Episode 59 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on August 29, 1990, belongs entirely to Bulma: left alone to guard the Four-Star Ball, she loses it, chases it to the bottom of the sea and ends up captured by two of Frieza's soldiers. Funimation's uncut dub titles it Destination: Guru, after Krillin and Gohan's brief trip in the background, while the Ocean/Saban version chose Big Trouble for Bulma. It is almost entirely an anime invention, an adventure interlude before the storm.
Summary
Bulma has just fallen asleep when Vegeta finds her and kills her; luckily it is only a nightmare. In reality the prince is stuck beside his Dragon Balls, unable to leave them because he knows Gohan can track them. Frieza, meanwhile, vents his fury by firing energy beams at random across the planet as his men cower.
One of those blasts lands near Bulma's hiding spot, and the tremor rolls the ball into the water. She tries to fish it out with a stick but only pushes it farther; then the radar shows the ball moving fast. Fearing Vegeta has it, and that she will never see Yamcha again, Bulma pops a capsule and dives in a submarine. She discovers that a long-necked sea creature swallowed the ball, which has since slipped even deeper.
Krillin and Gohan fly toward Grand Elder Guru's home as slowly as possible so Vegeta will not notice them. Gohan doubts he really has hidden power, but Krillin reassures him: if he had some, Goku's son surely does. In space, Goku trains so hard at a hundred G that he hits himself with his own Kamehameha; a Senzu Bean patches him up, with just two days of travel left.
On the seabed Bulma finds the ball near a clam, but gets distracted by a gigantic pearl. Reaching for it opens a whirlpool that sucks everything down, ball included, into a pile of large shining orbs guarded by an enormous crab. The monster grabs the submarine and crushes it; Bulma escapes at the last second in a capsule power suit. The crab chases her, then stops: those "pearls" are its eggs, and they are about to hatch. When a rock pillar topples toward them, Bulma holds it up and pushes it aside. Grateful, the crab lets her leave with the ball. But as soon as she is back on shore, two of Frieza's soldiers ambush her, grab her and the ball and fly off to deliver both to their master.
Our take
This is full filler territory: only the opening pages of chapter 270 survive from the manga, and the rest is an underwater adventure designed to buy time before the Ginyu Force arrives. Still, the episode has some dignity. Bulma is this saga's most neglected character, stuck in a cave while everyone else fights, and here she gets the spotlight back, with the initiative and nerve she showed in the original series.
The crab protecting its eggs is a simple, charming idea that subverts the usual monster of the week: Bulma wins with kindness, not strength. It is not an unforgettable installment, but it lets the story breathe before the long run of battles that is about to begin.
Trivia
- Written by Aya Matsui, directed by Jōhei Matsūra, with animation supervision by Masayuki Uchiyama. Ratings share: 20.6%.
- It adapts only pages 1-8 of chapter 270.
- Bulma's nightmare, Frieza's random blasts, the submarine dive and the kidnapping by the two soldiers are all anime additions.
- The capsule suit Bulma uses against the crab closely resembles the robots the Pilaf Gang used against Goku in the original Dragon Ball.
Did you know? The Japanese title gives the ending away before the episode even starts: it announces that the Four-Star Ball falls into Frieza's hands.