URANAI BABA ARC (#069-#083)
Episode 69 (Kyūto na!? Uranai Baba) aired on July 8th, 1987.
Script by Michiru Shimada, storyboard and direction by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama.
Key animation: Tai’ichiro Ohara, Akio Katada, Hidehiko Kadota, Naotoshi Shida.
-Great storyboarding and direction, with several reflections.
–These expressions.
–Cha-cha-character development.
-“Fortune Smeller Baba“. They brought this on DBS, too.
-“Waiting for an animal to take a dump“. They brought this on DBGT, this time.
-I thought Krillin was more intelligent than this. Even Goku could tell Upa is a boy.
–No, you don’t know what’s god ki.
Episode 70 (Totsugeki! Warera Gonin no Senshi) aired on July 15th, 1987.
Script by Keiji Terui, storyboard by Haruki Iwanami, direction by Yoshihiro Ueda and animation supervision by Yukio Ebisawa.
Key animation: Yukio Ebisawa, Emiko Uesugi.
-At the very least, Upa and Puar are used quite cleverly.
-“Jesus Christ“.
-Okay, this is kinda funny…
-… but it’s clearly the beginning of Krillin’s humiliation trope. Acting cocky before getting beaten up.
–This is disgusting.
The second Dragon Ball movie (Majin Jō no Nemuri Hime or The Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle) was released on July 18th 1987. Script by Keiji Terui, direction by Daisuke Nishio, executive production by Chiaki Imada and animation supervision by Minoru Maeda.
-This movie retells the events after the first canon arc, with Goku and Krillin arriving at Kame House, with a few differences (save for Goku’s Oozaru transformation from the first arc).
-Kikuchi’s M4XX soundtrack is really good. Probably the best aspect of the movie: M411, M420 and M426 are the best tracks. M407, M422, M423, M440 and M441-B are also pretty good. As for M424EXT, it’s a solemn BGM and all, but it sometimes gets misused in the regular series (both the instrumental and chorus versions).
–Pretty great direction. The art direction looks extremely competent, too.
-This movie is more cohesive than the last one.
-The first 15 minutes are very enjoyable, despite being quite a rehash of the main series events. The race between Goku and Krillin is rather fun.
-Albeit more rushed than the series counterpart, Goku and Krillin’s friendship build-up is still believable.
–Yamcha gets to defeat a bad guy. Awesome.
-As a whole, I seem to care only for the first 15 minutes. The rest is plain mediocrity.
–Lucifer is a very bland and generic villain. His plan is reasonable (he’s a vampire, so he can’t stand the sun), yet extremely predictable.
-His sidekick Igor isn’t much better, either. Design aside, he’s very generic.
-Lunch is a useless addition. I can’t stand her sneeze gags in the main series, so what makes you think I’ll enjoy them here??
-It surely depends on talent, but this movie isn’t very memorable, animation-wise. A few parts are rather conservative and bland.
–Ebisawa recycling pose from last episode.
-Rushed ending.
Episode 71 (Kesshi no Dai-Ryūkessen) aired on July 22nd, 1987.
Script by Shunichi Yukimuro, storyboard and direction by Minoru Okazaki and animation supervision by Minoru Maeda.
Key animation: Sonomi Aramaki, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Takeo Ide, Yasuyuki Shimizu.
–Krillin’s plan is pretty clever.
–Precious.
–Even more precious.
–HA.
–Toei in a nutshell.
-Not the most polished-looking Studio Junio episode.
-Fortune Smeller Baba’s singing is atrocious.
Episode 72 (Gokū Kenzan! Akuma no Benjo) aired on July 29th, 1987.
Script by Toshiki Inoue, storyboard and direction by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama.
Key animation: Tai’ichiro Ohara, Akio Katada, Hidehiko Kadota, Naotoshi Shida.
-Yamcha puts up a decent fight against Mummyman.
-The battle itself is nicely choreographed, too.
–Bulma is an idiot. She’s supposed to be the smart one of the group, yet she cannot distinguish a mummy from an injured man covered in bandages.
Episode 73 (Hissatsu Akumaito-kōsen to wa!?) aired on August 5th, 1987.
Script by Yasushi Hirano, storyboard and direction by Yoshihiro Ueda and animation supervision by Katsumi Aoshima.
Key animation: Tai’ichiro Ohara, Katsumi Aoshima.
–Smug.
-Something tells me Mummyman holds a grudge against Goku. It’s maybe anime exclusive material, but both him and Akkuman are shown raising their hands to give their energy to Goku for his Genkidama, ONLY after Mr. Satan tells them to.
-With that said, he’s not a very interesting character. He’s a cranky mummy and uses his bandages to attack. That’s it.
Episode 74 (Nazo no Goninme no Otoko) aired on August 12th, 1987.
Script by Hiroko Miyazaki, storyboard by Haruki Iwanami, direction by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and animation supervision by Mitsuo Shindo.
Key animation: Kazuko Hirose, Noriko Iitani, Tadayoshi Yamamuro, Teruhisa Ryu.
–Solid storyboarding and direction.
–This technique is potentially the most devastating of the whole series. No matter how strong the opponent is, it will make him explode as long as it has evil thoughts within.
-Of course, it’s not Goku’s case. At least in this era… it could work out on a Super Saiyan.
–Get it? Because he’s a devil.
–Makes sense, since Goku cannot sense ki, yet.
–The title card already spoils the outcome of the battle between Goku and Akkuman. Not if anyone doubted that, but still.
–What a hypocrite. Didn’t she attempt to steal Goku’s Dragon Ball in the first arc? And didn’t she refuse to help Umigame, as well?
–While we’re at it, isn’t she the one who always has a crush on ANY single good-looking guy she meets for the first time?
Episode 75 (Gekitotsu!! Kyōteki Dōshi) aired on August 19th, 1987.
Script by Michiro Shimada, storyboard and direction by Yoshihiro Ueda and animation supervision by Tomekichi Takeuchi.
Key animation: Tomekichi Takeuchi, Yoko Iizuka, Masako Misumi, Masahiro Shimanuki.
–Tension, atmosphere, choreography, reflections. Such great content from Ueda.
-Pretty good music placement. M302 at the beginning works perfectly.
–Goku vs Son Gohan is easily one of the best choreographed fights of the original series.
-And having Seigasha animate it is truly a blessing.
–A duck transition… great.
-Oh no, he said the Waku Waku word.
–Thank you. Uranai Baba’s kinda annoying.
-WHAT? HOW COME don’t Krillin and Muten Roshi know about Goku’s tail weakness? Weren’t they paying attention to General Blue’s PK-powered ropes grasping his tail 20 EPISODES AGO??
Episode 76 (Kamen Otoko no Shōtai wa!?) aired on August 26th, 1987.
Script by Yasushi Hirano, storyboard and direction by Minoru Okazaki and animation supervision by Tai’ichiro Ohara.
Key animation: Tai’ichiro Ohara, Akio Katada, Hidehiko Kadota, Naotoshi Shida.
–Yamcha’s twitching is funny.
-I appreciate they reanimated a flashback montage.
–Take this line out of context.
–Uranai Baba can bring back dead people for 24 hours. However, what does she mean with ‘scouting dead martial arts‘? Bringing back evil space tyrants?
-“Die in good health again“.
–Back when they didn’t know the Earth DBs could only resurrect people who died within a year.
-Pilaf again. To his credit, I might start disliking him a bit less…
Episode 77 (Pirafu no Dai-Sakusen) aired on September 2nd, 1987.
Script by Toshiki Inoue, storyboard and direction by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and animation supervision by Yukio Ebisawa.
Key animation: Yukio Ebisawa, Emiko Uesugi.
–Pilaf showing empathy towards his minions. However, it might be played for laughs.
–Cool bots.
-I mean… if they were always used to see Goku’s tail OUTSIDE his pants, why would they fall for that?
-So… here Uranai Baba is shown asking for a huge amount of zeni in order to use her crystal ball. Must’ve changed her fee in later arcs, since she’d allow them to use it for FREE.
-A minute long flashback. Not really necessary.
Episode 78 (Shenron Futatabi) aired on September 9th, 1987.
Script by Keiji Terui, storyboard and direction by Yoshihiro Ueda and animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama.
Key animation: Akio Katada, Hidehiko Kadota, Naotoshi Shida.
-NOTE: this is the first time in the series the sky becomes dark when Shenlong is summoned, if we don’t count the first movie. During the first arc, it was already night, so no difference could be felt.
–Well yeah, but he’ll also put it in danger, as well as the whole universe.
-No, in 1987 there was neither a concept of Beerus, nor of Goku having an alien father.
–Muten Roshi after his motivational speech.
–HAHA.
-Not a massive fan of this insert song.
–Yes, Upa. You will.
–Yes, Yamcha. You will. I can’t blame him…
Episode 79 (Kinkaku · Ginkaku no Hito Kui Hyōtan) aired on September 16th, 1987.
Script by Keiji Terui, storyboard and direction by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and animation supervision by Mitsuo Shindo.
Key animation: Noriko Iitani, Tadayoshi Yamamuro, Teruhisa Ryu.
-Some neat board here and there.
–Hallelujah.
-I’m not biased towards fillers, as some of them give interesting ideas to expand the canon storyline. Nonetheless, in this case we’re dealing with a pretty bland filler.
-A few characters are blatant rip-offs of pre-existing characters, like Suno’s father lookalike or Chao, who kinda looks like Chichi.
–Kiss-esque make-up aside, Kinkaku and Ginkaku are extremely forgettable bad guys. The only thing I remember about them is Takeshi Aono voicing Ginkaku.
-Of course, the rain causes the filler to have a happy ending. I didn’t see that coming…
-Of re-course, I don’t really like Shindo’s corrections.
Episode 80 (Iza Gozen Shiai! Gokū Tai Tenron) aired on September 23rd, 1987.
Script by Toshiki Inoue, storyboard and direction by Yoshihiro Ueda and animation supervision by Tai’ichiro Ohara.
Key animation: Tai’ichiro Ohara, Akio Katada, Hidehiko Kadota, Naotoshi Shida.
–Tai’ichiro Ohara deserved to be a supervisor on DBZ, too. His contribution is still praiseworthy, though.
-Oh no, it’s the Waku Waku pose.
–Goku recalling Son Gohan’s advice. Nice.
-Albeit flawed, this filler is an improvement over the last one.
–This kid represents the annoying kid trope. A very bad kid trope:
–He’s rude.
–He’s cocky.
–He blames Goku for his father’s illness. Come on, weren’t you aware of his health issues in the first place?
-On top of that, he even dunks a lassative in Goku’s soup. What an asshole.
-I don’t care if he redeems himself in the end. ONE good action doesn’t erase SEVERAL bad actions.
Episode 81 (Gokū · Makai e Iku) aired on September 30th, 1987.
Script by Michiru Shimada and Kei Shussui, storyboard and direction by Daisuke Nishio and animation supervision by Yukio Ebisawa.
Key animation: Yukio Ebisawa, Emiko Uesugi, Shizuo Kawai, Takeo Ide (uncredited), Naotoshi Shida (uncredited).
-Possibly one of the most solid-looking Studio Live entries. Ebisawa doesn’t seem to struggle with Goku’s aesthetics that much. Seems.
-This filler was a surprise. Rather enjoyable, despite its idea being a rehash of the 2nd movie.
-No wonder this is the first episode to use M4XX (soundtrack from that movie).
–The horror vibes of the prologue.
-I’ve always wanted to see Krillin and Yamcha’s training, even for a few seconds. Such a pretty addition to the manga.
–Waku Waku is back.
–Goku ignores that a wedding is a meal.
-Again, the episode content isn’t that authentic: there’s a demon realm just like that movie, there’s even a princess just like that movie, and a few characters look like rip-offs from that very movie.
–This monster looks like Gasuteru, while this centaur-like creature is shown playing a horn, just like that one.
-Needless to say, the princess resembles Suno, only taller. Toei really likes redheads, apparently.
-I’ll pretend I didn’t read this.
–Does Goku drink wine??
Episode 82 (Abare Kaijū Inoshikachō) aired on October 7th, 1987.
Script by Shunichi Yukimuro, storyboard and direction by Minoru Okazaki and animation supervision by Minoru Maeda.
Key animation: Sonomi Aramaki, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Takeo Ide, Yasuyuki Shimizu.
-Albeit not that memorable, this filler actually manages to give a solid preamble to the next arc, by introducing Kame-sennin’s rival, Tsuru-sennin, and his pupils Tenshinhan and Chaozu, here portrayed as frauds.
-Even by his first (non-canon) appearance, we learn that Tenshinhan wasn’t born for being a nice guy.
-I like that Krillin automatically thinks Muten Roshi bothered Bulma on her sleep.
-That said, the happy ending is way too predictable for these kinds of episodes.
-This is the last time in the series we see Bulma with this hairstyle. She looks so good with it.
Episode 83 (Isoge Gokū! Tenka’ichi Budōkai) aired on October 14th, 1987.
Script by Yasushi Hirano, storyboard and direction by Toshihiko Arisako and animation supervision by Tomekichi Takeuchi.
Key animation: Tomekichi Takeuchi, Yoko Iizuka, Masako Misumi, Masahiro Shimanuki.
–This filler is set right after the 3 years time skip. Really good choice, as it makes the time skip less random and out of nowhere.
-I may dislike her related sneeze gags, but I’m glad the anime adds a reason for Lunch to join Muten Roshi and the others. I mean, they were leaving her behind but they even brought Umigame in the first place.
–Fortune Smeller again.
-“And by someday I mean never again.”
-The filler content is a tad forgettable.
–I beg your fuckin’ pardon?
-“Whoa, we’re looking for 30.000 zeni. How convenient someone has been offering such a sum for a while.”
