Episode 19 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on September 13, 1989, finally puts Goku in front of King Kai. Funimation's dub calls it Defying Gravity. Before teaching him anything, the North Kai demands a joke that makes him laugh, then sends him chasing a monkey around a planet with ten times Earth's gravity.
Summary
Having reached the tiny planet at the end of Snake Way, Goku can barely stay on his feet. He mistakes Bubbles, a monkey who mimics his every move, for King Kai, and when he meets the real one he is baffled by his terrible jokes. King Kai is clear: he will not train anyone without a sense of humor. Goku racks his brain and comes up with a couple of childish puns, which leave the god in stitches.
Once he hears about the Saiyans, King Kai tracks them through space and works out that they will reach Earth in 158 days. He adds, worried, that they are stronger than he is. The first task sounds easy: catch Bubbles. Goku sheds his weighted clothes and gives chase, but the gravity pins him down and hunger soon stops him cold. King Kai feeds him, makes him put the heavy clothes back on and tells him something that fires him up: Planet Vegeta, the Saiyans' home world, had the same gravity. That is part of why the race is so strong.
Back on Earth, Piccolo keeps training Gohan, who is improving but still has a long way to go. One night by the campfire, the boy tells him that he now thinks of him as family. Piccolo, uncomfortable with that much affection, orders him to sleep and promises even harsher training tomorrow.
After three weeks of chasing, Goku finally grabs Bubbles. Impressed by how quickly the young man has adapted to the gravity, King Kai starts to believe he might be able to handle a dangerous technique: the Kaio-ken.
Our take
After so many episodes spent on Snake Way, this is where Goku's training becomes concrete. Director Kazuhisa Takenōchi sells the physical strain well: Goku trudging, bending, falling with every step. Multiplied gravity is a simple idea that any kid watching could grasp, and it comes back, scaled up, in the spaceship Goku trains in on his way to Namek.
King Kai is the real novelty. Toriyama builds him as the opposite of Master Roshi: no lechery, just awful puns and a wounded ego every time nobody laughs. The joke test looks like a throwaway gag, but it says something about the tone of Dragon Ball: even on the eve of an invasion, there is room for silliness.
There is also a deliberate change from the manga. In the comic, Goku needs 40 days to catch Bubbles; the anime cuts it to three weeks to make room, in the next episode, for training that does not exist in the manga. The anime also gives more time to Gohan and Piccolo, deepening the bond between master and pupil and laying the groundwork for what happens against Nappa.
Trivia
- In the Japanese version, as in the manga, the Saiyans are 158 days away; Funimation's English dub changes it to 88.
- King Kai and the narrator share the same Japanese voice actor, Jōji Yanami.
- The episode adapts parts of chapters 210 and 211 of the manga and drew a 17.1% ratings share in Japan. Funimation's uncut dub first aired on Cartoon Network on July 14, 2005.
Did you know? It is King Kai who tells Goku that Planet Vegeta had ten times Earth's gravity. For a Saiyan, training on King Kai's planet is, in a way, a return to his roots.