Dragonball GT Episode 48 (Aired 06/11/97)
Kore wa Bikkuri! Shenlon ga teki ni?! This is a Surprise! Shenlon is the Enemy?!
New character: Ryan-shenlon: A water-related black dragon. Looks like a perverted fat frog, and is originally played for laughs.
The group is wondering what this dragon is, and Pan suggests that it is Shenlon. Gokuu doesn't think so. Shenlon says that they have summoned it. Bulma says that there's something weird about it -- it looks vulgar. Trunks complains about his mother's rudeness. Pan tells Shenlon that if it doesn't want people insulting it behind its back, that it should hurry up and grant their wishes. Shenlon lights up a cigar, sneers at Pan, and tells her that it doesn't care. Kaiou-sama uses telepathy to warn Gokuu that this is not Shenlon.
The dragon laughs. Trunks asks who the dragon is, and it replies by blowing clouds of smoke at them, and then lifting up the Dragon Balls and swallowing them. Bulma demands to know what the dragon is doing, but it just turns into a blue tornado and sends out seven black dragons -- each one holding a Dragon Ball is its mouth.
The dragons fly off in all directions, and the sky clears up again. The group wonders at what happened until Pan points out the pretty northern lights in the sky. Chi Chi thinks that this is very romantic, but Gokuu and Gohan both sense the great evil in the air. Kaiou-sama telepaths back in, but he doesn't know what's happening either. Then, Dai Kaiou-shin yells at them from his crystal ball. The group complains about his shouting being too loud, but the old coot wants them to suffer. Dai Kaiou-shin claims that he knew that using the Dragon Balls so much was a bad thing. He blames Bulma for having been the one that created the weird Dragon Radar in the first place. Bulma objects to having her machinery being called weird and she argues back, stating that it was put to good use in satisfying a young girl's quest for love. Trunks attempts to get his mother to stop trying to pick a fight with the old coot, and Kaiou-bit asks for permission to take over since time is short.
Pan asks for Gohan's help in explaining what Kaiou-bit says. Basically, each wish granted had been a display of "Plus Energy", resulting in the absorbing of "Minus Energy" into the Dragon Balls. With each wish made by the Z Fighters over the last 30 years, more Minus Energy built up until the Balls cracked and let all of that evil out. Dende and Mr. Poppo show up at Capsule Corp., and Poppo tells them that he'd heard of this happening before. A very long time ago, the black dragons had appeared and wiped out all of the life in that galaxy.
Dai Kaiou-shin returns to blaming Bulma again for making the Radar, and Kaiou-bit adds that she's the one that had first set out to gather up the Dragon Balls. Bulma again tries to divert the blame, pointing the finger at Dende for having created the Dragon Balls (Dende just smiles awkwardly back at her.) She tries to get the rest of the group to side with her, and fails. Bulma then states that Gokuu had helped get the Balls after they first met; a cute 16-year old girl like her couldn't have survived all those adventures on her own. Gokuu doesn't understand this logic, but he figures that if he was somehow at fault, he's gotta do what he's gotta do. He starts stretching out.
Gohan asks where his father plans on going, and the boy answers that while he doesn't have a handle on the problem, he will at least go out, defeat the black dragons, and get the Balls back. (Bulma is evilly pleased that the responsibility has been taken off her shoulders.) Gokuu says that he's going to leave now, and he flashes a V-sign.
[Commercial Break]
Dai Kaiou-shin tells Gokuu to hurry -- if the black dragons are given too much time on their own, they will completely rip apart the planet. Gohan wants to go along, but Gokuu thinks that being able to turn SSJ4 will be good enough. Pan steps forward to say something, then changes her mind and wishes Gokuu good luck. Gokuu flies off, and Pan happily runs away when the others' attention is on Gokuu. Gohan and Chi Chi shout encouragement to Gokuu.
As he zips along, Gokuu sees the empty ruins of Satan City below him, and realizes that he has to work fast to get the Balls back again. The narrator tells us that what Dai Kaiou-shin was talking about is starting to take place -- the black dragons each fly until they discover their own element, and then take on their true shapes. One dragon enters a volcano and causes it to erupt over some village. The second dragon goes north, smashes into a mountain, and turns into an icy statue. The third turns to lightning, smashes into the ground, and then stands in the big crater looking a little like a snub-nosed Godzilla. The fourth looks like a dark-skinned Darbura, as it spins in the air to create a hurricane that rips up some city. The fifth erupts from the ground and turns into a shenlon-statue. The sixth romps through the clouds; and the seventh dragon flies over a small village next to a lake, and dives into the water.
The water dragon is the first enemy. The villagers run away from the water raining down on them. The lake turns poisonous, fish die, and the surrounding land and trees are quickly covered in slime. The water shenlon is a fat frog-like dragon with a horn in the middle of its forehead. It enjoys killing stuff with pollution.
Gokuu reaches a coastline, and realizes that he's forgotten the Dragon Radar. He turns around to head back, and runs into Pan. Pan has Gill in her backpack, and refuses to hand over the robot unless Gokuu lets her go along with. Gill says that Pan is dangerous, and without her, Gokuu stands a 70% chance of success. Claiming that the robot is malfunctioning, Pan shakes it until it says "I love Pan. If she doesn't come with, I'll be unhappy." Gokuu gives in, and he, Pan and Gill continue flying out over the wilderness. Gokuu complains about Pan being present, and she snickers. Gill announces that a Dragon Ball is nearby, and Gokuu notices the polluted land below. Pan notices the stench.
Pan wants more specific directions to the Ball, and Gill keeps repeating "around here". Then, some villagers come running down a road. Gokuu and Pan fly in front of them to ask what is wrong. A old woman tells them about the dragon that flew by, while another villager tries to shoot the "monster" with a machine gun; to no effect. The dragon says it'll kill everyone, and laughs as it advances on some woman. Pan and Gokuu arrive and see the #2 Ball in the dragon's forehead. Pan rushes in to attack it, with Gokuu telling her that it's too dangerous.
The dragon gets kicked into several buildings. It complains about Son Gokuu showing up again. Then, a big rock falls on its foot, and it hops around in pain like a big fool. Pan wonders if this dragon is the evil thing that Dai Kaiou-shin had been yelling about. Gokuu adds that he is not looking forward to fighting it at all.
The dragon gets angry at their mutterings, laughs like Mr. Satan would, then looks slyly at the lake behind it. The narrator also asks if this dragon is all that evil, as the lake bubbles thickly.
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This summary is the copyright of Curtis H. Hoffmann, June 1997.
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