Episode 53 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on June 27, 1990 and titled Zarbon's Surprise in Funimation's uncut dub (Zarbon Transformed in the Ocean/Saban version), flips the previous duel on its head. Zarbon, Frieza's refined right-hand man, unleashes his beastly side and leaves Vegeta for dead, while Krillin and Dende finally reach the home of the Namekians' patriarch.
Summary
Zarbon gets back up with a smile. Vegeta mocks him, convinced the fight is over, but Zarbon explains that beauty is only skin deep: so far the prince has only seen his handsome side, and he does not enjoy showing the other one. Vegeta dares him. Zarbon transforms into a hulking, scaly brute, and from that moment the fight turns into a beating: knees to the gut, repeated headbutts, throws through the air, a volley of Elegant Blasters the Saiyan barely dodges.
In flight, Krillin asks Dende why it never gets dark on Namek, and the boy explains that the planet has more than one sun. In space, Goku trains at fifty times Earth's gravity and thinks back to King Kai's warning; instead of scaring him, the idea of such a strong opponent fires him up. On King Kai's planet, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu fail miserably at catching Bubbles while Piccolo meditates nearby.
Back on Namek, Zarbon finishes the job. He grabs Vegeta by the throat, slaps him around and piledrives him headfirst into the ground. The crater fills with water, and Zarbon, sure the Saiyan will drown if he is not dead already, returns to normal and flies off to report to Frieza. In the cave, Bulma complains about everything while Gohan meditates, certain that his father will set things right.
Krillin and Dende arrive at a lone house perched on a rock. They are greeted by Nail, a Namekian warrior who reminds Krillin strongly of Piccolo. Grand Elder Guru already knows everything, he says, and has been expecting them. When Dende asks why the elder does not move somewhere safer, Nail explains that Guru senses his death approaching and that he will stay by his side. Inside, Krillin finds himself before an enormous Namekian, Guru, who thanks him for saving Dende. Meanwhile, a hand bursts out of the lake and drags a winged creature under. It is Vegeta: alive by a thread, he swears revenge on Zarbon and Frieza, then passes out.
Our take
Zarbon is one of the saga's most underrated villains. Toriyama designs him as the pretty one, vain to the point of caricature, which is exactly why the transformation works. The Beauty and the Beast nod is explicit, and his metamorphosis previews an idea the saga will take much further with Frieza himself.
The episode matters just as much for Vegeta. We see him arrogant, then humiliated, then clinging to life with animal fury; the scene with the bird dragged underwater is an anime addition, brutal but effective. What the prince does not yet know is that every brush with death makes him stronger, and Zarbon's beating is an investment the villain will soon regret.
The arrival at Guru's house shifts the tone. After so much violence we get a quiet home, a gentle guardian and an old man close to the end. Namek stops being only a battlefield and becomes a people.
Trivia
- Written by Hiroshi Toda, directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, with animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama. Ratings share: 19.3%.
- It adapts chapter 263 and chapter 264 from page 11 onward.
- In the manga Zarbon tells Vegeta mid-fight that Frieza can transform too. The anime drops the line, which makes it less clear later on how Vegeta knows about Frieza's transformations.
- The scene order changes as well: in the manga Goku masters 50G after Vegeta's defeat, not before it.
- Some broadcast versions cut Zarbon's repeated headbutts for being too violent.
Did you know? In the manga it is the narrator who explains that Namek has no night because of its three suns; the anime gives the explanation to Dende.