Synopsis: As Goku ascends to the fourth floor, he's surprised to find what appears to be an artificial outside, complete with a pond, trees, and even a small house by the pond. Before he can try and figure anything out however, a series of kunai are thrown at him, forcing him to jump back out of the way. He calls out to whoever tried to attack him, and a loud voice laughs, congratulating him for reaching the fourth floor. He says he won't be going any further however, as now he faces someone that has never been defeated, or even seen, by any opponent. As the voice goes on, Goku looks around for the source of the voice but ends up having to dodge a series of shuriken. The voice praises him for his ability to dodge, but Goku carefully figures out the direction the shuriken came from and throws a rock into the trees, hitting his hidden opponent – the ninja that had been with White previously – and causing him to fall out of the tree.
The ninja praises Goku's “beginner's luck”, but Goku insists it wasn't luck at all, though the ninja insists that there's no way a child like him could have correctly deduced where he was without it. The ninja says he'll prove it, and throws out a smoke bomb, distracting Goku while he makes his escape. The ninja's voice booms out again as he challenges Goku to find where he's hiding now. Goku walks a little further into the woods and points out the ninja pressed up against a tree and hiding behind a US flag. The ninja is horrified to realize he held up the wrong side, and quickly flips it over to show a tree design instead, but seeing as Goku already saw him... The ninja says that child's play is over, and he's going to show Goku a REAL ninja concealment technique now, telling Goku to cover his eyes and count to thirty. As Goku does so, the ninja creeps away, but once Goku gets to eighteen, he turns around to ask what comes after it, outraging the ninja who was in the process of hiding beneath a fake rock. He chastises Goku for ruining his brilliant plan, calling him too stupid for it to have worked on him anyway apparently, and tells Goku the next numbers. He warns Goku that now he'll have to use his ultimate concealment technique, and warns Goku that he'd better count all the way to thirty this time. Goku does so, and to his surprised delight, he turns around to find the ninja nowhere to be found. Soon however, a weird noise catches Goku's attention, and he spots a bamboo shoot sticking out of the pond's water. Hiding in the water and breathing through the bamboo, the ninja swears that Goku will never find him this time. Goku promptly runs into the house by the pond however, and returns with a boiling kettle of water that he pours down the bamboo shoot, scalding the ninja's mouth and forcing him back above water where Goku declares happily that he found him. The ninja chastises Goku harshly saying that he could have been killed, and swears that now he'll show Goku what happens when you scald a ninja. He says it's time to attack but instead starts to run away, challenging Goku to keep up with a ninja's speed if he can. Goku says he'll never lose at speed and chases after the ninja, starting to catch up almost immediately. The ninja throws back some caltrops that Goku steps on, hurting him and causing him to stop. The ninja says he'd like to see Goku chase him now, but Goku quickly chases him again, now wearing geta (a type of traditional Japanese footwear that elevates the foot off the ground) to avoid stepping on them. The ninja curses him again and goes all out running, but Goku ends up winning the foot race. The ninja pants and scowls saying he'll never let Goku leave here alive. Watching from his room atop the tower, White praises the ninja (now revealed to be named Purple) for is unparalleled skills, but he can't believe how stupid he is. Review: While Metallic was an all new type of foe for Goku to face off against, Purple is the return of an older type that we haven't seen in some time. A sort of pompous guy who pretends to be more skilled than he really is, Purple is very much the second coming of Oolong, which might explain why I enjoy him so much. While he's certainly skilled in his own respect however, Purple just doesn't hold a candle to the sorts of things that Goku is already capable of at this point in the story, and constantly spouts disbelief that someone other than him could be so good. Actually, this sort of character will end up being used again for a much more remembered character, but more on that guy far, far later. The entire punchline of Purple's character is that despite being a ninja, therefore being an extremely skilled warrior who knows very well how to kill people, he's just...so, so incredibly stupid. I have a feeling this guy might be one of Gero's least favorite colleagues if they ever met, because holy crap is he dumb. When you even make Goku seem to be the more intelligent person by comparison, that's really saying something. It's hard to pick a favorite moment of stupidity for him as well, as they are both numerous and hilarious. If pressed to pick though, it's a toss-up between the US flag bit and his hiding in the pond, probably leaning more towards the latter. The flag bit really is funny though, especially considering the US doesn't even exist in Dragon Ball in the first place, so...lots of questions to ask here. Toriyama's usually good storytelling using all of the panels at his disposal shows a rare moment of weakness in this chapter, as it's not made entirely clear where Goku suddenly gets the geta. The anime polishes this scene a little by having him retrieve them from the same little house where he got the kettle, which is probably what was always intended, but on the page it just appears that he suddenly has them for no reason. I'm also not quite knowledgeable enough to say whether or not geta would really help you deal with caltrops or not, so let's just roll with the assumption that they would. 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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