Episode 106 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on September 4, 1991 and titled Namek's Explosion... Goku's End? in Funimation's dub, brings the show's most famous "five minutes" to a close: Namek really does explode. Goku, victorious over Frieza, cannot find a way off in time. On Earth his friends pin their hopes on the Dragon Balls, until an unexpected rule crushes their excitement.
Summary
With Frieza defeated, Goku flies desperately over a planet that is falling apart. On his planet, King Kai announces the victory to Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu, then quickly dampens the celebration: Namek is about to explode and Goku may not make it.
The Saiyan finds Frieza's ship, battered but still in one piece. He runs through the corridors, reaches the control room and starts the launch sequence, but the tyrant had told the truth: the ship, damaged by Vegeta, dies halfway through starting up and sinks into the lava. Goku gets out just in time and screams as he realizes it is too late. A moment later, Namek explodes.
The shockwave overloads King Kai's antennae, and for a while he cannot sense anything. When he recovers, he searches the whole universe, but there is no trace of Namek or of Goku. Yamcha uses King Kai's telepathy to tell Bulma: Goku beat Frieza, but did not get off the planet. Bulma takes it calmly: they will simply ask Porunga to revive him along with Krillin. It is King Kai who chills everyone: the Namekian dragon brings people back where they died, which means where Namek used to be. Goku and Krillin would be reborn in the vacuum of space and die again instantly.
Hope collapses. Vegeta hides his unease behind fake glee: now he is the strongest in the universe. Gohan, pushed too far, attacks him. Vegeta takes a few hits, then overpowers him and stops only when Piccolo steps in. Disgusted by the boy's refusal to face reality, the prince flies off. Dende heals Gohan's wounds, but the deeper ones remain.
Our take
Frieza announced the five minutes in episode 97, which aired on June 26, 1991. The planet explodes in this one, on September 4: ten episodes and over two months of airtime for a countdown that, in-story, should have lasted about as long as a coffee break. In episode 102 Frieza said two minutes were left, and by the end of that same episode only one. It has become the most quoted, and most mocked, example of Toei stretching the manga to avoid catching up with it. Watched in sequence, though, those ten episodes also have a deliberate effect: the dilated time gives weight to every choice, Goku's decision to stay, his decision to spare Frieza, the tyrant's decision to strike again.
The explosion itself is handled with restraint: no last-second heroics, just a man screaming at the inevitable. In the original Goku panics; Funimation's first dub has him say instead that he will not give up, smoothing over the very despair that makes the scene work.
On Earth the anime adds an invented clash: Vegeta gloating over Goku's apparent death and his brawl with Gohan do not exist in the manga. They work as an emotional release, but they create a small problem: in the next episode Vegeta is back with the group as if nothing had happened.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 328. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Kazuhito Kikuchi, it drew a 22.5% share.
- In the manga Frieza's ship does not sink into lava but falls into the cracks in the ground.
- What Yamcha tells Bulma is not true: it will later be revealed that Goku escaped at the last moment in a Ginyu Force pod.
- In the dub, Yamcha compares Goku to Houdini and his knack for escaping tight spots.
Did you know? The differences between Shenron and Porunga, and the loopholes that complicate every resurrection, are covered in our guide to the Dragon Balls.
Characters
- Goku
- King Kai, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu
- Bulma, Gohan, Piccolo and Vegeta
- Dende and the Namekians
- Frieza, only in everyone's thoughts