Dragon Ball GT Episodes 01-05 Review: A Rich Man's World [Ledgic/Don Kee Arc]

Dragon Ball GT, Episode 1: A Devastating Wish!

Oh yes, this is happening. 

So, this month... is where I'll start watching Dragon Ball GT. And I'm going to do episodic reviews the way I do my superhero cartoon episodic reviews, because all of this is new to me. The reason why I didn't do episodic reviews for Super back in 2017 was because I was in a mad rush to just catch up with all the new stories and the weekly anime format, whereas as far as GT is concerned, there are only some 60+ episodes and they aren't going anywhere.

A bit of a disclaimer: I have not seen Dragon Ball GT, and what little I know about it I know only from playing Xenoverse 2. I know some of the characters, some of the upcoming transformations, and I think most of the big-name villains and some plot threads. It's a little more than I knew before starting Super, but I knew a lot of details before reading through Dragon Ball Z and I relatively enjoyed myself through that.

And a bit of a mission statement here for those that is less up-to-date about the intricacies of the multiple Dragon Ball series out there... basically, in the 80's, mangaka Akira Toriyama wrote Dragon Ball and its immediate sequel-slash-rebrand Dragon Ball Z, which has since became the quintessential manga/anime series to make its mark not just on the Eastern market, but internationally. Those were all adapted from the works of a single author, and while there are some filler episodes and non-serial movies, they were more or less following the vision of a single author. Then Dragon Ball Z ended. In the 1996, with the blessing and initial character and concept drafts from Toriyama, Toei made Dragon Ball GT, a sequel set after Dragon Ball Z and starring certain... questionable changes to this beloved fictional world.

Now here's where it gets interesting. While Dragon Ball Z has been received with generally favourable praises from fandoms both east and west, GT... wasn't. In fact, thanks to a particularly atrocious dub, Dragon Ball GT had the stigma of being the black sheep of the Dragon Ball world, the sort of "how not to make an anime-only sequel" and apparently watching GT is more painful than having your balls smashed with a hammer, if some of the more vocal fans in the internet are to be believed. Well, I've recently been gifted the GT DVD box-sets... and I guess I'll find out.

A bit of a mission statement: I don't sit anywhere on the GT-is-good-or-bad fence, since, y'know, I haven't actually watched the series at all. I am, however, told by quite literally everyone to watch the series in its original Japanese audio, which the DVD box-sets thankfully have, so there you go. That's what I'll be working with. Also since this is he first episode, it's slightly longer than what the next couple of episode reviews will be. Depending on how this goes, I'll probably combine some episodes together. We'll see.

Anyway...

We start off five years after Z, or thereabouts, with Goku actually training with Uub (or Oob depending on your preferred localized version of that name) in Kami's Dende's Lookout. It's the final hanging plot thread from the ending of Dragon Ball Z, and I'm not sure about how it's handled here. I personally never gave two shits about Uub -- he's a nice little footnote to the whole Kid Buu saga, and a neat way to wrap that particular arc up. Anyway. Goku and Uub have a bit of a sparring match, nearly blow up poor Dende's house, and then Uub buggers off. Okay? The fight isn't anything particularly special. 

We then jump straight into the premise, which is the fact that a very, very old and crotchety Pilaf gang has climbed up the lookout in search for dragon balls. Not the Dragon Balls we all know and love, mind you -- the Black-Starred Dragon Balls, never mentioned before in the series, but apparently created by the Nameless Namekian before he split into Kami and Piccolo. Which... which I guess we'll go with. I mean, it's no less ridiculous than many of the swerving plot twists that the entire franchise as a whole likes to do. What's perhaps more ridiculous is the Black-Star Dragon Balls turning Goku into a kid due to Pilaf using a wrong turn of phrase, and, oh, to inject some additional tension apparently the earth will blow up in a year if they're not gathered back together... and they're spread across all four galaxies after a wish has been made. These pieces of information are just machine-gunned at us without much time to process (from Pilaf in the middle of the episode, and then Kaio/King Kai at the end), and I really wish they had been a bit better with the info-dump. It's not the existence of the Black Star Dragon Balls that's wrong, it's the execution. 

Anyway, Goku gets turned into a kid, which... which is the reason why some people hate GT in the first place, and while I won't damn the series because of just this one creative choice, it is a ridiculously strange one that doesn't seem to add much other than to milk that original-Dragon-Ball nostalgia buttons while still riding on the coattails of Z. It's really weird, without accomplishing much in terms of narrative or aesthetics, really. 

The vast majority of the first episode is honestly just devoted to the introduction of our main heroine -- Pan, daughter of Gohan and Videl, who the audience would last saw as an adorable pre-teen at the end of Dragon Ball Z. Now she's all grown up into a tomboy that shows off her midriff, trying to go on dates with douchey-looking older boys and accidentally scaring them off when she shows off her utter badassery in single-handedly beating up a small army of bank robbers. Oh, outdated gender values dissonance. Anyway, Pan is... Pan is honestly just generic. It's just the first episode and she could go either way, but at least with her original Japanese audio she just seems like a generic Shonen manga protagonist. Well-meaning but brash. She and Kid Goku spend a bit too much just mucking around and talking to each other before they realize that they're related.

Roshi also shows up groping women, and his entire purpose in this episode seems to just to be a figure that Pan trusts to identify Goku. It's a bit weird, and I really wished they would've allowed Goku and Pan to come to the conclusion themselves. Not only would it feel more organic and build chemistry between the two characters, it would be more hilarious beyond what we got -- "wait, what? This kid is my grandpa?" before immediately cutting straight into a crying Chichi. 

As a pilot episode... it's honestly not one that starts off strong at all. Part of it is because of the rather poorly-handled introdumps, as well as the poorly-handled character introductions. I wished the show had committed in one way or the other, and not end up with this weird mess where I don't feel satisfied in either learning about the newcomer Pan, or in learning the new lore that GT presents to me. Oh well. Can't say I'm impressed, but it's honestly not bad bad. It's just tepid. We'll see how I feel as we go on. 

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Dragon Ball GT, Episode 2: I'm the Star! Pan Blasts Off Into Space!

Ah, yes, I can see why GT is probably nowhere as fondly remembered as its predecessors or its successors. This episode doesn't really have any real parts that truly offended me by being bad, but it certainly drags on and on and on, and by the time the episode has ran its course I really don't see any real significant scene or felt like any of the scenes I saw mattered beyond re-introducing some characters. Essentially the episode's final scene has the trio of Goku, Pan and Trunks blast off into space in Bulma's ship by accident because Pan is so pissed off at being treated as a kid she sneaks on board. Everything that happens in this episode prior to that are all glorified filler, though.

Like, I think the only real scene that informs us of anything resembling characterization is Mr. Satan's brief role as a balding-but-doting grandfather to Pan. The dialogue and scripting is absolutely stilted, though, and while the scene starts off strong with the two bonding, it honestly didn't feel like it ended up informing us of Pan's choice to stop sulking and sneak on board. Likewise, Trunks gets a couple of scenes that essentially set him as some sort of bored ultra-competent child prodigy, but he likes to... fly off instead of dealing with paperwork? That's the entirety of this version of Trunks' characterization. I get that Kid Trunks and Future Trunks are two entirely different characters that have vastly differing personalities due to the circumstances that they grew up, but this GT Teen Trunks feels honestly inorganic. Also note that having it be told to us how awesome this Trunks is for several minutes straight when on-screen he's just shown sneaking around like a kid trying to skip class isn't a flattering way to introduce a character either. 

MUSTACHE

Everything else, though? Absolute filler. Goku being "kidnapped" by accident by a duo of thieves went on for way too long and didn't go anywhere, and it's actively boring and not even funny. Goten being a playboy is hilarious, but it's also clear that the show didn't really know what to do with him, whereas Bulma, Gohan, Chichi and Videl are reduced to exposition machines as to why we can't just lift off yet. Wasn't there a bit where Gohan said he wants to come along? Why did it randomly become Goten and Trunks at the final scenes? Also, why even force Trunks into becoming the president of Capsule Corps when clearly he doesn't want it, and later drag him for some dragon ball gathering? It's weird. 

Perhaps the only other significant re-introduction is Vegeta, who's... settled into his life as a middle-aged father something fierce, including adapting a hilariously bad flat top and a dapper mustache. It's a design that is apparently provided by Toriyama, showing that, yes, even the much-vaunted author of Dragon Ball does sometimes make really bad design choices. I don't mind the mustache so much, I don't think, but by god that hair makes him look like a dork. Vegeta is also extremely dry here, just showing up to intimidate Trunks and Goten. 

Honestly, perhaps the biggest weakness is that the post-timeskip concepts shown to us here are somewhat interesting -- playboy Goten, grandpa Satan, tired-multimillionaire-savant teen-Trunks and civilian-husband Vegeta... but nothing is actually done with any of these reintroduced characters other than having them show up and display their brand-new characteristic. Overall, I didn't enjoy this episode as much as I did the first. It's mostly just boring non-exposition tied into an asinine subplot about Kid Goku being kidnapped, and only the sheer and utter ridiculousness of Vegeta's new look gave me some modicum of genuine hilarity.

Moving forward, I'll group Dragon Ball GT episodes by their mini-arcs and their arcs -- I won't review each episode individually like these first couple of episodes. 

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Dragon Ball GT - Episodes 3-5

So GT is going to work with these shorter, slower-paced mini-arcs which probably took a lot of Dragon Ball Z fans by surprise. The tonal and pacing shift is certainly strange, and... and I really wished we didn't quite have the whole hanging sword of "find the black-star dragon balls or the Earth is going to be destroyed!" at the same time when an episode starts off with Pan and Trunks bickering about who should do what chores. It's like... I don't mind comedy, but these few episodes have a particularly bad balance between comedy and action. And it's not just the black-star dragon balls either, because the tension-vs-comedy ratio even within this mini-arc on Imecka (or Imegga, depending on your favoured romanization choices) felt absolutely off. 

So after some dicking around at the beginning of the third episode about chores and about trying to send Pan back to Earth, Pan just hides the master control key in her prepubescent breasts and... yeah, I'm not going to discuss that scene. Moving on! Thanks to the missing part at the end of episode two, Trunks (who's nothing at all like Future Trunk's badass warrior or Kid Trunk's happy-go-lucky personality, but is reduced to being the straight man of the group) is forced to make a crash-landing on Imecka, and they spend the entirety of the second act of the episode has them be met with the gimmick of this planet -- the population are insane swindlers who force them to pay lots and lots of money for stuff that they don't really need. 

And, see, I'm not sure how they got enough of the currency (gamets?) to pay the swindling merchants, or honestly what the logic is in running a luxurious hotel that traps its guests into spending money on TV, a bed with a chain, a shower that won't run out and a particularly expensive mini-bar. Like, who's the intended customers? Team GT only ended up there because of a crash-landing, and we don't see any other aliens on Imecka, so who's staying in these expensive hotels and buying all the tacky merchandise? Did Don Kee (or Don Kia) really get so filthy rich on money simply by oppressing the poor people whose homes he takes away with robots? It's bizarre and honestly not a lot of thought seemed to be put into this setting beyond "hey, let's make a swindler planet where everyone is out to get your money!"

At the end of the third episode, Team GT meets a bunch of poor Imeckians whose house gets torn down because they're behind on payments, a rather somber mood to set up the villain as compared to the wacky hijinks of the hilarious money-trap hotel (the hotel scene is legitimately funny, I must say), and we get to see the generically flamboyant money-grubbing boss Don Kee. And then the third episode ends with a random small robot -- Giru, the 'mascot' of Dragon Ball GT seen all over the commercial breaks and the opening scene -- eat the Dragon Radar while their spaceship is towed away. Oh no! Crisis!

See, while I could buy that Trunks and Pan are at least smart enough to keep their head down (and Kid Goku, whose mentality seems to have regressed into a kid as well) throughout everything that's happened in the third episode, I really don't think that they would stand by and do nothing as their ship is towed away. There's no reason for them not to just fly in and go all kamehameha and stuff. I do appreciate the scene showing Goku trying and failing to use the Instant Transmission ability. It went on for a bit too long, but it does add a bit of tension as oh-no-Goku's-lost-some-of-his-abilities! Which... which probably didn't sit well with most of the audience at that time, I could imagine. I don't particularly mind it since, y'know, the whole concept of GT is turning Goku into a kid for hijinks. But still... they can fly, right? They still have above-average strength? And episode 5 shows that they're still immune to missiles and bullets, so what's really stopping them from ending this the moment that their ship got stolen? 

And then Team GT tries a bit of a sneaky approach while stuffing Giru into Trunks' bag (as a side-note... they spend way too long chasing Giru around) and Pan... ends up crying because someone threw a soda can that hit her head. What? It's really weird what they're trying to do with Pan. Like, I get that she's a kid that talks herself up and is way too overconfident, but throughout the past four episodes I've brought into the fact that at least she's somewhat mature enough to, y'know, at least understand the seriousness of the situation and not cry when a can hits her head. I'd buy if she was pissed off and got angry, but that's just so weird. 

Anyway, action scenes! And it's done relatively competently as Goku, Pan and Trunks beat up the random green-skinned mooks, the two mooks with unique models (Shiela and Gale, as the internet tells me) and then Goku finally unleashes a kamehameha that beats those two... only for a third minion, Ledjic (or Rejikku depending on your favoured romanization), to show up and bat it aside. Oh no! A villain that can stand up to Goku! Are we going to get some tension? Well, not in this episode, because team GT makes a clean getaway while Ledjic just stands there glowering, probably angry that the fact that his big-ass ears has fused onto his cranial bones. The next day, Goku and the gang return to town only to find themsleves wanted criminals. 

And thus begins the fifth episode... and we really could've condensed all this into two episodes, honestly. We get another scene of Team GT meeting another family of impoverished people that motivate them to fight, because apparently they just forgot or didn't care about the one they met on episode 3? Or, y'know, just throwing in some episode padding. The trio give themselves up, before showing up at Don Kee's room having beaten up everyone in his employ... and then Goku fights Ledjic, as the episode title implies. Ledjic knows that Goku's a Saiyan, and shows off some neat moves like pulling out swords out of his shoulder spikes, and for someone with a rather silly-looking fashion sense, Ledjic puts up a good fight. Goku goes Super Saiyan, and trounces Ledjic, and just like Super antagonist Hit, Ledjic ends up developing a degree of respect towards Goku as fellow warriors, refuses to fight under Don Kee and walks away. But if... if he's so disgusted by the Don's money-grubbing jackassery, why work for him in the first place? Again, yet another example of a good concept that didn't end up well done at all in terms of execution. 

Speaking of a poorly-executed thing... Ledjic's design is... really, really fucking weird, isn't it? Like, Dragon Ball Z's got its own plethora of wacky-looking gonky aliens like Ginyu, Dodoria and Guldo, but Ledjic's design is just... I dunno. Between the weird head and the bright-red jacket and the strange yoga singlet-pants deal, I really can't take the man seriously.  

Anyway, Team GT solve the planet's problems by dropping Don Kee's giant safe in the middle of the town. And... and I'm not sure what the whole end-game of this mini-arc is. No one in the main cast had a character arc, so unless Ledjic's going to show up later as a major rival or something, this whole set of episodes felt like nothing but, y'know, "filler" episodes in a series that has no business with filler. The arc sort of introduces Giru, who ends up being revealed at the end of the fifth episode to have incorporated the Dragon Radar (which it ate) into its body, but they could've actually, y'know, had Giru be relevant into the sparsely-plotted Don Kee story but no. Nothing of that sort. So yeah, overall... it's not bad, and the animation and Japanese voice-acting are decent (I tried to listen to English Pan in one of the 'Pan whines' scenes and it goes from charming to grating instantaneously), it's just utterly bland and devoid of any real substance and a clear sense of not much thought being put into the worldbuilding or story logistics. We're at least going off to find the first Black Star Dragon Ball next episode, though, which is "north" of Imecka. How... how do compass directions even work in space?