Episode 288 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on January 10, 1996 and titled He's Always Late in Funimation's dub, is a party where the guest of honor fails to show. Bulma invites everyone to Capsule Corporation to celebrate the peace, but Goku is up a mountain guarding four eggs that are about to hatch. It is an entirely anime-original episode, and the last one before the ten-year time skip.
Summary
At the Son house, Chi-Chi, Gohan and Goten are ready for Bulma's barbecue, but there is no sign of Goku. Chi-Chi loses her patience and leaves without him, determined not to let him ruin the day. Goku, meanwhile, has found a nest with four pterosaur eggs and refuses to leave until he sees them hatch. He defends them from a snake, a huge fish and a storm, and while he waits he thinks back to Grandpa Gohan, who raised him in the mountains.
Everyone turns up at Capsule Corporation: Krillin with Android 18 and little Marron, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Dende, Mr. Satan and the good Buu. There is music and dancing, Gohan and Videl pair up, and Chi-Chi lets loose on the dance floor. Buu drools on Vegeta's hair, and instead of exploding the prince hands him his hot dog. But the moment someone mentions Goku, the party deflates: everyone realizes it is not the same without him.
The eggs finally hatch and Goku, delighted, suddenly remembers the party. He arrives as the guests are already leaving, with Krillin and Android 18 at the door. Chi-Chi and Bulma scold him, then bring the food and drinks back out, and the evening starts over. His friends gather around to hear him describe the birth of the chicks. Vegeta has drifted off to stand alone against the wall; Goku calls him over, the others tease him, and the prince turns his head away but cannot hide a smile.
Our take
Almost nothing happens, and that is the point. After dozens of apocalyptic episodes, the series devotes a whole installment to a backyard barbecue, and it works like a group photo before the end credits: nearly everyone is there, from the companions of young Goku to the new families born during Z. The staff has fun with the personalities: Chi-Chi dancing, Yamcha paying her compliments, Vegeta putting up with Buu with a patience we have never seen.
Goku skipping the party to babysit eggs is a small statement of identity. He is still the mountain boy from Dragon Ball, more at home in nature than at social events, and the memory of Grandpa Gohan closes a circle that goes back to the very start of the saga. There is a nice rhyme with the manga as well: in chapter 518 Bulma complains that Goku skipped a get-together five years earlier because he was training. The anime basically turns that throwaway line into an episode.
Today the episode carries another meaning, too. It is the last reunion before the time skip, with Goten and Trunks still kids, and the years that follow are where the adventures of Dragon Ball Super take place.
Trivia
- It is entirely original to the anime and adapts no manga chapters. Written by Atsushi Maekawa and directed by Osamu Kasai, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- It drew a 16.9% share.
- Osamu Kasai would go on to be series director of Dragon Ball GT, with Maekawa co-handling series composition alongside Aya Matsui.
- It is the first episode in which Master Roshi is voiced in Japanese by Hiroshi Masuoka, following the death of Kōhei Miyauchi.
- In Funimation's dub, Chi-Chi's exchanges with Bulma and Yamcha at the party were heavily rewritten.