English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “Revenge ‘F’! A Cunning Trap is Set!?”

Red rover, red rover, send Vegeta on over.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

This episode begins with the Grand Minister reminding Zenos of how many warriors are left in the tournament. He explains that Universe 7 and Universe 6 are in the lead with eight warriors remaining for each of them, meaning the competition is still pretty stiff.

Maji Kayo, a liquid-based warrior from Universe 3, tries an attack on the remaining warriors from Universe 11, Top, Jiren and Dispo. Dispo arrogantly tries to take Maji Kayo out immediately but gets tricked by him and captured. Jiren then steps in to save Dispo, and shows everyone how ridiculously powerful he is by taking out Maji Kayo with just the wind moved from the force of his punch.

Following this, Frost, the Frieza doppelganger from Universe 6, starts to make his moves on the warriors from Universe 7. He ambushes Master Roshi and immediately goes to town on the old man. Roshi powers and tries to punch Frost back, but his attacks are too slow and Frost is able to maintain his advantage. Roshi tries to counterattack using the Evil Containment Wave. Even though his wave catches Frost within it, Roshi’s battered body misses the urn which contains the evil, and thus Frost manages to escape defeat, if only by an inch. Frost then continues his battle.

Seeing Vegeta nearby, Frost launches one of his blasts at Vegeta while he’s attacking Roshi, which causes the Saiyan prince to jump into the battle. Frost expected this and redirects an Evil Containment Wave launched by Roshi at Vegeta, which seals him away in the urn. Things look bad, but Roshi is able to break the urn with a sneaky ki blast and release Vegeta, who immediately powers up and wrecks Frost. Roshi accepts that his role in the tournament is done, and bows out by falling off the edge into the audience. He’s embraced by his friends and student, who heal him up with a senzu bean, thankful that he’s still alive.

Our Take:

The episodes just keep getting better and better here on Dragon Ball Super. It seems as time goes on and this show starts pulling out its big guns, the episode we’re getting treated to possess all the more dramatic weight. This week’s episode finally brings Vegeta out from the dugout to start getting some real fighting done. It comes after a great sequence with Master Roshi nearly dying, making the fight all the more intense. And, since we’re getting to see some great Vegeta action, you already know you’re getting treated something charged with passion and flair.

It’s really almost as if Master Roshi is given a second episode to shine. If you think he didn’t push himself far enough the first time around, this episode puts him nearly onto death’s door, as he literally gives all he has to try and defeat his sinister foe. There’s a lot of heart in Roshi. Since the beginning, he’s been an old pervert, but a lovable old saint as well. He embodies the characters with “Dragon Ball” history but who haven’t been able to keep up with the rest of the Z warriors in terms of power levels. I think that’s why it means so much to see Roshi push himself so hard. He’s not some new character who has a story we’re unfamiliar with or don’t care about. Roshi is the grandfather of this whole series, so it means a lot when we see him suffer so much. It raises the stakes and reminds us that the strength of a warrior isn’t measured just in their physical power, but their strength of heart as well, cheesy as it sounds.

All of this works because Frost makes for such a good villain. Similar to Frieza, his cruelty is overwhelming and makes him a great character you love to hate. Defeating him isn’t just a matter of combat prowess, it’s a matter of justice. The past he has with Vegeta also makes Vegeta the prime opponent for him to face. Frost’s additional cunning and ability to nearly win the fight means you’ll be sitting on the edge of your seat until the very end of the episode, which doesn’t disappoint. There’s so much to love her that, like me, you’ll be desperate to see what happens next, if you haven’t watched the Japanese dub already. You’d think a franchise that has been around since before I was alive would start to tire, but like Master Roshi, this old dog’s still got it.