Episode 102 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on August 7, 1991 and titled Duel on a Vanishing Planet in Funimation's dub, is the only episode of the late Frieza Saga that adapts not a single page of the manga. Only Goku and Frieza remain on Namek, with two minutes before the explosion; on Earth, the Saiyan's friends wait, each reacting in his own way.
Summary
Frieza announces that Namek has two minutes left and tries to rattle Goku, suggesting he is already shaking. The Saiyan fires back that Frieza is the one who should be afraid: his trail of hatred is about to end at the hands of the very legendary Super Saiyan he always feared. On his planet, King Kai explains to Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu how Frieza struck Namek's core in a bid to kill Goku.
On Earth, Grand Elder Guru tells everyone why they were transported and reveals that Goku chose to stay behind. Piccolo, now awake, is moved by that choice and looks back on his history with the Saiyan: King Piccolo's defeat, the egg he hatched from, the final of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, the alliance against Raditz that ended with Goku's death. Now, he admits, Goku has left him far behind. Gohan calls out to his father in anguish.
Vegeta breaks the mood: in his view Goku only stayed because he wanted a fight, and if he dies along with Frieza, Vegeta will be the strongest in the universe. Bulma openly complains that the wish saved him too. Vegeta then invites Gohan to join him, the last two Saiyans, and conquer the universe; when the boy refuses, Vegeta goads him by insulting Goku and threatens to wish for immortality with Earth's Dragon Balls. Piccolo shuts him down: the balls were just used and will be stone for a year.
On Namek the fight enters its final phase. Frieza hurls a giant energy sphere at full power, but Goku deflects it into space, where it hits a star and destroys it. Frieza screams that only one minute remains and that only one of them will leave the planet alive.
Our take
This is the purest filler of the saga: no chapter adapted, everything written by the staff. Takao Koyama scripted it and Daisuke Nishio, the director of the whole series, directed it. It lands at a telling moment: Namek's famous "five minutes," announced by Frieza in episode 97, are already on their sixth episode and will run until episode 106. No other installment explains better why those five minutes became the symbol of the anime's padding: by the end "two minutes" are left, then "one minute," and the planet will only explode four episodes later.
Still, the filler has some dignity. Piccolo's memories, built from clips of earlier seasons, work as a small character retrospective: from sworn enemy to a man who suffers over his rival's fate. And Vegeta, pretending to gloat while actually shaken, is written with some finesse. The duel itself is a string of spectacular blows with no real turns: it holds position without catching up with the manga.
The Goku-Frieza duel began in episode 87 and will end in episode 105: nineteen episodes and over four months of airtime. This is its most transparent stretch.
Trivia
- Kanzenshuu lists it as a filler episode with no manga chapters. It drew an 18.8% share.
- In the anime, Ginyu, still stuck in a frog's body, is transported to Earth with everyone else. The manga never shows it, a detail Dragon Ball Super later builds on when Ginyu returns.
- In Piccolo's flashback to the 23rd Tournament, the dub puts a filter on his voice while he is giant, an effect not repeated when Funimation later dubbed that original scene.
Did you know? Frieza yells that only one of them will leave Namek alive, but in the end both do: Goku in a Ginyu Force pod, Frieza in pieces but still breathing.
Characters
- Goku and Frieza
- Piccolo, Gohan, Bulma and Vegeta
- Guru, Dende and the Namekians
- King Kai, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu
- Captain Ginyu