Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Dragon Ball – episodes 112 to 122

April 21, 2007 on 3:15 pm | In Dragon Ball | Comments Off on Dragon Ball – episodes 112 to 122

“King Piccolo Saga, Part 2”

Now that is how you make a spot of Dragon Ball! With a legitimate villain who is capable enacting his plans for world domination! With a villain who can back up his pride most of the time! With a villain who can spit eggs!

… but not with Pilaf doing much in the way of good. But you can’t win all of the battles that you fight.

Having managed to become young again, Piccolo Daimao takes over the King’s Castle and tells the world that they are subject to a lottery over the next 43 years – each year, on the day of his ascendance, one forty third of the world will be obliterated.
Goku doesn’t know about this, but he won’t stand for it nonetheless. With Yajirobe at his side, it’s time to get Karin to give him the goods! At the same time, Tenshinhan practises the Mafuba – the ancient and powerful technique that traps demons in rice cookers (for seriously).

Piccolo Daimao’s style of governance is something that people should get behind – anarchy. It’s a really easy code of living to enforce, and I wonder if people really would go mad with looting in this sort of world. People tried to steal the money of the Kame House dwellers, but I really doubt that currency would serve any purpose in a world where you can steal anything. Purchases are for chumps!

The good things about this end of the saga are that Yajirobe gets to do some really cool stuff, and proves himself more useful than anyone who has seen Z would have suspected. Sure, he’s lazy and arrogant, but he can back up these traits with the fact that he’s strong enough to climb Karin Tower and get up to all sorts of mischief. The final episode of this saga featured such magical Yajirobe adventures that I practically wanted to make him the president.

The only problem, beyond the fact that no one ever eats any damned Senzu beans despite the fact that they can totally heal you, is that the concluding episode of this, the most dramatic arc of Dragon Ball so far, is that it bleeds directly into the next. I wish it had something a little more than a ride off into the sunset, but dang, this is how an arc should be made.

I’m almost tempted to watch Z after this, but the thing about Dragon Ball is that it features momentum. My pal Dragon Ball Z was steadfastly dedicated to getting nowhere. This makes me cry.

Also, before I forget to put this anywhere: hooray for Lunch! Now that she’s just good and bad personality rather than super shooter, she is great fun to watch. Her crush on Tenshinhan is good stuff.