Synopsis: With Dracula Man's defeat, the gang is overjoyed and think everything is back on track now, but Baba warns them that each champion will become progressively stronger. Yamcha is still confident he can handle whoever is next though, and steps into the ring after telling Upa and Puar they can rest now. Baba laughs and says she thought they learned their lesson about expecting only two remaining fighters to be able to take her remaining four, but Yamcha insists he can probably get the job done all by himself, much to Goku's objection as he wants to fight too. Yamcha says they're keeping him in reserve though, and tells Baba to bring out the next fighter. To Yamcha's surprise however, Baba says they're already here.
Everyone looks around to try to find this new fighter, and Baba laughs and says it's natural they can't see him, as the next fighter is Invisible Man. She declares the match's start, and to Yamcha's surprise, a voice speaks from out of nowhere in front of him before he's hit by a series of unseen strikes. Yamcha bemoans that this isn't fair and tells the coward to show himself, but Invisible Man simply continues to attack Yamcha, with Yamcha unable to land a blow in return. Yamcha curses, and Baba asks him what happened to all that bravado he had moments before. Goku asks Kuririn why Yamcha is fighting all by himself, but Kuririn quickly tells Goku to go get Roshi and Bulma and bring them here quickly. Goku leaves to do so, and Baba remarks that the boy has a kinto'un, prompting her curiosity about him further. Yamcha continues trying to fight, deciding that he'll have to try and figure out where his opponent is based on minute air movements from his opponent's movements, and in doing so he's able to just barely land a kick on Invisible Man. Yamcha thinks he's figuring out how to fight him now, but the Invisible Man laughs and says it won't be that easy. Suddenly, Baba starts to sing, drowning out any sounds of movement Invisible Man would make, and Invisible Man resumes beating Yamcha viciously. Baba asks Yamcha if he'd like to surrender, and Yamcha laments that this fight would be easy if he could just see his opponent. Just in the nick of time, Goku returns with Roshi and Bulma in tow. Bulma demands to know what Kuririn needed them for as she was just about to head home, but Kuririn says he just wanted them to watch this match for a little while. As Yamcha continues getting beaten, Kuririn positions the two of them how he wants them to watch, with Bulma standing in front of Roshi and Roshi looking at her with his head raised up. Kuririn keeps them positioned that way until Yamcha and, presumably, his opponent come in range...and Kuririn yanks down Bulma's top, giving Roshi an up close view of her breasts. Roshi's nose sprays blood out, splashing all over the Invisible Man, allowing Yamcha to see him at last, and with the fighter's advantage gone, Yamcha is able to quickly beat down the Invisible man who promptly surrenders. Goku and Kuririn are overjoyed at Yamcha's victory, but Bulma hits Kuririn hard in the head and asks him what the hell he thinks he was doing. Kuririn insists it was all to save her boyfriend, but even Roshi says he could have been given a hemorrhage over something like that. Kuririn says he didn't know what else to do, and Roshi slyly tells him it's okay and he can pull something like that again anytime he wants, as Bulma scowls at both of them. Baba praises their clever tactic, but thinks it'll take more than cleverness to defeat her next three fighters. Review: At long last, Dragon Ball has hit it's first 100 chapters, and as inappropriate as the scene itself may be (especially given Bulma's age still), I think we can all agree that it makes total sense that Toriyama being Toriyama, the chapter just so happens to be the first one with blatant female nudity in a long, long while. More on that in a bit though. Despite how humbled the gang became in the last chapter, it looks like they're really not paying a lot of attention to lessons they should be learning, because they revert right back to being overconfident and thinking that only Yamcha and Goku will be needed to deal with the rest of Baba's fighters. The fact that they're right and are primarily right just due to how strong Goku has become now is really a mute point, because man are their egos getting out of control here. Yamcha, you're supposed to be the smart one, you should really know better than this. Yamcha's opponent this time, an invisible man, is like-wise inspired by old Universal monster movies just like Dracula Man was, and he's even more blatantly named. Unlike Dracula Man though, Invisible Man is handled a lot better in my opinion. While, yes, the entire gimmick of the character is tied to what he is just as Dracula Man's was, and it really only has one utilization compared to the multiple vampire tropes tossed into the previous chapter, this one just feels like more fun is had with the idea. Dracula Man was a fairly tough opponent since Kuririn couldn't deal with him, but Invisible Man, despite Baba's claim that each fighter gets tougher? Really doesn't seem that tough – he just has a seemingly “unbeatable” gimmick. It also helps that, despite Yamcha's overconfidence being similar to Kuririn's, he still gets to show off some intelligence by deducing that he can follow the sounds the Invisible Man makes when he moves, making this fight seem a little more balanced and not played entirely for laughs. It still leans pretty heavily into comedy of course though, what with Baba's awful singing voice. Kuririn's suggestion brings Roshi and Bulma back into play as well, and alright, let's talk about THAT scene. Dragon Ball, by this point in time, had fairly largely moved away from the sex jokes that were so prevalent at the start of the series. I'm not entirely sure what caused this change, as it's clear that Toriyama is still a big fan of such gags, but for whatever reason, we hadn't really had anything quite on this level in some time – hell, the last nudity in the manga, while just a few chapters ago, was Goku's junk being on display because he didn't know not to just strip in the street. While still nudity, that's played quite differently from the nudity on display here with Bulma's breasts. It's also hard to really say what prompted the return of this type of humor and fan-service either – was Toriyama just itching to do this sort of thing again? Was it just something that seemed to further help alleviate the seriousness that the previous arc had delved into? Was it actually a big celebratory thing in his mind for reaching 100 chapters? Was it a combination of all of this? As far as I know, nothing is ever said one way or the other, but one thing is for sure – this scene is pretty famous to fans that have read or watched the original run of Dragon Ball, especially if you were a younger male fan when first coming across it, and I don't think there's any mystery as to why that is. Toriyama, you sly, pervy dog you. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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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
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