Dragonball Super: Episode 4 Review

Hot off the heels of last week's first 1 star rated episode, Dragonball Super delivers Episode 4 'The Pilaf Gang's Master Plan.' But will this be the episode to finally start hinting at a new plot? Read on Z Fighters....

Summary

          So this episode begins another mentioning of the fabled Super Saiyan God again, just in case you are a new viewer and missed the 9000 mentions of it in the last 2 episodes, as Whis and Beerus are on the way to King Kai's planet. Cue some more harmless food banter. The bulk of the episode then features a catch up with the characters just before Bulma's party kicks off, including Chi Chi, the Krillins, Goten, Trunks, the absent Vegeta and Goku, as well as no one's favourite villains, the Pilaf gang. GoTrunks are up to old tricks, sneaking around Bulma's hidden bingo prizes, as Chi Chi and #18 dream of winning said prizes. When Trunks deactivates Bulma's security grid and reveals the Dragonballs, it incidentally triggers the nearby Emperor Pilaf's Dragon Radar. Pilaf and his companions, Mai and Siu, treasure hunting, having eaten nothing but grass in days and with this blip of hope, they set off to steal the Dragonballs and wind up at the party. Meanwhile, King Kai spills the identity of Lord Beerus to Goku, just before Whis and he arrive.

The new Team Rocket

The art style can't even stay consistent within a single frame

          While this episode still doesn't cover new ground in terms of plot, it does give us some good insight into a new (to Super) character, the comically tragic Emperor Pilaf's character moments provide this episode with a surprising level of depth. We see how desperate the Pilaf gang are as they search for treasure on a hilariously dodgy looking hand made map, with Siu mentioning that they've only eating grass for two days and Mai on the verge of a breakdown. There's a good case of comic bad timing to show Pilaf as a bad luck charm as hedrops his radar, only to pick it up to show his companions and the signal to have gone. While on board Bulma's ship his refusal to take food from Trunks and Goten due to his pride actually shows a good amount of integrity for a laughable villain (he's a 2 foot tall child-like 'Emperor'). Mai and Siu's obedience to also not take the food, given how desperate they are, is also a nice touch indicating the loyalty and respect of the three. 

Kamehamehaaaa!         

          I've mentioned in previous episodes about stand out moments and this episode actually delivers several of its own. Emperor Pilaf's decision to finally accept the food, putting his pride aside, when he stops and considers his team mates is an excellent moment and puts the trio into the realm of likeable comedy villains that I'm going to enjoy watching, similar to Team Rocket. Also we finally got our first Kamehameha! And it was a big one. Ok, so it wasn't in a fight and was only Goku training, but it was big and it was loud, so it's a worthy milestone. However, more importantly, we got our first reveal of the Dragonballs. A strong dutch angle camera and dramatic lighting, plus the fact they were guarded by a laser grid means that this was a powerful reveal of the most important thing in the series.

Same old story

         

Of course, these nice moments are bogged down and restricted by the poor direction of the show. Focussing on Emperor Pilaf and the gang was a nice character piece to introduce the (hopefully) recurring characters to the show, but it didn't provide anything new for fans. Any time even Pokemon focussed an episode on Team Rocket we at least learned something new about one of their backstory. Beerus is still once again teased as the primary antagonist (yawn) and we've already seen the Pilaf gang at Bulma's party so no surprises there. Also there is some kind of apocalyptic music played at the end as Goku explains Beerus's story to Goku and as they prepare for his arrival-which- is fine- but it really doesn't work when played over comical visuals and dialogue of Bubbles and Gregory falling through a roof and Goku prancing about and asking silly questions. 

One style of animation? Why not all of them?

These two images are totally different art styles.

For once in Dragonball Super it wasn't the plot that was hurting my eyes and making me want to close my laptop lid, but the horribly jarring animation. Ok, maybe I haven't noticed it in previous episodes as I've been to fixated on the disappointing story, but it's like they can't just pick a style and stick to it. Where have these snake-like, huge, thick outlines come from? At times the close ups look like they've been outlined with a sharpie, seriously contrasting with the thin line style of anything further out than a mid shot. And I say 'at times' because it isn't even consistent! We'll start with a wide shot of Pilaf with thin lines, cut to a close up with sharpie lines and then to a close up of Mai with thin lines! And it was this way throughout. Seriously distracting.

Conclusion

Overall this episode of Dragonball Super is much more entertaining than Episode Three, at least giving us a relatable and likeable 'villain' in the form of the Pilaf Gang, but it still suffers from building up to things we've already seen and also from some shockingly inconsistent animation.

Score: 4 Star Ball

(Out of 7)