LogFAQs > #970001831

#37: Cell Juniors Attack!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/5/8/AAAG8cAAD90q.jpg

Show: Dragonball Z
Original airdate (US): December 12, 2000

"Gohan, let it go. It is not a sin to fight for the right cause. There are those who words alone will not reach. Cell is such a being. I know how you feel, Gohan. You are gentle; you do not like to hurt. I know because I, too, have learned these feelings, but it is because you cherish life, that you must protect it. Please, drop your restraints. Protect the life I loved. You have the strength. My scanners sensed it. Just let it go."

So, while my first experience with this episode was the Funimation dub without the original music, I am grading it on my experience watching a clipped together version with Spirit vs. Spirit playing where it should be during the episode, i.e., Gohan's climactic Super Saiyan 2 transformation (I've also seen it with the Faulconer SSJ3 theme and the TFS "Day Of Fate" theme, and those are awesome as well). Either way, this is one of the most iconic scenes in all of Dragonball Z and in anime history, when Gohan finally drops his mental and emotional restraints and unleashes his true power to transform into a Super Saiyan 2. It's an incredible, brilliant, emotional scene, coming on the heels of Android 16's tragic death, and it has an amazing emotional impact after everything that's already happened, including the Cell Juniors pummeling Gohan's friends. Cell has been a complete asshole up to this point, beating down everything and everyone in his path, and finally, he pushed Gohan too far and it's time for him to get his just desserts. There's a reason everyone cites this as one of the iconic moments of Dragonball Z. Gohan's incredible transformation is a moment that'll stick with me for the rest of my life, and it lands this episode just inside my top 40.