Hogan Reviews

After what seems like forever it’s time to wrap up the original Dragon Ball series with the final arc (and that mini filler arc the anime team added afterwards…) What always strikes me about this arc is how it’s the exact opposite of the 22^nd TB arc in that there is very nearly no filler whatsoever making it back-to-back fights with little breaks. The one-day tournament is back to actually being a one-day tournament! So let’s take a look at the preliminaries and the opening round, shall we?

The arc opens with a stormy day as Krillin, Yamcha, Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu all reunite with Bulma, Master Roshi, Oolong, Lunch and Puar after they did the whole “travelling the world and training with Korin” stuff Goku did previously. It gets close to closing time when a mysterious tall gentleman in a turban appears, helps a little girl reach her lost balloon and then a quick unwrapping of his headgear later and his unmistakeable hairline shows its Goku! Everyone freaks out while Roshi makes sure he’s signed up. As everyone catches up we see Demon King Piccolo’s regeneration / son … thing, Piccolo Jr. oddly save some humans from falling debris in a storm (one of the only bits of filler) A quick passage of time later and everyone is in the preliminary area and meet “Ma Junior”, or Piccolo, who Goku and Ten both recognise, the latter freaking out, but Goku tells him not to create a panic and that’s Kami gave him training in order to beat him.

Best thing about this screenshot is it makes it look like Tao has the word “Killy” written on the back of his attire. “Things are about to get killy!” being his new catchphrase… ?

The actual preliminaries go as well as you’d expect, Chiaotzu using his magic to make sure everyone is in different brackets so can meet each other in the tournament proper, though with one exception: Chiaotzu himself. He’s taken out and nearly killed by the returning assassin Tao Pai Pai, who reveals he’s now mostly a cyborg thanks to the grenade that Goku kicked back at him during the Red Ribbon Army arc. After some fun montages we get our final eight: Goku, Krillin, Ten, Yamcha, Piccolo, Tao Pai Pai, a mysterious woman in a Chinese dress and a nerdy looking guy called Shen, who bested Yajirobe in the prelims (luckily for our pudgy samurai’s ego he was wearing a lucha mask at the time)

The first round kicks off with Tao vs. Ten, with some people assuming Tenshinhan has no chance against his former Master’s killer brother (for the record the Crane Hermit is in attendance) but Ten easily outclasses him. Tao cuts Ten’s chest with a hidden knife (giving him his signature chest scar that he has for the whole of Z) but beyond that he’s humiliated and knocked out, with Ten dropping his unconscious body in front of the Crane Hermit and basically telling him to never darken his door again. The next round sees Goku face the mysterious girl who is furious with him for “forgetting their promise”. After some sparring she says she’ll only give up her secret if Goku can beat her, so our hero cheerfully palm thrusts the air so hard it creates a gust of wind that knocks her out of the ring. She soon reveals that she’s Chi Chi and she wants Goku to make good on his promise to marry her from way back in the original arc. Goku doesn’t know what marriage is but agrees anyway, after all he did promise! This gets a roar from the crowd as Chi Chi hugs him and his friends freak out…

Goku and Chi Chi’s relationship starts how it ends…

The third round sees Krillin face “Ma Junior”, blissfully unaware of who he is. Piccolo naturally underestimates his nemesis’ little human friend but is actually caught with a few blows and takes a large Kamehameha to the face, but he otherwise beats Krillin to the point where he gives up, knowing full well he’s outmatched. Lastly we have Yamcha vs. Shen, with the former underestimating his opponent and getting humiliated when the apparent human trips over and strikes him in the nads. Shen soon reveals his true power though and outclasses Yamcha, tipping Goku off that the weedy man is actually Kami inhabiting the body of a regular human. Yamcha shows off his Spirit Ball technique and manages to catch God himself off guard and hit him under the chin which leads him to immediately put an end to the fight for fear of damaging the human body. This leaves our semi-finals as Goku vs. Tenshinhan, a rematch from the finals of the previous tournament; and Ma Junior vs. Shen, otherwise known as Piccolo vs. Kami, the bad side and good side of “The Namek” colliding…

Overall Thoughts:

It’s funny how the cape and turban were supposed to be just to hide that he’s Piccolo but have since become an iconic part of his design…

The 23^rd Tenkaichi Tournament wastes zero time getting straight to the action and doesn’t let up, going from the preliminaries and then straight into the opening round, match right after match, and then ending with the opening moments of the first semi-final. There are lots of little bits of character development as well for the likes of Ten and Krillin, plus the Goku / Chi Chi stuff and the looming threat of Piccolo, so it’s not just mindless action either. A perfect start to your classic “Tournament arc”.

I’ll just put here that due to how the story is cover the semi-final match between Goku and Tenshinhan actually starts in the latter half of Episode 139. The two seem evenly matched as Ten says he’s going to beat our protagonist once again but Master Roshi notices that Ten is breathing heavily while Goku is seemingly unaffected…

Erm, well, I took four screenshots but the Review has been kind of short, so… here it is! Enjoy!