Episode 130 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on October 19, 1988 and known in the English dub as Goku's Doll, is another step in Goku's training on Kami's Lookout during the Piccolo Jr. Saga. This time Mr. Popo hands him the most awkward sparring partner imaginable: a doll with his face, his strength and his speed. Muscle alone will not get him through this one; he needs a clear head.
Summary
Goku is meditating on the Lookout, but stray thoughts keep pulling him away. Growing restless, he asks Mr. Popo to fight him. Popo says he is not ready for that, but promises him an opponent of exactly his level. He plucks a single hair from Goku's head and uses it to mould a doll. The rules are simple: they fight until one of them runs out of energy.
Down on the ground, Tien, Krillin, Yamcha and Chiaotzu are travelling toward the Holy Land of Korin. They have no intention of falling behind Goku, and they hope the hermit at the top of the tower will train them too. A truck driver watches them pass by with his radio on.
Back on the Lookout, a masked challenger the same height as Goku steps forward. From the first exchanges something feels wrong: the opponent reads every move, and Goku cannot sense him at all. A kick sends the mask flying, and Goku is stunned to find his own face underneath, with Mr. Popo's eyes. Popo explains that the doll has exactly the same abilities as he does. The only difference is that nothing clutters its mind, which is why it fights better than the original.
The fight drags on for hours. Goku tries the Afterimage technique, then a Kamehameha, but his double answers blow for blow and even charges the same wave. By sunset he is exhausted. Only when he stops thrashing and closes his eyes does he start to feel where his opponent is, and at last he lands a clean hit. The doll collapses and Goku celebrates, until Popo brings him back down to earth: he did not beat it, the energy keeping it alive simply ran out. The match ends with no winner. Goku falls asleep on the spot while his friends press on toward the tower.
Our take
This is an anime-original episode, but it is far from pointless. The theme could hardly be clearer: Goku already has the power to beat almost anyone, and what he lacks is control. Pitting him against a perfect copy of himself makes the point without any lecture. If the abilities are identical, the only thing that can tip the balance is the mind.
The unmasking is a great beat, and the detail of Popo's eyes in Goku's face is genuinely a little unsettling. The ending also fits the spirit of this stretch of the series: no easy victory, just a boy who thinks he has cracked it and learns he is only halfway there. Akira Toriyama's manga skips over the three years of training in a handful of pages; Toei stretches them out, sometimes at a sluggish pace, but it gives real weight to the growth we will see at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament.
The scenes with Tien and his friends are little more than connective tissue, yet they remind viewers that everyone else is preparing too, each on their own road. The next two episodes pick up that thread with a volcano.
Trivia
- This is an anime-original episode that adapts no chapter of the manga. It drew a 17.1% ratings share in Japan.
- It was written by Hajime Satsuki and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation supervisor.
- The doll's gi does not carry Master Roshi's symbol but the kanji 神, meaning "god". Its colours are also closer to how the outfit looks in the manga than to the usual anime palette.
- The Blue Water dub, the alternate English version, titled the episode Goku vs. Goku!.
Did you know? In the Japanese version, as the truck driver watches Tien and the others go by, the song "The Teachings of Muten Rōshi" is playing on his radio, the first time it is heard anywhere in Dragon Ball. The English dubs removed it.
Characters
- Goku
- Mr. Popo
- Goku's doll
- Tien Shinhan
- Krillin
- Yamcha
- Chiaotzu