Episode 206 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on November 10, 1993 and titled The Newest Super Saiyan in Funimation's dub, kicks off the month of preparation for the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament and gives the saga its first real surprise. Gohan takes his little brother along to train in the mountains, expecting to babysit a distracted kid. Then Goten, almost as a game, turns Super Saiyan right in front of him.
Summary
News of Goku's return has everyone moving. On Kami's Lookout, Piccolo meditates with an aura so intense that Dende has to heal the butterflies that fly too close to it. At Kame House, Android 18 makes Krillin earn his breakfast with a workout, while at Capsule Corporation Vegeta and Trunks push themselves in the gravity room.
At the Son house, Chi-Chi warns Goten not to get in his brother's way: the family is counting on the tournament prize money. Wasted breath. While Gohan powers up and starts smashing boulders, the little one chases giant lizards and baby dinosaurs, until a big one nearly flattens him and his big brother loses his temper. To keep him busy, Gohan asks him to throw rocks at him. After a while Goten stops and says he wants to be a Super Saiyan too. Gohan laughs and explains that it takes years of training, and a second later he is staring at a little boy with golden hair.
Goten cannot remember when it first happened, but his mother certainly can. A flashback shows him sparring playfully with Chi-Chi and suddenly transforming, leaving her shaken. The memory makes him sad, and Gohan cheers him up. Then the kid drops a detail that matters: Trunks, who is a year older, is even stronger than he is.
Gohan makes him his sparring partner, and Goten turns out to be a real opponent, quick and aggressive, pushing him back against a cliff face. The only way out is to take to the air, and Goten complains: he does not know how to fly. Gohan promises to teach him, and right then Videl's aircraft appears on the horizon, as she comes to collect her first lesson. Chi-Chi, wary of this city girl, does not exactly roll out the welcome mat.
Our take
In the manga, Goten's transformation takes up a handful of panels and lands like a punchline: the kid tries, succeeds, and Gohan's jaw drops. The anime builds a whole episode around it, and the choice pays off. The contrast between the struggle it took Gohan to reach the same milestone in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and Goten's effortless leap says everything about the changing of the guard this saga is setting up.
The best addition is the flashback with Chi-Chi. It shows a mother who has raised an extraordinary child on her own and who, in her own way, tried to teach him to fight; it adds depth to a character too often played for laughs. The filler around the edges, from Piccolo's butterflies to Krillin's breakfast, mostly reminds us who will be at the tournament.
The line about Trunks being stronger than Goten is the real hook of the episode: without showing anything, it already sets up the clash between the two boys.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 427 of the manga. Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Osamu Kasai, with Tadayoshi Yamamuro as animation director.
- It earned a 24.6% share in Japan.
- Piccolo's training on the Lookout, Krillin and Android 18 at Kame House, the Grand Kai scolding Baba for letting Goku return without his permission, Goten playing with the animals and the flashback of his sparring session with Chi-Chi are all anime additions.
- This is Goten's first on-screen transformation, making him the youngest Super Saiyan seen in the series up to that point. Every level is covered in our guide to Super Saiyan transformations.
- Funimation's dub first aired on Cartoon Network on September 24, 2001.
Did you know? When Chi-Chi thinks back to her early days with Goku, the image of the newlyweds driving off in their flying car is based on the cover of the manga chapter in which the two get married.