English Dub Review: Dragonball Super “Developed “Time Skip” Counterstrike?! Here Comes Goku’s New Move!”

“Kaio-What?”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The match begins as Goku powers up into his Super Saiyan Blue form, where he’s finally able to counter Hit’s time-skip to a certain extent until Hit powers up but is still receiving blows from Goku, but soon counters with a technique called “improvement” which amplifies Hit’s time-skip and retaliates by severely injuring Goku. As Goku recovers a bit, Champa gives Hit in order to deliver the final blow, but Hit ignores this by telling Goku to stand up which says a lot about how principled his character is, even with very little dialogue.

While Hit still has the upper hand, It isn’t until the 16:20 mark is when Goku powers up and decides to perform his “trump card” that turns out to be one of the greatest throwbacks from DBZ’s past, the Kaio-ken technique (For those of you unfamiliar, Kaio-ken is an attack Goku learned from King Kai long ago that multiplies Goku’s abilities but often took a heavy toll on his stamina and muscles). And much to Beerus’s shock and Vegeta’s bruised ego, Goku planned to use this against Beerus at some point explaining that doing this was a risky move, but combined with his SS Blue form, Goku now believes he can counter Hit’s time-skipping powers.

 

For this fight scene alone that takes up what’s left of the running time, you feel Toei Animation’s proverbial blood, sweat and tears were put into each frame as you witness the red Kaio-ken aura radiating over Goku’s SS Blue form and as icing on the cake, the opening theme song “Chozetsu Dynamic” is thundering in the background while each of Goku’s powerful strikes against Hit are given hard-hitting emphasis in tandem with heart-pounding epicness. The episode ends with one hell of a cliffhanger as Goku performs his iconic Kamehameha, but whether or not Hit survives the aftermath remains uncertain.

Our Take

To longtime Dragonball fans like myself, this battle alone excels as one of the greatest fight scenes in the franchise’s history. I was moved to tears for how spectacular this was, and I give massive props to Sean Schemmel for acting his heart out in his ongoing voice dub performance as Goku because everything about this episode was a crowning moment of awesome.

It’s character moments like this that remind fans why Goku is still an icon in the anime & manga community.