Synopsis: Goku and Kuririn continue to make short work of the competition as they blaze their way through the preliminaries, with Kuririn in particular having some fun at the expense of his opponents now that he's realized how strong he is. In almost no time at all, the pair have reached their last matches, and if they both win, they'll both secure a spot in the real tournament. As Goku prepares to take on his final opponent, a somewhat familiar looking man joins Kuririn in watching the fight. The man smirks and says he figured it had to be Goku when he heard a commotion about a kid way stronger than he looked fighting over here, and he's not surprised at all to see that his hunch was correct. Despite his opponent's best efforts and skills, Goku quickly takes him out, securing his entrance into the tournament. As Kuririn steps up into the ring to fight as well, the mysterious man calls out to Goku and congratulates him. Goku doesn't recognize the man, but when he goes into the Rogafufuken fighting pose, he figures out that it's Yamcha. Goku says he didn't recognize him because of his much shorter hair, and Yamcha explains that Bulma told him he needed to get it cut if he was going to fit in in the city. Goku asks Yamcha if he's entered the tournament as well, which Yamcha confirms, saying he'd been training for this tournament for a long time. Yamcha doesn't think he has much of a chance against Goku though, especially not now that he's gotten even stronger thanks to training from Roshi. As Kuririn wins his match, Yamcha asks if he's with Goku, and Goku confirms that Kuririn trained alongside him under Roshi. Yamcha frets that even second place might be too much to hope for in that case. He then tells Goku that it's not just him here for the tournament either, as Bulma, Oolong, and Puar are all in the audience to watch, a fact Roshi has already discovered by running across them in the crowd. Review: Compared to the last chapter, this one doesn't offer quite as much to talk about. That's not to say it's not entertaining, it's got a lot of great action panels from Toriyama's pen, as well as the return of some long lost friends – it just doesn't have a whole lot of meat to tear into this time around. Mostly, this chapter is basically wrapping up the preliminaries and showing that, now that they know how good they really are, Goku and Kuririn can make quick work of just about anyone. It's not too surprising to see Kuririn especially enjoying this after what he went through last chapter, but even his playing around isn't really malicious in nature – he's just enjoying finally not being the weak link for a change. Oh, buddy...enjoy it while it lasts. You have to feel a little bad for Goku's final opponent though. The guy is clearly a skilled martial artist, and probably someone who would have made the final cut if it wasn't for the existence of our main characters and their plot-induced super strength. It actually becomes sort of a running thing that Goku faces off with a more realistic, traditionally powerful martial artist in the preliminary rounds of the tournaments, only for him to show them up just to prove how beyond human strength he's grown time and again. It's a rough existence to be an NPC fighter in the Dragon world. The return of Yamcha (and the rest, though they're only shown in the last panel of the chapter) is a welcome one, since we haven't seen them since the end of the previous arc. It's great to see their faces again, though admittedly their plot relevancy is tenuous at best. Yamcha's in the tournament, and claims he's been training for it for a long time – like, how long? Just since they left, or was that part of what lead him to his living in the desert? - but the rest are just here for the cheering gallery. They don't really have any goals of their own anymore, so for now they're literally just window dressing. That's not too surprising for Oolong, and definitely not for Puar, but that's definitely a bit of a downgrade in importance for the likes of Bulma. At the same time though, I can't imagine what she'd really bring to this story arc, and it makes sense that she'd want to come see her boyfriend fight, so it is what it is. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Old friends and new foes!
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
|