#DBREWATCH

GARLIC JR. ARC (#108-#117)

Episode 108 (Tenkai ga Taihen da!! Gārikku Junia ga Kami ni Naru!?) aired on September 18th, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Yoshihiro Ueda and animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama
Key animation: Masayuki Uchiyama (uncredited), Taiichiro OharaNaotoshi Shida.

-Inside Ueda’s storyboarding we can find each of his quirks, such as his creative angles, peculiar coloring and reflections. It’s quite a positive, I think.
-The (re)introduction of Garlic Jr. before the title screen is pretty effective, and the detail of the ruins of Garlic’s castle from the movie brought here is a really nice touch.
-Action-wise, we’ve not entered the main plot yet, but it’s such a promising start. Not a surprise, considering the likes of Ohara and Shida. Even Kami-sama gets to fight for a bit.

-Unfortunately, having an over two minutes long montage from the first movie is something truly unbearable. We all watched that movie, we want to see something else.
-As much as I love the whistle song, it feels misused here.
ONLY NOW Kami asks Piccolo to replace him as the guardian of Earth. How convenient it happens the same day Garlic Jr. takes control of his temple.
There’s nothing wrong with Garlic Jr.’s plan, it actually sounds really wicked. Seriously, turning everyone into demonic jerks is such an evil plan. However, why would Kami keep the Aquamist inside his temple?
-I seriously have to talk about HER, the worst character ever created by Toei. Maron, introduced as Krillin’s “””fiancée”””, is a mere excuse for fanservice. I suppose they didn’t want to bring Lunch back, so they decided to create an anime-exclusive annoyance. Good for them…
-Maron is such a terrible person: she’s shown flirting with Yamcha IN FRONT OF Krillin. You got to be THAT stupid to do something like that. Especially something like cheating on your supposed fiancé IN FRONT OF him.
-She’s just gullible, idiotic and brainless. Her idiocy is just irritating, and this is ONLY the first episode.
-I really like the idea of Muten Roshi acting like a strict father for the sake of Krillin’s education. It is genuinely progressive, as it once again reminds the audience WHO raised Krillin in the first place. Unfortunately, I start liking it a bit less when it’s used as a blatant excuse for more perverted gags from Muten Roshi.

Episode 109 (Kyōfu no Kuroi Kiri…!! Min’na Mazoku ni Nacchatta) aired on September 25th, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Shigeyasu Yamauchi and animation supervision by Kazuya Hisada.
Key animation: Kazuya Hisada (uncredited), Tomekichi Takeuchi, Yoko IizukaMasako MisumiMasahiro Shimanuki, Naoki Tate.

-If they’d never entrusted the direction of this episode to Yamauchi, it would’ve been a big regret. Fortunately, it didn’t happen: nothing better than his creative purple shades to depict Earth getting wrapped up by the evil mist. His characters placed in different layers do certainly give much more sense of depth to his storyboard.
Naoki Tate is a force of the nature. His poses are so loose and so full of life.
The fluency of Shimanuki’s hair is just so sexy. And that Muten Roshi with SSJ3 eyebrows isn’t even new
The Kaioken depiction of Chichi’s rage is quite clever. Although, I’m fairly sure Hisada corrected that impact frame
-Needless to say, the more action-packed 2nd half is what makes the difference here.
Bums away. (I had to)
Well, he’s not wrong.

-As much as I love Hisada, I don’t like his oversized/chubby heads.
No scars on Yamcha.
-When I first watched this arc over ten years ago, I commented “it’s like the movies” on Piccolo saving Gohan. I still think it, they managed to bring one of the most common DB movie tropes in the regular series, as well. Because yes, we only need Piccolo to act as Gohan’s nanny. Pfff, who cares about his huge power?
-Likewise, I have to comment on Garlic’s new henchmen: the more I see these, the more I miss those from the movie. At the very least, they had some peculiar personalities, whereas the so-called “Spice Boys” are boring, bland and flat as pancakes. They are such bad characters that, I dare to say it, the Ginyu Force are great in comparison.
-Let me get this straight: Maron keeps on provoking Chichi by calling her ‘Auntie’ and it’s KRILLIN who should apologize to her. As if it wasn’t enough, she even starts an endless whining if Krillin refuses. This, folks, is how to create the perfect terrible person. Congrats.
Because angry Chichi is worse than evil. Because sexism works also this way. I do despise this gag: it sucked in the ’90s, and I still hate that they still bring it in modern material. There are times BOTH men and women cannot keep their negative feelings in: anger, sadness, excitement, happiness, rage, fury, desperation… these are felt by ANY human being. If a man or a woman is pissed off, there must be a reason for such a strong feeling.
-Therefore, every time a male character is angry on the show, it OFTEN happens during serious moments. We’ll never and ever watch a pissed off Goku go Super Saiyan for comedy bits. On the other hand, when a female character gets angry, it MIGHT happen during serious moments (like Bulma angrily telling Yajirobe to die while bursting into tears), but most of all, during so-called comedy moments, since the audience needs to realize EVEN powerful warriors have weaknesses, and end up fearing their respective wives. The opposite never occurs in any situation: the man always seems to give in to the woman’s wishes because, I dare to say it, they sort of want to play it safe. Standing up to a woman would be considered a bold move, and automatically, also a sexist move. Unfortunately, sexism also works the other way around if actions are not balanced.
-Besides, and most importantly, they can rely on such a gag only a very few times: if their comedy is 90% based on ‘powerful warriors fearing common female humans’ without any right of reply, then it’s obviously going to fail rather quickly. It’s about gender balance. Likewise, it works on perverted gags involving Muten Roshi: it’s impossible to rely exclusively on such gags.
-Yes, Garlic’s plan is wicked and all, but… he completely ignores the DBs can only resurrect people who died within a year. I’m pretty sure Garlic Sr. didn’t die too recently.

Episode 110 (Tenkai ga Senjō da!! Pikkoro ga Mazoku ni Gyakumodori…) aired on October 2nd, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Mitsuo Hashimoto and animation supervision by Yukio Ebisawa
Key animation: Yukio EbisawaTomoya Iida, Toshiyuki Kan’no.

-Quite solid storyboard from Hashimoto.
Ebisawa’s possessed look on characters is really good. Seems like this episode is just his stuff. Miyauchi, Tsuru, Furuya and Watanabe all provide such great evil laughs.
HAHAHA.
Piccolo making salty comments. Awesome.
-Got to give them more credit: unlike Garlic’s other henchmen, the Spice Boys at the very least realize they cannot finish off Piccolo if they want to use the DBs later.
-So Karin dodged the evil mist because he was sleeping. That’s fairly good character writing. And yes, having him read minds makes FAR MORE sense than Goku or Muten Roshi possessing this skill.
-This can be viewed as a role reversal: unlike on Namek, in which Gohan realized THAT Goku was not the real one and Krillin didn’t, here it’s Krillin who realizes something is wrong with Piccolo. Fortunately, Gohan isn’t even that dense, as this detail is subtle enough to almost ignore it.
-During this filler arc, they start off a subplot involving Vegeta’s obsessed quest for finding Goku around the vast space. If we remove the fact Vegeta can actually breathe on unknown planets (I doubt they share the same atmosphere as Earth or Namek), it’s a pretty good idea. It’s totally something Toriyama would let him do in his manga. Here Vegeta basically plays the Super Saiyan’s ambassador role. (by the way, wasn’t his armor torn up last time?)

They swapped colors inside Piccolo’s mouth: purple teeth and white tongue.
BULLSHIT. Look, Krillin might be a bit rusty during this arc, but there’s no way in Hell that an even RUSTIER Muten Roshi can send him flying against his Kame House. I always considered power levels pointless, but Toei’s inconsistent power scaling almost makes me regret them. ALMOST.
ANOTHER BULLSHIT. Yamcha can keep up with Piccolo, after the assimilation with Nail and WITHOUT his weighted clothes. And unlike Krillin, Piccolo trains 24/7. Considering the dire situation, he doesn’t even have a reason for holding back.
I’m glad they still refer to Piccolo as member of the Demon clan, even after about only a SEVENTY EPISODES LONG NARRATIVE ARC SET IN HIS OWN BLOODY NATIVE PLANET. Piccolo is NOT a demon. More like a warrior-type Namekian.
How bloody convenient the Makyo World approached Earth ONLY NOW in 5000 years.
-Gasshu’s laugh is just annoying. It reminds me of General Blue, only worse.
-I appreciate they’re trying so hard to make Maron more brainless than she actually is. Because curvy women are all loud bimbos. This is downright sexist. Seriously, she has no redeeming ethical qualities whatsoever.

Episode 111 (Pikkoro to Chokusetsu Taiketsu!! Tenkai ni Ikari no Masenkō) aired on October 9th, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Kazuhito Kikuchi and animation supervision by Mitsuo Shindo, with Tadayoshi Yamamuro as (uncredited) assistant animation supervisor.
Key animation: Tadayoshi YamamuroTeruhisa RyuNoriko Shibata.

-Really nice storyboarding. Kikuchi makes large use of his multi-color contrasts and of plenty of creative visual effects.
-Much like in Shindo’s latest entries, Yamamuro’s intervention comes in handy to correct over Shindo’s iffy supervision.
-This arc basically sums up how Gohan’s personality should be like: he fights only because he has to, he’s no battle-obsessed like Goku or Vegeta, he may switch between moments of sheer passiveness to moments in which he literally fries his enemy to death.
-Somehow I like they show Vegeta trying to go Super Saiyan. Perfectly in line with his Kakarrot-obsession.

-Nevertheless, I’m fairly sure he cannot breathe in outer space like Freezer does.
-A bloody minute long flashback from the first film. Again, watch the actual film instead of focusing on recycled footage.
Annoying Maron cutaway, because she exists for fanservice and makes Karin and Yajirobe look like horny geeks. B-but, b-but, Karin is a c-cat…
-Again, Krillin may be lacking of training, but the fact he cannot endure attacks that well is BS. He’s the same dude who got impaled by Freezer’s horns. I believe him getting a beating from Muten Roshi was just a taste of what’s to come. Sumisawa taking notes from Koyama’s lessons.
-During the NEP, they show these shots of Goku from movie 2 and episode 71. What’s the purpose? They don’t even appear on the finished product.

Episode 112 (Min’na no Kokoro o Torimodose!! Shinden ni Nemuru Chō-Shinsui) aired on October 16th, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Junichi Fujise and animation supervision by Minoru Maeda
Key animation: Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Takeo Ide, Masaki Sato, Hideko Okimoto, Naoki Miyahara, Chikako Uesugi, Kuniko Iwagami, Noriko Ichibashi.

Sato certainly has a lot of fun portraying Piccolo as a demon. Delicious.
Nakatsuru’s angular traits look terrific on aliens.
-However, Ide seems like the only one who dares to add peculiar expressivity. That’s why he’s the most interesting aspect of Maeda’s dark ages.
-In one shot Piccolo’s belt is red. It’s the most correct mistake we’ve seen so far, as his belt was supposed to be colored this way in Toriyama’s original manga.

-Not only Maeda’s supervision carries on his mid-Namek arc mediocrity, but it seems like the entire Studio Junio settled for the artwork, animation and visuals, as if they were getting used to something uninteresting in general. Even the above average, like Sato and Nakatsuru, kinda play it safe in terms of stiff animation or stock expressivity. Don’t get me wrong, there are far worse Maeda entries, but it’s pretty clear their golden era (Piccolo Daimao-early Namek arcs) is over for too long.
-I hate Gasshu’s laugh. Like a lot.
-I probably missed a few passages, but it looks like the mist has no effect on evil reincarnations. Piccolo may have changed, but he’s still Daimao’s reincarnation, Kami-sama’s evil counterpart. I guess that’s the only plausible explanation, since everyone else was affected by it.
Karin not being able to read Maron’s mind makes WAAAAAAY too much sense.
-In suspected times, for some odd reason, apparently, Goku gave his Nyoibo to Karin. He still owned it in movies 1 and 2, but… WHY would he give away the only memory of his grandfather???

Episode 113 (Asa made Matenai!! Kami-sama no Kakugo o Kimeta Kesshikō) aired on October 23rd, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Yoshihiro Ueda and animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama
Key animation: Masayuki Uchiyama (uncredited), Taiichiro OharaNaotoshi Shida.

Pretty solid storyboard from Ueda.
-90% of the action is animated by only one guy. As usual, Ohara provides both quantity and quality. Take a look at his stylish impact frames.
This is badass.
Gohan impaling Gasshu. He pulls no punches.

The blurry flashback is just atrocious. They butchered some sweet stuff from Shida.
-Misplaced M1118. Overdramatic.
Blocking a Kienzan with bare hands? I call BS.
Apparently, Piccolo could not use his full power, due to Kami-sama being trapped. If that’s true, why didn’t Piccolo have such a restriction back in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, in which he literally sealed Kami in a bottle?

Episode 114 (Chō-Kageki ni Shōbu da!! Okite Yaburi no Kami-sama) aired on October 30th, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Shigeyasu Yamauchi and animation supervision by Kazuya Hisada.
Key animation: Kazuya Hisada (uncredited), Tomekichi Takeuchi, Yoko IizukaMasako MisumiMasahiro Shimanuki, Naoki Tate.

-Pretty great storyboarding and direction.
-The main fight and Kami-sama’s ordeal are so well-connected to each other, thanks to some clever transitions.
Of course the last shot has to look violet.
-First episode to use M12XX (eighth movie soundtrack). However, unlike in the past, they only use M1207A.
The action is the strongest point of this episode. You wouldn’t expect anything else from the three Seigasha powerhouses.
-During this rewatch, I regret not talking much about Shimanuki’s immense ability to draw Piccolo.
Badass moment. Shimanuki’s pissed off expression, along with getting rid of two bad characters make it even better.
-This arc makes a really good job at showcasing the connection between Piccolo and Kami’s lives. If Kami suffers, Piccolo also does.
-Second episode in a row without Maron. Far more enjoyable this way.

No wristbands.
-The awful eyecatch timing. After 114 episodes, they never changed that. Gohan is STILL a toddler. I wish they updated that eyecatch.
-Well, Garlic cannot resurrect his father either way, since the DBs cannot revive those who died after a year. Idiot.

Episode 115 (Kīta ze Chō-Shinsui!! Sekai ga Akumu kara Sameta) aired on November 6th, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Mitsuo Hashimoto and animation supervision by Yukio Ebisawa
Key animation: Yukio EbisawaTomoya Iida, Toshiyuki Kan’no.

Extremely nice storyboarding from Hashimoto: solid sense of scale, with a bonus, movie-like double framing.
Gohan is particularly edgy. I like it.
This can be viewed as a dig at Toriyama making less and less usage of human characters.

-I do realize the more the level of dangerousness of the villains increases, the less human characters are involved, therefore seeing them react or make a comeback shares two standpoints, a positive one and a negative one. Let’s take Krillin’s example in this case:
1) On the plus side, it feels rather refreshing to see Krillin land some hits on Garlic Jr., especially considering the amount of humiliation he receives for not being as strong as the non-human characters. The idea of letting him or Tenshinhan shine is really agreeable, as we’re going to witness in the following arc and also on DBS, in which even Muten Roshi gets some fair amount of screen time. It’s a good way not to turn this into the Saiyan-Namek Dragon Show.
2) However, given that the level of dangerousness of the villains is getting higher and higher, and humans don’t have the same room for improvement as Saiyans, moments like this lead to forced power scaling. Using human characters at this point of the series is honorable, but also risky, since the gap between their powers is getting wider, and mere things like kicking Garlic’s face might not follow a solid power scaling any longer.
In the end of the day, which one of these is the most logical standpoint? It’s up to you to decide.
The Kan’noEbisawa handover looks simply jarring. We’re going to see tons of these in the future…
-The last two episodes flowed so well without Maron. Thankfully, they bring her back here for an unfunny cutaway.

Episode 116 (Gohan ni Isshun no Shōki!! Ano Makyō-sei o Ute…) aired on November 13th, 1991. 
Script by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, storyboard and direction by Kazuhito Kikuchi and animation supervision by Mitsuo Shindo, with Tadayoshi Yamamuro as (uncredited) assistant animation supervisor.
Key animation: Tadayoshi YamamuroTeruhisa RyuNoriko Shibata.

-A pretty solid arc conclusion, with some really good storyboarding and direction from Kikuchi. Overall, the director/supervisor pairings (Ueda/Uchiyama, Hashimoto/Ebisawa, Yamauchi/Hisada, Kikuchi/Shindo) gave a fairly consistent contribution throughout this arc.
Yamamuro’s corrections are pretty limited, probably in order to give Shindo more freedom in his last time as a supervisor.
And that’s where this filler arc gets bonus points at: NO GOKU TIME. This arc is flawed, yet feels VALIANT for not using Goku at all.

-This arc finale is rather satisfying, but it’s not that animated. Not the best episode of this arc.
-There he comes, the space stalker is back.
-I’m pretty sure Yamcha could easily help Muten Roshi fix the roof of his Kame House instead of sunbathing. Even Puar is helping.

Episode 117 (Otoko da Nē… Kuririn Hyakuikkaime no Puropōzu) aired on November 20th, 1991. 
Script by Aya Matsui, storyboard and direction by Daisuke Nishio and animation supervision by Minoru Maeda
Key animation: Takeo Ide, Masaki Sato, Hideko Okimoto, Naoki Miyahara, Chikako Uesugi, Kuniko Iwagami, Akira Inagami, Tetsuya Numako.

Ide always nailing expressions.
-Krillin’s imaginary marriage with Maron lasts only a bit, yet it’s the best thing about this episode:
1) Piccolo and Vegeta (wearing a pink shirt) being invited and Yajirobe looking uncharacteristically happy.
2) He invited Vegeta and not Lunch. HAHA.
3) Tenshinhan wearing a casual shirt.
4) Goku still wearing his trademark gi, despite being in a ceremony.
So Umigame still exists.
Cigarettes instead of candles on top of Umigame’s birthday cake.
-In the end of the day, he’s the most sympathetic and relatable character. Tanaka’s bitter laugh makes us feel bad for the guy.

-The same abs Sato would draw on a full-fledged Super Saiyan, he draws them on a five-year-old kid.
During his baseball match and before Umigame’s “birthday party” Yamcha has long hair. BUT, during the party, Yamcha has the bowl cut we saw in the entire Garlic Jr. arc. Did… he use the DBs to have long hair? Or does Umigame hate long-haired guys?? What’s going on?
-In the end of the day, Maron’s the worst character ever created:
1) She tends to speak in third person.
2) She flirts with Yamcha AGAIN, but this time Krillin isn’t around. THIS IS NO EXCUSE.
3) She’s shallow, brainless and clueless.
4) She is so idiotic she doesn’t hesitate to accept a ride from someone she doesn’t even know. Only because a good-looking jackass is driving a fancy car. Because yes, people should accept rides from perfect strangers.
-Oddly enough, both Bulma and Chichi have fairly good points. Chichi even gives her some advice regarding marriage. To no avail, because Maron is a terrible character and I hope she won’t appear on the show ever again.

GARLIC JR. ARC – FINAL THOUGHTS: 6,5/10

-Contrary to popular belief, this arc is quite enjoyable. Sure, it has flaws like introducing awful characters or showcasing inconsistent power scaling, but I enjoyed it.
BEST EPISODE: episode 114 (terrific entry, strong action, as you would expect from Seigasha)
WORST EPISODE: episode 117 (none of the episodes involving the main conflict were bad, that’s why I decided to rank the aftermath as the worst one. It felt so mean-spirited and harsh towards Krillin, even though his relationship with Maron would inevitably fail. Mediocre filler)

back to Namek arc

Artificial Humans arc PART 1