English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Feelings That Transcend Time”

“Til the end of time”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The episode immediately picks up after Bulma finds the spare semi-damaged Time Machine that Cell used during the events of the Cell Saga. Despite the disapproval or Beerus & Whis believing that the flow of time should remain untouched, and during a retconned flashback, Bulma explains how she got her hands on it which fills in gaps of info left unanswered but it makes sense that Bulma would want to study it at some point. Thanks to the notebook her future-self made, Bulma now has the knowledge to figure out how it works and promptly gathers the team to repair it.

Intercut with scenes of Goku & Vegeta heading on to train while they wait for Bulma to finish repairs, A good portion of the episode is spent on filler as there isn’t much action in this episode but it excels the most with providing knowledge in places even I didn’t expect. For instance, when Future Trunks meets Mai and the Pilaf Gang, he explains to Mai that her Future-self was a leader of Earth’s resistance who presumably died fighting to protect the planet but mentions that he never met Pilaf or Shu in his timeline. We do get other details in a series of flashbacks that explain how their timeline is put at an extreme disadvantage since Korin died which means there were no means to create senzu beans and even mentions that Goku Black is a genocidal maniac with a superiority complex whose primary goal is to destroy humanity as a whole.

When Goku returns after a funny scene where King Kai turns down Goku’s request to train, he encourages Trunks to take a rest while Bulma is currently fixing the spare Time Machine, while Black recovers from his previous battle with Goku, he tests out the new abilities he gained in the last episode and desires another go at fighting him, as he feels he can increase his power. But the episode ends when Beerus realizes he may have a possible lead on who Black could be but leaves the investigation part for Whis to trace it.

Our Take

While Episode 51 lacked any sort of action, it compensates in favor of great character moments, humor and backstory. Goku Black so far as a supervillain seems to have more complex reasons for wiping out humanity other than being “Evil for the sake of Evil” unlike most villains with unexplained motivations (*cough* “Dakki from Hakyu Hoshin” *cough*) but what leaves me scratching my head, is if Black wanted to go full-on genocide towards humanity that badly, Why can’t he just destroy the whole planet in an instant? He was powerful to some degree before he fought Goku, so what was holding him back outside of that?

The only plausible theory I have is if Black turned out to be a sadistic tool who prides himself in making people suffer and gets his jollies hunting them down, but I’m hoping this motivation will be better explained in later episodes.

Score
8/10