Episode 52 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on July 9, 1997 and titled The Seven-Star Dragon in Funimation's dub, introduces the most underestimated villain of the saga. Naturon Shenron (Chīshinron in Japanese) looks like a giant, lazy mole who only cares about causing earthquakes. It is all an act: when Goku beats him, the real enemy steps out of hiding and takes Pan.
Summary
Flying in search of the next Shadow Dragon, Giru picks up a Dragon Ball directly beneath them. Goku starts digging, but the ground shakes and an off-key song rises from below: Naturon Shenron, a huge purple mole of a dragon, is singing about how much he loves earthquakes. He only notices the trio when Goku yells into his ear. He admits he is not much of a fighter, yet he will not hand over his ball and goes back to tunneling. Neither Goku's taunts, borrowed from the trick he once used on Uub, nor a barrage of Pan's energy blasts get his attention.
Following the tunnel, grandfather and granddaughter realize the dragon is heading straight for a city. As the quake hits, Pan pulls people out of the rubble while Goku turns Super Saiyan 4, pushes the shifting slabs of earth back into place and even sets a leaning building upright. When Naturon surfaces and sees the skyline still standing, he finally loses his temper and attacks. Goku knocks him clear out of town and even pays him a compliment; the dragon replies that when he is angry, he is ten times the fighter.
Pressed by Pan, Naturon reveals he was born from the wish that brought back everyone killed by Majin Vegeta on the day of the World Martial Arts Tournament. His shockwaves travel through the ground, so the two simply stay airborne. Furious, he unleashes a whole volley, but Goku and Pan land on his head at the last second and he takes the full blast himself. Charred, he collapses and explodes.
The Seven-Star Ball drops into Pan's hands, but it never returns to its normal color. It stays dark, turns into a sphere of blue light and sucks her in as Goku watches. Naturon is reborn, bigger and far more dragon-like. He explains that the mole was just a borrowed body: the Dragon Ball is his true self, and now that he has absorbed Pan he is much stronger. His real target is an even better host, Super Saiyan 4 Goku.
Our take
For half the episode Naturon plays the saga's comic relief: the tone-deaf song, the bad hearing, the own goal. That is exactly why the twist lands. Other Shadow Dragons had already fought dirty, but Naturon is the first to make defeat his actual plan, letting himself be destroyed so that the prize Goku and Pan have been chasing becomes the trap.
Pan was conceived as a heroine who is always in danger, and here the show puts it right in the title. The risk of repeating the Baby arc formula, an ally held hostage who cannot be hit, is obvious; still, a dragon whose body is the Dragon Ball itself is one of the nastiest ideas of the whole arc.
The first half also gives us a rare superhero Goku. Holding a collapsing city together is an image Dragon Ball almost never uses, since cities are usually wrecked and later fixed with a wish. Whether he really needs Super Saiyan 4 to straighten a building is debatable, but the sequence is among the most polished of the saga.
Trivia
- Written by Atsushi Maekawa and directed by Kazuhito Kikuchi, with Tadayoshi Yamamuro as animation director; years later Yamamuro directed the film Resurrection 'F'.
- The Japanese name, Chīshinron, is simply the Chinese reading of "Seven-Star Dragon". In Japanese he is voiced by Shin Aomori.
- The wish that created him dates back to the Majin Buu saga, one of the last Shenron granted before GT.
- The Ocean Group dub, aired in Canada and the UK, titled it The Scheming Seven-Starred Dragon!
Did you know? The Japanese title refers to the Seven-Star Dragon's "trump card": the twist was announced from the very start, even if viewers only discovered it in the final minutes.
Characters
- Goku (base and Super Saiyan 4), Pan and Giru
- Naturon Shenron
- The city's residents
- Majin Vegeta (mentioned)