Bardock was doomed to fail in Father of Goku because he trusted that his enemies would always be weaker than himself, while Frieza would never betray him as long as he followed his orders.  Then he got “cursed” with the truth.  Frieza would betray the Saiyans in spite of their loyalty, and there was nothing Bardock could do to stop it.  In Episode of Bardock, history repeats itself, almost literally, and Bardock finally discovers that his passions can be applied to other people.  He can care about the Plantians and fight on their behalf, and by taking up their cause, he can discover new ways to rise to the occasion. 

A lot of that gets overlooked in DBZ, because for Goku, standing up for the oppressed is kind of second nature, so there’s no chance to dwell on it.  But in Episode of Bardock, we see a character who’s an anti-hero at best, and it doesn’t take much to push him into doing the right thing.  Because what else was he going to do?  Hide in that cave and wait for Chilled to leave?  To be Saiyan is to be constantly pushed toward compassion for the weak, and those who resist that push will only suffer for their resistance.  That’s the story of Bardock.

Anyway, Bardock defeats Chilled, who somehow survives long enough to escape and send a warning to his family.  “Beware of the Saiyans who turn golden.”

And that brings us full circle.  Frieza wiped out the Saiyans because of the ancient warning from his ancestor, Chilled, but by destroying the Saiyans, he accidentally sent Bardock back in time, which was what caused Chilled’s death in the first place.  So it’s a nice little predestination paradox we have here.

Back in the past, Berry looks like he’ll be okay...

... while Bardock wanders off into the sunset.  I’m not sure where he can possibly go, since I don’t think there’s any spaceships around.  Well, it’s a 20 minute special, so it’s not like they have to have all the answers.

So I think the implication here is that Bardock didn’t just get sent back to some random moment in history.  I think he wound up going back a thousand years, and becoming the same Legendary Super Saiyan that Vegeta grew up hearing about.  You know, this happy character:

Of course, Episode of Bardock was never more than a “what-if” story in the first place, so it’s not like it’s anything close to hard canon.  Hell, Father of Goku isn’t canon either, so how could Episode of Bardock be canon?   Still, I like the idea that Bardock didn’t just die with Planet Vegeta, and that he got flung back in time to become one of the heroes of Saiyan legend. 

Of course, I put a lot of time into making a Super Saiyan OC who fills that same role, so my personal canon is that Bardock went back to 3000 years before Planet Vegeta’s destruction, and he became the Legendary Super Saiyan of that millennium.  Basically, I adhere to a strict “once every thousand years” rule, and the Super Saiyan lineage goes like this:

3000 years ago: Bardock

2000 years ago: Chanisp

1000 years ago: Luffa

Present day: Goku. 

But that’s just my silly business.  The rest of you are free to interpret this special as you please.

It is also plausible that Bardock did not become a historical figure.  Maybe he lived and died in relative obscurity, and no one else heard about his adventure on Planet Plant.  I mean, Chilled asked his crew to warn his family, but we have no way of knowing if the word actually got out.  They might have turned renegade after Chilled’s death, or maybe their ship was destroyed in a space anomaly before they could contact anyone.  In this scenario, the Legendary Super Saiyans were their own thing, and Bardock was just a rando Super Saiyan who never got included into Saiyan folklore. It’s fun to think about. 

Anyway, that’s all we’ve got.  If you like Super Saiyan Bardock, it’s a fun little thing, but not much more than that. If you hate Super Saiyans and/or Bardock, you’re gonna have a bad time.

[dbfandom]

Hi! Sorry if this seems like a basic question but I gotta know - In the anime, I've noted that pretty consistently, Gohan calls Videl "-san" while she calls him "-kun" (ok idk if it's in the actual episodic anime but I've noticed it in movies/specials, like the Gogeta Z movie, and "yo! Son Goku and his friends return!!"). I am not a very smart man. Could you please elaborate on the implications of this...? Why are they not referring to each other with the same suffix, does it have to do with their gender, relationship, personalities, what?! I am very interested in knowing becasue I love Gohan & Videl. Thank you lots <3

Heyyyyy There's no basic/dumb question!!

I actually mentioned Gohan-kun - Videl-san right here.

But yes, he calls her -san all throughout Z and I'm pretty sure he does it in Super too.

It's not uncommon in married couples to keep using honorifics with each other; Chichi calls Goku "Goku-sa" (dropping the n because rural speech), even if Goku never used honorifics with her (which is like, suuuuper rude, but Goku's whole character is about being super rude.. except when using -sama with kami and the kais haha).

There's one thing I'd like to add: if Videl had a last name, Gohan would have been calling her by her last name + san until they started properly dating and until she formally gave him permission to use her first name (suuuuuper intimate/big deal for a boy to call a girl by her first name and not her last name..).

The implications of him using the honorifics with Videl is that he's a well-mannered good boy who was raised right, and she's a little more "instantly familiar" with him (because she, uh, "has power over him" in a way, when she tricks him into admitting he's the Great Saiyaman).

if Videl used -san with Gohan, it would be a little colder and more distant. HC she might do that when she's giving him the cold shoulder for some reason (Gohan-san, can you please pass the salt?).

So.. yes, gender, personality and relationship status all play a part in it!

If it were a "normal" couple, they'd talk to each other as "mom" and "dad" once Pan is born (the child becomes the center of attention and I've seen studies that once a married couple has a kid, they become parents and not a couple anymore, which obviously causes other issues...)

If you read/watch more semi-adult shojo or plain josei ("young adult manga for women", aka seinen but for women and not for men) you'll encounter more of these! Office Lady stories will have more honorifics too.

Another couple that still uses honorifics with each other long after they're married is the main couple in Love Story (which is.. uh.. erotica and sex/relationship education all in one? The author inserts stats and questions in each of chapter, it's interesting when you talk about "perfect breast size" or "are you ok with cheating" and other surveys...)

[laladbzland]

[straightfacedstrangeness]

Thoughts on Dragon Ball Super: Broly a gazillion years later

Pros:

classic Toriyama humor (Bulma’s and Frieza’s wishes almost killed me)

Son “I’m baby :D ” Goku

friends trying to help friends out of abusive relationships

animating the Saiyan backstory stuff from the last chapter of Jaco (baby Vegeta and Raditz…)

callback to the old movie formula of Piccolo swooping in at the climax to save the day

callback to the only very occasionally referenced implication (I don’t think it’s ever explicitly stated or explained, characters will just randomly do this sometimes) that if you’re really good at martial arts you get telepathy

THE FUSION CALLBACKS

really nice animation

Cons:

callback to the original movie’s “fully half the runtime is one continuous fight scene” but no family picnic with Krillin karaoke :/

no side characters except the Pilaf gang are briefly in the background of one scene without speaking lines

AGAIN a dialogue reference to Vegeta having a brother but Tarble doesn’t actually show up (he appears in the 2008 special “Yo! Son Goku And His Friends Return” which for some ungodly reason was never licensed and dubbed, but he’s referenced in Battle Of Gods, Super, and now this, which must have a bunch of folks at home frantically googling “Vegeta brother??” every time it comes up)

“Oh I wonder who they replaced Vic Mignogna with :) ” *credits roll* “are you fucking kidding me” (turns out the public allegations against him came out just after this movie was released though)

Our Heroes just let Frieza go and in the last scene he’s literally leading his apparently STILL enormous army to destroy a CLEARLY INHABITED planet and NO ONE is stopping him. WTF, guys??? At least show King Kai yelling at them about it or something!

please just give me more Caulifla and Kale I am BEGGING you