Synopsis: While the announcer prepares to announce Jackie Chun as the winner, Goku's friends lament his apparent death. Jackie tells them not to be so melodramatic however, and points to the edge of the ring, where Goku is laying naked but alive. Goku's friends are overjoyed, and Jackie reveals the true target of his attack – the moon! The announcer glances up into the sky and sees that Jackie's claim is true, he's really blown away the moon with that massive Kamehameha, and Jackie assures them that this means Goku will never turn into a monster again. The announcer frets about what the loss of the moon could mean, annoying Jackie greatly. He tells the announcer to start counting before it's too late, but it already is as Goku stands back up, ready to continue the fight again. The announcer halts the fight however, allowing Goku to leave the ring just long enough to put on some clothes, Kuririn offering to give him his gi. As they change clothes, Kuririn putting on his original Orin temple clothing, Kuririn asks Goku how long he's been able to turn into a monster, but finds out that Goku has no idea about any of it. Kuririn decides to leave it that way, especially since Jackie seems sure the lack of moon means Goku will never transform again. As Goku steps back into the ring, he sees all of the damage to the arena and wonders if a typhoon came through while he was asleep. The match starts again with Goku complaining about being hungry, and Jackie trying to attack him with another Kamehameha while his guard is down. Unfortunately for Jackie however, he's spent too much energy and can't fire another one yet, making Goku realize that that also means he can't use that other electric attack either. Goku is overjoyed and launches a Kamehameha of his own that forces Jackie to leap into the air to dodge, allowing Goku to jump after him and kick him, seemingly out of the ring. As Goku's friends cheer and the announcer declares Goku the winner, Jackie calls everyone's attention to the fact that he's not actually rung out yet – at the last second, he kicked his foot hard enough into the side of the ring to stick there, and is strenuously holding himself up by just that foot so that he doesn't touch the ground. Goku remarks that the old man is really stubborn, and Jackie says he refuses to lose to a child. Jackie remarks that he can tell Goku's energy is about spent as well based on that last Kamehameha, so it seems like things will have to come down to who can hit the other one the hardest. Goku agrees, and while Jackie frets about how he's going to pull this off with so his energy so short...wait, short, that's it! An idea comes to mind, and he launches towards Goku once more, with Goku lunging right back at him. Review: After the excitement of the past couple of chapters, this one unfortunately returns things to how they were before. I think that's by design though, since really, there's not an effective way for Toriyama to outdo the previous high of 'giant ape monster versus huge energy beam'. He needed to effectively ramp things back down a few notches so that the actual finale to the fight could still feel pretty impressive, and thankfully the fight has been going on long enough that he has the perfect answer for how to do that – they're getting tired! Hey, don't knock it, it works. While that does work well enough however, it doesn't change the fact that the chapter does have a few issues here and there though. First off, while it makes sense that the announcer would be somewhat less torn up about Goku's apparent death than his friends would be, it seems weird that his next step is to declare Jackie Chun the victor. Wasn't killing against the rules? Unless there's some sort of loophole where if the person that died was themselves trying to kill people, this just seems weird. By now though it should be obvious – nobody's ever going to actually lose one of these matches by rules violation, so basically as long as it's cool or dramatic in some form or another, it's going to be allowed. Secondly on a more minor note – though it's really weird to think about it in that way – there's Roshi's destruction of the moon. Not only does this have absolutely no effect on the world at large going forward, despite how catastrophic to society such a thing would be in real life, there's also the fact that none of that is brought up what-so-ever. No, the announcer's only concerns are for moon festivals, moon pies, and the poor, unable-to-transform werewolves. Well, at least his last concern is actually valid, as we'll later see... You might be thinking I'd have an issue with Goku leaving the ring to change clothes not being counted as a ring-out, but oddly enough, I'm fine with that one. It's ordained by the announcer, Goku leaves and comes right back without having any time to unfairly rest or anything of the sort, and really, what's the alternative? I can't see the rest of this fight having quite the same oomph if he's naked. My biggest problem of all with this chapter though is the ring-out fake-out with Roshi just barely staying in it by stabbing his foot into the ring's side. That's basically pushing the plausibility of things just a little too far for my own personal tastes, and just feels like we're stretching this fight out even longer once more for no real reason. Despite that though, there IS a certain symmetry to Goku seeming to have won after a long, drawn out fight, by the same maneuver that Roshi almost won it right away with. Maybe that's what Toriyama was going for ultimately, was for a brief moment making you think it had ended how it began only in reverse. Looking at it from that angle, I can forgive it a little bit I suppose, especially considering what we actually get as a finale is much, much more satisfying. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: The winner of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai is...!
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