Episode 260 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on March 15, 1995 and titled Feeding Frenzy in Funimation's dub, undoes Piccolo's sacrifice within minutes. Super Buu screams a hole through the dimension of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, returns to Kami's Lookout and turns everyone there into chocolate. Gotenks, stuck inside with Piccolo, is forced to play his ace: Super Saiyan 3.
Summary
The Chamber's door lies in ruins. Gotenks is beside himself, convinced his secret technique could have won the fight, while Buu asks whether he will ever get to eat candy again. Piccolo tells him never, and the monster flies into a rage. On the Lookout, Mr. Popo explains that the blast everyone just heard can only mean the entrance has been destroyed. Bulma lashes out at the others for leaving the kids at Buu's mercy.
Inside, Gotenks and Piccolo get into a shouting match, until a hungry, desperate Buu lets out a scream so powerful that it tears a rift in space. He squeezes his body through the opening, which seals itself right behind him. Piccolo and Gotenks try screaming their way out too, with no success at all.
On the Supreme Kai's world, Goku watches helplessly, keeping Gohan in the dark. Krillin steps up to buy a few seconds. He says goodbye to Android 18, promises they will see each other again once the Dragon Balls bring them back, and charges while she tries to get everyone to safety. Buu turns him into chocolate, does the same to Android 18, little Marron and everyone else present, and eats them all.
In the Chamber, Gotenks brings up his secret move again, and an exasperated Piccolo smacks him and orders him to use it now. The boy powers up and becomes a Super Saiyan 3. After admiring his new look, he lets out a scream that opens a rift in the dimension, and the two make it back out. Goku is thrilled, while the Supreme Kai, who assumed the third level was a side effect of fusion, learns that Goku can reach it too.
On the battered Lookout, Buu sits on the ground munching candy. When Piccolo asks where everyone is, he calmly replies that they are all in his belly. Gotenks realizes that his showboating has cost his friends their lives, and hurls himself at the monster with a fury we have never seen from him.
Our take
This episode's twist is cruel in its simplicity: Piccolo's sacrifice lasts only a few minutes and ends up dooming the people who stayed outside. Buu does not escape thanks to a technique or a plan, but through a tantrum, a scream of hunger. It is the perfect portrait of an enemy who can neither be predicted nor contained.
The mass death on the Lookout is one of the saga's most painful moments, and the anime adds Krillin's farewell to Android 18, which gives the massacre a human face. For Gotenks it is the hardest lesson of all: the Super Saiyan 3 he kept in reserve to show off arrives too late, and others pay the price.
The transformation itself remains iconic. Watching a child reach the level that cost Goku years of training, then brag about how cool he looks, sums up Gotenks's potential and immaturity in a single image.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 492 from page eleven to the end, plus chapter 493. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Keisuke Masunaga as animation director.
- It drew a 19.5% ratings share in Japan.
- Mr. Popo's explanation, Bulma's outbursts and Krillin's attempt to stop Buu are anime additions.
- For a split second before reaching the third level, Gotenks shows a Super Saiyan 2 aura, the only glimpse ever of that stage for the fused warrior.
Did you know? Only Dende survives the massacre on the Lookout: Mr. Popo throws him over the edge just before Buu's beam hits. The audience finds out a few episodes later.
Characters
- Gotenks, Super Buu and Piccolo
- Krillin, Android 18, Marron, Bulma, Videl, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Dende and Mr. Popo
- Goku, Gohan and Supreme Kai