Episode 70 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on July 15, 1987 and known in the English dub as We Are the Five Warriors, kicks off the challenge against Fortuneteller Baba's five fighters. The first opponent is a vampire who fights Muay Thai style, the second a man nobody can see. Winning takes less muscle and more imagination, and surprisingly the ones who supply it are the two smallest members of the group.
Summary
Baba lays out the rules: the fights take place on a stage surrounded by a lake, and anyone who falls in the water or gives up loses. Krillin volunteers first, full of confidence. His opponent is Dracula Man (Fangs the Vampire in the dub), a showy bloodsucker who opens with a long ritual dance. Krillin laughs, but not for long. The vampire turns into a bat, zips around far too fast to hit and finally catches him from behind, sinking his fangs into the top of his head.
Drained and wobbling, Krillin can barely stand, and Dracula Man knocks him into the water with ease. Baba's little ghost fishes him out and patches him up with a transfusion and a few bandages.
The group regroups. To everyone's surprise, Upa and Puar volunteer for the second round and ask to fight together. Baba, amused by their size, allows it. The pair have prepared a textbook anti-vampire plan. Upa has been chewing garlic and breathes it straight into the vampire's face, while Puar turns into a spiky critter he can't bite. Then Upa spreads his arms into the shape of a cross, and Dracula Man completely loses it. When he tries to flee as a bat, Puar becomes a giant hand and swats him right into the lake.
Yamcha is up next. The stage looks empty and he assumes it's a joke, until a punch comes out of nowhere. His opponent is an invisible man (See-Through in the dub), who pummels him from every angle while Yamcha swings at thin air. Krillin gets an idea and sends Goku off on the Flying Nimbus to fetch Master Roshi and Bulma, without telling him why.
Our take
This is where the saga comes alive, with the taste for absurdity that made the series' earliest episodes so irresistible. A dancing vampire, a kid weaponizing garlic breath, a flying cat turned flyswatter: it's pure visual comedy, and the episode serves it up with great timing.
The smartest choice is letting Upa and Puar win. Neither of them can fight, yet they beat an opponent who just flattened Krillin, Roshi's own student. The message, very much in the spirit of the original series, is that cunning counts as much as strength. It's an idea that keeps coming back, from Krillin's plan against the invisible man to the way Krillin himself will outthink Chiaotzu at the tournament.
For Krillin, on the other hand, this is a slightly humiliating outing. He came out of the Red Ribbon Army Saga with a few solid showings, only to be dispatched by a second-tier enemy here. The series doesn't forget him, though: he's the one who figures out how to help Yamcha, and his role as the group's strategist starts right here.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 99 of the manga and the first six pages of chapter 100. It drew a 24.6% ratings share in Japan.
- Dracula Man's dance is based on the Wai Kru, the ritual Muay Thai fighters perform before a bout to honor their teachers. In the anime he performs it several times; in the manga, only once.
- Anime-only additions include the Kame House scene in which Roshi tells Bulma, Launch and Oolong who Baba is, and Krillin's failed swings at the bat. In the manga Upa breathes garlic on the vampire once; here he does it at least seven times.
- The invisible man's Japanese name is Sukē, a pun on sukeru, "to be see-through". It's exactly the kind of wordplay Toriyama loved, as we explain in names and puns.
Did you know? When Dracula Man sees the cross, the English words "Jesus Christ!" and "Oh, God!" pop up on screen. They aren't in the manga, and they were removed from the Toonami broadcast in the United States.