King Cold took them to the war room on his ship. It was just about everything one could expect from a space war room of the ruler of a multi-galaxy empire. There was holographs everywhere, especially on the war table itself. The war table showed the section of Earth around where the ship was. No one liked that these ships can scan their surroundings up to 1,000 kilometers, as the holographic map showed.
“The first lab we are going to destroy is about 800 kilometers away from us,” Cold started to explain, “It is rather large, so we sent scouts to scan the place so we can get a floorplan.”
“You can do that?” Krillin asked
“Of course, we obviously do not want to go in blind,” Cold stood over the table, using his hands to zoom in so he could see the lab up close. Everyone could see the floor plan slowly being generated before their eyes!
“Wow, that’s some sick tech. How is that happening?” Yamcha asked in awe.
“My scouts are using scanners that can detect things such as walls, vents, wire, depth, and more to scan the building from a distance. This is helpful in this particular case, as most of the building seems to be underground.” Cold answered
“And how are they doing that without being detected?”
“As you can imagine the scanners are designed to undetectable by several means of long distance detection. Not to mention the scanners they are using have a range of about 20 kilometers, so the scouts shouldn’t be detected unless they are physically seen.”
“Man, that explains how Frieza and Cooler kept finding us so quickly. I bet the scouters that these guys wear do similar things.” Tien said.
King Cold didn’t reply; he was thinking, carefully formulating a plan in his head as the floorplan formed before him. He was especially making sure to look for any rooms where any prisoners or test subjects might be held. Little did the heros know that King Cold was a military genuis. Considered the best Acorsican general of the millennia, not only did he amass and conquer the empire he’s known for today, he’s actually the first one of his family to rule. Earlier in life, before marriage was ever on his mind, he overthrew what is now called the Old Acorsican rule and everyone wanted him to be the new king, so he became king. Oh yeah, and he was only 15 when he did this.
King Cold’s men got excited. It had been a while since the king had done a campaign himself, with the latest Acorsican campaigns being done by Frieza and Cooler. The new recruits that were with him especially wanted to see the King’s famed genius in action. In fact, it was already happening, with the gears turning in his head as more and more of the lab was revealed to him. The heros were certainly in for a treat when the time comes.
Speaking of, the heros decided to go to another room and talk amongst themselves. They chose the training room to do so.
“Did you see the look on that guy’s face? He’s thinking really hard” Yamcha said.
“Yeah, it actually makes me kind of nervous. Imagine if Frieza or Cooler used that technology and their brains instead of just fighting us. What Frieza did to me on Namek was bad enough; I don’t want to know what they’re capable of when they actually think.” Krillin almost shuddered at the thought of one of the brothers actually waging war on Earth.
“Well at least we have Goku. I like to think that all that stops mattering when you’re fighting a Super Saiyan.” Tien reassured
“Yes, but we also have to consider that we might not have Goku forever.” Piccolo pointed out, “He is a magnet for these kind of guys, from the Saiyans to Frieza on Namek to this upcoming Andriod invasion there will come a point where he will have to leave us. We have to continue training and getting stronger so we can show Goku that we can defend ourselves and what is important to us.”
Chaiotzu’s face said that he did not like the thought of that at all.
“Guys come on, we’re not going to get anywhere with that mindset. Yes, we will all continue training but I’m not giving up on my friend Goku either.” Yamcha said confidently
“That is not what I meant but if that motivates them to train then fine” Piccolo thought to himself.
“Yamcha’s right, we gotta have faith, and hey, this whole war campaign with Frieza’s dad might not be so bad after all. Though I do wonder what he’ll have us do.” Krillin sat criss crossed on the floor
Tien, Yamcha and Chaiotzu did the same. Everyone knew they would have to rest up and not push themselves too hard before whatever mission King Cold was planning. It occurred to them that no one was actually experienced in actual war tactics, so it really will have to be them following orders at least until the plan goes awry, if it goes awry, that is.
This whole episode is kinda nutty. For openers, Goku has hung himself upside down by a chain, so that he can do crunches in fifty-times normal gravity. This seems incredibly unsafe, considering that he’s all alone, and he’s in outer space. Like, you’re not supposed to benchpress big weights without a spotter, and Goku has ignored that precaution so completely that it’s almost beautiful.
I mean, how does he plan to get back down? How’d he get up there in the first place? Why can’t he just do situps on the floor, like he was doing at 30 times normal gravity?
On King Kai’s planet, Piccolo still refuses to get into the spirit of King Kai’s training. He wants to skip to the cool parts so he can be ready to take on Frieza when he’s wished back to life. But King Kai won’t hear of it. Piccolo tries to get tough with him, but King Kai doesn’t budge. I think King Kai may still be stronger than Piccolo at this point, but I’m not sure.
King Kai summons the other three Z-Fighters in for lunch, and they eat with the same gusto as Goku. That’s kind of weird, because in Dragon Ball, all the other characters were bewildered whenever Goku would gobble down loads of food. This scene seems to imply that the human martial artists are the same way, which isn’t entirely unreasonalble. I mean, they’ve been working up an appetite all day, after all. But it’s not like they were doing this in any of their past training stints.
The main difference is that Tien, Chiaotzu, and Yamcha actually like King Kai’s cooking, as opposed to Goku, who said it wasn’t very good. So King Kai’s all flattered, and I guess this is how they bond with the guy.
Then they all do the classic “Full Goku” pose, with the belly and everything. This just feels off to me...
As for Piccolo, he just drinks water, because Dende revealed that this is all Namekians need to live, and I think someone at Toei wanted to reflect that new lore with Piccolo. My question is: How does Piccolo know he only needs water? He only found out he was a Namekian a few weeks ago, and we’ve seen him eat food before, probably because he didn’t know any better.
After eating, the boys quickly turn the tables on Bubbles, just like Goku did.
Then King Kai moves them on to chasing Gregory with a mallet, and that’s how you can tell this is all filler. Gregory wasn’t in the manga, natch.
Back on Namek, Zarbon has brought Vegeta back to Frieza’s ship and slapped him in the healing tank. This isn’t an act of mercy, though. Vegeta hid a Dragon Ball somewhere on the planet, and the only way Frieza can find it is by interrogating Vegeta. But Zarbon nearly killed him two episodes ago, and so Zarbon will have hell to pay if Vegeta doesn’t recover.
On King Kai’s planet, the humans pass the Gregory Stage of the training, so King Kai decides to have them do some sparring. Piccolo opts in for this, and he demands to fight all three of the humans at once. Yamcha and Tien take offense at this, but King Kai admits that it would be a more even battle this way.
Piccolo is a lot stronger than the others, sure, and he does manage to dominate the fight...
But as the match continues, he starts to get surprised by how fast and strong his opponents are. Also, Chiaotzu is doing that self-destruct move he used on Nappa, so he’s clearly out for blood.
“Try to kill me again, you big green sonovabitch.”
Unlike Nappa, though, Piccolo has super stretchy arms, which he uses to pull Chiaotzu off his back.
Then he drives him head-first into the ground. Tien’s all worried, until King Kai reminds them all that they’re already dead, so he can’t get hurt.
What I want to know is, what happens to Chiaotzu’s halo when he’s in a spot like this? Usually, the halos sort of hover at a fixed distance above a person’s head, so is the halo just phased into the ground right now, or was it pushed down against Chiaotzu’s scalp?
Eventually, Piccolo realizes that King Kai’s goofy training wasn’t so goofy after all. Chasing Bubbles and Gregory around in tenfold gravity has made them a lot stronger and faster already.
Then the boys start landing some serious blows on him, and Piccolo realizes he’s got a real fight on his hands.
Tien asks Piccolo to remove his weighted training clothes, and Piccolo obliges, but before we can see if that makes a difference, King Kai calls off the match so they can do something else.
This is really clever storytelling. Not only did King Kai prove to Piccolo the value of his training exercises, but Piccolo has come to respect the humans more than he did before. He doesn’t normally take off his cape and turban unless he’s facing a real challenge, so the fact that he did it shows that he isn’t nearly as dismissive of them as he was before the fight.
And that’s why King Kai told them to stop. Yeah, the fight wasn’t settled, but the lessons had been learned, so there ways no need to continue. King Kai’s a pretty sharp guy.
He still makes the boys laugh at his puns, though.
Back at Frieza’s ship, Appule is talking to himself while he looks after Vegeta. I don’t get why Zarbon would just leave Vegeta in the care of a weaker teammate like this. What if he wakes up and attacks--?
OH SHI--!
Vegeta explodes out of the healing tank, kills Appule, and gloats about his recuperative abilities. Then he blasts a hole in the ship’s hull.
Zarbon and Frieza run over to the med-lab to see what’s going on, and when they find the hull breach, they naturally assume Vegeta used it as an escape route.
But Vegeta hasn’t left the ship at all. The hole he made was a diversion, so he could Naruto-run through the ship and find...
The five Dragon Balls, which Frieza has conveniently stored in the same cabin.
So yeah, everything’s coming up Vegeta, at least for now...
Redo RoF with Yamcha, and Chaiotzu included... You increase tha bad guy's power and have all the humans die when Togama and them step in.
You then have Tenshinhan, Chaiotzu, Yamcha, Krillin, and Muten Roshi all go to FINISH their King Kai training.
Muten Roshi keeps out of the training until the guys start working on the Kaioken with Muten Roshi criticizing how the Kaioken is inferior to his buff form due to the risk of self harm.
However their argument turns into an accidental collaboration that brings about a new and stable Kaioken for the humans to learn and master, and later bring out in the ToP.
So Frieza’s gone, the Namekians are safe on Earth, and the good guys have two sets of Dragon Balls to wish all their dead friends back with. I think that just about wraps everything up, but I can’t help but feel like I forgot about something...
Oh yeah. Yeah, that doesn’t look good.
So Goku has to find a way off Planet Namek before it explodes. His first try is Frieza’s ship, I guess because it’s closest. It also has like three holes in it, and one of them was made by Goku himself, so I don’t understand why he thinks this is going to get him anywhere.
I find it a little convenient that this ship has a similar control scheme to the one Goku used to get to Namek. Then again, Capsule 1 was based on the design of the Saiyan spacecraft that brought Goku to Earth, and I’m pretty sure whoever built those ships also designed Frieza’s ship, so maybe it’s not so unlikely that Goku could figure this one out. It doesnt’ matter, though, because Frieza’s ship is kaput.
In the end, Goku cries out in impotent rage, and King Kai can’t even bring himself to watch what happens. Namek explodes, and when King Kai checks with his powers, he finds no sign of the planet and no sign of Goku.
I really dig this final scream of Goku’s, because it makes a nice callback to Luffa’s h^h^h^h^h The Original Super Saiyan’s scene from Episode 66. That, er, dude was screaming while surrounded by plumes of lava too, and then a planet exploded. It’s like when Joseph Joestar says “yare yare”.
Yamcha breaks the bad news to Bulma, courtesy of King Kai’s telepathy, but Bulma isn’t worried about Goku’s death, because she just found out that the Namekian Dragon Balls can be used to wish because two-time losers like Krillin, Chioatzu, and apparently Goku.
But King Kai points out that this won’t do any good for Krillin and Goku, because they died on Namek, which no longer exists. If they were to be wished back to life, they would rematerialize in the empty space where Namek used to be, and die all over again.
Vegeta finds this hilarious.
So hilarious that Gohan gets upset with him, and they start fighting. This is kind of a subdued affair, considering that these two are the third and fourth strongest fighters in the cast. It’s implied that Vegeta isn’t taking it seriously.
Then Piccolo tells him to back off, and he... does? Why would Vegeta sweat Piccolo at this point? Gohan’s probably stronger than Piccolo is right now.
Then he just takes off and leaves, which is really awkward, since he’s supposed to be here in the next episode...
I thought Yamcha just got done talking to Goku. Or has time passed since the last episode?
Goku fills his dead bros on the plot thus far.
Then he gets to the part where he has to deal with a bad guy even stronger than Vegeta, and things get awkward.
King Kai asks Goku if the guy’s name is “Frieza”, but Goku doesn’t know, so King Kai uses his powers to check.
Yeah, it’s Frieza all right. King Kai shits a brick right then and there.
King Kai summarily commands Goku to stay the fuck away from that guy. He tells him to grab his friends as soon as he reaches Namek, and leave for Earth immediately. Goku can’t possibly win against Frieza, and if he provokes him, it’ll just make trouble for the whole universe.
But Goku doesn’t get it. If anything, King Kai’s dire warnings just make Goku want to check Frieza out even more.
Piccolo’s on board with that idea, and he asks Goku to ignore King Kai, wish them back with the Dragon Balls, and they’ll tackle Frieza together.
He then insists that King Kai start training them immediately, but he won’t do it unless they each promise to stay away from Frieza. Piccolo just straight up lies to his face, because he’s still fairly evil at this point.
Meanwhile, Goku figures that he might as well get stronger anyway. Even if he can’t fight Frieza, it’d still be handy if Frieza just happened to walk into his fist while he was swinging it.
So he cranks up his artificial gravity to fifty times that of Earth.
Back at King Kai’s, the boys have to make King Kai laugh before he’ll train them. I don’t quite get this, since Goku only had to do this because King Kai mistakenly thought he wanted comedy training. Anyway, Tien sucks at this, and Piccolo is so disgusted that he won’t even try.
tfw you’re chagrined.
Yamcha whispers a joke to him to help him out, and Tien gives it one more try.
As I recal, the Funimation dub had Tien use the riddle about the difference between a piano and a fish (You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish.). And King Kai laughs in earnest. In the Japanese version, King Kai’s all about puns, so Tien makes a really bad one about mucus. The wordplay is clever, but the premise is all wrong. Who says “The inside of my nose is secret?” Ifthat were a common expression, then this would be pretty funny, but it’s (s)not. So King Kai doesn’t get it, but he fake-laughs anyway, because punsters have no standards.
Then he starts the training with a pun of his own. It’s a better one, but no one laughs until he threatens to withhold his training.
So now they have to fake laugh at his unfunny joke. The moral here is that even pun-meisters know they aren’t funny. They just prey on people’s desire to get along.
So King Kai brings out Bubbles and tells the boys to chase him just like Goku did. Piccolo catches him immediately, but he’s not allowed to receive training because he didn’t make King Kai laugh.
Then he says “under” a few times in one sentence, and King Kai busts a gut. Okay, so first off, the bar is incredibly low with King Kai, and second, what makes Piccolo’s delivery work is that he’s not struggling to make the wordplay fit. He didn’t try to fit “underwear” or “underwater” into his statement just to pull it off, because those words wouldn’t make any sense. He also didn’t milk it, probably because he wasn’t really trying, but it would be really corny if he emphasized “under” each time. What makes jokes work is that they seem spontaneous. Jerry Seinfeld didn’t open his act with “Hello! I shall now recite a joke for you! Prepare for amusement!”
Anyway, I really relate to Piccolo in this episode, especially his WTF expression in this shot.
On Namek, Vegeta nearly detects Krillin, but then he picks up Zarbon flying alone, and veers off to intercept him first, since he’s a higher-value target.
They talk first, and this weird thing happens with the screen. I don’t think this ever happened before or after, so I’m not sure why they did it here.
Vegeta’s reasons for turning on Frieza aren’t terribly complicated, and he’s gone over them for the audience before. He’s too proud to accept subordination to anyone else, but Frieza was too powerful to topple, and then he learned the Dragon Balls could make him immortal, giving him a path to victory.
What’s more important about this scene is Zarbon’s reaction to Vegeta’s manifesto. He seriously doubts that Vegeta can win this, and even if he does become immortal, it still won’t help him beat Frieza, because Frieza’s just that much more powerful than he is.
And this sums up Zarbon perfectly. He doesn’t have a problem working for someone else, and he doesn’t particularly care that his boss is way more powerful than he is. One might wonder why Vegeta was the first and only renegade in Frieza’s organization. Zarbon could have easily done all the things Vegeta is doing right now. He’d probably have a better shot at it, because Frieza wouldn’t see his betrayal coming. But Zarbon won’t betray Frieza, because Zarbon doesn’t see the point. Frieza’s not making him do anything he finds terribly objectionable, and he doesn’t believe that he could ever become strong enough to defeat him, wish or no wish.
What sets Vegeta apart from the rest is his lofty ambition. He’s been scheming for something like this all along, and no one seemed to catch on because they thought it was an impossible goal. Frieza seemed to be aware of Vegeta’s resentment, but he never worried about it. The others probably never imagined that Vegeta would dare to risk his own life like this. Guys like Cui, Dodoria, and Zarbon are quite comfortable sticking close to Frieza and enjoying the benefits of his favor. That’s kept them alive, but it’s also made them vulnerable.
Vegeta points out that Frieza is afraid of the Saiyans, which he’s not clinging to as proof that his plan will ultimately succeed. But Zarbon throws cold water on that idea, too. Frieza was only concerned about multiple Saiyans joining forces against him, and he already solved that problem a quarter-century ago. Vegeta can’t do anything by himself.
But as they fight, Vegeta seems to prove otherwise. He deflects Zarbons best attacks like they were nothing.
And he has him completely outclassed in speed and power. This isn’t much of a surprise, considering how quickly he dispatched Cui and Dodoria earlier. From the way Zarbon talked, the three of them were roughly on the same level, and the last scouter reading on Vegeta proved that he had surpassed that.
Meanwhile, Krillin can sense the battle from afar. He had been flying very slowly, so as to avoid being sensed by Vegeta, but now that Vegeta is occupied...
... he grabs Dende and hauls ass. Even if Vegeta happened to notice his ki this way, he’s too busy fighting Zarbon to do anything about it. With any luck, Krillin can reach Grand Elder Guru’s house before the fight ends.
And it looks like the fight will end very soon, except Zarbon doesn’t seem too worried. Instead, he compliments Vegeta’s rapid improvement, then declares that he’s awakened Zarbon’s true power, which he hasn’t used in a long time...
Let’s take score here. Namek is about to explode...
Goku’s the Legendary Super Saiyan...
And Frieza still thinks he’s winning, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Back on Earth, Mr Popo has gathered all seven Dragon Balls, which can then be used to wish Yamcha and Tien back to life. Not Chiaotzu, though, since he’s been wished back once before. Tien offers to stay behind with the guy, and Yamcha does too, until Tien reminds him that he’s got Bulma waiting for him in the living world. Yeah, about that...
All of this gives King Kai an idea. Earth’s Dragon, Shenron, can revive multiple people on a single wish. The best example of this s when he was asked to resurrect everyone who was killed by King Piccolo. Namek’s Dragon, Porunga, cannot do this, although he can grant three wishes, and he can revive the same person more than once.
So once King Kai realizes that Shenron has powers Porunga doesn’t, he decides to change the wish to bring back everyone killed by Frieza and his henchmen. Kami cautions him that this would only work for those who have died in the past year. I’m not sure why there’s a statute of limitations there, but it doesn’t matter.
King Kai’s idea is that if this wish is granted, all the Namekians will come back to life, including Guru, which will reactivate Porunga, who hadn’t finished granting wishes when Guru died. Of course, this assumes that Guru didn’t just die of old age. King Kai is certain that he actually died from the grief of seeing all his children killed by Frieza, and his wish should cover that.
If it works, then King Kai plans to use that third wish from Porunga to have Planet Namek evacuated, leaving only Frieza behind when it explodes.
This means Tien and Yamcha will have to wait for another turn, but they’re okay with that, if it means saving everyone on Namek.
Back on Namek, Gohan brings Bulma to Capsule 1, but she’s kind of uneasy about riding back home with Piccolo. Gohan insists that he stays aboard, and Bulma decides it won’t be too bad as long as he’s unconscious. But then Gohan asks her to wait for Goku to join them, and she really starts getting nervous. If they don’t take off soon, there won’t be a ship left.
On Earth, Mr. Popo relays King Kai’s wish to Shenron. He asks if Shenron can even grant the wish, since everyone he needs to revive is on a whole other planet. Shenron admits that he doesn’t know, but he’ll give it a shot.
Meanwhile, Goku and Frieza are preparing for a final showdown. Goku’s using the Kamehameha, and Frieza is.... flying straight at him really fast. I think one of the video games called this the Nova Strike or something like that.
So it comes down to this. Will Namek last long enough for everyone to wrap up all their business? Gohan and Bulma getting back to the ship, Goku beating Frieza, and that last with from Porunga, none of it really matters if the planet blows up first.
Movie time again. This time around it’s “Tree of Might”, which premiered on July 7, 1990, between Episodes 54 and 55 of the anime.
I feel like this is one of the more popular movies of the lot, but it’s never been high on my list. There is a lot to appreciate here, but there’s some things that bug me, and I guess they don’t bug anyone else quite as much. It’s definitely way better than “World’s Strongest”, so I don’t want to overstate my case here.
The movie opens with a space probe heading for Planet Earth. Pretty sure someone making this movie had just watched “The Empire Strikes Back.”
On Earth, Bulma, Krillin, Oolong, and Gohan are on a camping trip. Okay, so I guess there was at least one other meeting between Gohan and Oolong after Movie 2, and this was it. I’m curious to see if they ever interact in any later films, or the TV series.
Honestly, I’m not really sure why Oolong would be involved here. In the last movie, it made sense, because he was the only one who would drag Gohan out on a Dragon Ball hunt, which drove the whole plot. Here’s he’s just chilling out with the trio who went to Namek. He feels like an odd man out.
I feel like this movie is angling at being an epilogue to the Namek Saga, since it depicts everyone safe and sound on Earth. It doesn’t fit well with continuity, but the Namek Saga was still in progress when this movie came out, so I can’t blame the writers there. In any case, the implication is that Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan all got back to Earth, and the first thing they wanted to do together was spend some quality time with Oolong.
Anyway, Gohan’s mom made him pack a ton of stuff he probably wouldn’t need for a camping trip.
Nearby, that probe lands in the forest and the heat of the impact starts a fire! Ruh-roh!
Krillin wakes up to the smell of burning everything, and we see all the animals fleeing in terror, including this little dragon.
Krillin tells Gohan to use his ki to put out the flames.
While they do that, Gohan notices the dragon trapped under a... log? It looks more like a really long piece of rock, but I don’t know what you’d even call that. Gohan lifts it up and the dragon moves to safety.
Later, the fire’s out, but the forest is still ruined, and the gang feels sorry for all the homeless animals. I don’t know, maybe I’m jaded, but I always found it a little cloying how all the animals just stand around at the edge of the forest, looking all sad, like they’re neighbors or whatever. I don’t know what real deer do in a real forest fire. Maybe they just die, but I’m pretty sure the ones who don’t just keep running until they find somewhere else to live.
Then Krillin has a great idea...
Dragon Ball Z! Wow, this is a great idea, Krillin. This show kicks ass, but unfortunately they already made it, so it’s not really your idea, you know?
But seriously, Krilln plans to track down the Dragon Balls just so they can wish to have the forest restored. In lieu of the usual opening credits, we get this montage of the gang collecting the Dragon Balls. Here’s Gohan flying an aircraft. I’d ask why they thought this made sense, but they had Gohan fly an aircraft in the last movie, so whoever made Tree of Might can just claim that the precedent was already set.
Just a thought, but maybe the reason Gohan does all this zany stuff is because Chi-Chi makes him study too much. By that I mean, she wants him to become a scholar, but for some reason she made him read an entire pilot manual, just in case it ever came up in some entrance exam. We’ve seen how well Gohan absorbs information, so naturally he’d finish the book and want to try it out for himself. Chi-Chi probably made him read a book about lion taming, and then she wonders why Gohan ran off to join the circus.
Here’s a variation on the OP, only with a dinosaur chasing Gohan instead of Bulma. Gohan ought to be strong enough to kick that dinosaur’s ass, though.
For some reason, Tien and Chiaotzu happen to be jogging by while they’re at it. Small world, I guess.
And then Gohan shows up with the last ball. Good thing, too. The theme song was almost over.
And finally we get the title card. Granted, these trees in the background don’t look very mighty, but bear with us, we’re getting to that.
DRAGON DRAGON! ROCK THE DRAGON! DRAGON! BALL! Z!
DRAGON DRAGON! ROCK THE DRAGON! COME! COME GET ME!
The sight of Shenron panics that little dragon Gohan saved, and it tries to attack him? That seems like an unusual response. Gohan calls him “Haiya Dragon”, so I guess he named him off-screen?
In the English dub, the dragon was named “Icarus”, which I frankly prefer, because what kind of name is “Haiya Dragon” , anyway? That’d be like naming your son “Hello Human.”
Shenron flails his tail around, and maybe he was getting ready to slap some sense into Icarus, or maybe he didn’t even notice the guy. Anyway, Gohan holds Icarus back and makes their wish.
And the forest is saved! I assume the gang finished their camping trip and went home. All the animals return to their burrows and trees and bushes or whatever, and the probe robot crawls out of its crater. Wait, that can’t be good.
The probe sends signals back to a group of aliens. They confirm the presence of life signs on Earth, although no one can believe it, because they know the Saiyan Kakarot was sent to Earth, and he should have wiped out all of its life a long time ago.
Okay, but why did they bother sending the probe if they didn’t think there would be anything there worth finding? Well, anyway, the probe reports that Earthis a suitable environment for the Shinseijuu Tree, which is Japanese for “Divine Essence Tree” Tree. Um, I think the subtitles goofed a little. I’m just gonna call it the Tree of Might.
That reminds me, the actual title of this movie is Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen, which means “A Super-decisive Battle for Earth.” It’s also been called “Super Battle In the World”, which sounds pretty dumb. For some reason, most of the movies have Japanese titles that absolutely refuse to indicate what they’re about. Literally every DBZ movie could have been called “A Super-decisive Battle for Earth.” Well, I guess Movie 6 was a battle for New Namek, but Meta-Cooler would have attacked Earth eventually.
Later, we find Goku and Gohan chillaxing in the oil drum they bathe in. Chi-Chi’s tending the fire that keeps the water hot. Does Chi-Chi bathe in this thing? She’d have to, right? I’m surprised that erotic DBZ fan artists haven’t jumped all over that concept. “Oh, now that the fire’s going and I’ve taken off my clothes, I can climb into this oil drum and take a bath! It’s a good think I live in the middle of nowhere, so no one can see my boobs!”
But then Icarus shows up and frightens Chi-Chi until Gohan explains who he is. Chi-Chi immediately takes a dislike to the creature, and I’m with her on this one. Icarus is a stand-up dude and all, but he looks kind of creepy. He’s supposed to be cute, but he ends up looking like one of those Precious Moments figurines.
Chi-Chi tells Gohan to take the dragon back where he came from. Goku tries to stick up for him, but she won’t hear of it.
Gohan shoves Icarus away, but let’s be real here, he could carry Icarus all the way back to his forest if he really wanted to.
Then Goku leads them both to this cave he fixed up as a hideout for Icarus. This seems pretty dumb. Goku tells him not to let Chi-Chi know about this, but how did Chi-Chi find out about Icarus in the first place? He followed Gohan to the house where she could see him.
But Icarus is grateful, and he licks Goku. See, Goku looks way, way cuter than Icarus. They really tried to hard with Icarus’ design.
Meanwhile, Yamcha’s cruising around in a car he bought with a 15-year loan, when suddenly he gets blasted out of the sky by...
... one of these assholes, I guess. If I understand correctly, they blasted a big crater in the ground so they could plant their Tree of Might seed, but I don’t really understand why they couldn’t just use a gardening spade.
Tell you what, let’s go over these guys names right now. The big red one in the center is Amond. The guy on the left is Daiz. He wears pink leg warmers.
The alien in the silver armor is Cacao. I think he’s a cyborg, but who cares? And the two little purple guys are Rasin and Lakasei. They’re all wearing Frieza Soldier gear, so does that mean they work for Frieza? Well, we’ll get to that.
The seed starts growing almost as soon as it hits the soil.
Meanwhile, the aliens’ mysterious leader notes that this was all made possible by Goku’s failure to destroy the planet’s population as he was supposed to do.
The Tree of Might is huge, to the point where its roots erupt underneath a whole city, which I’m pretty sure is miles away from the forest where it was planted.
In the forest, Icarus watches this enormous tree finish growing, and he knows things are looking bad.
Meanwhile, most of the major Dragon Ball characters have gotten together at Goku’s house. I’m not sure why. Also, they didn’t invite Launch, which is kind of bullshit.
Bulma gives Yamcha shit for buying such an expensive car, and accuses him of trying to impress girls. So yeah, about the continuity of this movie. These characters won’t be reunited on Planet Earth until Episode 120 of the TV series. By the time that happens, Gohan’s a few years older, and Goku’s learned to turn into a Super Saiyan, so this whole movie just doesn’t fit. Nevertheless, it seems to depict a possible scenario where the good guys managed to return safely from Namek and wish all their dead friends back to life. In other words, this is the first time Bulma and Yamcha are seen together again since his death in the Saiyans Saga, and what is she doing? Yeah.
Same, Tien, same. Chiaotzu’s not gonna let this stop him from enjoying free refreshments though.
Then Icarus shows up at the window, and Goku and Gohan get caught trying to keep him, but they miss the fact that Icarus came back to warn them about the Tree of Might. Too bad he can’t talk.
Fortunately, King Kai can talk, and he can communicate with Goku telepathically, and he warns him about the Tree of Might. Well, “warn” might not be the right word. According to King Kai, the Earth was doomed the moment the tree took root. It’s basically a parasite on a planetary scale. As it grows, it sucks the nutrients and life force from the host planet, reducing the whole world to a lifeless desert.
So where does something like the Tree of Might come from? King Kai says it was originally grown so that the gods could eat its fruit. That sounds halfway plausible, until you consider that a lot of the “gods” in this franchise aren’t nearly as awe-striking as the Tree of Might. It’s hard to imagine someone like Kami planting a tree like this, destroying a whole planet just to eat its fruit. King Kai literally cooks his own meals, and he seems to eat the same stuff as everyone else. King Yama has a tree in hell that bears fruit reserved specially for him, but it’s not nearly as big as this one. I could imagine Beerus snacking on fruit from a tree that kills whole planets, but he’ll settle for cup ramen. More importantly, Beerus and his ilk wouldn’t be introduced to the franchise for another 23 years.
I’m not sure what King Kai is trying to tell Goku. If it’s too late, why bother telling him about this at all? Is he trying to suggest that Goku should evacuate the planet?
Well, King Kai should know better, because Goku stone cold does not give a shit. As soon as he hears about this crisis, he immediately makes plans to go beat up a tree. His plan: Let’s all go shoot it with our best hand lasers. Diagnosis: Awesome.
Then they all put their hands together in a show of solidarity. It’s time to show that tree who’s boss! Look at Chiaotzu. He’s literally lying on top of the table just to reach the others.
Then Gohan tries to join in, because hell yeah. Gohan can help. He fires some really good hand lasers, especially for his age.
But his mommy said no, so he’s gotta stay home. Better luck next time, kid.
Krillin notes that his wish to restore the forest was a total waste, since this stupid Tree of Might wrecked it all over again. I think the whole point of that forest fire was just to give the characters a reason to use the Dragon Balls early, so that way they wouldn’t be able to wish their way out of this situation. I’m not sure Shenron could remove a tree this huge, but it’s a moot point now. The Dragon Balls won’t work again for another year.
So they shoot their finest energy blasts at the base of the tree, and it does nothing. Krillin suggests another try, but Yamcha points out that if they use too much power they could destroy the Earth instead.
Then these jerks show up. Okay, so this is one thing that’s always bugged me about this movie. From here on, much of the action takes place on the Tree of Might itself, so you end up with a lot of indistinct backgrounds which are probably meant to be super-giant tree bark. It just makes it hard to tell where anyone is in relation to anything else. What exactly are they sitting on here? Why does the Tree of Might have all these convenient ledges and horizontal surfaces for people to stand on?
Yamcha demands vengeance for his dearly departed car. Uh, yeah... Whatever gets you in the zone, buddy.
The boys square up for a fight. You know, I remember watching parts of this movie on Toonami back in 1999, and scenes like this, and Yamcha’s appearancs in the Frieza Saga, were really my first introduction to the character. What really stood out for me was that he looked almost exactly like Goku. Kind of like how Flash Thompson was a big fan of Spider-Man, and one time he dressed up as Spidey for a Halloween party, and the real Spider-Man had to trick Green Goblin into thinking that Flash was the real thing. It just really looks like Yamcha is this jock who decided to dress up like Goku because he loves Goku so much.
Anyway, these two guys do some dumb shit. I really hate Rasin and Lakasei. Just... everything about them sucks. They sound terrible in every dub, they look like inflamed hemorrhoids, and they do absolutely nothing to move the story forward.
Tien blinds them with the Solar Flare, and that’s about the only effective offense the Z-Figthers manage in this whole movie.
It’s really a shame, because this is one of the few movies that actually bothers to use Yamcha, Tien, an Chiaotzu, and they get jobbed out. Would it have been so bad to have Yamcha use his Spirit Ball on Cacao and actually hurt him? Krillin’s Kienzan is one of the more serious techniques in the series, so I might have been cool to actualy see him kill somebody with it. I’m pretty sure Chiaotzu has never won a fight in Dragon Ball up to this point. Would it have been so bad to just let him kill Rasin? But no.
I always wondered why they included Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu in this particular movie, but now that I’m watching them in sequence with the anime, it makes some sense. Around this time, the TV series had just revealed that they were training with King Kai in the afterlife, and one could certainly speculate that they would get resurrected later on, and play a role in the final battle with Frieza and/or Vegeta. I think “Tree of Might” was trying to play along with that idea, except it never actually pays it off.
Chiaotzu is in trouble for a while, until Gohan suddenly shows up to help. Turns out Icarus managed to bring him to the forest where the battle was going on, so now he’s here to turn the tide. Or something.
This attracts the attention of the boss alien, who recognizes Gohan as a Saiyan.
So he goes out to meet the kid, and realizes that he must be Kakarot’s son. He introduces himself as Turles and...
Yeah, he looks like Goku. That’s the big twist.
Only it’s not much of a twist at all. Turles explains that it’s not even that big a deal that he and Goku look alike, since they’re both “disposable, lower-class warriors.” According to Turles, low-class Saiyans “only come in a few types.”
I’ve seen this line interpreted in many different ways. Some fans have suggested that the Saiyans cloned their low-class warriors. I think a lot of fans prefer the idea that Turles an Goku might be related somehow. Bardock and Goten’s close resemblance to Goku seems to support this. Hell, Gohan looks a lot like Goku if you don’t take the hair into account.
I think there’s always been a desire to make something more out of Turles than what the movie offers. The fact that he looks like an evil Goku is easily the most intriguing thing about the character, and this movie does absolutely nothing with it. Turles himself acts like it doesn’t matter, and Gohan is the only character who even seems to notice. So why did they bother making him look like Goku in the first place?
I feel like part of the idea here was to explore the idea of what Goku might have been like if he hadn’t hit his head and turned good. Turles could be a glimpse into what Kakarot might have done as a villain, although he’s so different from the real Goku that it doesn’t seem all that convincing. They could have made him look like another Saiyan, and it wouldn’t really affect anything.
Turles’ main personality trait is that he seems to want to recruit Gohan and Goku to his cause, saying that Saiyans should stick together. I’m not sure if he truly believes that, or if he just thinks that his gang could use a couple more Saiyan lackeys. He talks up the space pirate life as an endless romp around the universe, taking whatever he wants and enjoying food and drink as he pleases. Again, I don’t know if that’s a genuine sentiment, or if it’s just his recruitment pitch.
Piccolo shows up and tries to save Gohan, but Turles makes short work of him, and goes back to tormenting the kid.
Turns out he can make one of those fake moon things just like Vegeta.
He forces Gohan to look at it, and then he destroys it as soon as Gohan turns into a giant ape.
He says it’s because he doesn’t want to turn into a giant ape himself, but why wouldn’t he? Why did he turn Gohan into a giant ape? He doesn’t need any help to beat the Z-Fighters. Is he trying to prove a point? Gohan won’t even remember anything he did in ape form. Also, shouldn’t the transformation wear off once the fake moon is gone? Turles accounts for this by saying it’ll stick for a little while, even after the power ball is gone, but that doesn’t sound right. When Piccolo blew up the moon, Gohan changed back immediately.
For that matter, what good is the fake moon technique if it can be dispersed so easily? Krillin could have attacked it during the Goku/Vegeta fight instead of trying to cut off Vegeta’s tail.
So now Goku has to fight his own son in giant ape form. To the movie’s credit, this is a big highlight, because it’s the only DBZ movie to feature a giant ape transformation. And that’s all well and good, but it seems kind of empty to me because I have no idea why Turles set this up. Does he want Gohan to kill Goku? Is that supposed to make Gohan more eager to join him?
The fight ends up in a cavern, which I think turns out to be the same cave Goku used as a home for Icarus. That, or Icarus just happened to be here. Either way, just seeing Icarus calms Gohan down.
This is cute and all, but it seems odd that Oozaru Gohan would react so strongly to Icarus when he didn’t even recognize his own father.
Irritated, Turles tries to attack Icarus, which turns Gohan against him. Turles tries to kill Gohan with a laser donut...
But Goku cuts off Gohan’s tail before it can hit him, and he shrinks back to little kid size just in time to fall through the donut. I guess it’s lucky that Turles relies on donut-shaped attacks.
Turles then offers to spare Goku if he pledges to join him, but Goku refuses. He came her to whip a tree’s ass, and if Turles is pro-tree, then he can get wrecked along with it.
Then all of these creeps show up to fight Goku first. See, this is dumb. They not only made a clean sweep of Goku’s teammates, they didn’t even defeat them on screen!
Here’s a shot of Tien passing out from the hypothetical beating he took from Amond or some other guy.
Well, at least this sets up a cool scene where Goku has to fight them all by himself, right? Not really, Goku squashes them all in matter of seconds.
Meanwhile, Piccolo tries to take on Turles, but he’s just no match for him.
Boom, roasted.
I mean, why couldn’t Yamcha take this guy out? What was the point of having Yamcha in the movie if Goku was going to beat all the bad guys by himself?
With the rabble cleared away, Goku finally gets down to business. Turles panics when he sees how strong Goku is, so he runs away...
...and picks a piece of fruit from the Tree of Might. Why does he stick his tongue out to eat it? That just looks kind of weird.
Basically, the fruit of the Tree of Might ramps up a person’s battle power, which allows Turles to overpower Goku with ease. This is the core concept with Turles, I think. The challenge with this movie was to invent a new villain who could challenge Goku in the same manner as Vegeta and Frieza. Well, that’s a tall order, because Frieza was hyped as the strongest guy in the whole universe. A Saiyan villain would have made sense, except Vegeta was the strongest Saiyan, and the only one left. To introduce a new Saiyan, you’d have to explain why he’d be strong enough to rival Vegeta or Frieza.
The solution is the Tree of Might. I can’t find the line now, but there’s a part of the movie where Turles or one of his crew mention that the Tree of Might will make Turles strong enough to defeat Frieza. It’s pretty clear, then, that he’s a renegade from Frieza’s organization. They have their old uniforms, but instead of working for Frieza, they just roam the universe looking for places to plant their Tree of Might seeds. They grow a new tree, eat the fruit, get stronger, and then repeat the process. Turles started out as a weakling like Goku once was, but he found a way to cheat the system, and now he’s on his way to becoming the strongest in the universe.
Turles leaves Goku when he refuses to surrender, and then Goku’s friends speak to him telepathically. I’m not sure when they learned to do that, but whatever. They beg Goku to get up and try a Spirit Bomb, and Goku finally musters the strength to try it.
While he does that, the Z-Fighters assemble for one last stand against Turles. I guess this is supposed to buy time for Goku, but I’m not sure he needs it. Turles isn’t actually doing anything at the moment.
But it doesn’t work. The Spirit Bomb relies on borrowng life energy from everything on the planet, and that’s been drained away by the Tree of Might, so Turles thwarts Goku’s attack with ease. Oh, he also clobbered the Z-Fighters, so they’re down too. Triumphantly, Turles looks at his fruit crop. Where exactly is this that he’s standing right now?
But Goku isn’t beaten yet. He drags himself back into the fight, and confronts Turles one more time.
See, this time, Goku has a way to make the Spirit Bomb work. If all of the Earth’s energy is in the Tree of Might...
... then he’ll just draw the energy from the fruit instead of the planet, and make a Spirit Bomb from that.
There’s this tense standoff, and then they both attack each other in a single instant, and Goku’s Spirit Bomb wins out. I always have trouble remembering how this movie ends, and I think it’s because the climactic moment is so quick. I’m pretty sure they tried to imitate a gunfight from a western.
Turles gets consumed by the Spirit Bomb, and it drives him up through the trunk of the Tree of Might. Really, this makes a lot of sense as a finale. Turles’ trump card was to eat one piece of fruit from the tree, but Goku drew power from all of the fruit, so naturally his Spirit Bomb would be stronger than anything Turles could handle. And it’s an elegant solution to the problem posed by the tree. It was completely invulnerable to Goku’s own power, so he ended up using the Tree of Might’s own energy against itself.
All of this causes the Tree to glow yellow and disintigrate into sparkles of light, which rejuvenate all life on Earth.
So this dying deer is okay again, and presumably so is everything else.
Later, everyone celebrates with another camping trip. Launch got snubbed again.
Oolong tries to praise Icarus for his role in the battle, but Icarus nearly bites him.
And Piccolo sort of chills out by a waterfall somewhere, and that’s the end of the movie.
So it’s a pretty decent entry in the movie series, but I find it to be a mixed bag. The highlights are things that don’t quite get developed enough. Yeah, you have Turles, Great Ape Gohan, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu, but for my money, merely having those things in the movie isn’t enough. It’s what you do with them that counts. I find it particularly frustrating that the Dragon Ball Wiki has all this lore on Turles’ gang, but none of it ever made it into the movie itself, which is their only appearance. What’s the point in having a backstory for Daiz if it never comes up anywhere? His entire character arc was blowing up Yamcha’s car, and then getting decked by Goku.
Still, if you like Spirit Bombs, this is one of the best Spirit Bomb finishes ever. And the Tree of Might is a pretty cool idea. And the visuals are a big step up from World’s Strongest.
