Dragon Ball Episode 119: Will It Work?! The Legendary Mafuba

Dragon Ball Episode 119: Tien battles Drum and tries the Mafuba on King Piccolo, but the seal fails. With Tien about to die, Goku finally arrives to save him.

Updated on October 19, 20263 min read

Episode 119 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on July 20, 1988 and known in the English dub as Battle Cry, is Tien's last stand against the demons before Goku's return. Its original title dangles the move that could end the saga on the spot, and the episode milks that suspense until the final seconds, when the one person who can really stop King Piccolo steps in.

Summary

In front of King Castle, Tien squares off against Drum. For all his bulk, the monster is surprisingly nimble and shrugs off almost everything: Tien lands only a few hits, and at great cost, while King Piccolo enjoys the show. Piano advises his master to forget the fight and leave for West City, but the demon wants to watch Tien suffer.

In West City the exodus continues. At Kame House, Bulma phones her parents, but her mother talks so much that she cannot get a word in. Tired of waiting, Yamcha, Bulma and Launch get the plane ready to join Tien. Goku, riding his new Flying Nimbus, hears screams and recognizes Chi-Chi's voice: a squad of soldiers, forced by Piccolo to hunt down martial artists, is attacking her and the Ox-King. Goku scatters them, sees Chi-Chi again as she begs him to defeat the demon, and flies on.

Drum, who had been holding back, strikes Tien in the back and floors him. Piccolo starts to leave, convinced it is over, but Tien seizes the moment: he gets up and fires the Mafuba. For an instant the demon is terrified, then Drum throws himself in the way and is caught in the whirlwind instead of his father. Tien tries to seal him at least, but Piccolo destroys the electric rice cooker with a finger beam.

The technique fails, and Tien, having sealed nothing, survives, though he is utterly drained. Drum moves in for the kill. At that moment Goku arrives and kills the monster on the spot with a single kick. Then he turns to face King Piccolo, surprised to find him so much younger.

Our take

Here the anime breaks sharply from the manga, and for a clear reason: to give Tien his moment. In Toriyama's version the Mafuba is never attempted against Piccolo; here it comes within a hair of working, and the failure hurts more precisely because we saw it nearly succeed. It is an addition that respects the character, brave to the very end.

The direction plays on contrast. Drum looks clumsy and moves frighteningly fast, and the long stretch of Tien taking punishment makes the ending all the sharper: everything Tien could not do in half an episode, Goku does in an instant. The power of the Ultra Divine Water needs no explanation after that.

Trivia

  • The episode adapts the first six pages of chapter 154, followed by an anime-original stretch, then the rest of chapter 154 and the first two pages of chapter 155 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew an 18.0% ratings share in Japan.
  • In the manga the rice cooker is cracked and Tien gives up on the Mafuba, landing just one blow on Drum. The sealing attempt and Drum's sacrifice were created for the anime.
  • Goku's meeting with Chi-Chi and the Ox-King, Bulma's call home and Yamcha's preparations to leave are also anime-only.
  • This is the first time the purple blood of Piccolo's kind is shown, a detail that years later turns out to be typical of Namekians.

Characters