Dragon Ball Z Androids Saga: Episodes 118-139

The Androids Saga opens the third major arc of Dragon Ball Z: twenty-two episodes, 118 to 139, broadcast on Fuji TV between November 27, 1991 and May 13, 1992 and adapted from chapters 329 to 357 of the manga. It begins with Frieza's return and the arrival of a young man from the future, moves through three years of waiting and ends with Dr. Gero's Androids tearing through the Z Fighters. This is the story where Dragon Ball discovers time travel, and the series is never quite the same afterward.

How the saga is split

Divisions vary depending on the source. Funimation's American release separates the Trunks Saga (118-125) from the Androids Saga (126-139), with the Imperfect Cell Saga starting at Episode 140. Toei's official breakdown, followed by the Italian Wikipedia, instead uses the label "Artificial Humans arc" for everything from 118 to 147. We follow the most common cut, also used by the Spanish Wikipedia: from Frieza's return up to the eve of Cell's appearance. It comes right after the Garlic Jr. Saga, the filler arc that let the anime buy time on the manga.

Frieza returns, and a mysterious youth

About a year has passed since Namek. Gohan is studying under a heavy-handed tutor, whom Chi-Chi throws out the moment he speaks ill of Goku, and Vegeta comes back from space without finding his rival and grudgingly accepts Bulma's hospitality. Then everyone senses an energy that should not exist: Frieza has survived, rebuilt with mechanical parts, and is heading to Earth with his father, King Cold, for revenge.

Before the Z Fighters can act, a lavender-haired youth with a sword on his back cuts down the tyrant's soldiers, turns Super Saiyan and slices Frieza in half with a single stroke, then finishes off King Cold. Vegeta is stunned: there should be only three Saiyans left. The young man announces that Goku will land shortly, and sure enough, the pod arrives right on time.

A message from the future

Away from the others, the youth introduces himself to Goku: his name is Trunks, he comes from the future, and he is the son of Vegeta and Bulma. He brings a warning. Three years from now, on May 12 at 10 a.m., on an island not far from South City, two Androids built by Dr. Gero, the last scientist of the Red Ribbon Army, will appear and kill every fighter. Goku will not be there, because he will die first of an incurable heart virus, so Trunks hands him medicine from the future. Gohan, who outlived the others, will become Trunks's teacher, and he too will die.

Goku then explains how he survived: he fled Namek in one of the Ginyu Force's pods and crash-landed on planet Yardrat, where he learned Instant Transmission. The group decides to train and face the Androids at the appointed time, instead of hunting them down beforehand.

Three years of training

The manga skips those three years in a few panels; the anime gives them two almost entirely original episodes. In Episode 124, Vegeta pushes himself to collapse in the gravity room Dr. Brief built, Yamcha tries and fails to withstand 300 times Earth's gravity, and Bulma starts to warm to the Saiyan prince. In Episode 125, Chi-Chi demands that Goku get a driver's license, and Goku and Piccolo end up in driving school: a comedy episode many fans remember fondly precisely because it is so absurd.

Androids 19 and 20

On the appointed day the fighters gather, Bulma shows up with a baby in her arms, and the question of the father is settled quickly: it is little Trunks. Androids give off no energy, so no one senses them until they strike. They are Android 19, pale and portly, and Android 20, an old man in a wide-brimmed hat who punches straight through Yamcha's chest. Both can absorb their opponents' energy.

Goku takes on Android 19 as a Super Saiyan, but in the middle of the fight the heart virus strikes. Vegeta saves him, revealing that he has become a Super Saiyan too, and destroys Android 19. Android 20 flees, Piccolo tears off one of his arms, and Trunks, just back from the future, reveals that these two are not the Androids he knew. Android 20 is in fact Dr. Gero himself, turned into a machine, and he races back to his lab to activate his other models.

Androids 17, 18 and 16

The fighters arrive too late. Gero awakens Android 17 and Android 18, two human-looking teenagers who promptly kill him and activate a third Android, the hulking Android 16, designed for the sole purpose of killing Goku. Vegeta challenges them, convinced he is unbeatable, and Android 18 breaks his arm; Android 17 single-handedly takes down Trunks, Piccolo and Tien, leaving only Krillin standing. To the Androids, killing Goku is a game. Piccolo realizes that his only hope is to become one being with Kami again, while the ailing Goku is moved to safety at Kame House. Finally, a strange photograph shows a second time machine identical to Trunks's: someone traveled through time before him.

Episodes

English titles are those of Funimation's dub, which aired these episodes on Cartoon Network in September and October 2000. From Episode 123 onward, the Vancouver studio Ocean Productions also recorded its own alternate English dub with the same scripts and titles.

Filler and differences from the manga

Only two episodes have no chapters behind them: 124 and 125, the latter using just the last page of chapter 336. The rest follows the manga closely, with additions here and there: Gohan's tutor and Frieza's reconstruction in 118, a longer death for King Cold, Maron dropping by Kame House again, flashbacks to Vegeta's training in space, the sick Goku's nightmares, and the biker gang that harasses the Androids in 138.

Our take

After ten episodes of waiting, the manga takes the lead again, and you can feel the difference. Trunks's entrance is one of the most memorable in the series: in two episodes a character no one has seen before carves up the villain who needed almost twenty episodes of dueling, and he does it with a calm that throws everyone, viewers included. Audiences rewarded it, with ratings climbing to a 25.5% share for the episode of the reveal and 25.7% for Episode 131.

The heart of the saga, though, is how it overturns certainties. Super Saiyan, the legendary goal of the previous saga, suddenly is not enough: Vegeta reaches it and is humiliated anyway, Trunks has it and it does not help. Toriyama's Androids are not monsters but bored teenagers, and their indifference is scarier than Frieza's cruelty. Funnily enough, the author originally meant to stick with Androids 19 and 20: it was his former editor Kazuhiko Torishima who pushed him to come up with new enemies, which led to 17, 18 and 16, and later Cell.

The weak spot is the second half, where some episodes crawl along through chases and waiting. But the finale, with the team beaten and a second time machine that should not exist, leaves one of the most intriguing questions in the entire series.

Up next: the Cell Saga, episodes 140-194 →