Synopsis: As 'Demon Junior' (Piccolo) and 'Shen' (Kami) stare each other down furiously, everyone watching is stunned by how intense the fight already is. Roshi thinks that both of them are far too strong, Bulma wonders how anyone like that can even exist, and Yamcha and Tenshinhan both think it's little wonder that they've been outstripped by people like them and Goku. Kami thinks to himself that he miscalculated, having never expected Piccolo to have grown this much stronger, thinking that even with the handicap of having possessed a weak human body, Piccolo must have trained somehow. Piccolo surprises 'Shen' by reading his mind and asking him who he is to have borrowed someone else's body. Realizing that the jig is up, 'Shen' replies to Piccolo in a bizarre language. Piccolo responds back in that language, saying he now understands why 'Shen's' fighting style is so similar to his own, asking Kami what business he has here in the lower realm. Kami praises Piccolo for finally figuring it out, and says the reason should be obvious. Piccolo asks if a God has really left his sanctuary to destroy him, and Kami confirms his guess. The announcer comments that the two fighters are trapped in a verbal conflict now, but that none of them can understand a word that's being said. Continuing in the bizarre language, Piccolo asks Kami if he's gone mad – or has he forgotten that destroying him will mean his own death as well? Kami says he remembers that and has accepted it, and wonders if Piccolo can say the same. Piccolo is horrified, and asks Kami if he'd really kill himself to defeat him, but Kami tells him not to worry, as the humans have shown him another way to deal with him. As both Piccolo and a watching Goku wonder what Kami is planning, he pulls a small bottle out and sets it on the floor of the ring, with the announcer wondering if perhaps it's some sort of charm. Kami asks Piccolo if he's prepared himself, and as Piccolo recognizes the writing on the side of the bottle, Kami fires his attack – the Mafuba! Tenshinhan, Yamcha, and Roshi all react in shock at the reappearance of the late Mutaito's technique (Goku not recognizing it at all, however), as the energy reaches out to grab hold of Piccolo. Before it can however, Piccolo sneers, and reverses the flow of energy, causing the Mafuba to grab hold of 'Shen' instead. Kami screams as he's caught by his own attack, and realizes that there's nothing he can do to stop it. Deciding to at least spare the body he borrowed this fate, he leaves Shen's body and lets he alone be caught by the attack. Kami screams to Goku that he doesn't care that he'll die, pleading with him to defeat Piccolo for the sake of the world. Wasting no more time, Piccolo seals Kami within the jar, and rushes forward to put the stopper in it, trapping God himself in the container. As Goku and his friends look on in horror, Piccolo smirks and thinks to himself that if they thought he would be beaten the same way the previous King Piccolo was, then they're in for a rude awakening. Review: Coming off of the heels of the previous chapter, the reaction of various characters at the start of this one pull a lot of weight in trying to describe how intense this fight is and how powerful it's two combatants are. That said, it can't help but feel a little hollow given how little of last chapter was actually dedicated to their fighting. This is only worsened by the fact that most of this second and final chapter of their fight is also dedicated to things other than their fight, basically rendering this whole match as nowhere near as impressive as the characters are trying to build it up to be. It certainly doesn't hold up against either Piccolo's previous fight with Kuririn, or Goku and Tenshinhan's rematch just a few chapters ago. It's a bit of a shame that the faint praise going on hurts this part of the story really, because the real purpose of this fight is something else entirely, and it handles it's real goal quite well. Once the ruse is up, and Piccolo knows exactly who he's really dealing with, much of the rest of the chapter is dialogue based, and hilariously enough, it's technically in a dialogue that neither we, nor any of the other characters present, can understand a bit of. If it weren't for the inclusion of actual text beneath the fake language text, we'd be just as lost as everyone else around. It's a bit curious that this is the route Toriyama chose for this scene too – we as the reading audience already know the true identities of both parties, and Goku is already aware of it as well. Is there a reason to keep it secret from anyone any longer? Well...yes, probably. Goku himself earlier asked Tenshinhan to stay quiet about his own guess as to Demon Junior's true identity, saying that revealing it now would likely cause a panic. Kami, at least, is likely thinking the same, and let's be honest – if the return of Demon King Piccolo is enough to warrant a panic, just imagine how much more shocking 'Oh yeah, and this guy is God' would be on top of that. At least that is, if anyone believed it, which...yeah. Either way, the real reason for the use of a made-up language here is something that I can't talk about just yet, as it's origin won't be revealed for a bit yet. Even without that though, there's arguably already enough reason for Kami and Piccolo to converse in secret, though you'd think they could have also just...thought at each other. Unless Kami's incapable of reading Piccolo's mind in return for some reason. The idea that Kami has figured out how to do the Mafuba is a believable enough one – Tenshinhan is far less skilled (and even more so a few years prior), and he learned it after seeing it just once – but I do have to question the timing here. Yes, Kami no doubt saw Roshi use the move, and he probably saw Tenshinhan's practice with it as well...but what about hundreds of years ago when Mutaito used it, successfully no less? Was Kami just not watching then, or did he just...not come down and try to use it when King Piccolo returned? I guess it could be argued that he only started trying to learn it after Goku defeated King Piccolo, since Mutaito's defeat of the demon seemed more permanent in a way (he was sealed 'for good', versus Goku's defeat of him leaving him an opening with which to birth the new Piccolo), so I guess I'll let this one slide. I do love though that, out of the four people we see reacting to the Mafuba by name, Goku's the only one who doesn't get why this is a big deal. Roshi and Tenshinhan both used it, and Yamcha at least knows what it is, but there's a good chance that Goku was never told exact details on how Roshi died before, so this is likely his first time hearing of the move at all. It's a small thing, but it's a nice attention to detail. I would say that Piccolo's reversal of the move makes the Mafuba's track record worse, but I guess technically reversing it is still a proper usage of it just not by it's caster, so actually, this kind of brings the move up to 50/50. It does however basically put an end to the move's usefulness as a tactic to deal with threats, as it being able to be reversed could basically make things worse – at least, in theory. Sure, some of the later threats are going to be much, much stronger than Piccolo is here, but Piccolo innately knows about this move, what it is, and how it works. Later threats wouldn't, so...hmm. What the Mafuba's reversal, and the outcome of this fight, does achieve however is to heighten the tension to even higher levels than before. We know how strong King Piccolo was years ago. We know that Goku was stronger than that. We know that Kami was likewise more skilled and seemingly more powerful than that. Goku and Piccolo have both trained and gotten far stronger than they were before, but we haven't been made privy to just exactly how good they really are now, what with both of Goku's previou fights not forcing him to show what he's capable of in any real sense. Piccolo was largely in that same boat, but now he's faced down Kami, the character who was previously shown to be the strongest. So we know Piccolo has surpassed Kami...but has Goku? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Laying all the cards on the table at last.
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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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