Dragon Ball Super 125 Review: MUSTACHE

Dragon Ball Super, Episode 125: With Impending Presence, God of Destruction Toppo Descends!

I am so glad I go into these episodes skipping the 'preview' sections from the previous episode, as well as the title of this episode, entirely. Otherwise, well, the big twist that happens in this episode is quite literally just spoiled in that. I honestly don't understand people who drink up spoilers when watching a serialized and relatively simple series like this -- what's left if you do so? It's like, apparently the spoilers for the previous episode literally just shows Toppo transforming into his brand-new form, and it's like... why would you spoil that? Hint at the form's existence and that's going to be enough to rile up the audience. 

With that said, this was a pretty good episode, and a fair bit better than the previous one. Sure, no lasting consequence is done as absolutely no one gets knocked out (or killed), but the execution of Toppo's power-up and his clash with Freeza and 17 is done remarkably well. We get a brief bit of Goku and Vegeta fighting Jiren, but of course nothing's going to be resolved until they get a proper episode dedicated to them. 

The battle between 17 and Toppo continues from the previous episode, with them just exchanging a crapton of ki blasts with each other, and 17 really just aims to pin Toppo with the aid of his infinite energy, but Toppo breaks through and they end up doing a pretty impressive beam struggle, seemingly in Toppo's favour as 17 is pushed towards the edge... but Freeza shows up and starts mocking Toppo while shooting him in the back like a dick! Again, it's a moment where Freeza is involved where we really should be rooting for Freeza as a representative of "our" universe, but Toppo has been so jolly and likable, and Freeza's all gloating and sucker-punching people and it's a really strange feeling. The combination of attacks from both sides causes Toppo to be overwhelmed, and gets blown up...

But then Toppo gets up to his feet while Freeza continues to gloat... and then shows off that the whole "training for a god of destruction" thing isn't just for show as Toppo growls about how "justice is meaningless",  and that only protecting Universe 11 matters now. Toppo then transforms, surrounded by a purple aura, his eyes turn red and he has a weird mark on his chest, and apparently he is able to manifest the god of destruction's Hakai energy around him like an aura that disintegrates anything thrown his way, including energy blasts. This power up essentially makes him a god of destruction in all but formal title, and Toppo assuming this form is even enough to make Jiren stop and look in his direction, commenting that "he's finally decided to accept". 

While everyone is in a state of shock, least of all Beerus, Freeza gloats about how he's survived a god of destruction's energy back when he was fighting that random assassin sent by Shidra, and I really, really love that scene as Freeza mocks Toppo, noting that "one hand will be enough", and then starts to get overwhelmed, is forced to use two hands and then seemingly just vaporized by the sphere of destruction. It's obviously clear that Freeza isn't killed, otherwise Toppo would be disqualified... yet Freeza acts so assholish in this episode, and the way the shot is executed and how Freeza remains out of our hair for a while really makes me think that Freeza is either killed or in a whole "trapped in another dimension" dealie that Goku went through in 113.

As the arena crumbles and splits in half under Toppo's strike, he and 17 then face off. Not even 17's all-around super-functional barrier can withstand Toppo's blasts, although the android is certainly faster. 17 uses the rubble around Toppo to jump around and unleash streams and streams of ki blasts, but it does nothing as they all disintegrate in Toppo's aura, and he then proceeds to Justice Flash all of 17's rubble footholds, talking about how "justice and evil are both meaningless now."

Also, unrelated to all this, but the animation's definitely on point here, especially in animating Toppo's glorious MUSTACHE fluttering around in all the explosions going on. 

And then Freeza shows up in a sequence that seems to be a homage to how he initially survived the spirit bomb, whacking the tail on the ground with one eye closed and launching a sneak attack (although this time throwing a rock to stop 17 from getting blasted). Freeza creates this gigantic Death Ball  thing and throws it at Toppo in, again, a neat homage to the Namek saga... and Toppo just creates a teeny-tiny sphere of energy that's like as big as his fingernail and flicks it at Freeza's Death Ball, completely disintegrating it and okay that's super-duper badass!

Toppo then just charges in, punches Freeza in the gut in one smooth sequence, cracks the fool's skull and then throws Freeza out of the arena... and then 17 throws a rock at Freeza's body, causing him to fall down still in-bounds, but unconscious. It's... interesting, because this means that there's going to be something relating to Freeza in the near future. Is he going to be the winner of the tournament by default because he's unconscious in the battlefield? Is he going to get his just desserts? Very curious.

Regardless, though, the cliffhanger here is that the wholly-outmatched 17 has to figure something out to fight a god of destruction, and honestly, despite all the talk about him being able to match Super Saiyan Blue back in the recruitment arc, I really don't buy that. Still, it's interesting to see if he can actually pull something off. Great stuff.