Episode 89 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on November 25, 1987 and known in the English dub as Full-Moon Vengeance, is the second quarterfinal of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament: Jackie Chun versus Man-Wolf. After Tien's brutality comes an almost entirely comic episode that solves a lingering mystery, namely why this fighter hates the old champion so much. The answer goes back three years, and to the moon.
Summary
Three girls make the rounds of the waiting room hunting for autographs: first the handsome Pamput, then Jackie Chun, who offers to throw in a kiss, then Tien. When they make fun of Man-Wolf, he loses his temper and threatens to kill Jackie. As he storms off, a newspaper clipping falls from his pocket, and Chiaotzu floats it over to Tien. At the hospital, meanwhile, Bulma helps Yamcha walk and, in a fit of pique, stomps right on his broken leg.
In the ring, Man-Wolf demands that Jackie remember on his own what he did. The old man guesses with ever more absurd answers, and in the stands Goku and Krillin notice something unsettling: Tien and Chiaotzu are floating in midair. The explanation finally arrives in a flashback. Three years ago Man-Wolf was in the crowd for the final between Jackie and Goku, when the old man destroyed the moon with a Kamehameha to turn the Great Ape back to normal. The problem is that Man-Wolf only becomes human under a full moon: with no moon, he is stuck as a wolf for good, and girls no longer give him a second look. Jackie suggests he find a wolf girlfriend, but Man-Wolf cannot stand hairy girls.
The match is a stroll for Jackie, who dodges everything and even finds time to ogle women in the audience, while Tien realizes he is watching the most skilled fighter he has ever seen. Man-Wolf, who trained for three years by pummeling a dummy with Jackie's face, pulls a knife, risking disqualification. Jackie catches the blade between his fingers, hurls him into the wall and sticks the knife in a hair's breadth from his head.
Then he offers a deal: give up, and he will turn him human again. Man-Wolf refuses, so the old man beats him by playing on his instincts: he has him shake a paw, tells him to sit and finally tosses a bone out of the ring. The wolf dives after it and loses by ring-out. Furious, he charges again, but Jackie paralyzes him with a two-finger jab to the forehead, calls Krillin into the ring and hypnotizes him: the boy's bald head becomes the full moon. Man-Wolf turns into a squat man with huge lips, thanks Jackie tearfully and runs off to chase girls. Up next is the third match: Chiaotzu floats into the ring to face Krillin.
Our take
The episode is a comic breather, but a clever one. Man-Wolf is one of Toriyama's funniest ideas, a werewolf in reverse, and his grudge turns a gesture that looked purely spectacular three years earlier into a concrete consequence. The previous tournament comes knocking, just as it will with Mercenary Tao in the next episode.
Under the gags there is important groundwork, too. Tien studying Jackie sets up their semifinal, and the discovery that the Crane students can fly changes the rules: you cannot knock someone out of the ring if they never touch the ground.
The anime pads the story, and the bone gambit is more farce than martial arts. But after Yamcha's broken leg, a little lightness was welcome.
Trivia
- The episode is partly original: it adapts the last page of chapter 118, chapter 119 and the first page of chapter 120. It drew a 17.8% ratings share in Japan.
- The autograph girls, the newspaper clipping, Bulma and Yamcha at the hospital and Man-Wolf's training are anime-only. In the manga Man-Wolf explains his grudge right away, and there is no mention of him watching the previous tournament.
- In the anime Man-Wolf's story has a sequel: shortly after the tournament he is killed off-screen by Tambourine, one of King Piccolo's henchmen, and is later revived by Shenron along with the other victims.
Did you know? At the end of the episode, as Chiaotzu heads for the ring, Tien briefly appears without his third eye, an animation slip.
Characters
- Jackie Chun (Master Roshi)
- Man-Wolf
- Krillin and Goku
- Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu
- Pamput
- Bulma and Yamcha