Episode 200 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on September 8, 1993 and titled Gohan Goes to High School in Funimation's dub, opens the Majin Buu Saga with a seven-year time skip. The Earth is at peace, Goku is still in the afterlife and a teenage Gohan is about to start high school in Satan City. One day is all it takes to put his secret at risk.
Summary
At a bank in Satan City, armed robbers empty the vaults and keep the police pinned down. Not far away, Gohan arrives on the Flying Nimbus. He has always studied at home, since there are no schools anywhere near his mountain, but Chi-Chi wants him to attend a real high school.
Running late, he sprints at superhuman speed, but he cannot just pass the bank by. To avoid being recognized he turns Super Saiyan, knocks the gunmen out one by one, catches a spray of bullets with his bare hands and flips their getaway vehicle with nothing but a shout. Once he powers down and blends in with the onlookers, a girl in pigtails appears behind him and asks who stopped the robbers. It is Videl. A witness tells her about a golden-haired fighter wearing the badge of her own school, Orange Star High.
In class, the teacher introduces the new student and a bubbly blonde named Erasa waves him over to sit next to her and Videl. Gohan learns that Videl is the daughter of Mr. Satan (Hercule in Funimation's dub), the man the world credits with beating Cell, and that she is sizing him up: the mystery hero wore the same clothes as him, and she remembers seeing fighters whose hair turned gold in the footage of the Cell Games. Worse, he admits he lives a thousand kilometers away.
Gym class means baseball. Gohan keeps telling himself to play badly, as his mother and Bulma warned him to, but when Sharpner launches what should be a home run he leaps several meters into the air, snags the ball and throws it to third base so hard he knocks the baseman over. Then he takes a deliberately nasty pitch straight in the face and strolls to first base as if nothing happened. After school, Videl tails him to find out how he gets home, but he turns a corner and vanishes onto a rooftop. He will need Bulma's help with a disguise.
Our take
After five episodes in the afterlife, Episode 200 feels like a genuine reboot: new opening, new tone, new lead. For a few weeks Dragon Ball Z becomes almost a school comedy, and it works because Gohan is at its center. The boy who beat Cell is awkward and terrified of attention, and director Mitsuo Hashimoto has fun making him fail in the most harmless ways, from the leap in the outfield to the pitch to the face.
The scene-stealer, though, is Videl. She is not a typical sidekick: she is sharp, connects the dots faster than anyone and already has a role in her city. Her relationship with Gohan starts as an investigation rather than a crush. The satire of a world that worships Mr. Satan lands too: an entire city named after a fraud, and we learn its history from a school lesson.
Trivia
- It adapts chapters 421 and 422 of the manga. Written by Takao Koyama and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with Tadayoshi Yamamuro as animation director. It drew a 24.8% share.
- It is the first episode to use the opening WE GOTTA POWER and the ending Bokutachi wa Tenshi datta, both kept until the end of the series; more on them in our guide to Dragon Ball theme songs.
- Videl, Sharpner and Erasa all make their debut. We also learn that Satan City used to be called Orange Star City.
- The opening recap jumps straight back to Cell's defeat, skipping the Other World Tournament. Goku does not appear at all.
- Mr. Satan at his gym and Chi-Chi worrying about her son are anime additions.
Characters
- Gohan and Videl
- Erasa, Sharpner and the Orange Star High teachers
- Chi-Chi and Mr. Satan
- The Satan City bank robbers