84 "Dende no Shi... Detekoi! Tobikiri Zenkai Power"
(The Death of Dende... Come Out! Extraordinary, Full Force Power)		 91-3-27
69 "Dende's Demise" 99-10-1

Freeza kills Dende with a single blast, now understanding that it was he who had been healing everyone. Gohan, Kuririn, and Piccolo attack, but are unable to even touch the now unfathomably powerful Freeza. Vegeta decides that it is finally time for him to step forward and fight, feeling certain that he is now a Super Saiya-jin.

First things first, I don't have the Japanese version of this episode. So if anything has been cut or censored, I couldn't tell ya what it is. But I'll go back and update this one whenever I do get my hands on it, if ever.

FUNimation's different voices for each of Freeza's forms have been an interesting little journey through crappiness. The first one (the worst), was Pauline Newstone's (and then Linda Chambers') natural speaking voice. The second (almost approaching halfway decent), was her voice modulated to sound deep and "masculine." The third (for which I have no strong feelings) was just kind of weird. And in this episode, we hear the voice of ultimate Freeza for the first time. It's basically only slightly modulated, to fit somewhere in between all of them; not as straightforwardly female as the first voice, while not as deep as the second.

Overall, it's a disappointment. I was actually carrying around this unrealistic hope that FUNimation would use the final transformation as an excuse to completely recast him with a MALE actor, but it didn't happen. I was then forced to finally accept once and for all that my proud, mighty Freeza would spend the entire dub as an old lady.

Also, for reasons that are unclear to me, the second part of this episode's Japanese title also happens to be the name of the original Japanese ending theme song. Whatever.

Piccolo: I think one day we'll return and kick Fr..."
Gohan: What are you saying?

Gohan is, of course, cutting Piccolo off here, in one of the most clever and ingenious examples of scriptwriting this century. What's the matter FUNimation? Couldn't you have just given Piccolo yet ANOTHER euphemism for ass? You've already used tail, rear end, keester, butt... there's still plenty left! There's derriere, bottom, rump, tush, and... and... and booty. Let's all hope that on some wonderful day in the future, they'll get around to using "booty."

Dende becomes a corpse in this episode, something that I thought would surely be altered somewhat. I mean, he's not only an innocent child, but he's murdered in cold blood. Amazingly, the whole thing goes off without a hitch... dead body and all.

In the first or second season, they'd have shown the attack, let the smoke clear, and then just paint over Dende's body. Then Freeza would have said something about how his beam just transported Dende to another dimension. Luckily, those days are gone forever, and it is now OK for us to see helpless children being murdered on television. Yay.