The Imecka arc sucks, but mercifully, we’re on the last episode.  Not that the next several episodes are going to be much of an improvement, but at least there will be some novelty.

Okay, so you can tell this story arc is way too long because it starts repeating itself as it drags into its final lap.  Just like in the last episode, Goku, Pan, and Trunks are leaping around the city, trying to avoid the Imeckan law enforcement who have declared them outlaws for stealing back their own ship.  

While fleeing the authorities, they stumble into the home of an impoverished couple, who are very much like the other impoverished couple they met in Episode 3.  At first, the good guys try to convince them that they’re not really evil, but then Trunks decides it’s better if they just apologize and take their leave.  This impresses the couple, who decide they’re actually pretty cool for standing up to Don Kee the way they’ve been doing. 

The couple feeds our heroes the very last of their gruel rations, and this convinces Pan that she must take matters into her own hands.   Before, she wanted to be subtle and nonviolent, but now she’s decided the only thing to do is surrender to the Imecka’s authorities... so she can go straight to Don Kee and kick his ass. 

This is treated like some kind of big turning point in the arc, except, no, it isn’t.  They literally could have done this at any time, and they probably would have already done it in Episode 3 if this were written competently.

So Pan charges into Don Kee’s office, ready to rock, only to get trapped in some sort of force field before she can get anywhere near him.  Sigh.

✨”Good” “Ideas”, Poorly Executed✨

This marks the beginning of a depressing formula in GT, where Pan resolves to do something stupid or impulsively heroic, only to get in way over her head, requiring Goku to save her.  Like I said before, Pan’s problem in GT is that she’s like Bulma without any defining talents that would balance out her obnoxious personality.  By the same token, we could also compare her to Goku or Gohan without the raw power to back up their righteous fury. 

And this is bad enough, but what really makes it terrible is the way this problem drags down Goku’s character along with Pan’s.  He was suggesting that they beat up the bad guys in each of the previous episodes, only for Pan and Trunks to tell him that wouldn’t work.   Only now, when we’re nearly done with the last part, and when Pan is in danger, does Goku finally decide to take this seriously.  So far, he’s just been sort of meandering along, passively going along with whatever the others decide to do.

So now Ledgic steps in, and he wants to take on these intruders himself.  Basically, Don Kee rules the planet by maintaining a choke hold on its economy.  He outlawed spaceships in order to keep people from escaping his planet, and he gouges his people for every penny they have. To keep himself in power, he hired a bodyguard, Ledgic, who only barely tolerates Don Kee.  He agrees to protect Ledgic from the GT crew, but only because he’s interested in the challenge it presents. 

Also, Ledic has a really stupid looking design.  His head looks ridiculous, and he wears tights with shoulder straps that go over his goofy red jacket, and the hood of the jacket looks silly when it’s covering his misshapen head.

The show tries to hype this up like it’s some sort of long-awaited dream match, except we just met Ledgic one episode prior.   Also, the series is only five episodes long at this point, so even if Ledgic had been around from the beginning, he couldn’t have gotten a proper buildup for this fight. 

It’s not the worst fight in the world, but it’s pretty short and simple, which kind of sucks, because this arc was at least an episode and a half too long, but they wasted that space on stupid shit when they could have at least used it to showcase a decent battle. As it is, Ledgic seems to have the advantage until Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan and overwhelms him.

One Kamehameha later, and Ledgic is down for the count.

Ledgic concedes defeat, and when Don Kee offers to pay him more if he’ll win, Ledgic turns against Don Kee and refuses to help him any more.  Now defenseless, Don Kee surrenders and promises anything Pan wants in exchange for mercy. 

This leads to the three heroes bringing a giant safe into the middle of the city the following morning.   Note that Pan is flying and carrying part of this gargantuan object.  Goku and Trunks are holding up other corners.  So only now, after all this pointless delay, do they suddenly remember that they can fly and lift enormous objects. 

Inside the vault are all of the contracts Don Kee made with the residents of Imecka, which Don Kee surrenders in exchange for his safety.  Pan is allowing them all to tear up the contracts so they can live their lives freely again, or move out into space if they wish.

With that settled, the gang finally get the parts they need for their spaceship, and that gives them a chance to address the matter of Giru eating the Dragon Radar.  Pan keeps abusing the thing, but Trunks decides to take pity on Giru, arguing that a sentient life form deserves more compassion, even if it’s made of metal and circuits.  Pan takes this to heart, and begins to reconsider her prejudices agaist-- no, I’m just kidding.  She treats this little robot like absolute dogshit for the next few dozen episodes.

The one thing Giru has going for him is that when he ate the Dragon Radar, he gained the ability to duplicate its function, which means he can now lead them to the Black Star Dragon Balls.  So right off the bat, Giru has become more useful for the mission than Pan ever was or will be. 

And that’s it.  This one episode could have been the entire Imecka Trilogy, and even then, it’s still too long.  Way too much time is spent showing the good guys evading the cops, then they finally decide to confront the villains, and meet minimal resistance.   This whole arc is like a wet paper towel of a story.  But the question remains:

✨Is it Worse than The Roaming Lake?✨

I could give this episode credit for including a genuine fight in the climax, but honestly, Ledgic is part of the problem.  This story has two antagonists: Don Kee, who rules over Imecka and forces everyone to live in abject poverty, and Ledgic, the warrior-for-hire who enforces Don Kee’s rule.  That wouldn’t be such a terrible arrangement, except that the partnership is really flimsy, and it’s the only thing keeping the villains in business.   Ledgic is openly disgusted by Don Kee, and he insists that he only fights for his own purposes, not because of Don Kee’s payments.  Without Ledgic, Don Kee is helpless, and his scheme falls apart. 

But at least Don Kee has the motives to be a bad guy.  He’s greedy and ruthless and selfish, and he’s designed his whole regime to support himself at the expense of everyone else.  If he had any sort of super powers, he might have made a decent villain.

Likewise, if Ledgic had any sort of goals of his own, then he could have been a decent villain.  If he was genuinely loyal to Don Kee, or if he was just using Don Kee to further his own agenda, then that would be great.  Hell, even if he was just in it for the pay, then that would be something. 

Instead, he’s openly contemptuous of Don Kee, like he finds the whole deal offensive, and Don Kee has to watch his tone around Ledgic or else.  So why is Ledgic working here?   Don Kee clearly has no leverage over him.  All Ledgic seems interested in is testing himself against worthy opponents like Goku, and normally that would be a decent enough motivation, but why is Ledgic here, on Imecka?  Was he just waiting for a strong fighter to show up?   I mean, Goku did show up, so I guess his patience paid off, but this was a complete coincidence.  You’re telling me this guy voluntarily lives on this dumb planet working for a man he can’t stand, just in case a guy like Goku falls from the sky to throw down?

Ledgic is kind of like Hit from Dragon Ball Super, and maybe a little like Jiren too.  The difference is that those two guys don’t wait for challenges to find them.  Hit’s an assassin for hire, taking big payments to target dangerous targets, and Jiren joined a superhero team, which naturally puts him in a position to fight the most dangerous threats available.  They both roam the universe in search of action, but Ledgic stays put and hopes it’s come to him.  In the end, all he really does is serve as an obstacle for Goku to beat up in order to save the day.  He’s kind of like the dam that Goku destroys in “The Roaming Lake.”  

And you know, the dam was essentially the bad guy in “The Roaming Lake”, which was one of the reasons it sucked.  Goku had to blow it up to save Nam’s village, and even the people who built it were like, “sure, go ahead”.  The dam sure as hell didn’t care what happened.  Ledgic’s a lot like that dam, except GT tries to pass him off like some bold new character.   At least “The Roaming Lake” was honest about making their villain an inanimate object.  Dammit, this episode is

WORSE

than “The Roaming Lake.”  GT loses again, 0-5.

✨Positivity Page✨

Well, Goku did turn Super Saiyan in this episode, so that’s kind of cool.  And it’s nice how he shut Ledgic down so quickly after he transformed.  I mean, it’s bad for the episode, since it was already devoid of tension, and then Goku steamrolls the one hint of difficulty.  But in a vacuum, it’s nice how they protected the Super Saiyan form with this battle.  Ledgic was doing okay against Goku, then Goku transformed and Ledgic couldn’t even touch him. Self high five.

✨The Blade Braxton Memorial Haiku*✨

Don Kee overthrown

Should have stuck to his old job

as Captain Chicken

Last time, Episode 3 was fuckin’ terrible, and this episode is also horrible.  The gang is stuck on Imecka, because their spaceship was damaged, and now it’s being towed away.  Trunks doesn’t want to lose sight of the ship, but for some reason he doesn’t think to use his super powers to fly after it.  Instead, Goku suggests they intercept the tow truck with Instant Transmission.  Except, no, that doesn’t work, which is another prime example of...

✨”Good” “Ideas”, Poorly Executed.✨

Okay, so I’m not entirely clear on why Toei wanted to de-age Goku for GT.  Most likely, it was a simple nostalgia play, but that never quite rang true for me, since Adult Goku was extremely popular too, so doubling back to Kid Goku doesn’t sound like it would move the needle that much.  But one other possibility is that Toei thought Goku was getting a little too powerful, and this was a way to nerf him just a bit.  So we get this scene here, where Goku discovers his child body can’t perform Instant Transmission properly.  Like, he can vanish and reappear somewhere else, and even take people with him, but he only teleports like a few feet straight up, instead of where he actually wants to go. 

And really, Toei kind of had to take that power away from Goku in order to make the show work.  If he could teleport like he could in the latter half of Dragon Ball Z, then he could just zip back to Earth whenever he wanted.  The ship needs a new part? Goku could just teleport back to Capsule Corp and return with the item they need.  The ship is about to be destroyed in a disaster?  Goku can evacuate himself, Trunks and Pan and be safe on Earth while the ship explodes.  Is Pan lonely?   Goku can teleport her back to Earth to visit her parents for a weekend, or he could just leave her behind, since she wasn’t supposed to be on this trip in the first place. 

So is it a good idea?  Hell no.  The fact that they had to do it only proves that the spaceship journey was poorly conceived.   It’s just one bad idea with a second bad idea to patch the first one.  Two wrongs don’t make a right. 

This is supposed to be a show about Goku.  He’s the main character, and the plot and premise ought to be designed to support and promote him.  Instead, GT keeps changing Goku in a vain attempt to shoehorn him into this awkward storyline.  He has to turn into a kid, he has to lose one of his powers... Who does this serve, exactly?

Also, the way he discovers this predicament is really stupid.   Back in Episode 1, he told Dende and Popo that he didn’t mind being a kid.  And that’s probably accurate characterization.  Goku isn’t worried about how big he is or what he looks like.  But he is concerned with getting stronger and improving himself as a martial artist, so you’d think he would be frustrated if it turned out his younger body couldn’t do all the same things he could before.  My point is that you would think Goku would have tested his new kid body to see if he lost any power, since that’s his main priority.  And yet, this episode shows that he hasn’t even tried to use Instant Transmission in over a week.  It never occurred to him that he might not be able to do it anymore. 

And why can’t he teleport, anyway?  The implication is that his younger body lacks the fortitude or maturity to handle the technique, but it’s not like Instant Transmission was physically demanding on Goku’s body.   It’s not like he would teleport and then have to stop and rest because it was so hard to pull off.  It’s mentally challenging, which is why it took Goku a whole year to learn how to do it, but once he got the technique down he could pretty much spam it at will.  And Goku’s mind wasn’t affected by the wish that made his body younger.  He still remembers how to do Instant Transmission; it just doesn’t work anymore.

And yet, Goku can still use all his other abilities.  We see him do a Kamehameha in this episode, and he turns Super Saiyan in the next one.  And those techniques do take a toll on his stamina, so why is he still able to do them without a problem, but Instant Transmission doesn’t work?

Also, I just want to point out that this episode takes a loooooonnng time to establish that Goku can’t teleport anymore.  Like, he suggests it, and Trunks is all “Oh wow, you’re going to use Instant Transmission”, and then he prepares himself for like a full minute, and it doesn’t work.   And then he tries it a second time and basically repeats that whole nonsense.  It’s just a huge waste of time, and for what?  Why is so much of this episode dedicated to showing us what Goku can’t do?

And why don’t they just fly after the truck that’s hauling their ship away?  Why don’t they fly instead of just falling on their faces when Goku’s teleport doesn’t work?  Oh for fuck’s sake...

✨Is it Worse than The Roaming Lake?✨

I went back and reread my recap of Dragon Ball Episode 29, just to be certain and man, it really sucks.  And yet, at least when characters can’t fly, it’s because they’re not supposed to.  And Goku doesn’t lose powers for the sake of the plot, either.  He doesn’t whip out his Nyoibo and nothing happens and then he goes “Whoops!  Looks like my Nyoibo won’t get longer like it’s supposed to!”

Heaven help me, but this episode is

WORSE

Than the Roaming Fucking Lake.  GT is down 0-4.

Meanwhile, the mastermind behind all of Imecka’s problems, Don Kee, talks to his security goons.   The short brown guy is Gale, and the pink lady is Sheila, although I don’t think she ever got called by name in Episodes 4 or 5, so I’m wondering if this is a dub-ism.   Anyway, it turns out Don Kee has possession of the GT gang’s ship, and all he cares about is how much money he can get out of it.  Since there’s nothing aboard that’s especially valuable, and no sign of a crew, he orders the ship to be scrapped for raw materials.   You’d think it would be worth more in tact, but Don Kee isn’t interested in spaceships that work.

Meanwhile, the good guys decide to take their ship back, and they follow it to Don Kee’s impound lot, or whatever it is.  And they still refuse to fly.  They just leap around like that’s somehow sneakier.  Also, why are they sneaking around?  They’re far and away the strongest people on the planet. As it turns out, their stealth doesn’t last long, so they have to fight their way out of this place anyway.  Well, at least there’s a little action in this episode.

During the battle, Pan commandeers the big green tow truck thing and drives it out of the city.  Wouldn’t it be simpler for them to just carry the ship and fly it out under their own power?  I’m pretty sure Pan is strong enough to lift the ship by herself, but even if she’s not, how in the hell does a kid like her know how to drive an alien truck?

So they shoot their way out, and Goku even fires a Kamehameha to get past Gale and Sheila.   This is noticed by a third security good named Ledgic, who suspects that Goku and his group are Saiyans.

Later, Don Kee gets the bad news and he dresses down Gale and Sheila for failing to stop the intruders, but he’s very careful not to say anything mean to Ledgic.   Basically, Ledgic is supporting Don Kee’s corrupt regime for a fee, but Don Kee has to be careful not to piss Ledgic off, since he’s kind of the lynchpin of his entire rule over this planet.

Meanwhile, Goku, Trunks and Pan have their ship back, but it got pretty banged up in the caper they pulled the night before.  So Trunks fixes as much as he can, but they have to go back into town to buy more parts.  But this time, no one wants to do any business with them, because they’re now considered wanted criminals.  There’s posters of them and everything.

Then the local authorities start coming after them, and they have to run away.   Oh, for fuck’s sake!  Pan’s been a holy terror this whole series.  She barged into a hostage situation because it kept her from seeing a movie.  She stowed away on a spaceship because she wasn’t getting enough attention. But she won’t fight cops on a planet that’s clearly corrupt and dishonorable?  That’s the line she won’t cross?

✨Positivity Page✨

Man, the Imecka episodes are liquid death.  As bad as the Roaming Lake was, at least it wasn’t a three-parter.   I came up with this positivity bit as a way to say “no hard feelings” to GT-likers, but we’re only four episodes into this turkey and I’m really struggling here.

You know, I’ll give some love to these wanted posters.  I wish the real GT Pan was more like the knife-weilding maniac in this image.  She’s carve Don Kee a new smile or three, and that’d be pretty satisfying. 

Actually, with that vicious smile and the fingerless gloves, she almost reminds me of Pan’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granny Luffa.  So that’s a good thing, I guess.  For me, at least.   The rest of you are on your own, I suppose.  Self high five?

✨The Blade Braxton Memorial Haiku*✨

Blade Braxton (1975-2021) was a legend in the field of pro wrestling podcasts.  Among his many talents was the uncanny ability to condense a week’s worth of wrestling gossip and rumor into a quick, easy-to-read poem.  Since I wish to spare others the hassle of watching Dragon Ball GT, I have decided to perform a similar service in honor of Mr. Brakestown-sensei’s memory.

Some Imeckians

Don’t have noses.  They couldn’t