Episode 235 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on August 3, 1994 and titled Meal Time in Funimation's dub, marks the end of Dabura: the Demon King cannot put a dent in Majin Buu, who turns him into a cookie and eats him. With his death, Piccolo and Krillin are freed from the stone, and Majin Vegeta arrives on the scene, determined to settle things even if it costs him his life.
Summary
Having left Goku unconscious, Vegeta flies toward the enemy and senses that Gohan's energy has vanished. He believes the boy is dead, and for the first time his face betrays genuine remorse, including for what he did to his rival. On the battlefield, Buu keeps telling Dabura that he is going to eat him. The Demon King pounds him with punches and kicks, but the monster's rubbery body soaks up everything. As Goten and Trunks watch from a ledge, Dabura unleashes a volley of energy blasts, to no effect. In desperation he tries to petrify Buu with his spit: Buu dodges and, with a beam from the antenna on his head, turns him into a giant cookie that he gobbles down in one bite.
With Dabura dead, the spell breaks. Krillin is flesh and blood again, and Goten cheerfully tells him that Trunks broke Piccolo's statue. Trunks, horrified at the pieces of the Namekian, begs everyone to keep it a secret, but Piccolo reappears in one piece: his head was intact, so he only had to regenerate the rest.
Babidi gives the monster permission to eat the Supreme Kai, still lying on the ground, and Buu wonders whether to turn him into chocolate or jelly. An explosion interrupts him: the wizard's spaceship has been blown up. Majin Vegeta emerges from the smoke, ignores Babidi's tirade and accuses Buu of killing Gohan, leaving Piccolo speechless.
Buu takes offense when Vegeta calls him ugly, and Babidi orders him to kill the Saiyan. For a moment, in the monster's place, Vegeta sees Goku. He thinks back to all the times his rival defended the Earth, lets go of his grudge and promises to save the planet even if he dies doing it. Then he unleashes all his power and launches his attack, as Piccolo, Krillin and the two boys look on.
Our take
Dabura's end is the darkest and funniest moment of the arc at the same time: the Demon King who killed Kibito and turned two Z Fighters to stone with a single spit ends up crunched like a snack. The monster's most threatening power is not raw strength but the ability to turn anyone into food, with the glee of a child.
The second half belongs to Vegeta. The manga gives him a single panel of concentration before the assault; the anime turns that moment into a long sequence and adds the vision of Goku in Buu's place. The invention works, because it spells out what the comic only hints at: the rivalry with Goku is over in Vegeta's head before the real fight even starts.
The Dabura-Buu fight is also longer than in the manga, where the Demon King becomes a cookie the moment he tries to land a punch. Here he gets a last assault and a try with his spit, a more dignified send-off.
Trivia
- The full literal translation of the Japanese title is "'Gonna Eat'cha!!' The Hungry Majin's Supernatural Powers".
- It adapts chapter 464 of the manga. Written by Masashi Kubota and directed by Jun'ichi Fujise, with Yūji Hakamada as animation director.
- It drew an 18.5% share in Japan.
- The extended Dabura-Buu fight, the vision of Goku and Vegeta's drawn-out power-up are anime additions.
- The next episode aired two weeks later, on August 17, 1994.
Did you know? Piccolo survives because the statue broke without damaging his head, the condition a Namekian needs to regenerate. Back in the Cell Games, when Cell rebuilt himself from the legs up, that rule had never been spelled out.