Synopsis: Purple lets the giant man out of his cell, and asks Goku if he's ever seen anything so horrifying. He then orders the man to kill Goku, but shockingly the man replies that he doesn't want to, saying that it's bad to kill. Purple tells him he has to do what he tells him to do, but the man continues to say he won't do bad things, and admonishes Purple for having kidnapped the mayor and made him and his people sad. Purple reminds the man, revealing his name to be Android 8, that the Red Ribbon Army created him and that he absolutely has to follow orders, but 8 resolutely refuses to help them.
Left with no choice, Purple reveals that a bomb was implanted inside of 8, just in case he ever got out of control. He shows 8 the remote and threatens to blow him up right then and there if he won't listen, and Goku watches for the Android's reaction. 8 thinks it over for a moment, and says that he'd rather be blown up than do something bad. Goku smiles and Purple is in disbelief. Watching from the top of the tower, White orders Purple to blow 8 up immediately, and Purple runs to the other end of the hallway and prepares to do just that. As 8 braces himself for destruction, Goku furiously shouts that he won't allow it, and leaps across to Purple, knocking the remote from his hands with nyoibo and then stomping it into pieces. Purple starts to chastise Goku for breaking it, but Goku hits him right in the face with a Rock-Scissors-Paper punch, sending the ninja flying into an opposite wall, unconscious. As White watches in disbelief, Goku walks back over to 8, who thanks him for saving him. Goku tells him that if people are bad, he should beat them up himself, but 8 says that fighting is bad. Goku asks him what good it is if he doesn't fight bad guys and still gets killed, and 8 replies that he's too scared to fight. This surprises Goku as he thinks 8 looks pretty strong. 8 asks Goku his name, and Goku introduces himself before asking 8 for his own, but Goku finds his name to be really weird. 8 asks Goku if he's here to rescue the mayor, and when Goku says yes, 8 offers to lead him to the top floor. Goku and 8 ascend the stairs to an area between floors 4 and 5, going through a maze that would likely have kept Goku lost for hours if 8 wasn't there to lead him. 8 catches Goku referring to him as 'Ha-chan' (short for 'Hachigou', Android 8's Japanese name), and quite likes it as a nickname. The pair soon comes across a second set of stairs leading up to the 6th and final floor, with 8 pointing to a wall they pass by as being where the 5th floor is. Goku asks him where it's door is, and 8 responds that there is no door – he's not even sure what's inside of floor 5. The pair finally reach White's office at the top of the tower, and as soon as Goku sees White, he demands that he let the mayor go. White congratulates him for doing the impossible and reaching the top of the tower, lamenting that he wishes he could ask Goku to serve in the army. 8 asks White to stop doing bad things, but White says he'll give 8 one last chance to cooperate. He hits a button on his desk, and a trap-door in the floor where Goku and 8 are standing opens up, dropping them into darkness. Review: The big new element introduced in this chapter is quite large himself, that element being none-other than Android 8 himself. His design is immediately recognizable as being a riff on Frankenstein's monster, which given his origins and what he is, makes a fair bit of sense. Again, we don't get a lot on his origins and what that all means until way, way later in the series – well, outside a brief moment of filler in the anime – by which point 8 himself is largely pretty forgotten. Needless to say though, this is the first time we get to see one of Dr. Gero's Androids, and as we'll be seeing shortly enough, he definitely fits the mold in at least one way. In every other way though? 8 is a failed experiment, at least in the eyes of the villains of the Red Ribbon Army. They wanted him to be a monster, a final weapon they could unleash upon anything that stood in their way. Unfortunately, 8 somehow seems to have developed a will of his own, and has decided that he hates violence. I've always wondered exactly how and why this came about. Was it just some sort of glitch in his programming? Did he develop his own sense of self after having performed some horrific deed, and this is his way to atone? Nothing is ever really delved into really, either because it just wouldn't be tonally fitting within Dragon Ball or it just doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but it's still fascinating to think about, frankly. Android 8's introduction also leads to the final time we see Purple (again, outside of filler), and it couldn't have happened at a better time. As mentioned before, I really love Purple, but all of his best stuff is behind us now, and keeping him around for much longer than this was really going to make him feel stale. Giving him one last moment of despicableness that causes Goku to be angry like we've never seen him before is definitely a fitting end for him though. I especially love how he tries to chew out Goku again like with their earlier bantering, but Goku has no chill left for him at this point and just knocks him flying. Good stuff. Speaking of Goku's anger, this is the first time we really ever get to see him in a righteous fury. This further introduces another crucial element of Goku's character, in that no matter how much he enjoys fighting for fighting's sake, he absolutely won't sit by and let innocent people be hurt. He's not exactly a superhero by any means, he doesn't go out patrolling looking for crimes to stop or crisis's to assist in, but if he sees someone being hurt in front of him, he'll step in to set things right without a moment's hesitation. We had inklings of this side of his personality back in the first arc, and this is one of the lesson's Roshi taught both him and Kuririn during their training, but this is the first time we've really gotten to see it play out with our own eyes. ...Well, I guess the time they saved Lunch sort-of counts, but in retrospect, that's still a little different since they were specifically looking for a girl to bring back to Roshi. And right when we seem like we're about to see what White is truly capable of himself, he uses one of the oldest supervillain tricks in the book to try and take Goku out without even lifting a finger. Typical. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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September 2022
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