Synopsis: Kami is surprised to find himself in the outside world once more, whilst Bulma, Oolong, and the tournament announcer are all surprised to see what seems to be a second Piccolo in front of them. Roshi explains to Kami what just happened and how he was freed by Goku's plan. Piccolo shrinks back down to normal size, and Goku teases him by saying that he must not have wanted Goku to fly into his mouth again. Irritated, Piccolo launches himself at Goku once more, and the two fighters disappear.
The ring is once again left empty as Kami notes that even he can't follow their movements, not even with a God's eyes. The pair soon reappear in the sky above the ring, continuing to exchange a flurry of blows. Piccolo is able to punch Goku away from him, but Goku surprises him by launching a sudden Kamehameha not from his hands, but his feet! The blast sends Goku hurtling fists first into Piccolo, as Roshi praises his former student for having become such a genius when it comes to fighting. As Piccolo falls through the air, he launches a surprise attack of his own, catching Goku with an energy blast fired from his antennae. As Goku himself falls towards the ring now, Piccolo flies back in to finish him off, much to Kami's horror. As Goku barely gets back up before Piccolo can reach him, it seems like Piccolo's attack is going to land true, but Kami leaps in the way, blocking Piccolo's fists with his hands. Piccolo curses him, and Kami tells Goku that they'll take down Piccolo together. To Kami's surprise however, Goku objects, saying that the match hasn't been decided yet and that if Kami interferes, they'll disqualify him, and Goku doesn't want that. Kuririn is surprised that Goku can still think of this as a tournament match at all, but Roshi says that Goku never was one to look at the bigger picture, and that he's the type to only get excited by having a tough opponent in front of him. Goku offers Piccolo one free punch to make up for the one that Kami blocked, otherwise he'll feel guilty. Piccolo calls Goku a braggart but takes him up on the offer, punching Goku and sending him crashing into the tournament ring's wall again. As Goku tries getting back up, he tells Piccolo that they're even now. Review: It figures that as soon as he's let back out into the world, Kami immediately starts trying to interfere with things – that's just such a God thing to do, isn't it? Jokes aside, this chapter basically serves as a way for Kami to be brought up to speed on everything that's happened since he was sealed away just before the final match of the tournament began. He now knows how he got sealed away (though technically, shouldn't he already know how that happened?), he knows that Goku broke him out again, and he sees that Goku and Piccolo are both far stronger than he ever imagined. You'd think that this newfound revelation that they're stronger – and faster, let's not forget faster, why they're moving so fast that not even GOD's eyes can see them, hahahaha-ugh... - would motivate him to put a little more trust into Goku's chances of winning this fight. But nope – Kami still can't help but think that he needs to do the job himself, or at least be involved with it now. It's admittedly pretty ironic how this has turned out, given that my initial issues with Kami were that he didn't take care of his own mess. Now that things have evolved far past the point where he can, he can't stop poking his nose into a business that's way past him at this point. Amongst all of the fighting that Kami finally gets to see, we ourselves get to see two more moves we haven't yet seen before. The first of which is the cooler one in my opinion, and that's Goku's 'foot Kamehameha'. I don't know why, but I've always thought this was a cool trick, and it's a shame that we only get to see it the once. I guess flying becoming a thing mostly takes away the need for this move, but it's still one of the more surprising uses of the Kamehameha in the entire series. We also get to see Piccolo fire energy from his antennae. Huh. Neat! I mean, it is another way to catch an opponent off-guard, and it certainly works – it's just not as surprising or ground-breaking as the newest Kamehameha innovation, especially not when we've already seen something like this from the Gatchan back in Penguin Village. Man, remember Penguin Village? Where were THEY when King Piccolo was taking over the world, that's all I want to know. If Senbei had sent in Arale, things would have gone a lot smoother. Going back to Kami's interfering, it's here that we finally get it spelled completely out that Goku still considers this a tournament match that he wants to win rather than a fight to save the world. As much as I love to harp on Kami, and while this is something that 100% fits Goku's character – almost too much, as this is the sort of thinking from him that's going to get even more extreme as time goes on – this kind of is a good reason for him to not trust leaving things in Goku's hands alone. If it wasn't for a certain plot point that I still can't talk about just yet, then it really would make a lot more sense to kill Piccolo here than it does to let him live and win the tournament. He's also already proven to be incredibly resilient, so it would make a first time reader wonder if Piccolo even CAN be beaten without killing him. It did take his death to stop the former King Piccolo, after all. One other neat thing worth mentioning is that in the pages of the chapter itself, Piccolo's free punch isn't actually depicted. The title page of this chapter seems to portray it though, in a rare case of the manga having a title page that actually takes part in the series proper – usually the closest thing we get to that are the rare chapters without a title page at all, with most actual title pages just being character art for the sake of character art. It's a little thing, but it's nice, and I kind of wish it happened more often. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories
All
|