Synopsis: Goku and Tenshinhan are in disbelief that Taopaipai is alive, but the assassin informs them that he'd never die so easily, though he does admit to having been left in pretty bad shape. Kuririn asks Goku who this guy is, and Goku explains his identity as a hired assassin he thought he'd killed, as well as the brother of Tsuru-sennin and one of the former masters of Tenshinhan and Chaozu. A referee tries to interrupt the conversation, but Taopaipai threatens him if he won't stop interfering. Taopaipai explains that it took every bit of his money and some time, but he has returned as a cyborg, and thanks to that, he's many times more powerful than he was before. He tells Goku to get past the preliminaries, because he wants to kill him in the final round, and after the tournament, he'll deal with Tenshinhan and Chaozu as well for their turncoat behavior. Tenshinhan insists that he hasn't joined the Kame school but rather just found some of the things he'd been taught previously to be incorrect, but Taopaipai doesn't want to hear his excuses. With no other choice, Tenshinhan agrees to fight with him whenever it's time.
The preliminaries continue, and Piccolo advances past his first fight with ease as well. Kuririn scoffs at their bad luck to have so many skilled fighters show up this year, but Goku smiles at the thought of getting to fight a Piccolo that's even stronger than the one he defeated before. As the fights go on, Goku, Tenshinhan, Kuririn, Yamcha, Piccolo, and Taopaipai all secure spots in the tournament. The friends watch as the mysterious girl who got angry at Goku earlier earns a spot as well, leaving only one more spot to fill. The group turns to watch the final preliminary fight, between a nerdy looking older man and a fat man wearing a mask. Kuririn in particular can't believe the nerdy man has made it this far with how he's moving, but as the man rushes his larger opponent, he trips and accidentally dodges the fat man's punch. As he raises back up, the nerdy man's head slams into the fat man's chin, knocking him out cold. Kuririn laughs at such an embarrassing match, but the tournament's eight fighters have been decided. As the announcer leads the eight fighters away to draw lots for the tournament, the fat participant that lost gets up and removes his mask. Yajirobe is cross at having lost like that, but at least nobody recognized him. That said, he can't tell if that old man really won by accident, or if he'd planned to do that... As the fighters draw lots, the announcer is at first terrified to see Kuririn, thinking that he's a ghost, but Kuririn assures him that he's just come back to life. When the lottery is finished, the first round of fights for the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai are decided – Taopaipai V.S. Tenshinhan; Son Goku V.S. 'Name Withheld' (the mysterious girl); Demon Junior (Piccolo) V.S. Kuririn; and Shen (the nerdy old man) V.S. Yamcha. Review: This might be the best opening chapter to a tournament this series has ever had, which is little surprise as I feel this is definitely the best tournament the series has ever had. Sure, the stakes aren't any higher than they would be for a few other tournaments in the series, but they are such a nice mix of personal and wide-spread, known threats and mysterious ones, that it's really hard to top this buildup. Coming off of the last chapter, Taopaipai reveals his reasons for being here – revenge, I know, what a shocker – but he also reveals just how exactly he came back. We're not given all the gory details mind you, but we can infer that Taopaipai must have survived the grenade blast, and either someone came by and helped him or he drug himself somewhere to get medical attention. For the exact moment in the series, it's rather unclear exactly how he managed that in such an injured state, or who would have helped him. Given something we'll be learning far later on in regards to the Red Ribbon however? I personally have a theory, though it's just that, nothing actually substantiated by the series proper or a guidebook anywhere that I'm aware of. At any rate, Taopaipai proclaims that his cyborg enhancement has made him far stronger than he was before. There's nothing shown yet to suggest this is true or false, but Taopaipai is a skilled fighter, so it probably is safe to assume that he really is quite a bit stronger than he was before. He's no doubt boasting, but also speaking the truth to at least some degree, though how much so is up for debate. What isn't up for debate is that his goal of revenge eclipses any other thoughts, as it seems he's only holding himself back from killing people so that he can kill Goku in the final round. Doing so would leave him disqualified (and the tournament without a champion this year), but he really doesn't care – he just wants to kill Goku. Given that he's out all of that cash though, you'd think he would be at least a LITTLE interested in the prize money...guess he's willing to live life a little more low-key and get money back over time. After that encounter, the rest of the chapter flies through the rest of the preliminaries, as there's really no reason to show much of them. We already know that Goku's far stronger than anyone he'd be fighting in them, and the same goes for his friends, and Taopaipai and Piccolo as well. That just leaves two more spots to be filled, and it's those that Toriyama makes it a point to show us, albeit briefly. The woman that talked to Goku before claims a spot for herself, and then...a nerdy old guy and a fat guy. Gee, almost seems like the tournament's losing it's luster, huh? This seems to be the case at first as the old man seems to win by a fluke. What the audience gets to see that nobody else does however is what makes even this fighter more curious than he was before. Yajirobe is a skilled fighter, at least somewhat on par with Goku from after the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. It's uncertain as of this chapter if he's gotten any stronger himself since that time, but even if he hasn't? He still should be head and shoulders over that old guy, in-so-far as we can tell. The fact that he lost, coupled with the fact that even he can't tell if the guy did it on purpose or not, immediately adds a sense of mystery to him. Oh, and I do love the tournament announcer's freakout upon seeing Kuririn alive. Guess he never got the memo about people coming back. As the chapter draws to a close, we're informed of the first four fights we're going to see in the tournament, and although I'm willing to admit this is a biased take given my love for this arc? I will go on record as arguing that this is the best tournament set-up we've had, far eclipsing both the 21st and the 22nd Budokais. I mean, just LOOK at this list. Taopaipai V.S. Tenshinhan – this is a grudge match that you just know is going to be ugly, and it's headlining the whole event. Goku V.S. 'Name Withheld' – the mystery around who this girl is continues, as she's shown to be scowling at Goku who is just confused. Before moving on, it's worth noting that these two fights being at the start of the tournament already highlights a fun possibility – if Taopaipai wins, well get Goku having a rematch with him; but if Tenshinhan wins, then it's him and Goku in a rematch, and either one of these is bound to be exciting. That's of course assuming Goku wins his own match but...well...yeah. Moving on, Demon Junior V.S. Kuririn – this is just a tense one to look at for the audience, because we know who Piccolo is, and we know that Kuririn doesn't. That coupled with the fact that Kuririn has already died once before against one of the previous Piccolo's minions, and this just seems like a deadly recipe coming together. And finally, Shen V.S. Yamcha. While this fight isn't as tense in it's scope as any of the previous three, it still has plenty of intrigue, as we have no idea who this Shen guy is or what he's about, but we do know that he beat Yajirobe. We also know Yamcha's history within these tournaments. Surely Toriyama wouldn't have him lose in his first match THREE times in a row...right? ...At any rate, there's just no beating the different angles and various levels of hype that the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai has set up right from it's start, and I'm excited to see it through. 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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