Synopsis: King Chappa offers for Goku to attack first however he'd like, while Jackie Chun says that he thinks even Goku might find himself in over his head against this opponent, though he's interested to see just how much the boy has improved in three years. Goku takes Chappa up on his offer, and leaps forward so quickly that Chappa is unable to block the punch that connects right with his face. Chappa is knocked backwards and the crowd is shocked, but Chappa laughs and says that Goku isn't just some kid from the streets after all. Goku laughs in response, which angers Chappa, causing Yamcha to worry and Chun to think they're about to see Chappa's special attack, the Hasshu-ken or 'Blow of 8 Fists'. Chappa asks Goku not to hold this against him and says that defeat is also part of a person's training, and launches the Hasshu-ken, moving so fast that it appears he has eight arms, all trying to punch Goku at once. Goku however manages to block every single attack by moving even faster, a feat that catches all watching by surprise. Goku catches them all by surprise even more when he sweeps Chappa's legs out from under him, telling the man that they were wide open. Now truly enraged, Chappa leaps back onto his feet prepared to strike Goku once more, but to his surprise Goku disappears while dodging the blow. Goku reappears in the air above them, and Chun thinks that Goku has made a blunder. Chappa laughs and says Goku's childlike nature has betrayed him, as dodging into the air leaves him open to attack and unable to dodge like before. As Goku rebounds off of the ceiling and heads back down towards Chappa, Chappa swings a fist towards the boy, but Goku manages to dodge after all by expelling his breath forcefully enough to leave him suspended in the air briefly, allowing him to kick Chappa in the face hard enough to knock him out of the ring, winning the match. With Goku declared the winner, his friends are completely astonished, Chun especially surprised that he was able to use his breath like that. Kuririn warns Goku not to go all out too quickly or he'll be too tired for the actual tournament, but Goku assures him that he hasn't even come close to going all out, because if he had, Chappa would have died. Goku says he can't wait to get to the real tough guys like all of them, and they laugh nervously while Roshi thinks to himself that this could be bad for him. The preliminaries continue, and Chun manages to win his preliminary round as well, with Goku thrilled to see that the old man is still as tough as ever. Yamcha thinks this is going to shape up to be an even more exciting tournament than he'd thought. As the matches continue, Goku, Kuririn, and Yamcha all manage to qualify for the tournament alongside Jackie Chun, and the trio run off afterwards to tell everyone the good news. Bulma congratulates them all for winning, but Kuririn notices that Roshi doesn't seem to be with them. Bulma says he probably disappeared into the crowd to do lewd things, which Roshi scoffs at when he reappears claiming to have snuck off to watch the matches. He congratulates his students on a job well done and says any one of them could win the tournament this time. An announcer calls the contestants to return to the main tournament hall, and Kuririn wonders if their friends will even be able to see the fights from this spot in the crowd. Oolong says that's what Lunch is for, and the blonde smirks and starts clearing the way by shooting her gun into the air. Review: Poor King Chappa. All things told, he certainly seems to be a truly accomplished martial artist. Both Yamcha and even Roshi seem to truly believe he's an impressive fighter, to the point that they don't know how well Goku is going to be able to handle him, and I once again must stress that these are both characters that are also well aware of Goku's capability. They both know he cleaned the Red Ribbon Army out three years ago and that he's been training to get even stronger than that since then, and yet they still think Chappa might be too much for him. As we quickly see however, the complete opposite turns out to be true. King Chappa can't so much as lay a finger on Goku. That power gap that was already set in place after Goku trained at Karin's has only gotten even wider now, and normal fighters who were previously considered at least pretty skilled are no longer going to factor in as challenges for Goku. ...Okay, for the most part they never did in the first place, but there's still a clear line that's been crossed here, and Goku is firmly on the other side of I while just about everyone else in the series is still watching from behind it. The most impressive thing by far is Goku's trick with exhaling his breath forcefully enough to stop his own fall. I'm not an expert on these things, but there is a traditional martial arts term called a 'kiai' that's basically the short shout you often hear a fighter yell out when letting loose an attack – think Bruce Lee's vocalizations whenever he would fight. In Dragon Ball specifically, we later see a good few instances of this happen but much more forcefully, almost as an attack. Whether or not this same tactic used by Goku would also qualify as a kiai in the strictest sense isn't a call I'm qualified to make, but by the fantasy logic that Dragon Ball's martial arts works under? I'd say they're pretty similar if nothing else, and either way, it's definitely one hell of an impressive feat. After that, the rest of the chapter is basically back into the swing of things in that it's just there to get us to the rest of the tournament proper. Roshi's concern that even he might not be able to just barely beat Goku this time around is well placed, but the big surprise of the last few pages for me is that there's actually a funny use of Lunch again. Utilizing the blonde form as her default form at the moment rather than the blue-haired one, and having her gag be that she's overly violent but the gang is used to her so they'll just use that to their advantage, is both hilarious and a great showing of how they're not exactly heroes in the way a lot of people tend to think of them as. It took over 100 chapters, but I think Toriyama has finally figured out how to make Lunch work, hurray! I'm sure she has a long and illustrious future ahead of her as a primary character in the series. 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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