Episode 13 of Dragon Ball Z, first aired in Japan on July 26, 1989, sends Goku where no hero should end up: Hell. Having rolled off Snake Way in his sleep, he lands in a world of demons who are less frightening than bored and mischievous. The result is an almost entirely comic episode, with a forbidden fruit as the prize.
Summary
Goku wakes up in a strange landscape and realizes he has fallen into Hell. Starving as usual, he heads straight for a tree laden with fruit, but two demons stop him with their clubs: Goz and Mez, the local guards, and that fruit is reserved for King Yemma. According to them, one bite keeps you full for a very long time, which is exactly why it is not for just anyone.
Goku asks how to get back to Snake Way, and the two demons, with nothing better to do, decide to have some fun with him. If he wins their challenges, they will show him the way. The first is a sumo bout with Goz, which Goku wins. The second is a race against Mez, who believes he is unbeatable: Goku wins that too, partly with his legs and partly with his wits.
Beaten and annoyed, Goz and Mez point him to a secret shortcut back up. Goku takes it, but the secret passage comes out somewhere unexpected: inside a drawer of King Yemma's desk. From there, Goku finds himself back at the very start of Snake Way: back to square one. But before leaving Hell he managed to eat one of the forbidden fruits, and now he runs faster and without feeling tired.
Our take
Like the other filler of this stretch, this episode has no basis in Akira Toriyama's manga: it is pure padding. But it is padding with a clear identity, recapturing the spirit of the original Dragon Ball, when Goku was a kid who solved problems with his appetite and naivety more than with strength.
The Dragon Ball version of Hell has nothing tragic about it: it is a bureaucratic, slightly shabby place, populated by demons who wrestle sumo and make bets. Goz and Mez, idle guards looking for entertainment, make a solid comic duo. Yemma's drawer is the best gag: it shows that even the afterlife has shortcuts, and that none of them really get you anywhere.
The limitation is obvious: the story moves nothing forward, and viewers waiting for the Saiyans feel the weight of yet another filler. The fruit that makes Goku faster is a neat way to justify, later on, how he reaches King Kai.
Trivia
- In the 1996 English dub, the word "Hell" on the two demons' shirts was digitally erased and replaced with HFIL, short for Home For Infinite Losers.
- In Japan the episode drew a 17.6% ratings share. It was written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto.
- No footage was reused in Dragon Ball Kai. The 2005 uncut redub titled the episode Goz and Mez.
- In Japanese the demons are called Gozu and Mezu.
Did you know? The names Gozu and Mezu come from Buddhist folklore, where they refer to the guardians of Hell with the head of an ox and the face of a horse.
Characters
- Goku
- Goz and Mez
- King Yemma