"Deep Blue Sea" (ブルー将軍攻撃開始！！ Burū Shōgun Kōgeki Kaishi!!, lit. "General Blue Launches His Attack!!") is the third episode of the General Blue Saga and the forty-eighth episode in the Dragon Ball series. This episode first aired in Japan on January 28, 1987. Its original American airdate was March 8, 2002.
Summary[]
Goku, Krillin, and Bulma go after the Dragon Ball. Meanwhile, Commander Red finds the location of the closest Dragon Balls. Then, he orders General Blue to go after Master Roshi and Goku.
General Blue
Back at the base, Blue uses binoculars and analyses Goku's attempts to find a Dragon Ball, musing to himself that Goku finds it, so he could steal it from him. A soldier attempts to deliver an urgent message, though he ends up reflexively backhanding him into a wall and then after realizing his mistake scolding the soldier for coming up on him from behind and warns that it is very difficult to "sneak up on a General and keep [the soldier's] teeth." The soldier, after apologizing, then supplies General Blue with a message where Red gave the go-ahead to commence the operation. He immediately calls for his men. Blue then splits his soldiers into two groups. As he will lead Company A to go after Goku, he orders Company B, led by Captain Dark, to invade the base, Kame House. He then makes clear to Dark before departing that he needs to lose the excess weight as he won't stand for overweight soldiers in his unit. He then gives the assembled soldiers a speech detailing how they are currently at the crossroads for success and greatness, and that each of the soldiers represents the best the Red Ribbon Army has to offer, that their actions today will determine how that legend will unfold before ordering for them to find the enemy, pluck him out, and let his bones pave the way to the glory of the Red Ribbon Army. Blue then closes by stating that they can fail themselves but warns them against failing him, also proceeding to crush a flower from his vase in his hand in front of them and drop the petal remains on the table as a demonstration of what will happen should they do so. He then issues the scramble order throughout the base, with all the soldiers being deployed to the air base and docks. Captain Dark then, after being told that a woman and an old man were the only people at the "base", confidently states they're guaranteed success.
Meanwhile, at the Kame House, Master Roshi is up to his perverted tricks as he shrinks himself, using Bulma's shrink watch. Launch accidentally vacuums the small Roshi, while cleaning the bathroom.
Blue in a small submarine with his soldiers
Goku is sent out into the water to try and find the Dragon Ball but to no luck, Bulma then discovers that the Dragon Ball must be in an underwater cave. Krillin then drives the submarine to the underwater cave, and General Blue notices them as they find the cave. The Army fires several torpedoes, which all hit the nearby rocks, as it startles Goku, Krillin, and Bulma. Goku then realizes that the army must have been responsible for the attack out loud, with Krillin and Bulma realizing in horror that Goku was referring to the Red Ribbon Army, with Goku explaining they were also looking for the Dragon Balls and noting they were dangerous and mean about it (with Krillin noting that they were closer to psychotic). They then demanded to know why Goku never told them this before, with Goku admitting that it was because none of them even asked him about the Red Ribbon Army, so he didn't see how it was important to mention. As Krillin tries to have the sub flee from them, General Blue's submarine tries to launch a second salvo of torpedoes, but the Dragon Team's submarine narrowly avoids them and causes the torpedoes to hit the rockface instead. One of the pilots confirms that the torpedoes missed, and their quarry entered the cave, with Blue, clearly infuriated with this turn of events, denounced the result as pathetic before promptly ordering one of his men to execute the gunner. The soldier obliges and shoots the gunner off-screen as he helplessly tries to beg for mercy. After several tense moments of the sub pursuing them, including their getting a lock for a third salvo, the Dragon Team miraculously manages to go through a small alcove in the narrowing cave, ultimately forcing Blue's sub to deter pursuit, much to the Dragon Team's joy. However, Blue, clearly undaunted, bemusedly asks if they truly think they could get away from him, orders for the deployment of the mini sub, and personally volunteers to lead the unit inside the mini sub.
Major Events[]
- Goku, Bulma, and Krillin use the submarine to enter the ocean.
- Captain Dark and his squadron head to Kame House to kidnap Master Roshi.
Appearances[]
Characters[]
Locations[]
Objects[]
Differences from the Manga[]
- The scene with Commander Red and Staff Officer Black playing chess is exclusive to the anime.
- Master Roshi attempting to use the Micro Band to spy on Launch only to get sucked up the vacuum is exclusive to the anime.
- General Blue hits the soldier trying to give him a report for "sneaking up on him" in the anime. In the manga, he does not.
- In the anime, General Blue, when ordering for Captain Dark to lead Team B to Master Roshi's island, adds a follow-up order for him to work out as he won't allow fat people in his unit with Dark agreeing to it. The manga has Blue not give any orders beyond going to Roshi's island, much less insult Dark about his obesity.
- General Blue's speech to his squadron, followed by all his soldiers running to battle stations is exclusive to the anime.
- Captain Dark in the manga tells his copilot about who was on the island when asked. In the anime, Captain Dark asks for a reminder instead of who is on the island with his copilot telling him about the old man and woman, causing Dark to eagerly state this may be their easiest assignment ever.
- After the Red Ribbon Army ends up missing their target again, General Blue, aside from ordering them to pursue them in the cave, proceeds to order them to execute the weapons' operator for missing his targets twice. In the manga, he instead orders for "snipers" to be executed. In addition, the anime has the weapon's operator begging offscreen before being executed in full-view of the crew, causing at least one crew member to wince at the result, while the manga never actually shows the execution in any capacity.
- After the Red Ribbon Army sub ended up beached inside the cave, General Blue in the anime smugly states that Bulma and the others won't get away from him before ordering the preparation of the mini-sub and that he'll ride along. In the manga, he merely orders for the mini submarine's deployment without any remark on their chances of escaping him.
Trivia[]
- During the scene in Commander Red's office where he and Black are playing chess, Commander Red seemingly moves his queen twice (in a non-deceptive fashion) to checkmate his foe. Moving twice is an illegal move under any circumstance of the game. However, it is possible that Black made his move off-camera.
- In the Japanese version of Blue's speech to his soldiers in the briefing room, he warns them that failure to obey orders in their current mission will result in their execution. The English dub does not directly state this, but nevertheless implies it when he says they have permission to fail themselves before promptly crushing a rose in his hand and letting the petals fall in front of them and warning them not to fail him.
- The Red Ribbon Army theme song makes its debut as an insert song on the Japanese version of this episode while the soldiers were splitting up into two groups. The English versions did not use it.
- The Sea Plane is shown using rocket thrusters in the air and propellers under the sea.
- It is shown in this episode that General Blue's men may not be as evil as the higher-ranking officials, as portrayed when a soldier cringes when General Blue orders the execution of the submarine's weapons operator.
- When Goku, Krillin, and Bulma escape Blue's submarine via the narrowing tunnel, the submarine isn't visible behind them in one shot but is in the next.
- The scene where Goku accidentally admits that the Red Ribbon Army was after him to Bulma and Krillin out loud was slightly different between the Japanese and English versions.
- In the Japanese version, he specifically stated that Red Ribbon was after him, while in the English version, he merely says the Army must be involved, causing Bulma and Krillin to deduce the army he mentioned was in fact the Red Ribbon Army.
- Goku does not directly state that the Red Ribbon Army was targeting him due to viewing him as being in their way in getting the Dragon Balls in the English dub, instead saying that they were "really mean" about how they tried to get the balls.
- Likewise, the English dub adds a comment from Krillin in reply to the above where he states that them nearly blowing them to fish food with torpedoes was closer to borderline psychotic than simply mean.
- Bulma's line, "Would it help if I got out and pushed?", is a reference to Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back where Leia Organa says something similar to Han Solo.
Gallery[]
 One of Red's soldiers  Commander Red with a pipe  One of Blue's soldiers  Bulma checks the Dragon Radar  General Blue giving a speech to Red Ribbon Army soldiers  Blue's submarine  Blue's crew  Blue's crew  One of Blue's soldiers  Blue's small submarine |
[]
| ← 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 | ||||||||