Synopsis: The fourth and final match of the first round of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai gets started, as the announcer calls out Panput and Goku. The announcer explains to the crowd that Panput is already the champion of two other internationally recognized martial arts tournament and is here to make himself a triple-crowned champion, and Kuririn is impressed at his accomplishments, as is Roshi. Tenshinhan however remarks that this tournament is leagues beyond any others. Kuririn tells Goku he must have bad luck to face such a strong opponent in his first match, and Goku assures him he'll just have to go all-out in that case.
As the announcer prepares to announce the match's start, Panput throws a punch at Goku's face that stops just before hitting him. Panput smirks and says he's surprised Goku didn't duck, but wonders if it's more that he didn't have time to – Goku however remarks that the punch just didn't look that scary. Panput says Goku must not know much about him, and offers him a demonstration, throwing a flurry of punches and a kick at thin air before backflipping towards the ring's edge and breaking part of the wall with an elbow smash. This impresses the crowd and distresses the announcer as they'd just fixed that, but Panput asks if Goku now understands what he's about, and Goku happily says he does. Kuririn says that Panput seems to be a bit of a show-off, but Chun says at least they can watch the match more easily now. Kuririn thinks Panput doesn't look very impressive after all, but Chun tells him to watch the match closely. The announcer declares a start of the match, and Panput lunges towards Goku, aiming a punch at him – but Goku pushes his arm out of the way, and seemingly hits Panput with but one elbow strike. Panput stutters and stumbles forward, before falling to the ground, unconscious. The crowd cheers while the announcer says Goku beat his opponent with a single blow, but Tenshinhan knows better – he saw that after Goku parried Panput's blow, he hit him with his elbow, followed by three more hits in rapid succession. Tenshinhan is impressed, saying that Goku is no normal fighter after all, and Tsuru-sennin wonders if this means he really did beat his brother after all. Tenshinhan smirks however, and says this tournament is starting to get interesting. Kuririn congratulates Goku on his victory and says that Panput really didn't seem like much after all, with Goku saying maybe he was just having an off day, but Chun laughs and informs them of the truth – Panput truly was strong, from a normal person's point of view. Goku and Kuririn however have moved past that, well beyond the normal person's idea of strength, so Panput looked weak by comparison. Kuririn says that Yamcha is about at the same skill level as him though and still lost, plus he had to struggle against Chaozu, and Chun says that's because their opponents were both also well beyond normal human strength. The announcer declares the start of the semi-final round and calls for Tenshinhan and Jackie Chun to return to the ring, and as he steps outside, Roshi thinks to himself that a new era might truly be dawning. Tenshinhan thinks to himself that he can't let his guard down against Chun, while Kuririn looks at his hands and wonders if they really have gotten as strong as Chun says they have. Review: This chapter wasn't necessarily bad, but if I'm being completely honest? It doesn't really bring anything to the table that hasn't already been acknowledged before, and because of that, there's probably a reason that Panput is one of the most easily forgettable opponents Goku has ever fought. Hell, saying he “fought” him is even a stretch, frankly. Fans more familiar with the anime version of events probably remember a slightly longer story with Panput's manager trying to cause Goku to lose by default or pay him to lose or the like (it's been a while since I've seen it, so I forget the exact details), and while part of that was just to give enough material for an episode, I can't help but feel it was also an attempt to elevate this admittedly pretty flat material a bit. I mean, let's go over what Panput contributes here. He doubts Goku's capability as a fighter at least in comparison to himself; he shows off some feats of skill and strength that are marginally impressive from a real world standard but absolutely nothing by Dragon Ball standards, especially this far in; and then he loses to Goku in what appears to be one hit. There's nothing new here, it's all ground we've tread before. It's long been established how far beyond normal fighters Goku and his friends are by this point, in fact it was established pretty well in the preliminaries of the 21st Budokai. And speaking of the preliminaries, we've already done this song and dance with Goku taking out a famed fighter like he was nothing a mere seven chapters ago with King Chappa. At a weekly pace that would've been a little more than a month prior, but still – there wasn't really any reason for Toriyama to repeat himself so quickly here. About the only thing this chapter truly advances in terms of story (because Goku winning and getting past the first round if nothing else was always going to be a foregone conclusion) is Tenshinhan and Tsuru-sennin getting to see a hint of him in action to make them understand he's more than he appears to be and make them wonder if he really did take out Taopaipai. Even that feels somewhat unneeded however, as they're just going to get to see him fight again in short order, and it'll be an even more intense fight to impress them with. So yeah, this chapter is sadly pretty underwhelming, as was this 'match'. Thankfully a much more interesting and exciting match-up is up next to wash our hands of this whole Panput debacle. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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