Episode 8, "Tamagami"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Goku faces off with Tamagami Number 3. The battle is evenly matched until Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan and uses a Kamahemaha, then delivering a final blow. However, Goku has to pass a final test before he can claim the Dragon Ball: a shell game. Goku correctly points out that the Dragon Ball used in the game was thrown over a villager's head at the last moment, winning the game. Glorio reports to Arinsu that they've obtained the first Dragon Ball. Gomah and Dogasu discover that Arinsu was at the scene of Vegeta's attempt to bring down Majin Buu in the past. Arinsu is meanwhile enlisting the help of a witch named Marba, who created Buu for Bibidi, to make a new Majin monster. Hybis receives word of Goku's victory and an order to go to Lord Warp.
Comments:
It's strange. A lot of this episode is the fight between Goku and Tamagami Number 3, but not really even half, when you think about it. The actual combat part of the bout is fairly short, especially for a Dragon Ball battle. It's compact, exciting, well-choreographed, and palpable. It's a good fight, but it does not last very long. I guess you can say that's a good thing, since most Dragon Ball fights go on multiple episodes and this one doesn't overstay its welcome like some of those do. But it's weird, because you have the actual fighting, then you have the little shell game portion and that only takes up half the episode. It's interesting Goku was even down to participate in the shell game instead of just forcing his way to the Dragon Ball, as he could have. But Goku has always been pretty sporting.
And when I say the fight is well done, it is miraculously well done, with amazing animation and music, including one of the best Kamahameha scenes in DB history. There is so much good work done here with the character designs, line work, movement, color, and sound, it's breathtaking in a way that Dragon Ball rarely gets to be. It gives the fight a sense of gravity to it. And because it doesn't outlive its welcome, you want to see more fights like it in the future. Of course, it also has that JRPG element of having to succeed at a task not completely battle-related to complete the mission (in this case the shell game), but it was all in fun.
The second half of the episode is all revelations and secrets, though. The first one is that Dr. Arinsu has taken an interest in Goku and his friends for quite some time. Back when Vegeta was sacrificing himself (pointlessly) to destroy Majin Buu, she collected a sample of the gooey creature for her own. And she's using it as a base to have a new monster created for her purposes, which seems to be taking over the Demon Realm from Gomah. She's got two plans in motion thus far: her plan with Glorio to get the Dragon Balls and her plan with Marba to construct a new Majin monster. I wonder if there's some hidden third plan up her sleeve.
Marba apparently is the one who cooked up Majin Buu in the first place, not Bibidi. I'm not sure how to feel about this retcon. I mean, wasn't there already a retcon that Bibidi was just conjuring an ancient evil and giving it a new form to begin with? But I guess it was Marba doing that. I wonder why they didn't just have Dr. Arinsu herself be the one. Creating yet another character for this seems kind of pointless.
Glorio Watch: Glorio updates Dr. Arinsu about the status of their Dragon Ball mission. He makes a good point to Panzy that they have to get to Lord Warp before they become too famous not to scrutinize. I just wonder how Vegeta and the others are going to factor in there.
This was probably pound-for-pound the best episode of the series thus far. It certainly has me craving more, which is always a good sign. I hope we don't take forever to get to the next Tamagami. But next episode looks like a kind of pit stop episode.
