"Bulma's Bad Day" (ブルマの大失敗 Buruma no Dai-Shippai, lit. "Bulma's Big Mistake") is the first episode of the General Blue Saga and the forty-sixth episode in the Dragon Ball series. This episode first aired in Japan on January 14, 1987. Its original American airdate was March 6, 2002.
Summary[]
Blue catches a soldier picking his nose
Goku and Bulma go off to find the Dragon Balls. What they do not know is that the Red Ribbon Army is still after them. Commander Red at the command center of the headquarters tells a bear soldier to notify General Blue that Goku's headed in his direction. Meanwhile, at another general's headquarters, General Blue puts on his armband that says "blue," making sure he is properly dressing himself, also admiring his beautiful appearance, before starting his day's work, also getting a radio dispatch of the return of some of his men. He then talks to several soldiers who were having trouble finding a Dragon Ball, with Blue expressing annoyance at having to do everything for them, also bluntly stating he's tired of hearing excuses when one of the soldiers reminds him of the flaws in their global dragon radar regarding narrowing down the Dragon Ball's location. He eventually deduces the reason why they aren't finding it is because one of them was too busy picking his nose. The soldier tries to explain himself, but Blue would hear none of it, citing the soldier has the evidence in hand and orders for him to be executed. After hearing the gunshot, Blue states it was a beautiful sound before ordering a crocodile soldier to disinfect the area, with the soldier, clearly out of fear, getting right to it and grabbing a disinfectant bottle and spraying the area. He then receives a message which has a picture of Goku.
Red Ribbon soldiers shooting at Bulma
He finds out that he beat both Colonel Silver and General White. He is not worried, because he does not see a child as a threat. Goku finds out that the Dragon Ball is underwater. They land on an island and Bulma changes back to her regular height. As Bulma gets out her Dyno-Cap case, she sees that there is only one left noticing that she mixed hers with her father's. She tosses the capsule only to get several Dirty Magazines, which Bulma reacts angrily, declaring that men are animals and tearing up the magazines, and Goku, not knowing the implications of what the magazines were, pitying the girls as he believes that they were too poor to afford clothes. Goku looks for the Dragon Ball underwater, while Bulma looks for places to shop on land. Goku cannot hold his breath long enough and goes up, looking for Bulma.
Roshi fishing on Turtle
Bulma runs into two Red Ribbon Army soldiers, and they start to harass her as they want to have "fun" with her (the implication being to sexually assault her). She initially attempts to flatly refuse them and cite she's 16 and thus underage, suggesting they wait. After sarcastically "accepting" her proposition, they then start to chase her in their planes. Goku finds her and knocks them down. General Blue is amazed, that one little boy can defeat two of his officers. Goku then decides to go to Kame House for help. Meanwhile, Master Roshi is fishing on Turtle's back, only to sneeze violently, which he deduces is because a pretty girl is headed his way.
Major Events[]
- Goku attempts to retrieve a Dragon Ball in the ocean only for it to be too deep.
- Bulma runs into some trouble with the Red Ribbon Army on a nearby island.
Battles[]
- Bulma vs. Red Ribbon Soldiers
- Goku vs. Red Ribbon Soldiers
Appearances[]
Characters[]
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Locations[]
Objects[]
Differences from the Manga[]
- Commander Red ordering the bear soldier to send a dispatch to General Blue about Goku's impending arrival occurred while Red was inside the command center. In the manga, he was still in his office when he did so.
- General Blue admiring himself in the mirror while getting prepared for the day in his quarters and getting a report regarding a submarine returning is exclusive to the anime. Also, the anime depicts Blue getting the report from the tiger soldier while in transit to the monitoring station, while in the manga it was implied the two were already at the monitoring station while being debriefed.
- Largely because of this addition, his overall demeanor to the soldiers' delays up to encountering the nose picking soldier is downplayed in the anime, merely having him sternly warning them about Red losing his temper if they fail to find the Dragon Ball again while making a gesture with his arm. In the manga, he was shown screaming in rage and overall pitching a fit over their delays in finding the ball while warning them of Red's temper when he first appears.
- In the manga, General Blue gets the new assignment from Commander Red to target Goku immediately after expressing pleasure at the sound of gunfire executing the nose-picking soldier. In the anime, he proceeded to order a decontamination of the soldier's former workplace to the crocodile soldier immediately after hearing the gunfire, which was in progress by the time the fox soldier got the report and relayed it to Blue.
- On a similar note, the soldier indicated he had a wife and kids in the anime (Japanese version), while the manga states no such thing. The anime also depicts him as blond haired (though not to the extent of General Blue), while in the manga he was dark haired.
- The anime has General Blue demanding to know the crocodile soldier's point (Japanese version) and remind him in turn that he hasn't taken out Blue's unit yet (English version) when warned that the same kid wiped out both the Colonel Silver and General White units, causing the intimidated soldier to walk back his statements before Blue openly disses Colonel Silver and General White as being "embarrassments" to the Red Ribbon Army (Japanese version). In the manga, Blue immediately dissed Silver and White as embarrassments when the crocodile soldier warned him about Goku's role in wiping the two high-ranking officers and their respective units out earlier.
- In the manga, after the Red Ribbon Army soldiers suggest having some "fun" with Bulma the scene abruptly changes to them chasing her in their choppers. In the anime, Bulma first throws dirt in their eyes and they stumble down some rocks before getting in the choppers.
- A Red Ribbon Army soldier informing General Blue that the choppers have disappeared from their radar is exclusive to the anime.
Trivia[]
- The debriefing the tiger soldier gives to General Blue regarding the lack of progress in finding the Dragon Balls is somewhat different between the English and Japanese versions. In the dub, the tiger makes it sound as though they were unable to find the Dragon Ball due to the global dragon radar not being able to gauge anything beyond the balls' general location and thus being too vague, while in the Japanese version, he specifies that they can't find the Dragon Ball because it's underwater and they don't have a good fix as to where underwater it was located. General Blue also alludes to Commander Red being furious if they don't find the ball soon in the Japanese version, while he never mentions Red at all in the English dub.
- In the Japanese version, the man that General Blue executed for picking his nose tries to protest that he has a wife and kids while being dragged off to be shot. This isn't indicated in the English version. The English version also has the tiger soldier address the soldier as a private and bluntly tell him to move along while escorting him out of the door to be shot, while the Japanese version has the tiger soldier be completely silent during this time.
- In addition, the English dub makes it sound as though Blue's specific rationale for having the soldier executed for nose picking was because his doing so was causing significant delays in finding the Dragon Balls, while in the Japanese version of the episode as well as the manga chapter it was based on, Blue executed him solely for the nose picking without even mentioning the Dragon Balls, much less the progress in finding them.
- Also, General Blue considering Colonel Silver and General White to be embarrassments to the Red Ribbon Army for losing against a kid was not indicated in the English dub. This also leads to a slight plot hole later on where Blue mentions that he ultimately has to owe White an apology regarding Goku (ironically, this later bit was also a dub addition).
Gallery[]
   General Blue's camp  A soldier who picked his nose  General Blue  A soldier sanitizing the work area      Rays            Bulma before she trying to escape two Red Ribbon soldiers         Bulma running from the two soldiers  The soldiers shooting at Bulma  Goku ready to fight the soldiers  Goku suggests going to Master Roshi's house  Master Roshi fishing  Turtle, while Roshi is on his back  General Blue receiving an incoming dispatch |
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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 | ||||||||