Episode 275 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on August 16, 1995 and titled Deadly Vision in Funimation's dub, reveals the secret that will decide the end of the saga. By tearing out the pods holding Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Piccolo, Goku and Vegeta make Super Buu regress, then find one more prisoner: the good Buu, the friend of Mr. Satan (Hercule). At that very moment the monster takes shape inside his own body, where no attack can hurt him.
Summary
Goku and Vegeta rip the pods holding Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Piccolo off the walls. Outside, Super Buu's body deflates back to the look he had before his absorptions, and Goku senses that his power has dropped. Vegeta wants to burst out and fight right away, but Goku holds him back: even like this, Buu is too strong for them. Their only hope would be the Fusion Dance, and Vegeta rejects it without a second thought.
Then Vegeta spots another pod. Inside is Fat Buu, the one who befriended Mr. Satan. Vegeta tells Goku what he saw from the afterlife: the monster splitting in two, and the evil half turning the good one into chocolate and eating him. On Earth, meanwhile, Dende and Mr. Satan secretly tail Buu as he gorges on sweets in a city, and cannot understand why he suddenly freezes in place.
A voice behind the two Saiyans answers the question: Super Buu has formed inside his own body. Goku and Vegeta turn Super Saiyan and attack, but every time they hit him the monster reappears somewhere else, unharmed. A combined attack seems to take him down, yet Buu pulls himself together again. Goku blasts a hole in the monster's head to try to escape, but the wound seals before they can get through.
Tired of playing, Buu decides to absorb them too. Vegeta is knocked down and dazed, and the monster moves in to engulf him while Goku desperately rushes to help.
Our take
The Japanese title speaks of "two Buus inside Buu", and that wordplay is the key to the saga. The good Buu was not digested like the other victims turned into sweets: he stayed whole, preserved in a pod just like the strongest fighters. In the manga the monster confirms it as soon as he appears: that Buu alone got special treatment. This forgotten prisoner is the reason Super Buu exists the way he does, as the next episode will show when Vegeta decides to cut him loose.
The significance for the finale is huge. Separated from the good Buu, the monster will revert to his original state, Kid Buu: as the Supreme Kai explains, absorbing the South Supreme Kai and the Grand Supreme Kai had given the demon a heart at the cost of his power. The good Buu, meanwhile, will step back into the decisive battle, survive it and go to live with Mr. Satan. It proves that the friendship between a fraudulent champion and a sweet-toothed monster was never a comic aside, but the moral heart of the whole saga.
As an adaptation, the anime adds a lot. In the manga there is no fight at all: Buu appears, Goku's blast does nothing, and Vegeta moves straight on to the idea of the pod. The battle with Vegeta on the verge of being absorbed is the show's invention to stretch the suspense, but the image of an enemy who is everywhere inside his own body is a strong one.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 506 from page nine to the end and the first six pages of chapter 507. Written by Atsushi Maekawa and directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, with Yukio Ebisawa as animation director.
- It drew a 13.9% share in Japan.
- In the Japanese version Vegeta recounts what he saw from the afterlife; the English dubs make it sound as if the two are reading Buu's thoughts.
- Dende and Mr. Satan following Buu through the city and the entire fight inside his body are anime additions.