Synopsis: As Gyumao's castle begins to crumble as the fire rages more fiercely than ever before, all seems lost for Goku's new father-in-law. At the Eightfold Furnace, Goku again pleads with Annin to do something about the furnace otherwise Gyumao will burn to death, but the caretaker insists that saving one life isn't worth risking the fate of the entire world. Goku gets frustrated enough that he knocks Annin's fork from her hands, and while Gohan and Chi Chi try to apologize for him, Annin tells Goku that if he's so full of energy and truly wants to put out the fire, then all he has to do is turn the handle on a nearby pillar as far to the right as he can. Goku rushes to the handle with Gohan struggling to stop him, and Goku even knocking his grandfather backwards in his efforts to put out the fire. Annin leaps in and grabs Goku with the tendrils from her head-dress, tossing Goku high above the furnace. When he lands back on the ground, she asks him if he noticed all the steam pouring out, and explains that that steam turns into the mist that leaves from Mt. Gogyo and connects this world (the world of the living) to the next (the afterlife). Gohan further explains that everyone who dies passes through this mist, and that likewise anyone that dies and comes back passes through it as well. If the fire goes out and the mist were to disappear, the souls of the dead would wander aimlessly in the world of the living, unable to rest eternally, and eventually causing the dead to rise from Hell as well and throw the entire world into chaos. Hearing this dire news, Chi Chi asks if they can put the fire out for just a short time so that the steam won't disappear, but Annin says it won't work, as it will take at least 2,000 years to re-light the fire if it goes out. Chi Chi frets and asks if there's truly nothing Annin could do, and Annin looks at Goku and says that there might be something she can do after all. Without warning, Annin summons a spear and attacks Goku with it, and Goku is ultimately able to knock the weapon from her hands and knock her backwards. Gohan asks Goku what he's doing attacking someone who has been guarding the furnace for over ten thousand years. Goku's surprised to hear that Annin is 'so old', angering Annin further and causing her to transform back into her giant form. Goku continues fighting the now giant Annin, ultimately resorting to pulling out the Basho Fan, but even that fails to knock her over. Annin stops the fight however, surprised to see that Goku has such a thing, and tells Chi Chi that there is a way to save Gyumao without putting out the fire at all. Annin explains that the Basho Fan can't put out the furnace's fire, but it can help them plug the hole that must have formed at the bottom of the furnace. Annin explains however that there's still a problem, as the materials needed to fix the hole – egg shell from the Fire-Eating Bird, and honey from bees that live in octagonal beehives – are not easily acquired. Chi Chi reveals that she has them both however, shocking Annin further. Annin cautions them not to celebrate too quickly however as what needs done is still risky, and if Goku fails, he'll almost certainly die. Goku says he's going to do it however, so Annin tells him that while she lifts the furnace's pan slightly off of the fire, Goku will have to head into the furnace to patch the hole. Gohan objects, saying that the fires inside are too hot for even Goku to withstand, and Annin says that's where the Basho Fan comes in, telling Goku that he'll have to swing the fan from the furnace's surface, parting the flames and giving him a short time get down there, patch the hole, and leave. Despite all of this risk, Goku confidently says again that he'll do it. As Gyumao begins to lose hope and say that he wishes he could have seen his daughter in her wedding dress, Annin lifts the pan and tells Goku that the hole is likely somewhere in the middle of the furnace. Goku uses the Basho Fan, and as the flames part, he leaps into the furnace. Annin struggles to keep the pan lifted, and Goku reaches the bottom and desperately looks for the hole. Goku eventually spots it underfoot, and places the egg shell in the hole and affixes it with the honey. As soon as Goku does so, the fire begins to go out back at Gyumao's castle, prompting Baba to wonder if Goku has truly done it. With time running out to escape however, Goku leaps up and flies out of the furnace, barely making it out in time (and having to resort to the nyoibo for help to boot) before the flames re-converge and Annin puts the pan back down. Annin thanks Goku for the help and apologizes profusely to Chi Chi for the trouble, and Gohan congratulates Goku and Chi Chi for overcoming their first ordeal as husband and wife, wishing for them to live together in happiness. Back at Gyumao's castle, Baba is horrified at first to discover what she thinks is a dead Gyumao, but Gyumao reveals that he merely covered the wedding dress with his body, successfully preventing it from receiving any damage. With the fire out at last, Goku and Chi Chi's wedding is finally held, and the villagers all toast to their happiness as Gyumao sobs happily at finally seeing his daughter in the wedding dress. As the narrator wonders if days of happiness truly await the newlywed couple, Baba looks into the future with her crystal ball, seeing something that she then blocks anyone from seeing, and winking to the camera. Review: Everything in this arc finally comes to a head in this episode, and every one of the story elements that seemed completely at odds with each other all tie together at last – well, more or less. Goku and Chi Chi did need Baba's help to set them on the right path to fixing things, and while it looked at first like she'd accidentally sent them on a wild goose chase searching for the Basho Fan, it turns out that they needed each and every place they stopped to actually achieve a good ending here. If they hadn't gone to the octagon shaped hot springs, they wouldn't have heard about the Fire-Eating Bird and thus gotten it's eggshell; and if they hadn't gotten that, they wouldn't have then heard about the ice mountain, which lead to them getting both the Basho Fan and the honey from the octagon loving bees. Even if Baba had later divined the true cause of the fire, they would have been out of luck fixing the problem if they didn't have those items on hand. I'm of two minds on this really. On the one hand, it's nice that it makes all of the previous episodes actually have more of a point now that we've been through them. It sort of makes this all come off like an RPG's side-quest as well, with one side-quest opening up another, and each of them needing completion to reach the 'true ending'. On the other hand though, considering how insanely specific the item's needed were, it's a little on the nose that they just HAPPENED to get the items needed on their way here. This holds especially true for the eggshell, as at least the honey was directly given to Chi Chi by the old lady. If Chi Chi hadn't taken the eggshell as a souvenir on a whim, then they'd be in pretty dire straights right about now, and that's pretty crazy to think about. What works better than this happen stance is the reason behind the furnace being unable to be turned off. I'd say causing a disconnect between the worlds of the living and the dead is a pretty good reason to keep the fire going after all, though Annin's comment about saving one life not being worth saving in comparison is a little bit crass - Logical, yes, ethical, no. Goku seems to disagree as well, given that he goes as far as to shove his own grandfather away to try and stop the fires from burning. I don't know if Toei planned it that way, but that's far more striking of a visual to show off how far Goku's willing to go right now than him fighting the caretaker of the furnace, someone he's only just met. Goku's venture into the furnace is where the stakes at last feel compatible with Goku's newfound levels of strength as well. It's hard to believe he's really in any danger from the likes of the Pilaf gang or even volcanos and icy mountains, but a fire that literally bridges the gap between the living and the dead? Yeah, that's just supernatural and crazy enough for us to believe Goku could really die from coming into contact with it if he's not careful. It only really comes in at the last portion of the episode, but I can sympathize with how hard it must've been for Toei to come up with something at this particular stage of the story, so I have to give kudos where they're deserved. Once the fire is taken care of, Annin and Gohan wish the newlywed pair well, and then proceed to never be seen ever again. It's a shame for Gohan as I said before, but everything Annin takes care of will basically be handled in a different way by Toriyama in very short order anyway, so...yeah. She's rather expendable on that front, it's just a shame that Gohan ends up sharing chiefly the same fate. What's also a shame is that we don't actually get to see much of Goku and Chi Chi's wedding at all! Dragon Ball so rarely dabbles in romance – it's not something Toriyama is anywhere near good at writing, so it's probably for the best, as disappointing as that is – but c'mon Toei, you couldn't have at least thrown us a bone here? What's almost even more damning is what it does show us, in that nobody from Goku's group of friends is there to witness it. If we go by what we have here, the only people close to the pair that's in attendance for the wedding are Gyumao and Baba. I could kind of see Tenshinhan and Chaozu not showing up, but c'mon, at least Bulma, Yamcha, Puar, Oolong, Roshi, Kuririn, and Lunch all should've been invited and shown up – this is just a sad state of affairs. At the end of the day, I can't say this arc is particularly memorable. It tries to serve as a bridge between the end of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai and where the series will be going next with Goku's life, but all it really manages to do is be a romp that tries to be like old times. Which isn't to say it's terrible – it's actually kind of nice to have another adventure like that again. But it doesn't quite manage to stick the landing, passing up far too many chances to do something that Toriyama himself wouldn't have been equipped to do, while also relying a little too much on contrivances to get where it needs to be by the end. The arc's well worth watching at least once if you haven't seen it before, but beyond that, there's a reason it's not talked about as much as a bunch of other filler material in the franchise. Until next time! Favorite Scene: Seeing Goku and Chi Chi's wedding is a short but nice moment that it's kind of surprising we didn't get to see anywhere else but here. Next Time: Piccolo (and the Farmer) and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
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September 2022
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