Synopsis: The announcer comments that the match has gone on long enough that the sun is starting to set, while Goku and Jackie disagree about who's winning. Yamcha and Kuririn feel certain that the match is going in Goku's favor. Roshi thinks to himself that he really does have no choice but to use 'THAT' move, he just hopes that Goku's youth will help him survive it.
Jackie apologizes to Goku and tells him that he's about to lose. Goku can't see how that can happen since the announcer said he's ahead, but Jackie tells him that the move he's about to use has only been used on one other person before, and that person was Goku's grandfather, Son Gohan. Goku is shocked to hear this, and Jackie wastes no time prepping his attack. He channels his energy into an electric aura around his hands, stunning everyone watching. With a yell, he launches the Bankoku-Bikkuri-Shou at Goku, and the energy grabs hold of Goku, holding him in mid-air while essentially electrocuting him. As his friends watch in horror while Goku screams in pain, Jackie tells the boy to say mercy quickly, or he may even die. Goku refuses, and Jackie tells him he's really serious – this technique could kill him if they're both not careful. Yamcha and Kuririn both shout for Goku to give up, and Goku reluctantly agrees, and Jackie praises him saying that not even Gohan lasted this long against the attack. Before Goku can finish saying mercy however, he looks up at the sky and spots the full moon rising. To the horror of the Goku's oldest friends and the crowd, and the confusion of Jackie and Kuririn, Goku once again transforms into a monstrous ape! Review: We're finally entering the closing act of this fight and story arc, and while certain aspects of this fight have been repetitive lately, it still holds up as the best fight the series has yet thrown at us. All throughout this match, Roshi has seemed like he wanted to end it quickly and to put Goku down, perhaps not with as little effort as possible, but certainly without having to go to extremes. No matter what he's tried however, Goku just keeps getting back up. He's proven to be far more resilient, far smarter (at least, at fighting), and far stronger than Roshi had ever dreamed. This seems to make Roshi all the more determined to win – if his pupil is already THIS strong now, what could he become in the future if he still has something to strive for? I think it's with that idea in mind that Roshi actually uses a two-fold attack here. The main attack is of course the Bankoku-Bikkuri-Shou (a ludicrously named attack that's a reference to an old Japanese variety show, if I recall correctly), but I don't think it's an accident or just exposition that causes Roshi to mention Goku's grandfather here as well. Back when they'd just started their training, there was a moment where even Goku was winded and seemed like he wanted to quit. Roshi was able to light a fire under him then by telling him that Gohan had underwent the same training, and that had spurred Goku on to try even harder. How strong Goku is now is a direct result of how seriously he took his training after Roshi told him that. Now Roshi is betting on the same thing working once again, though it's a little bit different this time around. Whereas before mentioning Gohan was meant to make Goku keep going, here it's meant to make him give in. Not even Gohan could withstand this technique, so how could Goku? This is only meant to ultimately make Goku want to try that much harder in his training afterwards of course, as that's been Roshi's goal all along, and is even shown by him praising Goku for holding out in the attack longer than Gohan had. He wants Goku to lose, to feel like he has to better himself, but to also feel good about how far he's already come. Unfortunately, Goku's stubborn nature starts to get in the way of Roshi's goal, but even that doesn't throw a monkey wrench into it the same way that...well, an actual giant monkey does. Goku's tail growing back in his first match may have seemed like a sudden thing at the time, but I think it was done there precisely to give some distance between it's re-growth and the return of Goku's ape form. If the tail had grown back at some point during Goku's training, especially if it happened off screen, there wouldn't have been as much of a surprise factor for Yamcha and the rest from the first arc. At the same time, if it grew back during Goku's fight with Namu, that would have still been way too close to his fight with Jackie. Placing it where he did, Toriyama was able to give us just enough time to think that we weren't getting the ape again yet, only for him to pull the rug out from under us when we are indeed getting the ape again. He's a crafty one, that Toriyama. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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September 2022
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