Episode 30 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on December 13, 1989 and simply titled Goku vs. Vegeta in Funimation's dub, finally opens the clash between Goku and Vegeta: the low-class warrior raised on Earth against the prince of the Saiyans. At first they seem evenly matched, then Vegeta shows his true strength and Goku has to decide whether to push his body past its limit.
Summary
Goku sends Gohan and Krillin back to Kame House and asks Vegeta to fight elsewhere. The prince agrees. Gohan is reluctant to leave his father, but Krillin talks him round: his mother will be overjoyed to see him after so long.
In a rocky wasteland far from the first battlefield, Vegeta taunts Goku by reminding him that he was born a low-class warrior, which is exactly why he was shipped off to an insignificant planet like Earth. Goku replies that he is grateful he grew up there and that, with enough training, even a low-class warrior can surpass an elite. The fight begins: the two seem even until Vegeta lands a few blows. Goku realizes he may be facing someone stronger than himself, but rather than worrying he gets excited, and with the Kaio-ken he manages to catch Vegeta off guard.
At Kame House, Fortuneteller Baba's crystal ball cannot show anything. Bulma pulls out Raditz's scouter and detects two enormous power levels to the west. Chi-Chi, distraught, becomes convinced that Gohan and Krillin are dead.
Vegeta decides to get serious. Clouds blanket the sky, rocks lift off the ground, the earth shakes: the prince unleashes his full power. In a bar far away, Launch, drunk and grieving for Tien, steps outside as flocks of crows flee the tremors. On the battlefield Vegeta dominates, strikes Goku from behind and blows away the top of his gi. Goku tries Kaio-ken times two, but it is not enough. So he decides to do what King Kai forbade: push it to times three.
Our take
The Goku-Vegeta duel is one of the most celebrated fights in anime history, and this first round sets it up perfectly. The low-class jab is not a throwaway line: it is the theme of the entire rivalry to come, Saiyan aristocratic pride against the talent of someone raised far from that mindset. Goku's answer makes clear where he stands.
The staging of Vegeta's power-up, with the landscape reacting to his aura, shows how the anime can expand the manga without betraying it: Toriyama shows the power, Toei makes you feel it with clouds, crumbling rocks and earthquakes.
The Launch scene is an anime addition, and it is also the character's farewell: after this episode she vanishes for a very long time. Her drinking to forget Tien is one of the few moments the series remembers her. The failed attempts with Baba's crystal ball are anime-only too; in the manga Bulma follows the fight with the scouter alone.
Trivia
- It is Mami Koyama's last speaking role as Launch and the last episode with Katsumi Aoshima as animation supervisor.
- In both English dubs, Vegeta offers Goku the chance to join him and rule the universe. In the Japanese version the two argue about Goku's low-class status instead.
- In the Ocean/Saban edit, episodes 30 and 31 were merged into one, Goku vs. Vegeta... A Saiyan Duel!.
- It adapts the end of chapter 227, chapters 228 and 229 and the start of 230, with a 20.8% ratings share.
Did you know? Exactly two hundred episodes later, Goku and Vegeta fight each other for real again, in the Majin Buu Saga, with Vegeta under Babidi's control.