Synopsis: Goku and Piccolo immediately clash as the match begins, with each opponent blocking the other's initial assault equally. Piccolo headbutts Goku away and leaps after him, landing behind him, but Goku is able to catch him with a kick to the chin. Leaping away again, Piccolo lands at the edge of the ring and stretches his arm out towards Goku, but Goku merely catches his arm and uses it to throw Piccolo high into the air. Piccolo attempts to stop himself mid-air, but Goku sends him flying further away with a kiai motion. Leaping into the air after him, Goku is caught off-guard when Piccolo recovers, hitting Goku at point-blank range with an energy blast. The attack sends Goku crashing into the ring's floor, after which Piccolo follows up with a continuous volley of blasts that all hit Goku. As the crowd and Goku's friends try to shield themselves from the force of Piccolo's blasts, the dust clears and Goku's body is shown lying in a crater in the ring. As Goku's friends fret, the announcer starts the ten count, but Piccolo asks him to refrain and allow Goku to get back up. The announcer is taken aback, and Piccolo accuses Goku of being too transparent, stating that even his strength would never take down Goku so quickly. Laughing, Goku gets back up and asks if he was really that obvious, surprising everyone. Seeing that his gi's all torn up again, Goku rips off what's left of his shirt, as Piccolo asks him if he's still holding back even now, accusing him of being overly cautious. Goku says that he could accuse Piccolo of the same thing, and Piccolo promises to start showing more and more of his real power now. Goku says that Piccolo may be evil, but he knows how to put up a good fight. Piccolo says that he won't be able to spout such things for much longer, as Piccolo plans to kill him soon, but Goku thinks he'll have to actually win this fight first for that. Goku's friends are amazed that the two warriors are already going this hard and only testing each other. Piccolo tells Goku that his next moment of weakness will be his last, with Goku swearing to start going all out as well, as the two fighters leap towards each other once more. Review: In a previous review, I said that everything was on the table now, and that there was nothing left but to get to the fight that we've been building towards since the end of the last arc, and boy does this chapter prove me right. It wastes absolutely no time getting things going, with it's very first page starting right where the last chapter left off. Even at this early stage, I think it's easy to see why I love this fight so much – Toriyama's artwork and staging has never been more dynamic, and Goku and Piccolo's clash is already the equal to any fight we've seen in the series up til now. And with this being only the first chapter, it only promises to get better from here. As with most chapters that are entirely fighting, it doesn't leave me with a lot to comment on, but I do want to point out that a few tactics we see in this fight are things we've already seen in a few fights prior, with those previous tournament matches laying the ground work for what we're seeing here. If we hadn't already seen Piccolo's arm stretching, it might have caught Goku and the readers both off guard; likewise, we've already seen Goku attack with just a yell and the force caused by him moving his arm fast and hard enough. We've also already seen a few instances of energy blasts being treated as a regular thing now and not solely being the domain of big, named attacks. This fight is taking everything we've only just learned about how combat in Dragon Ball can truly be, and it's running with it without looking back. Some of these concepts will ultimately get so big and grand in scale that it's going to get harder for Toriyama to portray them as grandiose as they truly are, with a lot of the heavy lifting falling onto character's dialogue to truly sell it, but for now? It's in the perfect sweet spot where just seeing it for ourselves is enough. And seeing it for yourself is absolutely what I recommend everyone do. The anime's take on this fight is great as well, but I cannot recommend this part of the manga any harder if I tried. Go. Read it. Do it now! Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: That's not a real fight – THIS is a real fight!
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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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