Episode 280 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on October 18, 1995, almost a month after the previous one, and titled Vegeta's Respect in Funimation's dub, contains one of the most beloved monologues in the series. As Goku battles Kid Buu at the edge of his strength, Vegeta looks back on years of rivalry and reaches a conclusion he had never been able to accept: the strongest is Kakarot.
Summary
Half the universe is watching Super Saiyan 3 Goku take on Kid Buu, the original Majin Buu: the warriors on Grand Kai's planet and even the damned in Hell, where Frieza, Cell and Babidi follow the fight in a giant crystal ball. Babidi, furious with his rebellious creation, actually hopes Goku finishes him off. The fight is savage: Buu bites Goku's arm, Goku bites his head in return, then the monster rolls himself into a ball and flattens him.
Goku charges a huge Kamehameha and blows Buu apart, but Buu re-forms, and Goku, drained, falls back to his normal state. Vegeta takes his place and wipes out a swarm of mini Buus, but against the real one he cannot land a single blow. As the monster is about to finish him, Goku shoves him aside, returns to Super Saiyan 3 and picks the fight back up.
Vegeta watches and remembers. Their first clash on Earth, when he was stronger and still could not win. Namek, where Goku was the one who became a Super Saiyan first. His own transformation, and every time the other pulled ahead again. He had believed the secret was having someone to protect, but now he has a family too and the gap is still there. The real difference lies elsewhere: he fought out of pride and for the thrill of killing, Goku to push past his own limits. The Saiyan prince admits it to himself: Kakarot is number one.
Our take
The Japanese title uses the word datsubō, "taking off one's hat": the gesture of someone bowing before another. It is the end point of a journey that began when Vegeta landed on Earth as a conqueror, certain that a low-class warrior could never beat him. Since then he has wept on Namek asking Goku to avenge the Saiyans, become a Super Saiyan far from Earth while obsessing over his rival, and let Babidi control him just to get his rematch. During the Cell Games, in Episode 180, he had already conceded that Goku had surpassed him, but through gritted teeth. Here the anger is gone.
It matters a great deal that the admission is a thought, not something said to his rival's face. Vegeta does not yield out of submission but because he finally understands: Goku does not fight to win or to kill, he fights to become stronger than himself. The rage that followed Vegeta through the entire series was exactly what kept him from seeing it. The direction backs the moment with flashbacks drawn from scratch instead of the usual recycled footage, and you can feel the difference.
The value of the gesture shows in the finale. Freed from the obsession with being first, Vegeta becomes the strategist of victory: in the coming episodes he gives up his turn, keeps Kid Buu busy at the risk of his very existence and comes up with the idea that saves everyone. The rivalry carries on in Dragon Ball Super, but on new terms: from here on, Vegeta chases Goku without hating him.
Trivia
- It adapts the first nine pages of chapter 510. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Kazuhito Kikuchi, with Naoki Miyahara as animation director.
- It drew a 16.5% share and aired four weeks after Episode 279.
- The spectators in Hell, Goku's collapse and Vegeta stepping in against Kid Buu are anime additions.
- The title of the matching Dragon Ball Kai episode, number 159, borrows the same line from Vegeta.