Sunday, March 31, 2013

Sub Thoughts - Dragon Ball: Episode 30: Pilaf and the Mysterious Army


Episode Data
Original Japanese Airdate:
September 17, 1986
Major Cast: Son Goku (Masako Nozawa), Pilaf (Shigeru Chiba), Shu (Tessho Genda), Mai (Eiko Yamada), Captain Silver (Banjou Ginga), Narrator (Joji Yanami)
Synopsis: After the Dragon Radar is stolen by a thief, Goku spots it in a secondhand goods store. A Dragon Ball signal shows up there! However, the Dragon Ball that Pilaf and co. buy from the store owner is a complete fake! The store owner also tries to sell a fake to a mysterious army who are searching for the Dragon Balls, but they see through this and shoot him. The real Dragon Ball turns out to be in a bird’s nest on the roof of the shop!! Startled by the sound of gunfire, the bird flies off with the Dragon Ball.

---

Ah, now this episode starts out with the Commander himself. Now we're onto a new arc!

Two things right off the bat. One, that creature on Red's lap makes the same noises in the dub, so I guess that crazy thing wasn't dubbed. And two - YES! Pilaf's back baby!

Geez, and this episode opens with ANOTHER insert song, Dragon Ball Densetsu, better remembered (by me at least) as the ending theme for Mystical Adventure, the third movie. It's one of my favorite Dragon Ball songs though, so it's great to hear it again here. I'm going to assume that they realized they had a hit of an anime on their hands by this point since they keep cranking out insert songs. You won't hear me complaining though.

And with a frightened scream in his sleep, the lovely sound of Chiba's Pilaf is once again filling my eardrums. Poor little guy is convinced that he'll get his wish this time too.

...How in the hell did he get enough money to buy a huge freaking airship after his castle was destroyed LOL! Geez, this guy...

And so enters, with a new piece of BGM, the Red Ribbon Army. Even though this is essentially another 'scramble for the Dragon Balls' arc, it still takes the series in a new direction once again.

I'm not sure who's voice I prefer for this new little thief boy between the original and the dub, and I'm not gonna be sure on his voice for either (though I'll take a stab at the dub and say Meredith McCoy), but both are such throwaway characters (filler too I suspect) that I'm gonna just roll with it and not try to figure out who did a better job.

The first Red Ribbon villain makes his appearance, with the arrival of General Silver. As for his voice, right away I'm torn...I'm not too fond of the pseudo-Yamcha/pseudo-Vegeta voice (or maybe it's closer to his Gama from YYH) that Sabat uses in the dub, but right away I find Banjou Ginga's voice to be FAR too deep for the character. That voice sounds like it should be coming out of Metallitron, not this guy. Maybe once we get to see more of this guy I'll decide though.

It seems the crown Pilaf wants to buy was a favorite of one 'Emperor Aremasandaru'. Is this another name play, or maybe a mess-around reference to someone from Japanese history?

Just saw another animation error of note, a shot of Goku without his wristbands when he should have them, followed by a scene where they're there.

Oh the irony, the old man who's only heard of Dragon Balls in fairy tales and sells fake ones for money, actually had a bird nesting on top of the house with a real one. Goku's chasing after Pilaf who had a fake, and Silver's crew is also unaware, as the real thing moves off on it's own again.

No comments:

Post a Comment