English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “SOS From the Future! A New Dark Enemy Appears!”

The New “Future Trunks” arc Begins!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The opening begins as Future Trunks is running away from an unknown shadowy figure while attempting to avoid electricity beams by retreating inside a building where an older Bulma just happens to be and is in the process of making a glowing fuel source in order to juice up their time machine. What helps give this scene right amount of dramatic tension & urgency, is that it took them a year to make this fuel as the container only has enough fuel for a one-way trip 17 years into the past. And to clarify some confusion, this is still the same Future Trunks that had a lot of importance during the Cell saga from DBZ who is still fighting in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic, shit-hole that would feel right at home for fans of classic sci-fi franchises like The Terminator & Mad Max.

While the “Future Trunks” storyline is the primary focus, much of the running time does cut between the future & present at random which helps give moments of levity and humor while telling us what the other characters are up to. One of the highlights is Goku multi-tasking in the form of training and putting his gardening skills to use with Piccolo, while Vegeta is busy training with Whis leading to a comical scene that’s made even funnier when Goku figures out where Vegeta is thanks to an off the cuff remark from Krillin. We even get a small exposition-dump about Grand Zen-Oh and while also funny, it gives us a clear idea at how towering & destructive the extent of Zen-Oh’s power is and despite how childlike he seems in appearance & attitude, his word is law in the multiverse.

In the scenes when it cuts back to the future side, Bulma tells Trunks to rendezvous with Mai at the Capsule-Corp building, until a sinister & shadowy figure that Trunks has nicknamed “Black” arrives in the building and unleashes hell which leads to a sad scene as we’re left assume the worst has happened to this Future Bulma. So it looks like Mai is the only other character that has equal screentime with Trunks at this point. When the two later meet up, he tells Mai about the one-shot plan to go back to the past, but Black is able to sense Trunks’s energy which doesn’t give them any breathing room to think up a plan when he appears. As Trunks attempts to stand his ground, Black makes him lose his sword, while Mai unloads her shotgun like a boss and tells Trunks to get to the time machine before getting knocked out by an explosion which leaves her fate uncertain. The episode ends on a very intense cliffhanger when Black finally reveals himself and it’s none other than… Goku in a Black outfit??

Our Take

While the episode succeeded as the perfect way to start this new saga and didn’t waste time by getting straight to the action, The twist at the end raises more questions than answers. Did Goku really become evil in the future? Did something happen when Trunks altered the past after he saved Goku during the Cell Saga?

While it’s great to see Future Trunks return, We the audience at this point are curious about the mystery of Why Goku became a murderous dick in the future. Let’s hope we get those answers in future episodes because I’m hooked to see what happens next.