Episode 143 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on February 1, 1989 and known in the English dub as Battle for the Future, is the calm before the storm, or rather the calm in the middle of it. With Kami trapped in a bottle, Goku is the only one left who can stop Piccolo Jr., and before the final of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament he finally has to tell his friends everything. Then the gong sounds and the fight for the fate of the world begins.
Summary
Released by Kami, the man whose body Shen had been using stays down past the ten count, sending Piccolo Jr. through to the final. When he comes to, the poor fellow remembers nothing. The crowd cheers his incredible performance, but he wanders off the stage scratching his head, with no idea what he was doing up there, and finds his son in the stands.
Goku blocks Piccolo's path and demands the bottle. The demon holds it out mockingly, then swallows it whole: if Goku wants to free Kami he will have to go through Piccolo first, and killing Piccolo would kill the prisoner too. Dark clouds roll in and the rain begins.
In the downpour, Master Roshi, Tien, Krillin, Chi-Chi and Yamcha demand answers, and Goku lays it all out. Shen was Kami in a human body. Kami and King Piccolo were once a single being who cast out his own evil side. And Piccolo Jr. is King Piccolo reborn, the offspring the demon produced just before he died. Piccolo, who has been listening, steps forward: in three years he has grown far stronger, and this time he means to finish Goku off before resuming his plan to rule the world.
As the final gets underway, the sun breaks through. The opening exchanges look even. Piccolo stretches his arm out at Goku, who grabs it, hurls him into the air and blasts him with a kiai. But Piccolo turns the tables with a barrage of energy shots, and when the smoke clears Goku lies motionless in a crater in the middle of the ring as the announcer starts counting.
Our take
On paper this is a bridge episode, but it has a clear job: turning a tournament final into a matter of life and death for everyone, including the characters who had no idea what was really at stake. Goku's long explanation in the rain is pure exposition, and yet it works, because for the first time the hero carries a truth that the others cannot share the burden of.
Piccolo swallowing the bottle is brilliant in its simplicity. A single gulp ties Goku's hands and turns Kami into a hostage inside the demon's own body. It marks him as a different kind of villain from King Piccolo: less theatrical, more calculating.
The direction leans on the weather almost too neatly, with the storm accompanying the revelations and the sun returning at the gong, but it is effective. And the closing cliffhanger, with Goku down just minutes into the final, keeps the momentum going.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 182 and the first eleven pages of chapter 183 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 17.6% ratings share in Japan, the lowest of the episodes covering the final.
- It was written by Takao Koyama and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with Tomekichi Takeuchi as animation supervisor.
- The rain during Goku's explanation is anime-only; in the manga the scene stays dry. So is the image of King Piccolo appearing behind Piccolo Jr. as he taunts Goku.
- Tien demands to know who Piccolo Jr. is as if he had never heard of him, even though Goku had already hinted at the boy's link to King Piccolo in an earlier episode.
- In the Funimation dub, Oolong cheers Goku on as if he already knew the world was at stake, yet two episodes later he is as shocked as everyone else when Piccolo reveals his identity.
Did you know? Piccolo holding the bottle out to Goku echoes the scene in which King Piccolo offered Master Roshi the two Dragon Balls he had already collected. Unlike Roshi, though, Goku actually tries to grab it.
Characters
- Goku
- Piccolo (Ma Junior)
- Chi-Chi
- Master Roshi
- Tien Shinhan, Krillin, Yamcha
- Shen (the man possessed by Kami)