English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Which Universe Will Survive!? The Strongest Warriors Coming Together!”

Goku isn’t the only one assembling a team.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Its nearly time for the Tournament of Power to begin and Zeno is hanging out in his sanctum playing rock paper scissors to pass the time. Soon, though, Zeno receives news of Goku’s recent exploits gathering the different warriors of Universe 7 together. Back down on Earth, Vegeta heads into the hyperbolic time chamber to get in some last minute training. Goku needs to get up to his own training as well and sets to work.

Meanwhile, we take a look at the different universes and see what they’re up to in preparation for the tournament. In Bergamo’s universes, things are not going well, with people rioting around the city believing that their universe is going to end. In Hit’s universe, Hit invites his own team for Universe 6. Back in Universe 7, Master Roshi comes to Yamcha’s pad looking for Puar. He needs the shapeshifter to turn into a hot young girl so Master Roshi can train against his only weakness: his perverted mind.

During this, Goku is training against Whis, who tries to build Goku’s resistance to attacks he faced in the tournament prelims. Meanwhile, Top goes about his business as a galactic defender, while Universe 2 holds an idol contest to find its team of warriors, where it recruits its own team of magical girl warriors. Things finish off with the Universe 7 warriors resting up before the tournament, ready to take on what’s to come.

Our Take:

This week’s serving of Dragon Ball Super is a fun little offering of side stories and cute moments to tide us over before getting to the meat of this arc. Much like an appetizer before a meal, it whets the appetite and serves to give us a taste of what’s to come, setting up characters and plotlines that are sure to pay off during the tournament, all while being entertaining enough in its own right. With that in mind, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit, even though you might be able to consider it as something of a filler. Still, the weekly enjoyment of the show is as important if not more important than the long-term implications of everything we see.

Don’t expect too much depth from this episode; its as wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle. Yet, the economy of the episode is what makes it so fun to watch. Much like a trailer for a movie, we get lots of fun character moments that excite the viewer and are sure to delight, if only for a few moments at a time. Being the Master Roshi fanboy that I am, I found Roshi’s “training” to be particularly funny, and I’m curious to see if his training to overcome his perverted ways will yield a result in the tournament to come. It is a little bit disappointing that we don’t get any significant story out of Goku’s training, but it’s not much of a loss in the end. I will say that I would’ve loved to see some more of Yamcha as long as we’re making jokes; that guy is always good for a laugh.

I can’t really complain about Dragon Ball Super these days; since we’ve started the Tournament of Power arc its been a plethora of mid to high tier episodes all around. Even a small episode like this is fun and funny in its own right. There’s an essential charm to Dragon Ball that gets captured really well here, a flow and report between its characters that makes them timeless. Its good to see a show that understands the importance of good characters in its story. Not every episode needs to be a badass fight scene or an emotional undertaking. If the characters are interesting and the writing is good, even just seeing them pal around with each other in small moments is enough to make the episode worth watching.