Episode 244 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on November 2, 1994 and titled Race to Capsule Corp. in Funimation's dub, is where Babidi's manhunt finally finds a target: Trunks's home at Capsule Corporation. While the boy flies off to rescue the Dragon Radar, Goku teleports in front of Majin Buu to keep him busy, and promises to push past the limits of a Super Saiyan to do it.
Summary
At Kami's Lookout, the real training begins. Goku has Goten and Trunks turn Super Saiyan and power up as far as they can. Trunks is stronger and has to lower his energy to match his friend's, because Fusion only works between fighters of equal power. Bulma storms in, worried about her son, and Krillin carries her out bodily, thinking back to his own training with Goku under Master Roshi.
Meanwhile, Buu and Babidi wreck another city. In a mansion, a mother watches the news with her sons. Hearing the names of the wanted fugitives, she remembers Bulma shouting "Trunks" during the Junior Division of the tournament, where her son Idasa competed. It is Idasa who knows that Trunks lives at Capsule Corporation in West City. The woman reaches Babidi telepathically and, between complaints about the tournament, hands over the address. Annoyed by her voice, the wizard thanks her with a death threat.
Babidi tells the world he is heading to Trunks's home, and if the boy is not there, he will flatten Capsule Corporation and the whole city. Bulma is frantic: her parents are there, and so is the Dragon Radar, without which they could never gather the Dragon Balls to bring the victims back. Goku decides quickly: Trunks will fetch the radar, and he will hold Buu off.
Trunks blasts off as a Super Saiyan, and Goku uses Instant Transmission to appear before Majin Buu and Babidi, who thought he was dead. Goku tells them that Goten, Trunks and Piccolo will show up in due time, once their training is done, and that anyone heading for West City will have to go through him first. Buu giggles when Babidi orders him to attack, and when Goku asks why such a powerful creature obeys such a weak wizard, he growls at his master. In the end he decides to fight anyway, simply because he does not like Goku. The Saiyan transforms into the stage beyond Super Saiyan; Babidi dismisses it as a trick he has already seen from Vegeta, so Goku announces he might as well go even further.
Our take
This is where Babidi's strategy pays off. Trunks is not betrayed by a warrior but by a spiteful mother convinced her son was cheated out of a children's tournament title. It is the banality of evil, Dragon Ball style: played as comedy, but far from harmless.
The other thread is the crack between Buu and his master. Goku senses it and pokes at it, asking out loud why the demon takes orders from such a feeble wizard. Buu does not answer, but he growls, the first clear sign of a rebellion that is coming soon. Goku, for his part, is not fighting to win but to buy minutes, and he plays it with a veteran's composure.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 473 of the manga. Written by Reiko Yoshida and directed by Jun'ichi Fujise, with Yukio Ebisawa as animation director.
- Its 19.2% share is the lowest among episodes 241 to 245. It aired two weeks after episode 243, as no episode was broadcast in Japan on October 26.
- In the manga, Babidi says he has learned where Trunks lives, but we never see who told him. Idasa's mother, the city rampage and Bulma being carried out by Krillin are all anime additions.
Did you know? Funimation's English title, Race to Capsule Corp., focuses entirely on Trunks's errand, while the Japanese title puts Buu and the threat to West City front and center.