Synopsis: Goku's friends have all arrived on Papaya Island and are wondering where Goku is, as the tournament registration is going to close soon. Roshi returns from the bathroom and they all take a taxi over to the tournament arena, where Kuririn and Yamcha sign up as entrants. Roshi asks the attendant if a 'Son Goku' has signed in yet, and though the attendant recognizes Goku's name as the runner-up from last time, he doesn't seem to have arrived yet. Roshi hopes that Goku hasn't forgotten what today is, knowing how irresponsible he can be. Yamcha says there's only about five minutes left to sign up and Lunch considers entering the tournament for a shot at the 500,000 zeni prize, but Turtle tells her that they don't allow weapons. As they all chat, Roshi sneaks back over to the attendant and asks him to sign up 'Jackie Chun' as well, and also asking him to keep his identity a secret. Kuririn asks Roshi where he ran off to this time, and when Roshi says the bathroom again, Turtle tells him he needs to watch his diet.
The wait for Goku is interrupted by a snide old man with a crane-hat and his two students, a tall three-eyed man and a small pale child. Roshi instantly recognizes Tsuru-sennin, the Crane Hermit, and tells him he's shocked he's still alive. Tsuru-sennin says Roshi is as foul-mouthed and ugly as ever, and says he heard a rumor that Roshi's students did quite well at the last tournament. As such, Tsuru-sennin has decided to enter his own students and show everyone what real martial arts looks like, so he'll understand if Roshi pulls his students out of the competition now. Roshi says Tsuru-sennin still has a warped sense of humor to tell such a joke, and the two continue to bicker until Tsuru-sennin leaves saying this tournament will settle things. As they walk away, the three-eyed man snorts in derision at Roshi's students. Yamcha asks Roshi who the rude old guy was, and Roshi explains that Tsuru-sennin is a former rival of his. With only a minute left before registration closes, Yamcha asks Puar to transform into Goku and sign up for him, but Lunch spots Goku – now dressed in a tiger pelt – arriving just in the nick of time. Everyone rushes to see Goku as Roshi gets his student signed up, with Yamcha noticing that Goku's gotten a bit taller now, something that irritates Kuririn who says he's gotten taller too. Roshi tells Goku that he had them all worried and asks why he didn't come on kinto'un, but Goku reminds Roshi that he told him not to use it. Oolong says that Goku surely didn't swim all this way, and Goku says it was only from a place called Yahhoi, astonishing everyone as Yahhoi is on the other side of the world. An announcer asks over an intercom for all tournament entrants to come to the gymnasium so the preliminaries can begin. Goku, Kuririn, and Yamcha change into their Turtle gi's, and everyone wishes them luck, with Roshi telling them to show everyone how much they've improved in the past three years. Once in the gym, Kuririn notices that it looks like there's even more people here than last time, and some of the fighters recognize the trio as contestants who made it all the way to the tournament three years before. Back outside, Puar and the others notice that Roshi has disappeared on them again, and they wonder if he had to go to the bathroom yet again. Now in his Jackie Chun disguise, Roshi is soon approached by Goku who is happy to see he's come back to fight again. Goku says he's going to do his best to beat him this time, and Jackie Chun compliments him for clearly having trained hard in the past three years. Thinking to himself, Roshi reveals that he too has been secretly training hard, as he can't bear the thought of losing to his own student. An announcer thanks all contestants for coming to the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. He reminds everyone that interest in the tournament has skyrocketed as evidenced by the large number of entrants this year, so they'll now be having the tournament every three years rather than five as they had done previously. Out of the 182 fighters gathered, only 8 of them will move on to the actual tournament. As all of the fighters listen to this announcement, Goku's friends watch him with some annoyance as he casually eats a riceball. Review: With the true start of this next arc, we finally enter the series very first time skip of note, and...well, I've got feelings on that, but love them or hate them, you'd better get used to them, because you're going to be seeing a fair few more of these moving forward. Toriyama's time skips usually carry two different effects with them – they allow him to move the characters forward and change things about them rather abruptly rather than going through each step in the process or each day in their lives, and they allow him to increase everyone's strength in a rapid manner rather than going through each step of that either. The latter is something that I've already spoken at length about not being the craziest about when it allows us to skip out on whatever training the characters are going through to get such results, but even I can't deny that the former is a good way to shake things up. Heading into this arc might be one of the most subdued period of change the series will ever have, but it is there and easy enough to see. The most noticeable change of course comes with both Goku and Kuririn, who are both a good bit taller now than they were before, and generally not drawn in the same round-bodied style they used to be. It's easy to forget about that, but during this period you can definitely see a change in how they look in all of Toriyama's art, and it goes a great way to show that these characters really are getting older as time passes. The passage of time is less noticeable in regards to the likes of Yamcha and Bulma, but I think part of that is because we've already seen both of them change their hairstyles a handful of times in the series, so them doing so yet again doesn't hold quite the same level of surprise as the boys growing taller does. If you squint, or have artwork of them from earlier in the series side-by-side with their current designs as of this arc however, you can spot some more minor differences. In the case of everyone else though? They're basically the same as they ever were, and will largely stay that way throughout the rest of the franchise other than the occasional clothing change. Amidst everyone's antics while waiting for Goku, it's Roshi who actually ends up taking center stage, and in a weird way, he'll continue to be a very central figure for the rest of the arc as it's both his history and his choices that are going to dictate how things play out. It's almost a little surprising to see him enter the tournament under the guise of Jackie Chun again, seeing as how he seemed fairly certain that Goku had surpassed him by the end of the Baba arc. He gives his reasoning as not wanting to get shown up by his own students, particularly Goku, and while that's probably true on some level – the pride of a martial artist and all – I think it's very much for the same reasons he did it the first time. He showed Goku and Kuririn that there was always someone way stronger out there in the world, and then Goku's adventure gathering the Dragon Balls reinforced that lesson even further, resulting in Goku becoming stronger than Roshi could have possibly imagined. This tactic seemingly worked on Kuririn and Yamcha to some degree as well, so Roshi is probably hoping to keep them all going just that much longer so they can reach their fullest potential. Roshi is also the focal point of the new threat in this arc, in the form of the Crane School. Tsuru-sennin is an interesting character in the way he somewhat fills a gap that we didn't even realize we had. Despite how long we've had Roshi around as a character, we really know shockingly little about him. Where he came from, what his real name is, what sort of training he got up to in his own youth – these are all questions that by and large we still don't have answers to even today (other than knowing that, as far as parallels with Goku's own training goes, he never went any further than training with Karin). With the introduction of Tsuru-sennin however, we now know he had his own rivalry in the past, and that there's another skilled old master out there teaching the next generation of martial artists. It's made clear very quickly that the two old-timers don't get along, which even without knowing their history is an understandable enough sentiment – not once prior to this in the series has anyone ever mentioned a Crane Hermit. Hell, even Yamcha who is usually a repository of information on notable martial artists, doesn't seem to have ever heard of him before, and yet various people throughout the story have recognized Roshi's name and reputation. If their rivalry wasn't bitter before, it certainly would be after that kind of disrespect. It's fitting that all of this is bubbling just under the surface of this tournament, because this arc as a whole is going to quickly prove to be about just that – your choices dictating the type of person you are and how you're remembered, and handing things off to the next generation rather than continuing to pump up your own pride. 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
September 2022
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