Synopsis: Tenshinhan can't believe Goku was able to move faster than even his eyes could keep up, and even Piccolo is impressed by Goku's speed. Tenshinhan gives Goku credit for catching him by surprise, but says he still won't be giving up this match, as he has a secret move he's been saving. Goku likes the idea of fighting Tenshinhan more, but says that the other fighter should probably take the belt back and fix his pants first. As the crowd laughs, Tenshinhan turns away and fixes his pants while explaining that his new move is absolutely terrifying. As the pair prepares to renew their fight, Goku asks if Tenshinhan is planning to use the Kikoho again. Goku says that the move is far too dangerous for both of them, and with Goku's new speed he'd probably dodge it anyway. Tenshinhan says that his new move lacks the raw destructive power of the Kikoho, but it makes up for that in one crucial way: Goku will never be able to dodge it. Kuririn, Yamcha, and Roshi all wonder what sort of move Tenshinhan could have to beat Goku's speed at this point, and Tenshinhan does praise Goku's speed as being superhuman, perhaps even godly – but all he has to do to beat that is have twelve eyes instead of three. Goku is confused by that statement, before Tenshinhan uses his 'Shishin' or 'Four Bodies' technique, splitting himself into two, and each of those two splitting as well, making four Tenshinhans standing in the ring. As everyone is taken aback by the bizarre move, Kuririn wonders if it's another illusion attack, but Goku says he can tell that all four bodies are real. Saying that there's no way for Goku to escape his twelve eyes, the four Tenshinhan rush to each edge of the ring, each one firing an energy beam towards Goku. Goku leaps into the air to dodge, but the Tenshinhan's quickly react, watching for where Goku is and firing another four energy beams from their eyes. The beams collide with Goku, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to crash back down onto the ring. As Goku's friends react in shock that the attack hit Goku after all, Tenshinhan asks Goku if he'd like to give up, as if he gets hit with that attack again, it might really do some damage to him. Goku says he's not giving up however, and claims that that attack could never hit him a second time. Roshi notes that even now, after taking such a strong blow, Goku still isn't truly winded, saying that the truly scary thing about Goku now isn't his strength or his speed, but his durability. Tenshinhan however claims that no matter how often they do this, the result will always be the same, but Goku disagrees, stating that he noticed two weak spots in Tenshinhan's move. Tenshinhan is taken aback, and Piccolo smirks ruefully, declaring the match in Goku's favor. Review: I've complained before about how old and tired the 'moving faster than others can see' trope is at this point in the series, but I'll give it this – noting that Tenshinhan has particularly good eyesight, what with having three eyes, and saying someone's moving faster than he can see is at least a little bit of a twist on it, especially with how well trained his eyes probably are by this point. It's not enough to fully reinvigorate that trope for me, but hey, I'll take whatever I can get at this point. As for how Tenshinhan decides to get around this newfound weakness in his vision, well...it's...something, alright. I'll save my final thoughts on the technique until after the next chapter, so for now let's talk about how the technique has been foreshadowed and evolved throughout the series thus far. The idea of someone appearing to have made multiple of themselves first came to light with the afterimage technique, something that we've been seeing off and on since the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai. After that, it appeared that we got this very move back during the Red Ribbon Army arc when Goku fought Purple at Muscle Tower, except there it turned out to be a trick. Then at the last tournament, we saw Tenshinhan himself do something extremely strange when he sprouted an extra pair of arms. While the techniques are never confirmed (at least not within the pages of the manga itself) to be related, I can't help but wonder if that wasn't a stop-gap measure to Tenshinhan figuring out how to do the Shishin move properly. Making copies of yourself is at least as strange as growing an extra pair of arms if you ask me. In fact, these strange techniques coupled with his third eye have long been reasons that a lot of fans have wondered about Tenshinhan's heritage. At this point in the series, one could almost assume that it's just due to the training he's undergone, perhaps something to chalk up to him having achieved enlightenment (enlightenment in a lot of eastern mythologies and religions does supposedly result in a third eye, though I'm not learned enough on the matter to know how often it's meant to be taken literally versus figuratively). That said though, Tenshinhan already had a third eye the first time we met him...when he wanted to be an assassin. That doesn't really sound like the sort of thing someone 'enlightened' would be doing, so that kind of rules that out. So, what then? Another theory goes that Tenshinhan has some alien ancestry in his DNA. Once again, nothing in series states that this is the case or even hints at it, but a guidebook released at one point does refer to Tenshinhan's heritage as him being a distant descendant of the 'three-eyed people'. Does that mean aliens, or just a particular race of humanity that seems to have largely died out by this point? Keep in mind that this is a world that's already shown itself to be filled with all kinds of magic, technology, and various forms of intelligent lifeforms that don't fit the mold of a 'normal' human being. Frankly, anything's possible, so while the series itself doesn't ever endeavor to answer these questions, there's plenty of options for fans to mull over and decide which one fits better to their liking. For me personally, I'll take the 'three-eyed people' explanation over the 'enlightenment' one any day, if only because Tenshinhan when we met him doesn't really fit that one very well. At any rate, with four Tenshinhan in the ring fighting just one Goku, you'd almost expect the announcer to declare Tenshinhan disqualified, because c'mon – how does he or any of the audience know that this isn't some sort of trick? It's not like they can sense energy coming from each individual body the way Goku likely can. I guess you could argue that Goku's explanation that all four bodies are real is overheard, but honestly, I'm more leaning towards it just being okayed by 'rule of cool'. Hey, it's saved Goku at least one time each tournament so far, it's about time it worked in someone else's favor. It's somewhat of a moot point anyway, as with the chapter drawing to a close, Goku doesn't seem particularly effected by the technique, nor does he seem worried. He's holding his stomach where he got hit, showing that Tenshinhan is strong enough to hurt him a little at least, but Goku's far from out even after all of that. Roshi chalks this up to Goku having gained an inhuman level of toughness, which given what we both did and didn't see of Goku's training going from the manga and the anime both, it's certainly easy to see or at least guess how he ended up like this. Will it actually be enough to win this fight for him though? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The Rematch's Conclusion!
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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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