Synopsis: As Goku's friends rush to his side and congratulate him on his victory, Yajirobe is revealed to have stayed behind and hidden as well as he climbs out of some nearby dust. Chi Chi and Kuririn find that Goku can't get up, and Yamcha suggests that rush him to the hospital, but Yajirobe walks up and reveals that he brought senzu beans. Goku is surprised to see him, and Yajirobe says he just came to check on him before giving him one. As Goku's body is instantly healed, he leaps high into the sky to celebrate his victory, surprising everyone with his renewed vigor.
As Kuririn asks Yajirobe if the senzu aren't just food after all, Kami stares down at an unconscious Piccolo. Sensing something amiss, Goku quickly flies down and gets between them just as Kami prepared to strike and finish off Piccolo for good. Goku asks Kami what he's planning to do, and Kami says that they must put an end to Piccolo or else it'll all happen all over again. Goku insists that he'll just beat Piccolo again if that happens, and says he won't let Kami kill himself, but Kami insists, saying that they can just revive him with the Dragon Balls afterwards. Tenshinhan agrees that this is the only way, but Goku asks Kami if it's alright for a God to lie, saying that if Kami dies, the Dragon Balls and Shenlong will both fade out of existence as well. Kami doesn't correct Goku, and the others are taken aback by this revelation. Kami looks to the sky and says that he should have given up being God some time ago, since it was his fault that Piccolo terrorized the Earth after all. He thinks that, in the end, he doesn't have any right to go on living in the first place. Roshi corrects him however, stating that without him, nobody would have been able to defeat Piccolo. He explains that everyone coming together like this is a direct result of Goku and Bulma's first journey together, which only happened due to the existence of the Dragon Balls – if it hadn't been for the Dragon Balls bringing everyone together and inspiring them to get stronger, the world would have been doomed. Kami takes this explanation in stride before turning to Goku, saying that he truly found a wise mentor, which Goku agrees with while noting that he is a bit sleazy though. Roshi bashfully objects, saying that he only taught Goku the basics, and that it was Karin and Kami himself that made him grow into the fighter he is today. Kami raises his hand before Goku and fixes his clothes for him, stating that he looks best in a Turtle gi after all. Goku shouts to Yajirobe for another senzu, and Yajirobe tosses one to him though he's surprised that just one didn't get the job done. Rather than eating it himself however, Goku bends down and puts it In Piccolo's mouth and tells him to eat it. Before anyone can stop him, Piccolo swallows the bean and wakes up, leaping back to his feet. Everyone runs a few feet back and chastises Goku, while Goku explains that if he'd let Piccolo lay there and die, Kami still would have died too. He also admits that he doesn't like the idea of losing his greatest rival just yet. Piccolo scoffs and says that Goku's naivete will soon mean his death, saying that he'll withdraw for now, but promising to come back and kill Goku before taking over the world someday soon. As Kuririn shouts that Goku should have sealed Goku in the bottle, Piccolo flies away, with Goku thinking to himself that he hopes Piccolo gets a lot stronger, as he plans to surpass that strength himself by a whole other level. Looking to her friend, Bulma smiles and thinks that Goku started out as such a shrimp only to become like a mountain. Chi Chi rushes over to Goku and grabs hold of him, taking him by surprise as she squeezes him tightly. Roshi suddenly remembers that Goku's a newlywed now, but the conversation is interrupted by Kami, who offers Goku his place as God, saying that he and Chi Chi will be very happy up on the Sanctuary. Goku thinks Kami has to be kidding, stating that it was really boring up there for three years, so he can't imagine living his whole life there. As Tenshinhan receives a surprise of his own in the form of a returning Chaozu, who reveals that he was evacuated out of the hospital when everyone left, Kami insists that Goku is really the only person fit to succeed him as God. Goku rejects Kami's offer once again however, and calls down kinto'un. Leaping onto it with Chi Chi in tow, Goku flies off into the sky, promising to see everyone again some day. As Goku and his new fiancee fly off into the sky, his friends all shout his name. In a corner panel, Roshi assures us that, despite how it seems, this isn't actually the end of the story at all. Review: This chapter basically serves as an epilogue to the events of the arc, and even the series as a whole, up until now. As such, there's not really a lot of meat in it to talk about on it's own, but let's go over a few points of interest before I talk about what this arc as a whole has achieved, and what this chapter means for the narrative moving forward. Seeing Goku celebrate a well deserved victory at the Tenkaichi Budokai at last is extremely fulfilling. He's had a long road to get here, and it's nice to see him finally get what he's trained so hard for since nearly the beginning of the series. It's also nice to once again see him call Kami out on his crap. While it's admittedly a little suspect that Goku's doing this for any actually altruistic reasons (he even admits to himself that his real reasoning is just to keep Piccolo around as a good reason to keep getting stronger), the reveal that Kami's been lying to everyone all this time is a nice one. Yeah, remember how I mentioned that Kuririn's support of Goku firing the Super Kamehameha, and Goku doing so was a bit of an oddity for the arc? That's because Goku has seemingly already figured out the secret that if Piccolo dies, Kami dies, and thus the Dragon Balls stop working as well. We're not really made privy to why this is how they function – it's not like if the electrician that worked on your house dies, your power suddenly doesn't work – but we're dealing with magic and wish-granting balls here, so I'd say it's a feasible enough explanation. It also gives the Dragon Balls their first true limitation. Prior to this, they were basically an infallible 'Get Out of Jail Free' card, but now we know that if anything happens to Kami – or Piccolo for that matter – then they're potentially off the table, for good. This will definitely be something that's going to be important moving forward. Speaking of Piccolo, Goku decides that the best thing to do with him is...well, absolutely nothing! Again, this is a bit morally dubious given everything that he just tried to do, and as Kuririn points out, someone could have just sealed him away with the Mafuba again. That said, this is another one of those things where I'd say the story potential for him outweighs the logical decision towards him, so I'd say Toriyama made the right move here. Honestly the biggest two things to come out of this chapter are Kami's offer of Godship to Goku – an offer that he shoots down twice, finding the idea to be too boring – and Roshi's summation of what the Dragon Balls have brought out in our heroes. It's a very nice, touching look back on everything that's happened so far and what it all means, though it's pretty funny to see Yajirobe, Chi Chi, and even the tournament announcer included in the panel montage. I'd like to think that the announcer is thinking to himself that he has no idea what's going on but he's just happy to be alive and included. After that, Goku and Chi Chi fly off, into the unknown. This arc was, by and far, the greatest achievement in the series to date. I might be a little biased, but I still truly believe that this is the absolute best the franchise has to offer. It builds itself upon the bones of everything that came before it, all the character arcs and growth that we've seen both front and center and alluded to, and everything we want to see from the characters going forward, and it hits almost every single note perfectly. Comedy takes a back-seat in this portion of the story admittedly, but the jokes we do get work well, meanwhile the story structure and the combat have never felt fresher and more alive. Using essentially the same villain a second time right after his previous defeat was definitely a gamble, but Toriyama manages to make this Piccolo feel like an all new person (and he is, really) so that nothing ever feels repetitive in regards to him. This arc is about as close to perfect as one can get, with there really only being two places that it stumbles, at least for me. First, the sense of mystery at the start is a little unearned in the end. Taopaipai's return amounts to almost nothing, and the secret identities of Name Withheld (Chi Chi) and Shen (Kami) do much the same for the former and for the latter just ties in to the revelation that this arc really is just about Piccolo after all. Secondly, as much as I love the final showdown between Goku and Piccolo, it does perhaps go on just a chapter or two too long, as there's a few story beats that happen a few too many times, and it does become noticeable. If you're able to overlook both of these issues or they just aren't issues in the first place for you? Then I dare say you'll have a hard time finding many Dragon Ball stories better than this one. With such a high bar placed though, where can the story go next? This chapter serves as an ending and a culmination of everything that we've seen come before this. In fact, there's such a note of finality to this chapter that if it weren't for that small panel of Roshi at the very end, you'd think this was the end of the series. In a way, it is – Toei certainly saw fit to split the anime adaptation of the manga at this point, with only a few 'filler' episodes beyond this point occurring before the next chapter is adapted as episode 1 of a brand new anime 'sequel'. The story moving forward from this point brings more changes to the status quo than any almost any arc prior, with only this arc outdoing them in that regard. The focus of the series will remain rooted on fighting more than ever before. This truly is the end of the first 'era' of Dragon Ball. That said, it's still the same characters we know and love. It's still coming from the mind of Toriyama, at a time where he was still enthused to work on the series. It's still building upon everything that came before, and it still very much feels like the same story as a whole. There's been a lot of debate amongst fans if such a split is even warranted or needed, and honestly? I'm somewhere between neutral on the question and leaning towards 'no'. The series has more points in similarity moving forward than it does in difference, and it's all still part of the original run of manga, so all things told, there's really no non-marketing reason to refer to the rest of the series as anything but exactly that – the rest of the series. Compared to the anime original GT, or the decades later retelling and sequel such as Kai and Super, there's just not much of a reason to treat these two sections like separate stories. But that's all reaching far, far ahead, and again, this chapter does seem to bring quite a few things to a conclusion. The world has been well and truly saved by Goku, fulfilling Baba's prophecy – I guess it could have been technically fulfilled by his defeating King Piccolo, and that's certainly how the story treats it, but given the fact that Piccolo 'survived' that encounter, it's arguable that this is it's true fulfillment. Goku has also finally won the Tenkaichi Budokai, making him officially the strongest person in the world, something that's been his goal for some time now. It's great to see his celebratory nature at achieving this goal too, as it no longer feels like boasting, but a well earned enjoyment of a goal he's spent much of his life trying to achieve. ...But what now? That's the question that this chapter is bound to leave people asking. Goku's achieved every goal he's had throughout the course of the story: he's trained and gotten far stronger, he's battled against strong opponents and made powerful rivals to keep him on his toes; and he's proven himself to be, at least for the time being, the strongest person in the world. The only thing left for him seemingly is finding the four-star Dragon Ball again – given how much he wanted it back after the end of the 21st Budokai and that he kept it safe all the way through the 22nd, it's safe to assume he'd want to get it back once again. But we've already seen him go across the world in search of the balls once before, and now he's powerful beyond belief – is there really much story content to be mined from following him on such a journey again? There's less finality for the other characters admittedly – Kuririn might have proven himself as a capable fighter, but he still hasn't found himself a girlfriend; Tenshinhan has been shown that there's still a long way to go for him to catch back up to Goku, not to mention whatever lingering trauma he might be dealing with from meeting his former masters again; and Yamcha is...well...Yamcha. Honestly at this point it's hard to say for sure what the status of his relationship with Bulma is, as the last time anything was said about the two of them was when Bulma showed up at the start of this tournament and said she hadn't seen him for some time. Although their stories don't seem quite as neatly wrapped up, it's hard to really predict where things need to go for them next. This is even more unclear for the backup cast. Roshi is retired now, and Chaozu is, well, Chaozu. Bulma's drive to gather the Dragon Balls for anything seems to be greatly diminished. Lunch is likewise Lunch and seems content with whatever she's doing. Oolong and Puar sure do exist. Unlike every other ending to an era in this manga thus far, it's almost impossible to predict where things would go next if you didn't already know. That's, however, all based on things in the past. What about the new elements that have been brought to the table? Well, Piccolo's still at thing. It's a pretty easy guess that he's going to be out there, training and getting even stronger, with the goal to come wreck havoc again one day, he said as much himself. But is the story really going to go back to the Piccolo well for a third time? He's an incredibly effective villain for sure, but that might be pushing things a bit too far, especially if he's the next threat in line. This is the first time that a known antagonist is still left out there alive however, making this a brand new element for the series...and it's 'new' that the series would find itself needing to embrace to move forward. Speaking of new, there's also the Chi Chi factor to consider. What sort of life will a married Goku lead, and what sort of new story elements will this union bring to the table? Kami's offer of Godship has been turned down as well, leaving yet another avenue forward seemingly snubbed. So that's both the future and the past seemingly without a clear hint towards where things should go next. In a lot of ways, why DOESN'T the series end here? This chapter's ending is the cleanest break in the franchise, it gives no direct hints as to where the story is going to go next – and that's what makes the next story arc so surprising, I think, because it's rooted in both the past and the future. The story still has one, big unanswered question that it hasn't brought up in a long, long time, since the very first story arc in fact, and most fans wouldn't have thought about it since then either because it was never a focal point for the plot. There's one more element left that's been true throughout the series thus far as well – the Dragon Balls themselves. The Dragon Balls have been at the center of the plot for most of the story arcs thus far – they were what brought Goku and Bulma together in the beginning; they were what the Red Ribbon Army wanted, and one of them is what brought Goku into conflict with them in the first place; and they were instrumental in both the rise and fall of both King Piccolo and his reincarnation. Roshi's words ring entirely true, without the titular Dragon Balls, there would be no story here. There would be no Goku or any of the other heroes, at least not as we know them. These wish-granting orbs hold the power to inspire the best in our characters...and to bring out the worst in others. They're still very much a wild card that can bring conflict into the story, and that purpose is very much going to be utilized in the future. So that's where this chapter leaves us: a conclusion to everything that we've known, and a mysterious, hard to predict future, laying ahead. It's probably completely coincidental, but this truly feels a great metaphor for the end of Goku's childhood and the beginning of his adult life. None of us know what's going to happen when we take a step into the unknown – the best thing we can do, is grit our teeth and do our best, just like Goku does. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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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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