Episode 208 "Next Up, Goku "

The Summary

So after Vegeta gives a sounds thrashing to Pui Pui, what warrior will challenge the crowd favorite Goku in Stage 2? Since Vegeta won so easily, Yakon is sent to finish them off.

Big, green and Ugly….

No, I'm not talking about Piccolo, Yakon looks like a cross between the Namekian Eternal Dragon and the Machine Body from "The Worlds Strongest." He's an interesting character to say the least.

After a short volley and Goku's near miss from Yakon's claws, Babidi decides to "ensure" Yakon's victory by changing stage 2 into The Planet of Darkness, Yakon's home world. Shin quotes it as a planet on the outer edge of the Universe where no light can reach.

…I'll talk about this in my review.

So with no light, and with Goku and the rest of the fighters unable to see, Yakon would seem to have the advantage. So like any fighter with a perceived advantage, he begins to exploit it by attacking Goku directly since Goku can't see.

However, Goku doesn't need to see and promptly begins to pound Yakon. And to top it off…goes SSJ just to show Yakon he can see him when he wants to.

Meanwhile, back at the WMAT (World Martial Arts Tournament), Trunks and Goten are chowing down much in the same way their grown up counterparts did a few episodes before. Unfortunately they seem to have forgotten money to pay for the food.

Oops.

Back on Stage 2, we discover the Yakon is an eater of light energy after he sucks the energy from SSJ Goku, causing him to revert back to his normal state.

But Goku has a plan….

An ingenious Plan….

Goku powers up again, and again Yakon begins to eat,…but after a few moments, Yakon's belly begins to expand, just a **little** too much….

Yakon go Boom.

The Review

Animation

"I am shocked and Appalled," might be a first reaction after watching today's episode. The detail was no where NEAR the level it was on Friday.

The worst was the planet of Darkness in the Dark. Now I understand they have to make things "fuzzy" and grainy looking to project the sensation of total darkness, but that still doesn't make up for the lost in detail of Vegeta, Goku and even Shin.

Goku's SSJ form today was no where near gave me the sense of power as it did when he was training for the WMAT in the Otherworld.

Boo. TOEI, I know you can do better than that. Even in the darkness you animated the characters a fully lighted, which I don't have too much of a problem with, so long as you keep up the attention to detail as you have in previous episodes.

Even Dabura looked more like one of the Back Street Boys than the ominous King of Demons that he is (This was drawn before those 5 where even around as group, so I know it was not intentional).

I mean, don't get me wrong, the animation by any other standards would be good,….

But not by mine, especially after what I've seen they're capable of doing when they aren't concerned about "Budget,"

Choreography

Choreography was decent, but nothing spectacular.

Here was one of the times that the FIGHT didn't live up to its pre-episode hype. Perspectives were very standard, with a few "panoramic distance shots," but again, nothing fresh or challenging to the senses. Even the near miss with Yakon's claw seemed, "not that dangerous."

I don't what else to say…very mediocre.

Music

Pah! Next….

Dialogue

Well, there certainly was a lot of talking today, and perhaps surprisingly that was today's episodes strong point. We got a very good look at Babidi and his surprise of the "Extraordinary Humans" he has encountered on this planet, we saw a little bit of Dabura's methodology when it comes to fighting and "Fighters Philosophy" when explaining the faults of Yakon's judgment.

And we saw Vegeta once again realize that Goku has pushed the limits of a Super Saiyan to its utmost….I wonder of thinking these thoughts will give Babidi to work with something in the future…..hmmmm

Plot

Eh…another foe defeated.

But tomorrow may hold something brighter.

Physics

Ok, why did I add this? Because of something Shin said:

This planet is at the edge of the Universe where NO LIGHT can reach it. Yakon was born in this world.

Why would I have such an issue with this?

Yakon has large eyes, but if there is NO LIGHT (and I mean ZERO light particles) then Yakon would be unable to see no matter how big his eyes were on that planet, and how would he have evolved to eat something that is non-existent on that planet?

Obviously its just a cartoon, I know this. I also know that TOEI isn't going to spend the money to hire a science consultant to point out these kinds of errors in the script / DBZ Universe, but I do think it is something to think about, and I will want to hear your thoughts about it in our Forum. I'll post a topic and would love to hear YOUR interpretations / possible explanations of this.

Overall

Over-hyped and under-delivered. I was really looking forward to the fight between Goku and Yakon, but was disappointed. Animation, Choreography and all the little things that make the difference between a "WOW" episode and an "Eh" episode just weren't present today.

Oh well….maybe tomorrow.

The Celestrian gives today's episode:


3.5 Dragonballs out of 7...

-The Celestrian