English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Goku’s Energy is Out of Control? The Struggle to Look after Pan”

Goku clearly sucks as a Babysitter

Overview (Spoilers Below)

As a consequence for using the Kaio-Ken technique in his epic battle with Hit during the “Tournament of Destroyers” arc, Goku begins to feel the strain of overexerting himself and it’s catching up with him in the worst ways. Under Chi-Chi’s advisement, she suggests that he should go to King Kai’s place for answers which spends most of the episode’s running time in a series of comedic setpieces when Goku attempts to teleport to King Kai, but even his teleporting power is just as erratic when Goku ends up at various random places instead with some of the funniest moments include Goku being teleported to Bulma’s bedroom and a fun little cameo of another character from one of Akira Toriyama’s other classic Anime/Manga franchises, Arale from “Dr. Slump”.

When Goku finally makes it to his desired destination, King Kai explains that what Goku is going through is called “delayed onset energy disorder” as a side-effect of using the Kaio-Ken so recklessly with his SS-Blue form, but assures him it will heal on its own with time the same way muscle pain does but is uncertain for how long. Knowing that Grand Zen-Oh has a tournament in the works, King Kai suggests to Goku to take a break from fighting and heal by spending time with his granddaughter Pan. As the result of Goku destroying his house on his way back home due to the ongoing mishap of his energy & body acting at random, Goku’s family are given permission to stay in Gohan’s Mansion to take care of Pan while their house is under repair. Since Piccolo was Pan’s babysitter, he even goes as far as to tell Chi-Chi what specific foods & toys Pan likes which left even me impressed, along with pressing the matter to have at least one person look after Pan at all times because she “likes to explore”.

Because of an overheard phone convo Gohan had earlier with Goku about their current predicament, We get to the third act when Pilaf and his companions plan to infiltrate Gohan’s mansion and attack Goku while he’s asleep by using a Mech-suit to attack him at his weakest, but things don’t go as planned when a series of comedic mishaps occur as they end up fleeing in terror and bring an unsupervised Pan along with them. When Pilaf argues with Mai about what to do with the child, he presses the wrong button which launches all of them into the stratosphere while Piccolo, Goku, and Chi-Chi search high & low for Pan. As the Pilaf gang attempt to escape, the pressure from the launch destroys their ship, but in a big reveal, Pan is able to access her Saiyan powers at such an early age and flies back home with the Pilaf Gang in tow resulting in all 3 of them being dropped off at a forest before Pan returns home. When Gohan & Videl return, Goku’s family are relieved to find Pan unharmed but the episode ends on a cute note when Pan finally starts calling Goku “Grandpa” while everyone remains unaware of what really happened.

Our Take

For another filler episode, this had the perfect balance of comedy and heart while moving the plot forward. From Goku recovering due to the extreme muscle & body strains after the tournament, to Piccolo imparting his babysitting skills for Chi-Chi on how to look after Pan, to even the Pilaf gang serving as the occasional comic relief while being incompetent villains. It was also a nice touch to reveal Pan accessing her Saiyan powers despite being at least a quarter Saiyan given that Gohan is only half while Videl is full-human. And if you’re also a fan of Toriyama’s other works outside of Dragonball, You might enjoy the easter egg of Arale’s cameo from “Dr. Slump” but now I’m wondering if we’ll ever see her again at some point in later episodes.