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Dragon Ball Super Movie 1: Broly (2/2)

Last time, Frieza was planning a trip to Earth to make a wish on the Dragon Balls, when Cheelai and Leemo showed up with a new recruit, Broly.   Now they’re hanging out in the mess hall of Frieza’s ship, and the strongest guy on the crew is drunkenly creeping on Cheelai.  I guess that lady in the background already shot him down, or he has a thing for the green ladies.

I like this part where Leemo tries to defuse the situation noviolently.   He’s not a fighter, and even if he were, he probably wouldn’t stand a chance here, but he’s lived his whole life surrounded by super-strong guys, and he knows how to make due with what he has.    It doesn’t work here, but it adds a lot to this scene.

Anyway, I don’t think you need me to tell you how this turns out.   Broly steps in, and he overpowers whatsisface in two seconds.   This is especially ironic in the U.S. dub, where Broly was voiced by notorious sex pest Vic Mignogna.   I kind of wonder what was going through his mind when he did this scene, except he probably didn’t even know the context.    They just told him to grunt and yell.   Still, he must have watched the movie at some point, right?  

Like how would he not make the connection that he’s the grey dude in this scenario, and Broly is getting major babyface heat by standing up for Cheelai?   Like, this whole scene was created to make Broly sympathetic, especially compared to his original 1993 incarnation.    Good guys respect women, bad guys harass them.    Did the point just sail over his head?  He was probably all: “Gosh, Broly should have stayed out of this, and donated money to the grey man for his defamation lawsuit against Cheelai.”

Oh, who am I kidding, he probably spent the whole movie staring at Cheelai’s boobs.  Or the nearest woman in the theater.

Anyway, Paragus thinks Broly’s getting out of hand, so he uses the shock collar to settle him down.    Cheelai and Leemo are outraged (again), but Paragus insists that it’s necessary to keep Broly from going nuts and killing them all.   

I’m a bit conflicted about the collar.   It’s clearly a replication of the mind-control tiara Paragus used on Broly in the DBZ movie, but this is much simpler in design.   Just an electric shock, nothing more.    I like the simplicity of it.  

However, I also liked the mind-control tiara.    It looked stylish, and I liked the mystery of how it worked and where Paragus got it from.   There was that scene in Movie 8 where he had an alien henchman run a diagnostic on the device, but there’s no telling if that guy built it or if he’s just the closest thing Paragus could find to an expert.  There was a mystique about the thing, which the shock collar just does away with entirely.   I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not.

But it probably serves this plot better, because Cheelai picks Paragus’ pocket while they talk, and she stomps the controller after he leaves.    Probably would have been harder to make this work with a magic device like that arm thing Paragus used to make the tiara work.   

Paragus gets summoned to Frieza’s chamber again, so while he’s gone, Broly hangs out with his new pals in... I guess a cargo room?     He thinks ordinary water is delicious, to give you an idea of how rough it was for him growing up on Vampa.   He then explains the fuzzy green thing around his waist, which always reminds me of the bathmat at my grandmother’s house.   Paragus used to make Broly provoke a giant green animal on Vampa as a training exercise, until eventually they became friends.     Broly named it ��Ba” after the noise it made.  Paragus disapproved of their friendship, so he shot Ba’s ear off to piss him off good, and put a stop to that.   Broly never saw Ba again, so he kept the ear as a memento, and that’s what he’s been wearing this whole time. 

See, I like this better than Broly’s Movie 8 outfit, because it has a backstory.   I think Ba’s ear was conceived as a way to give Broly a wrap like the red one worn by the original, but someone, probably Toriyama, wanted there to be something more to it. 

Anyway, this tale pretty much defines Paragus and Broly’s relationship.   Paragus seems to genuinely care about the boy, but his main objective is for Broly to become as strong as possible so that he can prove King Vegeta was wrong to exile them.    In pursuit of this goal, Paragus has micro-managed Broly to the point where he has almost no freedom at all.   Cheelai suspect that Broly doesn’t even enjoy fighting, which sounds pretty extreme for a Saiyan, but she might be right.  I’d like to think this version of Broly would enjoy fighting, but not the way Paragus has been handling things.

Meanwhile, the good guys arrive at the ice continent to find the seventh Dragon Ball.   Frieza’s goons stole the first six and the Dragon Radar, so it doesn’t take long for Goku and Vegeta to track them down.    Here, we see them in their cute cold weather gear.    I don’t get how those coats do a damn thing in the antarctic, but I love Bulma’s spacesuit-looking thing.  

So they find the two goons, and one of them looks like an alien John Banner from Hogan’s Heroes.    They’re terrified of Goku because he’s breathing hard on the glass of their ship.   I’d be more worried about him doing a pressed fruit basket on the glass.

Luckily for them, they radioed Frieza about finding the seventh ball right before Goku showed up, so Frieza comes to the rescue.  They banter for a while, but the big story everyone wants to know about is Frieza’s backup.   He introduces Paragus and Broly, and Frieza’s plan is to have Broly do all the fighting, and he’ll let them kill Vegeta as long as he gets to finish off Goku.

So Vegeta and Broly start us off.   Broly does reasonably okay, but Vegeta seems to have the upper hand the whole time, and then he turns Super Saiyan, which freaks Paragus out, because he didn’t even know that was a thing.    That bums Frieza out, because I guess he assumed Broly could do it too?  Why would he think that?   I mean, he turns out to be right later, but he should know that not just any Saiyan can pull that off. 

Moreover, Vegeta can transform further than this.   People made a big to-do about this part, where he uses the Super Saiyan God form Goku used in Movie 14, but I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me.     I mean, Super Saiyan Blue is better, and Vegeta knows how to do that one, so what’s the difference?  I mean, I’m the guy who really wanted to see Vegeta use Super Saiyan 3 a long time ago, so I get why this is a big deal for people, but it doesn’t mean much to me personally.   

At any rate, Vegeta seems disgusted with Broly’s performance, but I think it says a lot that he managed to hold out this long against Super Saiyan God Vegeta.

Around this point, Paragus tries to call Broly off, but he can’t, because he doesn’t have the remote to use the shock collar.  I’m not sure I understand what was supposed to happen if he still had it.   Was Frieza going to fight Goku and Vegeta by himself?  Was he going to just quietly withdraw and leave the Dragon Balls behind? 

Also, I’d just like to take this time to point out that Paragus looks really dumb here.   He looked cool at the start of the movie, when he was younger and looked more like his 1993 design, but then they dressed him in this green and purple number, and the pink shower curtain looks really dumb.    Also, I hate how they lightened his skin tone in this movie.  At least they brought back Dameron Clarke to play him in the dub.     I really like Paragus, and he’s mostly okay in this movie, but he’s nowhere near as cool as the ‘93 version.

As for the fight, Broly somehow gets a second wind, and holds of Vegeta, even in his god form.   Paragus suggests that Broly has somehow tapped into the Oozaru power Saiyans have when they turn into giant apes.   Except Broly’s tail was cut off at a young age, so he hasn’t turned into a giant ape in years.     Paragus seems to think that Broly’s body is using that power anyway, but without the transformation turning him into a big, bulky ape, there’s nothing to slow down his movements.   

Also, Broly is glowing green when he does this, so maybe the implication is that this was what every version of Broly has been doing, and I guess Kale too.    I’ve also seen it suggested that this ties into Super Saiyan 4 somehow.    I mean, it makes sense, because you have to be a Super Saiyan and a Giant Ape at the same time to go SSJ4, and then you shrink down into a humanoid state, with the powers of both.  Broly’s doing it in a different order, but maybe he’s worked out something similar?  

The thing is, I don’t really buy Oozaru power as a useful thing.   This franchise retired the concept thirty years ago, save for a brief comeback in Dragon Ball GT.   Hell, they didn’t even show anyone turning into a giant ape in this movie, which seems to rely onthe concept quite a bit.   If Great Ape power was so hot, why don’t they just go all in and use it?    The implication of DBZ was that, past a point, it just stops mattering, and when Goku and Vegeta became powerful enough, the form became obsolete.   But somehow Broly’s using it and he’s strong enough to throw hands with god-Saiyans.  Or maybe Paragus is completely wrong about all of this, and he’s only guessing Oozaru stuff for lack of a better explanation.  

I mean, I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade.    There’s SSJ4 fans who really like how this movie teased at the form, and that’s great lore, even if this is as far as it goes, but it doesn’t mean that much to me.  Personally, I’m more into how Goku used the term “base form” in the script.   As in: Broly is holding off Vegeta, even in his base form.   I’m pretty sure that’s the first time it’s been used in official material.

So then Goku decides to jump in, using his base form as well, which I find pretty dumb, since Broly was beating up Vegeta in SSG mode a minute ago.    This sort of teeters on the brink of GT Logic.   I really prefer the way things were in the Cell Saga, where no one would even try to fight Cell or the androids until they were comfortably transformed.    I mean, why would you not?  

Goku uses Super Saiyan Classic for a bit, then he ramps up to his own Nacho Cheese form, and he manages to subdue Broly for a hot minute.   He tries to reason with the guy, saying that he isn’t all that bad, so why not make peace.   Notably, when Goku tells Broly he doesn’t have to listen to those bad guys at the ship, it makes Paragus really nervous, like he’s terrified that someone will tell Broly that and he’ll actually listen.

But then Broly powers up and fights his way out of it, and starts taking control of the battle again.   

The weaker bad guys lift off to get clear of the battle, while Frieza and Paragus remain behind to watch.    Cheelai is frustrated that Broly is being used to fight this sort of battle, even though he happens to be doing pretty well so far.   

Piccolo contacts Goku telepathically about this situation, and Goku plans to teleport to Piccolo’s location if things go south.    But first...

... he turns Super Saiyan Blue and tries to fight Broly that way.  

And this is where the movie uses a bunch of CGI stuff, like like in Battle of Gods and Resurrection F.   The graphics look better, like something out of Fighter Z instead of Raging Blast 2, but it still looks dumb.   What Toei doesn’t seem to understand is that this stuff ages really poorly.   This movie’s not even a year old, and it already stands out.    It’s not about improving the graphics, either.  The problem is that the poses look so robotic and lifeless.   This is especially true for this movie, where most of the animation is so fluid and expressive.   

For example.

During this part of the fight, the land gets torn up, exposing the magma below, and Paragus begins to wonder if King Vegeta had been right all along.  Maybe Broly really is too dangerous, and sending him to Vampa was the best thing for everyone.  As it is, Goku Blue is winning, and Broly is too far gone to realize that he needs to stop fighting.    Without the remote, Paragus can only stand by and watch his son get killed.

But Frieza isn’t giving up yet.   Once he’s certain that Broly has no more miracles in him...

... he kills Paragus himself, and calls out to Broly to make sure he sees what’s happened.  

And that causes Broly to flip out and turn Super Saiyan himself.   I guess this is just Super Saiyan 1, and not some nutty alternate form, but the point is that Broly was doing very well in his regular state, so any transformation on top of that makes him unstoppable.   Goku tries to hang in there, but then Vegeta jumps in and tells him that he can’t possibly win alone.    

So they try hitting him with a Kamehameha/Gallic Gun combo, but that does nothing...

... then they lead him directly towards Frieza, and Broly attacks him instead, because I guess he’s not picky at this point.   

Then they teleport to Piccolo.   Goku’s plan now is to use the Fusion Technique, but he needs Piccolo to coach them because Vegeta’s never done it before.

Okay, so a couple of problems I have with this part.   First, I really don’t like the idea of Broly vs. Gogeta being a thing.   I first saw this idea in the opening credits for Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, and it always annoyed me because I never cared for the idea of Broly as such a powerful threat that only fusion could beat him.    Broly’s deal is that he’s an evil Super Saiyan, so my preferred scenario is for Goku or Vegeta to beat him solo.  

Second, I’m not wild about how this movie tries to do Broly, Gogeta, and Bardock as a combination platter.   The Bardock stuff works reasonably well, since Broly’s origin story takes place when Bardock was around, and Dragon Ball Minus was already written.   And Broly was a non-canon concept, so revamping him for this wasn’t a terrible idea.    But throwing Gogeta in too just feels like pandering to me.    For years, Fathom Events has been screening DBZ features in theaters, and they always seem to go for “Bardock: Father of Goku”, “Fusion Reborn”, and “Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan.”   I feel like a Cooler movie made the cut once, but that was a long time ago.    The point is that someone in charge seems to consider those three specials to be the most popular or best ones, and it feels an awful lot like this DBS movie is trying to cash in on that.  

And I can’t blame Toei for wanting to combine three popular titles, but it just feels a little too convenient.   Fans saw Gogeta coming, because they noticed the lineup Fathom Events had before this movie premiered, and they knew Broly and Bardock would be in this one, so it got them thinking Gogeta would make an appearance as well.  

With Bardock, you can make a case that this version is an improvement over the “Father of Goku” version.  And Broly may be better off this way than the 1993 version of the character.   But this take on Gogeta isn’t nearly as fun or cool as “Fusion Reborn”.    The boys just leave the battlefield and drill the Fusion dance until they get it right.    How does that make any sense?  

Don’t get me wrong, it’s funny how Frieza gets the shit beat out of him for over and hour, but how does that make sense at all?  

I mean, Golden Frieza couldn’t beat Goku or Vegeta in the last movie, so how can he survive against a guy who was taking them both on at the same time?  For an hour?   How did Frieza survive this?  

Really, longer than that, because Gogeta takes a minute to decide what to call himself.   It’s a cute moment, but still.   Part of what makes Fusion Reborn so awesome was that Goku had to convince Vegeta and teach him the fusion in the middle of the battlefield.    When they screwed it up, Janemba kept trying to kill them while they tried to deal with it.  This movie sucks all of that tension away.    

There is a part where Broly goes after Whis and can’t hit him, so maybe Whis kept the big guy busy for a while, but I dunno.   Anyway, Gogeta teleports in and promises to handle the rest.   

Bulma looks really cute here, by the way.

So yeah, Gogeta goes Super Saiyan and they fight so hard that it opens up a dimensional rift or something...

I don’t know what the idea here was, but it’s trippy and I like it, I guess.

Anyway, Gogeta goes Blue and punches Broly hard enough that they go back to the real world.  

But this screencap pretty well sums it up.   A blue guy and a green guy shooting green and blue shit at each other.   

Gogeta even uses the Stardust Breaker from Movie 12, but Broly survives, even though Gogeta’s at Super Saiyan Blue.   I gotta be honest, this is just a bit too wacky for me.  

Meanwhile, Cheelai and Leemo steal the Dragon Balls and summon Shenron.   She forces whatsisname to tell them how to make the wish, but it turns out you can just ask Shenron directly, so it’s not that complicated.  

See, the big twist of this movie, which is really what holds all of this together, is that Broly’s not the villain after all.   He’s the victim here, and that puts things in a whole other light now that Gogeta is turning the tables on him.   When I found out this movie would come down to Broly vs. Gogeta, I wondered how evenly matched they would be, but since Broly is sympathetic, it changes the equation.   Gogeta can just whale on the guy, and it doesn’t matter, because the real suspense is whether Cheelai can save Broly before it’s too late.

As Gogeta prepares a finishing blast, Cheelai wishes for Broly to be sent back to Vampa, and Shenron does it.   Vampa sucks, but at least Broly is safe here.

Then Leemo and Cheelai fly out of here to save themselves.  Frieza tries to blast them out of the sky.   Why didn’t he stop them before they made their wish?   Also, why didn’t Shenron offer to grant two more wishes? 

In any case, Gogeta stops Frieza from killing them, and he shrugs Gogeta off and prepares to leave.   Gogeta just... stands there and lets him?    Why?   Vegeta has always wanted Frieza dead, and Goku learned the hard way in the last movie.    This is dumb.   

Meanwhile, Beerus has done absolutely jack shit through this whole movie and he’s very pleased about it.  

In space, Cheelai plans to drop Leemo off somewhere and then head for Vampa.   She figures she’s a fugitive from the GP and the Frieza Force, so it’s about the only place left for her to go.    This definitely has nothing to do with the generous bulge in Broly’s tights, no sir.  

But Leemo wants to tag along, since he figures he doesn’t have much going for him either.  

Frieza knows that they’re all together on Vampa, but he decides to leave them be for now.   He seems to think they can make Broly stronger and better able to control his power, and that suits him for... some reason.

This line confuses me.  Is he saying he wants another nemesis, in addition to Goku and Vegeta?   Or is he saying that he wants a potential ally to help him defeat Goku and Vegeta?   Or something else altogether?

On Vampa, Cheelai and Leemo are starting to realize what they’ve signed on for here.   The only food on the planet is bitter, and everything is trying to kill them.

Then Goku just teleports into their cave and gives them a capsule house full of provisions.   He even gives them a couple of senzu beans.

Cheelai is suspicious of Goku, but he explains that he just wants them to be safe and healthy, because he wants to fight Broly again sometime.    After all, it took nothing less than Gogeta Blue to beat him, so he must be a worthy opponent.  

Cheelai still regards Goku as an enemy, but he doesn’t particularly care, since he can find them wherever they go, and Broly seems happy with the idea of fighting with him for funsies.  

So Cheelai lightens up a bit and thanks him.   Then they ask Goku his name, because they never heard who this guy is or what he’s all about.  

So he says that he’s Son Goku... and Kakarot.   I like the dub version better, where he specifically says “Broly... call me Kakarot.”   Either way, I like this ending, because “Kakarot” was Broly’s catchphrase in the 90′s, and he never says it once in this movie, because he never heard the name until this point.  So that’s pretty cool.

But more importantly, I like this as character development for Goku, who once bitterly rejected his Saiyan heritage, including his birth name.   Now, it looks like he’s come around on that, to the point where he wants other Saiyans to call him Kakarot.   It works well with my personal canon that Saiyans view this as a matter of honor.   Vegeta knows he goes by “Son Goku”, but he thinks it would be more insulting to call him that, even if that’s his preference.

And that’s the movie.   All in all, a pretty good one, probably one of the best, but not as good as my favorites.   I think it would have been better if they had used new concepts and characters instead of mining the past for ideas.   A different Saiyan could have played the Broly role just fine, but they went with Broly because of his popularity.    Some other power could have been used to defeat him, but they went with fusion because it was popular.    It get the reasoning, but I can’t help but notice how Cheelai became the breakout star of this thing, and everyone loves Cheelai and she just might be the most popular thing to come out of this movie, and lo and behold, she’s a wholly original idea.  It just makes you wonder what else they might have come up with if they hadn’t stopped with her.   

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Naptime, Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon

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The 10 Best Episodes of Dragon Ball and DBZ

Back in October I wrote up a list of the ten worst episodes of Dragon Ball, and I always meant to go back and do a ten best list to go with it.    Well it’s the last Sunday of the year and I got nothing better to do, so I’m gonna knock that out today.

Honestly, I’m not sure which one of these was tougher to do.    The main reason I made a worst list was because I noticed a small handful of episodes I just didn’t like, and I realized that even with a show I like this much, there had to be at least ten stinkers, so I liked the challenge of picking them out.   On the other hand, picking the ten best episodes is like finding really good pieces of hay in an awesome haystack.    And I’m a horse, so I’m already super-into hay.   This analogy is getting tortured, so I’ll just move on.

Honorable Mention: Dragon Ball Z Episode 125.

I think the fandom has unanimously agreed that this is the all-time best episode of Dragon Ball, but it didn’t feel right putting it in my list.    I don’t know if that’s because I sincerely believe it’s the 11th best episode, or because I just don’t want a predictable choice taking up space on my list.    That’s how Dragon Ball rolls sometimes.   Past a point, you can’t tell if you’re liking something ironically, or just plain liking it.  

Without question, this is the all-time best filler episode.   We all know the tale: Goku and Piccolo are busy training for the upcoming Androids battle, but Chi-Chi is sick of them not helping around the house, so she wants them to take driver’s ed so they can drive her to the grocery once in a while.    Well, mostly Goku, but Piccolo somehow gets roped into it too.    Honestly, I don’t think he really needed to go through with this.  He pouts like Chi-Chi made him do this somehow, but she was clearly only interested in getting Goku licensed up.    I think he just sort of invited himself into this situation because he wanted to feel like part of the family.   

Anyway, the boys dress up in stupid/awesome civilian clothes, and somehow manage to be great at driving and terrible at driving at the same time.   It’s a very zen kind of show.   Also there’s a smidgen of Vegebul goodness, and Icarus shows up for no apparent reason, so there’s something for everyone.   

10. Dragon Ball Z Episode 120

This the one where Future Trunks kills Mecha Frieza.   There’s no shortage of fans who think reviving Frieza in the 2010′s was worth it, but for my money, nothing they do with the character can possibly top his (first) death scene.  

Leading up to this episode, everyone just assumed that Goku killed Frieza on Namek, but he survived, got rebuilt as a cyborg, and invaded Earth for revenge.  The implication is that Goku will have to fight an even stronger version of his greatest foe, except he’s nowhere to be found, and no one else stands a chance of holding the line until Goku can arrive.  

But then the story ups the ante again by having a totally new character show up, turn Super Saiyan, and shrug off Frieza’s attacks like they’re nothing.   When he finally attacks Frieza, he whips out a cool-looking ki blast, and that turns out to just be a feint.    No, his real attack is a simple swing of an ordinary sword, which cuts Frieza in half like he’s made out of butter.

Meanwhile, all the major characters are standing on the sidelines wondering what the hell is going on here.    There’s a Super Saiyan besides Goku?   Aren’t all the Saiyans extinct?   Where did this new guy come from, and how did he even know to be here?

It’s a brilliant episode, because it serves as a coda to the menace of Frieza that loomed large over the previous 119 episodes of Z, and it also serves as a prelude to the next 75 episodes, which promises a crisis far beyond anything that’s come before.   But it also works as a stand-alone story.    Frieza’s body tells the story of why he wants revenge on the Super Saiyan, and when Trunks reveals that there’s more than one Super Saiyan, he completely self-destructs.   He goes from the tyrant of the universe to just another corpse in a matter of minutes.   It’s amazing to watch. 

9. Dragon Ball Episode 67

Strictly speaking, Goku’s assault on the Red Ribbon Army base is three episodes, so maybe it’s gauche to include one and not the others, but this one is the climax of the Red Ribbon’s downfall, so I think it stands out.   

By this point, Goku’s already entered the RRA headquarters, and is just having his way with the place.    Episode 66 was full of guys trying to shoot him, but he just kicks all their asses and moves on.    Staff Officer Black has finally realized what they should have accepted from the beginning: that Goku is too strong for them to defeat by force.    But Commander Red can’t quite bring himself to give up the fight.   Maybe it’s because so much of his identity is tied into the Red Ribbon’s supposed invincibility, or he just can’t fathom how a small boy can do all these things.   

I think what really hurts his pride is when his soldiers start deserting en masse.   Before, he could keep them in line because of the Red Ribbon’s fearsome reputation, but that’s over now, whether he believes it or not.    When Colonel Violet loots his treasure vault, not even bothering to disable the security cameras, he has to know that it’s all over. 

Then we find out that he only wanted the Dragon Balls so that he could make a wish to become taller, and Black is horrified.    He wasted all those lives and resources for something as petty and selfish as that?    What makes this episode so great is how the world around them is crashing down, and they’re arguing over a plan that’ll never happen anyway.  And Red absolutely doesn’t get why Black would think his wish was stupid.   He’s like “Um, you need to check your tall privilege?”   And Black shoots him in the face because he’s just done. 

But this episode’s not done, because once Red is out of the picture, Black sort of loses it and tries to fight Goku for possession of the Dragon Balls.   It’s really amazing character development, because Black was the calm, collected center of the Red Ribbon Army, but then he just flips out, forgetting all the lessons his comrades learned the hard way.    The lure of the Dragon Balls is just too seductive for him to give up.  

Also, Colonel Violet is super cute.

8. Dragon Ball Z Episode 135

A few episodes before this one, Vegeta debuted his own Super Saiyan transformation, and kicked the shit out of Android 19.  It was a big deal, because up to that point, Goku and Trunks were the only Super Saiyans, implying that jerks like Vegeta couldn’t do it.    It was also a big deal because it was assumed up to that point that the androids might just be unbeatable, and Vegeta clobbered one of them in a single episode.   

But that episode didn’t make the list, because this one is far more important.    Here, Vegeta tries to press his luck by challenging the even stronger Android 18, even though everyone else tries to tell him this is a terrible idea.   What follows is one of the coolest fights in the series, and the best classic Dragon Ball battle to feature a woman.   For a while it looks pretty even, but then 18 reveals she was hustling Vegeta the whole time, and defeats him with no trouble at all.

Why is this such a big moment?   For one thing, it’s the next step in deconstructing the Super Saiyan Legend.   Vegeta had already proven that you don’t have to be a good person to turn into a Super Saiyan, and that it’s not just a once-in-a-millennium thing.   Here, he proves that Super Saiyans aren’t as invincible as he liked to believe.   We’d already seen Goku lose to Android 19, but he was sick at the time.   Trunks was no match for he androids in his own timeline, but those battles had happened off-screen.   This is a much more visceral demonstration.   You’ve got the Saiyan Prince, in perfect health, fresh as a daisy, comfortably transformed, and it doesn’t do him a damn bit of good.  18 breaks his arm like it’s not even hard.

For Vegeta, this was a big deal, because it finally cemented the fact that there is no finish line.    From his first appearance, he seemed convinced that he could become the supreme being in his universe, simply by killing Frieza, becoming immortal, or transforming into a Super Saiyan.   Here, he thinks he’s finally pulled it off, only to lose even more decisively than ever before.

7. Dragon Ball Episode 99

I debated whether to go with this one or Episode 101, where Tien finally beats Goku to win the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, but I think this episode deserves the nod.    The Goku/Tien championship bout spanned several episodes, but this is the one where Tien finally decides that he’d rather win the title than avenge Tao Pai Pai.   

Let me back up a bit here.    Goku (seemingly) killed Tao in a prior episode, and Tao was the brother of the Crane Hermit, Tien’s master.    So going into this fight, Tien was planning to defeat Goku, win the championship, and then kill Goku in front of the live audience, just to get that extra bit of revenge.    But once the fight actually got rolling, Tien began to develop a begrudging respect for Goku’s talent, and then this episode happens, where Tien starts winning, and Goku accuses him of cheating.    Tien doesn’t know what he’s talking about at first, until he realizes that the Crane Hermit is using Chiaotzu’s psychic powers to paralyze Goku at key moments.  

Once he figures it out, he tells them to stop, since he wants to prove his own superiority, but Crane just wants Goku to die, title or no title.   He orders Tien to stop clowning and kill Goku at once, but Tien refuses, and turns his back on the life of an assassin.   Chiaotzu does the same, since he was enjoying the match before all the interference started.    Crane flips out, but Roshi Kamehameha’s him out of the stadium, allowing Tien and Goku to finally fight without any outside interference.  

Tien’s first order of business is to let Goku have a bunch of free shots, in order to make up for all the hits Tien got in while Chiaotzu was cheating.   Then he grows four arms, because he still wants to kick Goku’s ass, even if he doesn’t hate him anymore. 

Tien’s reform isn’t unique in the series, but I think his particular transformation is very neatly accomplished, inside this one episode, during a single epic battle.    Like so many other characters, he figures out that revenge, power, and bloodlust are hollow pursuits compared to the thrill of pushing your own limits through the sacred art of gonzo anime violence.   Being a bad guy isn’t just morally shameful, it’s downright boring.   Piccolo and Vegeta would eventually learn the same lesson, but it never gets spelled out quite as eloquently as it does in this episode.   Also, Launch tries to kill Chiaotzu with a giant cartoon mallet.  

6. Dragon Ball Episode 147

On the other hand, you’ve got this episode from the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, where Piccolo doesn’t learn a damned thing, except how to take an epic beating.

This episode is just wall-to-wall nuts.    Piccolo blows up the entire city where the tournament is being held, and that’s just for openers.    Tien uses his Ki-ko-ho to make a foxhole for the others to hide in, and Launch kicks Kami into it when he doesn’t jump in right away.   

Piccolo’s city-busting blast was intended to finish off Goku, but it doesn’t even scratch the lovable bastard, and it just gives Goku and opening to pound the ever-loving crap out of Big Green.    Goku just goes sickhouse on him, in one of the most satisfying and well-animated sequences in the whole series.   And to add insult to injury, he continues to play by the tournament rules.   Once he has Piccolo laid out where the ring used to be, he asks for a ten count.  

And that turns out to be a huge mistake, as Piccolo has enough juice left to zap him with a mouth blast at the last second.   The attack leaves a baseball-sized hole in Goku’s pec, and Piccolo just starts stomping on the wound.   Worse, he’s still strong enough that no one else can come to Goku’s rescue.   

And then, just when Goku looks to be finished, he gets back up anyway, still looking to win this battle.    Is he overconfident or just stupid?   Neither actually, as he has the whole fight under control, as the next episode reveals.  

5. Dragon Ball Z Episode 281

Oh mannnn, this episode ruuuules.   One of my pet peeves with this fandom is people crapping on the Buu Saga, simply for coming at the tail end of this franchise.   It’s bullshit, just like how Star Wars purists act like Empire Strikes Back is the best movie ever made and Return of the Jedi is a cinematic bowel movement.   They’re both good, you just lost interest before the series ended. 

The Buu arc isn’t my favorite, but it’s balls-to-the-wall awesome, and when I was making this list I had a hard time picking a favorite episode from the Kid Buu fight.    It’s just such a beautiful battle, packed with story and character development.    I can’t blame viewers for getting burnt out on Dragon Ball if they watched the preceding 433 episodes first, but to say these episodes are bad is just flat-out wrong.

Anyway, I went with 281, which features the tail end of Goku’s solo effort against Kid Buu.   Vegeta steps into give Goku a pep talk, and Goku admits that he can’t gather enough power to blow Buu away.   To do that, he’ll need a full minute to charge his ki, and Vegeta offers to buy him that minute, even though he’s weaker than Goku and doesn’t stand a chance against Buu by himself.   

What follows is a solid ten minutes of Vegeta getting clobbered, but he keeps getting back up and forcing himself to find new ways to play for time.    He doesn’t try to beat Buu, because he knows he can’t.  Instead, he keeps him busy, and psyches him out so he won’t bother Goku while he charges up.   

What makes this work is that it’s the counterpoint to Episode 133, seen earlier on this list.  Then, Vegeta thought his Super Saiyan form made him a guaranteed winner.   Now, he’s using Super Saiyan 2 in a desperate bid to just hold the line until an even stronger fighter can make his own last-ditch effort to win.    Vegeta’s fighting for a chance at victory, and it’s a slim chance at that.   One of my favorite things about this episode is how tragic it is.   By Episode 282, it becomes clear that Goku’s plan was never going to work, so Vegeta’s efforts were in vain.    But he doesn’t seem to mind much, because at least he got to throw down against Kid Buu and see exactly how long he could hold out.  

4. Dragon Ball Z Episode 184

This is the one where Gohan finally snaps and turns into a Super Saiyan 2, but when you put it like that, it seems so pedestrian.  

From his first appearance in Episode 1 of DBZ, Gohan was shown to have hidden potential, which was gradually brought out over the course of the series.   By the time the Cell Games rolled around, it was sort of implied that he had finally realized that full potential.   Goku trained him to be a Super Saiyan like himself, and how much higher could he possibly get than that?  

But Goku’s secret plan was for Gohan to fight Cell, and if he got in a pinch, Gohan would then tap into the same hidden potential he used to turn the tables on the Saiyans and Frieza.   Goku’s theory was that if he trained Gohan to be a Super Saiyan, then any power boost Gohan experienced during the fight would rachet him up to an even higher level never seen before.  

This suited Cell just fine, so he pooped out an army of mini-Cells to torture the Z-Fighters until Gohan’s rage pushed him into this higher level.   And that’s what this episode is all about, except it doesn’t really work.    The Cell Juniors clobber the heroes from pillar to post, but Gohan doesn’t change, and he doesn’t know how to make himself change.   Then Android 16 has an idea to talk him through it, and he convinces Mr. Satan to toss his severed head over to Gohan to he can make his speech.   Cell stomps on 16′s head in an impulsive act of cruelty, and then then “Unmei no Hi - Tmasahii Vs. Tamashii” starts playing.   

This is a huge moment in the series, not only because of the advent of Super Saiyan 2 and the turning of the tide in the Cell Games, but also because it marks the fufillment of the promise of Gohan’s character.   We all knew he would become something great, and now it finally comes into focus.  

But this episode also gets high marks for how all the other characters are handled.   Goku’s “foolproof” plan collapses, and he’s forced to apologize while they all get beaten down; Android 16 sacrifices himself after already losing his body; Mr. Satan does what little he can, proving that he’s more than just a gloryhound; and Cell seems to have second thoughts once he finally gets a glimpse at Gohan’s hidden power.  

3. Dragon Ball Z Episode 94

Maybe it would make more sense to pick the episode where Goku turns Super Saiyan for the first time, but I think the false-finish that precedes it deserves the spot.   I’ll try to explain.  

There’s really three things going on in this one.   First, Goku’s trying to assemble a Spirit Bomb powerful enough to kill Frieza.   In the previous episode, Frieza finally noticed what he was up to, and he decided to kill Goku before he could use the bomb.    But the bomb still isn’t big enough, so Goku needs more time.  

Second, Piccolo has jumped in to keep Frieza busy long enough for Goku to get the time he needs.   Much of this episode is Frieza beating up on a defenseless Piccolo, and then Krillin and Gohan jump in too.   It’s just awesome seeing all these guys throw everything they can into this effort.  

Third, there’s a filler subplot featuring the dead Z-Fighters on King Kai’s planet fighting the dead Ginyu Force members.   It’s goofy, and kind of inconsequential, but it’s fun.   I just like seeing the whole gang getting to worth together in the same episode.  

So when Goku finally deploys the Spirit Bomb and Frieza finds himself overwhelmed, it really feels like a team effort.  King Kai reports that Frieza’s been beaten, and this inspires Yamcha and the others to put the Ginyus away for keeps.   On Namek, only Krillin and Gohan are left standing after the Spirit Bomb explodes, and they wonder if Goku and Piccolo could have survived.  

I won’t sugar-coat it, a lot of DBZ episodes go pretty light on plot points.   So when you get one like this, with so many things going on all at once, and so many characters joining in, and so much suspense and drama, it really clicks.  This would have been a brilliant finale to the Frieza Saga, and the icing on the cake is that it’s all for naught.   Frieza’s fine in the next episode, which is all-the-more frustrating because of how satisfying this episode was.   

2. Dragon Ball Z Episode 179

Huh, I got a lot of Androids/Cell episodes on this list.   It’s almost like the Androids/Cell arc is the best one and it rules over all.   Nah, that can’t be it.  

This is the high-water mark of the Goku/Cell fight, which the whole series had been building to since Cell was first introduced some thirty-odd episodes earlier.   Here’s the new big-bad final boss, the next Frieza, essentially, so naturally it’s going to be up to Goku to put him down in a 19-episode brawl.  Only that’s not what happens.     Goku goes into the Cell Games admitting that he’s no match for Cell, but he wants to fight the guy anyway.   No one understands what he’s planning, but he seems pretty upbeat for a guy who expects to lose.  

The fight itself only goes four episodes.   The first is a feeling-out process, the second is mostly Cell showboating, but in this third episode, they really go at it.  The animation is beautifully handled by Keisuke Masunaga.   He’d supervised a handful of episodes before this, but this one is the first action-heavy episode, truly serving as a demonstration of what he could do.  

Plotwise, there isn’t a whole lot to say.   The battle goes pretty evenly here, and the main appeal is that all the other characters are still trying to figure out what Goku’s strategy is.   He said he couldn’t win, and yet he’s hanging in there with Cell, so what’s the deal?   You might think Goku’s aiming to win on a technicality, using Cell’s own rules against him, except Cell enjoys the fight so much that he blows up his own ring to prevent any chance of an out-of-bounds finish.    From here, the Cell Games can only end by surrender or death.  

So then Goku goes up into the air and tries a Kamehameha, similar to the one Cell used earlier in the battle.   Cell thinks it’s a bluff, since he knows he can dodge it, and from that steep an angle, Goku would just end up hitting the Earth and destroying it.    But Goku doesn’t blink, and just when Cell isn’t sure what’s going to happen, Goku teleports right in front of him and unloads the Kamehameha into his face at pointblank range.    

It’s another false finish.   Cell survives, but he has to grow back his head and arms first.    But for a moment, it looks like this was Goku’s big plan.  He knew he couldn’t outpower Cell, so he out-finessed him by using the Instant Transmission to get past his guard.   And you know, if the ring hadn’t been destroyed, maybe this would have worked.   Goku could have tossed Cell’s decaptitated body out of bounds and Cell would have regenerated to find himself outside the ring.   I always wonder what he would have done in that scenario.    I mean, Cell’s kind of a sore loser, but he seems to respect clever ploys, and the tournament was his idea.  

Anyway, Cell rules, this episode is wall-to-wall action, and the Warp Kamehameha is the best move in Budokai 2.  

1. Dragon Ball Z Episode 31

Personally, I find the Saiyans Saga to be slightly overrated, but dammit, this episode has just about everything.    I’d go so far as to say that when people praise the Saiyans Saga, they’re really only thinking back to this one episode, or maybe five of the best episodes that include this one. 

Here’s the deal: Vegeta has invaded Earth and all of the Z-Fighters are dead or badly hurt.  Only Goku is left to stop this guy, and he’s armed with the Kai-o-ken technique, a power multiplier as effective as it is risky.    King Kai warned Goku never to go beyond a double Kai-o-ken, because anything more than that could cripple his own body.   But he tried that in the previous episode, and Vegeta laughed it off.  So in this episode, Goku reluctantly goes for a Kai-o-ken times three.   

And for a few glorious minutes, Vegeta gets completely wrecked.  Goku just picks him apart with hit after hit after hit.    It’s enough to humble Vegeta and it’s enough to draw blood, but it doesn’t actually put the guy down.   Instead, Vegeta becomes so outraged that he flips out and tries to destroy the entire planet with his finisher, the Galick Gun.    This leaves no choice for Goku to keep using the Kai-o-ken times three, and he’s gotta fire a Kamehameha to block Vegeta’s shot.  

And when that turns out to be too weak to push back Vegeta’s attack, Goku is forced to turn it up even higher and use a four times Kai-o-ken.    So now we’re beyond anything King Kai had imagined when he taught him the technique.   It works, and Goku manages to shoot Vegeta into space, but his body is terribly banged up from the effort.  

Which is a real shame, because Vegeta manages to save himself from being blasted into space, and he’s still got enough juice to pull his own trump card: turning into a giant ape!   Saiyans need a full moon to do this, and Piccolo helpfully destroyed the moon before Vegteta’s arrival, but that doesn’t matter, because Vegeta can make his own artificial moonlight with a special ki technique!   So the episode ends with an exhausted Goku staring at a hundred-foot tall Vegeta-ape.  

And hopefully I’ve made my point.   You’ve got three big BIG moments in the series here.    Goku’s Kai-o-ken X3 offensive against Vegeta was what made their rivalry.  Before that, Vegeta never came close to sweating Goku, and afterward, every time Vegeta thought back on their battle, this was the part he remembered.   The Galick Gun/Kamehameha beam struggle was an iconic moment all by itself, and it’s the standard by which all other beam struggles are judged.   And then you’ve got Vegeta using the fake moon trick and turning into a giant ape, setting the stage for the final leg of the battle.    Any one of these things would earn a spot on this list, but DBZ #31 has all three.   It’s gotta take the top spot.   It’s just gotta. 

There’s a lot of really great episodes I didn’t cover.   I’m a big fan of the Pikkon episodes, and the one where 16 fights Cell is a personal fave, and the Vegito episodes are awesome too.   But there’s only so much room at the top.     I bet I could have a completely different list in a couple years’ time.   In conclusion, Dragon Ball fucking rules.

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Naptime, Dragon Ball Z #136

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Dragon Ball Z #238 Moodboard

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