Episode 36 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on February 14, 1990 and titled Picking Up the Pieces in Funimation's 2005 uncut dub, opens the long Namek and Frieza storyline. The war with Vegeta is over, but the cost is staggering: Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu and Piccolo are dead, and Kami died with Piccolo, so Earth's Dragon Balls are gone. A remark Krillin overheard from Vegeta points to a way out: there are other Dragon Balls on another world.
Summary
Vegeta's pod streaks off into the sky. Krillin carries the unconscious Gohan over to Goku, and soon Bulma's airship lands with Chi-Chi, Master Roshi, Korin and Yajirobe on board. Chi-Chi rushes to her son while the others tend to Goku, who is in terrible shape. When Bulma realizes that without Piccolo and Kami there is no way to bring Yamcha back, she breaks down and lashes out at Yajirobe, the one survivor who never really fought.
That night the group flies to the first battlefield to recover the bodies. Yamcha, Tien and Piccolo are placed in refrigerated coffins; nothing is left of Chiaotzu. On the flight Bulma thinks back on her years with Yamcha, and Krillin relives the deaths of his friends.
It is Krillin who brings hope back. He explains that the Saiyans recognized Piccolo as a native of planet Namek, and that during the fight Vegeta mentioned Namekian Dragon Balls that are even more powerful. Gohan adds that he heard the Namekians can make mysterious balls. Goku reaches King Kai telepathically: the North Kai confirms that Namek exists, that a climate disaster struck it long ago and that its people, a peaceful race, now number more than a hundred again. Korin and Roshi conclude that Kami must have been sent to Earth as a child to escape that catastrophe.
The excitement fades fast. Bulma works out that even the best Capsule Corporation ship would need more than four thousand years to get there. But Krillin has an ace up his sleeve: Nappa must have had a ship of his own, and Krillin picked up the remote that Vegeta dropped before leaving. The group flies off into the dawn with a new goal.
Our take
A transition episode, but a carefully written one. After weeks of fighting the show stops to count its dead, and it does so with unusual gravity: the refrigerated coffins, the empty space where Chiaotzu should be, Bulma's anger at Yajirobe. In the manga her outburst is even harsher, while the anime softens it with a touch of dark humor.
The best part is how the mythology widens. Kami and Piccolo, until now Earth's guardian and its demon, turn out to be aliens, and Earth stops being the center of the Dragon Ball universe. Roshi's explanation of why the Dragon Balls have limits, tied to the strength of whoever created them, is a detail that pays off throughout the saga.
Note how the Japanese title calls the planet of hope Piccolo's homeland: the journey begins as a way to revive their friends, but for Gohan it is first and foremost a mission for his mentor.
Trivia
- Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Tatsuya Orime, with Tomekichi Takeuchi as animation supervisor.
- It adapts the end of chapter 241, chapter 242 and the start of chapter 243, with a 22.0% ratings share.
- In the 1997 Ocean/Saban dub, episodes 36 and 37 were merged into one, A New Goal... Namek, and the edit removed the shots of the bodies being loaded into the freezing coffins.
- Bulma's memories of Yamcha and Krillin's flashbacks of the fallen are anime additions, and they reuse audio from episodes of the original Dragon Ball.
- Funimation's remastered box sets place this episode with the Vegeta Saga, even though it is part of the Namek Saga.
Did you know? When Yajirobe pictures the Namekians as a crowd of evil Piccolos, one of them sports a white handlebar mustache, the only time the series shows a Namekian with facial hair.
Characters
- Goku, Gohan and Krillin
- Bulma, Chi-Chi and Master Roshi
- Korin and Yajirobe
- King Kai and Bubbles
- Vegeta (in flashback)