Fourteen-year-old Goku was living on his own in the forest when he was discovered by a girl named Bulma, who was on a quest to find seven orange pearl-like treasures called the Dragon Balls. Bulma has two of them already, and to her surprise, she finds the third in Goku’s house. Bulma tries to take it, but Goku won’t let her have it because it is the only thing he has to remember his late Grandpa by. So instead, Bulma asks Goku if he wants to come along on the quest with her. After convincing him it would make his Grandpa happy, Goku agrees.

The two adventurers set off to hunt down the remaining four Dragon Balls. To help her navigate the vast world, Bulma carries with her a collection of Hoi-Poi capsules. These are small cylindrical devices with a button on top that, when pressed, will transform into a vehicle. For nighttime accomodations, Bulma has a capsule that can transform into a small house.

At the end of the last episode, Bulma and Goku meet a sea turtle who can’t find his way back to the ocean. Goku wants to help the turtle, but Bulma says that will take time away from finding the Dragon Balls. The two heroes decide to split ways, but Bulma changes her mind after she sees some dinosaurs in the distance.

Will Bulma find all of the Dragon Balls before summer vacation is over? Let’s find out now!

Roshi the Turtle Hermit

Goku and Bulma are helping the turtle find the sea when their path gets blocked by an anthropomorphic bear wearing samurai-style armor.

“Humans give me heartburn, but I love turtles,” says the bear, “Hand it over or you’re dead.”

Bulma tells Goku to give him the turtle, but Goku refuses and says the turtle is his friend.

“I guess a little heartburn never hurt anybody,” says the bear, as he draws his scimitar.

The turtle climbs off Goku’s back so he can fight. The bear swings his sword at Goku several times and misses. Goku hops behind the bear, who swings his sword again and misses. Then, the monkey boy disappears and reappears standing on the bear’s sword.

“One. Two. Three,” says Goku, as he punches the bear between the eyeballs. Defeated!

Goku picks up the turtle and the three of them resume their journey to the sea. Once they see palm trees, they know they are getting closer. When they finally reach the sea, Goku and Bulma pause to soak in the beauty of the white waves crashing into the sandy beach.

The turtle thanks them for helping him find the sea. He says he wants to give them a gift and asks them to wait on the beach for a bit. Eventually, the turtle returns with an old man riding on his back. The old man hops off the turtle’s back an introduces himself as Roshi, the turtle hermit. The turtle asks Roshi if he can give them a gift for helping him find his way back home. Roshi thinks about it for a moment, and figures out what he can give them. He stands on the edge of the shore, holds out his staff, and says, “Come, Magic Carpet.”

But it doesn’t come.

The turtle reminds Roshi that he took the Magic Carpet to the cleaners. Fortunately, Roshi has a backup plan.

“Come to me, Flying Nimbus!” cries Roshi.

A few seconds later, a small yellow cloud descends from the sky.

“If you can manage to sit on this cloud, it can fly you wherever you want,” says Roshi. He explains that only the pure of heart can ride the cloud. Roshi tries to ride the cloud himself, but ends up falling flat on his back.

Goku tries to ride the cloud next. He hops on and sticks the landing! Then, he practices zipping around the beach.

Bulma turns to Roshi and asks what her gift is. Roshi asks the turtle if Bulma helped her, but the turtle says only the boy did. Roshi says he can’t give Bulma a reward because she didn’t help the turtle, but he might be able to give her something if he can get a quick peek at her panties.

“Now I understand why you couldn’t ride your cloud,” says the turtle.

Bulma hesitates, but her wish for a boyfriend is worth more to her than showing an old geezer her underwear. Seeing as Bulma was willing to show Goku her butt in exchange for his Dragon Ball, this is not beneath her. Bulma lifts up her nightgown, but since Goku took off her panties in the last episode, Roshi was able to see all the way to Florida.

Bulma quickly asks for her gift. While Roshi is deciding what to give her, Bulma notices a familiar object dangling around the old man’s neck–a familiar round, orange object.

“I know what I want! That thing right there that’s hanging around your neck!” says Bulma.

Roshi isn’t sure why she wants it, but he takes it off and hands it to her.

Bulma calls Goku to come down and shows him what she just got.

“Look, it’s another Dragon Ball,” says Bulma, “And now, just three more then, wish time!”

“That thing grants wishes?” says Roshi. (Tough luck.)

Roshi claims he never said they could have it, so Bulma persuades him with a few more trips to Florida and changes his mind.

The two heroes thank Roshi for their gifts and head back to their capsule house.

The Emperor Strikes Again

While Goku and Bulma were receiving their gifts, Mai and Shu return to Emperor Pilaf and report on their failed attempt to capture the Dragon Ball. (The events from the last episode.)

Pilaf receives a phone call informing him of a Dragon Ball that is in the possession of and old turtle hermit named Master Roshi. He orders Mai and Shu to retrieve it, and since they keep failing to fulfill their mission, Emperor Pilaf comes with them.

They fly a plane to Roshi’s island and approach the front door of the old turtle hermit’s house. Pilaf pretends to deliver a telegram. Shu suggests they try breaking in instead, but Pilaf says that method is intellectually beneath him. When Roshi doesn’t answer, he pulls out his universal key, which can open any lock. Pilaf uses the key to try and open the door, but it won’t budge. To his surprise, Mai and Shu have already entered the house through the open window…which was right next to the front door. Mai lets Pilaf inside the house and the three of them begin ransacking the place, but they find no Dragon Ball. They notice an alligator lounging on a beach chair outside the house. Pilaf pulls out a knife and threatens to turn the alligator into a handbag unless he tells him where the old turtle hermit went.

The alligator points to a man on a turtle approaching from the ocean. Roshi arrives on the shore of his island home when Pilaf asks him where his Dragon Ball is. Roshi says he just gave it to “that pretty girl on the beach,” so Pilaf and his stooges hop back into the plane to track her down. They convert their plane into a boat and ask Roshi to give them a push. Pilaf, Mai, and Shu set sail, but shortly into the voyage, the boat takes water, and it sinks to the bottom of the sea…never to be heard from again…until the next episode.

Bulma and Goku return to their capsule house where Bulma notices something horrific. Her panties were on the floor this whole time!

“That’s right where I put ’em,” says Goku, “after I took ’em off this morning.”

“You did what?” exclaims Bulma, as she reloads her pistol and fires it at Goku. It’s a good thing Goku is a cartoon character (and a Saiyen), or that might have actually hurt him.

Bulma packs up the capsule house and the two of them prepare to take off again.

“I guess we’ll both take the Flying Nimus,” says Bulma, “It’ll be faster.”

“But didn’t Master Roshi say you have to be pure of heart to ride the Flying Nimbus?” asks Goku.

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m probably the purest person you know.”

Bulma hops on the flying cloud and falls flat on her face.

“Darn it. I didn’t want to ride the that stupid cloud anyway.”

So, Bulma is left to ride her motorcycle while Goku dashes off on his, much faster, flying cloud. Will Bulma be able to find all of the Dragon Balls before her summer vacation is over, despite her inability to fly the cloud? Find out in the next episode of Dragon Ball!

Sub vs Dub

The title of the dubbed episode is “The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi,” while the title of the subbed version is “The Turtle Hermit’s Kinto Un.”

When Bulma and Goku encounter the bear, he says humans give him heartburn in the dub. In the subbed version, he says turtles are his favorite. It seems to be a trend that American Dubs always try to add more jokes, which sometimes land and other times miss. (This joke was alright.)

When Bulma is persuading Goku to hand over the turtle to the bear, she addresses him as “Son-kun” in the subbed version, but “Goku” in the dub. This was obviously changed to reflect how people, especially kids, address each other in America, as opposed to Japan.

One of the biggest differences happens when Goku dishes out his finishing move on the bear. In the dubbed version, he says, “One, two, three,” but in the sub, he says, “Paper, Rock, Scissors.” I don’t understand why the dub changed this, because I think “Paper, Rock, Scissors” is more creative and comedic.

Another big difference comes from the first shot as Goku and Bulma approach the beach. On one of the palm trees, there is a strange character gripping the tree trunk. This character I now understand to be Akira Toriyama’s insert character. In the dub, this character just coos, but in the subbed version, it says, “Penguin Village…this is not.” This is a reference to Toriyama’s first successful manga series: Dr. Slump, which has a lot of palm trees in its setting. Why was this removed from the dub? Perhaps because Funimation doesn’t have the rights to Dr. Slump, or that it isn’t available (legally) in the United States.

Just like in the first episode, there are a lot of differences between the names of characters and things. When the old man hops off the turtle’s back, he introduces himself as “Roshi, the Turtle Hermit” in the dub, but as “The Turtle Hermit” in the sub. Likewise, the name of the cloud that Roshi gives to Goku is called “Flying Nimbus” in the dub, but “Kinto Un” in the sub. I’m not too familiar with Journey to the West, but I’m pretty sure the names Nyoi-bo and Kinto Un come directly from that book.

After Goku successfully hops on the cloud in the dubbed version, he repeatedly cries, “I did it!” This isn’t bad, but I cannot look away from Goku’s unbridled joy in the subbed version.

The first gift Roshi tries to summon in the dubbed version is a Magic Carpet, but in the subbed version, it is an Immortal Phoenix. Well, the gift in the sub is actually eternal life, but it is bestowed by the Immortal Phoenix. In the dubbed version, the Magic Carpet doesn’t come because Roshi took it to the cleaners, and in the subbed version, the phoenix doesn’t come because it died last year from food poisoning.

“It died even though it was immortal?” says Bulma. (Bulma would be excellent at CinemaSins.)

When Roshi first calls the Kinto Un in the sub, he says, “Come to me, Kinto Un.” Bulma thinks he might have said, “kuri kinton,” which means “mashed sweet potato.”

As Roshi floats away on his turtle in the dubbed version, he thinks about how kids these days are like little piranhas and that he was lucky to get out of there with his staff and sandals. In the subbed version, Roshi thinks he will have years added to his life for seeing “something good” today.

Anime vs Manga

Episode 3 of the anime covers the majority of Chapters 3 and 4 in the manga. The first 7 pages of Chapter 3 were covered at the end of Episode 2. The title of Chapter 3 is “Sea Monkeys” and the title of Chapter 4 is “They Call Him…the Turtle Hermit.”

When the bear stands in Goku’s path, he says, “And how did you know that sea turtle is my favorite?” When Bulma is persuading Goku to hand over the turtle to the bear, she addresses him as, “Pee-Wee.” Goku’s finishing move on the bear is “Rock…Scissors…Paper,” which is like the subbed version, but in a different order.

In the manga, Akira Toriyama’s insert character says, “Is this Penguin Village?” The editor includes a note beneath the panel that explains this is a reference to Dr. Slump. Even though the anime isn’t available in America, the Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump mangas are both available on viz.com (not sponsored).

When Roshi arrives on the turtle’s back in the manga, he says, “Aloha!” In the subbed verison, he says, “Good afternoon,” literally in English. I guess in both versions, this is meant to be a greeting in another language. In the dubbed version, he says, “Well, hello there, kids.” (They should have responded by saying, “Master Roshi, you are a bold one!”)

In the manga, Roshi’s first gift was also immortality granted by the Immortal Phoenix, but it is specifically mentioned that the phoenix died from tainted bird seed.

The name of the cloud in the manga is also Kinto’Un. When Goku hops on the cloud for the first time, he says, “I’m on a cloud! I’m on a cloud.”

I haven’t mentioned this before, but the manga refers to each Dragon Ball by a Chinese name derived from the number of stars it has. Goku’s four-star ball is named “Sushinchū.” The two that Bulma had are named “Arunshinchū” (the two-star ball) and “Ūshinchū” (the five-star ball). The ball they get from Roshi is called “Sanshinkyū,” the three-star ball.

Much like Chapters 1 and 2, Emperor Pilaf and his two stooges do not appear in Chapter 3 or 4 of the manga. His scenes were likely added to help fill the runtime. Emperor Pilaf will not appear in the manga until the heroes arrive at his palace.

After Bulma fails to ride the cloud and falls flat on her face in the manga, she says, “Is it a sin to be too beautiful?”

In the very last page of Chapter 4, Goku and Bulma arrive at the setting for Chapters 5 and 6, which is Episode 4 in the anime. The setting is a seemingly abandoned village, with not a single person in sight. Episode 3 of the anime ends on the penultimate page of Chapter 4.

Thoughts: The Trials of the Dragon Balls

In Episode 21 of Dragon Ball Z Kai, Frieza reveals that he interrogated a Namekian to learn that each Dragon Ball on Namek is entrusted to the care of a guardian who is required to conduct trials of wit and strength to determine whether a given seeker’s wish is honorable. The Dragon Balls on Earth, of course, are not guarded by Namekians, and the main way of obtaining them is simply by finding them somewhere on the planet. Coincidentally, Goku and Bulma performed somewhat of a trial of honor and earned a Dragon Ball as a result of it. In this episode, their trial was to help a lost sea turtle find his way back to the ocean. I suppose Benjamin Franklin was right when he said, “When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.”

Even though the Dragon Balls on Earth are not required to be earned through a trial, this pattern will continue throughout this first arc of the Dragon Ball series. Well, that’s all I’ve got for this review. Stay tuned to find out what trial our heroes will have to accomplish in order to earn the next Dragon Ball!