Episode 59 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on April 22, 1987 and known in the English dub as The Notorious Mercenary, introduces one of the original series' most memorable villains: Mercenary Tao (Tao Pai Pai in Japanese), the hitman Commander Red has hired to finish Goku off. It takes only a few minutes to feel the shift in tone. After the gags of Penguin Village, the Red Ribbon Army brings in a professional who kills two characters in a single episode.
Summary
General Blue finally makes it back to headquarters. Red's office already has a visitor, though: Tao, a calm-looking man with a braid and a robe, chatting with the commander. Blue hands over the radar he took from Goku and praises its accuracy, but Red is not impressed. The order was to bring back the Dragon Balls, not a gadget for finding them, and failure carries only one penalty. In light of Blue's past service, however, Red offers him a way out: beat Tao in a fight.
Blue agrees. The assassin announces that he will need neither weapons nor limbs. His tongue will do. Blue attacks, but Tao dodges every blow and slips behind him. Blue then turns to his psychic powers, the same ones that froze Krillin and Goku in the pirate cave. They have no effect on Tao at all. Panicking, Blue charges blindly, and the hitman kills him with a single flick of his tongue to the temple, exactly as promised. Red and Black are stunned.
Meanwhile, in the Sacred Land of Korin, Goku has received the Four-Star Ball from Bora, the keepsake of his Grandpa Gohan. Over dinner, while Upa sharpens his father's spear, Bora tells the legend of the tower that disappears into the sky. A sage lives at the top and guards a water that multiplies the strength of whoever drinks it. Nobody has ever made it up, because food runs out first and aircraft run out of fuel. Naturally, Goku wants to try right away.
Tao makes the most spectacular entrance imaginable: he throws a pillar, jumps on it and rides it all the way to the Sacred Land. He introduces himself and explains that he is there to eliminate Goku. Bora steps in to protect his guest, but the assassin runs him through with his own spear. Faced with Upa's grief, Goku hurls himself at the killer.
Our take
This is the episode where Dragon Ball bares its teeth. Until now the Red Ribbon Army had been a dangerous but slightly ridiculous enemy, full of vain officers and clumsy soldiers. Tao is something else entirely: polite, sardonic and utterly indifferent to other people's lives. Killing off Blue, who had been Goku's main rival for a dozen episodes, is how the show measures him. The general who seemed unbeatable is swatted like a fly.
Bora's death hits harder, because the anime took time to build him up: the dinner, the stories, the hospitality towards a boy he had just met. By the time Tao strikes, viewers have learned to like him, and Goku's anger becomes theirs too.
The pillar used as a means of transport is an Akira Toriyama idea that sums up the character on its own: a man so sure of himself that he turns a chunk of building into a projectile and rides it.
Trivia
- The episode adapts the second half of chapter 85 and the first ten pages of chapter 86 of the manga. It drew a 24.8% ratings share in Japan.
- The fight between Blue and Tao is extended from the manga. On the page, the assassin dodges one kick and kills the general immediately; the anime adds the missed blows and the failed psychic attack.
- The dinner with Bora and Upa and the explanation of why nobody can climb the tower are also anime-only.
- Tao will later turn out to be the brother of the Crane Hermit.
Did you know? Before fighting Blue, Tao declares that he will use no weapons, punches or kicks, only his tongue. That is exactly what he does.
Characters
- Goku
- Mercenary Tao
- General Blue
- Commander Red and Staff Officer Black
- Bora and Upa