Episode 58 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on September 10, 1997 and titled Shadow Dragons Unite in Funimation's dub, finally brings Goku's family to the battlefield. With energy from his sons and Trunks, the Saiyan breaks through his limits and backs Syn Shenron into a corner, but the One-Star Dragon still has an ace up his sleeve: the other six Dragon Balls.
Summary
Drained of power, Goku loses his transformation and turns back into a child. Syn lifts his unconscious body and drops it toward the sword of a statue, but at the last second Goten catches him in midair. With him are Gohan, Trunks and Uub, followed by Chi-Chi, Videl and Mr. Satan. Goku thanks them but is honest: not even all of them together can beat this enemy. Gohan already knows, and has another idea: the Saiyans will transfer their energy to Goku and bring him back to full strength.
Syn has no intention of waiting and attacks the group mid-transfer; Goku uses the power he has already received to save everyone, and they start over. Then he asks for more. Even at full strength, he explains, it would not be enough: the three must keep feeding him energy until he has gone past his limits, dangerous as that may be. Gohan, Goten and Trunks turn Super Saiyan and do as he says, while Uub throws himself at the dragon alone to buy time. He has no hope of winning, but he keeps Syn busy long enough.
When the light fades, Goku is a Super Saiyan 4 again, and stronger than before. He is still blind, yet he tracks every move his opponent makes: Syn can no longer land a hit, and none of his tricks work either. A Kamehameha engulfs the dragon and everyone celebrates.
Pan walks over to collect the Dragon Balls scattered on the ground, only to watch them slide away on their own. Syn is alive: he dodged the blast at the last moment and hid in the rubble of a clock tower. He pulls the other six balls toward him, swallows them one by one and transforms into a bigger, more menacing creature, known in Japan as Super Ī Shinron and in Funimation's dub as Omega Shenron.
Our take
The Japanese title promises to "surpass Super Saiyan 4", and the episode delivers in the most Dragon Ball way possible: through teamwork. It is not the first time in GT, since Goku had already drawn on Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Pan to finish off Baby, but here the device carries a different weight. After so many episodes traveling with only his granddaughter, Goku is reunited with his family, and the show reminds us that they are still his greatest strength.
Uub deserves a mention. The boy for whom Goku walked away from everything in the final episode of Dragon Ball Z is reduced to a speed bump here, but he plays the part bravely, and his hopeless stand is one of the episode's most generous moments. The ending turns everything around with this arc's trademark cruelty: Syn saves himself with the very objects the heroes are trying to recover, and his transformation closes the loop opened in the previous episode. Decades of wishes literally become his power.
Trivia
- Written by Toshinobu Ooi and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- After his first strike against Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Uub, Syn boasts about taking out four Saiyans with one blow. Uub, however, is not a Saiyan.
- In Funimation's dub, the narrator is the first to call the new form "Omega Shenron", at the very end of this episode. In this form the dragon is voiced by Christopher Sabat rather than Bob Carter.
- In this form the One-Star Ball moves from Syn's forehead to the center of his chest, surrounded by the other six, a detail that becomes crucial in the episodes that follow.