English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Greatest Showdown of All: The Ultimate Survival Battle!”

Having mastered Ultra Instinct, Goku proceeds to overpower and corner Jiren, but in retaliation, this forces Jiren to go beyond his own limits and power up even further just to be on the same level which makes him look as shirtless and torn as the Hulk, leading to the two exchanging attacks continuously. Despite almost being defeated twice, Goku stands up and recovers, and he regains the edge over Jiren once again. This leads to a question that ponders Jiren’s mind such as why Goku refuses to surrender, Of course, both Goku and his friends have a simple answer for this and you can argue that it’s such a cliche answer, but as someone who’s followed the Dragonball series for years, it’s more of an observational fact that the source of Goku’s strength often comes from the trust between him and the people within his circle and the lifetime of friends he’s made in the process.

The scene itself is quite heartfelt and gets the point across how far Goku has come as he never sees any of his accomplishments as solo-adventures. Refusing to accept this as a rational answer along with the possible implications of Goku delivering an ass-whooping, an enraged Jiren launches an attack on the bleachers, in a desperate attempt to prove that friendship is bullshit. However, the attack is repelled by a furious Goku, who powers up even further and finally defeats Jiren, lying in a crater damaged, Goku doesn’t finish him off. But just when when we the audience assumes that Goku is about to knock Jiren out, his begins to feel the after-effects of Ultra Instinct and in a shocking scene begins to feel the intense strain of using Ultra Instinct for too long and the animators do emphasize how painful it looks through a red & black filter, but it looks even more painful than when he mixed “SS-Blue with Kaio Ken” during his battle with Hit.

Despite having their roles reversed, Jiren is left apprehensive at just knocking Goku off the ring, leaving everyone from Universe Eleven in shock until Belmod reminds Jiren about the Super Dragon Balls and his desired wish. Though upset, Jiren decides to not pass up this chance to eliminate Goku, admitting to him that this was not how he wanted to win, but even if Universe 7 ceases to exist, Goku will always remain in his memories. But just when things seem decidedly bleak for Universe 7, The episode ends when Goku’s ass is saved by a twist even I didn’t expect…

Our Take

While the animation quality manages to top itself in terms of fluidity, the fights between Goku and Jiren got on a level I had never thought I would ever see in Dragonball, and at times was pretty damn overwhelming. What’s easily the biggest plot-hole was the fact that the Zeno Twins never even bothered to disqualify Jiren for attacking the audience with that blast, but at least Goku had the good sense to intercept it before it could do any real harm.

Also, the cliffhanger ending with that twist left me even more hooked and given that the next episode of DB Super will indeed be the last, I really can’t wait to see how the Tournament of Power will end, along with how they could possibly tie up every loose end next episode.