Synopsis: Roshi is appalled at Goku's poor judgment of beauty, so he presents Goku with a test by holding up a picture of two different women, one attractive and one not. When Goku can't really see any difference between the two, Roshi insists that Goku bring him one that looks like the attractive one, and sends the boy off to try again.
Roshi doesn't really have a good feeling about his odds of Goku succeeding, so he decides to hide at the back of his house to scope out the situation first when Goku gets back. To his surprise and pleasure, the girl Goku returns this time looks like just his type! He calls Goku back to congratulate the boy, and when Goku excitedly asks if this means they can start training, Roshi agrees. For his very first lesson, Roshi tasks Goku with asking the girl for her panties. Goku isn't really sure what those are, but he goes to ask, only to return empty handed – apparently the girl doesn't have any panties, only the shirt on her back. Roshi is extremely excited by this turn of events, and decides that he should go talk to the girl himself. He psyches himself up, thinking that his sunglasses will give him the perfect opportunity to oggle her lower body with her none the wiser, but to his disappointment when he steps out, her lower half is that of a fish – it seems Goku has brought him a mermaid. Roshi's disappointment fades away quickly however, as her top portion still looks good enough to him. He boldly asks her if he could ee her boobs, only to get punched in the face before the mermaid naturally leaves. Goku thinks he's got it figured out now, 'panties' must be another word for 'punch'! Roshi lies and agrees, telling Goku that the first lesson is about being able to take a punch. For the second lesson, Roshi tasks Goku with bringing him a girl once again, one who looks like the mermaid but without a fish bottom half. He doesn't know how long he's going to have the island mostly to himself with the turtle on vacation again, but he can't let such a good opportunity for fun pass him by. Roshi's plans are soon interrupted however when Goku notices a small boat approaching them, with a small stranger aboard it. The tiny bald stranger stops the boat a few feet away from the shore before leaping through the air, doing some flips, clearly planning to land on the beach looking really cool – unfortunately, he lands headfirst and ends up buried in the sand. Roshi has Goku pull him free, and the boy introduces himself as Kuririn. He says he's come here from the far east and wants to train under Roshi as well. Roshi at first turns him away saying he doesn't take students very often, but Kuririn intrigues the master by offering him a dirty magazine. Kuririn notices Goku at last and asks him if he's one of Roshi's students as well. Goku confirms this, but Kuririn doesn't think he has the stomach for it, an idea that Goku responds to by saying he has plenty of stomach. Kuririn asks if that's an attempt to be witty, but Goku replies that Kuririn's bald head looks funny. Kuririn angrily retorts that anyone serious about the martial arts shaves their head, just look at Roshi, but Roshi throws him under the bus by saying he's just bald. Roshi says he'll accept Kuririn as his student if he can help Goku with his own final task, bringing back a girl. He's sure Kuririn at least knows just the type he'd like, so he orders him to get onto kinto'un and bring one back. Kuririn tries but falls right through the cloud, making Roshi realize this new prospective student must have come here for impure reasons. Kuririn insists that it's nothing of the sort, he only wants to get training so he'll be more popular with girls, which Roshi says is pretty impure really... Review: While we're in the story arc that's going to change Dragon Ball forever by bringing more focus into the fighting elements, we're not quite to the point in it where that really kicks in. For this earlier portion of the story, gags are still the special of the day, and thankfully they're just as funny, if somewhat inappropriate at times, as ever. Roshi attempting to teach Goku how to tell a pretty girl apart from a regular one, as sexist as it might be, actually is kind of a lesson when you think about it. I see you grabbing those pitchforks, let me explain. As we've seen countless times since the beginning of the series, Goku is about as naïve as they come. He has absolutely no understanding of the world around him, at least not when it comes to technology or social graces and the like. Despite this, Bulma never really saw fit to try to teach him at all. She seemed pretty content to leave the boy exactly as she found him really, which is a bit of a shame because she certainly would have been a better teacher for some things for Goku than Roshi would. But because she didn't, now it's Roshi who's beginning to try and teach Goku things, even if it's the wrong things. See what you get for subpar education? Though she's mostly there for fan-service and as a gag, the mermaid actually brings two small but interesting things to the table. Firstly, there's no way around it this time, she's definitely riding kinto'un. Looks like Goku's a good judge of character if not one for appearances. Secondly, she's the first of a good handful of characters we'll meet who don't readily fit into either the 'human', 'monster', or 'animal person' type of Earthlings. I guess you could put her into either the monster or animal categories well enough, but she certainly doesn't seem to fit either of those the same way as more definitive examples do. At the end of the day though, Toriyama just does whatever seems best at the time and you just have to roll with it. And last but certainly not least, let's talk about Kuririn, since he actually does get a pretty good introduction to show what makes him tick here rather than us having to wait another chapter like was often the case in the previous story arc. This will again come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that's known me for any length of time, but I LOVE Kuririn. He's hands down my favorite character in the entire franchise, and with good reason. He's the most human and relatable character, he manages to remain on the front lines almost all the way through the original series even though he's pretty well outclassed by the stronger members of the cast at every turn, and he's got an extremely striking design. While the spiky hair of the Saiyans are probably Dragon Ball's most recognizable aesthetic as far as character designs go, I'd dare say you won't find anyone who won't instantly know who Kuririn is if you show them a bald forehead with six dots or mention a character that doesn't have a nose (more on that latter feature in a handful of chapters). He's basically the best friend a main shonen protagonist, or his eventual first born son, could ever have. But that's all far, far later in the timeline. For right now, Kuririn is a snarky little shit, and honestly I love this early version of the character as well. He's sort of a new foil for Goku in the same way that Bulma was, in that he'll say something and expect Goku to either be angry or respond properly, only for Goku to completely ruin it somehow and they in turn get angry at him. For Bulma, this usually happened as a result of Goku having absolutely no real 'manners' to speak of. In Kuririn's case however, it's down to him trying to act cool and expecting to rile up the other boy, only for Goku to not even see what Kuririn's doing at all. Kuririn also becomes Goku's first real rival as well, serving as a great foil to him in that way as well. Yes, Yamcha was there first, but try as he might, he was basically always at a disadvantage against Goku no matter what he tried. Kuririn though will end up being shown as just close enough in strength for Goku to have to try harder to not fall behind, and that coupled with the lesson he'll learn by the end of this arc is a very integral part of Goku's evolving character. The biggest question left for now though is how exactly Kuririn knew to bring dirty magazines to win Roshi over. Kuririn is a growing boy and thus a bit pervy himself, but still – did he just assume that any old man living on an island by himself was probably lonely, or has Roshi's reputation started to precede him? 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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