The first episode of Dragon Ball GT, broadcast in Japan on February 7, 1996 and titled A Devastating Wish in Funimation's dub, opens the new series by going back to the beginning. An elderly Emperor Pilaf finds a hidden set of Dragon Balls on Kami's Lookout and, with one angry outburst, turns Goku back into a child. The cost emerges at the end: unless the balls return to Earth within a year, the planet will explode.
Summary
Five years after leaving the World Martial Arts Tournament with Uub, Goku wraps up his student's training with one last all-out sparring match, in a chamber of the Lookout built so they can cut loose without harming the planet. Both collapse, Dende patches them up and Uub thanks his teacher before heading home to his family. Goku decides it is time he went home too: he has been away for years and suspects Chi-Chi will be furious.
Meanwhile an elderly but stubborn Emperor Pilaf scales the Lookout with Shu and Mai. Deep inside, he finds seven balls marked with black stars, made by the previous Kami before he split from King Piccolo and supposedly stronger than the usual set. He summons the dragon, but before he can ask to rule the world, Goku shows up to investigate the light. Pilaf fails to recognize him at first, then, enraged at how big his old nemesis has grown, blurts out that he wishes Goku were small again so he could teach him a lesson. The dragon takes him at his word: Goku shrinks and the balls scatter.
King Kai, contacted through Dende, explains that only another wish can undo it, but these balls do not stay on Earth: they spread across planets in all four galaxies. Unbothered, Goku heads into the city. There he stumbles onto a hostage situation, the same one Pan runs into while on a date. Mistaking him for some random little boy, she pulls him out of harm's way and takes the robbers down herself, while her date flees in terror.
Master Roshi, passing by, recognizes Goku's energy inside the new body, to Pan's embarrassment. At home, Chi-Chi bursts into tears while Gohan and Videl struggle for words. Then King Kai brings the worst news: if the Black Star Dragon Balls are not brought back within a year, Earth will be destroyed.
Our take
GT starts about as far from the ending of Z as it could. There, Goku flew off with Uub toward a new chapter; here, the student leaves after a few minutes and the hero is shrunk back to his original Dragon Ball size, in a blue gi that echoes his very first outfit, with Pilaf of all people pulling the trigger. The message is clear: fewer tournaments, more adventure, and the light, wandering tone of the early days.
Pilaf is what makes it work. The botched wish is a perfect gag for a character who only ever wins by accident, and tracing the new balls back to the old Kami ties the idea to the King Piccolo mythology without a lot of explaining. The city section works less well, since the robbery and Pan's date feel like padding. They do, however, introduce her as strong, impulsive and fed up with being treated like a kid, and she is about to become the co-lead of the journey.
The closing threat rewrites the rules of the Dragon Balls and hands the series a ticking clock. As first episodes go, it lays a solid foundation.
Trivia
- Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Osamu Kasai, with Kazuya Hisada as animation director and Naoki Miyahara as chief animation supervisor.
- It drew a 19.6% rating share in Japan.
- It is the first episode scored by Akihito Tokunaga, who took over from Shunsuke Kikuchi, composer for Dragon Ball and Z.
- The grown-up Uub gets a new Japanese voice: Atsushi Kisaichi replaces Megumi Urawa.
- The Japanese version places the story five years after Z, while Funimation's dub stretches the gap to a decade. Funimation skipped episodes 1-16 in the first US run, airing them later as "The Lost Episodes."
Characters
- Goku, Uub, Dende and Mr. Popo
- Emperor Pilaf, Shu and Mai
- Ultimate Shenron and King Kai
- Pan, Master Roshi and the robbers
- Gohan, Videl and Chi-Chi