Episode 3 of Dragon Ball GT, broadcast in Japan on February 21, 1996 and titled Terror on Imecka in Funimation's dub, takes the journey to its first alien world. A breakdown forces Goku, Trunks and Pan to land on Imecka, a planet of merchants who would charge for the air if they could. The day ends even worse than it started: a little white robot swallows the Dragon Radar and their ship gets hauled away.
Summary
Out in space, Trunks tries everything to get the ship's key off Pan so he can take her home, but she keeps slipping away and finally tucks it into her top, where he does not dare go after it. Goku, meanwhile, just keeps eating. The argument settles itself when the ship starts acting up: a part has come off, thanks to the kick Pan gave the wall before launch, and the failures pile up until an emergency landing is the only option.
The nearest planet is Imecka. At first it looks like a city in the middle of a festival, but the trio soon realizes that every local has one thing on their mind: squeezing money out of visitors. Mobbed by vendors, they take refuge in a luxury hotel, only to find that every item in the room has a price and that the bill goes up by the second. They run off without paying and wander through the rain disguised as Imeckians.
They are taken in by an elderly couple living in poverty. The two explain that the planet is ruled by Don Kee, a greedy tyrant who sets impossible prices and seizes the property of anyone who cannot pay. The point is made for them moments later, when robots show up to evict the old couple for falling behind on payments. Goku, Trunks and Pan spend the night in their ship.
The next morning they run into a small white robot that, without ceremony, eats their Dragon Radar. While they chase it down, Trunks spots their spaceship being dragged away by Don Kee's army. With no radar and no ride, the trio is stranded on Imecka.
Our take
Imecka is GT's first clear statement of what its opening arc wants to be: an episodic road trip across odd planets, each one built around its own bit of satire. Here the target is greed, and the hotel that bills by the second is the best gag, because it turns an abstract idea into a concrete, absurd situation. It is the same spirit as the towns and villages young Goku wandered through in the early days of Dragon Ball.
The weakness is pacing. The episode spends a long time introducing the planet and very little making things happen: the actual plot, the swallowed radar and the confiscated ship, arrives in the final minutes. On the plus side, the trio's dynamic settles in. Trunks plays the responsible big brother, Pan the headstrong kid, Goku the hungry boy who never worries about anything. It is a balance the series will lean on for a long time.
The detail that matters most going forward is the robot. It looks like a throwaway gag, but the radar it just devoured will make it essential to the hunt for this series' Dragon Balls.
Trivia
- Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Kazuhito Kikuchi, with Yūji Hakamada as animation director.
- It drew a 19.1% rating share in Japan.
- First appearance of Giru, the robot who will become the fourth member of the team. Shinobu Satōchi voices him in Japanese and Sonny Strait in Funimation's dub.
- In Japanese the planet is called Imegga, and the original title labels its people "super greedy."
- Back on Earth, in a short scene of Chi-Chi doing laundry, a towel carries the misspelled logo "CAPSULE CORD."