94 "Genkidama no Chouhakairyoku!! Ikinokotta no wa Dare da!?"
(The Genkidama's Great, Destructive Power!! Who Lived Through It!?)
91-6-5
79 "Power of the Spirit" 99-10-15

Piccolo engages in a hopeless fight against Freeza in an attempt to give Goku enough time to finish his Genkidama. His efforts, however, are quickly and easily thwarted. The Ginyu Tokusentai continue to fight the warriors assembled on Kaiou-sei, and the battle is surprisingly balanced. Finally, Goku finishes the Genkidama and throws it at Freeza, who is hit dead on and engulfed in the the explosion.

Sheesh, looks like we've drawn two blanks in a row. Believe it or not, I have even less to say about this episode than I did the last one. I think... that's good... or does it suck? I'm really on the fence about it, to be honest. I'm getting what I want, but that means I have nothing to bitch about. What right does FUNimation think they have to keep doing these "adequate" episodes?


During the shot where Freeza digs his fingers into Piccolo's shoulder, a great deal of blood comes shooting out in the original version, which is painted away for the dub.

Actually, that's a total lie. Even though there SHOULD be blood, there's none whatsoever. I just like the pretty green color of the "censored" box to appear in as many of my episode comparisons as possible. Plus, I am pathetically grasping for something to complain about.

Seriously, I really was expecting there to be at least some blood here when I went back to check the Japanese tape, but there wasn't. Freeza practically crushed Piccolo's shoulder like an orange, but there was no gore of any kind. I assumed that many of you might have gotten "suspicious" about this shot, so I thought I'd mention that there was indeed nothing censored here, although there should have at least been something TO censor.

I've often heard the complaint that the "next episode" preview, along with the episode titles, give away far too much of what's going to happen. In this case, I could see that being a particular problem for people in this camp. Both the preview and the title that we see at the end of this episode reveal that not only does Freeza survive, but Goku transforms into a Super Saiya-jin.

My theory on this is that the producers of the anime weren't all that concerned about "giving anything away," because all of this had happened in the manga long before the anime adaptations aired. A manga that sold millions (AND MILLIONS!) of copies, whose readership made up the majority of the people who watched the show in the first place. Of course, this is only true for the Japanese market. In America (and all other countries where DBZ aired), this stuff would be pretty much "all new," so I would have understood if they had decided to make the previews and titles a bit more ambiguous. Naturally, being a purist, I prefer it the way it is now though, and I appreciate FUNimation's (at least somewhat similar) title translations amd perfect-to-the-frame previews.

It just pisses people off who don't want everything spoiled for them. Then again... don't you get a bit more excited about the next episode knowing for sure that Vegeta is going to die, or that Goku's going to turn SSJ? I guess it's all a matter of personal taste.