Synopsis: Taopaipai berates Tenshinhan for suggesting that he's grown stronger than his own master, even while questioning how he got behind him so quickly. Tenshinhan says he could tell after just that first blow, enraging Taopaipai even further. The assassin quickly lashes out at Tenshinhan again, but the younger fighter is able to dodge every blow, eventually catching Taopaipai's mechanical wrist in his hand, much to Tsuru-sennin's shock. Tenshinhan pleads with his former master once more, acknowledging that it was both he and his brother that taught Chaozu and himself how to fight, and saying that he doesn't want to embarrass them. As he asks Taopaipai again to withdraw, the assassin pulls away, leaving his metallic hand in Tenshinhans' grasp and popping a switchblade from the stump. Caught off guard, Tenshinhan gets a large cut down his chest from the knife, as his friends watch in horror. The announcer calls the blade out as a foul, disqualifying Taopaipai and declaring Tenshinhan the winner, but Taopaipai tells him to shut up, saying that the match doesn't matter anymore – all that matters is him killing Tenshinhan. As Tsuru-sennin cheers his brother on, telling him to kill all of the Turtle school, Tenshinhan grows enraged. Ripping off what's left of his shirt, he asks Taopaipai if he's lost even his pride as a martial artist. Taopaipai scoffs at how high and mighty his former student is acting, and pops his other hand off, saying he'll shut Tenshinhan's mouth forever. Yamcha and Kuririn offer to help Tenshinhan fight since Taopaipai is already fighting dirty, but Tenshinhan says he'd like to take care of this himself. Taopaipai says he'll kill Tenshinhan with his new ultimate weapon, the 'Super Dodonpa', an attack leagues beyond any Dodonpa Tenshinhan has ever seen. Roshi is concerned and thinks Tenshinhan should run, but Taopaipai uses his cyborg eyes to lock-on to Tenshinhan, saying that even if he does so, the blast will find and kill him. Tenshinhan shouts for Taopaipai to fire it then, and Taopaipai does so, telling Tenshinhan to regret his flippancy in Hell. As the large energy blast heads towards Tenshinhan, his friends worry and Tsuru-sennin cheers for his death. Taopaipai thinks Tenshinhan is being foolish by not even trying to dodge, but as the blast gets right in front of him, Tenshinhan lets out a might yell, dissolving the attack entirely. Taopaipai is horrified to see his strongest attack taken out by a mere kiai, but before he can respond any further, Tenshinhan rushes in and punches him quickly in the stomach, knocking him out instantly. As Tenshinhan picks up Taopaipai's body, Goku says that Tenshinhan is just as amazing as he expected. Tenshinhan returns Taopaipai's body to Tsuru'sennin, saying that he'll likely wake back up in a few days, and asking them to never show themselves before them again. Tsuru-sennin flies off with his brother in tow, but he vows that Tenshinhan's death will one day be a painful one. Goku congratulates Tenshinhan on his victory, but Tenshinhan doesn't have much to say at the moment. Roshi is amazed to see how far he's come, and sees that he doesn't even have a place here anymore as a mentor figure. Yamcha and Kuririn are impressed with Tenshinhan's strength as well, though Kuririn worries that he might be too strong for either of them to stand a chance. The announcer decides to move on to the next match quickly despite the interruption, and calls out Goku and 'Name Withheld', explaining that the female fighter hasn't given a reason as to why she wants her true identity kept secret. As the woman glowers at him, Goku says she always seems mad and asks her why. The girl tells him to ask his own heart that, and Goku is confused. Review: One thing I forgot to highlight in the last review is that Taopaipai seemingly changed his mind, and wants to wait until after the tournament to kill Tenshinhan and Goku, seemingly having gained an interest in winning the prize money after all. This somewhat flighty nature he's showing really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, nor should his outrage as soon as Tenshinhan starts to show him up, as we've already seen this happen to him once before. Having been humiliated once before, Taopaipai's arrogance won't allow him to stand such a thing happening again, so that idea of getting the cash prize goes out the window pretty quickly when he becomes angry enough to just kill them right then and there. For Tenshinhan, this is all a rude wake-up call seemingly, as his outrage upon getting cut by the knife isn't about the rules of the tournament being broken, it's about Taopaipai seemingly having no honor left. This is a man who he once looked up to, and though he's already long since decided that he doesn't want to be like him anymore, he still didn't want to think that he would have fallen this far (granted he also thought he was dead, but that's shockingly pretty irrelevant at the moment). I compared this to familial strife in the previous review, and once again I find myself thinking of that to understand what Tenshinhan is going through. Without going into the dirty details of it all here, I know exactly what it's like to have someone you used to be fonder of turn out to not be the kind of person you want to be around, only for that rug to get pulled even more out beneath you when they turn out to be even worse off than you expected. It's not an easy feeling to deal with, and Tenshinhan's fortunate in at least one regard – he can actually make his problem go away by punching it. If only we were all so lucky. All of this drama feels almost too heavy in comparison to what we've experienced with the series before – even the King Piccolo arc's darkness stemmed from character death, not personal trauma like this – and I think it plays a large part in Tenshinhan becoming the sort of character that he does moving forward. He's not a brand new character, but there is a certain change in his demeanor moving forward, and I'd imagine his past at the Crane school and what it all ultimately led to here always weighs heavy on his mind. In a way, it's almost nice from a narrative point of view that Toriyama has Tenshinhan go through this, as it greatly restores some nuance to his character that was greatly lost with his ineffectiveness in the previous arc. All of this is why I don't think the fight with Taopaipai is a letdown at all. It wasn't the huge fight we could have expected perhaps, but it has enough meat to it in other ways to make it worthwhile regardless – it's certainly no filler match like Man-Wolf was. And even beyond Tenshinhans' personal dealings, it shows just how much further our characters have come, if even the likes of Taopaipai are completely ineffective against them now. The chapter ends with a brief tease of the next fight, and while it doesn't give us a lot to talk about just yet, it does continue the mystery of who this woman is. I mean, consider her introduction here, 'Name Withheld Upon Request'. While even Piccolo entered the tournament under a false name, 'Demon Junior', I can't help but feel that he did that from the start so as to hide who he was initially, whereas this woman likely entered under her actual name only to have it withheld at the last second due to Goku angering her. With that sort of lead in, geez, what exactly did Goku do to her anyway? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Goku's Engagement
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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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