English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “A Message From the Future – The Incursion of Goku Black!”

“My future-self and me!”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The episode begins when Future Trunks attempts to sock Goku in the face due to the haunting PTSD-visions of Goku Black on his mind. Thankfully, Bulma helps him snap out of it which makes him realize it’s just the normal Goku whom he thought was presumed dead during the Events of the Cell Saga since they last saw one another, as Future Trunks is still from his untouched alternate dystopian timeline that was wrecked by the Androids & Cell. As Future Trunks is happy to see Bulma again due to his own mother being murdered from his timeline, Bulma ends up having to explain to the Pilaf Gang that they’re the same person but from different time periods, while it briefly cuts back to Black in the future who uses a magical ring that creates a portal in an obsessive pursuit to kill Future Trunks.

Once again, the plot-structure switches between two different time periods but it’s downplayed when it briefly cuts between Black growing frustrated in his pursuit for Future Trunks, while Future Trunks interacts with everyone in the present, including his kid-self. Despite Beerus & Whis being impressed that humans were able to build a time machine, they express concern and want to destroy it as it’s deemed a serious crime by the Gods to mess with the past with Whis going in a detailed info-dump about how one mistake in altering time could have devastating consequences. (If you’ve seen enough time travel stories, this concept is called the “Butterfly Effect“.) but end up sparing Future Trunks and the Time Machine thanks to Bulma’s quick thinking in a comedic scene that manages to give some much-needed levity to the proceedings. Upon investigating the time machine’s interior, Bulma comes across a diary with instructions written by her future self with a clue on where she can get more fuel for it since the time machine drained the only bit of fuel just getting there.

When we get to the third act, Future Trunks fills Goku & Vegeta in about some of the more interesting parts of his timeline after the Cell Saga ended, as he was trained by the Supreme Kai and prevented the emergence of Majin Buu, but further explains the existence of the evil & murderous version of Goku that Future Bulma nicknamed “Goku Black” whom in a nutshell, went genocidal on most of Earth’s population for the sake of “Justice”. Upon reading her future self’s diary, Bulma learns that her future self’s master-plan to stop Black is to bring reinforcements by getting Goku & Vegeta from the present, into the future. After a fun & badass sparring scene between Goku & Future Trunks, where Trunks learns about how there are more Super Saiyan forms that extend beyond of SS2, the episode ends on an intense cliffhanger when a portal opens with Black making one hell of an entrance.

Our Take

While episode 49 provided us with much-needed info on what Future Trunks has been up to, it also kinda teaches us how time travel works in the DB Universe as Trunks altering the past during the events of the Cell Saga didn’t exactly change the future, but it fractured the timeline into two separate worlds with opposite outcomes: One where Perfect Cell was destroyed by Gohan and the Androids are no longer a threat, while the other is where Future Trunks is the last living Super Saiyan while everyone else is dead but managed to prevent Majin Buu’s revival on his own with the only primary threat being Goku Black.

Next episode could be a potential battle between Goku Vs Black, I can’t wait!