English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Even The Universes’ Gods Are Appalled? The Lose-And-Perish Tournament of Power!”

Looks like Goku has gotten everyone into some deep shit.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Following Goku’s request to Zeno, the Tournament of Power is soon to take place. Yet, though Goku’s gotten all caught up in getting the tournament started, the tournament prize has yet to be revealed. Goku and the others are soon shocked, however, to find out that their very universe is at stake. To lose the Tournament of Power means Zeno will erase your entire universe. With that being said, Zeno’s herald informs them that they have one hour to gather three fighters and bring them to the tournament for a preliminary match.

After some convincing, Goku manages to bring along Gohan and Majin Buu (Accompanied by Mr. Satan) to the tournament grounds in the Null Realm, a world free of the constraints of space and time. With everyone gathered, Goku and his friends (Representing Universe 7) are set to fight with Universe 9, who are fox-like humanoids in appearance.

Majin Buu is first to the plate, fighting a red-furred fox named “Basil.” Buu needs a little bit of help from Mr. Satan to wake him up, however. But once he’s awake, the fight begins proper and Majin Buu brings his puffy power to the tournament.

Our Take:

Things are finally underway in the long-awaited “Universe Survival” arc, a storyline that Dragonball Super fans have no doubt been waiting for. The stakes have never been higher, and the enemies have never been stronger; Goku and friends will literally fight the strongest fighters in all the multiverse, with their entire existence on the line.

Yet, despite this, I can’t help but feel that the tension in this episode is rather weak. We’ve got a conflict that’s bigger than anything else we’ve seen before, but its approached so lightheartedly that its hard to take seriously. Goku’s always been a doofus who gets his friends into trouble, but this time he’s accidentally put the whole universe on the chopping block, and he doesn’t even seem to care. I feel that in “DBZ”, even though there was still a lot of heart when people’s lives were at stake, Goku started taking things seriously. I remember the intensity of the Cell Games Arc directly stemmed from how important it was that the Z fighters defeat such a powerful opponent because failure would mean the death of everyone on Earth.

But here in Dragonball Super, the show hasn’t done a very good job of establishing the stakes as anything more than a reason for Goku to fight new opponents. I mean, hey, I get it; good fights are this show’s bread and butter, just like most Shounen anime, but something about this is just a bit lazy. A good fight is threaded into the story as an extension of the conflict between characters and their individual developments. It was incredible to see Gohan go SS2 in the Cell Games arc because it was the major turn in his character that the whole series had been building to, combined with the gravity of the creature he was fighting, who had literally kicked the asses of every other Z fighter before him. With these silly-looking fox people that Goku, Buu, and Gohan are set to fight, I don’t really see where the drama is. Give me someone to root for, please.

All that aside, though, it’s still entertaining in its own right. It’s an episode that’s fun, has a little fighting in it and some good moments with Goku and Gohan, but I’m just left wanting more. Things are just getting started, so Dragonball Super has plenty of time to get things rolling, but I just hope that happens sooner rather than later.