Dragon Ball Chapter 329 Discussion
- Thread starter JJFrancisKJf
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- #2
great ending of great arc, though the way it presented at the manga, toriyama really didn't finished the frieza arc, not yet.Terrestrious said:
Thus concludes the lengthy Namek portion of the Z, and it held up considerably better than I expected in it's source. To be honest though, the peak of the arc came at the very beginning for me, when it was a three way struggle between Gohan & Krillin, Vegeta, and the Frieza army to find the Dragon Balls. It was pretty engaging to watch the inter-play between the three sides, and there was just more plot to it than anything that came after. Not that it was bad afterward, the series still has good-great fight construction in terms of carrying dramatic weight, and it was still fun, but certainly not as entertaining to me. for me at least, i see clear story change between the looking for drragon balls to the frieza fight, so i prefer just calling this 2 different arcs -namek arc where they look for the dragon balls, and frieza arc.
when knowing toriyama well and dragon ball story, you can see it very well in before DBZ change where there's one dragon ball arc and then budokai or story arc, it's the same as here.
still believe though that goku vs frieza are the best fight yet to be present in the dragon ball manga, it just was so fun and vol26-27 was so fun reading.
while the namek arc had it own genius.
- #4
The beginning of the arc is absolutely amazing. I like the trio of Bulma, Kuririn and Gohan and I wished they actually would do more stuff together. Bulma feels useless as soon as they arrive on Namek which is a shame. The real greatness of the arc though is the interplay between three different factions all trying to find the dragon balls. Some of the best moments of Kuririn and Gohan happen in this part of the arc. Love them having to hide and using tactics to avoid and fight enemies.
But the real start of the arc is Vegeta. Already a great character in the previous arc, he really excels here. I love his cautious side and him fooling Freezer and backstabbing our heroes. The team-up makes perfect sense and is a great conclusion to the early part of the arc. Vegeta's saiyan pride also plays a big role during the arc and it all plays into his death for a great ending. He's also the character that has the most connection with the main villain, Freezer. Him being evil also makes his fights more unique and interesting from what we usually see from a main character.
Freezer is a great villain. His design (designs) is great and I love him flying around in his chair/throne for most of the early parts. I like his henchmen and that they are taken out one by one, leaving only him by the end. Good build up for the final fight.
But there's quite a lot of things dragging the arc down, pretty much all of it in the second half. I've already mentioned disliking The Ginyu Force. They bring nothing new to the story, and it feels like a big sidestep, which disturbs the pacing and changes the tone too much. The fight against Rikoom is good but the rest is pretty uninteresting for me.
The other big problem with the arc is Goku. Maybe controversial because of the iconic fight against Freezer and the super saiyan transformation, but I feel Goku takes away more from the story than he adds. Goku has his usual role of showing up and saving everyone (not once, but twice!), but this time I can't really accept it the way I could in the Saiyan arc. Goku has nothing to do with this story. Kuririn and Gohan are the ones that's been seeing all the bad things Freezer's done to the namekians. Vegeta is the one with the connection and past with Freezer, and the one that wants revenge against him. Goku is just the guy that shows up. He does get motivation to fight Freezer, but that's really only when Kuririn is killed. I think the arc would probably be better if Goku wasn't actually in it. The team-up of Vegeta and our heroes would feel even more special if it played a bigger role and was the reason for Freezer's defeat.
Whilst the Goku vs Freezer fight is good, it is a bit of a shame it's what concludes the arc. Maybe it's because it doesn't top the previous' arcs big fight, or maybe it's because it's more of the same. I feel I want something else. I still rank the Namek arc very high, but I wish it was better and more focused on the things that make it stand out.
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Vegeta Rant:
So, this chapter. What the hell is going on with Vegeta? Why is Bulma inviting him to stay with her? The team-up against Freezer was only done out of necessity, he was never actually on their side. This is minutes after he casually mentions killing a village full of people, including children. And last time he was on Earth he killed most of your friends. He even killed Bulma's on-off boyfriend.
What is Vegeta's goal at this point? Rematch against Goku I guess. I can understand him not killing everyone straight away (wouldn't really be much point as that would strand him on earth with nothing to do) but I can't see why he would hang out with them? Bulma says she has food, maybe that's it. Vegeta's very first appearance was him eating some alien guy so maybe eating is a big part of his character. That's the only logical solution I can think of.
Then we skip forward one year (!) and Vegeta is having a barbeque with Bulma's family. And he's wearing a purple/pink shirt?? Is that even his colour? Does this mean he's been hanging around with Oolong for a year? That's probably longer than Goku ever was with him. Is Oolong Vegeta's secret best friend? Or why hasn't Vegeta simply decided to eat Oolong (as per previous comment that Vegeta likes eating people, and Oolong does look pretty tasty)??
What about Yamcha? Is he okay going to a barbeque with the man responsible for his death? Is he here because of the food as well?
I'm so confused.
A while back, I wrote a bit about how Piccolo's turn from evil to good made perfect sense. He was never that evil to begin with, he achieved his evil goal, and he was forced into a relationship with Gohan that had a huge impact on him. Next time we see him, he's training with the other guys in heaven, which would warm him up for the group. His change makes perfect sense.
Vegeta's turn feels far to sudden... If there was ever an era of Dragon Ball I would want to be see more of, it would be what the hell happened this one year on Earth.
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Feels a bit off to have Freezer (and another lookalike) appear straight away like this. Would have preferred to let the chapter rest a bit. Maybe end it on the characters simply sensing Freezer. Anyway, Freezer's a cyborg now, looks pretty cool.
- #5
The final chapter was a lot of fun though. I like the quick wrap up of how things went, and there were some good jokes about Chi-Chi, with Gohan being afraid to go home since he didn't do his homework or Roshi assuming Goku doesn't want to come home because he's afraid of her, but like most things with this Namek Saga, Vegeta is where the best moments come in. I like Vegeta being smart enough to figure to just transport their souls here first. I love Gohan going to thank him, and Vegeta not accepting. Considering Gohan's closest relationship is likely to Piccolo, it makes perfect sense that Gohan would be open to Vegeta like that since Piccolo was also evil, yet Vegeta's character is more prideful and less open than Piccolo so of course he'd slap it away. Also liked his interactions with Bulma, her calling him brilliant and inviting him to stay over but not to do anything naughty even though she's hard to resist with Vegeta's reaction "What a vulgar creature, she couldn't have said that any louder" was pretty great.
And what do you know, Frieza's alive and he ratted to his father. Frieza's like the cockroach of manga villains. Either way, the next long upcoming part of the series is actually my favourite, so I'm really looking forward to re-visiting this.
