Synopsis: King Piccolo can't wait to get the Dragon Balls and wish to restore his youth and power, but instructs his minion, Tambourine, to focus on killing the remaining martial artists on the list. His attendant asks what they'll do about the Dragon Balls then, and Piccolo says he'll make another warrior to collect them. Shu and Pilaf worry that he's about to do 'that' again and make them lose their lunch, and Piccolo's attendant likewise worries that if he expends any more energy, he might die before they can gather the Dragon Balls. Piccolo assures him that he can still do this several more times without risk to his life, and decides that it's only fitting that a warrior to search for the Dragon Balls likewise looks like a dragon themselves.
Beginning a long chant, Piccolo eventually spits up a large egg from his mouth as the Pilaf gang looks away in disgust. Piccolo is winded and his attendant asks him if he's alright, but Piccolo ignores him and bids his newest creature, Cymbal, to awaken. A dragon-like being hatches from the egg, and Piccolo instructs the newborn Cymbal to gather the remaining six Dragon Ball for him. Piccolo demands Pilaf show them where the next closest Dragon Ball is, and Pilaf points it out on their radar. Looking over the tournament roster, Tambourine picks out Namu as his next target, and both he and Cymbal fly out of the airship to attend to their missions. Shu tells Pilaf that he's beginning to think Piccolo doesn't feel indebted to them at all, but Pilaf hastily shushes him lest Piccolo overhear, while saying that he's sure Piccolo will give them half of the world...probably... At Kame House, Bulma finishes filling in Tenshinhan about the Dragon Balls, and how they could even be used to restore Kuririn to life. Yamcha thinks they should first use the balls to get rid of King Piccolo, but Puar says if they do that they'll have to wait a whole other year to revive Kuririn, causing Oolong to worry that he'd just be a zombie by then. Bulma says she can make a special freezer capsule to keep him preserved however, but Roshi seems less hopeful, morosely commenting about a 'very pale gray'. Yamcha quickly asks his master what that means, and Roshi says he was only commenting on the color of Bulma's panties that he could see due to how she was sitting. Bulma hits the old man, who claims he was only trying to break the ice. Roshi says that their first order of business is to actually gather the Dragon Balls, then they can decide how to use them. Lunch alerts everyone to a news report on the TV, revealing that Namu has been murdered, and friends and family say it was a monster who left as soon as it killed him, leaving behind only a cryptic piece of paper with the mark for 'Demon' on it. They realize that the purge of martial artists has already begun, and Yamcha thinks they need to warn everyone, but Roshi reminds him that there was only one copy of the tournament roster and thus they don't know where anyone lives. Tenshinhan thinks they could ask the media to broadcast a warning, but that would probably only result in a worldwide panic. Roshi says they'll all be in danger if they remain at Kame House as well, and asks Bulma how long it'll take her to make a new radar. Bulma says even a rushed one will take at least half a day, and Roshi says that will have to do but asks her to hurry, and that they'll have to move out as soon as the radar is finished. A short time later, everyone leaves in a small plane, and Roshi says he's thankful that Tenshinhan and Chaozu decided to join them after all, though Tenshinhan's not sure how much use he'll be against a monster that could kill even Goku. As Lunch comments that she thinks they're going to need a lot of those freezer capsules, Bulma hopes that Goku might still be alive out there. On the ground below, Goku awakens at last, and remembers what happened to him as he gets back onto his feet. He wonders how long he was knocked out, but the question is soon pushed from his mind when he smells something cooking. Rushing in the direction of the smell, Goku is overjoyed to find a large fish cooking over a fire. Review: As opposed to the arc's incredibly speedy opening, things are starting to settle down a bit in regards to how fast things move along, and it already feels the better for it. We're also spending more time with our new villain than we are our heroes overall, something that's markedly different from previous arcs. Even with the Red Ribbon Army, we only really checked in with Commander Red every so often to keep the story moving along, but this time, Piccolo IS the story. And because of that, we're getting a fairly decent look into how he operates. As mentioned before, he's a far shrewder villain than any we've had thus far, seemingly as a result of having already been defeated once before. While nothing is said for certain, I'd also make a guess that's probably also the purpose of his pterodactyl-headed attendant. While nothing's been said outright in the series thus far, I'd make an uneducated guess that the attendant is probably Piccolo's 'first-born' of this new brood of demons, with Tambourine as the second. Piccolo likely did this so as to have a voice of reason to consider if he did start to take things too cavalierly, someone to help balance out his more destructive tendencies we'll say – that said, he's still likely to ignore him if it suits his needs, as seen with him ignoring the attendant's worries about his health both before and after he spits out the egg. Oh yeah, that's a thing too – who would have thought regurgitated egg birth was something you'd ever see in the series? Or our lives in general? It's certainly a unique and bizarre way for Piccolo to 'make demons from within himself' as Roshi put it, and it certainly makes for a disturbing image as well. The chant is a little strange though. If I recall correctly, it's based on a chant Japanese children would do while playing a particular game, so Toriyama's likely using it here just to be amusing...but does Piccolo have to do that every time he gives birth? Is the chant some form of dark magic that causes them to come out as demon minions rather than...well, to jump ahead a bit, beings more similar to himself? Hmm. At any rate, that's now two monsters on the loose, both of which are sure to cause more death and mayhem for our heroes to contend with, while also leaving us as an audience to wonder which one they'll come into conflict with first. Goku was after Tambourine specifically, but there's nothing to direct him towards him now, while Cymbal's going after the Dragon Balls, which Goku now no longer has one of either. He's kind of up shit creek without a paddle, as the saying goes. Before we really get back to Goku though, we now at least know what our other heroes are going to be up to in the interim as well. Roshi's ice-breaking aside, it's very smart of the characters to be planning contingencies about how to deal with Piccolo as well as how to wish back the fallen Kuririn, and you'll notice this might be the wordiest Dragon Ball has ever been up until now – another sign of just how much this story arc is changing the status quo of the series as a whole. With Namu's death (poor guy really didn't deserve to go, but evil monsters gonna evil monster), Roshi quickly realizes that none of them will be safe on the island, presumably because...hey, wait...why WOULDN'T they be safe on the island? Think about it, the reason they're going to be targeted is because the roster lists living locations for all tournament participants. But Kuririn's dead. They already assume Goku is dead. Roshi presumably put a false location down when he entered the tournaments as Jackie Chun, I would think. So that only leaves Yamcha who I would have thought would have still listed West City as his residency. So really, Kame House should be safe for now, shouldn't it? Either they're leaving for nothing, or either Roshi or Yamcha did list Kame House. That aside, going back to Goku, it probably wasn't too surprising for people that he was still alive, even if this was the longest time we'd spent thinking he was dead. C'mon, it's the start of the story arc – what kind of Dragon Ball storyline would start off with the main character's dea - ...Oh. ...*cough* Well that comes later anyway. 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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