English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “A Saiyan Oath! Vegeta’s Resolve!”

Cabba gets his salad tossed.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

With the Tournament of Power already half over, every remaining fighter intensifies their efforts. Aside from Universe 11, who are sitting pretty as the real team to beat despite having the least remaining members. A recovering Goku gets hounded by some of the Universe 3 bots while Gohan and Piccolo continue their fight against the Universe 6 Namekians. Kale and Caulifla get challenged by Monna of Universe 4, but Cabba steps in front to give his Saiyan sisters more time to recover. He starts out well, but soon Monna unleashes her power to expand her posterior past the point that even Sir Mix-A-Lot would say “that’s a bit much”. This unexpected butt battle ends up bouncing Cabba out of the ring, but unbeknownst to him, big brother Vegeta grabs him at the last second.

Vegeta plays it off as simply wanting Cabba to fulfill his promise from the last tournament to show Vegeta his planet of Sadla, which he can’t do if Universe 6 is erased. But Vegeta tells him that, if he wins, he’ll be sure to wish back Cabba’s universe. Cabba also promises to do the same but…that’s not needed for obvious reasons. He then dives back into the butt brawl with Monna, who insults Saiyans and Vegeta, which is enough for Cabba to finally unlock Super Saiyan 2. With his newly found strength, he swiftly eliminates Monna and knocks Universe 4 down to three fighters. This victory is short-lived, however, as he then runs into Frieza, who takes to massacring Saiyan royalty like a fish to water, leaving Universe 6 with just four.

Meanwhile, Vegeta confronts Top and Goku is saved by Caulifla, who wants a rematch. 23 minutes remain.

OUR TAKE

Dragon Ball Super returns to second billing in the Toonami line-up (at least until My Hero Academia wraps up) to kick off the second half of the Tournament of Power. And the pace doesn’t seem to be slowing down as we begin things with yet another major defeat. Cabba may have not been as popular a member of the Universe 6 team as Hit, but he was still notable for his master-student relationship with Vegeta since the last tournament. He was rather transparently a stand-in for Vegeta’s brother Tarble from the obscure 2008 OVA, but he still managed to make an impression regardless, even as he’s been steadily overshadowed by his other two Saiyan teammates. It’s also always nice to see a character unlock a new transformation in this show, even if it ultimately doesn’t save them in the end, so at least this Saiyan prince got his time in the sun before heading to the bench.

But Universe 6 is clearly not down and out by any means, as they do still have two heavy hitting helpings of Saiyan and Namekian flavor each. Universes 3 & 4, however, also continue to get picked off steadily but do not seem to have that same sort of firepower, meaning they’re likely on the chopping block next. Universe 2 still has Ribrianne as their main tank, but it’s all over once she’s taken out. Universe 7 still has the most survivors, making them the biggest target and likely due for another elimination any time now. That just leaves Universe 11, with Top facing Vegeta currently, Despo kind of just there, and Jiren waiting patiently for Goku to recover so that their next epic showdown can begin. I mean, I don’t know if he’s doing that specifically, but that’s essentially his role at this point.

Also, despite us being more than halfway into the tournament so far, we actually haven’t reached the halfway point in terms of episode count, so that should tell you how messed up this timescale is. But putting that aside, I’m glad to see that the fighting is continuing to keep up a good tempo even between the big main character battles everyone is really waiting for. Super has managed to make its own original characters plenty compelling in their own right, so good on Toei for knowing how to give them a proper send-off before things start to build up to the grand finale in just nineteen episodes time.