Episode 84 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on March 27, 1991 and known as Dende's Demise in Funimation's dub, is the first real look at Frieza's final form in action: small, smooth, almost elegant, and far deadlier than anything before it. The tyrant's first move is to remove the one person who could heal his enemies. Then Vegeta, sure that he has become a Super Saiyan, steps up to fight him alone.
Summary
The transformation is complete, and the new Frieza looks almost harmless: no horns, no bulk, just a sleek white body. Yet the aura he gives off chills Piccolo and the others before the fight even starts. The tyrant raises a finger, a light flickers for an instant, and Dende, the young Namekian who had been healing everyone, drops dead. Frieza had worked out that he was the secret behind his enemies' endurance.
Furious, Krillin, Gohan and Piccolo attack together with a Kamehameha, a Masenko and an energy wave, but Frieza is not even grazed. He then fires a beam at Gohan faster than anyone can follow, except Vegeta, who knocks the boy to the ground at the last instant and saves him for the second time.
On his planet, King Kai senses Frieza's new power and discusses it with Yamcha and Tien, who are as frightened as he is. Back on Namek, Vegeta announces that he will face the enemy alone. Healed by Dende after Krillin nearly killed him, he has gained the power boost Saiyans get when they survive a near-fatal injury, and he is convinced he has reached the legendary level. He powers up to the maximum, wrapped in a golden aura, and buries Frieza under a flurry of blows. Gohan and Krillin cheer, but Piccolo cuts them short: Vegeta is much stronger than before, just not strong enough. When the fight moves into the air, Frieza dodges effortlessly and vanishes from the prince's sight, and Vegeta can no longer tell where he is. For the first time, he is afraid.
Our take
Dende's death is a cruel and clever piece of storytelling. Toriyama had built a mechanism that let the heroes get back up again and again, and Frieza breaks it with the smallest of gestures, one raised finger. It proves that the final form is not just stronger, it is sharper. The tyrant who used to toy with his prey now thinks like a strategist.
Vegeta's sequence is the heart of the episode, and it works because the audience already suspects how it will end. The anime leans hard into his confidence: it gives him a long power-up, a golden aura the manga never shows, and a longer exchange of blows, while Toriyama allowed him just two failed attempts. The expansion makes the fall more painful when it comes in the next episode: the more Vegeta believes he is the Super Saiyan of legend, the harder the truth hits.
The Japanese title deserves a note. Dete koi! Tobikiri zenkai pawā, roughly "Come forth, power at full blast!", borrows the name of the ending theme of the time, Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!. It is Vegeta calling on a strength he thinks he has, and the irony is bitter, because that strength is not enough.
Trivia
- It adapts the end of chapter 304 and all of chapter 305. Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Tatsuya Orime, it drew a 21.4% ratings share in Japan.
- In the original Japanese, Tien is voiced by Kōichi Yamadera, who had also covered him two episodes earlier, because regular actor Hirotaka Suzuoki was out ill.
- In the anime Vegeta saves Gohan by shoving him down; in the manga he kicks him in the face to get him out of the way.
- In Funimation's dub, Piccolo briefly suggests retreating, a line that does not exist in the Japanese version, where he only admits there is nothing more he can do.
Did you know? Dende will be brought back with the Dragon Balls and, years later, will even become Earth's new Kami.
Characters
- Frieza and Vegeta
- Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo
- Dende
- King Kai, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu
- Goku, still in the healing tank