"Gomen Ne Robot-san Sabaku ni Kieta Namida"
(Sorry, Mr. Robot -- The Desert of Vanishing Tears)		 89-6-28
"Gohan Makes a Friend" 96-10-18

Gohan awakens to discover his tail is gone, and he is almost eaten for breakfast by a giant falcon. It inadvertently drops him into a hole that leads to underground ruins, where he discovers an old, wrecked robot. He activates it, and it tells him the story of how an earthquake buried it when it was excavating the ruins 8 years ago. The cave begins to fall apart, but the robot is able to throw Gohan to safety just in the nick of time. Unfortunately, it is crushed in the collapse. Gohan is despondent over the loss of his only source of companionship, but he moves on with courage.

Basically this whole episode was cut, except for the very beginning scenes, and I kind of have mixed feelings about that, to tell you the truth. I'm not sure if it was worth keeping. Then again, compared to other filler episodes that FUNimation DID show, I'd have to say that this one is better than alot of them. It's rather slow, but it shows that vulnerable side of Gohan that is almost totally lost in the English version. It kind of makes you feel sad knowing that his fear and loneliness have become desperate enough for him to need to hold on to this old, wrecked robot as a companion. Oh well, it was probably better to trash this episode, since it slows things down a lot. But it wouldn't have been my first choice for the cutting room floor. One interesting note: Masako Nozawa once said in an interview that this was her favorite episode of the entire series. To be honest, I can understand that. There's a definite sweetness and character to it that you don't see a lot in this very "agressive" show.

Begin English episode 6

(6 sec.) Just after Gohan wakes up, he pees, AGAIN!! Man, did that kid drink 37 cans of Mountain Dew or what? Either that or Daisuke Nishio (the director) has a fixation on Gohan taking a leak. Three times within three episodes!

When the pterodactyl is fighting with the falcon, there are a few drops of blood that squirt here and there.

(16 min. 48 sec.) The biggest single cut in the entire English version so far, almost the whole episode. What happens is summarized above, so I won't go into it, but I'll say where the cut actually starts in case you're wondering. FUNimation does something kind of interesting here.

At the beginning of this episode in the Japanese version, there is a short scene of Gohan waking up from the night's sleep. This wasn't actually cut from the English version, just moved to about a minute later. When the falcon drops Gohan from its talon, he falls to the ground and that is where they put this "waking up" scene. By switching things around a bit, they make it seem like Gohan is coming to after being knocked out by the fall, rather than waking up from sleep. Then it goes to commercial, and when it returns we are in to Japanese episode 7. It works seamlessly, and they are able to easily circumvent the almost 17 minutes or so inbetween.

What ACTUALLY happens is that the falcon drops him, and rather than falling to the ground and getting up again, he falls into a hole in the desert where he discovers the cavern and the robot, etc. etc.

English episode 6 continues...

12% (A record low!)