Episode 139 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on December 21, 1988 and known in the English dub as Rematch, takes the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament into the semifinals. First, Shen finishes the lesson he has been giving Yamcha, and Goku finally works out who is hiding behind the man. Then comes the most anticipated bout of the tournament: Goku against Tien, the two finalists from three years earlier.
Summary
Shen keeps taking Yamcha apart with a teacher's patience. The Wolf Fang Fist, he points out, leaves the legs wide open, and to prove it he blocks the assault and kicks Yamcha's feet. Yamcha refuses to listen and plays his trump card: the Spirit Ball, a sphere of energy he steers with his fingers. Shen sidesteps it, but the ball dives under the ring and bursts up behind him, scoring a direct hit. The triumph lasts a moment. Shen gets up as if nothing happened and ends the match with a single blow, knocking Yamcha out of the ring.
Beaten fair and square, Yamcha accepts the result and asks his opponent who he really is. Shen only says that he is not exactly human. Walking back to the waiting area, he winks at Goku, who by now has figured it all out: inside that body is Kami, his teacher for the past three years. Up in the stands Bulma remarks that, just once, she would have liked to see someone other than Goku reach the final. Before the semifinal, Chi-Chi dotingly mops her fiancé's brow.
Anticipation builds for the rematch. The announcer reminds the crowd of the previous tournament's final, won by Tien by the narrowest of margins, and even Piccolo Jr. fixes his eyes on Goku, determined to study his every move. As soon as the fight starts, the two all but vanish from sight, trading punches and kicks so fast that the audience cannot follow, flickering in and out at different spots of the ring.
The bout looks perfectly even, and Master Roshi is amazed by how much both have improved. But when they break apart, the old master spots a detail that Piccolo Jr. catches too: Tien is panting, while Goku is breathing as if he had done nothing at all.
Our take
The episode lives on contrast. The first half resolves the Shen mystery: the Spirit Ball tunneling under the ring is a neat visual idea, and Yamcha's loss, lopsided as it is, ends on a gracious note, with the loser thanking the winner for the lesson.
The second half is pure spectacle. The direction plays with the fighters vanishing and reappearing, and the breathing detail closes the episode on a question: how strong has Goku become? Viewers can tell he is holding something back.
There is also a quiet shift in perspective. At the 22nd tournament Tien was the antagonist waiting to be redeemed; here he is a friend, and the audience is rooting for both men at once. It shows how much the series has grown.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapters 175 and 176 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 17.1% ratings share in Japan.
- Bulma's comments about Yamcha after his match and Chi-Chi wiping Goku's sweat with a towel are anime additions.
- In the Japanese original Shen only describes himself as "not exactly human". The Funimation dub has him say outright that he is an alien, something Kami himself does not learn until Dragon Ball Z.
Did you know? Until now Shen had been played as comic relief: in the preliminaries he beat Yajirobe with what looked like lucky shots. His real target, though, is Piccolo Jr., as Episode 142 will show.
Characters
- Yamcha
- Goku
- Tien Shinhan
- Shen (Kami)
- Piccolo Jr., Master Roshi, Bulma, Chi-Chi