Synopsis: Yamcha and Puar arrive and introduce themselves as desert bandits, with the former demanding that Goku and Oolong hand over anything of value if they want to get out of the desert alive. Oolong however recognizes Puar as a crybaby classmate from the shapeshifting kindergarten he used to attend, and Puar likewise remembers Oolong as a bully who got kicked out for stealing the teacher's underwear. Oolong reckons that Goku can take Yamcha though, and tells him to leave if he doesn't want to get hurt. Not one to back down from such a challenge, Yamcha draws his sword and attacks Goku, but is quickly knocked back when Goku uses the nyoibo's extending powers. Yamcha immediately recognizes such a legendary weapon however, and asks Goku where he got it. When Goku explains it was a gift from his grandfather, Yamcha correctly deduces that his grandpa was Gohan, a martial artist of such renown that even Oolong has heard of him. This is the first Yamcha's heard of Gohan having a grandson, but he now knows that he can't take Goku lightly. Yamcha attacks Goku viciously with his Rogafufuken (or Wolf Fang Fist), and Goku, already in a weakened state from hunger, is sent flying. Oolong tries to escape, but is knocked back by Puar, and left with no choice but to hand over his valuables, including his emergency capsule set. Goku gets back up in the nick of time however, and clashes with Yamcha once more, only this time it's Yamcha that gets sent flying by a Janken fist attack. With the score between them now tied, an enraged Yamcha rushes to attack Goku again, but is stopped in his tracks by the sight of an awakened Bulma. Upon seeing her, Yamcha falls over and makes a quick retreat, leaving behind his ill-gotten goods from Oolong. Bulma immediately wants to know who that 'hunk' she just missed was, while back at his lair, Yamcha grouches that he wished he'd known there'd be a girl there, as he has a crippling fear of girls. Review: Poor Yamcha. Few characters are introduced as promisingly as him, only to end up as their respective fandoms punching bags for decades. While some of Yamcha's “legacy” is earned, much of it is unfortunately thrust upon him by the demands of the plot – demands that, frankly, could have been often enough avoided with slight changes to the plot – and the somewhat over-the-top demands from the fandom for every character to be a “badass” to be cool. Which honestly makes Yamcha's introduction here all the more disappointing in retrospect, because honestly he's the series' very first badass. Or at least, he's the closest thing we're going to have to one for a while now. There's even a distinct difference to how Toriyama draws his face prior to Goku knocking him around at the en dof the chapter. He's calm, cool, collected. He's sure of himself and his ability to handle anything and everything that comes his way. Sadly what comes his way is the main character of the series, so, you know. Them's the breaks. What helps Yamcha stand out amongst all the other characters in the franchise is his attitude towards women, and I don't mean his being scared of them at this point in his development. Even with that weakness, it's made pretty clear that Yamcha likes women, he just doesn't know what to say or how to act around them. He's a little boy's first interest in girls (or boys) after the 'cooties' stage given human form basically. Compare that to basically any other male character in the series, even some of them that have kids, and you'll find that they either seemingly have no interest in romance whatsoever, like Goku, Vegeta, Tenshinhan, etc. ...or they're raging perverts like Muten Roshi and Oolong. Even Kuririn, who's one of the more level-headed male characters, still has some pretty pervy moments. He's also an incredibly level-headed guy, who's more than willing to put his own needs and wants on the backburner as needed if it'll help the greater good. In a cast full of characters that are honestly kind of assholes if we hold them to real world standards, Yamcha's one of the only ones that's really just a pretty chill guy. So of course the story and the fandom sees fit to shit all over him, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. For right now, Yamcha's just a desert bandit who gets his ass handed to him by Goku. For what it's worth though, he is Goku's first real opponent of note in the entire franchise, and all things told he puts up a pretty good fight, even if it is only because Goku's starving. He also shows a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge on martial artists with his inside knowledge on Gohan, an aspect that he'll continue to show later on. It's interesting to think that Gohan was apparently well known enough that even someone like Oolong has heard of him, but apparently unknown enough that nobody heard about him taking in some kid he found in the woods? The information network seems a little shoddy, but this is pre-internet in the real world, so...fair. We get a tidbit dropped about where Oolong and Puar both came from, and it's a crime against humanity that we've never gotten a Transformation Kindergarten spinoff starring them. The money's right there on the table, Toriyama. Interestingly enough, that's more back-story for 'where they came from' than much of the human cast gets in-series. Even Yamcha, our premiere desert bandit, gets absolutely nothing said about how he ended up living the life of a rogue in such a remote location. He just is. Because reasons. Moving on. Oh yeah, Puar. Puar is...Puar. I'm sorry, there's really just not a lot one can extrapolate from his character. He's extremely devoted to his master and that's about it really. About the most interesting factoid about Puar I can think of is the fact that, despite what his voice would tend to make you think, he is male. Riveting. And of course, we find out that Oolong had his own set of capsules all along, meaning that all of this happening due to them walking through the desert never had to happen if he'd come clean about having them to Goku and Bulma in the first place. In his defense, he HAD just been drugged earlier, so I don't really think they deserved that information either. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Bow-chicka-wow-WOW.
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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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