Episode 16, “Degesu”
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Degesu, seeing that Gomah’s defeat is inevitable, visits Dende in the nursery. Vegeta easily takes out Gomah’s Gendarmerie Force. Goku’s group confronts Degesu as he attempts to escape, but he puts a gun to Dende. Glorio and Panzy take down Degesu and rescue Dende. The girl Degesu hired to get the Third Eye belt arrives in Gomah’s throne room. Goku’s group comes to where the Tamagami is and notice that the Dragon Ball has been taken. Arinsu, Kuu, and Duu arrive. Meanwhile, Gomah has trouble removing the Third Eye from the belt, but eventually applies it to his head and transforms.
Comments:
Poor Degesu. He gets the episode named after him, and he’s barely part of it. Guy is a Glind, related to Kaioshin, helping the Demon King, and you’d think he’d be full of plans. But I guess he figured kidnapping Dende from the castle and going on the run would somehow end in him being the Demon King. Maybe he thought Dende would make some Dragon Balls for him and he’d use the wish to become leader. Whatever the case, he was taken out by a hat (and Piccolo’s karate chop), which is both extremely funny and incredibly pathetic.
Speaking of things that petered out, the Gendarmie special forces didn’t pose much of a threat. In this case, though, it was clear they were always intended to just be a gag and nothing more, so it’s not like I was disappointed. Vegeta takes them out in comically easy fashion and it turns out they’re really not all that bad of guys. They give Goku some chips! And in another neat little touch, Goku empties the contents of the chips bag in his mouth while they’re tracking down Gomah. They were definitely not intended to be taken seriously (there was no real buildup). Great gag.
Gomah’s troubles were good for a few laughs in this episode, too. He finally gets the Third Eye in the belt, but has difficulty extracting it. You can see he’s tried all kinds of tools to get it, and eventually comes upon the idea to use a plunger. It’s hilarious when, in the first try, the eye pops out, only to go directly back into the belt. Fortunately for Gomah, he finally gets the Third Eye out (and in his head, thanks to the MVP of the episode, the greedy majin girl) and transforms. Something tells me that Gomah will no longer be a Pilaf-esque gag villain.
It looks like Goku and the gang will be going up against Arinsu’s majin henchmen in the next episode. Judging by the preview, it looks like the budget’s about to take a bump up, too. Looking forward to it.
