Review: Dragon Ball GT Episode 2

If this is a sign of character designs to come...

Review: Dragon Ball GT Episode 2: "Pan Blasts Off" / "Shuyaku wa Watashi! Pan Uchū ni Tobitatsu!!"

    In this episode we're reintroduced to most of the major characters from the previous series, including the Son & Briefs families. Bulma & ChiChi are now showing their age (guessing they're both getting close to 50), Videl has became on toned-down loving mother of Pan, Gohan now is in full scholar mode, and Goten is more interested in girls then anything else. Oolong and a few other characters are shown as well, but not to much has changed in their design. You can definitely tell the animation's details on these side characters are alot less then say Goku and Pan.

    Then... there is Vegeta. Once proud Prince Vegeta has settled down and became a family man. It's not that I have a problem with this, no at all. Considering how accepting he was about Goku leaving at the end of Z, and almost admitting he'd never be able to overcome him, it would make alot of sense that Vegeta would be more interested in taking care of his wife, son, and now teenage daughter Bra. (Sorry, Not calling her Bulla. There was a paragraph rant here, but I didn't want to get off the subject of Vegeta.) So, he's settled down. I expected him to continue training as more of a hobby, and perhaps even do something useful like open up a training dojo. (I know how retarded it sounds, but Vegeta being old would remind me of my old P.E. coach. Used to pretend old man Vegeta was yelling at me and calling me a slacker.)

What we did get was a calmed down Vegeta, who seemes to of settled down and cut his hair and grew a mustache. I would of assumed Vegeta was reading to many biker magazines or perhaps watching the decently popular Chowder on Cartoon Network. Honestly, who's idea was it? This addition to his face was bashed on during most of 1997 from the old Anime Club (Go go Anime Sentai!) I was apart of. Even my 10 year old daughter says to me that it's a creepy mustache and he should shave it off.

    The episode moves on the Bulma working on a spacecraft to send Goku & Gohan into space to locate the now scattered Black-Star Dragon Balls. Vegeta uses his powers of the mustache to trade Gohan for Trunks & Goten, who he has deemed lazy in the time of peace. During this time, Goku is kidnapped by people who want to hold him for ransom (They meant to kidnap Pan.) and find out the the ransom isn't worth the food bill he made & once they see his super-human powers, they run. The best part about this is when they call to demand money, Vegeta picks up and after listening to their demands, he tells them to do whatever they want to Goku, and hangs up. Happy that Vegeta's personality hasn't been taken over by his moustache, we then continue onto the take off. As Trunks & Goku board the ship, Goten is trying to explain to his girlfriend that he'll be away for a while. Pan, who has snuck onto the ship, is found in the control room of the ship, and carelessly wanting to prove that she is old enough for this adventure, slaps the ignition button and the ship takes off with Goten being left behind. Pan, Trunks, and Goku are off on their grand tour! We won't worry about the little piece of the ship that fell off during take off either.

   The best part about this episode is really the reactions to Goku's new transformation. I also have to admit, I like how Trunks is being presented. This Trunks is now the same age as the (Murai)Trunks that came from the future. Everything the past Trunks was; Calm, Calculating, and very polite the current Trunks lacks. He's more carefree and willing to ditch his duties at work, and he also freaks out when things becoming out on control. He's basically became the parent figure of the crew, considering he the oldest one on the ship. (I know Goku is 50ish now, but he's been reverted to his kid-form.)

    The lack of detail on the side characters is kind of insutling. I assume Gohan would of been drawn better, and Vegeta's character overhall wasn't really needed. The biggest failure this episode has is it's lack of presentation of therest of the cast. It really feels like it was tossed together last second as a reason to write off everyone except for Goku, Trunks, and Pan for a whole season. Mind you, considering where the series is trying to go, it makes sense for this to happen.

   Stay turned, I'll try to finish my episode 3 review here real soon!