Episode 216 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on February 9, 1994 and titled A Dark and Secret Power in Funimation's dub, is where the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament stops being fun. Videl takes on the hulking Spopovich and buries him under a flurry of blows, yet he gets up every single time, even after a kick twists his head the wrong way round. Meanwhile, Piccolo learns who the mysterious Shin really is, and it leaves him speechless.
Summary
Before the match begins, Shin approaches Piccolo in the fighters' area. Still shaken from his forfeit in the previous episode, the Namekian asks whether he is the Grand Kai. He is not: it is Kibito who reveals that his companion is the Supreme Kai, the god who stands above every Kai. Shin asks Piccolo to keep it to himself and walks away. Moments later Goku, as casual as ever, offers to go and set the strange little man straight; Piccolo begs him to leave Shin alone, and Goku has no idea why his friend is so rattled.
In the ring, Videl attacks with everything she has. Her style is the one we already know: speed, flying kicks and rapid-fire punches capped off with a knee strike. Spopovich takes it, hits the floor, then stands back up as if nothing had happened. The scene repeats until the crowd and even the announcer start to feel uneasy.
Up in the stands, the tension mixes with gossip: Chi-Chi tells a surprised Yamcha that Videl is Gohan's girlfriend, and she and Bulma agree that the girl would make Gohan a fine wife. Backstage, Mr. Satan refuses to believe his daughter is in trouble and waves it off as a show she is putting on for the audience.
When Spopovich starts fighting back, Videl decides to end it with a brutal kick to the head. Her opponent's neck twists at an impossible angle, the announcer fears the worst and starts talking about disqualification for excessive force. But Spopovich gets up, puts his head back in place with his hands and raises his guard again. Goku glances at Vegeta, who nods: something is very wrong with this man, and Goku thinks Videl should get out of the ring while she still can.
Our take
This is the episode where the saga changes tone. Up to now the tournament had been a family comedy, with Goten and Trunks in disguise and Mr. Satan quaking in his boots; Spopovich's head spinning around is an almost horror-movie image, and it lands precisely because it follows so much lightness. Akira Toriyama builds the threat without showing the real enemy: all we see is a fighter who should not still be alive.
The second thread is the reveal about Shin. For longtime viewers, watching Piccolo, who knows the hierarchy of the gods better than anyone in the cast, go pale in front of that small, mohawked young man is the most effective way to show how high up Shin really is. Goku, blissfully unaware, provides the comic counterpoint.
The anime additions are mostly side material. They slow the pace a little, but they also give Videl a crowd that is cheering for her, and that makes what happens in the next episode even harder to watch.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 440 and the first eight pages of chapter 441. Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with Shingo Ishikawa as animation director.
- It drew a 25.3% ratings share in Japan.
- In the manga, Spopovich punches Videl in the face hard enough to give her a nosebleed; in the anime he kicks her instead.
- Chi-Chi and Bulma's talk of Videl as a future daughter-in-law and Mr. Satan dismissing his daughter's struggles are both anime additions.
- Its Japanese title plays on two words that sound almost alike: fujimi (undying) and bukimi (creepy).