Synopsis: Goku and Piccolo continue to stare down each other until the latter walks away. Tenshinhan asks Goku if it's one of Piccolo's offspring, and Goku says that's more-or-less correct, and asks him to keep it secret for now so that it doesn't start a panic. Yamcha and Kuririn, having not overheard this conversation, say that they can tell that guy isn't an ordinary person and ask if he's a friend of Goku's, but Goku says he's just someone that looks really strong.
A hand suddenly pats Goku's shoulder, and he turns around to see a beautiful young woman who calls him by name, surprising his friends. Goku stares at the woman and asks who she is, instantly enraging her. She calls him stupid and marches off, leaving everyone to wonder who she is. Goku says he's never met her before, but Kuririn accosts him and says that she didn't act like that was the case, demanding that Goku be honest about if he was really training in Heaven all this time or not. An announcement comes on over the speakers and asks all contestants to gather for the preliminaries. The announcement goes on to explain that there are only 72 participants vying for a spot in the tournament this time, and that they'd like to think it's because the quality of competition was so high last time. Tenshinhan however is worried about why Piccolo's heir has come to the tournament. As the contestants start to draw lots, Tenshinhan asks Chaozu to use his powers to put all of them, plus 'that guy' (Piccolo), into different blocks. As everyone marvels at how lucky they are to be spread out enough to not have to fight each other until the actual tournament, the first two fighters are asked to step forward. Goku steps into the ring to find that his first opponent in the preliminaries is the same as the last tournament, King Chappa, who is determined to avenge his previous loss. The match starts, and Goku doesn't take any sort of fighting stance, angering Chappa. Goku's friends however notice that Goku's barely putting out any ki at all and is perfectly calm. Chappa leaps into a kick aimed at Goku's face, but Goku disappears before his very eyes, reappearing behind him. Chappa can't feel his presence there however, and looks into the air above him, expecting Goku to come from above as he did the last time they fought. Goku knocks Chappa out with a single light chop to the neck, surprising the entire crowd. Goku's friends are shocked as well, but amused, realizing Goku hasn't even shown any of his real strength at all yet. Piccolo too recognizes that Goku has much more in store, but doesn't think there's any cause for worry, planning to dismember Goku before the crowds of the tournament. The preliminaries continue, and Kuririn, Yamcha, and Tenshinhan are all easily able to win their matches. When it's Chaozu's turn to fight however, a look of fear comes over his face, and his friends are alerted by the sound of his scream. Tenshinhan rushes over to find Chaozu unconscious on the ground. As everyone checks on him, his opponent tells them not to worry as he made sure he would still be alive, if only just barely. Tenshinhan looks up in anger, but his expression soon turns to one of shock. Taopaipai, with much of his head now robotic, greets Tenshinhan and Goku both. Review: This chapter is just full of surprises, and gives us three new faces to consider in how this arc is going to move forward. One is a face we already knew was coming and saw at the end of last chapter, Piccolo. Another is a complete mystery as to who they are and what they want, the young woman that spoke to Goku. The third and final face – or what's left of it anyway – is someone I doubt anyone would have expected to see again, Taopaipai. Right from the start, this is already shaping up to be a tournament completely unlike any we've seen before. For starters though, let's talk about Piccolo and what we get to see of him here. It's not much, but we can already tell that he's going to be a force to be reckoned with, not that that comes as much of a surprise. He reacts even less to Goku's new prowess than anyone else does, showing that there's just no telling what he himself is capable of. After all, he's going to have been doing nothing but training for this moment for the past three years as well - not that we ever get any indication of exactly how he trained, though I guess some of it could be similar to what we later see him do to train someone else. Beyond that, we don't really get much more out of him just yet. Poor King Chappa though. He's apparently a real contender as a fighter, he just keeps having the bad luck of showing up for the tournament on the same years that our heroes are at this point. Then there's the mystery woman who shows up to talk to Goku. If you're coming to this story point with no idea where things are going, and particularly with the manga where there's no voice to help give a hint, I'd wager it's pretty unlikely that someone might guess who she is unless they're really good at remembering faces. Needless to say, this is a completely wild new factor for the series and the character of Goku, and it makes for a really interesting change up compared to the other challenges presented by this tournament. It's also hilarious to think about where this is all going when you see Kuririn describing her as 'really hot'. Before I talk about Taopaipai, I did want to note a curious part from just before the preliminaries start. The announcement notes that participation in the tournament this year is far lower than what it was last time. A similar note was given at the start of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, noting that attendance was way, way higher than it had been in recent years. Hell, interest was so increased by everyone's showing at the 21st that they started holding the tournament more often than they previously had, and the 22nd blows anything we saw in the previous tournament out of the water. So why the sudden decrease? The people who run the tournament say they'd 'like' to think that it's because the competition was so fierce last time, but I don't know about that...again, it was an even more impressive tournament, so you'd think that it would make the number of people trying to enter this year that much higher. What could possibly have happened to cause interest to go in the other direction? Oh, right. King Piccolo happened. Between the anime and the manga, it's clearly shown that everyone that Tambourine and King Piccolo killed in the previous arc were resurrected by the same wish that brought back Kuririn, Roshi, and Chaozu. Nothing is ever said or shown to indicate how they took to their revivals however. There's a pretty good chance that a fair number of them may have given up martial arts, or at least the urge to attend large tournaments like the Budokai, after dots were connected showing that they all had that in common. Sure, King Piccolo is dead, but they were dead once already too, and from their point of view, it's some sort of miracle that they're alive again now. Why press your luck by continuing to do the same thing that got you killed, seemingly for no real reason, before? If anything, this makes the fact that King Chappa continued to train and showed back up all the more impressive in his favor. Poor guy really deserved better than he got. Oh, and I do also love that Chaozu is used once again as a gimmick to make sure nobody ends up fighting each other in the preliminaries. They got by without him in the first tournament, but that was a fluke and there were far less of the friends to worry about then. For it to happen by chance two more times would have been a bit much, and hey, it gives Chaozu some kind of purpose that he desperately needs, so hey, I'm all for it. It's also pretty hilarious how quickly the story tosses him aside once the need for his cheating's done too. And speaking of Chaozu's defeat, let's talk about the return of Taopaipai. Again, for anyone that was reading the series for the very first time, it'd be almost impossible to have seen this coming. Taopaipai was almost assuredly dead the last time we saw him, so for him to turn back up alive here is shocking as can be. You're immediately set to wonder just how exactly he did survive, and what exactly his goal is at the tournament – the former is a far bigger mystery than the latter however, as his goals are probably pretty easy to guess. Of the three new faces appearing in this chapter, it's really hard to say which of them sets the mystery and hype surrounding this event highest. On the one hand, we know Piccolo's going to be a bad deal, just based on what the previous Piccolo was like. The woman who talked to Goku however is a completely unknown quality, and though she appeared friendly enough at first, her anger when leaving could lead to something shocking. And then the return of Taopaipai, the first villain in the series to have truly put Goku through the ringer. With his return after more than six years (his defeat was sometime after the 21st and before the 22nd tournaments), who knows how much stronger he has become? Maybe he'll be an even bigger threat than Piccolo? Needless to say, the levels that Toriyama is bringing the mystery of this tournament to are amazing, so it's little wonder I love this arc so much. 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
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