Tankōbon Title Page
Kanzenban Title Page
Full Color Title Page

Chapter Information

Chapter Synopsis

Goku’s impressed with the old man for being able to win against Yamcha. Yamcha compliments Jackie on the win as they walk backstage, and Jackie tells him he’s still young, so he has plenty of time to get stronger. Yamcha still ponders the old man, and meanwhile Namu and Ran-Fan have been called out to the ring. Jackie tells Namu he’s jealous of him getting to go against that pichi-pichi gal, but Namu remains serious and silent. Jackie wonders what his story is, so he reads his mind and sees that he comes from a poor desert village without rain. Namu intends to use the prize money from the Tenka’ichi Budōkai to buy water for his village. Jackie realizes his story definitely isn’t for a “gag manga”.

The announcer calls for the third match to begin, and Ran-Fan winks at Namu before flying at him with a kick to the face. She then pounds him in the back, and Namu just barely jumps out of the way before she can deliver another kick. He prepares to swing at her, and she screams, so he just taps her lightly on the arm. Ran-Fan sits down and starts crying, and Namu asks her if she’s alright. But she was just faking, and punches Namu hard in the gut. She punches at him again, but he catches her tiny girl fist, and prepares to attack her. He will no longer think of her as a woman. Ran-Fan gets worried, so she puts on a cute face, but he won’t fall for that. Namu swings at her, and she just barely jumps over it.

Ran-Fan decides to take a different route this time. She takes off her clothes, leaving only her bra and panties on, and starts strutting around the ring, making Namu very embarrassed. Jackie likes this, and Yamcha thinks he’s a pretty crude old man. Then he thinks of Jackie’s strength, too, and thinks Jackie Chun must be… Muten Rōshi! Ran-Fan keeps walking towards Namu, and he keeps backing away, until he’s at the edge of the ring. He thinks of the water his village needs, then as Ran-Fan flies towards him, he decides to close his eyes. Ran-Fan swings at Namu, but he jumps over it, and nits her on the back of the neck. She’s down for the count of ten, giving the victory to Namu. Jackie goes over to “help” her, and the announcer asks him to not grope the contestants.

Chapter Notes

• The title page for this chapter is not included in the tankōbon release.
• Each issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump featured short comments from the various series’ authors, giving fans a brief insight into their current thoughts, ranging from series-related announcements to trivial happenings in their personal lives. Akira Toriyama’s comments from this issue were:
  桂くんがピーナッツを持って遊びにきた。どっちが田舎かよくわかっただろう<明>

  ---

  Katsura-kun came over to visit and brought some peanuts with him. You can really tell which of us is the bigger bumpkin, can’t you? <Akira>

  “Katsura-kun” refers to Masakazu Katsura, who has been Toriyama’s close friend since Katsura made his debut in the early 1980s. He won a second-place Tezuka Award in 1983 and was currently serialized with Wingman in Weekly Jump (to conclude in 1985 #39, the issue after this one!), but his seminal series such as Video Girl Ai and I”s were still years away. Katsura probably came over because he had finished the final chapter of Wingman and thus suddenly found himself with some free time.

Page Breakdown

The majority of the Dragon Ball series was drawn in black and white, but chapters were occasionally published with color pages. This breakdown notes how many full-color, limited-color, and black-and-white pages appeared in this chapter. As the tankōbon volumes were not released with these colors intact, any color pages shown are taken from the kanzenban release.