Film Review: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero [2022]

I didn't realize this movie was out until... well, until it was out in the streaming services. And this is kind of a follow-up to Dragon Ball Super: Broly, as the next big entry in the Dragon Ball franchise. I'm not really sure what's going on with Dragon Ball... I suppose Super really didn't do that well? I know there's a manga that's a bit rocky, and I don't know if the anime intends to adapt that, but eh. I have enough to talk about Super Hero, I guess.

I must say that I wasn't actually particularly interested in this movie from the trailers. The villains in the trailer -- Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 -- didn't look particularly appealing, looking more like a 'knockoff Hit' according to many people online, and I tend to agree. They also didn't draw this one, rather relying on 3D-animated software similar to what they did for a lot of the cel-shaded games recently like Xenoverse, FighterZ and Kakarot. 

I don't really have the energy to really break down every fight scene, but I will say that I was absolutely proven mistaken. Sure, the animation was a bit rough in some of the earlier non-action scenes -- there's a particularly long car ride between the human villains -- but the action scenes are where this new animation style shines particularly well, and I absolutely love the rain fight between Gohan and Gamma #1, which shows just how gat just showing them zipping around and slowing down and whatnot end up being. The Piccolo and Gamma #2 fight, particularly before Piccolo goes full orange, is also particularly smooth, particularly when telekinesis is involved. 

And so, yeah, I wasn't particularly impressed and it took me even longer to actually finish watching it. The movie, however, is... surprisingly good! And one of my biggest praises for this movie is that it acknowledges the increasingly-large cast that Dragon Ball has... but gives us a nice way to sideline them that doesn't seem bullshit. And I think my favourite part of this movie is that... this movie is Gohan and Piccolo's movie. Goku and Vegeta's roles are reduced to an extended cameo, and I actually do think the movie is much, much stronger because of it. 

Because, really... Goku's fun, and I'm as much a Vegeta fanboy as the next DBZ fan, but they've had a lot of their stories told. Sometimes at the expense of characters who are basically cannibalized for screentime -- and the biggest person that people point this out to is Gohan, who was really built up to be the next generation hero after the Cell Saga, and... just... peters out in favour for "Goku must be the one to gain the strongest-est power-up and deliver the final punch". 

In addition, there's always hints at Super doing something interseting with Gohan, particularly at the beginning of the universal survival arc, where it seems like Gohan's going to need to find a balance between being a career professor and being the protector of the universe. I do like that the movie does find a middle-ground that's not just 'Gohan needs to FIGHT because that's what sells tickets', where the thing that Piccolo tries to get Gohan to focus is not him becoming a warrior full-time, but rather to keep a balance on his training and stuff. 

The movie also brings up a lot of nice, forgotten continuity from the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, and does so in a way that isn't eyerolling as 'this is suddenly super-duper relevant' like the Mafuuba in the Zamasu arc. The villains of this piece are the remnants of the Red Ribbon Army that young Goku demolished, with some of them being out for revenge and some being bamboozled. There's a nice little motivation arc of them using the cover story of 'Capsule Corps is working with super-powerful aliens'. Piccolo's role as a designated punching bag is even explored a bit, with his more diverse powers that the franchise forgot about (like gigantification) being brought up. Pan, Goten and Trunks growing up is explored a little bit. 

And yeah. I am not really the most impressed by the human villains, I have to admit, but I do like their backstory. Magenta is the son of Commander Red, and he recruits the oddball Dr. Hedo, grandson of Dr. Gero. Hedo's not the most ethical guy out there, but he's got some interesting ideas of superheroes, and Magenta and his head flunky Carmine does deliver a rather convincing way to get Hedo to work with them to purge evil alien invaders from Earth.

We then cut to basically the main character of this movie, Piccolo, and this movie kind of takes the meme of 'Piccolo's a good dad' and runs with it full-force. The thing is, that meme is honestly very applicable to his role in DBZ, and seeing him being supportive to Pan and being a good uncle/grand-uncle to her. It's nice to see that they'er acknowledging Pan again, too, who is the cutest little child in this movie. I like that Pan's never really in danger because she's a Saiyan kid, and she's already going around breaking handcuffs and headbutting evil Red Ribbon kindappers and stuff. We don't really know if GT is still considered canon or not (and at this point, even 'End of Z' is kind of handwave-y) but it's nice that this Pan is much less irritating than her GT counterpart. 

Piccolo gets a bit pissed off at Gohan being so obsessed about his scientific works, and while Gohan's not completely out of practice, and his defense that 'Goku and Vegeta will always be around' isn't completely invalid, this movie, of course, goes to deconstruct that. Of course part of it is also Piccolo trying to get Gohan off his ass and be a dad. 

Goku and Vegeta, of course, are just hanging out in Beerus's world with Beerus, Whis, Broly and his two hanger-ons. It's a nice way to subvert the reason that Resurrection F was so derided -- that Beerus is there to solve everything. Here, with everyone focused on training, it gives a nice little explanation as to why none of the super-god-tier characters are involved while we're dealing with Gohan and Piccolo's story. There's a brief bit of comedy as Beerus gets a generic anime crush on Cheelai, and some callbacks to the fight against Jiren as the state of power control that Vegeta tries to get him and Goku to learn, but ultimately I do like that this is kind of a way to sideline our big two heroes. 

And then the action scenes happen! Gamma #2 is the more eneretic, goofy one, and he's basically a 'perfected' version of the Androids from the Cell Saga. Gamma #2 attacks Piccolo and I absolutely love that Piccolo actually sees the giant comic-book sound effects behind him. It's apparently holograms that Dr. Hedo adds in just to make things look cooler since Hedo thinks he's designing peacekeepers. 

And then this leads to a part of the movie that I feel is simultaneously dragged out but raelly fun, which is Piccolo infiltrating the Red Ribbon Army, by stealing someone's full-body uniform and pretending to be a dork to get into the inner workings. I love that we get a bit of smarts involved in this movie, and while the dynamic of Hedo and the Gammas being duped by Magenta is a bit simple, it does add just a bit of 'these guys aren't completely flat' to the villains. We get to meet Gamma #1, who's basically the serious guy to Gamma #2's goofiness, and we also get hints that Hedo is working on Cell Max. There's a typical cartoon villain stupidity going on here where Hedo keeps insisting that Cell Max isn't able to be controlled while Carmine is like "but he'll let us control the world!"

And admittedly, the way Piccolo gets his superpowers is a bit too rapid for my tastes, but at the same time the movie isn't about that, necessarily. Still a better origin for the powers than Super Saiyan Blue, in any case. We get some comedy with Bulma, Dende and the Dragon Balls, but Piccolo then asks Shenron to unlock his latent potential the same way that Guru did for Gohan and Krillin all the way back in the original Namek arc. 

And then we get the final act of the movie, which is kind of a big, extended action scene. Magenta sends out his troops to kidnap Pan to target Gohan, and Piccolo, disguised as a Red Ribbon soldier, decides that this is a good way to get Gohan to get a power-up while also guaranteeing Pan's safety. I love that Pan isn't fooled for one second about Piccolo's disguise, and the next sequence as the Red Ribbon soldiers confront Gohan is probably one of the coolest shots in the movie. 

Gohan just doesn't really give a shit when all the goons are doing is pulling guns at him, but the moment they threaten Pan, Gohan just goes all superhero mode, speed-blitzes in front of the soldier, and the sheer crater from his power-up causes the ground under his house to collapse. And then when the jet finally enters Red Ribbon airspace and Gohan sees Pan, he just doesn't give a shit and powers-up so hard that the plane explodes and Gohan flies down. 

And then we get an extended fight scene, which is probably the best part of the movie. As mentioned above, the animation is fluid, the effects are cool, and while I don't really think the Gammas really do develop between 'serious' and 'more lively', they make for decent enough humanoid enemies for our heroes. Piccolo and Pan do some 'bad acting' to get Gohan to get super pissed-off and go into his... 'Ultimate Gohan' form? Potential Unleashed form? My Dragon Ball terminology is rusty. I also like that the Gammas are actually disturbed by seeing what they think is a Red Ribbon soldier harming the little child hostage, showing that they're still programmed as superhefoes at heart. 

Piccolo eventually fights Gamma #2, and it's a bit hard to tell, but he's actually fighting in a powered-up form where his green skin is a bit lighter. We get some really cool shots (particularly that square segment of the battlefield collapsing) before Piccolo realizes that Shenron gave him an additional power-up... and this is Orange Piccolo, where he grows a bit more demonic (reminiscent of his original Demon King Piccolo form) and his skin goes orange. Honestly, about damn time Piccolo gets something, and in this form Piccolo manages to one-shot Gamma #2. 

So yeah, we've got a fun victory for Piccolo. At this point, Piccolo manages to get Gamma #2 to listen, and the sight of Carmine holding a gun at Pan (who casually conks him to submission) causes the Gammas to realize that the Z-Fighters aren't villains after all. Bulma arrives, bringing the backup army of Trunks, Goten, Krillin and 18. They regroup for a bit and chat.

Meanwhile, Hedo and Magenta confront each other in the Cell Max chamber, and there's a moment when it actually does look like Magenta pulls a gun on poor Dr. Hedo and shoots him dead. This is where the foreshadowing of 'shock-absorbant' skin pays off, but then Magenta puts on a Robocop cyborg suit, and... okay, I must say that after the sleek Gamma fight before, this sequence is honestly kind of bland. It doesn't take too long, but Magenta unleashes Cell Max. 

Cell Max is basically a red, gigantic kaiju version of Semi-Perfect Cell, but with none of Cell's mind or charm. Oh, he's also got a club for his tail. Cell Max rampages, and all the heroes there fight him and... I can enjoy a superhero-versus-giant-monster movie! I don't necessarily think that the Cell Max fight is more impressive than the Gamma fight, animation-wise, but there are certainly a lot of shots here that make it look pretty cool. 

And since they have to build up Cell Max as a credible threat while also simultaneously finish him off in under 30 minutes, the Gammas reveal that Dr. Hedo built a weak point on top of Cell Max's head. Gotenks' fusion ends up fucking up and he spends the rest of the movie as fat Gotenks, durable but ultimately not particularly useful. Everyone's attacks fail to really damage Cell Max's head but then we get an epic sacrifice from Gamma #2 as the rest of the cast hold Cell Max in position. However, Gamma #2 isn't strong enough, and even with his self-destruct all he manages is to tear off one of Cell Max's arms.

...and I sound flippant, because I am. We barely spent any time with Gamma #2, and as I mentioned before he does come off as a bit of a caricature more than a character. Hedo's death would make me feel something, I guess, but he survives. At least they killed off #2, the more interesting one, so I felt a little something? I wouldn't care any less if the boring #1 was killed. 

Anyway, Piccolo goes Orange Piccolo, and we get a fun return of an old technique -- Krillin reminds Piccolo of Gigantification, which allows him to grow to Cell Max's size and match him physically -- even if giant Piccolo doesn't actually get a power boost. We also get the return of the fun giant Sun Wukong pole, which I appreciate. The rest of the cast (mostly Piccolo, tbh) hold Cell Max together, while Gohan is given a Senzu Beam to charge up his attack. In a sequence that's framed similarly to when Gohan originally unlocked Super Saiyan 2 upon Android 16's death, Gohan gets a badass power-up into Super Saiyan Beast, I think? He sure gets red eyes, super-spiky white hair and a whole lot of aura. 

Again, some really great visuals, like Gohan standing still as Cell Max punches him with enough force to obliterate the terrain behind him. Cell Max summoning a gigantic ball of black-purple energy that he condenses into a small bomb. And, of course, Gohan unleashing the move he's been powering up all this while... the Makankosappo, which, of course, is Piccolo's signature move! Again, a very great tribute to Gohan's other (and to some fans, better) mentor and father-figure, and Gohan blows the shit up of Cell Max. 

There's a bit of a wrap-up after that, where our heroes pick themselves up from the gigantic explosion of Cell Max's selfdestruction. Pan also learns to fly somewhere in all of this, which helps to tie up a little character arc she had. Piccolo is impressed with Gohan's new form, and has a bit of a moment with Gamma #1 as they see #2's body disintegrate. Bulma gives Hedo and Gamma #2 jobs in the cosmetics division of her company.

And... yeah! Very self-contained, and there's a lot of moments that are devoted into characterization more than anything. There's a bit of a 'fanservice' vibe from this, sure, where Piccolo and Gohan are immensely popular in a lot of parts of the world but they've been sidelined into doing 'Makankosappo' and 'Kamehameha' once an arc throughout all of Super. I do really like that we're moving away from forcing every arc to be about Goku and Vegeta to the exclusion of everyone else, and I think after the Broly movie managed to make it more of a movie about Broly and Vegeta instead of Goku, the writers have finally realized that they could move the show out of the comfort zone of always relying on Goku. 

Anyway, I'm very happy that Piccolo and Gohan actually get the movie for themselves. The power-ups are fun, the animation is gorgeous and the action scenes are thrilling. Highly recommended!

Random Notes:

• Dr. Gero's family -- Android 21's base from the FighterZ games, as well as Android 16's human counterpart (which to my knowledge has only been acknowledged in supplementary material), makes their proper 'canon' cameos in Gero's family tree.
• Shout-out to Carmine, who has powerpoint presentations set up like Youtube channels, as well as creating a custom little dome for his gigantic pompadour while he's driving his boss around. 
• Also love the little gag of Piccolo constantly getting mascot dolls and even phone casings from Gohan and Videl. 
• The cast lampshades that Saiyans (even half-ones) go from 'chibi' to 'full-built adult' after a growth spurt, which is basically what Goku goes through. As per this movie, Goten and Trunks have finished their growth spurt. 
• Man, Goten is just irrelevant, huh?
• Also love the gag of Gohan being actually unable to see and needing glasses in his 'base' form, which Piccolo lampshades. "Does going Super Saiyan cure your eyesight?" It apparently does, since Gohan does a badass flick of his glasses when he transforms to fight the Gammas. 
• It's a huge, missed opportunity that Hedo or the Gammas never interacted with Android 18, and honestly beyond a close-up to her horrified reaction at the sight of Cell Max, 18 really feels criminally underused in a movie about Androids.
• Piccolo, Vegeta, Buu and Android 18 actually being villains .efore the Z-fighters reformed them is probably really helping out Magenta's arguments, huh? They could probably find a fair bit of recordings of these guys specifically causing havoc.
• Mr. Satan doesn't make an appearance, but I do like that he's still acknowledged mistakenly by the Red Ribbon Army as a particularly huge threat. 
• I love that after Piccolo reveals that the jig is up, Pan just very casually demolishes the Red Ribbon troops with the same ease that her grandpa Goku did when he was her age.
• Gohan's Makankosappo is cool as hell, but the animation on Piccolo's regular Makankosappo is also not bad!
• Gohan claims that Goku and Vegeta might not have been able to beat Cell Max on their own... which you could take as another example of Dragon Ball's ever-increasing power-up scaling, or just Gohan riding the high of his new form. 
• I do love that Hedo was willing to give himself up to the police. Krillin, who is a policeman, panics at the idea of holding someone as powerful as Gamma #1. And in the background while Piccolo and Bulma are talking to the reformed villains, we get Android 18 being kind of pissed off about that and arguing with Krillin. 

Movie Review: Dragon Ball Super Broly

Dragon Ball Super: Broly [2018]

It is honestly impressive how well Dragon Ball Super: Broly did as an anime movie, but I really think I have to state just how impressive it is not just as a money-making movie, but also as a part in an ongoing franchise. It not only acts as a canonical continuation of the Dragon Ball Super anime, it also is faced with the somewhat daunting task of adapting not one, but two of Dragon Ball's more controversial plot points that have remained ambiguously canon. The first is the titular Broly, who is... a controversial character that has only appeared in movies but has been one of the most popular characters in the franchise. The second is the adaptation of Dragon Ball Minus, an alternate backstory for the Saiyans that is in stark contrast to the very much beloved Bardock special. If this sounds like Greek to you... yeah, Dragon Ball canon is kinda in flux and there are a lot of stuff that exist outside of the main anime/manga canon that is sorta-kinda canon but might be contradicted at any time. 

And it does so... beautifully. I have been pretty vocal in that I have never been a big fan of Broly. Having experienced a majority of the Dragon Ball franchise as an adult without the benefit of nostalgia, I saw Broly for what he honestly is -- a fun, throwaway movie-exclusive villain that was decent for the one movie he's in, but ended up getting two particularly shit sequels made. Broly was a decent rampaging monster villain, but he was a far cry from being an actual interesting character -- and that is using the standards of Dragon Ball villains, where villains are honestly more of a huge, extended boss fight than actual fully-fledged characters. 

Thankfully, Dragon Ball Super: Broly delivers not only in integrating Broly into a modern-day era of Dragon Ball, but also in actually making him a proper character. This movie basically jettisons every single one of the previous movies, but updates some key aspects of Broly's origin story into this movie. And it's done amazingly well.

My big complaint with Dragon Ball Super: Broly when I went to watch it in the cinema is that it feels... truncated. Particularly in the first half. It's essentially two movies, with the first thirty or so minutes acting as a huge prequel, but it's from this prequel that I do feel that there are things that genuinely felt rushed. We get some genuinely fun bits of backstory that both adapts and alters parts of the Bardock: Father of Goku prequel OVA, showing in a pretty badass moment how Freeza first came to power after King Cold's retirement in a quick display of power. 

We also get a surprisingly amazing combination of various plot threads -- Freeza's tyrannical rule and eventual genocide of the Saiyan race; Bardock deciding to send his son to space and lead one last desperate stand against Freeza; and Broly's backstory. Without going into too much details, we do get a genuinely fun integration of multiple plotlines, and working it all into a cohesive backstory by using the Saiyan's disdain of Freeza as a backdrop is pretty well done. Hell, even Freeza showing up and introducing Scouters for the first time even works into the power level comparison that King Vegeta did with the babies. Sure, there seemed to be some truncated scenes between Bardock sending Goku to space and Bardock seemingly leading a futile resistance against Freeza's Death Ball attack, but you get the gist of what's happening. 

We get to see how three Saiyan fathers -- King Vegeta, Bardock and Paragus -- react to the Freeza rule. King Vegeta, despite all his talk about pride and strength, is far too willing to bow the knee to overwhelming force, and ends up launching baby Broly essentially to his death for the crime of having a higher power level than his own son. Paragus ends up going off to rescue his son, but ends up being driven more out of spite and anger at King Vegeta's betrayal, and all his talk about Borly being the salvation of the Saiyan race gets symbolically thrown out the window when he shoots the other Saiyan that went with him. Bardock, meanwhile, a lowly grunt, ends up putting the pieces together and figure out that something's amiss, and ends up sending his son to space. Honestly, Bardock gets more depth to him in the brief ten or so minutes we see him in this movie than two entire specials did for him, which is nice. 

I'm not convinced that the parallels are truly there, but the little opening sequence of three Saiyan children -- Goku, (Prince) Vegeta and Broly -- as they grow up is an amazingly pretty sequence. And while Goku and Vegeta ended up growing and maturing in their own different ways, poor Broly ends up basically stranded on an island but still continues to train in the pursuit of strength, something that all Saiyans are shown to do. 

And then we get to the real meat of the episode, which takes place in the present day. Freeza was last seen in Dragon Ball Super brought back to life and re-gathering his army, the Freeza Force, and it seems to be building up to something big. He ends up being more of a catalyst for that goes on in this movie more than the actual Big Bad, though, because... well, this movie wants to tell a story about Broly and how he comes into conflict with our heroes, and less about 'Defeat The Big Bad Of The Movie', which is definitely well-done. 

And Broly's easily the star of this movie. We spend a not-insignificant amount of time with Broly in this movie, and comparisons between Broly and Tarzan is... apt. The relationship between Broly and Paragus is also pretty interesting. Sure, Paragus is only a man, and they have been trapped on a feral island for upwards of 40 years. Throw in Broly's uniquely high power levels and how Paragus has barely been able to control Broly, and it's... it's not right, and pretty damn evil what Paragus did, but you can sort of understand the cold logic reasoning of what Paragus did. 

When two of Freeza's goons (which are more irate part-timers than actual soldiers), Cheelai and Lemo, basically rescue Paragus and Broly from the hellhole planet they are stranded in. And we actually end up following Cheelai and Lemo as they go around basically discovering Broly for the first time. Paragus is grizzled and tired, but is still pretty obsessed about getting his vengeance against Vegeta -- the son, this time, now that King Vegeta's dead. But the way that Paragus demonstrates his control over Broly, and just how poor, poor Broly freaks out at the sight of the remote for the shock collar around his neck... man, it makes you really feel for Broly. He might be a rampaging monster, but throw in the genuinely heartbreaking performance that the voice actor did for him when the shock collar gets triggered, little bits of dialogue and animation of Paragus basically telling Broly to not talk to anyone else... and the later story about how Paragus shot off the ear of the only animal he ever befriended just because it distracted Broly from training... yeah, poor Broly's backstory is delved in a far, far better way than the movie trilogy ever did. Also, Cheelai and Limo quickly take to befriending Broly, and one of the acts that Cheelai ended up doing -- which would influence the eventual final act of the movie -- is to steal Paragus's control remote. That's cute. 

And while Freeza's excuse to go to Earth is honestly quite petty, the fact that he's just willing to sic Broly onto Vegeta just for shits and giggles is honestly quite in-character for him, especially after the development he's gotten in the later arcs of Super. The little juxtaposition between Bulma's desire of wishing that she grow younger by five years and Freeza's desire of wishing that he gets taller by 5 cm (it makes sense in context) is also hilariously petty and I honestly love it.

And then we get fight scenes as both parties arrive on the Ice Continent in search for the final Dragon Ball! Paragus ends up mostly just being utterly confused at Freeza's expectations of all these 'Super Saiyan' forms, and while Broly ends up being pretty much a match for Vegeta, he ends up breaking out the Super Saiyan, and then the Super Saiyan God form. The animation for the Vegeta-vs-Broly fight is absolutely majestic, particularly Vegeta's God transformation, which is the first time we ever see it animated. And... and I am just going to note that even if you don't really give a shit about the story, the animation for this entire movie is just... it's just BEAUTIFUL. Everything moves smoothly, and the big budget that went into this movie is pretty damn great. The fight between Vegeta and Broly isn't just repeated punchy-punch animation followed by a Final Flash, but an actual, visceral and simply amazing fight to watch. 

It's then followed by Broly being enraged and entering a bulked-up Hulk-like state, leading into a fight between Broly and Goku and it's... it's not as spectacular as the preceding Vegeta fight, or the final climax of the movie, but I really do like how Goku quickly realizes that Broly is not like any of his previous (canon) enemies, in that... Broly is being forced to fight. He's neither evil nor willing, and it's a nice little touch from Goku that kinda addresses many of the complaints thrown his way during Super's multiverse tournament arc. Broly isn't being receptive, though, just reduced to roaring in anger. Paragus actually compares this to the Great Ape/Ozaru transformation, and it honestly is a pretty great little nod to earlier Dragon Ball stories while also providing an explanation to Broly's animalistic rage. At one point during this fight we get a genuinely neat bit of Broly just wailing on poor Goku, grabbing him by the leg and just smashing him to the ground repeatedly.

Oh, and Freeza, again, seemingly just for shits and giggles, ends up wanting to experiment. Remembering what triggered Goku's transformation into Super Saiyan on Namek, Freeza shoots Paragus to death and fake-acts about "oh no, how terrible, your father was killed by a stray blast!" Paragus was an asshat who deserves to die, but this does still trigger the Super Saiyan evolution in Broly, which... which is way too much for anyone there to handle. 

We get Goku going into Super Saiyan Blue, which is a pretty badass sequence, but it goes by quickly as he and Vegeta figure out that it's not enough to stop Broly, and basically lead Broly's rampage towards Freeza before Goku teleports the two of them away, leaving Broly to basically wail on poor, poor Freeza. Who, again, also deserves it. I thought that the sequence with Vegeta and Goku learning the Fusion Dance honestly went on for way too long, and if nothing else, was probably something that should've been left for the Director's Cut. 

Regardless, though, we get the birth of Gogeta, the always not-quite-as-canonical alternate fusion. And it's... it's pretty cool. I've never been a huge, huge fan of either Gogeta or Vegito, since it's honestly just another power-up with a slightly more intricate way of reaching it, but the way this movie portrays it? It's pretty cool. The subsequent fight is... it's basically a huge curb-stomp in Gogeta's favour, where Broly is just barely keeping up with Gogeta as they fight through the lava-encased hellscape and eventually briefly through some psychedelic landscape. It's pretty and exciting, in any case, and while some 3D animation 'cheats' are used, it's nowhere as obvious as this movie's predecessor, Resurrection F. Some particular standout bits of animation is Gogeta's... "Stardust Breaker", I think it's called? As well as that rain of laser beams. 

Anyway, I do love that unlike most one-shot movie villain outings, this fight isn't just about "okay, how do the good guys beat up the bad guy?" It's not like Old!Broly or Janemba or Cooler or whatever, or even Freeza from Resurrection F. As the audience, the intended reaction is to cheer for when Gogeta is beating the bad guy and stopping him from killing everyone, but at the same time, we are privy to something that neither Goku nor Vegeta really knows -- that Broly is a victim of circumstance, and while he is rampaging like a wild dog, he doesn't really mean what he's doing. 

Which is honestly what leads to the real climax of the movie. Gogeta and Broly fight on seemingly equal terms, and then Gogeta gains the undisputable upper hand when he activates Super Saiyan Blue... and then Broly is straight-up about to get vaporized by Gogeta's blast. But Cheelai and Limo have been running around in the background stealing the Dragon Balls from Freeza's other lieutenants, and use the dragon ball wish to basically send Broly back to the planet where he was, putting the poor, tortured soul back where he belongs. Hopefully he meets with his Baah-baah friend again! Goku, eventually, ends up finding Broly on that planet and basically giving him and his buddies living essentials, understanding and comprehending Broly's real nature and being glad that there's another Saiyan out there. After years of denying his Saiyan heritage, it is also interesting that apparently this encounter had made Gokue embrace the name 'Kakarot', which... I dunno. Something I'm somewhat ambivalent about -- I feel like we're lacking a scene where Goku uses Broly as his own stepping stone to embrace his past. 

Ultimately, it's a pretty great ending in that it made me really care for Broly as a character. He's a villain, yes, but he's a misunderstood beast and one that genuinely doesn't want to harm anyone but ends up doing so due to the uncontrolled temper issues. The movie ends with Broly alive, basically buddies with Goku, and me walking out of the theater actually liking him and wishing that he'll be a recurring character in whatever comes next. 

The movie is, perhaps, a little over-hyped by fan response. But it is definitely a very solid movie, and I genuinely like it. It fixes a lot of my complaints with the previous movie outing (although since this review's gone on for some time, I'll probably talk about Rez F versus Broly as movies in another article), and even fixes a lot of my problems with Dragon Ball villains in general. Sure, Broly is basically just kind of a fusion of Tarzan and Hulk, but that honestly ended up with a character that I genuinely care about. I do have some gripes with the movie, but ultimately? It was such an exciting, fun romp and such a fun little standalone story that I don't actually have the heart to do so. 

Dragon Ball Super 126-131 Review

Author's note: These were originally reviewed separately, and later combined to be consistent with other Dragon Ball Super content. 

This was originally the episode 127 review, and preserved due to having the most comments. 

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Dragon Ball Super, Episode 124: The Fiercely Overwhelming Assault! Gohan's Last Stand!!

Hoo, I just finished from a huge, huge high of reviewing the entirety of Dragon Ball Super, and while I did watch the last two episodes as they came out, this is going to be the first Super episode that I review on its lonesome. Which isn't going to last very long with the show going on seemingly indefinite hiatus with episode 131 or thereabouts, but I actually have something prepared that's going to be Dragon Ball related for the foreseeable future. (No, it's not GT)

But while I'm all bubbly and happy about the franchise as a whole, what with my recent binge-watch and binge-review of Dragon Ball Super and my generally positive attitude towards it, plus playing through the story mode of Xenoverse 2, I do have to admit when an episode's not particularly up to scratch. And this one is one of those episodes. 

Granted, it's hard to keep up the high-octane pace that the Vegeta/Goku-vs-Jiren fight has been for the past two episodes. We got a couple of cursory blow-trading, Vegeta and Goku do a combined Final Flash/Kamehameha thing to bury Jiren in rubble, and we did get a ccool shot of Jiren rising out of it... but that fight felt more like it's just trying to fill up one-third of the episode's screentime. 

Because the main fight here is Dyspo fighting Freeza, and it's... it's not particularly impressive. Dyspo's gimmick of being super-fast doesn't really lead to anything particularly memorable, the constant usage of the ATATATATATA scenes are a bit too much. Freeza gets to stop dicking around in this episode and actually go Golden and shock the shit out of Dyspo with his sheer power level, it's kind of a given that the bunny  superhero's about to meet his end in the tournament. Freeza also tries to pull off a "hey, let me work with you to beat up Universe 7, but you wish me back, mmmmkay?" deal that he tried to pull off with Roh's agent and Frost, but it's honestly nowhere as well-executed or as exciting as it was in those two times. We also kind of get a failed opportunity with a lack of "I AM A PRIDE TROOPER, VILE VILLAIN!" style of dialogue.

Oh, and the Golden Freeza transformation is recycled, but it's a short and well-animated transformation sequence, so I don't mind it as much. 

I did find it rather surprising, however, that this isn't where Freeza just one-shots Dyspo... and we get the revelation that Dyspo has his own power-up mode called "Super Maximum Light Speed Mode". Really, Dyspo? No "Justice" or "Pride" somewhere in there? For shame. And they... well, they basically repeat the same thing, except this time it's faster than even the Kami-Pad's slow motion function can follow. Gohan ends up jumping in to help out Freeza, leading to a tag-team between the two, but Dyspo's power-up mode was delivered in such an underwhelming way that things like Anilaza ends up being far more interesting. Freeza ends up creating a laser cage for Gohan and Dyspo to fight in, but... Freeza... randomly "loses his grip"? Causing Gohan to choke-hold Dyspo, and for Freeza to ring them both out?

It's not the worst exit for Gohan, as he gets a far more dignified one than Piccolo and Tien Shinhan did, but it still leaves me with a weird taste in my mouth. We don't really get a proper payoff to Gohan's character arc in this tournament saga, and while he does really feel like a badass in the short while that he fights Dyspo, I still feel that as a character development tool it's still a bit hit-and-miss. The way that Freeza loses his grip could've been a lot better, too, by simply utilizing Toppo in interrupting Freeza's death-cage and having a resolution to the 17/Gohan deal they had last episode. I dunno. It's a pretty underwhelming episode in both action and character. It's not bad, it's just... bland. 

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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. 

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Dragon Ball Super, Episode 126: Surpass Even A God! Vegeta's Desperate Blow

This episode is actually... quite polarizing. Literally so, too! Let's go with the bad bits out of the way first, which is actually quite coincidentally, the first half of this episode. Like, the entire first half. See, one of the rather glaring problems that old-school Dragon Ball Z has is that sometimes the villains and antagonists feel like absolute chumps after displaying such a huge power-up, and then absolutely failing to defeat their opponents. Which is exactly what's going on here. Toppo's god of destruction powers are so unbelievably badass in the previous episode, and the man's an unstoppable juggernaut. Honestly, the previous episode might be one of my favourite episodes of Super due to the fighting scenes between Toppo, 17 and Freeza. 

Here it kind of... undoes the impact of last week's episode, honestly. Toppo is just shouting HAKAI wily-nily and shooting the Justice Flash attack (probably now just called "Flash" since he's renounced justice) and the entirety of the first half of the episode honestly feels like filler, not helped by literal filler due to the extra-long recap. 17 just runs around without any of the badassery that made him so entertaining in all of his previous outings, and Toppo ends up just hakai-ing all the rocks and rubble, which isn't as impressive as... literally every single other thing he did in the previous episode. Freeza shows up, having recovered from having his skull crushed, to pull off a telekinesis attack to hold Toppo in place, before lobbing some rocks telekinetically at him... but of course it does nothing. It's a new trick, at least, even if it doesn't look impressive at all. 

Honestly, a lot of these felt more like they should've happened earlier in the fight, and not after Toppo has broken Frieza's spirit by flicking a little marble ball to destroy his death ball. 

And then the random errant energies from the fight between Jiren and the two Saiyans lashes about, and 17 and Frieza get caught in the crossfire from a Jiren blast and just get knocked out unceremoniously. I'm not a big fan of this. Thank god that 17 and Freeza don't actually get ringed-out in a ridiculous and out-of-nowhere attack, but the fact that they get taken out of the fight without doing much to Toppo after fighting him for the entirety of the previous couple of episodes is honestly a bit galling. 

And I would've been far more mad if the second half of the episode isn't as well-done as it is. Toppo and Jiren splits up, with Toppo facing off against Vegeta (and, well, since I go into anime episodes skipping their titles, it does mean that this wasn't a development I realize was going to happen). There's an actual bit of a clash of ideals going on between Vegeta and Toppo, which is genuinely unexpected, and I really, really wished that the writing behind Toppo shedding his Justice is actually handled somewhat better. Maybe cut out some of the recycled animation and sequences in the first half, and just have some Toppo monologues about abandoning justice? Maybe talk a bit at the impartiality that gods of destruction must have or something along those lines? 

But Vegeta is the perfect foil for Toppo, and the show acknowledges it -- I didn't really consider it, but Toppo harps about the Pride Troopers being warriors of justice, and it's similar to Vegeta being a huge proponent of Saiyan Pride throughout the entire series. It also gives me faith that Vegeta still has a character arc throughout Super instead of just being a generic, boring anime side-character-that-fights-and-has-no-other-personality. Vegeta is disgusted at Toppo for sacrificing his pride and ideals, while he himself has a brief moment to recall his wife and children, as well as his promise to Cabba... and actually powers up so much he punches through a hakai sphere and even goes through some amazingly animated fighting sequences to toss Toppo around. 

And we get a glorious flashback to one of the best moments in the Buu Saga -- Majin Vegeta's sacrifice, as he detonates himself knowing full well that he's going to be sent to hell after his death, marking his complete character growth back in Dragon Ball Z. It's pretty amazing, and without pointing it out overtly, it actually reminds me of how Vegeta actually did what Toppo exactly did back in that arc -- he threw away his allegiance to Goku, as well as his family, in order to get stronger and become Majin Vegeta just for the sake of power, and it's a decision he eventually came to regret and made peace with. Vegeta isn't just spouting and mocking Toppo's abandoning of justice because he's a jackass -- take note that he actually says "I won't sacrifice anything again!" And that comparison with past-Vegeta actually makes the latter half of the episode absolutely amazing, coupled with some pretty great voice acting from Horikawa Ryo that truly makes Vegeta's brief moments of contemplation really powerful. It is literally impossible not to get emotional and pumped up throughout all of the Vegeta scenes, which legitimately got me slightly misty-eyed, and for that I tip my hat to the anime staff. 

Again, outside of the Vegeta stuff, there's a lot of great material here that I really wish was made more impactful by having Toppo be somewhat developed beyond just repeating "hakai" and "justice is meaningless" like fifteen times throughout the episode. Still, Vegeta unleashes the Final Explosion (or Final Atonement) technique and blasts Toppo out of the ring, and while he's not killed by it he's reverted back to his regular form. This leaves only Jiren, with Goku, Vegeta and 17 ready to fight him (Frieza's presumably just groaning in a pile of rubble somewhere), and Jiren... Jiren's uncharacteristically chatty here, isn't he? He actually gets somewhat pissed off and gets angry at Goku and Vegeta earlier in the episode, and here he tells Toppo to piss off for being useless, before promising to show off his "true"power as he finally powers up. 

So yeah, there's like four minutes left in the tournament and around that many episodes are left for Super. Overall... probably one of the better moments in the Super series for Vegeta, and the parallels between Toppo and Vegeta ends up making this a fight I ended up getting far more emotionally invested in despite taking place for only half an episode compared to most of the "you and you, fight!" battles that have been happening throughout this tournament... but not a good episode overall due to poor pacing and the very weak first half. 

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Dragon Ball Super, Episode 127: The Approaching Wall! The Final Barrier of Hope!

This episode of Dragon Ball Super is... odd. I tend to easily handwave a lot of Dragon Ball Super's shortcomings for the simple reason that I've never found Z to be as impressive or a masterpiece as most people make it out to be, not having the benefit of viewing Z with nostalgia. Both Z and Super are really good shonen action manga, and the franchise is iconic for a reason, but it's not without its shortcomings. And Super's biggest shortcoming is the lack of consistency between episodes. For the most part, they could be handwaved as being "oh, the characters are holding back" or "they're saving their strength", but this one ends up feeling super-inconsistent especially in how Jiren and Vegeta are handled. 

Vegeta, having been established last chapter as using up most of his energy to take out Toppo in that Final Explosion attack, ends up very easily going back and forth into the Beyond-Blue form not once but twice in this episode without any real visible signs of fatigue beyond showing off his ripped pecs... whereas the same show had Goku floundering around because of fatigue after fighting Jiren and using Goku's lack of stamina and energy as a plot point to his fight against Caulifla and Kale. On the same token, the exhausted Vegeta and Goku can somehow put up as much of a punch-trading fight against a supposedly full-powered Jiren, making this supposed gloves-are-off Full Power Jiren end up looking way, way less impressive than the original Jiren-vs-Goku fight so many episodes ago. 

There are, of course, some really neat action beats between the generic ATATATATATA's that make this fight still vastly superior to something like Fairy Tail's generic slew of naught-but-punches-and-blasts, like Jiren's neat bit of using the force of his uppercut to erase a Kamehameha, or Android 17 putting up a series of barrier shields in a row that Jiren plows through, or 17 kicking Vegeta aside so Jiren punches him instead of Vegeta....

But ultimately, everything feels a bit bland and unfinished, as 17 ends up being the first person to hurt Jiren... by unleashing a point-blank explosion from his back. Did 17 discover something? A weakness? A weak spot? That Jiren's endurance requires concentration to maintain? Nah, it all ends up to one big show of "HIT HIM HARDER GUYS!" We've got a funny moment where fucking Freeza shows up and screams a lot before being punted aside by Jiren as easily as everything thrown at him... poor Freeza. It's not his day, isn't it? He did shout something about "FUCK THE RULES", so I'm curious if Freeza's going to try something else rule-breaking later down the line.

And then Belmod finally gives this huge reveal about Jiren's backstory! Baby Jiren! Beanie hat angsty teenage Jiren! And the backstory is... painfully generic. Jiren's family is killed by an evildoer! He trains hard with a teacher and a group of friends, but they, too, are killed by an evildoer! It's the most generic superhero origin story ever... and doesn't... really inform much about Jiren's motivations or personality. The only bit that this tells us about Jiren that really matters is his obsession with strength and that strength-is-absolute (which we know) and that the Pride Troopers are sort of this quasi-new family he's adopted. Honestly? While I don't put any stock in the super-complex "oh Jiren is the survivor of a destroyed universe" theories or whatever (some Last Jedi flashbacks here).

17 and Jiren trade some words, with Jiren mocking 17's simple wish of a cruise ship (to be fair, it is simple) while 17 notes that living in the past isn't particularly something honourable to do. Again, a lot of the writing for Jiren and Toppo are insanely lacking, and had it been done better or tighter, these two would've been so,  so much more interesting. Zamasu and Goku Black did way too much motive rants, Jiren and Toppo didn't do enough. And then as Goku, Vegeta and Freeza lay immobile from Jiren's assault, he prepares to blow them all up to kingdom come. 17 stands up, blocks the blast with a barrier.... and then says "well, I'll be giving up on that cruiser" and then covers the Saiyans with barriers...

And then 17 is eliminated. Well, he's got a good run, he's got a lot of great dialogue here, and he's the one consistently good thing in this episode. 

Wait, what? He doesn't go into the stands? Did... did Jiren's blast kill 17? Does that disqualify Jiren? That'd be anti-climactic. Oh. Oh, he self-destructed to waylay the blast. Huh. Like, I don't really think 17's death will be permanent because he's definitely going to be revived via one set of dragon balls or another, but it is legitimately surprising. It's actually a neat little twist that I really wished happened a bit earlier in the arc -- and again, a lot of stuff in this arc really suffers from poor pacing and sequencing. The end result is that this episode, while having some very strong moments and some really, really cool bits from Seventeen and Jiren, also ends up feeling very lackluster and messy at parts. 

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Dragon Ball Super, Episode 128: Noble Pride to the End! Vegeta Falls!

Gee, thank you so much, you jackass title, for spoiling the big event that happens here. It's actually not an episode that I'm particularly fond of, to be honest. It's got all the problems that the Universal Survival Arc has always had, but I don't think the moments shown to us in this episode make up for it. Vegeta's desperate last stand and flashbacking to Bulma and Cabba feels robbed of impact because two episodes ago we just had a far more effective showcase of that same scene and a re-enactment of the Final Explosion attack when Vegeta was fighting Toppo. Kudos to the voice actor for really making Vegeta's desperation and resolution feel genuine, but the combination of the over-reliance of flashbacks and the fact that we've already had Vegeta flashing back to Cabba and his own family in the past makes this episode feel a bit more like it probably should've happened in the previous episode, or have this whole sequence take part alongside 17's knockout -- hell, it probably would've flowed better, with Vegeta and 17 being knocked out together while they buffed Goku of sorts. I dunno.

And Vegeta just failing to do damage to Jiren while in his base form while not dying or getting knocked out with a single punch from Jiren really stretches the suspension of disbelief for how much I'm willing to handwave away in terms of power levels... although I guess it could just be Jiren doing so out of respect? Eh. The episode is just a long, long extended sequence of Vegeta wailing on Jiren and repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over before Jiren finally knocks him out, and it doesn't feel as dramatic as it should've been. Like, the voice-acting is great and the blackened eye is a neat touch, but otherwise it doesn't hit me with the same impact as Vegeta versus Toppo a few weeks ago. It doesn't actually make me angry like Piccolo's knockout (and to a lesser extent Gohan's) but it definitely is a wasted opportunity. Also wasted is the cries of Vegito/Gogeta fans who wanted a fused form to be the one to beat Jiren up, which isn't something I've even considered before Vegeta's knockout this week.

We did get Vegeta crying and giving that last ball of energy to Goku, which is neat, but not particularly groundbreaking either. Again, a lot of why the scenes even work is Ryo Horikawa's immensely amazing voice acting in this episode, and the relatively solid character arc for Vegeta in him being a team player... but otherwise it all feels like a whole chunk of "seen that a couple weeks ago". Like, it's not bad, but I really felt underwhelmed at times.

And then the rest of the episode is just Goku fighting Jiren, and being pushed to the edge, before activating Ultra Instinct again... and about time, too. Honestly, the whole episode felt more like padding than anything. Vegeta's drop-out could've been neatly integrated into the previous episode, Goku could activate Ultra Instinct in the beginning of the next, and honestly, this episode felt truly superfluous. Goku gets to punch Jiren and make him look shocked, but, again, it's nowhere near the epic levels of Goku's first usage of Ultra Instinct in 110 or Vegeta activating Beyond-Blue to punch Jiren in 124 or whenever... it's just really formulaic, and doesn't elicit much emotion from me but indifference and a quickly-fading hope that this arc of Super will end satisfyingly. Like, I'm not asking for much -- I'm just asking for a climax that's more beyond "Goku punches Jiren with his new form, Jiren falls". That's going to be neat to watch either way, but that will also feel generic. Overall, despite my negative vibes, it's not a bad episode, it's just a deeply flawed one. 

At least Iwan (Inwe?) gets a bunch of dialogue. Love that furball. 

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Dragon Ball Super, Episode 129: Limits Super Surpassed! Ultra Instinct Mastered!

I've learned from the previous episode and not looked at the title of this episode until I've finished watching it. Sadly, though, the contents and new power-up form of Goku's Perfect Ultra Instinct form has been spoiled all over the internet thanks to the previous episode's 'next on...' segment. And magazines. And merchandise. And it being part of the newest Xenoverse 2 DLC pack. Yyyyeah. That kind of soured things somewhat. 

Still, taken by itself, the journey to that power up is... decent. Sadly, it does seem like Dragon Ball Super is going through the motions of a generic "villain overpowers the heroes, villain beats Vegeta, Goku gains a new form, Goku overwhelms the villain" plotline. Did the Zamasu stuff and the generally negative reception cause the Super staff to stick to a safer climax? If so, then this is such a huge, huge missed opportunity. 

This episode's mostly just action, intermixed with an actually good point from Vegeta that it's not just Goku that's breaking through his limits, but it's also all the other Saiyajins like Gohan, Vegeta, Kefla and Cabba. It's neat, I guess, although I really, really wished the final confrontation had actually made those other Saiyans' contributions more meaningful instead of just "Goku punches Jiren in his new form".

Mind you, what a badass series of action sequences for that new form! Goku goes through this fight in his regular bluish-silver Ultra Instinct aura that we've seen before, and there's a neat bit where Goku just lurches forwards in the space of an eye-blink, and the trading of punches and Goku eventually moving from a defensive to offensive strike is neat... but it all kind of went for too long of too much of the same thing over and over again, and way too much exposition. Plus, the animation's particularly lazy, with a rather high amount of recycled animation at points, and an over-reliance of wide shots of the broken arena and explosions. 

But when Goku finally achieves the Perfected Ultra Instinct, with him glowing in an ethereal silvery glow, striking Jiren multiple times before he has any time to react? Or Goku grabbing Jiren's gigantic energy ball and just tossing it aside? It's pretty goddamn badass. That unearthly, amazing primal ROAR when Goku knocks back Jiren's barrage of punches, or the way the music stops when Goku does that "I'm already behind you" scene, or the way the energy just glows around Goku's hair and eyebrows like an unearthly, ethereal cloak? That's just amazing. And I don't doubt that once all the dust is settled, and Super is viewed not under the lens of a weekly anime show and viewed as a whole (like, y'know, Dragon Ball Z), these are going to be some of the more memorable moments.

It just came a wee bit too late and after way too much of the "Goku and Jiren trades blows" scenes. I'm not sure if that's a side effect of watching Dragon Ball Super weekly instead of in a huge chunk all at once, but at the same time... it doesn't quite have the badassery or the abrupt awesomeness of the original revelation of the original Ultra Instinct form. Still, with two episodes left before Super's conclusion, I just wish that it's wrapped up neatly -- I don't particularly expect anything super-duper amazing. I just want it to end satisfyingly. This episode, taken by itself, is definitely functional. I'm just worried that functional won't translate to satisfying when we actually do get the final conclusion of the Universe Survival Arc. 

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Dragon Ball Super, Episode 130: The Greatest Showdown of All Time! The Ultimate Survival Battle!

Well.

Well, holy shit.

And I don't just mean holy shit on a "the events happening are so epic" scale, because if we're really being honest a good chunk of the fight is just more Goku-vs-Jiren, which is still pretty fucking epic... but god damn. I know I've always championed substance over style, but holy fuck. Holy fuck this episode is pretty as hell. It moves so fast, but everything is animated amazingly well and there are so, so many money shots. I think my favourite has to be this scene with Jiren (who gets his own shirt-ripped super-muscly form, his new "MAX POWER" that's becoming a bit of a running joke, to be honest) and Goku trading blows while blue energy trails off Goku's eyes, but there are so many great shots in this scene.

And it's just so goddamned pretty from a visual and audio standpoint, and it really got me super-duper pumped as I watched through this episode. Like... YEAH, MAN! Goku fighting this unstoppable threat in his new form! Flashy attacks! Punchy punchs! Roars! Music that really rocks the soul! All of this has the markings of being super-awesome scenes that I'll remember many years down the line when you say "that Jiren/Goku fight". It is an exhilarating experience from an 'action anime' standpoint, and I genuinely find it hard-pressed to find any moment that looks prettier or is more well-executed than this. And yes, I'm including the movies in this -- it's so pretty!


But at the same time... the actual substance that goes on in this fight is really, really.... not there, is it? Like, we've got some token talks between Goku and Jiren, and the main theme that the writers have chosen to explore is a simple "Jiren fights alone and thinks only strength matters" while Goku, despite not having as solid of a set of ideals as Jiren (he actually says "I ain't a hero" in this episode) knows who he's fighting for, and that he's fighting for his allies and friends.

And it's... it feels really generic. I mean, I do suppose it makes sense, considering what we know of Jiren's backstory, but it's so... it's so basic. It's a simple "friendship triumphs" bit, which we've seen in anime a dozen hundred times. And I'm sorry -- yes, it's arguably executed well in the scope of this episode as a standalone... but taking Jiren and Goku's character arc for the Universal Survival Arc... or more accurately, the lack thereof, it genuinely feels somewhat hollow to me. And this was what I'm afraid of. The ending isn't bad... it's merely serviceable, and that's not quite enough, I think.

Thankfully, though, for a 'generic' anime ending, it's done amazingly well. Lots of great moment for the relatively simple story they're telling for Jiren and Goku, and, of course, it looks pretty as all hell.

Perhaps the moment that makes me really pissed off at Jiren's uneven writing is the fact that he ends up being reduced to an angry generic villain when he gets so pissed at all the talk of fighting for "friends" that he launches a death ki ball at the stands. That... that doesn't really feel like what Jiren would do. He's always felt arrogant and a bit of a dick, but shooting at others? That's just weird.

We've got Goku finishing Goku off with a mighty Kamehameha, and all Goku needs to do is to just finish him off... except, y'know, anime. So Goku takes his sweet time... and then Goku's back bursts open in a very cool censor-friendly shot-by-shot black-background sketchy-drawing scene as Goku collapses to the ground. It's actually quite brutal for the standards of Super, I'm not going to lie. Apparently, according to Whis, it's all the strain from using Ultra Instinct's mastered form, and Belmod screams at Jiren to murder Goku right now. And, credit where credit's due, after all the bad taste in the mouth of Jiren shooting at the observers, at least Jiren looks super-conflicted here.

And... and let's be honest here. As much as I'm thrilled at the idea that someone else other than Goku might finish off Jiren (although... hahaha, yeah right that's not going to happen) the fact that Goku's brand-new form just ends up having its time limit end up fizzling off feels like yet another cop-out. I'm not sure how I feel about this -- it's like a running gag, almost. The first appearance of Ultra Instinct, the first appearance of Super Saiyan 3, Vegito, Vegito Blue, Super Saiyan God's first appearance... At this point it's more annoying than thrilling. I get it. Having Goku reach a new form and then just curb-stomp Jiren to the ground, no matter how pretty, is pretty boring -- pretty 'standard', so they needed to figure out some other way to end the fight. But really?

Jiren blasts Goku away, and of course, the obvious Freeza save happens, blasting Goku to a chunk of rubble... and saves Goku. Of course. It's Freeza, who's back up again. That's expected, of course, for Freeza to come back when either Goku or Jiren's got the other on the ropes. Hell, judging by all the purple energy around Goku's body, it might actually just be Freeza who is responsible for shooting Goku in the back.

No, the surprise comes from the fact that Android 17 is back, alive, and ready to tussle, apparently not having self-destructed. So the Grand Priest was just flubbing? For some reason? And I'm of two minds of this. On one hand, it's an amazingly well-executed twist that also happens to make sense, but at the same time... jeez. Really? Seventeen's death was genuinely well-executed and genuinely touching even with the asterisk that "he's going to be brought back to life with the dragon balls sometime down the line", but this just feels like a moment that kind of cheapens 17's death earlier on. Freeza and 17 face off against Jiren, ready to hold the line, and the credits roll.

And... and despite the chunks of negativity I may have towards this episode, it's an episode I genuinely enjoy. It's testament to the high production values that the animation and music staff pour towards Dragon Ball Super that even with this very iffy script and frankly messy long-term planning that it manages to really inspire a sense of "HELL YEAH DRAGON BALL" in me, and that's saying something considering that Dragon Ball Super has no power of nostalgia whatsoever over me. It's really great at getting me super pumped-up while watching it, and it's a shame that it has so many slight problems with storytelling that makes it not quite reach the amount of greatness that it really should've been able to. So yeah. It's definitely not the best part of the Universal Survival Saga, although it comes quite close... and the ending isn't quite going to be as good as it could've been... but at the same time? It could've been far, far worse, and I, for one, am just content to rewatch this episode to see all the pretty animation. Good stuff.

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Dragon Ball Super, Episode 131: The Miraculous Conclusion! Farewell, Goku! Until We Meet Again!

Well, that happened. I think I'll do a separate review later on this week talking about the actual Universe Survival Arc as a whole, and where it did things wrong and where it did things right. For the moment, I think I'll just talk about this episode by itself.

And, of course, this is the final episode of Dragon Ball Super for a while, until the upcoming movie that'll come out at the end of this year (which had a teaser trailer recently!) and however they decide to handle Dragon Ball in 2019. A continuation of Super, a rebranding, or something else. The final parts of this episode does work as a bit of an ending, but truthfully, it is pretty evident that episode 131 did feel extremely rushed. None of the fight scenes are actually impacted, because they're around the pretty standard of episode 130... but the epilogue stuff feels bizarrely slapped together. And I get that Hiromi Tsuru's passing might have to do with them scrapping some of their plans, but at the same time... did Hit's voice actor just couldn't make it in time to record this episode? Why is there no final Goku/Beerus conversation?

I dunno. Definitely a very mixed ending about the arc overall, too -- on one hand, I am very happy that the final showdown against Jiren isn't a simple Goku-beats-Jiren-with-a-new-powerup trope. And I am so glad that we didn't go through the route of "shit, only Goku can beat Jiren so let's have 17 and Freeza give him all their powers". Y'know, like a lesser series. And Jiren actually does have some character development throughout the fight and after it... even if taken as a whole, poor, poor Jiren is just so badly handled from the get-go. And I'll talk a bit more about Jiren in my full arc review, but jeez... at least that trainwreck still manages to land at a serviceable stop.

On the other hand, though, the episode also ends up being insanely predictable. Wishing everyone back is a no-brainer, but for them to quite literally just shrug it off, and the Grand Priest lampshading it? We really could've had a slightly more dramatic moment, but 17 never really does feel like he's ever conflicted about choosing between the cruiser and a more selfless wish. Maybe if he was portrayed slightly more of a sociopath-but-on-our-side in the early parts of this arc, and had a proper character arc? Plus there's some really bad writing that makes it seem that half the cast didn't even think of wishing the other universes back with the dragon balls. It's not a bad conclusion. It's just... serviceable.


Anyway, going through the events of this episode quickly... the episode begins with some very, very slick animation as Freeza and 17 does battle with Jiren, including a bit where Freeza uses some rocks to sandwich Jiren, and another very smooth animation as 17 charges Jiren, traps them both in a barrier and causing a point-blank explosion. Freeza notes that Jiren is nowhere as indomitable as he was before, as apparently his lack of mental strength translates to a weaker physical state... and I really wish that the series would actually confirm this. That'd make earlier inexplicable scenes like Jiren just sitting and meditating like a jackass, or being beaten up by Freeza and 17 when he's practically invincible against them, feel a lot more palatable.

But 17's bomb-barrier trick actually ends up getting Jiren so hurt he vomits out his lunch -- which, in Super's level of censorship, probably is equivalent to him vomiting out blood. It's the only time that I think Jiren's actually seen vulnerable. Yes, he's taken hits and been punched and beaten before, but here he's straight-up defeated. Even Belmod seems resigned, noting that "Jiren fought well." Freeza walks off and takes the longest time to gloat with his death beam on Jiren's face, talking smack about how he sucks and shit... but then Toppo gives a motivational speech. One that... actually isn't sappy at all. Essentially, Toppo tells Jiren to fight for his pride if he doesn't believe in this "trust" shit that the Universe 7 dudes do.

And then all this talk about Toppo believing in Jiren's pride causes the bug-eyed alien to regain his confidence, as he gets up and unleashes this gigantic blast of energy that knock 17 and Freeza back, even straight-out knocking all that fancy golden energy out of Freeza. But then Goku shows back up and... okay, it's expected. At least we're not having Goku steal the show and the kill, but actually work together with the two of them to fight Jiren. There's a bit of a talk between Goku and Freeza about the terms of their deal -- and I do like that the only reason Freeza trusts Goku is that he's dumb and naive, and for the moment, he'll reciprocate that. Freeza's writing has been actually some of my favourite in this arc, and I do think the writers did manage to capture that balance between dastardly vile villain and jackass ally of convenience without turning Freeza into Vegeta Mk. II.

We get some really, really awesome animation that I could harp on for days, with Freeza and Goku wailing on Jiren while 17 unleashes energy blasts from afar. I think my favourite sequence has to be that scene of 17 shooting three blue energy missiles that shoot forward and fly alongside Goku and Freeza as they run, before the missiles impact into Jiren mid-air. There's also a great scene of Goku and Freeza slamming onto Jiren from both sides, only for Jiren to ORA ORA ORA them away, clothesline Freeza, and then jump down to the ground to knock 17 away. And, of course, the hilarious-yet-epic "THROW ME!" scene as Goku volleyball-punts Freeza to intercept Jiren. Goku eventually turns Super Saiyan and together with Freeza, the two of them charge Jiren and knock the big bastard out of the ring, finally ending the Tournament of Power.

Universe 11 gets erased without that much impact. Everyone swarms around Jiren, but only Toppo and Belmod really gets any dialogue -- Toppo gives Jiren one last thank-you, and Jiren doesn't really comprehend why -- he's been such a dick to the Pride Troopers. (And I really wished that they actually showed Jiren being a dick outside of this final Toppo/Jiren arc) But then Goku does what he did with hit and goes "hey I wanna fight you again" and Jiren smiles as U11 disappears. Again, the writing's nowhere as good as, say, the development of Hit as a rival, but eh. It's... serviceable.

Also, Android 17 is the winner of the match, and it's definitely a great character to end the tournament on.

We then get the long summoning of Super Shenron by the Grand Priest, and as the true winner of the Universe Survival Arc, Android 17 gets to make a wish. It's, of course, to wish all of the destroyed universes back, and apparently the Grand Priest tells those assembled that "Zen'o foresaw this". Really, now? The two child-like maniacs with the empathy of a selfish newborn baby? I think it's more of "the Grand Priest foresaw this". But apparently they rigged the wish so that if the wish made was anything other than returning all the other universes back, the Zen'o's would wipe out the winning universe as well? It's extremely weird, honestly, there's little to no buildup to this fact, and considering all the talk at the beginning of the arc about how the Zen'o's were planning to wipe out the lesser universes, everyone and their mother thought that "hey, wouldn't the Zen'o's be mad at someone reverting all the destruction?" But apparently they're fine and shit? I dunno. It feels a bit hackneyed, but I honestly don't give two shits about the Zen'o's that much.


We get a brief glance at the erased universes, although Universe 6 and 11 are rightfully the only ones we get to see in any amount of time. We get to see Caulifla and Kale in U6, we get to see Cabba thanking Vegeta, before Caulifla ropes him in to get him to try for Super Saiyan 3 with them. We get to see Champa looking a the sky and acting all tsundere about thanking Beerus. In U11 we get a final conversation between Toppo and Jiren, with Toppo noting that Jiren has finally learned to let go of the past and make connections -- not just with Goku, but with his allies. Or, well, at least Toppo. It's a neat little bit of character development that Jiren gets throughout the last two or three episodes. Extremely rushed, yes, but eh. It could've been worse.

We get a couple of reactions from the U7 Peanuts Gallery that makes it look as if 17 giving up the cruise to save multiple entire universes is like such a big sacrifice. It's not. Although 18 and 17's reunion is definitely sweet. Freeza isn't having any of this saccharine shit, though, and demands to be returned to hell until Goku can make good on his deal. But Whis senses that this is the final episode for a while, and decides to give Freeza his happy end... and restores him to life. Yep, Whis can just... restore Freeza back to life, as a gift from Beerus. What can Whis not do? He is the ultimate definition of walking, talking plot device. Good thing he's so entertaining, or he'd be a lot more irritating. We get some more fluff with the Zen'o's talking to Goku, some bit about the Grand Priest talking to Shin and Beerus about the aforementioned rigged wish...

And then we get we get a montage of everyone returning to their lives, most significantly a birthday party for Bulla. Or Bra. Or, as the show explicitly tells us in English, her name is "Bura". Okay! We get a wordless montage that show us that Goten, Trunks and Marron manage to protect 17's island from the poachers. Oh, and, of course 17 gets a cruiser from Bulma. And Baby Pan can fly around, and then whacks Vegeta in the forehead hahahaha that's funny. The final bits are actually voiced, showing Freeza in space, hovering around a bunch of other aliens (did the Freeza Force not get, y'know, destroyed?), announcing his return. Oh, and Goku and Vegeta are fighting in the wasteland where they first fought. Goku can't return to his Ultra Instinct form (what about Vegeta's Royal Blue form?) and they continue to be rivals in battle while striking that iconic pose, as the narrator notes that their journey comes to a brief close until a new threat arrives.

And we can all catch that new threat at the end of this year in theaters worldwide. Yeah, it doesn't feel like a proper finale at all, more of a rushed end-of-arc "we're going on a brief break!" stopgap. And overall? The Tournament of Power has some glaring issues, some glaring pacing and character writing problems, but at the same time... the conclusion itself isn't bad. It isn't great by any means, but it isn't bad. Maybe they were afraid of taking risks, considering the polarized reception to the huge random 'twist' at the end of the Trunks Saga? Eh. Honestly, "serviceable" and "not bad" is what I really expect from Dragon Ball... but they definitely could do better. 

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Dragon Ball Super: Universe Survival Saga: The Second Half [Episodes 112 - 123]

With the second half of the Universe Survival Arc, the fact our players are whittled down to a handful of more important characters kind of give us a far more intricate multi-part battle, with the highlight being the Saiyan rumble between Goku against Kale and Caulifla of Universe 6. And honestly, whether you enjoy this particular string of episodes depends on how invested you are on the characters involved. I admit that I didn't really warm up to Kale and Caulifla until relatively late in these episodes, Ribrianne never outgrew being a one-note joke, and I still don't see Jiren as anything beyond a particularly fancy plot device. But overall I still think they did a reasonably decent job at still making the episodes fun to watch. There are definitely some parts that could be improved -- like the handling of the two 'mysteriously nonexistent' members of Universe 4 and the final fighters of Universe 2, but as with the other parts of the Universal Survival Saga, it's still pretty honestly fun to go through.

There are definitely some weaker parts, of course, and it's not a perfect arc by any means -- but it's definitely fun as a serialized anime to watch. Overall, I think the second half may have far more tighter-knit episodes and mini-arcs between the fights with recurring antagonists Ribrianne, Kale, Caulifla and Jiren, which is really something I wish they did more in the first half. I still enjoyed both parts of the Universal Survival Saga for what they are, though.

It's a bit of a shame that apparently the show's going to take an indefinite hiatus in March or somewhen around then. I'll withhold judgment about Dragon Ball Super as a whole until we reach that point, but at the moment... I still definitely enjoy Super on its own merits. It's got a lot of flaws, but I found it still immensely enjoyable.
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Episode 112: Okay, this episode does take a bit too much to establish that, yes, Goku is tired and drained of power, which is a bit irritating... but at the same time, considering how the previous episodes emphasized that Goku and Jiren's fight caused everyone to stop and watch, seeing the Universe 3 robots (whose colour scheme gave it away at this point that they're going to combine) hunt down Goku is actually somewhat sensible. The battle between Piccolo and Gohan against the U6 Namekians is pretty neat, showing off some classic Namekian moves like the mouth blahgrhgablhaghr laser vomit or the extending arms. Honestly, I'm actually a little sad that beyond the one U2 Yardrat and people from Universe 6, we don't get more alternate-universe versions of races we know.


The episode is a bit of a Cabba spotlight, as he gets the big fight in this episode. He's trying to protect Caulifla and Kale to give them time to recover after Kale's rampage earlier, putting Kale and Caulifla in the same boat as Goku. I am actually surprised -- pleasantly so -- that Cabba is actually treated with a degree of respect both by the writers and Caulifla. Sure, he's like the old toy to be shoved aside for the new, fancy Kale and her power-up form, but he gets some really badass moments here. He fights Monna of Universe 4, a bitch that can transform into a giant rolling bowling ball thing, and Cabba goes into Super Saiyan 2 during this fight. As much as it's irritating that Universe 6 Saiyans are unlocking higher power-ups without much provocation (come on, Monna isn't that powerful) it is pretty neat to see them grow as characters, honestly, and if they're stuck in Super Saiyan 1 they won't pose much of a threat to our U-7 guys. It's a bit tricky in balancing just how, exactly, they are going to develop these characters power level wise while still keeping it believable.

There's also a bit where Vegeta saves Cabba from being ringed out during Monna's first assault, and Vegeta reveals that he plans to use the super dragon balls to bring back Universe 6 after they get erased -- the first time someone has said this, actually, even though that was what I was thinking about all throughout the arc. Anyway, Cabba wins against Monna... but gets cheap-shotted by Freeza, who swoops in. Well, it's not so much a cheap-shot as overpowering Cabba with the golden form, and then machinegunning him with death beams and tosses him off the stage. I mean, got to do something to ensure that Freeza is still evil, right? And while he can't really go after our heroes in the rules of our tournament, he definitely can go after their loved ones from other universes.

There is an absolutely hilarious moment here too when Vegeta fights Toppo. Vegeta tells Toppo that he doesn't want to bother with the 'second-stringer', to which Toppo just calmly replies that Vegeta himself is a second-stringer. Oh, Prince, feel the Justice burn.

Episode 113: This episode picks up exactly when the previous one left, with Caulifla driving off the U3 combiner robot squad and challenging him to a fight, starting a three-parter fight between Goku against Caulifla and Kale, which... is perhaps a wee bit too long, but it is also one of the better fights in the arc, so I won't complain too much. Again, the master/student thing is highlighted with Caulifla asking to learn how to get to SS3, and I really do like how Goku is still established as top dog among the saiyans because he's so many levels beyond Caulifla and Kale, and that a combination of Goku's exhaustion and Kale's mysterious Legendary/Berserk Super Saiyan form being something that's a bit separated from the normal Super Saiyan ladder.

There is a cool bit when Goku, untransformed, can easily dodge all of Caulifla's Super Saiyan attacks and punches by sheer amount of combat experience -- and considering how much this series relies on Kamehameha's and single punches, it is definitely very nice to remind us that, hey, Goku's an actual martial artist. There's a neat usage of the afterimage technique, and then using an instant transmission beat-up of Caulifla, and it's not just a show-off either. Goku is using these to apparently teach Caulifla to adapt to his attacks, trying to get her to do what he tends to do when faced with overwhelming odds. And I do like it. The two just fight in Super Saiyan 1 forms, with Goku noting that he doesn't have the stamina to get even higher than that... and there's a neat bit of character writing as both Caulifla and Goku are shown having fun -- Caulifla is just a more eager, more scrappy young female version of Goku, and I'm totally okay with it.

Kale's writing is a bit more problematic although I attribute that to my own personal loathing of moe-style characters, and at least she gets to grow in this fight. So much that transforming not out of rage or jealousy actually has her achieve a version of the berserk green Super Saiyan form where she doesn't lose her mind, allowing her to team up with Caulifla against Goku... and lands a punch... and then Goku goes Super Saiyan 3, absolutely overwhelming the two with the sheer power. Apparently fighting those two helped Goku to recover some stamina and... and I'm not quite sure how that works. Did the two just excite Goku (not in that way, get your head out of the gutter) enough?

Episode 114: The episode starts with Kale bulking up into her larger berserker form once again -- she has two of these, I think, one where she's just slightly more muscular and a second one where she's basically the Hulk. There's a bit of a sweet acknowledgement moment between Kale and Caulifla which... I actually buy. Their interactions throughout the arc has been very positive and Kale growing past her flaws (moe-uselessness is a real character flaw!) and gain some self confidence, allowing her to control this form. Good on you, Kale. Kale has the brute strength and Caulifla is faster, and two-on-one, with Kale's green form, is definitely enough to pose a threat to Goku believably. There's a moment when Freeza attempts to interfere, and Caulifla's about to attack Freeza to get revenge on Cabba... but Goku just tells Freeza to fuck off and get his own enemy -- he doesn't care about the battle royale rules, after all, he just wants a good fight.

This episode also contains a scene of Freeza just perched on a rock formation, and is challenged by a Kamen Rider Katopesla of Universe 3 (previously seen as Kale and Goku knocks him aside accidentally during their fight), who activates SUPIDO MODO and demands to fight Freeza. Freeza just literally stands there, ignoring Katopesla as he zooms away, noting that the Saiyans fighting is far more interesting. Oh, Freeza.

When Caulifla manages to counter Instant Transmission, Goku transforms into Super Saiyan God (seriously, how does he do that?) and starts machinegunning Caulifla and Kale with finger beams, which is hilarious to me -- did he just do it just because Freeza is nearby? Goku then manages to seemingly defeat Caulifla with a homing Kamehameha (which I think he used back in the Freeza arc?) which prompts Caulifla to tell Kale to take out "that thing", with that thing being, of course, the fucking Potara earrings and it was a plot twist I did not see coming, and was thankfully not spoiled on. I'm not sure why Champa had the idea to do that, but good on him! Everyone is absolutely shocked, and the way that it is done is pretty cool, too -- Goku fires a kamehameha and seemingly blows up the part of the ring around Caulifla and Kale, but they are now combined as Kefla. Which is pretty cool, to be honest. Her cockiness implies more Caulifla than Kale, but most fusions tend to be pretty cocky anyway, so. This episode ends with Kefla being able to keep up with God!Goku's speed.

Can I just say how awesome using the Potaras are? It allows Caulifla and Kale to power up without unlocking SS3 or SSG or SSB and drive the fandom even crazier, it's a power-up that makes sense in context, and it also makes sense why Cabba was so willing to sacrifice himself.

Episode 115: And this episode picks up on that, and we have a rather long sequence of the other universes discussing the Potara earrings. The Zen'os, of course, think it's fine because it looks cool -- their reaction to anything that goes in the tournament, really. There's a funny moment when Shin notes that they could have the Androids fuse and call them "Android 35" which Krillin is instantly against (oh, Krillin), but Whis and Beerus decide against it because they don't want to ring out two fighters at once. Heles of U2 tries to use Potara... not on Ribrianne and Rozie, but on two of the few mooks those names we haven't gotten accustomed to -- Zarbuto and Rabanra. And they get caught in the crossfire between Goku and Kefla, destroying the Potara. Goku then goes Blue, while Kefla goes Super Saiyan, and the two exchange blows again until Goku achieves Ultra Instinct halfway through. Huh.

We get some extra fights here, but none that I think is super-important. Vegeta continues to fight Toppo, and the Gohan-Piccolo team is fighting the Namekians, with the confirmation that, hey, the U6 Namekians can still regenerate. Android 18 apparently has been recovering throughout all this because her leg was wounded (how? Who? Last we saw her, she was fighting the Pride Trooper squad, right?) and Katopesla was about to attack her, but 17 drives him off with a gut-blast.

Episode 116: As the final part of the Goku-vs-Kefla fight (and honestly, I do think that episodes 115 and 116 could've been combined) this is a pretty neat one. Kefla goes SS2, and everyone starts speculating about just how powerful this legendary fused version of Super Saiyan 2 is. Of course, all that power can't beat Goku if he dodges everything, and Vegeta even has a brief flashback to Whis's training about telling them to exactly do just that.

All this Ultra Instinct thing gets the attention of Jiren, and as Kefla unleashes a fuckton of exploding energy blasts... Goku does a very, very cool version of the kamehameha, sliding and skating on Kefla's blast with it before unleashing it point-blank to Kefla's face, defeating her and separating her into her two forms that ring out. That's actually a pretty badass takedown, and I'm a big fan of Kale and Caulifla as rivals and antagonists. At the end of this, there's a long -- perhaps too long -- sequence as everyone starts commenting on Ultra Instinct and what the fuck that is.

Episode 117: Gohan and Piccolo are still fighting the U6 Namekians, surprisingly the only members of Universe 6 left in the arena, outlasting Caulifla, Kale, Cabba and Hit, all the big 'aces' of that universe. Shame that Saonel and Pirina are interchangeable and don't actually have a personality to share between them. The one who has a personality is Katopesla, who MODO CHENJI's into a battle mode and fights Vegeta, who tries to stand still and take all of Katopesla's attacks in an attempt to unlock Ultra Instinct... before giving up in frustration and beating up Katopesla. That was funny, can't lie.


But this episode's focus character is Android 18, who hasn't been doing much after her team-up with Goku against the Pride Troopers, and this time around, she teams up with 17 against the two remaining members of the Kamikaze Fireballs, Ribrianne and Rozie. And... I can't lie, Ribrianne in particular is particularly obnoxious throughout the arc, repeating the same 'love amore mia aiiii' bullshit over and over again... and this episode deconstructs it fully.

18 fights Ribrianne head-on, and Ribrianne is shocked that 18 has a husband -- an ugly husband, when 18 points out that Krillin is her husband. Hey! Don't be mocking short bald dwarves, now! There's a cool bit where 18 and 17 cause Ribrianne to take out Rozie instead. Ribrianne then transforms into a gigantic butterfly-winged form, and rants about how she's all love love love love, and 18 is in trouble... until she thinks of Krillin, behaves like an actual warrior of love and punches the shit out through Ribrianne's giant head. It's a very good deconstruction, showing that for all of Ribrianne's talk on love, hers is shallow and focuses only on people being her fans (and perhaps a critique on how other action shonen tries to 'handle' love), and based on appearance, while 18 and Krillin's love is absolutely weird -- Krillin's a midget, and 18's a former murder-robot, yet the two find love and are supportive spouses for each other... something we actually see displayed in the show both back in the Cell Saga during DBZ and more recently with 18 being totally supportive with some hard-love moments. Also, Android 18 is just an awesome character and seeing her beat up one of the more built-up villains is amazing (and we all thought it was going to be Vegeta thanks to the opening, too).

And also pretty fun, perhaps in a direct commentary to how the writers feel about what constitutes a healthy relationship, Shin's rant about how 18 and Krillin's love transcends the universe and shit is cut short by a literally sharp look from 18 -- love is between two people, and you don't announce it out loud to the world like Ribrianne. So yeah, one of the worst villains in the show actually ends up delivering a pretty neatly poignant message.

Episode 118: This is a bit of the underdogs episode, as Universe 2 is only represented by -- googles -- Zirloin, Zarbuto, and Rabanra, who are complete mooks with no notable powers or characters, with Universe 6 being represented by Pirina and Saonel... all of them being characters that are taken out after their respective universe's ace warriors are taken out. It's actually a neat episode to see all the established characters cheer for these literal nobodies, yet they turn out to be very enjoyable threats and 'final bosses' for U2 and U6.

Apparently the gimmick behind Saonel and Pirina is revealed, and that they aren't just mere Namekians --  they have done the fused/assimilation thing that Piccolo did with Nail (who gets a cameo in this episode alongside Kami, what the hell, that's amazing!), but with like 100 Namekians or some shit. And they even explain why they aren't seen throughout the first half of the tournament -- they weren't used to their power and is just hiding around as reserve fighters. Meanwhile, similar to how Ribrianne keeps getting Spirit Bomb-style power ups by the love of her fans, this time the love for the weakling trio of  Universe 2 from their universe cheering for them (they note that no one's cheered for them this hard with the Kamikaze Fireballs being the star attraction) the powers of Ribrianne, Kakunsa and Rozie are now transferred to them as they turn into hilarious cross-dressing versions of the Kamikaze Fireballs.

And as the new Fireballs talk about how they are going to be arbiters of justice, in yet another fun scene, Androids 17 and 18 actually get sucked up to it and actually behaves like a typical villain (I mean, they were former villains) and goes "I am Android 18, the goddess your hero Ribrianne!" and it's just so hilarious to see the two androids talk like that. Goku just goes "I'm Goku", confused about all that's going on. The trio exchange some love blasts, before creating a 'Pretty Black Hole" that slams down upon Goku and the Androids, crushing them under the weight.

Meanwhile, Gohan goes up to Ultimate Gohan form and it's pretty cool, and Piccolo gets silently admonished by Nail and Kami inside his head -- it's silent, but the message is clear -- don't lose sight of your allies and your fight just because you're fighting other Namekians fighting for their people. Piccolo lands a Makankosappo to soften up the Namekians for Gohan's attack... and we get a pretty cool father-son Kamehameha as Goku blasts through the giant black heart with Super Saiyan Blue, and Gohan charges up his own, unleashing both kamehamehas at different enemies.

And the erasure of Universes 2 and 6 is actually perhaps one of the most poignant ones in the show. Whereas 9's erasure was shocking because it was early on, Universe 10 was more of a 'oh well' deal (locket aside), and so does 4 and 3 later on in this review. Universe 2 does a bombastic magical girl exit, with dialogue that essentially is "thanks for all your support and love" like credits. We get some neat mucking around with the U6 guys -- easily the most developed batch among these newest characters. Vados has snuck away to the Universe 7 stands, Cabba says a brief goodbye to Vegeta, Hit looks down at Goku, Caulifla chases around the Namekians playfully... and in a surprisingly tender moment, Champa, after shouting at Vados one last time (Vados actually bows to Champa in the background when U6 is erased, a nice, subtle show of how she really feels) just calls a calm, stoic Beerus and goes "hey, brother!" before making a tongue-face at him. I didn't talk a lot about it, but in the times when Kefla and the Namekians were in trouble, Whis has asked Beerus how he's feeling that his brother has been erased, and the silence in Beerus's expression and his quiet dialogue after Champa's death -- "say something" (is it directed to Champa or to himself?) -- is amazingly done. So yeah, this episode and the previous one are easily two more of my favourite episodes here.

Episode 119: Sadly, it's followed up with this one. The episode starts off pretty fun, with Katopesla engaging a very angry Vegeta (Cabba's dead, oh no) and goes through an intricate super final form, and using an attack he calls "KATOPESLA THE FINAL MISSION". Vegeta doesn't care for all this, unleashes his own Final Flash, and actually says 'that is how you do a FINAL technique, dumbass', which is actually hilarious. Actually, Katopesla doesn't get knocked over -- he stops himself, but suddenly something invisible hits him and rings him out.

And it's apparently the mysterious two non-existent fighters of Universe 4 that we haven't seen before... and it's just... an invisible chameleon-man called Gamisaras. Which is just underwhelming. We get a fun little callback to original Dragon Ball when Roshi yells at one of them to spray blood over the arena, but that's about it. Gohan uses sand to get the outline of Gamisaras, and Piccolo takes him out. The visible little cute imp from U4, Shantza, creates an illusory field where ooooo scary ghosts appear, but Piccolo takes out Shantza pretty quickly, leaving one last seemingly-invisible enemy... who turns out to be Damon, a little bug-man the size of a bug... and it's pretty dumb, because Piccolo apparently decides to stand near the edge of the ring and gets knocked over. Even though he has stretchy arms, and is already aware that he's dealing with an enemy that's invisible. Considering that Piccolo actually does have a few great moments in this arc, it doesn't sour me as much as Tien's ring-out did... but it's still pretty fucking dumb. Android 17 and Goku finally realizes what's going on, they break the ring, realize what Damon is, ring him out and Universe 4 gets erased with honestly pretty little fanfare, although Quitela has been an irritating little shit and I'm happy to see him die.

Episode 120: I'm surprised Universe 3 lasted this long, to be honest, considering they just seem to be a jokey robot universe, and their supposed 'key' members that was built up prior to the tournament starts (Nigrishi and Narirama) were taken out pretty early on. Apparently they are playing things smart, keeping away from all the powerful warriors while they get tired out. But unable to win by numbers just yet, they decide to assault Universe 7. The Androids fight against Viara, who's a cool-designed robot... and overpower Viara because they have infinite energy, and just machinegun him with ki blasts. That's a bit hilariously underwhelming, actually. The trio of combining robots Koituskai, Panchia and Bollarator manage to gain an advantage over Goku and Vegeta by coordinating their attacks electronically... and then Gohan pops up, telling Goku and Vegeta to conserve their strength because the two of them need to take down Jiren.

Dr. Pepperoni Paparoni shows up, and activates 'Plan X', and, of course, Bollarator and his buddies combine into Koichiarator. As expected. Gohan can't handle Koichiarator alone, and Goku and Vegeta flies in to help... and there's a cool bit where Goku and Vegeta actually act as the flashy decoys for Gohan to charge up a mighty Kamehameha that earns Beerus's respect and takes out Koichiarator. Time's up for Universe 3, right? Paparoni seems to be nothing more than a handler, and the last doctor turned out to be minced pork... except not!

Episode 121: Dr. Paparoni unveils the true, true secret weapon, and he himself, despite being an organic human (human-oid, anyway), merges with Koichiarator into Anilaza, a gigantic techno-organic monster that looks nothing like what Koichiarator or Paparoni looks like. It's actually pretty cool, to be honest, and perhaps a nod to Cell? People swear up and down that Anilaza is a combination of various Dragon Ball movie villains (the way that Kale is a 'version' of Broly). Not having seen many of the non-canon ones yet, I'll accept it and move on. It does look pretty impressive in that 'ooh giant rampaging monster' B-movie look. Anilaza swats a Big Bang Attack aside, and proves to be not just powerful, but strong. Gohan's orders for the three saiyans and two androids to each go for a limb and confuse Anilaza ends up in a failure because Anilaza can track them all with his weird ear-eyes, and then it shows off a very cool move of punching into space and having the distal end of his fists appear teleport through a portal and hit opponents from afar, which is hella cool.

Goku actually nearly gets ringed out, but Freeza kicks him back, which is hilarious. 18 almost gets eaten (and considering that she actually has been eaten by Cell in the past...) but Goku saves her. 17's force-field gets knocked off, but 18 saves him, although 18 gets ringed out instead and... I really want to be angry, but it's a neat exit, and 18 is the more wounded one out of the two, and she lasted way, way longer than I thought she would be, re-establishing herself as a badass. Plus, she took out a whole lot of enemies, and being taken out by Anilaza is way more dignity than what Tien, Krillin and Piccolo had to go through.

We get a really cool four-way beam struggle, with Anilaza unleashing a gigantic blast, with Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Freeza all powering up into their respective Super Saiyan, Ultimate and Golden forms and unleashing their own personal signature beams while screaming. Freeza goes SHIIIIIIEEEEEEEE through this and I found it hilarious. 17, meanwhile, stops joining in, then uses his forcefield to fly through the gigantic blast, and punches straight through Anilaza's forehead, throwing him off-balance and gets thrown off the stage. Anilaza even gets the sort of defeat the way that villains get defeated in anime spin-off movies! Anyway, Universe 3 gets defeated, surprisingly lasting easily 10 episodes longer than I thought it would, and we get a bizarre scene where the god of destruction Mosco, who has been a robot that speaks in bleeps and bloops and has to be translated by his angel, is revealed to be a little imp piloting a robot suit. Okay? Did we really need that? Anyway, it's a surprisingly fun little stand-off against Universe 3... but now it's a 5-vs-3 as only five U7 guys are left against the three final Pride Troopers Jiren, Toppo and Dyspo.

Episode 122: One of the flashier episodes visually, the animation is ramped up a lot here and I think Jiren's mere prominence, like, scares the animation staff to get them to give extra effort or something? We get a very cool little Mexican standoff thing between the remaining eight fighters, we get the Great Priest shrinking down the spectator spots into a more crowded mass, and then we fight! And, oh boy, what an amazing visual treat this episode was. I mean, the animation quality has been pretty great throughout the entire arc, but this episode in particular was amazing.

Toppo fights Gohan and 17, and we don't see much of them beyond some acknowledgement of strength, while Freeza fights Dyspo and it's probably the most hilarious one out of the bunch. Freeza acts all cocky and badass, blocking Dyspo's strike and speed with his tail... only for Dyspo to drag Freeza along, screaming, and slam him onto rock walls, and that's just an amazing bit. Did anyone expect Dyspo to last this long? Certainly not me -- I thought that from the buildup it was going to be Kahseral that was going to be one of the major players for the Pride Troopers, and that's some neat buildup for the rabbit.


Of course, this is the requisite, old-fashioned, DBZ-style "Vegeta jobs against the main villain of the arc" -- the only main villains Vegeta didn't do that to was Golden Freeza (where thanks to the storytelling didn't feel like a main villain) and Zamasu (it was an actual team effort). Vegeta's been jobbing for Freeza, Cell, Buu, Beerus and Hit, and now it's his turn against Jiren.

What an amazing episode for him to job, though! We get Goku and Jiren exchanging punches, and some neat little back and forth as Vegeta and Goku alternate in fighting Jiren. Jiren finally speaks, too, asking Goku why he seeks to get stronger -- and Goku just wants to fight, hur hur. And then Vegeta... manages to dodge Jiren's punches and lands a punch into Jiren's gut. It doesn't look like it hurt the superhero, but the reactions of everyone -- including Jiren -- is such a shock that at least if Vegeta goes down like a chump, he's going down fighting. Vegeta is established to not actually unlock Ultra Instinct here, which is just fine, and he weathers a blast from Jiren, who notes that "there is arrogance in Vegeta's punches" or something along that lines.

Vegeta gives a pretty badass speech about of course he is arrogant. He's a fucking Saiyan with Saiyan pride, and he charges and unleashes a pretty fucking awesome Final Flash, while ranting that he will carve his own way and "Kakarot can have his Ultra Instinct". I mean, Jiren pops out from the dust (although a shot briefly seems to show that Vegeta actually knocked Jiren on the ground) and unleashes his own ki blast against Vegeta. It's still a badass moment of the pride and fighting spirit that defines who Vegeta is as a character, though, and I really love this episode. The fact that it's real pretty also helps, too.

Episode 123: This episode keeps up a string of well-animated episodes, and thankfully Vegeta isn't out of the fight just yet. No, far from it -- Jiren acknowledges Vegeta enough to call him a 'warrior', acting all cool and shit, and Vegeta is just so insanely angry. And in a sequence that easily makes this entire fight a rank above the Goku-vs-Kefla fight or Goku-vs-Jiren, Round One, we actually get to see some tactics from Goku. From using Instant Transmission to plant ki landmines, to using the rubble to edge Jiren to the edge, and then using one of Krillin's tricks -- the six-part Kienzan deal where one of the discs flies around independently and cuts away Jiren's footing... yeah, it doesn't actually ring out Jiren, but it's very close and it was such a 'YEAAAH' moment for the little bald guy when he realized that Goku actually borrowed his little trick.

We also get one of the few times this arc that the action actually feels dynamic as we transition from the Jiren fight to Freeza fighting Dyspo (this isn't even my final form!) and 17 and Gohan fighting Toppo -- although we did get a bit of a cool "shoot us both out" moment from 17. I don't think this sort of neatness has been done as well as it could've been.

Anyway, nearly getting ringed out gets Jiren ticked off enough to actually, finally, finally get serious, jumping through rubble to get back into the ring, and then walking straight through the ki minefield, and then throwing a punch with enough force to scare Goku out of his Super Saiyan Blue form. "It's not a technique, it's just a regular punch!" Khai explains in a hilarious One Punch Man style reply. Is Jiren supposed to be a parody on Superman or Saitama? Huh. In any case, Vegeta gets a bit of a flashback to his promise to Cabba -- an actually emotional moment while I was watching this episode -- and then unleashes an amazing roar before entering a form of Super Saiyan Blue with sparkles and darker highlights. Vegeta's voice actor really put in a lot of effort for this one. Goku likewise goes on his own Kaioken/Blue form, and I definitely love that Vegeta gets his own version of a power-up as opposed to aping Goku (like Ultra Instinct or Kaioken) all the time. I don't think this form has an official title just yet, but Whis notes that Vegeta has broken through his 'shells' and has achieved a new form. The two lay down on Jiren together, and apparently their sheer uncoordination throws Jiren off, which is a hilarious little observation.

I'll be back later today or tomorrow after I catch episode 124. Overall, despite some problems, it's still honestly a very neat storyline and definitely feels like the definitive sequel to Dragon Ball Z, without the over-seriousness and the far-worse pacing problems that DBZ had.