Episode 64 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on May 27, 1987 and known in the English dub as The Last of Mercenary Tao, settles the score with Mercenary Tao (Tao Pai Pai in the original Japanese), the world's most feared assassin. Tao climbs Korin Tower to drink the Sacred Water for himself, only to meet a cat far craftier than he is. When he comes back down convinced he is unbeatable, Goku shows him that strength does not come in a cup.
Summary
At the foot of the tower Goku does not seem worried in the slightest. He has dinner with Upa in Bora's tent and goes to sleep, while the boy cannot understand how he can be so calm. At Kame House, meanwhile, Bulma finds her Dragon Radar scrambled: the Red Ribbon Army is jamming the signal, and the interference is throwing off Commander Red's own instruments too.
At the top of the tower Tao demands the water, and Korin serves it his own way. He scoops a cup from a barrel, drops a booger in it, spits in it a couple of times and hands it over. Tao first fires his Dodon Ray at a pillar, without a scratch; he drinks, tries again, and the pillar barely cracks. Not satisfied, he suspects a trick and threatens to drop a barrel on Upa. Korin tries telling him the truth, that even Goku only drank plain water, but Tao will not believe it. So the cat shatters the pillar himself and claims the ray simply needed time to take effect. For the trip down he lends Tao a black cloud, so the assassin cannot gain strength by climbing, and halfway down he pulls it out from under him. Tao reaches the ground in free fall.
Full of confidence, Tao challenges Goku. At first he seems to have the upper hand, but Goku is only taking hits to read his style; once he stops toying with him, Tao cannot land a blow, not even with the Crane School's assassination technique. So he drops to his knees and begs for mercy, and as soon as Goku lowers his guard he throws a grenade. Goku kicks it straight back and the blast engulfs Tao. With the Dragon Balls recovered, Goku sets off for the Red Ribbon Army's headquarters to claim the rest and bring Bora back to life.
Our take
This is the showdown the saga had been building for four episodes, and the anime adds a twist of its own. In the manga Tao never climbs the tower: the fight simply carries on. Here he tries to take the same road as Goku, and the contrast between the two turns into a small morality tale. Goku spent days chasing Korin; Tao wants the result without the work, and Korin, who reads him at once, toys with him with real comic cruelty.
The cup scene is gross and brilliant in equal measure, and it says a lot about the assassin: a man so sure of his superiority that he will believe anything that confirms it.
The ending has a different flavor. Tao killed General Blue and Bora with chilling ease, and he goes down through his own treachery, a fitting kind of justice. It will not be for good, since he returns later in the series rebuilt as a cyborg, but for the 1987 audience it felt like a clean finish.
Trivia
- The episode adapts the end of chapter 92 and the start of chapter 93 of Akira Toriyama's manga, with plenty of original material, and drew a 25.9% ratings share in Japan.
- The scenes at Kame House and at headquarters are also anime-only; the manga never mentions the army tracking Tao's movements.
- Goku and Upa feast in the tent even though, three days earlier, Korin had given Goku a Senzu Bean meant to keep him fed for ten days.
Did you know? Just before he dies, Tao sees his victims flash before his eyes: among them are General Blue, Bora and the tailor who stitched his new outfit.