Episode 47 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on June 4, 1997 and titled The Greatest Surprise in Funimation's dub, closes the Super 17 Saga and opens the last arc of the series. Goku goes all in, but the turning point comes from Android 18, determined to avenge her husband. Then, just when it all seems over, the Dragon Balls have the bitterest surprise of all in store.
Summary
Videl flies toward the battlefield carrying a terrified Chi-Chi, followed by Bulma and Bulla in a hovercar; Bulma watches the landscape shift and wonders how the Earth can ever be put back the way it was.
Dr. Myuu has had enough and orders Super 17 to finish Goku. The Saiyan dodges the energy sphere with Instant Transmission, reappears behind the android and locks him in a hold. He is ready to die to stop him: he gathers all his energy and blows himself up. The sky erupts, the Earth shakes, and Vegeta thinks his rival has gone too far. When the smoke clears, Goku is a child again, lying exhausted on the ground. Myuu barely has time to despair before Super 17 rises out of the water: at the last moment he shielded himself with a barrier, which saved Goku as well.
The android is about to finish him when Android 18 steps in between. She threatens her brother: if he fires, she will set off the bomb in her chest and take them both down. She also tells him she will never forgive him for killing Krillin. Myuu scolds the android for hesitating, and Super 17, fed up with his orders, turns the energy sphere on him and wipes him out.
Android 18 opens fire with a nonstop barrage. Super 17 absorbs it laughing and Goku warns her she is only making him stronger, but she will not stop. Watching the scene, Goku spots the decisive detail: while absorbing energy, the android stands still and cannot defend himself. He charges in with the Dragon Fist, punches straight through him in Krillin's name and finishes him with a Kamehameha.
With the battle over, Goku comforts Android 18. As he sees it, the real Android 17 won from the inside, turning against Myuu and showing them how to beat him. Chi-Chi, Videl, Bulma and Bulla arrive ready to fight, but it is all over. What remains is to repair an Earth thrown into chaos by the gateways to Hell and to bring back Krillin and the other victims. Goku, Pan, Trunks and Giru gather the Dragon Balls, but they are covered in cracks. They use them anyway: black smoke pours out of the balls and takes the shape of a huge dragon nobody has ever seen.
Our take
The Japanese title speaks of a combined attack by Goku and Android 18, and it is right: she is the moral center of the episode. After Krillin's death, the saga finally gives her the scene she deserves. Hers is a desperate bluff, since the androids' bombs had been removed years earlier thanks to one of Krillin's own wishes, and her fury toward her brother hits harder than any explosion. Goku wins because he pays attention, not because he is stronger: the curious kid's solution the series had been chasing from the start.
The ending, though, is what makes the episode memorable. The cracked Dragon Balls and the black smoke dragon turn the magic tool that had fixed every disaster in the franchise into the final enemy. Writer Atsushi Maekawa explained that this was exactly the theme: asking how problems get solved in a world where the Dragon Balls do not exist. This is where the Shadow Dragon Saga begins, the most ambitious stretch of GT.
Trivia
- Written by Atsushi Maekawa and directed by Kazuhito Kikuchi, with Takeo Ide as animation director.
- Dr. Myuu leaves the story for good, eliminated by his own creation just as Gero was two episodes earlier.
Did you know? In the series finale Android 17 is not brought back with the other victims, and plenty of fans complained. Maekawa revealed that the scene was in the script, dialogue and all, but was cut for time.