Episode 95, "Bye Bye, Everyone! This is the Only Way to Save Earth"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Cell declares his plans to self-destruct and take the Earth out with him. He gloats over his apparent victory. Gohan regrets not finishing Cell when he had the chance. Goku thinks hard, then finally says goodbye to his friends, teleporting over where Gohan and Cell are. Goku places his hand on Cell and teleports away with him to Kaio's planet. He apologizes to Kaio as Cell begins to explode. The explosion destroys Kaio's planet and takes Goku with it. Back on Earth, Gohan dispairs over his father's demise. In the afterlife realm, a dead Goku apologizes to the dead Kaio. But they notice that Cell isn't there. On Earth, a beam cuts through an enormous cloud of smoke, piercing Trunks. When the cloud breaks, Cell appeaers, in his Perfect Form again. Cell reasons this is because of the Saiyan cells in his system, which cause him to be stronger whenever he returns from near death. He also knows Goku's teleportation technique. Gohan powers up, happy that he can repay Cell back for his father's death, and vowing to kill him. Vegeta is so enraged by Trunks' death that he attacks Cell, but it's of no use and Cell injures him. Gohan takes a beam for Vegeta which damages the left side of his body. Cell decides he's had enough of the fight, and prepares to charge up a Kamehameha to finish Gohan off.
Comments:
Okay, so, wait. Wait. Why didn't Goku teach any of the others how to use Instantaneous Movement? I mean, there was all that time training and he didn't think that it could be useful if somebody else besides him could use it? Somebody who was a little more expendable? Imagine if the person who sacrificed themself was Oolong. Yeah, I went there. Teaching Oolong to teleport. Well, that might not be the best idea, since he'd just be using it to get into women's changing rooms. Then again, I guess it would ultimately result in the same thing. Somebody sacrifices themself, Cell explodes, Cell comes back. But maybe they could have teleported him out sooner or something.
It seemed like Goku was thinking awfully hard about what to do before he decided. In that same time, he could have teleported Cell away and returned, too, but he wasted time saying goodbye. I know that this sort of takes the air out of the sacrifice, but Cell coming back did that on its own.
Speaking of Cell coming back, what's the deal with that? He says that because he's a Saiyan he grew stronger from being near death, thus his return in Perfect Form. Okay, I guess I can buy that, but wasn't his whole being blown up? Before it was said as long as he has a single cell in his brain he can come back, but his entire body blew up. Then there was that time earlier when Goku blew off his head. Maybe it's that there has to be AT LEAST that cell in his brain. It all seems a bit convenient for Cell to come back his his Perfect Form, but there've been more convenient things in the show before. I guess.
I remember when I first saw Goku's sacrifice, back in the Toonami days. I must've been real emotional around that time, because I was actually tearing up. And this was when Sean Schemmel's Goku sucked and the Bruce Faulconer music was being used. So even with the impediments it made me sad. In fact, I think it was around this time of year, too. Wow.
This episode marks where Kenji Yamamoto's music is first replaced by Shunsuke Kikuchi's. It feels a little weird hearing Kikuchi's music in Kai after so many episodes with Yamamoto. Apparently, though, Toei aired on the side of caution when it came to the big plagairism kerfuffle. Instead of just not using the offending tracks, they didn't use any of them, and went to Kikuchi's stuff. It's good music, mind you, but the placement isn't always great.
Overall Score:
4 out of 5
