Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Sub Thoughts - Dragon Ball: Episode 12: The Wish to Shen Long

Episode Data
Original Japanese Airdate:
May 14, 1986
Major Cast: Son Goku (Masako Nozawa), Bulma (Hiromi Tsuru), Yamucha (Toru Furuya), Oolong (Naoki Tatsuta), Puar (Naoko Watanabe), Pilaf (Shigeru Chiba), Shu (Tessho Genda), Mai (Eiko Yamada), Shen Long (Kenji Utsumi), Narrator (Joji Yanami)
Synopsis: Shen Long finally appears! Pilaf tries to say his wish, in order to rule the world!! Because Oolong said his wish of “Give me a girl’s panties” a moment sooner, his wish ended up being granted! With the wish granted, Shen Long returns again to the Dragon Balls, and they scatter to the four winds. Enraged, Pilaf imprisons Goku and the others in a room covered in fortified glass and iron plates, intending to kill them with the sun’s hot rays, but…?!

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Okay, NOW Shen Long talks at long last.

Hmm...it's not a lot to go off of yet obviously, but so far I'd say I'm neutral between Kenji Utsumi and Chris Sabat for the dragon. Both are really deep voices with an echo to it, both have a bit of a roar to their normal talking voice too, and both say about the same things. If I had to pick some reasons as to why Kenji Utsumi might be a bit better though, I'd say one thing is the roar. Well, not even the roar...there's these weird little roar like noises he makes from time to time, that almost sound like he's clearing his throat. For some reason, I like it. Also, his overall performance sounds less monotone than Sabat's. In the long run I can take either performance just fine though.

So the panties were just generic panties in the original, rather than 'the world's most comfortable pair'. Not really much of a difference, but I prefer the dub's take on it a bit, just because it means Oolong strives for excellence. tongue

Still everyone keeps just saying dragon except for the narration, so I'm just going to keep to my theory for how they realize his name.

I've never thought about it before, but even for someone as carefree as Goku, finding his grandfather's dead body after the Oozaru incident must have been horrifying for him. I'm glad he doesn't realize the truth of the event until he's much older and able to cope with it better.

Also...how did Gohan know prior to the transformation what would happen? I guess Goku had transformed at least two times before this episode, the second being when he killed Gohan, and the first time Gohan was able to fight him off or something? Maybe Gohan figured out the 'snip the tail' trick too.

One more episode to go to close out this story arc. I must get there before I stop this time!

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