Episode 32 of Dragon Ball Z, the first of 1990, first broadcast in Japan on January 17 and known in Funimation's dub as Spirit Bomb Away!, pits Goku against Vegeta's Great Ape form: ten times stronger, quick despite his size and, unlike young Goku, fully in control. It is also the episode where Goku learns the truth about his grandfather's death.
Summary
On their way to Kame House, Gohan and Krillin see a round light in the sky. Gohan asks if it is the moon; Krillin replies that it cannot be, because Piccolo destroyed it. Then they sense Vegeta's power skyrocketing. Worried for his father, Gohan turns back, and Krillin, unable to stop him, follows.
On the battlefield, Goku does what he can against the giant. Transformed, Vegeta has multiplied his strength tenfold and is surprisingly agile, and Goku, already drained by the Kaio-ken, loses energy with every dodge. During the chase he has a terrible realization: the full-moon monster his grandfather told him about, the one that killed him years ago, was Goku himself, transformed without knowing it. He pushes the grief aside and prepares to fight back.
At Kame House, Fortuneteller Baba finally gets an image of the fight on her crystal ball.
Goku blinds Vegeta with the Solar Flare and, having bought a few seconds, gets some distance to prepare the Spirit Bomb. He raises his arms and gathers energy from the nature around him. But just as he finishes, Vegeta recovers and hits him with a blast from his mouth: his concentration breaks and much of the sphere is lost. Exhausted, Goku can no longer escape the giant, who crushes him underfoot. With the last of his energy, Goku strikes Vegeta's right eye and badly wounds it. Enraged at losing half his sight, the prince grabs him in his fist and starts to squeeze the life out of him.
Our take
The revelation about Grandpa Gohan is one of the saga's strongest moments, and it arrives in the middle of a battle, with almost no time to process it. It closes a mystery opened in the very first volumes of Dragon Ball, when little Goku spoke of the monster that took his grandfather away, and it closes it in the bitterest way. The anime underlines it with flashbacks that are not in the manga: Grandpa warning him never to look at the moon, Kami removing his tail, the Great Ape destroying Pilaf's castle.
Vegeta's Great Ape also overturns everything we knew about the transformation. Until now it was a blind, destructive force, something that happened to Saiyans. Vegeta controls it: he talks, thinks and toys with his prey. That is what makes him the most dangerous enemy faced so far.
The interrupted Spirit Bomb, finally, shows how well Toriyama can snatch victory away at the last second. The sphere is not entirely wasted, though: part of it remains, and it will come in handy.
Trivia
- It is Osamu Saka's final performance as Grandpa Gohan in the Japanese version.
- In the Ocean dub, instead of realizing he killed his grandfather, Goku decides that Vegeta must be the monster who damaged the stadium at the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament.
- It adapts chapters 233 and 234, with a 21.0% ratings share in Japan. It was written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda.
Did you know? In his story about the Saiyans in episode 20, King Kai had already mentioned their full-moon transformation, but Goku did not make the connection. He only does here, looking at Vegeta's Great Ape form.