Episode 35 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on February 7, 1990 and known in Funimation's dub as Mercy, closes the Saiyan Saga. Gohan looks at the artificial moon and becomes a Great Ape, Vegeta is crushed and escapes into space, and Goku makes a choice that will shape the rest of the series: he asks Krillin to let him go.
Summary
On the plane heading for the battlefield, Korin gives Bulma directions while Chi-Chi, desperate to know whether Gohan is alive, takes it out on him until Master Roshi calms her down.
Vegeta is gathering energy to finish Gohan when Yajirobe pops up behind him and slashes his armor open with his sword. The prince goes down, but gets back up. Yajirobe, who was already celebrating, tries to say he was only joking; Vegeta beats him to a pulp. It is the distraction Goku needs. In a faint voice, he tells Gohan to look at the artificial moon in the sky. The boy obeys and transforms into a gigantic Great Ape.
Vegeta tries to stop it and fails. Gohan is out of control, just as Goku was as a child, but the shouts of his father and Krillin manage to steer his fury toward the enemy: perhaps thanks to his human blood, the boy recognizes who he has to hit. Vegeta, at his limit, is only looking for a way to cut the tail, and he finally manages it with a disc of energy. But as Gohan shrinks back down, he falls right on top of him and crushes him.
With his last strength, Vegeta pulls out a remote and summons his space pod, which lifts off from the ruins of East City in front of a team of investigators in protective suits. As he drags himself toward it, Krillin picks up Yajirobe's sword to finish him. But Goku stops him telepathically: he wants Vegeta to live so they can fight again one day. Krillin thinks of Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu, but finally lowers the blade. Vegeta seals himself in the pod, swears revenge and leaves Earth.
Our take
The saga's ending is bitter and open. Earth is saved, but the price is enormous: Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Tien and Piccolo are dead, Kami with them, and the Dragon Balls are gone. Only one way remains to bring their friends back, the one Vegeta himself pointed out: the Dragon Balls of Namek. The next saga starts right here.
Goku's decision is one of the most debated moments in the series. He lets go of the enemy who killed his friends, partly out of chivalry and partly out of a very Saiyan craving for a rematch. Krillin thinks he is mad, and in the long run Goku is proven right: Vegeta will return, and not always as an enemy.
Gohan's Great Ape is fitting payback for Vegeta: beaten by the very moon he created. The anime stretches the fight compared with the manga, showing Vegeta struggling before he manages to cut the tail, and moves the plane scene earlier, whereas the manga only shows it after Gohan's fall.
Trivia
- The Japanese title calls Gohan a "Super Saiyan", but it refers to the Great Ape: the real Super Saiyan only arrives more than a year later, with Goku against Frieza.
- Funimation's dub expands Goku's reasoning into a speech about kindness and mercy changing Vegeta's heart; in the Japanese version his wish for a rematch is front and center.
- The scene of investigators around the Saiyan pods in the ruins of East City is an anime addition.
- It adapts the second part of chapter 239, chapter 240 and most of 241, with a 21.5% ratings share.
Did you know? From episode 36 the Namek Saga begins: Goku ends up in hospital recovering from his injuries, while Bulma, Krillin and Gohan prepare to set off for Piccolo's home world.