The waiting is over! Goku vs. Tien Shinhan for the Tenkaichi Budokai Championship!
This guy with one eye thinks Tien has it in the bag. I guess if this guy is just an ordinary spectator, it would explain why no one finds Tien’s three eyes to be particularly unusual.
Leading up to the fight, we find the Turtle School in their hotel room. I think someone at Toei didn’t get the updated model sheets for Goku and Krillin. they look so teeny tiny here.
Launch and Bulma laundered Goku’s uniform because they’re girls, I guess. Launch says they used a couple of hair dryers, so I guess this hotel doesn’t have a laundry area? And there wasn’t a laundromat? Well, I’m only including this screencap because it’s cute. Krillin told them they were really nice, and they took it like they’ve never gotten a compliment before.
Oolong is using his shape shifting powers to save the gang their spot in the crowd. I don’t see how that can work when he can only hold his disguise for five minutes at a time. Anyway, Puar shows up disguised as an even bigger monster, so why didn’t they just do that in the first place?
Then Yamcha shows up. Okay, so it’s been three days since Tien broke his leg, so it’s not so ridiculous that he’d be up and around on crutches. In the manga, this whole tournament was over in a matter of hours, and he still showed up at the end on crutches. It’s certainly no weirder than the scene from a few episodes back where he was walking on his bad leg, and Bulma even stepped on his foot. But who knows how wacky Dragon Ball medicine works.
Tien tries to meditate before the big fight, but he can’t get Jackie Chun’s words out of his mind.
And now Blonde Launch is back. I just like this particular transformation, because she looks so happy to be able to start a ruckus again.
I don’t know why Bulma’s so exasperated with it, though. She’s been putting up with Launch for a while, so she ought to be used to it by now.
Master Roshi kills time watching aerobics shows on the hotel TV. Huh-huh, butt exercises. I thought the girl on the right was exceptionally cute for some reason, but now that I’ve screencapped them, I’m not sure why.
Launch wants to hurry up and see this fight. What’s taking so long? Well, we have to get the filler scenes out of the way first, Launch. Fun fact: You didn’t even see this match in the comics.
And there they are. Kind of a sour couple, aren’t they?
Roshi decides to check this out from the contestants’ area, figuring that no one will mind at this late stage. So how come Chaiotzu, Panput, and Manwolf don’t stick around to see how the fight turns out? Well, Panput’s probably unconscious, and Manwolf is too busy looking for girls, but still.
Goku manages to get the drop on Tien early, knocking him into the air, but as he leaps after him, Tien hits him with a Dodon Ray and sends him back down so hard that he makes a hole in the ring. But Goku’s taken Dodon Rays before, and he eats ‘em for breakfast, so he’s still in the game.
Then Tien gets Goku up against the wall and starts hitting him with rapid-fire strikes, which Roshi compares to a machine gun. I think this is what the “Machine Gun Fist” move from the Budokai games was supposed to be referencing.
So we’re only one episode into this fight, and it looks like Tien has it won. I guess that one-eyed fan was right... OR WAS HE????????????????