Episode 53 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on July 16, 1997 and titled Saying Goodbye in Funimation's dub, wraps up the Naturon Shenron fight by putting Goku in an impossible position: to stop the dragon he would also have to hit Pan, who is trapped inside him. The way out comes through a trick, and a 10x Kamehameha.
Summary
Powered up by Pan's body, Naturon tears into the city with bolts of lightning and his own version of the Kamehameha, which slams into a skyscraper. Goku cannot bring himself to fight back for real, until Pan reaches him telepathically from inside the dragon and begs him to fight, even if it means hitting her too.
Goku transforms into Super Saiyan 4, hoping the form's ferocity will help him do what has to be done. Naturon reminds him that killing the dragon means killing his granddaughter, but Goku charges the 10x Kamehameha anyway and fires. At that very moment, back home, Gohan and Videl sit down for tea and worry about their daughter, unaware of how close she is to the end. When the smoke clears, Naturon is still alive: without meaning to, Goku held back, and the dragon sneers that the blast was not even half as strong as advertised.
From there the fight turns. Goku takes hit after hit and is smashed into a building, where he lies still with his eyes closed. Naturon declares himself the strongest of the seven brothers and the one true Shenron, and asks Goku, just like the Eternal Dragon, what his wish is. To rub it in, he lets Goku see his granddaughter one last time, pushing Pan halfway out of his belly. The dragon is already pulling her back in when Goku's eyes snap open: he grabs her and yanks her out. This was the moment he was waiting for. He let himself be beaten so the enemy would drop his guard.
Without a host, Naturon shrinks back to his true form: a tiny brown creature whose head is barely larger than the Dragon Ball on top of it. He tries to absorb a passing bird, but Goku blocks his way; the dragon begs for mercy while sneaking in a cheap shot, to no effect. Goku finishes him with a second 10x Kamehameha and claims the Seven-Star Ball.
Our take
The episode works mostly because of Goku and Pan, whose bond becomes the real heart of the show in this arc. She asks to be sacrificed; he tries and cannot do it. It is one of the few times we see a Goku unable to put the fight ahead of family, and that half-strength Kamehameha says more than any dialogue could. It is also hard to miss that the dragon fires a Kamehameha right after absorbing the girl who had just learned the technique.
The fake surrender is less convincing. Goku claims he was waiting for that exact moment, but the plan hinges on a whim of the dragon, and Pan's rescue is rushed. It does fit the character, though: ever since Dragon Ball, Goku has often won by letting his opponent believe the fight was already over.
The ending of the battle is striking. Faced with a tiny, whimpering dragon, Goku shows no mercy at all. That kind of hardness is rare in GT, and it sets up the contrast with the next opponent, Nuova Shenron, who fights with honor.
Trivia
- Written by Toshinobu Ōi and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- The skyscraper hit by the dragon's Kamehameha is modeled on Fuji TV's headquarters in Odaiba, Tokyo: the network that aired Dragon Ball.
- The Italian title, La quarta sfera ("The Fourth Ball"), is not about the Four-Star Ball, which shows up only in the next episode: the Seven-Star Ball is simply the fourth one Goku and Pan recover.
- GT then took two weeks off: Episode 54 aired on August 6, 1997.
Did you know? When he taunts Goku, Naturon mimics the most famous lines of the Shenron of the Dragon Balls, from asking for a wish to announcing that it has been granted.
Characters
- Goku (base and Super Saiyan 4) and Pan
- Naturon Shenron (powered-up and true form)
- Gohan and Videl