English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “For My Beloved Ones! The Indomitable Great Saiyaman!!”

Things get scandalous in the newest episode!

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

After a brief yet comical misunderstanding, Jaco informs Gohan about the current situation in regards to the squid creature “Watagash”, along with a story about its gruesome history, and the functionality of its possession powers which seem to work by how much emotional “Darkness” an individual host has. But rather than tell Goku, Jaco prefer’s to keep his pursuit for the damn thing a secret claiming it’s a “Secret mission” but we the audience hilariously know otherwise. Afterward, Cocoa brings Gohan back to her apartment to rehearse their movie-lines for the film, but her motivations for bringing him here are shadier than he realizes when a small flashback reveals Cocoa being coerced by Barry into having scandalous photos taken of both her and Gohan for the sleazy tabloids.

But recognizing that Gohan is a decent person, Cocoa has a secret change of heart and keeps them hidden from photographers from taking a shot of the two. Of course, When the pair goes to the roof the next morning, Barry manages to capture out of context pictures of Gohan getting a surprise peck on his lips that Cocoa made the mistake of assuming would not get captured on camera, along with the big reveal of Gohan being the real Saiyaman. As Barry immediately brings the photos to Videl in an attempt to fuck up her & Gohan’s marriage, Normally, you’d expect a scoundrel like Barry to succeed in a cliche by-the-numbers gut-wrenching scenario like this, but let’s just say, Videl impressively caught me off guard as a character.

Even after the terrible bullshit Barry pulled, things still don’t go as planned for him, but the malicious intent that’s within Barry’s soul, gets the attention of Watagash who possesses Barry by turning him into a towering kaiju monster in the process, and goes as far as to attack Gohan and kidnap Pan. The battle itself is a well-paced, tension-fueled fight where film crew begins to capture footage of the battle, but Videl and Pan have absolute love & faith in Gohan’s desire to protect them and call out for his aid. In response to this, Gohan then decides to go Super Saiyan and finish the battle which manages to separate Barry from the creature in the process. In a small epilogue, the movie becomes a success, Cocoa now has something to blackmail Barry over to keep Gohan’s Identity a secret, And the episode ends on a comedic note, when Jaco stops by the same space-ramen shop as before but still hasn’t exactly learned his lesson when it comes to following specific space-cop procedures…

Our Take

Honestly, this episode was decent. As a child, many of us connected with Gohan, but as an adult, his character in a number of ways really grew up with us during DBZ’s Buu Saga. It also helps that his wife Videl isn’t as predictable as the irritating shrews you often see in fictional dramas like “Arrow” where the writers want to dance around the idea of two people being a couple, or shoe-horn a lame drama-fueled excuse to break them up or keep the romance from even happening. But thankfully that wasn’t the case here.

For the 2nd half of this two-parter, the battles were impressive & well-paced, The humor hits the mark when the show needs levity, and Gohan seems to be in a good place as both a family man and superhero. Outside of satirizing the dark & ugly sides of show business in the form of Barry’s despicable actions, It also showed a side of Videl that we hardly saw since the Buu Saga which helps remind longtime fans that she’s more than just a housewife, So I give points to Toriyama for touching upon this even if it took one filler episode to do that.