"DON'T BE A DUMMY! GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY!"
—Garlic Jr.
Original Airdate: April 1, 2019
Has all that whipping from his new tutor turned Gohan into a masochist?
It's time for Dragon Ball Z Kai Abridged, Episode...II.9. It actually decides to cover the full Garlic Jr. saga.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: This episode spends more time on Garlic Jr. than the main series spent on that filler arc.
- Baby is also mentioned to have been a member of the Spice Boys, but was kicked out for getting them in trouble.
- Adaptation Name Change: The Spice Boy known as "Salt" is renamed "Enema".
- All Just a Dream: The events are actually a dream of Gohan while he's studying...and being whipped by his tutor.
- April Fools' Day: Prior to its release, Lanipator had said they needed to split the Kai for the Cell saga into two episodes. But with a release on April Fools' Day, of course there would be a catch: a full treatment of Garlic Jr. When the actual Episode 3 of Kai Abridged was released on July 3, it is revealed that the Cell saga is, indeed, split into two episodes as Episode 3 focused primarily on the Android saga with it ending right on Cell's reveal.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: While searching for Goku in space, Vegeta is shown standing unprotected on a random asteroid. He can only incredulously attribute this to being in "the part of the galaxy where there's air".
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- After getting a beat-down from Tard, a dazed Krillin can only exclaim "Man, I'm glad we skipped this the first time," in reference to how the main Abridged series elected to skip over the (largely inconsequential) Garlic Jr. Saga.
- When the drugged-up Piccolo attacks, the episode pauses and cuts to the real-life Team Four Star studio, where Lanipator, Takahata101 and KaiserNeko struggle to come up with a good joke to put in the script.
- Call-Back: Garlic Jr. opens a portal to the Dead Zone to destroy his enemies, only to realize he's just using the exact same tactic that led to his defeat the first time (something his therapist apparently warned him about).
- Call-Forward: Vegeta went to look for Goku in space, and looked everywhere but planet Yardrat and Vampa.
- The Cameo: Right before the All Just a Dream reveal, Alucard shows up and shoots Garlic Jr. in the head, knocking him into the Dead Zone. This is followed by a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate-style "Alucard goes for a walk!" card.Alucard: Kept you waiting, huh?
- Deus Exit Machina: Naturally Lampshaded. Gohan says that Piccolo beat up Second Form Freeza and could easily defeat all the villains here, but then they feed him coke and he becomes unresponsive. Vegeta happens to be in space and so he's no help either.
- Drugs Are Bad: Garlic Jr.'s minions give Piccolo cocaine (which Mr. Popo keeps generous quantities of on the Lookout), Kami apparently had "a bad time" after eating French toast tainted by Popo's stash, and the Black Water Mist is something Popo's been cooking up for the last few centuries (and is apparently great for vape pens and butt-chugging). Meanwhile, in the real world, Lanipator snorts coke and Takahata shotguns Franzia while KaiserNeko does all the writing.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: According to KaiserNeko, Gohan successfully killing the Spice Boys would have contradicted with his characterization of being a pacifist up until the Cell Games episodes, which was why this Kai was depicted as a dream.Krillin: Holy shit, Gohan, did you just kill those two people?!
Gohan: I NOW HAVE A TASTE FOR BLOOD!
Garlic Jr.: Why you like that, though? - Dude, Not Funny!: Krillin does not appreciate Tard's quip about gas, berating him for trivializing the damage mustard gas can do.
- Education Mama: During the intervention, Gohan expressly tells Chi-Chi to put the "tiger mom" back in the cage.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Garlic Jr. has Piccolo choke Gohan, Gohan says "Harder!" This causes Garlic Jr., all the Spice Boys, Piccolo, and Krillin to cry out in disgust that Gohan might actually like being choked. Even after Gohan says he was telling Piccolo needs to "fight his mind control harder", Piccolo stops because he had made it weird.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Garlic Jr. realizes during his explanation of the Dead Zone that he just did the same thing that got him banished there the first time around.Garlic Jr.: I literally did the exact same thing that got me an "L" last time. What am I doing?! This is exactly what my therapist told me not to do!
- Hidden Disdain Reveal : Tard says that the Spice Boys actually hated Enema, just seconds after Gohan kills him. He's admittedly not heartbroken about the loss, but expresses some frustration as he has been using his Space HBO Go account on the side and with his death he'd lose access to it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During a brief Seinfeldian Conversation between Krillin and Tard, they speak about how a good sequel tends to become more well-known than the original installment, which of course is a nod to how people tend to go straight to Z regarding Dragon Ball.Krillin: Right, I know, you just - like - you start saying "World War", and you just kind of want to say "Two". You know, it's like with Terminator. Everybody knows there's a first one, but everybody's always talking about the sequel.
- Please Subscribe to Our Channel: After Gohan wakes up from his dream, he leans on the fourth wall to tell the viewers to subscribe, click the notification bell, and check out the Patreon page for Team Four Star.
- Precision F-Strike: As part of the April Fools' Day joke, every F-bomb delivered in this episode is completely uncensored.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Vinegar up and leaves after all of Garlic Jr's other minions have been killed.Vinnie: Okay. This place is killing my high. I'm out. (leaves)
Garlic Jr. (Beat) ARE YOU FUCKING ME RIGHT NOW? - Self-Deprecation: A peek behind the scenes at Team Four Star shows the company lazing around with drugs and alcohol. And when they don't know how to write a scene (because Lani's too high, Taka's too drunk, and Kaiser's fed up with their shit), they just recycle jokes.
- Shout-Out: The subtitle references the prologue episode of Kingdom Hearts III.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Gohan has some lip for his new tutor:Tutor: Are you learning yet?
Gohan: I dunno. Did Caligula get his comeuppance? - Spared by the Adaptation: Rather than be killed by an enraged Gohan like he was in the anime, Vinegar simply decides he's had enough and walks out. We later find out that he's become a successful author.
- The Stinger: After the ending card, we get an interview of Vinegar on ZPR in order to pimp his new book, The Fault in Our Makyo Stars.
- Take That!:
- As per usual, Team Four Star takes a jab at Dragon Ball GT by having Baby appear as "Baby Spice" who had been kicked out of the Spice Boys.
- Garlic Jr. tells Piccolo to "make like an anti-vaxxer and murder [Gohan]." Spice asks if he's maybe being too heavy-handed with the social commentary.
- And of course the entire episode is a giant one to the Garlic Jr. Saga filler arc of the anime itself, with Krillin commenting at one point that "I'm glad we skipped this the first time", and the reveal that the entire episode is nothing more then a nonsensical dream Gohan is having from being whipped to hard by his tutor.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Subverted. At first, when Piccolo starts choking Gohan, Gohan says "harder" - much to everybody's shock. However, he soon reveals that he meant for Piccolo to try harder on fighting the black water mist causing everybody to sigh in relief and Piccolo to stop choking him due to having made it weird.
- And then there's Krillin, who actually moans when bitten. And again at the thought of Garlic Jr.'s schlong in his powered up form.
- Unfortunate Names: Mustard shortens his name to Tard, while begging everybody not to take it the wrong way. Vinegar doesn't buy it, and compares it to calling him "Negar" (though Spice cuts him off before he can say it).
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: As soon as Garlic Jr. realizes that opening the gate to the Dead Zone again will be his undoing like last time, he tells everyone to stay put while he attempts to close it. If not for an "unexpected guest", he would have proceeded to exploit his immortality and likely win against the Z-Fighters.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The episode begins with Gohan, Krillin, Master Roshi, Yamcha, and Maron giving Chi-Chi an intervention on her being too hard on Gohan. She ends up smacking Gohan when he says Goku may come back home if she's easier on him, and her general expression throughout the intervention all but confirms she doesn't care about Gohan's opinion, still thinking she's in the right about her parenting style.
"Man, I'm glad we skipped this the first time."
