750~753: Goku furthers his education by traveling the world on foot. In the manga, this period of his life is skipped over, but the anime provides us with several episodes from these years, including his foray into the Demon World to rescue a kidnapped princess. #HistoryofEver
Meanwhile back on the range, Yamcha begins his life as Roshi’s pupil. I wonder if the people on this island appreciate having their milk delivered this way?
DB ep.81 features the series’ first foray into the Demon World (魔界), home turf of Dabura and numerous Heroes/Xenoverse villains. This episode owes a thing or two to the 1983 film Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain
Shockingly (?), Tao Pai Pai survived his rematch with Goku, and spends his life savings making himself into a cyborg, a process that apparently takes a few years. During the first three years at least, he doesn’t bother contacting his brother. Is their relationship really ok?
Tao’s survival was first hinted at in his Adventure Special bio (released midway through the Piccolo Senior arc), where he smugly comments “did you really think I was dead?” So it seems Toriyama sometimes did plan ahead, a little bit.
Speaking of Crane School news, the anime’s “Goku world tour” filler takes the somewhat radical step of having Goku run into Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu during his travels, as they conduct a scam with Roshi/Crane’s old pet monster. In the manga they don’t appear until the tournament.
In July of 750, the rainy season hits Namu’s village. So says Daizenshuu 7, based on his statement that it will be in two months (during a flashback set soon before the TB in May). Old school fan (mis)translations of this timeline entry described Namu’s village as “on Namek”.
Ran-Fan’s doing well too. According to her Adventure Special bio, by the time the Piccolo arc rolls around she’s married to a man named “Trunks” (the first time this name ever pops up). Presumably it’s not *the* Trunks, unless he got tired of Mai and did some more time-traveling.
But back to Tao: the really, *really* obvious fan speculation is to wonder if Gero did his cyborg conversion job. So far there’s no official word either way (despite Cyborg Tao popping up in pre-Cell Games filler). At any rate, Toriyama’s said androids 9-12 were duds.
How crap were 9-12? Well, according to DB Online, Android 9 is none other than Commander Red himself, brought back from the dead in what frankly seems like a major waste of resources. I do like his little cyber pipe though. And he’s finally taller!
In DB SD though (not exactly canon, but then again neither is DB Online), Android 9 is shown as a bespectacled boxer based on Saikyo Jump editor and Dragon Room kingpin Akio Iyoku (ku=9 thanks to the same number punning that got us May 9th as Goku Day)
While Gero nefariously builds cyborg Jump editors, the world at large knows nothing of his evil deeds. He may be a famous jerk in scientific circles, but his Red Ribbon connections remain safely secret for now.
On Tuesday: third eye’s the charm!
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