Episode 181 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on April 14, 1993 and titled Faith in a Boy in Funimation's dub, solves the mystery of Goku's surrender. The Saiyan has not given up on saving the Earth: he has simply decided that someone else will do it. The chosen one is his son Gohan, still just a boy, who takes off his cape and flies down to face Cell.
Summary
Cell asks from above for confirmation: is Goku really withdrawing? If nobody beats him, he reminds everyone, he will destroy the world. Goku replies that he is not the only fighter left. Meanwhile the ZTV reporter is thrilled that Mr. Satan can return to the ring, but the champion suddenly doubles over with a convenient stomachache.
Goku asks for the right to pick the next challenger, someone he claims is stronger than both of them. After a pause that leaves even Mr. Satan sweating, he calls out Gohan. At home, Chi-Chi screams at the TV while the Ox-King tries to stop her from smashing it; the reporters on site, meanwhile, mishear and think Goku has asked for a lunch break.
Piccolo and Cell both object, one because Goku is putting his son in danger, the other because he is being handed an unworthy opponent. Goku explains that Gohan has been fighting since he was tiny, and that during their training he glimpsed a hidden power in him. The boy says he could follow the duel only because his father was not going all out, but Goku corrects him: he gave it everything. Gohan accepts, removes his Namekian cape and heads for the battlefield.
Before the fight, Goku asks Krillin for a senzu bean and tosses it to Cell, to everyone's dismay: he wants a fair contest. Fully restored, Cell warns him he will regret it. Gohan powers up, releasing an aura that shakes the area; even King Kai, on his planet, suspects the boy may have surpassed his father. Cell attacks, and Gohan blocks and dodges with ease but never strikes back. So Cell speeds up, grabs him and pummels him, finishing with a kick that drives him into the ground. Goku watches calmly. Gohan gets up, wipes the blood from his face and smiles.
Our take
Goku's choice is the real heart of the saga, and this episode makes it look both brilliant and reckless at the same time. Brilliant because Goku is right: after a year in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Gohan really is the strongest. Reckless because he never asked the boy what he wanted. Gohan does not enjoy fighting, and his power only explodes through rage; Goku is betting everything on a reaction his son cannot summon at will.
The senzu bean handed to Cell makes it all murkier. To Goku it is sportsmanship, to the onlookers it is madness, and the series leaves both readings open. This is where Goku's love of a fair fight starts to look like a flaw, a crack the story will widen in the episodes that follow.
The anime-only scenes with Chi-Chi's neighbors and the confused reporters lighten the mood with a pun that gets lost in translation, but it is hard not to side with Chi-Chi: she is the only one saying aloud that they are sending a child to his death.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 402 from page 13, chapter 403 and the first eight pages of chapter 404. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Kazuhito Kikuchi, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director, it drew a 21.4% share.
- Chi-Chi's outburst, the neighbors' comments, Master Roshi and Bulma's reactions and King Kai's remark on Gohan's power are all anime additions.
- In Japanese, "gohan" also means "meal": that is why the reporters think Goku wants a lunch break, and why an elderly couple who know Chi-Chi conclude that her son has started selling boxed lunches.
- In the Ocean dub, Dave Ward filled in for Brian Dobson as Piroshki in this episode and the next.