Episode 51 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on February 18, 1987 and known in the English dub as Beware of Robot, is one long fight against the guardian of the pirates' lair, a robot armed with a machine gun and a sword, left behind to protect the treasure. Goku, Krillin and Bulma try everything to stop it, while General Blue watches from a corner, takes notes and prepares his move.
Summary
The robot glides across the water of the underground dock and opens fire. Goku slams it into the walls again and again, Krillin manages to wrench its sword away, but the machine shrugs off the damage. Bulma and Krillin find a cannon and try to hit it: the first shot lands squarely on Goku, the ceiling caves in on him and the floor gives way. For a few moments the boy is stuck, his tail pinned under a boulder.
The robot then turns on the other two, who flee up the stairs under a hail of bullets. Bulma even tries to run it over with a truck, to no avail. The chase leads through the lair, where the pirates are now nothing but skeletons, and ends in a room full of old computers: Bulma barely has time to think her father would call them priceless antiques before the guardian catches up.
But Goku has broken free. He reaches the room's window with the Power Pole, gets Bulma and Krillin down, and waits for the robot to charge down the stairs. Once the machine is below him, he dives from above and destroys it with a single blow. Hidden in the corridor, Blue watches the whole thing and, for the first time, considers the boy a worthy opponent.
The tunnels, meanwhile, start to collapse. Bulma and Krillin run ahead, leaving a chalk arrow to show Goku the way, but Blue alters it and the boy takes the wrong path. The two find a well and dive in to keep going; the general follows reluctantly, after taking off his jacket and hesitating at the water's edge.
Our take
The episode stretches the manga material quite a bit, and it shows: the robot keeps coming back, and some ideas, like Bulma's truck, feel designed mostly to fill the running time. Still, the fight holds up, because the guardian has a menacing presence and an angular design that sticks in the memory.
The best moment is Goku's final dive: after so many failed attempts, the answer comes from a simple, acrobatic move, pure Goku. The computer room is a nice touch too, a reminder that Bulma is a scientist's daughter even in the middle of a pirate adventure.
The real throughline, though, is Blue. He stays on the sidelines for most of the episode, yet he is the one moving the pieces: he studies Goku, separates him from his friends with a cheap trick and gets ready to strike at the two weakest. He is a patient villain, and his patience is scarier than the robot.
Trivia
- The episode adapts chapter 75 from page 4 and the first three pages of chapter 76 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 24.0% ratings share in Japan.
- The robot fight is much longer in the anime: Goku running along the balcony, the cannon, Bulma's truck and the tail trapped under the boulder are not in the manga.
- In the original English release the robot's voice had a filter to make it deeper; the remastered release removed it.
- In the dub, Blue's hesitation at the well becomes a joke about forgetting to pack his swimming trunks.
Did you know? In the Japanese version, as in the manga, Blue hesitates before diving into the well because he cannot tell whether the water is fresh or salty, and sea water would be bad for his skin.