Synopsis: In the dark of the night at a castle, a princess is seen sleeping in her bed before being awakened by a weird feeling. The sound of a bell soon goes off, causing her to get out of bed and walk to close her window, but other strange things soon happen in her room, such as a series of wet footprints being left by something unseen walking around, and a dark reflection of her reaching out of her mirror and grabbing her. Elsewhere, Goku is continuing his training journey by walking upside down on his hands again, now dragging a large tree behind him by a rope tied to his waist. An old lady spots him and asks what he's doing, while also warning him not to go any further as he'll soon be near a castle said to have a village of demons somewhere in the forest around it. She even tells him that just last night the castle's princess disappeared and rumor has it that at night, monsters come out from the Demon World Gate to cause havoc. Goku asks what the Demon World Gate is and she explains that it's a gate meant to separate this world from the Demon World, and further warns Goku to be on his way. Goku's stomach interrupts the tense talk by growling, and the lady leaves him with her advice and a leftover riceball she had. Goku eats the riceball but thinks demons might be just the thing for him to train against. Goku continues on his training path towards the village, and is soon spied on by people hiding in their houses who mistake him for a monster based on his outrageous strength by tossing the tree. Goku walks into the village and inadvertently sets off various traps meant to catch monsters, but he avoids every one of them and tells whoever set them to come out immediately. A villager runs out to stop Goku from further destroying their traps and takes him to see the king at his castle. As Goku eats his way through a feast, the king asks the villager if he really thinks this boy will be able to rescue Princess Misa, and the villager insists he's seen how strong the boy is and thinks that he should be a match for any monster. The king says that if Goku goes through the Gate, he'll be sure to encounter Shura, the Demon World's best martial artist, and the villager says Goku keeps saying he wants to fight strong people no matter who they are. The king asks Goku for his name, and the king cautions him that if he steps through the Gate he may never be able to return, responding that if the demons catch him he'll likely be eaten or held hostage for his whole life, but Goku isn't worried. The king insists that Goku would never be able to do anything against them, and orders his knights to have the foolish child thrown out, but Goku makes quick work of the knights, impressing the king after all. The king apologizes for underestimating Goku, and asks him who taught him. When Goku mentions Kame-sennin, the king is convinced that Goku is the real deal, but still cautions him that rescuing the princess probably means fighting Shura, and warns Goku that numerous strong martial artists have fought Shura and never returned. Goku says he'll beat him though and get the princess back. A nearby noise catches everyone's attention, and the king explains that ever since Shura stuck his sword into the Demon World Gate, minions from the Demon World have come out at night to wreak havoc. The demons are then shown ransacking the village, destroying houses and taking crops for their own. Goku wants to go stop them, but the king stops him and says getting the princess back is the most important thing and that they have to wait for the right time to send him through the gate. As daylight returns, the demons start heading through the gate, and the king shows Goku where Shura's sword is keeping the door open. The king says the sword is Shura's challenge to humanity – until he is defeated, the sword can't be removed, and until it's removed, demons will continue to come and go as they please at night. Goku asks the king if Shura really is that strong, and the king says he's never been defeated, but Goku decides to try and pull out the sword but fails. Seeing that there really is no other way but to defeat Shura first, Goku runs through the gate into the Demon World. Back at Kame House, the blonde form of Lunch has Roshi serving her food and drink, prompting Roshi to try to cause her to sneeze and revert back to her more kindly form. All the while, Kuririn and Yamcha are doing the milk delivery training and wondering what sort of training Goku is getting up to, with Kuririn saying that knowing Goku, it's something crazy. In the Demon World, Goku is soon attacked by a lady with a whip. She asks Goku where he's going, and he simply says 'that way'. A large male demon steps out and says that only those with a permit from Enma or Kami are allowed to pass, and says they'll spare Goku's life if he leaves, but Goku quickly shows his strength by being able to push back the large demon's weapon. The woman stops their fight, saying Goku is truly impressive to be able to push back Gora, the strongest person in the Demon World. She asks Goku his name and introduces herself as Mela, explaining that they guard this area so people can't come and go as they please. Goku accuses them of letting Shura do just that, and the two demons are shocked, asking Goku if he's trying to get to Shura. Goku explains that he's here to get back Princess Misa, and the demons warn him that Shura is impossible for someone like him to defeat, and say that tonight is Princess Misa and Shura's wedding celebration so there'll be tons of other monsters there as well. Goku insists that he's going to do what he came here to do, so Mela smiles and says she'll show him the way. In another area of Demon World, monsters and demons surround a large arena, with Shura and Princess Misa sitting at the top. A martial arts tournament is about to be held to celebrate the wedding, and a demon announcer asks anyone who wants to fight to step up, with Goku eagerly hopping into the arena. Shura asks who the boy is, and another demon explains that Mela brought him, likely to try and get on their nerves again. Goku challenges Shura, but Shura tells the other demons to teach the boy his mistake. A large demon steps into the ring, but is defeated by Goku in one kick. Goku again says he really wants to fight Shura, and despite the crowd's objections, Shura agrees to fight him. Goku spots the princess and tells her he's here to take her back, but Shura quickly kicks Goku out of the ring with a surprise kick. Getting back into the ring, Goku tries to attack Shura, but finds that none of his attacks are connecting and Shura keeps just throwing him away. Shura knocks Goku down once more by using shockwaves, but Goku just keeps getting back up, eventually launching a Kamehameha at Shura that also blinds the surrounding demon's with it's light. Shura is unable to dodge due to the distraction of a kunai flying towards him, and after the Kamehameha connects, Goku then rushes forward and strikes Shura repeatedly to knock him out of the ring. Mela shouts to Goku to do it now, and Goku quickly runs to Misa to lead her out of here while the demons are all still blinded. Misa praises Goku's strength for beating Shura, but Goku says that Shura and the other demons are just weak to light – he's going to have to get a lot stronger if he wants to actually beat Shura. Mela tells Goku to pull the sword out once he gets outside, and Goku thanks the demon pair for being so helpful, prompting Mela to laugh and explain that they're doing this for their own reasons. Hearing the approaching demon hoard, they tell Goku to hurry. Misa thanks Mela as well, and Mela tells her they'll meet again one day, but hopefully not too soon. Misa is returned to her parents, and the demon hoard tries to get past Gora and Mela but are stopped when they ask for a permit. Shura arrives and says it really was them behind this, and tells his minions to move ahead while he deals with them. Goku struggles to pull the sword free from the ground, eventually pulling it free just in time, allowing the door to close before any of the demons can get out. Mela tells Shura that things have been corrected now, and only the gods of death with the right key can come and go now. Shura can't believe he was shown up by Goku, and returns Mela's kunai to her, with Mela saying being hurt every once in a while is good medicine for him. Shura acknowledges this and tells them that the party is still going on, inviting the pair to join in the festivities, and they agree. Back in the castle, a great celebration is also held, with Shura's sword held in a place of honor between the king and queen. Goku feasts to his heart's content as the village is saved at last, though Goku already can't help but think of whatever his next adventure will be. Review: This episode just oozes appeal, much in the way that the second film 'Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle' did. In fact, you'll notice right a way that a lot of it's gothic backgrounds, as well as the designs of the various demons seen in the Demon World, are ripped right from that movie (literally in the case of the background demons). While this all makes for a really fun and different romp for the series, it does unfortunately make this one of those filler episodes that's kind of hard to make work in the greater narrative due to how it interferes with information we'll have later about the world of Dragon Ball. The main issue comes in the form of Demon World itself. This is something that will later get brought up with the character of Dabura in the Majin Boo arc, and since it's never really adequately expanded upon there, you could assume that hey, maybe this is the same place and Dabura's just not a thing yet. That sadly just doesn't really gel with what outside information has on Dabura however – not to mention the various ideas brought in by the likes of Dragon Ball Online, Xenoverse, or god forbid Heroes, but the less said about those for the time being the better. There's also mention of both Enma and Kami, characters that you'd be forgiven for going 'wait, they haven't been introduced yet' that doesn't seem to fit either, but there's a good reason for that – the mention here isn't really that relevant to the characters themselves. The concepts of Enma and Kami are both concepts from actual Buddhist and Shinto religions, and pop up regularly in all sorts of anime and manga, and it's that vague notion of them that's being referenced here rather than the specific Dragon Ball versions of them. Basically, this episode is playing fast and loose with vague notions pulled from ideas known well to a Japanese audience. The franchise later delves into actual versions of these concepts however, leaving this episode feeling weird when taken into context with those later elements. The idea of a gate between the regular world and the Demon World is definitely an interesting one, though in effect it's really just a big door at the entrance of a cave, so who knows – maybe the 'Demon World' here is less the actual plane of existence that we later know exists, and is actually just some cave where a bunch of renegade demons and such hang out. As cool as Shura is, he wouldn't have stood a chance against Dabura, so maybe he got his butt kicked out. That aside, Shura doesn't have much in the way of personality – none of the demons do really – but his fighting style is pretty interesting to watch. Overall, the whole episode also feels like a story that Goku has just wondered into, even more so than any of the previous episodes in this training mini-arc. The kingdom not so much, but there's definitely something about the demons that feels like there's a side of the story we're not getting here, especially with the likes of Gora and Mela's feud with Shura. It's sort of a shame that these characters and concepts don't ever come up again in a later filler episode just to further expand upon things, even if it too ultimately wouldn't work with the larger world of Dragon Ball. Just think, we could have had a Goku V.S. Shura re-match somewhere in the wedding filler arc, for example, and gotten even more details on how exactly this version of the Demon World works in relation to everything else. But alas, it wasn't to be, and I don't think we're likely to ever see these guys ever again. I'd also be remiss if I didn't bring up the fact that yes, even the plot seems to be taken pretty much straight from Sleeping Princess – just in this case, it's actually a princess that's been kidnapped by a demon rather than the princess turning out to be a crystal to power a laser to destroy the sun. Hmm. Somehow it actually being a princess IS less interesting when I put the two ideas next to each other. Until next time! Favorite Scene: Goku's fight with Shura is pretty entertaining despite how short it is, thanks to Shura's interesting movements and techniques. Next Time: Man, this is not what I thought the fusion of Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji would look like.
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September 2022
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