The 141st episode of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on May 27, 1992 and titled The Reunion in Funimation's dub, is the fusion episode. Faced with a threat that is emptying whole towns, Kami finally agrees to merge with Piccolo, and the Super Namekian is born. In the closing minutes, on the deserted streets of Gingertown, the monster from the future shows itself for the first time.
Summary
The Androids stop in a snowy town because Android 18 wants a new outfit. She walks out of the shop wearing the clothes without paying, the clerk calls the police, and the patrol cars that give chase are wrecked one after another.
At Kame House, where everyone is watching over Goku, Bulma calls and tells them to switch on the TV. Krillin assumes she wants them to see a speech she gave, but the news is about something else entirely: the people of Gingertown have vanished, leaving nothing but their clothes behind. A reporter on the scene comes face to face with something, and the feed cuts out. Krillin blames the Androids, while Bulma points out that the town is close to where they found the time machine.
On the Lookout, Kami realizes this new enemy is far worse than the Androids and accepts Piccolo's offer: they will fuse, with Piccolo's body as the base. Mr. Popo begs him to reconsider, but Kami has made up his mind. Piccolo places a hand on his chest, a flash engulfs them both, and all that remains of Kami is his staff on the floor. The warrior who emerges says he is neither Kami nor Piccolo anymore, but a Namekian who has long forgotten his own name. Then he flies off toward Gingertown.
The town is eerily silent, with the victims' clothes scattered along the streets. Piccolo walks through it until he senses a presence. Out of the shadows steps a green creature with insect wings and a long, pointed tail, dragging a terrified man behind it.
Our take
This is a transitional episode built around a huge event. The fusion closes a story thread that goes back to the original series: Kami and King Piccolo were the two halves of a single Namekian, split so that good could rid itself of evil, and now Kami rejoins the son and heir of that dark half. He only agrees because Piccolo has changed, softened by years spent alongside Gohan. The cost is steep: with Kami gone, Earth's Dragon Balls disappear too, a problem that will linger until Dende arrives.
Everything else is mood-setting, and the anime handles it well. The Gingertown news report, with its empty streets and abandoned clothes, plays like a short horror story. A few details differ from the manga: three police cars join the chase instead of one, and rather than landing right in front of the monster, Piccolo wanders the ghost town for a while, which stretches out the wait before the reveal.
For Cell, it is a quiet debut: a handful of shots, not a single word, a hostage in his grip. That is enough to tell us the saga has found its villain.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 359 from page 9 onward, chapter 360 and the first two pages of chapter 361. Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Daisuke Nishio, with animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama, it drew a 20.3% share.
- In the manga, Imperfect Cell has three fingers on each hand. The anime gives him five, and keeps it that way for all his appearances in this form.
- It is the first episode to reuse Shunsuke Kikuchi's score from The Return of Cooler, the sixth film.
- The reporter's "Oh, the humanity!" in Funimation's dub echoes Herbert Morrison's famous radio commentary on the 1937 Hindenburg disaster.
Did you know? In the Japanese version, a woman can be heard screaming for help during the Gingertown report before being silenced. The English dubs cut her screams, and Dragon Ball Kai later restored them.