First broadcast in Japan on December 9, 1992 and known as Meet Me in the Ring in Funimation's dub, episode 168 of Dragon Ball Z brings father and son back after a year inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Goku and Gohan walk out as Super Saiyans, with a calm that unsettles everyone. Goku goes to look Cell in the eye, returns to Kami's Lookout and announces that he will spend the remaining nine days on Earth, not in the Chamber.
Summary
The Cell Games announcement has thrown the world into chaos: roads are jammed, cars pile into each other and people flee the cities by any means, trains included. At Capsule Corporation, Bulma and Dr. Brief work on Android 16 and comb through his data, while at Kame House Krillin blames himself for Cell's perfect form and wants to face him alone. Master Roshi talks him out of it.
On the Lookout, the Chamber door opens ahead of schedule. Out come Goku and Gohan, armor in shreds, hair golden and stomachs empty: neither of them could cook. As they wolf down everything Mr. Popo brings, Trunks fills them in. Cell has absorbed Android 18, reached his perfect form and set up a tournament with Earth's fate at stake.
Goku asks Mr. Popo for his old gi, which has been kept for him, while Gohan asks Piccolo for clothes like his, and the Namekian conjures them on the spot. Then Goku uses Instant Transmission to reach the arena Cell has built. The two size each other up in a long silence, the sky darkens, and Goku declares that he will be the first to step into the ring. Back at the Lookout, when Trunks asks whether he can win, Goku answers with disarming honesty: not right now.
The real surprise comes next. Piccolo and Vegeta plan to take turns in the Chamber again, but Goku announces that he and Gohan will train down on Earth for the nine days left before the tournament. Vegeta and the others are left speechless.
Our take
This is a transitional episode, but one that shifts the mood of the whole arc. For about ten episodes the Cell Games have been an abstract threat, debated by Trunks, Krillin and Vegeta. Here the two characters who will decide them finally show up, and they do it in the least epic way possible, by asking for food. The meal is an anime addition, but it is perfectly in the spirit of Toriyama, who loves to puncture solemn moments.
Toei's additions are all around the edges. The panic in the cities, with crashes and crowded trains, is a single panel of traffic in the manga. Krillin's urge to sacrifice himself and the storm that breaks out when Goku and Cell meet are inventions of the series. Some of them work, like Krillin's guilt, which gives weight to his choice to spare Android 18. Others only fill minutes.
The detail that matters most is at the end. Goku does not yet explain why he is skipping the Chamber, leaving viewers just as puzzled as Vegeta. The mystery of his new, calm, almost relaxed Super Saiyan state carries the next few episodes. And the purple outfit Piccolo gives Gohan will become the defining image of the Cell Games.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 390 of the manga. Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Daisuke Nishio, with Tadayoshi Yamamuro as animation director, it drew a 19.8% share.
- When Bulma analyzes Android 16's data, lines of real BASIC code scroll across the screen alongside images of Goku's past battles. Some show fights on Namek that Dr. Gero could not have known about, and Dragon Ball Z Kai edited them out.
- The storm that rages during Goku and Cell's face-off is not in the manga.
- That father and son could not cook had already been shown in episode 162, when Gohan tried to roast meat with his energy and set Goku's hair on fire.
- Funimation's dub premiered on Cartoon Network on November 14, 2000.
Characters
- Goku, Gohan and Cell
- Trunks, Vegeta, Piccolo and Mr. Popo
- Krillin, Master Roshi and the Kame House group
- Bulma, Dr. Brief and Android 16