Synopsis: As Goku celebrates his victory over Devil Man, his friends look on in stunned joy as well, while Baba can't believe this is happening. Goku tells her to bring out her last fighter, and Baba admits they're the first group to have made it this far, but assures them they've never seen anything like the last guy. She shouts for him to come out, and the 'Masked Man' comes out of the statue opposite Goku, happily greeting everyone. As Kuririn wonders if this last fighter really is that tough, the Masked Man tells Baba he'd really like to fight Goku in a no-holds barred fight, and requests that they move the fighting back to the arena outside, and Baba obliges him.
As Baba leads the way back to the outside arena, she asks the Masked Man if he's going to win, and he says he thinks he can. Kuririn tells Goku he thinks he's got this in the bag, but notices that Goku seems off somehow and asks if he's tired. Goku says it's not that he's tired, it's just that the smell of this new fighter is somehow familiar and makes him happy, confusing Kuririn greatly. The Masked Man speaks to Baba privately again while Yamcha asks Roshi why he's being so quiet. Bulma thinks he's worrying about Goku's chances of winning, but Roshi too says there's something very familiar to him about this Masked Man, almost like he's met him before somewhere but can't place him. He can however tell that the man has a great aura of power behind him, which would explain why Baba's so certain about saving him for last. With their talk finished, Baba is surprised by what the Masked Man has told her, and Goku asks if they're going to fight now or not. Baba says that if Goku wins, as she'll have no fighters left after this, she will divine the location of the last Dragon Ball for them. As Goku goes into a fighting position, the Masked Man chastises him for not doing a pre-match bow, and Goku promptly does so, interesting Roshi greatly. Baba declares the match's start, and as the two fighters stare each other down, Roshi says this won't be an easy match. Goku himself can tell that this guy is on a whole other level from the previous fighters, but when the man tells Goku to attack, Goku does so. The Masked Man launches his own attack, forcing Goku to dodge, and the two end up in a deadlock, until the Masked Man flips through the air, landing behind Goku and knocking him into the air. Goku lands and rebounds back, landing a powerful kick to the man's face, forcing him back as well. Goku's friends watch in disbelief over how intense the fight is already getting. Review: While there's plenty of good things in this chapter, it's yet another one that serves mostly as a transitional point to the next beat in the story, and as such doesn't really leave me with as much to comment on as I'd like there to be. As always though, there are at least a few things I want to touch on. First and most importantly of all, I have to really hand it to Toriyama here. In comparison to how he handled the 'reveal' of Lunch's transformations, or the poorly kept Jackie Chun secret? The mystery of the Masked Man's identity is handled SO much better. There's ample clues spread throughout this chapter to really make a new fan's brain start thinking and trying to deduce who it is, but he never actually plays his hand outright and gives us too much to go on and spoil the surprise. To be fair though, I guess that's a little easier to do here than with Jackie Chun, since this time it's not a character we've met before and spent plenty of time with like we had Roshi by that point. Still though, kudos to him for perhaps learning from previous underwhelming writing on his part. The main clues as to the Masked Man's identity of course come from Goku and Roshi. Goku thinks he smells good (and familiar), and Roshi also feels like he knows him, and both also recognize him as a very strong fighter even before the first punches are thrown. The biggest hint of all though comes from the fact that both of these characters in particular have this deja vu like feeling with him, but nobody else does. Kuririn not getting that feeling would suggest it's someone Goku and Roshi met before Kuririn came along, but that then begs the question of why Yamcha and the others don't seem to think he looks familiar either, when it was that very first journey that brought them all together that lead Goku to meeting Roshi for the first time. Someone that both Goku and Roshi met at some point in time we haven't seen, that doesn't include any of the other characters? It's a very coy hint, by Toriyama standards anyway. As much as I'm praising it though, the hints of a big mustache from behind the mask, as well as various design choices seeming to hint at an advanced age for the character, probably leads a lot of first time fans with their thinking caps on to predict who the character is pretty accurately too. A better sense of mystery doesn't necessarily mean it's a particularly hard one either. In contrast to that, another mystery is presented without any hints whatsoever, and that's what Baba and the Masked Man could possibly be talking about on their own that surprises Baba. More and more mysteries continue to pop up around the Masked Man, and it all becomes even more intriguing when we see that Goku and Roshi's prediction about him being a strong fighter prove correct. Remember, we've just come off a couple of chapters that showed just how amazingly strong Goku has become in comparison to the rest of his friends, and now we have someone who seems to be fighting evenly with him. Hell, this is actually the first truly even fighting we've seen him do since the Tenkaichi Budokai, and more importantly, it's the first even fighting we've seen him do since getting his power-up via Karin's training – just who IS this Masked Man, and why is he so strong? Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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