Episode 270 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on July 12, 1995 and titled Rip in the Universe in Funimation's dub, pushes Super Buu's humiliation to the limit. Against Super Vegito, no trick works: not regeneration, not a smokescreen, not even an attempt to destroy him from inside his own body. In the end the monster loses it completely, and his fury is enough to crack space itself.
Summary
Super Vegito's Big Bang Attack blows Super Buu to pieces. The monster regenerates, but this time the damage shows. He tries to hide inside the cloud of steam his rage sends pouring from his head, yet Vegito keeps hitting him in there too, then skewers him on a blade of energy. The Potara warrior taunts him nonstop, as if the fight were a training session.
Desperate, Buu turns to liquid and slips into Vegito's body through his mouth, intending to make him burst from within. But Vegito controls his own energy and pummels Buu inside himself until the monster has to flee in a hurry. The move that was supposed to turn the tables becomes one more humiliation.
Meanwhile, on Grand Kai's planet, King Kai and Krillin follow the battle. Krillin and Yamcha have been allowed to keep their bodies in Other World, but while Krillin worries about what is happening on Earth, Yamcha is having a blast taking on the fighters who live there. Back on Earth, Dende digs Mr. Satan out from under the rubble left by the fight.
Buu, completely beside himself, unleashes all his power. The air warps and space starts to crack, just as it did when the monster broke out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and Dende warns that the whole universe could be torn apart. Rather than worry, Vegito dares Buu to use that power on him, and the Elder Kai starts to fear his overconfidence. When Buu seals himself inside a barrier, Vegito struggles through it and punches him into the sea, stopping the disaster.
Our take
The Japanese title is a pun: "kiretsu", the crack between dimensions, mirrors "kirechatta", colloquial Japanese for losing one's temper. It sums up the episode perfectly. Super Buu, the monster who only recently was planning absorptions and insurance policies, is reduced to a child throwing a tantrum because he cannot win, and a tantrum from a being this powerful can break the universe.
This is also where the meaning of the Potara comes into focus. In the manga, the Elder Kai explains that Vegito's strength does not come from the earrings alone but from the fusion of two great fighters, rivals no less. In his words, the fusion is forever: the price of such power is giving up Goku and Vegeta. The story will not go all the way, though. The fusion comes undone a few episodes later, inside Buu's body, and Dragon Ball Super revises the rule: it is permanent only for Supreme Kais, while for everyone else it lasts one hour.
The anime stretches the fight considerably, adding Buu's trip inside Vegito and the crack in space, but this time the additions serve a purpose. They build up the warrior's arrogance, the Achilles' heel the Elder Kai senses and Buu will exploit in the next episode.
Trivia
- It adapts pages 3 to 11 of chapter 504. Written by Masashi Kubota and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Yukio Ebisawa as animation director.
- It drew a 15.0% share in Japan.
- Buu entering Vegito's body, the crack in space, the Grand Kai's planet scene and Mr. Satan under the rubble are anime additions.
- In the manga the steam scene comes after the energy blade; the anime reverses the order.
Characters
- Super Vegito and Super Buu
- Dende and Mr. Satan
- The Elder Kai
- King Kai, Krillin and Yamcha