Episode 87 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on April 17, 1991 and called The Ultimate Battle in Funimation's dub, officially opens the duel between Goku and Frieza, the longest and most famous fight in the series. The first round is a feeling-out process: the two are evenly matched, keep surprising each other and begin reshaping Namek's landscape. The fight will last until episode 105.
Summary
With Vegeta buried, Goku stands alone before Frieza. Piccolo realizes that he, Gohan and Krillin would only get in the way and leads them off. Gohan asks his father to defeat the tyrant; Goku does not answer, he simply turns his back. A moment later he charges.
On his planet, King Kai has sensed Vegeta's death and tells Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu the story of the prince and his people. Then he announces that Goku might really have a chance.
On Namek the blows keep coming without either fighter gaining the upper hand. Frieza admits Goku is the strongest Saiyan he has ever met and thinks back to the ones he has already eliminated. Goku, for his part, notices that the beams Frieza fires from his eyes keep missing while he is hidden in the smoke, and concludes that the tyrant cannot sense ki. Elsewhere, Bulma wanders alone and finds herself surrounded by curious Namekian frogs, one of which jumps onto her head.
When he realizes he cannot break Goku easily, Frieza splits the ground, opens a magma crater and engulfs him in a wave of lava. Goku shields himself but is knocked inside and disappears. Piccolo gets ready to fight, until Goku resurfaces, clinging to a ledge. The magma is about to erupt: Goku forces it back down with his energy, seals the crater with rocks, and asks Frieza to leave Namek out of their fight. The tyrant agrees, mocking his kindness. Round two can begin.
Our take
This episode matters because it sets the rules of the fight, and those rules stay relevant for weeks: Frieza is stronger but cannot sense ki, Goku is weaker but can read him. Toriyama needed a tactical edge for his hero, and he found it in a detail that looks minor but actually governs the whole first half of the duel.
This is also where the famous stretching of the battle begins. In the manga, Goku vs. Frieza runs from chapter 308 to chapter 327; in the anime it goes from episode 87 to 105, nineteen episodes broadcast between April and late August 1991. This one, on its own, adapts only part of chapter 308. The rest is anime material: the lava crater, the eruption Goku pushes back, Frieza's flashbacks to the Saiyans he killed, and the frogs around Bulma, which set up a longer filler subplot in the following episodes.
Some additions are not neutral. Goku asking Frieza to spare the planet carries a bitter irony, given what is about to happen to Namek.
Trivia
- Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Akihiko Yamaguchi from a storyboard by Harume Kosaka, it drew a 22% ratings share.
- In the manga King Kai announces Vegeta's death later, once the fight is underway, and Goku works out that Frieza cannot sense ki without the scene of the blind eye beams.
- One error became famous: as he flies off on Piccolo's orders, Krillin turns to call Gohan while wearing his Turtle School gi instead of his armor. It was not fixed even in Dragon Ball Kai.
- The Japanese title is a vow in Goku's rustic way of speaking, roughly "You're the one I'm going to beat", the answer he never says out loud to Gohan.
Did you know? Goku's request to keep Namek out of the fight lasts only ten episodes: in episode 97 Frieza strikes the planet's core.