Episode 218 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on February 23, 1994 and titled Identities Revealed in Funimation's dub, settles two open questions. Videl is back on her feet thanks to a senzu bean, and Gohan's double life comes to an end in front of his classmates: he is the Great Saiyaman. Waiting for him in the ring is Kibito, who has no intention of fighting and makes a very unexpected request instead. It is also the highest-rated episode of the whole series in Japan.
Summary
While Goku is at Korin's tower, Gohan rushes Videl to the infirmary. Mr. Satan is furious: in front of reporters he swears that Spopovich will pay, though privately he cannot work out how any of this is possible. He thinks back to the previous tournament, when that same fighter was a perfectly ordinary opponent he had beaten without trouble.
The next match is Gohan against Kibito, but Gohan asks for a few more minutes: Goku is not back yet. The wait drags on because, in the anime, his father takes his sweet time and sits down to a huge meal at Korin's before heading back. In the stands, Chi-Chi reminds everyone how much she could use the prize money. When Goku finally reappears, Gohan races to the infirmary and, despite Mr. Satan's objections, gets Videl to eat a senzu bean. She heals instantly, leaving her father speechless.
Gohan steps into the ring, but his costume is beyond saving: the bandana and cape flew off in the previous episode, and Sharpner and Erasa, up in the stands, recognize their classmate. Resigned, he takes off the sunglasses too. Kibito does not attack. He wants to see a Super Saiyan with his own eyes and asks Gohan to transform right there, in front of everyone. Gohan hesitates until Piccolo tells him to go along with it.
Among the fighters, meanwhile, Piccolo tells Goku, Vegeta and Krillin who Shin really is: the Supreme Kai, the god above all the Kais. Shin adds a request that sounds more like a warning: whatever happens to Gohan, nobody must interfere. Gohan begins to power up.
Our take
The end of the secret identity was inevitable, and it comes in the most low-key way possible: not with a dramatic twist but with a costume that has fallen apart piece by piece. For anyone who enjoyed the Great Saiyaman interlude, it is a small farewell to one of the lightest stretches of the series. From here on Gohan cannot hide anymore, and the story will no longer let him.
The dramatic core, though, is the exchange between Shin and the fighters. His request not to interfere puts viewers in Goku's position: we know something is about to happen to Gohan, but not what. It is tension built almost without action, and it holds up remarkably well.
The anime additions are many, from Mr. Satan's flashback to Goku's lunch break. The latter is the most questionable, since it prolongs Videl's suffering for a gag, but it does give some air to an episode that would otherwise be all waiting. That a ratings record went to such a quiet, transitional episode, rather than to a big fight, is one of the nicer ironies of the series.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 443. Written by Takao Koyama and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- Its 27.5% ratings share is the highest of any Dragon Ball Z episode; the series averaged 20.5%.
- Mr. Satan's flashback against Spopovich, his threats in front of the press, Chi-Chi's talk about the prize and Goku's long meal at Korin's are all anime additions.
- In the original broadcast, half of the next-episode preview was given over to a ticket lottery for the film Broly – Second Coming, released on March 12, 1994.
- This is Mark Britten's last time voicing Korin in Funimation's dub.