"Arale vs. Blue" (対決! アラレVSブルー Taiketsu! Arare Tai Burū, lit. "Showdown! Arale vs Blue") is the fifty-seventh episode of Dragon Ball and twelfth episode of the General Blue Saga. This episode first aired in Japan on April 8, 1987. Its original American airdate was October 24, 2002.
Summary[]
Goku's Dragon Radar is fixed
Goku and Arale Norimaki see a kind but inept mechanic named Senbei Norimaki for help with his broken Dragon Radar. He struggles with it, but his son Turbo Norimaki fixes it with his telekinetic powers and saves his father's reputation, but does not reveal it to his father and praises his father for fixing it, which Senbei quickly agrees to. Meanwhile, General Blue, still looking for a means to leave Penguin Village to return to the Red Ribbon Army headquarters with the Dragon Balls, arrives at the Norimaki residence, and discovers he's in luck as the house has a plane for him to use. Unfortunately for him, he also discovers that not only is Goku there, but also Arale, and whines that things are never easy. To make matters worse, Goku via the newly fixed Dragon Radar noticed the Dragon Balls being nearby (Arale found a marble and showed it to Goku, thinking it was what he was looking for, though he explains they're bigger in size), forcing Blue to flee inside the house and hide in various locations before eventually being discovered in a double take while hiding inside the fridge. Blue then somehow overpowers Arale and holds her hostage as he approaches Goku and the latter demands he let Arale go. He attempts to hold Arale hostage, although he quickly panics when Arale ends up licking the knife used to threaten her (which Senbei attempted to warn Blue against). General Blue has a plane to catch, but not before he settles an old score with Goku. Blue then fights Goku and uses his psychic abilities once more to paralyze Goku. Blue also takes the opportunity to taunt Goku about how he doesn't have anything that Blue can't take away while stealing his Dragon Radar.
Arale defeats General Blue with a Headbutt
As he prepares to finish him off by impaling Goku with a sharpened tree trunk not wanting to leave without killing him, Arale, being told by Senbei to show Blue how she plays tag, shows up and fends Blue off with her Arale Kick. Arale then easily defeats Blue, launching him into the sky far away. Seeing that General Blue still had the Dragon Radar, Turbo Norimaki takes Senbei's plane apart to make a new Dragon Radar for Goku. General Blue finds a telephone booth and informs the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters that Goku's still at large, although he lost the Dragon Balls to Goku, he did nevertheless manage to steal his radar, even confirming it's in his hand during the call. Mission Control then tells Blue to return to HQ immediately, although Blue reluctantly tells them while holding back tears and with difficulty that he will take a while to return as he doesn't even know where he is.
Major Events[]
- Arale sends General Blue flying away to an unknown location.
- Turbo Norimaki creates a new Dragon Radar for Goku.
- Goku leaves Penguin Village.
Battles[]
- Goku vs. General Blue
- Arale vs. General Blue
- Taro, Gala, Pagos, Charmy Yamada, Polly Buckets and Gyaosu vs. King Nikochan and King Nikochan's servant
Appearances[]
Characters[]
Locations[]
Objects[]
Techniques[]
- Telekinesis - Used by Turbo Norimaki
- Psychic Eyes - Used by General Blue.
- Skewer! - Used by General Blue.
- Arale Kick - Used by Arale.
- Playing Pro-Wrestling - Used by Arale.
Differences from the Manga[]
- All the scenes involving the Penguin Village Police Force and the Nikochan-seijin are exclusive to the anime.
- The scene with Akane telling Tsukutsun about Goku as well as Taro being wiped out walking into the coffee pot is exclusive to the anime.
- Goku telling Arale and the Gatchan about the Dragon Balls and Arale saying what she would wish for is exclusive to the anime.
- In the manga, Blue only acknowledges Goku's presence. In the Anime, due to his literal run-in with Arale in the previous episode, Blue acknowledges her presence alongside Goku.
- Goku following the signal on the Dragon Radar into the Norimaki house while General Blue attempts to hide from them is exclusive to the anime.
- The manga has Blue immediately take Arale hostage the minute Goku notices the three Dragon Balls in the area. In the anime, it's implied that Blue only attempted to take Arale hostage after being backed into a corner when his attempt at hiding from them (noted above) failed.
Trivia[]
- When King Nikochan is firing at the Penguin Village Police, he has orange skin.
- After playing "tag" with General Blue, Arale runs back to the group. When she gets back and says "I'm here", Midori Norimaki's lips move but no sound comes out.
- Near the end of the episode, in the English dub Goku tells Arale she should join the World Martial Arts Tournament next year. However, he has competed in the 21st tournament recently, so it would be 2 or more years until the 22nd World Tournament occurs.
- Several of Shunsuke Kikuchi's music cues from Dr. Slump were recycled in this episode.
- General Blue's reaction to Arale's presence alongside Goku differed slightly between the Japanese version and English dub. In the former, he states that things could get ugly if he's not careful, implying that he recognizes Arale to be as much of a threat to him combat-wise as Goku. In the English dub, he instead whines that things aren't easy, implying that he was not fond of Arale's presence due to her being a girl.
- Blue's threat to slit Arale's throat when threatening Norimaki was toned down in the English dub to have him state in reply to Norimaki's warning that such was a bad idea to do to Arale that he's "full of bad ideas" and strongly advising he not have them use them without directly mentioning his intentions to slit her throat. Similarly, his reaction to Norimaki's admitting that the slitting in itself wasn't what he meant by his warning varied between versions. In the Japanese version, Blue seemed to gradually realize that he's implying that Arale can't be harmed by knife slits, inquiring in a panicked tone what Norimaki meant earlier before Arale proceeded to demonstrate what he was meaning by licking the blade. In the English dub, Blue was instead shown to be annoyed at Dr. Norimaki and the others not taking his threat seriously and only realized the meaning after Arale licked the blade.
- In the Japanese version, during Blue's phone call to mission control, he specifically stated the Dragon Balls haven't been recovered, while in the English dub, he specifically indicated Goku was still alive without even mentioning the Dragon Balls. Similarly, the English version indicates he doesn't even know where he is currently located at, let alone know how to get back to HQ from there, while the Japanese version does not state one way or another whether he knew what his current location was, though it was nonetheless clearly implied that he was forced to take his time to get back to HQ due to it apparently being extremely far away without any known means of transportation.
Gallery[]
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| ← Red Ribbon Army Saga |  |
Commander Red Saga→ | |||||||
| Manga | |||||||||
| Chapters | 70 • 71 • 72 • 73 • 74 • 75 • 76 • 77 • 78 • 79 • 80 • 81 • 82 • 83 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volumes | 6 • 7 | ||||||||
| Anime | |||||||||
| Episodes | 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 | ||||||||