Episode 220 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on March 9, 1994 and titled The Wizard's Curse in Funimation's dub, finally shows us the enemy's face. Its Japanese title translates in full as "The Man Behind the Curtain Appears!! The Evil Mage Babidi". Following Spopovich and Yamu, Goku and the others reach a spaceship hidden among the rocks, and out step the wizard Babidi and Dabura, king of the Demon Realm. It is also the episode in which Videl works out who really defeated Cell.
Summary
While Goku's group chases the two henchmen, further back Kibito explains to Gohan and Videl that Spopovich and Yamu entered the tournament on Babidi's orders, to steal energy from the strongest fighters. He and the Supreme Kai knew, which is why they entered too: they wanted the pair to lead them to the wizard's hideout. Back at the arena, the tournament has ground to a halt and the fed-up crowd is pelting the ring with cans while the announcer promises the matches will resume soon.
Videl starts struggling to keep up. Gohan suggests she head back and tell Chi-Chi and Goten what is going on, and apologizes for lying to her. That is when she puts it all together: it was Gohan, not her father, who beat Cell at the Cell Games. Before turning back, she tells him that if he comes back, she will ask him out on a date. Gohan and Kibito speed up and catch the others.
Spopovich and Yamu land beside a strange structure: Babidi's spaceship. Goku and company hide behind the rocks and lower their energy so as not to be detected. First out of the hatch is Pui Pui, a warrior in the wizard's service, who congratulates the pair. Then Babidi himself appears, with Dabura at his side: at the mere sight of the demon king, the Supreme Kai goes pale.
Yamu hands over the device holding Gohan's energy, and Babidi declares himself pleased. Then he announces that he has no further use for them. With a spell he paralyzes Spopovich, swells his body to monstrous size and makes him explode. A terrified Yamu tries to fly away, but Pui Pui shoots him down with an energy blast on the wizard's orders. Behind the rocks, Goku and Vegeta silently take the measure of how ruthless their new opponent is.
Our take
Babidi is an unusual villain for Dragon Ball. He is no fighter, he is tiny, he has a shrill voice and he never fights in person: his power lies entirely in magic and in other people, whom he uses and discards. The deaths of Spopovich and Yamu, two characters we had only just learned to hate, serve exactly that purpose: in a few seconds we understand that loyalty means nothing to him.
The episode's other key moment is a private one. Videl's discovery closes a thread that began with the Great Saiyaman interlude, and it does so gracefully: no scene, just a girl realizing that the real hero had been right next to her all along. The date invitation, softened in Funimation's dub into a vaguer line about not being finished with him, is one of the series' rare openly romantic beats.
The anime additions are minor, such as pterodactyls shielding their young as the fighters streak past, or Gohan's classmates stunned to see Videl fly. The Japanese title uses the word kuromaku, the "black curtain" of the theater: the one who pulls the strings while staying hidden.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 446 and the first ten pages of chapter 447. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Keisuke Masunaga as animation director.
- It drew a 26.5% ratings share in Japan.
- The pterodactyls and the classmates' comments about Videl flying are anime additions.
- It marks the first appearance of Babidi, Dabura and Pui Pui.
- In Funimation's saga divisions, this episode opens the Babidi Saga.