Episode 151 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on April 5, 1989 and known in the English dub as Outrageous Octagon, takes the search for the fan north, to the foot of an ice mountain. Goku battles blizzards and old enemies, but the breakthrough comes from somewhere else entirely, as the Japanese title gives away.
Summary
Following the scholar's tip, Goku and Chi-Chi fly to the snowy mountain in the north, but as soon as they get close a blizzard drives them back. They take shelter in the home of an old woman who lives at the foot of the peak, Grandma Hakkake. She explains the mystery: women are forbidden on that mountain, and the mere presence of a girl is enough to stir up the storm. On the other hand, the snow up there is so cold it can freeze even fire. Goku decides to fetch some on his own.
Someone else is already on the mountain. Pilaf, Shu and Mai, also after the fan, have crashed their airship in the storm and are now stomping around in their battle suits. When they spot Goku they try to take him down with rockets and flamethrowers, but the frost jams every weapon. Goku innocently explains that the blizzard is caused by a woman's presence. Pilaf does not hesitate for a second and shoves Mai off the slope, and the storm dies down at once. He and Shu try one last attack, then flee. Goku gathers a gigantic snowball and heads back, but most of it melts on the way.
Meanwhile, at Grandma's house, Chi-Chi has thrown herself into the housework like a bride in training. She breaks a few dishes, runs from a bee, then grabs a broom to sweep the garden, and that is where, among the old woman's things, the Bansho Fan turns up. When Goku returns dejected with his handful of slush, Chi-Chi shows him the surprise. The Pilaf Gang makes one last try and Shu manages to snatch the fan, but he waves it without knowing what it does and blows Pilaf and Mai away. Terrified, he drops it and runs.
Before saying goodbye, Grandma Hakkake gives Chi-Chi a jar of very rare honey from her own bees and wishes her luck as a wife. Back at Mt. Frypan, the couple puts the fan to the test: one wave raises a wind, two summon clouds, three bring a downpour. But the fire around the castle refuses to die.
Our take
The episode's best idea is right there in the title. For once it is not Goku's strength that cracks the problem but Chi-Chi's patience: she rolls up her sleeves in a stranger's house and finds the fan just as her fiancé is wearing himself out for nothing on the mountain. It is a gentle joke about the couple's roles, told with affection.
The Pilaf material is pure comedy. The emperor flinging his ever-loyal Mai down the slope to stop the storm is cruel and irresistible, and Shu blowing his comrades away with the fan is a fitting farewell for three characters born to lose. These are the gang's last steps in the original Dragon Ball: they will not be back until Dragon Ball GT, many years later.
The ending, with the fan failing, ratchets the tension back up for the last two episodes.
Trivia
- Anime-original episode with no counterpart in the manga. It drew a 17.9% ratings share in Japan, the highest of the five anime-original episodes that close the series.
- Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and Takao Koyama, directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi, with animation direction by Masayuki Uchiyama.
- It aired two weeks after episode 150. Italian Wikipedia gives April 1, 1989, but Kanzenshuu, Toei and the other sources agree on April 5.
Did you know? Grandma's jar of honey looks like nothing more than a wedding gift, just like the eggshell fragment Chi-Chi picked up in the previous episode. Both will prove essential in the series finale.