Synopsis: Raditz reiterates his demands to Goku: pile up one hundred dead human bodies on the beach in a day, or he'll never see his son alive again. Kuririn accuses Raditz of having no honor for using a kid like this, and Roshi says he's crazy if he thinks Goku will listen to him in the first place, but Raditz says the choice is his if he values a hundred people over his own son. He then adds that the choice should be made easier by knowing the fact that, as soon as he and his partners are through conquering this other world, they'll no doubt come back to Earth to conquer and sell it next. Raditz gives the Earthlings about a month tops to survive against their 'cleansing', and says that it really shouldn't matter then if Goku gives a hundred of them a head start. As Piccolo listens in from behind Kame House, Goku demands that Raditz give him his son back, but Raditz tells him to make his choice as he flies into the air. He warns Goku not to try fighting him again, saying that even if Goku had the power to challenge him, he greatly lacks the training, and flies off as both father and son scream for each other. Goku pounds his fists in the sand as his friends try to check on him and console him, but Goku wants to chase after Raditz immediately, even calling back down kinto'un. Roshi and Kuririn convince him that it would be foolish to do so in his condition, and try to get him to come up with a plan of action with them. Bulma thinks it's a shame that Goku finally finds his family only to find out that it's someone like Raditz, but Goku doesn't care about that - he just needs to get his son back. The problem is that he's never seen anyone nearly as strong as Raditz is, and Kuririn asks him if he has any idea how to deal with him. Goku says that if Raditz's tail is anything like his was, then it should be his weak point, and all Goku has to do is grab it to drain him of his power. He'll need help to pull it off however, and Kuririn and Roshi both offer to fight with him, but when Kuririn asks Bulma to wish them back with the Dragon Balls if they die, Goku says that won't work. He found out that Shenlong can't grant the same wish twice, and since both Roshi and Kuririn have already been brought back to life before, if they die this time it's for keeps. The pair agrees to fight alongside Goku regardless, albeit more timidly than before, with Kuririn lamenting that he'll never get a girlfriend at this rate. Bulma raises the idea of asking Shenlong to 'save the world' for them, but Roshi doesn't think they'd be able to find the remaining balls in only one day. Goku asks Bulma to borrow the dragon radar so he can find where Raditz is heading, and once the ball that was moving stops, Goku and the others prepare to head out to take him on. Their leaving is interrupted however by Piccolo, who says that he also has business with Raditz. He tells Goku that he, Roshi, and Kuririn don't stand a chance against this new foe, but that the two of them together might just stand a chance. Goku thinks this makes sense, but doesn't trust Piccolo, asking him what's in it for him. Piccolo tells him to make no mistake, he doesn't care what happens to Goku or his son, but he has plans for this world that Raditz is interfering with, and he'll even team up with Goku to put a stop to that. As soon as Raditz is dealt with however, Goku will be his next target. Goku likes the sound of that, and agrees to play along as well, at least until they get his son back. With the temporary alliance made, Goku asks for the radar back from Bulma again, and hops onto kinto'un. He asks Piccolo if he thinks he can keep up with him on it, but Piccolo says he'll let his speed do the talking for him. As the pair fly off to confront Raditz, Kuririn can't tell how to feel about this, but Roshi thinks they're about to miss out on a fight unlike any they've ever seen before, and tries to hurry them along to follow after. Review: So with the stage finally set for this new story arc – or at least it's first act – it's time for Toriyama and his characters to figure out what exactly to do about the terrible situation they've suddenly found themselves in. It's basically a given that Goku's not going to go and kill anyone, much less a hundred people, not even to save his son. If Raditz had shown up about a decade prior, he might have been able to show him some Red Ribbon corpses, but beyond that, it's a no-go. So in that case, what to do, especially knowing that it's going to come to a fight one way or another later on now that Raditz has confirmed the Saiyans' interest in this planet as well. Being the hot-headed person that he is at times, Goku of course wants to rush in and try fighting again, even though Raditz just took him down with the greatest of ease. He even has a plan on how to deal with the gap in power, and it's actually somewhat of a brilliant idea. Goku knows better than any of them what grabbing his tail used to do to him, so it's a pretty smart guess that it might have the same effect on Raditz, though the immediate problem from this plan is getting close enough to grab the tail. For that, Goku is going to need some help, and without any of his other fighting friends around at the time, that job seems destined to fall to Kuririn and Roshi. Poor guys – one of them just wants to get a girlfriend, and the other one wants to retire (though he likely wouldn't say no to a pichi-pichi girlfriend either). As the talk turns to the Dragon Balls, we run into two different ways that the balls are becoming somewhat less of a fail-safe than they might otherwise have been. The smaller problem is that it's still quite a task to collect them, to the point that it's certainly not possible within the span of one day, but the larger problem is a new restriction on what they can do. Goku's statement of them only being able to grant a wish once is something that, on the one hand, feels like it should have come up by now. After all the training at Kami's palace where he seemingly learned quite a bit about Kami and how the Dragon Balls work, you'd think this would have been important information for him to mention at some point. At the same time though, this is really the first time that it would have even been an issue – sure, they all could have died at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, but there was just enough in favor of them being protected there, at least compared to this situation, that it likely just never came up in conversation. The real world reason for this new restriction of course is to make the Dragon Balls less 'perfect', to ensure that there's still some sense of peril in the series. This is something that has been a long time coming, and started back in the King Piccolo arc when Toriyama first had the titular villain kill Shenlong, and continued by revealing the life-link between Kami and Piccolo and how that could also get rid of the Dragon Balls if either of them were to die. All of this serves to make it so that the characters can't legitimately just gather the Dragon Balls and save the day every time – they're going to have to get their own hands dirty, magical wish-granting orbs or no. That said, the Dragon Balls do serve a purpose here, as the Four-Star Ball on Gohan's hat allows Goku to track where Raditz has gone much easier. The problem of how exactly Goku is going to grab Raditz's tail persists however, and it seems like it's going to be really long odds that he'll pull it off...and that's when Piccolo shows back up. This could very easily have been a case of things getting worse before they got better, as for all the characters know initially, Piccolo may have just shown up for his rematch with Goku, without any idea of what's going on otherwise. Come to think of it, that might have actually been an interesting route for Toriyama to take – have Piccolo show up for his fight, and have it be Goku that suggests the team up. I don't know how well that would have worked in the long run for Piccolo's character arc as we know it though...hmm. At any rate, the idea of Goku and Piccolo WORKING TOGETHER? Ho. Ly. Crap. Of all of the things undersold by coming into the series at this point rather than having experienced all the previous material first, this might be the biggest, and is easily just as shocking an idea as anything that Raditz has revealed to us. Roshi's excitement is likely a proxy of the audience's excitement when this chapter first came out, because not only is the idea crazy to think about at any point prior to this, Roshi's completely right – if Goku and Piccolo are actually fighting together, then this promises to be a more insane fight than anything we can possibly imagine. 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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