Episode 176 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on March 3, 1993 and titled Losers Fight First in Funimation's dub, opens the Cell Games with a comedy routine. Before Goku can step into the ring, it is the turn of Mr. Satan and his "squad": two flashy students and a manager who arrive by helicopter. Against Cell they last a few seconds, and the world champion does no better.
Summary
The tournament begins. Cell lets the challengers choose the order, and Mr. Satan steps forward. Goku shouts that he will get himself killed, but the reporter and the audience watching live dismiss him as clueless. At his castle, King Furry feels he recognizes the blond fighter as the boy who once saved him from King Piccolo, though the eyes and hair do not match. He does recognize Piccolo, whom he mistakes for his father. Krillin, ever practical, suggests letting Satan fight: if he dies, the Dragon Balls can bring him back.
Satan is about to take off his cape when a pink helicopter lands. Out jump his students Caroni and Piroshki, with their manager Pizza, determined to fight in their master's place. Satan happily agrees. Caroni shows off by slicing a bouquet of roses in mid-air, then charges at Cell: the monster just flares his aura, sending him into the sky and down outside the ring. Satan and Pizza explain that he jumped too high.
Next comes Piroshki, introduced as a giant with the strength of ten elephants. After a bizarre show of strength he charges head down, but stops a few steps from his target, as if against an invisible wall, and is pushed out of the ring. Cell has not taken his eyes off Goku for a moment. Satan claims the ring is rigged; Krillin tries to explain that it was Cell's energy, but nobody listens.
Finally the champion steps in. Satan stacks fifteen roof tiles and breaks fourteen with one chop, to the crowd's delight and to the dismay of even Cell. He then attacks with his Dynamite Kick and a flurry of punches and kicks, which his opponent barely seems to notice. A single blow sends him flying into a mountain. The world is in shock. Piccolo observes that Satan survived only because Cell did not consider him worth killing. The monster declares that the tournament can now truly begin, and Goku enters the ring.
Our take
This is the most openly comic episode of the saga, and it works because the tension is sky-high. Toei stages a genuine circus act: roses sliced on the fly, pieces of costume devoured, tiles broken one short of the stack, all in front of a monster who cannot be bothered to look. Cell's stillness, eyes locked on Goku, is the best joke of the lot.
Caroni, Piroshki and Pizza do not exist in the manga, where Mr. Satan faces Cell alone: they are anime additions that stretch the champion's debut. The result is filler that lands, because it amplifies one of Toriyama's favorite themes: the public believes in sideshow acts and cannot see the real strength in front of it.
King Furry nearly recognizing Goku is a nice nod for long-time viewers, and a reminder of how far the hero has come since the original Dragon Ball.
Trivia
- It adapts the first part of chapter 396. Written by Sumio Uetake and directed by Hiroki Shibata, with animation direction by Yukio Ebisawa, it drew a 23.0% share.
- It is one of the few Z episodes in which no character flies.
- The edited English dubs trimmed a few seconds of Caroni's flamboyant introduction.
- In the remastered version, the jeering aimed at Goku by the crowd watching on TV was removed.