The Turtle Hermit is a Tenka’ichi Budōkai Champion
(Probably)
It is often tossed around as “fact” that the Turtle Hermit (亀仙人 Kame-sen’nin) — otherwise also known as the invincible old master of martial arts (武天老師 Muten Rōshi) — is a former champion of the greatest martial arts tournament under the heavens: the Tenka’ichi Budōkai.
There is of course the technicality that he won the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai under the guise of “Jackie Chun”… but does he have a prior win? And if so, was it as Jackie Chun, or as himself?
Jackie Chun
As a way to test his pupils, remind them that there is always someone stronger out there, and to keep cool about it all the meanwhile, the Turtle Hermit adopts a new persona named “Jackie Chun” in order to participate at the the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai.
While the reader is aware of the disguise the entire time, different characters either do or do not figure it out over the course of the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai. A few key details from the story include:
- Goku can smell the Turtle Hermit nearby when Jackie Chun is present; later on, Yamcha even calls him out right in front of Goku and Kuririn, but “Jackie Chun” puts on more cologne to hide his scent.
- Yamcha has never heard of Jackie Chun prior to this tournament, despite having some degree of awareness regarding other fighters and techniques.
- Perhaps more notably, the announcer doesn’t seem to know who Jackie Chun is during the fight with Yamcha — he is just an unknown, elderly person.
- On the flip side, the announcer is aware of the Turtle School and specifically mentions the Turtle Hermit by name in chapter 41; he’s actually surprised the old man is still alive! When Jackie Chun uses the Kamehameha two chapters later, the announcer recognizes it as the Turtle Hermit’s technique.
- The Turtle Hermit does straight up tell Namu who he is.
- The Turtle Hermit has used the Bankoku Bikkuri Shō on Grandpa Gohan before… but doesn’t specify when (and for the purposes of this discussion, whether that was back in training or during a fight in a tournament).
- At no point does Goku ever seem to be aware of or learn that Jackie Chun was the Turtle Hermit.
A few other characters learn the truth at the 22nd Tenka’ichi Budōkai:
- In chapter 113, the Turtle Hermit is forced to admit to a registration worker that he is “Jackie Chun”… but asks that they keep it a secret just between them.
- During the fight between “Jackie Chun” and Tenshinhan in chapter 124, the Crane Hermit telepathically tells Tenshinhan the real identity of his opponent.
Beyond a brief aside with Tenshinhan and the Turtle Hermit when everyone arrives for the 23rd Tenka’ichi Budōkai, there is not much more chatter about it!
At this point in the story it is difficult to say for certain what the Turtle Hermit’s prior tournament participation has been, but “Jackie Chun” does not seem to have been a part of it.
Dragon Ball Z Movie 2
During the second Dragon Ball Z movie — The World’s Strongest Guy, originally premiering in March 1990 — Goku notes to Oolong that the Turtle Hermit (who, alongside Bulma, has been kidnapped by Dr. Kochin and Dr. Uiro) has actually won a Tenka’ichi Budōkai before, so he should be fine:
でも心配すんな｡ 亀仙人のじっちゃんは天下一武道会でも優勝した武術の神様だ｡ 大丈夫だろう｡
Don’t worry. Old Man Turtle Hermit is a god of martial arts, and has even won the Tenka’ichi Budōkai. He’ll be fine.
This is new information! How does Goku — perhaps only in this movie universe — know that the Turtle Hermit has previously won the Tenka’ichi Budōkai…? Is this just common knowledge?
At bare minimum, Dr. Kochin is familiar with the Turtle Hermit: he specifically kidnapped him, after all. That said, Kochin is left rather unimpressed with the Turtle Hermit’s display of strength against his new creations.
天下一の武術家としてこの世で一番強いとうたわれた武天老師はあの程度だったのか｡
Then that’s the level of Muten Rōshi, the greatest martial artist under the heavens, and said to be the strongest man in the world?
Bulma explains to him that the Turtle Hermit was the strongest… but that’s 50 years in the past!
Intermission: Different DVD Releases
Before we go further, it’s important to pause and explain a few different DVD releases that Dragon Ball Z has received in North America by way of FUNimation.
Alongside their second season of syndicated television broadcast from 1997-1998, FUNimation produced uncut versions of the first three Dragon Ball Z films, which received dubbed VHS, subtitled VHS, bilingual Laserdisc, and bilingual DVD releases in conjunction with their current home video distributor, Pioneer. These films were released — slightly out of order with 1, then 3, and then 2 — from December 1997 to May 1998.
While largely faithful and accurate, the subtitles corresponding to the Japanese language track on these releases do have some notable quirks. For starters, “dub spellings” are used throughout, so names like “Krillin” still appear when “Kuririn” is spoken aloud. There are also occasionally minor translation quibbles; more on these later when appropriate.
When FUNimation regained their home video distribution rights to material previously released by Pioneer, this included another stab at the first three Dragon Ball Z films. Their English dubs unfortunately suffered with less accurate scripts and replacement music, but the subtitle translation track received an upgrade with a completely new pass by then-current translator Steven J. Simmons. This translation is fully accurate and faithful to the Japanese script.
The first Dragon Ball Z film received a re-release under the “Ultimate Uncut Edition” line in May 2005, while films 2 and 3 came packaged with film 1 again as a “First Strike” DVD box set in November 2006.
Subtitle Inconsistencies
The original FUNimation/Pioneer subtitle release from 1998 misses part of Kochin’s analysis, perhaps mistaking “the greatest martial artist in the world” (天下一の武術家 tenka’ichi no bujutsu-ka) as literally being a Tenka’ichi Budōkai champion. Indeed, this is what the subtitles present on screen:
The 2006 re-release with an updated subtitle script corrects this mistake:
The information about the Turtle Hermit being a Tenka’ichi Budōkai champion isn’t exactly “wrong” here (as per Goku only slightly earlier in the same movie), but it’s not what Kochin is actually saying in Japanese in this particular scene.
The Anime Comic Biography
“Anime Comic” adaptations — screenshots with dialogue bubbles presented in traditional manga fashion, sometimes called “animanga” — were produced for the Dragon Ball movies starting with Dragon Ball Z movie 5 in 1992. Shueisha and Toei continued onward and then retroactively filled out adaptations for all of the films, with Dragon Ball Z movie 2’s “Anime Comic” finally hitting in June 1994. All of the “Film Anime Comics” received digital releases beginning in 2017.
Included at the beginning of the book is a fold-out poster (one side with movie artwork, and the other with Boo arc characters contemporary with the volume’s release) and various character biographies. Of particular note and relevance here is the Turtle Hermit’s biography:
別名・武天老師とも呼ばれる武道の達人で、悟空やクリリンに武術を教えた! 50年前の天下一武道会では優勝、世界一強い男と謳われた。今は亀ハウスで亀とともに暮らしている。300歳を超える老人だが、とんでもなくスケベだぞ!!
Also known as Muten Rōshi, he is the one who taught Goku and Kuririn martial arts! He won the Tenka’ichi Budōkai 50 years ago, and was lauded as the strongest man in the world. He now lives at Kame House with a turtle. He’s an old man more than 300 years of age, yet also a huge pervert!
The character biography here is doing what we often see Caramel Mama and other partners do in supplementary guidebook material: connect dots. We know from dialogue in the film itself that the Turtle Hermit was the strongest in the world 50 years ago, and that he was a former Tenka’ichi Budōkai champion… and so therefore the biography states that he won the Tenka’ichi Budōkai 50 years ago!
Dragon Ball Z Episode 166
A little more fuel gets added to the fire by way of filler content in episode 166 of the Dragon Ball Z television series. This episode aired in November 1992, almost three years after the debut of Dragon Ball Z movie 2, but seems to pull in some of its critical lore.
No. 16 is brought back to Capsule Corporation for repairs, and over tea (and prompted by a question from Bulma’s mother) the Turtle Hermit describes the Tenka’ichi Budōkai to the surrounding characters… including the fact that he won the tournament in the past.
TURTLE HERMIT: Well, allow me, as one who has won the Tenka’ichi Budōkai, to explain it to you.
PU’ER: Huh? Muten Rōshi-sama, you’ve won it before, too?
OOLONG: He’s talking about a long time ago. A really long time ago.
As part of this description, we see (and hear!) a few important things:
- The Turtle Hermit admits out loud to a crowd of characters that he is a former champion.
- Pu’er does not seem to have been previously aware that he is a former champion.
- Oolong is aware of this fact, and that it was long ago in the past.
This all actually lines up perfectly with Dragon Ball Z movie 2, where Goku told Oolong that the Turtle Hermit was a prior Tenka’ichi Budōkai champion.
The question of course remains: is the Turtle Hermit referring to “Jackie Chun” or himself here? During the description of the finals at the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai, the Turtle Hermit refers to “another master” by the name of Jackie Chun, so there is definitely some kind of distinction being made.
As always, it is worth noting that the specific content of this scene is “filler” material: content that was created and added exclusively to the television series which was not present in the original work (the “original work” in this case being the corresponding chapters of the actual Dragon Ball manga’s printed pages by Akira Toriyama).
Akira Toriyama was involved with filler material for a large run of the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z television series’ adaptations. We have concrete documentation on a few key pieces he directly contributed (lore like Yamcha’s baseball career and the Tsufruians), but there is likely a large amount we do not (and will never) have.
And because it’s the Internet, we need to stress: that’s not any kind of judgement on anyone’s personal/subjective feelings on the material itself — it’s just a fact that we don’t know what we don’t know. Whether you like any bits of filler (and whether or not Akira Toriyama may or may not have contributed ideas to what you like) is between you and Dende.
That said, Toriyama has repeatedly ignored information established in the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z television series when he either had a different idea — or possibly never knew in the first place — what the TV staff might have done. Did Toriyama know (or care) that the Turtle Hermit made this declaration during this episode? It seems unlikely, but it is also not a particularly big deal!
The Terebikko Feature
The “Terebikko” was a children’s game product released by Bandai in Japan that hooked up to a user’s television and VCR. Games such as the Dragon Ball Z release — 1992’s Gather Together! Goku World — were feature presentations broken up with mini-quizzes to interact with through the telephone toy attachment. The name of the product (from “television” and the suffix -ko to infer a young status) is the Japanese equivalent to the American slang “couch potato,” and more specifically for a child who partakes in said entertainment, perhaps too much and to their own detriment!
In the accompanying animated feature, Goku and friends travel through time with Trunks observing different events and asking the player at home multiple-choice questions. At one point they arrive at the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai to see Goku taking on “Jackie Chun”. The player is asked the real identity of “Jackie Chun,” and Kuririn goes on to repeat that answer in conversation with the rest of the characters. At no point does Goku seem particularly fazed by this information… but at this point we’re talking about an animated feature for a children’s toy!
Conclusion
By all measures, the Turtle Hermit and his respective school seem to have some amount of notoriety in the original series’ continuity. Whether or not the Turtle Hermit himself specifically competed in and won the Tenka’ichi Budōkai is unclear…
…except perhaps within the specific universe of Dragon Ball Z movie 2 (and maybe also TV series filler), which very explicitly states that he is a former champion!
Nothing else in the film or “Anime Comic” biography goes on to say this, but if the Tenka’ichi Budōkai was on its every-five-years schedule during this past timeframe, and we assume that Dragon Ball Z movie 2 takes place in Age 762, perhaps the Turtle Hermit won what would count backward to be the 13th Tenka’ichi Budōkai in Age 710…?