Episode 58 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on April 15, 1987 and known in the English dub as The Land of Korin, opens the final act of the war against the Red Ribbon Army. The setting and the mood both change: no more goofy villages, but the sacred land of Korin, with a tower that climbs until it vanishes into the sky. Here Goku at last finds Grandpa Gohan's Four-Star Ball, and Commander Red decides to call in the most feared assassin in the world.
Summary
General Blue crosses the desert on a camel, fuming over what Penguin Village did to him, while at headquarters Commander Red shoots pool. Elsewhere, the squad of Colonel Yellow, a tiger-like officer, spots a Dragon Ball at the bottom of a volcano's crater and lowers a man from a helicopter to grab it. Right then the volcano erupts and the ball is hurled far away.
It lands in the sacred land of Korin, near the enormous tower that seems to touch the sky. This is home to Bora, the warrior who guards the place, and his son Upa, whom we have just seen fishing while Bora dispatched a giant fish. When Yellow arrives with his men, the ball is already in Bora's hands. The officer offers him a job at the outpost the Red Ribbon Army wants to build there; Bora replies that this land belongs to none of them and orders them to leave.
Yellow has his men open fire, but the bullets cannot hurt the warrior. Upa brings him his spear and Bora takes out the entire squad. Only Yellow escapes, and over the radio Commander Red, who is following the operation from headquarters, orders him to go back. So the colonel turns to blackmail: he kidnaps Upa and flies off with him to trade the boy for the ball.
The child's screams reach Goku, passing by on the Flying Nimbus. Realizing the man is with the Red Ribbon Army, he punches him out of the plane and rescues Upa, who turns out to be able to ride the cloud. Bora thanks him, and Goku discovers that the ball in his hands is the Four-Star Ball, his grandfather's keepsake. Meanwhile Blue reaches the gates of headquarters, where the guards fail to recognize him: he knocks one out to get inside. In Red's office, though, a guest has already arrived: Mercenary Tao.
Our take
After the comedy of Penguin Village, this episode puts the pieces back in place. Bora is drawn with a few strokes, but they work: a strong, dignified father defending his land, and his bond with Upa is built quickly precisely because it will matter soon. Anyone who knows the story can tell that this calm will not last.
The most important moment is also the quietest: Goku finds his grandfather's ball. It is the goal he set out with, the object that pushed him to take on an entire army, and it turns up by chance in a stranger's hands. The final shot, with Mercenary Tao in Red's office, shifts the tone of the saga: from here on, the danger becomes real.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 84 and the first four pages of chapter 85 of Akira Toriyama's manga, plus several original scenes. It drew a 27.6% ratings share in Japan.
- Blue riding a camel through the desert, Red playing pool, Bora and Upa fishing and every scene of Yellow's squad before the clash with Bora are anime-only. In the manga Yellow is already facing Bora, who holds the ball.
- In Japanese Yellow holds the rank of taisa, colonel; Funimation's dub calls him Captain Yellow.
- A new batch of Shunsuke Kikuchi's background music for the series debuts in this episode.
Did you know? In the Japanese version, when the guards fail to recognize him, Blue yells that not knowing your own commanding officer is as low as a soldier can sink. It is his last outburst as a general.
Characters
- Goku
- Bora and Upa
- Colonel Yellow
- General Blue
- Commander Red and Staff Officer Black
- Mercenary Tao