Episode 63 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on November 12, 1997 and titled Universal Allies in Funimation's dub, is GT's penultimate episode and ends the war with the Shadow Dragons. Goku and Vegeta have lost Super Saiyan 4 and can no longer fuse, while Omega Shenron, once again holding all seven Dragon Balls, is ready to wipe out Earth. The way out is a Spirit Bomb fueled by the entire universe.
Summary
With Nuova Shenron destroyed and the Four-Star Ball reclaimed, Omega Shenron is back at full power. Tired of the bickering between Goku and Vegeta, he gathers his negative energy into a massive sphere and hurls it at the planet. Goku shoves his partner aside and holds it back alone with everything he has left: Earth survives, but the blast leaves a bottomless crater and no sign of him.
Convinced his rival is dead, Vegeta orders the boys to get their families off Earth in Bulma's ship and stays behind to fight alone. Remembering how Frieza wiped out his home planet, he refuses to let history repeat itself. Trunks, Gohan and Goten get their loved ones to safety and return to his side as Super Saiyans, but the dragon flattens them and floods the planet with negative energy again. Vegeta, his shoulder run through, collapses at the edge of the crater.
And that is where he starts laughing. Rising from the bottom of the pit is Goku, still a child, arms raised to the sky: he is gathering energy for a Spirit Bomb. A devastated Earth cannot provide enough, though. Goku calls King Kai and asks him to speak to the whole universe. The answer comes from the other Kais, the Namekians and the worlds visited during the first saga's voyage, such as Imecka and Luud. The dragon's blasts can no longer touch Goku, and once the bomb is complete Omega Shenron, for the first time, tries to make him stop. Too late: the Universal Spirit Bomb hits him head-on and erases him.
The others rush to Goku, who lies unconscious among the seven Dragon Balls, now clear again. Then the balls light up on their own, and the original Shenron appears in the sky without anyone summoning him.
Our take
The Spirit Bomb is the technique Goku used to finish Majin Buu at the end of Z, and it has always been the move that asks not for personal strength but for trust in others. Using it against the last dragon makes thematic sense too: the enemy was born from the selfishness of wishes piled up over decades, and he falls to a collective gesture, asked of people who have nothing to gain.
The best touch is the list of donors. Beyond the afterlife, there are the peoples Goku, Trunks and Pan met during the Black Star Dragon Ball Saga, the stretch many fans consider the weakest part of GT. At the last moment GT gives that arc new weight: a trip that seemed to go nowhere had planted friendships that now save the universe.
Vegeta comes out of it well, too: he stays behind knowing he cannot win and, above all, laughs at the edge of the crater, a reaction that says in one second how much he has come to trust his rival. There are lapses, like humans raising their hands before Goku's appeal, but the pacing suits a penultimate act. And the final twist, a Shenron who arrives on his own, shifts the focus to a bigger question: what will become of the Dragon Balls?
Trivia
- Directed by Hidehiko Kadota and written by Atsushi Maekawa, with Kazuya Hisada as animation director.
- Toei's official synopsis calls the technique Chō Urutora Genkidama, literally "Super Ultra Spirit Bomb".
- It is the last time in GT that Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Vegeta transform into Super Saiyans.
Did you know? On the original Japanese broadcast, the preview of the finale was followed by a teaser for the Dr. Slump remake, which premiered on Fuji TV on November 26, 1997: one week after GT's last episode.