Weekly Shōnen Jump Title Page
Tankōbon Title Page
Kanzenban Title Page
Full Color Title Page

Chapter Information

Chapter Synopsis

Goku stretches while Namu thinks of the 500,000 zenny prize, and how he needs it to save his village. As the match begins, Goku thinks he’ll do like Jackie did against Kuririn, and leaves an afterimage of himself. Goku kicks at Namu from behind, but Namu jumps over it, way up into the air. Then Namu comes down at Goku with a kick, but Goku hops back out of the way, and they face each other. Namu kicks at Goku a few times, but Goku blocks it. Namu then blocks Goku’s punches. Namu kicks Goku in the face, but Goku sweep kicks him.

Goku then delivers a hard blow to Namu, sending him flying into the wall. But at the last minute Namu kicks off the wall and comes back and chops Goku in the side of the neck, taking him down. While Goku’s on the ground, Namu runs over to take the win, but Goku trips him with his tail. All of a sudden Goku announces that he has come up with a new technique, and starts spinning around. He spins like a tornado and comes whirling towards Namu, knocking him backwards. Namu stands to try countering it, but he’s at the edge of the ring. Namu thinks it’s all over, but then Goku stops spinning right in front of him, and falls over dizzy. Namu falls over, nearly a ring out, and decides to take this opportunity to win.

Namu jumps straight up, and says he’s going to attack from the heavens. He crosses his hands, forming an X, and dives straight down at Goku, announcing his Tenkū Pekeji-Ken. He silently asks this boy to forgive him, for he’s doing this to save his village. As he dives he says “Namu Amida Butsu” (a Buddhist prayer to Amitabha; literally means “I take refuge in the compassion of Amida Buddha”).

Chapter Notes

• The chapter title page shown above is the actual title page for this chapter as it originally appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The original title page was borrowed for the cover of volume 4 of the tankōbon, and so the title page for chapter 45 took its place. In the kanzenban release, on the other hand, the original title page illustration was replaced by the cover illustration from Weekly Shōnen Jump 1985 #42 (the issue that contained chapter 42). The kanzenban illustration does at least relate to the content of the chapter, but it is still inaccurate.
• Each issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump features 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:
  武道会は誰が優勝？その後どうするの？などと聞かれますが、次週の話を考えるだけで精一杯なのだ<明>

  ---

  People keep asking me who’ll win the tournament, and what will happen after that, but it’s really all I can do just to think up the story for next week. <Akira>

  Toriyama has mentioned this several times in various interviews. He never planned out more than the general idea of the arc, and in this particular case, only decided on Goku losing after lots of people wrote in expecting Goku to win.

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.