Episode 19, "A Formidable New Enemy! Emperor of the Universe, Freeza" or, "Everybody Freaks The Fuck Out"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: As Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma travel to Namek on Kami's spaceship, Vegeta's pod arrives on a planet owned by his boss, Freeza, and is treated for his injuries in a heal tank. After recovering, Vegeta is informed by Kiwi, a henchmen of Freeza, that Freeza is on his way to Namek for the Dragon Balls, which he heard about over Vegeta's scouter. Eager to beat Freeza to them, Vegeta takes off, with Kiwi in pursuit. Arriving on Namek, Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma find the atmosphere suitable, and Bulma detects Dragon Balls using her radar. Vegeta arrives on Namek, as does Kiwi. Meanwhile, Freeza and his henchmen, Zarbon and Dodoria, are at a Namekian village.
Comments:
Wow, they sure got to Namek real fast. No space orphans, no fake Namek with a giant, just Namek, the planet of... uh, not really very much, except long tracts of running away and battles that go on a real long time. But, with no filler, we get right to the main plot.
I don't know whether to pity or dislike Bulma anymore. On the one hand, she can sure be a shrill and selfish bitch. On the other hand, she's surrounded by all these pretty frightening things, and is often the straight man. Gohan and Kuririn just waltz out of the ship without any concern to whether the atmosphere is hospitable or not. Lucky for them, it was, but I have a feeling that if it wasn't, it somehow it wouldn't have mattered. And after all, if Kami is from this planet and he survives in Earth's environment, the opposite should be true, right? Right, of course. I'm science minded, you know. But back on the subject of Bulma, she has it pretty bad in this arc.
All (or most) parties have converged on Namek already. Gohan, Bulma, Kuririn, Vegeta, Kiwi, Freeza and his other henchmen. This is the first episode we see Freeza, and he'll be around for quite a while. I think he's probably my favorite villain of the series, because he's so proper and mannered, but so casually ruthless. You never get that in the English dub, by the way, them transforming him into a creepy transvestite. Nice job, Funimation.
Anywhoozle, that's all I have for this episode!
Overall Score:
3 out of 5
