DBZ Episode 1

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"Mini-Goku is an Overprotected Boy! I Am Gohan." (ミニ悟空 は おぼっちゃま! ボク 悟飯 です。, Mini-Goku wa Obotchama! Boku Gohan Desu.) is the first episode of the Vegeta Saga and the first overall episode of Dragon Ball Z.

Synopsis

Farmer

Gohan being lost in the woods.

Piccolo unleashing an attack against Raditz.

Five years had passed since the last events in Dragon Ball and the world was enjoying a reign of peace. Little did the people of Planet Earth know, a new enemy was on the way.

The episode begins with Son Chichi calling for her child, Son Gohan. The scene goes to Son Goku hopping though the forest behind his house looking for some firewood. After finding and knocking down one of the largest trees in the forest with one punch, he picks it up and heads for home.

When he gets there, Chichi asks him to go out into the woods and look for Son Gohan because they had an appointment to visit Turtle Hermit at his house.

Meanwhile, a Farmer is working in a field and putting a stack of hay into his truck when suddenly he hears a strange noise. He looks up to see a round spaceship fall and crash into the fields. The farmer thinks he better check it out and gets into his Chevrolet truck. He drives to the crater the ship has made and takes out his rifle for protection. As soon as the farmer walks up to the crater, the ship opens up and what looks to be a long-haired man steps out of it. As the extraterrestrial floats out of the crater, the farmer loads his rifle and tells the extraterrestrial (nervously) that he is on his property. The extraterrestrial presses the button on a device and reads his battle power, which is 5. The farmer shoots his rifle, but the mysterious man catches the bullet in his hand and flicks it back at him, killing the farmer. His scouter then picks up a high power level at a range of 4,880 and he takes off after it, calling "Is that you, Kakarrot!".

The scene then goes to Son Gohan walking in the woods, lost and scared. He calls out for his father, then starts to cry and runs through the woods. He stops at the giant stump where his father had earlier knocked down a tree, and sits down, looking up. He sees a beautiful blue and black butterfly land on the tree stump and cheers up, but as he gets up the butterfly flies away. Son Gohan chases after it and it lands high up on a tree. Son Gohan tries to climb up to reach it, but miserably fails. He walks around the tree trying to figure out what to do when the butterfly decides to fly away.

Son Gohan walks out of the woods and hears a noise in the bushes. Curious as to what is making the noise, he walks up to the bushes when a Saber-toothed Cat suddenly jumps out. Son Gohan tries to run, but trips on the ground. He decides that the best way out of this situation is to play dead, so he lays on the ground. The Sabertooth Cat becomes confused and licks Son Gohan's face. It then grabs his red hat with its mouth (that has the Four Star Dragon Ball atop it) and runs away with it. Son Gohan gets up, and realizing that his hat is gone, starts crying, exclaiming that his father gave him that hat. He runs into the woods to chase the Saber-toothed Cat. The Saber-toothed Cat turns around, and seeing the crying boy chasing him, runs as fast as it can. The Saber-toothed Cat tries to lose Son Gohan every which way it can, going through bushes, around trees, and over large rocks. The Saber-toothed Cat finally takes a sharp turn and Son Gohan runs straight through bushes... and over a cliff. Son Gohan plumets quickly, closing his eyes as he falls. When Son Gohan opens his eyes again, he is hanging by his tail upside down from a tree limb inches away from the ground and not hurt at all.

In a quick scene, Son Goku is standing by the tree stump his son was sitting by earlier, calling for him. Meanwhile, Son Gohan tries to get across a river using stepping stones. He barely gets on one, and calls for his father and mother again. After getting across the river and walking, along the rocks, he cheers up as he sees a blue bird sitting on a log hanging over the river. He says hello to the bird and gets on the log to admire its plummage. It decides to fly away, but Son Gohan tries to reach for it. As he does this, the log unhinges itself from the rock and Son Gohan falls into the river with the log. He tries to use the log to stay above water.

His father is looking around and sees the Saber-Toothed Cat wearing his son's hat. Son Goku asks the animal where it got the hat from. The Saber-toothed Cat growls at him and Son Goku asks again, but more angrily, scaring the Saber-toothed Cat. The hat drops off its head as it runs into the woods.

Son Gohan is still rapidly moving down the river with the log when it hits a rock. He momentarily loses his grasp on the log and calls for his father and mother repeatedly. Flying above the forest, Son Goku on his Kinto-Un sights his son flailing on the log in the river. Son Goku calls his name and his son calms down after seeing his father flying towards him. He accidently lets go of the log and grabs the end of it when it turns sideways. Son Goku quickly flies after him but once he is about to reach his son, he must fly straight up a mountain because of a very small cave the river runs through. Son Goku flies over the very large plateau to the other side. The water exits the cave as a waterfall, and before Son Goku can get to his son, the log goes over. Son Goku, thinking his son went over the edge, is about to dive into the water when he hears him crying from above. He looks up to see Son Gohan crying on top of a tree branch that is hanging over the cliff, but above the waterfall. Son Goku flies up to his son and rescues him. His father wonders aloud how Son Gohan got so far above the waterfall.

Over a city, the mysterious man from earlier is flying in disgust. Meanwhile, the evil Piccolo is standing in a wasteland when he feels a huge power coming toward him and thinks it is Son Goku. The strange man lands and says he thought that Piccolo was 'Kakarrot'. He reads Piccolo's battle power (which is 322) and wonders aloud that there are people around with that power. Still, he tells Piccolo that he is much more powerful than Piccolo. Piccolo gets mad at this statement and fires an Explosive Demon Wave at the strange man, thinking he has destroyed him. When the dust clears, the mysterious man is not hurt at all. He is about to attack Piccolo when his Scouter beeps. It detects a strong power at a range of 12,909 and he thinks it is Kakarrot for sure. Piccolo falls onto his knees, aghast at his performance against the strange man.

The mysterious man flys towards the power signal and states that Son Goku is a Saiyan, the most powerful warriors in the universe. He then has a flashback of Son Goku as a baby being launched from a planet as Saiyans looked up at the sky.

Battles

• Raditz vs. Farmer
• Piccolo vs. Raditz

Trivia

• This episode was originally intended to be two episodes in one. The producers, however, decided to cut out "Gohan's Adventure Story".
• This is one of the very few episodes of Dragon Ball Z to feature new footage prior to the title screen. While this was done frequently in the original Dragon Ball, it was far less common with Dragon Ball Z.
• A shot of the Sun flickering flames as Raditz's ship flies by is taken almost verbatim from the intro to the original Dragon Ball.
• The first shot is of a mountain that looks exactly like Mount Plapp, which had appeared a few episodes earlier, except without the purple clouds on top.