Roshi himself becomes the central focus of the episode, as he takes on multiple fighters from universe 4. Mook chivalry seems to apply as one only enters the battlefield after their predecessor has been eliminated, so that worked in his favor.
The first challenger is a young female fighter (apparently named Caway, though I don't recall it coming up in the episode proper.) While she seems to be a capable fighter, she is quick to fall back on using her looks to attempt to distract her opponents, especially when it looks like she's going to be no match for Roshi.
Now, you might recall that Roshi went out of his way to mentally train himself to overcome this sort of temptation and think that he'll be fine. Even Krillin jumps to that conclusion, only to see Roshi's resolve break. To the old man's credit, he holds out better than he would have pre-training, so it's not like it was a total bust. Also, it was funny.
Luckily, Roshi's able to snap out of it just in time to catch the girl's oncoming attack and deliver a monologue that frightens her into running out of the ring. I'm not sure if his dialogue was meant to be double entendre, but him talking about pent up energy and how he's going to unleash it on her really made it sound that way. Considering her response is to yell that he would make her unsuitable for a wife, it's quite probable.
Roshi's second opponent is another woman named Dercori. Her specialty is talismans and she uses them to cast illusions. Unlike Mysterio, she can do more than that and notes that a portion of her attacks are legit, meaning that the danger is still quite real.
This was a fun sequence, though the episode doesn't play with it as much as they could have. We do see Roshi running around the giant pole and a giant demonic iteration of Dercori smack him down at one point, but this fight is resolved all too quickly.
Interestingly, Roshi thinks himself the best person to take her on, as the other fighters (like,say, Goku) are too straight forward and have trouble with a fight like this. Even though Dercori's latest spell renders him unable to move, Roshi dispatches her with a mafuba attack.
Considering the attack requires a vessel to contain the person on the receiving end, I was surprised that this was acceptable. Even Quitela notes that it's technically using an outside item and should fall outside the parameters of the tournament rules. While I side with him, in all honesty, the zen'os decide that it's fair..mostly because they thought it looked cool. The exhibition matches did set up that they were not above tweaking rules for their own entertainment, so I can't say that it felt out of place.
The third and final challenger for Roshi is Ganos, the young boy who acted as universe 4's spy back before the tournament started.
At first it seems like yet another curb stomp battle in Roshi's favor, as the old man can easily dodge Ganos' attacks. The tide does start to turn, however, as Ganos unleashes a new form and reveals that he gets stronger as time goes on.
The transformation sequence was effective, kind of reminiscent of the Hulk. Alas, the form itself looks rather silly. It's like a chicken/duck billed platypus type form. Even though it gives Roshi a good run for his money, I could never take it seriously. Seeing the dramatic dialogue come from that face just robbed it of any gravitas.
In any event, Roshi has to think fast and essentially casts the sleep spell. I'm curious if this is an ability he's used before. I'd prefer it if it were something seen in "Dragon Ball", but using hypnosis isn't so far out of left field that I'd call BS on it. It was actually a kind of creepy sequence too, so it gets points for that.
Alas, Ganos is able to make his saving throw and counters the effect by attacking himself back into consciousness.
I liked Ganos' tip of his hat to Roshi. He commends Roshi and notes that he was likely a great fighter back in the day, but his prime is past and he should forfeit now. Not surprisingly, Roshi doesn't want to do this and responds with a kamehameha.
The way the scene plays, it seems clear that this is a last ditch effort on Roshi's part. His dialogue further reinforces this, as he commends his former pupils and thanks them for all they've taught him. Sure enough, when the wave is over and Ganos is out, Roshi falls unconscious.
I figured that was all, but the looks on Goku's and Krillin's faces suggest otherwise. Both are eager to tend to their teacher; Krillin even wanting to jump back into the ring to do so. While it takes a bit of effort, Goku is able to reach him and immediately begins performing Ki-P-R.
This was a tense and emotional scene that was played really well. Goku's and Krillin's concern was palpable and you could see the weight of the loss when it looks like Goku was unable to revive him.
Of course, he's fine, though. Is it weird that I was disappointed that they did that? I mean, Roshi dying would have made this a hell of a wham downer episode. You could say that, of course he was going to be OK; but the way the scene played out I honestly thought his death was a distinct possibility, so kudos to the episode for pulling that off as well as they did.
All in all, this was a fun episode. Keeping the episode focused on one character as they fight seems to be working well, though it is still weird how people are able to fight one on one largely uninterrupted. Seeing Goku at least try to help mitigated that somewhat, though there are still other fighters in play. Still, we got to see Roshi be awesome and do significant damage to universe 4's roster. Three fighters in one go is pretty impressive, old man or not.
Judging by the preview for the next episode, it's going to be a fun one; as the whole team faces off against an unseen sniper. I'm looking forward to it.
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