Synopsis: The tournament announcer reminds the crowd of the prize money of 500,000 zeni for the winner of the tournament, before handing the microphone over for a very brief word from the highest monk in charge of the arena's temple, who is of course a dog. Taking the microphone back, he calls out Kuririn and Bacterian for the first match, explaining the rules again before declaring the match can now begin! From the waiting area, Goku tells Kuririn he's rooting for him, while Bulma and the others wonder where Roshi has gotten off to.
The fight begins, and Bacterian's stench is so extreme that everyone in the area, including the audience, is constantly covering their noses. Bacterian throws a punch at Kuririn, but Kuririn dodges, forcing Bacterian to resort to chemical warfare by burping on him. Kuririn is dazed, and Bacterian goes to an even further extreme by rubbing his finger around in his crotch and then jabbing the smelly finger in Kuririn's face. The announcer (now sporting a gas mask) wonders if the match might already be over as Kuririn falls to the ground, but Bacterian's not through with him just yet. He unleashes a mighty fart right in the downed boy's face! With Kuririn completely out of it and unable to defend himself, Bacterian begins to mercilessly stomp on the boy. The announcer begins the countdown for Kuririn's defeat, but Goku shouts at him to get up, that he can't lose to someone like that. He then realizes something that Kuririn seems to have forgotten himself: Kuririn can't actually be smelling any of this, because he doesn't have a nose! Upon hearing this, Kuririn snaps out of it and jumps back to his feet. He's prepared to fight back now, but Bacterian says he knows more than just 'stink fu'. He begins hocking up a loogie, spitting a bunch of them out at Kuririn, but Kuririn deftly dodges them all, and lands a powerful kick to the side of Bacterian's head. Once he's knocked down, Kuririn quickly runs up and farts in the man's face in revenge, and the kick and the smell combined are enough for Bacterian to throw in the towel and give up. Kuririn wins the first match of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai! Review: The throwaway gag about the head monk of the temple being a dog guy, who of course just 'woofs' as his speech, is pretty forgettable and honestly not really one of Toriyama's best gags, but considering what we later get for the king of the world, he must've been pretty fond of his own wit here I'm guessing. Equally not given much time this chapter is the mystery of where in the world Roshi has disappeared to. Surely he'd want to watch his students fight, right? For shame, old-timer! For. Shame. No, the real focus of this chapter is on Bacterian, and just how all around disgusting he is. We already had it stated that he's a dirty fighter (in more than one way) who supposedly has never bathed in his life, but holy crap is that barely the tip of the iceberg. A bad case of BO is one thing, I'm even willing to overlook the burps and the farts, but what kind of person hocks loogies at someone? Or rubs their finger in their crotch and then shoves it in their face! To quote Cleveland Brown, that's naaaassstttyyy. Which of course means it's absolutely hysterical. Sort of. If you're into that kind of thing. The gag-centric nature of the character does make it sort of hard to gauge exactly how strong he really is. He must be at least fairly strong to have been able to take out other opponents and get this far, but considering his stench is as bad as it is, it's really hard to say. The true level of his power is a mystery I'm sure we've all been wondering for decades. The gag that ultimately wins Kuririn the match, his lack of a nose, is probably the funniest part of the chapter to me. It's been something unsaid up until now, but something just about everyone notices when they look at the character, but without this moment his noseless-ness could almost have been taken as a weird character design quirk. Like he did have a nose, just an incredibly small and unnoticeable one. With this confirmation though, we're now left to wonder how well he breathes, how his sense of taste is effected, and all sorts of super nerdy minutia that I'm sure nobody but me has actually considered for more than five seconds, but I am what I am. And what I am is glad that even at my stinkiest, I don't hold a candle to Bacterian. Nobody else should either, those stench fumes are probably flammable. 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
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