I originally had all the remaining parts of the Shadow Dragon Saga in one review, but apparently I had enough to talk about Nuova and Eis Shenron so I split the article into two. With three dragons left, we're finally getting somewhere serious, as episode 54 begins with Goku and Pan confronting Shi Xing Long (Four-Star Dragon), Nuova Shenron, in an abandoned city. And Nuova Shenron is a far more draconic creature. I mean, sure, he's got those thick lips, but he's a humanoid dragon-esque creature, something that isn't, y'know, a dirty mole rat.
Episode 54 is just one long, long battle between Nuova and Goku, and I would've enjoyed it so much more if half the episode isn't an extended cat-and-mouse game. But Nuova shows that he's actually got honour, despite being created out of the only evil wish compared to the other shadow dragons -- the wish for Piccolo Daima'ou to regain his youth. He's honourable enough to not kill Pan and just knock her out and toss her into a sand pile. Nuova's whole deal is that he's a fire-powered dragon, manifesting a giant lens to shoot out powerful heat beams, and we get some really cool bit where he melts the walls in front of him to chase Goku. There's a couple of beam exchanges, and in one of the cooler bits of power abuse, Goku uses a Solar Flare to return a beam of light through Nuova's lens and burn him.
And then Nuova cracks his red shell apart, revealing his true golden body, while Goku goes Super Saiyan 4, and the battle begins anew. I really thought that episode 54 lasted a bit longer than it should, but eh. 55 begins with Nuova fighting Super Saiyan 4 Goku, but we only get a bit of it, because episode 55 is actually a disguised clip episode.We cut away to Vegeta, who, naturally, wants to fly off and fight the shadow dragons himself, but Bulma stops him and there's a brief bit where he ruminates on just when did a gap begin to appear between him and Kakarot. There's a long, long episode-long flashback to various points of the Dragon Ball Z saga as Vegeta recaps to us just how his relationship with Kakarot went about, from how Vegeta was once a loudmouth arrogant prince who can't give two shits about this weakling lowborn, to how Kakarot keeps surpassing him -- in the Freeza saga, in the Androids saga, the Majin Vegeta fight, Vegeta's Final Atonement/Explosion against Majin Buu, and Vegeta rooting for Kakarot as the true hero at the end of the Buu arc... and we even get a flashback to the Baby arc to re-explain the Super Saiyan 4 stuff. Did we really need all this? Not really. Bulma then shows off the Blutz Wave generator, noting that Vegeta can reach the same power as Kakarot, and Vegeta's all like "yeah, bring it on! Super Saiyan 4, or 5, I will surpass it!" Of course, no such thing as a Super Saiyan 5 officially exists, so... yeah.
Episode 56 starts off with another Mexican standoff, with a cool bit where a newspaper flies by and catches on fire as it gets close to Nuova Shenron. There's a beam struggle, a chokehold heat blast, and it's quickly established that Nuova wins out in speed, but Goku wins out in strength. There's a bit with instant transmission and all, and somehow Nuova's ki-sensing ability is nullified by.... a mirror? But Goku notes that while he can take Nuova out right now, he's going to give him one chance for the whole sparing-Pan thing. Apparently Nuova has his own code of not hurting women or children. Whether this is a result of being the heirloom of the Son family, or if the fact that Nuova was born out of Piccolo Daimaou's selfish wishes and therefore there's not a lot of evil minus energy created in response to the already-evil wish.
While all this is going on, a blue version of Nuova Shenron, Eis Shenron (San Xing Long, the Three-Star Dragon) shows up, breaks Giru, beats up Pan, and then gets a cheap shot to freeze Goku's arm. Apparently Eis is Nuova's twin brother, and while Goku's all like "how can you shadow dragons have brothers?" no one really answers it. Eis is the exact opposite of Nuova not only in terms of powers, but also in his lack of honour. Nuova wants a proper, fair fight, but Eis doesn't give a shit. Cheap shot, ganging up, attacking the unconscious Pan to distract Goku, disabling the enemy's limbs... he doesn't care. Eis freezes both of Goku's arms, but in one of the more badass moves ever, Goku shoves his feet into Eis's mouth... but Eis ends up freezing Goku. There's a bit where Eis finally freezes Goku. Nevermind that the ultra-powerful Super Saiyan 4 is apparently held down by a bit of ice... but we get a pretty well-done bit between Nuova and Eis.
Eis tells Nuova to kill the frozen Goku to prove how evil he is, whereas Nuova doesn't want to win like a coward. Nuova ends up launching the Burst Attack... but, of course, being an honourable chap, Nuova frees Goku from his brother's nasty trickery. Episode 56 did end up dragging on a bit too long, though, since we actually have flashbacks to events that happen in this episode.
Episode 57 starts off with a proper Eis Shenron versus Goku fight, with Eis playing dirty by using Pan as a body shield, and continues to attack Goku... apparently Eis Shenron is able to transform one of his arms into a goddamn ice cannon, which I thought was cool. Goku's pissed that Eis is putting his granddaughter in danger, and the ice freezing technique doesn't work anymore because Goku knows too put a ki barrier this time around. Eis is all begging and shit, but then shows off his ultimate attack -- some weird finger-ice-string things that cuts through a building and appears to blind Goku... but then Goku unleashes another RYUKEN!
And let's stop to say just how badass this particular Dragon Fist is, because instead of just a punch followed by a dragon, the giant golden dragon is expelled out of Goku's fists, wraps around the city before divebombing down Eis Shenron in a gigantic explosion. That's cool. Eis dies, and as Goku is blinded... Nuova Shenron tosses some eye drops to Goku.
Let's stop right there. How the fuck does Nuova Shenron have some eye drops laying around? There's really no reason why, nor does he know that Eis will slash at someone's eyes that he wants to fix. But then Nuova gets shot in the back and killed by this final enemy -- Yi Xing Long (One-Star Dragon), or as he's known in English localizations, Syn Shenron. Syn introduces himself as the most powerful of the shadow dragons, even if I have a bit of a problem taking him seriously with his short mustache and weird spike-beard and tiny elf ears. But his spiky body is cool enough, I guess, and he starts off the retort fight with a cool "don't ever ask anything from me after your abuse of the dragon balls" one-liner, and we get a fight between Syn Shenron and SS4 Goku that runs through a nearby carnival. Oh, and Goku's still blinded through all this, and weakened after fighting both Nuova and Eis, so he gets beaten and strung up from some rubble as Pan looks in desperation.
Episode 58 starts with Goku reverting back to his kid state, and Syn does the villain thing to do and drops Goku to the ground instead of killing him. And then reinforcements arrive! Goten, Uub, Trunks and Gohan (in Gi, which surprises me) show up to fight Syn Shenron. Oh, so now they want to help? Satan, Videl and Chi-Chi also show up, but they're there for moral support than anything. Goku then all but demands that the other Saiyans give him all their power. Again. Just like Baby. I mean, I guess he's the only one that can go into Super Saiyan 4, but still... we get a pretty cool scene of Uub fending off Syn Shenron while the Saiyan kids give their energy to Goku once more and... Goku returns back into his Maximum-Power Super Saiyan 4 form. Yeah, definitely annoying, since there's really no proper reason for them to just go and give their energy to Goku for no real reason other than main character status. Why can't Gohan or Trunks or Goten break their limits?
But I must admit, the fight and the sequence where SS4 Goku trounces Syn Shenron is pretty badass. Syn lobs a spinning clock face at a blind Goku, laughing that Goku can't dodge something without sensing Ki, except Goku's apparently well-honed his other senses well enough to do exactly that. Goku absolutely wails on Syn Shenron and beats him... until Syn suddenly telekinetically draws all the other dragon balls to him and eats them, having the other balls appear on his stomach, reaching his true power, a form dubbed 'Omega Shenron' in the English dub. So yeah, that's the final fight of the whole franchise, the final enemy of the Dragon Ball series... the dragon balls themselves, manifesting into one malevolent, unstoppable entity.Overall, I'm definitely disappointed with the first four shadow dragons, and the fact that none of the shadow dragons actually end up working thematically as the personification of humanity's selfishness and all that jazz, beyond some lip service about how they're totally related to the abuse of wishes and all. But Nuova and Eis work as relatively interesting (if not particularly novel in the grand scheme of anime) antagonists, and while Syn/Omega is a generic doomsday villain, his voice acting is decent enough. Again, this final part of the Shadow Dragons arc isn't anything super special. It's very clearly rushed and feels more like a functional ending of sorts than anything that tries to be super-duper final.
Oh well. Join me soon as I discuss the final fight between Goku and Omega.
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