Episode 252 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on January 11, 1995, is fully titled The Final Weapon is Engaged!? Satan Will Save the Earth and became Unlikely Friendship in Funimation's dub. With four fifths of humanity already wiped out by Majin Buu, the survivors pin their hopes on Mr. Satan, the champion everyone believes defeated Cell. He really does go to the monster's house, armed with nothing but cheap tricks, and walks away with a new best friend.
Summary
Buu keeps ravaging the planet, and 80% of the world's population is gone. Those still alive look to Mr. Satan, known as Hercule in Funimation's dub, as their final weapon. The world champion, who has never come clean about the Cell Games, puts on a brave face for the cameras while quaking inside.
On Kami's Lookout, Bulma and Chi-Chi patch up Goten and Trunks after the beating they took as Gotenks, and scold them for being so reckless. Piccolo is blunt: brute strength is not enough, they need a plan. The boys will keep practicing the fusion for the rest of the day and face Buu tomorrow at full strength.
Escorted by two of the King's soldiers, Mr. Satan reaches Majin Buu's house. Left alone, he is relieved to find nobody home and is already sneaking away when the monster returns. The champion tries to win him over with a string of presents, every one of them a trap. The poisoned chocolates are wolfed down happily. A handheld console stuffed with explosives, an obvious Game Boy spoof, blows up in Buu's face without leaving a scratch, and an attempt to blow him sky-high fizzles just the same.
Every scheme fails, and yet something unexpected happens: Buu finds Mr. Satan funny. Instead of killing him, he decides to keep him around, somewhere between a playmate and a servant, and the champion ends up living under the same roof as the creature he was supposed to destroy.
Meanwhile, on the Sacred World of the Kai, Elder Kai completes the first stage of his ritual on Gohan. The boy, however, will not feel anything for hours yet: he has to stay perfectly still while the old god finishes awakening his potential. Goku, for his part, passes the time with a nap.
Our take
This is the episode where Mr. Satan stops being just comic relief. Until now he was the fraud taking credit for other people's victories; here he becomes the only character to manage what Goku, Vegeta and Gotenks could not: getting close to Buu without a fight. The best part is that he does it out of fear rather than courage, and his schemes are so naive that they turn out to be irresistible to a creature who thinks like a small child.
Toriyama flips the logic of the whole series. While the heroes train to get even stronger, the turning point of the saga comes from the weakest man in the cast, holding a box of chocolates. Buu does not need an opponent; he needs someone to keep him entertained, and Mr. Satan, without realizing it, is perfect for the job.
It is the start of a friendship that will last until the end of the saga and that, over the next few episodes, will change the monster's fate more than Elder Kai's ritual or the fusion ever could.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 481. Written by Masashi Kubota and directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, with Naoaki Hōjō as animation director.
- It drew a 20.7% share and was the first episode of 1995, arriving after three weeks without a new installment.
- Bulma and Chi-Chi tending to Goten and Trunks, lecture included, is an anime addition.
- The console Mr. Satan gives Buu is called the Game Poy, a parody of Nintendo's Game Boy in both name and design.