Dragon Blog DAIMA #27: Tamagami
a.k.a. the Mini Animeister.
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Their fight starts with weapons, with Goku using his Power Pole and Three controlling his giant hammer like Thor with Mjolnir. It's the best looking, best choreographed, small-scale-big-stakes fight that Dragon Ball has ever had, and it only gets better when Goku goes Super-Saiyan to get out of a test of strength against Three's hammer, breaking its handle in two, and they have to go hand-to-hand. The spectacle, the dynamic camera and changing scenery, the fight choreography, the energy spam...it all brings out my inner meathead and satisfies my critical eye for perfectly paced fights and fluid, mind-blowing animation.
See, once Goku has won the Three Star Demonic Dragon Ball, Glorio passes the news on to Dr. Arinsu, who takes it as a sign to move forward with her real plan. As suggested when Gomah and Degesu are shown re-watching the Buu Saga (I'm more of a Saiyan Saga guy myself, but you do you) with the old 90s spy thriller gimmick of "Enhance!" in full effect, and as was hinted in the first episode, Dr. Arinsu was present on Earth for Majin Vegeta's Final Explosion, where she collected a sample of Fat Buu. This is where the "Toriyama's word is god, but a god can change His mind" lore drop comes in. Originally, it was Babidi's father, Bibbidi, who created Buu. Then Toriyama changed his mind so that Buu was a primordial personification of chaos whom Bibbidi merely summoned. Now, that all changes with the introduction of the Grand Witch, Marba, whom Arinsu reveals was the true creator of the pure, "Kid" form of Majin Buu (so the M means Marba now, instead of Ma, Madoshi, or Moro?).
It's also stated that Buu's rampage was the reason for the Kaioshin and other Glinds leaving the Demon Realm for the outside world (maybe Buu was originally intended as a subjugation tool against the Namekians as well?). And yet, Arinsu's main plan is to have Marba use the piece of Buu to make a clone Majin that Arinsu herself can control (ignoring that Marba tasted the potion, and so has also probably mixed her own saliva in, giving her control over the clone as well, creating an obvious opportunity for betrayal in the future). This gave me strong Android 21 vibes, but we'll see how things shake out in the end.
What I don't love as much is that, with Goku having earned the Dragon Ball, Hybis' group seemingly have no choice but to...*groan*...find a hotel to rest while they wait for everyone else to show up. Isn't this the same thing that happened in the "Daima" episode, just with Vegeta in Goku's place?
Something I didn't mention in previous Dragon Blog Daima posts is that, in addition to the occasional use of title cards, some episodes begin with an animation that gives a short summary of Goku's story and his effects on those around him, while others go straight into the "Jaka Jaan" OP. This episode, "Tamagami," is one of the latter.
It picks up with a brief repeat of Goku challenging Tamagami #3 from the end of "Collar," and goes right into the fight, which I appreciated.
I will admit that, having spent the greater part of my teen and college years discovering Dragon Ball Z, I felt a hint of disappointment that the fight didn't go on for more of the episode. But given my thoughts on more recent, multi-episode final battles and prolonged anime movie fights (Made In Abyss, My Hero Academia, Black Clover, and I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability come to mind), I ultimately felt satisfied that the length of the fight stopped perfectly short of sensory overload fatigue, and relief that, upon Goku's spectacularly inimitable victory, Tamagami #3's mention of another battle didn't consist of another, similar fight (we have two more Tamagami for that later in the series), but...a shell game‽ Goku wins, of course, but more for his genius level of awareness here than the strength and honor he displayed in the preceding fight.
Even the shot of Three practicing the Kamehameha hand motions as the group leaves was a cute moment to connect to the youth (and inner youth) of the audience and show Goku's effect on the characters he meets.
This front-loading of action puts a new twist on the episode structure because now, the lore must be a "better than Super-Saiyan 2 Kamehameha" level of a doozy...and it is. Unless you're a "Toriyama's word is god" fan, that is (never mind that the late, great genre pioneer's word on the lore of his own series sometimes changed from page to page because of his discovery writing style, contributions to various canons, and jokey, off-the-cuff interview responses that amount to variations on that one Lucy Lawless Simpsons meme).
With that big bombshell dropped and the fighting over, it's time to check in with my new favorite character, Hybis. In addition to worm pizza, he apparently also likes the taste of fermented mud. He also has no problem throwing shade on people who are stronger than him (he trash-talks Vegeta into being polite with such creepypasta savagery that even Bulma finds it hilarious). Hybis is basically the Ben Stein version of Buu, and his head movements are like a Five Nights At Freddy's animatronic possessed by Pazuzu and a J-Horror ghost. I wouldn't be surprised if his full name is Hybis.EXE, and I love it.
I mean, I understand that the circumstances are different now because the entire Third Demon World, Arinsu, and probably the Gendarmerie, know that "the spiky-haired boy with a red stick" has a Dragon Ball now, and everyone is bound to come out of the woodwork like those deadbeat relatives who appear with their hands out when they learn you're rich and dying. And that's going to up the scale and tension compared to what came five episodes before.
But again, the next episode is called "Thieves," and it looks like we're still going to be in the Third Demon World, doing small-scale plot-stalling shenanigans nine episodes into a twenty-episode series with only a third of its setting having been explored.
I hope I end up being wrong, and I hope you eventually give me your energy and grant my wish by clicking the Follow button to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, commenting at the bottom of this post, helping out my ad revenue as you read so I don't have to fight robots and gamble for my own happiness, and following me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.
Animeister,
Out.
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