Picking Up the Pieces

"To Namek, here we come!" — Bulma and the rest of the Dragon Team

Picking Up the Pieces
Japanese Name	飛とび出だせ宇う宙ちゅうへ！希き望ぼうの星ほしはピッコロの故ふる郷さと
Romaji name	Tobidase Uchū e! Kibō no Hoshi wa Pikkoro no Furusato
Literal Name	We're Off Into Space! The Planet of Hope is Piccolo's Homeland
Series
Saga	Namek Saga
Episode #	36
Edited counterpart:	A New Goal... Namek
Kai counterpart:	Dawn of a Fierce Battle! The Star of Hope is Piccolo's Homeland!
Chapter counterpart	Goku's Request The Bittersweet End Destination Namek
Japanese airdate	February 14, 1990
English airdate	August 15, 2005
Previous episode	Mercy
Next episode	Plans for Departure

"Picking Up the Pieces" (飛とび出だせ宇う宙ちゅうへ！希き望ぼうの星ほしはピッコロの故ふる郷さと, Tobidase Uchū e! Kibō no Hoshi wa Pikkoro no Furusato, lit. "We're Off Into Space! The Planet of Hope is Piccolo's Homeland") is the first episode of the Namek Saga and the thirty-sixth overall episode in the uncut Dragon Ball Z series. This episode first aired in Japan on February 14, 1990. Its original American airdate was August 15, 2005.

Summary

After the battle

As Vegeta's space pod streaks away, Krillin carries the unconscious, naked Gohan over to Goku. Bulma's airship arrives, and, upon landing, Chi-Chi bursts out and snatches up her son. Master Roshi and Bulma attend to Goku, as Korin tells him how proud he is of their efforts. Krillin gives his condolences to Bulma over Yamcha's death. Now that Piccolo and Kami are gone, the Dragon Balls will not work any longer. Bulma becomes distraught and breaks down crying. She verbally attacks Yajirobe, wishing he were dead instead of Piccolo. Korin breaks up the argument, and reminds them that they need to get the wounded heroes some medical attention.

Krillin explaining about Namek

As night falls, Master Roshi and Yajirobe carry Goku up into the airship. Vegeta's artificial moon burns itself out, and they take off. Krillin guides them back to where the bodies of their fallen comrades lay. He tells Bulma not to cry, that there may be a very slim chance of resurrecting their friends. Before he can elaborate, they arrive at the first battleground. The bodies of Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Piccolo are loaded into refrigerated coffins; there is not enough of Chiaotzu's body left to preserve. Everyone grieves over the loss of their friends. Bulma's thoughts are on the happy times she spent with Yamcha. Krillin reflects on how the other three lost their lives.

Goku and Gohan in Bulma's airship

Gohan eventually awakens in his crying mother's arms, and everyone else congratulates him on his efforts. Now that Gohan is taken care of, Yajirobe suggests Chi-Chi might take some concern for Goku. She refuses, blaming her husband for everything bad that has happened to Gohan. Bulma prods Krillin to explain what he was saying earlier. He tells how the Saiyans first learned of the Dragon Balls on Earth through Raditz's scouter, and after wiping out the planet, they would seek to have their own wishes granted with them. When they arrived on Earth and saw Piccolo, they recognized him as being from planet Namek, shocking the others with the revelation that Piccolo and Kami were aliens as well. They initially decided to let Piccolo live, believing that he could lead them to the Dragon Balls. Krillin relates how during the battle, Vegeta said that if they went to the Planet Namek, there would be more powerful Dragon Balls there.

The group pointing toward their new goal, Namek

Gohan remembers them having said that Namekians have the power to fabricate some kind of mysterious balls. If someone can somehow get to Namek, they can use those Namekian Dragon Balls to wish everyone back to life. Everyone jumps at this news, except for Bulma. She points out that they do not even know where this planet is supposed to be. Luckily, Goku has a solution. He telepathically contacts his mentor from the Other World, King Kai, who congratulates the heroes on defeating Vegeta. He and Goku briefly converse over on how remarkably powerful Vegeta was, with both of them being amazed at how neither the Kaio-ken x4 or Spirit Bomb were enough to defeat him. King Kai assists the group in finding Namek, revealing the planet's coordinates to be 9O45XY. Bulma is shocked to hear this. She tells Roshi to take the wheel while she tries to calculate the coordinates.

King Kai recalls the planet Namek being a rather beautiful place, much like Earth, being full of life. However, that changed when catastrophic event changed the climate, which took a toll on the planet. Namek has recovered over time, but King Kai fears that the inhabitants did not survive.This leaves the group disappointed, but King Kai tells them not to give up hope yet, as he'll try to find out for sure. As the King Kai tries searching with his antennae, Korin speculates that from what King Kai says, the disaster which he spoke of likely explains why Kami came to Earth in the first place. It is possible that because so much time passed, Kami forgot about his former life on Namek. Supposedly, his people sent him to Earth during that horrible disaster so that at least one of their kind would survive. Yajirobe then asks why the Namekians did not try to save their planet if they had their own set of Dragon Balls. Master Roshi suggests that the reason why they didn't was because they couldn't. As they discovered recently, the Eternal Dragon is not all-powerful, as the Dragon Balls are tied to the one who created them. A wish that exceeds their makers power cannot be granted.

King Kai reveals to everyone great news - he found the Namekians. There are over a hundred them, and are thriving, much to everyone's joy, except for Yajirobe, who assumes that they are all evil like how Piccolo used to be. King Kai assures everyone that this is not the case. The Namekians are a peaceful race by nature, Piccolo is an exception, as he was born on Earth, and while growing up witnessed different sorts of atrocities committed by mankind. Piccolo was not born evil, but rather his heart was corrupted by the evil of mankind, something even Yajirobe agrees with. Master Roshi ecstatic upon the good news, but his optimism dies immediately when Bulma reveals that even if they know where Namek is, to get there in the fastest Capsule Corp spaceship would take 4,339 years. Everyone is stunned by this fact. Goku asks King Kai for another solution, but sadly, even he is out of ideas.

Krillin chuckles lightly, admitting that Bulma is right, but what if hypothetically they used a Saiyan spaceship. Roshi considers that a good idea, but asks how they can use one if Vegeta already left in his own. Krillin states that judging by the size, the space pod Vegeta left in was only big enough for one person. This means that his partner Nappa had to have had a ship of his own. Goku agrees with that statement, and recalls his brother Raditz having a ship too, but soon remembers that Gohan destroyed it when trying to escape from it a year ago. Bulma states that at least they know that there is one ship left that could get them to Namek, Krillin also reveals another thing - he swiped Vegeta's remote which he dropped before leaving the planet. Bulma takes it from Krillin's hand to examine it. After short moment of silence, she grins and declares that they are going to Namek. Everyone is overjoyed at this turn of events, now knowing that there is a chance to revive their fallen friends. They fly towards the horizon as day breaks.

Major Events

• Krillin, Bulma and the others set forth the plan to head to Namek.

Appearances

Characters

Goku Gohan Krillin Vegeta Yajirobe Chi-Chi Master Roshi Bulma Korin

King Kai Bubbles Yamcha (Flashback) Tien Shinhan (Flashback) Chiaotzu (Flashback) Piccolo (Flashback) Kami (Flashback) Nameless Namekian (Flashback) King Piccolo (Flashback)

Locations

• Earth
  • Gizard Wasteland
  • Paprika Wasteland
• Other World
  • King Kai's Planet

Objects

• Attack Ball
• Battle Armor
• Capsule 192

Differences from the manga

• Due to watching the battle both on TV and later the Crystal Ball, Bulma and the others knew who had been killed by the Saiyans and tells Goku as such when they first talk. In the manga however it is only at this point that they made aware that they died so Bulma reacts very differently. In former, when she sees Yajirobe survived but not Piccolo, and realizing that Yamcha cannot be restored, she breaks down sobbing and its played somewhat for dark humor. The latter version is portrayed quite seriously with Bulma snapping at Yajirobe after he reveals himself, berating the latter for his cowardice, ineffectiveness, and concluding that he should have died instead of Piccolo (Yamcha in the English version), which ends in her breaking down crying. Yajirobe's reaction to being told this gives his complaint on the others' annoyance with him surviving is portrayed as significantly darker than in the manga.
• Bulma remembering her times with Yamcha as she is flying the Airplane is filler, though it is expanded from the panel of her taking over flying from Master Roshi. By extension, Krillin mourning for the fallen Z-Fighters and remembering their respective deaths is also filler.
• King Kai has his talk with the Dragon Team uninterrupted in the manga with Bubbles being shown asleep while King Kai pinpoints the Planet Namek. The anime has Bubbles waving around flowers and pestering his master which prompts the Kai to knock him out with a mallet. The monkey can be seen unconscious in the background with Gregory watching over him, who only exists in the anime.
• The visuals of the Saiyans and Shenron accompanying Roshi's explanation on why the dragon balls have their limitations is not in the manga.
• Korin smacking Yajirobe in the face with his tail for his deriding the dragon balls as useless does not occur in the manga. In addition, Yajirobe is also scowling when he badmouths the balls in the manga whilst the anime shows him grimly smirking while doing so.
• Yajirobe only pictures Kami when he worries about the Namekians being hostile in the manga, but the anime has him picture many Namekians including one with a mustache.
• The visual of Gohan destroying Raditz's space pod as Goku recalls what happened to it is not in the manga.

Trivia

• The edited version of the dub removed the scenes showing the bodies of the fallen fighters being loaded into freezing pods.
• Despite this being part of Funimation's Namek Saga, the Uncut and Remastered Funimation boxset ("Orange Brick" and Blu-Ray boxsets) places this episode with the Vegeta Saga including "Plans for Departure", "Nursing Wounds" and "Friends or Foes".
• When Krillin first alludes to Namek and warns the others that it may be a long shot, Goku in the Japanese version references how Krillin had previously alluded to something possibly being able to revive their fallen friends. Due to the English version changing that earlier dialogue to having nothing to do with the Namek allusion, Goku's line is likewise changed to him encouraging Krillin to share his idea for reviving the other Z-Fighters.
• Bulma remembering her time with Yamcha contains audio from episodes of the original Dragon Ball anime including "The Dragon Balls are Stolen!" (when Bulma flirts with a still timid Yamcha), "Danger in the Air" (when she whacks him for thinking he was cheating on her with Hasky), and "Yamcha's Big Break" (Yamcha apologizing for his losing to Tien Shinhan during the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament and Bulma absolving his guilt).
• The visuals of Nappa and Vegeta during Roshi's expositing on how the dragon balls are limited by the power of their creator is lifted from the second version of the Japanese opening for Dragon Ball Z "Cha-La Head-Cha-La".
• Korin chastises Yajirobe for the latter deriding the dragon balls after tail-whipping him in the Funimation dub. The Japanese version and Saban/Canadian dub have him laughing at Yajirobe's discomfort.
• One of the Namekians in Yajirobe's fantasy has a white handlebar mustache; the only time any Namekian is portrayed with facial hair.
• In the dubbed version, King Kai mistakenly says Planet Vegeta instead of Planet Namek.
• Bulma's eyes change color from blue to black when she gets excited over the possibility of reaching Planet Namek.
• The Saban/Canadian dub removed the Dragon Team resuming their laughter after their serious declaration to venture to Planet Namek.

Gallery

Krillin looking shell-shocked as he lifts Gohan from the Earth Chi-Chi running towards Gohan Bulma remembers the death of Yamcha Krillin remembers the death of Chiaotzu Yamcha's dead body while in a container Master Roshi and Korin after collecting the bodies of their deceased friends Master Roshi mourns over his dead friends Capsule 192 airship King Kai about to hammer Bubbles over the head Flashback of the origin of King Piccolo Bulma calculates the number of years it will take them to go to Namek with a regular spaceship Capsule 192 airship