Episode 33 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on October 8, 1986 and known in the English dub as The Legend of a Dragon, is the last of the run of anime-original episodes that opens the Red Ribbon Army Saga. Goku wakes up after the explosion of Pilaf's fortress and resumes the hunt, while at Kame House Master Roshi tells a legend about the origin of the Dragon Balls and Colonel Silver receives new orders from his boss.
Summary
The Flying Nimbus saved Goku from the explosion just in time. Starving, the boy flies over a forest looking for something to eat and chases a monkey that has swiped a piece of fruit from him, until he sees her give it to her baby. When a panther attacks the two monkeys, Goku drives it off. The troop thanks him by piling up fruit, and he falls asleep with a full belly. While he sleeps, the monkeys find a five-star ball in the branches and start playing catch with it.
At Red Ribbon headquarters, Silver keeps in shape by beating four professional boxers at once. Then he is summoned to the leader's office, where he is greeted by the boss's cat flung straight at him. Silver dodges with only a scratch on his cheek, and the commander, impressed by his reflexes, sends him back out to hunt for Dragon Balls.
At Kame House, Krillin is doing push-ups with two turtles and Master Roshi sitting on his back. Over dinner Roshi tells Krillin and Launch an old tale: originally there was a single great orb created by the gods, but its power stirred up human greed and wars, so the gods split it into seven. Launch asks what he would wish for; Roshi says nothing at all, but his imagination wanders elsewhere, and Krillin knows it perfectly well.
Goku wakes up and sees on the radar that the ball is moving away. In the forest, Silver's men have arrived, and to flush out the monkeys they set fire to the trees and start shooting. Goku loses his temper: he takes on the soldiers and crushes a tank under a huge boulder. When Silver reappears, Goku recognizes him as the man who attacked the Ox-King's village. At that moment the mother monkey swings by with her baby, who is clutching the ball; Silver shoots the branch they are about to grab. Goku catches them by the tail and saves them, but the ball tumbles into the gorge and lands in the river.
Our take
The episode has two souls. The first is a fable: Goku befriending the monkeys, feeding them and being fed, with the tone of a children's nature documentary. The second is war, with the Red Ribbon Army burning down an entire forest for a single ball. The contrast is deliberate and it works: it makes the Red Ribbon an ecological enemy before a military one, and gives Goku a personal reason to hate it.
The Kame House interlude is more debatable. The legend of a single orb split by the gods is intriguing, but it contradicts what the series will later reveal about where the Dragon Balls come from. It is best read as folklore, one of many versions going around in a world where hardly anyone knows about Kami.
The strongest moment is the introduction of the Red Ribbon leader. Without showing his face, the scene of the cat thrown at Silver tells us everything: a capricious, cruel boss who tests his men with absurd trials.
Trivia
- The episode is entirely anime-original and drew a 22.8% ratings share in Japan.
- It is the last time in the original series that Launch, in her dark-haired form, wears her original outfit.
- In the English dub, the commander adds an anecdote about a previous visitor who lost an eye to the cat; in Japanese he simply praises Silver's reflexes and warns him against arrogance.
Did you know? In Akira Toriyama's manga, Goku first meets the Red Ribbon Army when he stumbles on Silver's men searching for the five-star ball, the scene that opens the next episode: everything before it is an anime addition.
Characters
- Goku
- Colonel Silver
- The Red Ribbon leader
- Krillin, Launch and Master Roshi
- The forest monkeys