The Summary
Well, we're back with the Episode
reviews, after the long hours updating the new DBZN as well
as the expansion of my company, I've been pretty busy, but
I get to do some episode reviews at the Prime time of DBZ!
Our episode today begin with
a recap of Goku forfeiting after an AWESOME battle! As part
of it, he names his son, Gohan as the next challenger. Through
the dialogue, we find out that Gohan never had any trouble
following his father as well as Cell during the peak phases
of the battle.
While speaking, Goku said
to Gohan, "You thought I was holding back because you were
comparing my energy to the energy within you." Wow! That
was pretty much the sentiment across the board as the other
Z fighters stared in amazement. Vegeta was pretty sore about
the whole thing too, how could a boy surpass him at such
an age?
Not only that, but Goku gives
cell a senzu bean to make sure the fight was "fair," pretty
wild! All the other fighters thought Goku went nuts, until
the fight resumed. After an incredible volley, and even
with Gohan smacked down to earth, at the end of the episode
he was ready for round 2.
The Review
Animation
I have always felt that the later half of the Cell saga
shows a remarkable improvement in the actual drawing of
the characters, especially their faces. It seems like here
was the real transition in art style from DB to DBZ, and
the heavy action start coming in. I would guess that the
Japanese audience really liked the action and the animators
responded accordingly. I can't think of any other reason,
short of a complete animation team change that would account
for such a difference. It's a positive difference, and the
animation was once again very smooth. Yippie!
5/5
Choreogrophy/CameraWork
As I always say, in anything animated, a good animation
score will always affect this category as well. The action
sequence with Gohan and Cell was fast and furious, though
it only lasted about 7 minutes. The director of animation
made some good choices on the story boards though, because
the cuts and the close-ups were pretty well timed, which
is usually my main complaint about DBZ (The "ahhh-ing" syndrome).
5/5
Music
Music is often one of the few areas that I get tired of
in DBZ, and will often leave this section out, but the recent
episodes have been unsing the music to effectively convey
either the emotion of the moment or the implication of a
character. For example, every time "Hercule" (ß We'll talk
about this!) speaks, a hard-core kind of music fades in,
which is actually quite amusing, given the context of his
character. Also, the action music has been pretty decent.
4/5
Dialogue
This is another area that I felt that FUNimation really
took short cuts on when translating the Japanese. However,
they seem to have gotten better that giving the characters
more meaningful things to say. The only thing FUNi seems
to forget about DBZ is that in Japan, sometimes various
characters actually cuss and say things like "Oh-S-T" (pardon
for my own censorship, the little ones you know….) which
actually better fit the scenario than a large "noooo" or
"curse you" or any number of common "translation boo-boo's"
I really enjoyed the conversation between Goku and his son,
which was very relevant to the story. Better.
4/5
Plot
Things are getting real interesting in the realm of DBZ.
The fight is going to kick into overdrive in the next few
episodes, and I've already been watching the International
channel, which just finished the Cell saga Sunday. Sorry,
but you are just going to have to wait now. This is what
I have always used as my bench mark for comparison, as I
first saw DBZ after the Cell Saga, so the previous ones
have always seemed lackluster, but its great now!
5/5
Overall
Normally on an episode like this I would tout super long
"woo-hoo," but I'm too tired. I loved this entire part of
the Cell Saga, from Day 1 of the tournament to the end.
If your reading this and not watching, for shame. You are
really going to miss out, get those VCR programming skills
mastered and record them if you can't watch!
The Celestrian gives todays episode: 4.9/5
-Celestrian DBZN
Staff
