Dragonball Z Episode 5 Review: “Gohan’s Rage”
How many other
episodes of this show could have been titled “Gohan’s Rage?” First one that
comes to mind is, of course, the episode where Gohan finally goes SS2 against
Cell (and yeah, I know, most people do SSJ2, but fuck that, this is the dub,
there’s no “Saiyajin”). There’s also “Gohan Returns,” the 100th
episode of the series, where Gohan goes back to check in his father during his
final battle with Frieza. Maybe the episode not long after where Gohan fights
with Vegeta on Earth during the last moments of Goku/Frieza, but that’s just a
filler sparring match.
But don’t get me wrong; this episode deserves the title.
I didn’t rate this
episode 5 out of 5 for nothing, because though most people don’t really care
about it, this is among the most consequential episodes in the entire show. Think
about all of the major events in this thing: Gohan’s hidden powers are shown in
battle for the first time, Raditz is killed, Goku—our unstoppable, infallible
hero—gives his life to help kill his own homicidal brother, Piccolo is their
killer, Vegeta and Nappa are introduced to us for the first time, and—of
course—Goku is first taken to train in the Other World, something he will do
time and time again as circumstances require, or at least allow him to.
It’s almost, dare I
say, Shakespearian how these events in the episode play out. Save for Piccolo,
this is an intra-family battle. Goku, Raditz, Gohan, these are all
blood-related characters! And Piccolo is Goku’s greatest enemy. The levels of
layered irony in play here are staggering—Gohan is about to be killed by Raditz
(“You are the first Saiyan to ever damage me like this, my nephew. I will give
you a death that is worthy of a Saiyan.”) after the former severely damages the
latter with a single headbutt to the solar plexus to save his father, but said
father manages to grab Raditz from behind in a full Nelson, giving Piccolo—the
arch-nemesis of Goku who has sworn to kill him since his own birth—the
opportunity to kill them both in one attack, the one meant for Goku since its
inception. And all of this to save the Earth, to save Gohan, the two things
that Piccolo would just as soon kill as ever save. But how else could he defeat
Raditz, the brother of his worst enemy?
And think about
this: when King Piccolo was dealt his death blow by Goku—who, might I add,
burst through his stomach to kill him, similarly to Gohan’s rage headbutt and
Piccolo’s Special Beam Cannon against Raditz—he spit out the egg that would
become Piccolo Jr., the one sworn to avenge his father and take over the Earth
once again. So Piccolo saves the Earth by killing his enemy (“how noble for
you, and how convenient for me”), who he recognizes will, and must, come back
to help battle the other Saiyans when they arrive one year later. He kills
Goku, which had always been his life’s mission, to make him stronger when he
returns, which is the last thing in the world he should want, because Goku
killed his father. Furthermore, Piccolo himself becomes something of a
surrogate father for Gohan during the year between the Raditz arc and the rest
of the Saiyan arc, and Gohan’s the son of his enemy!
THAT is how much the
Saiyan arc upended everything that had been set into place at the end of
Dragonball. Everything is now topsy-turvy, dogs and cats living together, mass
hysteria. I never thought about how genius these circumstances were until I
started writing these essays, but holy shit, this first arc is brilliant in
terms of how it completely redefines the circumstances of Goku’s and Piccolo’s
relation to each other. From the King Piccolo arc to the end of the Raditz
arc—or maybe the end of the Saiyan arc as a whole—you could legitimately write
out a strong five-act play.
But this ain’t
Shakespeare, this is DBZ. And we know the main difference is that no one stays
dead in this damn show, so even before Goku’s body is taken to the Other World,
Piccolo, with a knowing smirk, acknowledges he’ll be revived with the dragon
balls, and he wants this to happen. I wonder, is this the moment where he
switched sides? Yeah, he’s still talking about taking over the world after he
takes Gohan to train for a year, but that could just be his own denial of his
changed feelings. There’s a filler flashback towards the end of the Frieza saga
where Piccolo says something like, “How could I hate someone who would make
such an honorable sacrifice?” It’s likely that Piccolo was still leaning evil
after Goku and Raditz were killed. But I also think, at the very least, Piccolo
came to deeply respect Goku as more than just a warrior, but as a person, when
he staked him and his brother through the gut that day on the battlefield. Goku
didn’t even hesitate, he knew what needed to be done, he would have done it
dragon balls or not, and in that moment of deep self-sacrifice he helped
recalibrate Piccolo’s entire moral compass. It’s a beautiful moment.
But of course, we
haven’t even covered the next major looming conflict. Piccolo blabs that Goku
will be revived with the dragon balls, trying to mock Raditz in his last
seconds of life, and Raditz gets in one last blow—the transmitter in his scouter
relayed that message one year across space to Vegeta and Nappa, who are now on
the warpath, but not for Raditz, the disgrace who couldn’t even hold his own
against his little brother. No, they’re after the dragon balls. Interestingly,
we see that Nappa is willing to use them to wish Raditz back, in fact, he
assumes that’s what they’re going to do with them. But Vegeta ain’t having it,
he’s got no use for Raditz. No, what he needs is immortality, so he and Nappa
can become Super Saiyans (first mention of this in the entire show!) and,
though this isn’t directly stated yet, shake off Frieza’s chains of tyranny
that had been holding them captive since the destruction of Planet Vegeta and
almost the entire Saiyan race.
So, this is the last
time we ever see Raditz, except for at least one flashback I can remember much
later in the series. What little we know about him was that he was the weakest
of the trio of evil Saiyans, he didn’t really have the respect of the other two
(they don’t seem surprised at ALL that he died), he had a piss-poor sense of
honor (begged for his life, wanted to murder his own brother and nephew, was
totally shocked that Goku would be willing to sacrifice his own life to end
his), and ultimately existed more as a catalyst for the rest of the
Saiyan/Namek/Frieza sagas than as a character of any considerable emotional
import. Hell, Nappa’s more sympathetic than Raditz, and that’s the guy who
single-handedly chews through most of the Z-team by himself. So it’s no
surprise that Raditz is such a forgettable villain, despite being hugely
important.
Still, these first
five episodes were a damn fine start, and in a way, I wish the rest of the
series had the sense of pacing these episodes have. Sure, they could be pared
down to about three, if you remove most of the first episode and a good chunk
of the second, as well as some unnecessary Chi-Chi scenes through all of them,
but they watch very well. I didn’t expect this to be one of the finest episodes
of the series when I sat down to watch it, but damned if it wasn’t.
5/5
Stray Observations:
--And so begins the brief, storied life of redhead Vegeta.
Only thing that’s missing is an Irish accent, and I wouldn’t have been remotely
surprised if the Ocean dub or initial Funi dub had given him one.
--Gotta love the spirals they draw for Gohan’s eyes when
Raditz backhands him. In the middle of this gravely serious confrontation, they
still add that Looney Tunes-style flourish.
--Raditz doesn’t do the dying speech as good as Vegeta does
much later on Namek, but hey, Vegeta’s got much better material to work with.
--I didn’t even mention Roshi, Krillin, and Bulma in the
review. They showed up after the fighting was over, and didn’t do much outside
of mourning Goku’s death.
--Oh, and Ox-King shows up too, in a scene with Chi-Chi.
Meh.
--Gohan’s power level as he prepares to attack Raditz:
1,370. Raditz, having a max power of 12-1500, had every right to be shitting
his underoos a little.
--And finally, the Raditz line that can be used during any
DBZ saga at some points: “I should have killed you!”
This shit's hot as fuck
ReplyDelete