Episode 73 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on August 5, 1987 and known in the English dub as The Devilmite Beam, is where Goku finally steps into Fortuneteller Baba's five-fighter challenge. With Yamcha beaten, it falls to him to face the Mummy above the Devil's Toilet, and the gap in skill is obvious from the first exchange. The Japanese title, though, is already looking ahead to the fourth opponent, Akkuman, and his dreaded Devil Might Beam.
Summary
On a bridge formed by the tongues of two demon statues, hanging over a pool of deadly liquid, the Mummy hesitates: Goku's stance offers no opening. When he finally attacks, he lands three blows and knocks the boy flat as Baba cheers, but Goku pops right back up. He was only warming up. From then on he dodges everything, cracking jokes, and the Mummy loses his temper.
Baba's fighter flings his bandages like ropes and wraps Goku from head to toe: give up, or be crushed. Goku refuses. He drops off the bridge on purpose, swings to within inches of the liquid and uses the momentum to climb back up and tear himself free. When the Mummy tries again, Goku slips past the bandages and ends the match with a single punch.
The fourth challenger is Akkuman (Spike the Devil Man in the dub), a winged demon with horns and fangs who even needles the mysterious fifth fighter waiting on the sidelines. Once the fight starts, though, he is the one in trouble, and he nearly tumbles into the pool. Krillin and Yamcha write him off as a pushover, but Roshi cuts them short: this devil has a terrifying weapon. Cornered, Akkuman spreads his wings and charges the Devil Might Beam while Roshi shouts at Goku to avoid it at all costs.
Our take
Goku's arrival changes the pace of the arc. Garlic against Dracula Man and Roshi's nosebleed to expose the invisible Sukē were comedy solutions; here we get a real fight again, and a measure of how far Goku has come since Korin Tower and the fall of the Red Ribbon Army.
The anime stretches the fight a lot, and that is not always a bad thing. The bandage hold and the leap toward the pool show off Goku's instincts, his knack for turning a danger into a foothold, a trait he will keep for the rest of the series. The cost is a sluggish rhythm, padded with cutaways to worried friends.
Akkuman is more interesting than he looks. His beam feeds on the wickedness everyone carries inside, so the episode asks a moral question before a physical one: what happens when the target is a boy like Goku? The cliffhanger works precisely because viewers can already guess the answer. A note for completists: the Mummy and Akkuman pop up for a moment at the end of Dragon Ball Z, among the people of Earth lending energy to the Spirit Bomb against Majin Buu.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 103 and the first six pages of chapter 104 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 23.9% ratings share in Japan.
- In the manga the Mummy fight is over almost instantly: Goku dodges a punch and knocks him out. The bandage hold, the leap over the pool and Roshi's explanation that the Mummy is genuine, and therefore immortal, are anime additions. In the manga Akkuman also keeps his wings folded while charging his beam.
- In the Japanese version Roshi plays on the word "suki", which means both "an opening" and "I like you": Bulma thinks the Mummy has a crush on Goku, and Krillin has to set her straight.
- Krillin claims Goku has never lost a fight, forgetting the World Martial Arts Tournament final against Jackie Chun, which he watched with his own eyes.
Did you know? The tongues of the two statues that form the bridge normally touch, but throughout this episode, starting from the title card, there is a gap between the tips. By the next episode it is gone again.
Characters
- Goku
- The Mummy (Mīra-kun; Bandages the Mummy in the dub)
- Akkuman (Spike the Devil Man; the name puns on "akuma", Japanese for "devil")
- Fortuneteller Baba
- Master Roshi
- Krillin, Yamcha, Bulma, Puar and Upa
- The masked man