Dragon Ball GT Episodes 41-47 Review: Hell Rises Again [Super 17 Saga]

Dragon Ball GT: Episodes 41-47 [Super 17 Saga]

Wow. WOW. I've heard some really disparaging remarks about the Super 17 Saga. But watching these 7 episodes really boggles my mind at how they managed to really get the scripts for these episodes past quality control. You see, I've complained how things like Super Saiyan 4, Golden Oozaru and the Black Star Balls didn't have adequate foreshadowing. The Super 17 arc doesn't even pretend to care about this front. It's just a huge, huge mass of jumbled storytelling and genuinely unexplained nonsense. It's not as bad as the sheer dreary boredom of the Luud parts of GT, but by god it's insanely messy.

Let's crack this bad bitch down, yeah? Episode 41 is just a cool-down in-between Tenkaichi Budokai. There's... there's really not much to say here. Something about Satan looking for a successor, something about Goku having to join the kiddie division and getting ringed out by accident, something about Vegeta wanting a rematch but oh haha, Goku's hungry and he has to eat, so fuck y'all who want a proper Goku-Vegeta rematch.

There's a very heartwarming point when the tournament has Uub face off against Mr. Satan, and then Buu, from within Uub, makes him throw the match because Mr. Satan is the people's hero, and the sheer joy on Satan's face when he goes "I BEAT SOMEONE? I BEAT SOMEONE! WITH MY OWN POWER!" That's... that's actually a scene that made me go 'd'awwww'. It's easily one of the more heartwarming things in the franchise full stop, as Satan's been the show's punching bag long enough that giving him a victory and making him actually go into tears  is a genuinely touching moment. Sadly, the rest of episode 41 is just shit.

Episode 42 is where we actually begin the Super 17 stuff, with Goku and Pan seeing a very wounded Trunks arrive, being apparently beaten up by Android 17... a former antagonist who really should be on their side. And it doesn't really help that there's some really, really lazy and shit animation in this episode, too, with some characters straight-up teleporting to appear in crowd scenes (most prominently when the Son family comes out of the house to look at the gigantic hole in the sky), and some lack of mouth-flaps when talking. And I'm watching the original Japanese audio, so it's not a problem from the dub.

The setup's pretty cool, admittedly -- Trunks is beaten? Android 17 is evil again? Villains have taken over hell and is throwing out the onis that run it? -- but it falls apart very quickly. We see Dr. Myu in hell, apparently having teamed up with fellow mustachioed evil scientist Dr. Gero. And through an insanely long-winded introdump where Gero quite literally just dumps everything on us, we learn that apparently Android 17 (and only 17!) is special. He's built to be potentially stronger then Cell, but his humanity makes him imperfect. And all that fancy-ass power is just dormant, and Dr. Gero never actually tried to replicate this apparently super-duper-powerful power on any of his other androids because... because? We also learn that Myuu and Gero somehow got enough resources to build a second Android 17 called Hell Fighter 17 in hell. Which is basically just Android 17, but without the jacket. And it's just a long-winded way for them to gain control of the original Android 17 via a portal because the two 17s are linked and also the two evil scientists can get the real 17 to go around being evil and beating up Trunks and... yeaaaaaaaah. None of this actually makes sense. Maybe if it's actually explored, with enough time for the concepts to be handwaved or more properly executed... maybe if we see Myuu and Gero hatch the plan in hell, or take over hell, or we actually meet Android 17 once more before he gets reduced to a literal prop...

But no. There's no buildup. We just have to accept that that whole long, tedious paragraph just happened, and plot devices and doppelgangers and secret dormant powers and a portal between hell and Earth has opened. It sounds like bad fanfic.

Speaking of a fanfiction trope, we're apparently ripping off the Fusion Reborn movie, because from out of the portal in space we get the arrival of a fuck-ton of older villains from hell. And it's fun to see some old faces, even if some of them quite literally just show up in a crowd shot before disappearing. We get to see Cooler (so the Cooler movie is canon for GT?), Raditz, Android 19 (robots have souls?), Metallic, Pui Pui, Yakkon, Babidi, Cui, Recoome, Guldo, Cold, Appule, Black, Dodoria and Zarbon. We get a pretty neat montage of the villains causing havoc... but that's really about it. We don't get even a obligatory "hey, a bunch of villains that never met before interact with each other".

We do get a pretty neat little scrap where Goten, on a date with Palace, ends up one-shotting Pui Pui, then Trunks shows up to one-shot Yakon, and the two of them aim at an alleyway and shoot a blast that blows up Android 19. That's a pretty badass sequence. We get poor Mr. Satan chased by Red Ribbon Army dudes (Metallic, Black, Blue and Yellow), and then Pan actually shows up and does something, beating up Black and Metallic, and apparently flying past Blue and Yellow's planes just blows them up.

This little montage of our heroes dealing with past villains continues to the next episode, episode 44, with Uub, Goten and Trunks blowing up Saibamen (apparently they have souls too). We get an unexpected match-up of General Rilldo fighting Gohan... and poor, poor Gohan just gets his arm and leg turned into metal, and the younger Saiyans have to rush in to dogpile on Rilldo to blow him up (it's actually less exciting than it sounds). Nappa also shows up to do his city-blowing finger move, only for Vegeta to show up, mock Nappa for never evolving beyond a simple brute, then one-shot murders Nappa once more... and then Hell Fighter 17 shows up and fights Vegeta, while the original 17 meets 18.

And then Goku flies up into the hell-hole, but ends up being trapped in there as Myuu, Gero and Hell Fighter 17 just jump back to Earth, and the hole closes behind them, with Goku being trapped with two of hell's most powerful villains -- Cell and Freeza!

And I would be more excited if this is done a bit better. Like the montage above, the fight runs throughout episodes 43 and 44.  You see, Goku actually calls up King Yemma, but he's quite literally on his desk just dealing with paperwork instead of, y'know, actually trying to deal with the dead spirits of hell returning back to life. We do get a brief awesome fight between Cell, Freeza and Goku, with some neat bits like Cell trying to eat Goku with his tail, Goku surfing on a Kienzan launched by Freeza ("that's Krillin's technique!" got a laugh out of me) and using a metal spike as a staff-spear thing. Goku then blasts Cell in half, and then cuts Freeza in half... but they regenerate because they're immortal in hell. Fair enough.

Goku boasts that no technique he's seen before can defeat him (even if, y'know, this is absolutely not true) so Cell and Freeza unleash this new move -- HELLS BUSTER. Which causes Goku to sink down into the depths of hell... and into a ridiculously weird and out-of-place 'funny torture montage'. Apparently this Hell's Buster technique just sends you deep into hell, and... and it only works on the dead? And Freeza and Cell didn't realize it? Goku is freed from the icy torture, then freezes Freeza and Cell with hell's machines, turning it into a silly gag fight and honestly, when the episode pitched "Goku is going to have a rematch with Freeza and Cell, and it's not going to be a one-punch man thing" I genuinely expected it to actually be exciting and not... not whatever this is.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Krillin, 18 and Marron is confronted by the mind-controlled Android 17, and Krillin actually notes how 17 is calling Gero "Gero-san", despite his hatred of Gero... causing 17 to have a brief crisis of independence before SHOOTING KRILLIN IN THE HEART. The bastard! There's some great voice acting there from Miki Ito, as her rage as she attacks 18 (and fails to do anything before being blown away), and her going to Krillin and clutching her dead husband's hand... it's a genuinely emotional scene that kind of comes out of nowhere, but it's honestly kind of ruined since it's juxtaposed with scenes of Goku dicking around in hell having oh such japery and hijinks.

Android 17 arrives next to Hell Fighter 17, and the two seventeens merge into Super 17, who's this tall, lanky, buff dude who has a great habit of tossing his hair. Gohan's Kamehameha does nothing, Vegeta's Super Saiyan powered "Final Shine Attack" (I think that's new) does absolutely nothing, and Super 17 just beats up everyone present with his Flash Bomber finger-beam spam thing. As all this is going on, in heaven Piccolo demands to be sent to hell. When that useless turd Yemma refuses, Piccolo just blasts the trees in heaven, causing him to be sent to hell.

It's a setup to episode 45, where Piccolo and Dende do this connection to open the portal in hell to once more re-connect Earth and Hell and it's such a long and convoluted way to just get Goku to hell and back out again, and honestly there's so many moving pieces in this arc and no real attempt to make them all make sense or work with each other. The way that Piccolo and Dende opens the hole is way, way too long, and it's somehow solved with the teriyaki tempura bowl nonsense from the Luud arc, which is just dumb. Piccolo resolves to stay in hell because apparently there's no way back to heaven and Yemma's apparently not, like, someone that they can talk to and go "you do know this is just us tricking you, right?" It makes no sense. At least Piccolo gets to beat up on Nappa and the Red Ribbon Army as they return to hell and attempt to get back to Earth, but it's still kinda bleh.

Meanwhile, Super 17 continues to be the only good part of this hot trainwreck of an arc, actually. He gets this cool bit where he detaches one of his arms to machinegun everyone with his stump. We get a genuinely fun fight between Super 17 and Vegeta, and Pan actually does something here -- catching Dr Gero  in a headlock and threatening to kill him if he doesn't call off Super 17. But then Super 17 is revealed to be subservient only to Myu, who only saw Gero as a means to an end, and 17 just murders Gero for his lack of ambition, knocks Pan and Vegeta out, and Goku arrives, and poor Vegeta, who's spend the past two episodes screaming about how he's going to fight Super 17 without Kakarot's help, doesn't have anything to show for it.



Episode 46 actually gets a badass moment when Goku punches Super 17 halfway across the earth... and then 17 just stops mid-air, does hair-flicks and muscle spasm-flexes (which ends up to actually be relevant!) We also get a very awesome scene as Goku transforms into Super Saiyan 4 underwater and blasts a chunk of the sea upwards, and the fight between 17 and Goku is done relatively well... until Goku realizes, one Kamehameha too many, that every time Super 17 does his muscle-flex thing, he's actually absorbing the ki blasts, so only physical attacks will work. And as Super 17 causes giant pillars of Earth to rise up to set up the stage for their final fight, Goku is forced to rely on physical moves... but not even instant transmission is fast enough to react to Super 17's reflexes. And all the while Super 17's just flexing his muscles in spasms, which is just so hilariously corny. I love it.

We've got a brief bit where Videl dons her Great Saiyaman II costume (Great Saiyawoman for dub viewers), and Chichi makes a battlesuit out of kitchen utensils, and goes off to beat up Super 17 themselves. Bra and Bulma follow suit... but if you think any of these characters will actually do anything, when main character Pan ends up being a damsel in distress or crybaby 90% of the time, you're not watching GT.

Episode 47 has Super 17 charge up the Dengeki Jigoku Dama (Shocking Death Ball according to the wiki), but Goku teleports behind Super 17 when he's charging, and grabs him in a lock, then Goku blows himself up like Chiaotsu. Except he doesn't die. Super 17 isn't taken out, but Goku's exhausted. Android 18 shows up to protect Goku, still pissed that 17 killed Krillin, and bluffs about how she still  has the bomb in her chest that will kill everyone present if Super 17 will shoot -- and he's already held back from killing her once. Of course, all of this is under the impression that after all the fancy Super Saiyan 4 stuff, we're still afraid of a measly bomb.

Myu eggs Super 17 on, and really should've chosen his words better since he talks about how "don't let her make the decisions for you, 17!" So of course 17 blasts the one person that's making decisions for him, killing Myu at last. Android 18 takes this chance to machinegun Super 17 with ki blasts, allowing Goku to ride the ki blasts and charge up a gigantic punch -- the RYU KEN, or the Dragon Fist, a punch that bursts straight through Super 17's stomach as a golden dragon erupts in the sky around Goku. It's a move taken from the Wrath of the Dragon movie, and it's actually quite badass and unexpected.

After finishing Super 17 off with a Kamehameha, Goku an d Android 18 have a brief conversation about how apparently what's left of Android 17 can't bring himself to shoot his own sister up to the very end. As Videl and Chichi arrive in all their ridiculousness to find that the battle's over, Chichi suggests they use the dragon balls to bring Krllin, 17 and everyone killed back... but when they do, the dragon balls are cracked (the past few episodes have shown some hints of this) and then this big, blue dragon with a cigar and Western-style dragon wings pop up, setting up the next arc.


And overall... there's definitely some good moments here, and again, it's better than the Luud or Rilldo stuff, but at the same time everything that's going on is so goddamned messy. The setup for the Super 17 arc is absolutely nothing but exposition that makes you go "wait, what?" fifteen times in a row. The bit with Cell and Freeza is straight-up poorly done, Gero amounts to nothing, and the usage of Android 17 ends up likewise not amounting to anything other than the final confrontation with 18, because Android 17 spends the entire saga mind-controlled, and at that point why even use the character at all, just to turn him into a flat (but cool-looking) villain that ends up dying? With a needlessly convoluted backstory? Kudos to the Super 17 fight for being short but very interesting, and we do get some really neat moments for our heroes fighting the lesser villains (even if poor, poor Gohan just can't get a badass win anywhere post-Z, apparently).

Ultimately, there's way, way too many things going on in the Super 17 Saga that none of it feels satisfying or well done, and feels more like the rough outline of someone's fanfiction instead of a proper story arc... and honestly, between the many concepts and story beats here, it could've been pretty great. Exploring the sibling relationship between 17 and 18, actually making them proper characters? A "face your past demons" deal with Goku and company facing the villains of their past? But ultimately none of it is handled well at all, with the fights being ultimately just generic fanservice-y things with no real weight behind it. We also get one of the worst-written "everyone is useless until Goku arrives" beatdown on Super 17's part, too. Oh well -- like everything else in GT, the underlying concept behind the main plot beats of this saga is good, but the execution is pretty bleh. I enjoyed myself, but boy, that was messy. We have one last arc to go through, but it's a bit of a doozy.