Episode 81 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on September 30, 1987 and known in the English dub as Goku Goes to Demon Land, is the third stop on the solo training journey Goku takes before the next World Martial Arts Tournament. It is an anime-only story with the flavor of a gothic fairy tale: a kingdom besieged by demons, a kidnapped princess and a gate that has to be shut at any cost. It is also the series' first trip into the Demon Realm, a place it would not revisit for many years.
Summary
In the dead of night, Princess Misa is snatched from her castle by a demon. Soon afterward Goku wanders into the nearby village, whose streets are lined with traps. Every night, an old woman explains, demons pour out of a huge gate and ransack the place. Goku sidesteps the traps with ease, but the jumpy villagers take him for one of the monsters.
At the castle, King Kress doubts a little boy can help. He changes his mind after watching Goku make short work of his guards, and gives him the job: rescue Misa and stop Shura (Shula in the English dub), the martial arts master of the Demon Realm. Shura is the one who jammed his sword into the gate so it cannot close, and he plans to marry the princess. The next morning the king walks Goku to the gate. Goku tries to pull the sword out, but it will not budge, so the only way forward is through.
Back at Kame House, Launch is losing her patience with Master Roshi, while Krillin and Yamcha keep training by delivering milk past the local dinosaurs.
On the other side, Goku meets two gatekeepers, the demon girl Mera and the hulking Gora, who warn him that Shura is no joke. The palace is celebrating the wedding with a tournament in the groom's honor. Goku climbs into the ring, knocks out the first demon and openly challenges Shura, to everyone's shock. The fight is brutal and Shura matches him blow for blow. The key turns out to be a small detail: no bright light has ever reached this world. Goku fires a Kamehameha and the flash blinds Shura and his whole court. He throws Misa over his shoulder and runs, helped by an unexpected assist from Mera and Gora. From the human side the sword finally comes loose, the gate slams shut and the village throws a party for the princess's return.
Our take
Of all the training-journey episodes, this is the most visually ambitious. The dark sets of the Demon Realm, the monstrous courtiers and the wedding feast feel like a miniature movie, and that is no accident: the score borrows cues written for the second film, Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, heard here on TV for the first time.
Shura is a well-built villain, mysterious and genuinely dangerous, and Goku beats him through wits rather than muscle. That is the real point of the episode. After the Baba arc, Goku is learning to read a situation instead of charging in head first, and using the Kamehameha as a blinding flare is the kind of trick the franchise would return to again and again.
The usual filler caveat applies: nothing here has consequences. But audiences clearly loved it.
Trivia
- The episode is entirely anime-original and adapts no chapter of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 24.0% ratings share in Japan, the best of the five training-journey episodes.
- It was storyboarded and directed by Daisuke Nishio, who a few years later became series director of Dragon Ball Z. The script is credited to Michiru Shimada and Kei Shussui.
- In the Japanese version, Mera tells Goku that passing through the gate requires a permit from Enma or Kami-sama, the first time the anime mentions either character.
- The Demon Realm (Makai) returns in the Buu arc of Dragon Ball Z, with Dabura, and later takes center stage in Dragon Ball Daima.
- This is the last time the original series shows "bad" Launch in her original outfit.
Did you know? Shura, Mera and Gora returned decades later in the mobile game Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle, in a story arc built around the Demon Realm.
Characters
- Goku
- Shura
- Princess Misa
- King Kress
- Mera and Gora
- Master Roshi, Krillin, Yamcha, Launch