Episode 18 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on July 10, 1996 and titled Unexpected Power in Funimation's dub, is Goku's payback against the machines of M2. Fresh out of his capsule, he faces the three remaining members of the Sigma Force alone, even though they have every one of his techniques stored in memory. The Japanese title sums up the lesson nicely: what matters is not in the data.
Summary
With Pan lying unconscious, the Sigma Force mock her, while conceding that she is the first ever to destroy one of their own. Goku has heard enough and challenges them. Trunks, meanwhile, comes to and carries Pan back to the ship. At first Giru's data works perfectly: the three robots dodge and counter every move, and a satisfied General Rilldo is already preparing to make Giru the most decorated warrior on M2.
Goku fakes being hurt by a punch to the stomach, then catches them off guard with a volley of energy blasts. The robots retreat into the walls and harass him with pranks, setting him on fire from behind and sweeping his legs out from under him. Goku does not bother working out the trick and solves the problem at the root: he brings down the entire building. With nowhere left to hide, the squad decides it will no longer deliver him alive to Dr. Myuu.
Back at the ship, Trunks finds everything turned upside down and rushes to check the bag of Dragon Balls: they are gone, stolen by Giru. He wakes Pan and the two resolve to take them back the hard way. On the battlefield, the three robots merge into a single war machine with extending arms and a giant drill. Goku uses those arms as a ramp, takes a hit and comes back with moves they have never seen. When he notes that they got stronger but not faster, the machine shifts into a new form to match him for speed as well.
The game lasts only as long as Goku wants it to. He stops the drill with his bare hands, cranks up his power in an instant and finishes them with a flurry of blows and a Kamehameha, without ever going Super Saiyan. Rilldo, watching on a screen, realizes the kid has been toying with them from the start and heads for the ship himself. Goku, already thinking about dinner, senses his enormous energy and flies off to intercept him, while Trunks and Pan brace for a fight.
Our take
This is a light episode, almost an interlude, and it knows it. The Sigma Force never truly puts Goku in danger; he fights with the same grin he wore as a kid in the original Dragon Ball. GT's child body fools his opponents, not the audience: underneath is the same warrior who beat Majin Buu.
The idea of machines fighting with stolen data recalls Dr. Gero, who in Z spent years spying on Goku before building his androids. The answer here is simpler and truer to the character: Goku cannot be predicted because he always improvises. The Japanese title, with its cocky, slangy phrasing, says it with just the right amount of irony.
The weak spot is tension, which never arrives. The fight is varied, the machine changes form several times and a few gags land, but the outcome is never in doubt. The real engine of the episode lies elsewhere: the Dragon Balls stolen by Giru and the arrival of Rilldo, which pushes the serious duel to the next installment.
Trivia
- Written by Masashi Kubota and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- It drew a 16.1% share in Japan, up from 14.9% for the previous episode.
- It aired two weeks after episode 17: no episode of the series was broadcast on July 3, 1996.
- Funimation calls the combined robot the Super Mega Cannon Sigma; Toei's official site refers to the squad itself as Mega Cannon Σ.
- Toei's official synopsis says Goku beats the Sigma Force by turning Super Saiyan, but on screen he wins without transforming. The transformation only comes in episode 19, against Rilldo.
Characters
- Goku, Trunks and Pan
- Giru
- General Rilldo
- The Sigma Force (Commander Nezi, Ribet and Bizu)