Ch 198 between doing some extremely stressful taxes and that picture, I'm super overwhelmed (An Enemy in Common) What's even the point of getting the 100 dead humans? Raditz says that Earth is next on the list anyway. Just leave them alone, if you're so confident in your abilities (able to wipe out the planet's population in a little under a month). Raditz seems to be approaching it from the opposite side: it doesn't matter if 100 people are killed now or later, they're still gonna get killed, so what's the point? * lurks * Sometimes Raditz has a garter, sometimes he doesn't. A bold fashion statement, when it exists, anyway. ): Goku obviously wants to go off and save Gohan right away.... But what can he do, especially in this state? So. I think this is a good thought! And the first time I didn't question it at all (this was all the information I had on tails and weakpoints, after all), but now, after reading the first part... Goku was able to strengthen his tail so that grabbing it wasn't an issue. There's probably good reason to assume that Raditz might have done something similar - I mean, if there was a species-wide weakness, the so-called greatest warriors in the universe probably would have methods for counteracting it. Then again, no idea how old Raditz was when the planet was destroyed/how much he'd been trained/etc. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, this plan is filling me with much more trepidation than the first time because of that fact. (Even thought I know how things turn out, haha.) Krillin and Roshi will help out with Operation: Tailchase! And even if they die, it's fine, because Bulma will wish them back! But, uh, there's a snag: Shenlong can't grant the same wish twice. :/ That sucks! And both Roshi and Krillin have been brought back before, so it'd be the absolute end for them. What about wishing for Shenlong to save the world? A good plan, but they've got a hard time-limit of 24 hours and it'd be difficult to get them all in time. But there's a stroke of luck that comes out of all of this: Gohan has the 4-star ball on his hat, so they can at the very least track him! Piccolo chooses this moment to pop out. hell yes villain decay is a trope near and dear to my heart (i'm a sucker. I'm a fucking huge sucker for this kind of thing.) oh piccolo jesus fuck piccolo, calm your shit or you're gonna be nauseous for a pretty long time They take off and immediately Bulma, Krillin, and Roshi make plans to go watch. Because that's safe. Ch 199 (An Unexpected Strength) Raditz puts Gohan in his space pod thing and shuts him up in there, but is startled when he gets a power level reading of 710 from it. DB is actually a thinly-veiled warning about the dangers of becoming reliant on technology Initial PL for Goku and Piccolo: 322 and 334, respectively. Just logging to compare later on. And later on comes almost immediately, after removal of weighted training gear: 408/416 Raditz is a bit surprised at the change, but still laughs at them, because they think they taking off some weights will change the outcome?? They are imbeciles and will be taught the folly of their thoughts! Well, he's not just making idle threats, at least. (and there was a very ungraceful shot of Piccolo trying to maintain his balance) they must be some hot fucking shit then
His purpose is obviously to teach Goku to not be such a whiny little bitch by using his kid as bait. And obviously if he does go through with it he will somehow remember his great Saiyan brutality. Or something. Is how I've always read that.
I agree, just coming at it from my incredibly lazy perspective, I'm like ".....ehhhhhh but that's extra effort!" although. I suppose not that much for the Magnificent Raditz
Ch 200 * celebration emoji * (Nothing Up My Sleeves...) (what even are these chapter titles, no one even has sleeves) Raditz has too much hair and I really don't like it. a completely reasonable reaction Having found Gohan's location (still shut up in the space pod, which would be a pretty good place for him to be if he wasn't held prisoner in there -- it's probably pretty safe), Goku and Piccolo attack. This is better than you fighting each other! Raditz is completely unphased by any of this and very nonchalantly counters with an extremely silly double-kick and a much less silly dual-beam attack, which I think might have taken one of Piccolo's arms off? Not 100% sure on that, but it looked like it got one of them. Garter's back I was right. I'd say it was 30ish percent memory and 70ish percent thinking "Those are some kinda weird poses that seem to be purposefully hiding that one limb" Oh boy! Ch 201 (Piccolo's Farewell to Arms!?) (COME ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN) Piccolo's got a fun new skill that he's been practicing and luckily missing an arm isn't a hindrance, but it takes a bunch of ki which he has to build up beforehand. Which means that Goku has to keep Raditz entertained in the meanwhile. Piccolo was gonna save this skill to take out Goku, but, well, desperate times and desperate measures and all that. just havin' a little chuckle what a mouthful Namekians get awfully veiny when angry/concentrating. Or maybe just the Piccolo/Piccolo/Kami trio. I'm not going to try too hard to understand power levels and whatnot, but shouldn't concentrating it... like... not make the power level higher, but just put more of it in one place? Hmmm. I guess it would be like the difference in the concentration of a gram of salt dispersed throughout a liter of water versus the concentration of a gram of salt in a centiliter of water. Obviously one is going to be much, much higher. I suppose that makes some sense... the whole thing is still pretty mystifying to me, though. Why have they never seen this before? Aren't they doing the same thing with their beam attacks? Or is a named beam attack fundamentally different than the typical blasts? Piccolo gets to the lofty heights of over 1000 around the same time Goku does a kamehameha, which Raditz dodges at first... but when he sees that Goku's curving it to follow him, he decides to take it head on (or, rather, hand-on?) Anyway he gets hit with it, but either he manages to disperse it somehow or it just doesn't do much damage. He lobs a little spiky bolt back at Goku and it kinda fries him. Raditz is about to land a killing blow (maybe! I don't want to underestimate Goku), but Piccolo's ready with his rad new masanka... makas... makankosappo, which, as advertised, is rather screw-like. it's even blowing his antennae around!
Ch 202 have I ever heard Piccolo's Japanese VA? Hmmm. I kinda want to hear them say "makankosappo". (A Surprise Appearance) The makankosappo packs a punch! after all of the really intense firing attack panels that came before, this one was so funny to me. Piccolo just like. standing there with his one arm. having done this crazy attack. everything is very serene behind him. nice mountains and clouds. gah, i can't explain exactly. Unfortunately Raditz is still alive and mostly well, although part of his shoulder armor got destroyed and his shoulder itself was grazed. (Part of his hair was burnt off/destroyed too!) Raditz says that the attack would have taken him out, had it hit head on... but of course it didn't, and how he's angry rather than mildly annoyed/inconvenienced/whatever he was feeling before. He makes a move as if he's gonna finish off Piccolo... HAHA FUCKER GOT DISTRACTED AND APPARENTLY NEVER DID ANYTHING TO MAKE THE TAIL LESS OF A LIABILITY Piccolo's got one more charge of makankosappo left in him (wonder what the cooldown is on that) and readies it for the incapacitated Raditz, but not nearly soon enough. don't be an idiot!!! HOLY SHIT YOU GODDAMN FOOL. YOU ABSOLUTE DUPE. YOU HAD HIM IN YOUR VERY GRASP! (but look at how graceful he is after elbowing you in the face. Saiyans should take up ballet.) Then there's some rib-breaking, which is terrible. Not just one, but several, with accompanying screams. It's bad. Raditz is not particularly nice and claims he has no qualms about killing even a brother (if I were him, I might have slight qualms, if only because hey, only 4 saiyans left in the universe, apparently.) The only good thing that comes of it is that Gohan hears and gets super fucking pissed and busts right on out of the space pod. Components go flying. Gohan loses his hat. Ch 203 (Goku's Last Chance) That's a disquieting title! Goku tells Gohan to get the heck out of here, but Gohan (current PL: 1307, wow!) and takes after his dad in just headbutting a bitch (phrasing inspired by @Aondeug). Raditz makes the most ridiculous face, it's pretty great, and his armor is actually cracked where Gohan hit. Taste of your own damn rib-cracking medicine, you hairy fuck. illegal. go directly to jail Gohan's back down to 1 and was knocked silly by the hit. Raditz turns to go stalking over to him to dramatically finish him off, but this gives Goku the opportunity to grab him again, but this time under the shoulders (because he's likely to ditch the tail if need be). Now it's Piccolo's opportunity to use his final makankosappo charge and actually hit Raditz where it counts. he's not that dumb That screw-like beam goes right through both of them much like a hot knife through butter. very much a pyrrhic victory for team earth.
Truly the reason he became friends with Goku is because he got his murder Goku jollies off here. This was the turning point. To what would become the driving episode.
That's a very good point that I hadn't really considered (probably because I had no background on anything when I jumped in).
Ch 204 bye o(；△；)o (Sayonara, Goku) (That sayonara should by rights have a long o, but whatever) I don't remember it being the case quite so often earlier that the first one/two pages of each chapter are basically entirely recap from the previous, sometimes with almost-identical art. This one is a little more varied, with a different shot of the makankosappo beam doing its piercing thing, but it's still repeated information. suck it see i know it seems like a kind of dangerous thing to talk about to someone who wanted to exterminate all (sentient?) life on earth and has some crazy technology and extremely powerful comrades but now that Raditz is dying everything is safe forever Except it's not because the other two have heard everything that they've said! Now they'll definitely be on their way as quickly as possible. whoops It's at this point that Bulma, Krillin, and Roshi finally arrive to what's definitely a horrific scene. !! heyheyhey THE FIRST SCENE THAT YOU'RE IN AND YOU'RE EATING A FUCKING ARM???? but anyway look it's my terrible terrible favorite. he's the absolute worst and i have no idea why but there it is. Sorry to be a huge disappointment to everyone. (actually i have some idea why but i'm trying for a more... humorous? light? tone here most of the time and that kind of stuff can live in my vent thread instead ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ) anyway the final two ~mysterious~ saiyans are hangin out on some planet with weird pompom trees and i guess eating the original inhabitants. kinda grim! But now they know that Raditz is dead. They're not too concerned about his death, or at least Mr. Arm-eater here doesn't seem to be. The other one (large, also not wearing pants) seems slightly more concerned. The small one with the arm snack wants to wish for eternal life (oh man oh boy oh gee) so they get all podded up to travel to Earth. On the way they have a discussion about human-saiyan hybrids and the relative merits of making them. Back on Earth.... jesus dude ;_; but gohan's okay! Goku's body just up and disappears and Piccolo surmises that it was Kami's doing. The Saiyans will take about a year to get to earth, and they're settling in for a bit of a snooze on the way. God I wish I could take a year-long nap. Ch 205 (A Warrior in Hell) (But the Japanese title translates to something closer to "Fight in the other world!!") retrieving his hat and coat (yep.... wasted one of my precious ten image uploads on this) Bulma snags the earpiece thing from Raditz' body, which she estimates is banged up but fixable. Piccolo grows a new arm, and it's even more distressing in full color. (Krillin says it's just like a lizard's tail, which, yes, similarities do exist, but on the other hand I don't think the lizard regrows its tail by shooting out a whole new one in an instant.) Oh and also Piccolo wants to train Gohan. here it is. the best exchange in dragon ball. you are making such a good case for yourself as responsible and competent guardian right now And he carts Gohan off like a sack of potatoes. While all this is going on, Kami is presenting Goku's case for training with Kaiou-sama*. Goku gets permission (although he has to travel along/across/via something called Snake Way**). Goku goes off and Kami stands in the middle of the lobby monologuing to himself until he gets yelled at by the big red dude in the purple outfit. Goku gets a ride from a friendly greenish person with horns to the beginning of Snake Way, which is shaped like a very large, 1 million km snake. He's warned not to fall off because if he does he'll go to hell and never get out. Goku asks him to relay a message and goes flying off, which doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the whole Snake Way trial. love his pants Back on Earth, Bulma and Roshi decide that it should be Krillin who brings the news to Chichi. Poor guy. *So. Kaiou already has "ou", meaning "king", in the name itself. Saying "King Kaiou" is very redundant, but chopping the "ou" out of his name also seems wrong and it makes the kaiou-ken name a little weird. I may or may not stick with Kaiou, but to be sure any variation on Kai/Kaio/Kaiou means the blue dude with the catfish barbels. **Serpent Road works too, but the translation I'm reading calls it Snake Way, so that's what I'll be using. I wonder if it's actually possible for a human-shaped being to run 1 million km in its entire lifetime...
Spoiler probably best to read this on a computer with an adblocker, there's some shady stuff that might be happening otherwise
Ch 206 Is that arm even cooked??? alien parasites, man. alien parasites. food should always be properly prepared, especially if it's free-range. (Gohan and Piccolo) Piccolo drops Gohan in a pond because he won't wake up. Gohan is rightfully upset (HE IS A VERY SMALL CHILD!) and splashes around the pond crying until Piccolo grabs him again and threatens to break his neck if he doesn't stop. Literally two seconds later he tells Gohan that Goku is dead, so, good plan, Piccolo. Gohan's got a well of untapped power, and to prove it, Piccolo picks him up by the head and just pitches him like a human baseball at the side of one of those weird rock formations. Gohan indeed shows his hidden power by blowing it up and leaving a huge trench in the ground where it used to be. my sweet boy Piccolo makes a fairly good point about his ability to become a great scholar after the Saiyans get dealt with, and also about how it's hard to become a great scholar if everyone is dead. Gohan is scared, which, yeah. Extremely imposing green man kidnaps you, drops you in a lake, throws you against a cliff, then says that unless you do this thing everyone's going to die? but it's a nice one :( Ch 207 (Son Gohan, the Inconsolable) alt fashion gohans i'll take too Piccolo fucks off and leaves Gohan alone in the wilderness (after making him take of his robe? and for what????) Well yeah, generally that IS how you raise children. I mean, that's the whole thing with humans (and apparently human-adjacent aliens). You put a SHIT TON of parental care into few offspring. jeezus pleezus piccolo who tied your antennae in a knot today a) "our piccolo" and b) a different kind of evil. not the world-dominating kind, just the leaving-a-child-in-the-wilderness kind. Kami drops a fuckin shocker on us: he's gonna die in a year (and with him, Piccolo, or maybe it's the other way around; in any case, they're goners). Kami guesses that Piccolo might want to pass something on to someone, even if that someone happens to be Goku's kid. Gohan has a run-in with a dinosaur who wants to eat him, but he uses his hidden strength to get up on top of a very tall rock formation, and much like my old cat Annie when she would get on the roof of the garage in Portland, finds he cannot get down again. It's a loooot taller than that garage was though; several stories, at least. He falls asleep up there and wakes up to find apples! where'd they come from??? From Piccolo. Whether he scrounged them up somewhere or created them out of nothing, he brought them. Gohan complains a bit because they're sour, but eats them all and goes to sleep again. On Snake Way, Goku is also hungry, but has no Piccolo to bring apples. Ch 208 (Deeds Done by the Full Moon) (have i mentioned i find this titles often insufferably over-translated) Both Gohan and Piccolo are having a little snooze. moon: "yo what's up!" Gohan comments that he's "never seen the full..." and then goes oozaru, destroying the rock formation (I guess they might be buttes? they seem rather narrow and tall for buttes though) and solving his "I can't get down!" problems. a rude and violent shock Gohan is rampaging and Piccolo worries that the earth'll be toast long before our mystery buddies get here if he's left to his own devices, and luckily remembers Raditz' comment about the full moon and true Saiyan power. Piccolo yells "Get lost!" at the moon and then just blasts it into nothing. There went all Kami's hard work.... Gohan reverts to a small, sleepy child and promptly conks out. Hm, good point. Better to just get it over with now (although I weep for all those tidal ecosystems that were probably just getting really reestablished...) Piccolo yanks Gohan's tail just to be safe and gives him some clothes (like dad's but with a "ma" kanji on the back) and a sword before making some wild threats about his training (to an unconscious and unaware Gohan) and leaving to train on his own for a while. On Snake Way, Goku also happens to be taking a nap.
Come to think of it, Piccolo just kinda hatched and then had to go it alone from day one. Also he's, what, seven now? Maybe it's less assholishness and more that he has literally no frame of reference for how young Gohan is.
That's honestly what I was thinking, him just working off his own experiences of "hatch -> survive -> beat Goku? shit nevermind"
From what I understand he retains memories of being Piccolo Sr., who may or may not also have memories of being the union of Kami and Piccolo Sr. (??). But yeah, that doesn't mean he really has any kind of reference for what the deal is with kids. (i am extremely fond of the idea that Piccolo is only like 7ish at this point though)
"How Old Is Piccolo" is honestly a favourite hobby of mine that gets increasingly complex as the series progresses.
It had not occurred to me that DBZ time would start so soon after beating Piccolo. He gets beat up then next thing you know he has a new adorable son he is going to be kinda terrible to. Looking forward to this bit cause I have fond memories of Piccolo: bad dad edition. Less fond memories of running forever on snake road though. Little me remembers Goku's run lasting approximately one million years.
Ch 209 Toriyama Loves Vehicles pt. 37 (Goku and Gohan's Training Begins!!!) Chichi's flying a cool flying vehicle that resembles a manta ray and is upset because Gohan missed cram school. She and her dad are on their way to the Kame House. Bulma fixed it! .... uuuhhh I just realized she and I have almost the exact same haircut right now. Just parted on different sides. She wakes up Roshi and Krillin (who apparently have SOME NERVE to be sleeping) with some sort of large gun. She reads their power levels, having made the display able to use roman numerals. It's super useful because it also allows you to find powerful people all over the place! She scouts out a couple who are assumed to be Tien, Yamcha, and Piccolo. Once again, Courier Yajirobe makes an appearance, with messages this time. srs question: does karin like hanging out with yajirobe? Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu (and Yajirobe I guess) are going to be training with Kami! That, and the gang are supposed to let Goku alone until the Saiyans get to earth, because he's busy training in the other world (or is it Other World?). After delivering his messages, he zooms off. Chichi and her dad show up less than a minute later. (Roshi ends up being the one to deliver the bad news, not Krillin.) Well, I think he was already dead when Piccolo actually took Gohan. Chichi faints after hearing that Gohan's out with Piccolo and Goku is dead. And then SUDDEN 6 MONTH TIMESKIP! Tien, Krillin, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Yajirobe are training with Kami... Goku's still on the road... and Gohan's managed to survive his time in the wild and has grown an impressive mane. The same dinosaur that menaced him earlier tries again, and gets a slice cut off of its tail for its troubles. (There has already been a significant portion removed.) Gohan sets a log on fire with an energy blast and roasts the tail over it. Such a resourceful kid! Since it's been six months, Piccolo finally shows up to actually do some training. Ch 210 (Masters and Students) Not making much of a dent... Piccolo tells Gohan he cant' rely on his sight when fighting, and uses the ol' eyelasers when Gohan complains. This is not a reasonable corrective action, but it seemed to be a mild eyelaser at least. Since they only have six months left, Piccolo tells Gohan that he's going to do nothing but train, eat, and sleep. oh, that's kind of encouraging! Thank god we didn't have to see much of Goku's journey. Must have been very tedious. There's a tiny little Super Mario Galaxy planet way up above Snake Way and Goku jumps to it. Much like SMG planets, it has its own gravity! Strong gravity. (So... it must be... super... dense...? Or rotating very quickly? I don't remember how gravity works. It's been many years since I took any physics courses.) There's a monkey on the planet. Goku assumes it's Kaiou-sama. someone should have given Goku, like, a photo or a sketch or a description or something. Goku ends up following the monkey around making monkey noises and asking it what's wrong with the ground. this is a good series of panels So this is Kaiou-sama! He introduces himself with a pun that doesn't translate very well to English, but he's very pleased with himself. lookit that cute smile. lookit those extra-long antennae and catfish barbels. I always assumed he was supposed to be a weird catfish or carp or something because of those, but the more I think about it now I think they're just fun little face decorations. I'd be happy to hear I'm wrong though. (The monkey is Bubbles.) It becomes clear very quickly that Kaiou seems to be fond of puns. He makes another one about the telephone not being answered (denwa/den wa) which Goku also does not laugh at until Kaiou threatens him with not teaching him. :0! does goku even know a single pun? (Kaiou warns that if it's no good, he won't laugh.) So Goku makes a pun with "futon" and "futtonda" (these things don't really translate). it's super effective! (see next post for related cap) Although apparently Kaiou thought that Goku was here for pun training? So maybe he didn't even have to tell a pun to get martial arts training! Kaiou tells Goku that the gravity here is 10x Earth's, which explains why Goku's having some trouble moving and standing upright. Kaiou's impressed that Goku's doing as well as he is, and thinks he has some potential. I know that I'm extremely predictable, but I love Kaiou. He's got extra-long antennae! He's got barbels! He made the Nokia ringtone in the English dub!
