Episode 13 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on May 21, 1986 and known in the English dub as The Legend of Goku, closes the Emperor Pilaf Saga. Transformed into a Great Ape, Goku levels the tyrant's castle until his friends cut off his tail. The next morning the group splits up: Bulma and Yamcha head to the city together, while Goku flies off to Master Roshi to begin his training.
Summary
The ape has burst out of the cell and keeps smashing everything. Yamcha tries to reason with him, but Goku no longer understands anything. The group climbs out of the prison while Pilaf, jolted awake, sees the monster break into his bedroom. Mai and Shu try to stop it by throwing slippers and pillows, then all three flee by plane.
Amid the collapsing walls Bulma hurts her leg, and Yamcha, overcoming his fear of girls, carries her and Oolong to safety. Pilaf, unable to bear the destruction of a castle built through years of hard work, orders the plane to turn back and attack. A missile knocks the ape down, and the emperor lands to kick him, even jumping on his tail. Goku gets back up, hurls one of the castle towers at the plane and brings it down.
That same tower nearly crushes Goku's friends: Bulma gets pinned under the rubble, and Yamcha frees her with a huge effort. Right then the ape grabs her and seems ready to eat her. Puar remembers that Goku's weak point is his tail: Yamcha, Oolong and Puar hang on to it until he weakens, then Puar turns into a giant pair of scissors and cuts it off. Goku slowly shrinks back into a boy and falls asleep. Pilaf, Mai and Shu, who survived the crash, give up on revenge.
In the morning the friends decide not to tell Goku that the monster who killed his grandfather was him. Goku wakes up naked, with no memory and no tail: he pulls on Oolong's pants and finds he can no longer keep his balance. After a brief tantrum he shrugs it off and digs his grandfather's Power Pole out of the rubble. Bulma and Yamcha realize they are in love and decide to go to West City together, with Puar and Oolong tagging along. Goku, though, wants to get stronger. Bulma gives him the Dragon Radar so he can find his grandpa's ball in a year, and he sets off on the Flying Nimbus for Roshi's house.
Our take
It is a proper saga finale: spectacular action in the first half, feelings and farewells in the second. The ape is animated like a Japanese movie monster, huge and lumbering, and the castle crumbling piece by piece shows just how strong he is. The anime adds Pilaf's air attack and the moment when Goku seems about to eat Bulma, two scenes absent from the manga that raise the tension before the resolution.
The best part, though, is the morning after. The choice to keep the truth from Goku gives the group a new maturity, and the boy's reaction to losing his tail, despair followed by total indifference, is perfectly in character. The farewell is simple and warm: everyone goes their own way, and Goku leaves with the excitement of someone who has just found out how big the world is.
In story terms, the episode is a hinge. It closes the first Dragon Ball hunt and opens the martial arts era that leads to the World Martial Arts Tournament. The Great Ape, meanwhile, will matter far more later on, when the series explains Goku's true origins.
Trivia
- In the manga, Pilaf's gang never attacks the ape and Goku never tries to eat Bulma: both are anime additions.
- According to Kanzenshuu's records, it is the first episode of the series that introduces no new background music.
- At the end the narrator plays a joke: he thanks viewers as if the series were over, then promises that the adventure continues.