Dragonball GT Episode 1 (Aired 2/07/96)
Nazo no DB Shuugen!! Gokuu wa kodomo ni!? The mysterious Dragonballs appear!! Gokuu becomes a child!?
Gokuu and Uubu are in Kami-sama's palace, training and smashing away at each other. Around 10 years have passed since the end of Dragon Ball Z, and Uubu looks to be a very strong teenager now. The damage to the Palace is enormous, and Mr. Popo and Dende are getting nervous over it. Meanwhile Pilaf, Shuu and Mai (all three of them looking really old now) are in a set of robots, climbing the outside of the Palace. When they get inside, they eventually locate all seven Dragon Balls (lying in a skeleton-filled urn.) These are the Black Dragon Balls, rumored to be better than the original set.
Eventually, Uubu and Gokuu finish their training, step out into the open, and collapse Dende and Mr. Popo heal them. Everyone trades greetings and words of thanks. Then, Uubu flies off to return to his own life.
Before Pilaf can summon Shenlon, Shuu is overcome with emotion at getting this far for the first time, and Mai reminds them that this is about the point where they always get interrupted. Pilaf hopes to avoid all interruptions this time. Pilaf is again dreaming of world domination, and he summons Shenlon. Meanwhile, Gokuu empties Dende's larder; still hungry, he wanders the Palace and notices that the sky has suddenly turned dark. Confused, Gokuu tries to find out what's going on, and happens upon Pilaf. Gokuu is surprised to see Pilaf after so many decades, and he marvels over this. Pilaf rages that Gokuu is so big now, and he orders his robots to launch missiles at Gokuu. Gokuu easily catches the missiles, and Pilaf insanely wishes that Gokuu was small again, and therefore easier to defeat.
Shenlon says "So be it", and Gokuu is turned into a child once more. Shenlon claims that the wish has been fulfilled, and all 7 Balls fly off in separate directions. Dende and Mr. Popo arrive, and are shocked to see Gokuu transformed.
[Commercial Break.]
Kaiou-sama telepathically tells Dende and crew that only the Black Dragon Balls can be used to reverse the wish, and the Balls have been scattered across the galaxy. Gokuu is taking being a kid in stride, and since there's nothing else that he can do at this point, he decides to fly down to Earth to get something more to eat. In Satan City, Pan (who is now a young teenager and dressed like a "slacker" version of Beederu) and a potential boyfriend are wandering the streets. Pan wants to go to a movie, and the boyfriend wants to keep pressing against her. While Kamesennin has hit the city as well, and is trying to track down Pan (he makes sure that he bumps into the tushes of every pretty woman along the way.)
However, there is a hostage situation at a bank near the theater, and the police have cordoned off the area. The bad guys have fun shooting up cars and terrorizing the police. The police had decided to send in a disguised police woman to give the villains meals spiked with knockout drops. Unfortunately, the villains expected this, and they feed the food to a hostage cop -- the cop passes out. The villains continue to blow up the city. The resulting shockwaves disturb Gokuu's meal at a nearby Chinese restaurant. He comes out to see what is wrong.
Gokuu anticipates being able to beat up baddies, but is thwarted by Pan, who tells the little boy to not get in the way. Pan beats the snot out of the bad guys as Gokuu watches. The potential boyfriend becomes scared of Pan's prowess, and runs away (not the first time this has happened, either.) Then, Kamesennin arrives and both children yell out his name. Kamesennin quickly believes that this is a weird little Gokuu, but Pan thinks that there is something wrong here. (It's been a long time since anyone's seen Gokuu, or since he's seen any of them.)
The group goes to Gokuu's house, and everyone speculates over whether the original Dragon Balls can restore Gokuu until Kaiou-sama calls in to mention a problem he'd missed before. It seems that if the Black Dragon Balls aren't gathered up within a year, the Earth will explode. Everyone is shocked at this.
And so, Gokuu's new adventure begins.
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Note: the new opening credit song is standard Japanese pop, and seems to be aimed more towards the fans of magical girls shows. This might be one sign that the producers are shifting the show away from the traditional DB audience.
This summary is the copyright of Curtis H. Hoffmann, April 1996.
Permission is granted to copy this file as-is. Permission is NOT granted to reprint this summary in a for-profit magazine or publication. If you want to print this summary, in part or whole, in a fan magazine, please contact me first.