English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Gohan and Piccolo-Master and Pupil Clash in Max Training!”

Teacher and student, back at it again.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

With Android 17 on the team, we take a look at what’s been happening while Gohan has been separated from his pops adventures. At Piccolo’s request, the young saiyan is off training with Piccolo, who is dead set on making Gohan into the fierce warrior he once was before he became an academic everyman.

The two spar in a landscape of rocky canyons, delivering blow after blow to each other to test each other’s might. However, despite Gohan’s best efforts, Piccolo knocks him on his ass time and time again. Coaching Gohan, he explains the arrogance and recklessness he sees in him, and how its holding him back from his true potential.

Meanwhile, in Universe 6, Cabba meets with his master to discuss bringing him into the Tournament of Power. The old man isn’t down, however, but suggests he look to another fighter for aid, the young punk fighter known as Caulifla.

Back on Earth in Universe 7, Gohan and Piccolo’s training comes to a head as Piccolo removes his weighted gear, proclaiming that now they’re going to get serious. Piccolo continues to knock Gohan’s ass around all over the place and pushes him to the point where he’s able to draw out his inner power and wield it against Piccolo. With a grin, the Namekian sees the fruits of his training, and the two fight it out one last time to demonstrate Gohan’s abilities.

Once their fight ends, Piccolo is satisfied with Gohan’s progress, and the two shake hands as respective fighters on the Universe 7 team.

Our Take:

What’s cool about this episode is that its something of an inversion to the other “recruitment” episodes we’ve had so far. This isn’t so much about getting Piccolo to join the team as much as it is reawakening the power dormant within Gohan. Let’s face it, Gohan has definitely fallen off the wagon in terms of keeping up with the power level of the show; this was bound to happen eventually, and its a great setup for the episode. Furthermore, this is a strong character episode that plays off of the teacher/student relationship that Gohan and Piccolo have had over the entire “Dragon Ball Z” franchise. How much this episode reminds me of when Gohan trained with Piccolo as a little kid way back in the day. This is exactly the sort of self-awareness that a veteran series like this needs to keep things interesting, and its good to see that presented so well here.

A good chunk of this episode is devoted to the b stories going on right now, centering on the people waiting for the other recruits to arrive. This gives us plenty of fun moments with Android 18, Krillin, and Bulma’s parental life. I enjoyed these little tidbits, but I could see them as being hit or miss for different viewers. You may just find that they interrupt the story playing out between Piccolo and Gohan. The same thing can be said for the story of the other universe that gets explored this time around as well. It looks like the plot is trying to stretch itself to build up hype not just around the Z fighters, but the other important universes in the tournament as well. This is a smart move; by establishing an empathy for the other characters our heroes will be fighting against, we’ll feel the stakes of each fight that much more when the tournament finally begins.

This is a solid episode all around, one that brings the trademark intensity of the series to the table. This arc is truly building up to be an epic saga, something that’s bigger than any other story we’ve had in the series so far.

Now, when are we going to get to my main man Master Roshi?