Episode 31 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on September 24, 1986 and known in the English dub as Wedding Plans?, brings back Chi-Chi and the Ox-King, whom Goku has not seen since the Pilaf saga. The Japanese title promises a "fake Goku", and the episode weaves together three storylines chasing each other: a girl preparing for her wedding, Pilaf after the six-star ball, and the Red Ribbon Army, which finally shows up by name.
Summary
Goku catches up with Pilaf's flying fortress. To get rid of him, the little emperor hands over the fake four-star ball, which Mai and Shu have glued back together; Goku takes it, drops it and watches it shatter all over again. Meanwhile Pilaf's radar has picked up the real signal, the one from the six-star ball.
The signal leads to the village where the Ox-King now lives. A fortune-teller has told Chi-Chi that her future husband is on his way, and the girl is sure it means Goku: after all, he promised to marry her. Her father throws a lavish wedding banquet and, for the roast, brings down a huge pterodactyl. He has no idea the creature has just swallowed the bird carrying the ball.
Pilaf knows the Ox-King's reputation and would rather not attack him head-on. He comes up with a better plan: disguise Shu as Goku and have him welcomed into the village as the long-awaited groom. The Ox-King falls for it, and the fake Goku ends up at the head of the table facing mountains of food.
The real Goku, following his radar, stops to eat some apples and finds Chi-Chi in a meadow picking flowers for the ceremony. The girl is overjoyed, Goku a little less so, not least because she knocks him into a tree in her excitement.
At the village the party ends abruptly. Tanks and soldiers roll in: it is the Red Ribbon Army, led by Colonel Silver, which has also followed the ball's signal. The Ox-King fights back furiously, but he is no match for the cannons and is captured. In the confusion Pilaf retrieves the ball from the creature's belly and flees on his fortress. From the meadow, Goku and Chi-Chi see the smoke rising and run toward the village.
Our take
Another episode with no basis in the manga, and another bridging exercise, but a more successful one than the last. Bringing back Chi-Chi makes sense: the marriage promise Goku made without knowing what it meant is one of the seeds the manga will harvest years later, and the anime has fun reminding us of it. The lovestruck girl and the father organizing a wedding sight unseen are a reliable comic pairing.
The fake Goku gag is classic Pilaf gang: a convoluted plan that works by pure luck and leads nowhere. The Ox-King stuffing a small, skinny impostor with food without noticing a thing is the funniest scene of the episode.
Then the Red Ribbon Army arrives and the tone shifts again. Seeing the Ox-King, one of the strongest characters met so far, captured by tanks and nets establishes the army's power without needing Goku yet. The back-and-forth chase over a single Dragon Ball, though, is starting to wear thin.
Trivia
- The episode is entirely anime-original and drew a 23.8% ratings share in Japan.
- It marks Chi-Chi's first return since the Pilaf saga; in the manga she does not reappear at this point of the story.
- The Japanese title opens with "Gege!", an exclamation of shock and disgust, the natural reaction to a very obviously fake Goku.
Did you know? The Ox-King now lives in an ordinary village rather than his castle on Fire Mountain: the castle went up in smoke, along with the flames, when Master Roshi fired his Kamehameha back in the Pilaf saga.