So, I inevitably decided to join in. I'll purposely stay behind Future Warrior's progress on the rewatch as to not spoil him on anything.
Episode 1
To add to what he already mentioned on Pilaf having a pretty amazing resource network to find out about the Black Star Dragon Balls, it's just as amazing that he was able to figure out that Piccolo Daimao's good half was no longer Kami. I guess there's some logic to be provided towards it when considering Dende would be far more lax about aircrafts and ships coming near the Heavenly Realm than his predecessor when Bulma bringing an aircraft up there had become a regular occurrence. It's worth noting Pilaf never explicitly wishes for Goku to be small again, so perhaps the desire of the mind matters more to Ultimate Shenlong than the words? What's just as surprising is that Kaio knew the basics of this set of Dragon Balls. It's not a stretch when he's been looking over Earth for thousands of years, but still surprising he'd have tuned into such a miscellaneous part of it.
Roshi notices that the Kid Goku indeed has Goku's Ki, yet Pan never picked up on that, showing her inexperience despite the great Ki control she had as a 4 year old.
Episode 2
The interaction between Pan and Goten is a natural one that establishes a fair bit about both (in other words, far better than most interactions in Super which tend to boil down to characters mentioning one-dimensional traits about the other). Goten's priorities being going on dates and having had many failed relationships provides more to his character than his kid self mainly just being "Prodigy kid who does kid stuff" and Pan's comments show both Goten's failings in romance and her own cynicism in having never had a successful date. It's unfortunate how Gohan going with Goku got scrapped so quickly. By the end of the episode, he seemed to have just swapped places with Goten once Vegeta and Chichi agreed on Goten and Trunks needing the experience.
As for Trunks, it's indeed good to see him be president of Capsule Corp. yet still desiring a carefree life, showing some maturity to his present self whilst still making it apparent he's the same character. It's also surprising Trunks would let Otokosuki, the man who was hitting on him at the 28th TB, to work at his company. I guess Trunks doesn't let personal matters enter into his professional life (or maybe he's not as straight as he's letting on
). The establishing scene for his character also makes reference to companies called Tabure and Krate, the latter being mentioned as a new company. It's nice to see these details of DB's regular world be fleshed out more and makes you wonder if any of them are major rivals to Capsule Corp. like the RRA originally were or if they provide alternative technology.
The reason for the DBs not being used to fix the problem easily makes sense, considering how difficult it was to suggest a population of Earth that had all its evil people removed to help out against Boo 15 years ago. As we see later on, it takes a genuine planetary threat becoming public knowledge and Mr. Satan's approval for people to listen later on.
The plot line with Goku being taken by two criminals is a pretty pointless one to extend the episode, especially when it could've simply highlighted Pan more. The scene with her and Satan provide more insight into her personality, with the way he dotes on her helping show why she tries to be more rebellious in her attire and attitude, particularly when her parents (or at least Videl) are shown to not take her actions lightly. The scene with Videl and Pan is good in showing the range in her voice acting. Pan's voice is almost identical to what Videl's was in the Boo Arc, whereas Videl now displays a more matured tone to her.
I'll be the one to say I don't mind :what (the moustache, not the awful hair style). It does a good job in further showing how attuned Vegeta's become to an Earthly lifestyle when there were few other options to do so in his attire and we know that Saiyans can indeed grow facial hair. Still not really sure what Toei were thinking with his hair, but at least that's completely changed by the next time we see him. Him forcing Trunks and Goten into going on the ship also shows Vegeta's disdain at the kids getting soft in a more reserved and calm manner than his Pre-EoZ self would be likely to react.
The end of the episode has the narrator state the trio will be exploring "boundless galaxies", suggesting that the idea of there only being 4 galaxies rather than 4 quadrants was false long before the U6 Arc of Super debunked it for its continuity.
Episode 3
Pan's immaturity over viewing not being able to go on dates being more important than the fate of the Earth is annoying, but not bad writing when considering she's never had to face a villainous threat greater than bank robbers at that point and how unprepared she is for a conflict with actual stakes. I don't think it's unintentional how close her reaction is to Bulma's when trapped in the pirate cave during the RRA Arc, considering both characters go on similar journeys of maturing their priorities through dangerous experiences.
Imegga is fairly bland for an alien world. When considering the creativity both Toriyama and Toei have had in crafting alien civilisations and giving them unique appearances, making these people a race of green/blue Arabian marketeers is a pretty low bar in creativity. Also, Trunks is somehow able to pay them in gamets despite Earth's majority using Zeni. Was there some kind of bank he visited offscreen to convert the currency that coincidentally could perfectly convert the money of what's known to be a fairly backwater planet into Imegga's currency?
As mentioned by FW, the Imegga plot is pretty bad. The lowered stakes compared to the entirety of Z in itself isn't a bad thing, but what makes it bad is how forced the characters actions have to be for it to happen. It'd take any of the trio no time to catch Gill whereas another goes to stop the ship being taken away, yet they just stand around like idiots to drag it out for 2 more episodes. Would've been far better had Redjic been the one assisting in the ship being towed away to provide an actual obstacle.
