"The Spirit Cannon" (生か死か!? 最後の手段 Sei ka Shi ka!? Saigo no Shudan, lit. "Life or Death?! A Last Resort") is the seventeenth episode of the Tien Shinhan Saga and the one hundredth episode in the Dragon Ball series. In the original American episode title, "Cannon" was spelled "Canon". This episode first aired in Japan on February 10, 1988. Its original American airdate was December 30, 2002.
Summary[]
Goku uses the 8 Arms Attack
With four arms, Tien Shinhan clearly has an advantage over Goku. He nearly pushes him out of the ring, forcing Goku to jump up. Tien grabs Goku's arms and legs and repeatedly headbutts him to knock the wind out of him. Goku begins to smack Tien in the face with his tail, forcing Tien to let him go.
Goku then moves his arms with such speed that he appears to grow six extra arms to counter Tien's four. The two of them continue fighting until they simultaneously knock each other down. The count reaches eight before they both stand up.
Goku grabs Tien's legs to make him give up
Goku trips Tien and grabs his legs in a submission hold. He pulls on his legs, causing Tien tremendous pain. Tien's extra arms reach up and choke Goku, but they quickly give up. After a long struggle, Tien's legs flip Goku off of him and into the wall. Goku gets up, so Tien decides to use the Tri-Beam Cannon, a devastatingly powerful attack that shortens the life of the wielder whenever it is used. Warning Goku, Tien floats high above the ring and fires the Tri-Beam on Goku. When the dust clears, the entire ring is gone, leaving a gaping hole in the ground. Goku is nowhere to be found.
Major Events[]
- Tien Shinhan uses the Tri-Beam to destroy the World Martial Arts Tournament ring.
Battles[]
- Goku vs. Tien Shinhan
Appearances[]
Characters[]
Locations[]
Differences from the Manga[]
- Yamcha, Bulma, Launch, and Puar are not present for the match in the manga, where they stay in the hospital and listen over a radio.
- Tien strikes at Goku in the manga with his four arms and is able to grab him after catching him off guard. Here in the anime, Goku is overwhelmed to the point that he's sent flying by the barrage and almost slides out of bounds. He sees Tien coming attempts an aerial kick only for Tien to grab him like in the manga.
- Tien only headbutts Goku once in the manga, where here he does it five times. Similarly, Goku whacks Tien with his tail only once in the manga as opposed to the eight times he does here.
- In the manga, Roshi explains that Goku's multi-arm technique is just the boy using his speed to make it appear that he has eight arms. The anime does not include this.
- The huge clash between Goku and Tien that ends up knocking them both out (with the announcer almost reaching the end of the ten count) isn't in the manga. Roshi's flashback to how he and Goku ended up in a similar situation at the previous tournament is also filler.
- Tien retracts his extra arms in the manga of his own volition after seeing that it was a waste of energy on Goku. In the anime, they retract because Tien breaks concentration after attempting to strangle Goku with his extra arms while the latter has him in a submission lock (grabbing his legs).
- During the grabbing scene, which wasn't in the manga, the announcer comes up to Tien and asks (in the Japanese version) if he wishes to concede, only for Tien to refuse. Chiaotzu attempts to aid his friend with a paralysis, but Tien shouts at him to keep out of it. With a high level of focus, Tien is able to push Goku off of him and into the wall.
- When Chiaotzu tries to get Tien to not use the Tri-Beam, only for Tien to say he won't die, here they use telepathy to commune this. In the manga, they use normal speech to get it across.
Trivia[]
- This episode marks the 100th episode of the Dragon Ball anime.
- Launch is back with the group despite having been knocked all the way across the tournament grounds by Shen in the previous episode. It is unexplained how she recovered.
Gallery[]
 The announcer impressed by Tien's new technique  Tien warns Goku to prepare himself for battle  Tien jumps over Goku  Goku confused by the four arms  Tien bashes the back of Goku's head  Tien punching Goku  Tien has Goku on the ropes  Goku about to use eight arms  Tien headbutting Goku  Goku standing in the ring  Goku  Tien Shinhan  Tien prepares to charge Goku again  Goku has Tien on the ropes  Goku and Tien hit each other hard  Chiaotzu preparing to help Tien with telekinesis, which Tien refuses  Goku prepares for Tien's ultimate technique  Tien prepares the Tri-Beam  Tien still preparing  Tien aims the ring  Tien fires the Tri-Beam  Tien fires his Tri-Beam  The ring is gone |
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| ← Fortuneteller Baba Saga |  |
King Piccolo Saga→ | |||||||
| Manga | |||||||||
| Chapters | 113 • 114 • 115 • 116 • 117 • 118 • 119 • 120 • 121 • 122 • 123 • 124 • 125 • 126 • 127 • 128 • 129 • 130 • 131 • 132 • 133 • 134 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volumes | 10 • 11 • 12 | ||||||||
| Anime | |||||||||
| Episodes | 84 • 85 • 86 • 87 • 88 • 89 • 90 • 91 • 92 • 93 • 94 • 95 • 96 • 97 • 98 • 99 • 100 • 101 | ||||||||