Episode 180 "Warriors of the Dead"

This episode starts out with King Kai and Goku walking along SnakeWay in search of adventure. During the long trip King Kai tells Goku that he is not the greatest martials arts master of the whole universe but rather just of the North Galaxy. He goes further into detail telling Goku that along with him being the North Kai, there are also the Kaious for the other galaxies as well (West Kai, South Kai, East Kai). And above all the greatest martial arts master who is lord of all the quadrants is the Dai Kaiou "Grand Kai". After hearing this Goku is in a hurry to meet with the Grand Kai in order to take a lesson. Goku learns that he can only get to the Grand Kai via airplane and so he grabs ahold of King Kai, Gregory, and Bubbles as he teleports to King Yemmas station. From there they take a plane to the Grand Kai's planet.

At the Grand Kai's planet they see many fighters who appear to have been working out for several years (guy doing his 4 millionth push-up). Right outside of the Grand Kai's residence, Goku and King Kai run into West Kai and a mysterious fighter introduced as Pikkon. West Kai isn't too fond of North Kai and even makes fun of him for his lame jokes and being dead. West Kai tells North Kai that Pikkon is the strongest fighter in Other World. Of course, King Kai goes on saying that Goku is the strongest and an argument between the two Kai's emerges. This alerts the Grand Kai who makes his dramatic appearance. Goku is a bit surprised at what he sees because the Grand Kai is basically an old man with a long white beard, sunglasses, pointy ears, and blue jeans. He also snaps his fingers and dances to the music coming from the portable boombox he carries on his shoulder. Goku immediately requests training from Grand Kai but is told that a serious problem must be taken care o! f first. Down in HELL HFIL Cell, Freeza, King Cold, and the Ginyu Force are all creating havoc and rebelling. Grand Kai requests that Pikkon go to neutralize the problem. However, Goku doubts in Pikkons ability since he has fought Cell and knows of his power. Goku quickly travels down to HFIL to aid Pikkon.

The scene switches to Cell, Freeza, and the gang trying to pursuade some commoners into telling them how to get out of this prison-like place. The person refuses to say anything of value and so Cell tosses him towards a big mess of spikes. Goku makes a cunning entrance as he rescues the guy. Freeza is surprised and gets the ginyu force to go after Goku. Goku charges up to Semi-Super Saiyan (hair raises up but is still black) and easily takes care of them. Cell is confident he can take care of Goku since it was because of him that Goku died in the first place. Cell's flight toward Goku is interrupted by Pikkon who knocks cell away with a powerful kick. He hits King Cold in the stomach (English Version he really sounds like a sissy when this happens) and pummels Freeza. After this he sends all of them flying towards the spike and they all get an abdomen piercing. Cell and the gang are now all locked away with patches on their abs. Goku is amazed at what Pikkon just d! id and compliments him. Goku is only now more anxious to get a shot at fighting Pikkon.

The Good & The Bad: This is the first filler episode we get to see until the Great Saiyaman Saga. Unlike the Garlic Junior episodes these ones actually hold your interest and make you wonder what will happen next. The Garlic Junior Saga was just too predictable to say the least. The music is...well what it always is, dub music. I actually found Pikkon's theme rather interesting (think of someone rapidly playing a harp that has a techno tone to it). The voices...ahh the voices...I kind of figured that the other Kai's would sound somewhat like King Kai. West Kai kind of sounds like Guldo's (remember him?) season two voice when he complained about being on the chili burger diet. Oh well it really doesn't matter since West Kai isn't a main character. For some odd reason Freeza sounded more like a female smoker in this episode then he did in Season 3 or the beggining of 4. I really cringed when I heard him talk,...really I did.

Episode Flaws: Well this is more of a plot hole that was brought up in our forum. How could Goku defeat Pikkon(dear me, did I just spoil it?) when Pikkon defeated Cell who was much stronger than Goku during the tournament? After all Cell got stronger after he came back to life the first time, so logic suggests that he would be even stronger this time around. This means that Cell is most likely still stronger than Goku. Pikkon is obviously stronger than Cell so Goku would have to be stronger than Pikkon to beat him, right? Not necessarily, you can't base the winner of a battle on power alone. Truely I think Pikkon is stronger than Goku, he only loses because of a few wrong choices in battle (will get into that in upcoming reviews).

Final Word: You can basically skip the whole Other World Tournament Saga and not miss anything vital to the dbz timeline. But like the DBZ Movies, this dbz filler saga is not necessary to watch, but enjoyable. The episode itself is rather unique and entertaining because you get to see Cell and Freeza talking with one another. Pikkon's theme and the basic plot of this episode make it enjoyable, but Freeza's voice...(cringes again).

Kaervak contemplated many days before giving this episode a rating of

5.5 out of 7