Episode 212 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on January 12, 1994 and titled Best of the Boys in Funimation's dub, settles the junior final between Goten and Trunks. The full Japanese title opens with "Happiness Times a Million!", and the match lives up to it: energy waves, chokeholds and two Super Saiyan transformations in front of thousands of spectators. Trunks wins in the end, with a little trick his friend does not easily forgive.
Summary
The final picks up where it left off. Mr. Satan watches the two kids float through the air and, with a shiver, remembers the fighters from the Cell Games seven years earlier. Trunks fires an energy blast that Goten dodges; Goten answers with a Kamehameha that punches a hole through the roof of the waiting room. Impressed, Trunks proposes a deal: no more energy attacks, just fighting. His friend agrees.
Up close, Trunks is stronger and locks Goten in a chokehold, telling him to give up. Goten refuses and breaks free by turning Super Saiyan. In the stands, Goku discovers that his seven-year-old son can already transform, while Vegeta objects that the Saiyans had agreed not to transform during the tournament. Mr. Satan is stunned too: a little boy is doing what, seven years ago, only Goku, Vegeta, Future Trunks and Gohan could do.
Stung, Trunks announces that he will beat Goten without using his left arm. The fight stays even until Goten tries a headbutt: Trunks dodges, transforms himself and strikes with, of course, his left arm, sending Goten flying toward the stands. Goten touches down outside the ring and loses. Trunks takes the one-million-zeni prize and Goten the runner-up purse. The quarrel over the broken promise does not last: each of them transformed once, so they are even, and Trunks makes amends by promising him some toys.
Now the junior champion has to face Mr. Satan in the exhibition match. The world champion has no desire whatsoever to come out, but his fans are chanting his name and he cannot back down. Videl, meanwhile, has just seen a Super Saiyan in person for the first time.
Our take
The final between Goten and Trunks is one of the best-loved sequences of the Majin Buu Saga, and it is easy to see why. These are kids fighting like kids: they get offended, make deals, break them and make up over the promise of a present. At the same time, the direction treats it as a serious duel, with all the tension of a real tournament bout.
The episode also does important work for the series as a whole. Super Saiyan, which for Goku had been a hard-won breakthrough against Frieza, is literally child's play here. Vegeta will grumble about it, and the audience has to get used to a new generation that starts at that level. It signals that the saga is raising the bar and that something new, the Fusion, will be needed to give these two a real role against Buu.
Finally, there is a small and precious moment: Goku seeing his son transform for the first time. He did not raise him and met him only a few hours earlier, and that astonished pride is worth more than many battles.
Trivia
- It adapts chapters 434 and 435. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- It drew a 21.9% share in Japan.
- Idasa and Ikose's mother forcing her sons to train instead of watching the final, and the TV crew trying to fix the cameras Piccolo destroyed, are anime additions.
- In the manga, Goten mangles the technique's name into "Kamekameha" and Trunks bursts out laughing. Funimation's dub has Goten say it correctly, so Trunks laughs for no apparent reason.