Episode 85 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on October 28, 1987 and known in the English dub as Preliminary Peril, kicks off the qualifying rounds of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. After three years of training, Master Roshi's students are back in the ring, and waiting for them are two rivals with no interest in making friends: Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu, the disciples of the Crane Hermit.
Summary
The fighters draw their numbers and the qualifier bracket takes shape. Goku, Krillin, Yamcha and Jackie Chun, who is of course Master Roshi in disguise, all land in different sections, so they can only meet if every one of them reaches the main event. Across the hall, Tien and Chiaotzu recognize Goku as the kid who exposed their scam with the monster Inoshikacho.
Yamcha goes first. His opponent, a hulking fighter with a mohawk, smashes a stack of boards to intimidate him, and one elbow is all it takes to put him down. Then it is Krillin's turn, against Antoine the Great, a pro wrestler roughly three times his height. The giant grabs him and tries to crush him; Krillin wriggles free and flings him out of the ring by a single finger.
That is when the Crane students walk over. Tien sneers at the Turtle School's techniques and claims he could have finished Goku off three years earlier, while Chiaotzu mocks Krillin's size. Yamcha refuses to back down, and a fight is about to break out on the floor when Jackie Chun steps in: anyone who brawls before their match is disqualified. Tien looks the old man up and down with contempt and walks away.
Outside the arena, meanwhile, Master Shen, the Crane Hermit, shamelessly hits on Bulma and Launch. Blonde Launch answers with a hail of bullets, which the old man plucks out of the air before dropping them and strolling off, telling the group to start planning a funeral for Roshi's disciples.
Then Tien takes the ring, shrugs off his top and faces a massive sumo wrestler. The bout lasts an instant: the big man drops before the crowd understands what happened, and Yamcha and Krillin can barely count four punches and three kicks. Finally Goku steps up, and Jackie Chun goes pale. His opponent is King Chappa, a former champion who once won a tournament without taking a single hit.
Our take
The episode adapts just one chapter of the manga, and it shows: the additions pile up, from the referee's speech to the squabbles in the waiting area. Yet the padding here has a clear purpose. Every scene builds the rivalry between the Turtle and Crane schools and shapes Tien into a cold, arrogant antagonist, a far cry from the cartoonish villains of the Red Ribbon Army.
The continuity game works too. The Inoshikacho callback, a story invented by the anime during Goku's three-year journey, gives those original episodes meaning after the fact: Toei builds its own side plot and then grafts it onto Akira Toriyama's story. And Krillin's and Yamcha's lightning wins are a simple but effective way to show how much they have grown.
The weak spot is pacing. Half an hour in we are still in the qualifiers, and the match everyone wants to see, Goku's, is held over for next week.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 114 of the manga. It drew a 19.6% ratings share in Japan.
- Krillin draws number 62 here, while in the manga he is number 71.
- Anime-only additions include the referee's opening speech, the mohawked fighter breaking boards, Antoine's name and wrestling background, the Crane Hermit's scene with Bulma and Launch, and the brawl between the sumo wrestler and the fighter who insults him. The face-off between the two schools also runs longer than in the manga.
- Several entrants are caricatures of pro wrestlers: Antoine the Great is a nod to André the Giant, and a Hulk Hogan look-alike can be spotted in the crowd. The mohawked fighter, for his part, has the face Nappa would wear years later in Dragon Ball Z.
Did you know? After Chiaotzu calls him a midget, the Funimation dub has Krillin insist that his parents were six feet tall. In the Japanese version he instead brands Tien the most detestable guy "under the heavens", a pun on the tournament's Japanese name.
Characters
- Goku
- Krillin
- Yamcha
- Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu
- Jackie Chun (Master Roshi)
- Master Shen, the Crane Hermit
- Bulma, Launch, Puar and Oolong
- King Chappa
- Antoine the Great