Episode 98 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on January 27, 1988 and known in the English dub as Victory's Edge, is the spectacular heart of the Goku vs. Tien Shinhan final. Tien pulls out his strangest technique, the Haikyuken or Volleyball Fist, which treats his opponent like a volleyball; Goku answers by revealing that he has been fighting below his true strength all along. The pace keeps climbing, until a mysterious force freezes Goku in midair.
Summary
After pounding him against the wall, Tien announces a secret technique. He tosses Goku into the air and hits him as if in a volleyball match: bump, set and a spike that plants him in the floor of the ring. This is the Haikyuken, and Tien is sure the match is over.
Goku, however, gets up without much trouble, almost pleased. He explains that so far he has fought with "match" strength, holding back so as not to hurt his opponents; against someone like Tien, though, he will use his "battle" strength. The difference shows immediately: a barrage of blows puts the Crane student on the back foot. Goku starts charging a Kamehameha, then stops: Tien would dodge it and he would waste precious energy.
Tien allows himself a moment of meditation. For the first time he feels the joy of fighting all out against someone on his level. The exchange resumes at such speed that even Roshi struggles to follow it. Goku drives him to the edge, but Tien saves himself at the last second. So Goku creates ten afterimages: Tien strikes one behind him and counters with a decoy of his own, but the Goku attacking him is also an illusion, and the real one hits him square from the front.
Time for the Solar Flare, the technique that floored Jackie Chun. Tien blinds everyone and lunges to finish things, only to take a crushing punch to the stomach: Goku has snatched Roshi's sunglasses. While handing them back, though, he gets distracted, and Tien hurls him into the wall; the glasses break, much to the old man's dismay. Krillin looks at his master and finds him oddly familiar, but Roshi barks at him to watch the match.
Goku leaps to attack and suddenly locks up in midair, unable to move. Tien takes the chance to knock him down. Nobody understands what just happened.
Our take
This is the episode where the final becomes a truly great match. The Volleyball Fist is a gag only Toriyama could have come up with: a deadly technique that is also ridiculous, because it turns a fight to the finish into a volleyball game. Goku's reply, the distinction between match strength and battle strength, adds an important layer to the character: the boy who fights for fun knows perfectly well how dangerous he can be.
The finest moment is Tien's meditation. For the first time his face shows not hatred but pleasure, a first crack in the Crane School's teachings that the next episode will split wide open. Goku's sudden freeze, meanwhile, is an effective cliffhanger, because viewers already have every clue they need to guess who is behind it.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapters 129 and 130 of the manga. It drew a 16.6% ratings share in Japan.
- In the manga Yamcha, Bulma, Launch and Puar aren't in the stands: they follow the final on the radio from the hospital.
- In the anime Launch admits that Tien intrigues her, foreshadowing the crush that surfaces later in the manga.
- Tien's meditation before the third phase of the fight and the Crane Hermit signaling Chiaotzu before the paralysis are anime additions.
Did you know? Haikyū is the Japanese word for volleyball: the technique's name literally means "volleyball fist".
Characters
- Goku
- Tien Shinhan
- Master Roshi
- Krillin
- The Crane Hermit
- Chiaotzu
- Launch