The 129th episode of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on February 26, 1992 and titled Upgrade to Super Saiyan in Funimation's dub, hands the Androids arc to a new lead. The heart virus Trunks warned about finally strikes Goku mid-fight, leaving him at Android 19's mercy. The one who steps in is Vegeta, who reveals in front of everyone that he too has become a Super Saiyan.
Summary
Goku clutches his chest and collapses. Krillin tosses him a Senzu Bean, but it does nothing, which can only mean one thing: this is the disease, not fatigue. Android 19 pounces and pummels him until he drops out of Super Saiyan, then sits on his chest, pins his arms and clamps a hand around his throat to drain his energy.
The others move to help, but Android 20 blocks their path and hits Piccolo in the chest with an eye beam. Just as Goku is fading, a sudden kick sends Android 19 flying. It's Vegeta. He scolds his rival for transforming despite the warning and shoves him aside. Yamcha volunteers to fly Goku home, where the medicine from the future is waiting,.
Meanwhile Bulma, baby Trunks in her arms, talks a reluctant Yajirobe into flying to the battlefield, after commandeering his sash as an emergency diaper.
Android 19 asks for the privilege of fighting Vegeta, confident he knows every move the prince has. Vegeta points out that his data doesn't cover the battles fought in space, then begins to strain. His hair flickers gold, the ground caves in beneath him, and he emerges as a full Super Saiyan. He recounts how he trained under 450 times Earth's gravity and then on a barren world, where a meteor storm pushed him past his limits; once he stopped caring about anything at all, the transformation finally came. Android 19 opens fire with his eye beams, but when the smoke clears Vegeta hasn't a scratch.
Our take
This is the moment Vegeta has been chasing since Namek, where the legendary Super Saiyan became his obsession and watching Goku reach it first was a humiliation. The episode stages his entrance shrewdly: first Goku helpless on the ground, then the whole stage handed to the prince. The transformation is slow and loud, the earth giving way under his feet: it is directed like an event.
The key difference from the manga is how Vegeta tells his story. Toriyama dealt with it in a few panels, with Vegeta telling Krillin he had done it with a pure heart, one of pure evil. The anime drops that line and replaces it with a full flashback: crushing gravity, a lightning storm, a giant meteor. It's an addition that earns its runtime, turning a boast into an experience and giving Vegeta's rage a concrete image. The pure-evil line would make its way back in Dragon Ball Kai.
The Bulma and Yajirobe interlude works less well: amusing, but it deflates the tension at the worst possible moment. Still, this is a cornerstone episode. From here on the saga no longer belongs to Goku alone, and the Saiyan rivalry restarts on new terms. Our guide to Super Saiyan transformations follows where this form goes next.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 342 from page 6 to the end and the first eleven pages of chapter 343. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with animation supervision by Takeo Ide, it drew a 23.7% share.
- It marks Vegeta's first on-screen appearance as a Super Saiyan.
- The diaper gag and the volley of blasts Android 19 fires at Vegeta are both anime additions.
- In Funimation's dub Vegeta declares that "the sleeper has awakened," a nod to the 1984 film Dune.
Did you know? In the original Japanese broadcast, half of the next-episode preview was given over to a ticket lottery for the movie The Return of Cooler, which opened in theaters on March 7, 1992.