Having been subjected to this section of the Dragonball Z series multiple times by teenaged friends of a certain persuasion, I thought I might take the time to fill a hole in the database by continuing the saga up until the current video releases. Due credit goes to my thugz for aid and comfort on this one.
THAT SPOILER DID NOT SELF-DESTRUCT. YOU HEARD IT HIT THE HULL. AND I. . .WAS NEVER HERE.
Vegeta's suicide, designed pretty much as a plot device to showcase his new non-bastard-ness as a character, successfully blows Buu into shreds. Of course, since Buu is made of some sort of indestructable material (and the saga has about a million episodes left) the shreds turn into mini-Buus and then reform back into the fat pink god-destroyer, who leaves the scene with Babidi.
Goku, Our Noble Hero, after healing up, decides to teach the art of fusion that he has learned to his son Goten and Vegeta's son Trunks. This allows for the future existence of Gotenks, one of the series' oddest and most laughable fighters, a combination of the two Super Saiyan children into a muscular midget who stalls for time against Majin Buu.
While the team locates the wounded Supreme Kai, Babidi announces via telepathy that unless the people of Earth tell him where he can find Goten and Trunks, he will bring retribution by destroying the Earth in 5 days. He demonstrates by ordering Buu to eat everyone in one of the series' interchangeable major cities.
Gohan, wounded but not dead, is lugged into the afterlife so he can attempt the impossible: 1) pulling the powerful "Z Sword" from a mystic stone, and 2) convincing the seasoned viewer that this subplot will actually save anyone from anything. Meanwhile, the leader of the World Tournament sells out the location of Trunks's family, and Babidi announces that if Trunks won't come to him, he will order Buu to waste Capsule Corp., including Trunks's grandparents. Trunks is forced to rush off in order to rescue the device that allows the show's characters to locate the Dragonballs and wish everybody back from the dead.
In order to hold off Buu, Goku shows up and turns Super Saiyan Level Three, quickly burning off some of the "power" that allows him to remain on Earth despite the slight handicap of already being dead (as indicated by the series-standard halo hovering over his head). Ultra-surprisingly, the show descends into violence at this point, with Goku matching Buu while Trunks diddles around and acts like a moron. Buu, not the brightest of sorts, finally realizes (after enough taunting from Goku) that he can crush his master Babidi's skull in a thirteen-year-old-pleasing spray of blood - at least in the uncut version.
Goku's time is up and he pops back to the other world after successfully teaching Goten and Trunks how to shake their fusion thang. The "Z Sword" breaks and releases an ancient Kai who immediately sets about training Gohan to be an ultimate fighter, or that sort of thing, via his time-honored technique. First the Old Kai dances around Gohan for a few minutes, and then sits and reads comic books on a hill while holding his hands out towards his student. For. Thirty. Hours. The next few episodes, which cut to this cornucopia of repetitive humor about every ten minutes, make the viewer about as frustrated as Gohan.
Buu, without direction or a master, ends up meeting Mr. Satan, the series' premiere poseur, who is determined to beat him. Buu and Mr. Satan end up making nice, and when snipers appear to off Satan and kill his beloved puppy instead, Buu uses his immense power to bring the dog back to life. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! The next two episodes contain much cuteness, such as: the puppy licking Buu's face! Mr. Satan and Buu take a bath! The snipers come back to cap Mr. Satan, Buu goes apeshit, and his angry, evil side turns into a new, thin, and coal-black menace, still cutely sporting Buu's neckerchief and oven mitts!
This new Buu socks the fat, pink, and now-friendly Buu around for a while, then turns him into a cookie and eats him. Absorbing Good Buu's power, Bad Buu turns into a pink powerhouse with bulging muscles, amazing power, kung-fu grip, and no more ridiculous accessories. (He keeps his pants on, though, ladies! Woo-oo!) The new Buu, still sparing Mr. Satan, flies up to confront Piccolo at the lookout, as Goku had previously promised fat Buu a battle with a new warrior of incredible strength. Piccolo hems and haws, as at this time he has been reduced to the role of "series babysitter", and gets Buu to agree to an hour's wait while Krillin rushes Goten and Trunks into the hyperbolic time chamber to do some high-speed training.
Meanwhile, the bored Buu uses an attack that destroys pretty much every human being outside the lookout (the entire population of Earth, sans Mr. Satan and maybe some of the series' other human characters) instantaneously. Ah, well. In this series, this minor setback can be easily corrected by use of the Dragonballs, so no one really breaks a sweat.
The next episode contains a scene where the main hero's wife, Chi-Chi, confronts Buu and is brutally destroyed by him. "Do you like eggs?" I am informed by my friends who follow the show faithfully that this is, in fact, a singularly funny come-uppance that any true fan finds hilarious. The show's view of women is rather socially retarded and usually posits a very immature battle of the sexes, so this is believable to the author.
When Buu starts busting up the lookout in frustration, Piccolo (after moaning like a maid over the mess) leads him into the time chamber to fight the two child warriors, who immediately fuse into their new form. In the episodes that follow, the immature and very powerful Gotenks acts as the vehicle for a rather cute and irony-laden send-up of the entire Dragonball Z series. With the free time given them in the hyperbolic time chamber, Goten and Trunks have taken the opportunity to develop a few new fighting techniques that rival both the Street Fighter series and earlier Dragonball Z sagas for their goofy names and outright silliness. Gotenks hopes to play around until he is given the opportunity to show off his true power in a dramatic and surprising display - as has pretty much every hero in every major battle in the show, albeit without Gotenks's smugly post-modern awareness of such a pattern. "Galactica Donut!" "Wild Boar Attack!" "Rolling Thunder Punch!" Hours pass as Buu, yawning, wards off these attacks one by one.
Finally, Gotenks unveils his "Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack", spitting out a few snide, wild-haired copies of himself, which explode upon impact with the enemy - a surprisingly effective attack. Buu is blown to tiny bits, once again, and Piccolo and Gotenks show the learning curve of the Z team by meticulously frying each chunk into ash. The ash, of course, immediately regenerates into an angry and mildly bruised Buu. Gotenks resolves to finally show off his true power - just as Piccolo, desperate to keep Buu from returning to finish off the rest of the universe, blows up the portal linking the time chamber to the material world, apparently trapping Goten, Trunks, Buu, and himself there forever.
Gotenks whines that he was about to go Super Saiyan Level Three and nail the sucker, while Piccolo screams at him for goofing around with the fate of the planet (swearing rather violently at the kid in the subtitled version, while the dubbed version contains liberal use of "darn" and "fool"). Buu, on the other hand, goes berserk when he finds out that whatever amenities the time chamber has, chocolate mud cake and Oreo Double Stuf cookies are not among them. Screaming like a sugar-addicted lunatic at the ruined doorway, Buu re-opens the interdimensional portal by unconsciously directing all his energy into it. Figuring out what he's done just as the doorway begins to close, Buu slips out and makes meals out of most of the show's remaining noncombatant characters.
Gotenks finally goes Level Three, which, on top of giving him vast cosmic powers, makes his wacky anime hair roughly the same size as his entire body. He is easily able to blow open the door again with a similarly super-powered shout (why this is the only effective method is not explained by the show's creators). He emerges with Piccolo to find that his mother and the rest of his friends have been destroyed by Buu, and, enraged, begins another Very Dragonball Z Fight of Epic Proportions that involves wasting the lookout. (Piccolo gripes and complains, even though pretty much everyone left alive has the convenient power of flight.)
However, Goten and Trunks have forgotten that their form of fusion is temporary, and just before Gotenks delivers his final attack, they emerge back into their normal, weaker forms. Luckily, at this point, Gohan is done with his training, and exhibits, via the massive column of flame that appears when he tenses his muscles, that he has reached yet another unprecedented level of awesome power the likes of which the universe has never seen. Goodie.
More of the series is yet to follow, involving the fused Vegeta and Goku and other new developments, to which I will no doubt be subjected in due time as my Funimation-addict friends blow paychecks on their next fix. The company is wisely capitalist enough to release the series in the good ol' US of A in the form of two new videos per week, which are devoured by the slavering masses on the same day they become available for sale. If I ever get this bored again, updates will follow.