Synopsis: As Roshi surveys the burning mountain, he confronts his former student Gyu-mao about his bad reputation and about the people he killed for coming after his treasure. Gyu-mao prostrates himself before his former master and apologizes, but Roshi comments that more than anything he's disappointed his student can't take care of “such a small fire” himself. Roshi then prods Goku with his walking stick and reminds him about the deal they made. Roshi, Goku, and Bulma all walk a little bit away to discuss the deal, and Bulma is horrified at the thought of letting the old man see, much less touch, her boobs. Goku doesn't see what the big deal is either way, and when Roshi threatens to just go home, Bulma reluctantly agrees to the deal on one condition: Roshi doesn't get his prize until AFTER he's put out the fire. Roshi eagerly agrees. The trio return to the rest of the group, and Roshi takes off his shirt and turtle shell in preparation to put out the flame. He climbs on top of one of the broken walls facing the castle, focuses...and takes on an extremely muscular form. Gyu-mao recognizes what his old master is doing as the Kamehameha, and an eavesdropping Yamcha is amazed that he's going to get to see such an amazing thing. Roshi performs a series of hand gestures while slowly calling out the attack's name, 'Ka...me...ha...me...', before finally launching a gigantic beam of energy out of his hands with a final 'HA!'. Everyone is shocked at what they've just witnessed, and Roshi is winded a bit as he takes a seat on the wall. Gyu-mao gets his master's attention however and alerts him to a small problem – while Roshi did put out the fire, in doing so he also blew away the castle and most of the mountain as well. Oops! Review: Another fairly short chapter, further adding to my personal theory that this was originally a story beat planned for a single chapter, but ended up taking too many pages so it got separated into two different ones. Regardless, we start to get even more of an insight into what makes Roshi tick in this chapter. First off, you might have noticed I've started to call him Roshi more, and Kame-sennin less. That's because we've finally been introduced to his slightly more proper name of 'Muten Roshi', and Roshi is easier and quicker to type than Kame-sennin every single time. It should be noted of course though that, more proper 'name' or not, it's still not his name at all, but a title. Again, we've never been made privy to the old-timer's actually name. 'Muten Roshi' itself roughly translates to 'invincible old master', and that tends to be how most characters refer to him as we move further into the story, so it seemed appropriate to do so now myself. Back to Roshi's character rather than his name, it's interesting exactly how he chastises his former student Gyu-mao. While at first it seems he's getting onto him for having become such a rough individual – and I'm sure Roshi is displeased at how much carnage the king may have done – he's mostly upset at the idea of Gyu-mao being unable to put out the fire himself. Considering how Roshi himself puts out the fire, is this an indication that Gyu-mao himself knows the Kamehameha? It's hard to say really. Nothing in the series or anywhere else seems to indicate that he can, and at this point in the story, learning the move is considered a major accomplishment. Heck, setting aside Goku's quick learning of it, we don't see anyone else use the move until grandpa Gohan waaaaayyyy down the line, and then Yamcha and Kuririn do it after that, which is still seen by Roshi as quite the achievement. So all of that coupled with how we never see Gyu-mao fight and Roshi's disappointment with him here, I'm leaning towards the big ox never quite figured out the technique. Roshi's benevolence ends abruptly however once his interest in his 'reward' is brought back up. The continued moral quandaries of this whole situation once again set aside, it's interesting that Roshi continues to want to make sure that neither Gyu-mao nor Chi Chi is made aware of what he's up to. One could surmise that it's due to him not wanting his student to find out he's not entirely helping them out of the goodness of his heart, but there's also a chance there's more to it than that. Remember that even the turtle was surprised to learn what a letch Roshi is now? There seems to be some implication that his turn to perversion is somewhat of a recent development, though how recent is a little hard to guess given the ages of the characters involved. Regardless, it almost seems like he's ashamed of that fact and doesn't want his student to find out, which is certainly a far cry from how much more brazenly open about his desires he'll become later. For what it's worth, Bulma's agreeing to the deal is pretty suspect as well. I don't mean to say that she's at fault for agreeing to it, or that it's out of character – we've seen before how willing she is to use her sexuality to get what she wants. At the same time though, her last meeting with the old man was already embarrassing enough, and as angry as she was that Goku made this deal behind her back, it's more than a little surprising she agreed at all. My theory? She already has a vague plan in mind, a plan we'll see play out in the next chapter. And in one short sequence, Roshi introduces two concepts that will return many times and in full force for almost the entire run of the series: transformations and ki attacks. To be entirely accurate, Roshi's bulky form is never really singled out in-series as a transformation, and it's definitely more in line with Freeza's full-power buff form from the end of the Namek arc than it is something like Super Saiyan. It's still the first time in-series that we see such a major change to a character's design in service of giving them a power boost, so a transformation it is. As for the Kamehameha, it single-handily sets the series on a course that will continue to evolve over the coming story arcs. All new avenues of combat are now opened now that ki has been introduced, but we won't really see the full potential of that pay off until way, way later on. For now though, it's just a really cool technique and a great showing of how Toriyama's goofy art style can still capture some pretty badass moments. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: All's horny that ends horny, I guess.
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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
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