Episode 62 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on November 5, 1997 and titled Rescue Goku in Funimation's dub, solves the mystery of the Dragon Ball on Goku's forehead. Out of it comes Nuova Shenron (Sū Shinron in Japanese), the Four-Star Dragon and the only Shadow Dragon with a sense of honor. He seems to have switched sides, but he is the last ally of the title, and against Omega Shenron he will not be enough.
Summary
Goku, back in his child form, has no idea the Four-Star Ball is sitting on his forehead, not even when Vegeta drops a hint: Pan has to tell him to touch his head. Omega decides to reclaim it by killing him, but the ball starts to glow, flies between the two and takes the shape of Nuova Shenron.
Goku is thrilled to see him, yet the fire dragon gives him the cold shoulder: he chats with Omega like an accomplice and, when ordered to kill the Saiyan, promises to show no mercy. Vegeta attacks him, but Nuova is too fast and blasts him away before turning on Goku, who cannot lay a finger on him. Trunks rushes to his father and finds him unharmed, and that is exactly what makes Vegeta suspicious: Nuova is pulling his punches.
When a bored Omega tells him to hurry up so he can move on to a better opponent, Nuova and Goku spin around together and hit him by surprise, the dragon with a massive beam and the Saiyan with a Kamehameha. Omega realizes what has happened: Nuova should have been full of his negative energy, but while inside Goku he soaked up the Saiyan's positive energy instead.
Nuova grabs his brother and seals them both inside a sphere of fire, meaning to burn him once and for all. He throws Omega's earlier sneak attack in his face and proudly reveals that heat cannot hurt him. That is his fatal mistake. The sphere explodes and for a moment it seems to be over, then Nuova's body cracks open and Omega bursts out: he forced his six Dragon Balls into his brother and used him as a heat-proof shell. Nuova barely has time to apologize to Goku. The dragon also takes back the Four-Star Ball and returns to full power.
To make matters worse, Vegeta runs out of energy too and drops back to his normal state. Bulma's Blutz Wave Generator was destroyed during the battle, so transforming again is impossible. Two Saiyans without Super Saiyan 4, against the strongest dragon of the saga.
Our take
The Japanese title promises a final ally, and the show picks one from the enemy ranks. It is the right send-off for Nuova Shenron, who had spared Pan and refused to strike a helpless opponent from their very first meeting. The fake betrayal is the most entertaining stretch of the episode, helped by Vegeta sniffing out the ruse before anyone else. His death is the bitterest part: Nuova loses because he is honest, boasting about his immunity to heat in front of an opponent who exploits every weakness.
There is also a thread tying these last episodes together. In episode 60 Gogeta turned the dragon's negative energy positive; here Goku's goodness cleanses a Shadow Dragon from the inside. The saga is telling us that the Dragon Balls are not evil in themselves: careless wishes corrupt them, and they can be purified. That idea drives the finale of Dragon Ball GT, which starts here, at the lowest point.
Trivia
- Written by Atsushi Maekawa and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director in his last Dragon Ball episode in that role.
- Nuova Shenron is voiced by Ken Yamaguchi in Japanese.
- Funimation's dub first aired in the United States on January 15, 2005.
- The arcade game Dragon Ball Heroes features an alternate GT ending in which Nuova survives and helps Goku launch the final Spirit Bomb.
Characters
- Goku and Vegeta
- Nuova Shenron
- Omega Shenron
- Pan and Trunks