Episode 92 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on May 22, 1991 and titled Trump Card in Funimation's dub, picks up right where the previous one left off: the Kaio-ken times twenty Kamehameha has done nothing more than singe Frieza's palm. Goku is drained, and the tyrant is livid at the insult. Only one move is left, the riskiest of all: the Spirit Bomb.
Summary
From a distance, Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo realize that Goku's strongest attack has changed nothing. Piccolo remembers King Kai's advice to keep away from Frieza at all costs and admits he was right. Not far away, Bulma, finally back in her own body, goes over what just happened to her and finds Captain Ginyu, a frog once again, pinned under a rock. She picks him up by the tail and scolds him for his trick.
Frieza, meanwhile, takes that small wound as an unbearable humiliation. He resumes the attack and dominates Goku without a moment's rest. Just as the Saiyan starts to accept that he cannot win, he has a vision: Vegeta reminds him of his promise to avenge the Saiyans, and beside him appear King Vegeta and Bardock, all of them killed by Frieza, urging him to get back up. Goku fights back in anger, but the second wind does not last: the tyrant knocks him down again and starts peppering him with finger beams.
On King Kai's planet, unwelcome guests arrive. Recoome, Burter, Jeice and Guldo, the dead members of the Ginyu Force, turn up in front of Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu, who stare in disbelief as the villains strike their parade poses.
On Namek, Goku takes the punishment without reacting. Then he raises his arms to the sky, and Frieza reads it as surrender. Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin understand what is really happening: a huge sphere of energy is beginning to grow in the sky.
Our take
This is a clear example of how the anime stretches the series' most famous duel. The episode adapts a single chapter, number 314, and fills its twenty-two minutes with material the manga never had: Bulma's scene with the frog, the vision of the dead Saiyans, Goku's brief rally and the Ginyu Force's arrival in the afterlife. The Goku-Frieza fight runs for nineteen episodes, from 87 to 105, and installments like this explain why.
Not all of it is empty padding, though. The vision of Vegeta, King Vegeta and Bardock puts faces on an idea the manga leaves implicit: Goku is no longer fighting only for his friends, but for a people he never knew. It matters, because it sets up the transformation three episodes later, when Goku's anger will finally have a precise target.
The Ginyu Force on King Kai's planet, on the other hand, is pure filler, and it shows. It does at least give some screen time to Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu, sidelined since the Saiyan Saga, and lightens the tension with an almost comic tone. The Spirit Bomb itself is expanded too: only in the anime does Goku draw energy from the celestial bodies around Namek, a detail that will justify its very long charge time.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 314 of the manga. Written by Hiroshi Toda, directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with animation direction by Masayuki Uchiyama; 23.2% ratings share in Japan.
- In the Japanese version, Piccolo curses King Kai for never teaching him the Spirit Bomb. The English dub turns it into a line about Goku getting the last laugh.
- In Cartoon Network airings, Vegeta was drawn wearing pants in Goku's vision.
- The literal translation of the Japanese title is closer to "An Extra-Large Spirit Bomb: This Is My Final Trump Card!!".
Did you know? Goku had already used the Spirit Bomb against Vegeta on Earth, but that time it was Krillin who threw it. Against Frieza, the charge is far larger.