"Moui Rikuum!! Warukute Tsuyokute Tondemonai Yatsu"
(The Menacing Rikuum!! He's Bad, He's Mighty, He's An Offensive Brute)		 90-10-24
"Time Tricks and Body Binds" and
"No Refuge From Recoome"		 98-2-14
98-5-16

Rikuum takes his turn next, and Vegeta begins to fight him, launching a massive Ki blast that does nothing but destroy Rikuum's armor. The counterattack is very damaging, and Vegeta finds himself half buried in the ground. Helpless, he almost absorbs Rikuum's next attack, a fearsome mouth blast, but Gohan pulls him to safety just in time while Kuririn knocks the gigantic Ginyu's mouth closed. Rikuum counters this, and takes Kuririn out with a single kick. Gohan decides that it is up to him, and walks boldly towards his seemingly invincible foe.

Man, a LOT of painting in this one! Vegeta and Rikuum are both bloody as hell throughout most of the episode, and FUNimation must have been working overtime to clean it all up.

There is also one VERY ODD bit of trivia. I have heard from SEVERAL sources that FUNimation's episode was actually called "The Relentless Recoome" on its first airing, but was changed to "No Refuge From Recoome" for the second, and has remained so ever since.

I have no explanation for this. I don't even have a theory on why it might have been done.

English episode 50 continued

A couple of shots of Gurudo's body are painted over, the first is during the wide, overhead pan of the battlefield. The second shot is from much closer, and shows Vegeta and Gohan standing in front of the body, which has a big trail of purple blood oozing from the neckhole. (Wow, this IS pretty graphic!)

End English episode 50 (about 2 minutes in)

Kuririn: "If Vegeta knew he was so powerful, how come he almost let us go the way of the dinosaurs, huh?"

Okay, a few reasons this line is so stupid. One, it's stupid, period. Two, I have never heard a clumsier, more obvious cop-out way of saying: "almost let us get killed." Who would say this in real life? And three, THE DINOSAURS ARE NOT EXTINCT IN THE DRAGON BALL UNIVERSE!! As a matter of fact, you see dinos ALL THE TIME in Toriyama's Earth! Man, I WISH these people would just let me go over their scripts before making fools of themselves.

OK, there are three main censored items in this episode.

First we have a little problem with Rikuum's clothes after his armor is destroyed. It just so happens that there is a tear in his pants in an unfortunate place, which leaves his butt hanging out. Anytime he is shown from behind from now until he is knocked out of commision by Goku, you can safely assume that the shot is censored in the gluteal area. FUNimation covers their ass once again. Uh... I mean... Rikuum's ass... uh... well, I guess it's both, huh?

Second is the blood all over Rikuum's face, which is pretty liberally spattered, and lasts until his character is finished off. This must have been a nightmare to clean up.

Third is the blood on Vegeta's face, which is pretty bad as well. It streaks down his forehead, kind of collects around his (wounded shut) left eye, and continues to his chin. This blood lasts for quite a few episodes as well.

Bahta: "If you don't finish them in the next five minutes, no TV for a week!"

Rikuum: "OK...I like to watch soap operas"

No comment, I'll just let that one speak for itself.

English episode 51 continues...

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