Synopsis: All of the contestants draw lots to see where they're going to be in the preliminaries, and Goku, Kuririn, Yamcha, and Jacke Chun are all relieved to discover that they're spread out so that they won't have to fight each other until the actual tournament. As everyone is separated into their areas, an announcer explains the rules of the tournament – everyone fights on-on-one, and if you're knocked out or call for mercy, you lose; no weapons are allowed; and there is no time limit, so everyone is to fight until a winner is determined.
The first fighter to be called into the ring is Yamcha, who quickly takes out his opponent with one blow. Goku promptly compliments Yamcha for how much he must've been training, while Kuririn is called up for his match. Kuririn ends up against a veritable giant of a man who, despite Kuririn's pleasant greeting, mocks the boy. Kuririn promptly gets his revenge by throwing the man out of the ring and into the opposite wall, earning him both a victory and Goku's admiration as well. Seeing their celebration, Tenshinhan walks over and calls them foolish for being happy about such easy victories. Goku asks who Tenshinhan is and Kuririn explains about Tsuru-sennin and his students. Tenshinhan tells them they're all lucky they don't have to face him in the preliminaries, but warns them that luck will eventually run out – that is, supposing they even make it into the tournament at all with such weak skills. Yamcha tells him to get lost before he lays him out, and Tenshinhan praises his attitude but says it's a shame he doesn't have the skills to match it. Tenshinhan is called into the ring next, and he mockingly wishes them all good luck and asks them to try not to get so scared that they pee their pants. Kuririn thinks Tenshinhan is a shoe-in for the biggest jerk he's ever met, and thinks it'll be funny if he loses this match after all his big talk, but Goku says he thinks Tenshinhan is a pretty good fighter. Tenshinhan quickly lives up to Goku's summation of him by taking out his sumo opponent with moves so quick that none of the other contestants can see him move, but Goku and friends can tell he used four arm chops and two kicks. Goku praises Tenshinhan's skills as well, but Kuririn doesn't think he did anything THAT special. Overhearing this, Tenshinhan thinks to himself that only fools show everything they can do right at the start. Goku is called into the ring next, and Yamcha wonders if he'll be able to give them a good show right away. He overhears people talking about Goku's opponent as he gets into the ring, and Yamcha is surprised to learn that it's King Chappa, making him wonder if Goku might actually be in trouble. Kuririn asks who King Chappa is, and Yamcha explains that he's a martial-artist said to be among the very best, and the rumors even say that the last time he fought in this tournament, he won without being hit by any opponents even once. Yamcha thinks there might be a chance Goku could just squeak by considering his own skills, but... As the announcer declares a start to the match, King Chappa promises Goku that he won't kill him, and Goku thanks him for that. Review: This chapter might seem familiar at first glance, and there's good reason for that – functionally speaking, it performs the exact same tasks that the preliminary focused chapters for the 21st Budokai did. There could be something to say for that potentially being repetitive, but in this case, I think it's fine for the most part honestly. The chapters it's most similar to are chapters 33 and 34, and here we are all the way in chapter 114. That's more than enough time spread out to keep it feeling too much like we're treading the same water once more, and if we're going to dig that deeply into it being a repeat, the tournament itself could be accused of being that as a whole, so... And really, the chapter gives us exactly what we need out of the preliminaries anyway by teasing us ever so slightly with how strong the characters are...for the most part. Kuririn and Yamcha get to show off a little bit, but really there's not much to their fights to really hint that they're any stronger than they already were before, as both of their fights are over really quickly and against people that we can easily imagine them taking out at any point in the series. If it wasn't for Goku's running commentary about how much they've improved, there'd really be nothing to suggest they'd achieved much at all. That said however, Goku's words do carry weight because of just how strong he himself no doubt is by this point, and as if that weren't enough, his words are quickly proven to be correct about Tenshinhan as well, someone that he doesn't know at all (anime filler be damned). The main new factor of this chapter is Tenshinhan himself actually. Again, ignoring the anime filler episode that introduced him early, this is our first time really seeing what he's like. His first appearance in the previous chapter was short and the only word we got out of him there was a snort, and here we get quite a bit of dialogue out of him, dialogue that shows his demeanor off quite well, and MAN what an asshole. It's easy to see him as someone that trained under Tsuru-sennin given how much of an asshole that character has already shown himself to be, and it's also hilariously disarming when you think about how the character is later on. Particularly when you compare his attitude here against a certain other character that Tenshinhan can't stand...hmm... Tenshinhan's fight is likewise fairly unimpressive considering how quickly he takes his opponent out, but given that he's a new character we've never seen before, it does help us see that he's not all mouth and actually has some skill to back up his big words, so it's more needed in his case compared to Kuririn and Yamcha. It also sets up the idea that there's far more to his skills than we're seeing now, setting him up already as potentially the biggest new threat to any of them in this tournament. The last thing set up in this chapter is Goku's match, though we don't get to see it just yet. Yamcha is once again put into the role of 'guy who knows about martial artists', so he's able to build up Goku's opponent as someone that's supposed to be pretty skilled, to the point that he's not sure Goku can win this or at least won't win it easily. Keep in mind that Yamcha is also aware that Goku took down the entire Red Ribbon Army, and has also spent the last three years training to get even stronger than he was at that point in time – the fact that he thinks King Chappa is potentially still someone Goku might have trouble against speaks volumes about just how strong Chappa seemingly is. Also, shout out to the Dragon Quest monsters that managed to show up for the Budokai. I dunno how far Alefgard is from Papaya Island, but that plane ticket can't be cheap. 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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