Episode 31 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on December 20, 1989 and known in Funimation's dub as Saiyan Sized Secret, contains one of the most famous beam struggles in the series: Vegeta's Galick Gun against Goku's Kaio-ken-boosted Kamehameha. Goku wins, but the Saiyan prince still has one card left to play, and the episode ends with his transformation.
Summary
With Kaio-ken times three, Goku becomes a whirlwind. His power is so high that Raditz's scouter, in Bulma's hands at Kame House, cannot cope, and on his planet King Kai fears for his pupil. Vegeta is swept away by a flurry of blows he cannot answer. At Kame House, Fortuneteller Baba struggles with her crystal ball and Master Roshi worries that Goku is pushing himself beyond his limits.
When he sees his own blood, Vegeta loses it: a low-class warrior has dared to wound the prince of the Saiyans. Goku, for his part, can feel his body giving way under the strain and knows he must end this fast. Vegeta rises into the sky and charges the Galick Gun, determined to wipe out Goku and the entire Earth. Goku answers with a Kamehameha at Kaio-ken times three. The beams collide and Vegeta's starts to win. So Goku gambles everything and pushes the Kaio-ken to times four: the Kamehameha overwhelms the Galick Gun and hurls Vegeta into the sky.
Goku is left on the ground, spent. Yajirobe, who has been watching in hiding, comes out to congratulate him, but a single pat on the back is enough to make Goku scream in pain. Hearing that Vegeta is still alive, he scurries back into hiding.
Vegeta, his armor in tatters, breaks free of the beam and decides to transform, but the moon is gone. He realizes someone destroyed it precisely to stop him. He returns to Goku and explains the secret: the Great Ape is triggered by Blutz Waves reflected from the full moon, and a strong enough Saiyan can create an artificial one. With a ball of energy thrown into the sky, he lights a fake moon. Goku, who has no tail, feels nothing; Vegeta stares at it and becomes a gigantic Great Ape.
Our take
The Galick Gun versus Kamehameha struggle is the template for dozens of later duels, in and out of Dragon Ball. It works because the stakes are crystal clear, the Earth itself, and because Goku wins at a cost: Kaio-ken times four leaves him wrecked just as Vegeta is about to raise the bar again.
The artificial moon reveal is one of Toriyama's cleverest ideas in this saga. Piccolo had destroyed the moon months earlier to stop Gohan, and it seemed like a guarantee; Vegeta gets around it with a pseudo-scientific explanation that makes the Saiyans even more fearsome. In one stroke, it also reopens a theme that hits close to home for Goku.
The anime extends the Kaio-ken times three sequence and adds the Kame House scenes with Bulma's scouter; the rest follows the manga faithfully, including Yajirobe's gag, which breaks the tension right before the final transformation.
Trivia
- In the Japanese version, Vegeta is enraged that a low-class warrior has spilled his "noble blood"; the English dubs, even Funimation's uncut one, frame his anger more generally as being outmatched.
- It is the last episode broadcast in 1989: the next one aired on January 17, 1990.
- It adapts the second part of chapter 230 and chapters 231 and 232, with a 20.9% ratings share. It was written by Toshiki Inoue and directed by Daisuke Nishio.
Did you know? It was Piccolo who destroyed the moon, back in episode 8, to stop Gohan's Great Ape rampage during training, and that move seemed to have taken away the Saiyans' most dangerous weapon.
Characters
- Goku and Vegeta
- Yajirobe
- King Kai
- Master Roshi, Bulma, Chi-Chi and Fortuneteller Baba