Episode 188 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on June 2, 1993 and titled A Hero's Farewell in Funimation's dub, is one of the most important in the entire series: Goku dies for the second time, and this time by choice. To stop Cell, who is swelling up to explode and take the Earth with him, he carries him with Instant Transmission to King Kai's planet. The Japanese title, "Bye-bye, everyone!! Goku's last Instant Transmission", is his goodbye.
Summary
After spitting out Android 18, Cell reverts to his previous form, the one he used against Vegeta, and tries in vain to get her back. He no longer stands a chance against Gohan, who humiliates him while Goku shouts at him to finish the job.
So Cell plays his last card. His body inflates like a balloon: he has triggered his self-destruction, and with the energy inside him he will wipe out the entire planet. The countdown begins: one minute, forty-five seconds... Gohan remembers his father's warnings, realizes it is all his fault, and falls to his knees.
Goku turns to his friends and smiles: there is only one way to save the Earth. He says "bye-bye" to everyone and teleports next to Cell. Before vanishing, he tells Gohan he did well, apologizes and says goodbye. On King Kai's planet, the god, Bubbles and Gregory watch the Saiyan appear with a living bomb. Goku apologizes to his old master, and Cell explodes in a flash of white light.
On the battlefield, no one can sense Goku anymore. Gohan screams for his father, and at Kame House Master Roshi realizes what has happened in front of Bulma. Krillin comforts Gohan: without his strength the world would already be gone, and Goku left with a peaceful face, proud of him. Then he picks up Android 18, still unconscious, and shields her from Vegeta, who wants her dead.
In the afterlife, Goku, King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory walk along Snake Way with halos over their heads. King Kai is furious, but Goku notices something: Cell's spirit is nowhere to be found. Back at the Cell Games, smoke and lightning rise from the ground, a beam shoots out of the cloud and strikes Trunks in the chest. Then Cell steps out, perfect once again.
Our take
Goku's sacrifice is the moment Dragon Ball Z stops being the story of the strongest fighter and becomes the story of a father. Goku does not win. He fixes a mistake that is not even his, but his son's, and he does it with a smile and no speeches. Instant Transmission, the technique he learned on Planet Yardrat and has used so far for escapes and quick trips, becomes the gesture with which he removes himself from the board.
The strongest detail is the farewell. In the manga Goku simply says goodbye to everyone; the anime has him address his last words directly to Gohan, and it works, because it turns the scene into a passing of the torch. The boy who failed through overconfidence gets a "you did great" instead of a scolding. The weight of that guilt will stay with him, and it will make him grow.
King Kai's comic fury breaks the tension in the series' usual way, but the closing blow, Cell returning and hitting Trunks without warning, reminds us that the price of Gohan's mistake has not been fully paid.
Trivia
- It adapts the last pages of chapter 411, chapter 412 and the first eight pages of chapter 413. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Masahiro Hosoda, with Yūji Hakamada as animation supervisor, it drew a 21.4% share.
- It is Goku's second death, after episode 5 against Raditz. Gregory, King Kai's cricket, does not exist in the manga.
- In death, Goku finally drops out of Super Saiyan, a state he had held for about twenty episodes.
Did you know? In the Japanese version Goku says goodbye to his friends in English: his "bye-bye" is what gives the episode its title.