Goku, Gohan, and Krillen are in a hospital recuperating from the battle against Vegita. Popo appears on a flying carpet outside the hospital and informs the cast of the existence of Namek dragonballs, dragonballs of Planet Namek, the home planet of Kami Piccolo. The cast makes plans to journey to Namek to retrieve these dragonballs to wish the Z Warriors killed in the Vegita Series back to life. Because Namek is so far away, Popo mentions Kami's spaceship as the source of transportation. Bulma is chosen to go; she is the only engineer/ mechanic of the group who can operate a spaceship. Gohan and Krilyn, only slightly injured, volunteer to accompany Bulma on the trip. Goku is too badly hurt to travel.
Gohan, Krillen, and Bulma head off to Namek. On the way, a mysterious invisible ship engulfs their ship. The trio exit to investigate the strange ship and get ambushed by an army of aliens who all aim guns at the victims. When asked, the aliens reveal their belief that the Z Warriors belong to the group of frieza. Gohan, Krilyn, and Bulma tell that they know nothing about Frieza, but the aliens plan to execute them anyway. Suddenly, a meteor shower hits the ship and everything gets shaky. Gohan and Krilyn save the aliens from falling parts of the ship. Bulma races to pilot the ship through the meteor shower. These good intentions prove that Gohan, Krilyn, and Bulma are not part of Frieza's crew. The aliens apologize and tell our heroes more about Frieza. It turns out that Frieza is leader of the group of space pirates who conquered and destroyed their home planet. They, the survivors, were forced to flee their planet. This is the reason they now live on a cloaked ship. Bulma, Gohan, and Krilyn get on their ship and leave, bidding farewell to some new friends.
Next stop, our heroes crash unconsciously onto a strange planet. When they awaken, two Namek who tell that they have landed on Namek greets them. Our heroes, overjoyed with relief, tell of their quest to find the Namek dragonballs. The Nameks agree to aid our heroes in their search and all seven dragonballs are gathered. Then, the planet fades and morphs. The Nameks also morph into two hideous sluggish aliens. It is revealed that the two aliens are really aliens who crashed and got stranded on the strange planet years ago. The aliens had the abilities to read minds and read our heroes' minds while they were unconscious, which explains how they knew about what our heroes' were talking about. Then, they used their psychic powers to manifest the planet into a fake Namek. They were in need of a ship to escape the planet, but couldn't just steal the ship while our heroes' were conscious because they had to wait for the stormy weather to clear before being able to fly out into space. When the time comes right, Krilyn and Gohan become tricked into getting binded by some octopus-like monsters. When the aliens are about to enter Kami's ship, they learn that they cannot get the door open. They find Bulam and threaten her to teach them how to operate the ship. At the same time, Gohan and Klilyn break free of the monsters binding them and easily beat the aliens. Our heroes regain possesion of their ship and continue their journey for the real Planet Namek.
Vegeta is in his space capsule retreating back to Freeza's planet. When he lands, he is taken into a recoperation pod and recoperates. Flashbacks are held reflecting on times with Freeza. It is revealed that the Saiyans were loyal servants to Freeza, but Freeza was never satisfied with them. This shows Vegeta's resent to serving Freeza. Vegeta, too, knows of the Namek dragonballs. With the Earth dragonballs gone, Vegeta also makes plans to seek the Namek dragonballs to fulfill his wish for immortality. After becoming immortal, Vegeta plans to kill Freeza, get revenge on Gokou, and become the strongest in the universe. Upon recovery, he races to get to Namek.
Bulma, Gohan, and Klilyn finally arrive to Namek, but discover that they have company. Two goons of Freeza attack our heroes and shoot at their spaceship. Though they are easily beaten, our heroes become stranded on Namek.
Vegeta,too, arrives on the planet. The being known as Freeza is also on Namek. He, too, hungers for the dragonballs to wish for immortality. A dragonball hunt begins...
There are seven villages in Namek, each with an elder possessing a dragonball. Freeza and his henchmen slowly eradicate village by village after robbing them of the dragonballs. Bulma hides and transmits the news of trouble on Namek back to Earth through a portable satellite telephone. In one village, Gohan and Klilyn pass by and spy on Freeza to learn his character and witness the brutality of the monster. Freeza's goons kill all defenders and crush all resistance of the Nameks. The elder of the village still refuses to give up his dragonballs to such a monster as Freeza. Freeza then threatens to have two Namek children killed if the elder did not give up the dragonballs at once. Among the children is Dende. Unable to restrain from helping the endangered Nameks, Gohan and Klilyn leap in to help. Freeza's left-hand man, Dodoria, goes to kill the Namek children but get kicked and punched away by Gohan and Klilyn. The heroes carry Dende way to safety and flee from Dodoria. The chase comes dangerously close, but Dodoria loses his victims in an encounter with Vegeta. Vegeta, recovered, is much stronger now and easily beats Dodoria. (*4) Dodoria tries to bargain for his life by revealing that the truth of what happened to Planet Vegeta. Vegeta unforgivingly kills Dodoria anyway.
Vegeta's power level has grown so strong that he can sense the dragonballs without the need of any mechanical device like a scouter. He learns that Freeza already has five of the dragonballs and is aware that he is not yet capable of defeating Freeza with his current stregth. Vegeta reasons that if he captures just one of the dragonballs, Freeza will be unable to gather all the dragonballs needed to make a wish. With this plan, Vegeta heads to an unattacked Namek village and treats it with the same brutality as Freeza to steal a dragonball. After eliminating the village, he hides the dragonball underwater . After flying off again, Vegeta encounters Zarbon, Freeza's right-hand man. The two battle and fight to a stalemate. Zarbon transforms into his second phrase and defeats Vegeta. Only Vegeta knows where the remaining dragonballs that Freeza needs is, so Zarbon cannot kill him. Vegeta is captured back to Freeza's spaceship and put into a recovery pod.
Freeza learns that his quest for the dragonballs have run into some trouble, so he summons the Ginew Force, Freeza's elite warriors who have conquered many planets undefeatedly.
Vegeta recovers in the recovery cell and destroys it along with any guards. Freeza's lair is deserted but the dragonballs stolen by Freeza are still there. Freeza steals these and flees.
Gohan borrows Bulma's dragon radar and discovers that one dragonball is close by and goes to retrieve it. Vegeta encounters Gohan but spares him because he is in a hurry to retrieve the dragonball hid underwater, unaware that Gohan has it.
Dende tells our heroes more about his planet and recommends them to meet the dying Guru, the Namek senior elder responsible for fathering everyone on Namek. Klilyn flies to Guru to inform him of what is happening to the planet. Guru senses good intentions in the Earthling, unleashes his hidden powers, and hands him the 1-star dragonball. Klilyn heads back to tell Bulma and Gohan the news. Vegeta spots Klilyn and follows him. Zarbon spots Vegeta and follows him. Vegeta lands to take our heroes' dragonballs, but so does Zarbon. Zarbon and Vegeta fight. Vegeta powers up and kills Zarbon. Klilyn is forced to trade his dragonball for the sparing of Bulma and his life. Vegeta laughs and flies off again. Immediately afterwards, Gohan returns with the dragonball that he retrieved.
Back on Earth, Gokou, still in the hospital, learns of the trouble on Namek but regrets not being able to do anything. Yarijobe visits Gokou and gives him a senzu bean. Gokou eats it and immediately recovers. Gokou's next stop is to Dr. Briefs. Based on Nappa's spacepod, Dr. Briefs was able to design a spaceship capable of traveling to Namek. The ship is ready and Gokou sets voyage to Namek. On the ship, Gokou trains himself under the gravity machine and trains to 100 times the gravity of Earth. Kaiou teleports Gokou news that new students have arrived on his planet for special training - Tenshin-han, Chauzu, Yamcha, and Piccolo!
The Ginew Force is arriving. Gohan and Klilyn fly back to Guru to have Guru release Gohan's hidden powers. On the way, Vegeta follows. Gohan goes to Guru while Klilyn stalls Vegeta. Vegeta catches up with Klilyn and offers a temporary alliance. He requests that Gohan and Klilyn give him their dragonball so that he can wish for immorality before it is too late. He tells that he senses the coming of the Ginew Force, an "unbeatable team" of Freeza, and that the only way to win is if he gets his wish granted. After much reluctance, Gohan and Klilyn agree. They fly to Bulma to retrieve the remaining dragonball and abandon her once again. All seven dragonballs are gathered into one place, but it is too late. The Ginew Force have arrived.
Ginew, Jhese, Berter, Recoom, and Guldo, the five members of Team Ginew, stand before the three and do their silly dance introducing themselves as members of the Special Ginew Corp. Vegeta tells Klilyn to destroy a dragonballs so that they cannot bring the dragonballs back to Freeza to let Freeza make his wish. Guldo freezes time temporarily to steal the dragonballs from Klilyn before his fist can shatter it. Vegeta then throws the remaining dragonballs away to separate them from the Ginew Force, but Berter, whose special ability is super speed, goes after the balls and easily retrieves them. The Ginew Force now have all seven dragonballs. Ginew, leader and strongest of the bunch, flies off with the dragonballs to give them to Freeza. The remaining members of the Ginew Force and left to "deal with" Gohan, Klilyn, and Vegeta.
Guldo, a short, green four eyed slug-like being, is the first to fight. He possesses the special ability to freeza time in a breathe. Gohan and Klilyn attack, but Guldo keeps freezing time to run away from all attacks while his attackers are frozen in time. Finally, he manages to freeza Gohan and Klilyn with he phychic powers. Guldo again uses phychic power to grind a nearby tree into a giant spear and launches it at Gohan and Klilyn, still sitting ducks unable to move. Vegeta jumps in and chops Guldo's head off before blowing it away with a blast. Gohan and Klilyn are shocked that Vegeta saved their lives, but Vegeta only says that it was because he had an out score to settle with Guldo.
Next up, is Recoom, a huge orange ogre. Vegeta, Klilyn, and Gohan attack, but all end up getting easily beaten on the brink of death by Recoom. Recoom is about to finish off his victims as Jees and Baata laugh at more of their silly comments.
Gokou finally arrives. He calmly walks out and gives the three senzu beans he has to Gohan, Klilyn, and Vegeta. Gohan and Klilyn warn Gokou about the invincibility of Recoom, but Vegeta sees that Gokou's power levels has reached new peaks. Recoom attacks and easily gets beaten by Gokou in a single punch. Gohan and Klilyn know that they will only be in the way of Gokou if they stay to help, so they fly away. Vegeta also leaves the scene.
Berter, a blue monster known for being the fastest in the universe, and Jhese, a red rock-and-roll like puk with long white hair, get angry at Gokou's toying around and attack at full power, but are losing to Gokou anyway. Baata gets knocked down and Jees escapes. Vegeta mocks Gokou for being to soft at letting Jees get away, and then kills off the knocked out Baata and Recoom.
Ginew reaches Freeza and gives him the dragonballs. Freeza summons for his wish of immortality, but nothing happens. They bury the dragonballs outside the Freeza's ship to hide them. Freeza goes to seek the Namek Elder Senior to find out how to work the dragonballs while Ginew is left to stay guard. Jees arrives and informs Ginew of what has happened. Ginew heads to fight Gokou.
As Ginew and Gokou battle, Ginew realizes that Gokou is stronger than him. Ginew badly jabs himself and shoots a strange beam at Gokou. Unaware of what is happening, Gokou gets his body swapped by Ginew. By the time that Gokou realizes that Ginew's special technique is body swapping, it is too late. Ginew laughs and he and Jees fly back to the dragonballs. Gokou is stouck in Ginew's battered body forced to chase after his own body.
Vegeta arrives to Freeza's spaceship to seek the dragonballs, but Gohan and Klilyn also arrive. Vegeta hides behind the ship to watch the Earthings, planning to kill them once they summon Shenlong for him. Gohan and Klilyn use Bulma's dragon radar to locate the dragonballs and summon it, but nothing happens. Everyone is baffled why. Gohan and Klilyn sense the "ki" of people coming and hide. Ginew and Jeese land, looking at the dragonballs and wondering who dug them up. Because Ginew is in Gokou's body, Klilyn mistakes him for Gokou and comes out to greet him. Gohan senses something wrong in his father's body and yells that that Gokou is not his dad. Gohan and Klilyn face the remainder of the Ginew Force, but Gokou also arrives. He reasons that since he has trouble controlling his new body because he's not used to it, so will Ginew in his body. Ginew tries to power up to Gokou's power level, but cannot because he deson't know the Kaiou-ken technique. Gokou tells that Gohan and Klilyn and beat Ginew in Ginew's lack of experience. Ginew gets beaten and calls for Jees to help. Vegeta comes out of hiding and challenges Jees.
Vegeta is confident of his power. He learned that Saiyans grow stronger each time they face the brink of death. After surviving his attack from Gokou and then from Recoom, Vegeta's power level has increased tremendously. He toys with Jees and then kills him. Then, Vegeta flies to Ginew and badly beats him. Ginew begins to admire Vegeta's body and decided to change bodies with him. Ginew does his change body technique on Vegeta but Gokou jumps in the way and gets his old body back. However, it was so badly beaten that he cannot move. Ginew, back in his old body, attempts his change body technique on Vegeta once again. Vegeta still doesn't know what's happening and charge at Ginew. Gokou turns nearby frog in Ginew's path and forces Ginew to change into a frog.
Guru sends Dende to seek Gohan and Klilyn to teach them how to summon the Porunga. Freeza arrives to Guru and is about to kill him for refusing to teach the words needed to work the dragonballs. Nail, body guard of Guru and the strongest warrior of the planet, tells Freeza that if Guru dies, so will the dragonballs. Freeza is forced to spare Guru and fights Nail instead. The two fly to a remote area to fight. Nail is no match for Freeza, but continues fighting anyway to stall time for Dende to reach the Earthlings. Freeza finally learns that he whole fight against Nail was a trick and races back to his spaceship. Nail is left to die.
Vegeta offers an alliance with our heroes because Freeza is the common enemy in this battle. Everyone enters Freeza's spaceship as Freeza continues to head back. Gokou is put into a Saiyan recovery pod and Klilyn and Gohan are given Saiyan armor. Klilyn flies off to seek Guru to learn the words to summoning Shenlong. Vegeta takes a nap because he hasn't slept in a while while on Namek. Gohan is outside the ship to guard the dragonballs.
Klilyn and Dende bump into each other and head back to Gohan. The three take the dragonballs away from the spaceship to now let Vegeta know. Dende summons the Porunga Shenlong, which can grant three wishes. Piccolo is wished back to life for the first wish, and is teleported to Namek as the second wish. However, Dende forgot to specify where on Namek so Piccolo is in the middle of nowhere. Vegeta awakens from his sleep and quickly rushes to Shenlong, prepared to kill Gohan and Klilyn for cheating him out of his wish for immortality. One wish remains. After much reluctance, Dende goes to ask Shenlong to grant Vegeta's wish because only Vegeta had the potential of killing Freeza. As Shenlong is about to grant Vegeta's wish, Guru dies and the dragonballs thus turn to stones. Vegeta's wish is denied, and Freeza arrives before his victims. Gokou is still recoverying.
Vegeta, more powerful than before, faces Freeza and is able to stand up to him. Freeza tells that he can change bodies three times. With each transformation, his power level great increases. Since Vegeta has gotten so strong, Freeza undergoes his first stage of transformation.
Piccolo senses the huge "ki"in the battle between Freeza and Vegeta and flies towards that direction. On the way, he encounters the dying Nail, who makes the offer to fuse with him. Piccolo accepts with skeptism and finally fuses with Nail. His power level greatly increases. Piccolo continues to head for Freeza, believing that he can beat anyone with his unbelievable power now.
Vegeta is no longer a match for Freeza. Piccolo arrives in time for battle and stands up to Freeza. Freeza decides it time to transform again. Piccolo is beaten down. Klilyn throws a laser spin disc at Freeza and the fireball truncates his tail. Freeza, now an even bigger monster with huge horns, flies to Klilyn and jabs a horn through Klilyn. Gohan attacks Freeza to save him. Klilyn is thrown aside and Gohan gets beaten close to death. At the next scene, Klilyn is back up and lures Freeza away. Freeza doesn't know how Klilyn survived, by follows him anyway. In the distraction, Dende heals Gohan like how he secretly did to Klilyn. Piccolo rejoins the fight and Freeza focuses on killing Piccolo. Vegeta is no longer a hope for victory, but remembers his lesson on how a Saiyan's strength greatly increases each time he reaches close to death; Vegeta recalls Dende's healing abilities and requests Klilyn to shoot a fatal blast at him. Meanwhile, Piccolo and Freeza continue to battle, but Freeza is by far much stronger and beats Piccolo half to death.
Gohan watches Piccolo getting killed and powers up with anger. His hidden powers are revealed once again as he casts a fireball that even Freeza has trouble blocking. Freeza begins to morph to his perfect stage, but it requires time. As Freeza cracks from the shell of his old body, Dende heals Piccolo. The dying Vegeta requests to be healed, but Dende refuses because of how Vegeta treated his people. After much difficulty, Dende accepts that Vegeta is their only hope at the moment.
As Freeza transfroms, he watches Dende heal Piccolo and Vegeta and figures out the usefulness in the young Namek towards his enemies. With annoyance, Freeza shoots and kills Dende. Another shot is shot at Gohan, but Gohan, Klilyn, and Piccolo are not skilled enough to see such speed of the blast. Vegeta sees it and pushes Gohan out of the way. Vegeta and Freeza go head to head. The result is Freeza fulfilling his promise of "torture beyond hell" on Vegeta. Gokou is fully recovered and rushes to the scene.
Gokou arrives with a more impressive "ki" level. Vegeta is knocked free from Freeza's grip and tells that Gokou is the Super Saiyan Freeza feared so much. Freeza grows annoyed of Vegeta's comments and shoots a beam through Vegeta's heart, killing him. Vegeta's dying words are for Gokou to take vengeance for all Saiyans. Gokou makes a grave to bury Vegeta in and then faces Freeza.
Meanwhile...
Bulma is alone wandering around in the dangers of Namek's wilderness. She encounters a frog that she calls "has potential" because it is different from the rest and lets it follow her around as a companion, unaware that the frog is really Ginew. Bulma puts together a gadget that allows animals to talk for her frog buddy. This gives Ginew back his ability for speech. Ginew screams "change!", and swaps bodies with Bulma. Ginew then drives Bulma's flying motorcycle with Bulma hanging on the back, demanding her body back.
They coincidently reach where Gohan, Klilyn, and Piccolo are watching the fight between Gokou and Freeza. Our heroes learn that Bulma is not herself because her body was cheering for Freeza instead of Gokou. Ginew learns that his new body is not good for fighting after catfighting Klilyn, and prepares to swap bodies with Piccolo. Gohan throws Bulma in the way and Bulma regains her own body while Ginew becomes the frog again. The movement in the air caused from the fight between Gokou and Freeza blows Bulma and Ginew away, again.
Gokou and Freeza toy with each other at first, but Freeza later boasts how he can beat Gokou at just 50% his power level. Gokou powers up to 20x the Kaiou-ken method, but is still losing to Freeza.
In a final desperate attempt, Gokou prepares a Genki Dama made from "ki" of local planets. Freeza is unaware of what Gokou is doing because he cannot detect "ki", and therefore can't sense the power of the growing Genki Dama. Freeza soon learns of Gokou's trick and rushes to kill him. Gohan and Klilyn donate their "ki" to Piccolo and Piccolo goes to stall time for Gokou. Piccolo gets beat up, but Gokou's fireball is ready. Freeza is crushed under the attack, but survives...
On Kaiou's planet, the Ginew Force (all except Ginew, who is still alive as a frog) appear. Yamcha, Chauzu, and Tenshinhan fight them while Kaiou refuses to help. With much surprise, the Z Warriors discover that they became stronger than the Ginew Team that beated Vegeta. The Ginew get beaten into hell and Kaiou tells that it was he who requested King Yemma to bring the Ginew to his planet. He wanted to test the skills of his disciples.
Back on Earth, Dr. Briefs, under Chi-chi's pressure, is working on Capsule 3, his third ship for Namek. (Gohan, Klilyn, and Bulma took the first ship. Gokou rode on the second). Chi-chi, Yajirobe, Oolong, and Master Roshi were boarded and prepared for journey, but the Capsule broke down before takeoff.
Freeza is more angry than ever and plans to kill our heroes one at a time. First, he blasts a beam at Gohan, but Piccolo takes it for Gohan. It rips through Piccolo and Piccolo quickly falls dying on the ground. Next, Freeza uses psychic power to airlift Klilyn. With the closing of Freeza's hand, Klilyn is literally disintegrated. Gokou sees Freeza's inhumanity and powers up in great anger. Gokou's hair turns golden and his eyes green, becoming the Super Saiyan Legend. Gokou tells Gohan that Piccolo is still alive. Gohan is then ordered to take Piccolo and find Bulma back to the ship that he came in and head back to Earth. Gokou and Freeza fight in a one-on-battle. Freeza is forced to now fight at 70% his power.
Gokou and Freeza battle. Freeza, angry at losing to an "inferior monkey", creates a fireball and launches it towards the core of the planet.Then, he laughs and boasts that the planet will explode in five minutes, mocking that he can survive in space after the explosion while Gokou cannot. Gokou and Freeza continue to battle. Freeza is now forced to battle using 100% his power. Gokou gets buried under a laval pit. Gohan, sensing his father in trouble, flies to Freeza. Although Gohan is no match for Freeeza, he hopes to stall Freeza long enough to stay on Namek when it explodes to bring Freeza down with him. As Freeza is about to kill Gohan, Gokou reappears and saves his son, telling him to leave the planet on his ship.
Kami telepathically tells Kaiou and he and Popo have gathered all seven Earth dragonballs and asks if he should wish those killed by Vegeta back to life. Kaiou tells Kami to wish for all those killed by Freeza back to life instead, reasoning that in turn, Guru will be brought to life as well; and thus,the Namek dragonballs. This step is taken and Nameks (as well as Vegeta) rise back to life. The Porunga Shenlong is reborn and one wish still reamains for the Shenlong to grant. Kaiou telepathically introduces himself to Guru and tells him to wish everyone on the planet, except Freeza, to Earth so that when Namek explodes, Freeza will go with it. Gokou interferes with this wish and tells to leave he and Freeza on Namek because he wants to fight Freeza. Freeza, Vegeta, and Dende all race to the dragon. (*5)Freeza is the first to make his wish, but the Porunga Shenlong ignores him and grants Dende's wish instead. Now, only Gokou and Freeza remain on the dying Namek.
The fight between Gokou and Freeza intensifies. It becomes clear that Freeza is no match for the Super Saiyan. As Freeza's idea of a final attack, he tosses laser spin discs that cut through anything at Gokou. The discs follow Gokou, but with skillful maneuvering, the attack ends up slicing Freeza in two. Freeza is dying and pleads for help. Gokou doesn't want to help the monster, but pities him and does so anyway, donating enough energy to let Freeza fly away from Namek for as long as Freeza promises to never cause trouble again. Gokou begins to fly away. Freeza, still refusing to admit defeat to a low-class Saiyan piece of trash, shoots a final fireball at Gokou. Gokou counters it and overwhelms Freeza. The 5 minutes are up and Planet Namek explodes.
)All who were affected by Dende's wish are on Earth. Dende heals Piccolo and sees the resemblance of Piccolo to Nail, realizing that the two have merged. Guru is dying and gives his final words. He transfers his role as Senior Elder to Rooli so that the Namek dagonballs may continue to shine. He bids them all the take care and dies. Meanwhile, Vegeta sits and leaves wildly, shouting that when Namek explodes Gokou and Freeza will die with it and leave him the strongest warrior alive.
The deceased Z Warriors at Kaiou's place watch the scenes via Kaiou's back.
The Z Warriors are resurrected. Everyone receives word that Gokou survived the explosion and is returning to Earth.