Episode 253 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on January 25, 1995, is fully titled I've Stopped Killing!! Majin Buu's Good Boy Declaration and was called I Kill No More in Funimation's dub. Thanks to an injured puppy and the patience of Mr. Satan, Majin Buu realizes for the first time that killing is wrong and swears to stop. But the same episode introduces two murderers who will bring everything crashing down.
Summary
On the Sacred World of the Kai, Elder Kai's ritual drags on, and Gohan is growing more and more doubtful about this flaky old god. Goku, munching on a steamed bun, gossips about it with Supreme Kai; neither of them is sure the method will actually work.
On Kami's Lookout, meanwhile, Goten and Trunks perform the fusion as Super Saiyans and create Super Gotenks. The power is enormous, but the attitude has not changed: instead of heading straight for Buu, he goes on a high-speed lap of the planet, circling the Earth eight times just because he can. Piccolo struggles to keep up and finally talks him into going after the enemy, but it is too late. The fusion wears off before they reach the monster's house, and Goten and Trunks have no choice but to retreat.
At Buu's house, Mr. Satan does everything he can to keep his terrifying housemate happy, cleaning up and cooking for him. During one of his destructive outings, Buu comes across a puppy with a broken leg. He is disappointed that the animal neither runs away nor fears him, and almost on a whim he heals it. The puppy takes to him at once, and the monster discovers the joy of having a friend. Elsewhere, though, two deranged gunmen, known to English-speaking fans as Van Zant and Smitty, are killing innocent people for sport, an elderly couple among them.
Back with food for the dog, Mr. Satan screws up his courage and asks Buu why he kills people and destroys cities. The answer is disarming: Bibidi and Babidi told him to. When the champion explains that murdering innocent people is wrong, Buu decides on the spot that he will not do it anymore. Mr. Satan is overjoyed, but the celebration is short-lived. The two killers have set out to hunt Buu down, and while the monster is playing with the dog, one of them shoots Bee.
Our take
The Japanese title, a kind of "good boy pledge", sums up the tone perfectly. Buu has no moral compass, only orders and whims. Nobody had ever told him that killing was wrong, and all it takes is the right person at the right moment for him to stop. It is one of the most inspired ideas of the saga: the most dangerous monster in the universe is, at heart, a child who never had anyone to raise him.
The contrast with the two gunmen is deliberate and brutal. Buu has just given up killing, and moments later we watch two ordinary humans do it out of boredom. Toriyama does not spare the audience: the real evil in this episode does not belong to the pink demon but to men, a point Funimation would underline with its title for the next episode, The Evil of Men.
The Super Gotenks detour, with its pointless trip around the world, lightens the mood while confirming the problem we already saw: the power is there, the discipline is not.
Trivia
- It adapts chapters 482 and 483, with some scenes reordered compared to the manga. Written by Sumio Uetake and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with Keisuke Masunaga as animation director.
- It drew a 20.7% share.
- Goku eating a steamed bun while chatting with Supreme Kai is an anime addition.
- The two gunmen have no names in the original Japanese version.
Did you know? In Germany, RTL II skipped this episode and the next one during the show's first run in 2002: after the Erfurt school shooting, the channel chose not to air the armed attack on Mr. Satan.