Piccolo Jr. Saga

The Piccolo Jr. Saga is the final saga of the original Dragon Ball anime. The manga volumes that it is made up of are the second part of "Heaven And Earth", "The Titanic Tournament", and "Goku vs. Piccolo".

This saga covers Goku's training with Kami, and the World Martial Arts Tournament against Piccolo Jr., the reincarnation of King Piccolo.

The Piccolo Jr. Saga follows the King Piccolo Saga and precedes the Vegeta Saga. This saga aired in Japan in 1988 and 1989.

Plot
After Chiaotzu fixes the numbers so that Goku, his friends, and Jr. would not meet each other until the finals, the first elimination rounds start. The first match is a rematch between Goku and King Chappa (whom Goku defeated in the last tournament), which Goku ends with a mild tap to knock out his opponent. Yamcha, Krillin and Tien Shinhan also easily breeze through their fights, but Chiaotzu (possibly No. 45 in the first half of Block 3, which was meant to be on the second half of Block 3) is brutally beaten by a now cyborg Mercenary Tao, who seeks revenge on Goku for nearly killing him and Tien for betraying his school. Additionally the young woman makes it to the finals as well as Hero, a nerdish looking man who, seemingly by accident, defeats a disguised Yajirobe (from No. 64 in the second half of Block 4).

This leaves the eight finalists as:


 * Goku (from No. 2 in Block 1, first half)
 * Hero (Kami) (from No. 70 in Block 4, second half)
 * Junior (Piccolo Jr.) (from No. 51 in Block 3, second half)
 * Krillin (from No. 16 in Block 1, second half)
 * Yamcha (from No. 22 in Block 2, first half)
 * Tien (from No. 35 in Block 2, second half)
 * Mercenary Tao (from No. 44 in Block 3, first half)
 * Anonymous (the mysterious young woman, "Chi-Chi") (from No. 54 in Block 4, first half)

Mercenary Tao vs. Tien
Mercenary Tao starts the fight confident that he will quickly defeat Tien, but instead finds himself far outclassed. In an act of desperation, he breaks the tournament rules by removing one of his robotic hands and revealing a knife; before Tien can react, Mercenary Tao quickly slices him on his chest. The World Tournament Announcer immediately announces that Tao is disqualified, but Tao does not care. Dropping his other hand, Mercenary Tao reveals a cannon, which he then uses to fire a Super Dodon Ray at Tien; Tien nullifies the attack with a Kiai and then quickly counters, dropping Mercenary Tao with a single hit.

Goku vs. Anonymous
Anonymous attacks Goku vigorously, asking Goku if he remembers who she is. When he says that he still does not, she tells him that he promised to take her as his wife, prompting Goku to ask Krillin for clarification on exactly what a wife is. In the original Japanese dub, Krillin says Goku promised to marry her, Yamcha follows this statement by saying they will become husband and wife, and they have to live together while Krillin is whining how lucky Goku is to marry a very cute girl like her (in the English dub, Krillin tells Goku that a bride means his life is over, while Yamcha tells him that they have to get married). Anonymous then says that if Goku can beat her, she will tell him her name. Goku is satisfied with this agreement and calmly creates an invisible shockwave that knocks the woman clear out of the ring.

Junior vs. Krillin
On seeing Krillin's endurance and techniques, Junior decides to fight somewhat seriously; he quickly grabs Krillin from across the arena by stretching his arm and delivers a fierce punch once he has reeled Krillin in. Krillin recovers from the hit and charges right back at Junior, but is kicked into the air, with Junior in close pursuit. In an act of desperation Krillin attempts to use the Kamehameha at point blank range, but Junior dodges it with the After Image Technique and ends up behind him; Junior uses the opportunity to deliver a powerful overhead smash to Krillin, sending him crashing to the arena floor.

Krillin manages to stagger to his feet, but is heavily injured and forfeits the match.

Hero vs. Yamcha
Yamcha enters the ring extremely confident due to Hero's unassuming appearance. He allows Hero to attack first and easily dodges the clumsy chop, but is kicked in the side, seemingly by accident, when Hero trips. Thinking that it was simply a lucky shot, Yamcha dismisses the attack and prepares one of his own. He launches himself at Hero with a kick but Hero ducks it, inadvertently causing Yamcha to smash his groin on Hero's head.

Blustered by Hero's extreme "luck", Yamcha states that he will fight seriously. Hero states that he will do so as well and launches a very fast attack, striking Yamcha with his elbow and knocking him down. Yamcha gets up and charges at Hero, but his attack is easily stopped and he is sent back to the ground with a quick kick to the leg. Yamcha attacks twice more, but both times is quickly countered and knocked down. The entire time they are fighting, Hero gives pointers to Yamcha, telling him what mistakes he is making, he then confesses to Yamcha that he is not actually human, and is only borrowing the body that he is in.

Unable to connect with any physical attacks, Yamcha uses his last resort attack: the Spirit Ball, a guided ki ball. Hero dodges the balls first pass, and then the second which causes the ball to crash under the ring floor; Yamcha then commands the ball to come back up directly under Hero and makes a direct hit. Hero quickly retaliates though, and smashes into Yamcha with his elbow, knocking him out of the ring.

At this point, Goku puts two and two together and realizes that Hero is actually Kami in disguise.

Goku vs. Tien
Goku and Tien both start the fight off right away, charging into each other with a flurry of blows. After a few scuffles, and a doubly reflected ki bolt, Tien is left a bit out of breath while Goku remains in top form.

Tien then demonstrates his true speed and seems to dominate the fight after that though, landing several blows and evading all of Goku's attacks. Goku asks Tien if he can remove some of his clothing and Tien is shocked to discover that they are heavily weighted; all together, the weight of Goku's boots, wristbands, and undershirt equal a weight of one hundred kilograms (or approximately 220 lbs). With the burden removed Goku's speed is now considerably greater than Tien's, and he is able to take Tien's belt without Tien noticing, leading to a humorous scene where Tien's pants fall down, humiliating him in front of the crowd.

Goku gets back up and announces to Tien that there are two flaws with the technique and that he will soon win. Tien disbelieves him and attempts to do the same attack pattern as before; he is interrupted though when Goku uses the Solar Flare technique after leaping in the air, blinding all of the Tiens' eyes. As he is recovering Goku explains that Tien's eyes are too good, and that since he relies on them so much, he is almost helpless when blinded. Goku then proceeds to quickly dispatch each Tien with one hit, demonstrating the second weakness; splitting into four bodies reduced each of them to 1/4 of the original Tien's strength and speed.

Hero vs. Junior
Hero starts the fight off quickly, catching Piccolo Jr. off-guard by demonstrating his powerful techniques right away. Piccolo Jr., shocked that such a weak looking human could present him such a challenge. Piccolo Jr. is able to then read Hero's thoughts and learn that his body is simply borrowed, when he questions Hero about this Hero responds in Namekian, causing Piccolo Jr. to piece together that it is actually Kami in disguise.

Knowing that Kami can not do him any significant harm, as Piccolo Jr.'s death would be Kami's as well, Piccolo Jr. is briefly amused by the concept but soon becomes terrified at the thought that Kami might be willing to commit suicide. Kami assures Piccolo Jr. that he has no intent on dying and instead shows Piccolo Jr. his ace-up-the-sleeve and, after placing a small jar on the ground, uses the Evil Containment Wave technique in an attempt to contain the demon. Piccolo Jr. had prepared for this though, and reversed the Evil Containment Wave against Kami, who abandoned his borrowed body to prevent the human from being trapped with him. With Kami trapped in the bottle, Kami is, of course, no longer capable of fighting and Piccolo Jr. is declared the winner of the fight. Before being trapped, Kami pleads for Goku to stop Piccolo Jr. by any means necessary.

Final round: Goku vs. Junior
Piccolo Jr. next attempts his Chasing Bullet technique, a blast which follows his opponent; Goku once again turns the tables on him and manages to get the beam to hit Piccolo Jr. instead by dashing right behind him. The blast seriously damages one of Piccolo Jr.'s arms and he is forced to rip it off and grow a new one. In a fit of rage Piccolo Jr. next uses an attack which generates a massive explosion emanating from him. Though Piccolo Jr. puts a great deal of his energy into the attack, it has little effect on Goku. Goku uses Piccolo Jr.'s now exhausted state to land a series of attacks on him, finishing with a Kamehameha.

Thinking Piccolo Jr. defeated, Goku lets down his guard down while the announcer begins the countdown. As the counter approaches 10, signifying a defeat, Piccolo Jr. suddenly springs up catches Goku by surprise with a beam from his mouth, blasting a hole through Goku's shoulder. Thus weakened, Piccolo Jr. is able to systematically cripple Goku, costing him the use of all of his limbs, including his right arm, a.k.a. the one that the original Piccolo made the critical mistake of leaving Goku. To finish him off, Piccolo Jr. leaps in the air and fires a powerful ki attack at him, leaving no trace of Goku.

Piccolo Jr., though heavily battered by the battle, turns to Goku's terrified friends, gloating. His victory is short-lived though, as, unknown to all, Goku had mastered the art of flight and dodged the attack. Goku then smashed his inert body into Piccolo Jr., knocking him out of the ring and causing him to lose the tournament.

Kami, seeing Goku's strength and pity, judges him worthy and offers Goku to take his place as Guardian of the Earth. Goku protests this though, stating that such a position was not the adventure he was looking for. At this point Chiaotzu arrives on the scene after leaving the hospital. With one final rejection of Kami's offer, Goku summons his flying cloud Flying Nimbus, grabs Chi-Chi, and flies off, shouting "Sorry Kami, it just does not get any better than this!"

Major characters

 * Goku
 * Piccolo
 * Kami
 * Chi-Chi
 * Tien Shinhan
 * Yamcha
 * Krillin
 * Mr. Popo


 * Mercenary Tao

Supporting characters

 * Bulma
 * Master Roshi
 * Yajirobe
 * Korin
 * World Tournament Announcer
 * Master Shen
 * Hero
 * Fortuneteller Baba
 * Oolong
 * Launch
 * Sea Turtle
 * Chiaotzu
 * Puar
 * Shenron
 * Ox-King
 * Grandpa Gohan
 * Annin