Synopsis: Having been told the legend of Karin Tower, Goku wonders if he should try climbing it, but Bora says that the old tale could very well be a myth for all he knows. Suddenly, Upa notices something flying their way through the sky, and Goku can see that whatever it is appears to have a guy riding on it. Goku and Bora, holding Upa, barely manage to dodge out of the way as the pillar slams into the ground, with Taopaipai landing along with it. Bora demands to know who the man is, and Taopaipai proudly introduces himself as the world's greatest assassin. Bora asks Taopaipai what a killer like him is doing in such a holy place, and Taopaipai says he has no business with him or the land, only with Goku. Goku says he's never even met him before, but Taopaipai explains that he was hired by the Red Ribbon Army to kill him since he keeps interfering with their quest to get some balls or something. Goku can't believe how stubborn the Army is, and Upa pleads with his father not to let Goku get hurt. Bora says that Goku saved his son's life so he won't stand by, and if the assassin insists on fighting, he'll be fighting him. Goku objects saying that this guy is his enemy, but Bora says it's his duty to protect this land. Taopaipai laughs and calls Bora a fool for so quickly choosing death. Goku and Upa watch as Bora readies his spear, but Taopaipai laughs and says Bora must think he's pretty good. In that case, he doesn't mind making the first move. Moving quicker than the eye can see, Taopaipai launches forward and takes hold of Bora's spear. Goku is amazed at how fast the assassin moved, and despite using all of his strength, Bora can't pull the spear from his grasp. Taopaipai asks him if something is wrong since he's not even moving, and offers to move him himself. With no effort at all, Taopaipai lifts Bora into the air via the spear, before flinging him off of it and into the air. With Bora flying high into the air, Taopaipai offers him his spear back and throws it at him. Goku and Upa watch in horror as Goku calls down kinto'un, but it's too late – the spear hits, and Bora falls to the ground, dead, with his own spear sticking out of his chest. Upa rushes to his father's side and sobs, while Goku becomes overcome with rage. He rushes to attack Taopaipai, but the assassin easily dodges his attack, kicking him hard into the base of Karin Tower. Taopaipai scoffs and asks if that's all there was to him, but to his surprise, Goku gets back up. Goku fires a Kamehameha at Taopaipai, who appears somewhat surprised, but merely stands in place and takes the blast, merely crossing his arms over his face to block most of the attack. Taopaipai chastises Goku for ruining his clothes, before launching his own energy attack, the Dodonpa, which strikes Goku right in the chest. Goku falls to the ground, seemingly dead as well. As Upa watches all of this in terror, Taopaipai walks over and picks up Goku's bag, finding the Dragon Balls inside of it and declaring his mission accomplished. Review: Remember that mood whiplash that I mentioned was coming? Well, here it is in all of its terrifying glory. I mused before that perhaps Toriyama felt like the time was right to revisit the world of Dr. Slump for any particular reason, and re-reading this chapter, I'm more confident than ever that it was him enjoying the last moment that the series would be a pure adventure story with comedic overtones before things started to shift in an ever-so-slightly more serious direction. Again, don't get me wrong or let anyone else fool you. Dragon Ball is still, at it's very core, a comedic series. But this is the point at which things start to take themselves a little more seriously in terms of how dire the situations Goku and friends find themselves in are going to be treated. Though I guess I should say this is more like our first taste of that upcoming new status quo, as after this arc, things will briefly go back to how they were for a little while, but after that it's full steam ahead on the story-taking-itself-seriously train. Things get moving pretty fast once all of the important characters for this section of the story are together, and it's amazing how well it all flows naturally thanks to Toriyama taking his time and setting things up in the previous couple of chapters first. We've already seen just how insanely strong Bora is, and we've seen how insanely strong Taopaipai is. We've seen what a caring person Bora seems to be, and how he definitely seems to be the type to feel honor-bound to help Goku out after he saved his son, as well as being the type to stake his life on protecting his homeland. We've likewise seen how heartless and cold Taopaipai is, willing to kill anyone for the right price, and not caring how many others he has to kill to get the job done either. It feels perfectly natural that these two newly introduced characters would have a clashing of ideals before things really get to get going here. But the fight turns out to barely be a fight at all. I hesitate to even call it a slaughter with how quickly it's all over. Despite how strong Bora seemed to be before, he's killed with the most minimal of efforts by Taopaipai, no different than Blue before him. This is striking as this is the first death shown outright in the manga, or at least the first one that's not played for laughs or the death of a bad guy. There's no possible workaround either, Bora is absolutely dead. This of course riles Goku up immediately, as the series has already very well established by now that Goku isn't the type to sit by and let people get hurt, especially if they're good people. We've come a long way from when he attacked the cops that he thought were after Lunch (though, I mean, they WERE after her, but...m-moving on), and there was no way he was going to let Bora's murder slide. But then, Goku loses. For the very first time in the series, Goku is completely outclassed. This isn't like when he lost against Yamcha due to being hungry; this isn't like when he almost won the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai; and this isnt like any of the other times, most recently with Blue, where it seemed like Goku was on the back foot for a while only to end up coming back victorious before the fight's really ended. Goku. Loses. This fight. Tao dodges one set of attacks and completely tanks Goku's best move, the Kamehameha, before easily taking Goku down with only two attacks of his own. I emphasis what a curb stomp this is because, for young Japanese readers back when this first came out, and we had no idea where the story was going from here? It had to be one of the most shocking things they'd ever seen. Goku, the hero of the story, loses...and might even be dead? This is about as far from the land of pat-pat and diarrhea pills as one can get. 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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