So, after the long recruitment arc (which definitely could've been parred down by a fair bit, although I will fight anyone who tells me they should be cut out altogether) we finally enter the Tournament of Power. Due to the length of this saga and how it's relatively more recent, I will split the tournament arc into two parts -- this one details the tournament up until the 'half-time', as it is.So the last time we left off, Universe 7 finally has their ten strongest warriors: Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, Roshi, Tien, Android 17, Android 18 and Freeza. And we've established the 'themes' of the other universes participating in the Tournament as well. 2 is the magical girl universe, 3 is the robot universe, 4 is sneaky and underhanded, we know of Universe 6, 9 is the werewolves, 10 is all muscleheads and 11 is the tokusentai Pride Troopers.
Again, despite theoretically being a tournament that features 80 warriors, the show makers know that, well, not all of these will be important, so they just tend to focus on a couple of 'ace' fighters in each universe, with the third, ninth and fourth universes in particular ending up being filled with, well, people we don't care that much about. It's neat, because there's only so much we can care about and keeping our interest focused on the cool dudes they build up like Hit, Jiren, Toppo, Cabba, Caulifla, Kale and Brianne is definitely to the show's benefit. Making it a free-for-all tournament also gives the arc a sense of chaotic feeling, and while in execution it sadly ends up being mostly a one-on-one most of the time, it does allow for more unexpected developments to happen without the strict structure of 'who advances into the next round' of a more proper tournament.
It's definitely overall a fast-paced arc that jumps from one character to the next and one fight to the next pretty well, and while we do have some moments of stare-downs and peanut gallery commenting, I feel like it's kept down to a relative minimum compared to how dragged out it can get in Dragon Ball Z. One big annoyance factor is the Zen'os, who keep just repeating the same "oh that's cool" "oh cool is that" bullshit over and over every other episode as padding. And actual padding, in fact, as they tend to take entire minutes to just pull out their God-Pad... although GodPad scenes are actually hilarious in concept and at least works well to help us recap.
One complaint I often see people say about this arc is that Goku and Vegeta doesn't go Super Saiyan Blue and finish people off, and while it's definitely irritating at points, the excuse of them saving their power because there is a fuckton of enemies is actually legit in my head, especially when Goku spends much of later episodes tired out from overusing his transformations. It's even addressed by Whis explaining this to Shin and Beerus multiple times in the first two or three episodes.
Also to note is that the animation is constantly well-done, sometimes seeping into 'holy fuck amazing' territory. Yeah, we're definitely put the days of the embarrassing animation of the two movie arcs behind us.
So, without further ado, let's begin. We're doing the episodic recap thing again.
Universe 7: our heroes finally meet Freeza... and the animosity is clear. Freeza doesn't try anything beyond mocking Vegeta for a bit, and it's clear from their brief talk that Gohan's strategy won't work at all with Vegeta, Goku and Freeza wanting to be independent fighters. There's a hilarious 'friendship circle' bit that turns out to just be trolling on Whis's part. We get some info-dump about how the arena prevents flying abilities (other than those with natural wings, as Universe 10's team includes a butterfly woman and a bird man). We get some interactions between various universes. Frost meets Freeza and apparently strikes a deal behind a pillar. Goku talks with Hit, and Vegeta talks with (well, snaps at) Cabba. Oh, and Roshi is apparently super-composed and calm against women after his training with poor Puar. Caulifla also interacts with Goku, and her cockiness (and inexperience?) is emphasized when the Universe 7 people are instantly on guard when the Pride Troopers show up. Goku greets Toppo, and Jiren shows off his strength by teleporting behind Goku and telling him to fuck off. There's a moment of "oh Jiren is awesome" as he effortlessly dodges the blocks that the gods of destruction are flinging around to fix the stage.
Jiren... Jiren is basically Hit in the Universe 6 arc, taken up to eleven. Silent, quiet, smoldering and intense, he's just so badass, guys, you can hear the show-writers scream in your face. Time will tell if he develops into a more interesting character the way Hit does, but at the moment -- and honestly up until very recent episodes -- Jiren does absolutely nothing for me. He's just a strong, emotionless dude for Goku to surpass. Anyway the episode ends with a brief roll call of each universe, and we can see that universe 6 rounds up its roster with a pair of Namekians, universe 2 has a Yardrat (the instant transmission race) and universe 4 is missing two fighters.
Also, this marks the final performance of Hiromi Tsuru, voice actress for Bulma ever since the first episode of Dragon Ball, and it's a huge, huge loss for the show. At least her character gets to be super-prominent in Super after being sidelined for nearly the entirety of Z.
Episode 97: Finally, the Tournament of Power begins, and after your classic DBZ stare-down accompanied with the peanuts gallery taking turns to comment, the huge pillar is apparently going to sink deeper and deeper into the stage to denote the 48 Earth minutes (or two seasons, in practical terms... remember the 5 minutes on Namek?) that the tournament will take place in. The tournament starts and it's instant chaos as everyone fights everyone else, and it's just a neat mass of scenes of people punching and shooting energy blasts. Naturally, Gohan's plan ends up self-destructing as Goku, Vegeta, Freeza and the two Androids just fly off out of formation to pick their fights, leaving the remaining five to just huddle together as a team. We get a lot of designs fighting against each other and it's pretty cool. Toppo's fighting Basil! Magetta's fighting Toppo! Some scientist with a staff is fighting a green alien! Goku fights Ganos! Vegeta fights a giant ogre! 17 fights Lavender! 18 fights a lady from the Pride Troopers! There's a huge mass of fighting and it's glorious... I just wish we really got more powers on display beyond physical abilities.There are some neat moments where the action focuses on a couple of characters, which is neat. The Gohan Squad bears down attackers from multiple universes, including familiar faces Lavender and Botamo, and the combination of Tien's Solar Flare, Krillin's Kienzan, Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon (it's really hard to spell Makankosappo properly), Roshi's Kamehameha and Gohan's random generic energy beams is pretty neat, even if they don't take anyone, Gohan notes that their plan is to hunker down and minimize losses. The other big action scene is
Basil gets a fair bit more screentime, because he ends up facing off against a butterfly girl Lilibeu (of U-10, the... muscle universe? Huh.), and uses his kicking hadoken attacks to ring her out. We get the establishment that those who are ringed-out aren't killed, but are teleported into the stands alongside their universal gods. Basil then fights U-10's sumo fighter Napapa (not Nappa!) but their fight ends up in a draw. Goku gets grabbed by Nink, an orc-like creature from U-10, and tries to suicide-attack by jumping off the ring with Goku... which... okay, that's the most stupid thing to do. Goku just powers up to Blue and knocks Nink off himself, but then Goku gets surrounded by multiple warriors led by the Trio de Dangers.
Definitely a neat little episode highlighting the chaos and showing off both the rules, new warriors and old warriors all at the same time.
Episode 98: And, well, the Trio de Dangers being the ace fighters of Universe 9 and the fact that they're already shown to be beaten up easily by Goku, Gohan and Buu earlier does make it pretty likely that they're going to be the jobbers of the tournament. Of course this is all exacerbated by that jackass Roh shouting so much and telling Universe 9 to surround and overpower the Universe 7 warriors, which is just sealing their death warrant. Goku even shows off a neat ki barrier trick to defend against Lavender's poison, but the Trio de Dangers talk up their 'Dangers Triangle' formation that no one can escape from... and despite Roh's pontification, Vegeta and Goku makes short work of it. The Universe 9 guys are basically beast people, and they're pretty one-note. Vegeta fights Hop (a purple catgirl that, knowing the internet, is going to be the genesis of so much hentai), Hyssop (a giant ogre with ice abilities), Oregano (a red-skinned dude with spider-man web ability) and Chappil (a silver dragon-man), while Goku fights the Trio de Dangers.Freeza, meanwhile, beats up U-10 sumo-dude Napapa, then proceeds to torture the weird bat-creature from U-9, Roselle. He can't kill them, but he's happy to just slowly shoot finger beams and torture them, causing Roselle to... jump off the stage in fright, ringing himself out. Really shouldn't have done that. I really, really enjoy Roh's hamminess as he introduces every single attack and aspect of his warriors, which Elder Kai calls dumb-sounding and overblown. Obviously Universe 9 is one we're supposed to root against, with Roh being particularly obnoxious and the whole 'sending assassins' thing a couple episodes back.
Overall, Universe 9 ends up being a huge disappointment, especially when Bergamo for some reason doesn't use his energy-absorption and giant state abilities. Basil does show off some neat action scenes, and some of the other fighters show of neat one-note gimmicks... but its honestly no huge loss, and Universe 9 itself is pretty one-note itself (if you can't tell, I had to google up the wiki pages for Universe 9 to remember what everyone not within the Trio des Dangers is called), with only the jackass kaioshin Roh being the only one with any sort of personality. Again, even if it's obvious that the destroyed universes are likely to be wished back with the Super Dragon Balls, it's neat that the show doesn't shy away from showing the horror everyone feels in the destruction, and at least Goku and Vegeta gets some really nice battle scenes.
The U7 weakling huddle is attacked by the bird-man Jium of U-10, and Krillin and Roshi do a cool little Kienzan/Kamehameha combo to take him out. 18 fights another werewolf, this time from U-4, called Shosa, who tries some play-dead trick (killing would disqualify 18) before the attempted ambush is interrupted and Shosa gets ringed out by a neat little ki-ping-pong combo between 18 and Krillin. Seriously, between 'suicide taking you with me' guy and 'play dead' guy, Universe 4's stupid duplicity deal is just plain dumb, isn't it? Krillin is then attacked by another wolf-man (seriously, how many wolfmen are in this tournament?) called Majora (not to be confused with the mask). Krillin's Solar Flare x100 ends up not working because apparently Majora's like space Daredevil, being blind, but in a neat callback to original Dragon Ball, Krillin just tosses his smelly shoe onto Majora's nose to overwhelm his nose, then Kamehameha's him off.Of course, it's all going Krillin's way, right? He's got a long training arc, he's shown off some neat combination moves with 18 and even if he can't fight gods he can fight against the lesser opponents... oh, wait, he just gets knocked off by Frost sucker-punching him in the back. That's... that's pretty disappointing, actually. Like, yes, sure, Krillin gets a neat moment with 18 as a battle couple, which is sweet and badass, and he knocks out three people... but those are three people that aren't really any sort of established characters (and the U4 dudes are kind of jokes). Poor Krillin. Dude can't catch a break, can he?
Episode 100: And the Krillin abuse continues to this episode where everyone keeps being a bit of a dick to Krillin letting his guard down (even 18! That's kinda mean.) and man, poor Krillin. Honestly, for all the buildup he got throughout the recruitment arc and his personal two-parter, I really wished Krillin had a cooler and more respectable exit even if he gets ringed out in the first half-dozen episodes. The episode this time around focuses more on a U6-U7 rematch, however. Vegeta fights briefly against Bota-Magetta before being confronted by Cabba...And Cabba just one-shots two warriors near-effortlessly, which is amazing! One of them is called Murisam, yet another boring muscle-head fodder from U-10, but the other is Nigrisshi, who was sort of built up the leader of Universe 3, the robot universe, and not gonna lie, that's pretty badass. And also confirms that U-10 and U-3 are jobbers, because the wounded Narirama's desperate chest cannon gets nullified by Hit's time-skip and a cool little finger-flick.
Cabba and Vegeta face down, master and student, and they go Super Saiyan, but this fight really goes nowhere as it's clear what the focus of this episode is going to be... Kale. She's fighting against sumo-dude Napapa and lobster-man Methiop of Universe 10, who takes the time to beat up on a poor young girl instead of just ringing her out immediately. See, it's this barbarism that drove Zamasu evil, you damn jackasses. Kale doesn't get ringed out, of course, as she is saved by her mentor Caulifla, who proceeds to go Super Saiyan and beat up those two jackasses, ringing Napapa out. Caulifla then goes off to confront Goku, who is fighting the teleporting Yardrat from U-2, Jimeze. Caulifla knocks Jimeze down (but not out) and fights Goku, wanting him to teach her Super Saiyan Blue.Caulifla then tries to pull off a Cabba and asks Goku to teach them how to go Blue, and Goku's like "nah, step by step, man". A lot of the fandom apparently gave Caulifla flak for her arrogance, but honestly is it any different from how every Saiyan keeps getting power ups left and right during the Cell and Buu sagas? And besides, she doesn't actually reach Blue, with her only showing off the strong-but-slow hulking Super Saiyan that Trunks uses and gets batted around by Goku, who tells her to focus on Super Saiyans 2, and then 3. Caulifla and Goku continue to fight in their base Super Saiyan forms, and Kale... Kale is just a little moe who wants to help but can't transform and she's so sad... and the trigger to her berserking Broly-esque transformation isn't anger at any specific person, but more at the prospect of being ignored by her sister-figure Caulifla, who's having too much fun indulging her Saiyan fighting blood.
And, of course, Kale transforms into berserking green-haired mode (Super Saiyan Berserk, apparently it's called?) and goes all Hulk, rampaging without a care, even nearly knocking off Caulifla... who gets saved by Hit. Good man, Hit. Vegeta notes that Kale's transformation is the 'true form' of a Saiyan, a nod to Broly's status as the real Legendary Super Saiyan, it seems. At the moment of writing, I haven't watched the Broly movie, but this kinda reinforces the fact that pre-Battle-of-Gods movies aren't canon, but Super's going to make nods to them. Kale just rampages and pulls a Hulk against Super Saiyan Blue Goku (even doing a scene similar to Hulk whacking Loki around in Avengers) and her energy blasts completely fuck up the arena ring and turns it into this mass of rubbles and elevated platforms, ringing out Methiop and a member of the Pride Troopers, "Justice Whip" Vuon, before attacking even Caulifla in her rage.
Jiren, who has been spending the entire tournament standing still (which I get that they're saving him, but it's kinda dumb) finally reacts to one of his buddies being beaten up... and then Jiren shows up in front of Kale. Both Jiren and Kale are two of the most hyped-up new characters in this tournament... and... Jiren literally one-shots Kale. It's like one energy blast, and Kale's just thrown against the central pillar and knocked into unconsciousness, reverted back into base form. Hit and Caulifla escape with Kale, while Goku face off against Jiren.
Yeah, episode 100 seems to be very aware of its status as a milestone and I don't think it's a coincidence that it's pretty much an adrenaline rush as all these characters built up throughout the past couple dozen episodes clash against each other. It's a neat episode, where we get a setup of a potential rematch between Goku and Caulifla, we build up Kale and Jiren significantly... and, yeah, Universes 6 and 11, and maybe 2, are really the only big threats of the tournament, right? Everyone from 4 and 10 are just dropping off like flies. And I would honestly be quite okay with it if they aren't all just dumb muscleheads or one-note superpowers. Still, keeping the focus on a handful of characters is definitely a better way to go.
Episode 101: The Pride Troopers episode! Sadly, Goku and Jiren only fight in the opening sequence, as the episode begins with Toppo Justice Flashing Goku and telling Jiren to retreat, to conserve his stamina. In their place, Kahseral (the cyborg dude) shows up with four other Pride Troopers -- Tupper, Zoiray, Kettol and Cocotte. The five of them hunt down Caulifla and Kale, wanting to avenge Vuon, but Goku shows up and defends the Universe 6 lady Saiyans. And it's... totally a Goku thing to do. I mean, he struck up like a mentor-mentee relationship with Caulifla the same way that Vegeta struck one up with Cabba, and I do like it. Plus, even if he knows that this is a battle royale, Goku notes how it's a big no-no to gang up on two wounded people. Androids 17 and 18 show up to back Goku up, shrugging off Goku's insistence that they help the U6 Saiyans and going along with it.Kahseral attacks 17 with his JUSTICE sabers and JUSTICE bombers and it's just a standoff, while Goku and 18 fight Tupper and Zoiray. Tupper is this huge rock-man who is able to make himself super-heavy and tries to lock Goku until he gets ringed out through the bottom part of the stage, while the little imp creature Zoiray attacks with a JUSTICE spin (can I just say how much I love how everyone in the Pride Troopers uses JUSTICE in their attacks? So hammy) but 18 comes with all her pragmatic sass, keeps shooting Tupper in the back and forces him off Goku, and their attempted combo spinning attack is countered by 18, who knocks out Tupper.
Cocotte, the purple-skinned elf-lady, seals the rest of the Pride Troopers with Caulifla and Kale, so ensure that Goku and the androids can't interfere, and we get a cool little Hellzone Grenade attack from Kettol (green catfish-man). Kale tries to protect Caulifla, and finally powers up... but this time she can remain in control of herself to protect her big sister, and the two U6 Saiyans engage in a beam struggle with the four Pride Troopers, which the U6 guys win, ringing out Kahseral, Zoiray and Kettol. Definitely a bit surprised that Kahserol got ringed out so early, considering how the other episodes built him up a fair bit.
Cocotte seals herself in her own dimension and gloats... but 18 just calmly picks the entire dimension up and lobs her off the side, all with a deadpan expression. I can't lie, that's probably one of the most hilarious scenes in the entire series. Also, 18 may have graduated into my favourite secondary characters.
Meanwhile, intercut with all this, Roshi and Tienshinhan do a little combo to beat up
And while you might point out the glaring discontinuity that Goku admonishes 17 for shooting people mid-powering-up since he beat up Recoome mid-powering-up in DBZ, it's honestly just Goku playing with the trope... and then Toppo runs in like a PSA announcement about how warrior poses cannot be interrupted and agrees with Goku in berating 17, who has this expression of 'jeez, I'm not dealing with this' throughout the entire thing. Now if we didn't actually go through the two-minute-long Sailor Moon ripoff power-up sequence from the beginning... yeah, if it was paced a bit better, it definitely wouldn't have grated that much. Ribrianne unleashes a 'love attack' that I don't think really succeeds in affecting anyone in the ring (even Roshi!) -- everyone in the stands is essentially affected, though.
Ribrianne and Super Saiyan Vegeta fight a little, and Ribrianne transforms into a spinning wheel with her face on it and... and we get to see the hilarious scene where Vegeta goes "bleeaaaagh" in slow motion as he prepares to punch Ribrianne before flying up ("I dodged in instinct out of revulsion!") which rivals 18 throwing Cocotte off as the funniest moment in this entire series. Ribrianne spins around and mostly by accident knocks out Jirasen, the pretty boy from U-10, who was fighting Piccolo. Yeah, Universe 10 is doomed to just be cannon fodder and collateral damage. Rozie fights Goku and her "Yacchina fist" power essentially sums up to going ATATATATATATATA really quickly, failing to even get Goku to go Super Saiyan.The big battle in this episode ends up being between 17 (appropriately, since he's the one that stealth-attacked the Fireballs mid-power-up) and Kakunsa, who is like a feral catgirl thing, and Kakunsa unleashes a barrage of fast attacks on 17 and seemingly knocks 17 down, but apparently 17 is just distracted because he was reminded of his pets. Oh, 17. 17 pretends to be exhausted (the Androids' infinite engine meaning that they will never tire out is emphasized many times in this arc) before sucker-punching Kakunsa with the barrier, which is pretty cool. And spinning the force field around is a neat application, with Kakunsa being saved by the winged Vikal from a ring-out, netting us another funny parody of magical girl anime when they have an elaborate "oh my friend!" moment. 17 then gets serious and one-shots Vikal, and then continues to fight Kakunsa... and in one of the cooler moments that 17 has done (and 17 is just a cool dude) he uses the artificial sun as footing to unleash a blast mid-air to knock Kakunsa out. Pretty cool stuff.
Episode 103: This episode is a bit of a more unfocused one after the previous couple of episodes, continuing the Fireballs fight -- Ribrianne fights 17, Rozie fights Goku, both parties team up a bit and actually corner the Fireballs until the Yardrat Jimeze teleports them away. We get a badass fight between Gohan and Botamo, where Gohan uses the momentum of his strikes (that don't damage Botamo) to lift Botamo up into the air, rendering him unable to fight, before Gohan knocks Botamo out. Poor Botamo, taken before his time. I liked Botamo.
We get to see Gohan look at Obuni's fallen family photo locket (aw, he's fighting for his family) and has a brief somber moment as the locket, too, is annihilated. Also while the angels of other universes don't get any significant scenes, cute little Cus actually cries at Universe 10's destruction, a stark contrast to the smirking Mojito of Universe 9.
Episode 104: The Hit episode! Hit initially fights Dyspo of U11, who is the rabbit-man that I mistook for a person of Beerus's race (Champa even notes this!). And Dyspo is essentially the Flash, with a super-fast amount of speed, even hitting Hit before he activates his time-skip. Hit himself shows off his badassery, studying Dyspo and realizing that Dyspo moves quickly when reacting to Hit's muscles tensing prior to time-skipping with his massive rabbit ears. Hit initially seems to be knocked back by Dyspo's sheer speed and his inability to unleash time-skip, but apparently he's studying Dyspo the way he did Goku back in the U6 arc, and then counter-attacks instead of time skipping, nearly knocking out Dyspo if his fellow Pride Trooper Kunshi (a weird goblin thing), who has energy string abilities, isn't around to help him out. Caulifla prepares to help Hit (the two U6 Saiyans had been told to hide and recover their stamina) but it's Goku that shows up.
And it's the Goku-Hit team-up everyone wants, and it's pretty glorious. The two's rivalry perhaps mirrors that of Goku and Tien, Piccolo and Vegeta... but it's still well-told regardless. And that's one hell of a dramatic entry, with Goku descending down like a wrathful god. A Super Saiyan God, in fact, the first time that Goku has used that form since the Beerus arc. Apparently he can activate it at will now? I don't think there is any real explanation as to how Goku manages to activate SSG without the ritual, but... um... yeah. This is kind of out of nowhere, as much as I enjoy SSG over SSB.Goku establishes something -- that God is faster but has less attacking force, and Blue hits hard but consumes a lot of energy. And we get a really cool bit where Goku tries and match Dyspo speed-for-speed, briefly turning Blue whenever he has to hit Dyspo. Kunshi lays a minefield trap with his strings, but of course Hit can unleash invisible flying punches. The two then trade enemies, with Hit pulling off a cool fake-out where he just randomly tenses his muscles throughout moving quickly, sometimes time-skipping and sometimes not, throwing Dyspo's reaction out of whack. Goku... Goku just goes Blue and charges straight through Kunshi's minefield, knocking him down. Hit throws Dyspo off, but Kunshi ends up rescuing Dyspo again, telling him to retreat while he holds off Goku and Hit... who knocks out Kunshi. So there are only three Pride Troopers remaining, but two of them are Toppo and Jiren, with Toppo noting that there's only survival or erasure now. Goku and Hit part ways on good terms, promising each other a rematch at the end of this.
Episode 105: Roshi episode! And unlike the rest of the 'weaklings' of Universe 7 (essentially anyone not a Saiyan or Android), Roshi has only helped out in taking out two lesser enemies. And it seems like this is going to be Roshi's spotlight episode, and by god, it's so, so much better than Krillin's. It's easily the best showing that Roshi has had ever since the original Dragon Ball, and he's still at the power level of a human and not suddenly bullshit his way up to god levels (-cough17cough-). Roshi first fights against Caway of Universe 4, who creates hammers out of ki, and then tries to play off a seduction trick to Roshi... and after a bit, it appears to work on Roshi (who hilariously goes chooo-pooo! leading to a cutaway to a confused Magetta)... who then reveals he's faking it and grabs Caway's spear with two fingers. Roshi then bulks up, suddenly turning serious and essentially low-key threatens Caway with assault (it's just a "I suppressed my desires for so long and you flaunt it in front of me? Don't blame me for what happens."), scaring Caway enough to jump off the arena.Roshi's second opponent is another one from Universe 4, Dercori, a lady with huge fin-like fingers who fights with talismans (doesn't those count as weapons?). Roshi notes how he has been studying all the other fighters while moving unnoticed, and notes how the more straight-up brutes like Goku and Vegeta might have problems if faced with someone like Dercori, and quickly subdues her gigantic illusion with the Mafuuba! Oh hey, finally the move works! We also get the hilarious bit where Beerus and Quitela argues about the rules of Roshi using a bottle (thus bringing to mind the classic cat-and-mouse rivalry), before the Zen'os shut them down with a "it's cool, so it's allowed".
Roshi then fights Ganos, the 'ace' of Universe 4 (and the dude that spied on U7 back in the recruitment arc), who transforms into a giant duck-man. There's some bullshit talk about how Ganos gets stronger every second... which honestly makes no real sense, and I really wished the power-increase was better explained. Absorbing ki from the atmosphere? Storing energy from punches? Something, anyway, beyond "I increase my power every second but right now I'm not that strong". Roshi then gives a pretty heartfelt, well-executed and well-written speech about how his students, Goku and Krillin (POOR YAMCHA HAHAHA), have taught him to go beyond his own limits, and after an awesome speech about them to live well, fight well, rest well, he unleashes his "most powerful Kamehameha", knocking out Ganos.Goku, who has been trapped by the metallic liquid creature Majikayo, chooses now to go Blue and go next to Roshi, and actually cries. Have we ever seen Goku cry as an adult? I genuinely don't think so, he usually goes angry. Goku uses some ki CPR to revive Roshi, and I didn't buy that Roshi was going to die like this, but at the same time the execution of the scene was amazingly done, and a pretty heartfelt one. Roshi is told to rest and recover his strength, while Beerus shows a neat bit of being impressed, asking Krillin what the 'old man's' name is. Aww, Beerus.
Episode 106: Gohan and Piccolo fight U6's Doctor Rota, who is a pig and wants you to know why, exactly, he is called Doctor... and that's the whole joke. He can't ever explain his power, as he is taken out by a sniper. This whole episode is just dealing with the sniper, who is a combination of Hermila and Prum of Universe 2. Hermila is this beaked muscle creature with cannons on his forearms, and Prum is a discount Clayface that can refract energy beams and direct them through crystals that simultaneously spy and look for heat. The entire episode is just the U7 team figuring this out... and I won't lie, while it's a very interesting and neat for other non-ace characters to get a more elaborate power, I really wish the execution was done a bit better, like maybe Prum and Hermila could've actually used their power once or twice earlier on. Tien joins Piccolo and Gohan as they try to figure out how to take out Prum, abusing Piccolo's regeneration power to get them closer to the snipers.
Goku and Vegeta show up to help up, but their energy blasts are absorbed and reflected by Prum, causing the two to resort to lobbing giant rocks at Prum, which is pretty funny. This then leads to a pretty nonsensical knock-out of Tienshinhan, however, and a pretty bad showing for him. Krillin at least gets to take out three characters in an episode focusing on him. Here Tien splits himself up into four bodies, charges Hermila alone when all he needs to do is to team up with Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and Gohan, then spends some time talking to Hermila, allowing Hermila to blast the ground and ring out Tien... and Tien's only contribution is to use his clones to tackle Hermila and knock him out too.
At least this episode has the punchline of Doctor Rota popping up to get vengeance at Prum, about to explain his powers... only for a very irate Vegeta to Galick Gun both of them. Yeah. Definitely a rather weak episode, I think.
Episode 107: Thankfully, it's followed up by this. The episode starts with a long recap, then Universe 3's Majikayo jumps up to attack Dyspo (under orders from the kai Ea to investigate Jiren's power). He makes the mistake of threatening to torture and cut off the bunny's ears, causing Jiren to do a badass walk to save his comrade, punching the air and instantly vaporizing Majikayo with the force, reducing him to his tiny nucleus form that gets knocked out.
Frost, meanwhile, targets the wounded Roshi, having joined the team as Champa's secret weapon against U7. Goku attempts to help out but gets into a fight with Ribrianne. Roshi goes into muscle form and exchanges some blows with Frost, and then tries to Mafuuba Frost, but his exhaustion causes him to miss the landing. Still it's good showing for Roshi before he gets brutalized with shots from Frost. Of course, it's Vegeta to the rescue, having a rematch with Frost... who then brings Vegeta close by into an ambush with Magetta (the metal man's entry is pretty amazing), who has rocks shoved into his ears. Roshi attempts to Mafuuba Frost again, but Frost somehow is able to take control of the Mafuuba wave and uses it to seal Vegeta instead, which is... a bit out of the blue, but still pretty badass. Roshi seems helpless, but he launches a tiny little ki blast before collapsing... but apparently he fakes it and redirects the small blast to the container, freeing Vegeta, who goes Blue, blasts Magetta's earplugs away and insults him before throwing him off. Frost escapes, while Vegeta tells Roshi to retire, calling him by the pretty respectful jii-san and acting all mean-but-respectful at Roshi. Yeah, a Vegeta/Roshi team-up isn't something that I'd expect happen, but it's pretty damn awesome and a pretty cool exit for the turtle hermit. (Beerus calls Tien, Krillin and Roshi the 'bald trio', which is hilarious)
And, of course, everyone is second-guessing what Freeza is trying to do. Throughout the arc, Freeza has made some remarks about surpassing the gods, and Whis and Beerus realize that Freeza might just want to be the last man standing to get said wish... and the moment where he faces off against Gohan is pretty tense. And then Frost shows up... and then everyone realizes that Frost and Freeza have teamed up against Saiyans (much to Champa's delight). Frost insists that Freeza fight first, preparing a death ball just in case, and Freeza actually does, beating up Gohan. The two respectively power up to Ultimate Gohan and Golden Freeza forms, and Gohan seems to be knocked out by Freeza.
Freeza and Frost then have a twisted version of Goku and Caulifla's bonding moment, with Freeza showing off his muscled-up final form to Frost, who mimics it... and Frost is all excited to learn from Freeza... who then tells him that "the first lesson: don't trust anyone" before attacking Frost and knocking him out of the ring. It's an amazing bit where I honestly bought that Freeza would be a wild-card, but most amazingly... apparently he planned it together with Gohan without even communicating, pulling his punches, and Gohan just plays along with it. While Freeza's betrayal is expected, the execution of the double-cross and the triple-cross is definitely well done. Freeza oh-ho-ho's and tells Frost that he won't even dream up with teaming up with a mere amateur.
Frost tries to attack Freeza from the sidelines... and the two Zen'os note that this is against the rules and erases Frost out of existence, which is definitely unexpected. Yeah, great moment for sure, and as Freeza stalks away, I end up being fully in the camp of having Freeza around, for the simple fact that, by god, wild-card Freeza is entertaining, and you just have no idea who he's going to double-cross next and when he's going to do it.
Episode 109: Ah, and here is episode 109... the climax to the first half, and there is a noticeable animation quality bump throughout episodes 109 and 110, which makes this sequence just so fucking amazing to watch. Goku and Ribrianne have been fighting for the past three or four episodes, and Ribrianne goes into a Super Ribrianne mode by absorbing the power from the 'love' of her fans, manifesting butterfly wings and a bow. Goku knocks Ribrianne down and drops her near Jiren's feet, and Ribrianne exits stage left to allow Goku to fight Jiren. We get an ominous moment where 
And I'm very thankful that Goku goes into Super Saiyans 1, 2 and God first (SSJ3 is just too inefficient, it seems) to properly show off just how powerful Jiren is. Considering how inconsistent Blue has been throughout this show, thank god Goku doesn't start off with that. Jiren is completely unaffected by the first two forms, and Super Saiyan God merely has Jiren block it with his finger. It's honestly a bit bland and reeks of anime movie villains that are oh-so-badass, but at the same time the execution both visually and pacing wise has done great at hyping Jiren up as an invincible villain that we still care about, and Goku goes Super Saiyan Blue and Kaioken, finally forcing Jiren to trade blows, and the shot of them casually passing all the other dumbstruck fighters is pretty awesome. Goku gets beat down, and only survives with Kaioken. The Universe 7 cheering squad note that "hey, Goku can still go x20, right?" before Beerus notes that "He's already x20 from the moment he activated Kaioken!"Goku then pulls off a Spirit Bomb, and by god, the sudden orchestral remix of the opening theme, Limit Break X Survivor, is just so amazing in this scene and the sudden animation bump helps a lot. The Universe 7 dudes give Goku their energy, even Freeza... but Vegeta refuses to! Apparently this is so that he can protect Goku from that sneaky bastard Ribrianne who tries to get a cheap shot in. Jiren recognizes Goku's strength and notes that, yes, he will take this shot. "This is our Universe 7's Spirit Bomb!" Goku yells out, and it's a badass scene. For all the problems I have with Jiren, it's still a badass scene in execution, from the Spirit Bomb descending down upon Jiren, and Jiren pushing it back with one hand and it seemingly swallows up Goku.
Episode 110: This episode begins with a continuation of the spirit bomb pushing, with Goku going x20 Kaioken, but Jiren uses the force of HIS INTENSE STARE to push it back (Okay, he probably gets serious instead of using his eyes, but still, that was kinda hilarious). It's a cool variation of the beam struggle, and the force from Goku and Jiren is so great that the Spirit Bomb is compressed into a black hole, swallowing Goku and the explosion shakes the World of Void. Goku is gone, and Jiren is victorious. Goku isn't teleported to the spectator seats, and it's pretty tense (thankfully it doesn't overstay its welcome) as Champa tries to get Jiren disqualified because he apparently killed Goku -- a smart move there, Champa -- but the Great Priest notes that Goku is vaporized by his own attack, which counts as self-destruction.
And while Belmod is confident that Goku's fall will demoralize everyone, the little montage of all the other warriors from Universe 2, 3 and 6 showing that they're pretty ready to jump Jiren and are not at all cowed is pretty amazing... which ends up getting kind of swallowed in the next few scenes as Goku, of course, returns... in a brand new form. He's stern, he's not speaking a lot, and he's surrounded in a glowing blue aura. And it's absolutely cool-looking, with the music and the shots being just nothing short of gorgeous. And then Goku manages to move so quickly that he now manages to land a hit on Jiren. Jiren attempts to punch Goku and we get a cool slow-motion where he dodges the fish and lashes out, slamming onto Jiren's fist with his own, and by god it's badass, and a second exchange of blows manages to scrape Jiren's face.
Everyone comments how 'unreal' Goku's movements feel, and we get this absolutely awesome moment when Toppo and Dyspo charge in from left and right, and Goku, without even looking, just catches both their fists and toss them to opposite sides of the crater. Jiren unleashes a barrage of Justice Flash, but Goku just power-walks through it, dodging every blast and occasionally swatting aside one or two. Jiren is now actually interested, telling Toppo to stand down.. and the two actually now fight, exchanging a One Piece/JJBA style barrage of fists... and pause these scenes and you can actually see that Jiren and Goku are actually catching and blocking and parrying every single one of the fast-animated blows.And then Whis drops the bombshell that this is "Ultra Instinct" (Migatte no Gokui), which is just what Whis was training Goku and Vegeta to achieve all the way back in the Golden Freeza arc (and even the movie!) of moving and reacting without thinking, and apparently this is just such a huge, huge revelation that even the gods of destruction and supreme kais of other universes are shocked -- it's a state that even gods have trouble achieving. Whis posits that it's caused by the clash of energies between the Spirit Bomb and Goku's own power,
And Goku actually manages to land blows on Jiren... before the two clash fists once more, with Jiren unleashing his own Kaioken-esque power up. Goku's Ultra Instinct runs out, but he at least gave Jiren one hell of a fight. Jiren blasts Goku away... but then Hit swoops in, attacking Jiren. Jiren goes "what are you doing?" and Hit's answer is a simple "I'm working." Goku is spirited away by his allies... namely Freeza, who looms over Goku and notes how this brings back memories of Namek...
Episode 111: Of course, while the episode plays up a bit of a tension where Freeza aims a ki blast and tells Goku that they are in a blind spot within the rubble, and tells Goku that this is time for payback... and actually heals Goku, transferring some of his energy, a payback to how Goku does the same thing (which Freeza took as disrespect) back during their final battle. Freeza essentially tells Goku to deal with the monster that is Jiren, and also tells him that the gods are afraid of his power. Interesting chap, that Freeza.Of course, Goku losing to Jiren marks the halftime, but we get a fight between Jiren and Hit. And with Hit barely winning against Dyspo, Jiren has nearly no trouble with time-skip, easily reading through Hit's timeskip and breaking his parallel world technique.
We get scenes of the two Universe 6 Namekians Saonel and Pirina fighting Gohan and Piccolo, while Vegeta fights Ribrianne and Rozie and manages to drive them off. We also get a couple of scenes of Cabba, Caulifla and Kale witnessing the battle between Hit and Jiren, and Cabba manages to hold the hotheaded Caulifla back from charging in, noting that Hit has a plan. Hit manages to use his vacuum punch attacks to steadily push Jiren towards the ring... and then uses his time ability to trap Jiren in a "cage of time", apparently his trump card. Hit then tells the U6 Saiyans to win the tournament and make sure they win by virtue of numbers while he keeps Jiren immobilized.However, Jiren, of course, uses sheer power to break through Hit's technique, and then Hit decides that he won't be able to hold out, and unleashes a final energy blast. Of course, Jiren is oh-so-badass and uses his glare once more to knock Hit back, knocking Hit out of the ring. It's a badass three-parter that really builds up Jiren as a character, and his interactions with Toppo and Belmod are perhaps the only things that keep me from writing out Jiren as a boring-invincible-antagonist. It seems that he might have some story behind him, leaving me to reserve judgment until the entire saga is over. There's no real interest behind Jiren beyond being an obstacle, and while I could go on and on, this review's gone on for long enough.
Jiren himself then goes into meditation, ostensibly because "I have beaten the only warriors that interest me", but I like to think that he's just regaining the strength he spent fighting Goku and Hit. We get a moment of actual d'aww-ness from the normally-assholish Champa, who actually congratulates Hit for his efforts. We get the robot Viara and the Kamen Rider knockoff Katopesla ambushing the meditating Jiren, but they are repelled by Jiren's aura. Goku, meanwhile, is completely spent and resolves to regain his strength, while the Great Priest notes that this is the halfway mark, and gives the arena a tint of green to signify this.
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Overall, despite some notes on how the saga could've been better handled, it's actually reasonably entertaining, and I definitely approve of the way that the show focuses mostly on handfuls of characters, occasionally making some of them more interesting as episodic villains. It manages to not be overwhelmed by its own scale, which is a neat feat. Jiren, despite the problems that he face as an antagonist, is pretty decently handled in my opinion. Overall, it's definitely the most enjoyable saga of Dragon Ball Super, but, of course, this is merely the first half. Hopefully I won't take as long in reviewing the second half.
Half-time recap of the Tournament of power fighters:
- Universe 2: [Magical Girls] Ribrianne, Rozie,
Kakunsa,Jimizu, Zirloin, Zarbuto, Rabanra,Harmina,Prum,Vikal - Universe 3: [Robots]
Narirama,Nigrisshi, Katopesla, Viara, Bollarator, Koitsukai, Panchia, Dr. Paparoni,Majikayo,The Preecho - Universe 4: [Tricks]
Ganos, Monna, Shantza,Shosha,Majora,Cawey,Darkori,Nink, plus two unknown members - Universe 6:
Hit, Cabba, Caulifla, Kale,Frost,Botamo,Magetta, Saonel, Pirina,Dr. Rota - Universe 7: Son Goku, Vegeta, Son Gohan, Piccolo, Freeza, Android 17, Android 18,
Krillin,Master Roshi,Tien Shinhan - Universe 9: [Beasts] ELIMINATED
(Bergamo, Basil, Lavender, Hyssop, Oregano, Sorel, Roselle, Comfrey, Hop, Comfrey) - Universe 10: [Muscles] ELMINATED
(Murichim, Obuni, Rubalt, Jium, Napapa, Mechiop, Murisamu, Zircor, Jirasen, Lilibeu) - Universe 11: [Pride Troopers] Jiren, Toppo, Dyspo,
Kahseral,Kunshi,Cocotte,Kettol,Tupper,Zoiray,Vuon
As the characters note, only the truly strong ones are left until here (even if Viara and Katopesla got jobbed against Jiren's aura), and yeah, out of the remaining characters, only three from Universe 2 (Zirloin, Zarbuto, Rabanra), the two U6 Namekians, and three characters from U3 (Koitsukai and Panchia who are obviously in a set with Bollarator, plus Dr. Paparoni), and the two dudes from U4 (Monna and Shantza) are not yet developed. Oh, and two mysterious members of U4 unseen until now. That's a far more manageable number to actually build up as characters since everyone else are established ones, and it leads to a far more exciting second half of the saga.
I get that what might perhaps feel super-enjoyable for me is simply because that I'm watching it in chunks of four or five episodes at a time, which makes it drag a bit less... but even then, comparing this to DBZ (I tried so hard to watch the Saiyan and Freeza saga. Tried.) it's really honestly not that bad, and the characters are handled reasonably well beyond the couple of missed ones I mentioned in the reviews (Tien and Krillin being the big glaring ones). It definitely could've been better, but Dragon Ball in all its incarnations has always tended to be of going from one fun moment to the next, and in that sense, and in delivering action and comedy, it definitely works pretty well.
I get that what might perhaps feel super-enjoyable for me is simply because that I'm watching it in chunks of four or five episodes at a time, which makes it drag a bit less... but even then, comparing this to DBZ (I tried so hard to watch the Saiyan and Freeza saga. Tried.) it's really honestly not that bad, and the characters are handled reasonably well beyond the couple of missed ones I mentioned in the reviews (Tien and Krillin being the big glaring ones). It definitely could've been better, but Dragon Ball in all its incarnations has always tended to be of going from one fun moment to the next, and in that sense, and in delivering action and comedy, it definitely works pretty well.
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