Is DRAGON BALL Dated?

Gosh, I think this episode might’ve strummed on some
nostalgic feels for me -- and only because it featured a pinball death trap. As I’ve said, I grew up
with DBZ, not DRAGON BALL, so when this show provokes these sorts of sensory
memories in me, it’s got more to do with what the show resembles than what the show
itself is.

I’d hate to do a survey, but I’m willing to be that the
whole notion of pinball seems as outdated as - - I don’t know - - an 8-Track player to kids, now. I mean, we’re so many
decades away from TOMMY THE PINBALL WIZARD. When I was watching
this, I was thinking of DRAGON’S LAIR, Arcade’s Murderworld and, gosh of
goshes, the counting song from SESAME STREET (which looked old even when PBS was replaying it when I was a kid).

== TEASER ==

You might say I’m fixating on a minute detail here (that’s the point of this column, though),
but it’s definitely a pointed moment for me here, realizing that this is a bit
of fantasia that’s really, really dated, now. It’d be about the same as Goku running
into some Soviet agents, and being threatened with the Bomb.

Of course, on the other end of that, it’s amusing to realize
that a lot of kids who thought they were being clever with all their “the Balls are inert!” video poops were
actually much later to the party than they thought. We aren’t even at the end of
the first series’ first arc, and Emperor Pilaf is already grossing everybody
out by talking about his ‘precious balls.’

Yes, that’s right. Toriyama was reaching for
the low-hanging, testicular wordplay, long before any of you punks thought to. So... those jokes are what's dated. Nyuh!

Watch "The Penalty is
Pinball" and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous
episode.