Episode 30 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on December 4, 1996 and titled The Game After Life in Funimation's dub, reveals that Goku is not dead: he has landed in a bizarre dimension where he must bet his life on a life-sized board game against the odd Sugoro. Back on Earth, Baby uses the Black Star Dragon Balls to resurrect his people's home world.
Summary
A split second before impact, Kibito Kai had grabbed Goku to teleport him to safety, but the shockwave hit them mid-jump and the Saiyan slipped from his grasp. Kibito Kai turns up on the Sacred World of the Kais, ruins Elder Kai's fishing and confesses his blunder: Goku has fallen into Sugoroku Space, the one place the old deity's powers cannot reach.
There Goku meets Sugoro, who explains the rules: to get out, he has to reach the finish before his host, and the loser forfeits his life. On top of that, Goku's powers are against the rules, leaving him with nothing but a die and his nerve. The game goes badly from the first roll. Goku keeps landing on the worst squares while Sugoro seems blessed with endless luck. After botching a riddle, Goku slides toward a row of spikes and saves himself only by bracing against the wall at the last instant.
On Earth, meanwhile, Dende comes down from the Lookout with the seven Black Star Dragon Balls and hands them to Baby, who remains master of the planet. The parasite summons Ultimate Shenron and wishes for Plant, the Tuffle world, to be recreated next to Earth. The wish is granted. Pan sees the dragon for the first time and bursts into tears: the Dragon Balls scatter across space once again, the threat to Earth remains, and now she would have to find them on her own. Mr. Satan comforts her, and Pan decides to take the fight straight to the enemy planet; he reluctantly agrees to follow.
At Capsule Corporation, Bulma has built a gigantic spaceship, and the possessed humans gather to emigrate to Plant. Pan tries to call out to Trunks, but Mr. Satan stops her before she gives herself away. Together with Majin Buu, they start working on a way to sneak aboard in disguise.
Our take
After the beating of the previous episode, GT switches gears completely. Sugoroku Space is a comic, surreal interlude, with a powerless Goku forced to get by on his wits, much like in the early days of Dragon Ball. It can feel out of place during the darkest stretch of the saga, but it at least gets Goku off the board while Baby fulfills his dream, and makes his absence more convincing than a simple escape would.
The part that really matters happens on Earth. Baby's wish closes the circle opened by the Tuffles' backstory: the people wiped out by the Saiyans get their planet back, only to have it filled with humans reduced to hosts for the parasite. And this second use of the Black Star Dragon Balls is no throwaway detail: the countdown hanging over Earth will come back to haunt everyone at the end of the saga.
Pan, meanwhile, becomes the emotional center of the story. She is the only Saiyan still free, she has just lost her grandfather, and she chooses to go on the offensive anyway: a real step forward for a character who began as a tagalong.
Trivia
- Written by Atsushi Maekawa and directed by Takahiro Imamura, with Takeo Ide as animation director.
- Plant is the original name of the planet the Saiyans renamed Planet Vegeta after exterminating the Tuffles.
- The starting square of the board reads "AER YOU READY?", a typo for "ARE".
- The second half of the Japanese title, "Ora wa shinjimatta da", borrows the famous refrain of "Kaette Kita Yopparai", a 1967 novelty song by The Folk Crusaders about a drunk who finds himself in the afterlife.