The twenty-second episode of Dragon Ball Super, broadcast in Japan on December 6, 2015, is almost entirely a TV invention. Gotenks arrives on the battlefield, Captain Ginyu returns after years spent in a frog's body and Gohan rediscovers his Super Saiyan strength. But the ending belongs to Piccolo, and to a gesture the film did not have.
Summary
Tagoma powers up and the Earth's fighters are stunned. Hiding behind a rock, Jaco assures Bulma that five against one is a sure win; when she asks why he is not fighting, he says he is in charge of the horde, which Tagoma "obviously" is not part of. Piccolo faces him first, but the soldier does not even feel his punch and tears his arm off. Gohan hits him to no effect: four months of taking Frieza's blows have given him a "body of steel" against refined attacks. Then Gotenks shows up and headbutts him right in the groin, an attack that is anything but refined, as Master Roshi notes.
Gotenks is offended at being left out of something so fun. He sets his sights on Frieza, but at that very moment the fusion wears off. The tyrant recognizes Goten as Goku's son and Trunks as a Saiyan identical to the one who sliced him in half, and swears to exterminate a race that has multiplied in his absence. While Tagoma is still doubled over in pain, a frog with antennae writes a word in alien script in the dirt in front of him. Tagoma reads it aloud: "Change". At once his voice shifts and the soldier starts striking odd poses.
The new Tagoma greets Frieza: it is Captain Ginyu, who has swapped bodies with him. He explains that on Namek he tried to take Vegeta's body, but the other Saiyan stopped him, trapping him in a frog; later he found himself on Earth and endured countless hardships without losing faith in his master. Goten and Trunks think their own poses are cooler, and Bulma recognizes him and would rather not talk about it. Ginyu flattens all five fighters in an instant: in his hands, Tagoma's body performs even better. Bulma, Goten and Trunks head back to Jaco's ship and try to summon Whis with a strawberry sundae.
On Beerus' planet, the god and Whis eat pizza while debating whether it was too soon to send Goku and Vegeta to "that place". The two Saiyans are floating in a space where at first they cannot move; Vegeta figures out they must raise their energy without letting it leak. It is hot, hard to breathe, and time seems to flow as in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
On Earth, Gohan transforms into a Super Saiyan, stunning Frieza, and takes Ginyu out of the fight. But a beam from the tyrant pierces him: Frieza remembers when Goku spared him on Namek and wants to see the son beg for mercy. He hits him again and again, then fires the finishing blow. Piccolo throws himself in the way and takes it head-on.
Our take
Ginyu in Tagoma's body is the funniest idea in the saga, an affectionate tribute to the Namek saga complete with poses and a magic word scrawled in the dirt. But the heart of the episode is Piccolo's sacrifice: it echoes, decades later, the one against Nappa, and gives the master-student bond the weight the film took away.
Trivia
- Written by Yoshifumi Fukushima and directed by Takao Iwai, with Yoshitaka Yashima as animation director. It drew a 5.8% rating in Japan.
- It is a TV-original episode: in the film Resurrection 'F', Ginyu does not appear and Piccolo, though hit while protecting Gohan, does not die.