“I find that watching Dragon Ball gives me a better understanding of how the characters in the beginning of Dragon Ball Z came together.”

Most people find it egotistical when someone quotes themselves, but I wanted to reiterate this statement from my review of Dragon Ball Episode 1. So far, we have seen the exact moment when Goku and Bulma meet for the first time, and the moment when Goku and Bulma meet Master Roshi. In this episode, Goku and Bulma will meet another character who is re-introduced in the beginning of Dragon Ball Z/Kai. Fans like myself may remember a random talking pig who hangs out with the Z fighters.

No, not that talking pig. This talking pig:

This talking pig is very much a side character in Dragon Ball Z/Kai, and while he technically still is in Dragon Ball, he is much more prominent of a character since he literally becomes one of Bulma and Goku’s companions.

Much like with everyone Goku meets for the first time, they usually require a bit of “softening up” before they become friend-material. Fortunately, Goku and Bulma can tame the talking pig and earn a Dragon Ball for doing so at a same time!

A Village with No People?

Episode 4 begins with Goku zipping through the air on his Flying Nimbus cloud that he got from Master Roshi in the last episode. Meanwhile, Bulma struggles to keep up on her motorcycle.

The two heroes eventually find themselves at a village that seems to be abandoned. Bulma’s Dragon Radar shows that the next Dragon Ball is somewhere nearby. Goku knocks on one of the houses, but no one answers, so he breaks open the door. As one might expect from such an entry, Goku gets met with an ax bashed right on his head, but the ax breaks before Goku’s head.

A bald man with a mustache apologizes and begs for forgiveness. The man’s name is never mentioned in the dub, but his front door reads “Sherman Priest,” so we’ll just call him Sherman. The man, named Sherman, explains that he mistook Goku for a demon called Oolong who has the ability to transform himself into any shape he chooses. Oolong’s true form is unknown, but this demon has kidnapped three of the girls from their village, and now he has his eyes set on Sherman’s daughter, Pocawatha.

Sherman asks why Goku and Bulma have come to their village. Bulma pulls out a Dragon Ball and asks the man if he’s seen one like it, but he hasn’t. An old lady standing outside the doorway pulls a Dragon Ball out of her pocket. This one has six stars inside of it. Goku asks if they can have it, but the old lady says this treasure has been a family heirloom of hers for generations, so she won’t just give it up. Bulma asks if they can have the Dragon Ball if they get rid of Oolong and rescue all of the girls. The villagers are skeptical that they will be able to pull it off, but Bulma has a plan.

Bulma borrows Pocawatha’s clothes and makes Goku wear them. Her plan is for Goku to trick Oolong into thinking that he is Pocawatha, get him to take Goku to the place where the girls are being kept, then have Goku fight Oolong and rescue the girls.

Suddenly, the whole house starts shaking as if a T-Rex were approaching. Since this is Dragon Ball and not Jurassic Park, it’s not a T-Rex that’s approaching, it’s Oolong himself! The villagers all hide in their houses. Goku stands outside of Pocawatha’s house and turns around so Oolong can’t see his face.

Oolong arrives in the village in the form of a giant devil. He approaches Goku, who he thinks is Pocawatha and says, “I’ve come for you, my little buttercup. I’ve brought you some flowers. I hope you like them, sweetheart.”

Goku tries to pitch up his voice as he says, “Oh, I like flowers.”

Out of nowhere, Goku gets the urge that he’s gotta go. Oolong mistakes Goku’s potty dance for Pocawatha trembling in fear. Realizing that his current form is making “Pocawatha” nervous, Oolong transforms into a terrifying…ly handsome gentleman. He’s so handsome that even Bulma becomes smitten by him. She comes out of her hiding place and says, “Well hello there, stranger, my name’s Bulma. I don’t think we’ve met.”

(It hasn’t even been two episodes, but she’s already fallen for a monstrous maniac.)

Oolong sees Bulma and is so infatuated by her that he now can’t decide if he wants to take Pocawatha or switch to Bulma. While Oolong is trying to make his decision, he suddenly notices that Pocawatha has disappeared. He looks further down the road and sees her whizzing on a tree.

“That’s a peculiar behavior for a lady,” says Oolong, as he maneuvers around to “her” front end until he sees, what he says is, “the thing he hates the most.”

“You’re not Pocawatha!” cries Oolong, “If there’s one thing I cannot tolerate, it’s deception!”

(He’s one to talk.)

Oolong transforms into a giant bull and prepares to use more aggressive means to get his desires.

Realizing that her handsome husband has disappeared, Bulma retreats back into Sherman’s house and tells Goku to fight him.

Grab the Bull by the Horns!

Goku throws off his girly clothes and pulls out his Power Pole. He begins stretching while Oolong taunts him. Unexpectedly, Oolong looks at the clock in the city and…runs away. Goku chases him outside the village perimeter. Goku looks around but can’t see the bull, but he does see a pig wearing a Chinese Communist Party uniform. (Don’t ask me why, I don’t know.)

Goku asks the pig if he saw which way the bull ran.

“There,” says the pig, as he points to his left, and Goku races after him. (Not exactly the brightest bulb, is he?)

The pig turns to the audience and explains that he is the bonafide, 100%, original Oolong. He explains that he learned transformation powers to get luckier at scoring chicks. Unfortunately, he can only hold a form for 5 minutes before he returns to his true form.

Goku returns to the village after not being able to find the bull. As soon as Oolong’s rest time is up, he transforms into a giant robot-samurai and reenters the village. Oolong threatens to dunk Goku into a bowl of boiling broth and eat him like a dumpling, but Oolong’s finger accidently slips into the broth and it gets burned.

Goku starts to call Oolong’s bluff by claiming that he’s not as strong as he says he is.

“What makes you think you’re any match for me?” asks Oolong.

“I learned Karate from my Grandpa,” says Goku.

Oolong challenges Goku to demonstrate his strength by breaking a stack of bricks.

Goku does it with a single finger.

Realizing who he is up against, Oolong turns into a bat and flies away.

Bulma comes out of her hiding spot and tells Goku to fly after him. Goku calls his Flying Nimbus and chases Oolong down. When the transforming pig looks behind him and sees Goku tailing him, he turns into a missile and flies away faster. But Oolong’s five minutes run out before he can make it back. He turns back into a pig and starts falling. Goku races down after him on Nimbus, and grabs him by the hand before he hits the ground.

Goku returns to the village with Oolong, now tied up with a rope. Bulma makes him apologize to the villagers before making him lead them to the place where the girls are being kept. Oolong leads the villagers to his lair — a massive ancient Chinese palace. The villagers rush in to see their daughters, but to their surprise, they aren’t suffering. In fact, they are quite enjoying themselves.

Oolong says he was hoping these girls would cook and clean, but all they want to do is lay around. Surprisingly, Oolong begs the villagers to take the girls off his hands.

“Well, this belongs to you and Goku now,” says the old lady, as she hands Bulma the six-star Dragon Ball.

“Just two more to go, and then I can make my wish,” thinks Bulma.

Sub vs Dub

Let’s start, as usual, with the titles of the episodes. The title of the dubbed episode is, “Oolong the Terrible,” while the title of the subbed episode is, “Oolong, the Kidnapping Monster.”

There are a lot of little differences in the dialogue, but I won’t go through all of them. I will just highlight significant differences.

A lot of characters in this episode either have names or do not depending on which version you watch. In the dubbed version, the names of the three kidnapped girls are Alexie, Sarah, and Little Flower. In the sub, their names are Hog-chan, Lee, and Hedge. The old lady is not given a name in the dub, but is given the name Paozu in the sub. On the flip side, Sherman’s daughter is given the name Pocawatha in the dub, but is given no name in the sub. As mentioned earlier, Sherman’s name is not actually mentioned in the dub, it’s just written on his front door. In harmony with the dub, the man’s name is not given in the sub.

We’ve talked about the differences between Goku and Bulma’s voices in the sub vs dub previously, now let’s talk about Oolong’s. Much like with Goku and Bulma, Oolong’s voice has a higher pitch to it in the sub than in the dub. In the sub, Oolong’s voice sounds like Porky Pig impersonating Major Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the dub, Oolong sounds like Danny Davito pinching his nose.

When explaining Oolong’s powers, the sub adds that Oolong has to rest for 1 minute before he can transform again.

In the sub, Goku says his grandpa taught him Kung Fu, but in the dub, Goku says he learned Karate. (Well, if he learned Kung Fu, let’s not call him the “Karate Kid.” Okay, Will Smith?)

In the sub, Oolong says “hen” every time he transforms, which of course, comes from the Japanese word “henshin,” meaning transformation. In the dub, Oolong does not say anything when he transforms.

In the dub, the villagers refer to an obscure prophesy about a boy who could “dance on the clouds” that would come to rescue their village. This is not mentioned in the sub. (Why would there be a prophesy given to a very specific village about an event that jut started happening recently? It just doesn’t make sense!)

Manga vs Anime

In the manga, Goku arrives at the village at the end of Chapter 4. Despite getting previewed in the last chapter, this is the first episode to cover two full chapters of the manga. (Episode 3 covered slightly under two chapters.)

The title of Chapter 5 is, “Oo! Oo! Oolong,” and the title of Chapter 6 is, “So Long Oolong!” Like the other chapters and episodes, the names of the Dragon Balls are only given in the manga. The name of the six-star ball is “Liushinkyū.”

When Bulma introduces herself to Oolong after he transforms into a handsome gentleman, Bulma says she’s sweet 16. Oolong reveals that he’s older than her, but we don’t know by how much.

In the manga, old lady Paozu gives Bulma the Dragon Ball on their way to Oolong’s lair. In the anime, she gives it to her inside of Oolong’s lair, after the girls are found. (A bit wiser of anime Paozu.)

The last two pages of the manga show Bulma and Goku traveling down a river on a motorboat after leaving the village. Oolong is also coming with them because she thinks his transformation powers will come in handy.

Unlike the last three episodes, Emperor Pilaf and his two stooges do not appear in this anime episode, which is consistent with them not appearing in the manga. (I guess the manga provided enough content to fill the runtime of this episode.)

Bathos Thoughts

I remember in my 7th grade English class, my teacher taught us about some literary concept when a situation that is naturally dark is made to be silly and light. I don’t remember the name of this concept, but after doing a quick Gemini search, I have discovered the term “bathos” which means, “a literary technique where a story suddenly shifts from a serious, elevated, or emotional tone to something trivial, mundane, or silly.”

The story we read in that English class to help us understand this concept is called The Ransom of Red Chief, by O. Henry. The story follows two low-level criminals who kidnap a mayor’s son and demand a ransom for his return. The son, however, is too much for the two men to handle. He constantly makes them give him horsey rides and eat sand. In the end, the two kidnappers have to pay the mayor a ransom in order to return the kid.

Another story of this sorts, that is more well-known in modern day, is the movie Home Alone. A kid accidentally getting left behind on a family vacation, only to have his house invaded by thieves is a pretty scary situation. But, this situation is quickly made light with Kevin McCallister’s cleverly constructed (and somewhat callous) combat obstacles.

This same literary concept is presented in this episode of Dragon Ball. A monster kidnaps daughters and forces them to marry him. Given such a premise, one might expect the girls to be suffering, but on the contrast, they are having more fun in Oolong’s lair than they were working in the fields. So much so, that Oolong begs the villagers to take them back.

While many Dragon Ball villains first seem to be dangerous and deadly, there is a consistent pattern of them shedding their dark disguise and joining the heroes. Oolong is simply the first example. There will be many more to come. Who will Bulma and Goku encounter next? A desert bandit who threatens to take their possessions or kill them? Will they turn him good or fall victim to his fate? Tune in next time for another incredible installment of Dragon Ball Episode Reviews!