Hogan Reviews

The original Dragon Ball series comes to a close with these five filler episodes, and while most of the time its perfectly normal to shudder at the phrase “Filler Arc” this one is actually quite entertaining. I mean I still don’t think it really adds anything beyond seeing Goku and Chi Chi’s wedding at the end (Spoilers? Though it’s sort of in the title of the arc… and my thumbnail…) but if you’re going to artificially add more episodes then this was at least fun and told a mini-story rather than random singular episodes or a really obnoxiously long arc. So let’s take a look and finally close the book on the original DB series!

With Piccolo defeated and everyone happy Goku and Chi Chi headed off on Kinto-un / flying nimbus and we see here that they arrived back with Ox King and had a big meal while Chi Chi’s dad raved about how happy he was. We also see how happy his people are because apparently being a king in a castle means he does actually look after villagers, and they in term love him for it. Ox King begins planning for the wedding by looking for his wife’s (the Ox Queen, I guess?) old wedding dress in hopes it fits Chi Chi and just as it’s all looking lovely a massive eruption of fire surrounds the castle. Goku and Chi Chi escape but Ox King stayed behind to find the wedding dress and keep it safe and now he’s trapped. Goku tries to blow away the flames with a Kamehameha but it has no effect. Chi Chi tells Goku of a magical “Bansho Fan” that can blow away any flames and so they head off to Fortuneteller Baba so she can divine where it is. What made me laugh is Goku warming up ready to fight her fighters again but Baba just waves the idea off, knowing better than to think anyone she can conjure could beat him.

The ultimate showdown at last! My money’s on Pilaf.

The search for the Bansho fan doesn’t go well though and in the end they head to Master Roshi as he has a book instructing on the method of creating one, so it becomes a fetch quest for the different parts of the fan and the first port of call is a deadly volcano where the legendary “Fire Eater Bird” is said to exist, the feathers of which create make up part of the fan. Goku and Chi Chi reach the centre where they meet a scientist (who looks a lot like the made-up Red Ribbon scientist from that piece of filler…) who shows them the egg that contains the last known Fire Eater Bird, yet to hatch. This leads to a classic confrontation with Pilaf, Shuu and Mai as they arrive in a drilling machine looking to claim the prize but are obviously bested by the now even stronger and taller Goku. Their fight ends up waking an adult Fire Eater who then hatches the egg and flies off with its new child. Chi Chi takes a piece of the egg as a souvenir but they were unable to claim its feathers. Luckily though the scientist says he thinks he head the Bansho fan itself is in a frozen mountain so they head towards there for the next leg of their journey (yep, fetch quest involving a fiery volcano level and an icy mountain level, makes sense!)

The Fire Eater Bird arrives. I wonder why they didn’t just call it a phoenix and be done with it?

Goku and Chi Chi have trouble on the mountain itself as it apparently rejects the presence of women so in a nice bit of old-fashioned gender-ness Goku goes up the mountain to find what they need while Chi Chi is taught lessons on how to be a good wife by a local female beekeeper. Goku tries to bring back the super-cold snow in hopes it will put out the fire (and confronts Pilaf and gang again, this time for the actual last time, at least until GT and/or Super) but it freezes him and melts before it can be brought back anyway. In a stroke of luck though Chi Chi swings the women’s broom in anger and reveals the broom to be the Bansho fan itself, and so they leave with it and a jar of special honey from the old lady. Much to their distress though the fan doesn’t put out the flames at all, and soon its revealed that the flames are actually coming from a hole in a furnace located in the underworld and that Goku and Chi Chi have no choice but to travel there and turn it off…

Like it said it’s a bit of a laugh, but it won’t put you on the edge of your seat or anything. It is fun seeing this version of Goku and Chi Chi for a bit more though, before Goku becomes all powerful and Chi Chi an over-controlling mother…

Overall Thoughts:

Goku with the Bansho Fan in hand, surely the adventure is now over! (Wait, I’ve already said it isn’t before the spoiler cut-off… Oh well)

The Wedding Dress filler arc is one of the better filler arcs due to being short in length, with a sort-of singular narrative and has some fun moments. That being said at the end of the day it is filler, if you skip these five episodes you’ll lose nothing and only bring yourself closer in-line with the original manga by going straight to Z episode 1 (not that Z is free from filler by ANY stretch of the imagination, but that’s something to discuss the next time I cover Dragon Ball!)

Goku and Chi Chi travel down a dangerous path full of imaginary foes and traps before they reach the magical furnace and to Goku’s surprise and delight he meets his Grandpa Gohan, who apparently works for the furnace keeper Amin as a sort-of After-Life job. Goku begs Amin to turn the furnace off but she says it’s a vital part of the dying process and to turn it off will let the spirits of the dead roam the Earth, and that it takes decades to relight it. Despite this danger to all life on Earth Goku fights Amin over the Ox King’s singular life and during the scuffle Amin notices the Bansho fan and formulates a plan to plug the hole in the furnace without turning it off.

One last appearance for Grandpa Gohan before he literally never appears again!

With the fan they can part the boiling furnace flames to give access to the hole but they need a rare heat-resistant material and a even rarer material to glue it in place and wouldn’t you know it the Fire Eater bird eggshell and special honey Chi Chi collected are exactly what’s needed! Amin lifts the lid of the furnace, Goku dives in via the fan and plugs the gap before escaping in the nick of time. Ox King is saved and he managed to protect the dress so we can a happy final scene of Goku and Chi Chi getting married. A lovely end to the first chapter of the long running anime.