Episode 118 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on July 6, 1988 and known in the English dub as Prelude to Vengeance, is the uneasy calm before the final reckoning. King Piccolo turns his reign of terror into a death lottery and picks the city where Bulma's parents live, while Tien, fresh from mastering the Mafuba, is the first to reach the castle.
Summary
From King Castle, King Piccolo goes back on the air with a new decree: to celebrate May 9, the day he became king, he will level one whole region of the world every year, chosen at random. He draws a slip in front of the cameras and pulls number 29, the district of West City. The streets fill with fleeing cars, and Bulma's parents hurriedly round up their animals to escape.
The Ox-King admits to Chi-Chi that nobody can defeat the demon, but she is sure Goku will. At the top of Korin Tower, Yajirobe tries to ride a Flying Nimbus of his own, but his heart is far from pure: he falls straight through it and plummets to the ground, landing near Bora and Upa. Goku, meanwhile, is already flying toward the capital.
Taking advantage of the chaos, three armed convicts storm Kame House. Yamcha takes them down, and Launch, in her blonde mood, deals with the last one standing. For Yamcha it is the sign that someone has to go and back up Tien, who is already in the air when Bulma calls him, begging him to hurry because her parents are in danger.
Tien arrives at King Castle just as Piccolo is about to head west. He works out how to get close enough to use the Mafuba, with the electric rice cooker ready in a capsule. But the demon has no intention of getting his hands dirty: he lays an egg, and out of it hatches a hulking new warrior, Drum, who will be Tien's opponent.
Our take
Most of the episode is anime-original: the main plot moves forward only a few pages, and the rest portrays a world under the demon's heel. That does not make it empty padding. The May 9 lottery is one of the cruelest ideas of the whole arc, and the anime amplifies it with fleeing crowds and small family dramas. For the first time Piccolo's threat lands on ordinary people, not just on fighters.
Putting Tien in the spotlight is the right call. With Roshi and Chiaotzu gone, he is the one with the most to lose, and the episode shows him alone, torn between fear and duty. Because the rice cooker is still intact here, the Mafuba remains a real option, and the tension builds toward the next installment. The ending closes on a striking image: a monster bigger and more menacing than Tambourine and Cymbal, spawned by a Piccolo who has just regained his youth.
Trivia
- Alongside its original scenes, the episode adapts chapter 152 from page 14 and all of chapter 153 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 17.0% ratings share in Japan.
- In the manga, Tien notices that the rice cooker has cracked from all his practice and decides to face Piccolo head-on instead. In the anime the jar is intact and the Mafuba is still his plan.
- The argument between Chi-Chi and the Ox-King, Yajirobe's fall through the cloud, the evacuation of Bulma's parents and the raid on Kame House are anime-only. Suno also gets a new setting: in the manga she watches the broadcast at home, while here she is at a hospital with Android 8.
- Two characters from Escape, one of Toriyama's one-shot stories, can be spotted in the panicking West City crowd.
- The English dub moved the date to May 13 and the district to 28, even though the slip Piccolo draws still clearly reads 29.
Characters
- Goku
- Tien Shinhan
- Bulma
- King Piccolo
- Drum
- Yamcha, Launch
- Yajirobe
- Chi-Chi, Ox-King
- Suno, Android 8
- Bora, Upa