Episode 42 starts off seemingly being your obligatory 'cool down party' moment, and, well, of course we kind of have a party. But Monaka, being a space deliveryman in real life and not the one-punch-defeat-Hit being that Goku thinks he is, ends up showing up at the party despite Beerus and Whis's best efforts, and of course Goku wants to fight. Obviously the easiest way to deal with it is to have Monaka actually say "NO!", but Beerus and Whis ends up enlisting the help of the rest of the supporting cast in some hilarious comedy as they kind of need to keep it a secret from Goku to motivate him (because Hit, Champa and Zen'o aren't enough motivations?) to continue getting stronger, but he won't be satisfied without a proper fight.And, well, of course it all ends up to Goku fighting Beerus, who is forced into wearing a Monaka mascot costume by Mr. Satan. It is kinda goofy as all hell, but Whis and Bulma egging Beerus on to wear the suit and deal with the problem he caused is funny as all hell. Also, can I just say how much I appreciate the sheer amount of screentime that Bulma got in Dragon Ball Super? Considering she and Goku were the main characters of the original Dragon Ball, Bulma has been shoved to the side increasingly during the Z arcs, until she ends up just merging with the likes of Roshi, Oolong and the others as 'those guys who can't fight'. But here? Between her interactions with Jaco, Whis and Beerus, she's easily more prominent than the likes of Krillin or Piccolo now. Anyway, Goku fights Beerus-in-a-suit, and Piccolo and Vegeta have to show up with some hilarious bad acting to stop Goku from noticing the broken costumes, freaking Pu'ar gets to be relevant and transform into a fake Beerus and the battle lasts long enough for Whis to stop the battle with an awesome 'blocking two punches at once'.
Also I laughed out so hard when motherfucking Yamcha blabs on that 'guys the real Monaka fainted'.
Mother. Fucking. Yamcha.
Oh god, and then Goku just goes 'holy shit, Monaka can split himself just like Buu! Kayletseat" God. This episode's just funny.
Episode 43 brings us the best moment of Piccolo (sorry, Pikkoyo) where he delivers this long, long list of the amount of things you have to do to make baby Pan happy, including how to cook baby food -- considering Namekians don't eat, it's absolutely fucking heartwarming and even Chi-Chi is surprised by the sheer amount of information that Piccolo knows. It's just a whole episode full of d'awwww moments as Goku and Piccolo hang out on a roof playing with Pan, or Piccolo just knowing so much about Pan and acting a little tsundere about it... Piccolo being Gohan's surrogate daddy has been one of the more heartwarming parts in Dragon Ball Z (and no small part due to having watched DBZ Abridged, too) and to see Piccolo take so wholeheartedly into acting as a second grandfather of sorts is amazingly heartwarming. Easily my favourite 'slice of life' episode, hands-down.Meanwhile Pan can apparently power up and fly up in space and end up bullying the poor Pilaf gang (their status as the show's resident Team Rocket is a lot more likable here than it was in the movie-adaptation arcs), while Goku ends up being sick because of the muscle injuries he got from the Kaioken-SSB combination in the Universe 6 tournament. It's just honestly an excuse for Goku to hang out with little Pan and there's just a lot of fun stuff I didn't even mention -- Pilaf's giant robot, Bulma's bedroom lasers, Arale's cameo... and, y'know, Baby Pan's fucking adorable. Great episode.
Episode 44-46: The actual Potaufeu mini-arc. It's actually... far more underwhelming, because I had a huge 'holy shit this is funny as heck' reaction when watching 42, and a 'awww these guys are so precious' reaction when watching 43. When I watched these three episodes my reaction was... well, just 'eh, not bad I guess'. It feels like the plot of a bad filler movie, like one of the many, many other DBZ movies out there (which I may start watching somewhere down the line). We get the setup, we establish the villain, then Goku saves the day. It's an easy three-step plotline. It's done competently, but it's ultimately an excuse to have Goku fight against an evil version of Vegeta and settle the Goku-vs-Vegeta question burning in all our hearts.Essentially Trunks and Goten ends up accidentally stowing away on Monaka's ship, and get embroiled in a fight between aliens, where
And must they really use the 'Superhuman Water' to consume Vegeta and spit out his ghostly shell and run around looking like a giant bubblegum Vegeta? They don't actually do anything interesting with the fight either. It's neat to see Gotenks' moves again, and we got some laughs out of Vegeta sucking on a pacifier (and his "WHAT" expression when he realizes what a pacifier even is) and Moanaka accidentally crushing the Superhuman Water's nucleus is funny. But ultimately this little mini-arc ends up actually being pretty bleh, and far less memorable than the actual slice-of-life episodes that preceded it. Hell, I'd actually have three more episodes of slice-of-life stuff or generic Goku and Vegeta training, because the Potaufeu arc ends up being so underwhelming.
The stinger does show that the next arc won't be the Universe Tournament but rather something involving Future Trunks and... ho boy, what a huge can of worms that will be.
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Gohan Talk
So... Gohan. A lot of people complain -- rightfully so -- that Son Gohan has been absolutely ill-served by the Super saga. He was batted around by Beerus in Battle of Gods (though everyone not named Goku was also batted around), he was shot and nearly killed by Tagoma in Resurrection F, beaten up by Ginyu, and then subsequently brutalized by Frieza. And then he asks Piccolo to train him, which is definitely a very believable character development to properly re-rail him into believably having a catalyst to go from being a civilian into a proper fighter. But he ends up sitting the entire Future Trunks Saga to come after this, only showing up as a civilian and being blissfully unaware of everything going on up until the end.Yet... when Universe 6 shows up, Gohan, while ready to help out, ends up prioritizing a science conference over it. And his appearance in the string of episodes reviewed here focuses so much on his role as a father. It's essentially the same problem that plagued Chi-Chi, Android 18 and later Krillin in Super when they got married and became essentially parents first, fighters second.
And honestly? I don't really mind that. While it kind of sucks that Gohan, one of the main characters for the majority of Dragon Ball Z, ends up just hanging up the white martial arts gi and run around in a suit all the time, it's honestly been the direction that the show has been taking the character towards since all the way in the Buu saga. It's a weird derailment ever since Gohan was meant to grow and succeed Goku as The Hero(tm) throughout the Frieza and Cell arcs, but regressed slightly due to focusing on his schoolwork during the Buu saga... but he was still a pretty powerful fighter and essentially only seconded by Vegeta and Goku during that arc. And, yes, every other member of the Z-fighters are essentially shunted to the side, with only maaaaaybe Piccolo and Gotenks getting a bone thrown at them although they job most of the time anyway.
But for Gohan to be reduced like that? It's definitely a bit irritating, although I kind of really hope that it's at least leading up to something better down the line. I really wish that Gohan ends up returning to what he was before, because the whole "I am rusty" excuse really felt like it wasn't done well at all and it's a bit hard to reconcile this character with the same one that goes golden-haired and defeated Cell.
So honestly? While I think that Gohan's writing is well done and it's a believable character arc, this is going to be one that is going to be made or broken depending on the conclusion of Gohan's character arc, and if it doesn't double down on him either going back into fighting or becoming a family guy... and honestly the writing is going towards the direction of the latter. It's a neat and bold bit of writing and either way we're going with Gohan as long as it's written well will satisfy me I guess.
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