Episode 6, "Finally Reached the End! The Strange Exam of Kaio-sama" 
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Time passes, and little Gohan has grown acostumed in living in the wilderness, prompting Piccolo to start his formal battle training. Meanwhile, Goku reaches the end of Snake Way, and a small little planetoid with extremely high gravity, the home of the word pun-loving Kaio-sama. Requesting training from him, Goku's first task is to adjust to the planet's gravity by catching Kaio's monkey friend, Bubbles. 
Comments:
Skipping over the battered robot and the voyage home fillers of the original series, Kai has Gohan go from sniveling little brat to somewhat well-adjusted to difficult circumstances brat, already adapting to life out in the wild, outrunning the T-Rex and making constant meals of his tail (I guess to Gohan, if he can't have a tail, nobody will!), and more than willing to spar with Piccolo. He reminds me of Goku at the beginning of Dragon Ball, but a little less tough and of course, younger. In fact, I'm guessing that this is probably what Goku was like at five.
Aren't smaller planets supposed to have less gravity, not more? Well, whatever. I guess there's no use trying to make sense of Kaio's planetoid. It must get a little annoying to have a car and only have, like, five feet of road to drive on. On the plus side, no traffic. He can drive drunk! I always liked the Kaio planet portion of DBZ, because as silly as it was, it was fun, and harkened back to the original Dragon Ball. Goku always has the most ridiculous teachers. He trained under Roshi, Karin, Mr. Popo, and now this catfish guy. I think I would probably enjoy this part more if I understood Japanese word puns. I'm probably missing out on a lot here.
W-w-wait. Kaio likes living alone, has an odd skin color, looks like he's had too much plastic surgery, and has a monkey named Bubbles? Oh god, he's Michael Jackson!
I guess it's a good thing Goku's not a little boy. (Just sounds like one!)
Why does Kami call together Kuririn, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Chaozu, and Yajirobe for special training at his hideout, and then just stand by while they do all the training themselves? I mean, they couldn't have done this themselves? Not to mention, Tohryu Furuya is way out of practice with his Yamcha voice, it sounded really strange. Tenshinhan's replacement voice didn't sound right, either. It was sort of cool to see the minor players doing something, and at that cool palace.
The music is just horrible in this episode. Bruce Faulconer did better than this in the Funimation dub, and that's saying a lot. The original music was magical, this new music wasn't.
Looks like the next episode has more of Goku trying to catch The King of Pop's furry friend. I hope the rest of the training doesn't involve watching the movie Moonwalker.
Overall Score:
3 out of 5
