Thread by @Herms98

November, Age 762: on Earth, above Earth, and up in the afterlife, everyone continues to train hard in preparation for Vegeta and Nappa’s arrival. Even Kaio gets in on the action, although he soon tuckers out. #HistoryofEver

Goku hasn’t trained under 10G since his month in the time chamber as a kid, so he’s a little out of practice. To warm up, he spends weeks catching Bubbles, then (in the anime) nearly as long catching Gregory. By November though, he’s ready for a speed run…

As mentioned yesterday, the DBZ anime’s Saiyan arc training filler incorporates many ideas which Toriyama provided for the anime staff, and Gregory is a prime example. Toriyama came up with his character design and a few notes when asked for an extra character for Goku’s training

In the manga, Goku spends 40 days catching Bubbles, reducing the time remaining from 158 days down to 118. The anime splits this 40 day period up so that he only takes 3 weeks to catch Bubbles, then spends 2 weeks whacking Gregory, likewise finishing with 118 days to go.

(3 weeks plus 2 weeks should only be 35 days, so obviously one or both of these figures must be rounded down, since a total of 40 days must pass for the remaining time to still be 118 days)

Why’s anime Goku so much better at monkey-catching? The anime had him restart Snake Way after falling into hell, but at a much faster clip thanks to the power-up fruit he ate down there. So the obvious fan guess is that the hell fruit’s effects help him catch Bubbles quicker too.

More fun with dates (always thrilling, isn’t it?): the Daizenshuu date for Vegeta and Nappa’s arrival is November 3rd, and backtracking 158/118 days from there puts Goku’s Bubbles chase as starting on May 29th and ending July 8th

Then in the anime version, this would mean he catches Bubbles earlier on June 18th, then hits Gregory on July 8th, after listening to Kaio’s tall tales about the god of Planet Vegeta destroying the planet with meteors.

However, Daizenshuu 7 itself places Goku’s arrival on Kaio’s on April 29th rather than in May, putting 180+ between then and Vegeta/Nappa’s arrival. Then they have Goku catch Bubbles on May 9th, only 10 days later (madness!), and Gregory on May 23rd, 2 weeks later (reasonable)

Long story short, it’s all a result of them placing 13 months between Raditz’s arrival and Vegeta/Nappa, rather than the 11 months said in the series. Not that I expect you to lose much sleep over this. Still, it would’ve been nice if they had fixed it in the Chouzenshuu release.

Anyway…on Earth, Yamcha and co finish their training under Kami and go down to the surface to spend the remaining time training on their own. This is at the 118 day mark, so in the manga it’s after Goku catches Bubbles, and in the anime after he bops Gregory.

(In the anime Yamcha and co spend four whole months getting to Kami in the first place, then he doesn’t teach them anything for another two months, which means his total time actually training them amounts to only a month or two. Again, no wonder they get slaughtered)

A bit less than four months later, and it’s finally time to face the Saiyans! Which means reviving Goku. Which means him recrossing Snake Way, since it’s not like he can teleport (yet). He’s way faster now, but Kaio still guesses the trip will take 2 days. That’s too long!

It looks like it will be a tight squeeze, and even Baba can’t predict what will happen. In fact, this is pretty much the last we hear of Baba’s prophetic abilities, though her clairvoyance and afterlife clout will continue to come in handy.

Tomorrow: 11:43!