Episode 122 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on January 8, 1992 and titled Mystery Revealed in Funimation's dub, is where the Androids arc truly begins. In a private talk, the mysterious youth tells Goku who he is, where he comes from and why he traveled back in time. The Japanese title, "My Dad Is Vegeta", gives away the biggest surprise up front.
Summary
Goku is amazed to learn that Frieza and King Cold have already been defeated. Piccolo points to the youth: he did it, and he is a Super Saiyan. Goku swears he has never seen him, while Vegeta repeats that only three Saiyans remain. The young man asks to speak with Goku alone. Goku admits he could have made it in time thanks to a new technique he learned in space; then, at the youth's request, he turns Super Saiyan in front of everyone. The young man transforms too and attacks with his sword, but Goku stops every stroke with a single finger.
Satisfied, the youth introduces himself: his name is Trunks, he is Vegeta's son, and he has come from about twenty years in the future in a time machine built by his mother. Three years from now, on the morning of May 12, two terrifying androids built by Dr. Gero, the Red Ribbon Army's scientist, will appear on an island near South City. In his time they killed every fighter, and when Piccolo died the Dragon Balls vanished with him. Only Gohan survived and trained Trunks, before falling as well.
And Goku? He did not die fighting. Before the androids arrived, he was killed by a heart virus that has no cure in the present. Goku is crushed at the thought of missing the fight, and Trunks, moved by his enthusiasm, hands him medicine from the future. Then Goku asks who his mother is: Bulma. The answer sends him to the ground laughing. Trunks asks him to keep the secret so as not to endanger his own birth, waves goodbye to everyone and leaves in the time machine. Piccolo, who heard everything thanks to his sharp ears, tells the others about the androids without revealing who the boy is.
Our take
This is the heart of the manga: the episode adapts the last page of chapter 333 and all of 334 and 335. In a few minutes Toriyama rewrites the rules. After aliens, demons and space tyrants, the threat comes from Goku's own past, the Red Ribbon he beat as a child, and the fight moves through time. As with the Saiyans, the heroes know the enemy in advance, but this time the warning comes from the future and they have three years to prepare. Fans have often compared the premise to The Terminator, with a traveler escaping a future ruled by machines.
The heart virus is a clever and slightly cruel idea: the unbeatable hero can be brought down by an illness rather than a punch.
The anime stays very faithful, adding mainly the images that accompany Trunks' story, with androids ravaging cities, which are absent from the manga. Its 25.5% share is the highest of the arc's opening episodes. Years later, the Future Trunks Saga of Dragon Ball Super would return to this character and his timeline.
Trivia
- It adapts page 14 of chapter 333 plus chapters 334 and 335. Directed by Jun'ichi Fujise from a storyboard by Kazuhisa Takenōchi, with animation direction by Tadayoshi Yamamuro. Kanzenshuu credits the script to Takao Koyama, English Wikipedia to Hiroshi Toda.
- It is the first episode broadcast in 1992.
- In Japanese, Goku asks whether Trunks will come back, and he answers yes, if he is still alive in three years. The exchange is missing from the English dub.
- Funimation's TV broadcast numbered it episode 107.
Did you know? Goku needs no explanation to realize the youth means him no harm: he senses it and stands still before the first stroke, which indeed stops short of hitting him.