Episode 72 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on July 29, 1987 and known in the English dub as Goku's Turn, moves Baba's challenge into the most menacing arena of her palace. Yamcha, still riding high from his win over the invisible man, comes up against the Mummy, a fighter no one has ever beaten. It's the most brutal match of the saga, and it ends with the entrance everyone has been waiting for: Goku's.
Summary
The Devil's Toilet is a narrow platform lined with demon statues, hanging over a pool of poisonous green sludge. Baba chants a long incantation, the smoke clears and a sarcophagus appears. Inside is the third fighter, a towering, bandage-wrapped mummy (Bandages the Mummy in the dub). Master Roshi warns the others that no challenger has ever made it past this round.
Yamcha assumes such a big opponent must be slow and bets everything on speed. Big mistake: the Mummy is quicker than he is and far stronger, dodging every attack and shrugging off even the Wolf Fang Fist. For a moment Yamcha seems to get the upper hand, tripping his opponent over the edge with a sudden sweep. But the Mummy shoots out one of his bandages, hooks it onto the platform and climbs back up as if nothing happened.
From there it's a beatdown. Upa, who feels guilty because everyone is fighting for his father, grabs an axe to jump in, but Roshi stops him: this is a fight Yamcha has to face alone. The Mummy locks Yamcha in a hold that threatens to snap his back, and his friends beg him to give up. Yamcha refuses.
Puar can't bear to watch any longer. He turns into a woodpecker and pecks at the Mummy until it lets go, but a moment later he is swatted down and left unconscious. Enraged, Yamcha staggers up for one last charge, with nothing left in the tank. The Mummy lifts him overhead and hurls him into the pit.
Goku extends his Power Pole in midair and catches him inches from the sludge. Baba declares Yamcha the loser, since a teammate stepped in, but by now that hardly matters. With his friend safe and Puar coming around, Goku climbs onto the platform. It's his turn.
Our take
This is the toughest episode of the saga, and it also says the most about Yamcha. In the manga he surrenders as soon as he realizes he's outmatched; the anime takes that exit away and turns him into a fighter proud to the point of self-destruction. It's a debatable choice, because it drags out his suffering considerably, but it makes the defeat more dignified and gives Puar a small hero moment.
The Mummy works perfectly as a wall. After a comic vampire and a gag-driven invisible man, he's the first of Baba's fighters who is genuinely scary. The direction lingers on his bulk, on the hits Yamcha absorbs, on the green glow of the pit. It all signals that the challenge is no longer a game, and it sets the stage for Goku.
The Japanese title promises as much from the start: Goku "makes his appearance". After three episodes on the sidelines, the hero enters with his Power Pole stretched over the void, and it's hard to imagine a better entrance.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 101 of the manga from page 6 onward, plus all of chapter 102. It drew a 23.6% ratings share in Japan. The script is by Toshiki Inoue, who would go on to become one of the leading writers of the Kamen Rider franchise.
- In the manga the Mummy doesn't emerge from a coffin but from the mouth of one of the demon statues; Baba's incantation is an anime addition.
- Also anime-only: Roshi's warning about round three, Upa and the axe, Puar's rescue attempt and Yamcha's disqualification. The anime also shows the other challengers lined up outside the palace, who flee in fright when they hear the fight.
- According to the 1987 guidebook Dragon Ball Adventure Special, the Mummy is about 800 years old, loves sewing and hates taking baths.
Did you know? The arena's Japanese name, Akuma no Benjo, literally means "the Devil's Toilet". The name survived in English too: the Blue Water dub even titled this episode The Perils of Devil's Toilet!
Characters
- Yamcha and Puar
- The Mummy (Bandages the Mummy)
- Upa
- Master Roshi
- Fortuneteller Baba
- Goku