maybe Hatchiyack from plan to eradicate the saiyans? he's a character that hardly gets any love, but his design is so interesting I think he deserves more love every tbh
I don't really know anything about him (except the fact he was Santa in the TFS version) but he dose have a cool design!
Also sorry for not posting as much I've got a bad case of burn out again 😭
I don't think I have ever made it clear how much Hatchiyack would tower over Baby
remake version for reference on height change below as he's a bit smaller there, likely some sort of limitations with raging blast 2 perhaps.
I use his original height for 2 reasons:
1. I find the mental image of Baby craning his neck up, to look at someone he sees as a younger brother amusing.
2. it put's hatchiyack right in between 5th form Cooler and fully enraged Z broly in height, making Z Broly seem less of a height jump when both are present in a fic while writing.
in other words Hatchiyack gets to keep his original height, as I find it both amusing with the context of his relationships, and it makes the actual heights of some characters feel less drastic.
as you can see that makes Hatchiyack's hand would be about the size of Baby's torso, which is still amusing to me. That's early Cell saga Vegeta specifically and I ignore Vegeta's height increases normally, but in this case it's helpful to tell you just how massive Hatchiyack originally was.
there's a reason I have not come up with any ships for this man yet, his height makes things awkward, and what little personality he has makes it difficult as well
Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans (2010)
Now that I’ve covered the original Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans OAV from 1993, I want to turn our attention to the remake Toei produced in 2010.
I went over this before, but in case you’re just joining us, there was an RPG video game in 1993 called “Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans”. Along with that, there was also an “official visual guide” to the game, which was a direct-to-video release of an original DBZ animation. The first VHS tape showed Goku and his friends investigating a mysterious plot to poison the Earth with Destron Gas, and the second tape showed the Z-Fighters confronting the evil Dr. Lychee in his space fortress. Lychee turns out to be a dead Tuffle whose last act was to create a superweapon, Hatchiyack, who is literally fueled by hatred. He wants to avenge the Tuffles’ extinction by... well, eradicating the Saiyans, and his plan to do that is to have Hatchiyack kick all their asses.
The OAV is somewhat legendary in the fandom because of its obscurity, and because it builds on the Tuffle lore first glimpsed in Dragon Ball Z Episode 20. Hatchiyack and Dr. Lychee were almost certainly prototypes for the Baby in Dragon Ball GT, so there’s some historical significance here. Unfortunately, the OAV isn’t very good. The art is pretty good, but the animation is very minimalist, and a lot of scenes are just a pan across a still image. And the plot is pretty weak, feeling like a warmed over retread of the revenge plots seen in DBZ movies 5, 6, 7, and 8. It was a video game, after all, and there wasn’t much interest in breaking new ground.
Still, I’m guessing the original ‘93 game and OAV must have been successful, because they re-used the OAV footage for another game, known as “True Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans”. This was released on the Playdia console in 1994. I’d like to cover Plan ‘94 in greater detail someday, but so far the only playthroughs I’ve been able to find are without subtitles. It appears to use the footage from Plan ‘93 as the basis for an interactive story, with the player choosing from different options to affect the course of the plot. There’s some new scenes, including one of Gohan looking stuff up on a computer, and Goku hanging around with a fairy, but I have no idea what it’s all about.
Anyway, we’re here to talk about the next remake of Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, which was the version Toei made in 2010 for another video game, Raging Blast 2. RB2 needed some new characters on the roster, so they decided to throw in Hatchiyack. And to sweeten the pot, Toei produced a whole new version of the Plan OAV, with higher quality visuals and audio. I don’t know if this was done to boost sales on the game, or if they were worried that fans in 2010 might not know who Hatchiyack was, since the original Plan OAV never got a North American release.
At the time, I just assumed that they took the original footage and gave it the Kai treatment, re-drawing the animation cels to “remaster” it for modern HD screens. But when I saw the finished work, I realized they cut a lot of stuff out of the original. The land mine bit was gone, for example. So I thought it would be worth watching both versions side-by-side and seeing just what got changed. Turns out, it’s quite a bit, and it’s all for the better.
So this version starts out with the Saiyan-Tuffle War. Dr. Lychee is busy putting the final touches on his Hatchiyack weapon, but the Saiyans break in and attack him. Fortunately for him, he manages to push the big red button right before he falls off the ladder and dies.
As Hatchiyack activates, we see purple smoke billowing up from the corpses of the Tuffle soldiers, and from Lychee as well.
The spaceship containing Hatchiyack launches into space. The Saiyans try to shoot it down, but they miss. I’m curious if they had any idea what was on board. They may have just thought it was a bunch of Tuffles trying to flee the planet.
Flash forward to the present, and Lychee looks like this now, and he’s ready to begin his revenge plot. Okay, so right off the bat, this is a huge improvement over the original, which wasted a lot of time explaining who Lychee was and what he wanted revenge for. There were at least three scenes in the original that went over this, and the 2010 version cuts the crap by putting it all in the prologue.
And right after the title screen, we see the Dark Planet appearing in Earth orbit, spewing purple fumes into the atmosphere. Again, this is a huge help to the story, because in the ‘93 version, the Dark Planet was “at the edge of the universe” or whatever, so Goku had to schlep all the way out there to fight the final battle. In Plan ‘10, the Dark Planet comes to Goku, so it’s a much quicker process.
Here’s a cool callback to that lady with the baby carriage in Dragon Ball Episode 43.
I think her kid should be a lot older than the one we see here, but maybe Sunglasses Lady had more than one baby, and this is the youngest one.
But the flowers they’re watering start to wilt, and then soon the whole city is afflicted by toxic fumes. And this is a big, big W for Toei. My major gripe with the ‘93 version was that they kept talking about the Destron Gas like it’s a major threat to all life on earth, but no one ever got sick from it. We just saw a bunch of dead trees and Goku couldn’t shoot hand energy, and that was it. I’m pleased to see Toei took the time to look at the original and address mistakes. It would have been much easier to just slap a fresh coat of paint on the original, but I’m grateful they went the extra mile.
Then Goku teleports into Bulma’s house with Gohan, where Piccolo, Trunks, and Vegeta are already there. They know something’s wrong, but they don’t know what, so Bulma turns on the TV and shows them a news report about toxic gas being pumped out of devices sent from a “mysterious dark planet”. One of the devices is in West City, but there’s several more around the world too.
And Bulma explains that the toxic fumes are “Destron Gas”, so she already knows what it is and how deadly it can be. She notes that Goku and Piccolo have some resistance to its effects, and presumably that goes for the other Saiyans as well. Apparently, you’re safe if you stay indoors, but she projects that all life on Earth will end in 70 days if something isn’t done about it.
And this is perfect! The ‘93 version wasted a lot of time dispensing this same information, and it used multiple characters to do it. Mr. Popo knew one thing, and Dende knew another thing, and King Kai had some more details, and Bulma didn’t seem to know much of anything about it, but they put her in the story anyway. This time, Bulma has all the information at her fingertips, and all of the characters are there to hear it the first time, instead of showing up later and explaining how they knew what’s going on. Also, Dr. Brief isn’t zoning out over at the desk, so Bulma gets to use the desk this time!
The good guys wonder who could be responsible for this, and Vegeta speaks up to say that this is the sort of weapon the Tuffles were known for using. This is my one critique of the 2010 version, because Vegeta really skips over the Tuffle lore laid down by the ‘93 version. He doesn’t bother to justify he Saiyan’s extermination of the Tuffles, nor does he give the other details King Kai offers in the ‘93 version. But it’s enough to keep this story moving, and that’s what counts.
So we’re just trucking right along. The gang heads out to the Destron generator that’s in West City, and Vegeta tries to destroy it, but to know avail. Then Frieza, Turles, Lord Slug, and Cooler show up, just like they did in the ‘93 version, and they fight. The important difference is that we skipped the part where Goku’s team destroyed those other four generators in different parts of the world. It doesn’t matter, since they can’t destroy this one.
Here’s the modernized shot of Trunks killing Frieza, which looks pretty sweet.
One touch I liked is how the dead villains look like they’re turning into the same Destron Gas being pumped out of the machine. In the original, they turned into colorful wisps of foam, but this is much more consistent. The implication is that they’re made out of Destron Gas, or they’re at least being generated by the machines somehow. Each time a good guy kills a bad guy in this fight, there’s a quick cut to the machine pumping out gas, and then back to a bad guy reassembling himself. It gives some much-needed context as to how these Ghost Warriors work and what it takes to defeat them.
Also, we get new footage of the Z-Figthers succumbing to the effects of the Destron Gas. As in the original, their powers weaken, but in this version it makes a lot more sense, because they don’t get weaker until after they’ve been fighting in close range to the Destron generator. So they’re taking in a bigger dose of the bad stuff, which means Frieza and the others were just rope-a-doping them the whole time.
The bad guys go for the kill, when suddenly Bulma swoops in and carpet bombs the area with Hoi Poi Capsules full of a neutralizing agent she invented to counter the effects of the Destron Gas. Cool!
She even manages to get some capsules to fall into the generator, which disables the damn thing. How did she penetrate the force field when Vegeta couldn’t? Because she’s Bulma, that’s how.
Then she’s like “Go kick Frieza’s ass!” and they do. See this is awesome, because in the original version, this whole battle made no sense. Bulma didn’t show up with an antidote. They just kept fighting until King Kai told Goku that the bad guys were ghosts, and then they just started winning for no reason. But this way is much better, because there’s a legitimate reason why the bad guys had the upper hand (they were powered by the machine, which the good guys couldn’t destroy) and then there was a legitimate reason why the good guys could overcome the problem (Bulma disabled the machine that was making he good guys weak and the bad guys strong).
Then Goku checks in with King Kai, who suggests that the mastermind of the plot must be hiding somewhere. West City is safe for the moment, but until Goku defeats that guy, the world is still in danger.
On the Dark Planet, Lychee watches the spirits of Frieza, Turles, Slug, and Cooler return to these weird egg things he has all over the place, and he says that they’ve nearly absorbed enough hatred to complete the birth of his “ultimate warrior”.
Then immediately Goku and the others arrive at his doorstep, which is great, since it saves us the hassle of watching them make the trip. They already know where the Dark Planet is, and it’s not far, so why waste time? Lychee explains that he’s the top Tuffle scientist, who lives on as a ghost through the power of his “Grudge Amplification Device, Hatchiyack.”
Things pretty much play out as they did in the ‘93 version, but a little quicker. Lychee doesn’t care if his plot destroys the Earth as long as he can kill as the Saiyans, and while he was hoping the Destron Gas would finish them off, he’s happy to destroy them personally.
As the good guys try to get through his force field, a bunch of stuff happens with Hatchiyack in the background, but I don’t know what.
Goku takes down the force field, and Vegeta takes out Lychee, just like in ‘93, but then we get this horrible off-model shot of the good guys. Just wretched.
And then Hatchiyack absorbs Lychee’s Grudge Energy and transforms into a big red monster. He starts whoopin’ ass and things mostly play out like they did in the ‘93 version of the fight. There are a few changes, though.
First, Piccolo gets hurt early on, but he’s not so badly hurt that he’s taken out of the fight like he was in the original. Also, the whole bit where he hands out senzu beans to the others is cut. It didn’t add anything to the story anyway.
Second, there’s more emphasis on Goku discovering Hatchiyack’s weakness, which I think helped me understand it better. Maybe it’s just because I’ve watched this fight three times, but it helps to have some of the clutter edited out. Big H uses his finisher, called the “Revenge Cannon”, on Vegeta, then he tries to use it on Gohan, but Piccolo intercepts it. Hatchiyack takes down Piccolo and tries to use the Revenge Cannon on Gohan again, but Trunks blindsides him with a kick at the last moment.
That’s when Goku puts it together, because Trunks’ kick does more than distract Hatchiyack. It actually draws blood, and Goku senses that Big H’s ki dropped to almost nothing in that critical moment. And Goku deduces that this is because of the power Hatchiyack needed to charge of the Revenge Cannon.
So Goku goes one-on-one with Hatchiyack, and just goes with the flow, waiting for Hatchiyack to go for the Revenge Cannon. Once he does, Goku times how long it takes him to fire the thing, and then dodges it.
And that makes it a weakness he can exploit at will. From the way Hatchiyack fights, I think it’s almost like he has to use the Revenge Cannon at regular intervals, but maybe he just likes spamming it because it works so well. But it takes him 15 seconds to deploy it. If you attack him during those 15 seconds, he has to start over, and if you attack him right before he fires, he’ll be defenseless.
Third, Goku fills in the others on his plan and then keeps fighting Hatchiyack to give them time to prepare a combined attack. Gohan doesn’t like watching his dad get beaten up, but Piccolo and Trunks tell him to stay put, or he’ll risk wasting this opportunity Goku is giving them. In the ‘93 version, I think it plays out in kind of the same way, except everyone’s getting senzu beans while Goku fights, so it’s less clear that it’s part of a plan.
Finally, Hatchiyack goes for his Revenge Cannon, and all five Z-Fighters count to fifteen together, which is important because it shows that they’ve figured things out for themselves, as opposed to just blindly following Goku’s lead.
The one thing I don’t get is why they all fired from the same direction. Wouldn’t it have been more effective to flank Hatchiyack and hit him from multiple angles? Then again, maybe if they had tried that, he wouldn’t have played into their hands. The advantage here is that he’s already fired his Revenge Cannon, so he’s committed. His body is defenseless now, so he can’t cancel the attack or dodge. He has to see this through and hope his Revenge Cannon can out-power the Z-Fighters’ combined finishers.
And it doesn’t work. So long, Hatchiyack, you big dead bastard.
Around the world, the Destron Gas Generators are destroyed, and the Dark Planet explodes. The world is safe again.
Goku teleports everyone back to Earth, and Bulma and King Kai congratulate them on a job well done.
Meanwhile, Chi-Chi wants to know why Goku and Gohan got their clothes all banged up. Uh-oh. Wait, was that stream always in front of their house? And where’s Grandpa Gohan’s house? It’s supposed to be right next to theirs. Oh well.
So this version clocks in at about 26 minutes, I think, which is less than half the run time of the 1993 version. It’s a much smoother viewing experience, thanks to a lot of sensible changes that made the story flow better. The only catch is that you really wouldn’t appreciate these improvements unless you had just watched the ‘93 version like I just did. As a standalone special, Plan ‘10 is just sort of this minor curiosity. Hey, it’s Hatchiyack, and now he’s dead. I think he got like four lines in the whole thing.
And that’s that. Join me next time for.... oh shit. We’re doing GT next. Aw, dammit.
There’s not much new stuff in the first volume since it’s putting all the chapters of Ankoku Makai Mission and Ultimate Charisma Mission together. There is, however, an added intro for the UCM chapters which I believe gives a little rundown about the avatar types and a few other things.
I had to share these two panels from the added intro because I cracked up so much when I first saw them. They are absolute gems, especially with the chaos that follows in the second panel.
believe it or not goldfish work for Baby, the twins and Hatchiyack really well. (warning very rambly)
goldfish were originally carp that the chinese selectively bred for their ponds and aquarium, this was found after years of looking into the common aquarium mainstay.
contrary to popular belief goldfish are impressively smart with an impressive memory, the learn quickly who their caretaker is and are known to be surprisingly affectionate.
if a goldfish is properly kept they can live for more than a decade, completely contrary to the usual belief of them not living long.
goldfish are a highly invasive species and many advice against releasing them in the wild, they compete too well for food, they ruin the fish food they can't eat, and they reproduce at a high rate.
they carry diseases and parasites other fish are weak to, they're small in tanks but get much bigger in lakes and ponds were they have very little limitation. it's often recommended that they're simply set up for adoption or given away, rather than releasing them into the wild were their species has never been.
goldfish have impressive smell and hearing, they have impressive sight seeing up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) and seeing up to four primary colors which is more than a human.
moving onto merfolk and their history before I get into the idea invading my brain, because yeah.
depending on where it was it would change it entirely. sometimes they would represent the more violent nature of the sea, causing chaos and even drowning sailors at times.
on the other end there's many positive representations, often representing the life and fertility within the sea. (there are depictions that don't fit into either of those mind you, just an interesting detail.)
regardless they're often described as beautiful woman of the sea in myths, as mermen and other merfolk outside of the binary were a more recent creation.
funny enough however gender often was not the focus of these myths, thus why other identities are presented in modern interpretations without raising a brow, unlike the satyr with satyrettes.
you know how a lot of mermaid aus choose a marine life center as a starting point? well that's where we start, Cold and Bulma both run wildlife centers that are in competition with each other mostly friendly to improve their research, but it's the tuffles that forces Bulma to put the rivalry aside for once.
Hatchiyack is extremely aggressive to any saiyan that dares to get near him, quickly prompting violent behavior in the others as well forcing Bulma to move them to a seperate tank. but unfortunately the problems didn't stop there, because they keep bothering others from the separate tank.
so eventually Bulma gets so sick and tired of them antagonising all the saiyans who take rest there, she just transfers them over to Cold in hopes he will have better luck.
their kept in a connected but still separate tank to test their aggression again and see if it changes, thankfully they don't have any problems this time which Cold is thankful for. from listening to them and doing research on their aquatic half, he learns a lot about them.
mainly learning their history revealing why Bulma had problems with them, the fact the twins are still technically children even though they don't have the typical bronze like sheen of goldfish fry anymore.
how Dr. Lychee is an oldman, and Hatchiyack and Baby are in between the three in age. the fact Baby is more chatty than most of them, and Hatchiyack is the quietest.
but the biggest thing he learns is they quickly remember both of his sons, and can tell them apart with ease as they have memorised how all of them look. admittedly I see Baby making this the most clear, always popping up from the surface and using their proper name once he's heard it.
Baby teasing Frieza about Frost occasionally, occasionally conversing with anyone and everyone who willingly talk with him. (yes including other merfolk in the tank, he's really chatty and only the twins and Dr. Lychee would talk with him back in the day, so man probably appreciates others close to the same age to talk to.)
Cooler will just feed him like usual and this goof will just nuzzle his hand afterwards, leavinging him completely stunned and confused afterwards. (Goldfish are a highly affectionate species once they trust you, some will actually push into your hand if you put it in the tank, and it often confuses people who have never owned one, and I think it fits for him to get the more affectionate traits of goldfish)
imagine just chilling against the railing and this massive normally quite goldfish merman tired of his group mate's constant pining, and just straight up directly tells you that the smaller goldfish merman likes you, only to flip around and go back into the hiding place he likes to rest in. (Hatchiyack please I get it you're tired of Baby being a lovestruck goober, but you need to chill you are huge and kinda scare everyone when you approach them. Baby's torso is smaller than your hand, chill)
