#panput

Panput!   It’s the Panput episode everybody!   Holy shit, this is awesome!   I’ve been looking forward to... nah, I can’t go through with it, Panput kinda sucks.

The deal here is that Panput is a successful martial artist, and he’s managed to parlay this into a career as a movie star.   He sort of looks like mid-1980′s Michael Jackson, but he doesn’t really sound like MJ, so I don’t know if there’s supposed to be a connection there. 

It’s kind of a weird thing when a story introduces a celebrity character, one who’s more famous in the fictional world than the main characters are.   Like, Bulma’s the only one in the Dragon Team who knows who this guy is, and she talks about him like he’s this super-amazing guy, but he’s not.   Goku’s like the coolest dude in Dragon Ball, and if he didn’t exist, Yamcha or Krillin would be.    Bulma’s way cooler than Panput because she invents cool stuff and goes on real adventures instead of being in movies about them.    But we’re supposed to buy into the idea that Panput is awesome, even though we’ve never seen him before.

The main plot here is that Panput has no idea what he’s getting himself into with this tournament.   He’s convinced himself that he can easily win, and he’s no slouch, to be sure.   He wouldn’t have survived the preliminaries if he wasn’t an excellent fighter.    But his manager has looked into this “Goku” guy he’s supposed to be fighting, and he’s learned enough to know that Panput hasn’t got a chance.  

I’m not really sure how his manager was able to research Goku.   He’s heard rumors of Goku destroying the Red Ribbon Army, which makes sense given all the ex-Red Ribbon soldiers who probably told stories of how their army fell.   Goku’s success in the last tournament would be a matter of public record, but that’s about it.   Maybe that’s enough.   I wondered how the manager even knew to scout Goku at all, since the brackets were only set up a couple of days ago, but he probably made a point of researching all the participants of the last tourney in case any of them came back.

I don’t know if Panput is just arrogant or what, but the manager believes that if he loses the tournament, his star power will decline, and that’ll cut into his own paycheck.   Since he can’t convince Panput of that, he tries to take matters into his own hands.

Meanwhile, Launch is buying ice cream.   Or frozen yogurt.   Maybe one of those sherbert things?   What is sherbert exactly?  Anyway, this is the highlight of this episode.

Ha ha!   Look at this guy’s hat!  He looks like ice cream!   Or frozen yogurt.   Launch demands as much soft serve as he can pile onto those cones.

And she gets it, but then she sees Goku riding away in a stranger’s car.

So the manager’s bright idea to save Panput’s career is to tell Goku that the tournament moved to a new venue for... some reason, and no one told Goku even though his fight is only a few minutes away.  Goku’s pretty friggin’ gullible, but I don’t think the manager knew that, so this was a pretty desperate plan.   Yeah, if he can keep Goku away from the ring long enough, Panput will win by forfeit, but then he’d just have to face Krillin in the next round, and the winner of Jackie Chun/Tien in the next.   Was he going to try to trick those guys the same way?

Luckily, Launch is just really determined to give Goku an ice cream cone, so she steals a motorcycle and chases after him.  

I fell behind on the manga, but I’m pretty sure this whole thing is filler, because in the comics the tournament was a single-day affair, while Toei stretched this one out across the better part of a week.   The thing I’ve noticed about Launch is that she gets most of her character development in the filler.   In particular, I’m thinking of the episode where she went Blonde and started asking Roshi what she was doing in his house, and he managed to convince her they were friends.

When the gang was going to head out for the 22nd Budokai, she planned to stay behind as Blue Launch, then she sneezed and insisted on going along.   That was filler too.   Then she had dinner and played cards with the others.  

Now, she’s joined the others at the tournament, and mostly she makes a ruckus, but in this episode, she’s trying to do something nice “for once”.   Why buy ice cream for Goku specifically?    I guess because Goku’s the one with a match today?  Maybe because she’s missed the little guy while he’s been away for the past three years?

Whatever her reasons, she’s determined to give Goku his cone.   I don’t think she’s pieced together what’s going on here yet.    She manages to get the car to stop and she whups all of the goons, and only then does she find out why Goku went with them.

She tells him to hurry back to the ring, and prepares to deal with Panput’s manager... with her fists.  

Or not.

Back at the tournament, Panput does a whole dramatic entrance, leaping down from the hut thing behind the tournament ring.  

Bulma’s in love.   If looks could kill, Puar would be arrested for murder.   But not convicted, because no jury in the world...

Goku is late enough that the announcer starts to worry about the future of this match.   Here, Panput makes note that this sort of thing happens to him “all the time.”   This makes me wonder if his manager has been fixing fights for him all along.  Panput’s supposed to have won two other world martial arts tournaments, and his goal here is to win this one to achieve a triple crown.   Tien remarks that this is the only tournament that matters, since it’s way beyond those other two, which would explain why Panput is so outclassed here.   But maybe it’s more than that.   Maybe Panput’s been pitted against other super-strong fighters, only for his manager to sabotage them somehow in order to protect his meal ticket.    That’d be kind of tragic...

When Goku finally arrives, Panput does a little demonstration to show Goku just what he’s up against.   This ends with him breaking part of the stage with an elbow strike.   So he’s definitely no chump.   This guy might have stood a chance against Goku or Yamcha back in the first Dragon Ball arc.