Review: Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 38.

The Androids; they are-a-comin’!

Spoilers Below

Before you go ahead and call me a hypocrite, let’s give you the definition of abridged. It means to shorten, without losing meaning. If you’ve seen an abridged book, it’s the same concept.

Now, if you have watched Dragon Ball Z, you know that, while it had some of the best fights in any show, it had some of the worst fluff moments ever. Like the 5 minutes that spanned something like 20 episodes, for instance.  What Team Fourstar does, is recut the episodes, rescript the dub, and has turned the first 107 episodes into 30. And as for the redub, it is hilarious. They take the character nuances, like Goku’s naivety; or Vegeta’s pride, sarcasm, and anger, and blow it out to 10. And in some cases, they actually bring characters back to life and edit them into different scenes, just because the character was too funny to pass up.

Finally, keep your eye on the Krillin Owned Count. It will tell you how useless Krillin is during the series. Whether it’s by getting skewered by Frieza’s horn, getting bitch slapped through a house, or just getting put in his place by Bulma, it all counts.  Anyway, on to episode 38.

Bulma shows how great of a parent she is, by crashing her air car, and forgetting her son, Trunks. Luckily, future Trunks finds him, and hands him(self) to Bulma.  Trunks remembers there was someone else, despite Bulma’s failing memory. That poor someone was Yajirobe, and he’s stuck in a mountain. Meanwhile, Vegeta loses Dr. Gero, and gets a verbal lashing from Trunks for not saving Bulma and present him. Bulma tells the group there that she knows where Dr. Gero’s lab, because every scientist knows where every other scientist’s lab is. Vegeta then turns the verbal lashing on his son, because he sent everyone after the wrong androids. After Vegeta telling Trunks that he doesn’t listen to bastards, he flies off. Bulma gets told, finally, that the Trunks for the Future is her kid. Then she grosses herself out by realizing she solicited her son for sex. Piccolo decides to send Bulma and little Trunks home, then Yajirobe decides to pop up and get a ride from Gohan as well.

Gero is running under the radar, when he sees Trunks, Krillin, and Tien flying towards his lab. He comes to the conclusion that they know the Briefs, and races off to beat them. Trunks has a flashback to when he was with Bulma in the future, and realizes that his mom was spot on with her description of Vegeta. Back near the city, Tien and Piccolo decide to split up, much to the chagrin of Krillin. Gero finds him, and beats the snot out of him.

Krillin Owned Count: 30.

Krillin uses a sensu bean, and gets Piccolo and Tien to Gero’s lab. Gero bought himself enough time to crack open Androids 17 and 18.  17 has some funny banter with the doctor. After some broken wrists and shoulders, Vegeta and Trunks show up. 17 and 18 voice their distrust of the doctor, because they think that he will turn them off again. After Vegeta busts down the door, 17 and 18 go to activate Android 16. Gero loses it, and for his troubles, loses his head. 17 then does the Michael Strahan stomp on it to finish off Gero, and the episode.

While 38 wasn’t the funniest, it was up there. The banter between Vegeta and Trunks was hilarious, as was 17 and Gero.  The best part, and this goes for the series in general, is that the base story doesn’t change from DBZ. There are some abridged series that will just use footage, and redo the entire show. That’s cool and all, but doesn’t do much for me. The best abridged series (in my opinion, of course) are ones that follow the story from the show they’re using, but can stray on occasion. It shows that the creators have passion and are actual fans of the show. With DBZ Abridged, they do just that.

Back to the episode, the moment where Bulma realizes she tried to bang her son, was golden. Unfortunately, they could have done more with it. However, using footage from the Trunks special for the flashback was awesome. Basically, the description about Vegeta from Bulma made it. Finally, the ongoing, cold sarcasm from Vegeta to Trunks has me rolling on the floor.

If you are a fan of Dragon Ball Z, you need to watch this. The script feels like it’s updated for today, and it’s edited for the ADD generation. It’s pretty much on point. If you’re expecting 20 episodes of 5 minutes, you are mistaken. But don’t worry, they make a joke about that too. That’s right kids, this show is self aware.