Episode 250 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on December 14, 1994 and titled Out from the Broken Sword in Funimation's dub, turns the whole Z Sword subplot on its head. The legendary weapon the Supreme Kai was counting on to defeat Majin Buu snaps during a test, and out of the pieces pops a little old man: Elder Kai, trapped inside for ages. His real gift is not the sword at all, but the power to awaken Gohan's hidden strength.
Summary
At Kami's Lookout, Goten and Trunks are getting better but still cannot stay in sync. They blame each other, come to blows, and Piccolo has to pull them apart. Outside, to pass the time, Krillin, Bulma and Master Roshi play cards; Android 18 stands behind the old master feeding Krillin tips, and Roshi wins anyway.
On the Supreme Kai's world, Gohan now wields the Z Sword with ease, and Goku suggests testing its edge. He hurls a huge boulder, which Gohan slices cleanly in two. The Supreme Kai then conjures a block of Katchin, the hardest metal in the universe. Goku throws it, Gohan swings, and the sword breaks. As the Supreme Kai and Kibito stare at the remains in disbelief, an absent-minded old man emerges from the weapon: he says he is the Supreme Kai from fifteen generations earlier, sealed inside the sword by a fearsome being.
In the Other World, meanwhile, King Yemma's ogres beg for a break, swamped by the flood of dead arriving from Earth, but he orders them straight back to work.
Goku doubts the old man is as mighty as he claims and tests him with a tiny energy blast, which knocks him flat. Elder Kai is furious and explains that he was feared for his abilities rather than his strength, but refuses to say what they are. Goku tries to bribe him with Master Roshi's naughty magazines, yet Elder Kai has no need for them: his powers of sight let him watch whatever he likes, to the Supreme Kai's great embarrassment. So Goku promises him a date with a pretty Earth girl. Gohan indignantly refuses to involve Videl, and his father settles on Bulma instead.
The deal is struck. Elder Kai reveals that he can awaken a person's latent power and push it past every limit. Gohan agrees and stands perfectly still while the old man starts dancing around him, to everyone's amazement. When the Supreme Kai asks how long the ritual will take, the answer stuns them all: twenty-five hours in total.
Our take
This is one of Toriyama's masterstrokes in the saga. For several episodes the Z Sword was sold as the ultimate weapon, and viewers expected a sword-wielding Gohan; instead the legend literally falls apart, and the treasure turns out to be a dirty old man who could pass for Master Roshi's long-lost relative. The comedy punctures the solemnity of the gods, something the series will keep doing.
For Gohan, it is the start of a rebirth. The boy who set training aside for his studies is about to reclaim his place as the strongest fighter, with the potential unlocked by Elder Kai: Ultimate Gohan, the form Funimation's dub called Mystic Gohan. Those twenty-five hours are a real problem, though, because time keeps running on Earth and Buu will not wait forever.
Trivia
- It adapts page twelve of chapter 478 and chapter 479. Written by Masashi Kubota and directed by Kazuhito Kikuchi, with Yukio Ebisawa as animation director.
- It drew a 20.5% ratings share.
- The card game, the exhausted ogres and the boulder test are anime additions: in the manga, the Supreme Kai goes straight to the block of Katchin.
- Majin Buu never appears in this episode; he is only mentioned.
Did you know? The "fearsome being" who sealed Elder Kai in the sword only got a name almost twenty years later, when the movie Battle of Gods revealed it was Beerus.