Early Dragon Ball Dissection!

Great video as always!! And certainly must have been a difficult one to handle appropriately, but I think you did a great job of it. 😊 I never thought about it but you’re right, it’s the tone of Videl’s fight that sets it up in that way. This might sound odd but it’s close to my heart; when my mum dislocated her shoulder 20 years ago I thought it would be a chance to share my favourite show, DBZ, with her, while she recovered. And so we’ve watched pretty much the entire anime of DB, DBZ, GT and recently Super, including all the movies! But I bring this up because this fight in DBZ is hard for her to watch. And having seen the English version of DBZ, I think Kara Edwards’ phenomenal acting as Videl (ESPECIALLY when he picks her up by her hair) really hammered home just how deplorable it is. It certainly serves its purpose in the story... it’s such a shame Videl doesn’t do more afterwards. She’s really cool! But it is sweet to see her and Gohan’s relationship blossom further in Super. Thank you Mistare, as always!! 😃

Stefan Placanica

OMG you nailed this one Fusion! I never put much thought into why this fight is one I skip over whenever I re-read/re-watch this arc. It's kinda brutal for brutalities sake fight which I feel is an issue in a lot of 90s manga and comics. That and Videl is probably the 2nd most well rounded female character in Dragon Ball next to Bulma so her getting shoved to the side and not getting another fight to cement her badassitude again kinda sucks... But, I do give Dragon Ball credit as her romance with Gohan is way more believable than Goku and Chichi and Vegeta and Bulma. Kinda happy they continued that in Super. Great video cannot wait till the next one!

I remember seeing this as a kid Fusion and it was traumatizing. So glad you covered this and I look forward to watching the video and getting your opinion on it! PS <3 4 Videl!

That was way too much for just a patreon comment o.o in any case love love love DBD and making me think about this stuff is one of the highlights in my Dragon Ball fandom :D And you DO have lovely hair XD haha

Douglas Pluylaar

It's really tough... Videl is my favourite character and we very rarely see her in an actual fight and being a badass. I wouldn't count corkscrewing Spopovitch's head as badass though, of course. But I've always interpreted that as a side effect of Spopovitch's weird power boost. Like he has a boost of power to punch harder and block better, but just like Nen from Hunter X Hunter he just fails to strengthen his neck at the right time, because he's not experienced having so much power. Videl is just wailing on him cause she can see he can take it. Until he can't. Videl isn't surprised for nothing. Her look betrays that corkscrewing his head was never the intention. But still, that's an interpretation and I can easily see people make counter arguments. So I like Videl fighting, but at a certain point, especially in the anime, it just becomes a little too much. And part of that is definitely that tone shift. It was super light-hearted for many chapters and everyone was having fun and looking forward to matches that would be fun to look at and fun for them. And then all of a sudden a character we all know isn't the strongest just gets wailed on and basically no one can do anything, but Videl. Who is convinced she SHOULD be winning. She is the daughter of Mr Satan. She has learned how to fly. She is not going to give up. And usually, in the case of Gohan, that's framed as heroic, but everyone just... discourages her :o It's sad, heartbreaking... But... if these 30 minutes have taught me anything... it's to look at Gohan VS Recoom in a different light. Fusion is right that that is horrible. And so is this XD In any case, as a reader it's the rug being pulled under your feet and it's just sad that it's my favourite character literally getting run over by a bus :(

Douglas Pluylaar

Frankly, when I see this fight, all I can think of is Mirko from my hero academia, and her debut into the series where she just takes beating just as brutal as Videl does, but just keeps pushing through, and how fucking awesome it was. That moment solidified Mirko as a fan favorite, and most awesome characters in the series, and if female characters weren't allowed to suffer the same injuries as a male, it would never have happened.

Winters King