English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Goku Dies! An Assassination That Must Be Executed”

Way to ruin the surprise guys!

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The episode itself has an unusual plot-structure, as it wastes no time living up to the episode’s title, but then it cuts back to the events leading up to the opening as Goku begins to act strange & unusual which leaves both Goten and Chi Chi expressing legit concern, it even gets the attention of Beerus since Grand Zeno could be hosting the All-Universe tournament at any time, and Beerus wants Goku to lead the team. Normally Goku wouldn’t be the type to just pass up the chance to train with Whis, while Vegeta, on the other hand, is already training with Whis. But it’s clear that Vegeta is irked that Beerus highly regards Goku as a heavy-hitter compared to Vegeta. But the major reason Beerus is also pressing the matter is that he’d prefer to keep Zeno on his good side when the tournament does begin, with Vegeta suspecting that Whis knows more than he’s sharing…

A good portion of the episode is spent on Goku going full-on paranoia mode which is a side we usually don’t see, as when he goes out to pick up some food for the family at a mall he starts to keep his eyes closed while trying to sense for danger while Gohan & Goten secretly watch him to see what’s the really going on. But in an effort not to be found out, the two brothers proceeded to wear disguises leading to a series of comedic situations where Goku can’t even see where he’s going while his two sons continually follow. That is until Gohan approaches him and invites him to dinner at his place to help him relax. Of course, the real meat of this story begins when Goku reveals what’s actually going on while it cuts to the Universe 6 Assassin known as “Hit” (Voiced by Matthew Mercer) who was last seen during the “Tournament of Power” Arc. At this point we the audience can slowly put the pieces together in a scene where Hit gets a message telling him that his next target is Goku after taking out an otherworldly mobster.

After Gohan’s dinner, Goku begins to sense that Hit is coming and flies away to try and battle him one-on-one which of course leads to Gohan having to tell Piccolo what’s going on. Knowing that Hit would straight-up kill Goku, Both Goku’s sons & Piccolo attempt to track him down, while Goku lands at a place far away from everyone, but despite Hit being a highly skilled hitman, Goku manages to counter his sneak attack stating to Hit that he knows how to counter his “time skip” technique. But Hit warns Goku that he should just disappear so that he can call the assassination attempt off. But Goku being the defiant bastard he is, turns Super Saiyan Blue and isn’t the type to just “disappear” without a fight. Not to mention Goku is pretty content with his life on earth with his family & circle of friends. However, Goku doesn’t realize that Hit learned a new technique where he can kill someone with one punch. And right before putting it to use, The last thing Goku does is shoot out a beam in the sky seconds after Hit’s death-punch instantly stops his heart with the episode ending on an intense cliffhanger leading up to the events of the beginning as both of Goku’s sons & Piccolo find him and declare his death while Hit disappears.

Our Take

Damn! I know this episode was also under the “Filler” category, but it still excelled with the perfect balance of suspense & humor in tandem with a good change of pace compared to the two previous comedic episodes by giving the proceedings some weight and urgency. Now I’m curious how they’re going to continue the plot this time, or if Whis knew this was going to happen at some point which would interfere with to Beerus’s goals to keep Grand Zeno on his good side.

Overall, While the episode did live up to its spoiler-heavy title, We at least are given a clear idea of how powerful Hit has become. Several people have tried to kill Goku with few succeeding, and yet Hit does it almost effortlessly with one punch and their last battle together was one of the greatest Goku battles in recent memory.