English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “To the Future Once Again: Black’s Identity Revealed “

There’s a lot going on this week.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Up until now, there was this unraveling mystery that made us question who Goku Black is, and while several twists & turns were smart enough to throw off these predictions, the real twist last episode turned out to be a precision mind-fuck. Despite an Immortal Future Zamasu helping Black in his goals with destroying mortals, Goku Black is also Zamasu, Sort of… The twist at first confused the shit out of me but apparently, Black is a Zamasu from a splintered alternate timeline where Goku and the others weren’t warned of Zamasu’s sinister plans, (This is the timeline where Black is from) used the Super Dragonballs to discard his original Kai-body and swapped it with Goku for his growing Saiyan powers while the Future Zamasu who’s Immortal hails from Future Trunk’s timeline. You’d think Beerus blasting present-day Zamasu into nothingness two episodes ago would’ve changed anything, But the reason that it didn’t is that the Time Ring Black possesses is a magical loop-hole that protects him. As long as it stays on his finger, he won’t cease to exist, which means anything that happens to him in the past or present, doesn’t affect him now.

The rest of the episode is mostly a monumental series of big-reveals & info-dumps as Zamasu’s motivation to kill Gowasu was so he wouldn’t be thwarted from his twisted ambitions and would be able to use the Time Rings freely. The time for talk is briefly over as the genocidal duo attack the heroes. They still struggle to fight Future Zamasu, but of course, he still has that pesky “God Mode” protecting him. what’s even more disturbing is how Black feels the need casually explain the chain of events that took place while this is going on, such as how he met Future Zamasu leading to their alliance, How he used the Super Dragonballs for “God Mode”, and  nearly picked off every mortal and all the Kai’s & Gods that would pose a potential threat to their goals and later destroyed the Super Dragonballs to prevent anyone else from using them against the two. But Why earth as their primary target? They felt that the worst mortals of all time have lived on Earth. And in the lowest of lows, Black later admits to Goku that after the body-swap, He fucking murdered his family along with that version of Goku who was stuck inside Zamasu’s old body at the time which further adds insult to injury when they stab him with an energy-blade.

Although the specific deaths Goku’s family only occurred within another Universe & timeline, the idea of Goku’s family being massacred alone isn’t something he’s thrilled about, but even that level of rage Goku convey’s wasn’t enough to overpower Black as he’s still way too strong. With Trunks expressing the desire to take on Black next, Vegeta thinks he’s too weak right now, but Future Trunks faces Zamasu. Before the fight commences. But before doing so, Future Zamasu and Black feel the need to guilt-trip the shit out of Future Trunks and further point out that if Trunks didn’t tamper with altering the past by saving Goku from a heart disease all those years ago during the Androids/Cell Saga, Goku Black wouldn’t have been created. when you think about it, this kinda makes Black & Zamasu look hypocritical because Unlike the two Misanthropic Maniacs (Black & Zamasu who are technically the same person), Trunk’s actions were well-intentioned and made the audience care about what was at stake. The episode ends on a very intense cliffhanger as the taunting of Black and Zamasu motivates Trunks to reach a level of Super Saiyan we have never seen before…

Our Take

While the big twist itself of who Goku Black turned out to be felt like a bad Xzibit Yo Dawg meme but without the verbs to make it funny. The scene with Goku’s family despite taking place in another universe was effectively heart-wrenching to watch. You even hear David Gray doing his best Goku Impression to properly convey that it’s Goku and not Zamasu’s sophisticated dialect after the body-swap.

Next, to popular villains in fiction such as Dio Brando from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Negan from The Walking Dead, Zamasu delivers that feeling of reprehensible revulsion in spades, in combination with thinking ahead of his foes in terms of strategy. With Trunk’s new SS-form he’s somehow taken, It makes me wonder if they now have an edge in battle against the two murderous bastards, but I guess we won’t know until next episode.