"Teki ka Mikata ka? Nazo no Kyodai Uchuusen no Kodomotachi"
(Friends or Foes? Children of the Mysterious Giant Spaceship)
90-2-21
"Journey to Namek" 97-9-13

Our heroes are now well into their journey, Buruma is relaxing, while Gohan and Kuririn train. Suddenly, they are attacked by a squadron of tiny spacecraft, and are captured by a large, invisible vessel. The three of them explore the ship, avoiding traps and obstacles, and suddenly find themselves surrounded by dozens of children, who are armed to the teeth.

This is a filler episode, and therefore, even though over half was cut, that's ok by me. I don't particularly like this one anyway; better that they move on as quickly as possible.


English Episode 28 continues...

(32 sec.) Buruma is lying around in her underwear, bored. She walks over to Gohan and Kuririn and watches them as they sit doing their "astral training." This was the first shot of Buruma in her, ahem, semi-undressed state, and throughout this episode and the next, FUNimation snips away these shots whenever possible, for obvious reasons. However, there are a few shots of her in this state that are retained, but with one little alteration... I'll get to that in a minute.

(45 sec.) This occurs a couple of minutes after the last cut, following the scene where Gohan and Kuririn are doing their mind training. Buruma, who has been watching them the whole time, tells them to clean up the garbage that has been strewn about the ship. They do so without protest, even though most of the mess is hers.

This is interesting, actually. In the training scene, Gohan and Kuririn appear to be alone in the English version, since the "bookend" shots, that show Buruma watching them, were cut. Amazing how careful altering and directing can screw with your mind like that.


(21 sec.) The scene where the nurse comes in to scold Goku, who is doing sit-ups, as Kame Sennin looks on, is followed by a very amusing scene where Kame hits on the nurse. He tries everything, even offers her a present, while she dances around the room, avoiding him like the plague.

This is a funny scene, but, of course, an old man flirting simply isn't appropriate for US children's television. (sigh)


When the ship is attacked by the spacecraft, in the English version we hear a robotic voice say: "Space probes initiating offensive strike Delta." Space probes my ass, this is just FUNimation's subtle way of letting us know that the ships are automated, and therefore unmanned. We know better, though, don't we?

Vegeta: "My wounds... will soon be healed... with the blood... of revenge!" That's funny, you can acknowledge the EXISTENCE of blood, you just can't actually SHOW it.

As the platform lowers for Buruma, Gohan, and Kuririn to leave their ship, Buruma's (very) short underwear have been altered to look like boxer shorts, (or maybe trunks, heh heh). For the rest of this episode and the next one, any shot that shows Buruma below the waist is either snipped, or altered in this way.

I wonder, why doesn't Buruma put on some clothes before leaving the ship? I don't usually leave my house in my underwear. She seems to really like walking around this way, though. Oh well, I'm certainly not complaining, I just find it a little wierd.


(2 min.) As the three of them walk through the corridor, they encounter a few booby traps, including a row of machine guns, and an acidic substance, which starts oozing from the walls. It almost succeeds in touching Buruma, but it only manages to burn the top of Kuririn's hat off. He puts it back on, anyway.

(1 min. 42 sec.) The group runs in to yet another surprise, they fall through a trap door, and are almost sucked out into space. All that is lost, however, is Kuririn's hat. (Boy, that thing has REAL bad luck.) Incidentally, in the English version, since all of this was cut, Kuririn's hat is there in one shot, and has simply disappeared in the next, without any kind of explanation. Oh well, no biggie, I guess.

End English episode 28.

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