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"That's right Cell. Keep pushing. Once you back Gohan into the corner, he's not going to have anywhere to go, except right through you."
Goku

"Gohan's Plea" (いかはん ねむれるちからおこ Ikare Gohan Nemureru Chikara o Yobiokose, lit. "Get Angry, Gohan—Release the Dormant Power Within") is the seventeenth episode of the Cell Games Saga and the one hundred eighty-second overall episode in the uncut Dragon Ball Z series. This episode first aired in Japan on April 21, 1993. Its original American airdate was December 7, 2000.

Summary[]

SSJGohanVs

Full-Power Super Saiyan Gohan

The episode begins with Gohan and Cell resuming their fight, and Gohan seemingly doing little more than attempting to avoid Cell's attacks. Cell ends up pummeling Gohan into a large mound of rocks, burying him under the debris. Cell's hubris and cocky attitude leads him to believe that he has so easily defeated the young Super Saiyan, and all of the Dragon Team except Goku begin to panic at what seems like Gohan's death; Chi-Chi watching at home obviously being the most worried. The ZTV Reporter announces to the television audience that it looks like it is over for Gohan, and now Mr. Satan can finally take over. As per the previous episode, Mr. Satan fakes a stomach cramp.

Back at the crowd of worried Z Fighters, Piccolo brutally chastises Goku, saying that he has led his very own son to his death, but Goku puts his criticism to an end by telling him and the rest of the Z Fighters that Gohan's energy is not only intact, but almost untouched. Krillin, Future Trunks, and the rest of the fighters begin to notice it as well. Cell then asks Goku if he is going fight him, Goku declines and tells Cell to look back to where Gohan is. With all eyes on the pile of destroyed rocks that buried Gohan moments ago, the young Saiyan spectacularly re-emerges with wounds to his face, but an insignificant drop to his energy.

GohanfacesCell

Gohan faces Cell

Perfect Cell comes down to Gohan and says that he did not give him enough credit (perhaps he has underestimated his unshaken young foe). Gohan tells Perfect Cell that the fight is not necessary. It is not in the child's nature to fight, and so he pleads with Cell to stop the violence altogether. Perfect Cell notes almost sarcastically that if Gohan does not fight, Cell will destroy the Earth; in short, Gohan has no choice but to fight. Realizing that no other course of action may be possible, and that Cell's character is not one of forgiveness, Gohan divulges to Cell the reason his father forfeited and left him in his place. To put it simply, every time Gohan is placed in a situation with seemingly insurmountable odds for his or his loved ones' survival, a hidden power of enormous magnitude is unleashed. He refers back to when he attacked and momentarily overpowered Raditz as he tortured Goku during their fight on Earth, when he was in training with Piccolo, who had hoped to train Gohan to control his power, and when he snapped against Frieza, who had just impaled Krillin with his horns, and discarded him into the water below.

Gohan attacks Cell

Gohan finally retaliates against Cell's coaxial attacks

Perfect Cell laughs and sarcastically remarks that his story was interesting. Obviously it did not work in dissuading the android from fighting, and instead, Cell's overweening pride causes him to begin attempting to coax Gohan into releasing this hidden power of his. He proceeds to smack Gohan around trying to get him angry, but the Saiyan remains passive. Finally, after a bout of constant goading from Cell, Gohan retaliates with a swift kick that catches the diabolical android off guard. Cell, recovering shakily from the attack with a bruised face and bloodied lip, is thoroughly intrigued at this point, and will do whatever it takes to get Gohan to release his full potential in hopes of having a truly historical fight. Though the rest of the fighters are increasingly skeptical, thinking that Gohan has no chance against the powerful Cell, a smiling Goku thinks to himself that once Cell forces out Gohan's power, he will have no choice but to eviscerate the android.

Major Events[]

  • Gohan continues his fight with Cell.
  • Gohan urges Cell to stop fighting and explains to him his father's plan of having Gohan go berserk.

Battles[]

  • Gohan (Super Saiyan) vs. Cell (Perfect)

Appearances[]

Characters[]

Locations[]

Objects[]

Transformations[]

Techniques[]

  • Ultimate Blitz - Used by Cell several times. Gohan manages to dodge the attack.
  • Fear Me! - Used by Cell, knocking Gohan into a mountain and burying him under debris.
    • Kiai - Used by Cell to end of the "Fear Me!" combo.
  • Miracle Knee! - Used by Mr. Satan to deceive Jimmy Firecracker and his students into believing he was in no condition to fight due to suffering from stomach pains.

Bruce Faulconer tracks[]

  • "Goku's Spirit Bomb" - When Gohan talks to Cell about what he faced during his previous fights.
  • "Long Flashback" - When Gohan tells Cell how his hidden power first awakened.

Differences from the manga[]

  • Due to Caroni, Pirozhki and Miss Piiza being created for the anime, all scenes involving them are exclusive to the anime.
  • Chi-Chi getting upset due to believing that Gohan is going to be killed is exclusive to the anime.
  • The beginning battle sequence between Gohan and Cell up to the point where Cell blasts him into a mountain is exclusive to the anime.
  • King Furry telling his military to stand down as it's futile is exclusive to the anime.
  • In the manga, Gohan explains to Cell how, ever since he was young, sometimes he would lose control and go berserk. In the anime, Gohan goes into further detail as we see clips from previous episodes where he fights against Raditz and Frieza.

Trivia[]

  • The TV at King Castle shows the fight with Gohan and Cell from different angles, even though there is only one cameraman there, and he's hiding behind a rock which is a distance away from the fight.
  • In the Funimation dub, Chi-Chi says, "You promised me you wouldn't let our baby boy fight that monster!", when in fact Goku never promised her anything of the sort. When Chi-Chi demanded that Goku promise her Gohan would not fight, he just gave her an innocent look and used Instant Transmission.
  • Gohan says that during Goku's fight with Raditz was the first time his hidden power showed itself, but in a previous filler episode, soon after Gohan was born, his stroller got away from Goku and rolled down a hill toward a tree. Just when Gohan was about to collide with the tree, his hidden power emerged, and he went straight through the tree. But he was very young at that age and likely did not remember it, as he is often left with no memory of using it and was only informed about its emergence during the fight against Raditz by Piccolo, who told him during the early part of his training.
    • Additionally, his hidden power had also emerged during the movie Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone to defeat the immortal Garlic Jr. Gohan also had no memory of it, as Goku decided to keep it a secret, though he was later informed about this occurrence during the Filler Garlic Jr. Saga.
    • During this same scene, at the part where Raditz is traveling to Earth, a shot of the opening sequence of the original Dragon Ball series is shown. In fact, the animation of the solar flares moving are completely the same as the opening sequence's first moments.
  • In the Ocean dub version of this episode, Alistair Abell and Jillian Michaels voice Raditz and Gohan, respectively, in the Raditz Saga flashback scene. Ironically, when Ocean dubbed "Gohan's Hidden Powers" (where the scene originated from) with Saban Entertainment in 1996, Raditz and Gohan were instead voiced by Jason Gray-Stanford and Saffron Henderson. Both of these voice actors had left Ocean by the time their dub of this episode aired in 2001.
  • For the Westwood/Ocean dub, for this and the previous episode, Dave Ward fills in for Brian Dobson as Pirozhki.

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