English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “A Commanding Presence! The Advent of Top the Destroyer!”

The twists keep piling on in this week’s episode.

Possible Spoilers Below

Picking up from the previous episode, 5 of the Universe 7’s heavy-hitters are all that’s left after Gohan made his brave sacrifice to get Dyspo eliminated from the tournament. And so far, Goku and Vegeta continue against Jiren, while Android 17 and Top/Toppo duke it out. At first, 17 and Toppo engage in a beam clash, but Toppo begins to overpower him. It’s here that Frieza unexpectedly intervenes even more so than before and strikes Top repeatedly from behind, which allows Android 17 to overpower Top’s blast.

In the aftermath, we’re left to assume that Toppo has been defeated. However, in a twist even I didn’t expect, he begins to exhibit a familiar energy aura as a God of Destruction. In a big reveal from Belmod (The Destruction God of Universe 11), it turns out that Toppo was secretly “Groomed” to be his replacement, which is why he’s capable of wielding Divine Energy. However, It’s apparently different than Goku’s “Ultra Instinct” since that specific power within Goku just turns on and off whenever the plot says so.

As Toppo unleashes his new power, it consequently damages a portion of the fighting stage and breaks it down the middle. Android 17 and Frieza attack Toppo repeatedly, but his power is now far superior to theirs, and Top easily defeats them both. Fortunately, they are able to stay on the fighting stage, but Toppo brutally beats Frieza and knocks him unconscious, While any normal person would feel bad, part of me got a chuckle out of seeing such a remorseless sadistic tool like Frieza get an ass-kicking regardless of who’s side he’s fighting on but he still isn’t thrown out of the ring. The episode ends on an uncertain note when Toppo proceeds to actively pursue fighting Android 17 and stops when they both engage in another beam clash.

Our Take

While we still get very little screentime or focus on the Goku, Vegeta Jiren battle, I do like that they are giving 17 his moment to shine. We’ve seen Gohan fight plenty of times but 17 very little so it’s refreshing to see him hang in there with the heavy-hitters even if the power difference is vast. While Toppo genuinely comes off as threatening, it’s a shame that his character is inconsistent; first, he’s this justice-spewing zealot and out of nowhere he has to discard his personality for the sake of God-Status. Why would an individual like him aim to become that if it leads to breaking the Tournaments own rules? You’d think they’d point out how unfair that kinda is.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy DB Super for what it is, but It’s just hard to comprehend this. Jiren was already too strong for his own good but now Toppo too? I just hope the scales tip in Universe 7’s favor in the next episode.