Comments:

Much like the last episode, and the episodes these originally came from, this was a lot of setting up for the next big bunch of battles. So, until the last portion of the episode, there's really not a lot going on, and it makes you glad that Kai is going through the story a little faster than the series originally did. In a few episodes, the Saiyans should already been on Earth.

Piccolo proves to be a harsh trainer, leaving Gohan in the wilderness (or some strange geographical anomaly which appears to be almost desert-like, but with plant life). At least he's watching over him secretly. Gohan has his first run-in with the T-Rex in this episode, who instead of snacking on the kid gets a mouth full of rocks when Gohan teleports (or just moves really fast) elsewhere. And this is actually the easy part of his training.

It's good to see so many different characters in the episode, even though most of them don't do a lot. Kururin, Bulma, and Roshi are all at the Kame House figuring out how to use the scouter. Yajirobe visits. Chi-Chi and Ox King visit. Kami and Mr. Popo appear in the episode, too, in a conversation for the life of me I couldn't recall from the last time I watched DBZ. Is Kami sensing his own demise from the Saiyans or is he dying from old age and the Saiyans' arrival are just coicidental? Either way, the Dragon Balls can only be used once more, so that pretty much rules out any of the first three DBZ movies as canon (of course, we already knew they weren't).

Other than the Oozaru incident, there wasn't much else to the episode. The new music was pretty underwhelming. There were some pieces that were just pathetic. I was really missing Cha-La Head Cha-La and its varient BGM versions. However, the transitions were decent enough. It really felt like it was supposed to be a single episode.

Overall Score:

3 out of 5