Synopsis: As the volcano near the village continues to erupt, the villagers flee in fear, taking what few belongings they can carry. Mint's grandfather stays behind, continuing to pray to the fallen statue of the mountain god, and Mint tries to get him to leave, but Paoru says they have no time to waste and need to run away. Mint asks Paoru if he thinks Kuririn and the others will be okay, and Paoru scoffs, calling them fools for running up the mountain and thinking they can do something against the anger of the mountain's god. As they run up the mountain, Chaozu asks Tenshinhan if he has a plan, and Tenshinhan says this is the perfect chance for him to show how strong he is, with Yamcha and Kuririn in agreement. Up on Kami's sanctuary, Goku continues his training and tries to catch a fleeing Popo while blindfolded. Popo chastises Goku for trying to find him by following the sound of his voice and tells him to instead sense Popo's ki, but Goku can't quite seem to figure out how to do that. Coming face to face with the approaching lava, Yamcha and Kuririn brace themselves as another massive earthquake sets off below their feet, with Tenshinhan and Chaozu avoiding it by flying. Kuririn falls into a crevice that opens in the ground, only to be saved by Chaozu, prompting Tenshinhan to suggest that it might be a good idea for them to teach Kuririn and Yamcha how to fly. Mint tries again to get her grandfather to leave, but the old man insists on staying until the end to pray with all his might for the mountain god to spare the village. Kuririn rushes ahead of the others as the magma begins flowing towards them, and wishes he could have shown Mint this as he fires a Kamehameha at the lava. All he ends up accomplishing however is making the lava flow faster. Tenshinhan tries next, using his Dodonpa to cause a landslide to block the lava, but this causes it to divert into two different flows still heading for the village. Kuririn runs off ahead again to try and save Mint, as Yamcha tries to figure out some way they can stop the lava. While wishing that it would rain, he spots a large waterfall nearby and asks Tenshinhan to handle the lava for now with Chaozu. Figuring out Yamcha's plan, Tenshinhan repeatedly fires Dodonpa into the magma to try and keep it at bay as much as he can. Kuririn runs through the village trying to find Mint, eventually finding her with her grandfather and Paoru at the fallen mountain god statue. Kuririn pleads with them to leave with him, but Mint says her grandfather refuses to leave as the old man says there's no way the mountain god will abandon them if he keeps praying. Kuririn tells them the lava is moving fast, but Paoru shuts him down, saying that an outsider like him has no right to question them. The volcano erupts even harder, sending more lava cascading down the ground, and even as Tenshinhan makes a large chasm in the ground to stem it's flow, it almost immediately overflows and continues on it's path towards the village. Yamcha fires a Kamehameha into the wall of the waterfall, trying to free up more water, but doesn't blow up as much of it as he'd hoped, cursing himself as he's certain Goku would have done much more damage. Trying again, Yamcha manages to cause a tidal wave of water to flow out towards the magma, cooling it down and putting out fires. Much to the delight of Mint's family and other villagers hiding just outside of town, the village appears to be saved, and the people return. Mint's grandfather says his prayers must have worked after all, and as Kuririn congratulates Tenshinhan and Yamcha for helping out, Paoru accosts them and accuses them of having done nothing, saying it was only the grandfather's prayers that made a difference. Kuririn angrily objects, but before anything more can be said, Chaozu predicts another eruption, and lava soon erupts out of the ground just in front of the village. The villagers flee again as Mint's grandfather falls to the groudn in prayer once more, and Kuririn, Yamcha, and Tenshinhan have to break a large rock just as it hurtles towards the family. Paoru apologizes for his treatment of them, and the fighters make one final stand against the magma, with Yamcha and Tenshinhan firing a Kamehameha and Dodonpa respectively to create a large enough trench to divert the lava. With the village saved once more, Mint rushes forward to thank Kuririn, as the village as a whole thanks the group for saving them. The group then leaves to continue their search for Karin Tower, as Goku continues his own training at Kami's sanctuary for the next three years. Review: As fun as it was seeing the focus shift to Kuririn and the others rather than Goku, I can't lie – I don't really think the story for these past two episodes was quite strong enough to stretch across more than one. There's probably a reason this episode in particular is filled with repeated shots of the lava just moving closer and closer to the village, as well as a shot of Kuririn moving a large boulder that...doesn't seem to actually change anything. I think they were struggling to get more out of this concept, and if nothing else, I do have to hand it to them that they didn't just revert to showing Goku much more, or having something he was doing tie in to what they were doing somehow. That praise still really isn't enough to save the episode as a whole for me though. There's far too much repetitiveness from the previous episode, and in this one towards itself even, for me to get past. There's some effort given to give each character something different to do and to change how they interact with what's going on – Tenshinhan wants to prove that he can be as strong as Goku, Yamcha wants to prove a similar notion though for him it's more about not wanting to get left behind, Kuririn wants to impress the girl, and Chaozu...Chaozu senses things – but it all largely leads them to the exact same place and plans, so it doesn't really pay off unfortunately. There is one moment of the episode that I do feel speaks volumes however, though I don't know if Toei meant it to. At the end of the last episode and through much of this one, Mint's grandfather refuses to leave, putting all his faith in praying to the mountain god. The other villagers, even though they run, were also shown to be very particular about their faith in the god. Even Paoru, who seems to be able to see at least somewhat more how strong the group is than the other villagers can, comes down hard on the side of placing their faith in the god and scoffs at the idea that they actually did anything for the situation. In the end however, it's definitely Kuririn and the others' actions that actually save the day. There's definitely an argument to be made for the theme at play here – faith in whatever you believe in is perfectly fine, but sometimes, faith isn't enough. If it was, a lot more things in this world would be less screwed up than they are (I'm speaking EXTREMELY broadly here, mind you). Faith, no matter how devout, however, only goes so far, and sometimes, it's only going to be through human effort that things actually get done. Faith can be a reason for humans to take action, but action still has to occur for anything to get done. It's a big reason why the phrase 'thoughts and prayers' are so widely lampooned whenever they're used after a tragedy, because in effect? They do nothing, sadly. But again, I'm not sure how much of that is actually what the writers of this episode intended, versus what I'm getting out of it via my own beliefs. I would definitely be interested in hearing other people's interpretation of this part of the episode. The manga skipped over pretty much all of Goku and the others training in this period, which is a shame. Honestly though, as fun as some parts of these episodes can be, I can't really say Toei's efforts to show it were much better, due to the way they were handled. A nice effort Toei, but there's probably a reason that not a lot from these episodes tend to be remembered by the fandom at large. Moving onward from here though, we'll be getting to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai proper, as well as some really big changes for our characters, and I can't wait. Until next time! Favorite Scene: Kuririn falling into the crevice only to get saved by Chaozu is a nice moment, given their history. Next Time: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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September 2022
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