Episode 15 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on June 4, 1986 and known in the English dub as Look Out for Launch, introduces Launch (Lunch in the original Japanese), the girl with two personalities: sweet and caring with dark hair, a heavily armed criminal with blonde hair. A single sneeze flips the switch. She is the girl Goku and Krillin bring back to Master Roshi, and thanks to her the two boys officially become his students.
Summary
Goku and Krillin fly over farmland looking for the right girl for Roshi. Krillin cannot sit on the Flying Nimbus, so he rides clinging to Goku's back, and Goku helpfully reminds him why from time to time. Goku, for his part, cannot tell a man from a woman without touching them, and Krillin has to quickly explain that he is a boy.
Meanwhile, in a saloon in the middle of the desert, two bounty hunters are waiting for the notorious Launch, wanted for wrecking the next town over. In walks a polite young woman with dark hair who orders an orange juice. The wind tickles her nose, she sneezes and turns blonde: in seconds she flattens the customers, shoots up the bottles behind the bar and walks out. Soon after she derails a train with a bazooka and flees on a scooter with two police cars in pursuit. Mid-chase she sneezes again, crashes, and becomes the gentle girl who remembers nothing.
Goku and Krillin spot her surrounded by two officers and swoop down to help. Krillin immediately declares he has nothing to do with this and hides behind a rock, while Goku disarms the officers in two moves. On the way home Launch calmly admits that, judging by the money in her bag, she must have robbed another bank, and Krillin assumes she is joking.
At Kame House, Roshi is thrilled. He accepts Goku and Krillin as his students and invites Launch to stay as long as she likes. Then he hands her a school "uniform" that looks a lot like lingerie. Just as training is about to begin, a fly buzzes past her nose: Launch warns everyone to run, sneezes and opens fire with a machine gun. A second sneeze brings her back, and she apologizes and explains her problem to a bullet-riddled audience.
Our take
Launch is one of the oddest characters in early Dragon Ball, and this episode introduces her with real care. The anime gives her a Western-movie entrance, saloon and bounty hunters included, that is not in the manga. The addition works because it shows the danger first and the harmless girl second, so viewers know something Goku and Krillin do not.
The sneeze is pure Toriyama: a simple, visual rule that can go off at any moment. In later episodes it becomes a running gag, with everyone freezing at every yawn. Here it also gives Kame House a housekeeper, a cook and a constant threat, all in one character.
The rest of the episode builds up the Goku and Krillin double act. Krillin is a coward when guns are drawn and a show-off once the danger has passed, and the contrast with Goku keeps getting sharper. The ending, with a bullet-ridden Roshi assuring Launch she did nothing wrong, is one of the funniest moments of the saga.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapters 26 and 27 of Akira Toriyama's manga and drew a 22% ratings share in Japan.
- In the Japanese title, the word "mysterious" is replaced by a plain question mark, read as fushigi.
- Her Japanese name, Lunch, became Launch in the English dubs.
Did you know? Launch thanks Roshi because his "grandsons" saved her. The old man corrects her: they are not his grandsons, they are his little brothers. Everyone falls over, as tradition demands.
Characters
- Goku
- Krillin
- Master Roshi
- Launch