Episode 205 "The Wizard's Curse"

The Summary

Today's episode begins with Gohan, Kibito and Videl following Goku, Shin, Vegeta, Piccolo and Krillin after the two warriors who stole Gohan's energy.

Meanwhile, back at the World Martial Arts tournament, the crowd is a little less than happy with the prospect of so many fighters leaving the tournament. Who could blame them?

While on route following the thieves, Shin explains to the group exactly why he and Kibito are here on Earth:

Long ago, they sealed an evil entity, Majin Buu (pronounced "Mah-gin Boo" ) within an orb deep within the Earth after defeating a powerful wizard, Bibidi. Now his son, Babidi, has returned and is gathering the pure energy needed to resurrect Majin Buu from his slumber. If he succeeds, then the Earth will experience a darkness the likes of which no human has witnessed.

However, all of the sudden the two land, revealing only the top part of a hidden ship. Could this be Babidi's hideout? Before the guys can dwell on it for two long, two figures emerge…

It's Babidi. (FINALLY!!)

…but there's someone with him. It's Devorah, king of the Demon World. This is unexpected, and catches even The Supreme Kai off guard.

Getting back to Babidi, after accepting the energy basket from our two Tournament thieves, he kills them. (A rather gruesome scene, I recommend you check it out). So how will our hero's fight an enemy that is truly this vicious? "Stay tuned for the next episode of Dragon Ball Z!"

The Review

Animation

Every time I watch the Buu Saga I cannot help but marvel at the animation enhancements made over previous sagas. Today was the BEST animation yet in terms of form and detail. Once again, since this was a key episode the "A Team" was brought out for this one, and I must say it looks marvelous.

Facial detail was abundant today, in fact, other then the Audience shots, I don't think I saw a real "Low Quality" moment in the episode, even Gohan's friends were animated in the same style and detail. Coloration was excellent, with appropriate shadowing that was neither too light or overdone, but most importantly:

The animation itself was fluid.

Motions were smooth, crisp and well drawn. Facial detail was at an all time high, even in the over-dramatized "Ah moments," where not only their mouths twitched, but their eyes, eyebrows and even minute muscular details were animated to convey the "No, it can't be" emotion.

Choreography

Because of the animated nature of DBZ, good animation generally means good choreography. There were some good sequences in today's episode, which was very good to keep the presence of the characters in mind.

example:

When the group converged on Babidi's ship after Sappopovich and his companion landed, every one took an immediate hiding position by crouching behind the rocks quickly…

Everyone that is, except Vegeta. Who slowly descended in his "I am the Prince of all Saiyans," manner. Combine this attention to detail with an excellent perspective choice by the story boarders and we have a shot that while wasn't key to any action or plot, but was an excellent sequence that showed just how well the directing can be in this saga.

…and that was just a transitory scene.

Another memorable scene sequence occurs when Babidi decides he no longer needs the two energy thieves from the tournament. So we get to see Sappopovich's body puff up like a balloon before exploding.

What makes this so interesting was the fact that the directors could have had it so that Babidi merely destroyed them both with a simple glance, which could convey Babidi's awesome magical prowess. However, the director opts for a more drawn out, and arguably more dramatic sequence of the his death, and subsequently, the death of his partner at that hands of Babidi's assistant.

(If you have seen today's episode, I invite you to ponder why Babidi had his partner kill Sappopovich's companion rather than doing it himself on our Forum)

Music

Music? There was music on today's episode? I didn't even notice, or care for that matter.

I feel rather skimpy in this section all the time but the fact of the matter is this:

There's really not much to talk about.

FUNi could have (and should have) kept all the original music intact after receive what I know to be at least HUNDREDS of requests to do so. Yet they didn't.

(Yawn)

Dialogue

Well, I knew this would happen.

Once the action starts, the good dialogue goes by the wayside. Though the dialogue has been well suited for the situations. I generally have an aversion to Monologues in animated features unless specifically designed to create a specific atmosphere.

Shin's monologue about Majin Buu did not do that for me.

Also, the humor has also taken a back seat with the suspense and gearing up for some action.

However,…

When I fist watched FUNi's DBZ, I really despised the fact that the characters talked at all. The dialogue was horrible, and some of the acting atrocious. The only thing DBZ was good for in my eyes for a while was the fighting. I could remember myself yelling at the TV during the early parts of the Saiyan and Frieza Saga:

Shut up and fight already!!!

Thankfully, that has changed so much for the better as FUNi's experience progressed. Today's episode was no exception. While it lacked some of the sharp humor of previous episodes, leave it to Krillin to at least bring a little spice in the Dialogue with his comment of Piccolo not always being one of the Good Guys...

Well see how the dialogue keeps up as we progress into some more action intensive episodes.

Plot

We met Babidi today. We're you surprised at how he looked? Did you notice the "M" both on his ship and on his belt?

HUGE day in terms of plot, as we have now in my opinion made the subtle transition from Heaven's Tournament / World Martial Arts Tournament "Saga" to "Buu Saga" (Note the there never really was a "Heaven's tournament/World Martial Arts Tournament" Saga, it was all still part of the Buu Saga).

Today was really our introduction to the MAIN conflict of the series: Stop Babidi from bring the most evil of evil on the Earth.

I think that's all the conflict you need.

Overall

To be honest, when it comes to the overall presentation of an episode, I'm not that hard to please. If you can keep me in my seat for 25 minutes without me going, "Blegh," then I'm generally good to go.

Even without laughing as much as I have in previous episodes, I really enjoyed this episode for one key reason: The Animation. Just about every sequence I kept saying to myself, "Look at how well they drew that," or, "That's some detail they put into that." I really was pleasantly surprised all in all.

Only if they could do something about that music…

The Celestrian gives today's episode:


5 Dragonballs out of 7...

-The Celestrian