Dragon Ball GT Episode 06-10 Review: A Bunch of Underwhelming Stuff

Dragon Ball GT, Episode 6

Yeah, they try to go for a "yay fun time adventure" stuff with this episode. And don't get me wrong, having Goku, Pan and Trunks explore a series of wacky planets is neat, but this one honestly didn't feel particularly fun. Nothing about the planet felt like it really was as fantastical as they're probably supposed to seem, since they're just... giant bugs and a giant dude with a toothache. Not every episode needs to end with a huge character development or personal soul-searching, but there's literally just nothing here beyond "Goku acts like a hungry kid, Pan acts like a spoiled kid and Trunks is responsible." The subplot about Pan being kidnapped by bees that think she's a queen because she... found some fluff and wings that makes her look like a queen bee on a ditch somewhere or something? That whole bee subplot really went nowhere and the bees just leave the episode as soon as they enter it.

There's some rather poor attempts at humour as the cast walk around the feet of the giant and try to figure out how to get the dragon ball from where it's stuck onto the apple that the giant is eating, but honestly even that's pretty boring. Nothing in this episode is especially bad, but nothing in it is either interesting or noteworthy either and it honestly really makes me wish that they had just found the dragon ball that they did in this episode among Don Kia's loot or something. Overall, this episode's kind of like plain bread -- filling but tasteless. Like, this entire episode's just one whole lot of uninteresting.

Dragon Ball GT, Episode 7-8 [Zunama Arc]

The same can't be said about the two-parter of episodes 7 and 8, on the other hand, which really feels like the plot of a single episode stretched so far across two episode. I use the term 'plot' very, very loosely, because what we get is a rehash of Oolong's introduction in the original Dragon Ball, but if the Oolong arc was devoid of comedy and world-building, and also has a weird cross-dressing subplot that doesn't even deliver in giving us any wacky hijinks.

The plot of this two-parter is essentially our heroes find the six-star Dragon Ball on some random-ass planet that looks like it's not an alien world but a rejected town from a Legend of Zelda game, where apparently they're terrorized by a giant catfish ogre creature called Zunama (an anagram of namazu, which means catfish in Japanese -- an animal associated with earthquakes). Zunama claims to have the power to create earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and demands a bride from the tribe, so instead of doing the sane thing and beat up Zunama, they decide to spend the entirety of episode 7 dicking around and dressing up Trunks as a woman. And that's the entirety of the joke, the punchline that didn't land, is that "Trunks is dressed up as a woman". It's not funny after the initial reveal, and everyone else acts in the same on-dimensional way that they've been. There's like three different jokes of "Goku's such a hungry kid, oh ho ho" and I think the entirety of Giru's dialogue is "danger approaching".

Episode 8 has Trunks trying to get Zunama drunk even when his disguise has fallen off instead of, y'know, trying to beat Zunama up. And then it's revealed that Zunama is actually someone who can predict earthquakes and volcanoes and not actually able to create them, which is like Generic Anime Filler Episode Plot #25. And he's realized that the volcano he's made his lair in is becoming more and more active, so clearly the number one priority is to... fool the townspeople into giving him a bride and return to the very active volcano. Yeah.

And then Goku solves it all by Kamehameha-ing the volcano, because an explosion into an exploding volcano apparently doesn't cause an even bigger explosion. Despite being a giant monster that has terrorized them and is about to steal a woman to be his bride under false pretenses, Zunama is forgiven and allowed to live with the villagers, and the dragon ball ends up being stolen by some weird alien with a weird spacesuit and a head-tail, rendering this entire two-parter absolutely atrocious and really honestly pretty bad. Yeah, if the episodes are like this -- cheap, lifeless, soulless attempts to rip off Dragon Ball with flat characters and zero-effort plots, no wonder GT received the amount of bile it did. I do sincerely hope it gets better down the line, but jeez.

Dragon Ball GT, Episodes 9-10 [Para Para Arc]

The Para Para Brothers' existence is something that I know about before going into GT, having been shown the absolutely ridiculous dance routine in its entirety. But by god, having to sit through two entire episodes about these guys... it's really, really a pain to watch these episodes when all the three brothers all have essentially the same personality and end all their sentences in para. They're trying to mimic the Ginyu Force in being a quirky-but-deadly enemy, I suppose, but where wacky villains like the Ginyu Force works is that all five members of the Ginyu Force have distinct designs (and at least distinct gimmicks in their power sets if not personalities) the Para Para Brothers... doesn't. It's the same design, except one is fatter, one is shorter and one is thinner, and their entire shtick is that they're like Team Rocket if you suck all the personality and charm out of Team Rocket.

The entirety of this two parter is essentially the Para Para Brothers leading Team GT on a chase into a labyrinth asteroid which turns out to be the nest of a bunch of space maggots, returning back to their boss, which is a weird cult worshipping the great stone statue called "Lord Luud", led by some high priest called Mutchi Mutchi who kills mercenaries and turns them into dolls to feed them to the eldritch statue. We cut back to Luud and Mutchi-Mutchi a couple of times, but then than vaguely be an evil cult, they don't really have much personality to them.


Somehow, they manage to stretch this over two episodes, having Team GT fight the worms through way, way too many variations and the Para Para Brothers having so much screentime to develop, except that they don't. Halfway through the second episode, the Para Para Brothers finally face off against Team GT, telling them that they want the second dragon ball, and then go through the Para Para Dance, where they speak English words "Raighto Raighto Refuto Refuto Biggu Gureto Sumairuuuu" and... and it's dumb. Like, I get that they're trying to parody like an aerobics skit or something and that the dance is irresistible or something, but the execution is so devoid of life, and part of why it's effective is apparently forcing you to dance drains your stamina...  but the Para Para trio is also dancing alongside them, so... um... I guess they just get free punches in? Jeez. This is dumb.

And then the Para Para brothers somehow summon all the giant space maggots, whose appearance shocks the Para Para Brothers... which, in turn, the act of which shuts down their weird light-show armour-speaker things? And then Team GT beat them up, but then Pan and Giru get stuck in the Para Para Brothers' ship and fly off to Luud? Yeah, either way, this entire two-part episode is dumb. Like, seriously, it's one of the utterly most worthless, insipid-of-joy pieces of shit I've forced myself to sit through. Like, I'm sure GT gets better down the line, because this is just... this is just really bad and boring. Nothing that happens in these two episodes is anything but clumsy, doddering setup or just shit-poor execution of a one-note joke that isn't even funny. So yeah... it's quite easy why GT gets a bad reputation if it contains something like this in its midst.