Synopsis: As Kuririn wonders if this is the real start of the fight, Goku and Piccolo once again lock arms in combat. The two fighters furiously exchange blows, eventually ending up hand in hand, each one trying to overpower the other. Piccolo tries launching blasts from his eyes to catch Goku off-guard, but Goku ducks beneath them before flipping up and kicking both feet into Piccolo's chin. As Piccolo is knocked back, Goku leaps away and seemingly disappears. While Tenshinhan praises Goku for having completely erasing his presence, Piccolo is undeterred, and catches a reappearing Goku in the chin with an elbow strike, sending him crashing into the ring's wall. Goku's friends are shocked, but even more so when they realize that the wall is broken...but Goku's not there. Piccolo is also shocked by this turn of events, as Goku reappears behind him, kicking him hard and knocking him flying. Piccolo regathers himself and springs off of the ring and high into the air, infuriated. Goku is surprised to see that even that didn't really affect Piccolo, as the demon vows to destroy Goku and the arena in an instant. Realizing what Piccolo is planning to do, Goku quickly urges everyone to run away, but it's too late. With no time for anyone to run, Goku leaps into the air to divert Piccolo's attention, and Piccolo fires a massive energy blast towards Goku, lambasting him for trying to protect worthless humans. Goku manages to dodge the blast at the last second by using another forceful kiai, but the blast still manages to nick his shoulder before crashing into nearby mountains, vaporizing them instantly in a flash of light. As the light fades, the crowd is stunned to see the massive cloud of destruction left behind. Piccolo curses himself for only landing a glancing blow, as Goku uses a small energy blast of his own to land back in the ring. Roshi comments that if Goku hadn't acted, everyone in the tournament grounds would have been blasted to atoms. Goku chastises Piccolo for going so far, and says that he'll teach him with his own next attack – the Super Kamehameha! Review: While I heaped praise upon the previous chapter, it's worth noting that we've been down this road before. The fighting here might be more intense than anything we've seen before, but that doesn't take away from how high-octane Goku V.S. Tenshinhan was, or even Kuririn V.S. Piccolo. Even going back to the previous tournament, Yamcha V.S. Tenshinhan also opened up with action unlike anything we'd seen before, and Goku's original fight with Tenshinhan built upon that greatly. In each of those instances however, the hype was fairly short lived, as the fight soon changed course. I don't want to say they fizzled out, as they certainly didn't, and an entertaining shonen fight is far more than 'who can hit harder' – but there's no denying that those fights had strong openings that kind of went away as the fight went on, and outside of Goku's original fight with Tenshinhan, they all ultimately wrapped up in a handful of chapters overall. That's not what's happening here. This chapter continued showing Goku and Piccolo's fight as being just as insane as it already was, and if anything, despite the characters claiming to be going all out, it promises to get even crazier from here on out. We're again treated to new takes on tactics and techniques we've seen before, such as Piccolo's eye beams and Goku covering his presence, but they're both instantly dealt with by their respective opponents. I can't lie, I was rooting for Piccolo a little bit when he cut short another segment of 'they're moving so fast that I can't even see them!'. Ultimately however, Goku really did move faster than anyone could see, and by god, Toriyama may have finally figured out a way to show it off properly by...not showing it at all and just having Goku reappear behind said opponent. ...Brilliant! Piccolo seems to think less of it than I do however, as being showed up infuriates him to a degree we haven't yet seen from this incarnation of the Demon King. The difference between the two fighters outlooks gets shown clearly here. For Piccolo, this is all just a game, with his goal being to not only defeat Goku, but to kill him. As such, he has no problem bringing this entire tournament crashing down around him and killing everyone there if that's what it takes. Goku however won't stand for others being hurt when it's him his opponent is really after, and makes it a point to divert Piccolo's attack. There's another, less altruistic reason for Goku's decision here, but as that hasn't been revealed yet, I'll hold off on commenting on it for now. I've mentioned a few times already that this era of the story is redefining how the series treats energy attacks and how it's audience should think of them. Prior to this arc, energy blasts were basically only ever seen with big, named attacks. Now however, we've started to see characters just launching smaller energy blasts like it was nothing. This arc is also reinventing ki blasts in another manner however – it's making them bigger. The two outlier Roshi attacks (the times he destroyed Mount Frypan and later THE MOON) aside, we've never seen energy blasts quite like the one Piccolo fires at Goku in this chapter. Even when we saw King Piccolo destroy whole cities, it was more of an immediate explosion rather than an actively moving energy blast. Here however, the blast Piccolo fires off is HUGE, and the devastation it leaves behind is no less immense. Even without Roshi's commentary, it's easy to believe what kind of damage that attack would have done to Goku if it hit him head on, much less what it would have done to everyone else at the tournament, especially the non-fighting crowd in the audience. Faced with something like that, Goku'd going to have to have something pretty amazing of his own if he's going to keep taking the fight to Piccolo, no old tricks are going to be able to save him this time. But what about an old trick reborn? Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The Kamehameha Reborn!
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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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