Episode 47 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on May 9, 1990 and titled Namek's Defense in Funimation's uncut 2005 dub (The Nameks versus Frieza in the Ocean/Saban version), is the first close look at Frieza at work. In the elder Moori's village, the tyrant asks politely for the Dragon Ball and takes it by force. But the Namekians are not helpless: three young warriors stand up to his men, and the old village chief finds the invaders' weak spot.
Summary
From their perch on the cliff, Gohan and Krillin watch soldiers drag three elders and two children, Dende and Cargo, out of a house. Seeing armor identical to the Saiyans', Krillin remembers what Raditz said and concludes these are planet traders. Frieza introduces himself courteously, asks where the other villagers are and threatens the captives with a tiny ball of energy on his fingertip.
Moori first answers in the Namekian language, then explains that the young men are working in the fields. When Frieza asks for the Dragon Ball, he plays dumb. So Frieza tells him what happened at the first village: the elder there explained the tests a seeker must pass to earn a Dragon Ball, and Frieza simply killed him and took it. Far away, Vegeta listens in on his scouter.
One of the elders declares that no Namekian will ever hand a Dragon Ball to someone like him. On Frieza's order, Zarbon kills him with a graceful kick. The second elder fires an energy blast, but Zarbon dodges, the shot kills one of the soldiers instead, and the Namekian is vaporized. On the cliff, Gohan seethes while a helpless Krillin tears up fistfuls of grass. Moori asks why Frieza wants the Dragon Balls, and the answer is immortality, the same thing Vegeta is after.
Frieza threatens the children. At that moment Dodoria's scouter picks up Gohan's anger, but then registers three new power levels: the village's young warriors have arrived. The scouters read 1,000 and the soldiers laugh. As soon as the fight starts, though, the Namekians unleash their true power, climb to 3,000 and tear through Frieza's men.
Moori has worked out that the invaders find villages only with their scouters. A finger beam knocks Dodoria's off his face, and he destroys the last two as well. Without scouters, Frieza can no longer locate the remaining villages. A furious Dodoria flies at the old man.
Our take
In a handful of scenes, Toriyama defines his villain better than many long introductions do. Frieza does not shout or rush: he speaks politely, almost bored, and lets his men do the dirty work. The violence is always delegated, and that detachment is exactly what makes him unsettling.
The Namekians, for their part, stop being generic victims. Three warriors hiding their power is a satisfying reversal: they fool the scouters exactly the way the Earthlings fooled Vegeta and Nappa. And Moori, the old man who seems only to endure, turns out to be the one thinking furthest ahead.
For Gohan and Krillin it is a lesson in powerlessness. Watching without being able to step in is the hardest thing, and the episode winds the spring for Gohan's outburst in the next one.
Trivia
- Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda. It adapts chapters 252 and 253 and the first three pages of 254, with a 20.8% ratings share.
- Frieza's fingertip energy ball and the soldiers laughing at the 1,000 reading are anime additions. The brawl between warriors and soldiers is also extended, with changes to who hits whom.
- It is the first episode to use music from the film The World's Strongest.
- Frieza sarcastically realizing he forgot to say "please" is one of the few moments where the pre-Kai Funimation dubs keep his polite manner from the original.
Did you know? Counting the 153 episodes of the original series, this is the 200th episode of the Dragon Ball anime.