by I’m sure many people were impressed that Goku could use his head to fight! Three years later, Son Goku (voiced by Masako Nozawa) embarks on a journey to train for the Tenkaichi Budo, and on the way, he ends up defeating a duo who are tormenting a village. In this original anime episode, reminiscent of Journey to the West, which became the motif for Dragon Ball, Goku shows off a slightly unusual fighting style.
While Goku was running along a mountain path, he encountered a girl who was being attacked. When Goku rescues her, the girl is amazed by his strength. He takes Goku’s hand half-forcefully and asks him to visit her village.
The girl’s village is tormented by two brothers named Kinkaku (voiced by Yasuo Tanaka) and Ginkaku (voiced by Takeshi Aono). These outlaws, who remind her somewhat of the minor characters in “Fist of the North Star,” come to the village once a month and steal all the vegetables and fruits.
Thinking they were a good opponent for someone still in training, Goku readily agreed to defeat the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers and rushed to the village. The brothers’ weapons were “gourds,” which also appeared in Journey to the West. If they did not respond immediately when their names were called, they would be sucked into the gourd and turn into alcohol.
Although Goku overpowered the two in strength, he was sucked in by the Golden Horn, who was holding the gourd, when his name was called. Goku somehow managed to extend his Nyoibou stick inside the gourd and get out of the pinch, and once again managed to escape the moment the gourd’s lid opened.
Goku took the gourd from them and called out their names in return. He called out Kinkaku and Ginkaku’s names alternately in a “flag-raising game ” style and succeeded in sucking them into the gourd. After that, the two were released from the gourd on the condition that they would not cause any more trouble, and the matter was resolved by giving back by working in the fields for the amount of money they had stolen from the village.
When we think of Goku, we imagine him solving incidents and problems by winning decisive battles. Still, this original anime episode surprisingly showed that he can also engage in peaceful battles using tongue twisters and his brain.
The TV anime series Dragon Ball, which aired from 1986 to 1989, was based on the manga of the same name by Akira Toriyama, which was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump (Shueisha) for about 11 years from 1984 to 1995 and sold a total of over 260 million copies worldwide. Since then, it has been included in several anime series, including Z, GT, Kai, and Super. It has also had over 20 theatrical releases, making it a huge hit that has also been adapted into numerous game series.
In 2024, the year marking the 40th anniversary, a completely new anime series, “Dragon Ball D AI MA,” with original story, story, and character design by the late Akira Toriyama, will begin airing on October 11th.
