You know, the latter Freeza saga is plagued by filler that's really, really bad. Instead of something cool, we get to explore Dr. Briefs' incompetence, see Buruma stumble around like an idiot while doing something completely implausible (a FROG TRANSLATOR?), and stare with detached boredom at an anticlimactic and continuity-threatening battle between a bunch of people who are already dead.

This episode is particularly bad, because it uses the worst of all filler techniques to an unforgivable extent: the flashback. And when I say "flashback" I'm not talking about the cool, all-new footage sort of flashback like we saw in the previous episode. I'm talking about the "let's just show clips of stuff that happened five episodes ago" type. A couple of quick snippets would have been fine, but this stuff goes on for LITERALLY half of the show. It is just so lazy and unnecessary, and such a waste of time for us all.

It's not like there wasn't some really good potential for filler during the Freeza saga, either. For example, let's not forget that it was Mr. Popo who gathered the Earth Dragon Balls. Yes, MR. POPO GATHERED THE DRAGON BALLS, AND WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE ANY OF IT. Can you imagine all of the opportunities for comedy that were squandered here? It just saddens me so deeply. They could have done a whole spin-off series. I would have personally loved, at the very least, a mini Mr. Popo saga right there in the middle of the Freeza battle. The guy doesn't get enough screen time as it is, and he ought to be given a moment in the spotlight. Oh well, it's all water under the bridge now.

In any case, the dub was almost completely without noteworthy alterations. There was one really bad line of dialogue, but other than that, the only things censored were a couple of the clips from previous episodes. Rather than making this a "flashback episode comparison," where I simply cut and paste my old "censored" boxes from the altered shots that reappear in the flashback, I'll just prove that I can be even more lazy than Toei and let you find them for yourself.

And am I the only one severely annoyed by that little "jingle" FUNimation's composer adds at the beginning and ending of every flashback? That thing just gets on my nerves.