Episode 163 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on November 4, 1992 and titled Saving Throw in Funimation's dub, puts Trunks front and center. With Vegeta lying unconscious at Cell's feet, the young man from the future steps in with a clear goal: not to win right away, but to drag the fight away from his father. It is a bridge episode that sets up the real show of strength in the next two.
Summary
Trunks has unleashed his energy, and Krillin fears he has lost control, but the young man quickly reassures him that he is fully lucid. He asks Krillin to look after Vegeta as soon as he can, then lands and walks toward Cell. The monster, who now thinks of Saiyans as cockroaches that always get back up, happily accepts his new opponent.
The fight starts out even. Trunks takes hits and gives them back, and for a few exchanges it looks as if Cell has found a match. Then the momentum shifts: Cell's blows send him flying again and again, and the young man ends up on the ground more than once.
In the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Goku suggests a game to Gohan: try to catch me. Father and son turn Super Saiyan and chase each other until the boy actually grabs him. Goku is impressed, but the game has wrecked part of the living quarters, and the two hurry to tidy up before Mr. Popo finds out.
Back on the island, it turns out that Trunks's beating was calculated. Every hit he absorbed carried him a little farther from his father's body, and Krillin uses the opening to pick Vegeta up and fly off, silently blaming the prince's pride for putting his son in this position. Cell, however, saw through the plan and lets them go on purpose. With no one left to protect, Trunks starts raising his power even further.
Our take
After the Final Flash fireworks, the anime slows down. Only part of a single chapter is adapted here, and Toei stretches it over twenty-two minutes with a duel far longer than the manga's. The biggest change concerns Trunks: in the manga, once he bulks up, he never manages to land a blow on Cell, which is the whole point of the lesson he is about to learn. Here he connects several times, and the result is muddier.
The plan to rescue Vegeta, though, is a good bit of writing. It gives meaning to the beating Trunks takes and shows a side of him fans love: the cool head of a soldier raised in a ruined world, willing to set his own strength aside to protect someone else. That Cell lets it happen says a lot about the new villain, too. His perfect form has turned him into a cruel sportsman, more interested in the show than in the win.
The game in the Chamber is another anime addition. It reminds us that Goku is raising a son as well as a fighter, and it foreshadows the idea of staying transformed for as long as possible.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 386 from page 3 onward. Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with animation direction by Yukio Ebisawa.
- Its 16.6% share is the lowest of the entire Cell saga (episodes 140-194).
- In the manga Krillin picks Vegeta up without a word; the jab at the prince's pride was added by the anime.
- Funimation's title is a nod to role-playing games, where a saving throw is the die roll a player makes to avoid damage. Its dub first aired on Cartoon Network on November 6, 2000.
Characters
- Trunks and Cell
- An unconscious Vegeta and Krillin
- Goku and Gohan
- Android 16