Synopsis: With the sun already hanging low in the sky, Roshi decides that his island is really too small for him to give the boys proper training on, so he decides to return his house to it's capsule state and move them all to a nearby larger island first. On the way there, he asks Lunch to please refrain from sneezing if she can help it, all things considered.
Once they arrive, Roshi suggests that they get in at least a little bit of training before dinner, but Goku is surprised to see that there are other houses already on the island. Roshi says he shouldn't be, as about 300 people or so live on this island already. After that, Goku is eager to begin training, but Lunch asks if she should join them after all. Roshi says that she can do whatever she'd like, and she starts to say she'll cook everyone dinner but her words are cut off by an incoming sneeze. Goku, Kuririn, and Roshi all hide behind a rock, but it turns out to be a yawn instead. Lunch says she's really tired, and heads inside, leaving Goku and Kuririn relieved, but Roshi chastises them for being so easily scared despite being scared himself. Before they start training, Roshi asks Kuririn if he already has some experience with the martial arts or not. Kuririn reveals that he trained for 8 years at the Orin temple, and Roshi is pleased to hear that they both have a grasp of the basics at least. He asks the boys how long he thinks it would take them to run from where they are now to a tree that's one hundred meters away – speed doesn't necessarily make for a good martial artist in of itself, he says, but having strong legs is never a bad thing. Kuririn boasts that he could qualify for the Olympics if he really wanted to, and goes first, crossing the distance in an impressive 10.4 seconds. Goku goes second, and crosses it extremely fast as well, but only clocks in at 11 seconds. Kuririn offers Goku a back-handed compliment, but Goku asks if he can run it again with new shoes, showing off how busted his are. When he runs it a second time, Goku clocks in at 8.5 seconds, impressing both Roshi and Kuririn. While Kuririn asks Goku exactly what kind of training he's had, Roshi compliments them both for already being as good as they are. He cautions them however that they're both still within normal human limits, and that in order to become truly great martial artist, they'll have to surpass those limits. Taking off his shell, he hands Kuririn his stopwatch and runs the distance himself, clocking in at 5.6 seconds, a time he considers pretty good considering his age. He tells them both that with proper training, given their age? They should be able to hit speeds close to that as well. Feeling a bit parched after his run, Roshi asks Goku to go get him a beer, but Goku doesn't know what beer is. Kuririn offers instead, and Roshi comments that he'll have to try to teach Goku some actual knowledge as well as martial arts. Inside the house, Kuririn asks Lunch for a beer, and she gives him one before sneezing, prompting her to chase after him with a butcher's knife for trying to take one of her beers. Watching from behind a rock again with Goku, Roshi comments that Kuririn's reaching human limits as he runs. Review: At last, the actual training under Muten Roshi begins! One couldn't be blamed for thinking the bit of training we get here is a little unorthodox, but as we'll see moving forward, everything about the Kame style is pretty unorthodox. Honestly, it's less a fighting style and more a training regiment really, one that pays amazing dividends. I complained a lot last chapter about how horrible Toriyama's introduction of the Lunch sneezing gag was, and while all of that still holds true and works against it, he does at least try to utilize it a little differently in this chapter. This time, we get a reminder about it right at the start, followed by a moment where it looks like it's going to of course happen again, only for it to be a fake-out instead. It might not seem that important to note that the island they're on has 300 people, but this is actually a first for Goku. So far in the story, he's only been around a small select amount of people at any given time. The most crowded areas he's been in has been the village Oolong was terrorizing, and the town Master Carrot was terrorizing. Neither of those places were lingered in for very long, and while this island's natives also won't play too big of a part in the story, it does help serve to flesh out this world better and make it feel more inhabited. A test of speed might seem like a weird way to show off Kuririn for the first time, but really it works for the best because it allows Toriyama to keep his actual fighting prowess in his back pocket for now to use later. It also serves as a non-combat method to show exactly where Kuririn likely stands with everyone else right now, oddly enough in a way that power levels will briefly do the same thing much later in the story. Considering we haven't seen him actually do anything until now, it was a good time to finally show that he's up to snuff - his running time shows that he's not as good as Goku and certainly not as good as Roshi, but he's still roughly in the same ballpark enough to keep up. Likewise, Kuririn's attitude towards Goku is continuing to evolve and change. He's still antagonistic towards him, not that Goku really notices half the time, but he's being forced to realize that his fellow student isn't just weird. He already saw Goku take out two armed men without any problem, now he's forced to witness that he's faster than him too. This makes Goku a wall for him to try to overcome whether Kuririn likes it or not. As we'll see, this likewise gives Goku someone to measure himself against and someone he doesn't want to fall behind, showing how much mileage a good rivalry can give your training. Goku takes this lesson to heart, perhaps a little TOO well...but more on that way, way later. Roshi's run shows just how far ahead of the boys he is in experience, setting him up as the master he's clearly built up to be. We already saw that once before with his first Kamehameha, but that's been long enough that it makes sense for Toriyama to re-emphasize it again now (don't forget these chapters came out once a week originally in Japan), and Kuririn wasn't there to witness that either. And again, with the numerical system of their running speeds in place, it shows just how far ahead of them he really is...which is actually not that far at all, really. It's something I'll talk about at length at some point further on as well, but it's no secret that this series has a severe problem with strength progression, and how quickly overall Roshi, the invincible old master, is going to be overtaken in skill is a sign of how quickly that's going to become a problem really. And remember that fake-out with Lunch yawning instead of sneezing? It all comes right back around at the end where she sneezes at last and chases Kuririn around with a knife. Hilarious! ...Okay, maybe not quite hilarious, but it can only do so much after how badly the gag was damaged in introduction. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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