Review: Super #17 Saga (DBGT episodes 41 - 47)

Dragon Ball GT's first 40 episode run did well enough that 24 more episodes were commissioned. Two more story arcs came out of these additional episodes, linked together so that, like the first two GT storylines, the first would lead directly into the second. This is that first arc, the storyline called the Super #17 Saga. And my lord, it's just not good.

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My rating system works 1 through 3, with 1 being "Poor", 2 being "Good", and 3 being "Great". Keep in mind I'm grading the story against itself, not other things; Dragon Ball is still my favorite, even when I'm critical of it.

Super #17 Saga

Rating: Poor (1 out of 3)

Story

Months of peace have come over the Earth since Baby was defeated by Super Saiyan 4 Goku. The Tenka-ichi Budokai is held, and thanks to the spirit of Boo, Mr. Satan remains its eternal champion and the world's hero. Shortly after, Dr. Myuu and Dr. Gero team up in Hell to unleash a second Artificial Human #17 and use him to control the mind of the original #17, thus opening a portal to the Living Realm for them to escape. Because. A bunch of the past Dragon Ball/Z/GT villains escape (though Baby is mysteriously absent) and Goku is lured into Hell where Gero and Myuu trap him. Vegeta gets beat up by the newly merged #17s, called Super #17, as Piccolo and Dende use their minds to free Goku from Hell. Goku and #18 team up to finish of Super #17, as revenge for him killing Kuririn. The Dragon Balls are gathered to put things right, but they're cracked and, apparently, interfering with King Yama's ability to manage the Next World. Because. A big evil Shen Long comes out of the cracked balls and that's it for now.

It's not good. The first, one-shot-y episode is cute in its own way, but even it reeks of GT's usual batch of missed opportunities to really utilize its cast and setting. But once the real "plot" happens, it reads like the worst kind of fanfiction. Not to mention, nothing about the storyline hasn't been done before, but better, in other Dragon Ball stories. If I'd permitted myself to give a score of 0 out of 3, this is the only arc in all of DB/Z/GT I'd have given it to; It gets its "1" only on a technicality. It's honest to goodness hot garbage. Garlic Jr. looks like high art next to this.

Animation

While the overt creep factor with the animators and Pan appears to be gone from the show (other than the opening animation), some of these episodes look really, really bad. 41 and 45 find Uchiyama barely trying, and 43 has maybe the worst offending moments of being blatantly off-model in the entire franchise. The other episodes are fine, and appear to be drawn by in-house Toei animators, who do a really great job on all their episodes. But for such a short storyline, none of the episodes stick out as particularly well animated except for 42. (Which is, of course, drawn by Yamamuro, so it's absolutely no surprise it looks amazing.)

Music

Tokunaga is getting better. Truthfully. A lot of the music in this storyline is taken from the score he produced for the 10th Anniversary Special, The Path to Ultimate Strength. It has a mystical, ethereal quality to it that fits Dragon Ball much better than the weird 90s Saturday Morning Cartoon thing he was going for. While some of those tracks are still around, they're surrounded with this new sound, which lends itself to a fuller, better experience. He's not Kikuchi, but he's hardly the worst thing about the show by this point.

Also, the new ending theme, Shizuka Kudo's "Blue Velvet", is pretty good. I dunno if I like it as much as the last two, but it's good.

Conclusion

The Super #17 Saga made Kaio-sama sick, and it'll make you sick too. Don't watch it.