Dragon Ball Manga Volume #6.



   New Characters:



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



   Blue Shogun: South Eastern commander for Red Ribbon, encamped on an

              island in the ocean.  Incredibly strong and well-built,

              but probably gay.  A very fussy dresser.  [fa:v6]



   The Story:



   Murasaki escalates the battle, to be badly humiliated with a bo up

his butt (Gokuu laughs saying that they now both have tails.)  When his

sword breaks, the ninja throws a boomarang before challenging the brat

to a fist fight.  Hit from behind, Gokuu drops, Murasaki gloats, and

Gokuu gets back up.  Some shiraiken are thrown out, and gathered up,

then both fighters run into Murasaki's hut.  The ninja uses a

ninja-tatame-mat-blocking technique on the shiraiken, but forgets that

while he has four mats, Gokuu has 6 throwing stars.  They run back

outside, where Murasaki uses a floating-walker to cross his

pirranha-filled lake (which Gokuu just leaps over.)  This forces the

ninja to pull out his final ace: 5 replicants of himself.  Gokuu thinks

that each one is a fake, except that each copy has a killing attack of

his own.  Then Murasaki states that the copies are all the real things,

so Gokuu beats them all up (when Gokuu uses his one-pattern technique,

he tells the clone that the real Gokuu is behind him.)  Finally,

Murasaki panicks and runs upstairs to release Zombie #8 (Jinzouningen

8-go.)

   #8 is described as very fast, and very strong.  But, everyone is

surprised when #8 says that he can't attack Gokuu.  #8 considers

violence to be a bad thing, and refuses to fight even when Murasaki

pulls out a remote control switch that can trigger a bomb placed in the

monster's chest.  Murasaki runs to the other side of the tower to blow

up the recalcitrant monster, and Gokuu leaps across to destroy the

control and uses janken style to wipe out the ninja.  #8 calls Gokuu his

#1 friend, and asks for Gokuu's name.  #8 doesn't have any other name

than Zombie #8, and is happy to hear that the boy is trying to rescue

the village's headmaster.  The two go up to the next level, through a

maze (in the TV series, the maze is much more important,) and past a

section of the tower that can't be accessed via any known doorways.

Gokuu refers to him as Hatchan, and #8 likes it enough to declare

"hatchan" as his new name.  Finally, they reach the top level, and White

Shogun.  He greets the two friends, and presses the trap door button to

drop Gokuu and Hatchan into the sealed off area occupied by...

   Gokuu lands lightly on his feet, and Hatchan lands heavily on Gokuu

("Son Gokuu, are you dead?")  White Shogun gives Gokuu a chance to

surrender the Dragon Balls, and Dragon Radar, but Gokuu refuses.  So

White says that he'll watch them die via video monitor.  Hatchan is

concerned that Gokuu has a Dragon Ball, and asks if his new friend is

going to do something bad with it ala Red Ribbon.  Gokuu reassures him,

as the wall raises to reveal the invincible monster -- Gomu.

   Hatchan is frightened, White and Gokuu are happy, and the monster

attacks. Gokuu can't understand why his attacks have no effect, but

neither side is really winning.  In desperation, Gokuu tries

Kamehame-ha, which also fails.  White offers Gokuu one last chance to

give up the Dragon Ball and Radar, but Gokuu declines.  Then Gomu tries

eating Hatchan.  Gokuu saves his friend, but things are looking grim

when Gokuu suddenly remembers what the girl had said after she'd rescued

him from the freezing cold (about being like a block of ice.)  The boy

calmly walks over to the wall, punches a hole, asks if Hatchan can feel

the cold (he can't,) then jumps inside the zombie's coat to watch Gomu

freeze up.  Gokuu leaps out of the jacket just long enough to punch

Gomu, and then runs back, suffering from frostbite.  With Gomu out of

the action, Gokuu uses his bo to lift himself and Hatchan to the top

floor.

   Gokuu evades White's bullets, and demands the return of the village

headmaster.  White would rather fight, and is sure that he'll win, but a

light kick to his shin drops him to his knees.  He pulls a "Huh, what's

that?" on the boy, who falls for the gag and gets punched.  White gets

punched back, and finds his gun with the powered bullets.  He hides the

gun in his pocket and surrenders.  After revealing the headmaster to be

in a cell on the top floor, White pulls the gun out and uses the old man

as a hostage.  The old man says "I'm old, forget about me, save the

village."  Gokuu asks the man if he really means it, and he has to

backtrack to prevent himself from being killed after all.  White tells

Gokuu to turn around, and then shoots him in the back of the head.

Hatchan tells White to stop doing this bad thing, and takes a bullet in

the leg while trying to protect his friend.  The bullet turns the

monster into a real monster.  White runs out of bullets, and is punched

into the next county.  Gokuu is ok, (Hatchan asks again if he's dead,)

and the three head off to Jingle Village.

   In the house, the family talks about the adventures, and the village's

debt to the 2 heros.  The mother wants to know if the Ball had been

found, and after a moment's hesitation, Hatchan pulls it from his

pocket.  He had found it while wandering around outside, and had refused

to hand it over to White, to protect the village.  This sends the

headmaster into a flurry, and he asks Hatchan to become a member of the

village.  This is hard for the monster to believe, but he does accept

the offer.  Then, they all get ready to go to sleep, and Gokuu marvels

over getting another Ball, although this one isn't the one with his

grandfather's spirit, either.  The girl wants Gokuu to stay too, but he

has to be off again.  But, as he tries to find the next Ball, he

discovers that the Dragon Radar had been damaged in the fighting.

Hatchan volunteers to look at the Radar, because he's good at these

things, but it's too complex for him.  And, since Gokuu can't stay, the

girl promises to give him lots of bento boxes (box lunches.)  They go to

sleep, and Hatchan is in bliss, since he's sleeping on a futon bed for

the first time.

   The next morning, as the village elders are trying to figure out how

Gokuu is going to make the travel on foot, they discover that he'd once

owned Kintoen.  Further, they already know about the racing cloud, and

that it can not be destroyed.  So, Gokuu to told to try calling his

friend, and sure enough, Kintoen does arrive once more (Gokuu is very

happy.)  So, he's off, with people cheering behind him.  Eventually, the

weather gets warmer, and he eats his way through the bentos.

   Some time later, Gokuu arrives in Buruma's hometown, and isn't very

happy about what he finds.  The place is big and noisy, and no one knows

where "this Buruma" lives.  He tries taking a taxi, but doesn't have an

address or this stuff called "money."  The money part is solved when he

finds a he-man boxer who offers 100,000 zenii (note, the symbol for a

zenii is a backwards '$') to anyone that can beat him.  This is just

like the Tenkaichi-budoukai, and Gokuu accepts the offer.  The kempou

master doesn't take the runt seriously, but finally gets angry enough to

fight back.  That's when Gokuu smashes the wall and gives the guy a

chance to surrender (he does.)  On the streets, 2 thieves try to rob the

boy (using a "hey kid, come over here," routine.)  They want to take his

money without helping him find Buruma first, so he trashes one of them.

That's when the other suggests that Gokuu try asking a policeman for

help.

   [Odd things about the town: Page 108, bottom panel, has a billboard

for the author's "Bird Studio." (Toriyama means "bird mountain.")  On

page 110, the one way sign has arrows pointing both directions.  p118,

panel 2, the sign is for "restraut" and there's a picture of a fish on

it.  Same page, panels 3 and 4 have a poster advertising the Dragon Ball

TV series on Fuji TV, on Wednesdays.]

   One woman that points out the nearest cop, gets paid a lot of money

in return (Gokuu still doesn't know what this money stuff is all about.)

The cop isn't too sure about being able to find one woman in such a

large town, and certainly not with the aid of Gokuu's drawing.  But, his

hand-held computer finds only 3 women named "Bulma," and the second one

listed turns out to be the girl who works at the famous Capsule Corp.

The cop takes Gokuu to Capsule Corp. HQ, but isn't all that sure that

Gokuu really knows Buruma.  Gokuu doesn't understand the concept of

intercoms, either, so the cop tries to talk to someone inside the

building, but just gets an answering machine.  Then Gokuu catches

Buruma's scent just before the girl arrives home from school.  The cop

can't believe that Gokuu's nose is that good, and sniffs Buruma, too.

Buruma is happy to meet Gokuu again, and the cop asks if it's ok to

leave the bike outside and he can follow them (he wants to have the bike

tuned up.)

   The Capsule interior is bigger than the exterior.  Buruma tells one

robot to take her to her father.  There, Buruma introduces Gokuu, whom

dad mistakes as the cop.  He then asks Gokuu if the boy and his daughter

have been doing any kissing.  (Gokuu wants to know what kissing is, and

Buruma tells him that it's not a matter for children to know.)  (The cop

has trouble believing that the old man runs Capsule Corp.)

   Back at Red Ribbon HQ, Red has a photo of the troublemaker that

trashed White Shogun.  The photo is to be passed on to all of the men,

and they speculate that Gokuu does indeed have a Dragon Radar.  Red

wants the Balls, the Radar, and Gokuu's dead body.

   Buruma fixes the Radar, and learns that Gokuu has 2 balls already.

She then figures that since tomorrow is a Saturday, that she can go with

Gokuu on an adventure.  But, since she can't ride Kintoen, Buruma shows

off her latest invention -- her "micro band," which can make the wearer

very small.  However, as she demonstrates it, her mother walks in and

steps on her.  (Mom wants to know why Buruma snuck in under her foot.

Mom is not very smart, and dad is hentei.)  Mom asks whether Gokuu would

like a glass of sake, and Buruma yells that you don't give sake to kids.

Gokuu wants to know where Yamcha is, and mom replies that Buruma and

Yamcha had an argument and aren't seeing each other right now.  Buruma

says that Gokuu is better than Yamcha, and mom thinks that her daughter

now has a new boyfriend (Buruma denies this.)

   As she leaves, Buruma gets her box of capsules from dad's workbench,

as dad is tuning up the cop's bike.  The next Ball is 8000 km SE.  Gokuu

calls Kintoen, Buruma gets small, and they ride off.  The cop hops on

his scooter, and promptly smashes into a car (the owner wants to know

why cops are so dangerous.)  Then, dad uses one of his capsules and

discovers that his daughter had grabbed his capsule box by mistake.

   Next morning, Gokuu awakes to find himself flying over the ocean.

Red Ribbon is tracking the two Balls, and Red is amazed at their speed.

He is told that the quarry is approaching Blue Shogun's camp, and Blue

is alerted to the fact.  However, Blue is distracted by a fart that one

of his men released, so he has the man shot.  He looks forward to

capturing the boy.

   Out over the ocean, the Radar indicates that the Ball is directly

below our heroes, so they head for the nearest island, where Buruma

plans on using a capsule to give them a submarine.  However, all she

gets are porno mags, which she destroys.  So, Gokuu goes swimming to try

to find the Ball.  However, the water is too deep, and he can't hold is

breath long enough.  He returns to the island, but discovers that Buruma

has wandered off.  Buruma had planned on finding civilization, and

buying a new box of capsules, but is discovered by some RR men.  When

the men shoot at her, they realize that she's female, and try to pick

her up.  The men want to do something "good" with her, so she suggests

that they try playing with a Famicom game machine.  That's when they

start shooting at her again.  Gokuu hears her screams, and comes to ask

if she's having fun.  She tells him that the bad guys are shooting at

her, so he trashes them.  Buruma is stunned, having been shot at by

perverts.  Then Gokuu states that to get help, they should go to

Kamesennin's house.  Buruma thinks that Kamesennin is an even bigger

pervert.

   At the island, everyone says "hi" to each other, and Buruma gets big

again.  She states that they need a submarine capsule, fearing what the

old man will want in return.  She's relieved, but surprised, when he

says that he just wants the micro band.  Turns out, though, that Kuririn

and Ranchi have taken the sub out for the day.  Red Ribbon notices that

the Balls have stopped moving, and Red orders an attack force to be sent

out.  The black aide seems to remember that there's something disturbing

about that particular island.

   While waiting for Kuririn to get back, Buruma goes to the toilet, and

the old man rushes inside to get small and watch her take her panties

off.  But, he gets there too late, slips and falls into the toilet, and

eventually surfaces from the sewer outside.  He takes a swim to wash

himself off, and Gokuu wants to know why he's sopping went since he'd said

he was just going to take a break to watch TV.  He's saved from

explaining when Kuririn and Ranchi return.  Kuririn misremembers

Buruma's name as "Pants-san" (close match to "bloomers",) and she yells

at him.  Kamesennin wants to know why they took so long, and Kuririn

states that Ranchi had changed and terrorized the town for a while,

first.

   Blue Shogun gets a report from one of his men, and Gokuu says that he

needs the sub to find a Dragon Ball.  So, Gokuu, Kuririn, and Buruma

take off and dive into the sea.  Blue Shogun witnesses this, and splits

up his forces -- part to follow the sub, and part to invade the island

to get the 2 Balls.  Kamesennin wants to know if Ranchi needs to use the

toilet right now.

   At first, Buruma thinks that the Ball is just lying on the sea bed,

but Gokuu can't find it.  But, there is a crack in the ocean floor, and

by using the Dragon Radar in a new way, she realizes that there's a

massive underwater cave system below them.  Gokuu is amazed with his

scuba gear -- you can breathe underwater, AND talk, but he returns to

the sub and they look for the cave entrance.  Meanwhile, above them,

Blue is mobilizing his forces.  His sub locates Gokuu's, and he launches

a torpedo attack that misses its target.  Kuririn and Buruma are

surpised to find that they have enemies, and Gokuu replies that it's

just Red Ribbon.  The other two are shocked that Gokuu hasn't recognized

the biggest crime force in the world and are angry that he's gotten them

involved.  Gokuu says that RR wants the Balls too, which changes the

problem slightly.  They escape into the cave, and Blue follows them.

   Kuririn slips into a smaller tunnel, forcing Blue to go out in his

own little subs.

   And, back on the island, the invading force arrives to hold

Kamesennin at gunpoint.  [End of volume 6.]





                                                -- Curtis H. Hoffmann

                                                   May 30, 1993