English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Piccolo vs Frost! Stake it All on the Special Beam Cannon!”

Jaco saves the day. Wait, what?

Overview (Spoilers)

Goku has been defeated by Frost, Universe 6’s equivalent of Freiza. Piccolo is up next, and he’s going to rely more on wits than brawn. Trying to get an opening, he uses a variety of tactics to dodge and distract while he charges his Special Beam Cannon. Despite getting hit in the leg, and having all his shadow clones get wiped away, he keeps on trucking. All seems lost when Frost gets in close and punches the charge right out of Piccolo. But, that was all part of the plan. Frost thinks he’s won and drops his guard, and Piccolo shoots his arm out like Mister Fantastic to bind him up. He starts charging again but starts to get woozy… just like Goku. Frost blasts a hole in Piccolo’s chest, winning the match. Jaco pipes up. He’s spotted the needle hiding in Frost’s arm guard. Turns out, he’s no hero. The alter-Freiza is in control of the pirate syndicate that he’s been waging war on, effectively using the wars to buy up land on the cheap while still smelling like roses. His win is overturned, but Vegeta doesn’t care. He wants to mop the floor with Frost anyways.

This fight takes me back to the early days when the characters didn’t just fight by shooting energy blasts and hyper-speed punches. When a character’s unique abilities made them a challenge in a fight. What I’d like to bring up is that Frost has been shown to go toe-to-toe with base form Goku. To have Piccolo get him on the ropes like that shows a considerable increase in his power since we first met him in Dragon Ball. Remember when he couldn’t even beat Freiza? It’s good to know that while the green guy isn’t deific, multi-transformational OP, he can still hold his own against those that are. I wish I could see more fights like this one in the future.

So, now the team is down to Vegeta and Monaka. Technically, though, all of Frost’s wins should have been overturned, putting Goku back into the lineup. What gives? If Monaka isn’t all Beerus says he is, our team is screwed. There are still three fighters after Frost, and a couple of them look like toughies.It’s not that I mind that Goku is out of the tournament, per se. He gets too much spotlight anyways. It just seems like we are awfully low on members this early on. The exchange between Vegeta and Piccolo was interesting. The green meanie is totally picking up what Vegeta is laying down, and looks like he’s going to enjoy watching the prince of Saiyans turn Frost into a big purple stain on the stadium floor. Again, this shows how the characters have grown and changed since they showed up. I can’t tell if Vegeta wants a piece of Frost because he still has to resolve his feelings towards Freiza, or if he’s doing it to avenge Piccolo and Goku’s disgrace, but the fact that the two can have this silent conversation shows that they have actually attained a level of trust between each other.

Our Take

This episode is written with some good action. Other than a few shots of cycled blasting animation, it’s all high-quality for Dragon Ball. The fight gives us real variety and reminds us of a few of Piccolo’s powers that never get seen anymore. We are used to seeing his regeneration, but not his stretching or cloning powers. He also can shoot electric blasts from his antennae, an ability I don’t think he’s shown since the original series. This is a great throwback to the older days and shows that his old tricks are still just as effective. Does Universe 6 not have Namekians? They seem completely unaware of his abilities. They’re certainly entertaining. The fight has great pacing, constantly ebbing and flowing with Piccolo coming up with a tactic, getting the upper hand, and frost breaking out of the trick and reclaiming the advantage. These are two great fighters, and we really have no clue who will win until, well, the poison needle.

Another bit that I enjoyed was Chi-chi flying over to Goku to check on him. We’re used to her yelling at him and generally being unreasonable despite knowing the kind of man her husband is. Here, we see a great amount of tenderness and a worry that silently points to the past. For those who haven’t watched all of this franchise, Goku nearly died during the Android Saga from a heart disease. Seeing him get mysteriously woozy and fall over unconscious likely reminded her of that event, and boy howdy was she panicking. I know what you’re saying, he’s already died twice she should be used to it by now, but his heart disease wasn’t just a death in combat. She was there with him as his nurse, so it was a prolonged period of utter torment for her. So, seeing him in the same state just brought back the nightmare. It’s a scene that reminds us that these are people, even if they fight super-powered, inter-dimensional aliens.

The animation kept up with the action here. None of it was incredibly stellar, but it told the story and kept the action entertaining. I didn’t notice any errors in the character art, which is kind of rare in these parts. Have they started weeding out the lazier animators? One thing that actually saved them here was that for half of the episode, they didn’t have to animate Piccolo’s face! The charge up effect covered it up so much, even Frost comments that he can’t see it. Question is, how does Piccolo see with all that glow in his face? As far as voice acting goes, everyone was kinda samey-samey. They seemed to have one emotion, which was exactly what was written. The only one to show something other than the baseline was Chi-chi. Cynthia Cranz really didn’t put much into giving the act any depth, though. It was Chi-chi’s standard worried voice, and I felt like the scene could have been much more if the voice acting dug deeper.

This episode was fun, plain and simple, and it tickled the nostalgia. There was plenty of humor, and the characters displayed how far they’ve grown over the years.

I told you I didn’t trust that Frost.