Watching the Penguin Village/Dr. Slump episodes of OG Dragon Ball...

I can only imagine how confused American kids were when these episodes aired on Toonami back in the day. Even by the standards of OG Dragon Ball, Penguin Village is weird, and there's of course a bunch of references to a series that never aired in the U.S. except for maybe a single-episode pilot nearly two decades prior. Senbei in his first appearances onscreen here was even posing directly to the viewers and said how it had been a long time since he had been on TV.

Of course, nowadays Toriyama creating Dr. Slump before going on to Dragon Ball is common knowledge, but back then, I doubt most American kids had a clue as to what was going on here.

There's also that...unfortunate...scene with General Blue that the dub tried to retcon to make it less awkward.

I never actually watched OG DB when I was younger, it was just DBZ and DBGT. I only just now recently took the time to watch original Dragon Ball in its entirety before the events of DBZ.

Hayame_Zero posted...

There's also that...unfortunate...scene with General Blue that the dub tried to retcon to make it less awkward.

Oh yeah, I just saw that scene. It was very obvious what was actually going on there despite Funi's efforts.

Arale BUMP

Hayame_Zero posted...

There's also that...unfortunate...scene with General Blue that the dub tried to retcon to make it less awkward.

"You look just like my little brother!"

It felt kinda in line with the rest of OG DB, but I didn't care too much for it and was sick of General Blue by that point.

General Blue is honestly a MUCH better villain in retrospect, than he was watching the show while it aired as a kid.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Oh yeah, I just saw that scene. It was very obvious what was actually going on there despite Funi's efforts.

Yeeeeeep. His facial expression didnt match what he was saying >_> It was pretty obvious what the original was about there lol

I grew up with Dr Slump first as a child so these were my favorite episodes.

Even worse about that scene was that it wasn't even in the manga. Toei went out of their way to add that scene and make Blue into a pedophile.

Krow_Incarnate posted...

It felt kinda in line with the rest of OG DB, but I didn't care too much for it and was sick of General Blue by that point.

General Blue is honestly a MUCH better villain in retrospect, than he was watching the show while it aired as a kid.

There's something funny about Blue's final defeat before being offed by Mercenary Tao came at the hands of a character from Toriyama's gag series predating Dragon Ball itself.