Episode 83 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on October 14, 1987 and known in the English dub as Which Way to Papaya Island?, wraps up both Goku's training journey and the Fortuneteller Baba Saga. Three years have passed since he set out, and the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament is one day away: all Goku has to do is reach Papaya Island, but a chance encounter turns the trip into a race against the clock. It is the last anime-original episode before the series picks the manga back up.
Summary
In a forest, Goku catches three thugs, a tiger, a boar and a gorilla, beating up a kid, and sends them packing without breaking a sweat. The kid is Konkichi, a little green fox who, out of gratitude, starts calling him "big brother" and offers to help him get to the tournament. The two head to the nearest airport, but Goku does not have a single coin for a ticket.
The answer turns out to be a carnival. Goku tries the strength tester, the one where you strike a base to send a weight flying up to the bell, and wrecks it with one blow without even picking up the mallet. The winnings cover two tickets. On the way back they bump into an old acquaintance, Fortuneteller Baba, on vacation with her little ghost. Konkichi, uneasy under the seer's gaze, bolts off and lands right back in the hands of the three thugs.
At Kame House, meanwhile, Master Roshi and the others are ready to leave for Papaya Island. Launch, in her sweet form, would rather stay home: in the original Japanese, the city air is bad for her skin.
The thugs force Konkichi into a bank robbery and leave him to take the fall. When the police arrest him, the kid tells Goku the truth: yes, he is a petty thief, but he is no bank robber, and he wants to turn his life around. Goku believes him. Baba tells him where the real culprits ran off to, and Goku tracks them down, roughs them up and hands them over to the police, clearing his friend's name. The price is steep, though: the plane to Papaya Island has left without him. Goku says goodbye to Konkichi, dives into the sea and starts swimming.
Our take
This is a small morality tale, light and a little predictable, built around the classic character with a shady past whom Goku saves by trusting him when nobody else will. What makes it work is pacing: the tournament deadline gives the whole episode a simple but effective tension.
The real payoff is the ending. Goku with no Flying Nimbus, no money and no plane, deciding to cross the ocean on his own steam, is the perfect image of these three years: he has grown up, learned to fend for himself and stopped looking for shortcuts. Baba's return is also a nice bookend to the start of the saga.
The episode sits in an odd spot, too. In Japan, Toei groups it with the four before it as a short arc of its own, the "training journey", while Western guides treat it as the closing chapter of the Baba Saga.
Trivia
- The episode is entirely anime-original and adapts no chapter of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew an 18.9% ratings share in Japan.
- It was written by Yasushi Hirano and directed by Toshihiko Arisako.
- In the Funimation dub, Konkichi talks about wanting to become a teacher; that dream is not in the Japanese version.
- The boar thug resembles one of the bandits who tried to rob Goku on his first trip to West City.
- An airport display board shows the name Tokyo, a rare nod to a real-world city.
Did you know? The next episode reveals that Goku swam all the way from Yahhoy, a town on the opposite side of the world from Papaya Island.
Characters
- Goku
- Konkichi
- Fortuneteller Baba
- The three thugs
- Master Roshi, Bulma, Krillin, Yamcha, Launch, Oolong, Puar