Dragon Ball Season 3 features the last episodes of the Red Ribbon Army saga, the complete Baba Saga, and the beginning of the twenty second world tournament also known as the Tienshinhan Saga.
For starters we finally get to see Goku complete his training atop Korin's tower and get his rematch with Tao. The second round between the two is the best fight to date, but it will be outdone even by the end of this set. Things finally start to get better from here.
After apparently killing Tao and getting his revenge for Bora's death, Goku decides to take the battle right to the Red Ribbon army. Roshi, Krillin, and Yamcha try to join in, but the battle is over by the time they arrive. Goku single-handedly takes out every single member of the army with no help at all. He doesn't even have any trouble until he runs into Assistant Black, but even then Black is no real challenge for Goku. Even with the aid of a rather robust looking mecha suit, Black is simply no match for Goku. Finally the monolithic ship that was the Red Ribbon Army saga has sunk and we can put it behind us.
But with the death of Bora Goku finds renewed vigor for hunting for the dragon balls. Aided by his friends and the young Upa, the team sets out to find all seven balls so they can restore the life of Upa's father Bora. However the dragon radar has broken. With no alternative, the team visits Roshi's sister, the fortune teller Baba. However the old witch isn't willing to help the kids unless they prove themselves by completing her tournament. Baba's fighters are largely unimpressive. First there's a vampire, who actually manage to defeat Krillin but is then beaten by the tag team of Puar and Upa (yeah, picture that one!). The second opponent is an invisible fighter who, once made visible, is incredibly easy for Yamcha to defeat. In the third battle Yamcha loses to a Mummy as they fight in a giant toilet bowl (yup) and Goku jumps in and defeats the monster with a single blow. A devil man appears for the next battle and uses a special attack that turns a person's evil thoughts into lethal energy, but Goku has no evil thoughts so the beam does no harm to him, and Goku wins again.
Yeah, sounds like a yawn fest so far, right? Well things finally pick up in the main event when a masked fighter trounces Goku and reveals himself to be none other than Grandpa Gohan, come back to life for a day so he can test Goku's abilities. After a touching scene where Goku is reunited with his Grandpa, Baba finally decides to help the group. She uses her crystal ball to find the last dragon ball. Goku proceeds to capture it but once again comes to face Emperor Pilaf. As usual Pilaf and his minions prove to be a complete waste of time as Goku plows right through them. With the final ball in hand Goku makes his whish and Bora's life is restored. When the dragon balls spiral into the air to scatter to the winds, Goku manages to jump up after them and catch his Grandpa's Dragon Ball so that he doesn't have to go hunting for it again.
A few unremarkable filler episodes take place while Goku travels the world to train for the upcoming tournament. Along the way he runs into Tien and Chiaotzu, two villainous martial artists using their pet Inoshikocho to scam local villagers. A brief scuffle reveals Tien to be quite powerful, but is inconclusive. Eventually the twenty second world martial arts tournament begins, and things really heat up.
This tournament focuses on the rivalry between Roshi's Turtle school and Shen's Krane school. Roshi's students consist of Yamcha, Krillin, and Goku while Shen sends in Tien and Chiaotzu. The saga is not complete in this set, but the first round is there and features some excellent fights. The preliminaries feature some points of interest as well as Nam returns from the first tournament but is nearly killed by Tien. Goku goes on to defeat King Chappa, a martial artist who won the tournament before the year Goku competed without being struck once. However the former champ is no match for Goku.
The first round starts off with a kick as Yamcha has a terrific fight with Tien. The two fighters have been building up their rivalry since they met before the preliminaries and this battle is the ultimate culmination of that feud. Tien and Yamcha pull out some fantastic moves, while Yamcha performs his first Kamehameha wave, Tien easily turns it away. Roshi, as Jackie Chun, has a rather dull fight with a werewolf type character who's upset that Jackie destroyed the moon. The fight between Chiaotzu and Krillin is remarkable for being the only time that we get to actually see Chiaotzu fight, as well as being the moment that the viewers find out Mercenary Tao was actually Shen's brother and Tien's teacher. This makes the rivalry between the schools far more personal, and Tien is intent to kill Goku for revenge. The final episode is Goku's fight against a character named Pamput who's a martial arts actor. Needless to say that the fight is the least impressive throughout the entire tournament, including the preliminaries. What's worse is that the fight is dragged out with this needlessly long pre-fight event where Pamput's manager tries to distract Goku long enough for Pamput to get the win by default, which is botched by Launch.
But the battles will only get better from here. This season shows when the series really starts to catch it's stride and begins to evolve into the series it would eventually become. I highly recommend this box set. Despite the way the story starts to drag after the defeat of Mercenary Tao and until the start of the tournament, it's still an excellent buy. Well worth it for those fights alone. But more importantly, make sure you get the next one. It's even better!
Get more detail about Dragon Ball: Season Three.
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