Dragon Ball GT Episodes 48-53 Review: A Bunch of Jokers [Shadow Dragons Saga, Pt 1]

Dragon Ball GT, Episodes 48-53 [Shadow Dragon Saga, Part 1]

Episode 48 starts off with a pretty awesome and ominous buildup to the concept of this arc. We've got this mysterious, purple rude dragon that looks like Shenron's deadbeat cousin, who mocks the humans for daring to make a wish, and then proceed to eat the dragon balls and spit them out, essentially saying "fuck you, humans!" And as everyone is puzzling over the fact that this shadowy Shenron and the dragon balls are gone, Goku and his friends ends up being called by King Kai and later Elder Kai, who proceeds to lay onto Goku and the gang about just what has occurred.

Also, note that, despite appearing throughout episodes 46 and 47, Bra completely disappears and is never mentioned anywhere here, or anywhere in this arc. She's never been the most relevant character, but completely dropping her like that and not even bothering to give her non-speaking roles is just... disrespectful, isn't it?

Anyway, back to the Shadow Dragons. Elder Kai tells us that the Dragon Balls apparently have a sort of a refractory period, because any time they're used for a wish, an amount of 'minus' energy is produced. Normally since the dragon balls are used every couple of hundred years, it's okay since the minus energy can naturally dissipate, but our main characters' usage of the dragon balls every other weekend has essentially caused the minus energy to build up so much. And it's a legitimately awesome concept, again, tying into the vague 'sins of the past' theme that both Baby and Super 17 sort of have around them. It's decent, although I definitely could do without the long-winded "it's your fault!" "No you!" hot potato game between Bulma and the rest of the cast. Is it Bulma's fault for making the dragon radar? Is it Dende's fault for adding extra wishes? Oh, and apparently the Earth is so enveloped with minus energy that it's cut off from the Kais' realm, and that the minus energy is also the cause of why hell and Earth ended up being able to be connected in the Super 17 arc... something that raises more questions than answers them.

But Goku decides to say fuck it, and go off and deal with the Shadow Dragons alone. ALONE! Gohan and the others offer to go with him, but Goku just wants to go alone. Is there any real reason for this, other than the animators not wanting to really give any other character outside Goku and Pan screentime? Yeah, nope. Poor Trunks has apparently been dropped from the main lineup, too, being increasingly irrelevant since the Baby Saga. The thing is, with the Earth in danger and all that shit, there's really no proper excuse for Gohan, Vegeta and the rest to not at least mount their own searches for the shadow dragons.

And episode 48 has this montage of really awesome vesrions of the serpentine Shenron made out of different elements -- water, lightning, fire, ice, earth... and just causing devastation everywhere. It lasts for a bit, but it's legitimately great buildup.

And, of course, Pan and Giru tag along with Goku, since Giru is an actual dragon radar, and Goku kind of doesn't have the heart to say not to Pan. And then they arrive on a polluted lake, fighting against the first shadow dragon, the Liang Xing Long (Two-Star Dragon, renamed Haze Shenron in the English dub), who...  who doesn't really look like a dragon, but more like a fat toad creature with spikes on his back. Huh.

This will, unfortunately, lead to a series of villain-of-the-week episodes, and very few of them until the last three dragons actually feel like they deserve the ominous foreshadowing that episode 48 gave them. Also, as a bit of a book-keeping... as someone who speaks Mandarin Chinese fluently, the otherwise similar-sounding Japanese names actually end up being relatively far more easy for me to remember, but at the same time, I do like how the English dub manages to work a SHENRON acronym into the names of the Shadow Dragons while having the words describe their powers or appearances. While in my head I remember them more by their Japanese names (except for Nuova, Eis and Omega, who I'm familiar with thanks to video games prior to watching GT) I'm going to refer to the Shadow Dragons by their English names for the rest of my review for the sake of my readers.

Episode 49 has Goku and Pan fight Haze Shenron and... my go this episode feels like it dragged on and on and on. Even the narrator lampshades what Haze Shenron looks ridiculously weak, and it seems like Pan is able to single-handedly manhandle Haze Shenron. Is it finally time? 49 episodes of being a main character who doesn't even get a knockout to her name, will Pan finally get a victory? Even if it's against a trash-talking weak character (Goku even lampshades that "he's just like Mr. Satan." which I thought is funny)? No, haha, because apparently Haze Shenron manipulates minus energy to pollute the environment, and the minus energy aura weakens Goku and Pan, sapping their strength and causing them to be weaker than the weak Haze Shenron. And then they get thrown into the lake, but the fully robotic Giru pulls them next to the source of the spring water which... heals them completely? And Goku causes the spring to explode and erupt up, and then they dual-Kamehameha and kill Haze?

The dragon ball is instantly purified, and that's one out of the seven Shadow Dragons down, and it's extremely anti-climactic. Haze tells us that he's created from the minus energy created from when Goku wished Upa's father back to life back in original Dragon Ball, but while it's neat to know where they came from, there's no real rhyme or reason. It would be somewhat interesting if the Shadow Dragons take some sort of inspiration to work as "the price you have to pay" or some karma-style theme to the wish that birthed them, but nope. Haze's just a shitty toad that spews pollution and gets beaten after they figure out the gimmick. It's very bland, it's boring, and honestly? After all the buildup, it's very disappointing. Any reason why this joker couldn't be single-handedly killed by Pan? Or for the likes of Uub, Goten and Trunks to hunt down some of the lesser Shenrons? No?

Eh. Episode 50 has Goku and Pan arrive on a ghost town because Pan really wants juice. Yeah, it's these sort of hijinks moments that really clash with the "EARTH IS GONNA BE DESTROYED OH NO" super-serious tone that the arc really wants to tell, and it reverts back to the original Grand Tour arc across space where there's such a tonal difference. This time, Goku and Pan face off against Wu Xing Long (Five-Star Dragon), otherwise known as Rage Shenron. Rage is a little weird bird-beaked dinosaur creature that... that is tiny. Also controls a lot of slime goop that... emits electricity? And Rage summons the goop to create a giant body that's a bigger version of his real body? There's way, way too much setup in this episode, way, way too much scenes of him just shooting electricity and doing nothing else, and then it rains and Rage Shenron just straight-up dies because his electricity goes haywire. It takes way too long for this to happen, and it's just insanely painful. At least with Haze we get the whole theme of a weak braggart who wins by tricks. Rage Shenron is just a roadblock that they extend for the length of an entire episode without any substance to him.

We actually get to see Super Saiyan 4 Goku in this fight, but all that form accomplishes is to shoot a Kamehameha that... somehow gets reflected back by the goop? Yyyeaaaah. That's dumb. Apparently Rage Shenron is created from the wish that was made to bring Goku back to life back during the Saiyan Saga. Not that, y'know, it ends up mattering, since neither Rage Shenron's abilities or powers match anything in that period of time.

Episode 51 stars the Liu Xing Long (Six-Star Dragon), otherwise known as Oceanus Shenron. She's perhaps the only one out of the first four Shenrons to have any sort of personality, and that personality is being absolutely embarrassed and irritated that she's born out of the Oolong panties wish. For some reason (probably to pad out the episode), apparently Oceanus Shenron poses as some sort of princess goddess of the ocean that... gives fish to the villagers in a nearby fishing town to cause them to become complacent... because... I'm not sure why. All the other Shenrons are happy destroying shit with pollution and earthquakes and volcanoes and lightning draining and shit, but Oceanus Shenron is posing as a fish goddess because... why? So that Pan can befriend Generic Character Kid Of The Week #34?

Thankfully, once we get into the fight Oceanus herself isn't as irritating as her nonsensical plot. She shows off some really neat whirlwind powers, including a bit where Goku tries to mimic her spinny-spinny powers. Pan actually manages to be more relevant in this fight, figuring out an 'eye of the storm' trick to kamehameha Oceanus Shenron, reverting her back to her true ugly frog-dragon form (why can't she just be a more humanoid shadow dragon? Any reason? No?). Can Pan get the victory? Hell no, this is GT, so it's Goku that unleashes the kamehameha that kills Oceanus. Yeaaaah, the Super 17 Saga might be messy as all hell, but at least it's not just going through the motions and repeating all the cliches. Episode 51 even ends in a very weird, lazily animated 'montage' style of multiple still frames of seagulls bringing back the dragon ball. Because, um... jeez. I dunno. These set of episodes are just super dreary.



Episode 52 and 53 deal with the Qi Xing Long (Seven-Star Dragon), or Naturon Shenron. Who isn't even a real dragon, but rather a giant mole. What is this, Pokemon or some shit? All those cool looking elemental versions of Shenron and we get a shitty little midget birdasaurus, a fat frog-man, and a purple mole? (Oceanus is at least somewhat cool, if not draconic) Naturon Shenron gets two episodes, so you'd think he is more dangerous and more interesting... but episode 52 is such a dreary bullshit, even worse than his other three brethren. Naturon is all dumb, refusing to fight, just wanting to dig around and destroy. A superior story would maybe explore the ramifications of having to kill a pacifist creature to 'purify' a dragon ball and stop the destruction of Earth... but, nope, Naturon's actually evil. Just dumb. SS4 Goku and Pan trick Naturon into shooting himself with his Earth blasts, but then apparently that's not his true form as the dragon ball absorbs Pan, and reveals his true form -- a parasitic mole-dragon thing that now has Pan's body and power.

Naturon Shenron is apparently created by the wish that wished back the people killed by Majin Vegeta, again, not that it matters. Wouldn't it be cool if the dragon wished back by Majin Vegeta is actually a dragon version of Majin Vegeta, and Vegeta has to face off against his past sins and hubris, and the consequences that apparently all the death he caused didn't just get wished away by a dragon ball wish? Nope, just have this giant mole dragon.

Throughout episode 53 the whole conflict is whether Super Saiyan 4 Goku will dare to attack the body of his own granddaughter, and Goku attempts to bluff Naturon with this whole "I'm a scary ape monster, rawr, I have no reason!" But of course Goku is holding back and can't bear to hit Pan... but it's all a plan for Naturon to show Pan so that Goku can pull Pan out of his body, reverting Naturon to his actual form, a tiny mole, which gets killed. It's so banal, it's so generic, nothing here is interesting, and I really wished that the Naturon Shenron stuff was reduced to a single episode.

Again, there's so, so much wasted potential here. And the concept was so cool, too, the abuse on the plot devices that shaped so much of the Dragon Ball franchise finally being the final villains of the series would be awesome. But instead... what we got is this. Boo. Fortunately, Nuova, Eis and Omega, the final three dragons, would at least be interesting antagonists, if not a particularly good thematic villain for the whole shadow dragon thing.