Hunt for a Dragon Ball

"Hunt for a Dragon Ball" is the fourth episode of the Namek Saga in the original Saban dub of the Dragon Ball Z series. It aired in first-run syndication on September 20, 1997.
==Summary==
This episode starts out with Bulma and the gang in Raiti's ship, they are looking for a Dragon Ball, which is located in a tree. Some dinosaur hits the tree, and the Dragon Ball falls out, causing him to pick up the Dragon Ball and scatter off. The gang is about to run after it, but Raiti stops them, he says that it is too dangerous and explains the lake of acid in front of them. They fly over it and then they see the dinosaur's skeleton, they then come to the shocking conclusion that the Dragon Ball is at the bottom of the lake. Raiti says there is only one way of getting the Dragon Ball, someone small enough to fit inside of the suit that could withstand the acid would have to go down to the bottom. So Gohan has to go, but there is a catch, he only has 10 seconds to get it, or it will eat through the suit. He jumps in anyway and finds the Dragon Ball, He then has to swim up because the cord that would have pulled him up had the acid eat through it. He can’t get up in time, so he uses a one handed Masenko to give him a boost. He gets up just in time, so everyone rejoices and head out for the next one.
They soon find themselves in a desert with Zaacro joining them instead of Raiti, they look at the Dragon Radar and find that the Dragon Ball is moving very fast. They figure out what is happening when they see a huge twister, so they decide to wait for it to die. Zaacro tells them that it won’t die any time soon, so Krillin and Gohan get powered up to take it down. But Bulma interrupts them and tells them they might destroy the Dragon Ball, they just wonder what to do, but Gohan flies up to the top of the tornado and comes down the center of it. He then grabs the Dragon Ball, to get out of the Tornado he uses an attack, and he comes down slowly.
We see Vegeta in the rejuvenation chamber. He is slowly recovering from his long battle.
It is in the middle of the night as we see our hero sneaking down the stairs, Goku is escaping from the hospital!
Bulma and the gang are now headed into a forest are to find the next Dragon Ball. Krillin can't see a thing, so he jumps up to grab a branch. Once he grabs it and pulls it down, they hear a screech, but Krillin and everyone keeps on walking up the path. They then hear another screech and Krillin drops the torch, all of the sudden the ground starts to shake, it turns out they are on a huge bird. The bird starts to fly up, more birds arise then the one they are on spots our heroes and tries to eat them, but it doesn’t succeed so they are still flying up. Gohan then sees a huge castle, and to make it worse another bird spots them, so Krillin tells everyone to jump.
Goku is in his old outfit, and he looks determined to train.
Krillin and Gohan have the Dragon Radar and are searching around the plateau, they then come up to a window which shows a stone giant. Bulma and Zaacro then join Krillin she notices the sleeping giant and screams. Krillin tells her to be quiet, they all go in and start searching for the Dragon Ball. Bulma jumps down by the giant’s head and starts looking around his pillow. The snake the giant owns decides to investigate its new visitor. Bulma has to cover her mouth to keep from screaming, luckily making the snake leave without warning. Then the giant shifts in his bed to uncover the Dragon Ball. But there is a catch, they have to pry it off of the giant’s earring. After extensive tugging they got it off, time to rejoice, wait the giant is up and he is angry.
We see Chi-Chi getting infuriated by the escape of her husband.
Scene Change - Luckily our evil friend had a toy plane that really wasn't a toy for us, Bulma is trying to start it up while the giant is marching towards them. Krillin tries to rush her, but she told him to go and create a diversion, Gohan and Krillin are being punched at when Bulma flies by and saves Gohan and Krillin escaping the castle.
Goku is hopping, running and flying around happily.
The healing chamber that Vegeta is in is now getting drained. Vegeta then wakes up and flexes his right arm.
==Trivia==
*While searching the desert of Fake Namek, Bulma sings Peter Berring's main title theme of the Dragon Ball anime.
*Death is brought up briefly; a mainly taboo for the early Saban/Ocean dub. Before she jumps off of the Treedon, Bulma complains, "All right, I'll jump! But if I crash and die, I'm going to be very, very upset!"
*Gohan's Masenko is mistranslated as "Kamehameha" in this episode.
*The scenes of Vegeta recovering in the healing chamber are censored so that he is wearing shorts.
==External links==
*IMDb page for "Hunt for a Dragonball (1997)"
*Review of the episode's censorship
*Review of the episode's censorship
==Site Navigation==
Category:Episodes
Category:Dragon Ball Z episodes
Category:Edited Dragon Ball Z episodes
Category:Namek Saga