Synopsis: Despite Goku's best efforts using the Basho Fan, the fire engulfing Gyumao's castle refuses to go out. Urunai Baba suddenly reappears, and tells Goku that it's no use, as these fires seem to be coming from the Eightfold Furnace, and as such the Fan will actually just make the fires worse. Using her crystal ball, Baba shows Goku and Chi Chi the Eightfold Furnace (which is shaped like an octagon), and explains that the Fan was originally used to fan it's flames. Goku asks how they can put the fire out then, and Baba says their only choice is to climb Mt. Gogyo and ask the Furnace's caretaker to put it out for them. Baba then reveals that Mt. Gogyo is on the exact opposite side of the world, prompting Goku and Chi Chi to rush quickly off on kinto'un, but Baba cautions them further, stating that the peak of the mountain leads to the next world where people's spirits go when they die, and says that no living person has ever made it there. She also warns them that evil spirits lurk at the base of the mountain, so even on their way up there, they'll surely come under attack. As Baba uses a megaphone to inform Gyumao of what's going on, he worries about his daughter and his new son. At Mt. Gogyo, Goku forces open the large gates to the mountain's base, and soon finds a long road surrounded by large rock spikes on all sides. The pair run along the road, eventually running across a long chasm in the middle of it. Goku tries calling for kinto'un but gets no response, leaving Goku no choice. He leaps across the chasm, easily making it to the other side, but Chi Chi's not sure she can do the same. She jumps, but bats suddenly attack, causing her to almost fall onto the spikes, but Goku saves her at the last second and pulls her back up onto the road. Running further down the road, the pair next comes across a bizarre fog, from which five shadowed warriors step out and tell them to leave. Goku refuses, but every time he tries to attack the warriors, they instantly disappear. Goku tries to get the drop on them with an afterimage, but soon finds himself cornered in mid-air, barely managing to dodge, receiving a cut on his cheek from it's sword, and almost falling onto the spikes below. Flipping back onto the road, Goku notes how good these fighters are, and decides to try a Kamehameha on them next. The blast envelopes the warriors, seeming to blow them away but causing rock debris to fly towards him and Chi Chi. As Goku tries to knock the rocks away, they fly back and form a large stone warrior. Goku realizes that they're getting nowhere fast at this rate, and pulls out the Basho Fan to try blowing away the stone warrior. The wind from the fan seems to work, but before Goku and Chi Chi can get much further down the road, lightning envelops the end of the road before them, and a humongous dragon suddenly appears. Before Goku can do anything, a large group of shadow warriors again appears behind them, forcing them forward towards the dragon by firing arrows at them. As Goku and Chi Chi run towards certain death, Chi Chi slips off of the road and falls to a lower one that seems to lead to a large field of flowers, a seemingly much safer route to take. The shadow warriors smile and disappear as Chi Chi points out this path to Goku just as the dragon comes towards them. Goku notices that the cut on his cheek is gone however, as is a similar injury he got from the arrows. He closes his eyes and tries to see things with his mind's eye, and as Chi Chi begs Goku to come with her down this other path, Goku tells her to trust him and stands his ground. Chi Chi moves to stand beside him, trusting in Goku, and as the dragon swipes it's tail at them, Goku leaps into the air and fires an energy blast that sends them flying into the dragon's mouth. Rather than being eaten however, the pair finds themselves flying through the air, as a voice remarks in shock that Mt. Gogyo is receiving its very first living visitors. Goku and Chi Chi find themselves back on the road, as Goku explains that everything they saw before now was an illusion designed to trick them, and they proceed further into the mountain. Back at his castle, Gyumao continues to run around with the wedding dress tucked under his arm, as at Mt. Gogyo, Goku and Chi Chi finally find their way to the Eightfold Furnace. Goku calls out for the caretaker to come talk to them, but soon receives a surprise, as out steps Grandpa Gohan. After recognizing Goku, Gohan is overjoyed to see his grandson as an adult, and as the two reconnect, Goku remembers that this place is supposed to be connected to the afterlife and Gohan wonders how he managed to get here while alive. Gohan asks Goku who the lady with him is, and Goku introduces Chi Chi as Gyumao's daughter and his wife. Gohan asks how Gyumao is and Goku explains what's going on, and Goku asks Gohan to help them with the fire, but Gohan explains that he's just helping out here, explaining that the caretaker is someone else. A woman's voice calls out and a gigantic figure appears behind the furnace, and Gohan introduces her as Annin, the caretaker of the Eightfold Furnace. Gohan explains to Annin that his grandson has come to see her, and the giant woman steps forward before shrinking down to normal human size and eating noodles. Goku asks Annin to put out the flames for a while, and Gohan and Annin theorize that there may be a hole in the Furnace if fire from it is reaching the exact opposite side of the world. That said however, they refuse to put out the fire, stating that if it does go out, both this world and the next will become like hell. Review: So after everything leading up to the Basho Fan turns out to be wasted time for our pair, you might be left wondering exactly where the story could go next now that all of that failed to work? The answer turns out to be surprisingly simple – go to the source of the fire itself. Yeah, it's a little weird that up until now, nobody questioned exactly why this fire had broken out like it had once before, just like it's a little weird that even the suggestion of using the Dragon Balls to put it out never comes up. Once we learn the fire's supernatural origins as well, I also can't help but be left wondering why Roshi's Kamehameha succeeded in putting it out all these years ago either. I mean, it seems like a pretty safe assumption that that fire was also caused by the Eightfold Furnace, right? Maybe Roshi's attack only put out the fire above ground, and it was always smoldering down below and just took this long to kick back up again, or...something. The story's not really concerned with the exact mechanics as to how this all works either, so it's probably best that we don't dwell on it too long either. Where the story does go is pretty interesting however, albeit in a way that's a little disappointing for any fan familiar with where the franchise will be going next. Without spoiling too much, let's just say that all of this talk about Mt. Gogyo and the Eightfold Furnace being related to the afterlife (something that will get fleshed out even further in the following episode), as well as it's caretaker, is going to ultimately amount to nothing as Toriyama is going to have his own take on such ideas in the very near future. In fact, without checking dates between these episodes airing and manga chapter dates for comparison, I can't say for certain, but there's a pretty good chance Toriyama's take had already been revealed in the manga by this point, as certain parts are exceptionally similar in some basic ways. The most notable of these are a long, treacherous road in the afterlife leading to some ultimate goal at the end of it – that's going to sound very, very familiar, very, very soon. The impending unimportance of this material aside however, this episode does manage to make itself entertaining enough, with the mountain throwing anything and everything it seemingly can at Goku and Chi Chi to try to stop their progress. About the only thing missing here is a snowstorm, but we already had that back at Mt. Misogyny. The shadow warriors in particular are pretty interesting, but in effect they don't really achieve anything more than any of the other illusions, though I do like things ultimately being taken care of by Goku utilizing some more of the training he received from at Kami's sanctuary. The big surprise at the end of the episode is the return of Grandpa Gohan, and it's this element that most makes me sad that this really is filler that's incompatible with the series at large. As far as the canon material goes, the fight at Baba's palace was the first and only time we ever get to see Grandpa Gohan. Even going by filler material, this is pretty much the only non-flashback appearance of him as well. It's a shame, because I really like the idea of him getting to see Goku at least one or two more times, to see how much his life has changed at various points. This time feels particularly meaningful, given that Goku has only recently gone through a great change in build, and that he's found someone to spend his life with as well. Dragon Ball being Dragon Ball of course, it doesn't linger on that for long, though at least this time it has an excuse, what with Gyumao about to burn alive and all. From Gohan's reveal comes the even bigger reveal (literally and figuratively) of Annin, as well as the idea that the furnace can't be put out. We aren't given real details as to why yet, just a vague mention that 'both worlds will be sent to hell', but given how much of this arc has already been 'one step forward, two steps back', it's fitting that something as seemingly helpful as running into Gohan again actually doesn't help at all. But what in the world could possibly be so bad about putting out some giant furnace, you might ask? Well... Until next time! Favorite Scene: It's a small moment as the plot quickly gets moving again, but I love an older Goku getting to meet Grandpa Gohan one more time, as well as introducing Chi Chi to him. Next Time: Married at last, and how...sweet it is...well, we'll talk about that soon enough.
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Synopsis: As Gyumao continues running for his life and to save his late wife's wedding dress from the fires engulfing his home, Goku and Chi Chi fly on kinto'un to an ice-covered mountain said to have something to do with the Basho Fan. As they get near the summit, a snowstorm suddenly kicks up and knocks them from the cloud, sending them crash-landing into a nearby forest and right in front of an old lady's home. The frozen couple introduces themselves to the old lady, who likewise introduces herself as the 'Octagon Woman'. The pair immediately wonder if this is who Baba meant all along and if the Basho Fan is finally close at hand. The Octagon Woman takes the pair inside to warm up, and informs Goku that the reason the snowstorm kicked up was because he tried to bring Chi Chi with him – the mountain has long been called 'Mt. No-Women-Allowed by locals due to a curse that refuses to let women set foot on it. She inquires why they want to go on the mountain in the first place, and when they explain about the Basho Fan, she claims to have never heard of it before. Goku finds this strange, given Baba's reading and the old lady's name being 'Octagon', but the lady reveals that they misheard her – her name is actually the 'Teeth-All-Gone Woman'. It seems like the Basho Fan isn't here after all, but the old woman consoles Goku, saying that if their goal is to put out a fire, then he just needs some of the snow off of the mountain, as it's so cold it can even freeze fire. Goku and Chi Chi think this sounds like a good plan after all, so Goku prepares to head out on his own this time to get some of the snow, leaving Chi Chi behind with the old lady. The woman asks Chi Chi if Goku is a good husband and if Chi Chi wants to be a good wife for him, and decides to 'train' Chi Chi in proper wifely etiquette. Flying over the mountain in an aircraft, the Pilaf gang looks all over, trying to find this Basho Fan thing that Goku and Chi Chi were looking for, thinking that it might be even more powerful than the Dragon Balls, and thus they could conquer the world with it for sure. A snowstorm kicks up again due to Mai's presence, freezing even the flames from their engines, and the trio crashes into the side of the mountain. In their robot suits, the trio tries desperately to salvage their ship when suddenly Goku comes across them, interrupting and causing them to let their ship fall to the ground below. Mai tries firing a rocket at Goku, but it misses and fails to hit Pilaf only due to the flame freezing again. Goku thinks this snow really will work after all. Back at the old lady's house, the woman sets Chi Chi to cleaning up various neglected and messy rooms of her home, instructing her that if she needs water that there's a lake just a few valleys past the forest. Pilaf demands that Goku hand over this Basho Fan thing, and tries to instruct Shu and Mai to attack, but they balk due to knowing how strong Goku is. Goku wonders how they even know about the Fan, and though the trio ultimately does try to attack him again, they find that all of their fire-based weaponry instantly freezes. Goku figures out that Mai is a girl, and tells the trio that it's because of her presence that the mountain is making a snowstorm. Hearing this, Pilaf kicks Mai down the mountain as a test, and sure enough, the snow instantly stops. Back at the old lady's house, Chi Chi throws herself into the housework set to her, determined to prove that she can be a good housewife for Goku. Meanwhile, back on the mountain, Goku rolls up a massive snowball, thinking it'll be easier to carry back the snow this way. Pilaf thinks this is the perfect time to try to attack Goku again, but just as they try, Mai returns and causes the snowstorm to kick off once again. Pilaf vows to Goku that this won't be their final meeting, and the trio rush off. Chi Chi brings a cup of tea to the old lady as she tends to her bees, claiming to have finished all of the housework. The old lady next sets her to tending to her garden, which just so happens to be the entire forest, telling her about a dustpan out back that she can use. As Goku tries carrying back the snow, it all starts to melt. Meanwhile, the old lady looks over Chi Chi's housecleaning efforts, finding that she did well save for a pile of broken dishes. Suddenly, Chi Chi is attacked by a gigantic bee, and in her efforts to shoo it away, she swings the dustpan at it, inadvertently causing a strong wind – the 'dustpan' is actually the Basho Fan, which the old lady found on the beach years ago. As Goku returns to the house, dejected due to the snow all melting, Chi Chi shouts up to him that they found the Basho Fan. The pair is excited to return home and save Gyumao now, but the Pilaf trio reappears and steals the fan out of Chi Chi's hands. Goku demands that they give it back, but Shu threatens to cut it with scissors if Goku doesn't back down. Mai wonders if such a grubby looking thing can really be worth all that much however, so Pilaf asks Chi Chi what it is. She tells him to try swinging it and find out, so Pilaf orders Shu to give it a swing. He does so, and sends Pilaf and Mai flying towards the mountain again, after which Shu flees in fear, dropping the Fan before Goku and Chi Chi. Chi Chi thanks the old lady for teaching her so much, but the old lady has one final gift for Chi Chi before she leaves, handing her a small vial of honey made by her bees, revealing that it's extremely rare as her bees only live in octagon shaped beehives. The old lady thinks the honey will come in handy for them someday as it's said to have many great properties, and tells Chi Chi she has faith that she'll become a great bride. As the Pilaf gang are once again beset by a snowstorm on the mountain, Goku and Chi Chi return to Mt. Frypan at last with the Basho Fan in hand. Goku swings the fan numerous times, but no matter how hard they try, it doesn't seem to be able to put the flames out at all. Review: There's a lot of places you could have predicted this episode to go, but I don't think there's any way you could have predicted that it would involve a sexist mountain. And yet, here we are, at the foot of Mt. Misogyny. There's never really much of a reason given for why this particular mountain is cursed so that women can't step foot on it, but at the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really need one, as it's really just a means to an end to set up two different things – Chi Chi having to stay behind with the old lady they've just met, and some amusing antics with the Pilaf gang trying to deal with Goku. The first part of that setup is the main focus of the episode in a lot of ways, especially given how it's that relationship that ultimately leads to the end of the episode and where the story will be going next. Having Chi Chi, who was so fervent about marrying Goku that she suddenly reappeared in his life at the Tenkaichi Budokai of all places, have to undergo 'training' to become a housewife is...well, it sure is a thing, I guess. I'm holding back from putting my full thoughts on where Chi Chi's character is ultimately going until we get to her (or at least discussion of her) when I get back to the manga, but suffice to say, a lot of issues I have with the character could be placed at the foot of the Teeth-All-Gone lady apparently, at least in-universe. Oof. The latter part with the Pilaf gang is actually really funny, and makes for a way for them to interact with the now much stronger Goku in a way that doesn't leave them as completely flummoxed as they otherwise would be. Goku doesn't have to do a thing to stop them, the mountain keeps doing that for him by freezing the flames needed for their attacks. It's also just hilarious to see Pilaf just throw Mai off of the mountain to see if Goku's lying to him or not. Remember that this is a character that finds crass things to be absolutely horrifying, but seemingly has no problem yeeting his own servant off a mountain on the off chance that his enemy is telling him the truth, but doesn't think far enough ahead to realize that the decrease in man power is going to make the job of taking down this incredibly strong foe even harder. I love Pilaf's stupidity. Beyond that, the only other thing to really talk about in this episode is how they finally come across the Basho Fan – apparently when Roshi threw it out, it eventually washed up on the shores of a beach near here, and this old lady has just been using it as a dustpan for years. Guess it's a good thing she never tried to shake any lingering dust off of it, she could've blown away her whole house. From there, the ending of this episode continues to do what this arc as a whole has done for it's whole run thus far, and show that every step forward is actually a step back seemingly. Not only did the snow turn out to be a bust, but now the Basho Fan itself, the thing that they were desperately trying to find some way to get, doesn't seem to work on the fire at all. With that option exhausted, is there any way at all for them to save Gyumao? ...Is...there any reason at all that none of them are considering the Dragon Balls? I guess the idea is that it would perhaps take too long to gather them all again, and given how every other quest to gather them really has turned into a whole debacle that's a fair assumption, but c'mon, they're already spending a lot longer trying to save things than they expected, just go summon Shenlong and ask for help! Until next time! Favorite Scene: Pilaf kicking Mai off of the mountain just to test if what Goku told him about the mountain being sexist is hilarious. Next Time: Oh, things weren't weird enough already? Let's make it all MYSTICAL now. Synopsis: As Goku and Chi Chi head to Roshi's for more clues about the Basho Fan, the Pilaf crew spies on a man investigating an active volcano. Meanwhile, the villagers continue trying desperately to put out the fire engulfing Gyumao's castle, but nothing they try seems to have any effect on the blaze. Finally arriving at Kame House, Goku has to reintroduce himself and Chi Chi to the turtle who doesn't quite seem to recognize them now that they've grown up. The couple soon finds that everyone else still hasn't made it back from the Tenkaichi Budokai yet, but the turtle is more than willing to help the pair look for the book said to show how to make a new Basho Fan. Digging through piles of old dirty magazines in Roshi's closet, the Turtle eventually finds an old hermit manual that indeed describes how to make a Basho Fan, revealing it to be made from the feathers of a magical Fire-Eating Bird that lives at Mt. Kiwi. With a new destination in mind, Goku and Chi Chi fly off on kinto'un once more, with Chi Chi enjoying spending time with her husband-to-be. Eventually the pair comes to the volcanic Mt. Kiwi, and upon entering it, run into a large lizard. The creature at first appears to want to eat them, but Goku is able to calm it down, with the whole scene being witnessed by Shu and Mai who surmise that the pair of strangers must be looking for the bird as well. As they try to leave to go inform Pilaf of their company, Shu tries to calm the creature in the same manner as Goku, but fails and almost gets eaten. Goku and Chi Chi continue further into the volcano, all the while being tailed by Shu and Mai, and eventually Chi Chi stumbles and falls into another area, where they discover a large egg surrounded by a bunch of computers. Chi Chi guesses that it might be the Fire-Eating Bird's egg, and the pair are soon approached by the man that Shu and Mai spotted before, who tells them not to mess with the egg. The man confirms their guess as to the egg's nature, and when they ask where the mother is, the man tells them that it died forty years prior during an eruption, and that he's been taking care of the egg in the hopes that it will one day hatch, but he can't be sure when or if that day will ever come. Seeming to be at a dead end once more, Goku and Chi Chi prepare to go back to Baba for more help, but their departure is interrupted by the arrival of a large drill-bearing vehicle. Shu and Mai step out of it and demand the egg be handed over to them, and as Goku starts to think that they look familiar, they soon introduce their leader, Emperor Pilaf. Pilaf talks about his plan to sell the egg for great wealth due to it being the only one in existence, and when the scientist tells him to leave it alone, Pilaf turns to his cronies and whispers a plan to them. They ask Chi Chi to come over for a moment, and though she hesitates at first, she ultimately does and gets 'taken hostage' by Mai. Pilaf tells them to hand over the egg if they want her back alive, but as Shu and Mai get a better look at Goku, they finally start to think he looks familiar. They ask Chi Chi for his name, and when she tells them 'Son Goku', they finally recognize him and start to freak out. Chi Chi uses this opportunity to knock them both aside, and as Pilaf tries to rush back to the drill ship, Goku cuts him off and punches the ship hard into the side of the volcano. This is enough for Pilaf to finally recognize him as well, and the trio immediately flees in fear, now knowing that they're in far over their heads. The scientist thanks Goku and Chi Chi for their help, and the pair starts to leave once again, when the volcano starts to erupt. To their surprise however, an adult Fire-Eating Bird steps forth from the flames and lava, and flies over to the egg. It soon begins to peck at the egg, cracking it and ultimately freeing the baby inside. With the baby safe at last, Goku quickly gets everyone out of the volcano before they can get hurt, and they watch the new parent and child leave, leaving some feathers behind that fall towards them. As they try to catch the feathers however, they discover that they burn away into ash as soon as they're touched. When they ask the scientist about it, he says that story they heard was a load of rubbish, as the Fire-Eating Bird would starve to death if it's feathers put out it's own source of food – back at Kame House, Roshi likewise chastises the turtle, saying that he was drunk when he wrote that book. All seems lost, but the scientist tells Goku and Chi Chi about a place far to the north called Ice Mountain that he's heard there supposedly being a Basho Fan at. As Goku and Chi Chi fly towards another place to investigate, Chi Chi is revealed to have taken a piece of the Fire-Eating Bird's eggshell as a souvenir, and the Pilaf gang is shown overhearing where they're heading next. Review: Man, if I had a dime for every time a volcano was a threat in Dragon Ball filler...I'd have two dimes, but it is strange that it happened twice, right? To be fair, the volcano's never really much of a threat in this episode, certainly not as much as it was in the previous filler installment. Neither are the Pilaf gang for that matter, but that's okay – at the point that we've gotten to with Goku, it was going to be exceedingly hard for the writers at the time to come up with a credible threat for him to face, given that it's something Toriyama was having to reinvent the series a bit with in the next manga arc as well. That arc would have already been running at the time these episodes aired, and probably when they were produced as well, but they wouldn't have wanted to step on his toes probably either. In effect, this episode shows even more so how this arc is returning Dragon Ball to it's comedy adventure roots more than it's been in some time. A lot of the antics that are happening here are very much the kind of antics you'd expect from the series earlier in it's run, and coming back to them now definitely feels a little nostalgic. The story's elements aid a lot in that feeling too, especially with so much of it focusing around the Basho Fan, an item we had referred to back in the first arc but never got to see in action. As things stand now, we still haven't either. Goku and Chi Chi's efforts towards finding the fan keeps leading them in circles, and every step forward basically sends them on another rat race. We're only two episodes into this adventure, and they've already changed directions three times and are on their way to a fourth – it's certainly a hectic pace, but it does keep you on your toes and prevents you from getting bored, even as things kind of slow and things don't happen for a while. It might sound like I'm calling this episode boring, and really there isn't a lot that sticks out as things that make this episode 'great', but it really does manage to be entertaining enough. One thing I really love about it – beyond the Pilaf gangs antics I mean, I always love that – is how it keeps the DB tradition of things not turning out to look like what you might imagine them to. All throughout the episode, we keep getting discussions about the Fire-Eating Bird, and between it's name and where it lives, you'd naturally start imagining some sort of phoenix-looking creature. What we actually get in the end is more along the lines of a giant ostrich that just walks across the sky rather than flying. It's completely derpy and I kind of love it. As mentioned before, this episode doesn't really get Goku and Chi Chi any closer to saving Gyumao and putting out the fire, but with another lead to chase down and the Pilaf gang seeming like they might still be involved somehow, things are greatly set up to get even more hectic. Until next time! Favorite Scene: It's short-lived, but I absolutely love the return of the Pilaf gang – especially once they realize who Goku is and decide they want absolutely no part of any of this. Next Time: So THIS lady's who we can blame for modern Chi Chi, good to know. Synopsis: After leaving the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, Goku and Chi Chi fly on kinto'un back to Gyumao's rebuilt castle, which towers above a nearby village. Gyumao is thrilled that his daughter and Goku are finally getting married, and treats Goku to a lavish dinner and says he's going to throw the two of them a big wedding ceremony as well. Gyumao then tells Chi Chi that he still has her mother's wedding dress from when they got married, and he'd like to give it to Chi Chi to wear for her wedding as well. Chi Chi is ecstatic and wants to have the wedding ceremony as soon as possible, and Gyumao promises her it'll be the biggest ceremony the area's ever seen, but as they'll need help from the local villagers, it will take a little time to put together first. The villagers all help set up the castle as Gyumao oversees their work and thinks of his own late wife. The festivities are soon interrupted however by an earthquake strong enough that it starts to break the castle apart. Things only get worse from there however as fire begins to erupt from the ground, and the villagers flee for their lives. Goku and Chi Chi start to leave as well but stop when Chi Chi remembers that the wedding dress is in her father's room. Gyumao tells them to leave it to him, and rushes upstairs to get the dress. Goku tries to rush after him but is cut off by the fire, which soon engulfs the entire castle. Goku tries using a Kamehameha to put out the fire, trying to do a weak enough one to spare the castle from being destroyed much as Roshi's did years before. The attack is successful, but the fire immediately starts back up just as fierce as it had before. Goku next gets on kinto'un to try to fly overhead and rescue Gyumao, but the fire once again stops his efforts. Inside the castle, Gyumao rushes through the hallways with the wedding dress under arm, noting that the fire is acting weird. Once on the rooftop, he shouts to Goku, telling him that only the Basho Fan can put out these flames, causing Goku to remember the fan that Roshi was said to once have. He recalls that it got dirty and Roshi had thrown it out, and seeing little other choice, Goku decides to go ask Urunai Baba for help divining it's location. Baba tries to help, but has caught a cold that causes her to have a hard time using her magic. She eventually divines an octagon, saying that it seems to have something to do with the fan and that it seems to lie to the east, so Goku grabs both her and Chi Chi and flies away on kinto'un once again. Following Baba's crystal ball, the trio eventually finds their way to a small village where Goku sees a familiar face. He walks up to a pig that he thinks is Oolong, but the pig tells him that his name is Jasmine. Goku is surprised to see a second 'Oolong' step out, and Jasmine has the new pig help explain to Goku that he's not Oolong, though both pigs do vaguely remember that being the name of a guy who studied at the Southern Transformation Kindergarten and got kicked out for harassing the teacher. Jasmine is offended that he'd be mistaken for some pervert like that, seeing as he's the greatest gentleman in all of Octagon Village. Hearing that name, Chi Chi immediately asks if they know where the Basho Fan is, but neither pig has ever heard of it, and wonder if she instead means the Basho Hot Spring. Baba has heard of it and says it's said to be able to cure any ailment, so she drags Chi Chi along to bathe in it (exciting the two pigs who begin to drool at the idea of a naked Chi Chi), as Baba thinks she'll be much more help to them once her cold is cured. Thinking that Goku will only get in their way, the two pigs lie and say they do suddenly remember that some kind of magical fan is said to be in a valley nearby, and Goku decides to go investigate while the girls head to the hot spring. As Goku looks for the fan, the pigs lead Chi Chi and Baba to the open air hot springs, and are excited to start peeping on Chi Chi. Chi Chi is worried about Goku, but Baba eventually convinces her to trust him and get into the water with her. Goku finds the valley at last and comes upon a large octagon shaped 'pond', just as a large crowd of pigs is revealed to have gathered, all of their peeping attempts causing the changing room to collapse. Chi Chi screams, just as Goku spots something in the water and dives in to grab what he thinks is the Basho Fan. As Chi Chi knocks away the perverted pigs, Goku causes the whole hot spring to drain away like a bath tub, as it's revealed what he thought was the Basho Fan was actually the stopper keeping the water in the hot spring. All seems lost at first, but Chi Chi soon spots an odd inscription on the side of the large stopper, that seems to be instructions on how to make a Basho Fan. Chi Chi can't quite understand part of it however, but Baba recalls seeing this diagram once in a book at her brother's house, so Goku and Chi Chi rush off to Kame House, leaving Baba to soak in the puddle of hot springs water that's left. Review: In the manga, everything about Goku and Chi Chi's marriage is handled entirely off-screen – er, off-page. By the time the next chapter that I'll be reviewing rolls around, there will already be some rather big developments and changes for the characters (though I don't think we're made privy to most of those changes until the following chapter, if I recall correctly). Because it needed a few weeks to let the manga get a little further ahead again, the anime decided to jump on the good opportunity presented to them to flesh things out a bit further, resulting in this five episode filler arc to close out the original Dragon Ball anime. For the most part, this first episode does a pretty good job setting up the problem that the characters are going to need to deal with, as well as seemingly presenting the way to fix it, though that of course leads to new problems of it's own. It's pretty fun to see the series delve back into a bit of an 'adventure' story, when it's been almost entirely focused on martial arts for the longest time now, though whether this story will be ultimately memorable will be something we'll talk about as we go along. As far as the characters themselves go, it's particularly interesting to see what Gyumao is like nowadays, as well as what his new lot in life appears to be. Gone is the armor-wearing monster of a man we saw way back when, and in his place is a large, doting man wearing normal clothes and an ox-horned hat on top of his head. This design actually comes from further into the manga than where we are currently, but I guess the anime staff decided to introduce it a bit earlier here. What's even more interesting is that all around his rebuilt castle is a village of people that seem thrilled to have him there. It's weird, it was implied that there were nearby villagers back in the first arc, but this is the first time we've seen them. Given how Gyumao acted back then, I guess he probably drove most of them away, and now they've come back? Either that or these are all new people invited to the village as a result of his changed demeanor. Either way, it's a little weird to see him treated as actual royalty, though it does explain his stores of cash that he apparently still has. The most interesting aspect of this early part of the episode is the brief moments we get talking about Gyumao's (presumably) late wife and Chi Chi's mother. What we get isn't much, but it does serve to make you all the more curious about what kind of woman she was in life. You also can't help but wonder...well...not to be too lewd, but how in the hell did they even PROCREATE? We don't see her face, but a painting shows that the woman was normal sized as opposed to Gyumao's massive build, so...yeah. It's uh...it's certainly a quandary. Moving on from that, the story itself changes suddenly after this opening act as well, as the fire that Roshi once put out once again engulfs the castle. Back then, we never really got much details as to how the castle got caught ablaze, but it did seem weird that it just kept burning for as long as it apparently did, and nothing was able to put it out. Well, now that we see the fire starting again, we can tell that there's definitely something particularly strange about it. This time around, even a Kamehameha doesn't do the trick, leaving only the Basho Fan as a method for putting the fire out. This of course presents the same problem it did back in the original story arc of the series – the Basho Fan's long gone, tossed away when Roshi got rid of it. The roster of characters have expanded greatly since then however, so Goku immediately thinks to go ask Baba for help, but of course, Baba's sick, leading to yet another side quest opening up – it really does basically turn into an RPG fetch quest at this point. Goku takes Baba and Chi Chi to where her crystal ball points to something 'Basho Fan' related, and they run into pig people that Goku mistakes for Oolong. A little bit racist, when you think about it, actually... You'd think we'd get a bit more on Oolong's backstory here, but all we really get is a repeat of what we already knew, which is a shame. The entire hot springs situation basically serves to set up things to happen in the rest of the arc to follow, with their next stop being heading to Roshi's after all. But will this wild goose chase actually result in a Basho Fan, or will that ultimately be just as much of a dead end as it was in the first story arc? The arc's only started, but one thing's for sure – it's definitely going to be a different sort of ride than what our last storyline was. Until next time! Favorite Scene: Gyumao and Chi Chi thinking back on the 'Ox Queen' is a sweet moment. Next Time: If they really needed someone that could eat fire, all they had to do was put in a call to Fairy Tail. Synopsis: As Goku's friends rush to his side and congratulate him on his victory, Yajirobe is revealed to have stayed behind and hidden as well as he climbs out of some nearby dust. Chi Chi and Kuririn find that Goku can't get up, and Yamcha suggests that rush him to the hospital, but Yajirobe walks up and reveals that he brought senzu beans. Goku is surprised to see him, and Yajirobe says he just came to check on him before giving him one. As Goku's body is instantly healed, he leaps high into the sky to celebrate his victory, surprising everyone with his renewed vigor.
As Kuririn asks Yajirobe if the senzu aren't just food after all, Kami stares down at an unconscious Piccolo. Sensing something amiss, Goku quickly flies down and gets between them just as Kami prepared to strike and finish off Piccolo for good. Goku asks Kami what he's planning to do, and Kami says that they must put an end to Piccolo or else it'll all happen all over again. Goku insists that he'll just beat Piccolo again if that happens, and says he won't let Kami kill himself, but Kami insists, saying that they can just revive him with the Dragon Balls afterwards. Tenshinhan agrees that this is the only way, but Goku asks Kami if it's alright for a God to lie, saying that if Kami dies, the Dragon Balls and Shenlong will both fade out of existence as well. Kami doesn't correct Goku, and the others are taken aback by this revelation. Kami looks to the sky and says that he should have given up being God some time ago, since it was his fault that Piccolo terrorized the Earth after all. He thinks that, in the end, he doesn't have any right to go on living in the first place. Roshi corrects him however, stating that without him, nobody would have been able to defeat Piccolo. He explains that everyone coming together like this is a direct result of Goku and Bulma's first journey together, which only happened due to the existence of the Dragon Balls – if it hadn't been for the Dragon Balls bringing everyone together and inspiring them to get stronger, the world would have been doomed. Kami takes this explanation in stride before turning to Goku, saying that he truly found a wise mentor, which Goku agrees with while noting that he is a bit sleazy though. Roshi bashfully objects, saying that he only taught Goku the basics, and that it was Karin and Kami himself that made him grow into the fighter he is today. Kami raises his hand before Goku and fixes his clothes for him, stating that he looks best in a Turtle gi after all. Goku shouts to Yajirobe for another senzu, and Yajirobe tosses one to him though he's surprised that just one didn't get the job done. Rather than eating it himself however, Goku bends down and puts it In Piccolo's mouth and tells him to eat it. Before anyone can stop him, Piccolo swallows the bean and wakes up, leaping back to his feet. Everyone runs a few feet back and chastises Goku, while Goku explains that if he'd let Piccolo lay there and die, Kami still would have died too. He also admits that he doesn't like the idea of losing his greatest rival just yet. Piccolo scoffs and says that Goku's naivete will soon mean his death, saying that he'll withdraw for now, but promising to come back and kill Goku before taking over the world someday soon. As Kuririn shouts that Goku should have sealed Goku in the bottle, Piccolo flies away, with Goku thinking to himself that he hopes Piccolo gets a lot stronger, as he plans to surpass that strength himself by a whole other level. Looking to her friend, Bulma smiles and thinks that Goku started out as such a shrimp only to become like a mountain. Chi Chi rushes over to Goku and grabs hold of him, taking him by surprise as she squeezes him tightly. Roshi suddenly remembers that Goku's a newlywed now, but the conversation is interrupted by Kami, who offers Goku his place as God, saying that he and Chi Chi will be very happy up on the Sanctuary. Goku thinks Kami has to be kidding, stating that it was really boring up there for three years, so he can't imagine living his whole life there. As Tenshinhan receives a surprise of his own in the form of a returning Chaozu, who reveals that he was evacuated out of the hospital when everyone left, Kami insists that Goku is really the only person fit to succeed him as God. Goku rejects Kami's offer once again however, and calls down kinto'un. Leaping onto it with Chi Chi in tow, Goku flies off into the sky, promising to see everyone again some day. As Goku and his new fiancee fly off into the sky, his friends all shout his name. In a corner panel, Roshi assures us that, despite how it seems, this isn't actually the end of the story at all. Review: This chapter basically serves as an epilogue to the events of the arc, and even the series as a whole, up until now. As such, there's not really a lot of meat in it to talk about on it's own, but let's go over a few points of interest before I talk about what this arc as a whole has achieved, and what this chapter means for the narrative moving forward. Seeing Goku celebrate a well deserved victory at the Tenkaichi Budokai at last is extremely fulfilling. He's had a long road to get here, and it's nice to see him finally get what he's trained so hard for since nearly the beginning of the series. It's also nice to once again see him call Kami out on his crap. While it's admittedly a little suspect that Goku's doing this for any actually altruistic reasons (he even admits to himself that his real reasoning is just to keep Piccolo around as a good reason to keep getting stronger), the reveal that Kami's been lying to everyone all this time is a nice one. Yeah, remember how I mentioned that Kuririn's support of Goku firing the Super Kamehameha, and Goku doing so was a bit of an oddity for the arc? That's because Goku has seemingly already figured out the secret that if Piccolo dies, Kami dies, and thus the Dragon Balls stop working as well. We're not really made privy to why this is how they function – it's not like if the electrician that worked on your house dies, your power suddenly doesn't work – but we're dealing with magic and wish-granting balls here, so I'd say it's a feasible enough explanation. It also gives the Dragon Balls their first true limitation. Prior to this, they were basically an infallible 'Get Out of Jail Free' card, but now we know that if anything happens to Kami – or Piccolo for that matter – then they're potentially off the table, for good. This will definitely be something that's going to be important moving forward. Speaking of Piccolo, Goku decides that the best thing to do with him is...well, absolutely nothing! Again, this is a bit morally dubious given everything that he just tried to do, and as Kuririn points out, someone could have just sealed him away with the Mafuba again. That said, this is another one of those things where I'd say the story potential for him outweighs the logical decision towards him, so I'd say Toriyama made the right move here. Honestly the biggest two things to come out of this chapter are Kami's offer of Godship to Goku – an offer that he shoots down twice, finding the idea to be too boring – and Roshi's summation of what the Dragon Balls have brought out in our heroes. It's a very nice, touching look back on everything that's happened so far and what it all means, though it's pretty funny to see Yajirobe, Chi Chi, and even the tournament announcer included in the panel montage. I'd like to think that the announcer is thinking to himself that he has no idea what's going on but he's just happy to be alive and included. After that, Goku and Chi Chi fly off, into the unknown. This arc was, by and far, the greatest achievement in the series to date. I might be a little biased, but I still truly believe that this is the absolute best the franchise has to offer. It builds itself upon the bones of everything that came before it, all the character arcs and growth that we've seen both front and center and alluded to, and everything we want to see from the characters going forward, and it hits almost every single note perfectly. Comedy takes a back-seat in this portion of the story admittedly, but the jokes we do get work well, meanwhile the story structure and the combat have never felt fresher and more alive. Using essentially the same villain a second time right after his previous defeat was definitely a gamble, but Toriyama manages to make this Piccolo feel like an all new person (and he is, really) so that nothing ever feels repetitive in regards to him. This arc is about as close to perfect as one can get, with there really only being two places that it stumbles, at least for me. First, the sense of mystery at the start is a little unearned in the end. Taopaipai's return amounts to almost nothing, and the secret identities of Name Withheld (Chi Chi) and Shen (Kami) do much the same for the former and for the latter just ties in to the revelation that this arc really is just about Piccolo after all. Secondly, as much as I love the final showdown between Goku and Piccolo, it does perhaps go on just a chapter or two too long, as there's a few story beats that happen a few too many times, and it does become noticeable. If you're able to overlook both of these issues or they just aren't issues in the first place for you? Then I dare say you'll have a hard time finding many Dragon Ball stories better than this one. With such a high bar placed though, where can the story go next? This chapter serves as an ending and a culmination of everything that we've seen come before this. In fact, there's such a note of finality to this chapter that if it weren't for that small panel of Roshi at the very end, you'd think this was the end of the series. In a way, it is – Toei certainly saw fit to split the anime adaptation of the manga at this point, with only a few 'filler' episodes beyond this point occurring before the next chapter is adapted as episode 1 of a brand new anime 'sequel'. The story moving forward from this point brings more changes to the status quo than any almost any arc prior, with only this arc outdoing them in that regard. The focus of the series will remain rooted on fighting more than ever before. This truly is the end of the first 'era' of Dragon Ball. That said, it's still the same characters we know and love. It's still coming from the mind of Toriyama, at a time where he was still enthused to work on the series. It's still building upon everything that came before, and it still very much feels like the same story as a whole. There's been a lot of debate amongst fans if such a split is even warranted or needed, and honestly? I'm somewhere between neutral on the question and leaning towards 'no'. The series has more points in similarity moving forward than it does in difference, and it's all still part of the original run of manga, so all things told, there's really no non-marketing reason to refer to the rest of the series as anything but exactly that – the rest of the series. Compared to the anime original GT, or the decades later retelling and sequel such as Kai and Super, there's just not much of a reason to treat these two sections like separate stories. But that's all reaching far, far ahead, and again, this chapter does seem to bring quite a few things to a conclusion. The world has been well and truly saved by Goku, fulfilling Baba's prophecy – I guess it could have been technically fulfilled by his defeating King Piccolo, and that's certainly how the story treats it, but given the fact that Piccolo 'survived' that encounter, it's arguable that this is it's true fulfillment. Goku has also finally won the Tenkaichi Budokai, making him officially the strongest person in the world, something that's been his goal for some time now. It's great to see his celebratory nature at achieving this goal too, as it no longer feels like boasting, but a well earned enjoyment of a goal he's spent much of his life trying to achieve. ...But what now? That's the question that this chapter is bound to leave people asking. Goku's achieved every goal he's had throughout the course of the story: he's trained and gotten far stronger, he's battled against strong opponents and made powerful rivals to keep him on his toes; and he's proven himself to be, at least for the time being, the strongest person in the world. The only thing left for him seemingly is finding the four-star Dragon Ball again – given how much he wanted it back after the end of the 21st Budokai and that he kept it safe all the way through the 22nd, it's safe to assume he'd want to get it back once again. But we've already seen him go across the world in search of the balls once before, and now he's powerful beyond belief – is there really much story content to be mined from following him on such a journey again? There's less finality for the other characters admittedly – Kuririn might have proven himself as a capable fighter, but he still hasn't found himself a girlfriend; Tenshinhan has been shown that there's still a long way to go for him to catch back up to Goku, not to mention whatever lingering trauma he might be dealing with from meeting his former masters again; and Yamcha is...well...Yamcha. Honestly at this point it's hard to say for sure what the status of his relationship with Bulma is, as the last time anything was said about the two of them was when Bulma showed up at the start of this tournament and said she hadn't seen him for some time. Although their stories don't seem quite as neatly wrapped up, it's hard to really predict where things need to go for them next. This is even more unclear for the backup cast. Roshi is retired now, and Chaozu is, well, Chaozu. Bulma's drive to gather the Dragon Balls for anything seems to be greatly diminished. Lunch is likewise Lunch and seems content with whatever she's doing. Oolong and Puar sure do exist. Unlike every other ending to an era in this manga thus far, it's almost impossible to predict where things would go next if you didn't already know. That's, however, all based on things in the past. What about the new elements that have been brought to the table? Well, Piccolo's still at thing. It's a pretty easy guess that he's going to be out there, training and getting even stronger, with the goal to come wreck havoc again one day, he said as much himself. But is the story really going to go back to the Piccolo well for a third time? He's an incredibly effective villain for sure, but that might be pushing things a bit too far, especially if he's the next threat in line. This is the first time that a known antagonist is still left out there alive however, making this a brand new element for the series...and it's 'new' that the series would find itself needing to embrace to move forward. Speaking of new, there's also the Chi Chi factor to consider. What sort of life will a married Goku lead, and what sort of new story elements will this union bring to the table? Kami's offer of Godship has been turned down as well, leaving yet another avenue forward seemingly snubbed. So that's both the future and the past seemingly without a clear hint towards where things should go next. In a lot of ways, why DOESN'T the series end here? This chapter's ending is the cleanest break in the franchise, it gives no direct hints as to where the story is going to go next – and that's what makes the next story arc so surprising, I think, because it's rooted in both the past and the future. The story still has one, big unanswered question that it hasn't brought up in a long, long time, since the very first story arc in fact, and most fans wouldn't have thought about it since then either because it was never a focal point for the plot. There's one more element left that's been true throughout the series thus far as well – the Dragon Balls themselves. The Dragon Balls have been at the center of the plot for most of the story arcs thus far – they were what brought Goku and Bulma together in the beginning; they were what the Red Ribbon Army wanted, and one of them is what brought Goku into conflict with them in the first place; and they were instrumental in both the rise and fall of both King Piccolo and his reincarnation. Roshi's words ring entirely true, without the titular Dragon Balls, there would be no story here. There would be no Goku or any of the other heroes, at least not as we know them. These wish-granting orbs hold the power to inspire the best in our characters...and to bring out the worst in others. They're still very much a wild card that can bring conflict into the story, and that purpose is very much going to be utilized in the future. So that's where this chapter leaves us: a conclusion to everything that we've known, and a mysterious, hard to predict future, laying ahead. It's probably completely coincidental, but this truly feels a great metaphor for the end of Goku's childhood and the beginning of his adult life. None of us know what's going to happen when we take a step into the unknown – the best thing we can do, is grit our teeth and do our best, just like Goku does. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Piccolo's blast bears down on Goku, and he's sure this time that it'll finish him off as Goku has no way to block it with his limbs rendered immobile. Goku's friends watch in horror as the blast hits the ground, causing a huge explosion that destroys most of the ground where the ring once stood. As the dust clears, an empty crater is all that's left where Goku had been laying before.
Piccolo floats back down to the ground and inspects the crater, saying that Goku has been blasted to smithereens, to the point that not even Shenlong could restore him now. As Goku's friends get back to their feet in sorrow, Piccolo declares himself the winner, as well as the start of a new age of demons and terror. Goku's friends are beside themselves with grief, and Piccolo promises to send them to join their fallen friend in short order. As Yamcha braces himself for a fight to the death however, Kuririn's facial expression changes. He seems to be staring at something, and he asks Tenshinhan to look as well, thinking his eyesight will prove what Kuririn thinks it is. As Tenshinhan looks where Kuririn is, into the sky just behind Piccolo, he gasps. With his suspicions confirmed, Kuririn happily shouts Goku's name. To Piccolo's horror, Goku flies down through the air towards Piccolo, showing that he learned how to fly and can move his body after all. Goku calls out to Piccolo, telling him he's lost for real this time, and slams his body headfirst hard against Piccolo. Piccolo is knocked unconscious and sent flying through the air and to the ground, with Goku hitting the ground as well. Goku's friends are shocked, but Goku asks the announcer to confirm something for him – he just knocked Piccolo out of bounds, so he wins, right? The announcer checks the ground, and though the ring is gone, it's outline is still visible, and Goku lays where the ring once was...while Piccolo lays outside of it. The announcer declares Goku the winner of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, as Goku happily grins and his friends cheer and rush towards him. Review: There's one more chapter to go to close the arc, but this chapter is truly the end of Goku and Piccolo's fight, as well as the conclusion of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai itself. I think it's safe to say that this has been one wild ride from start to finish, and though this fight stumbled a bit in it's later portions, showing us things that we'd already seen, but it more than made up for it by showing us all kinds of things we hadn't seen. For a fight as long as it was to never let up it's intensity even after hitting the ground running, it's astonishing how entertaining this fight was. It absolutely holds up as my favorite fight in the series period, with only a few other fights coming anywhere close to rivaling it in the entire franchise – it's just that damned good, and Toriyama's artwork has never looked better, making the entire thing an absolute visual treat on every level. But that's getting ahead of ourselves a bit, as even this last chapter of the fight manages to offer a few surprises worth talking about. With Goku seemingly having no way to dodge, it really does seem for a moment that this match is Piccolo's after all, and Goku will once again come in second in the tournament – well, that and be dead, of course. Piccolo makes a rather curious statement as well, suggesting that since he completely destroyed Goku's body, Shenlong wouldn't be able to revive him. Given everything we've been told about Shenlong and his wishes up until now, it doesn't seem like even this should be a problem, and as we'll see a few times later, it wouldn't be – but this is the first suggestion that there might be some things that even Shenlong can't do. That coupled with his destruction in the previous arc shows that Toriyama's starting to think that having a perfect Deus Ex Machina around might limit the level of tension he can bring things to after all, so he's going to start playing around with different ways to shake things up in regards to the Dragon Balls and Shenlong. In the end however, it turns out that Goku actually did have a way to dodge – flying! This is such a rudimentary technique later on in the series, and it's something that prior to this we've only seen as window dressing, so to see it come in as the actual finishing move in a fight is completely surprising. The idea that people outside the Crane School could learn it had already been broached earlier as well, when we saw Kuririn do it, so it really felt like something that was only a matter of time before Goku learned it as well. The curious thing is, we're not told exactly when it was he learned it. Was this one of the various techniques he learned from Kami? If that's the case, why didn't he ever use it before now? There's actually a pretty good chance he only just now gave it a try and discovered that he could do it, after being left with no other options and likely thinking back on Kuririn's usage of it as well. The fact that flying still doesn't come second nature to him for a good while after this would seem to support this theory as well. Goku just won the tournament by using a move he'd never even done before now, how crazy is that? And yes, for the very first time, Goku is the actual champion of the Tenkaichi Budokai, proving that there really was a reason Toriyama kept showing us that they were still in the ring even when there was no ring. It took three times, but I'd say the story perfectly built Goku's eventual victory up as something major in every way possible. In the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, we actually needed Goku to lose to gain something, and he did, though he came incredibly close to winning. In the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, he had even more reason to win than before, and his character development was likely ready for it to happen...but then he still didn't. But finally here in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, fate conspired to make the final match about far more than just the tournament, and it's here that Goku finally gets declared the Strongest Under the Heavens. It's a sweet moment that can't not feel you with joy, as almost 200 chapters in, we finally see the little boy Bulma found in the woods prove what we've basically known since the start – there's just no beating Goku. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Synopsis: Goku's friends and the announcer are horrified as he's impaled by Piccolo's surprise attack and falls back onto the ground where the ring once stood. Goku tries to get back to his feet, but his body is immediately wracked with pain, as he bleed profusely from both his wound and his mouth. As Goku's friends scream, Piccolo gets back to his feet, walking over to Goku. He praises Goku's durability, and says that Goku did quite the number on him, but in the end, it's Piccolo who wins this day – the death of the Great Demon King Piccolo will be avenged. As Piccolo begins to stomp on Goku's wound, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, and Kuririn all try to rush in to help. Piccolo swings his arm and unleashes an energy attack, creating a large trench just in front of the fighters. As they realize that he still has power left in reserve, Piccolo tells them to wait their turn to die. Getting back onto his feet at last, Goku tells Piccolo that he missed all of his vital organs. The pair exchange blows briefly, both ending up winded very quickly, but it's clearly Goku who's the worst off in his condition. Piccolo tells Goku that he can tell he's losing steam now, and catches him hard with an elbow strike. Leaping into the air as Goku falls to the ground, Piccolo slams both of his knees into Goku's legs, breaking them. As Goku screams in pain, his friends are horrified, but Piccolo doesn't stop there - he notes that while Goku only has one arm left he can use (the blast wound incapacitating the other one already), the original King Piccolo left Goku with one arm as well, and was defeated because of it. Firing a blast from a fingertip, Piccolo scalds Goku's other arm, leaving him without a moveable limb, in an act that Yamcha calls torture. Piccolo tells Goku that he'll take this final blast head on now that he can't move, and says that he's been waiting for this moment for so long. As Piccolo rises into the air, Kuririn shouts that Goku's really going to be killed this time. Kami tells Tenshinhan to act quickly and kill him as that will kill Piccolo as well, and Tenshinhan starts to agree once Kami reminds him that Shenlong can bring him back afterwards. Before he can however, Goku speaks up and says he's still going to win this match on his own. Everyone objects, but before anything more can be done, Piccolo fires a blast heading straight towards Goku. Review: Goku went from seemingly certain victory to seemingly certain defeat in the span of a panel. If the fight before this hadn't already been a spectacle unlike any we'd seen before it, this might not have worked as well as it did, but with everything leading up to it, it really heightens the tension in an unbelievable way. This is especially true when you remember that this is still a Tenkaichi Budokai match despite all odds (Toriyama seems to make it a special point to show that Goku and Piccolo are still on the ground where the ring would be if it hadn't been destroyed). Despite how strong he's always been, despite how strong he's become now, Goku does seem to have something of a curse when it comes to fighting at the Tenkaichi Budokai. Two times now he's made it to the final round and ended up losing on some sort of technicality. As shocking as it might seem given everything else going on with this fight, there actually feels like a good chance that Goku could ACTUALLY lose this thing...and that's incredibly hard to do and not have it feel forced, but through the simple act of having been through all of this before, Toriyama manages to make it work. This effect is further heightened by the fact that we've never seen Goku quite as injured as he becomes here either. We've seen him pretty beaten up before, especially against the likes of Taopaipai and the previous Demon King Piccolo, but here he's actually injured in a way that seems like certain death. Even with Piccolo having missed all of his organs – you know, SOMEHOW – he's still got a huge gaping hole in his body, and he's going to bleed out if something's not done quickly. Despite the best efforts of his friends however, Goku and Piccolo both firmly assert that this fight is between them and them alone for the time being. While Goku's argument for this is entirely verbal, Piccolo's however shows that he still has some power left in reserve even after everything he just did, and that's just insane. At the point both characters are at now, it's hard to believe that Tenshinhan and Kuririn were both able to fight with them as well as they did before, frankly. Piccolo's cruelty feels more palpable here than it ever has before either, as he viciously attacks both Goku's wound – the anime in particular has a great shot of him JABBING HIS ELBOW INTO IT, Jeebus Piccolo, calm down! - as well as taking away any means he has left to fight back. It's a nice callback that leaving Goku with one limb was the ultimate cause of his predecessor's defeat, and this new Piccolo will be damned if he's going to make that same mistake. Going back to Goku's refusal of his friend's help, it shows that even now he still thinks of this as a tournament match, which we've already discussed as a somewhat crazy thing to be thinking at this point. This time around however, there's a narrative reason beyond that. When Kami asks Tenshinhan to kill him, there's no denying that that would have brought things to a halt then and there. Goku probably wouldn't be declared the victor of the fight (and even if he was, I doubt he'd be happy about it), but the threat of Piccolo would be over, and his wounds could be attended to. The storyline really could be wrapped up then and there...but would that at all be entertaining? I highly doubt anyone would honestly say yes. Compared to the last time Kami and the other characters tried to join in on the fight, this is the one that bodes the least well for anything good coming out of it. The previous times, we could have still had some kind of entertaining fight come out of everyone deciding to fight together against Piccolo. It would have been different than what we got, and I personally have a hard time thinking that it would be better really – but we can't say for sure that it wouldn't have been. It could have been just as entertaining, in a different way. With this however, it would have just brought the fight to a crashing halt. It would have been jarring in every way, and completely unfulfilling to witness. This is a sort of double-edged sword that I've seen come up in a lot of fan discussions in regards to the series. 'The characters should have done this and they would have won easier' or 'the characters should have done that and then this wouldn't have happened' – there's no end to debates of that sort in the fandom. Sometimes, the debates raise good, valid points, and show where the logic of the characters doesn't make any sense, or just where they make a morally ambiguous or just plain stupid choice. Other times however, they're a narrative fallacy honestly, because if the story had taken the course that they suggest, the story itself wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining. I'll talk about this quite a bit more in regards to later arcs as we come to them, but this felt like a logical place to bring it up for the first time, because I think this moment fits to a degree. Yes, the logical thing to do would be for Tenshinhan to kill Kami, but if the story would suffer for it, then the logical thing would actually be the wrong thing to do – fiction is not reality, and what would be a bad choice in real life, where real lives are concerned, is not always the right narrative choice for entertainment. That's just my opinion on the matter however, and I'm sure other people's mileage will vary, especially in regards to different moments we'll come across as the story goes on. As things stand now however, it truly looks like Goku has no way to come back from this. Is he doomed to come second place in the Tenkaichi Budokai for a third time in the row, and is it weird that he's more preoccupied about that than what his loss will mean for the fate of the world? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The End of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai...! Synopsis: Piccolo thinks it should be impossible, but Goku's friends cheer him on and remark that Piccolo's attack didn't even knock Goku down. Goku tells Piccolo that he should be able to tell that it's over now, as he no doubt spent all of his energy on that attack. Piccolo grimaces, and Goku confidently states that Piccolo can't win now. Goku begins to charge his own energy and stares down Piccolo, who can't believe this is happening to him. Goku gets into position and then rushes Piccolo, catching him hard in the face with an elbow strike. Goku follows this up with a serious of vicious kicks that catch Piccolo repeatedly across the chest and shoulders, before ending his physical assault with a hard enough punch to Piccolo's gut to make him cough up blood. It doesn't stop there however, as Goku leaps high into the air as Piccolo falls to the ground. Turning back to face the ground, Goku fires another huge Super Kamehameha, and as he sees it coming, Piccolo can do nothing, and is hit full force by the blast. As Goku lands back into the ground that was once the ring, Piccolo lies in a crater inside as well. Goku calls for the announcer to start the ten count, and remembering that this is technically still the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, the announcer rushes over. He asks if Piccolo is dead, but Goku assures him that he's too sturdy for that, and Kami says the fact that he's still alive is proof enough that Piccolo is still breathing. Deciding to roll with that, the announcer starts his ten count, assisted by Goku's friends. As the numbers count up, Goku turns and gives his friends a thumbs up. Just as the nine count is called however, Piccolo lurches up without warning and fires an energy blast from his mouth, catching Goku completely off guard and piercing him through the left side of his chest. Review: Ho. Ly. CRAP. After how the last chapter was basically a repeat of events, this one does it's best to recapture the fight's momentum, and damn if it doesn't do that and more. This fight hasn't really slowed down since it started, but I still don't think it's been quite this intense since it first started. I've said it before, and I'll say it again – you've really got to witness this one for yourselves, as my description is absolutely doing it a disservice. As good as this part is in the manga however, this is one of those moments where I fully recommend watching the anime as well. I could watch Goku's beatdown here on loop for the rest of my life and never get bored... Goku's beatdown is so brutal in fact that it takes up a majority of the pages this time around, as well as seeming like it would have to be the final note of this tournament and arc. Piccolo's defeated though not dead, meaning that Goku can be declared the victor of the Tenkaichi Budokai for the very first time, and he doesn't have to worry about Kami having died either. There's sure to be some debate about what to do with Piccolo next in the following chapter of course, but- And then it happens. The fight that was over isn't actually over at all, and Piccolo manages to wound Goku in a way he's never been wounded before. It's a shocking end to the chapter, and definitely something that I don't think any first-time fans would have seen coming. Admittedly though, I can't help but feel that Toriyama ever-so-slightly botched it out of having the full effect it could have. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great moment, but the surprise is dulled a little bit by how the panels are laid out. I can't remember how the pages are lined up across from each other in the physical volumes, much less how they would have been laid out in the original magazine releases, as I'm using Viz's Shonen Jump app and my tablet. That said, the panel with Piccolo's surprise attack first shown is on the same page as Goku's thumbs up and his friends shouting 'Nine!'. It would have been even more shocking if the pages had been set up a bit differently, especially if that would have worked out with the way the pages would lay out physically. I mean, just picture this. You turn the page, and on one page you see Goku and Kami explaining that Piccolo's still alive, and the ten count gets up to nine (rather than eight as it does). On the next page without turning, you see Goku's friends all looking overjoyed in a smaller panel, and the larger panel is dedicated to Goku's thumbs up. You then turn the page, and the first thing you see is Piccolo lurching up and firing a beam. Your eyes immediately dart to the opposite page and see Goku impaled on the blast. Just think how much more shocking that'd be! But alas, that's not how it was done, and again, I'm not even sure that would have worked with the pages as they're laid out physically in the volumes (as that's largely dictated by every page that comes before it.) It would've been great though. Until next time! Favorite Panel: |
About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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