Future Warrior said:
Even if the movies don't exactly fit into the main series, it still seems like it was intended to be tied to the anime continuity when considering they made an entire arc around a movie villain.
One of the many reasons why the Garlic Jr. Arc failed
I may rewatch the movies, though probably not until finishing the main series.
So you were watching DB and Z through DVD? The DBox's or Orange Bricks? Assuming you have a lot of storage on your computer, you should start Torrenting. You can get some of the best versions of the series through that (DBox quality with the addition of broadcast audio).
Orange Bricks (well, Blue Bricks for Part 1 technically), as they're the version of the series I got years ago and don't have the money to be getting all the Dragon Boxes. I'm not that bothered about the picture and vocal quality as those of the bricks still hold up. As for torrenting, I probably don't have the space for it since my laptop also has a lot of work saved on it, not to mention finding safe links can be difficult for some series (especially in the UK where a lot of pirating options get clamped down on hard by the government and service providers).
Episode 117 - So, following on from my reference about the previous episode, Piccolo makes it so the humans stop living in a society and basically tells them
Gotham the Dragon World is yours like TDKR Bane as we see people rioting around the city. I wonder if Christopher Nolan's a DB fan
2 Jokes aside though, this just shows the potential Piccolo Daimao had as a great villain and that Toei did a good job delivering on it. Having #8 make an appearance in Suno's sub-plot also helps the setting of the arc feel more lived in, compared to the manga where character reactions to Piccolo's rule are pretty minimalist.
Goku gaining the ability to sense Ki works well with the explanation of how the Choshinsui works. It also helps show it as being better than some of the other "instant power ups" in the series since it adds something additional to the user's arsenal, rather than just increasing power (Elder Kaioshin's ritual was suggested to take away Gohan's softness, though that didn't really seem that new when his SS2 transformation already did that).
Episode 118 - Continuing from what I said about utilising the support cast in the last episode, this episode further proves how much better this arc is in the anime with Yamucha and Lunch both getting their time to shine. It's also pretty funny how oblivious Bulma's parents are to the gravity of the situation and wonder if this is what gave Toriyama the idea of how they should be characterised in the Freeza and Boo Arcs.
Episode 119 - I have mixed thoughts on the anime having Tenshinhan put up a better fight against Drum. It's good to see him not get fodderised, but having Drum absolutely annihilate Ten in the manga when Tambourine was nothing to Goku helped display the sheer difference between Daimao's old and young selves without him even having to fight. It is far better that Ten wasn't an idiot who didn't bother noticing the Denshi Jar was cracked like in the manga, though him surviving using the Mafuba without much explanation could've been better beyond having to infer there's technicalities when it comes to a vessel being broken. It could just be that Tenshinhan had greater life force than Roshi or Mutaito given his youth and familiarity with using the Kikoho, plus Kami implied he could survive using the Mafuba in the 23rd TB.
As for Goku's role in the episode, it was good for Gyumao and Chichi to have a role in this that helps show Piccolo's crusade against martial artists rather than having it be something that never came to fruition. His arrival to save Ten and kill Drum is one that will start a trend of "fashionably late Goku" in the next two major battle arcs (his arrival against Nappa and then against the Ginyus and later Freeza) and it's difficult to say which is best. Drum is definitely the most impressive oneshotting of the bunch, Nappa and Freeza have the most drama behind them and the Ginyus helped show the results of his training in more than just power.
I also like that in the display of the civilians running from Metro West, you see a lot of the cars explode and don't see the passengers afterwards, suggesting they've been killed. It does a good job in showing this arc's role as a full transitional point in the series' tone compared to prior ones where characters would survive such injuries and a lot of the deaths would be treat as comical outside of named characters.
Episode 120 - Goku VS Piccolo Daimao is pretty good. Whilst you can draw comparisons in the story structure between it and the Tao Pai Pai rematch, it still stands on its own as an impressive match that shows the results of Goku's trials to get here. Also, I have to wonder if the change to the anime in making all Namekians having 5 fingers per hand was purely to remove any yakuza connotations or if it was also for Piccolo's "5 seconds" scene to not result in him randomly sprouting another finger.
Piccolo Daimao stating how using his full power drains his lifespan despite how little it'll end up being even by the end of the next arc really adds another one to the pile of suggestions this may have been supposed to be the series' final arc. There's so much of a sense of increasing the scale and putting in place permanent consequences it definitely could've been a good ending.