77 "Saikyou Senshi no Tanjou ka!? Nail to Piccolo ga Gattai"
(The Birth of the Strongest Warrior!? Nail and Piccolo Unite)		 91-2-6
63 "The Fusion" 99-9-23

An angry Freeza begins to power up, and Piccolo, sensing this monumental power, rushes toward its source. Along the way, he encounters the dying Nail, who begs him to perform the Namekian fusion technique. The fusion absorbs Nail completely, and nearly doubles Piccolo's fighting power. Meanwhile, Vegeta tells Freeza to show his true form, and Freeza begins his transformation.

This one gives us our first chance to see Piccolo's new voice doing his thing. Unfortunately, his "thing" isn't all that impressive. Pretty embarrassing, in fact. Oh, and by the way, as of this episode I realized that the same guy was doing both Piccolo and Vegeta's voices. But that's not all. During the course of the season, I have made the rather startling discovery that he does ALL of the following, possibly more:

Vegeta
Yamucha
Piccolo
Jees
Porunga
Zarbon
the Great Elder
King Vegeta
and several "extras."

I believe his name is Christopher Sabat, and he also happens to be the voice director for Season 3. While I'm at it, I should also mention that one actor plays Goku, Nail and a few others. His name is Sean Schemmel. I'm beginning to get the feeling that there are really only three voices on the show, and that FUNimation just made up a bunch of other names to put in the credits. Are they really so cheap that they can't hire more people? I mean, this is ridiculous!

The stupid dialogue in this episode is mainly centered in the scene where Piccolo and Nail fuse.

When Piccolo completes the fusion, we are treated to one of the worst displays of line delivery I have ever seen. Here's Piccolo's line:

"Yes! Yes! I feel great! I can do this! I'm home! I'm awake! I'm alive! I'm wide awake!"

This nonsense comes out sounding like a football player at a pep rally after having taken a wee bit too much steroids. It really must be heard to be believed.

That's basically all I have to say about this one, but I have to wonder... what the HFIL does the narrator mean when, in the preview for the next episode, he says that "this ugly monster lets his fingers do the walking!" HUH? What is that supposed to mean? And for that matter, isn't Goku doing the next episode narration now?? Why is the narrator back all of a sudden? From here on, it's pretty haphazard. Goku comes in at random and does the preview, but most of the time it's old sandpaper voice. I can't explain the logic here, if there is any.