Episode 154 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on August 26, 1992 and titled Saiyans Emerge in Funimation's dub, is a changing-of-the-guard episode. Vegeta and Trunks step out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber after a year of training packed into a single day, and the Saiyan prince announces he will handle Cell alone. As they leave, Goku and Gohan take their place.
Summary
At Kami's Lookout, Goku asks how the training went, but Vegeta forbids Trunks from saying a word. He is more confident than ever and warns everyone to stay out of his way: Cell is his business. Piccolo and Tien try to tell him that the monster has absorbed Android 17 and changed, but he isn't listening. Trunks now has very long hair, while Vegeta looks exactly the same, and he brushes it off with a line that has stuck with fans ever since: a pure-blooded Saiyan's hair never changes from the day he is born.
Bulma arrives, having flown all the way up with baby Trunks in her arms, and shows off her latest creation: battle armor modeled on Vegeta's, one set for everybody. Goku, Gohan, Trunks and Vegeta put it on; Piccolo and Tien refuse to dress like Saiyans. Goku even offers to take Vegeta to Cell with Instant Transmission, but the prince turns him down and dives off the Lookout, his son right behind him.
Over a chain of tropical islands, Semi-Perfect Cell is blasting one island after another to flush out Android 18, threatening to kill both her and Android 16 if they don't show themselves. The two androids stay hidden, and 18 can't understand why her wounded companion cares so much about the birds around him.
Back at the Lookout, Goku and Gohan treat themselves to one last feast and then step through the Chamber door. The boy staggers under gravity far heavier than Earth's and stares in awe at the endless white expanse beyond the entrance.
Our take
The Japanese title opens with "I'll take care of everything!", which is Vegeta in a nutshell. A year in the Chamber has made him stronger, not humbler, and the episode keeps hammering that home: the armor, the refusal of Goku's help, the solo departure. Anyone who knows the saga understands that this pride will cost him dearly over the next few episodes, and the seed is planted carefully here.
There's lighter material too. The Saiyan hair line is one of the most quoted explanations in the fandom, since it retroactively justifies Goku's unchanging hairstyle from childhood to adulthood, even if flashbacks of young Vegeta contradict it. The new armor, meanwhile, becomes Goku and Gohan's uniform for the whole of the Cell Games.
The anime adds a lot: Korin's cameo as Bulma flies past, baby Trunks brought to the Lookout, 18's curiosity about the birds, the father-son meal. It also reshuffles the order. In the manga, Goku and Gohan enter the Chamber just as Vegeta is about to show Cell his new form; here they go in earlier, so the episode can close on an image of anticipation.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 375 and pages 1-7 of chapter 376. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, it drew a 21.5% share.
- Toei's official site gives 出撃 (shutsugeki, "sortie") in the title; some sources mistakenly transcribe it as 出現 (shutsugen, "appearance").
- The Toonami broadcast cut a scene of an old man taking Cell for the Devil, partly because he was holding a lighter.
- Funimation's dub premiered on Cartoon Network on October 24, 2000; in the original edited numbering it was episode 139.