Episode 111 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on May 11, 1988 and known in the English dub as Roshi's Gambit, is Master Roshi's final stand in the saga. The Turtle Hermit faces King Piccolo alone and tries to trap him with the Mafuba, the same technique his own teacher Mutaito once used to seal the demon away.
Summary
At Kame House, Bulma and Oolong notice that the Dragon Radar shows five balls gathered in one spot, while two others have vanished from the screen. Bulma cannot reach Roshi. On the battlefield, Roshi tells King Piccolo where he buried his Dragon Balls, but he has no intention of fighting: he lets the demon mock his age, takes the punishment and answers with cheeky remarks.
The standoff runs longer than in the manga. Roshi admits that his plan was to steal the balls and ask Shenron to get rid of King Piccolo; the demon coughs up his two balls and dares him to take them, but the old man does not bite. Annoyed, the demon floors him with a finger beam, then blasts him into a cliff that collapses on top of him. Roshi digs himself out and explains that he is not there to fight, but to seal him. The demon does not remember ever meeting him, until Roshi mentions Mutaito. Only then does King Piccolo understand, and for the first time he is afraid.
Roshi pops a capsule containing an electric rice cooker and unleashes the Mafuba. The whirlwind engulfs King Piccolo, who claws at the ground in vain, while Tien, still dazed by the gas, watches helplessly. At the very last moment the wave misses the container. The technique fails and Roshi, drained of all his energy, collapses. With his dying words he warns the demon that someone will defeat him one day.
In the hovercar, Goku is telling Yajirobe who Korin is when the sky suddenly turns black. King Piccolo has gathered all seven balls and summoned Shenron, and the episode ends with the demon ready to make his wish.
Our take
Roshi has always been the series' comic relief, the dirty old man in sunglasses. This episode gives him his most serious moment without betraying who he is: right to the end he needles the demon, jokes about his own age and enrages him with irreverent replies. That lightness in the face of death is what makes his sacrifice land.
The direction handles the Mafuba's tension well. The demon is dragged toward the cooker, it is only a matter of inches, and the failure arrives like a cruel joke. King Piccolo's terror at hearing Mutaito's name is a nice touch too: for a moment the invincible monster shows a crack.
It is also a passing of the torch. Tien sees everything without being able to move, and what he witnesses will become his only plan against the demon. Roshi's promise that someone will succeed where he failed is aimed at King Piccolo, but it speaks to the audience, who know who is heading for Korin Tower.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 146 and the first five pages of chapter 147 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 16.3% ratings share in Japan.
- The Kame House scene is anime-only, as is much of the standoff: Roshi's confession, the regurgitated Dragon Balls and the collapsing cliff.
- In the Japanese version Roshi explains that with the demon in charge he could no longer enjoy his racy videos; the Funimation dub turned them into exercise programs.
- This is the first time Master Roshi dies in the series.
- Written by Keiji Terui, directed and storyboarded by Daisuke Nishio, with animation supervised by Masayuki Uchiyama.
Did you know? When King Piccolo pulls the Dragon Balls out of the ground, seven of them float behind him; in the next shot only five hover in front of him, and he regurgitates the other two right then.
Characters
- Master Roshi
- King Piccolo
- Tien Shinhan
- Chiaotzu
- Goku
- Yajirobe
- Bulma and Oolong
- Emperor Pilaf, Mai, Shu and Piano
- Shenron