Episode 125 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on January 29, 1992 and titled Goku's Ordeal in Funimation's dub, is an almost entirely original comedy, the last breather before the androids. Chi-Chi is fed up with doing everything on foot and orders Goku to get a driver's license, dragging Piccolo into it as well. Only the final scene, as the heroes set off for the battle, comes from the manga.
Summary
On her way home from shopping, Chi-Chi is chased by a huge boar that ends up running off a cliff. Waiting at home are Goku and Gohan, back from training and fishing: the boy has caught a fish nearly twice his size, and Piccolo points out they have been eating fish for two weeks. When a couple of neighbors cruise happily by in a flying car, Chi-Chi snaps: the family has no car and Goku cannot even drive. Her ultimatum is simple: he and Piccolo will go to driving school, or from now on they cook for themselves.
At the driving school, Piccolo shows up unrecognizable in a backward cap, jeans and a shirt that Chi-Chi pulled from Goku's closet. Goku is paired with Yuzukar, an elderly instructor who can barely open a car door; Piccolo gets Cynthia, a young woman who turns into a speed demon behind the wheel. Piccolo manages fine, Goku does not: he cannot even remember how to start the engine. During one test their cars crash into each other, but the instructors grant them one last chance, as Gohan and his dragon Icarus look on.
The second test takes place in a rainstorm. Lightning strikes the cliff above the road, and the landslide shoves a school bus full of kids over the edge. Goku first tries to stop it by ramming it with his car; then he and Piccolo forget about driving and take to the air. Piccolo holds up the bus while Goku blasts the falling boulders and carries the children to safety. The instructors applaud and conclude that people who can fly have no need for a license. When Chi-Chi learns they came home without one, she faints. Then three years fly by, and Goku, Gohan and Piccolo leave for their date with the androids.
Our take
This is one of the most remembered filler episodes in all of Dragon Ball Z, and it is easy to see why: putting two warriors who can level mountains behind a steering wheel is a perfect gag. It also lightens the mood before a darker saga that opens with a massacre.
The star attraction is Piccolo dressed as an ordinary guy, one of the very rare times he sets aside his fighting gear. The image stuck with fans so much that the outfit became an unlockable costume in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, while Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot brings back the driving lessons with the same instructors, this time ending with an actual license. Even Chi-Chi, so often reduced to the yelling wife, has a fair reason to be angry here: she lives on a mountain with a husband who flies everywhere, while she walks to the store.
Story-wise the episode adds nothing. The only manga page it adapts is the three-year time skip that closes chapter 336, which is why Dragon Ball Z Kai skips it and jumps straight to the androids' arrival.
Trivia
- It adapts only the last page of chapter 336; the rest is original. Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with animation supervision by Kazuya Hisada, it drew a 23.8% share.
- The premise seems inspired by the title page of manga chapters 255 and 256, and the picture Gohan draws in the episode closely resembles it.
- It is one of the favorite episodes of Sean Schemmel, Goku's English voice.
- The Crunchyroll English dub of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero nods to it when Piccolo admits he never got his license.
Did you know? The Japanese title plays on "menkyo kaiden," the certificate a master of a traditional art grants a student who has learned everything. Here the "license" is a driver's license.
Characters
- Goku, Gohan and Piccolo
- Chi-Chi
- Yuzukar and Cynthia, the instructors
- Icarus