English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “The Universes Go Into Action-Each With Their Own Motives”

And now for something completely different.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Preparations for the Tournament of Power continue, with Gohan splitting off to go search for Piccolo and recruit him to the team. Meanwhile, the Supreme Kais of the weaker universes try to form some kind of negotiation to get Zeno to refrain from erasing their universes. This doesn’t lead to much, however; just arguing from the kais about their own problems.

Meanwhile, Goku runs into Majin Buu, who is training with Mr. Satan. Goku and Buu get into a nice little spar, and Buu shows Goku the level of strength he’s achieved. After their fight, we get to see Top in action in his own universe as a member of the Pride Troopers. Together with his allies, Top defeats a powerful alien menace, preserving the peace of his universe once again.

The gods of the different universe, meanwhile, do their own recruiting to assemble their teams, while Goku and Gohan go on their own recruitment missions to find Android 17 and Piccolo, respectively.

Our Take:

We move away from the Z Fighters and their assembly for the coming Tournament of Power and instead take a look at the goings-ons of other universes and what motivates them to fight in this battle to end all battles. Well, other than their own survival of course. This is something of a down-note compared to the hype generated by the last few episodes, which have given the individual fighters a chance to shine. Breaking up the narrative like this ultimately gives this episode the air of “Filler”, even though it might lead to greater developments later on.

However, this episode starts the “political” aspect of the tournament, giving us insight into the intrigue surrounding the divine kais and their own character motivations. A lot of this just manifests as an extended exposition sequence between the Supreme Kais whining to each other about their own troubles, but it does generate some extra stakes to the tournament. However, does a tournament like this really need more intrigue and stakes? It’s literally a battle for the existence of the universes, I don’t think this battle could be much more important.

What’s more interesting than that is the sparring match between Goku and Majin Buu, if only because Buu’s “muscled” form is hilariously jank to look at.  In addition, Buu has trained himself to be a pretty effective fighter, giving us something to look forward to when the big tournament finally comes. This recruitment scenario doesn’t carry the same emotional weight as Krillin’s does from the last episode, but it does give the audience something to look at other than Supreme Kais talking to each other.

The best part of this episode, though, has to be the future space setting of Top’s universe. Though our time there is very brief, I like the detail it gives to the individual universes. It makes me more interested in seeing the kinds of settings that each universe contains, as it makes the world of Super that much more detailed.

This is an episode not quite as interesting as what we’ve been treated to the last few episodes but is entertaining enough in its own right. If the primary function of these episodes to build up anticipation for the big tournament, then this episode doesn’t quite hit the mark. Though, its sequences of Top’s adventures are pretty darn cool.

And now for something completely different.