Dragon Ball Manga Volume #5.



   New Characters:



   [fa:vxxx -- First Appears in Volume xxx.]



   Silver: A commander from Red Ribbon.  Very strong and fast.  Doesn't

              wear a shirt under his jacket.  Is in charge of the

              western desserts. [fa:v5]

   Red Sousui: Leader of Red Ribbon.  In the TV series, Red is VERY

              short.  Has a patch over one eye, always smokes a cigar,

              and has no patience at all.  [fa:v5]

   White Shogun: Commander of the northern regions.  Located in Muscle

              Tower.  Bulky, strong, and tricky.  [fa:v5]

   Metallic Gunsou: White's 3rd floor robot guard.  [fa:v5]

   Murasaki Souchou: White's military aide and 4th floor guard.  Sneaky

              ninja master.  [fa:v5]

   Zombie 8: White's 5th floor guard.  A Frankenstein monster who later

              changes his name to Hatchan (dimunitive form of 8-chan.)

              Involuntarily recruited to guard the Tower.  [fa:v5]

   Gomu: One more of White's guards.  A rubbery monster.  (Gomu is

              Japanese for Gum.)  [fa:v5]



   The battle between Jackie and Gokuu continues in book 5.

   [As a recap, Kuririn had defeated Bactarian, Jackie beat Yamcha, Yamu

overcame Ranfawn, and Gokuu had triumphed over Gilan.  In the second

round, Jackie easily knocked out Kuririn, and Gokuu overpowered Namu.

We pick up with the contest to determine the greatest fighter in the

world.]

   Gokuu decides to try using monkey style combat, and succeeds until

Jackie gets mad enough to try hypnotising him.  This puts Gokuu out, and

everyone is convinced he's going to lose.  Then, Buruma yells out

"Gokuu, supper!"  The announcer has to assure the boy that supper will

be served when the meet is over, which makes Gokuu that much more

resolved to win.  He then uses "Janken" style, a technique where you make

an attack sound that matches the punch or kick you use.  Jackie easily

counters the attacks, and Gokuu is convinced that the old man had known

his dead grandfather (since the deceased man was the one who'd taught

janken to Gokuu.)  Gokuu says that he's going to use janken again,

and Jackie tells him that nothing will change -- but he gets punched in

the nose; Gokuu called out "ba" while making a "gu" attack.

[Note: Janken is actually the Japanese name for "scissors/paper/stone."

       Gokuu punches (stone) and Jackie counters (paper.)]

   This makes Chun furious.  He invokes Bankokubikkurishou, a lightning

attack that stands a good chance of killing Gokuu.  Chun demands that

Gokuu surrender, which Gokuu won't do despite the pain and warnings of

his certain death.  Then, Gokuu looks up and sees the full moon.  The

lightning attack has no effect on the were-monkey, which starts trashing

the grounds, (Jackie is startled, because Kamesennin hadn't heard about

this side of Gokuu before.)  While the spectators run away in fear,

Jackie starts a full-power Kamehame-ha.  Yamcha rushes forward to stop

what looks like Chun's killing blow.  Too late.  The blast knocks

everyone back, and when they've recovered, Gokuu is gone.  People accuse

Jackie of being a murderer, until he points out a space in the rubble

where Gokuu, reverted back to human form, is peacefully sleeping.

Jackie states that he wasn't aiming at the boy, but rather at the moon

(which is no longer in the sky.)

   Shaken, the announcer needs some prompting to start the count, and

starts just before Gokuu wakes up again (Jackie complains about this.)

Gokuu is willing to continue fighting in the nude, but is convinced to

dress in Kuririn's outfit.  Both fighters are wearing down: Gokuu is

starving, and Jackie had used up his Kamehame-ha power.  Gokuu's

Kamehame-ha is still strong enough to make Chun jump back, and he's

vulnerable to the kick that sends him out of the ring.  It looks like

Jackie has lost, and everyone is declaring Gokuu the winner when the old

man asks the announcer to come over to his edge of the ring.  Turns out

that Jackie's foot is embedded in the ring's wall, and he hasn't yet

touched the grass.  So, the fight continues.  There's only one chance

left for Jackie to win, and it occurs when Gokuu agrees to a

hand-to-hand attack.  They leap forward, and kick each other in the

face.  Looks like Gokuu is still in better shape, but he does collapse

completely -- Jackie was counting on his longer legs giving him a slight

edge when the impact occurred.

   Gokuu loses, and Jackie Chun is declared the winner of the

Tenkaichi-budoukai.  It's a fair fight, and no one has any hard

feelings.  Jackie accepts the 500,000 zenii prize before leaving.  Gokuu

suffers a hunger strike.  Kamesennin quickly changes out of his disguise

(the hair glue really hurts when he rips off the wig) and meets up with

the group.  Gokuu and Kuririn fill in the details of the fight, and they

decide to have supper with Kamesennin paying the tab (Gokuu is happy.)

The final bill comes to 470,000 senii.

   As people discuss their plans (Buruma and Yamcha invite everyone to

come with them,) Kamesennin states that he's going back home, and Gokuu

tells them that he's going off to find the Dragon Ball that contains his

grandfather's soul.  Kintoen arrives to whisk off our hero as the rest

wish him good luck.  Afterwards, the van runs out of gas.

   Some time later, Gokuu wakes up to drink some water, and to use the

Dragon Radar he'd received from Buruma.  But, there are other people

looking for the Ball...  Two men from Red Ribbon, under Silver's

command, are also out searching the dessert.  Gokuu treats them as a

joke, until they start shooting at him.  Gokuu finds the Ball, which

isn't the exact one he wants, and flies off.  The men radio Silver, and

he rushes outside his field office to use a LAW to destroy Kintoen.

Gokuu doesn't know what Red Ribbon is, and doesn't care.  So, Silver

steals Gokuu's bag containing the Ball and Dragon Radar, but Gokuu

steals it back.  This prompts Silver to happily start fighting, but he

gets trashed.

   Since Kintoen no longer exists, Gokuu decides to try using one of the

RR capsules.  The first one gives him a service robot, which tells him

what capsule to try second.  This gives Gokuu a plane that the robot

then flies for him.

   In the Red Ribbon HQ, Red Sousui is talking to his aide about getting

all of the Dragon Balls.  A minion runs into state that one of the

Dragon Balls is moving towards Silver's base.  After repeated tries,

they get Silver on the radio and are told about Son Gokuu.  They also

suspect that "the brat" also has a Dragon Radar like they do.  The two

Balls are moving into the artic region, towards White Shogun, and he's

to be told to kill the kid.

   Back in the airplane with the kid, Gokuu is freezing; robots don't

feel the cold.  The Ball is below them, when the robot crashes.  White

Shogun, in his Muscle Tower, receives a call about the crashed plane.

He looks forward to trashing the "baka-brat," as his men conduct the

search.

   The girl (doesn't seem to have a name this early on in the story,)

has brought the near-frozen Gokuu to her home, where her mother helps

him recover.  They want to know why he was out in the snow, and then

recoil in fear when he mentions that he's looking for the Dragon Ball.

Seems that Red Ribbon has kidnapped Jingle village's headmaster in their

attempts to find the Ball themselves.  Gokuu reassures the two that he's

just trying to find his Grandfather's Ball, when two men find the trail

leading to the house and break in.  After quickly trashing the two

soldiers, Gokuu rushes out to rescue the headmaster from Muscle Tower.

He rushes back in, suffering from the cold again.  He's dressed in the

girl's winter clothes, and finds out that the white stuff outside is

called "snow."  He thinks it's weird stuff.  The girl thinks that Gokuu

is a weird boy, and her mother expects him to die violently.  Then Gokuu

is off again.

   White is impressed at how quickly the brat has taken out his men, and

wonders whether he can get past the Tower's guards to reach the top

floor.  While trying to figure out where the headmaster is, White comes

over the PA to ask what Gokuu wants -- to find the headmaster.  White

thinks that Gokuu has come from the village, and then invites him in.

The guards on the second floor get permission to kill the boy, but fail.

All this fighting makes Gokuu hot, so he takes off the winter gear, and

heads up to the third floor.  Both White and Murasaki are impressed, but

the ninja claims that although Metallic will probably win, there's no

way the intruder can get by his 4th floor command.  Metallic points out

the stairs to the next level, and then states that Gokuu has to get past

him first.  Gokuu's early attacks leave him thinking that the Tower is

not a challenge (he yells out "Fighto" in victory, which is probably a

parody of some of the high caffeine energy booster drink (AKA -- "genki"

drinks) commercials on Japanese TV.)  Metallic makes a come back, and

Murasaki is timing the length of the battle.  Gokuu is glad that he had

a chance to practice for the Tenkaichi-Budoukai first.  Then Metallic

fires a mouth-missile that everyone thinks has hit Gokuu.

(NOTE: Whenever ANYONE wins a battle, they hold up the peace sign, and

say "peace, peace.")  Gokuu decides to try Kamehame-ha, jumps out to

show that he's still alive, and attacks.  This blows off Metallic's

head, but doesn't destroy the robot.  Gokuu thinks that the creature's

soul is still hanging around, and starts praying for the spirit to not

haunt him.  Gokuu still can't figure out what's happening, and White

tells everyone that Metallic is a robot.  White orders Metallic to kill

Gokuu, but the robot's batteries choose this moment to run down.  Gokuu

rushes upstairs before the robot can recover, and White yells at his

ninja to get down to the 4th floor to defend it.

   On the next level, Gokuu is stunned to find a forest growing inside a

building.  Then the throwing spikes hit the ground in front of him.

Murasaki boasts about his skills as a ninja, and tells us that Gokuu is

going to die very quickly.  (Note, both Murasaki and White refer to

themselves as "Ore-sama," or "the honorable Mr. Me.")  While Murasaki is

bragging about his invisibility, Gokuu picks up a rock and throws it

into the trees.  Murasaki decides to try this a second time, throws out

a smoke bomb, and challenges Gokuu to find him.  Gokuu does this with no

trouble, because the ninja has grabbed the wrong piece of camoflague (the

American flag.)  So, Murasaki makes one last go at hiding from the boy,

telling him to count to thirty before coming to find him.  Gokuu can't

remember what comes after 18, and catches Murasaki trying to sneak under

a fake rock.  Murasaki complains that Gokuu has ruined his best ninja

technique (Gokuu agrees that the fake looks just like the real thing,

but still wants to know what comes after 18.)  The ninja gets up to 23

before saying that counting is not one of the techniques required by

ninja.  He tells Gokuu to just count up to 30, which Gokuu succeeds at

on the second try.  This time, the whistling of the air through a reed

gives the over-confident ninja away (this water-hiding technique is

undetectable.)  Murasaki complains that Gokuu had almost killed him with

the hot water poured down the tube, before challenging Gokuu to a foot

race.  Since ninja don't play fair, he uses caltrops to gain an edge.

Gokuu responds by wearing wooden geta, and outdistances his opponent.

White thinks that Murasaki's power is all in his head.

   End of volume 5.





                                                -- Curtis H. Hoffmann

                                                   May 30, 1993