Episode 52, "Two Remain on a Vanishing Planet! This is the Final Showdown", or "Cut Me A Slice, Put It In The Freeza"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Gohan and Bulma find themselves back on Earth, along with Piccolo, Vegeta, and the ressurected Namekians. Back on Namek, Goku and Freeza face off again, exchanging blows that tear up the ground and buildings. Freeza throws a large ball of ki which Goku holds back and punches into the sky. On Earth, Saichoro begins to relate the recent happenings to everyone. The battle continues between Goku and Freeza as Gohan is concerned for the safety of his father. Piccolo assures Gohan that Goku will be fine. The body blows intensify in the fight as Kaio watches from his planet. An exhausted Freeza finds it increasingly difficult to keep up with Goku's speed and is hit hard in the gut. As they face off again, Freeza is stunned when Goku declares he quits the fight. Goku says that the fight is over, that Freeza has been humiliated and he's satisfied with that. Freeza is enraged and as Goku flies off, he attacks with his own homing Kienzan attack, which Goku tries his best to avoid. Freeza creates a second disc, but Goku avoids them as well, attacking Freeza again. Freeza tries to recover, but is cut in half by his own Kienzan.
Comments:
This is probably my favorite part of the Freeza fight, though usually by this point I'm too sick of the fight to really absorb it. I guess Kai is good for something, at least.
The reason why this is my favorite part is because of how intense the body blows get, though mostly against Freeza. He dealt out a lot of punishment eary in the fight, and it's nice to see Goku metting out some real pain here, much in the way he did to Vegeta back when Kaioken still meant something. Like Vegeta, Freeza's high and mighty attitude is struck the real blows here as he is utterly outclassed. But unlike Vegeta, Freeza doesn't have any way of getting ahead, no Oozaru form. He's just plain outdone at this point, and is desperately trying to keep his standing, to no avail. Good. Fuck him.
I also love the Kienzan thing, especially the part where Freeza is aware exactly what Goku is up to, trying to get it up close to Freeza and then speed away, as Goku has done at other times against other opponents. Freeza only fails because he's distracted for a moment by his anger and gets cut in half. Well, really, he probably wouldn't have been able to keep it up, but this happened because of pure carelessness on his part.
I thought Kai handled this material well.
Overall Score:
4 out of 5
