Synopsis: The fourth and final match of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai's first round is ready to start, but unfortunately, Goku has gone missing. With his opponent, the monstrous Giran, ready and raring to go, the remaining tournament fighters and staff search desperately for Goku, Ranfan eventually spotting him sleeping by a wall. Kuririn grabs him and drags him back to the arena, telling him to wake up since it's his turn to fight. The announcer tries to save face with an explanation about Goku being unavoidably detained, but Goku nonchalantly blurts out that he had a good nap, and Giran feels slighted.
As the match begins, Goku's friends cheer him on while Giran makes a threat that Goku ignores. Giran then say she has something in his hand to show Goku, causing the boy to approach him. Giran takes this opportunity to viciously swipe at him with his tail, sending the boy flying into one of the walls at the back of the arena, but still within the ring's space. The announcer wonders if they've just witnessed another one hit knockout, but Goku jumps back up with only a hurt cheek. Goku rushes Giran to attack him back, and the monster tries to block him, but leaves his stomach open for a powerful punch from the young boy. Goku then flips behind him and grabs him by the tail, flipping him through the air with the intention of ringing him out. Giran simply uses his wings to fly back into the arena however, and because he never touched anything other than the air, he's still in the fight. Goku resolves himself that he'll just have to make Giran give up, but Giran smirks and spits out a gum-like substance that wraps around Goku's body, pinning his arms and legs together. With Goku now unable to move due to Giran's gum, how can he possibly win this match? Review: An interesting note at the start of this chapter is that, apparently the previously defeated tournament competitors are allowed to stick around back-stage and watch the fights if they want to? It's not something that's ever explicitly stated, but considering it's Ranfan that finds Goku, it has to be the case. It's almost kind of weird that she sticks around too. In the case of Yamcha, of course he'd stay, he wants to see Goku fight. But Bacterian doesn't seem to be anywhere, so why'd Ranfan hang around? Our last tournament original character, Giran, finally makes himself properly known, and he's definitely a beast. He's huge, at least compared to the other fighters in the tournament – though it's hard to say if he's bigger than Bacterian, to be fair – and he's definitely one of the stronger competitors. His design is unique as well, looking something like a cross between a Pteranodon and a T-Rex or something, but with a nose horn and humanoid hands. He almost looks like he'd be more at home in Dragon Quest rather than Dragon Ball if I'm being honest, but it works well enough as a new, tough opponent for Goku to fight. This is especially true when you stop and think how long it's been since we've actually seen Goku fight. Off the top of my head, I think the last time was when he beat up the cops that were chasing Lunch – the tussle he and Kuririn had with each other over the Turtle stone was mostly off-panel, and the preliminary fights were also mostly unshown, with the ones that were being one-hit wonders. Goku's still been front and center at the story itself, but that's still a long time to go without showing our main character in action. The story needed to give Goku an appropriate challenge, and a monster guy is just about perfect for that. Toriyama uses this fight to show us just about every angle of Goku's personality up to this point as well. His lackadaisical ability to be sleeping just before it's his turn, his naivety for falling for a stupid trick, his resilience when getting hit into a stone wall, his outrage at such a cheap shot, and his strength when hitting back – these are all things we've seen from Goku before and we'll see from him again. The whole fight really serves as a reminder of who Goku really is and why we cared enough to watch him deliver milk. Speaking of that stone wall, this is where the tournament's rules start to get a little sloppy really. While it makes sense that it's not really ring out, why would you have the arena attached so that there's a wall where you CAN'T get knocked off the stage? That's just asking someone to use it as something to pin their opponent up against, as well as to slam them up against it, as Giran does here. There's also Giran's flight. Yes, he has wings as a part of his body, but you'd think that being sent a certain distance away from the ring would count as a ring-out whether you actually touched the ground or not. These rulings are all over the place, hopefully nothing else that technically should count as a disqualification happens. ...Oh. Right. 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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