Slight spoilers may be talked about below, so please be sure to watch the latest episode before reading on! This review is based off of the dub version of Super that currently airs on Toonami.
Episode 70 was once again another filler, but at the same time, it actually had semi-relevance to previous episodes of Super alongside redeeming a long forgotten Z Fighter. Did it do anything to move the plot along? Nope, not at all. But what it did do is show a rare bond between two rivaling universes in the build up to the next and final saga of Super, the Universal Survival Saga. Now lets get on with the recap and review!
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
This episode was all about a friendly baseball game between Universe 7, where Goku and the rest of our heroes live, against Universe 6, which is Champa’s universe that features Cabba, Hit and Magenta. This came to be due to Universe 6’s God Of Destruction, Champa wanting an excuse to come back to Earth and try out all the delicious cuisine that his brother, Universe 7’s God Of Destruction, Beerus brags about all the time to him. He devises the plan of having a friendly baseball game and that win or lose, they’ll have a grand feast afterwards. Him and his attendant Valdos bring this up to their respective siblings where both Beerus and Whis agree to the game. Next, we’re at the baseball field with both god’s and their respective teams with both Whis and Valdos being the umpires of the game. The only catch is that no one knows how to play baseball at all, except one of them: Yamcha!
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
At first, Goku is up as Universe 7’s pitcher, but with not knowing the rules and at the urge of Beerus to be at full power, he goes Super Saiyan Blue and throws the most powerful pitch in the history of baseball at Champa who misses the hit. The ball then flies right into Gohan, who’s the catcher and sends him flying while at the same time destroying all of the pitcher’s mound! This causes Whis and Valdos to repair the home plate and then Beerus want’s to switch Goku out, but because of the rules he can’t until Goku throws fully against a batter. Beerus then orders Goku to throw the weakest ball ever at Champa, which he hilariously does. It’s so slow that Champa gets impatient with it arriving, but eventually he hits it and sends it flying. He begins to gloat but Trunks on Universe 7’s team blasts the ball out of the sky and catches it, striking out Champa in disbelief. Goku finally switches out and Yamcha takes his place.
Yamcha is the only one who knows how to play baseball, so he’s able to easily eliminate the next two batters of Universe 6 after a few more anime shenanigans. Cause well, he’s Yamcha and he’s everyone’s whooping boy in Dragon Ball — keep this in mind for later in the review/recap.
We then reach the bottom of the 1st and Universe 7 is up to bat with Yamcha first. Pitching for Universe 6 is none other then the mighty, Vegeta! Vegeta volunteered for Universe 6 since they were down a man with Hit not being able to join due to secret assassin duties. Vegeta then gets into a heavy monologue, explaining that he knows the rules of baseball well now, after studying both Goku and Yamcha earlier as pitchers and then throws the stiffest fast ball in the history of the sport at Yamcha, who falls into a limp from the hit. This causes Whis to chastise Vegeta and tell him that that’s not how you play baseball, then tells Yamcha to walk over to first base.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
Next up is Goku which causes Vegeta to get uber competitive against his rival and goes Super Saiyan Blue himself, this then causes Goku to also transform and they throw down one of the most climatic moments in anime baseball. Vegeta throws another fast ball at Goku, who hits it straight on but due to it’s immense power he struggles with it. Vegeta then throw’s a volley of ki blast right behind that to push Goku back and miss the hit. This leads into a baseball power struggle between the two. During the commotion, Yamcha takes the chance and tries to steal second!
Vegeta realizes this and catches the ball back, eliminating Goku and causing the entire Universe 6 team to toss the ball back and forth trying to catch Yamcha who then successfully reaches second base.
Gohan is up next and gets a pointer from Piccolo to hit the ball above Magenta’s head, noting how the robot can’t seem to catch things above him. Gohan is able to hit the ball above Magenta, causing Yamcha to run to third bass; but Champa is able to catch the ball eliminating Gohan instantly but then chases after Yamcha who is just inches away from the base. Champa, smacks Yamcha so hard the gets sent flying and then crash lands. However since Champa smacked Yamcha with the hand that doesn’t have a ball, Yamcha is able to barely get to third base crawling.
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
At this point the spirit of competition is getting to both of the Gods of Destructions. With the infuriated Champa now arguing with his brother Beerus, due to Beerus calling Champa an idiot and whatnot, eventually these two start getting at it with punches and kicks. When the two gods are doing this, the whole universe is about to implode and the two teams are all running for safety near Whis and Valdos. Champa and Beerus fight is totally destroying the baseball field, leaving craters and gaps here and there, but then suddenly the fight between the two is stopped by the siblings Whis and Valdos. They both chastise the gods and tell them that it’s enough baseball for the day, stopping at the end of the first inning and that Universe 7 has won the game scoring one run.
Both gods are confused and it’s revealed that Yamcha, during the commotion, ended up crawling into the crater that had home plate! Hilariously, everyone notes that the way Yamcha looks is the same exact way that he died at the hands of the Saibamen in Dragon Ball Z. The episode then ends with Champa returning back to his universe, fired up with the spirit of competition and wanting to win next time.
So as you can see, nothing at all happened in Episode 70 affecting the overall plot of Super. The only things that were notable is the fact that it focused heavily on Champa and Beerus’s sibling rivalry, which has been the backbone of early Super episodes and further dived into it. Secondly, we saw more of Cabba and Magenta and what they are up too these days after the Tournament Of Power.
But the real star of the episode was none other then Yamcha, who really shined after being neglected for so long and reduced to nothing more then a literally punch line over the years after the start of the Android Saga in Dragon Ball Z. So it’s nice to see Yamcha finally “winning” at the end of the episode this time, it’s been a good 30 years! The only massive plot hole I had of the episode was how all the Z Fighters — except Yamcha — were legit clueless about baseball. Didn’t they ever go to a game that Yamcha played at? On top of this Videl, who was in the crowd and was a very sporty type way back in Dragon Ball Z, could have told Gohan a thing or two about baseball now too! It’s stuff like this that you can take it two ways, either look at it too deeply like me, haha, or just go with it and brush it off. Still it was pretty hilarious watching everyone trying to figure out the game, especially Vegeta and his pitching scheme.
So that was episode 70 of Super and it was another filler. Will this trend continue for another few episodes? It’s hard to say, but for this filler, I really couldn’t rip into it like the previous fillers, since it caught us up with the newer characters and seeing how they were doing. It showed the connection that both Universe 7 and 6 have together and that will be key I believe as we inch closer to the Universal Survival Saga that bookends Dragon Ball Super. But the big question is are we going to sit through another few more weeks even more filler before we reach that finale story?
Photo Source: Funimation/Toei Animation/Cartoon Network
