Synopsis: Goku's injuries are healed within a day by Karin, who confesses that he's a little in awe of how strong Goku has become, enough so to even defeat the Demon King Piccolo. Yajirobe says he thought Karin only sent Goku because he thought he had a chance, and Karin further confesses he thought that at best Goku and Piccolo would end up taking each other out. Yajirobe accuses Karin of playing dirty, but Karin says he didn't really have much choice as Goku was the only one with even a small chance of winning, and he planned to bring Goku back with the Dragon Balls afterwards anyway. Goku is surprised that Karin knows about the Dragon Balls, causing Karin to claim there's nothing he doesn't know, a notion that Yajirobe immediately pokes a hole in by bringing up the fact that Piccolo killed Shenlong, something that does surprise Karin.
Goku is still angry at Piccolo, saying that if it weren't for him destroying Shenlong, everyone could be brought back to life. Yajirobe says it's just part of life that people die sometimes, and Karin agrees, but regrets the state that those Piccolo and his demons killed are left in. Goku is confused, and Karin explains that those killed by demons are unable to pass on, and their souls drift in limbo for eternity. Goku asks if there's truly nothing they can do to help them, and though Karin at first says there isn't, he soon changes his mind upon remembering something. Karin tells Goku that there's one hope – he must go and meet with the creator of the Dragon Balls, Kami-sama (aka God). Yajirobe scoffs at such a ludicrous idea, saying that Kami-sama doesn't exist, but Goku accepts the idea. Karin explains that only those he has deemed worthy are allowed to meet Kami, and throughout his dealings with Goku he can tell that he qualifies. Goku asks Karin where he needs to go to meet Kami, and Karin explains that Kami's temple exists far above even his own in the sky. Goku starts to call kinto'un to fly up there, but Karin cautions him that kinto'un can't travel any higher than where they are now, and says that even if it could, he'd simply be repelled anyway. Goku is at a loss as to how to get up there, and Karin explains that Goku is truly blessed by fortune – all he needs is the nyoibo. Karin explains that the nyoibo was originally a staff that connected his tower to Kami's temple, and that he gave it to Roshi years ago after the latter continually pleaded for it, and it was eventually passed down to Gohan and thus to Goku. Reaching for nyoibo at his back, Goku is shocked to find that he doesn't have it. Yajirobe wonders if he dropped it while fighting King Piccolo, and Goku remembers what happened. He calls kinto'un and heads back to the battle ground, but is shocked to find the nyoibo missing there as well. Realizing that he's in trouble if he can't find his staff, Goku suddenly remembers Fortuneteller Baba and hurries over to her. He offers to fight her fighters again if she'll help him, but Baba says none of them would be willing to fight someone strong enough to take down Piccolo, and offers to divine nyoibo's location for free seeing as her little brother's life depends on it as well. She quickly locates nyoibo at Kame House, and Goku flies off to retrieve it, leaving Baba to marvel that Goku has not only saved the world, but now gets to meet Kami-sama himself. Goku storms into Kame House, happily surprising his friends, but Goku leaves before they can really talk to him, stopping only long enough to grab nyoibo and cryptically say that soon Kame-sennin, Kuririn, and Chaozu will be able to come back to life once he meets Kami-sama. Goku's friends are left confused, and Goku flies immediately back to Karin's tower. Karin instructs Goku to climb to the top of the tower and insert the nyoibo in the tower's tip. Goku does so, and Karin tells him to extend it as he always has, but hands Goku a small bell first as proof that he's qualified to meet Kami. Yajirobe asks if Goku shouldn't change out of his damaged clothes first if he's really going to meet someone as important as 'God', but Karin says it's alright as he'll probably just ruin his clothes again anyway once he gets there, surprising both Goku and Yajirobe. Review: At long last, we're here in the final arc (not counting filler) of the non-Z portion of Dragon Ball. I'm really excited to get to this one as it contains my absolute favorite fight in the entire franchise, but I'm also a little wary. The King Piccolo arc was always one of my favorites as well, but when looking back at it with a more critical eye, I found it more fractured than I'd ever really noticed before. I still enjoy it, but I can't deny that it's filled with a lot of issues. Will this arc end up meeting the same fate? I guess there's really only one way to find out. At the start, this arc hits the ground running by immediately picking up where the last one left off. Goku is healed from his injuries from fighting King Piccolo, but he finds himself in a world where despite his victory, there's still really no way to set things right. Without the Dragon Balls, his friends (and everyone else that died) have no way of coming back to life. Even Karin, despite his claims of seeing everything down on Earth, seemingly missed the part where Piccolo killed Shenlong – this could be our first example of the 'Gods' of Dragon Ball not being all their cracked up to be honestly, and given that we're about to meet a new one, that's not a great sign. That said, the idea of Goku going and meeting the guy who actually made the Dragon Balls is an interesting one, as well as being the perfect way for them to get the titular items back in play potentially. From the very beginning of the series, the Dragon Balls have simply existed, with there never really being much hinted as to where they came from. While 'God made them' is a bit of a lazy answer in some ways, it does make some level of sense, as well as being a great way to up the ante now that things need to move in a new direction again. We'll also see the idea of the Dragon Balls' origin fleshed out even further in just a few arcs, so think of this explanation as a bit of a stop-gap really anyway. At any rate, it's clear from the way that Kami-sama is talked about throughout this chapter that he's a mystical figure that a lot of normal folk like Yajirobe don't necessarily believe in anymore, but people who are themselves mystical in nature to a degree like Baba and Karin all have great respect for. This helps build up the mystique around him even further – just who is this guy who's powerful enough to create magic balls capable of granting any wish, and if he's so great, why wasn't he able to do anything about Piccolo? Shockingly, Toriyama actually has something in mind here that probably surprised a lot of people when it was first revealed. Speaking of Kami-sama, it bears mentioning that his name is not really a name at all. Much like Kame-sennin and Tsuru-sennin, Kami-sama is simply his title, Kami being Japanese for 'God' and sama being an honorific denoting the high level of respect due him. Also much like Kame-sennin, we never get Kami's actual name, so between that and wanting to avoid how touchy people can be about religion, it's little wonder the English-dubbed version of the anime largely chose to treat Kami as actually his name and call him the 'Guardian of Earth'. Much like kinto'un before it, Goku's nyoibo is also now explained to have come from Karin's temple and was simply passed on to Gohan before it made it's way to Goku. While it's largely not too big of a deal, I'm honestly not really a fan of this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, while we've always known the nyoibo came from Gohan, it being another hand-me-down to Goku coming from Roshi just like the cloud kind of makes Goku's entire fighting aesthetic from earlier in the series a hand-me-down rather than it being his own. That they both ultimately came from Karin as well just feels a bit much as well. Secondly, and a more damning problem in my opinion, is the fact that this also ultimately leads to both things being set aside entirely. We'll be getting a bit more of kinto'un in the coming arcs – actually, this might be the last time it's seen in this one come to think of it, so more so the following arc – but this is pretty much the last time we'll see nyoibo outside of a movie here and there. The actual need for kinto'un is going to be taken away fairly soon, so it being put away, while sad, makes sense; losing nyoibo entirely however has always saddened me a little. Goku's had to do without it in a lot of tournament based fighting, but it was always nice to see it at his side again once he was just out exploring the world. We've seen Goku become more adept at fighting with his body however, so this was probably always coming one way or the other, it's just a little...wasteful, in a way. One other small moment I'd like to touch on is Baba's helping Goku for free. It's hard to say really if it's entirely due to Goku saving the world and her owing him a favor, or if it's really due to her brother's death. She doesn't seem particularly broken up by his passing that we can tell, and she continues to help Goku out for free moving forward into the series, so...chances are it has more to do with the world being saved. Poor Roshi. As much as this chapter contained, it was actually fairly mundane in some ways as well. There's a lot of re-defining what things are or where they came from, but every location and character are ones we've already seen, and it's more prepping us for the next chapter than it is anything else. Maybe it's because of that that Toriyama decided to tease things a little at the end. Yajirobe does raise a good point, I doubt you'd want to go meet anyone you'd address with a 'sama' suffix in disheveled clothing, but Karin thinks Goku's clothes would just get messed up again anyway? Just what sort of guy is this 'God' 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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