Episode 69 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on November 28, 1990 and shortened to Incredible Force! in Funimation's dub, is the first real duel between Goku and Captain Ginyu, the strongest member of the Ginyu Force. Vegeta bails, Gohan and Krillin go after the Dragon Radar, and Goku is left alone with an opponent who, under all the silly posing, can genuinely fight.
Summary
Before the enemy shows up, the group argues about the Dragon Balls: Vegeta wants immortality, the others want to bring their friends back. Then two large power levels close in. Goku sends Gohan and Krillin to Bulma to fetch the radar, which they need to find the balls buried near Frieza's ship.
Ginyu arrives with Jeice. Vegeta pretends to side with Goku, but the moment the captain attacks he flies off, pleased with what he considers a stroke of genius: let the others fight while he goes after the Dragon Balls. Goku is on his own.
The fight gets serious fast. The two trade heavy blows, Ginyu pulls a few tricks to gain the edge, and he discovers, almost to his own surprise, how much fun a real battle can be. Midway through he stops to introduce himself properly, pose and all. Goku thinks it is a waste of time and copies the pose badly, which only makes Ginyu angrier.
Meanwhile Bulma, in her hideout, is working on a gadget that an earthquake smashes to pieces. Her radar switches on and shows all seven balls in one spot, so she sets off, hoping to cash in on someone else's hard work and get a ride home to Earth.
Back on the battlefield, Jeice cannot help himself and blasts Goku from behind, giving Ginyu the chance to lock him in a hold. But the captain wants no such victory: he lets Goku go and fires a blast at Jeice to punish the interference. Then he demands that Goku stop holding back. Goku agrees and, using the Kaio-ken, starts raising his power slowly and steadily as the scouters register numbers neither villain had imagined.
Our take
Ginyu is a different kind of villain from anyone so far. He is vain and theatrical, but he has a code: he punishes a subordinate for helping him because he wants a fair fight. That makes him closer to Goku than either would admit, and gives their clash an almost sporting quality before the twist that is coming.
It is also one of the episodes where the anime stretches the manga the most. The Goku-Ginyu fight, which Toriyama wraps up in a few pages, fills nearly the whole runtime here. Also anime-only: the sea serpents that duck as Vegeta flies by, Bulma's decision to leave her hideout (in the manga she never moves until she is transported to Earth) and Ginyu firing at Jeice. The pacing suffers, but the closing scene, with Goku's aura climbing and climbing, earns the wait.
Vegeta ditching Goku, on the other hand, is perfectly in character. For him the alliance is just a tool, and the Dragon Balls matter more than any teammate.
Trivia
- Written by Aya Matsui, directed by Minoru Okazaki, with animation direction by Mitsuo Shindō. It adapts chapter 284, with a 24.5% ratings share.
- The anime-only sea serpents have Namekian-style antennae and look a little like Porunga and Shenron.
- In Funimation's remastered dub, this is the only episode in which Tiffany Vollmer re-recorded her lines as Bulma.
- Ginyu's skin briefly turns a darker purple when he scolds Goku for botching his pose, a coloring slip.
Did you know? In the manga Bulma never leaves her crevice until she is whisked back to Earth. All her wandering around Namek in this stretch was added by the anime.