Goku and Krillin! Back to the Old Familiar Training Ground!

With Vegeta, Piccolo, and Beerus all unavailable, Goku struggles to find a training partner. He spars briefly with Gohan, who shows up as Great Saiyaman and exchanges blows as a Super Saiyan before Chi-Chi halts the match for destroying the vegetable field. Goten suggests Krillin, and Goku flies off to find his oldest friend currently working as a police officer. After helping Krillin apprehend some criminals by casually bending their guns, Goku asks him to train.

Krillin is reluctant, believing that sparring with a god-level fighter would be pointless. Android 18 arrives and, with unintentional harshness, questions why her husband is so weak that a bullet grazed him. Marron adds that she wants a strong father. These words cut deep but also ignite something in Krillin. He agrees to train, and the two old friends spar outside, reminiscing about their days training under Master Roshi as children.

At Kame House, Master Roshi agrees to help, putting Goku in a nearly immovable weighted turtle suit and banning Super Saiyan transformations and flight. Even handicapped, Goku's movements are barely affected, showing how far beyond human limits he has progressed. That night, Krillin trains alone, wrestling with self-doubt. The next morning, Roshi sends them on a race to find a rare Paradise Herb on a remote island. With Fortuneteller Baba observing via crystal ball, Goku and Krillin enter an eerie forest and find themselves surrounded by towering illusions of their greatest enemies: Cell, Frieza, Vegeta, Nappa, the Ginyu Force, King Piccolo, and Super Buu. Krillin spots Tambourine, the creature that once killed him, and freezes in terror.

The emotional weight of this episode comes from Krillin's honest confrontation with his own limitations. He is not dealing with imposter syndrome; he genuinely cannot compete with the Saiyans and gods who dominate the current landscape. Android 18's blunt words, while harsh, come from a place of concern rather than cruelty. She knows what Krillin is capable of and is frustrated that fear is holding him back.

The sparring scene between Goku and Krillin is laced with nostalgia, and their mutual decision to return to Kame House connects the current series to the very first arcs of Dragon Ball. Master Roshi's training method, sending them into danger with unclear instructions, mirrors how he has always taught: through experience rather than explanation.

The Forest of Terror and its illusory enemies draw from the full history of the franchise, featuring threats from the original Dragon Ball through the Buu Saga. For Krillin specifically, seeing Tambourine is significant because that death in the King Piccolo Saga was the first time a major character was killed in the series, and it was Krillin's murder that sent Goku on his first truly desperate mission.

This episode is entirely anime-original and begins a mini-arc focused on Krillin's character development, rare and welcome attention for one of the franchise's most enduring supporting characters.