Dragon Ball GT Episodes 59-64 Review: Be Careful What You Wish For [Shadow Dragons Saga, Pt 3]

Dragon Ball GT, Episodes 59-63: Shadow Dragon Saga, Part 3

Episode 59 starts off with our typical Dragon Ball "my power up is stronger than everyone present!" with Omega Shenron blowing everyone away with his sheer power, and in his clash with Goku shows off a bit of the moves that Nuova, Eis, Oceanus and Rage Shenron's powers. There's a bit where Goku realizes that his sight is returned, but he pretends to be blind to get a cheap Kamehameha-RYUKEN combined shot through Omega's chest.

Didn't... didn't he give Eis Shenron grief for pretending to be weak and then getting a cheap shot in? What the hell, Goku. I mean, it's very cool that he manages to travel through his own Kamehameha wave to dragon fist Omega Shenron in the gut, but still. Eis Shenron was like, five episodes ago!

Of course, Omega Shenron turns out to not be dead, as apparently he has Rage Shenron's goopy jelly reformation technique... but... wasn't Rage Shenron a tiny creature that creates a big suit out of the jelly, instead of being able to recover by turning into jelly? That doesn't make that much sense, really. Omega then unleashes a beatdown on everyone present, even kicking Mr. Satan. (And honestly? It's very impressive that Mr. Satan survives a kick from someone of Omega Shenron's caliber). Goku grabs onto Omega Shenron and he's about to do Vegeta's Final Explosion trick to get rid of Omega once and for all.

And then Vegeta shows up and tells Goku to not do that, because if Goku dies, "the earth will be finished". By... by what, exactly, Vegeta? Omega is literally the only threat left. Bulma arrives in a GODDAMN TANK and she shoots Vegeta with the Blutz Wave... and is there any reason that they couldn't have done this away from where Omega Shenron could've stopped them? I mean, there's no reason for Omega Shenron to not just blast Bulma and her tank, either. Is everyone just dumb in this episode? Vegeta goes Oozaru, and... loses control? Why? He's never had any problem with Oozaru back in Dragon Ball Z. And then Vegeta goes Golden Oozaru, then Super Saiyan Four. It's rushed, honestly, and as badass as it is to see Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta and his skin-tight hot pants... doesn't this spit on everything Vegeta's been through in the Buu Saga? The whole point of the Majin Vegeta arc is that you shouldn't gain power via shortcuts. Is there any real reason that Vegeta couldn't have trained on his own to unlock the Super Saiyan 4 form not with a moon-beam steroid blast, but after his anger at being useless at the end of the Baby arc?

My god, episode 59 has a fuck ton of logic problems, yeah?

At the end of episode 59, Vegeta just tells Goku that their combined strength isn't going to be enough to take on Omega Shenron, so they got to fuse. Episode 60 starts off with Pan, hilariously, asking everyone "what's fusion?" and no one answering her. Bulma in her tank tank, Gohan, Goten and Trunks try to buy time for Vegeta and Goku to do the fusion dance, but Goku just... stands there. Vegeta even lampshades this, asking Goku why the fuck he's just standing there like a moron. Apparently he's proud? That's... that's the reason? Jeez, the writing staff really took a hit in this part of the arc. Anyway, Goku and Vegeta combine into... GOGETA! A form previously only seen in a single movie, Fusion Reborn. Well, that's cool. I wasn't expecting that!

And Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta is absolutely badass, trouncing Omega Shenron, and pulling a Jiren trick and quite literally blasts Omega Shenron away by staring really hard. There's also some cool bit where Gogeta just unleashes his aura, and when Omega Shenron flies close Gogeta's already hit him multiple times, too fast for the eye to see. That's actually badass.


Bulma's poor tank gets blown up (she survives Looney Tunes style) and I guess that's the reason she doesn't go shooting Trunks, Gohan, Pan and Goten with the Blutz Wave even more, huh. Uub actually asks Trunks or Gohan to fuse with him so that they can also become stronger... and then Gohan just laughs it off as "oh, silly Uub, heal your arm first, yeah?" And it's honestly just kinda dumb. We could've had a talk about how you need compatibility for the fusion dance to work, how they're all spent from donating their energy to Goku, or something. But, nope, just "fuck off, minor character", which really isn't particularly endearing of this arc to me, honestly.

And then Gogeta starts dicking around, quite literally, by creating clones and making a fake Kamehameha with party streamers and shit and sticking out his tongue. Yeaaaah, that's more of a Gotenks thing and it does feel out of place. Gogeta laughing and dicking around honestly feels out of character for this fused form, and even if Goku is in the body of a kid, he's fused in the serious SS4 form and this bit is just kind of weird.

Omega Shenron creates this gigantic Minus Energy Power Ball which is oh-so-dangerous. Everyone else flies away... and Gogeta just kicks the ball into space. Gogeta apparently puts in his own plus energy into the minus energy ball which... cancels it out and prevents it from exploding? Okay..? The minus energy stuff has been really weird and is honestly just bad plot device writing, but we ain't got time for that because Gogeta swoops in with a BIG BANG KAMEHAMEHA and god damn despite all the problems I have with this arc, that move looks cool.

The Big Bang Kamehameha fails to kill Omega Shenron, but it does knock out the other dragon balls. Gogeta is about to deliver another Big Bang Kamehameha... and then the fusion ends, because they've been wasting too much time dicking around. Omega then sucks back all the dragon balls and re-powers-up... but Goku catches the four star ball.


And then we have episode 61, where we quite literally spend a good one-third of the episode with Vegeta shouting about how it's all Goku's fault for dicking around, and how he now refuses to strike silly poses. Didn't... what? Vegeta was the one that suggested fusion in the first place! This is just bad writing for no real reason. Also, did we need the gag scenes in the Kai realm? That'''s dumb.

Goku then swallows the four star ball to emulate Omega Shenron and he chokes. (All the while Omega's just standing, by the way) And finally Goku and Vegeta decide to fuse again, and everyone else tries to buy time, and it's actually cool. We spend nearly the entire episode just with our heroes trying to fuse while Omega refusing to let them do the dance, and everyone tries to get in Omega Shenron's way. We get a cool Kamehame-Final Flash combo, we get a cool bit where Vegeta and Goku do a mass Afterimage technique to fool omega Shenron, and it's legitimately cool. But the episode ends with the fusion failing due to energy imbalance since Goku's a lot more tired than Vegeta... and Goku reverts back into his kid form. And the four star ball appears on Goku's forehead for some reason.

The Goku-has-a-ball-on-his-forehead joke runs way, way longer than it should, but it's just a way for Nuova Shenron to finally return. Nuova pretends to be re-corrupted by Omega's minus energy, and we get a brief fight between Nuova and Vegeta while Omega Shenron... sits down? Nuova is about to kill Goku... until the two of them suddenly turn around and unleash their combined attack onto Omega Shenron. Nuova is apparently purified by the 'plus energy' inside Goku and all this plus/minus power malarkey is just stupid, honestly. I just prefer my own explanation, that Nuova's holding a grudge for Omega shooting him in the back and killing him.

Nuova then unleashes his final technique, the Burning Spin, which creates a cage of fire around the two of them, with fire tentacles... and Nuova tells Omega that whoever fires an attack in that state will cause them both to die in an explosion. Nuova has no respect for Omega, including a particularly fun line where he turns around and tells Omega essentially "hey, you're used to shooting people from behind, right?" That's all badass and all, and Nuova fires a shot... and the two of them explode... and Nuova lands on the ground. But then Nuova cracks open and dies, because apparently Omega launches all of his dragon balls into Nuova's body, taking over his body from the inside? That's a pretty brutal death for poor Nuova, being exploded from the inside. And somehow now losing any power, while both Goku and Vegeta are out of Super Saiyan 4 time.

Episode 63 is the climax of this arc, and it's actually a relatively tense one. Omega creates a minus energy death ball thing, and Goku fails to stop it, and the resulting explosion wipes out a city and puts Goku at the center of the crater. Vegeta tells Trunks, Gohan and Goten to "live and avenge us someday!" as he goes off to fight Omega Shenron alone, comparing his last stand here to how he's going to protect his new home in the way that he cannot protect Planet Vegeta. That's actually touching!

There's some minus energy apocalypse shit going on with cataclysms going everywhere, and the dog president dies when a gigantic lightning bolt strikes the castle and completely vaporizes it. And while everyone (except Bra, who the staff has forgotten about) flies away, Trunks ends up staying behind to help Vegeta fight Omega, and both Gohan and Goten fly in as well. It's a valiant last stand, and I honestly won't make the obvious joke about how they lose because they aren't Goku. See, unlike the other examples of the secondary characters getting trounced, this is an actual touching moment, for me, at least, and the scene of Omega stabbing and impaling Vegeta on his horns is unexpectedly brutal.

Of course, Goku, in the crater, gathers Genki for the Spirit Bomb. But the energy on Earth alone isn't enough, and he telepathically contacts King Kai, who's way too jubilant that Goku's using his old technique to save the universe. King Kai contacts the East, West and South Kais, telling them to broadcast Goku's voice to the entire universe, and we get a brief montage of New Namek, plus some of the other characters from earlier in GT -- only the Para Para Brothers get any dialogue, but we get to see Imecka, Don Kee and his goons in jail, toothache giant, Zunama and the villagers, the doctor and the cabbage boy from the Baby arc... yeah, GT really has some disappointing supporting characters, huh, because I genuinely forgot about half of these, and it's nowhere as "hell yeah!" as the Buu Saga Spirit Bomb. Still, it's badass, even if it doesn't really make sense for the de-powered kid Goku to just shrug off every single one of Omega Shenron's panicked attacks onto him. Maybe the Spirit Bomb's powers are protecting him?

Regardless, Goku unleashes this Universal Spirit Bomb, and blows Omega Shenron up! Victory for Goku! And as Goku falls down, the real Shenron, without being summoned, appears from the dragon balls, and the episode ends.

I'll review episode 64, the end of Dragon Ball GT, separately, so that I can talk about the different arcs briefly and list the things GT did right and the things it did wrong. But overall... my feelings about the Shadow Dragons arc is more or less actually similar to how I feel about the Buu Arc from Dragon Ball Z. It's functional, but it's also riddled with a lot of pacing problems, and a final fight that isn't as entertaining as it should. Omega Shenron is also nowhere as interesting as many of the show's other big bads. Oh well -- it's over, and honestly? It's nowhere as bad as people make it out to be. It's far from perfect. Very far from it... but I honestly enjoyed myself through this very flawed story arc.

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Dragon Ball GT, Episode 64: Until We Meet Again

So here we are. The final episode of Dragon Ball GT, and, up until the release of the Battle of Gods movie in 2013, more than a decade later, the final piece of proper serialized Dragon Ball animation after running non-stop since its inception. And thus, the final episode of GT is... is more of a closure of Goku's story than really trying to resolve much plot holes. Because after all... there's really not that much to go on after Omega Shenron is defeated. 

The real Shenron talks to Goku and the others, telling them that humanity's been relying way too heavily on the dragon balls, and that Shenron is taking them away. It's a theme that I wish was actually properly explored. If GT didn't have such a troubled production, maybe it could've had a running theme of facing the sins of the past and responsibility throughout the Baby, Super 17 and Shadow Dragon arcs. Unfortunately, the message isn't quite as poignant as it is, but it is delivered in a pretty somber tone as Shenron makes it unambiguously clear that it's the end of an era. Goku asks Shenron to repair the Earth after the devastation caused by the Super 17 and Shadow Dragon sagas, and then when Shenron tells Goku to go, Goku replies with a cryptic "is it time already?" 

Goku then rides on Shenron's head as they fly up into the sky with the dragon balls going along with them. And while Chichi panics a bit, they end up just kind of brushing it off as Goku going off on another adventure -- maybe like when he flew off with Uub at the end of Z. Only Pan and Vegeta seem to know what's going on, as Pan finds Goku's ripped-up blue gi on the ground, and while it's ambiguous, it's clear that Goku has either died or ascended or... something. Vegeta tells Pan to "treasure it"  before flying off... and Goku's most likely died, I suppose. It does explain why Goku isn't affected at all by Omega Shenron's attacks last episode when he's charging the spirit bomb, anyway. 

We get a brief montage of Shenron and Goku flying through the clouds, including a neat callback to the opening of Dragon Ball Z, and we briefly see Yamcha and Pu'ar in the desert, as well as Tien and Chiaotsu training under a waterfall... but Goku stops at Kame House to meet with Roshi, Old Man Krillin (yay!) and Umigame. They have a bit of a fun reminiscing of the old days, and Krillin notes how neither Goku nor Roshi have changed, while he got old. Goku spars with Krillin for old times' sake, giving Krillin a victory, and then Goku seems to have disappeared. 

Goku also shows up in hell, where apparently Piccolo's became Hell Batman, beating up escaped demons and everything, and Piccolo's reaction to Goku's arrival is "YOU MORON DID YOU GET TRAPPED AGAIN". Oh, Piccolo. Goku and Piccolo have a handshake, and then after an apology for giving him so much trouble, Goku disappears again. And then as everyone else goes home, Goku lies down to sleep as the dragon balls enter Goku, and Shenron roars... and he and Goku just disappear. 

It's a weird, weird ending, and we cut to a Tenkaichi Budokai in the far future where Pan is now the grandmother of a little boy called Goku, fighting while wearing Goku's blue Gi, facing off against a descendant of Vegeta, also called Vegeta. It's a bit of a too on-the-nose of the 'their legacy continues' as Grandma Pan sees Goku among the crowd briefly, but fails to catch up to him. And as Goku leaves the tournament grounds, we get a montage of multiple important moments of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and... well, just the scene of Baby's death from Dragon Ball GT. But it's a very nice montage with an instrumental sound, before the narrator notes that this is the end of the story of Son Goku and the Dragon Balls, as Goku salutes the audience and flies away on the nimbus, before the final THE END.

Except it isn't, of course, as I'm writing this review a full 21 years after the final episode of Dragon Ball GT is broadcasted in Japan, and despite the hiatus, Dragon Ball has returned in full force in the form of a new series of movies, a whole load of video games and an anime sequel. The franchise proved to have enough staying power in everyone's hearts, and it's definitely heartwarming that, yes, "until we meet again" actually did happen. But the staff writing this episode of GT didn't know it. As far as they knew, this was the final entry in the story of Dragon Ball, and while there's a couple of extra TV specials down the line... this is it. As far as the staff writing Dragon Ball was concerned, this was the end of Dragon Ball.

And the ending episode itself was a melancholic, well-done piece that truly sets the tone of reminiscing of all the adventures that our good buddy Goku has gone through. And that's a very nice ending.

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So now, how do I feel about GT as a whole? I feel that my opinions about the respective arcs themselves are made abundantly clear in their respective reviews, since all the three major arcs -- Baby, Super 17 and Shadow Dragon -- did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong. Some of the biggest problems that GT has is lack of a consistent tone, sometimes waffling between forced comedy and seriousness way too quickly (the Sugoro Space during the Baby saga; the whiplash from the Freeza and Cell fight with Krillin's deaeth in the Super 17 arc), and sometimes just going on and on with dreary seriousness without a break (the Omega Shenron fight in particular). There's also the problem of Goku being the only one that is allowed to do anything, with parts of the Baby and Shadow Dragon Sagas feeling really forced when Goku essentially demands that every other Saiyan give him their powers, and for those other characters to just shrug it off and go "eh, what can we do". That's pretty bad. Only Uub and Vegeta really get any chance to shine among the secondary cast, but even then Uub's big badass scenes all end up basically replacing Piccolo in Z (not a bad thing, mind you) and Vegeta's character arc is insanely inconsistent, as I have covered in the Omega Shenron arc. There's also, of course, the fact that the first fourteen or fifteen episodes are straight-up bad filler, and everything revolving the Black Star Ball arc feels really, really poorly done in both scripting, action and drama.

But I think the biggest problem that GT has is the fact that neither of the supposed four main characters end up being really stale. Goku spends most of his scenes either being the hero, or making jokes about wanting to fight or being hungry, and while he's never been a character that is really deep, it is particularly bad here. There are several great moments for Goku, like this melancholic Goku at the end of GT, or the bit where he remembers the family time when he achieves SS4, but ultimately, Goku's a flat protagonist, and that makes the moments when he acts a bit dickish since he's the only one allowed to be a fighter feel really bad. A lot of people snidely joke that "GT" refers to "Goku Time"... and honestly, considering how Goku essentially takes over every fight he's in? They're not wrong.

Pan, unquestionably the character with the most screentime after Goku... ends up really being inconsistently written. See, the writers really can't decide if they want Pan to be a badass, scrappy tomboy warrior, or an inexperienced kid that ends up being a damsel in distress... and as a result, Pan ends up really waffling between "I can totally beat up bad guys" to "waaaah I'm thirsty" all the time. The show's staunch refusal to really give Pan any sort of power-up or a chance to shine, be it achieving Super Saiyan or defeating an enemy, makes it really extra-hurtful to the character too. The only character Pan defeats all by herself was one of General Rilldo's robot minions, I think, and every other time she's allowed to fight, it's Goku that ends up dealing the killing blow. Which makes the decision to focus on Pan so much end up really frustrating if she's never allowed to grow and be badass.

Giru, the robot sidekick... is okay. His big role is clearly during the Rilldo arc, where he has to fight between helping his newfound friends or execute the commands given to him by his creators, and his relationship with Pan is nice enough, but ultimately he's meant to be a sidekick, and ends up getting taken out before each big conflict. Trunks, the other member of the big team... ends up having no character whatsoever to talk about beyond being generically heroic and the straight man of the group. And therein lies the problem. The fact that none of the characters are particularly well-written or well-defined, which I think is a very valid criticism of GT. Dragon Ball's other incarnations have never been particularly that deep at exploring characters, but there tended to be a couple of characters whose story arc is particularly compelling in any given arc, and in GT there's a definite dearth of that. There's an attempt at giving Piccolo, Uub, Vegeta, Majin Buu and Android 18 big character moments, but other than Buu (who recurs throughout the Baby saga) none of them work particularly well due to lack of buildup or straight-up inconsistent writing in Vegeta's case.

The best part of GT, though, is definitely the concepts behind all the arcs and the villains. None of them are particularly bad, and with a non-rushed production and a better writer, and perhaps better utilization of character arcs, the concepts that underlie the main GT arcs are definitely well-done. And at least in the execution of the character of Baby in particular, GT ends up delivering what ended up being probably one of my favourite Dragon Ball villains. Ultimately, though, the problems that riddle GT end up outweighing the good parts, and while the same problem riddle Z and Super (albeit to an agruably lesser degree) the fact that GT's start was absolutely rocky and genuinely painful to sit through gives the series an over-inflated reputation for being nothing but shit. And it's honestly really unfair. I've gone through GT from start to finish, and it's... not bad. There are some moments that are genuinely good, but for the most part, GT's...  watchable. Except for the Luud arc. So yeah. It's definitely been a fun trip, and while we're not going to see Dragon Ball for a while as Super goes on hiatus, it's definitely been a fun ride through the Grand Tour.

Dragon Ball GT Episodes 54-58 Review: A Song of Fire and Eis [Shadow Dragons Saga, Pt 2]

Dragon Ball GT, Episodes 54-58 [Shadow Dragons Saga, Part 2]


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.

As a side-note, how cool would it be if Piccolo's big redemption wasn't the shoehorned bullshit at the end of the Baby Saga, but rather coming face to face with the manifestation of his father's evil ambitions? How cool would that be? Oh well. Nuova's decent enough.

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.

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.

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.