Tien Shinhan Saga

The Tien Shinhan Saga is the seventh saga from Dragon Ball. The manga volumes that it is made up of are the second half of "Return To The Tournament" and "The Eyes of Tenshinhan". The plot of this saga revolves around the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, a tournament between the best fighters in the world. This is noteworthy for being the final saga of the original Dragon Ball to largely feature comedic, slapstick elements, something that would not return in major form until late in Dragon Ball Z, in the Great Saiyaman Saga and Majin Buu Saga.

Yamcha vs. Tien
The match starts of quickly with Yamcha quickly lunging at Tien; they spar for a bit with Tien landing the first blow and Yamcha retaliating with one of his own. Yamcha then uses his New Wolf Hurricane Attack and launches a flurry of strikes against Tien; Tien resists though, matching every blow and then counters the attack with a strong punch to Yamcha's stomach, knocking him down.Yamcha decides to go all out in the battle and uses the Kamehameha, surprising both Krillin and Roshi. Tien sees the move coming and prepares a defense against it, reflecting the attack back at Yamcha when it gets close to him. Bewildered, Yamcha leaps in the air to avoid his own attack and, in his distraction, does not notice Tien get right behind him. Tien hits Yamcha with a strong kick and sends him crashing back to arena floor, knocking him out. Not quite satisfied with just winning the match, Tien does a knee dive as he falls to the ground, breaking Yamcha's leg.

Man-Wolf vs. Jackie Chun
When Man-Wolf enters the ring he states his desire for revenge on Jackie Chun is because Jackie Chun destroyed the moon during the last World Martial Arts Tournament; without the moon, Man-Wolf can not turn back into a human and therefore can not get any dates.

Man-Wolf furiously attacks Jackie Chun, but Jackie Chun is easily able to evade him and counter-attack; so different is their level of skill that Jackie Chun does not even pay much attention to Man-Wolf, preferring instead to ogle the women in the audience. After Man-Wolf is kicked to the side of the arena, he then pulls out a knife and lunges at Jackie Chun, but Jackie Chun easily catches the knife and again throws Man-Wolf across the arena.

Feeling pity for his opponent, Jackie Chun decides to turn him back into a human. Before he does though, he has some fun by giving Man-Wolf a series of orders, such as "beg", that one would give to a dog. Man-Wolf instinctively obeys at first, but quickly snaps out of it, even more infuriated. Jackie Chun then ends the match by tossing a bone outside the arena, which Man-Wolf promptly fetches and disqualifies himself. Though the match is officially over, Man-Wolf gets back in the ring and charges at Jackie Chun, but is stopped when Jackie Chun uses a paralyzing attack to halt him in his tracks.

Krillin vs. Chiaotzu
When the match begins, Chiaotzu surprises Krillin with his unnatural movements, moving across the ring without moving his actual body. Chiaotzu gets the first kick in, launching Krillin into the air; when he moves in for a follow-up strike, Krillin dodges with a flip and, on landing launches his own attack, which Chiaotzu is able to avoid due to his ability to control himself while in the air.

Krillin then lunges at Chiaotzu and, at the last second, uses the After Image Technique to seemingly vanish, startling Chiaotzu. Tien then warns Chiaotzu that Krillin is on his left, but Chiaotzu is unable to determine which way is left until it is too late and Krillin scores a powerful hit on him. They then spar for a bit until Chiaotzu takes to the air. Krillin does not jump after him as, since he cannot fly, he risks being knocked out of the ring.While safe in the air, Chiaotzu then starts firing off multiple Dodon Rays at Krillin, which he avoids. Goku recognizes the technique as that of Mercenary Tao, and surprises Tien when he states it; when Tien asks Goku how he knows that name, Goku tells him that he killed Tao earlier. Tien leaves in a rage to inform his master; and Jackie Chun, also surprised that Goku was able to kill Mercenary Tao, informs Goku that Tao was the Crane Hermit's younger brother.

Back in the ring, Krillin is still evading Chiaotzu's assault; he realizes that the only chance he has is to retaliate and attempts to use the Kamehameha. On his first attempt, Krillin only manages to create a small energy burst that travels less than a foot; he's still excited as he now believes that he can pull it off. In the stadium, the Crane Hermit is enraged that his brother is dead, believing that the only way Goku could have killed him was with some sort of trickery; he then orders Chiaotzu to kill Krillin in retribution.

Chiaotzu prepares a full strength Dodon Wave while Krillin prepares a Kamehameha. Jackie Chun shouts from where he watching the match that the Kamehameha cannot stand up to the Dodon Ray. Chiaotzu lets loose his blast and Krillin, instead of trying to counter it, leaps in the air to avoid it and then fires, hitting Chiaotzu at point-blank range. Being that it was the first true Kamehameha that Krillin has used though, it was not very potent and Chiaotzu managed to recover before falling out of the ring.

Krillin launches a new attack against Chiaotzu and strikes him with a fierce kick. As he moves for a second attack, Krillin finds himself paralyzed and intense pain from Chiaotzu's Telekinesis technique; while Krillin is paralyzed, Chiaotzu starts to kick him around. Watching Chiaotzu, Krillin realizes that he needs his hands to keep up the attack and asks him a simple math question ("What's 3 + 4?"). Chiaotzu, needing his fingers to count, breaks off the attack, allowing Krillin the opportunity to strike him. Chiaotzu quickly resumes the technique and asks Krillin a math question of his own, which, to Chiaotzu's surprise, Krillin answers correctly. Krillin then asks him another simple math question and again Chiaotzu has to break off the attack; Krillin once again lands a powerful hit, this time knocking Chiaotzu out and sending him out of bounds.

Goku vs. Pamput
The last round of the quarter-finals is Goku against Pamput, an arrogant kickboxer who already has two other major fighting tournament victories under his belt. Before the match begins, Pamput attempts to intimidate Goku by throwing a punch which intentionally misses by a very small amount. When Goku is unimpressed, Pamput then gives a demonstration of his fighting prowess, throwing many rapid punches and kicks then destroying part of the arena wall with an elbow strike. He then boasts that all he needs to defeat Goku is three seconds. When the match begins Pamput rushes directly at Goku, but his attack is parried and Goku gives him a quick elbow to the chest, defeating him with seemingly one hit. Tien notes that it was not one single blow, but three in rapid succession and is impressed with Goku's speed.

Jackie Chun vs. Tien
Tien and Chun start off the fight with a series of strikes and throws with neither opponent getting a solid hit on the other. Jackie Chun then attempts the After Image Technique, creating eight images of himself around Tien, but the triclops sees right through it and lands a strong kick on Jackie, sending him crashing into one of the walls.

Jackie Chun determines that he can not fool around with Tien and takes off his jacket, prepared to go all out. Tien then lunges at him, but Jackie Chun catches Tien's hands and knees him in the gut before punting Tien away. Tien charges again, this time striking Jackie Chun with his knee and punching him to the ground. Jackie Chun gets up and strikes him back. Both fighters at this point take a small breather, reassessing each other; Tien realizing that Jackie Chun is even stronger than the Master Shen himself.

Tien decides to surprise the Turtle Hermit and launches a Kamehameha at him, having learned the attack by observing Yamcha perform it. Master Roshi deflects the attack in order to save the crowd behind him and, with one final urge not to follow the path of evil, Master Roshi jumps out of the ring, ending the match with Tien as victor.

Goku vs. Krillin
Early in the fight Goku leaps in the air and Krillin follows him; in an imitation of Tien, Krillin uses the sunlight reflecting off of his bald head to temporarily blind Goku and lands a kick on him, sending Goku back to the arena floor. Goku recovers and lunges at the still airborne Krillin, but Krillin evades the attack by filling his body up with air like a balloon, causing Goku to strike only the air beneath him. Goku decides to show Krillin a trick of his own and charges at him while preparing a Kamehameha; he leaps at the last second, turns his back to Krillin and fires the blast, propelling him directly into Krillin, striking him with a strong punch followed by a powerful knee dive to Krillin's stomach. Krillin recovers from the attack and charges at Goku, but Goku evades it and strikes him in the back of the head.

Knowing that he can not beat Goku in a straight-up fight, Krillin fires a Kamehameha at him. Goku easily blocks the attack, but it was intentionally a distraction and Krillin used it to get behind Goku and grab his tail. Goku goes down until the referee reaches the nine count when he springs back up and tosses Krillin to the ground; over the course of his training, Goku's tail is no longer a weak spot. Krillin then pretends to see something and strikes Goku when he looks in the same direction, Goku decides that if all is fair to use a trick of his own and seemingly vanishes. From where he is watching the fight, Tien can see that Goku is actually moving extremely fast to appear invisible. Goku reappears directly in front of Krillin and knocks him out of the ring with what looks like a single hit, though Tien can see it was actually eight and a kick.

Final match: Goku vs. Tien
ien then attempts one of his "aces-up-sleeve" techniques, and uses his Four Witches Technique ability to grow an extra set of arms. Goku counters by using a pseudo-eight arms technique he learned from his battle with King Chappa, which Tien is hard pressed to defend against.

Tien soon loses the additional arms and decides to use his final attack, the Tri-Beam. He warns Goku to dodge the blast, forcing him out of the arena, as there is no way to survive being hit by it. Tien then floats high in the air and uses the attack, destroying the entire arena. Goku did dodge the blast though, leaping incredibly high in the air. Tien is convinced he will win at this point, as he can levitate and Goku can not. Goku readies one final Kamehameha and, at the last moment, turns around, using the attack to send him rocketing into Tien. Both fighters fall to the ground, Goku slightly ahead. He tries to use another, smaller Kamehameha wave to slow himself down, but is hit by a truck and lands first. Tien lands an instant later, thus winning the tournament.

The group goes to celebrate the Turtle House's stellar tournament performance at a restaurant, but uncharacteristically, Goku has little appetite. Krillin has been gone too long. Hit with a vision of dread concerning his friend, Goku races from the restaurant, leaving behind his shocked teammates and friends. When he reaches the tournament grounds, Krillin is already dead, his monstrous killer has already left, and both the Dragon Ball and the World Tournament Announcer's list of competitors have been stolen by the creature.

Major characters

 * Goku
 * Tien Shinhan
 * Chiaotzu
 * Jackie Chun
 * Yamcha
 * Krillin


 * Master Shen

Supporting characters

 * Bulma
 * Oolong
 * Launch
 * Puar
 * Sea Turtle
 * King Chappa
 * Man-Wolf
 * Pamput
 * Nam
 * World Tournament Announcer