Episode 12, "The Tears Piccolo Shed... Son Goku's Furious Counterattack!!"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Piccolo jumps in front of Nappa's attack, and takes a lot of damage in place of Gohan. As he lie dying, he tells Gohan how much he appreciated the time with him. Piccolo passes, as does Kami. Enraged, Gohan attacks Nappa, who simply defects it. Before Nappa can stop Gohan, he's whisked away by Kintoun. Vegeta notices something then: Goku has arrived! Goku gives half a senzu to Kuririn and his son, then prepares to fight Nappa himself. Nappa is confident, but Goku proves to be extremely fast, harming Nappa more than he expected to be. Irritated, Vegeta tells Nappa to quit the fight- he'll take care of Kakkarot
Comments:
Piccolo dies, Goku returns, Nappa is humiliated, Vegeta crushes his scouter dramatically, this episode is full of events! Okay, so only those first three really count. Still, this is an episode I was looking forward to (though not as much as the next few). I can't remember whether or not they put Piccolo's death at the end of an episode or at the beginning of one when first the series ran, but it worked for the beginning of this one. Also, watching Nappa go totally off the deep end was a nice turn around, and it looks like they got most of the fight between Goku and Nappa in.
The quality of the animation was decent in this episode, aside from a few bits. I still can't say much for the music, though. It really seemed like the sort of generic music you'd have heard from the Saban/Ocean produced version of the program. I didn't feel like it got in the way of the mood, at least, but it didn't actually suit it. The transitions in the scenes seemed pretty well done, too. I didn't notice any sudden cuts (though, to be honest, I'm not all that great at picking up on them), either.
Got to love Goku just confidently going up to Nappa, dodging a punch, then walking over to Gohan and Kuririn to give them the senzu. He wasn't threatened by Nappa's power at all, and it looked like Nappa was nothing compared to him. It's such a huge reverse from the battle between the others and Nappa. However, we'll see that obviously, Vegeta is more of a match.
Overall Score:
3.5 out of 5