Episode 60 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on April 29, 1987 and known in the English dub as Tao Attacks!, is Goku's first real defeat of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. Against Mercenary Tao his strength is not enough, and neither is the Kamehameha: the assassin drops him with the Dodon Ray and leaves him for dead. But a Dragon Ball tucked under his shirt changes everything, and Goku picks the hardest possible road to a rematch.
Summary
Furious over Bora's death, Goku strikes first. Tao dodges every punch and kick without breaking a sweat. Exasperated, Goku charges a Kamehameha. The assassin blocks it unharmed, but the blast burns his clothes, and it is the ruined outfit that truly enrages him. Tao points a finger at Goku's chest and fires the Dodon Ray, a beam meant to kill. Goku collapses.
Sure that he has finished the job, Tao takes the Dragon Balls the boy was carrying, spares Upa and leaves. With his robe in tatters he heads to the nearest town, where two drunks mock him before realizing who he is, and orders a new outfit from a tailor, to be ready in three days. Then he phones Commander Red: mission accomplished, just a small delay. Red points out that there are three balls, not four. No matter, he says: they will collect the last one from Goku's corpse.
At the foot of the tower, meanwhile, Upa has buried his father and is digging a second grave for Goku when a Red Ribbon soldier lands, sent to fetch the missing ball. To both their astonishment, Goku gets up: bruised, but alive. The soldier tries to finish him with a shotgun, then takes off to report to base, but Goku knocks him out of the sky with his Power Pole. The secret of his survival is Grandpa Gohan's Four-Star Ball, which he kept under his clothes: the Dodon Ray hit it dead on.
Goku promises Upa that he will use the Dragon Balls to bring Bora back. To do that he has to beat Tao, and as he is now he does not stand a chance. So he decides to climb Korin Tower in search of the Sacred Water. While Red tells the assassin to go back and check, only to hear that Tao is not one of his soldiers, Goku climbs for hours without ever seeing the top.
Our take
The episode works because it upends expectations. Viewers are used to Goku solving every problem with raw power, and the Kamehameha has always been his trump card; here it bounces off, and the only damage is a burnt outfit. That Tao gets angrier about his clothes than about the attack says everything about him.
The burial sequence is even more effective. Little Upa digging two graves on his own, one for his father and one for his new friend, is one of the saddest moments in the original series, and Goku's return lands almost as a release.
Being saved by his grandfather's Dragon Ball also carries symbolic weight: Gohan's keepsake, the object that started Goku's journey, protects him at his lowest point. And the decision to climb the tower opens one of the best-loved training arcs, because for the first time Goku gets stronger with a specific goal in mind.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 86 from page 11 and the first thirteen pages of chapter 87 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 21.2% ratings share in Japan.
- The two drunks mocking Tao, the soldier sent to recover the ball and the phone call in which Tao refuses Red's orders are anime-only. The hand-to-hand fight before the Kamehameha is also much longer than in the manga.
- The two drunks share the designs of the Orin Temple bullies who once tormented Krillin.
- The shot of Goku firing the Kamehameha is recycled from the Tournament Saga: the tiles of the ring are visible on the ground.
Did you know? After the blast, a piece of Tao's sleeve vanishes and reappears several times during the scene with Goku and Upa, a small animation slip.
Characters
- Goku
- Mercenary Tao
- Upa
- Commander Red