English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Body, Soul and Power Unleashed! Goku and Vegeta!”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Jiren tells the defeated Vegeta to take a nap (but in a cool way), so Goku tags in…which is pretty standard by this point, isn’t it. Meanwhile, Frieza continues his own battle with Dyspo and Gohan and 17 face Top.

Goku initially fights Jiren head-on but starts jumping back once he lays down several little specks of energy, which turn out to be landmines that Jiren triggers by stepping on them. This barely fazes him, so Goku uses Krillin’s Destructo Disc x6 to lure him to the edge of the ring, then slice up the ledge and kick Jiren off into the abyss. This ALSO ends up being unsuccessful, as Jiren bounces back from the rubble to regain his footing and continue the brawl. His power rises exponentially, with even a single punch being able to crush the mountains of rubble and shock Goku out of Super Saiyan Blue.

But Goku won’t quit, and neither will Vegeta, as the two power up to re-engage with their greatest opponent yet. Goku uses Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-Ken, an indication that he’s using everything he has left, while Vegeta uses his will to keep his promise to Cabba in order to tap into a NEW transformation. The Saiyans restart their battle, hopefully finally on a level playing field with Jiren.

OUR TAKE

Not a lot happened in this episode and it’s not as high in energy as last week now that we’re back to the regular animation team, but it’s definitely carrying the momentum of this final battle with enough new developments to keep people invested for the remaining eight episodes to come. Now that he’s finally re-entered the fight after staying on the sidelines for so long, Jiren continues to prove that he’s quite the immovable object that will not be taken down without AT LEAST a couple more transformations and a few more plays of “Ultimate Battle”, which is basically our scale for how intense an opponent in Super can get. The major downside to his character is that he’s pretty flat outside of the fighting, being a very stoic and unexpressive presence. It plays off well enough with Goku and Vegeta’s usual ferocity, but not much else.

Speaking of Vegeta, he gets the biggest moment of the episode despite being in recovery for most of it, unlocking a new upgrade to Super Saiyan Blue. The official name for this form on the Dragon Ball Wiki is apparently “Super Saiyan God SS Evolved”, although I’ve heard it called “Super Saiyan Blue Evolution” in some circles. However, it doesn’t seem to quite be the Blue equivalent of Super Saiyan 2, which I’m interested in seeing, but more a take on the Super Vegeta/Super Saiyan Grade 2 form that Vegeta used on Semi-Perfect Cell a long time ago. Hopefully, this time won’t have the weight drawback because they can’t really afford to have any of these experimental new power-ups messing with them this close to the end. And believe it or not, this isn’t even the last new Saiyan transformation we’ll get before Super concludes.

Though I have to admit that, now that we’re down to the final two teams, we’re in a bit of an eye of the storm in terms of tension. The next universe to go will be the last before the tournament is done, and unless you’ve conveniently forgotten that all of Dragon Ball Super takes place WITHIN the time skip before the end of Dragon Ball Z, it’s probably not going to be Universe 7. But as long as we can get some awesome fights up until the very end, I don’t particularly mind the lack of tension, and awesome fights ARE this franchise’s bread and butter.